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Ian MacNaughton
Edward Ian MacNaughton (30 December 1925 – 10 December 2002) was a Scottish actor-turned-television producer and director, best known for his work with the ''Monty Python'' team. MacNaughton was director and producer for all but four of the forty five episodes of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' from 1969 to 1974, director of the group's first feature film ''And Now for Something Completely Different'' in 1971 and director of their two German episodes, ''Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus'' in 1971 and 1972. In 1973, the production team shared the BAFTA Award for Best Light Entertainment Programme for ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. Early life Ian MacNaughton was born in Glasgow and educated at Strathallan School in Perthshire. His elder brother was killed in World War II. MacNaughton spent a year in medical school before abandoning his plans to become a doctor and joining the Royal Marines for a year in 1945. While serving with the Royal Marines in an officers' training s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and influence, including touring stage shows, films, albums, books and musicals. The Pythons' influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Regarded as an enduring icon of 1970s pop culture, their sketch show has been referred to as being "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy". Broadcast by the BBC between 1969 and 1974, ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' was conceived, written and performed by its members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Loosely structured as a sketch show, but with an innovative stream-of-consciousness approach aided by Gil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh is Scotland's List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, second-most populous city, after Glasgow, and the List of cities in the United Kingdom, seventh-most populous city in the United Kingdom. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and the Courts of Scotland, highest courts in Scotland. The city's Holyrood Palace, Palace of Holyroodhouse is the official residence of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchy in Scotland. The city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, Scottish law, literature, philosophy, the sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service. From the middle decades of the 17th century, and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century, it was the world's most powerful navy until the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire, and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superiority globally. Owing to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, to ref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tell It To The Marines (TV Series)
''Tell It to the Marines'' is a British television sitcom that aired on ITV from 1959 to 1960. The series was based on the rivalry between the Marines and the Royal Navy. The series no longer exists. Background Jack Hylton, who had an exclusive contract to provide Associated-Rediffusion's entertainment programmes, was keen to mirror the success of Granada's sitcom ''The Army Game''. ''Tell It to the Marines'' was created by Ted Willis, who had created the police drama ''Dixon of Dock Green'', and the theme music by jazz musician Chris Barber. The series was not a success. Of the 30 episodes, Milo Lewis directed 29 and Tig Roe one. Cast * Alan White – Leading Seaman White *Ronald Hines – Marine Corporal Surtees *Ian MacNaughton – Dalrymple * Jack Allen – Major Howard *Henry McGee – Lt Raleigh *Ian Colin – Commander Walters *John Baskcomb – Petty Officer Woodward *Ian Whittaker – Whittle *Norman Chappell – Tubby Plot The series is based on the rivalry at both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Safecracker
''The Safecracker'' is a 1958 British crime film noir directed by Ray Milland and starring Milland, Barry Jones and Victor Maddern. Plot Colley Dawson lives a quiet life at home with his mother, but he is an expert safecracker at weekends, breaking into wealthy homes and stealing valuable art. When he is eventually arrested and convicted, Colley is approached in prison by Major Adbury, who offers him a deal in exchange for helping with the war effort. Colley will be given his freedom if he uses his safecracking expertise to perform a mission behind enemy lines. The dangerous mission is to breach a difficult safe in a Nazi chateau and steal a list of German spies operating in England. Colley agrees and is trained as a commando and parachuted into Belgium for the mission. Cast * Ray Milland as Colley Dawson * Barry Jones as Bennett Carfield * Jeanette Sterke as Irene * Victor Maddern as Morris * Ernest Clark as Major Adbury * Cyril Raymond as Inspector Frankham * Melissa Stri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Silent Enemy (1958 Film)
