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William Simons
Clifford William Cumberbatch Simons (17 November 1940 – 21 June 2019) was a Welsh actor best known for his role as PC Alf Ventress in ''Heartbeat (British TV series), Heartbeat'', a role he played from 1992 to 2010. Early life Simons was born on 17 November 1940 in Swansea where his father was stationed in the Second World War and he grew up in South Wales until the family moved to North London. He started acting as a child, appearing in the films ''No Place for Jennifer'' (1950), ''Where No Vultures Fly'' (1951) and ''West of Zanzibar (1954 film), West of Zanzibar'' (1954). He then suffered from severe acne, which caused him to prefer working backstage as a stage manager for four years before deciding to become an adult actor. Later in life, he would become a patron of the charity Changing Faces (charity), Changing Faces, which supports people with facial deformities. ''Heartbeat'' Simons played PC Ventress for the entire 18-year run of ''Heartbeat''. Although playing a heavy ...
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The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as ''The Daily Telegraph and Courier''. ''The Telegraph'' is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The paper's motto, "Was, is, and will be", was included in its emblem which was used for over a century starting in 1858. In 2013, ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Telegraph'', which started in 1961, were merged, although the latter retains its own editor. It is politically conservative and supports the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party. It was moderately Liberalism, liberal politically before the late 1870s.Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalismp 159 ''The Telegraph'' has had a number of news scoops, including the outbreak of World War II by rookie reporter Clare Hollingworth, desc ...
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Herbal Cigarette
An herbal cigarette (also called a tobacco-free cigarette or nicotine-free cigarette) is a cigarette that usually does not contain any tobacco or nicotine, instead being composed of a mixture of various herbs and/or other plant material. However, Chinese herbal cigarettes contain tobacco and nicotine with herbs added, unlike European and North American herbal cigarettes which have tobacco and nicotine omitted. Like herbal smokeless tobacco, they are often used as a substitute for standard tobacco products (primarily cigarettes). Herbal cigarettes are often advertised as a smoking cessation aid. They are also used in acting scenes by performers who are non-smokers, or where anti-smoking legislation prohibits the use of tobacco in public spaces. Herbal cigarettes can carry carcinogens. Construction Paper and filter Herbal cigarettes are most often made using standard-issue rolling papers and cigarette filters, bundled together. Herbal blend A wide range of consumable products may ...
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Dempsey & Makepeace
''Dempsey and Makepeace'' is a British television crime drama made by LWT for ITV, created and produced by Ranald Graham. Lead roles were played by Michael Brandon (Lieutenant Dempsey) and Glynis Barber (Sergeant Makepeace), who got married in 1989. Premise The premise of ''Dempsey and Makepeace'' is the oddball pairing of two police detectives: an elegant British noblewoman, Sgt (Lady) Harriet Makepeace, and a streetwise working-class New Yorker, Lt James Dempsey, both working for an elite and armed unit of the London Metropolitan Police. When his partner Joey dies in a botched drugs operation and he uncovers police corruption at the highest level, Dempsey is under threat of assassination. With help from his colleagues, he hurriedly leaves New York for London, on the pretence of an undercover international police exchange programme. Harriet "Harry" Makepeace is the daughter of Lord Winfield (Ralph Michael), who owns an English stately home. Reference is made to his having fo ...
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Minder (TV Series)
''Minder'' is a British comedy-drama series about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television, and shown on ITV for ten series between 29 October 1979 and 10 March 1994. The series was revived by Channel 5 in 2009 but was discontinued after only six episodes. It was nominated three times for Best Drama Series or Serial at the British Academy Television Awards. Plot The first seven series starred Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann, an honest and likeable former boxer turned bodyguard (''minder'' in Cockney parlance), and George Cole as Arthur Daley, an ageing chancer and petty schemer, importer/exporter, wholesaler, used-car salesman and purveyor of anything else from which there was money to be made, legally or not. The series is principally set in working class west London (specifically Shepherd's Bush, Ladbroke Grove, Fulham and Acton), and was largely responsible for introduc ...
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The Sweeney
''The Sweeney'' is a British police drama television series focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London. It stars John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Dennis Waterman as his partner, Detective Sergeant George Carter. It was produced by the Thames Television subsidiary Euston Films for broadcast on the ITV network in the United Kingdom from 2 January 1975 to 28 December 1978. The programme's title comes from the Cockney rhyming slang term " Sweeney Todd", used to refer to the Flying Squad by London's criminal fraternity in the mid 20th century. The popularity of the series in the UK led to two feature films '' Sweeney!'' (1977) and '' Sweeney 2'' (1978) both starring Thaw and Waterman, and a later film, '' The Sweeney'' (2012), starring Ray Winstone as Regan and Ben Drew as Carter. Background ''The Sweeney'' was developed from a one-off TV drama ...
