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Robin Nash
Robert Henry Douglas Drane (10 March 1927 – 18 June 2011), known professionally as Robin Nash, was a British television producer and executive, who was probably best known as producer of ''Top of the Pops'' from 1973 to 1980. At the BBC, he became Head of Variety and later Head of Television Comedy. Background and early career Nash was born in Norwich and grew up in Cromer on the north Norfolk coast, where he was educated at Paston School. His initial theatrical training was as a young member of Miss Alexander's dance group at the Lecture Hall in the town. Often the only boy in the group, he was therefore sure of a place in their productions at the local venues. A fellow dancer was his sister Anne (Lewin), a ballerina and West End dancer who would later become a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force. His secondary education was at The Paston School, North Walsham (whose most distinguished former pupil was Horatio Nelson). As a teenager during the Second World War he entertained a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. Television became available in crude experimental forms in the late 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion.Diggs-Brown, Barbara (2011''Strategic Public Relations: Audience Focused Practice''p. 48 In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries. The availability of various types of archival st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxi! (UK TV Series)
''Taxi!'' was a BBC television comedy-drama series transmitted in 1963 and 1964. Created by Ted Willis, who had developed ''Dixon of Dock Green'', Willis was well aware of taxicab drivers inclination to provide stories, and intended 12 individual plays for what became the first series. Starring Sid James as cab firm owner and driver Sid Stone, it is similar to his role in the near contemporary film ''Carry On Cabby'' (1963), but the programme was more a drama with humour than comedy, Jack Rosenthal scripted a few episodes and Bill Owen appeared as the cab firm's co-owner Fred Cudell with Ray Brooks as driver Terry Mills. The three men shared part of a converted house, with Sid Stone tending to interfere in the lives of his colleagues and his customers. James' character was, according to John Fisher, "streetwise, but conscientious". While ratings for the first series were poor, it was transmitted in the summer, a second series was broadcast in 1964. Female neighbours were now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beryl Reid
Beryl Elizabeth Reid, (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996), was a British actress of stage and screen. She won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for ''The Killing of Sister George'', the 1980 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for '' Born in the Gardens'', and the 1982 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for ''Smiley's People''. Her film appearances included '' The Belles of St. Trinian's'' (1954), ''The Killing of Sister George'' (1968), ''The Assassination Bureau'' (1969), and ''No Sex Please, We're British'' (1973). Early life Born in Hereford in 1919,Jonathan Cecil, "Reid, Beryl Elizabeth (1919–1996)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 200available online Retrieved 30 August 2020. Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester, where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools. As a child, she established a lifelong friendship with Nancy Wrigley, the daughter of the prominent classica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Before The Fringe
''Before the Fringe'' was a BBC television series which ran for two series on BBC2 in 1967. The first series ran for eight episodes between 30 January and 20 March 1967. The second series of six episodes ran between 18 September and 23 October 1967. Alan Melville was the guiding light behind this series which attempted to showcase on television some of the best aspects of pre-''Before the Fringe'' revue. Before the 1960s Cambridge Footlights graduates took it by storm, the medium had been a much more gentler, broader affair. These two series of sketches were made up by performers who had been veterans of such shows. They included: *Alan Melville (all programmes) *Joan Sims (seven programmes) *Ronnie Barker (six programmes) *Dora Bryan (five programmes) *Beryl Reid (four programmes) *Douglas Byng (four programmes) *Hermione Baddeley (four programmes) *Hugh Paddick (three programmes) *Dilys Laye (three programmes) *Hermione Gingold (two programmes) *Cicely Courtneidge (two program ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Melville (writer)
Alan Melville (9 April 1910 – 24 December 1983) was an English broadcaster, writer, actor, raconteur, producer, playwright and wit. Biography Born William Melville Caverhill in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, he was educated in his home town and then a boarder at the Edinburgh Academy. Leaving school at 17, he started work in the family timber merchants as an apprentice joiner. At the age of 22, he entered an essay competition in ''John O'Leary's Weekly'' with an essay entitled ''My Perfect Holiday'' and won the first prize; a return trip to Canada (1934). Soon afterwards he sent the BBC North Region six short stories called ''The Adventures of the Pink Knight'' (1934), which were accepted and used on ''Children's Hour''. He was required to read the stories himself, his first professional engagement. He continued to write from the timber yard, his short stories, poems, manuscripts sometimes being accepted by various publishers. He wrote his first novel, a whodunit c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elaine Taylor (actress)
