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The Major
''The Major'' is the first BBC natural history documentary film to be made in colour, though it was originally screened, in 1963, in black and white, as colour television broadcasts did not begin in the United Kingdom until 1967. After that it became one of the BBC Natural History Unit's most repeated shows. It describes the felling of an eponymous, three-century-old, oak tree, which has become considered a hazard to traffic, and the effect that that has on the wildlife that lives in it, and on the fictionalised English village in which it grew. Actor Paul Rogers narrated a script by Desmond Hawkins. Filming was by Eric Ashby and Leslie Jackman, the latter filming the insect scenes at his home in Paignton. The 35-minute film was produced by Christopher Parsons. The music was composed and conducted by George Shears and performed by the BBC's West of England Players. Although the tree was in the Forest of Dean, filming of the "nearby" village was actually done at Eastcombe in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desmond Hawkins
Desmond Hawkins, OBE (20 October 1908 – 6 May 1999), born in East Sheen, Surrey, was an author, editor and radio personality. Career The political and artistic upheavals of the 1930s meant a proliferation of serious magazines. Desmond wrote for ''Purpose'', '' The Listener'', '' Time & Tide'' and the ''New Statesman''. He became literary editor of ''Purpose'' and of ''The New English Weekly'', and T. S. Eliot made him fiction chronicler of his critical journal ''The Criterion''. Before the Second World War Desmond had edited two books and had published two novels, the first of which was The Times's novel of the week. Desmond also had programme ideas accepted by the BBC and 1936 saw his first appearance in Radio Times with a programme called ''A Nest of Singing Birds'' – an anthology he compiled of English poets on English birds. Working extensively for the BBC as a freelance, particularly on the Sunday programme ''Country Magazine'' and on the daily ''War Report'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Rogers (actor)
Paul Rogers (22 March 1917 – 6 October 2013) was an English actor of film, stage and television. He was the first winner of the BAFTA TV Award Best Actor in 1955 and won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for ''The Homecoming'' in 1967. Early life and career Paul Rogers was born in Plympton, Devon, and attended Newton Abbot Grammar School. He later trained at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington Hall. From 1940 to 1946 he served in the Royal Navy during World War II, before returning to acting at the Bristol Old Vic. He went on to appear in many West End and Broadway productions, and won the Tony for Best Actor for his role in Harold Pinter's play ''The Homecoming'' in 1967. He played the role of Sir in the first Broadway production of Ronald Harwood's play ''The Dresser''. Later career Rogers was a long-serving member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His most notable performances with the Company included Nick Bottom in ''A Midsu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Parsons
Christopher Eugene Parsons OBE (23. August 1932 in Winchester, Hampshire – 8 November 2002 in Littleton-upon-Severn, Gloucestershire) was an English wildlife film-maker and the executive producer of David Attenborough's ''Life on Earth'', widely regarded as one of the finest and most influential of nature documentaries. As a founding member and a former Head of the BBC Natural History Unit, he worked on many of its early productions and published a history of its first 25 years in 1982. Besides television, he was also passionate about projects which helped to bring an understanding of the natural world to a wider audience, notably the Wildscreen Festival and ARKive. Film-making career After obtaining a degree in science from the University College of the South West of England, Exeter, Christopher Parsons joined the BBC in 1955. He began as an apprentice film editor at the newly formed West Region Film Unit in Bristol, England. Here, he worked on a wide range of programmes in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Shears (composer)
George Penfield Shears (April 13, 1890 – November 12, 1978) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. In 1912, Shears played for the New York Highlanders. In 4 career games, he had a 0–0 record, with a 5.40 ERA. He batted right-handed and threw left-handed. George Shears was a Doctor of Chiropractic who led the G.P.C. chiropractic movement in the late 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Shears was born in Marshall, Missouri Marshall is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 13,065 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Saline County. The Marshall Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Saline County. It is home to Missouri Val ..., and died in Loveland, Colorado. References External links 1890 births 1978 deaths New York Highlanders players Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Missouri Paris Bourbonites players Brockton Shoemakers players Hamilton Hams players Jersey City Skeeters players Erie Sailors players L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Ashby (naturalist)
