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The Brains Trust
''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was created by BBC producers Howard Thomas and Douglas Cleverdon. The programme started on the Forces radio service on 1 January 1941, the first series under the name ''Any Questions?'' (a name later reused for a different radio programme). Subsequently renamed ''The Brains Trust'', it continued for 84 weeks continuously from its initial broadcast and became one of the most popular of informational programmes. Because of its popularity, it was moved to the peak time on Sunday afternoons. It was typically heard by around 29 per cent of the UK population and generated four to five thousand letters each week from the public. During the early war years it helped raise morale, and the verbal sparring between panel members, especially Julian Huxl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Thomas
Howard Thomas CBE (5 March 1909 – 6 November 1986) was a Welsh radio producer and television executive. Early career Thomas began his career typing invoices for a firm of wire-drawers in Manchester. While doing that job, he taught himself to write newspaper articles and short plays. When some of these articles were published, he managed to get a job in the firm's advertising department. That job enabled Thomas to mix with advertising agents and through networking he obtained a position with F John Roe, one of Manchester's advertising agencies. He moved to the London agency F C Prichard Wood and Partners, and he continued to write articles, having a London entertainment column in the '' Manchester Evening Chronicle''. This column was spotted by the London Press Exchange and he was hired by them as a copywriter. Commercial radio At London Press Exchange, Thomas worked in the commercial radio section, at first writing, then producing commercial packages for companies including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Andrade
Edward Neville da Costa Andrade FRS (27 December 1887 – 6 June 1971) was an English physicist, writer, and poet. He told ''The Literary Digest'' his name was pronounced "as written, i.e., like ''air raid'', with ''and'' substituted for ''air''." In the scientific world Andrade is best known for work (with Ernest Rutherford) that first determined the wavelength of a type of gamma radiation, proving it was far higher in energies than X-rays known at the time. In popular culture he was best known for his appearances on The Brains Trust. Life Edward Neville Andrade was a Sephardi Jew, his family having arrived in London from Portugal during the Napoleonic era, and was a descendant of Moses da Costa Andrade (not Moses da Costa as is sometimes stated). da Costa Andrade was his 2nd great-grandfather, a feather merchant in London's East End. The surname "Andrade" might nevertheless be of Portuguese origin (see notes on original pronunciation) born and raised in London he attended S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert Harding
Gilbert Charles Harding (5 June 1907 – 16 November 1960) was a British journalist and radio and television personality. His many careers included schoolmaster, journalist, policeman, disc jockey, actor, interviewer and television presenter. He also appeared in several films, sometimes in character parts but usually as himself – for example in '' Expresso Bongo'' (1959). Harding had a sizeable role alongside John Mills in the 1952 film ''The Gentle Gunman'', and narrated the introduction to the film '' Pacific Destiny'' (1956). He also made a couple of comedy records in the 1950s. Early life Harding was born in Hereford where his parents were employed as "master" and "matron" of the city's workhouse. His father, also called Gilbert Harding, died in 1911 aged 30 following an appendicitis operation, and so his mother placed their son into the care of the Royal Orphanage of Wolverhampton. Harding's education continued at Queens' College, Cambridge, after which he took jobs te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rupert Gould
Rupert Thomas Gould (16 November 1890 – 5 October 1948) was a lieutenant-commander in the British Royal Navy noted for his contributions to horology (the science and study of timekeeping devices). He was also an author and radio personality. Life Gould grew up in Southsea, near Portsmouth, where his father, William Monk Gould, was a music teacher, organist, and composer. He was educated at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy and then, from 15 January 1906 the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, being part of the 'Greynville' term (group), and by Easter 1907, examinations placed him at the top of his class. He became a midshipman on 15 May 1907. He initially served on HMS ''Formidable'' and HMS ''Queen'' (under Captain David Beatty) in the Mediterranean. Subsequently, he was posted to China (first aboard HMS ''Kinsha'' and then HMS ''Bramble''). He chose the "navigation" career track and, after qualifying as a navigation officer, served on HMS ''King George V'' and HMS ''Achates' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margery Fry
__NOTOC__ Margery is a heavily buffered, lightly populated hamlet in the Reigate and Banstead district, in the English county of Surrey. It sits on the North Downs, is bordered by the London Orbital Motorway, at a lower altitude, and its predominant land use is agriculture. History This area was formerly very far from drinking water sources, being on Banstead Commons (also known as Banstead Downs), so was a lightly laboured hill farming settlement. The history of its importance to the national economy is that of its feudal centre, Banstead, which gave much wealth to its lord of the manor, particularly to the King's consort, who had it exploited by tenant farmers for more than two centuries as part of its wide Commons/Downs, spanning here the widest part of the chalky, grassy North Downs. The high quality of the wool is shown by a petition of the Commons in 1454, in which they prayed that a sack of wool of the growth of Banstead Down might not be sold under £5, when the pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts during the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the ''Civilisation'' series in 1969. The son of rich parents, Clark was introduced to the arts at an early age. Among his early influences were the writings of John Ruskin, which instilled in him the belief that everyone should have access to great art. After coming under the influence of the connoisseur and dealer Bernard Berenson, Clark was appointed director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford