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Fantabulosa!
''Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!'' is a 2006 BBC Four television play starring Michael Sheen as the English comic actor Kenneth Williams, based on Williams' own diaries. Cheryl Campbell plays Williams's mother, Lou. Michael Sheen performed extensive research for the role, watching archive footage and reading books. He also followed the cabbage soup diet to lose to play Williams. The drama received good reviews, with ''The Observer ''singling out Sheen's performance as "a characterisation for which the description tour-de-force is, frankly, pretty faint praise". ''The Times'' compared Sheen's performance to "a diamond that is so dazzling as a result of the expertise deployed in its cutting that you can’t fully focus on the underlying shape of the stone, which is what actually enables it to glitter so spectacularly." Viewing figures were 860,000 for its original airing, including Time shifting, timeshift, making it by far the most popular BBC Four broadcast of March 2006. Its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Critchlow
Stephen Anthony Critchlow (22 November 1966 – 19 September 2021) was a British actor, known for his work in the theatre and appearances on radio series such as ''Truly, Madly, Bletchley'', ''The Way We Live Right Now'', and '' Spats'', along with radio episodes of ''Torchwood'' ('' Lost Souls''), and ''Doctor Who'' (''The Nowhere Place''). He has also appeared in '' Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!'' as Kenneth Horne, in Red Dwarf XI as computer-generated space ship captain Edwin Herring, ''Hattie'' as the ''Carry On'' film director Gerald Thomas and appeared in the West End version of '' The 39 Steps''. After recovering from a stroke in January 2020, Critchlow was diagnosed with cancer in January 2021 and was receiving medical treatment at Guy's Hospital in London. He continued working in audio productions in 2021 and died in September 2021, at the age of 54. Early life and education Stephen Critchlow was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in the United Kingdom. He trained a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Joan (play)
''Saint Joan'' is a play by George Bernard Shaw about 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc. Premiering in 1923, three years after her canonization by the Roman Catholic Church, the play reflects Shaw's belief that the people involved in Joan's trial acted according to what they thought was right. He wrote in his preface to the play: There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all here isabout it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us. Michael Holroyd has characterised the play as "a tragedy without villains" and also as Shaw's "only tragedy". John Fielden has discussed further the appropriateness of characterising ''Saint Joan'' as a tragedy. The text of the published play includes a long Preface by Shaw. Characters * Robert de Baud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Windsor
Dame Barbara Windsor (born Barbara Ann Deeks; 6 August 193710 December 2020) was an English actress, known for her roles in the ''Carry On'' films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC One soap opera, ''EastEnders''." Ten Things You Never Knew About Barbara Windsor" ''Digital Spy'' 23 May 2007 She joined the cast of ''EastEnders'' in 1994 and won the 1999 , before ultimately leaving the show in 2016 when her character was |
Kenneth Halliwell
Kenneth Leith Halliwell (23 June 1926 – 9 August 1967) was a British actor, writer and collagist. He was the mentor, boyfriend and murderer of playwright Joe Orton. Childhood Halliwell was born in Bebington. He was very close to his mother; when he was 11, he witnessed her death from a wasp sting at the family home. Halliwell was a classics scholar at Wirral Grammar School, where he gained his Higher School Certificate in 1943. Eligible for military service in 1944, he registered as a conscientious objector, and was exempted conditional upon becoming a coal miner. After discharge in 1946, he acted for a time in Scotland and then returned home to act in Birkenhead. His father committed suicide in 1949 by inhaling coal-gas in a gas oven; Halliwell was the first to find the body the following morning, but he "stepped over the body, put the kettle on, made a cup of tea and had a shave" before he reported the death. Halliwell later moved to London to study drama at the Royal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Hawtrey (film Actor)
