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Return To Cranford
''Return to Cranford'' (known in the United Kingdom as the '' Cranford'' Christmas Special) is the two-part second season of a British television series directed by Simon Curtis. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was based on material from two novellas and a short story by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1863: '' Cranford'', ''The Moorland Cottage'' and ''The Cage at Cranford''. Themes from ''My Lady Ludlow'', ''Mr Harrison's Confessions'' and ''The Last Generation in England'' are included to provide continuity with the '' first series''. The two-part Christmas special was transmitted in the UK by BBC One in December 2009. In the United States, it was broadcast by PBS as part of its ''Masterpiece Theatre'' series in January 2010. Cast members from the first season, including but not limited to Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Julia McKenzie, Deborah Findlay and Barbara Flynn reprised their roles, with Jonathan Pryce, Celia Imrie, Lesley Sharp, Nicholas Le Prevost, Jodie Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical hour-long legal or medical drama, but exhibit far fewer jokes-per-minute as in a typical half-hour sitcom. In the United States Examples from United States television include: ''M*A*S*H (TV series), M*A*S*H'', ''Moonlighting (TV series), Moonlighting'', ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'', ''Northern Exposure'', ''Ally McBeal'', ''Sex and the City'', ''Desperate Housewives'' and ''Scrubs (TV series), Scrubs''. The term "dramedy" was coined to describe the late 1980s wave of shows, including ''The Wonder Years'', ''Hooperman'', ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'' and ''Frank's Place''. See also *List of comedy drama television series *Black comedy *Dramatic structure *Melodrama *Seriousness *Tragicomedy *Psychological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The 60% smaller island of Ireland is to the west—these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, form the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a landbridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's third-most-populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The term "Great Britain" is often used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales, including their component adjoining islands. Great Britain and Northern Ireland now constitute the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp is an English stage, film and television actress whose roles on British television include ''Clocking Off'' (2000–2001), '' Bob & Rose'' (2001) and ''Afterlife'' (2005–2006). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1997 film ''The Full Monty''. Her other film appearances include ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'' (1986), ''Naked'' (1993), ''Priest'' (1994), ''From Hell'' (2001) and ''Vera Drake'' (2004). Between 2011 and 2016, she starred as DC Janet Scott in the ITV drama ''Scott & Bailey''. Early life Sharp was born in Manchester, England. Sharp has stated that she started acting because, as a child, she felt "invisible" and did not "quite fit in".McLean, Gareth"A truly visible woman"''The Guardian'', 10 September 2005 (Retrieved: 21 July 2009) She has said that her inspiration to act came from watching Dick Emery on television.Billen, Andrew"Lesley Sharp shows she's married to the job in The Children"''The Times'', 30 August ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celia Imrie
Celia Diana Savile Imrie (born 15 July 1952) is an English actress and author. She was described in 2003 as one of the most successful British actresses of recent decades. She is best known for her film roles, including the '' Bridget Jones'' film series, '' Calendar Girls'' (2003), '' Nanny McPhee'' (2005), '' The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'' (2011), '' The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'' (2015), The English dub of '' The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales...'' (2017), '' Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again'' (2018) and ''Malevolent'' (2018) and, for the FX TV series '' Better Things'' (2016-2022). In the United Kingdom she is known for her work with Victoria Wood, including '' Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV'' (1985–1987), the sitcom '' dinnerladies'' (1998–2000) and '' Acorn Antiques: The Musical!'', for which she won the 2006 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical Early life Imrie was born on 15 July 1952 in Guildford, Surrey, the fourth of fiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Pryce
Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career as a stage actor in the early 1970s. His work in theatre includes an Olivier Award-winning performance in the title role of the Royal Court Theatre's ''Hamlet'' in 1980 and as The Engineer in the stage musical ''Miss Saigon'' in 1990. On the Broadway stage he earned Tony Awards—the first for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut role in ''Comedians'' (1977), the second for Best Actor in a Musical for the Broadway transfer of the musical ''Miss Saigon'' (1991). Pryce's theatre work led to several supporting roles in film and television. His breakthrough screen performance was in Terry Gilli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masterpiece Theatre
