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Our Man At St. Mark's
''Our Man at St. Mark's'' is a British comedy television series which originally aired on ITV between 1963 and 1966. Today the series is largely lost, with only four out of forty six episodes remaining in the archives. It focuses on the parish of St Mark's, with Leslie Phillips starring as the Reverend Andrew Parker during the first season before being replaced by Donald Sinden as the Reverend Stephen Young. Joan Hickson played Mrs. Peace, the housekeeper. The series was originally intended to be called ''There Was a Young Vicar'', but it was decided this sounded too much like the beginning of a limerick and a more respectful title was chosen. The show proved to be a ratings hit, although only six complete episodes are known to have survived. Comparisons are often made with another clerical comedy ''All Gas and Gaiters'' which aired shortly afterwards on the BBC and was focused on a fictional cathedral rather than workings of an ordinary parish.The Church on British Television p. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Hickson
Joan Bogle Hickson, OBE (5 August 1906 – 17 October 1998) was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series ''Miss Marple''. She also narrated a number of ''Miss Marple'' stories on audiobooks. Biography Born in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, Hickson was a daughter of Edith Mary (née Bogle) and Alfred Harold Hickson, a shoe manufacturer. After boarding at Oldfield School in Swanage, Dorset, she went on to train at RADA in London. She made her stage debut in 1927, then worked for several years throughout the United Kingdom, achieving success playing comedic, often eccentric characters in the West End of London. She played the role of the cockney maid Ida in the original production of '' See How They Run'' at the Q Theatre in 1944, and then at the Comedy Theatre in January 1945. She made her first film appearance in 1934. The numerous supporting roles she played during her career included s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Beck
Stanley James Carroll Beck (21 February 1929 – 6 August 1973) was an English actor who played the role of Private Walker, a cockney spiv, in the BBC sitcom ''Dad's Army'' from the show's beginning in 1968 until his sudden death in 1973. Early life Beck was born on 21 February 1929 in Islington, North London, and attended Popham Road Primary School. His childhood was hard, with his father frequently unemployed and his mother making artificial flowers to provide a small income. After attending Saint Martin's School of Art and doing his national service as a physical training instructor in the British Army, Beck became an actor. Prior to his broadcast roles he spent several seasons with the Unicorn Players based in Paignton, Devon. His early broadcast roles included Charlie Bell in an episode of ''Dr Finlay's Casebook'' (Series 1 episode 4, "Conduct Unbecoming", 1962), and Shylock in ''The Merchant of Venice'' in 1963, for which he gained positive reviews. He concentrated on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan (born Peter Ewart Ohm; 4 April 1923 – 6 December 2016) was an English character actor known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also acted extensively on the stage. He is perhaps best known for his role as Grouty in the sitcom ''Porridge'' and its 1979 film adaptation. Other parts included a recurring role alongside Robert Lindsay in the sitcom ''Citizen Smith'', Tom Hedden in '' Straw Dogs'', Winston the Ogre in ''Time Bandits'', Tom Franklin in '' Chancer'' and Mr. Stevens, Sr. in ''The Remains of the Day''. His final role was as Maester Aemon in HBO's ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2015). Early life Vaughan was born Peter Ewart Ohm on 4 April 1923 in Wem, Shropshire, the son of a bank clerk, Max Ohm, who was an Austrian immigrant, and Eva Wright, a nurse. The family later moved to Wellington, in the same county, where he began his schooling. Vaughan said that while reciting a poem at infant school in Wellington he first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Langton
David Muir Langton (born Basil Muir Langton-Dodds; 16 April 1912 – 25 April 1994) was a British actor who is best remembered for playing Richard Bellamy in the period drama '' Upstairs, Downstairs''. Early years David Langton was born Basil Muir Langton-Dodds to a middle-class family in Motherwell, Lanarkshire in 1912. His father was a wine merchant and Langton's family moved to England when he was four years old. He attended a prep school in Bath, Somerset and left education at the age of 16. Langton's father had always encouraged him to go into acting and got him his first job touring with a small Shakespearean company. At 19 years old, Langton left the theatre and went to live on Yell, a remote island in Shetland, and became a sheep farmer while attempting to become a writer. However, he later admitted this was a "disaster", and when he went back to the mainland when his mother was ill, he realised he did not want to return. In 1938, Langton returned to working full-ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddie Jones
Frederick Charles Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916-2005.''; at ancestry.com (12 September 1927 – 9 July 2019) was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for almost sixty years. In theatre, he was best known for originating the role of Sir in ''The Dresser''; in film, he was best known for his role as the showman Bytes in ''The Elephant Man'' (1980); and in television, he was best known for playing Sandy Thomas in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' from 2005 to 2018. Early life Jones was born on 12 September 1927 in Dresden, a suburb of the town of Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, the son of Ida Elizabeth (née Goodwin) and Charles Edward Jones. Charles was a porcelain thrower, Ida a clerk and pub pianist. He worked briefly at Creda, the consumer electrical goods vendors, in Longton before he joined the British Ceramic Research Association in Penkhull, where he worked for ten years. His girlfriend at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warren Mitchell
Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was a British actor. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner. In the 1950s, Mitchell appeared on the radio programmes ''Educating Archie'' and ''Hancock's Half Hour''. He also performed minor roles in several films. In the 1960s, he rose to prominence in the role of bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom ''Till Death Us Do Part'' (1965–75), created by Johnny Speight, which won him a Best TV Actor BAFTA in 1967. He reprised the role in the television sequels '' Till Death...'' ( ATV, 1981) and ''In Sickness and in Health'' (BBC, 1985–92), and in the films ''Till Death Us Do Part'' (1969) and ''The Alf Garnett Saga'' (1972). His other film appearances include ''Three Crooked Men'' (1958), ''Carry On Cleo'' (1964), '' The Spy Who Came In from the Cold'' (1965), ''The Assassination Bureau'' (1969) and ''Norman Loves Rose'' (1982). He held both B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Hemmings
