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A Poke In The Eye (With A Sharp Stick)
''A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)'' is the title of the first show in what later became the '' Secret Policeman's Ball'' series of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International, although it pre-dated by three years the first show to bear that name. The film of the show was titled ''Pleasure at Her Majesty's'' which is sometimes mistakenly thought to be the title of the actual benefit show. Background The landmark 1976 show starring the Monty Python, ''Beyond the Fringe'', and The Goodies teams and other top British comedic performers of the 1960s and 1970s, led directly to the 1979 show ''The Secret Policeman's Ball'' - which in turn triggered the involvement of major rock stars such as Sting, Bono, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Geldof in working for the human rights cause. It set a precedent that would inspire many subsequent Amnesty galas, as well as Comic Relief. The concept was also the inspiration of similar events in aid of Amnesty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Her Majesty's Theatre
His Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated in the Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The building, designed by Charles J. Phipps, was constructed in 1897 for the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) at the theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century Tree produced spectacular productions of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare and other classical works, and the theatre hosted premieres by such playwrights as George Bernard Shaw, Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge and, later, Noël Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since the First World War the wide stage has made the theatre suitable for large-scale musical productions, and His Majesty's has accordingly specialised in hosting musical theatre, musicals. It has been home to record-setting musical theatre runs such as the First World War hit ''Chu Chin Chow'' and Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), The Phantom of the Oper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Cleveland
Carol Cleveland (born Carol Gillian Frances on 13 January 1942) is an American-English actor, comedian, dancer, and model. She is particularly known for her work with Monty Python. Early life Born in East Sheen, London, she moved to the United States with her mother and U.S. Air Force stepfather at an early age. She was brought up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lubbock, Texas; and later Pasadena, California, where she attended John Marshall Junior High School and Pasadena High School. She is a former Miss California Navy and appeared as Miss Teen Queen in '' MAD Magazine'' at age 15. Cleveland was Miss Teen in the August 1958 issue of ''Dig'' magazine. Cleveland returned with her family to London in 1960, and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Career A stage actress and model, Carol Cleveland appeared in ''The Persuaders!'', in '' The Saint'' as a secretary, as a lover of Peter Wyngarde's character in '' The Avengers'' TV series episode "A Touch of Brimstone" (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam ( ; born 22 November 1940) is an American-British filmmaker, comedian, collage film, collage animator, and actor. He gained stardom as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman. Together they collaborated on the sketch comedy, sketch series ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (1969–1974) and the films ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975, also co-directed), ''Monty Python's Life of Brian, Life of Brian'' (1979) and ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, The Meaning of Life'' (1983). In 1988, they received the British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Award for BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award, Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. In 2009, Gilliam received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement. Gilliam transitioned to directing serious films with themes exploring imagination and oppositions to bureaucracy and authoritarianism. His films are some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including '' Do Not Adjust Your Set'' and '' The Frost Report'', before creating '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'' with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'', which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films '' Life of Brian'' and '' The Meaning of Life''. Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighthood, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019 New Year Honours, 2019. Palin started in television working on programmes including the ''Ken Dodd Show'', ''The Frost Report'', and ''Do Not Adjust Your Set''. He joined ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (1969–1974) alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman. He acted in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "Argument Clinic", "Dead Parrot sketch", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python), The Spanish Inquisition", "Bicycle Repair Man", and "The Fish-Slapping Dance". Palin continued to work with Jones away from Python, co-writing ''Ripping Yarns''. Palin co-wrote and starred in ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the Surreal humour, surrealist comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel (Monty Python), The Colonel and the lead role in two Python films, ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Holy Grail'' (1975) and ''Monty Python's Life of Brian, Life of Brian'' (1979). Chapman was born in Leicester and was raised in Melton Mowbray. He enjoyed science, acting, and comedy and after graduating from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, he turned down a career as a doctor to be a comedian. Chapman eventually established a writing partnership with John Cleese, which reached its critical peak with Monty Python during the 1970s. He subsequently left Britain for Los Angeles, where he attempted to be a success on American television, speaking on the college circuit and producing the pirate film ''Yellowbea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on ''The Frost Report''. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus.'' Along with his Python costars Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975), ''Monty Python's Life of Brian, Life of Brian'' (1979), and ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, The Meaning of Life'' (1983). In the mid-1970s, Cleese and first wife Connie Booth cowrote the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'', in which he starred as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, for which he won the 1980 British Academy Television Award for Best Ente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Film
An art film, arthouse film, or specialty film is an independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily for aesthetic reasons rather than commercial profit", and containing "unconventional or highly symbolic content". Film critics and film studies scholars typically define an art film as possessing "formal qualities that mark them as different from mainstream Hollywood films". These qualities can include (among other elements) a sense of social realism; an emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and a focus on the thoughts, dreams, or motivations of characters, as opposed to the unfolding of a clear, goal-driven story. Film scholars David Bordwell and Barry Keith Grant describe art cinema as "a film genre, with its own distinct conventions". Art film producers usually present their films at special theaters (repertory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Film Theatre
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the United Kingdom, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute. ''Forbes'' called its largest cinema, NFT1, "one of the crown jewels of the London film scene". History The National Film Theatre was initially opened in a temporary building (the Telecinema) at the Festival of Britain in 1951 and moved to its present location in 1957, replacing the Thameside restaurant on the site. It opened for the first BFI London Film Festival on 16 October 1957. Later, the Southbank Centre expanded its buildings to meet the National Film Theatre from the south, while the National Theatre occupies the area to the northeast. A second screen was added on 21 September 1970. In 1988, a new building was constructed for the Museum of the Moving Image between the National Film Theatre and Belvedere Road. Designed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estimated that around 240 feature films and 150 short films from more than 70 countries are screened at the festival each year. History At a dinner party in 1953, at the home of film critic Dilys Powell of ''The Sunday Times'', attended by film administrator James Quinn (film administrator), James Quinn, guests discussed the lack of a film festival in London. Quinn went on to start the first London Film Festival, which took place at the new National Film Theatre (now renamed BFI Southbank) from 16 to 26 October 1957. The first festival screened 15–20 films that were already successful at other festivals, including Akira Kurosawa's ''Throne of Blood'' (which opened the festival), Satyajit Ray's ''Aparajito'', Andrzej Wajda's ''Kanał'', Luchin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Graef
Roger Arthur Graef OBE (18 April 1936 – 2 March 2022) was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investigating previously closed institutions, including Government ministries and court buildings. Early life Graef was born in New York City, and started directing plays at Harvard University, staging the New England premiere of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein's opera '' The Mother of Us All'' in 1956, and the premiere of Robert Penn Warren's ''Brother to Dragons'' in 1957. He directed 24 plays in theatres along the East Coast, and was chosen by CBS for its new TV drama directors' program. He directed two network dramas for CBS, including ''The Seven who were Hanged'', a one-hour special adapted and produced by Robert Herridge from the Leonid Andreyev novel of the same name. Career in Britain Graef moved to Britain in 1962 and directed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