Eric Ashby MBE (19 January 1918 – 6 February 2003) was an English naturalist and wildlife cameraman, often working for the BBC Natural History Unit. Personal life Ashby was born in Cumberland, England on 19 January 1918. Not long afterwards, his family moved to Southsea, Hampshire, where he was raised. At the age of 12, he visited and was influenced by a natural history film show presented by Cherry Kearton at the South Parade Pier there. During World War II, he worked as a farmer in Devon, with his brother Rex. He moved to Linwood, in the New Forest in 1953.Mabey, Richard, Introduction to In later years, he and his wife Eileen nursed injured foxes at their home there, Badger Cottage. He was also involved in campaigning to protect New Forest badger setts from harm by fox hunts. He was involved in a number of court cases against the New Forest Buck Hounds, his local hunt, and its members, after they trespassed onto his land, variously killing a young buck deer, damaging a b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Documentary Film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries". Early documentary films, originally called "actuality films", lasted one minute or less. Over time, documentaries have evolved to become longer in length, and to include more categories. Some examples are Educational film, educational, observational and docufiction. Documentaries are very Informational listening, informative, and are often used within schools as a resource to teach various principles. Documentary filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful to their vision of the world without intentionally misrepresenting a topic. Social media platfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Natural History Unit
The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including ''The Blue Planet'' and ''Planet Earth'', and has a long association with David Attenborough's authored documentaries, starting with 1979's ''Life on Earth''. The Natural History Unit is a specialist department within BBC Studios Productions. Each year it produces around 100 hours of television and 50 hours of radio programmes, making it the largest wildlife documentary production house in the world. The BBC commissions programmes from the Unit for broadcast on five terrestrial television channels (BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies) and BBC Radio 4. It also makes programmes for other broadcasters and services including Apple TV+, Warner Bros. Discovery, National Geographic Global Networks and NBC Universal. Content is marketed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949. Purpose It was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history and heritage of the United Kingdom. BFI activities Archive The BFI maint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paignton
Paignton ( ) is a seaside town on the coast of Tor Bay in Devon, England. Together with Torquay and Brixham it forms the borough of Torbay which was created in 1998. The Torbay area is a holiday destination known as the English Riviera. Paignton's population in the United Kingdom Census of 2011 was 49,021. (Word document) It has origins as a Celtic settlement and was first mentioned in 1086. It grew as a small fishing village and a new harbour was built in 1847. A railway line was opened to passengers in 1859 creating links to Torquay and London. As its population increased, it merged with the villages of Goodrington and Preston. Paignton is around north east of Plymouth and south of Exeter, and has the fourth largest population in Devon. History A Roman burial was discovered in 1993 on the Hookhills estate by a householder digging a patio. At first thought to be Neolithic, it was later radiocarbon dated to be between 230 and 390 CE. The burial is of a young woman age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forest Of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east. The area is characterised by more than of mixed woodland, one of the surviving ancient woodlands in England. A large area was reserved for royal hunting before 1066, and remained as the second largest crown forest in England, after the New Forest. Although the name is used loosely to refer to the part of Gloucestershire between the Severn and Wye, the Forest of Dean proper has covered a much smaller area since the Middle Ages. In 1327, it was defined to cover only the royal demesne and parts of parishes within the hundred of St Briavels, and after 1668 comprised the royal demesne only. The Forest proper is within the civil parishes of West Dean, Lydbrook, Cin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastcombe, Gloucestershire
Eastcombe is a village in Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. The Parish Church is called Eastcombe: St Augustine and served the parish of Bussage with Eastcombe and the benefice of Bisley, Chalford, France Lynch and Oakridge and Bussage with Eastcombe and belongs to the diocese of Gloucester. It was announced iNovember 2021that the church would be closed and the building sold. Eastcombe is situated in the South West (England) region of the UK and is governed by Stroud District Council. The village of Eastcombe is in the Gloucestershire region of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area within South West (England). Thomas Keble School Thomas Keble School is a mixed secondary school located in Eastcombe in the English county of Gloucestershire. The school is named after Thomas Keble, a Church of England clergyman who contributed four of the ''Tracts for the Times''. Outsi ... is a secondary school located in the village. References {{authority c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
