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The Big Town All Stars
''The Big Town All Stars'' was a short-lived BBC radio programme that aired from March 1998—July 2001. There were nine half-hour episodes and it was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was created by Bill Dare and starred Stephen Tompkinson, Nicola Walker, Adrian Scarborough, Meera Syal, Clive Rowe Clive Mark Rowe (born 27 March 1964) is a British actor, best known for his role as Norman "Duke" Ellington in BBC Children's drama ''The Story of Tracy Beaker''. He also starred as Mayor Doyle in the Disney show ''The Evermoor Chronicles''. ... and Brian Bovell. The plot revolved around the members of an amateur a cappella group as they tried for success. Episodes * ''Pilot'', 19 March 1998 * ''If You Scratch My Back'', 16 February 2000 * ''The Perfect Man'', 23 February 2000 * ''If You Sack Me, I'll Leave'', 1 March 2000 * ''Band of Gold'', 8 March 2000 * ''Meet the Wife'', 3 July 2001 * ''Fifteen Minutes of Fame'', 10 July 2001 * ''East Coast Story'', 17 July 2001 * ''The Balla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Situation Comedy
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] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. The station controller is Mohit Bakaya. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM, LW and DAB, and on BBC Sounds, it can be received in the eastern counties of Ireland, northern France and Northern Europe. It is available on Freeview, Sky, and Virgin Media. Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it the UK's second most-popular radio station after Radio 2. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as ''Today'' and ''The World at One'', heralded on air by the Greenwich Time Signal pips or the chimes of Big Ben. The pips are only accurate on FM, LW, and MW; there is a delay on digital radio of three to five seconds and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Radio 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the principal broadcaster of the BBC's BBC Sound Archive, spoken-word archive, and as a result the majority of its programming originates from that archive. It also broadcasts extended and companion programmes to those broadcast on Radio 4, and provides a "catch-up" service for certain programmes. The station launched in December 2002 as BBC 7, broadcasting a mix of archive comedy, drama and current children's radio. The station was renamed BBC Radio 7 in 2008, then relaunched as Radio 4 Extra in April 2011. For the first quarter of 2013, Radio 4 Extra had a weekly audience of 1.642 million people and had a market share of 0.95%; in the last quarter of 2016 the numbers were 2.184 million li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Tompkinson
Stephen Phillip Tompkinson (born 15 October 1965) is an English actor, known for his television roles as Marcus in '' Chancer '' (1990), Damien Day in ''Drop the Dead Donkey'' (1990–1998), Father Peter Clifford in ''Ballykissangel'' (1996–98), Trevor Purvis in ''Grafters'' (1998–1999), Danny Trevanion in '' Wild at Heart'' (2006–2013) and Alan Banks in ''DCI Banks'' (2010–2016). He won the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor. He also starred in the films ''Brassed Off'' (1996) and '' Hotel Splendide'' (2000). Early life Tompkinson was born in Stockton-on-Tees. When he was about age 4, his family moved to Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire and then to Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, where he grew up and attended St Bede's Roman Catholic High School in Lytham and St Mary's Sixth Form in Blackpool. Tompkinson's first lead was as a red admiral butterfly in ''The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner''. He went on to train at the Central School of Speech an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicola Walker
Nicola Jane Walker (born 15 May 1970) is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama '' Spooks'' (2003–2006 and 2009–2011) and DCI Cassie Stuart in ''Unforgotten'' (2015–2021). She has also worked in theatre, radio and film. She won the 2013 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for the play ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'', and was twice nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for the BBC drama ''Last Tango in Halifax''. Early life Walker was born in Stepney in the East End of London and has an elder brother. She attended Saint Nicholas School at Old Harlow in Essex, and Forest School, Walthamstow, and undertook acting classes from the age of 12 in order to speak to boys. Interviewed in 2014 by ''The Daily Telegraph'', she said, "I was really encouraged by my mother. My dad thought it was a ridiculous thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrian Scarborough
