Leonard Jack Lewis
Leonard Jack Lewis (29 November 1927 – 2 December 2005) was a British producer and director. He was most active in television. He was the Executive/Series Producer for BBC's ''EastEnders'' during the early 1990s, though he had success with many other television programmes for both the BBC and ITV. It has been said that Lewis believed in "the principles of public service broadcasting" and he has been described as a "gifted television producer with hidden directorial talents". After over 40 years working in the television industry, Lewis retired in 1995. He died in December 2005, aged 78. Career After completing National service in the RAF, he became an actor and worked in repertory at the Manchester Library Theatre, Morecambe and Ashton-under-Lyne. He joined the BBC on a three-month holiday attachment in 1957. He worked with BBC Scotland until 1963, when he moved to BBC London as a staff director. Lewis began directing and later producing for BBC television, on shows such a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Walthamstow, across the River Lea, to the east, and Stamford Hill to the south, with Wood Green and Harringay to the west. The area rapidly expanded in the late-19th century, becoming a working-class suburb of London following the advent of the railway and mass development of housing for the lower-middle and working classes. It is the location of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, founded in 1882. The parish of Tottenham was granted urban district status in 1894 and municipal borough status in 1934. Following the Second World War, the area saw large-scale development of council housing, including tower blocks. Until 1965 Tottenham was in the historic county of Middlesex. In 1965, the borough of Tottenham merged with the municipal boroughs of Ho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Softly, Softly (TV Series)
''Softly, Softly'' is a British television police procedural series produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It was created as a spin-off from the series ''Z-Cars'', which ended its fifth series run in December 1965. The series took its title from the proverb "Softly, softly, catchee monkey", the motto of Lancashire Constabulary Training School. Newsletter 853, Saturday 12 October 2013 Series outline ''Softly, Softly'' centred on the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Ferguson (director)
Michael Ferguson (14 June 1937 – 4 October 2021) was a British television director and producer. His early career included directing four serials of the BBC's science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' (1966–1971). He later directed ITV's police drama series ''The Bill'' and was promoted to become its producer (1988–1989), and as executive producer of the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1989–1991) he was responsible for the introduction of two of its most popular and long-running characters, Phil and Grant Mitchell. He then produced the BBC medical drama series ''Casualty'' (1993–1994). Early life Ferguson was educated at King's College School in Wimbledon. He performed his national service with the British Army in Cyprus and north Africa. He trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Career Ferguson started his career as a stage actor and director with the Theatre Centre, a touring company visiting schools, before joining the BBC as an assistant f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Soap Opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers.Bowles, p. 118. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns. BBC Radio's ''The Archers'', first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running current television soap is '' Coronation Street'', which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960, with the record for the longest running soap opera in history being held by '' Guiding Light'', which began on radio in 1937, transitioned to television in 1952, and ended in 2009. A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Alber ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Prisoner Of Zenda
''The Prisoner of Zenda'' is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in order for the king to retain the crown, his coronation must proceed. Fortuitously, an English gentleman on holiday in Ruritania who resembles the monarch is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an effort to save the unstable political situation of the interregnum. A sequel, ''Rupert of Hentzau'', was published in 1898 and is included in some editions of ''The Prisoner of Zenda''. The popularity of the novels inspired the Ruritanian romance genre of literature, film, and theatre that features stories set in a fictional country, usually in Central or Eastern Europe,John Clute and John Grant, ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', p. 826 for example Graustark from the novels of George Barr McCutcheon, and the neighbouring countries of Syldavia ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Juliet Bravo
''Juliet Bravo'' is a British television police procedural drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on BBC1. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire. The lead role of Inspector Jean Darblay was played by Stephanie Turner in series 1 to 3, but in series 4 to 6 she was replaced by Anna Carteret for the role of Inspector Kate Longton. Carteret remained with the series until its demise in 1985. The series was devised by Ian Kennedy Martin, who had already enjoyed success with another police drama series, ''The Sweeney''. Although the genre of police dramas was well-established on British television by 1980, ''Juliet Bravo'' and London Weekend Television's ''The Gentle Touch'', which started a few months earlier, were the first series that saw female officers as lead characters, having to fight both crime and the preju ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rockliffe's Babies
