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The Steam Video Company
''The Steam Video Company'' was a 1984 comedy series produced by Thames Television for ITV written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. The six episode series was a low budget spoof of the horror genre, intermingled with spoofs on contemporary television programmes, such as '' Nationwide''. The programmes starred the same repertory cast of comic actors in a variety of roles. The cast included: William Franklyn, Barry Cryer, Anna Dawson, Bob Todd, Madeline Smith and Jimmy Mulville James Thomas Mulville (born 5 January 1955) is an English comedian, comedy writer, producer and television presenter. He is best known for co-founding (in 1986) the British independent television production company Hat Trick Productions with .... The title is thought to be a reference to 'the golden age of steam railways', with the 'steam video' apparently a spoof on the multitude of low-budget horror and exploitation films available during the early days of the British home video boom. Catchp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 9:25 Monday morning to 5:15 Friday afternoon (7:00 Friday night until 1982) at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT). Formed as a joint company, it merged the television interests of British Electric Traction (trading as Associated-Rediffusion) owning 49%, and Associated British Picture Corporation—soon taken over by EMI—owning 51%. Like all ITV franchisees, it was a broadcaster, a producer and a commissioner of television programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and, as one of the History of ITV#The Big Four and Big Five, "Big Five" ITV companies, for networking nationally across the ITV regions. After its loss of franchise i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV (TV Network)
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs the ITV1 channel, and STV Group, which runs the STV channel. The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Marshall (writer)
Andrew Paul Marshall (born 27 August 1954) is a British comedy screenwriter, most noted for the domestic sitcom ''2point4 children''. He was also the inspiration for Marvin the Paranoid Android in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Although he had also previously adapted stories for ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'', in 2002 he made a further move into writing "straight" drama, with the fantasy horror series '' Strange''. He has also written several screenplays. Career Born in Lowestoft, Marshall attended Fen Park School and then Lowestoft Grammar School, and afterwards Borough Road College where he studied mathematics and psychology. Around the same time, he worked regularly on Radio 4's ''Week Ending'', together with David Renwick, Douglas Adams, Alistair Beaton, John Lloyd, Simon Brett and others. Shortly afterwards he began writing ''The Burkiss Way'' with David Renwick and John Mason (who later dropped out to go to acting school). Renwick and Marshall remained scriptwri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Renwick
David Peter Renwick (; born 4 September 1951) is an English author, television writer, actor, director and executive producer, best known for creation of the sitcom ''One Foot in the Grave'' and the mystery series ''Jonathan Creek''. He was awarded the Writers Guild Ronnie Barker Award at the 2008 British Comedy Awards. Early life The son and only child of James George Renwick (born 1924) and Winifred May Renwick (née Smith) who were married in 1948, David Renwick was born and brought up in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. He was educated at Luton Grammar School, including its Sixth Form, a former state grammar school. The school became known as Luton Sixth Form College while he was still a pupil. He studied journalism at Harlow Technical College. Career 1970s Before becoming a comedy writer Renwick worked as a journalist, reporter and sub-editor on his home town newspaper, the ''Luton News''. On beginning his comedy writing career in the mid-1970s he initially submitted materi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horror Film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs. Cinematic techniques used in horror films have been shown to provoke psychological reactions in an audience. Horror films have existed for more than a century. Early inspirations from before the development of film include folklore, religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures, and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror only became a codified genre after the release of ''Dracula'' (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, slasher films, supernatural horror and psychological horror. The genre has been produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nationwide (TV Series)
} ''Nationwide'' was a BBC current affairs television programme which ran from 9 September 1969 until 5 August 1983. Originally broadcast on BBC 1 from Tuesday to Thursday, and then each weekday from 1972, it followed the early evening news, and included the regional opt-out news programmes. Outline It followed a magazine format, combining regional news, political analysis and discussion with consumer affairs, light entertainment and sports reporting. It began on 9 September 1969, running between Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00pm, before being extended to five days a week in 1972. From 1976 until 1981, the start time was 5:55pm. The final edition was broadcast on 5 August 1983 and, the following October, it was replaced by ''Sixty Minutes''. The long-running ''Watchdog'' programme began as a ''Nationwide'' feature. The light entertainment was quite similar in tone to ''That's Life!'', with eccentric stories such as a skateboarding duck and men who claimed that they could walk on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Franklyn
