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John Bird (actor)
John Bird (born 22 November 1936) is an English satirist, actor and comedian, known for his work in television satire, including many appearances with John Fortune. Early life John Bird was born in Bulwell, Nottingham, and attended High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham. While studying at King's College, Cambridge, he met John Fortune. Bird became well known during the television satire boom of the 1960s, appearing in ''That Was The Week That Was'', the title of which was coined by Bird. Bird was intended by Ned Sherrin for David Frost's role in the series, but was committed elsewhere. He also appeared in the television programmes ''Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life'', ''If It Moves File It'', ''Dangerous Brothers'', ''A Very Peculiar Practice'' and '' My Father Knew Lloyd George'', as well as in ''The Secret Policeman's Other Ball''. Acting career Bird acted straight and comic roles in several television series and in films such as '' Red and Blue'' (1967), '' A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulwell
Bulwell is a market town in the City of Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, England. It is south-west of Hucknall and to the north-west of Nottingham. The United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded the population of Bulwell at 29,771 which amounted to over 10 per cent of Nottingham city's population. The 2011 census gave a population of 16,157 for the Bulwell ward of Nottingham City Council. There is an adjacent ward, Bulwell Forest, which includes Highbury Vale, Rise Park and the west of Top Valley), its population at the same census being 13,614. History Early settlers The earliest documented settlements in Bulwell appeared around 800 AD, and were most likely built around the same time as the first local bridge across the River Leen. The river was significantly narrower, shallower and slower-moving in Bulwell than in other potential locations along its length, and the threat of highwaymen was a danger on existing cross-country routes; thus a toll bridge was constructed at Bulwell, to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
30 Is A Dangerous Age, Cynthia
''30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia'' is a 1968 British romantic comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Dudley Moore. Plot London jazz pianist and aspiring composer Rupert Street (Dudley Moore) is looking to have a 30th birthday to remember, marriage on the big day, but lacks a bride, and in the six weeks that remain, he has set himself the no less formidable additional target of writing a musical, all through fear of reaching that grand age having achieved nothing in life. Luck comes Rupert's way in the form of the gorgeous but taken Louise (Suzy Kendall), a fellow boarder, whose attentions he pursues with all his goofy and inept might and main. The inevitable bust-up with competing suitor Paul leaves Rupert with right arm in plaster and unable to play. Seeing the need of freedom from distraction, Rupert departs for Dublin. Industry and inspiration abound and Rupert returns to London triumphant having met his deadline. Odds of achieving the other half of his pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the " dandified coon". By the middle of the century, blackface minstrel shows had become a distinctive American artform, translating formal works such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. Early in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became a form in its own right. In the United States, blackface declined in popularity beginning in the 1940s and into the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s,Clark, Alexis.How the History of Blackface Is Rooted in Racism. ''History''. A&E Television Networks, LLC. 2019. and was generally considered highly offensive, disrespectful, and racist by the turn of the 21st century, though the practice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robson Books
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The name is a combination of several publishing firm names: Harper & Row, an American publishing company acquired in 1987—whose own name was the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers (founded in 1817) and Row, Peterson & Company—together with Scottish publishing company William Collins, Sons (founded in 1819), acquired in 1989. The worldwide CEO of HarperCollins is Brian Murray. HarperCollins has publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India, and China. The company publishes many different imprints, both former independent publishing houses and new imprints. History Collins Harper Mergers and acquisitions Collins was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Shand
Neil Hodgson Shand (3 March 1934 – 14 April 2018) was a British television comedy writer. He was born in Luton to parents from Glasgow, the son of a Vauxhall employee and a dressmaker. Neil was the eldest of three boys. Raised in a "two up two down" house, he passed the 11-plus, and had a positive experience of attending a grammar school. Virtually blind in one eye, an operation at 14 on the day the National Health Service NHS was founded (5 July 1948) saved his eyesight. He began to work for a local paper, the ''Luton Gazette'', after leaving school. Briefly working for the nationals while still having the day job in Luton, he managed to gain a regular job at the '' Daily Sketch'' after finding details of the 21st birthday party of a son of the Aga Khan at the Savoy Hotel. Shand was later a journalist for the '' Daily Mail'' and '' Daily Express'', before moving into comedy writing in the 1960s. Shortly after being sacked from the ''Mail'' for being drunk once too often, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones, Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer, and a principal cast member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'', performing a range of roles including the characters Eccles (character), Eccles and Minnie Bannister. He was the earliest-born and last surviving member of the Goons. He took his success with ''The Goon Show'' into television with ''Q... (TV series), Q5'', a surreal sketch show credited as a major influence on the members of ''Monty Python's Flying Circu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Melting Pot (television Programme)
