|
England, My England
''England, My England'' is a 1995 British historical film directed by Tony Palmer and starring Michael Ball, Simon Callow, Lucy Speed and Robert Stephens. It depicts the life of the composer Henry Purcell, seen through the eyes of a playwright in the 1960s who is trying to write a play about him. It was written by John Osborne and Charles Wood. Cast * Simon Callow ... Charles II * Michael Ball ... Henry Purcell * Rebecca Front ... Mary II * Lucy Speed ... Nell Gwyn * Letitia Dean ... Lady Castlemaine * Nina Young ... Frances Purcell * John Shrapnel ... Samuel Pepys * Robert Stephens ... John Dryden * Terence Rigby ... Captain Henry Cooke * Bill Kenwright ... Bill * Murray Melvin ... Earl of Shaftesbury * Corin Redgrave ... William of Orange * John Fortune ... Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon * Guy Henry ... James II * Peter Woodthorpe ... Kiffen * Edward Michie ... Young Harry * Tom Shrapnel ... Young Pelham * Antonia de Sancha ... Louise * Constantine G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Palmer (director)
Tony Palmer (born 29 August 1941)IMDb: Tony Palmer Retrieved 24 September 2011 is a British film director and author. His work includes over 100 films, ranging from early works with the Beatles, Cream (band), Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher (''Irish Tour '74 (Film), Irish Tour '74'') and Frank Zappa (''200 Motels''), to his classical portraits which include profiles of Maria Callas, Margot Fonteyn, John Osborne, Igor Stravinsky, Richard Wagner, Yehudi Menuhin, Julian Lloyd Webber, Carl Orff, Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams. He is also a stage director of theatre and opera. Among over 40 international prizes for his work are 12 Gold Medals from the New York Film Festival as well as numerous BAFTAs and Emmy Awards. Palmer has won the Prix Italia twice, for ''A Time There Was'' in 1980 and ''At the Haunted End of the Day'' in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Letitia Dean
Letitia Jane Dean (born 14 November 1967) is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Sharon Watts in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. An original cast member from 1985 to 1995, she reprised the role from 2001 to 2006, and again from 2012 onwards. For the role, she was awarded the British Soap Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2022. Her other television roles include ''Grange Hill'' (1983–1984), '' Brookside'' (1984), '' The Hello Girls'' (1996–1998) and '' Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married'' (1999–2000). In 2007, she participated in the fifth series of the BBC dance competition ''Strictly Come Dancing'', finishing fourth. On stage, she starred in the West End production of ''High School Musical'' in 2008, and in the UK touring production of '' Calendar Girls'' in 2010. Early life Dean was born in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, to parents Leslie (a tailor) and Ellie Dean, in a cottage rented on the estate of English romantic novelist Barbara Cartland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl Of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 16099 December 1674) was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II from 1660 to 1667. Hyde largely avoided involvement in the political disputes of the 1630s until elected to the Long Parliament in November 1640. Like many moderates he felt attempts by Charles I to rule without Parliament had gone too far, but by 1642 felt Parliament's leaders were, in turn, seeking too much power. A devout believer in an Episcopalian Church of England, his opposition to Puritan attempts to reform it drove much of his policy over the next two decades. He joined Charles in York shortly before the First English Civil War began in August 1642, and initially served as his senior political advisor. However, as the war turned against the Royalists, his rejection of attempts to build alliances with Scots Covenanters or Irish C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Fortune
John Courtney Fortune (born John Courtney Wood; 30 June 1939 – 31 December 2013) was an English actor, writer and satirist, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the television series '' Bremner, Bird and Fortune''. Early life Fortune was born John Courtney Wood in Bristol on 30 June 1939. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John Bird. Career Fortune's early work included contributions to Peter Cook's Establishment Club team in 1962, and as a regular member of the cast of the BBC-TV satire show '' Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life'', both alongside Eleanor Bron and John Bird. Fortune and Bird also worked together on the TV show ''A Series of Birds'' in 1967, and Fortune and Bron wrote and performed a series of sketches for TV in '' Where Was Spring?'' in 1969. In 1971, with John Wells, he published the comic novel '' A Melon for Ecstasy'', abo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William III Of England
William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, Zeeland, Lordship of Utrecht, Utrecht, Guelders, and Lordship of Overijssel, Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1672, and List of English monarchs, King of England, Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland, and List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. He ruled Great Britain and Ireland with his wife, Queen Mary II, and their joint reign is known as that of William and Mary. William was the only child of William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, Mary, Princess Royal, the daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland. His father died a week before his birth, making William III the prince of Orange from birth. In 1677, he Cousin marriage, married his first cousin Mary, the elder daughter of his maternal u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corin Redgrave
