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Opportunity Knocks (UK TV Series)
''Opportunity Knocks'' is a British television and radio talent show originally hosted by Hughie Green, with a late-1980s revival hosted by Bob Monkhouse, and later by previous winner Les Dawson. From its origin on BBC Radio in 1949 the show provided a platform to fame for acts such as Spike Milligan and Frankie Vaughan. One of the most popular shows on British television, in the 1960s and 1970s it had a weekly audience of 20 million viewers. The original radio version started on the BBC Light Programme, where it ran from 18 February to 29 September 1949, but moved to Radio Luxembourg in the 1950s. It was shown on ITV from 20 June 1956 to 29 August 1956, produced by Associated Rediffusion. A second run commenced on 11 July 1964 and lasted until 20 March 1978, produced first by ABC and then by Thames. During this period Bob Sharples was musical director.Bob Sharples obituary, ''The Guardian'', 9 September 1987 p. 34 Green presented a single episode of ''Opportunity Knocks'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talent Show
A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather than contests, but some are actual contests. In the instance of a contest, participants may be motivated to perform for a reward, trophy, or prize of some kind. For example, a high school might not have many students with any interest in performing in front of the student body for the sole purpose of performing alone and may offer different prizes as an incentive for these students to participate in the contest. Media Since the late 1940s, talent shows have become a notable genre of reality television, such as '' Doorway to Fame'' (1947), ''The Original Amateur Hour'' (1948), '' Hollywood Screen Test'' (1948), '' Opportunity Knocks'' (1949), '' Chance of a Lifetime'' (1952), '' NHK Nodo Jiman'' (1953), '' New Faces'' (1963), '' Notun Ku ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, primetime drama and entertainment, and live BBC Sport events. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution. It was renamed BBC TV in 1960 and used this name until the launch of the second BBC channel, BBC2, in 1964. The main channel then became known as BBC1. The channel adopted the current spelling of BBC One in 1997. The channel's annual budget for 2012–2013 was £1.14 billion. It is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBC's other domestic television stations and shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising. The television channel had the highest reach share of any broadcaster in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddie Starr
Freddie Starr (born Frederick Leslie Fowell; 9 January 1943 – 9 May 2019) was an English stand up comedian, impressionist, singer and actor. Starr was the lead singer of Merseybeat rock and roll group the Midniters during the early 1960s, and came to prominence in the early 1970s after appearing on '' Opportunity Knocks'' and the Royal Variety Performance. In the 1990s, he starred in several television shows, including ''Freddie Starr'' (1993–1994), ''The Freddie Starr Show ''(1996–1998) and two episodes of '' An Audience with...'' in 1996 and 1997. In 1999, he presented the game show ''Beat the Crusher''. Early life Starr was born in Huyton in the county of Lancashire, England. One of seven children, Starr was the son of a bricklayer, who was often unemployed. According to Starr, his mother Hilda (''née'' Feihnen) was from Germany and was Jewish. A twin brother died at birth. When his father, who was also a bare-knuckled boxer, was drunk he repeatedly beat Starr up when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Su Pollard
Susan Georgina Pollard (born 7 November 1949) is an English actress and singer. Her career has spanned over 45 years; she is most famous for her role in the sitcom '' Hi-de-Hi!''. She also appeared in ''You Rang, M'Lord?'' and '' Oh, Doctor Beeching!''. Pollard has appeared in over 35 stage plays and musicals, as well as over 40 pantomimes. As a singer, she scored a UK number-two hit with the song "Starting Together" in 1986 and also released an album. Early life and education Pollard was born in Nottingham, the eldest daughter of Don and Hilda Pollard. Her interest in acting began at the age of six when she played an angel in a school nativity play. She attended Berridge Road School, Hyson Green and Peveril Bilateral School, Robin's Wood Road (now Nottingham Girls' Academy). After leaving school at the age of 16, she got a job at the Tennant Rubber Company in Carlton as a shorthand typist [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clap-o-meter
A clap-o-meter, clapometer or applause meter is a measurement instrument that purports to measure and display the volume of clapping or applause made by an audience. It can be used to indicate the popularity of contestants and decide the result of competitions based on audience popularity. Specific implementations may or may not be based on an actual sound level meters. Clap-o-meters were a popular element in talent shows and television game shows in the 1950s and 1960s, most notably '' Opportunity Knocks'', BBCPress Your Buttons Now!/ref> but have been since been supplanted by other, more sophisticated, methods of measuring audience response. History One of the first appearances of a clap-o-meter was in 1956, on the British TV game show ''Opportunity Knocks'', developed and presented by Hughie Green. The clap-o-meter itself was a wooden box labelled "Audience Reaction Indicator". The prop is now part of the collection of the National Media Museum, in Bradford. Clap-o-meter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiki Dee
