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Longitude (film)
''Longitude'' is a 2000 TV drama produced by Granada Television and the A&E Network for Channel 4, first broadcast between 2 and 3 January 2000 in the UK on Channel 4 and the US on A&E. It is a dramatisation of the 1995 book of the same title by Dava Sobel. It was written and directed by Charles Sturridge and stars Michael Gambon as clockmaker John Harrison (1693–1776) and Jeremy Irons as horologist Rupert Gould (1890–1948). Plot ''Longitude'' presents the story of Harrison's efforts to develop the marine chronometer and thereby win the Longitude prize The longitude rewards were the system of inducement prizes offered by the British government for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude at sea. The rewards, established through an Act of Parliament (t ... in the 18th century. This is interwoven with the story of Gould, a retired naval officer, who is restoring Harrison's four chronometers and popularises his achie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Period Drama
A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure films, and swashbucklers. A period piece may be set in a vague or general era such as the Middle Ages, or a specific period such as the Roaring Twenties, or the recent past. Scholarship Films set in historical times have always been some of the most popular works. D. W. Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'' and Buster Keaton's ''The General (1926 film), The General'' are examples of popular early American works set during the U.S. Civil War. In different eras different subgenres have risen to popularity, such as the westerns and sword and sandal films that dominated North American cinema in the 1950s. The ''costume drama'' is often separated as a genre of historical dramas. Early critics defined them as films focusing on romance and relation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longitude Rewards
The longitude rewards were the system of inducement prizes offered by the British government for a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude at sea. The rewards, established through an Act of Parliament (the Longitude Act) in 1714, were administered by the Board of Longitude. This was by no means the first reward to be offered to solve this problem. Philip II of Spain offered one in 1567, Philip III in 1598 offered 6,000 ducats and a pension, whilst the States General of the Netherlands offered 10,000 florins shortly after. In 1675 Robert Hooke wanted to apply for a £1,000 reward in England for his invention of a spring-regulated watch. However, these large sums were never won, though several people were awarded smaller amounts for significant achievements. Background: the longitude problem The measurement of longitude was a problem that came into sharp focus as people began making transoceanic voyages. Determining latitude was relativ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Upon his return to England, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and with the help of King Charles II, was granted a master's degree from Oxford. Halley encouraged and helped fund the publication of Isaac Newton's influential ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica'' (1687). From observations Halley made in September 1682, he used Newton's laws of motion to compute the periodicity of Halley's Comet in his 1705 ''Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets''. It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wood (English Actor)
John Wood (5 July 1930 – 6 August 2011) was an English actor, known for his performances in Shakespeare and his lasting association with Tom Stoppard. In 1976, he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Stoppard's ''Travesties''. He was nominated for two other Tony Awards for his roles in '' Sherlock Holmes'' (1975) and ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' (1968). In 2007, Wood was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's New Year Honours List. Wood also appeared in ''WarGames'', ''The Purple Rose of Cairo'', ''Orlando'', '' Shadowlands'', ''The Madness of King George'', '' Richard III'', ''Sabrina'', and '' Chocolat''. Early life Wood was born on 5 July 1930 in Derbyshire. He was educated at Bedford School. He did his national service as a lieutenant with the Royal Artillery. During his time of service, he was invalided out after being accidentally shot in the back. Later during his service, he was alm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Normington
John Normington (28 January 1937 – 26 July 2007) was an English actor primarily known for his work on television. Normington was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing in more than 20 RSC productions. He performed widely in the West End and at the National Theatre. Early life Normington was born in Dukinfield, Cheshire, in 1937, where he resided in Montrose Avenue with his parents and two younger sisters, Judith and Joan. He originally attended Victoria Road Infants School, before transferring to Globe Lane County Primary, then went to Crescent Road Boys School. He trained as an opera singer at the Northern School of Music. Following this, he did his national service, and while stationed in Aldershot joined Farnham rep. Normington joined the Repertory Theatre in Oldham in 1950, and from 1959 to 1962 he worked at the Library Theatre in Manchester. After a short spell at the Oxford Playhouse, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 and played many ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Campbell (Royal Navy Officer)
Vice-Admiral John Campbell (1720–1790) was born in the parish of Kirkbean in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Campbell was a British naval officer, navigational expert and colonial governor. Campbell joined the Royal Navy at an early age and sailed around the world in 1740 on ''Centurion''. He later became known as a navigational expert, and was from 1782 to his death Governor and Commander-in-Chief in Newfoundland. Life Early life John Campbell was born in the parish of Kirkbean, Scotland. His father, John Campbell (d. 1733), was minister of Kirkbean and John was at an early age apprenticed to the master of a coasting vessel. That vessel's mate was pressed into the navy, and John is said to have entered the navy by offering himself in exchange for him. He served for three years in ''Blenheim'', ''Torbay'', and ''Russell'' before being appointed in 1740 as a midshipman to ''Centurion''. On ''Centurions ensuing circumnavigation of the world as the flagship of Commodore G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Scott (actor)
