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George Layton
George Layton (born 2 March 1943) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and author best known for three television roles – junior doctor Paul Collier in the comedy series ''Doctor in the House (TV series), Doctor in the House'' and its sequels ''Doctor at Large (TV series), Doctor at Large'', ''Doctor in Charge'' ''and Doctor at the Top'', that of Bombardier 'Solly' Solomons in the first two series of ''It Ain't Half Hot Mum'', and as Des the mechanic in early episodes of ''Minder (TV series), Minder''. He also appeared in two episodes of ''The Sweeney'' and played Norman Simmonds in ''EastEnders'' as well as a few early appearances as himself on the light entertainment BBC 1 consumer show That's Life!, That's Life. Life and career Layton was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He was born to a family of Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak and Jews, Jewish ancestry and educated at Belle Vue Boys' School, Belle Vue Boys' Grammar School in Bradford during which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 census; the second-largest population centre in the county after Leeds, which is to the east of the city. It shares a continuous built-up area with the towns of Shipley, Silsden, Bingley and Keighley in the district as well as with the metropolitan county's other districts. Its name is also given to Bradford Beck. It became a West Riding of Yorkshire municipal borough in 1847 and received its city charter in 1897. Since local government reform in 1974, the city is the administrative centre of a wider metropolitan district, city hall is the meeting place of Bradford City Council. The district has civil parishes and unparished areas and had a population of , making it the most populous district in England. In the century leadin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Violet Carson
Violet Helen Carson, OBE (1 September 1898 – 26 December 1983) was a British actress of radio, stage and television, and a singer and pianist, who had a long and celebrated career as an actress and performer during the early days of BBC Radio, and during the last two decades of her life as the matronly Christian widow, town gossip and elderly battle-axe Ena Sharples in the ITV television soap opera ''Coronation Street''. She was one of the original characters from the series debut in 1960 and would feature in the role for twenty years. Early life and career Carson was born on German Street in Ancoats, Manchester. Her Scottish father, William Brown Carson, ran a flour mill and her mother, Mary Clarke Carson (' Tordoff), was an amateur singer. As a child, she took piano lessons while attending a Church of England school and performed with her younger sister Nellie as a singing act called the Carson Sisters. In 1913, she became a cinema pianist providing the musical accomp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Liver Birds
''The Liver Birds'' is a British sitcom, set in Liverpool, North West England, which aired on BBC1 from April 1969 to January 1979, and again in 1996. The show was created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor. The two Liverpudlian housewives had met at a local writers club and decided to pool their talents. Having been invited to London by Michael Mills, the BBC's then Head of Comedy, and asked to write about two women sharing a flat, Mills brought in sitcom expert Sydney Lotterby to work with the writing team. Lotterby had previously worked with Eric Sykes and Sheila Hancock, and on ''The Likely Lads''. For the Liver Birds, Carla Lane wrote most of the episodes, Taylor co-writing only the first two series. The pilot was shown on 14 April 1969 as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'', the BBC's breeding ground for sitcoms at the time.BBC ''Comedy Connections'' Outline The series charted the ups and downs of two "dolly birds" sharing a flat on Liverpool's Huskisson Street, concentrati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978. The series differed sharply from earlier police procedurals. With its less-usual Northern England setting, it injected a new element of harsh realism into the image of the police, which some found unwelcome. ''Z-Cars'' ran for 801 episodes, of which fewer than half have survived. Regular stars included: Stratford Johns (Detective Inspector Barlow), Frank Windsor (Det. Sgt. Watt), James Ellis (actor), James Ellis (Bert Lynch) and Brian Blessed ("Fancy" Smith). Barlow and Watt were later spun into a separate series ''Softly, Softly (TV series), Softly, Softly''. Origin of the title The title comes from the radio call signs allocated by Lancashire Constabulary. Lancashire police divisions were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Likely Lads
''The Likely Lads'' is a British sitcom created and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and produced by Dick Clement. Twenty episodes were broadcast by the BBC, in three series, between 16 December 1964 and 23 July 1966. However, only ten of these episodes have survived. This show was followed by a sequel series, in colour, entitled ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'', broadcast between 9 January 1973 and 24 December 1974. This was followed in 1976 by a spin-off feature film ''The Likely Lads''. Some episodes of both the original black and white series and the colour sequel were adapted for BBC radio with the original television cast. Premise The original show followed the friendship of two young working class men, Terry Collier (James Bolam) and Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes), in the mid-1960s. Bob and Terry are assumed to be in their early 20s (when their ages are revealed in the later film, this puts both characters at around 20 when the series started). After g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swizzlewick