''Rockliffe'' is a British television police procedural drama series, produced by the BBC, which ran for three series between 9 January 1987 and 14 December 1988. ''Rockliffe'' was devised by Richard O'Keeffe, and produced by Leonard Lewis. The first two series, entitled ''Rockliffe's Babies'', starred Ian Hogg as Alan Rockliffe, a detective sergeant assigned to train a team of inexperienced plain-clothed Crime Squad PCs in inner-city London, which include Steve Hood (Brett Fancy), Gerry O'Dowd (Joe McGann), David Adams (Bill Champion), Janice Hargreaves ( Alphonsia Emmanuel), Paul Georgiou (Martyn Ellis), Keith Chitty (John Blakely) and Karen Walsh (Susanna Shelling). The series featured writing contributions from Richard O`Keeffe, Don Webb, Charlie Humphreys and Nick Perry, and was directed by Derek Lister, Keith Washington, Clive Fleury and David Attwood. The third series, entitled ''Rockliffe's Folly'', followed Rockliffe through his relocation to Wessex Police, dealing wi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Chinese Detective
''The Chinese Detective'' is a British television police procedural drama series, first transmitted by the BBC between 1981 and 1982. The series was created by Ian Kennedy Martin, who had previously devised '' The Sweeney'' and ''Juliet Bravo''. Plot The series starred British Chinese actor David Yip as Detective Sergeant John Ho. Yip became the first Chinese lead actor in any British television drama series. The series offered traditional police procedural storylines in a setting of occasional prejudice and distrust within the police force, and the prejudice displayed by those Ho encounters whilst doing his job. Like many other television detectives of the time, Ho was something of a maverick, often using unorthodox methods to solve crimes. The series was set in and around London's Docklands, before redevelopment began in the 1980s. His immediate superior in the force, Detective Chief Inspector Berwick (Derek Martin), often provided him a source of stress, often repriman ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Flambards (TV Series)
''Flambards'' is a television series of 13 episodes which was broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1979 on ITV and in the United States in 1980. The series was based on the three ''Flambards'' novels of English author K. M. Peyton. The series is set from 1909 to 1918 (World War I is still being fought at the end) and tells how the teenage heroine, the orphaned heiress Christina Parsons (Christine McKenna), comes to live at Flambards, the impoverished Essex estate owned by her crippled and tyrannical uncle, William Russell (Edward Judd), and his two sons, Mark (Steven Grives) and Will Russell ( Alan Parnaby). Other cast members included Sebastian Abineri as Dick Wright, Anton Diffring as Mr Dermott, Rosalie Williams as Mary and Frank Mills as Fowler. Four episodes were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, and four others by Michael Ferguson. In 1980 ''Flambards'' was broadcast on American television by PBS who cut the series from 13 episodes to 12 by combining the first two episode ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 1974, this was primarily the historic county of Yorkshire and parts of neighbouring counties served by the Emley Moor transmitting station, Emley Moor transmitter. Following a reorganisation in 1974 the transmission area was extended to include Lincolnshire, northwestern Norfolk and parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, served by the Belmont transmitting station, Belmont transmitter. Two consortia applied for the franchise, ''Telefusion Yorkshire Ltd'' and ''Yorkshire Independent Television'', the former having large financial backing (supported by the Blackpool-based ''Telefusion'' television rental chain) and the latter having the better plans but fewer resources. On 1 January 2007, the company transferred its programme production bus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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When The Boat Comes In
''When the Boat Comes In'' is a British television period drama produced by the BBC between 1976 and 1981. The series stars James Bolam as Jack Ford, a First World War veteran who returns to his poverty-stricken (fictional) town of Gallowshield in the North East of England. The series dramatises the interwar political struggles of the 1920s and 1930s and explores the impact of national and international politics upon Ford and the people around him. Production The majority of episodes were written by creator James Mitchell, but in series 1 north-eastern writers Tom Hadaway, Sid Chaplin and Alex Glasgow contributed episodes, and in series 3 Jeremy Burnham and Colin Morris shared writing duties with Mitchell. Mitchell also wrote three tie-in books to the T.V. show; ''When the Boat Comes In'', ''When the Boat Comes In: The Hungry Years'' and ''When the Boat Comes In: Upwards and Onwards''. The final book brings the reader up to date with the end of the second series of the TV s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Second Verdict
''Second Verdict'' is a six-part BBC television series from 1976. It combines the genres of police procedural and docudrama, with dramatised documentaries in which classic criminal cases and unsolved crimes from history were re-appraised by fictional police officers. In ''Second Verdict'', Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor reprised for a final time their double-act as Detective Chief Superintendents Barlow and Watt, hugely popular with TV audiences from the long-running series ''Z-Cars'', '' Softly, Softly'' and ''Barlow at Large''. ''Second Verdict'' built on the formula of their 1973 series ''Jack the Ripper'' in which dramatised documentary was drawn together with a discussion between the two police officers which formed the narrative. ''Second Verdict'' also allowed for some location filming and, when the case being re-appraised was within living memory, interviews with real witnesses. The episodes were: * "The Lindbergh Kidnapping" (27 May 1976) * "Who Killed the Princes in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |