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Harold Snoad
Harold Edward Snoad (born 28 August 1935) is a British television producer, writer and director. He is best known for the television sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances'', starring Patricia Routledge and Clive Swift. He is also well known for having directed and produced ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' starring Richard Briers and Peter Egan, as well as '' Don't Wait Up'' starring Tony Britton and Nigel Havers. He has also had a successful writing career with his writing partner Michael Knowles, writing the radio spinoff of ''Dad's Army'', ''It Sticks Out Half a Mile'' which evolved into the short-lived television series for ITV called '' High & Dry''. Directing and Producing Career Harold Snoad joined the BBC in 1957, after working in the theatre, and had numerous roles, including as a ‘call boy’ for an episode of ''Hancock's Half Hour'' in 1960. Snoad soon gained promotion, becoming a producer and director in 1969. At the time, he was one of the youngest directors work in televisio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dad's Army
''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC One, BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran for nine series and 80 episodes in total; a Dad's Army (1971 film), feature film released in 1971, a stage show and a radio version based on the television scripts were also produced. The series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers and is still shown internationally. The Home Guard consisted of local volunteers otherwise ineligible for military service, either because of age (hence the title ''Dad's Army''), medical reasons or by being in Reserved occupation, professions exempt from conscription. Most of the platoon members in ''Dad's Army'' are over military age and the series stars several older British actors, including Arnold Ridley, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hancock's Half Hour
''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Galton and Simpson, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James, Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply ''Hancock'', starred Hancock alone. Comedian Tony Hancock starred in the show, playing an exaggerated and much poorer version of his own character and lifestyle, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock, a down-at-heel comedian living at the dilapidated 23 Railway Cuttings in Cheam, East Cheam. The series was influential in the development of the Sitcom, situation comedy, with its move away from radio variety towards a focus on character development. The radio version was produced by Dennis Main Wilson for most of its run. After Main Wilson departed for his television career, his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Not Now, Comrade
''Not Now, Comrade'' is a 1976 British comedy film directed by Ray Cooney. It was a follow-up to the similarly named 1973 farce ''Not Now, Darling''. It featured a number of British comedy actors including Leslie Phillips, Windsor Davies, Don Estelle and Ian Lavender. The film was shot at Elstree studios, and was intended as the second in a series of ‘Not Now’ films, with 'Not Now, Prime Minister' pencilled in as a follow-up, but box office returns for the film, unlike those of its predecessor, were disappointing. Cooney also appears as the MI5 agent Mr Laver. The film was the first and only time that Harold Snoad directed a feature film. Plot Russian ballet dancer Rudi Petrovyan wants to defect. Unable to reach the British embassy and pursued by the KGB, he hides out with, and falls for, stripper Barbara Wilcox. But Rudi's planned escape in the boot of a Triumph backfires when he climbs into the wrong car, and he ends up in the country home of unsuspecting naval Commander ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Cooney
Raymond George Alfred Cooney, OBE (born 30 May 1932) is an English playwright, actor, and director. His biggest success, '' Run for Your Wife'' (1983), ran for nine years in London's West End and is its longest-running comedy. He has had 17 of his plays performed there. Career Cooney began to act in 1946, appearing in many of the Whitehall farces of Brian Rix throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It was during this time that he co-wrote his first play, ''One For The Pot''. With Tony Hilton, he co-wrote the screenplay for the British comedy film '' What a Carve Up!'' (1961), which features Sid James and Kenneth Connor. In 1968 and 1969, Cooney adapted Richard Gordon's ''Doctor'' novels for BBC radio, as series starring Richard Briers. He also took parts in them. Cooney has also appeared on TV, (including an uncredited appearance in the ''Dial 999 (TV series)'' ' episode, 'A Mined Area', as a hold-up victim), and in several films, including a film adaptation of his successful the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dick Emery Show
''The Dick Emery Show'' is a British sketch comedy show starring Dick Emery. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1963 to 1981. It was directed and produced by Harold Snoad. The show was broadcast over 19 series with 166 episodes. The show experienced sustained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. The BBC described the show as featuring 'a vivid cast of comic grotesques'. Frequent performers included Pat Coombs, Victor Maddern, Deryck Guyler, Roy Kinnear, Joan Sims and Josephine Tewson. The principal writers of the programme were David Cummings, John Singer, and John Warren. Additional contributions were by David Nobbs and Peter Tinniswood. Other writers included Dick Clement, Barry Cryer, Selma Diamond, John Esmonde, Marty Feldman, Lucille Kallen, Bob Larbey and Harold Pinter. The American comedy writers Mel Brooks and Mel Tolkin contributed sketches in the early years of the show. The nature of the show with its rapid sketches was initially inspired by the American sketch show ''Your ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Are You Being Served?