Adrian Philip Scarborough (born 10 May 1968) is an English actor. He has appeared in films including ''The Madness of King George'' (1994), ''Gosford Park'' (2001), ''Vera Drake'' (2004), ''The History Boys'' (2006), ''The King's Speech'' (2010), ''Les Misérables'' (2012) and '' 1917'' (2019). He is also known for his roles in television such as '' Cranford'' (2007–2009), ''Gavin & Stacey'' (2007–2010; 2019), ''Upstairs Downstairs'' (2010–2012), '' The Paradise'' (2013), '' Crashing'' (2016), ''A Very English Scandal'' (2018), ''Killing Eve'' (2019), and '' The Chelsea Detective'' (2022). Scarborough is also an accomplished theatre actor and has twice won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; he won in 2011 for his role in the Terence Rattigan play '' After the Dance'' and in 2020 for his performance in Tom Stoppard's play ''Leopoldstadt''. Early life Scarborough was born and raised in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. He attended Brooksby Melt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meera Syal
Meera Syal FRSL (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is a English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in '' The Kumars at No. 42''. She became one of the UK's best-known Asian personalities. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours and in 2003 was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama and literature. Early-life Syal was born on 27 June 1961 in Wolverhampton and grew up in Essington, Staffordshire, a mining village a few miles to the north. Her Indian Punjabi parents; Surinder Syal (father) and Surinder Kaur Uppal (mother), came to the United Kingdom from New Delhi. Her father was Khatri and her mother was Jat. When she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clive Rowe
Clive Mark Rowe (born 27 March 1964) is a British actor, best known for his role as Norman "Duke" Ellington in BBC Children's drama ''The Story of Tracy Beaker''. He also starred as Mayor Doyle in the Disney show '' The Evermoor Chronicles''. Biography Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Clive Rowe grew up in Shaw, Lancashire, in the parish of East Crompton and attended St. James Primary School and Crompton House School. As a teenager he was a member of Crompton Stage Society. He is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Rowe has appeared in many pantomimes. Television Rowe has appeared on television in ''Dalziel and Pascoe'' and ''The Bill'', and had a main role as "Duke" in ''The Story of Tracy Beaker'' in Series 1 to 4. He appeared in the 2007 Christmas special of '' Doctor Who'' — "Voyage of the Damned" as "Morvin Van Hoff". More recently, he appeared on the BBC1 drama '' All The Small Things'', portraying "Clifford Beale", a homeless caretaker, more commonly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Dare
Bill Dare is an English author and creator/producer of radio and television comedy programmes. Biography Dare is an author and producer/devisor of various (mainly comedy) programmes mainly for BBC Radio and television, including ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'', '' Dead Ringers'', ''The Now Show'', ''The Late Edition'', '' I've Never Seen Star Wars'' and ''The Secret World'', and '' Brian Gulliver's Travels''. He was also the producer of eight series of ITV's ''Spitting Image''. A running gag on the radio version of ''Dead Ringers'' was Jon Culshaw, in the style of Tom Baker saying Dare's name in an exaggerated fashion at the end of the credits. He wrote and appeared in his own Radio 4 sketch show, '' Life, Death and Sex with Mike and Sue'' which ran for five series. More recently he has emerged as a more serious writer. Dare's first novel, ''Natural Selection'' is published in the UK and US, and his first stage play, ''Touch'', was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Bain
Sam Bain (born 3 August 1971) is a British comedy writer, best known for the Channel 4 sitcom ''Peep Show''. He attended St Paul's School in London before graduating from the University of Manchester, where he met his writing partner Jesse Armstrong. Career Collaborations with Jesse Armstrong At the beginning of their writing career, Bain and Armstrong wrote for the Channel 4 sketch show ''Smack the Pony'' and the children's shows ''The Queen's Nose'' and ''My Parents Are Aliens''. They went on to create and write ''Peep Show'', BBC One sitcom ''The Old Guys'', and most recently Channel 4 comedy-dramas '' Fresh Meat'' and ''Babylon''. They also wrote for the Radio Four sketch show ''That Mitchell and Webb Sound'', starring ''Peep Shows two main actors David Mitchell and Robert Webb, and its BBC Two adaptation ''That Mitchell and Webb Look''. ''Peep Show'' has won several writing awards, including a BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy in 2008. To date, Bain and Armstrong have writt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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