''Swizzlewick'' was a twice weekly 1964 BBC comedy drama series about the day-to-day events of a corrupt local council in a fictional Midlands town.Steve Fieldin''A State of Play: British Politics on Screen, Stage and Page, from Anthony Trollope to 'The Thick of It London & New York; Bloomsbury, 2014, p.135-37 The writers included David Turner who created the series. This series is principally remembered as an early target of the 'Clean Up TV' campaigner Mary Whitehouse who thought it unsuitable for an early evening audience. An episode in August 1964 featured Mrs Smallgood, a character parodying her, who was depicted launching a "Freedom from Sex" campaign. A scene with a prostitute was cut from another episode of the series, after a television studio worker leaked an advance copy of the script to her. She was told "It's too late to re-shoot.", and answered "I don't want re-shooting, I want cuts." She delivered a letter of complaint in person to the Postmaster General of the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a Megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with Deserts of Australia, deserts in the centre, tropical Forests of Australia, rainforests in the north-east, and List of mountains in Australia, mountain ranges in the south-east. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately Early human migrations#Nearby Oceania, 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Coward Theatre
The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre in St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster, London. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by the architect W. G. R. Sprague with an exterior in the classical style and an interior in the Rococo style. In 1973, it was renamed the Albery Theatre in tribute to Sir Bronson Albery who had presided as its manager for many years. Since September 2005, the theatre has been owned by Delfont-Mackintosh Ltd. It underwent major refurbishment in 2006, and was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre when it re-opened on 1 June 2006. The building is a Grade II Listed structure. History Early years, 1903–1919 The New was the second of the three theatres in St Martin's Lane. The Trafalgar Square (now the Duke of York's) opened in 1892 and the London Coliseum in 1904. The actor-manag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oliver!
''Oliver!'' is a coming-of-age stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, southwest London in 1960 before opening in the West End, where it enjoyed a record-breaking long run. ''Oliver!'' ran on Broadway, after being brought to the U.S. by producer David Merrick in 1963. Major London revivals played from 1977–1980, 1994–1998, 2008–2011 and on tour in the UK from 2011–2013. Additionally, its 1968 film adaptation, directed by Carol Reed, won six Academy Awards including Best Picture. ''Oliver!'' received thousands of performances in British schools, becoming one of the most popular school musicals. In 1963 Lionel Bart received the Tony Award for Best Original Score. Many songs are well known to the public, such as "Food, Glorious Food", "Consider Yourself" and " I'd Do Anything". ''Oliver!'' was one of eight UK musicals featured on Roy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Hudd
Roy Hudd, OBE (16 May 1936 – 15 March 2020) was an English comedian, actor, presenter, radio host, author and authority on the history of music hall entertainment. Early life Hudd was born in Croydon on 16 May 1936 to Evalina "Evie" (née Barham) and Harry Hudd. His father was a carpenter who left the family shortly after the Second World War, and his mother, who had a history of mental health problems, commited suicide by gas when Hudd was 9 years old. Hudd was primarily brought up by his grandmother, and attended Tavistock Secondary Modern School in Croydon and Croydon Secondary Technical School. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, he studied commercial art at the Regent Street Polytechnic. He then worked as a messenger for an advertising agency, a window dresser and a commercial artist working under Harry Beck. He made his professional debut as a comedian at the Streatham Hill Theatre on 27 October 1957, in a show in aid of the Sir Philip Game#M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fagin
Fagin is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver Twist''. In the preface to the novel, he is described as a "receiver of stolen goods". He is the leader of a group of children (the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates among them) whom he teaches to make their livings by pickpocketing and other criminal activities, in exchange for shelter. A distinguishing trait is his constant and insincere use of the phrase "my dear" when addressing others. At the time of the novel, he is said by another character, Monks, to have already made criminals out of "scores" of children. Nancy, who is the lover of Bill Sikes (the novel's lead villain), is confirmed to be Fagin's former pupil. Fagin is a confessed miser who, despite the wealth that he has acquired, does very little to improve the squalid lives of the children he guards, or his own. In the second chapter of his appearance, it is shown (when talking to himself) that he cares less for their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chips With Everything
''Chips with Everything'' is a 1962 play by Arnold Wesker. The play shows class attitudes at the time by examining the life of a corporal. Productions ''Chips with Everything'' premiered in the West End at the Royal Court Theatre on 27 April 1962, and subsequently transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre. Directed by John Dexter, the cast featured Frank Finlay as Corporal Hill. The play opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre (and then the Booth Theatre) on 1 October 1963 after one preview, and closed on 8 February 1964 after 149 performances. British actors Alan Dobie (as Corporal Hill), Barry Evans (as First Airman) and George Layton (as First Corporal) made their Broadway debut. The director was John Dexter, with a cast that featured Gary Bond as 276 Thompson (Pip), Corin Redgrave (Pilot Officer), Norman Allen (Fourth Airman), John Levitt as 277 Cohen (Dodger), John Noakes and Gerald McNally (Third Airman). The play was revived in the West End in 1997, with a production at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
