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Harry Driver
Harry Driver (13 May 1931 – 25 November 1973) was a British television scriptwriter and executive producer. He is best remembered for his partnership with Vince Powell on comedy television programmes including ''Never Mind The Quality Feel The Width'', '' Nearest and Dearest'', '' Bless This House'' and '' Love Thy Neighbour''. Biography Driver formed an amateur comedy act with Vince Powell known as Hammond and Powell, which performed in the Northern club circuit. Driver developed polio in December 1955. According to the BFI Screenonline, he spent "the next 18 months in hospital (12 of them in an iron lung), and, unable to move his arms and legs, the rest of his life in a wheelchair. ... Driver began to write stories and scripts, initially when in the iron lung (via dictation) and then on a typewriter, apparently with a knitting needle clenched between his teeth." Driver began sending scripts to Granada Television, one of his submissions was eventually accepted. He received hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackley
Blackley is a suburban area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is approximately north of Manchester city centre, on the River Irk. History The hamlet of Blackley was mentioned in the Domesday Book. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon Blæclēah = "dark wood" or "dark clearing". In the 13th and 14th centuries Blackley was referred to as ''Blakeley'' or ''Blakelegh''. By the Middle Ages, Blackley had become a park belonging to the lords of Manchester.' Its value in 1282 was recorded as £6 13s 4d, a sum approximately equivalent in buying power to £333,500 today. The lords of Manchester leased the land from time to time. In 1473, John Byron held the leases on Blackley village, Blackley field and Pillingworth fields at an annual rent of £33 6s 8d. The Byron family continued to hold the land until the beginning of the 17th century when Blackley was sold in parcels to a number of landowners. By the middle of the 17th century, Blackley was a rural village ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bootsie And Snudge
''Bootsie and Snudge'' is a British sitcom that aired on ITV for three series from 1960 to 1963, with a fourth in 1974. The show is a spin-off of ''The Army Game'', a sitcom about soldiers undertaking national service, and follows two of the main characters (played by Alfie Bass and Bill Fraser) after they returned to civilian life. The first series is titled ''Bootsie and Snudge in Civvy Life''. Between the 1963 and 1974 series, a spin-off called ''Foreign Affairs'' was broadcast. Background Bass and Fraser acted together in minor roles in the 1956 comedy film '' Jumping for Joy'' starring Frankie Howerd and possibly developed a friendship from that point. Private Montague 'Bootsie' Bisley and Sergeant-Major Claude Snudge are two of the main characters in the successful sitcom ''The Army Game'' that aired from 1957 to 1961. Snudge enjoys his position of superiority over Bootsie, whilst Bootsie feels comfortable in his position as it allows him to mock and hate Snudge (and atta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
For The Love Of Ada
''For the Love of Ada'' is an ITV sitcom that ran between 1970 and 1971. Although not seen on British TV for over 30 years, the complete series began airing again in late 2018 on Talking Pictures TV, albeit edited with certain offensive words muted out. One of the notable points about this series was there were no opening titles or closing credits in the real sense of the word. Instead both were superimposed on the screen as the 'live' action and script played out on the screen. Outline The sitcom stars Irene Handl as Ada Cresswell, a Cockney widow, a pensioner who is prone to malapropisms. She lives with her daughter Ruth Pollitt (Barbara Mitchell) and son-in-law Leslie ( Jack Smethurst). Ada starts a relationship with Walter Bingley (Wilfred Pickles), the gravedigger who buried her husband, after meeting him at the cemetery while laying flowers on her husband's grave. Walter is a Yorkshireman; his relationship with Ada slowly changes from one of companionship to one of rom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two In Clover
''Two in Clover'' is a British sitcom that ran for two series from 1969 to 1970. It starred Sid James and Victor Spinetti and was written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, and produced and directed by Alan Tarrant. The first series was made in black and white and the second series was made in colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ .... It was made by Thames Television for the ITV network. Plot Two city clerks, Sid Turner (James) and Vic Evans (Spinetti), abandon the nine-to-five to run a small farm out in the country. A recurring theme throughout the two series was Sid's love of his Friesian cow "Fanny". Cast * Sidney James - Sid Turner * Victor Spinetti - Vic Evans * Gerald Flood - Gerald Bromley-Jones *Victor Platt - Landlord * Bill Pertwee - Policeman * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Best Of Enemies (TV Series)
''Best of Enemies'' is a British comedy television series which first aired on ITV between 6 August 1968 and 16 July 1969. Rival Conservative and Labour MP's are forced to share an office in the Houses of Parliament. The two characters are inversions of their stereotypes with the Tory a more modest man who rides a bicycle while his Labour counterpart drives an expensive jaguar. Coote had already portrayed an MP in the 1967 series ''The Whitehall Worrier'', with which it shared a gentler humour.Fielding p.121 All episodes are believed to be lost. Cast * Robert Coote as Willie Gordon MP * Tim Barrett as Geoffrey Broom MP * Deryck Guyler as Wilkins * Jay Denyer as Policeman * Ann Lancaster as Mrs. Ewing * Geoffrey Palmer as Johnson * Jill Dixon Jill Dixon (born 1935) is an English actress. Personal life and career Jill Dixon was born in England in 1935. She made her debut as an actress at the age of three, appearing as a water nymph at the London Hippodrome. Although she ap ... [...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] |