''Are You Being Served?'' is a British sitcom created and written by executive producer David Croft (Croft also directed some episodes) and Jeremy Lloyd, with contributions from Michael Knowles and John Chapman, for the BBC. Set in London, the show follows the misadventures and mishaps of the staff of the retail ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments in the flagship department store of a fictional chain called Grace Brothers. The series was broadcast on the BBC for ten series, totalling 69 episodes between 8 September 1972 and 1 April 1985 – and included five Christmas specials. There was also a 1977 film, a spin-off series ''Grace & Favour'' with the same main cast in 1991–1992, and a one-off episode with a new cast in 2016. Since its original release, all 69 episodes, the pilot, the Christmas specials, the sequel and the film have been released on DVD. ''Are You Being Served?'' was a success in the UK audience ratings. The series was screened in Canada, New Zeal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Whitehouse
Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the BBC. A hard-line social conservative, she was termed a reactionary by her socially liberal opponents. Her motivation derived from her Christian beliefs, her aversion to the rapid social and political changes in British society of the 1960s, and her work as a teacher of sex education. Whitehouse became an art teacher, at the same time becoming involved in evangelical Christian groups such as the Student Christian Movement (which became increasingly more liberal leading up to, and after, a 1928 split with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) and Moral Re-Armament. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Phillips
Leslie Samuel Phillips (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022) was an English actor, director, producer and author. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. He appeared in the ''Carry On'' and ''Doctor in the House'' film series as well as the long-running BBC radio comedy series ''The Navy Lark''. In his later career, Phillips took on dramatic parts including a BAFTA-nominated role alongside Peter O'Toole in ''Venus'' (2006). He provided the voice of the Sorting Hat in several of the ''Harry Potter'' films. Early life Leslie Samuel Phillips was born in Tottenham on 20 April 1924, the third child of Cecelia Margaret (''née'' Newlove) and Frederick Samuel Phillips, who worked at Glover and Main, manufacturers of cookers in Edmonton. Phillips described his street as "beyond the sonic reach of the Bow Bells but within the general footprint of cockneydom." In 1931, the family moved to Chingf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Casanova '73
''Casanova '73'' is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 in September and October 1973. Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the series starred Leslie Phillips as wealthy womaniser Henry Newhouse (the English translation of "casa nova"). Background and plot ''Casanova '73'' followed an episode of ''Galton and Simpson Comedy'' ("The Suit", 1969) for London Weekend Television in which Phillips played Howard Butler, a philandering businessman whose clothes are stolen whilst he is in bed at his secretary's home. As with this series, it also featured Jan Holden as his wife. ''Casanova '73'' was specially written for Phillips. Henry Newhouse has a successful career in public relations. Although happily married to Carol, he is a compulsive philanderer and leads a double life. His relationships invariably backfire and lead to farcical situations. Cast *Leslie Phillips – Henry Newhouse *Jan Holden – Carol Newhouse *Yolande Turner – Connie Langham *Elvi Hale – Muriel *Cyd Hayman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lion Has Phones
"The Lion Has 'Phones" is the third episode of the third series of the British comedy series ''Dad's Army''. It was originally transmitted on 25 September 1969. Synopsis Captain Mainwaring teaches the platoon how to use a public telephone box for emergency communication. Plot After a successful exercise in camouflage, Mainwaring delivers a lecture on communications. Apparently, the four main targets are the gasometer, the railway bridge, the telephone exchange and the reservoir. They are vital to the town's survival, so two men will be posted at each location. If they see anything suspicious, they will phone Mainwaring via the nearest telephone box. Frazer asks Mainwaring what will happen if the telephone boxes are out of action, and many alternatives are suggested, including a heliograph, tick-tacking, shooting a hole in the top of the gasometer and setting fire to it, and tapping the railway line and laying your ear onto it (Pike dismisses this idea by telling Jones that a tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea, with The Wash to the north-west. The county town is the city of Norwich. With an area of and a population of 859,400, Norfolk is a largely rural county with a population density of 401 per square mile (155 per km2). Of the county's population, 40% live in four major built up areas: Norwich (213,000), Great Yarmouth (63,000), King's Lynn (46,000) and Thetford (25,000). The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, extending south into Suffolk. The area is protected by the Broads Authority and has similar status to a national park. History The area that was to become Norfolk was settled in pre-Roman times, (there were Palaeolithic settlers as early as 950,000 years ago) with camps along the highe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340./ There has been a settlement at Thetford since the Iron Age, and parts of the town predate the Norman Conquest; Thetford Castle was established shortly thereafter. Roger Bigod founded the Cluniac Priory of St Mary in 1104, which became the largest and most important religious institution in Thetford. The town was badly hit by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, including the castle's destruction, but was rebuilt in 1574 when Elizabeth I established a town charter. After World War II, Thetford became an "overspill town", taking people from London, as a result of which its population increased substantially. Thetford railway station is served by the Breckland line and is one of the best surviving pieces of 19th-century railway architec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
