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Murder At The Vicarage (play)
''Murder at the Vicarage'' is a 1949 play by Moie Charles and Barbara Toy based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. Christie's official biography suggests that the play was written by Christie with changes then made by Charles and Toy, presumably enough for them to claim the credit. Whatever the truth of the authorship, Christie was enthusiastic about the play and attended its rehearsals and first night. This play, staged in 1949-1950, was the first time that the character Miss Marple was portrayed outside the novels and short stories. London production It was first performed at the New Theatre, Northampton on 17 October 1949 prior to moving to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End where it opened on 16 December 1949. The play was the first time that the character of Miss Marple had been depicted outside the original books and she was portrayed by Barbara Mullen. The director was Reginald Tate who also played the part of Lawrence Redding. The play enjoyed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Toy
Barbara Alex Toy FRGS (11 August 1908 – 18 July 2001) was an Australian-British travel writer, theatrical director, playwright, and screenplay writer. She is most famous for the series of books she wrote about her pioneering and solitary travels around the world in a Land Rover, undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s. Toy was drawn to deserts, and so the majority of her journeys were in the arid lands of Northern Africa and the Middle East. Toy's first solo journey took place almost five years before the perhaps more celebrated six-man team Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, a London to Singapore overland trip between September 1955 and March 1956 that was also undertaken in Land Rovers. Life before Land Rovers Toy was born in Sydney, on 11 August 1908 to Bert Frank Claud Toy and Nellie Frederica Toy, née Lowing, one of two daughters born to the couple. Her father, Bert Toy (1878–1931), was a newspaper editor and war correspondent. He had reported from the Boer War in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Saunders (impresario)
Sir Peter Saunders (23 November 1911 – 6 February 2003) was an English theatre impresario, notable for his production of the long-running Agatha Christie murder mystery, ''The Mousetrap''. Early life and career Saunders was born in Swiss Cottage, London. His father died in a swimming accident (with the boy on his back), and he was subsequently educated at Oundle School and in Lausanne, Switzerland, thanks to an aunt's sponsorship. Although his mother advised him to get a job with Harrods after completing his education, he instead followed his older brother, the film director Charles Saunders, into showbusiness, working at a film studio as a cameraman and director. Following spells as a newspaper reporter and press agent (to Harry Roy, among others), he served in the Second World War as an Army captain in the Intelligence Corps, and following the end of hostilities, he moved into theatre production. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel French
Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing of plays. Biography French founded his publishing business in New York City in 1854. In 1859, he visited London, where he met Lacy, who had given up the stage and been active as a theatrical bookseller since the mid-1840s. Lacy, who had removed his shop from Wellington Street, Covent Garden to 89 Strand in 1857, had also started publishing acting editions of dramas. ''Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays'', published between 1848 and 1873, would eventually run to 99 volumes containing 1,485 individual pieces. French and Lacy became partners, each acting as the other's agent across the Atlantic. In 1872, French decided to take up permanent residence in London, leaving his son Thomas Henry French Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Darbyshire
Michael Darbyshire (15 October 1917 – 20 November 1979) was an English actor of stage and screen. He is perhaps best known for his role as Hubert Davenport, the Victorian ghost, in the long running BBC TV children's comedy series ''Rentaghost''. He also played one of the eccentric inventors in the 1968 film '' Chitty Chitty Bang Bang''. On stage, he appeared in the original West End cast of the musical '' Pickwick'' in 1963, its Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (other) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ... transfer in 1965, and a BBC TV adaptation in 1969. He was a member of the Players Theatre Company based in London in Villiers Street, appearing regularly and also on many occasions on the BBC TV series '' The Good Old Days''. Michael Darbyshire died in 1979, aged 62. Filmography Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genine Graham
Genine Graham (9 December 1926, London – 11 May 1997, London) was an English actress. She trained at LAMDA, and played the title role of the mermaid ''Miranda'' in the original West End production of Peter Blackmore's play, later filmed with Glynis Johns. She also appeared on Broadway opposite Katharine Hepburn in a revival of Bernard Shaw's ''The Millionairess'' in 1952; and presented the TV series ''Mail Call'' (1955–56) with her husband John Witty John Witty (1915–1990) was a British film and television actor. Witty's distinguished voice appeared extensively on various series and documentary short films. He presented the TV series ''Mail Call'' (1955–56) with his wife Genine Graham .... Filmography References External links * * 1926 births 1997 deaths Actresses from London English stage actresses English film actresses English television actresses 20th-century English actresses {{England-actor-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Lambert (British Actor)