William Leo Franklyn (22 September 1925 – 31 October 2006) was a British actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973. He also performed on stage, film, television and radio, taking over from Peter Jones as "The Book" (the narrator) in the third, fourth and fifth radio series of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. He is also known for his portrayal of Sexton Blake for BBC Radio 4 in 1967. Early life Franklyn was born in Kensington into an acting family: his maternal grandfather, Arthur Rigby, Sr and uncle, Arthur Rigby, Jr, mother, Mary Rigby, and father, Leo Franklyn, were all actors. He was taken to Australia as a baby, where his father toured with musical comedies. The young Franklyn attended Wesley and Haileybury Colleges, both in Melbourne, and developed an abiding love of cricket. He later trialled as a fast bowler for Essex, and opened the bowling for the Stage Cricket Club. He also became a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer (23 March 1935 – 25 January 2022) was an English writer, comedian, and actor. As well as performing on stage, radio and television, Cryer wrote for many performers including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Ronnie Corbett, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Spike Milligan, Mike Yarwood, ''The Two Ronnies'' and Morecambe and Wise. Early life Cryer was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, to John Cryer, an accountant, who died when Barry was five, and his wife, Jean. After an education at Leeds Grammar School, he began studying English literature at the University of Leeds. He later described himself as a university dropout: "I was supposed to be studying English Literature at Leeds, but I was in the bar and chasing girls and my first-year results showed it. So I'm 'BA Eng. Lit. failed' of Leeds." Career Cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Dawson
Anna Dawson (born 27 July 1937) is an England, English actress and singer. Born in County Borough of Bolton, Bolton, Lancashire, Dawson spent part of her childhood in Tanganyika (territory), Tanganyika, where her father worked. She attended the Elmhurst School for Dance, Elmhurst Ballet School and after training at the Central School of Speech and Drama she learned her craft by playing in repertory theatre companies. Dawson went on to star in several West End theatre, West End musicals. She featured in episodes of ''Dixon of Dock Green'' during the 1960s, ''The Benny Hill Show'' during the 1980s, and played Hyacinth Bucket's sister List of Keeping Up Appearances characters#Violet and Bruce, Violet ("the one with the Mercedes, sauna and room for a pony") in the final series of the sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances'', though her character was only featured on screen briefly in four episodes. Dawson is married to former ''Black and White Minstrel Show'' soloist John Boulter. TV cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Todd
Brian Todd (15 December 1921 – 21 October 1992), known professionally as Bob Todd, was an English comedy actor, mostly known for appearing as a straight man in the sketch shows of Benny Hill and Spike Milligan. For many years, he lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Life and career Todd was born in Faversham, Kent. One of the stooges of television comedy, Todd was best known for his lugubrious expression and talent for slapstick, and was known to fellow comedians by the nickname 'Silly Todd'. Before working in television, Todd trained to be a dentist. The outbreak of the Second World War saw him enlist in the Royal Air Force, where he became a navigator stationed at RAF North Killingholme, Lincolnshire. He had ambitions of becoming a farmer—making money from cattle breeding, whilst working as a manager at London Airport. The farming business, once begun, failed and almost made him bankrupt. Meeting scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson in a pub, he bluffed them into belie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madeline Smith
Madeline Smith (born 2 August 1949) is an English actress. After working as a model in the late 1960s, she went on to appear in many television series and stage productions, plus comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s. She is perhaps best known for playing Bond girl Miss Caruso in '' Live and Let Die'' (1973), but also had larger roles in the Hammer horror films ''The Vampire Lovers'' (1970), ''Taste the Blood of Dracula'' (1970), '' Tam-Lin'' (1970), ''Theatre of Blood'' (1973) and ''Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell'' (1974) and comedy films including ''Up Pompeii'' (1971), ''Up the Front'' (1972) and ''Carry On Matron'' (1972) amongst others. She also appeared in the films ''The Killing of Sister George'' (1968), ''Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You'' (1970), ''The Amazing Mr. Blunden'' (1972) and the musical film ''Take Me High'' (1973) with Cliff Richard. After leaving the acting profession in the mid 1980s to bring up her family, she returned to acting in 2011. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Mulville
James Thomas Mulville (born 5 January 1955) is an English comedian, comedy writer, producer and television presenter. He is best known for co-founding (in 1986) the British independent television production company Hat Trick Productions with Denise O'Donoghue and Rory McGrath (who left in 1992). In 2003, Mulville and O'Donoghue, as co-founders of Hat Trick, were listed in ''The Observer'' as two of the 50 funniest people in Britain. Early career Brought up in Walton, Liverpool, Mulville attended Alsop High School, a local comprehensive. He began his career as an actor and writer for the Cambridge Footlights, whilst reading French and Classics at Jesus College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Mulville met Rory McGrath with whom he both performed and wrote. He became president of Cambridge Footlights in 1977 and after graduating, went on to work for BBC Radio comedy for four years, producing shows such as ''Injury Time'' (1980–1982) and '' Radio Active'', before moving to television i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
