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Andrew Marshall (writer)
Andrew Paul Marshall (born 27 August 1954) is a British comedy screenwriter, most noted for the domestic sitcom '' 2point4 children''. He had previously adapted stories for ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'', and in 2002 he made a further move into writing "straight" drama, with the fantasy horror series ''Strange''. He has also written several screenplays. Career Born in Lowestoft, Marshall attended Fen Park School and then Lowestoft Grammar School, and afterwards Borough Road College where he studied mathematics and psychology. Around the same time, he worked regularly on Radio 4's '' Week Ending'', together with David Renwick, Douglas Adams, Alistair Beaton, John Lloyd, Simon Brett and others. Shortly afterwards he began writing '' The Burkiss Way'' with David Renwick and John Mason (who later dropped out to go to acting school). Renwick and Marshall remained scriptwriting partners for many years. Brought by Humphrey Barclay to London Weekend Television, originally to repeat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lowestoft
Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of Ipswich and south-east of Norwich, and the main town in its district. Its development grew with the fishing industry and as a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches. As fishing declined, Petroleum industry, oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea in the 1960s took over. In 2021 the built-up area had a population of 71,327 and the parish had a population of 47,879. History Some of the earliest signs of settlement in Britain have been found here. Flint tools discovered in the Pakefield cliffs of south Lowestoft in 2005 allow human habitation of the area to be traced back 700,000 years.S. Parfitt et al. (2006'700,000 years old: found in Pakefield', ''British Archaeology'', January/February 2006. Retrieved 24 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' evolved into a "trilogy" of six (or five, according to the author) books which sold more than 15 million copies in his life. It was made into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame. Adams wrote ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (1987) and '' The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' (1988), and co-wrote '' The Meaning of Liff'' (1983), '' The Deeper Meaning of Liff'' (1990) and '' Last Chance to See'' (1990). He wrote two stories for the television series ''Doctor Who'', including the unaired serial '' Shada'', co-wrote '' City of Death'' (1979), and served as script editor for its 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Steam Video Company
''The Steam Video Company'' was a 1984 comedy series produced by Thames Television for ITV written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. The six episode series was a low budget spoof of the horror genre, intermingled with spoofs on contemporary television programmes, such as '' Nationwide''. The programmes starred the same repertory cast of comic actors in a variety of roles. The cast included: William Franklyn, Barry Cryer, Anna Dawson, Bob Todd, Madeline Smith Madeline Smith (born 2 August 1949) is an English actress. After working as a model in the late 1960s, she went on to appear in many television series and stage productions, as well as comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s. Smith pla ... and Jimmy Mulville. The title is thought to be a reference to 'the golden age of steam railways', with the 'steam video' apparently a spoof on the multitude of low-budget horror and exploitation films available during the early days of the British home video boom. Catc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs and dances. Vaudeville became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, while changing over time. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and films. A vaudeville performer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including Television advertisement, advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the television licence, licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV (TV network), ITV. Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
If You See God, Tell Him
''If You See God, Tell Him'' is a black comedy television sitcom starring Richard Briers, Adrian Edmondson, and Imelda Staunton. Written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, it was first broadcast on BBC1 in 1993. It comprised four episodes, each 45 minutes long, and was broadcast only once, apart from the first episode, which was repeated on BBC Four on 3 December 2007 as part of "David Renwick Night". The title is a reference to 'if you see Sid, tell him', the slogan used for the sale of shares in British Gas plc. Plot The series is set in London and follows the character of Godfrey Spry, played by Briers. As he is standing outside the post office, a wheelbarrow full of building rubble falls on top of him, causing serious physical injuries (from which he recovers) and leaving him with a greatly reduced attention span. As a result, he spends most of his time watching television commercials, and believes every claim made by them. After seeing an advertisement for a car, he pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whoops Apocalypse
