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The New Statesman (1987 TV Series)
''The New Statesman'' is a British sitcom made in the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the United Kingdom's Conservative government of the period. It was written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran at the request of, and as a starring vehicle for, its principal actor Rik Mayall. The show's theme song is an arrangement by Alan Hawkshaw of part of the ''Promenade'' from ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. The programme was made by the ITV franchise Yorkshire Television between 1987 and 1992, although the BBC made two special episodes; one in 1988, the other in 1994. Cast list *Rik Mayall as Alan B'Stard MP *Michael Troughton as Piers Fletcher-Dervish MP *Marsha Fitzalan as Sarah B'Stard *Rowena Cooper as Norman/Norma Bormann (Series 1; she was credited as "R. R. Cooper" in all but episode six, in order to keep her gender uncertain) * Charles Gray as Roland Gidleigh-Park (Series 1) *Vivien Heilbron as Beatrice Protheroe (Series 1) * Stev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the Two-party system, two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. It is the current Government of the United Kingdom, governing party, having won the 2019 United Kingdom general election, 2019 general election. It has been the primary governing party in Britain since 2010. The party is on the Centre-right politics, centre-right of the political spectrum, and encompasses various ideological #Party factions, factions including One-nation conservatism, one-nation conservatives, Thatcherism, Thatcherites, and traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist conservatives. The party currently has 356 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament, 264 members of the House of Lords, 9 members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 16 members of the Senedd, Welsh Parliament, 2 D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Nettleton (actor)
John Nettleton (born 5 February 1929) is an English actor best known for playing Sir Arnold Robinson, Cabinet Secretary in ''Yes Minister'' (1980–84) and President of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in the follow-up ''Yes, Prime Minister'' (1985–88). Another political role for Nettleton was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament (Sir Stephen Baxter) in the sitcom ''The New Statesman''. Other television roles included a Ministry of Defence department chief in ''The Avengers'' (episode "The See-Through Man", 1967), a police sergeant in ''Please Sir!'' (1969), Alfred Booker in ''The Champions'' (episode "Full Circle", 1969), Froggett in the office comedy series ''If It Moves File It'' (1970), Francis Bacon in ''Elizabeth R'' (1971), a Detective Superintendent in '' Doctor at Large'' in 1971, George Pattinson in a now lost episode ("The Uninvited") of ''Out of the Unknown'' (also in 1971), as Arthur Bellamy, brother to Viscount Bellamy, in '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime minister and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies that became known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist, before becoming a barrister. She was List of MPs elected in the 1959 United Kingdom general election, elected Member of Parliament for Finchley (UK Parliament constituency), Finchley in 1959 United Kingdom general election, 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Nallon
Steve Nallon (born 8 November 1960) is a British actor, writer, voice artist and impressionist (entertainment), impressionist. Nallon began his career as a stand-up performer on the northern club circuit in the 1970s. He is known for his work as a voice artist on the satire, satirical puppet show ''Spitting Image'' and for impersonating Margaret Thatcher on television throughout her time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister of the UK (1979–1990). In his career Steve Nallon has performed a number of roles and characters as an actor and as a voice artist in theatre, film, television and radio. Early life Nallon grew up in a working-class family in Leeds in the 1960s. His father was a church caretaker who had a long history of mental health issues. His mother died suddenly in 1970 when Steve was nine years old. Because of his father's mental instability it became necessary for Nallon and his sister to move in with their maternal grandparents. Nallon later descri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivien Heilbron
Vivien Heilbron (born 13 May 1944) is a Scottish actress. Career Heilbron, who was born in Glasgow, was a member of the company at Dundee Repertory Theatre in the mid-1960s. She achieved fame in her homeland when she appeared in the 1971 BBC Scotland television series '' Sunset Song'', an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel, in the lead role of Chris Guthrie. "The television programme was quite instrumental in raising Gibbon's publicity", she said. "It put him on the school curriculum where he had not been before." In the early 1980s she appeared in its two sequels ''Cloud Howe'' and ''Grey Granite'' (the trilogy is known as ''A Scots Quair''). From the first episode in 1980, she played district nurse Kay Grant in the Scottish Television soap opera “Take The High Road”. On film she played Catriona opposite Michael Caine in the 1971 film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's ''Kidnapped'', also appeared in ' (1978), starring Rutger Hauer and Sylvia Kristel and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roland Gidleigh-Park
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was military governor of the Breton March, responsible for defending Francia's frontier against the Bretons. His only historical attestation is in Einhard's ''Vita Karoli Magni'', which notes he was part of the Frankish rearguard killed in retribution by the Basques in Iberia at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. The story of Roland's death at Roncevaux Pass was embellished in later medieval and Renaissance literature. The first and most famous of these epic treatments was the Old French ''Chanson de Roland'' of the 11th century. Two masterpieces of Italian Renaissance poetry, the ''Orlando Innamorato'' and ''Orlando Furioso'' (by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto respectively), are even further ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Gray (actor)
Charles Gray (born Donald Marshall Gray; 28 August 1928 – 7 March 2000) was an English actor and voice artist who was well known for roles including the arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film '' Diamonds Are Forever''; Dikko Henderson in a previous Bond film, '' You Only Live Twice''; Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft Holmes in ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''; and The Criminologist in ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show''. Early life Gray was born in Bournemouth, Hampshire, the son of surveyor Donald Gray (died 1975), who had served as a Captain in the Royal Engineers, and Maude Elizabeth (née Marshall). Gray attended Bournemouth School alongside Benny Hill, whose school had been evacuated to the same buildings, during the Second World War. Some of his friends remember that his bedroom walls were plastered with pictures of film stars. Stage career By his mid-twenties, Gray had left his first job as a clerk for an estate agent to become an actor. He b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rowena Cooper
Rosemary Rowena Cooper (born 1935) is a British actress. She began her career in 1956, joining the Radio Drama Company by winning the Carlton Hobbs Bursary. In 1959 she joined the Dundee Repertory Theatre Company and went on to have an extensive career, primarily in British television, for over 50 years. Cooper starred in The Rag Trade as Mrs Fenner. Select filmography in television Personal life She married actor Terrence Hardiman Terrence Hardiman (born 6 April 1937)Biographical detail Photo of Hardiman and Cooper in role
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Sarah B'Stard
Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pious woman, renowned for her hospitality and beauty, the wife and half-sister of Abraham, and the mother of Isaac. Sarah has her feast day on 1 September in the Catholic Church, 19 August in the Coptic Orthodox Church, 20 January in the LCMS, and 12 and 20 December in the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the Hebrew Bible Family According to Book of Genesis 20:12, in conversation with the Philistine king Abimelech of Gerar, Abraham reveals Sarah to be both his wife and his half-sister, stating that the two share a father but not a mother. Such unions were later explicitly banned in the Book of Leviticus (). This would make Sarah the daughter of Terah and the half-sister of not only Abraham but Haran and Nahor. She would also have been the aunt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hon
''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain people, usually with official governmental or diplomatic positions. Use by governments International diplomacy In international diplomatic relations, representatives of foreign states are often styled as ''The Honourable''. Deputy chiefs of mission, , consuls-general and consuls are always given the style. All heads of consular posts, whether they are honorary or career postholders, are accorded the style according to the State Department of the United States. However, the style ''Excellency'' instead of ''The Honourable'' is used for ambassadors and high commissioners. Africa The Congo In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the prefix 'Honourable' or 'Hon.' is used for members of both chambers of the Parliament of the Democratic Repu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
