Ken Dodd
Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd (8 November 1927 – 11 March 2018) was an English stand-up comedy, comedian, actor and singer. He was described as "the last great music hall entertainer" and was primarily known for his live stand-up comedy, stand-up performances. A lifelong resident of the Knotty Ash neighbourhood of Liverpool, Dodd started his career as an entertainer in the mid-1950s. His performances included rapid and incessant delivery of often surreal jokes, and would run for several hours, frequently past midnight. His verbal and physical comedy was supplemented by his red, white, and blue "Feather duster, tickling stick" Theatrical property, prop, but these colours could change for occasions such as St Patrick's Day, when he would choose a green, white and orange pair. He often introduced the sticks with his characteristic upbeat greeting of "How tickled I am!" He interspersed comedy with songs, both serious and humorous, and with his original speciality, ventriloquism. He had s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Knotty Ash
Knotty Ash is an area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and a Liverpool City Council Ward. Historically in Lancashire, the population at the 2001 Census was 13,200, increasing to 13,312 at the 2011 Census. Knotty Ash is well known as the home of comedian Sir Ken Dodd, who often mentioned it in his act. Description Knotty Ash is a small area on the eastern fringe of Liverpool and neighbours the West Derby, Old Swan, Broadgreen, Dovecot and Huyton districts. Its name is derived from a gnarled ash tree which formerly stood near the present-day Knotty Ash public house. In 2004, comedian and local resident Ken Dodd planted a new ash tree close to the site of the original. Governance Knotty Ash is represented on Liverpool City Council by three councillors, and is wholly within the Liverpool West Derby constituency. The current MP is Ian Byrne ( Labour), who has represented the seat since 2019. Education Knotty Ash has the special needs secondary school Clifford Holroyde an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Betws Y Coed
Betws-y-Coed () is a village and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. The village is located near the confluence of the River Conwy and the River Llugwy and is on the eastern edge of Snowdonia. The population of the community as of the 2021 census was 476, a decline on the previous census. The name of the village means "prayer-house in the woods", and a monastery is known to have existed in the area in the sixth century. The oldest parts of St Michael's Church, which lies to the north-east of the village, date to the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Betws-y-Coed remained a small agricutural community until the nineteenth century, when a lead mining industry developed and part of Thomas Telford's London to Holyhead road (the present A5) was constructed through the village in 1815, followed by a railway station in 1865. These new transport links encouraged new developments to serve tourists, such as the Church of St Mary, and the area became popular with landscape artists ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Central Pier, Blackpool
Central Pier is one of three piers in the town of Blackpool, England, and was built in 1868. Location The pier is central in that it is located between the other two, but it was close to the site of the now-defunct Blackpool Central railway station about 550 yards south of Blackpool Tower. Since the coastline is very straight and flat, the pier simply extends at right angles to the sea front, roughly level with the promenade. History The success of the North Pier, Blackpool, North Pier prompted the formation of the Blackpool South Jetty Company one year later in 1864. Impressed with the construction of Blackpool Pier (North Pier), the company hired the same contractor, Richard Laidlaw and Son of Glasgow for the project. This time, however, the company used the designs of Lieutenant-Colonel John Isaac Mawson rather than those of Eugenius Birch. When the pier was opened on 30 May 1868, it was 503 yards in length, 131 yards of which was a landing jetty for use at low tide. The fir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool, borough of the same name. Blackpool was originally a small hamlet; it began to grow in the mid-eighteenth century, when sea bathing for health purposes became fashionable. Blackpool's beach was suitable for this activity, and by 1781 several hotels had been built. The opening of a railway station in 1846 allowed more visitors to reach the resort, which continued to grow for the remainder of the nineteenth century. In 1876, the town became a borough. Blackpool's development was closely tied to the Lancashire cotton mill, cotton-mill practice of annual factory maintenance shutdowns, known as wakes weeks, when many workers chose to visit the seaside. The town saw large growth during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. By 1951 its popu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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BBC Online
BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, the children's sites CBBC and CBeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize and BBC Own It, Own It. The BBC has had an online presence supporting its TV and radio programmes and web-only initiatives since April 1994, but did not launch officially until 28 April 1997, following government approval to fund it by Television licensing in the United Kingdom, TV licence fee revenue as a service in its own right. Throughout its history, the online plans of the BBC have been subject to competition and complaint from its commercial rivals, which has resulted in various public consultations and government reviews to investigate their claims that its large presence and public funding distorts the UK market. The website has gone through several bran ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham is the legendary home of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and Smoking in the United Kingdom, tobacco industries. The city is also the county town of Nottinghamshire and the settlement was granted its city charter in 1897, as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. In the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Nottingham had a reported population of 323,632. The wider conurbation, which includes many of the city's suburbs, has a population of 768,638. It is the largest urban area in the East Midlands and the second-largest in the Midlands. Its Functional Urban Area, the largest in the East Midlands, has a population of 919,484. The population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hulme Hippodrome