Corin William Redgrave (16 July 19396 April 2010) was an English actor. Early life Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. He was educated at Westminster School and King's College, Cambridge. Career Redgrave played a wide range of character roles on film, television and stage. On stage, he was known for performances by Shakespeare (such as ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Henry IV, Part 1'','' Antony and Cleopatra'', and ''The Tempest'') and Noël Coward (a highly successful revival of ''A Song At Twilight'' co-starring his sister Vanessa Redgrave and his second wife, Kika Markham). For his role as the prison warden Boss Whalen in the Royal National Theatre production of Tennessee Williams's '' Not About Nightingales'', Redgrave was nominated for an Evening Standard Award, and after a successful transfer of the production to New York, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play, in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murray Melvin
Murray Melvin (10 August 1932 – 14 April 2023) was an English actor. A member of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company, he originated the part of Geoffrey in Shelagh Delaney's play '' A Taste of Honey'', reprising the role in Tony Richardson's 1961 film version. He appeared in several Ken Russell film and television productions including '' The Devils'' (1971) and played Reverend Samuel Runt in Stanley Kubrick's ''Barry Lyndon'' (1975). Melvin's other notable screen roles include parts in '' Alfie'' (1966) and ''Torchwood'' (2007). He also worked as a theatre director and authored two books on the theatre. Early life Melvin was born on 10 August 1932, in St. Pancras, London, the son of Hugh Victor Melvin and Maisie Winifred, née Driscoll. Melvin left his north London secondary school at the age of fourteen unable to master fractions but as head prefect, a qualification he said he gained by always having clean fingernails and well-combed hair. He started work as an of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Kenwright
William Kenwright (4 September 1945 – 23 October 2023) was an English theatre and film producer. He was also the chairman of Everton Football Club for nearly two decades, from 2004 until his death in 2023. Early life Kenwright was born in Liverpool and attended Booker Avenue County Primary School, and then Liverpool Institute High School for Boys (predecessor to LIPA) from 1957 to 1964. He was treasurer of the Christian Union at school. Kenwright was a judge in the 2007 BBC One television series '' Any Dream Will Do''. Theatre As a theatre producer, Kenwright is best known for the long-running West End hit '' Blood Brothers'' and the record-breaking UK tour of '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat''. Other productions have included West End runs of '' Whistle Down the Wind'' at the Palace Theatre, '' Festen'' in London, on a UK tour and on Broadway, '' The Big Life'', '' Elmina's Kitchen'', '' Scrooge – The Musical'', '' The Night of the Iguana'', ''A Few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captain Henry Cooke
Henry Cooke (c. 1616 – 13 July 1672) commonly known as Captain Cooke, was an English composer, choirmaster and singer. He was a boy chorister in the Chapel Royal and by the outbreak of the English Civil War was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. He joined the Royalist cause, in the service of which he rose to the rank of captain. With the Restoration of Charles II he returned to the Chapel Royal as Master of the Children and was responsible for the rebuilding of the chapel and the introduction of instrumental music into the services. The choristers in his charge included his successor and eventual son-in-law Pelham Humfrey, as well as Henry Purcell, John Blow, William Turner, Robert Smith and Michael Wise. Percy M. Young. ''A History of British Music'' (1967), p. 241 On reconstituting the choir of the Chapel Royal, Dussuaze states: Cooke was one of the five English composers who created music for Sir William Davenant Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terence Rigby
Terence Christopher Gerald Rigby (2 January 1937 – 10 August 2008) was an English actor with a number of film and television credits to his name. In the 1970s he was well known as police dog-handler PC Snow in the long-running series '' Softly, Softly: Task Force''. Early life Terence Rigby was born in Erdington, Birmingham, and was educated at St Philip's School. He was trained at RADA and had his national service in the Royal Air Force. Career His film roles included ''Get Carter'' (1971), ''Watership Down'' (1978), ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' (1997), ''Elizabeth'' (1998), ''Mona Lisa Smile'' (2003) and '' Colour Me Kubrick'' (2006). His notable television roles included ''Dixon of Dock Green'', '' Softly, Softly: Task Force''; ''Z-Cars'', '' The First Lady'', '' Callan'', '' The Saint'', '' Public Eye'', '' Edward & Mrs. Simpson'', ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy''; ''Airline'', ''Rumpole of the Bailey'', '' Boon'', ''Lovejoy'', ''Our Friends in the North'', ''Born to Run'', '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dryden
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (England), Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romantic era, Romantic writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John". Early life Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was the rector of All Saints Church, Aldwincle, All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st BaroneSir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, t (1553–1632), and wife Frances Wilkes, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. He was a second cousin once removed of Jonath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most remembered today for the diary he kept for almost a decade. Though he had no Maritime pilot, maritime experience, Pepys rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both Charles II of England, Charles II and James II of England, James II through patronage, diligence, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty (United Kingdom), English Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources of the Stuart Restoration. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
