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My Father Knew Lloyd George (TV Programme)
''My Father Knew Lloyd George'' was a one-off BBC satire written by John Bird with additional material by the cast, and directed by Jack Gold. It aired in December 1965. The programme was set in Victorian England and concerned the antics of a young aristocrat (John Fortune), attempting to distance his grandfather from a scandal concerning the wife of the prime minister. Bird himself played Queen Victoria whilst Alan Bennett played the villain of the piece, and Eleanor Bron also appeared. The show was responsible for seeing Bird named TV Personality of the Year by the Society of Film and Television. The title comes from the lyrics of a schoolboy song: "Lloyd George Knew My Father, My Father Knew Lloyd George" (sung to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th-century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St Gertrude," after t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or exposing the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm —"in satire, irony is militant", according to literary critic Northrop Frye— but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to question. Satire is found in many a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Jack Gold
Jacob M. "Jack" Gold (28 June 1930 – 9 August 2015) was a British film and television director. He was part of the Kitchen sink realism, British realist tradition which followed the Free Cinema movement. Career Jacob M. Gold was born in London, the son of Charles and Minnie (née Elbery) Gold. He attended University College London. After leaving UCL, he began his career as a film editor on the BBC's ''Tonight (1957 TV series), Tonight'' programme. Gold became a freelance documentary filmmaker, making dramas as a platform for his social and political observations. For television, his best known work is ''The Naked Civil Servant (film), The Naked Civil Servant'' (1975), based on Quentin Crisp's The Naked Civil Servant (book), 1968 book of the same name and starring John Hurt. He had previously directed the 1964 crime series ''Call the Gun Expert'' for the BBC. Other television credits include ''The Visit'' (1959), the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of ''The Merch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the '' Belle Époque'' era of Continental Europe. There was a strong religious drive for higher moral standards led by the nonconformist churches, such as the Methodists and the evangelical wing of the established Church of England. Ideologically, the Victorian era witnessed resistance to the rationalism that defined the Georgian period, and an increasing turn towards romanticism and even mysticism in religion, social values, and arts. This era saw a staggering amount of technological innovations that proved key to Britain's power and prosperity. Doctors started moving away from tradition and mysticism towards a science-based approach; medicine advanced thanks to the adoption ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Fortune
John Fortune (born John C. Wood; 30 June 1939 – 31 December 2013) was an English satirist, comedian, writer, and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series ''Bremner, Bird and Fortune''. Early life Fortune was born John Wood in Bristol in 1939. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John Bird. He was a member of the semi-secretive Cambridge Apostles society, a debating club largely reserved for the brightest students. Career Fortune's early work included contributions to Peter Cook's Establishment Club team in 1962, and as a regular member of the cast of the BBC-TV satire show ''Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life'', both alongside Eleanor Bron and John Bird. Fortune and Bird also worked together on the TV show ''A Series of Birds'' in 1967, and Fortune and Bron wrote and performed a series of sketches for TV in '' Where Was Spring?'' in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not the head of state, but rather the head of government, serving under either a monarch in a democratic constitutional monarchy or under a president in a republican form of government. In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of government and head/owner of the executive power. In such systems, the head of state or their official representative (e.g., monarch, president, governor-general) usually holds a largely ceremonial position, although often with reserve powers. Under some presidential systems, such as South Korea and Peru, the prime minister is the leader or most senior member of the cabinet, not the head of government. In many systems, the prime minister ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of List of monarchs in Britain by length of reign, any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was Kensington System, raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. Over his distinguished entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. He also earned an Academy Award nomination for his film ''The Madness of King George'' (1994). In 2005 he received the Society of London Theatre Special Award. Bennett was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University, where he studied history and performed with the Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue '' Beyond the Fringe'' at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame and later a Special Tony Award. He gave up academia, and turned to writing full time, his first stage play, '' Forty Years On'', being produced in 1968. He also became known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Bron
Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in ''Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967), and Hermione Roddice in ''Women in Love'' (1969). She has appeared in television series such as ''Yes Minister'', ''Doctor Who,'' and ''Absolutely Fabulous''. Early life and family Bron was born on 14 March 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, into a Jewish family. Before her birth, her father Sydney had legally changed his name from Bronstein to Bron, in an effort to enhance his newly founded commercial enterprise, Bron's Orchestral Service. Her elder brother was the record producer Gerry Bron. She attended the North London Collegiate School and then Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read Modern Languages. She later characterised her time at Newnham as "three years of unparalleled pampering and privilege". Career Early work Bron began her c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Society Of Film And Television
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent of members. In the social sciences, a larger society often exhibits stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups. Societies construct patterns of behavior by deeming certain actions or concepts as acceptable or unacceptable. These patterns of behavior within a given society are known as societal norms. Societies, and their norms, undergo gradual and perpetual changes. Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would otherwise be difficult on an individual bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lloyd George Knew My Father (song)
"Lloyd George Knew My Father" is a 20th-century English schoolboy folk song. The simple lyrics consist of the phrase ''"Lloyd George knew my father/Father knew Lloyd George"'' sung to the tune of "Onward, Christian Soldiers". In the song, the two lines referring to Lloyd George are repeated incessantly, until boredom sets in. There are no lyrics other than those two lines. The origin of the song is not known but there are several theories, one that it began as a music hall song making an oblique reference to David Lloyd George's supposed womanizing proclivities (with the right timing and intonation and a well-placed wink, "father" could be taken to mean "mother", and "knew" in the biblical sense of sexual relations). The ''Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations'' attributes the song to Tommy Rhys Roberts QC, the son of a former law partner of Lloyd George. According to David Owen, it was a World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Onward Christian Soldiers
"Onward, Christian Soldiers" is a 19th-century English hymn. The words were written by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, and the music was composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1871. Sullivan named the tune "St Gertrude," after the wife of his friend Ernest Clay Ker Seymer, at whose country home he composed the tune.Sullivan, Marc"Discography of Sir Arthur Sullivan: Recordings of Hymns and Songs" 11 July 2010, accessed 9 September 2011 The Salvation Army adopted the hymn as its favoured processional. The piece became Sullivan's most popular hymn. The hymn's theme is taken from references in the New Testament to the Christian being a soldier for Christ, for example II Timothy 2:3 (KJV): "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Early history The lyric was written as a processional hymn for children walking from Horbury Bridge, where Baring-Gould was curate, to Horbury St Peter's Church near Wakefield, Yorkshire, at Whitsuntide in 1865. It was originally enti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
