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One Way Pendulum (play)
''One Way Pendulum'', described on the title page as "A Farce in a New Dimension", is a play by N. F. Simpson. It was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Brighton on 14 December 1959, before playing at London's Royal Court Theatre from 22 December, later transferring to the Criterion Theatre where it ran until 11 June 1960. The play was adapted for the cinema in 1965. History N. F. Simpson had come late to writing plays. In 1957, when in his late thirties, his play ''A Resounding Tinkle'' had won third prize in a playwriting competition organised by Kenneth Tynan of ''The Observer''. ''One Way Pendulum'' was Simpson's second full length play. Original cast *Kirby Groomkirby – Roddy Maude-Roxby *Robert Barnes – John Horsley *Mabel Groomkirby – Alison Leggatt *Sylvia Groomkirby – Patsy Rowlands *Aunt Mildred – Patsy Byrne *Myra Gantry – Gwen Nelson *Arthur Groomkirby – George Benson *Stan Honeyblock – Douglas Livingstone *Judge – Douglas Wilmer *Prosecuting C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Royal, Brighton
The Theatre Royal, Brighton is a theatre in Brighton, England presenting a range of West End and touring musicals and plays, along with performances of opera and ballet. History In 1806 the Prince of Wales (later George IV) gave Royal Assent for the theatre to be built and it opened on 27 June 1807, with a performance of William Shakespeare's ''Hamlet''. The theatre struggled until it was purchased in 1854 by actor Henry John Nye Chart, who engaged theatre architect Charles J. Phipps to begin a programme of expansion and redevelopment. The theatre improved its reputation and finances, becoming a respected venue. When Henry John Nye Chart died in 1876 his wife, Ellen Elizabeth Nye Chart, took over and continued the success as one of the first female theatre managers. There is a statue to honour her in the Royal Circle bar. The venue used to have a "gulp bar", a backstage bar where actors could get a drink, even mid-performance. In 1920 the financial buoyancy of the Theatre enabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Wilmer
Douglas Wilmer (8 January 1920 – 31 March 2016) was an English actor, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in the 1965 TV series ''Sherlock Holmes''. Early life Wilmer was born in Brentford, Middlesex, and received his education at King's School, Canterbury, and Stonyhurst College. A performance as the Archbishop of Canterbury in a school play at King's School was seen by Dame Sybil Thorndike who afterward told the headmaster "If that boy, playing the Archbishop, were to take to the stage, I think that he could well make a go of it." After completing school, Wilmer applied for a scholarship at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was accepted. Whilst in training at RADA, he was conscripted into the British Army for military service with the Royal Artillery in the Second World War. After training, he was posted to an anti-tank battery, and saw war service in Africa with the Royal West African Frontier Force. He was later invalided out of the Armed Forces, having contracted tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Way Pendulum (film)
''One Way Pendulum'' is a 1965 British comedy film directed by Peter Yates and starring Eric Sykes and George Cole. It is an adaptation of the play by N. F. Simpson. Plot Study of absurdity in a suburban family: father rebuilds the Old Bailey in the living room, and the son teaches weighing machines to sing in the attic. Cast * Eric Sykes as Mr. Groomkirby * George Cole as Defence counsel / friend * Julia Foster as Sylvia * Jonathan Miller as Kirby * Peggy Mount as Mrs. Mara Gantry * Alison Leggatt as Mrs. Groomkirby * Mona Washbourne as Aunt Mildred * Douglas Wilmer as Judge / Maintenance Man * Glyn Houston as Detective Inspector Barnes * Graham Crowden as Prosecuting Counsel / Caretaker * Ken Farrington as Stan * Walter Horsbrugh as Clerk of the Court / Drycleaner's Assistant * Frederick Piper as Usher / Office Clerk * Vincent Harding as Policeman / Bus Conductor * Trevor Bannister as Groomkirby's colleague (uncredited) * Tommy Bruce as Gormless (the voice of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1951, was titled ''Crazy People''; subsequent series had the title ''The Goon Show''. The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan, who performed the series alongside Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and (for the first two series) Michael Bentine. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. There were also light music interludes. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades. Elements of the show satirised contemporary life in 1950s Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, educ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass'' (1871). He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems ''Jabberwocky'' (1871) and ''The Hunting of the Snark'' (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. Carroll came from a family of high-church Anglicanism, Anglicans, and developed a long relationship with Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life as a scholar and teacher. Alice Liddell, the daughter of Christ Church's dean Henry Liddell, is widely identified as the original inspiration for ''Alice in Wonderland'', though Carroll always denied this. An avid puzzler, Carroll created the word ladder puzzle (which he then called "Doublets"), which he published in his weekly column for ''Vanity