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Grasshopper Productions
Joy Whitby (born 27 July 1930) is an English television producer and executive who has specialised in children's programmes during her career. Early life Whitby read History at St Anne's College, Oxford, and, after graduating, her first job was as a secretary at the Mayfair Delinquency Clinic. She joined the BBC as a studio manager in 1955 and, a year later, became a producer on ''Listen with Mother''. She moved from radio to television in 1962. BBC children's television During an attachment to the children's television series ''Blue Peter'', Whitby was commissioned to write an internal BBC report on ''Watch with Mother''; the five pre-filmed series had been on air for a decade. The first Controller of BBC 2, Michael Peacock was aware of the shortage of nursery schools in the country and appointed Whitby to create and produce '' Play School'', a new television series for pre-school children, running Monday to Friday through the year. In developing the series, Whitby consulted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Anne's College, Oxford
St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. It has some 450 undergraduate and 200 graduate students and retains an original aim of allowing women of any financial background to study at Oxford. A recent count shows St Anne's accepting the highest proportion of female students (55 per cent) of any college. The college stands between Woodstock and Banbury roads, next to the University Parks. In April 2017, Helen King, a retired Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner, took over as Principal from Tim Gardam. Former members include Amanda Pritchard, Danny Alexander, Ruth Deech, Helen Fielding, William MacAskill, Simon Rattle, Tina Brown, Mr Hudson, and Victor Ubogu. History Society of Oxford Home-Students (1879–1942) What is now St Anne's College began as part of the Association for the Education of Women, the fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molly Cox
"Molly" Cox born Marie-Thérèse Henriette Cunningham became Marie-Thérèse Henriette Cox (19 October 1925 – 3 November 1991) was a British television producer for BBC children TV. Her successes include '' Play School'', '' Zokko!'' and '' Jackanory''. Life Cox was born in Istanbul in 1925. Her parents, Aileen Turner and Arthur Joseph Cunningham, were living in Turkey. They moved to Alexandria when their father left his job at Lloyds and became the editor of the ''Egyptian Gazette''. She joined the BBC in 1942 and trained to be a sound engineer on a course that was otherwise taken entirely by male employees. She creating the sound effects for the radio serial ''Dick Barton''. She married and left the BBC as she became the mother of two sons. She returned in 1962 after her husband, Charles Terence "Terry" Cox, died. After a spell on radio, she joined the '' Blue Peter'' team. She worked for Joy Whitby and they developed the children's TV series '' Play School'' which was the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV Yorkshire
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network. Until 1974, this was primarily the historic county of Yorkshire and parts of neighbouring counties served by the Emley Moor transmitter. Following a reorganisation in 1974 the transmission area was extended to include Lincolnshire, northwestern Norfolk and parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, served by the Belmont transmitter. Two consortia applied for the franchise, ''Telefusion Yorkshire Ltd'' and ''Yorkshire Independent Television'', the former having large financial backing (supported by the Blackpool-based ''Telefusion'' television rental chain) and the latter having the better plans but fewer resources. On 1 January 2007, the company transferred its programme production business to ITV Studios Limited. As a consequence, Yorkshire Television Limited ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV (TV Network)
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs the ITV1 channel, and STV Group, which runs the STV channel. The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grasshopper Island
Grasshopper Island is a British television serial for children created by Joy Whitby. It was first broadcast in 1971. It was filmed on location in London, Milford Haven and Corsica. Premise The series centres on three brothers, nicknamed Toughy (wants to be a soldier), Smarty (clever), and Mouse (likes cheese). Their real names are not revealed. Presumably orphaned (their parents are never seen or mentioned), they have lived with a succession of different people – 'some nice and some nasty, but no-one who they liked in particular'. Being boisterous, adventurous and imaginative, they are regularly in trouble and consequently resent their situation. Eventually they decide to run away to sea. After escaping, they hitch a ride courtesy of the bizarre Elderly Boy in his converted lifeboat. They eventually arrive on an apparently uninhabited island, where the Elderly Boy abandons them, and they set up home. After a while they discover that the island is home to the eccentric grassho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Bayldon
Albert Geoffrey Bayldon (7 January 1924 – 10 May 2017) was an English actor. After playing roles in many stage productions, including the works of William Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series ''Catweazle'' (1969–70). Bayldon's other long-running parts include the Crowman in ''Worzel Gummidge (TV series), Worzel Gummidge'' (1979–81) and Magic Grandad in the BBC television series ''Watch'' (1995). Early life Bayldon was born in Leeds and attended Bridlington School and Kingston upon Hull, Hull College of Architecture. Following service in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he appeared in amateur theatricals and then trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Old Vic Theatre School. Career Bayldon enjoyed a substantial stage career, including work in the West End theatre, West End and for the Royal Shakespeare Company, RSC. He made several film appearances in the 1960s and 1970s, including ''King Rat (1965 film), King ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catweazle