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Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced street in the fictional town of Weatherfield in Greater Manchester. The location was itself based on Salford, the hometown of the show's first screenwriter and creator, Tony Warren. Originally broadcast twice weekly, ''Coronation Street'' increased its runtime in later years, currently airing three 60-minute episodes per week. Warren developed the concept for the series, which was initially rejected by Granada's founder Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein, Sidney Bernstein. Producer Harry Elton convinced Bernstein to commission 13 pilot episodes. The show has since become a significant part of British culture and underpinned the success of its producing Granada franchise. Currently produced by ITV Studios, the successor to Granada, the seri ...
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Francis Storm Investigates
''Francis Storm Investigates'' is a British television series which originally aired on ITV in 1960.Pitts p.316 A former SOE operative sets up as a private detective from his mews house in Kensington. Main cast * Brian Worth as Francis Storm * William Simons as Robin * Sarah Long as Penelope Worth * Robin Wentworth Robin Wentworth (20 July 1915 – 16 August 1997) was a British television actor, whose most prominent role was that of Ted Dawson in 116 episodes of soap-serial ''United!''. Early life A former Taunton schoolboy, he auditioned at Birmingham ... as Sgt. Pilcher References Bibliography * Pitts, Michael R. ''Famous Movie Detectives III''. Scarecrow Press, 2004. External links * {{IMDb title, id=1439727 1960 British television series debuts 1960 British television series endings 1960s British drama television series British English-language television shows ITV television dramas Television shows produced by Associated-Rediffusion ...
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Auf Wiedersehen Pet
''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' () is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven British construction workers who leave the United Kingdom to search for employment overseas. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf. The series was created by Franc Roddam after an idea from Mick Connell, a bricklayer from Stockton-on-Tees, and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who also wrote ''The Likely Lads'', ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'' and ''Porridge''. It starred Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Christopher Fairbank, Pat Roach and Gary Holton, with Noel Clarke replacing Holton for series three and four and the two-part finale. The series were broadcast on ITV in 1983–1984 and 1986. After a sixteen-year gap, two series and a Christmas special were shown on BBC One in 2002 and 2004. In 2000, series 1, set in Germany, was ranked number 46 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes in a list ...
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The Sun Makers
''The Sun Makers'' is the fourth serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 November to 17 December 1977. The serial is set on Pluto. In the serial, the alien time traveller the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his travelling companions Leela (Louise Jameson) and K9 (John Leeson) start a revolution among the humans against an alien corporation which has an economic hold over humanity. Plot The Fourth Doctor and Leela arrive on the planet Pluto just in time to prevent one of its citizens, Cordo, from committing suicide over his tax bill. The monopolistic energy company on Pluto is using its economic stranglehold to extract ever growing taxes and those who refuse to pay are forced to live in the dark tunnels of the Undercity. The Doctor, Leela and Cordo venture to the Undercity, where they encounter thieves and dropouts led by the brutal Mandrel. Mandrel tells the Doctor ...
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Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial being called the Doctor, part of a humanoid species called Time Lords. The Doctor travels in the universe and in time using a time travelling Spacecraft, spaceship called the TARDIS, which externally appears as a British police box. While travelling, the Doctor works to save lives and liberate oppressed peoples by combating List of Doctor Who villains, foes. The Doctor usually travels with Companion (Doctor Who), companions. Beginning with William Hartnell, List of actors who have played the Doctor, fourteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor; the most recent being Ncuti Gatwa, who portrayed the Fifteenth Doctor from 2023 to 2025. The transition between actors is written into the plot of the series with the Regeneration ...
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The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries
''The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries'' is a British detective television series, broadcast on BBC1, which was adapted from nine of the novels by Dame Ngaio Marsh, featuring the character Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. The pilot episode was shown in 1990, with Simon Williams playing the part of Alleyn. Two series followed in 1993 and 1994, with Patrick Malahide replacing Williams in the title role. Premise In the pilot episode, the character of Alleyn was played by Simon Williams. William Simons was cast as Alleyn's right-hand man and " Dr Watson", Detective Inspector Fox, and Belinda Lang starred as painter Agatha Troy, Alleyn's love interest. When a full series finally came to screen three years later, Simon Williams was unavailable, and the role of Alleyn was filled by Patrick Malahide, while Simons and Lang reprised their roles. Over the course of two series, eight episodes were broadcast, each focusing on a separate novel in the series. Both Malahide series were released ...
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Cribb
''Cribb'' (''Sergeant Cribb'' in North America) is a television police drama, which debuted in 1979 as a 90-minute TV film from Granada Television in the United Kingdom. Later, thirteen 50-minute episodes were produced, which ran from 1980 to 1981. Adapted from Peter Lovesey's Sergeant Cribb historical mystery novels and set in Victorian London around the time of the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888, Alan Dobie starred as the tough Detective Sergeant who worked for the newly formed Criminal Investigation Department (CID), determined to remove crime from the streets of London using the latest detection methods. The series portrayed life in Victorian England, and the programmes included many real historical events such as the publication of Jerome K. Jerome's ''Three Men in a Boat'' and the sale of London Zoo's famous elephant, Jumbo, to Barnum and Bailey's Circus. The stories included issues such as bare-knuckle prize fighting, spiritualism and Irish terrorism. Assisting C ...
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