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Vent (radio Series)
''Vent'' is a dark comedy series produced for BBC Radio 4 in 2006. It is written by Nigel Smith. The producer is Gareth Edwards. The story revolves around an unsuccessful writer named Ben Smith (Neil Pearson), who is in a coma. While his wife Mary (Fiona Allen) and his mother (Josie Lawrence) hash out their emotional issues at his bedside, he lives in a fantasy world with his 2-year-old daughter "Blitzkrieg" (real name Beatrice; Leslie Ash), miraculously grown up, and remembers incidents from his life. An imaginary sitcom, apparently written by Ben and concerning a coma ward in a hospital, plays in the background. A second series of 6 episodes began broadcasting on BBC Radio 4 on 25 September 2007. A third series describing Ben's return home, still clinging to his fantasy life, began broadcasting on BBC Radio 4 on 24 November 2009. While the flashbacks in the first series concern Ben and Mary's courtship, pursued somewhat reluctantly on Mary's part, the second series shows ... [...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] |
Neil Pearson
Neil John Pearson (born 27 April 1959) is a British actor, known for his work on television. He was nominated for the 1994 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for '' Between the Lines'' (1992–1994). His other television roles include ''Drop the Dead Donkey'' (1990–1998), '' All the Small Things'' (2009), '' Waterloo Road'' (2014–2015), and '' In the Club'' (2014–2016). His film appearances include all three of the ''Bridget Jones'' films. He is also an antiquarian book dealer who specialises in the expatriate literary movement of Paris between the World Wars. Early life Pearson grew up in Battersea and Balham, London. His father, a panel beater, left home when he was five; his mother was a legal secretary. He was a boarder at Woolverstone Hall School near Ipswich, Suffolk, where he first learned to act. He attended the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1977 to 1980. Stage, television and film work One of Pearson's early appearances was in 1984 alongside Leonard Rossit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiona Allen
Fiona Allen (born 13 March 1965) is an English comedian and actress, most known for her work on Channel 4's ''Smack the Pony'' between 1999 and 2003. Career Allen has appeared in many sketch shows, including ''We Know Where You Live'' (Channel 5), ''Smack the Pony'' (Channel 4), '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and ''The All Star Comedy Show''. She has also appeared in many television dramas including ''Dalziel and Pascoe'' and '' Coronation Street'', as well as the sitcom ''Happiness'' alongside Paul Whitehouse. Subsequently, she appeared as Sandra, in the film version of the '' Viz'' comic strip '' The Fat Slags'', and as a panelist on one episode of ''Mock the Week''. Allen appeared in the first episode of the second series of the E4 teenage drama '' Skins'', playing Maxxie's mum Jackie Oliver. Jackie is married to Walter who is played by Bill Bailey. She also appears in BBC drama '' Waterloo Road'' as Georgia Stevenson, playing the former lover of Tom Clarkson. From 2019 to 2020, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josie Lawrence
Josie Lawrence (born Wendy Lawrence; 6 June 1959) is an English actress and comedian. She is best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' and as Manda Best in '' EastEnders''. Early life Lawrence was born Wendy Lawrence on 6 June 1959 in Old Hill, Staffordshire. Her parents were Bert Lawrence and Kathleen Lawrence, née Griffin, who were married in 1948. She has older twin siblings, John and Janet, who are ten years her senior (1949). They were brought up in nearby Cradley Heath, where her father worked for British Leyland and her mother as a dinner lady. She knew she wanted to be an actress at the early age of 5, and by the time she was 16 she joined the Barlow Players in Oldbury. She studied at Dartington College of Arts from 1978 to 1981, receiving a Bachelor of Arts honours degree. Career Stage Her first acting role was as a young boy in a production of ''The Ragged Trousered Philanthropis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Ash
Leslie Ash (born 19 February 1960) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles in ''C.A.T.S. Eyes'' (1985–1987), the BBC sitcom ''Men Behaving Badly'' (1992–1997), ITV drama '' Where the Heart Is'' (2000–2003), and BBC medical drama ''Holby City'' (2009–2010). Her book ''My Life Behaving Badly: The Autobiography'' was published in 2007. Early career Ash was born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and first appeared on British television in 1964 at the age of four asking "Mummy, why are your hands so soft?" in an advertisement for the washing-up product Fairy Liquid. She was educated at the independent Italia Conti Academy stage school, and then started a career as a fashion model appearing on the cover of a number of teenager magazines, including ''Pink'', and '' Jackie'', for which she was photographed by David Bailey. Having appeared with her sister Debbie in the 1978 British slapstick comedy ''Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse''; her first major film ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Smith (writer) , English musical band manager who formed 1990s British boy band Take That
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Nigel Smith may refer to: * Nigel Smith (footballer, born 1958), English football defender * Nigel Smith (footballer, born 1969), English football striker * Nigel Smith (racing driver) (born 1951), British businessman and retired auto racing driver * Nigel Smith (alpine skier) (born 1964), British former alpine skier * Nigel Smith (literature scholar), British literature professor * Nigel Martin-Smith Nigel Martin-Smith is a Manchester-based English musical band manager. He helped form the 1990s British boy band Take That. Biography Early career Martin-Smith entered the entertainment industry in the early 1980s working as a casting agent fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gareth Edwards (producer)
Gareth Edwards (born 1965) is a radio and television producer and writer. He is the great-grandson of Hollywood pioneer Albert E. Smith, founder of Vitagraph Studios. TV and radio career He has worked on a number of radio and TV programmes including ''Comedy Firsts'' (ITV, 1995), ''The Big Town All Stars'' (BBC Radio 4, 1998), ''Spaced'' (Channel 4, 1999), '' The Bigger Issues'' (BBC Radio 4, 2000), ''Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections'' (BBC Radio 2, 2001), '' Dead Ringers'' (BBC Two, 2003, 2004), ''Posh Nosh'' (BBC Two, 2003), ''Vent'' (BBC Radio 4, 2006–09) Edwards produced ''That Mitchell and Webb Sound'' (BBC Radio 4, 2003–09), which won a Sony Silver Award in 2004; he also produced the TV version of this, starring the same David Mitchell and Robert Webb, entitled ''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' (BBC Two, 2006–10), which won best comedy BAFTA in 2006. Edwards also produced ''The One Ronnie'' (BBC One, 2010), a one-off comedy television sketch show that aired on ... [...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] |
Locked-in Syndrome
Locked-in syndrome (LIS), also known as pseudocoma, is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and blinking. The individual is conscious and sufficiently intact cognitively to be able to communicate with eye movements. Electroencephalography results are normal in locked-in syndrome. Total locked-in syndrome, or completely locked-in state (CLIS), is a version of locked-in syndrome wherein the eyes are paralyzed as well. Fred Plum and Jerome B. Posner coined the term for this disorder in 1966. Signs and symptoms Locked-in syndrome is usually characterized by quadriplegia (loss of limb function) and the inability to speak in otherwise cognitively intact individuals. Those with locked-in syndrome may be able to communicate with others through coded messages by blinking or moving their eyes, which are often not affected by the paralysis. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as ''The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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