aged twenty-seven, and three years later he was put in charge of Britain's National Gallery. His twelve years there saw the gallery transformed to make it accessible and inviting to a wider public. During the Second World War, when the collection was moved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Chenevix-Trench
Anthony Chenevix-Trench (10 May 1919 – 21 June 1979) was a British schoolteacher and classics scholar. He was born in British India, educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford, and served in the Second World War as an artillery officer with British Indian units in Malaya. Captured by the Japanese in Singapore, he was forced to work on the Burma Railway. He taught classics at Shrewsbury, where he became a housemaster, and taught for another year at Christ Church. He was headmaster of Bradfield College, where he raised academic standards and instituted a substantial programme of new building works. Appointed headmaster of Eton College in 1963, he broadened the curriculum immensely and introduced a greater focus on achieving strong examination results, but was asked to leave in 1969 after disagreements with housemasters and an unpopular attitude to caning, which became the subject of a press controversy after his death. Following a one-year break during which he taug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Bullock
Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock, (13 December 1914 – 2 February 2004) was a British historian. He is best known for his book '' Hitler: A Study in Tyranny'' (1952), the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler, which influenced many other Hitler biographies. Early life and career Bullock was born in Trowbridge in Wiltshire, England where his father worked as a gardener and a Unitarian preacher. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he read classics and modern history. After graduating in 1938, he worked as a research assistant for Winston Churchill, who was writing his '' History of the English-Speaking Peoples.'' He was a Harmsworth Senior Scholar at Merton College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1940. During World War II, Bullock worked for the European Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). After the war, he returned to Oxford as a history fellow at New College. Bullock was the censor of St Catherine's Society ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Violet Bonham Carter, Baroness Asquith Of Yarnbury
Helen Violet Bonham Carter, Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury, (15 April 1887 – 19 February 1969), known until her marriage as Violet Asquith, was a British politician and diarist. She was the daughter of H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, and she was known as Lady Violet, as a courtesy title, from her father's elevation to the peerage as Earl of Oxford and Asquith in 1925. Later she became active in Liberal politics herself, and was a leading opponent of appeasement. She stood for Parliament and became a life peer. She was also involved in arts and literature. Her diaries cover her father's premiership before and during the First World War and continue until the 1960s. She was Sir Winston Churchill's closest female friend, apart from his wife, and her grandchildren include the actress Helena Bonham Carter. Early life Violet Asquith was born in Hampstead, London, England, and grew up with politics, She lived in 10 Downing Street from 1908, when her father occu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Collin Brooks
Collin Brooks (22 December 1893 – 1959), frequently known as "CB", was a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster. In 1913 he founded the Manchester Press Agency. In 1915 he joined the British Army, where he was awarded the Military Cross as a 2nd Lieutenant. After the war, he worked for many newspapers from 1921 until 1953, becoming chairman and editor of ''Truth'' for 12 years. His later career moved from journalism to broadcasting, and he participated in ''Any Questions'' and ''The Brains Trust'' for BBC Radio. Early life and background Born William Collin Brooks he was the son of William Edward Brooks (1864–1914) and Isabella (née Thomas), herself the daughter of Griffith Thomas and Isabella (née Harrison – a descendant of Colonel Thomas Harrison of Cromwell's New Model Army). He was born and brought up in the north of England, spent only seven years in formal education, and after a short period as a trainee accountant became a commercial traveller for various com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He was known to friends and professional colleagues alike by the nickname Bruno. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to science, and as the presenter and writer of the thirteen-part 1973 BBC television documentary series, and accompanying book '' The Ascent of Man'', which led to his regard as "one of the world's most celebrated intellectuals". Bronowski's family moved from Congress Poland to Germany and then to England while he was a child. He won a scholarship to study mathematics at the University of Cambridge. His interests have been described as ranging "widely, from biology to poetry and from chess to Humanism". He taught mathematics at the University College Hull between 1934 and 1942. During World War II he led the field of operations research and worked to increase the effectiveness of Allied bombing. After the war he headed the projects division o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Boothby
Robert John Graham Boothby, Baron Boothby, (12 February 1900 – 16 July 1986), often known as Bob Boothby, was a British Conservative politician. Early life The only son of Sir Robert Tuite Boothby, KBE, of Edinburgh and a cousin of Rosalind Grant, mother of the broadcaster Sir Ludovic Kennedy, Boothby was educated at St Aubyns School, Eton College, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Before going up to Oxford, near the end of the First World War, he trained as an officer and was commissioned into the Brigade of Guards, but was too young to see active service.Article by John Grigg. Boothby read History at the University of Oxford; the shortened war course was not classed, being marked either 'Pass' or 'Fail'. He attended a few lectures and did some general reading, but, as he cheerfully observed, "there were far too many other things to do". He achieved a pass without distinction in 1921. After Oxford, he became a partner in a firm of stockbrokers. Politics He was an unsuccessfu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
