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James Beck
Stanley James Carroll Beck (21 February 1929 – 6 August 1973) was an English actor who played the role of Private Walker, a cockney spiv, in the BBC sitcom ''Dad's Army'' from the show's beginning in 1968 until his sudden death in 1973. Early life Beck was born on 21 February 1929 in Islington, North London, and attended Popham Road Primary School. His childhood was hard, with his father frequently unemployed and his mother making artificial flowers to provide a small income. After attending Saint Martin's School of Art and doing his national service as a physical training instructor in the British Army, Beck became an actor. Prior to his broadcast roles he spent several seasons with the Unicorn Players based in Paignton, Devon. His early broadcast roles included Charlie Bell in an episode of ''Dr Finlay's Casebook'' (Series 1 episode 4, "Conduct Unbecoming", 1962), and Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice'' in 1963, for which he gained positive reviews. He concentrated on ...
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Private Walker
Private Joe Walker is a fictional black market spiv (or Wholesales Supplier, as he politely puts it) and Home Guard platoon member, first portrayed by actor James Beck in the BBC television sitcom ''Dad's Army''. In real life, Beck died suddenly on 6 August 1973. The character of Walker was one of the seven primary characters in the show. Following his character's departure (Walker was last mentioned in the episode "The Recruit", although he does not appear in this episode) the series attempted to replace him with a war reporter called Private Cheeseman (played by Talfryn Thomas), who had made a previous cameo appearance in the episode "My British Buddy". Personality Walker is the second-youngest member of the platoon, the youngest being Private Pike, and speaks with a cockney accent. A pleasant and amiable (if slightly shifty) personality, Walker is nevertheless a constant thorn in Captain Mainwaring's side, for he doesn't share Mainwaring's idealism, and makes cheeky and wit ...
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Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Originally broadcast twice weekly, the series began airing six times a week in 2017. The programme was conceived by scriptwriter Tony Warren. Warren's initial proposal was rejected by the station's founder Sidney Bernstein, but he was persuaded by producer Harry Elton to produce the programme for 13 pilot episodes, and the show has since become a significant part of English culture. ''Coronation Street'' is made by ITV Granada at MediaCityUK and shown in all ITV regions, as well as internationally. In 2010, upon its 50th anniversary, the series was recognised by Guinness World Records, as the world's longest-running television soap opera. Initially influenced by the conventions of kitchen sink realism, ''Coronation Street'' is noted for its ...
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Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton
Queen Mary's Hospital, formerly Queen Mary's Convalescent Auxiliary Hospitals, is a community hospital in Roehampton in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is run by St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was founded in 1915, primarily by Mary Eleanor Gwynne-Holford as a military hospital to provide care for wounded soldiers. It was initially based at Roehampton House specialising in the care of amputees and soon became a world-renowned limb fitting and amputee rehabilitation centre. A fully equipped hospital was built on site in the early 1920s, a plastic and oral surgery unit developed by Sir Harold Gillies moved onto the site in 1925 and a Tropical Diseases unit was established for former prisoners of war in 1945. The hospital joined the National Health Service late (in 1961). Following discovery of significant asbestos, the original site was left in 1983. The Douglas Bader Unit (named after double-amputee RAF pilot Sir Douglas Bader) ...
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The Guide Dogs For The Blind Association
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, known colloquially as Guide Dogs, is a British charitable organization founded in 1934. The Association uses guide dogs to help blind and partially blind people. The organization also participates in political activism for the rights of those with vision impairments. The charity's royal patron is the Countess of Wessex, who succeeded Princess Alexandra of Kent as patron in 2021. The head office is near Reading in Berkshire. The charity has eight regional centres in Belfast, Cardiff, Forfar, Leeds, Atherton, Leamington Spa, Redbridge and Bristol. The regional centres in Forfar, Atherton, Leamington and Redbridge are also guide dog training schools. There are a further 14 community teams in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Hull, Liverpool, Nottingham, Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Welwyn, central London, Maidstone, Reading (based at head office), Southampton and Exeter. There is also a National Breeding Centre just outside Leamington Spa. T ...
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List Of Dad's Army Radio Episodes
This is a list of the radio episodes of the British sitcom ''Dad's Army'' which were normally adapted from the script of an earlier television episode. Dates shown are for the recording session followed by the original transmission on BBC Radio 4. Since 2007, the full run of radio episodes has been regularly repeated on digital archive station BBC Radio 4 Extra along with its radio-only sequel ''It Sticks Out Half a Mile''. Although most of the television episodes were adapted to radio, the following were not: '' Gorilla Warfare'', ''Ring Dem Bells'', '' When You've Got to Go'', '' Come in, Your Time is Up'', '' The Face on the Poster'', ''My Brother and I'', '' The Love of Three Oranges'', ''Wake Up Walmington'', ''The Making of Private Pike'', ''Knights of Madness'', '' The Miser's Hoard'', '' Number Engaged'' and ''Never Too Old "Never Too Old" is the last episode of the ninth and final series of the British comedy series ''Dad's Army''. It was originally transmitted on Sund ...
