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Relative Strangers (TV Series)
''Relative Strangers'' is a British comedy television series which originally aired on Channel 4 between 14 January 1985 and 9 March 1987.Vahimagi p.302 Main cast * Mark Farmer as John * Matthew Kelly as Fitz * David Battley David John Battley (5 November 1935 – 20 January 2003) was a British actor of stage and screen, mainly appearing in comedy roles. Early life Battley was born at Battersea, London, the elder son of John Battley, a post-Second World War Labour ... as Gerald * Bernard Gallagher as Percy Fisher References Bibliography * Vahimagi, Tise . ''British Television: An Illustrated Guide''. Oxford University Press, 1996. External links * {{IMDb title, id=0088592 1985 British television series debuts 1987 British television series endings 1980s British comedy television series Channel 4 sitcoms English-language television shows Channel 4 original programming ...
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Maurice Gran
Maurice Bernard Gran (born 26 October 1949, in London, England) is an English writer and one half of scriptwriting duo Marks and Gran. He co-wrote the sitcoms ''The New Statesman'', '' Birds of a Feather'' and '' Goodnight Sweetheart'' with Laurence Marks. Their theatre works include '' Dreamboats and Petticoats'', ''Save The Last Dance For Me'' and ''Dreamboats and Miniskirts''. Biography Gran lived in Finsbury Park Road as a child and his father was the manager of a fabric shop in Soho. He attended William Ellis School, a grammar school for boys in Highgate. He then rose to be the manager of the Job Centre in Tottenham, whilst writing scripts with Laurence Marks which they submitted to the BBC. The duo had begun writing together after they met at a discussion group for writers that was held within the British Drama League.
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Laurence Marks (British Writer)
Laurence Marks (born 8 December 1948) is a British screenwriter and one half of writing duo Marks and Gran (with Maurice Gran). Biography Marks attended Holloway Comprehensive School (formerly Holloway County Grammar School until 1955). Prior to becoming a sitcom writer he was a reporter for a local weekly paper, the ''Tottenham Weekly Herald'' and, according to information he provided to ''Who's Who'', he was also briefly a staff writer for ''The Sunday Times'' in the mid- to late 1970s. He also worked as writer/researcher for Thames Television's current affairs programme, ''This Week''. Following a chance encounter with comedy writer Barry Took, he and childhood friend Maurice Gran got an opportunity to write a radio show for comedian Frankie Howerd, which led to their becoming full-time comedy writers. Marks subsequently wrote with Gran the TV comedy-drama ''Shine on Harvey Moon'' (1982–85, 1995) and the popular sitcoms ''The New Statesman'' (1987–92), '' Birds of ...
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Mark Farmer (actor)
Mark Farmer (22 May 1962 – 26 April 2016) was an English actor and musician. He is probably best remembered for his childhood role of Gary Hargreaves in series 2 to 4 of the popular children's television programme ''Grange Hill'', in which he starred from 1979 to 1981. Farmer had a range of earlier childhood roles, and also went on to appear as a teenager and young adult in various programmes, notably the lead role in the 1983 BBC drama '' Johnny Jarvis'' and the role of Justin James from 1984 to 1989 in the comedy-drama series ''Minder''. From 1985 to 1987, Farmer starred alongside Matthew Kelly in '' Relative Strangers'', a Channel 4 sitcom. The sitcom was a spin-off from an ITV comedy, '' Holding the Fort'' (1980–82). He also appeared in a 1987 television drama film, ''Mister Corbett's Ghost'', starring Paul Scofield and John Huston. After Farmer's career in film and television, he formed a band, Littlehouse, with school classmate Billy Hardwicke. He played acoustic g ...
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Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly (born David Allan Kelly, 9 May 1950) is an English actor and presenter. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television presenter of ITV light entertainment shows such as '' Game for a Laugh'', '' You Bet!'' and '' Stars in Their Eyes''. In the 2000s he returned to acting, appearing in several West End productions, while also acting in some television roles. Early life Kelly was born in Urmston, Lancashire. As a child, he lived on Primrose Avenue in the town and became interested in acting when at the Urmston Musical Theatre, most notably playing the role of Louis in a production of ''The King and I'' in 1963. He continues to be President of the theatre group. After 1961, Kelly went to Urmston Grammar School. He trained as an actor at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre (now Manchester School of Theatre, part of Manchester Metropolitan University) and joined a theatre group which included Julie Walters and ...