''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH-TV, WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions. Many of these are produced by the BBC, but the line-up has also included programs shown on the UK commercial channels ITV (TV channel), ITV and Channel 4. Overview ''Masterpiece'' is known for presenting Novel adaptation, adaptations of novels and biography, biographies, but it also shows original television dramas. The first title to air was ''The First Churchills'', starring Susan Hampshire as Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Sarah Churchill. Other programs presented on the series include ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII (BBC TV series), The Six Wives of Henry VIII;'' ''Elizabeth R;'' ''I, Claudius (TV series), I, Claudius;'' ''Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 TV series), Upstairs, Downstairs;'' ''The Duchess of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as ''Frontline'', '' Nova'', ''PBS NewsHour'', ''Sesame Street'', and ''This Old House''. PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source. PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Generation In England
"The Last Generation in England" is a non-fiction article by Elizabeth Gaskell, published in the American '' Sartain's Union Magazine'' in July 1849, relating memories of a small country town in the generation prior to her own. As such, it is seen as the real-life background for her 1853 novel '' Cranford''. Recognising she was living through a time of great and rapid change, Gaskell was inspired to write the article by reading that the author Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ... had himself once considered composing a history of English domestic life. External links"The Last Generation in England" first page * Non-fiction works by Elizabeth Gaskell 1849 documents {{UK-lit-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mr Harrison's Confessions
''Mr. Harrison’s Confessions'' is an 1851 extended story by Elizabeth Gaskell about a doctor in a small English country town, benefitting from familiarity with the work of a general practitioner in her family. Episodes from the story and other works were adapted into the 2007 television series based on her novel '' Cranford''. Plot Upon completing his studies at Guy's Hospital, Frank Harrison is invited by Mr Morgan, an old friend of his father, to join Morgan's medical practice in the small country town of Duncombe. Impressed by being welcomed with enquiries about his welfare as soon as he arrives, Harrison soon learns that the main occupation of the town is gossip. Of this Mr Morgan had already availed himself in order to establish the status of his young partner, knowing that the smallest hints will be magnified with each telling. Under Mr Morgan's instruction, Harrison is advised on professional behaviour and how to blend into the town’s conservative lifestyle. When he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Lady Ludlow
''My Lady Ludlow'' is a novel (over 77,000 words in the Project Gutenberg text) by Elizabeth Gaskell. It originally appeared in the magazine ''Household Words'' in 1858, and was republished in ''Round the Sofa'' in 1859, with framing passages added at the start and end. The novel follows the daily lives of the widowed Countess of Ludlow of Hanbury and the spinster Miss Galindo, whose father was a Baronet, and their caring for other single women and girls. It is also concerned with Lady Ludlow's man of business, Mr. Horner, and a poacher's son named Harry Gregson whose education he provides for. The narrator of the story is Margaret Dawson, an elderly woman and distant relative of Lady Ludlow who was sent to live with the Countess as a teenager. TV Adaptation With '' Cranford'', ''The Last Generation in England'' and ''Mr. Harrison's Confessions'', ''My Lady Ludlow'' was adapted for television in 2007 as '' Cranford'', with Francesca Annis as the eponymous character, Alex Etel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cranford (novel)
''Cranford'' is an episodic novel by the English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It first appeared in instalments in the magazine '' Household Words'', then was published with minor revisions as a book with the title ''Cranford'' in 1853. The work slowly became popular and from the start of the 20th century it saw a number of dramatic treatments for the stage, the radio and TV. Background The fictional Cranford is based on the small Cheshire town of Knutsford in which Elizabeth Gaskell grew up. She had already drawn on her childhood memories for an article published in America, "The Last Generation in England" (1849), and for the town of Duncombe which featured in her extended story " Mr. Harrison's Confessions" (1851). These accounts of life in a country town and the old-fashioned class snobbery prevailing there were carried over into what was originally intended simply as another story, published as "Our Society in Cranford" in the magazine Household Words in December 1851. See ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, ''Mary Barton'', was published in 1848. Gaskell's ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'', published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she omitted, deciding certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are '' Cranford'' (1851–53), ''North and South'' (1854–55), and ''Wives and Daughters'' (1865), all having been adapted for television by the BBC. Early life Gaskell was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810 in Lindsey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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