|
Norman Bird
John George Norman Bird (30 October 1924 – 22 April 2005) was an English character actor. Early life Bird was born in Coalville, Leicestershire, England. A RADA graduate, he made his West End theatre, West End debut in Peter Brook's production of ''The Winter's Tale'' at the Phoenix Theatre in 1951. He was also a member of the BBC's Radio Drama Company."Radio and audio book companies", in Lloyd Trott, ed., ''Actors and Performers Yearbook 2016'', pp. 353-354 His first film appearance was as the foreman in ''An Inspector Calls'' (1954). Film career He was a familiar face to British cinema audiences of the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in nearly 50 films such as ''The Angry Silence'' (1960), ''The League of Gentlemen (film), The League of Gentlemen'' (1960), ''Whistle Down the Wind (film), Whistle Down the Wind'' (1961), ''Victim (1961 film), Victim'' (1961) and ''Term of Trial'' (1962) with Laurence Olivier and The Hill (film), The Hill with Sean Connery (1965). Television a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cash On Demand
''Cash on Demand'' is a 1961 British black and white neo noir crime film, crime thriller film directed by Quentin Lawrence and starring Peter Cushing and André Morell. The film company Hammer Film Productions invested approximately £37,000 to produce the film. To optimise its budget the film uses a limited number of sets; an interior street set, the trading area of a bank, the manager's office, the stairway between office and the vault, and the interior of the vault itself. The screenplay was adapted from the 1960 ''Theatre 70'' teleplay ''The Gold Inside'', also directed by Lawrence, and featuring André Morell and Richard Vernon in the same roles. Columbia Pictures began distribution of the film in the United States on 20 December 1961, and screenings continued until April in some major cities. Plot Two days before Christmas, a bogus insurance investigator, Gore Hepburn, brazenly conducts a con trick on a bank, largely through making Fordyce the bank manager believe that h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worzel Gummidge
Worzel Gummidge is a scarecrow in British children's fiction, who originally appeared in a series of books by the English novelist Barbara Euphan Todd."Worzel Gummidge (1979–81)" ''ScreenOnline.org.uk'' It was the first story book published by . The books have been adapted for radio and television a number of times. Frank Atkinson was the first person to play the role in the 1953 children's television series '' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Department S (TV Series)
''Department S'' is a British spy-fi adventure series, produced by ITC Entertainment. It consists of 28 episodes which originally aired in 1969 and 1970. It stars Peter Wyngarde as author Jason King (later featured in spin-off series '' Jason King''), Joel Fabiani as Stewart Sullivan, and Rosemary Nicols as computer expert Annabelle Hurst. These three are agents for a fictional special department (the "S" of the title) of Interpol. The head of Department S is Sir Curtis Seretse (Dennis Alaba Peters). Production "When a case proves too baffling for the minds of Interpol, they turn to the talents of Department S." – from the ITC trailer for the series. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and Monty Berman, although neither wrote any of the episodes, which were instead scripted by ITC regulars such as Terry Nation and Philip Broadley. Many of the directors on the show had also worked on other ITC shows such as ''The Saint'', ''Danger Man'' and ''Randall and Hopkirk ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Saint (TV Series)
''The Saint'' is a British mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the United Kingdom on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It was based on the literary character Simon Templar created by Leslie Charteris in the 1920s and featured in many novels over the years. In the television series, Templar was played by Roger Moore. Templar helps those whom conventional agencies are powerless or unwilling to protect, often using methods that skirt the law. Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal is his nominal nemesis who considers Templar a common criminal, but often grudgingly tolerates his actions for the greater good. NBC picked up the show as a summer replacement in its evening schedule in 1966 because of the strong performance in the United States of the first two series in first-run syndication. The programme, therefore, ended its run with both trans-Atlantic primetime scheduling and colour episodes. It also proved popular beyond the UK and US, eventually airing in over 60 countries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Eye (TV Series)
''Public Eye'' is a British television drama series that ran from 1965 to 1975, for a total of seven series. It was produced by ABC Weekend TV for three series, and Thames Television for a further four. The series depicted the cases and investigations handled by the enquiry agent Frank Marker (Alfred Burke), an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. The title is a twist on the more usual "private eye". Background The series was created by writers Roger Marshall and Anthony Marriott with the aim of getting away from "square-jawed" heroes of the type featured in Hollywood movies—a wish shared by Alfred Burke, the actor chosen to play Marker. This aim allowed for flexibility in the structure and plot lines of the episodes; each individual episode usually dealt with an individual case for Marker, but story arcs spanning several episodes, or in one case an entire series, were produced during the life of the programme. Marker's work ranged broadly, fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978. The series differed sharply from earlier police procedurals. With its less-usual Northern England setting, it injected a new element of harsh realism into the image of the police, which some found unwelcome. ''Z-Cars'' ran for 801 episodes, of which fewer than half have survived. Regular stars included: Stratford Johns (Detective Inspector Barlow), Frank Windsor (Det. Sgt. Watt), James Ellis (actor), James Ellis (Bert Lynch) and Brian Blessed ("Fancy" Smith). Barlow and Watt were later spun into a separate series ''Softly, Softly (TV series), Softly, Softly''. Origin of the title The title comes from the radio call signs allocated by Lancashire Constabulary. Lancashire police divisions were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All Creatures Great And Small (1978 TV Series)