Jack Lambert (29 December 1899 – 13 March 1976) was a British film and television actor. Selected filmography * ''A Honeymoon Adventure'' (1931) - Chauffeur * '' Sorrell and Son'' (1933) - (uncredited) * '' Red Ensign'' (1934) - Police Inspector (uncredited) * ''The Ghost Goes West'' (1935) - Son of MacLaggen (uncredited) * '' House Broken'' (1936) - Jock Macgregor * ''The Last Adventurers'' (1937) - (uncredited) * ''Premiere'' (1938) - Stage Manager * '' Thistledown'' (1938) - (uncredited) * ''The Terror'' (1938) - Warder Joyce (uncredited) * '' Marigold'' (1938) - Minor Role (uncredited) * '' The Outsider'' (1939) - (uncredited) * ''The Spy in Black'' (1939) - Passport Official (uncredited) * ''The Four Feathers'' (1939) - (uncredited) * ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (1939) - Padre (uncredited) * ''The Spider'' (1940) - Smith * ''Nine Men'' (1943) - Sergeant Watson * ''The Captive Heart'' (1946) - Padre * ''Meet Me at Dawn'' (1947) - Minor Role (uncredited) * ''Dear Murderer'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mousetrap
''The Mousetrap'' is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. ''The Mousetrap'' opened in London's West End in 1952 and ran continuously until 16 March 2020, when the stage performances had to be temporarily discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then re-opened on 17 May 2021. The longest-running West End show, it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 28,915th performance having taken place as of November 2022. Attendees at St Martin's Theatre often get their photo taken beside the wooden counter (showing a count of the number of performances) in the theatre foyer. As of 2022 the play has been seen by 10 million people in London. A "Whodunit", the play has a twist ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre. There are eight members of the cast, and by 2012 more than 400 actors and actresses had played the roles. Richard Attenborough was the original Detective Sergeant Trotter, and his wife, Sheil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hollow (play)
''The Hollow'' is a 1951 play by crime writer Agatha Christie. It is based on the 1946 book of the same name. Background In her ''Autobiography'', Christie claimed that the success of ''And Then There Were None'' set her on the path of being a playwright as well as a writer of books and that only she would adapt her works for the stage from then on, and that ''The Hollow'' would be her next play. In writing this, Christie forgot her intervening plays of ''Appointment with Death'' (1945) and ''Murder on the Nile'' (1946), in addition to Moie Charles and Barbara Toy's 1949 adaptation of ''Murder at the Vicarage''. Christie had always felt that ''The Hollow'' would make a good play, but she came up against the opposition of her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, whom Christie affectionately described as having "had the valuable role in life of eternally trying to discourage me without success". Christie was determined to turn the book, which both she and Rosalind liked, into a play, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bertie Meyer
Bertie Alexander Meyer (17 June 1877 – mid November 1967) was a British theatre producer and entrepreneur. Biography Meyer was born on 17 June 1877 to a Jewish family. In 1902, he worked under director Arthur Lewis at the Garrick Theatre who was putting on a series of plays with actress Gabrielle Réjane. He worked with Réjane the following year at Terry's. He was appointed manager of the German Theatre in London, becoming business manager for Charles Frohman and manager of the Queen's Theatre after his death. Meyer then went on two tours of Australia with Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton. He returned to London in 1913, and in October of that year, he was appointed business manager of the Globe Theatre. He served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps from 1914 during World War I, reaching the position of lieutenant and acting as an interpreter. Meyer oversaw the construction of the St Martin's Theatre in the West End. Following his discharge from military service in 1922, he was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Poison Belt
''The Poison Belt'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, the second book about Professor Challenger. Written in 1913, much of it takes place in a single room in Challenger's house in Sussex. This would be the last story written about Challenger until the 1920s, by which time Doyle's spiritualist beliefs had begun to influence his writing. Plot summary Challenger sends telegrams asking his three companions from ''The Lost World''— Edward Malone, Lord John Roxton, and Professor Summerlee— to join him at his home outside London, and instructs each of them to 'bring oxygen'. During their journey there, they see people's behaviour become excitable and erratic. On arrival, they are ushered into a sealed room, along with Challenger and his wife. In the course of his research into various phenomena, Challenger has predicted that the Earth is moving into a belt of poisonous ether which, based on its effect on the people of Sumatra earlier in the day, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, " J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the ''Mary Celeste''. Name Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of a compound surname rather than a middle name. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. History Origins The first issue, published on 4 December 1791 by W.S. Bourne, was the world's first Sunday newspaper. Believing that the paper would be a means of wealth, Bourne instead soon found himself facing debts of nearly £1,600. Though early editions purported editorial independence, Bourne attempted to cut his losses and sell the title to the government. When this failed, Bourne's brother (a wealthy businessman) made an offer to the government, which also refused to buy the paper but agreed to subsidise it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine, Francis Burdett and Joseph Priestley. 19th century In 180 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