Fair ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as ''The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The street outside follows the route of the ancient wall around the City of London, which was part of the fortification's '' bailey'', hence the metonymic name. The Old Bailey has been housed in a succession of court buildings on the street since the sixteenth century, when it was attached to the medieval Newgate gaol. The current main building block was completed in 1902, designed by Edward William Mountford; its architecture is recognised and protected as a Grade II* listed building. An extension South Block was constructed in 1972, over the former site of Newgate gaol which was demolished in 1904. The Crown Court sitting in the Old Bailey hears major criminal cases from within Greater London. In exceptional cases, trials may be referred t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messiah (Handel)
''Messiah'' (HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Bible, Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western culture#Music, Western music. Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste; ''Messiah'' was his sixth work in this genre. Although its Structure of Handel's Messiah, structure resembles that of Opera#The Baroque era, opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. Instead, Jennens's text ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Of The Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd (french: théâtre de l'absurde ) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style of theatre the plays represent. The plays focus largely on ideas of existentialism and express what happens when human existence lacks meaning or purpose and communication breaks down. The structure of the plays is typically a round shape, with the finishing point the same as the starting point. Logical construction and argument give way to irrational and illogical speech and to the ultimate conclusion—silence. Etymology Critic Martin Esslin coined the term in his 1960 essay "The Theatre of the Absurd", which begins by focusing on the playwrights Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, and Eugène Ionesco. Esslin says that their plays have a common denominator — the "absurd", a word that Esslin defines with a quotation from Ionesco: "absurd is t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Armitage
Graham Armitage (24 April 1936 – 6 March 1999) was an English stage, film and television actor. Armitage was born in Blackpool in Lancashire, the son of Albert Edward Armitage (1908–1959) and Isabel W. ''née'' Bailes (1909–). In 1947 Harvey left the UK with his family, flying to South Africa and eventually settling in Cape Town where he attended Sea Point Boy’s High School and then the Christian Brothers College. In early 1951 Harvey and his family moved to Salisbury, in Southern Rhodesia where he attended Prince Edward School. During 1952 Harvey wrote the entrance exam for late entry to Dartmouth Naval College. Whilst his Maths and Geography results were outstanding he had not studied the same syllabus for English Literature and History so failed to obtain entrance. In 1955 he married Carole Shirley England (1934–2017) at the Anglican Cathedral in Salisbury, Rhodesia. The couple had three children. He graduated from RADA in 1952 following which he made his début in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Crowden
Clement Graham Crowden (30 November 1922 – 19 October 2010) was a Scottish actor. He was best known for his many appearances in television comedy dramas and films, often playing eccentric "offbeat" scientist, teacher and doctor characters. Early life Crowden was born on 30 November 1922 in Edinburgh, the son of University of Edinburgh-educated schoolmaster Harry Graham Crowden (d. 1938) and Anne Margaret (née Paterson).Who's Who In The Theatre: a biographical record of the contemporary stage, seventeenth edition, vol. I, ed. Ian Herbert, Gale Research Company, 1981, p. 154 He was educated at Clifton Hall School and the Edinburgh Academy before serving briefly in the Royal Scots Youth Battalion of the army until he was injured in an accident. During arms drill he was shot by his platoon sergeant, when the sergeant's rifle discharged. The sergeant reportedly enquired "What is it now, Crowden?", to which Crowden replied "I think you've shot me, sergeant." He later found work in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Benson (actor)
George Frederick Percy Benson (11 January 1911 – 17 June 1983) was a British actor of both theatre and screen, whose career stretched from the 1930s to the early 1970s. He was on stage from the late 1920s, and made his film debut in 1932 in '' Holiday Lovers'' written by Leslie Arliss. His most notable work as a comic actor included supporting roles with George Formby (''Keep Fit'' - 1937) and Ronnie Barker (''A Home of Your Own'' - 1964). Early life Benson was born in Cardiff and educated at Blundell's School, the son of Leslie Bernard Gilpin Benson and his wife Isita.Who's Who in the Theatre, 16th edition, 1977 The family moved to Weston-super-Mare around 1920 and to Bristol around 1925. He began acting at school in the Latin plays mounted annually at the school. He trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (where he was the Silver Medallist in 1930). Early career Much of Benson's early work was in revue, particularly those mounted in the 1930s by Andre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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