George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 – 27 October 1988), known as Charles Hawtrey, was an English actor, comedian, singer, pianist and theatre director. Beginning at an early age as a boy soprano, he made several records before moving on to radio. His later career encompassed the theatre (as both actor and director), the cinema (where he regularly appeared supporting Will Hay in the 1930s and 1940s in films such as ''The Ghost of St. Michael's''), through the ''Carry On'' films, and television. Life and career Early life Born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England in 1914, to William John Hartree (1885–1952) and his wife Alice (née Crow) (1880–1965), of 217 Cromwell Road, as George Frederick Joffre Hartree, he took his stage name from the theatrical knight, Sir Charles Hawtrey, and encouraged the suggestion that he was his son. However, his father was actually a London car mechanic. Following study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Hancock
Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James, when it became known in early 1960, disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best-remembered work (including " The Blood Donor" and "The Radio Ham"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career declined. Early life and career Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham (then in Warwickshire), but, from the age of three, he was brought up in Bournemouth (then in Hampshire), where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Trenaman
Martin Trenaman (born 1962) is an English comedy writer and actor, who has contributed to many modern comedy series. He played Simon's father, Alan Cooper, in the sitcom ''The Inbetweeners'' (2008-10). He reprised the role of Mr. Cooper for the subsequent Inbetweeners films released in 2011 and 2014. Career Trenaman won ''So You Think You're Funny?'' in 1994 and went on to write additional material for shows such as ''Head on Comedy'', '' Lenny Henry in Pieces'' and ''Haywire'', and for comedians such as Harry Enfield, Johnny Vaughan and Phil Kay. The Lenny Henry special which he contributed to was winner of the Golden Rose of Montreaux in 2001. Trenaman has been credited with writing material for '' Is It Bill Bailey?'' and ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks''. He appeared in two of Bailey's live shows; with Phil Whelans in ''Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam'' (1996) as part of the band "The Stan Ellis Experiment", and in ''Part Troll'' (2004) with Kevin Eldon and John Moloney in Kraftwer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Eade
Peter John Aylmer Eade (11 March 1919 – 25 April 1979) was an English theatrical agent most well known for his representation of individuals such as Kenneth Williams, Ronnie Barker, and Joan Sims. Eade died in Ropley, Hampshire in 1979, aged 60. In the 2006 BBC television film '' Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!'', about the life of Williams, Eade was portrayed by Ron Cook Ronald G. Cook (born 1948) is an English actor. He has been active in film, television and theatre since the 1970s. Early and personal life Cook was born in 1948 in South Shields, County Durham, England, the son of a school cook and a car wo .... References English talent agents 1979 deaths 1919 births People from Ropley {{England-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Cook
Ronald G. Cook (born 1948) is an English actor. He has been active in film, television and theatre since the 1970s. Early and personal life Cook was born in 1948 in South Shields, County Durham, England, the son of a school cook and a car worker. When he was six his family moved to Coventry; he went to Wyken Croft Junior School and then Caludon Castle School and is a graduate of Rose Bruford College. Career On stage, he appeared in the original 1988 production of Timberlake Wertenbaker's play ''Our Country's Good''. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor in 2000 for his role in '' Juno and the Paycock'' at the Donmar Warehouse. He also appeared in a new play by Conor McPherson, '' The Seafarer'', at the Royal National Theatre. In 2008–2009, he took part in the Donmar's West End season at Wyndham's Theatre, playing Sir Toby Belch in ''Twelfth Night'' and Polonius in ''Hamlet''. In 2011, he played The Fool in ''King Lear'' st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brief period he shocked, outraged, and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. The adjective ''Ortonesque'' refers to work characterised by a similarly dark yet farcical cynicism. Early life Orton was born on 1 January 1933 at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, Leicester, to William Arthur Orton and Elsie Mary Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until tuberculosis cost her a lung. At the time of Joe's birth William and Mary were living with William's family at 261 Avenue Road Extension in Clarendon Park, Leicester. The same year that Joe's younger brother Douglas was born, 1935, the Ortons moved to 9 Fayrhurst Road on the Saffron Lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