Pauline Matthews (born 6 March 1947), better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records. Dee is best known for her 1973 hit "Amoureuse", her 1974 hit "I've Got the Music in Me" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", her 1976 duet with Elton John, which went to number 1 on both the UK Singles Chart and the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Her 1981 single "Star" became the theme song for the talent show '' Opportunity Knocks'' when it was revived by the BBC in 1987. In 1993, she performed another duet with John for his ''Duets'' album, a cover version of Cole Porter's " True Love", which reached number 2 in the UK. During her career, she has released 40 singles, three EPs and 12 albums. Early life Dee was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. At the age of 10 she won a local talent contest, and at 16 she had her first paid job in show busi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on 31 December 1961, making it one of the oldest continuously operating public service broadcasters in the world. RTÉ also publishes a weekly listings and lifestyle magazine, the '' RTÉ Guide''. RTÉ is a statutory body, overseen by a board appointed by the Government of Ireland, with general management in the hands of the Executive Board, headed by the Director-General. RTÉ is regulated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. RTÉ is financed by television licence fee and through advertising, with some of its services funded solely by advertising, while others are funded solely by the licence fee. Radio Éireann, RTÉ's predecessor and at the time a section of the Department of Posts and Tel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Sharples
Robert Sharples (2 July 19138 September 1987), known as Bob Sharples, was a British musical conductor, composer and bandleader, whose work encompassed films and well-known British television programmes in the 1960s and 1970s.Obituary, ''The Guardian'', 9 September 1987 p. 34 Early life and pre-war big bands Sharples was born in Bury, Lancashire, England, under the birth name Robert Standish. He began playing piano at the age of seven and organ at eleven. He studied orchestration, composition and conducting with Hamilton Harty in Manchester before moving to London to enter the world of jazz, where he played in nightclubs and began writing arrangement for big band leaders such as Ambrose, Jack Harris, Roy Fox and Carroll Gibbons. In 1934 he joined the Freddy Platt band at the Carlton Ballroom, Rochdale along with Geoff Love; Sharples played piano, and Love played trombone. He also played with Teddy Foster's big band, which was formed in 1945. Decca After the war and into the 1950 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Associated Rediffusion
Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, and one of the " Big Four" companies that between them produced the majority of ITV networked programmes during this period. Rediffusion lost its franchise in 1968, but merged with another franchisee to form Thames Television, which continued to hold the London weekday franchise for another 24 years. History Formation Associated-Rediffusion Television was originally a partnership between British Electric Traction (BET), its subsidiary Broadcast Relay Services Ltd. (trading as Rediffusion), and Associated Newspapers, owner of the ''Daily Mail'', which had been interested in commercial broadcasting as early as the 1920s. In the aftermath of the heavy financial losses made by the new ITV system in its initial years, Associated Newspapers so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to an antenna which radiates the waves, and received by another antenna connected to a radio receiver. Radio is very widely used in modern technology, in radio communication, radar, radio navigation, remote control, remote sensing, and other applications. In radio communication, used in radio and television broadcasting, cell phones, two-way radios, wireless networking, and satellite communication, among numerous other uses, radio waves are used to carry information across space from a transmitter to a receiver, by modulating the radio signal (impressing an information signal on the radio wave by varying some aspect of the wave) in the transmitter. In radar, used to locate and track objects like aircraft, sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan (born Frank Fruim Abelson; 3 February 1928 – 17 September 1999) was an English singer and actor who recorded more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his signature song " Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl". Two of Vaughan's singles topped the UK Singles Chart – " The Garden of Eden" (1957) and " Tower of Strength" (1961). He starred in several films, including a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in '' Let's Make Love'' (1960). Life and career Vaughan was born Frank Fruim Abelson on Devon Street in the Islington district of Liverpool on 3 February 1928, one of four children of Isaac and Leah Abelson. He came from a family of Russian Jewish descent, and derived his stage surname from his grandmother; as he was her first-born grandson, she called him "Frank my 'number one' grandson", and her Russian accent made "one" sound like "Vaughan". In his early life, he was a member of the Lancas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life. Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers on Radio Luxembourg. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer, and a principal cast member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'', performing a range of roles including the characters Eccles and Minnie Bannister. He was the earliest-born and last surviving member of the Goons. He took his success with ''The Goon Show'' into television with '' Q5'', a surreal sketch show credited as a major influence on the members of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. He wrote and edited many books, including '' Puckoon' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