ABC Weekend TV
ABC Weekend TV was the popular name of the British broadcaster ABC Television Limited, which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one of the "Big Four" companies that between them produced the majority of ITV networked programmes during this period. Originally created as Associated British Cinemas (Television) Ltd, ABC was one of a number of commercial television companies established during the 1950s by cinema chain companies, in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television, which was taking away their cinema audiences. In this case, the parent company was the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) — owner of ABC Cinemas — which initially did not wish to become involved with the new broadcasting system, but was persuaded to do so by the Independent Television Authority (ITA) and the manager of its Pathé News subsidiary Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width
''Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width'' is a British television sitcom first broadcast in 1967 as a single play in the ''Armchair Theatre'' anthology series, later becoming a series of half-hour episodes, which ran until 1971. A total of 40 episodes were made; all but one of them are believed to have aired. It was originally made by ABC Weekend TV for the ITV network, with its production being continued by Thames Television. Plot The plots revolves around two tailors in business together. Manny Cohen, played by John Bluthal, is Jewish, and Patrick Kelly, played by Joe Lynch, is Irish Catholic. Above their shop works Lewtas (Bernard Spear) who is also Jewish and imports cloth. Two further prominent characters are Rabbi Levy ( Christopher Benjamin in the pilot – he reappeared in a later episode as Dr Shapiro – Cyril Shaps in series 1 to 4, David Nettheim and Jonathan Burn as Rabbi Stone in series 5) from the local synagogue, and Father Ryan ( Denis Carey in the pilot, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armchair Theatre
''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Canadian-born producer Sydney Newman was in charge of ''Armchair Theatre'' between September 1958 and December 1962, during what is generally considered to have been its best era, and produced 152 episodes. History Intent ''Armchair Theatre'' filled a Sunday-evening slot on ITV, Britain's only commercial network at the time, in which contemporary dramas were the most common form, though this was not immediately apparent. The series was launched by Howard Thomas, head of ABC at the time, who argued that "Television drama is not so far removed from television journalism, and the plays which will grip the audience are those that face up to the new issues of the day as well as to the problems as old as civilisation." The original producer of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George And The Dragon (TV Series)
''George and the Dragon'' is a British situation comedy made by ATV for the ITV network which was transmitted in four series comprising 26 episodes between 19 November 1966 and 31 October 1968. The regular cast was Sid James, Peggy Mount, John Le Mesurier and Keith Marsh. The show was written by Harry Driver and Vince Powell; Shaun O'Riordan was the director, and Alan Tarrant was the main producer. Outline George Russell (James), a handyman and chauffeur, and Gabrielle Dragon (Mount), a housekeeper, are both employed by Colonel Maynard (Le Mesurier). Also among the staff is Ralph (Marsh), a gardener. George's lascivious behaviour has been responsible for the resignation of 16 previous housekeepers, but Gabrielle, a formidable widow in her forties, will have none of it. The two leading characters are frequently at crossed swords with each other and George regularly schemes to remove her from her job. Mount herself was unlike the 'battleaxe' characters she tended to play, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adam Adamant Lives!
''Adam Adamant Lives!'' is a British adventure television series that ran from 1966 to 1967 on BBC 1, starring Gerald Harper in the title role. The series was created and produced by several alumni from ''Doctor Who''. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, ''Adam Adamant Lives!'' was a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian (Adamant vanished in 1902, when Edward VII had been on the throne just one year). In 2020, Big Finish Productions reimagined the series as an audio drama. Main character The main character originally went through a number of possible names: "Cornelius Chance", "Rupert De'Ath", "Dick Daring", "Dexter Noble", "Aurelian Winton", "Magnus Hawke" and even "Darius Crud" before Sydney Newman settled on Adam Adamant, named after the generic mineral term adamantine which, since medieval times, has commonly referred to diamond. In the opening episode, "A Vintage Year for Scoundrels", Ada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pardon The Expression
''Pardon The Expression!'' was an ITV sitcom made by Granada Television, that was first broadcast from Wednesday 2 June 1965 to Monday 27 June 1966. The sitcom was one of four spin-offs from the soap opera ''Coronation Street''. ''Pardon the Expression'' itself had a spin-off: '' Turn Out the Lights'', broadcast in 1967. There was not another spin-off until the 1980s with ''The Brothers McGregor'', which reused two characters (played by different actors) who appeared in a single episode. Leonard Swindley, played by Arthur Lowe was the central character. Formerly the manager of the fashion retail store "Gamma Garments" in ''Coronation Street'', in this series he is the deputy manager of the department store Dobson and Hawks. His boss in the series was Ernest Parbold, played by Paul Dawkins, who was replaced by Wally Hunt, played by Robert Dorning, in series 2. Other regulars were Betty Driver as canteen lady Mrs Edgeley, and Joy Stewart as Miss Sinclair, the boss's secretary. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