''All Creatures Great and Small'' is a British television series made by the BBC and based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot. The title aired over seven series, totalling 90 episodes, from 1978 to 1990. A remake premiered in 2020. Set in the Yorkshire Dales and beginning in the mid-1930s, it stars Christopher Timothy as Herriot, Robert Hardy as Siegfried Farnon (based on Donald Sinclair), the proprietor of the Skeldale House surgery, and Peter Davison as Siegfried's "little brother", Tristan (based on Brian Sinclair). Herriot's wife, Helen (based on Joan Wight), was initially played by Carol Drinkwater and in the latter series by Lynda Bellingham. The series was produced throughout its run by Bill Sellars. In early 1977, the BBC tasked him with the creation of a television series from Herriot's first two novels, ''If Only They Could Talk'' (1970) and ''It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet'' (1972), using the title of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
To Serve Them All My Days
: ''For the 1980 television adaptation, see To Serve Them All My Days (TV series).'' ''To Serve Them All My Days'' is a novel by British author R. F. Delderfield. First published in 1972, the book was adapted for television in 1980. It has been adapted twice by Shaun McKenna, first as a stage play at the Royal Theatre Northampton (Royal & Derngate) in 1992 and again as a five-part series of 45-minute plays for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in January 2006. Plot summary David Powlett-Jones, a coal miner's son from South Wales, has risen from the ranks of the South Wales Borderers and been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in World War I after serving three years in the front-line trenches. In 1918, after being injured and shell-shocked, he is employed to teach history at Bamfylde School, a fictional public school in North Devon. Under the tutelage of Headmaster Algy Herries, who views him as a possible successor, David discovers a vocation in teaching. He swiftly earns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yes Minister
''Yes Minister'' is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister'', ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. All but one of the episodes lasted half an hour, and almost all ended with a variation of the title of the series spoken as the answer to a question posed by Minister (later, Prime Minister) Jim Hacker. Several episodes were adapted for BBC Radio; the series also spawned a 2010 stage play that led to a new television series on Gold (UK TV channel), Gold in 2013. Set principally in the private office of a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, ''Yes Minister'' follows the Minister (government), ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ever Decreasing Circles
''Ever Decreasing Circles'' is a British sitcom which ran on BBC1 between 1984 and 1989, consisting of four series and one feature-length special. It was written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, and it reunited them with Richard Briers, who had starred in their previous hit show, '' The Good Life''. It was made toward the end of a run of British comedies focussing on the aspirational middle class, with ''the Guardian'' describing it as having "a quiet, unacknowledged and deep-running despair to it that in retrospect seems quite daring". Characters and plot Richard Briers plays Martin Bryce, an obsessive, middle-aged man at the centre of his local suburban community in Mole Valley, East Surrey. This relatively unsympathetic character was the antithesis of Tom Good. Briers said that it was his favourite sitcom role. The show's signature running gag (which appeared in almost every episode) was Martin walking past the telephone in his hallway and turning the receiver around. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rising Damp
Structural dampness is the presence of unwanted moisture in the structure of a building, either the result of intrusion from outside or condensation from within the structure. A high proportion of damp problems in buildings are caused by ambient climate dependent factors of condensation and rain penetration. Capillary penetration of fluid from the ground up through concrete or masonry is known as "rising damp" and is governed by the shape and porosity of the construction materials through which this evaporation-limited capillary penetration takes place. Structural damp, regardless of the mechanisms through which it takes place, is exacerbated by higher levels of humidity. Dampness control is fundamental to the proper functioning of any building. Controlling moisture is important to protect occupants from adverse health effects and to protect the building, its mechanical systems and its contents from physical or chemical damage. Symptoms Dampness tends to cause secondary damag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Till Death Us Do Part
''Till Death Us Do Part'' is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast in 1965 as a ''Comedy Playhouse'' pilot, then as seven series between 1966 and 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom for six episodes, calling it '' Till Death...''. The BBC produced a sequel from 1985 until 1992, ''In Sickness and in Health''. Created by Johnny Speight, ''Till Death Us Do Part'' centred on the East End Garnett family, led by patriarch Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell), a reactionary white working-class man who holds racist and anti-socialist views. His long-suffering wife Else was played by Dandy Nichols, and his daughter Rita by Una Stubbs. Rita's husband Mike Rawlins ( Anthony Booth) is a socialist "layabout" from Liverpool who frequently locks horns with Garnett. Alf Garnett became a well-known character in British culture, and Mitchell played him on stage and television until Speight's death in 1998. In addition to the spin-off ''In Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> The Saint (TV Series)")
