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Fairly Secret Army
''Fairly Secret Army'' is a British sitcom which ran to thirteen episodes over two series between 1984 and 1986. Though not a direct spin-off from ''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'', the lead character, Major Harry Truscott, was very similar to Geoffrey Palmer's character of Jimmy Anderson from that series, who himself featured in a scene where he tried to recruit Reggie to a secret army with very similar aims to Truscott's (a scene repeated, near verbatim, in episode 2 of ''Fairly Secret Army''). The scripts were written by Reginald Perrin's creator and writer David Nobbs. Harry Kitchener Wellington Truscott (ex ''Queen's Own West Mercian Lowlanders'') is an inept and slightly barmy ex-army man intent on training a group of highly unlikely people into a secret paramilitary organisation. This idea first emerged in an episode of Perrin when Jimmy confided the plan to Reggie (who rubbished it) and was based on persistent and subsequently verified rumours in the 1970s press ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on '' The Frost Report''. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus.'' Along with his Python co-stars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975), '' Life of Brian'' (1979) and '' The Meaning of Life'' (1983). In the mid-1970s, Cleese and first wife Connie Booth co-wrote the sitcom '' Fawlty Towers'', in which he starred as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, for which he won the 1980 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. In 2000 the show topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1986 British Television Series Endings
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter the European Community, which becomes the European Union in 1993. *January 11 – The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, at this time the world's longest prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge, is opened. *January 13– 24 – South Yemen Civil War. *January 20 – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel. *January 24 – The Voyager 2 space probe makes its first encounter with Uranus. *January 25 – Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army Rebel group takes over Uganda after leading a five-year guerrilla war in which up to half a million people are believed to have been killed. They will later use January 26 as the official date to avoid a coincidence of dates with Dictator Idi Amin's 1971 c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 British Television Series Debuts
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk. * February 8– 19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Comedy Television Series
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct military uniform. It may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of the military is usually defined as defence of the state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms ''armed forces'' and ''military'' are often treated as synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. There are various forms of irregular military forces, not belonging to a recognized state; though they share many attributes with regular military forces, they are less often referred to as simply ''military''. A nation's military may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Channel 4 Sitcoms
Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and partly in South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. * Channel Highway, a regional highway in Tasmania, Australia. Europe * Channel Islands, an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy * Channel Tunnel or Chunnel, a rail tunnel underneath the English Channel * English Channel, called simply "The Channel", the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Great Britain from northern France North America * Channel Islands of California, a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, United States * Channel Lake, Illinois, a census-designated place in Lake County, Illinois, United States * Channels State Forest, a state forest in Virgini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. Professional archivists and historians generally understand archives to be records that have been naturally and necessarily generated as a product of regular legal, commercial, administrative, or social activities. They have been metaphorically defined as "the secretions of an organism", and are distinguished from documents that have been consciously written or created to communicate a particular message to posterity. In general, archives consist of records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value. Archival records are normally unpublished and almost alwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gareth Forwood
Gareth L. John Forwood (14 October 1945 – 16 October 2007) was a British stage, film and television actor. Forwood was born to actors Glynis Johns and Anthony Forwood. He made his screen debut in 1965 and went on to prosper as a character actor with over 40 credits in film, television and theatre. His career was marked with recurring roles in several large productions, particularly with the British public broadcast network ITV. In his later career, Forwood was typecast in several British television adaptations of classic novels. Early life and education Gareth Forwood was born on 14 October 1945 in Marylebone, London to British socialite actors Glynis Johns and Anthony Forwood, who became stars in the postwar era and divorced in 1948 when Forwood was three years old. The Forwood family were landed gentry; Forwood's patrilineal great-great-grandfather, Thomas Friend Brittain Peploe Forwood, resided in Thornton Manor in Cheshire and was the forefather of the Forwood Barone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Nettleton (actor)
John Nettleton (born 5 February 1929) is an English actor best known for playing Sir Arnold Robinson, Cabinet Secretary in ''Yes Minister'' (1980–84) and President of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in the follow-up ''Yes, Prime Minister'' (1985–88). Another political role for Nettleton was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament (Sir Stephen Baxter) in the sitcom ''The New Statesman''. Other television roles included a Ministry of Defence department chief in ''The Avengers'' (episode " The See-Through Man", 1967), a police sergeant in ''Please Sir!'' (1969), Alfred Booker in ''The Champions'' (episode "Full Circle", 1969), Froggett in the office comedy series ''If It Moves File It'' (1970), Francis Bacon in ''Elizabeth R'' (1971), a Detective Superintendent in '' Doctor at Large'' in 1971, George Pattinson in a now lost episode ("The Uninvited") of ''Out of the Unknown'' (also in 1971), as Arthur Bellamy, brother to Viscount Bellamy, in '' Upstairs, Downstairs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Winstone
Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perhaps best known for his "hard man" roles (usually delivered in his distinctive London accent). The first of these was the character Carlin in '' Scum'', the 1979 film remake of a BBC television play in which Winstone had originated the role, and which was not broadcast due to its violent nature. The same year he played ex-army soldier Kevin in the cult classic ''Quadrophenia''. In the 1980s he rose to prominence starring as Will Scarlet in the successful television series ''Robin of Sherwood''. Winstone has been described as one of the UK's "seminal screen hard nuts", while ''The Guardian'' has said that he "plays troubled hard men with such conviction, it's easy to believe he's not acting", adding that he is "the East End's answer to Geo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Ridings
Richard Ridings (born 19 September 1958) is an English actor. He portrayed Alan Ashburn in the ITV television drama ''Fat Friends'', Bernard Green in the BBC One comedy-drama '' Common as Muck'', and is the voice of Daddy Pig in ''Peppa Pig''. He trained as an actor at Bretton Hall College, then the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He is the father of singer-songwriter Freya Ridings. Career He has had roles in a series of other television series and feature films, among them ''Clockwise'', '' The Ink Thief'', '' Red Dwarf'', ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'', ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', '' Fierce Creatures'' and as Silas in '' Highlander: The Series''. Ridings voices Daddy Pig in the animated children's series ''Peppa Pig'', Father Christmas and Boss Dwarf in ''Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom'', and Grooby in Q Pootle 5. In 2005, he took the lead role in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom '' Clement Doesn't Live Here Anymore'', playing a sexually obsessed overweight ghost alongside Steve Fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fawlty Towers
''Fawlty Towers'' is a British television sitcom written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, broadcast on BBC2 in 1975 and 1979. Two series of six episodes each were made. The show was ranked first on a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and, in 2019, it was named the greatest ever British TV sitcom by a panel of comedy experts compiled by the '' Radio Times''.Mattha Busby, 9 April 2019"Fawlty Towers named greatest ever British TV sitcom" ''The Guardian'', Retrieved 24 May 2019 The series is set in Fawlty Towers, a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the English Riviera. The plots centre on the tense, rude and put-upon owner Basil Fawlty (Cleese), his bossy wife Sybil ( Prunella Scales), the sensible chambermaid Polly (Booth) who often is the peacemaker and voice of reason, and the hapless and English-challenged Spanish waiter Manuel ( Andrew Sachs). They show their attempts to run the hotel amid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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