David Edward Leslie Hemmings (18 November 1941 – 3 December 2003) was an English actor and director. He is best remembered for his roles in British films and television programmes of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the 1966 mystery film ''Blowup'', directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Early in his career, Hemmings was a boy soprano appearing in operatic roles. In 1967, he co-founded the Hemdale Film Corporation. Early life David Hemmings was born in Guildford, Surrey, to a biscuit salesman father. Benjamin Britten His education at Alleyn's School, Glyn Grammar School in Ewell, and the Arts Educational Schools led him to start his career performing as a boy soprano in several works by the composer Benjamin Britten, who formed a close friendship with him at this time. Most notably, Hemmings created the role of Miles in Britten's chamber opera ''Turn of the Screw'' (1954). His intimate, yet innocent, relationship with Britten is described in John Bridcut's book '' Britten's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Francis
Derek Francis (7 November 1923 – 27 March 1984) was an English comedy and character actor. Biography Francis was a regular in the Carry On film players, appearing in six of the films in the 1960s and 1970s. He appeared in ''The Tomb of Ligeia'' (1964), the last film in Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe series. He also took roles in several BBC adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. His last role was in the 1984 version of ''A Christmas Carol''. Other roles included parts in television series of the period such as ''Rising Damp'', ''Bless Me, Father'', '' Thriller'', '' The Professionals'', ''The Sweeney'', ''Sherlock Holmes'', '' The New Avengers'', ''Danger Man'', '' Jason King'', ''Up Pompeii!'', ''Wild, Wild Women'', ''Coronation Street'', and ''Z-Cars''. He also appeared as the Emperor Nero, a comic turn in the early ''Doctor Who'' story entitled '' The Romans'' opposite William Hartnell. Possibly his most prominent role was as Father Bernard, the Master of Novices in ''Oh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pauline Yates
Pauline Lettice Yates (16 June 1929 – 21 January 2015) was an English actress, best known for playing Elizabeth Perrin in the BBC television sitcom ''The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin''. She also starred in '' Bachelor Father'' and '' Keep It in the Family''. Early life and career Yates was born in St Helens, Lancashire, on 16 June 1929. She began her acting career by joining Oldham Rep straight after leaving Childwall Valley High School for Girls. At the age of 17 she made her stage debut in a dramatised version of ''Jane Eyre'', playing Grace Poole. In 1957 Yates was cast in the role of Estelle Waterman on ''Emergency Ward 10'', after which she became a regular face on British television and also appeared in a few British films. In the 1960s she made guest appearances on ''Armchair Theatre'', ''Dixon of Dock Green'', ''Z-Cars'', ''Gideon's Way'', '' Nightingale's Boys'', '' The Human Jungle'' and ''The Ronnie Barker Playhouse'', "Maigret", among others. (She appea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annette Andre
Annette Andre (born 24 June 1939) is an Australian actress best known for her work on British television throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Early life and early career The daughter of an upholsterer, Annette Andre was born in Drummoyne, Australia, as Annette Christine Andreallo. She was brought up in Sydney and educated at Brigidine College, Sydney. She began work as a ballet dancer at the age of 4 at an academy linked to the Australian Ballet. At 15, she decided to stop ballet and pursue acting because she realised that she was not yet 16, the legal age to work in acting. Andre enrolled in a radio training school and her first radio role was in the serial radio drama called ''Kid Grayson Rides the Range''. Her first role was in the television movie '' If It's a Rose''. Her other Australian television performances included ''Slaughter of St Teresa's Day''. Later career She went to the UK in 1963 and was cast in ''Emerald Soup''. Her first film role was in '' This Is My Street'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Maddern
Victor Jack Maddern (16 March 1928 – 22 June 1993) was an English actor. He was described by ''The Telegraph'' as having "one of the most distinctive and eloquent faces in post-war British cinema." Life and career Born in Seven Kings, Ilford, Essex, Maddern attended Beal Grammar Boys school and afterwards joined the Merchant Navy at the age of 15 and served in the Second World War from 1943 until its end and was medically discharged in 1946. He subsequently trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He made his first screen appearance in '' Seven Days to Noon'' in 1950, playing a reluctant soldier obliged to shoot a psychotic scientist. One of his earliest stage roles was as Sam Weller in '' The Trial of Mr Pickwick'' (1952). Appearing as Helicon in a production of Albert Camus' play ''Caligula'' (1964), Maddern was singled out for critical praise, and in '' My Darling Daisy'' (1970) portrayed the notorious Frank Harris. He also did two stints in the highly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trevor Bannister
Trevor Gordon Bannister (14 August 193414 April 2011) was an English actor best known for having played the womanising junior salesman Mr Lucas in the sitcom ''Are You Being Served?'' from 1972 to 1979, and for his role as Toby Mulberry Smith in the long-running sitcom ''Last of the Summer Wine'', from 2003 until it ended its run in 2010. Career In 1960, Bannister appeared on stage at the Cambridge Theatre in London in ''Billy Liar'', which starred Albert Finney. He starred as Darkie Pilbeam, a wartime spiv, in the 1968 television series '' The War of Darkie Pilbeam;'' from 1969 to 1970, he appeared as "Heavy Breathing" in Jack Rosenthal's sitcom, ''The Dustbinmen''. Shortly afterwards, he was asked to play Mr. Lucas in a ''Comedy Playhouse'' pilot called ''Are You Being Served?'' and took the part in the series. It was originally intended as a vehicle for him as the average man caught up in the store full of odd characters and baroque customs and, for the first four series, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