''Catweazle'' is a British children's fantasy television series, starring Geoffrey Bayldon in the title role, and created by Richard Carpenter for London Weekend Television. The first series, produced and directed in 1969 by Quentin Lawrence, was screened in the UK on ITV in 1970. The second series, produced and directed in 1970 by David Reid and David Lane, was shown in 1971. Each series had thirteen episodes, most but not all written by Carpenter, who also published two books based on the scripts. Summary The premise in the first episode is that an 11th century bumbling wizard named Catweazle (Geoffrey Bayldon) is pursued by soldiers through a wood, carrying only his magic charm and his toad familiar. He says a spell as he jumps into a pond. When he emerges from the pond he believes that he has made the wood and soldiers disappear; in fact he has jumped 900 years into the future. He arrives on a farm in rural England in the year 1969 and befriends a farmer's son, a red-head ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hattie Jacques
Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the ''Carry On'' films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer. Jacques started her career in 1944 with an appearance at the Players' Theatre in London, but came to national prominence through her appearances on three highly popular radio series on the BBC: with Tommy Handley on ''It's That Man Again''; with ventriloquist Peter Brough on ''Educating Archie''; and then with Tony Hancock on ''Hancock's Half Hour''. After the Second World War Jacques made her cinematic debut in ''Green for Danger'' (1946), in which she had a brief, uncredited role. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in 14 ''Carry On'' films, playing various roles including the formidable hospital matron. On television she had a long professional partnership with Eric S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wendy Hiller
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller, (15 August 1912 – 14 May 2003) was an English film and stage actress who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly 60 years. Writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation ''Rating the Movie Stars'', described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took command of the screen whenever she appeared on film". Despite many notable film performances, Hiller chose to remain primarily a stage actress. Hiller won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ''Separate Tables'' (1958). Her performance as Eliza Doolittle in ''Pygmalion'' (1938) earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Early years Born in Bramhall, Cheshire, the daughter of Frank Watkin Hiller, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, and Marie Stone, she was educated at Winceby House School and at age 18 joined the Manchester Repertory Company, for which she acted and stage-managed for several years. She first found success as slum dweller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doreen Gorsky
Doreen Marjorie Gorsky née Doreen Stephens (12 October 1912 – 20 March 2001), was a British Liberal Party politician, feminist and television producer and executive who during her career specialised in women's and children's programmes. Background Doreen Stephens was born in Hammersmith. She was educated at a private boarding school in Folkestone, before attending finishing schools in Brussels and Wimbledon. In 1933, at the age of 19, she married a stockbroker, Richard Holden, with whom she had two children, though after five years, the couple divorced. During the war, she was a commandant in the British Red Cross. In 1944 at London University, she received the Gilchrist gold medal and diploma for social studies. In 1942, she married Jacob Arthur Gorsky, a London doctor and barrister and a Liberal politician. Political career Gorsky joined the Liberal party in 1944. In 1945 she was Liberal candidate for the Hackney North Division at the 1945 General Election. It was an unpro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 until 1982) to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights (there was no handover back to Thames on Mondays, as from 1968 to 1982 there was no programming in the very early morning, and from 1983, when a national breakfast franchise was created, LWT would hand over to TV-am at 6:00am, which would then hand over to Thames at 9:25am). From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities (although occasionally a Thames-to-LWT-style handover would appear). Like most ITV regional franchi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter (, 28 July 186622 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', which was her first published work in 1902. Her books, including 23 Tales, have sold more than 250 million copies. Potter was also a pioneer of merchandising—in 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character. Born into an upper-middle-class household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and spent holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developing a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Potter's study and watercolours of fungi led to her being widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties, Potter self-published the highly successful childre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