''Whoops Apocalypse'' is a six-part 1982 television sitcom by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, made by London Weekend Television for ITV. Marshall and Renwick later reworked the concept as a 1986 film of the same name from ITC Entertainment, with almost completely different characters and plot. The British budget label Channel 5 Video released a compilation VHS cassette of all six episodes edited together into one 137-minute chunk in 1987. The American video distributor EDDE Entertainment released a compilation VHS cassette of all six episodes edited together into one 121-minute chunk in 1991. In 2010, Network released both the complete, unedited series and the movie on a 2-DVD set ( Region 2) entitled ''Whoops Apocalypse: The Complete Apocalypse''. (Rights issues were simplified by the fact that both LWT and ITC Entertainment productions were by this time owned by Granada Television). In March 2022 the series was made available for streaming on BritBox. Series The seri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
End Of Part One
''End of Part One'' is a British television comedy sketch show written by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall; it was made by London Weekend Television. It ran for two series on ITV, from 1979 to 1980 and was an attempt at a TV version of '' The Burkiss Way''. The first series concerned the lives of Norman and Vera Straightman, who had their lives interrupted by various television personalities of the day. The second series was mainly a straight succession of parodies of TV shows of the time, including '' Larry Grayson's Generation Game'' and '' Nationwide''. After being absent for the entire season, Norman and Vera make a surprise reappearance at the end of the final episode. Cast The cast included Sue Holderness, Denise Coffey, Fred Harris, Dudley Stevens, David Simeon, and Tony Aitken. Coffey had appeared in ''The Burkiss Way's'' first 6 episodes, but Harris was the only permanent cast member to appear in ''End of Part One''. One of the directors was future feature f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Do Not Adjust Your Set
''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' is a British television series produced originally by Rediffusion, London, and then by the fledgling Thames Television for British commercial television channel ITV from 26 December 1967 to 14 May 1969. The show took its name from the message (frequently seen on the TV screen in those days) that was displayed when there was a problem with transmission or technical difficulties. It helped launch the careers of Denise Coffey, David Jason, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin; the last three became members of the Monty Python comedy troupe soon afterwards. Although originally conceived as a children's programme, it quickly acquired a fandom amongst adults, including future Python members John Cleese and Graham Chapman. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, a satirical comedy/art/pop group, also performed songs in each programme and frequently appeared as extras in sketches. The programme itself comprised a series of satirical sketches, often presented in a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 until 1982) to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights (there was no handover back to Thames on Mondays, as from 1968 to 1982 there was no programming in the very early morning, and from 1983, when a national breakfast franchise was created, LWT would hand over to TV-am at 6:00am, which would then hand over to Thames at 9:25am). From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities (although occasionally a Thames-to-LWT-style handover would appear). Like most ITV ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphrey Barclay
Humphrey Barclay BEM (born 24 March 1941) is a British comedy executive and producer. Career Barclay was educated at Harrow School, before reading Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his first foray into show business was via the Amateur Dramatic Society. He then appeared in Cambridge Footlights revues alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, David Hatch, Jonathan Lynn, Jo Kendall and Miriam Margolyes. Barclay was offered a job as a BBC radio producer and soon afterwards put together the team who performed the comedy show ''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'' (four series starting in 1964). Moving to television, Barclay oversaw Associated-Rediffusion ''Do Not Adjust Your Set'' (1967–69). Following the ITV franchise changes of 1968, Barclay joined London Weekend Television (LWT), for whom he produced the '' Doctor...'' series (1969–77). One episode in that series involved a hotel proprietor and his wife and was written by John Cleese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Burkiss Way
''The Burkiss Way'' is a BBC Radio 4 sketch comedy series, originally broadcast between August 1976 and November 1980. It was written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, with additional material in series 1 and 2 by John Mason, Colin Bostock-Smith, Douglas Adams, John Lloyd, Tom Magee Englefield and Liz Pollock. The first series of the show starred Denise Coffey, Chris Emmett, Nigel Rees and Fred Harris. From series 2 onwards the show starred Jo Kendall, Chris Emmett, Nigel Rees and Fred Harris. The series had three producers, announced as "Simon Brett of Stepney", " John Lloyd of Europe" and " David 'Hatch of the BBC' Hatch". The show's humour was based on surrealism and literary and media parodies, sprinkled with puns. Format The series had its roots in two half-hour sketch shows entitled ''Half-Open University'' which Marshall and Renwick had written with Mason for Radio 3 as a parody of Open University programmes. The first, broadcast on 25 August 1975, spoofed sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