Elaine Regina Taylor Plummer (born 17 October 1943) is an English former actress, best known as a leading lady in comedy films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. She is the widow of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, to whom she was married for 50 years. Early life Elaine Regina Taylor was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. With the encouragement of her mother, Frances, she took dancing lessons as a child. In 1950, had her hair styled by hairdresser Raymond Bessone for the part of Will O'the Wisp. Taylor later studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and joined the London Festival Ballet. Career Early television and radio roles In the mid-1960s, Taylor appeared in episodes of British television series such as ''The Benny Hill Show'' (1965), ''The Lance Percival Show'' (1966), in which she sang as well as taking part in comedy sketches, ''The Old Campaigner'' (1967), which featured Terry-Thomas as a womanising plastics salesman, and '' Mr Rose'', starring Willi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Cecil
Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil (22 February 1939 – 22 September 2011), known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English theatre, film, and television actor. Early life Cecil was born in London, England, the son of Lord David Cecil and the grandson of the 4th Marquess of Salisbury. His other grandfather was the literary critic Sir Desmond MacCarthy. He was the great-grandson of Conservative Prime Minister The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. Brought up in Oxford, where his father was Goldsmith Professor of English, he was educated at Eton, where he played small parts in school plays and at New College, Oxford, where he read modern languages, specialising in French and continued with amateur dramatics.Interview with Jonathan Cecil at bl.uk At Oxford, his friends included |
Terry-Thomas
Terry-Thomas (born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens; 10 July 19118 January 1990) was an English character actor and comedian who became internationally known through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members of the Social structure of the United Kingdom#Upper class, upper classes, especially wikt:cad, cads, toffs and wikt:bounder, bounders, using his distinctive voice; his costume and props tended to include a monocle, waistcoat and cigarette holder. His striking dress sense was set off by a Diastema (dentistry), gap between his Maxillary central incisor, two upper front teeth. Born in London, Terry-Thomas made his film debut, uncredited, in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). He spent several years appearing in smaller roles, before wartime service with Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) and Stars in Battledress. The experience helped sharpen his cabaret and revue act, increased his public profile and proved instrumental in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Old Campaigner
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Playhouse
''Comedy Playhouse'' is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including ''Steptoe and Son'', '' Meet the Wife'', ''Till Death Us Do Part'', ''All Gas and Gaiters'', ''Up Pompeii!'', '' Not in Front of the Children'', ''Me Mammy'', ''That's Your Funeral'', ''The Liver Birds'', ''Are You Being Served?'' and particularly ''Last of the Summer Wine'', which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In March 2014, it was announced that ''Comedy Playhouse'' would make a return that year with three new episodes. Background The series began in 1961 at the prompting of Tom Sloan, Head of BBC Light Entertainment at the time. Galton and Simpson were no longer writing for Tony Hancock and Sloan asked them to write ten one-offs with the hope that one might become established as a series. Thus, the first two series of ''C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prunella Scales
Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English former actress, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy '' Fawlty Towers'', her nomination for a BAFTA award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in '' A Question of Attribution'' (''Screen One'', BBC 1991) by Alan Bennett, and for the documentary series '' Great Canal Journeys'' (2014–2021), travelling on canal barges and narrowboats with her husband, fellow actor Timothy West. Early life Scales was born in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, the daughter of Catherine (''née'' Scales), an actress, and John Richardson Illingworth, a cotton salesman. She attended Moira House Girls' School, Eastbourne. She had a younger brother, Timothy "Timmo" Illingworth (1934–2017). In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, Scales's parents moved with their children to Bucks Mill near Bideford in Devon. Scales herself and her brother were evacua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Briers
Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in ''Marriage Lines'' (1961–66), but it was a few years later, when he narrated ''Roobarb'' (1974–76) and '' Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk'' (1976–77) and played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom '' The Good Life'' (1975–78), that he became a household name. He starred as Martin in ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' (1984–89), and had a leading role as Hector in '' Monarch of the Glen'' (2000–05). From the late 1980s, with Kenneth Branagh as director, he performed Shakespearean roles in ''Henry V'' (1989), ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993), ''Hamlet'' (1996) and ''As You Like It'' (2006). Early life Briers was born on 14 January 1934 in Raynes Park, Surrey, the son of Joseph Benjamin Briers and his second wife Morna Phyllis, daughter of Frederick Richardson, of the Indian Civil Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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