The Hulme Hippodrome in Manchester, England, is a shuttered Grade II listed building, a proscenium arch theatre with two galleries and a side hall. It was originally known as the Grand Junction Theatre and Floral Hall, and opened on 7 October 1901 on the former main road of Preston Street, Hulme, and stage access is from Warwick Street. The Hulme Hippodrome theatre is located in the same building and shares a party wall with its small sibling theatre, Playhouse Theatre, Manchester, The Playhouse. The Hippodrome was a music hall and variety theatre, a repertory theatre in the 1940s, and hired on Sundays for recording BBC programmes with live audiences between 1950 and 1956. In the 1960s and 1970s it was a bingo hall, and from 2003 used by a disgraced church. The theatre has been closed since 2018 and a campaign group exists to bring it back into use as a community resource, where the current owner is seeking permission to build apartments. Its local name in memoirs and records is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ronnie Taylor (scriptwriter)
Ronnie Taylor (28 June 1921 – 9 September 1979) was an English television and radio comedy scriptwriter, producer and director. Early life Born in Leigh, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester), Taylor left school at 14 to join his family's firm of insurance brokers. He taught himself to play the piano and guitar and became involved with amateur dramatics/musicals. He formed a vocal group and wrote sketches and songs and became a founder member of "The Kordites". In 1941, he joined RAF Signals and served in North Africa and Italy where he also wrote and produced service entertainment. BBC After the war he was auditioned at BBC Manchester by Bowker Andrews, producer, and initially mistaken as the tuner for the studio Bechstein piano. He was offered a 13-week job writing continuity for Gracie Fields. Fields introduced Taylor to her protégé variety performer Norman Evans and Taylor was contracted to write the radio series ''Over the Garden Wall'', for which Evans is best remem ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Malocclusion
In orthodontics, a malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. The English-language term dates from 1864; Edward Angle (1855–1930), the "father of modern orthodontics", popularised it. The word derives . The malocclusion classification is based on the relationship of the mesiobuccal cusp of the maxillary first molar and the buccal groove of the mandibular first molar. If this molar relationship exists, then the teeth can align into normal occlusion. According to Angle, malocclusion is any deviation of the occlusion from the ideal. However, assessment for malocclusion should also take into account aesthetics and the impact on functionality. If these aspects are acceptable to the patient despite meeting the formal definition of malocclusion, then treatment may not be necessary. It is estimated that nearly 30% of the population have malocclusions that are cat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sixpence (British Coin)
The United Kingdom, British sixpence () coin, sometimes known as a tanner, was a denomination (currency), denomination of Coins of the United Kingdom, sterling coinage worth of a Pound (currency), pound or half a Shilling (British coin), shilling. It was first minted in 1551, during the reign of Edward VI of England, Edward VI, and circulated until 1980. The coin was made from silver from its introduction in 1551 until 1947, and thereafter in cupronickel. Before Decimal Day in 1971, sterling used the Carolingian monetary system (£sd), under which the largest unit was a pound (£), divisible into 20 shillings (s), each worth 12 pence (d), the value of two pre-decimal sixpence coins. Following decimalisation, the old sixpence had a value of Penny (British decimal coin), new pence (£0.025). In 2016, new decimal sixpences (face value £0.06) began being minted by the Royal Mint as commemorative issues; these coins have been produced for each year since then, and are minted in s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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British Comics
A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. As of 2014, the three longest-running comics of all time were all British. British comics are usually Comics anthology, comics anthologies which are typically aimed at children, and are published weekly, although some are also published on a fortnightly or monthly schedule. The two most popular British comic book, comics, ''The Beano'' and ''The Dandy'', were released by DC Thomson in the 1930s. By 1950 the weekly circulation of both reached two million.Armstrong, Stephen"Was Pixar's Inside Out inspired by The Beano?"''The Telegraph''. 27 July 2015 Explaining the enormous popularity of comics in British popular culture during this period, Anita O’Brien, director curator at London's Cartoon Museum, states: "When comics like ''The Beano'' and ''Dandy'' were invented back in the 1930s – and thr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Showbusiness
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, producers, and distributors), the term applies to the creative element (including artists, performers, writers, musicians, and technicians) and was in common usage throughout the 20th century, though the first known use in print dates from 1850. At that time and for several decades, it typically included the initial definite article ''the''. By the latter part of the century, it had acquired a slightly arcane quality associated with the era of variety, but the term was still in active use. In modern entertainment industry, it is also associated with the fashion industry (creating trend and fashion) and acquiring intellectual property rights from the invested research in the entertainment business. Industry The global media and entertainment (M&E) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |