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Peril At End House (play)
''Peril at End House'' is a 1940 play based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fiction .... The play is by Arnold Ridley, who much later played Private Godfrey in ''Dad's Army''. Ridley was granted permission to adapt the book in an agreement with Christie dated 18 July 1938. Background It was first performed on 1 April 1940 at the Richmond Theatre in London before moving to the Vaudeville Theatre where it opened on 1 May 1940. Despite some positive reviews, the play closed on 18 May after just twenty-three performances. The part of Hercule Poirot was played by Francis L. Sullivan who had previously played the role in Christie's 1930 play ''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee''. Ridley changed the name of two of the charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Ridley
William Arnold Ridley, OBE (7 January 1896 – 12 March 1984) was an English playwright and actor, earlier in his career known for writing the play '' The Ghost Train'' and later in life in the British TV sitcom ''Dad's Army'' (1968–1977) as the elderly bumbling Private Godfrey, as well as in spin-offs including the feature film version and the stage production. He is the great-uncle of actress Daisy Ridley. Early life William Arnold Ridley was born in Walcot, Bath, Somerset, England, the son of Rosa Caroline (née Morrish, 1870–1956) and William Robert Ridley (1871–1931). His father was a gymnastics instructor and ran a boot and shoe shop. He attended the Clarendon School and the Bath City Secondary School where he was a keen sportsman. A graduate of the University of Bristol, he studied at the Education Department, and played Hamlet in a student production. Ridley undertook teaching practice at an Elementary School in Bristol. Military service Ridley was a student ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard. First appearing in print in 1887's '' A Study in Scarlet'', the character's popularity became widespread with the first series of short stories in '' The Strand Magazine'', beginning with " A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891; additional tales appeared from then until 1927, eventually totalling four novels and 56 short stories. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras, between about 1880 and 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. John H. Watson, who usually accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters with him at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd
''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in June 1926 in the United Kingdom by William Collins, Sons and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company. It is the third novel to feature Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. Poirot retires to a village near the home of a friend, Roger Ackroyd, to pursue a project to perfect vegetable marrows. Soon after, Ackroyd is murdered and Poirot must come out of retirement to solve the case. The novel was well-received from its first publication. In 2013, the British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel ever. It is one of Christie's best known and most controversial novels, its innovative twist ending having a significant impact on the genre. Howard Haycraft included it in his list of the most influential crime novels ever written. The short biography of Christie which is included in 21st century UK printings of her books calls it her masterpiec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austin Trevor
Claude Austin Trevor Schilsky (7 October 1897 – 22 January 1978) was an Irish actor who had a long career in film and television. He played the parson in John Galsworthy's ''Escape'' at the world premiere in London's West End in 1926 and was the only member of the cast to transfer to New York City for the Broadway production a year later. He was the first actor to play Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot on screen in three British films during the early 1930s: ''Alibi'' (1931), '' Black Coffee'' (1931) and ''Lord Edgware Dies'' (1934). He subsequently turned up in a character part in a later Poirot adaptation '' The Alphabet Murders'' in 1965. He stated that he only got the Poirot role because he could speak with a French accent. During the 1960s he worked largely in television, appearing in series such as ''The First Churchills'' in which he played Lord Halifax. He appeared in an episode of the legal drama ''The Main Chance''. He died in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturday Night Theatre
''Saturday Night Theatre'' was a long-running radio drama strand on BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' .... The strand showcased feature-length, middle-brow single plays on Saturday evenings for more than 50 years, having been launched in April 1943. The plays featured in the strand included stage plays, book adaptations and original dramatisations. For most of its history, programmes ran for 90 minutes and were largely entertainment-centred, such as thrillers, comedies and mysteries. ''Saturday Night Theatre'' was noted as the major drama of the week on BBC Radio 4, until it was scrapped as a programme strand in 1996. Shorter plays continued to be broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday evenings from 1996 until the relaunch of the channel's schedule in April 1998 b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC developed two nationwide radio stations – the National Programme and the Regional Programme (which were begun broadcasting on 9 March 1930) – as well as a basic service from London that include programming originated in six regions. Although the programme items attracting the greatest number of listeners tended to appear on the National, the two services were not streamed: they were each designed to appeal "across the board" to a single but variegated audience by offering between them and at most times of the day a choice of programme type rather than simply catering, each of them exclusively, to two distinct audiences. 