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Arthur Lowe
Arthur Lowe (22 September 1915 – 15 April 1982) was an English actor. His acting career spanned 36 years, including starring roles in numerous theatre and television productions. He played Captain Mainwaring in the British sitcom ''Dad's Army'' from 1968 until 1977, was nominated for seven BAFTAs and became one of the most recognised faces on UK television. Lowe began acting professionally in England in 1945, after army service in the Second World War. He worked in theatre, film and television throughout the 1950s but it was not until he landed the part of Leonard Swindley in the television soap ''Coronation Street'' in 1960 that he came to national attention. He played the character until 1966, while continuing theatre and other acting work. In 1968 he took on his role in ''Dad's Army'', written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. The profile he gained from the role led to further character roles. Despite increasingly poor health in his final years, he maintained a busy p ...
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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 ...
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Romany Jones
''Romany Jones'' is a British sitcom made by London Weekend Television, broadcast between 1972 and 1975, involving the comic misadventures of two layabout families living on a caravan site. The show was designed as a vehicle for James BeckJames Beck played the black market spiv Private Walker in the ''Dad's Army'' and also featured Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts as Wally and Lily Briggs. Following Beck's death in August 1973, Bert and Betty Jones were written out of the series. Jonathan Cecil and Gay Soper took over the lead roles, playing new neighbours, Jeremy and Susan Crichton-Jones. The show's pilot episode had been made by Thames Television and broadcast in 1972. It was followed by a spin-off sequel in 1976 entitled ''Yus, My Dear'', starring Mullard and Watts. Cast *Arthur Mullard - Wally Briggs *Queenie Watts - Lily Briggs *James Beck - Bert Jones ''(series 1 and 2)'' *Jo Rowbottom - Betty Jones ''(series 1 and 2)'' * Kevin Brennan - Mr Gibson ''(series 1 and 2)'' ...
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A Family At War
''A Family At War'' is a British drama Television program, series that aired on ITV (TV network), ITV from 1970 to 1972. It was created by John Finch and made by ITV Granada, Granada Television for ITV. The original producer was Richard Doubleday, and with 13 directors during the series. The series examined the lives of the lower middle-class Ashton family of the city of Liverpool and their experiences from 1938 and through the Second World War. Fifty-two episodes were produced, all but eight of them in colour. Episodes numbers 25 to 32 were recorded in black and white because of the ITV Colour Strike. The memorable theme tune is from the end of the First Movement (Allegro) of Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams), ''Sixth Symphony''. The programme opening titles show a scene of a beach with a child's Sand art and play, sand castle, with Union Flag flying, slowly being approached by the encroaching tide, symbolic of a beleaguered Britain standing alone in 1940–1 ...
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Jimmy Perry
James Perry, (20 September 1923 – 23 October 2016)Simon Morgan-Russell, "Perry, James (Jimmy) (1923–2016)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Jan 202available online Retrieved 25 August 2020. was an English script writer and actor. He devised and co-wrote the BBC sitcoms ''Dad's Army'' (1968–77), ''It Ain't Half Hot Mum'' (1974–81), ''Hi-De-Hi'' (1980–88) and '' You Rang, M'Lord?'' (1988–93), all with David Croft. Perry co-wrote the theme tune of ''Dad's Army'', "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?" along with Derek Taverner, for which Perry received an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1971. Early life Perry was born in Barnes, Surrey. His father, Arthur, was an antiques dealer, whose shop was in South Kensington, London. He was a founder of the British Antique Dealers' Association. His son was educated at two independent schools, Colet Court and St Paul's School, whi ...
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Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition in his home country for his leading performances in the Hammer Productions horror films from the 1950s to 1970s, while earning international prominence as Grand Moff Tarkin in ''Star Wars'' (1977). Born in Kenley, Surrey, Cushing made his stage debut in 1935 and spent three years at a repertory theatre before moving to Hollywood to pursue a film career. After making his motion picture debut in the film '' The Man in the Iron Mask'' (1939), Cushing began to find modest success in American films before returning to England at the outbreak of the Second World War. Despite performing in a string of roles, including one as Osric in Laurence Olivier's film adaptation of ''Hamlet'' (1948), Cushing struggled greatly to find work during this peri ...
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