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Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the licence-funded BBC One and BBC Two, and a single commercial broadcasting network ITV. The network's headquarters are based in London and Leeds, with creative hubs in Glasgow and Bristol. It is publicly owned and advertising-funded; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast there by the Welsh fourth channel S4C. In 2010, Cha ...
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Comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses w ...
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Television Series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed between shows. Television shows are most often scheduled for broadcast well ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings, but streaming services often make them available for viewing anytime. The content in a television show can be produced with different methodologies such as taped variety shows emanating from a television studio stage, animation or a variety of film productions ranging from movies to series. Shows not produced on a television studio stage are usually contracted or licensed to be made by appropriate production companies. Television shows can be viewed live (real time), be recorded on home video, a digital video recorder for later viewing, be viewed on demand via a set-top box, or streamed over th ...
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David Battley
David John Battley (5 November 1935 – 20 January 2003) was a British actor of stage and screen, mainly appearing in comedy roles. Early life Battley was born at Battersea, London, the elder son of John Battley, a post-Second World War Labour MP, and his wife Sybill (née Allchurch). Born with a hole in the heart, he was initially home schooled before attending a special school. He later enrolled at Camberwell School of Art but left before completing the course. He earned a living working for the family printing firm, Battley Brothers, before applying to Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Battley had one brother, Bernard. Career Battley used a dry, ironic delivery on television and in films. He found steady work as a character actor and comic stooge. Battley's TV work ranged from the satire show '' BBC-3'' and the military police drama ''Redcap'' in the 1960s through Eric Sykes' BBC sitcom, the 1975 TV adaptation of ''Moll Flanders'' and the 1977 Christmas Special of '' The Good ...
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Bernard Gallagher
Bernard Gallagher (26 September 1929 – 27 November 2016) was an English actor known for his stage work, including with the National Theatre and the Royal Court; and his many appearances in television soap operas and dramas. He was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. Gallagher studied English at Sheffield University, and following National service in the RAF Educational Service (1952–54), made his stage debut in Lyme Regis in 1956. Working in regional rep for the next decade, in 1965 he joined London’s Royal Court for Bill Gaskill’s first season, with roles in (amongst others) the original stage productions of Edward Bond’s '' Saved'', and Joe Orton's ''The Ruffian on the Stair'' and ''The Erpingham Camp'' (both 1967).  Later in 1967, Gallagher began a long association with the National Theatre (1967-1976), when he appeared in Clifford Williams’ all-male '' As You Like It''. Other roles included in Howard Brenton’s '' Weapons of Happiness'' and Tom ...
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1985 British Television Series Debuts
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a new agreement on fishing rights. * January 7 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches ''Sakigake'', Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union. * January 15 – Tancredo Neves is elected president of Brazil by the Congress, ending the 21-year military rule. * January 20 – Ronald Reagan is privately sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. * January 27 – The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is formed, in Tehran. * January 28 – The charity single record "We Are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa. February * February 4 – The border between Gibraltar and Spain reo ...
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1987 British Television Series Endings
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing everyone except a little girl; The King's Cross fire kills 31 people after a fire under an escalator Flashover, flashes-over; The MV Doña Paz sinks after colliding with an oil tanker, drowning almost 4,400 passengers and crew; Typhoon Nina (1987), Typhoon Nina strikes the Philippines; LOT Polish Airlines Flight 5055 crashes outside of Warsaw, taking the lives of all aboard; The USS Stark is USS Stark incident, struck by Iraq, Iraqi Exocet missiles in the Persian Gulf; President of the United States, U.S. President Ronald Reagan gives a famous Tear down this wall!, speech, demanding that Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tears down the Berlin Wall., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Zeebrugge disaster rect 200 0 400 200 ...
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1980s British Comedy Television Series
__NOTOC__ Year 198 (CXCVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 951 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 198 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire *January 28 **Publius Septimius Geta, son of Septimius Severus, receives the title of Caesar. **Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus, is given the title of Augustus. China *Winter – Battle of Xiapi: The allied armies led by Cao Cao and Liu Bei defeat Lü Bu; afterward Cao Cao has him executed. By topic Religion * Marcus I succeeds Olympianus as Patriarch of Constantinople (until 211). Births * Lu Kai (or Jingfeng), Chinese official and general (d. 269) * Quan Cong, Chinese general and advisor (d. ...
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