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Withnail
''Withnail and I'' is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann, respectively), who share a flat in Camden Town in 1969. Needing a holiday, they obtain the key to a country cottage in the Lake District belonging to Withnail's wealthy eccentric uncle Monty and drive there. The weekend holiday proves less recuperative than they expected. ''Withnail and I'' was Grant's film debut and established his profile. Featuring performances by Richard Griffiths as Withnail's Uncle Monty and Ralph Brown as Danny the drug dealer, the film has tragic and comic elements and is notable for its period music and many quotable lines. It has been described as "one of Britain's biggest cult films". The character "I" is named "Marwood" in the published screenplay but goes unnamed in the film credits. Plot I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Steadman
Ralph Idris Steadman (born 15 May 1936) is a British illustrator and collaborator with the American writer Hunter S. Thompson. Steadman draws satirical political cartoons, social caricatures, and picture books. Early life Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire to an English father, Lionel Raphael Steadman, and a Welsh mother, Gwendoline; the family moved to Wales towards the end of the Second World War. Steadman attended the Grammar School in Abergele in north Wales but hated the draconian, sadistic new headmaster and left aged 16. "I couldn't wait to get out," he said. He came from a lower middle class background; his father was a commercial traveller and his mother was a shop assistant at T J Hughes in Liverpool. Steadman took his first job at 16 as a RADAR Operator at the De Havilland aircraft factory in the border town of Broughton near Chester but only remained for nine months, finding factory life repetitive and dull, and becoming fed up with fellow employees, citing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daragh O'Malley
Daragh Gerard Marion O'Malley (born 25 May 1954) is an Irish actor, director, and producer. O'Malley is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Patrick Harper in the series '' Sharpe'' (1993–2009) starring with Sean Bean although O'Malley has appeared in a number of other films, major television shows, and stage productions throughout his career in the UK and in the US. Career O'Malley trained at LAMDA - London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art - and began his acting career with roles in '' Crossroads'' (147 episodes) on ITV and then roles in the films '' The Long Good Friday'' and ''Withnail and I''. O'Malley went on to star in over 100 UK and US television series, including '' Tales of the Unexpected'', '' Waking The Dead'', ''Silent Witness'', '' Wire In The Blood'' and ''Vera'', as well as appearing in TV roles in ''Longitude'', ''Cleopatra'', and ''The Magnificent Seven''. O'Malley played Irish explorer Tom Crean in the eight-part television series '' The Last Place on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Elphick
Michael John Elphick (19 September 1946 – 7 September 2002) was an English film and television actor. He played the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series '' Boon'' and Harry Slater in BBC's ''EastEnders''. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1983 film '' Gorky Park''. With his gruff Sussex accent and lip-curling sneer, he often played menacing hard men. Elphick struggled with an addiction to alcohol; at the height of his problem, he admitted to consuming two litres (½ gallon) of spirits a day, which contributed to his death from a heart attack in 2002. Early life Elphick grew up in Chichester, Sussex, where his family had a butcher's shop. He was educated at Lancastrian Secondary Modern Boys School in Chichester, where he took part in several school productions including ''Noah'' and ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. He initially considered joining the Merchant Navy and helped out in his local boatyard du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What A Piece Of Work Is A Man
"What a piece of work is a man!" is a phrase within a monologue by Prince Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. Hamlet is reflecting, at first admiringly, and then despairingly, on the human condition. The speech is recited at the end of the film '' Withnail and I'' and the text was set to music by Galt MacDermot for the rock opera ''Hair.'' The speech The monologue, spoken in the play by Prince Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act II, Scene 2, follows in its entirety. Rather than appearing in blank verse, the typical mode of composition of Shakespeare's plays, the speech appears in straight prose: Differences between texts The speech was fully omitted from Nicholas Ling's 1603 First Quarto, which reads simply: This version has been argued to have been a bad quarto, a tourbook copy, or an initial draft. By the 1604 Second Quarto, the speech is essentially present but punctuated differently: Then, by the 1623 First Folio, it appeared as: J. Dove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92 million, and the largest in Northern England. It borders the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The city borders the boroughs of Trafford, Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Stockport, Tameside, Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Oldham, Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Rochdale, Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Bury and City of Salford, Salford. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort (''castra'') of Mamucium, ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers River Medlock, Medlock and River Irwell, Irwell. Throughout the Middle Ages, Manchester remained a ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squatting