''The Melting Pot'' is a British television situation comedy starring Spike Milligan. It was written by Milligan and his regular collaborator Neil Shand. The pilot episode was broadcast only once on BBC1 in June 1976, with a full series recorded the following August but never broadcast. Milligan played Mr. Van Gogh (in brownface) alongside John Bird as Mr. Rembrandt, father and son illegal Asian immigrants who are first seen being rowed ashore in England, having been told that the beach is in fact Piccadilly Circus.Mark Dugui"Race and the Sitcom" BFI screenonline. Retrieved 12st November 2018. They hitch a ride to London in a lorry advertising Italian-made Yorkshire puddings, and find themselves at a boarding house in the fictional Piles Road, London WC2, run by Irish coalman Paddy O'Brien (Frank Carson) and his voluptuous daughter Nefertiti. The rest of the tenants include a black Yorkshireman, a Chinese cockney and a Scottish Arab. The "Melting Pot" of the title refers to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Punch (magazine)
''Punch, or The London Charivari'' was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term " cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. From 1850, John Tenniel was the chief cartoon artist at the magazine for over 50 years. After the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002. History ''Punch'' was founded on 17 July 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells, on an initial investment of £25. It was jointly edited by Mayhew and Mark Lemon. It was subtitled ''The London Charivari'' in homage to Charles Philipon's French satirical humour magazine ''Le Charivari''. Reflecting their satiric and humorous intent, the two editors took for their name and masthead the anarchic glove puppet, Mr. Punch, of Punc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Coren
Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz ''The News Quiz'' and a team captain on BBC television's ''Call My Bluff''. Coren was also a journalist, and for almost a decade was the editor of ''Punch'' magazine. Early life Alan Coren was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in East Barnet, Hertfordshire, in 1938, the son of builder and plumber Samuel Coren and his wife Martha, a hairdresser. In the introduction to ''Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks: The Essential Alan Coren'', Giles and Victoria Coren conclude that Samuel Coren was "an odd job man really" and had also apparently been a debt collector. Note that there is some uncertainty regarding the father's occupation: the source describes him as "A plumber?...That's what they said...He was an odd job man really." Education Coren was educated at Osidge Primary School and East Barnet Grammar School, followed by Wadham College at the Uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Collected Broadcasts Of Idi Amin
''The Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin'' is a British comedy album parodying Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, released in 1975 on Transatlantic Records. It was performed by John Bird and written by Alan Coren, based on columns he wrote for ''Punch'' magazine. Track listing #Gunboat Dipperlomacy #Star Gittin' Born #Time Check #Findin' De Lady #Public Announcement #Way to De Stars #Costa Uganda #S.O.S #Up Fo' Grabs #Amazin' Man (played a number of times on the Dr. Demento Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ... show) #Weather Forecast #De Colleckerted Works O' Idi Amin References External links''The Collected Broadcasts of Idi Amin''• Discogs 1975 albums Cultural depictions of Idi Amin Uganda in fiction British political satire Black comedy music Transatlantic Rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idi Amin
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history. Amin was born in Koboko in what is now northwest Uganda to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother. In 1946, he joined the King's African Rifles (KAR) of the British Colonial Army as a cook. He rose to the rank of lieutenant, taking part in British actions against Somali rebels and then the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya. Uganda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, and Amin remained in the army, rising to the position of major and being appointed commander of the Uganda Army in 1965. He became aware that Ugandan President Milton Obote was planning to arrest him for misappropriating army funds, so he launched the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état and declared himself president. During his years in power, Amin shifted from be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (film)
''The Seven-Per-Cent Solution'' is a 1976 Oscar-nominated British-American mystery film directed by Herbert Ross and written by Nicholas Meyer. It is based on Meyer's 1974 novel of the same name and stars Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin, and Laurence Olivier. Plot Dr. John H. Watson (Robert Duvall) becomes convinced that his friend Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson) is delusional—particularly in his belief that Professor James Moriarty (Laurence Olivier) is a criminal mastermind—as a result of his addiction to cocaine. Moriarty visits Watson to complain about being harassed by Holmes. Watson enlists the aid of Sherlock's brother, Mycroft ( Charles Gray), to trick Holmes into traveling to Vienna, where he will be treated by Sigmund Freud (Alan Arkin). During the course of his treatment, Holmes investigates a kidnapping case with international implications and Freud uncovers a dark personal secret suppressed in Holmes's subconscious. Cast * Nicol Williamson as S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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