Andrew Scott (born 21 October 1976) is an Irish actor. He played Jim Moriarty in the BBC series '' Sherlock'', for which he won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Supporting Actor. Scott's role as the priest on the second series of ''Fleabag'', received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He won further acclaim playing the lead role of Garry Essendine in a 2019 stage production of ''Present Laughter'' at The Old Vic, for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play. Scott has received various other awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for his role in ''A Girl in a Car with a Man'' at the Royal Court Theatre. Early life and education Scott was born in Dublin, Ireland, on 21 October 1976, the son of Nora and Jim Scott. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Wager
Admiral Sir Charles Wager (24 February 1666 – 24 May 1743) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1733 to 1742. Despite heroic active service and steadfast administration and diplomatic service, Wager can be criticized for his failure to deal with an acute manning problem. However, in reality, the Royal Navy's numerical preponderance over other navies was greater than at any other time in the century, and its dockyard facilities, overseas bases (Wager was much involved in the development of new bases in the Caribbean), victualling organization, and central co-ordination were by far the most elaborate and advanced. Although British warship design was inferior to French in some respects, the real problem was an insufficiency of the versatile and seaworthy 60-gun ships, a class that Wager's Admiralty had chosen to augment during the 1730s but, as wartime experience would show, not aggressively enough. Early life Born in Rocheste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Finlay
Francis Finlay, (6 August 1926 – 30 January 2016) was an English stage, film and television actor, Oscar-nominated for a supporting role as Iago in Laurence Olivier's 1965 film adaptation of ''Othello''. In 1983, Finlay was directed by Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass in the erotic classic '' The Key'', with Stefania Sandrelli. His first leading television role came in 1971 in ''Casanova''. This led to appearances on '' The Morecambe and Wise Show''. He also appeared in the drama ''Bouquet of Barbed Wire''. Early life Finlay was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of Josiah Finlay, and Margaret Finlay. He was educated at St Gregory the Great School, but left at 14 to train as a butcher at Toppings, gaining a City and Guilds Diploma in the trade. Stage career Finlay made his first stage appearances at the local Farnworth Little Theatre, in plays that included Peter Blackmore's ''Miranda'' in 1951. The current Little Theatre president, also in the cast of that ''Miranda'' pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Hart
Ian Davies (born 8 October 1964), better known by his stage name Ian Hart, is an English actor. His most notable roles are Rabbit in the Channel Four drama miniseries ''One Summer'' (1983), Joe O'Reilly in the biopic ''Michael Collins'' (1996), Professor Quirrell in the fantasy film ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (2001), Ludwig van Beethoven in the film '' Eroica'' (2003), Kester Gill in the E4 series ''My Mad Fat Diary'' (2013–2015), and Father Beocca in the BBC/Netflix series ''The Last Kingdom'' (2015–2020). Early life Hart was born Ian Davies in the Knotty Ash district of Liverpool on 8 October 1964. He has two siblings and was brought up in a Catholic family. He attended Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School in Liverpool's West Derby suburb and was a member of the city's Everyman Youth Theatre in his earlier years, before studying drama at the now-defunct Mabel Fletcher College of Music and Drama in Liverpool's Wavertree district. From 1988 to 1991, he st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Davenport
Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 – 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor, best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films '' A Man for All Seasons'' and ''Chariots of Fire'', respectively. Early life and education Davenport was born in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, son of Arthur Henry Davenport and Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn). His father was an engineer, educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge before being employed as an engineer for the Midland Railway, and was later a lecturer in engineering, a Fellow, and the bursar at his alma mater, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; he had served for four years in the Royal Engineers during World War I, and was awarded a Military Cross. Nigel's great-uncle, Major Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn, was awarded a Victoria Cross during the Second Boer War. He grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter's School, Seaford, Cheltenham College ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Nettleton (actor)
John Nettleton (born 5 February 1929) is an English actor best known for playing Sir Arnold Robinson, Cabinet Secretary in ''Yes Minister'' (1980–84) and President of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in the follow-up ''Yes, Prime Minister'' (1985–88). Another political role for Nettleton was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament (Sir Stephen Baxter) in the sitcom ''The New Statesman''. Other television roles included a Ministry of Defence department chief in ''The Avengers'' (episode "The See-Through Man", 1967), a police sergeant in ''Please Sir!'' (1969), Alfred Booker in ''The Champions'' (episode "Full Circle", 1969), Froggett in the office comedy series ''If It Moves File It'' (1970), Francis Bacon in ''Elizabeth R'' (1971), a Detective Superintendent in '' Doctor at Large'' in 1971, George Pattinson in a now lost episode ("The Uninvited") of ''Out of the Unknown'' (also in 1971), as Arthur Bellamy, brother to Viscount Bellamy, in '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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