1939–1945: World War II On 1 September 1939, the BBC merged the two programmes into one national service from Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or one-twentieth of a pound before being phased out during the 20th century. Currently the shilling is used as a currency in five east African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, as well as the ''de facto'' country of Somaliland. The East African Community additionally plans to introduce an East African shilling. History The word ''shilling'' comes from Old English "Scilling", a monetary term meaning twentieth of a pound, from the Proto-Germanic root skiljaną meaning 'to separate, split, divide', from (s)kelH- meaning 'to cut, split.' The word "Scilling" is mentioned in the earliest recorded Germanic law codes, those of Æthelberht of Kent. There is evidence that it may alternatively be an early borrowing of Phoenician ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel French
Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing of plays. Biography French founded his publishing business in New York City in 1854. In 1859, he visited London, where he met Lacy, who had given up the stage and been active as a theatrical bookseller since the mid-1840s. Lacy, who had removed his shop from Wellington Street, Covent Garden to 89 Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ... in 1857, had also started publishing acting editions of dramas. ''Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays'', published between 1848 and 1873, would eventually run to 99 volumes containing 1,485 individual pieces. French and Lacy b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Oulton
Brian Oulton (11 February 1908 – 13 April 1992) was an English character actor. Biography Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, Oulton made his acting debut in 1939 as a lead actor. During the Second World War he served in the British Army, and returned to acting playing character roles in 1946; he made a name for himself playing the same pompous character in numerous films, ranging from '' Last Holiday'' (1950) to '' Young Sherlock Holmes'' (1985). Many of his film roles were in comedies, and he went on to appear in several ''Carry On'' films. In 1969, he appeared as an eccentric psychic medium in ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' in the episode "Never Trust a Ghost"; as a hypochondriac GP in '' Doctor at Large''; and in the 1981 hit serial ''Brideshead Revisited''. He was also a stage actor and playwright, writing and starring in productions such as ''Births, Marriages and Deaths'' (1975), and ''For Entertainment Only'' (1976). Brian Oulton's radio credits include the role of Cyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabel Dean
Isabel Dean (born Isabel Hodgkinson, 29 May 1918 – 27 July 1997) was an English stage, film and television actress. Life and career Born in Aldridge, Staffordshire, Dean studied painting at Birmingham Art School. In 1937, she joined the Cheltenham Repertory Company as a scenic artist. She was soon involved in acting with some small parts. She appeared on stage in London in Agatha Christie's ''Peril at End House'' in 1940. Her stage appearances included '' The Deep Blue Sea'', ''Breaking the Code'' and John Osborne's ''The Hotel in Amsterdam'', at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. In 1949 she appeared in ''The Foolish Gentlewoman'' at the Duchess Theatre in London. By 1953, she was also appearing on British television in '' The Quatermass Experiment'' and over her career appeared in television series such as ''I, Claudius'' (1976) and ''Inspector Morse'' (1990). She appeared with Paul Scofield in an ''ITV Saturday Night Theatre'' production of ''The Hotel in Amsterdam'' broadcas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beckett Bould
Beckett Bould (28 September 1880 – 25 September 1970) was a British actor. Partial filmography * ''Black Diamonds'' (1932) - John Morgan * ''The Outcast'' (1934) - Minor Role (uncredited) * '' Wednesday's Luck'' (1936) - Minor Role (uncredited) * '' Holiday's End'' (1937) - Philpotts * '' South Riding'' (1938) - Foreman on Road Building Site (uncredited) * ''Old Mother Riley's Circus'' (1941) - Davis * ''The Day Will Dawn'' (1942) - Bergen, Spokesman of Langedal * '' Let the People Sing'' (1942) - Minor Role (uncredited) * ''The Shipbuilders'' (1943) * ''Loyal Heart'' (1946) - Burton * '' The October Man'' (1947) - Policeman at Left Luggage Office (uncredited) * ''Anna Karenina'' (1948) - Matvey * '' My Brother's Keeper'' (1948) - Inspector (uncredited) * '' Portrait of Clare'' (1950) - Bissell * '' Pool of London'' (1951) - The Murdered Watchman (uncredited) * '' What Every Woman Wants'' (1954) - Tom * '' Lease of Life'' (1954) - Sproatley * ''Ramsbottom Rides Again'' (195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olga Edwardes
Olga Edwardes (born Olga Florence Solomon; 20 May 1915 – 23 July 2008) was a South African-born British actress and artist. Personal life Her father was Joseph Michael Solomon (1883–1920), an architect partner of Herbert Baker, but he committed suicide in 1920 at the age of 33, in Cape Town. Her mother was Jean Elizabeth Emily Cox née Hamilton (1885–1946), a South African actress, who was a divorcée (at least twice) when she married Solomon in 1914 in Cape Town. They also had a son, Paul Lionel Joseph (1918–1987). Her mother married again in Cape Town in 1922 to Hugh Edwards (1887-?), a company secretary, who thus became the stepfather of Olga and Paul. Olga Edwardes married P/O Anthony Max Baerlein in 1941, but he was killed in action later the same year. In 1946, she married her second husband Nicholas Davenport, an economist and journalist who was more than twenty years her senior. He died in 1979; she died in Elstree in 2008. Years 1930–1956 Olga Edwards, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