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there were one billion slum residents and squatters globally. Squatting is practiced worldwide, typically when people find empty buildings or land to occupy for housing. In developing countries and least developed countries, shanty towns often begin as squatted settlements. In African cities such as Lagos, much of the population lives in slums. There are pavement dwellers in India and in Hong Kong as well as rooftop slums. Informal settlements in Latin America are known by names such as villa miseria (Argentina), pueblos jóvenes (Peru) and asentamientos irregulares (Guatemala, Uruguay). In Brazil, there are favelas in the major cities and rural land-based movements. In industrialized countries, there are often residential squats and also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wellington Boot
A Wellington boot, often shortened to welly, and also known as a gumboot, rubber boot, or rain boot, is a type of waterproof boot made of rubber. Originally a type of leather riding boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military foot wear, Wellington boots were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. They became a staple of practical foot wear for the British aristocracy and middle class in the early 19th century. The term was subsequently applied to waterproof rubber boots ubiquitously worn today in a range of agricultural and outdoors pursuits. Names The term ''Wellington boot'' comes from Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who instructed his shoemaker to create the boot by modifying the design of the Hessian boot. The terms ''gumboot'' and ''rubber boot'' are both derived from the rubber modern Wellington boots are made from, with the term "gum" coming from gum rubber. The terms ''Wellington boot'' and ''gumboot'' are most commonl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harrow School
Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner and farmer, under a royal charter of Queen Elizabeth I. The school has an enrollment of about 820 boys, all of whom boarding school, board full-time, in twelve boarding houses. It was one of the seven public schools selected for reform in the Public Schools Act 1868. Harrow's uniform includes morning suits, Boater, straw boater hats, top hats and Walking stick, canes. Its list of distinguished alumni includes seven former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, British prime ministers: George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Spencer Perceval, Perceval, F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Goderich, Robert Peel, Peel, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Palmerston, Stanley Baldwin, Baldwin and Winston Churchill, Churc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Another Place
"Another place" or "the other place" is a euphemism used in many bicameral parliaments using the Westminster system (including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom) and several rival educational establishments. Parliaments A member of one house will not usually refer directly to the other, but refer to it indirectly using the phrase "another place" or "the other place". So, for example, a member of the Senate of Canada would not mention "the House of Commons" but would use the phrase "the other place". The tradition does not extend to business conducted outside the house (such as speeches and interviews), and is generally dropped when a debate is directly addressing the nature of the other house, such as in debates on reform of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The reasons for the tradition are unclear, but it has been suggested that it dates back to a period of ill-feeling between the two houses of the UK Parliament. Similarly a member talking of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Minister#History, prime ministers, world leaders, Nobel laureates, Academy Award and BAFTA award-winning actors, and generations of the aristocracy, and has been referred to as "the nurse of England's statesmen". The school is the largest boarding school in England, ahead of Millfield and Oundle School, Oundle. Together with Wellington College, Berkshire, Wellington College and Downe House School, it is one of three private schools in Berkshire to be named in the list of the world's best 100 private schools. Eton charges up to £52,749 per year (£17,583 per term, with three terms per academic year, for 2023/24). It was the sixth most expensive Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference boarding school in the UK in 2013–14. It was founded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aestheticism
Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to be beautiful, rather than to teach a lesson, create a parallel, or perform another didactic purpose, a sentiment expressed in the slogan "art for art's sake." Aestheticism flourished in the 1870s and 1880s, gaining prominence and the support of notable writers such as Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. Aestheticism challenged the values of mainstream Victorian culture, as many Victorians believed that literature and art fulfilled important ethical roles. Writing in ''The Guardian'', Fiona McCarthy states that "the aesthetic movement stood in stark and sometimes shocking contrast to the crass materialism of Britain in the 19th century." Aestheticism was named by the critic Walter Hamilton in ''The Aesthetic Movement in England'' in 1882. By ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