''The Silent Enemy'' is a 1958 British action film directed by William Fairchild. It stars Laurence Harvey as Lionel "Buster" Crabb and describes his exploits during World War II. Based on Marshall Pugh's book ''Commander Crabb'', the film followed the publicity created by Crabb's mysterious disappearance and likely death during a Cold War incident a year earlier. It was the first Universal Pictures film in SuperScope. The film depicts events in Gibraltar harbour during the World War II Italian frogman and manned torpedo attacks, although the film's depiction of the events is highly fictionalised. Plot During the Italian manned torpedo raid on Alexandria (1941), two British battleships, and , are severely damaged. The British are worried that this new tactic will afford the Italians naval supremacy in the Mediterranean and the ability to strike their primary target, the Royal Navy base at Gibraltar. To counter this threat, bomb-disposal expert Lionel Crabb is posted to G ... [...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] |
X The Unknown
''X the Unknown'' is a 1956 British science fiction horror film directed by Leslie Norman and starring Dean Jagger and Edward Chapman. It was made by the Hammer Film Productions company and written by Jimmy Sangster. The film is significant in that "it firmly established Hammer's transition from B-movie thrillers to out-and-out horror/science fiction" and, with ''The Quatermass Xperiment'' (1955) and ''Quatermass 2'' (1957), completes "an important trilogy containing relevant allegorical threads revealing Cold War anxieties and a diminishing national identity resulting from Britain's decrease in status as a world power". Plot The film takes place in the Lochmouth region of Scotland, near Glasgow. Members of a group of soldiers are taking turns using a Geiger counter to find a small and harmless hidden source of radioactivity in a wide pit area. Private Lansing (Kenneth Cope) finds another mysterious source of radiation where ground water starts to boil. As the other soldiers b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rob Roy, The Highland Rogue
''Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue'' is a 1953 adventure film produced by RKO-Walt Disney British Productions which is about Rob Roy MacGregor. It was the last Disney film released through RKO Radio Pictures. Plot The film begins in the early 18th century with Rob Roy leading his McGregor clansmen against King George I's forces commanded by the Scottish Duke of Argyll. While determined to establish order in the Highlands, Argyll is sympathetic to "the bonny blue bonnets" whom he is fighting, even refusing to unleash German mercenaries against them. A final charge by royal dragoons scatters the clansmen but honour appears satisfied and Rob Roy returns to his village to wed his beloved Helen. The wedding celebrations are interrupted by fencibles – the private army of the Duke of Montrose who has been appointed as the King's Secretary of State for Scotland and who lacks Argyll's regard for the highlanders. All clans involved in the Jacobite rising of 1715 are pardoned except for t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of ' literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands. The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laxdale Hall
''Laxdale Hall'' is a 1953 British romantic comedy film directed by John Eldridge and starring Ronald Squire, Kathleen Ryan, Raymond Huntley and Sebastian Shaw, with Prunella Scales and Fulton Mackay in early roles. Released in the U.S. as ''Scotch on the Rocks'', it was adapted from the 1951 novel ''Laxdale Hall'' by Eric Linklater. The story is one of the few to touch on the British Town Planning system – mocking the New Towns Act 1946. Plot The few car owners of Laxdale, a remote village near the Isle of Skye at Applecross, refuse to pay their Road Fund taxes, in protest against the poor state of the only road. A series of summonses, sent out via the local police, mysteriously 'disappear'. The government sends a delegation to investigate. It is led by Samuel Pettigrew, a pompous politician and industrialist, whose Mother was born in Laxdale. He is accompanied by another MP, Hugh Marvell, and Andrew Flett from the Scottish Office. Pettigrew presents plans to abandon the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe which runs alongside it. The latter is the largest event of its kind in the world. The term ''Edinburgh Festival'' is commonly used, but there is no single festival; the various festivals are put on by separate, unrelated organisations. However they are widely regarded as part of the same event, particularly the various festivals that take place simultaneously in August each year. The term ''Edinburgh Festival'' is often used to refer more specifically to the Fringe, being the largest of the festivals; or sometimes to the International Festival, being the original "official" arts festival. Within the industry, people refer to all the festivals collectively as the ''Edinburgh Festivals'' (plural). The festivals Listed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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