|
Hard Labour (film)
''Hard Labour'' is a 1973 television film, directed by Mike Leigh and produced by Tony Garnett which was broadcast as part of the BBC anthology series ''Play for Today''. The film stars Liz Smith in her first major role. The film is the most clearly drawn in all Leigh's work from the background in Higher and Lower Broughton where he grew up. "Though elements of autobiography are buried in all Leigh's films and plays, only ''Hard Labour'' is set in Salford, – the scenes in the Stones' house were shot in a house just two doors along from where the Leighs had lived in Cavendish Road." Cast * Liz Smith as Mrs Thornley * Clifford Kershaw as Mr Thornley * Polly Hemingway as Ann * Bernard Hill as Edward * Alison Steadman as Veronica * Vanessa Harris as Mrs Stone * Cyril Varley as Mr Stone * Ben Kingsley as Naseem Theme "The polarity between the worlds of Mrs Stone and the lady who cleans her house (the central figure, Mrs Thornley, the Catholic house-cleaner) is icily delineated. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films for BBC Television in the 1970s and '80s. Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Leigh's most notable works include the black comedy-drama ''Naked'' (1993), for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Garnett
Tony Garnett (3 April 1936 – 12 January 2020) was a British film and television producer, and actor. Best known for his thirteen-year association with director Ken Loach, his work as a producer continued into the 21st century. Early life and career Born Anthony Edward Lewis in Birmingham, he lost his parents when young: his mother Ida (''née'' Poulton) died when he was five from septicaemia following a Unsafe abortion, back-street abortion, and his father Tom Lewis, a garage mechanic turned insurance salesman, committed suicide nineteen days later. Tony was raised by his maternal aunt and uncle, Emily and Harold Garnett, whose surname he adopted in his late teens (while also simplifying his forenames), and his younger brother Peter was raised by other relatives.Jason Deans and Maggie Brow"Up the Junction's Tony Garnett reveals mother's backstreet abortion death" ''The Guardian'', 28 April 2013 Garnett attended the Central Grammar School for Boys (Birmingham), Central Grammar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liz Smith (actress)
Betty Gleadle (11 December 1921 – 24 December 2016), known by the stage name Liz Smith, was an English character actress, known for her roles in BBC sitcoms, including as Annie Brandon in ''I Didn't Know You Cared'' (1975–1979), the sisters Bette and Belle in '' 2point4 Children'' (1991–1999), Letitia Cropley in ''The Vicar of Dibley'' (1994–1996) and Norma Jean Speakman ("Nana") in ''The Royle Family'' (1998–2000, 2006). She also played Zillah in ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' (2008) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1984 film ''A Private Function''. Early life Liz Smith was born Betty Gleadle in 1921 in the Crosby area of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.Liz Smith gets MBE This Is Scunthorpe, 14 July 2009. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill (born 17 December 1944) is an English actor. He is well recognized for playing King Théoden in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in ''Titanic'', and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the Clint Eastwood film ''True Crime''. Hill was also known for playing roles in television dramas, including Yosser Hughes, the troubled "hard man" whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's ''Boys from the Blackstuff'' in the 1980s, and more recently, as the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's ''Wolf Hall''. Early life Hill was born in Blackley, Manchester. He was brought up in a Catholic family of miners. Hill attended Xaverian College, and then Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama at the same time as Richard Griffiths. He graduated with a diploma in theatre in 1970. Career In 1976, Hill was seen as Police Constable Cluff in the Granada Television series ''Crown Court'', the episode entitled "The Jolly Swag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman (born 26 August 1946) is an English actress. She received the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film '' Life Is Sweet'' and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of ''The Rise and Fall of Little Voice''. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the ‘50 Greatest Actors’ voted for by other actors, she was ranked 42. Steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 and went on to establish her career in Mike Leigh's 1970s TV plays ''Nuts in May'' (1976) and ''Abigail's Party'' (1977). She received BAFTA TV Award nominations for the 1986 BBC serial ''The Singing Detective'' and in 2001 for the ITV drama series ''Fat Friends'' (2000–2005). Other television roles include ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1995), ''Gavin & Stacey'' (2007–2010, 2019) and ''Orphan Black'' (2015–2016). Her other film appearances include ''A Private Function'' (1984), ''Topsy-Turvy'' (1999), ''The Life and De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor in 2002 for services to the British film industry. In 2010, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2013, he received the Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment. Born to an English mother and an Indian Gujarati father with roots in Jamnagar, Kingsley began his career in theatre, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 and spending the next 15 years appearing mainly on stage. His starring roles included productions of ''As You Like It'' (his West End debut for the company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1967), ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Richard III'', '' The Tempest'', ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (including Peter Brook's 1970 RSC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Play For Today
''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were (with a few exceptions noted below) between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including '' Rumpole of the Bailey'', subsequently became television series in their own right. History The strand was a successor to ''The Wednesday Play'', the 1960s anthology series, the title being changed when the day of transmission moved to Thursday to make way for a sport programme. Some works, screened in anthology series' on BBC2, like Willy Russell's ''Our Day Out'' (1977), were repeated on BBC1 in the series. The producers of ''The Wednesday Play'', Graeme MacDonald and Irene Shubik, transferred to the new series. Shubik continued with the series until ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broughton, Greater Manchester
Broughton is a suburb and district of Salford, City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, on the east bank of the River Irwell, it is northwest of Manchester and south of Prestwich. Historically in Lancashire, Broughton was a township and chapelry in the parish of Manchester and hundred of Salford. The former manor house, Broughton Hall, belonged to the Chethams and the Stanleys, both distinguished local families, and later passed, by marriage, to the Clowes family. Part of Broughton was amalgamated into the Municipal Borough of Salford in 1844, and the remaining area in 1853. In the 21st century, parts of Lower Broughton and Higher Broughton have been redeveloped with a mixture of town houses and flats. Together with neighbouring Whitefield, Prestwich and Crumpsall, Broughton is home to a large Jewish community. History Early history Some neolithic implements and other pre-Roman remains have been found in Broughton. The Roman road from Manchester (Mamucium) to Rib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salford, Greater Manchester
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county after neighbouring Manchester. Salford is located in a meander of the River Irwell which forms part of its boundary with Manchester. The former County Borough of Salford, which also included Broughton, Pendleton and Kersal, was granted city status in 1926. In 1974 the wider Metropolitan Borough of the City of Salford was established with responsibility for a significantly larger region. Historically in Lancashire, Salford was the judicial seat of the ancient hundred of Salfordshire. It was granted a charter by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, in about 1230, making Salford a free borough of greater cultural and commercial importance than its neighbour Manchester.. The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1973 Television Films
Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. * January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Nixon is the only person to have been sworn in twice as President ( 1969, 1973) and Vice President of the United States ( 1953, 1957). * January 22 ** George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship. ** A Royal Jordanian Boeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria; 176 people are killed. * January 27 – U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ends with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. February * February 8 – A military in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1973 Television Plays
Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. * January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Nixon is the only person to have been sworn in twice as President (First inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1969, Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1973) and Vice President of the United States (First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, Second inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957). * January 22 ** George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship. ** A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Television Films
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom or, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *''Brit(ish)'', a 2018 memoir by Afua Hirsch *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) See also * Terminology of the British Isles * Alternative names for the British * English (other) * Britannic (other) * British Isles * Brit (other) * B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
