Associated British Film Distributors
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Associated British Film Distributors
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in west London, England. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since. It is the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production in the world, and the current stages were opened for the use of sound in 1931. It is best known for a series of classic films produced in the post-WWII years, including ''Saraband for Dead Lovers'' (1948), ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949), ''Passport to Pimlico'' (1949), ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951), and '' The Ladykillers'' (1955). The BBC owned and filmed at the Studios for forty years from 1955 until 1995. Since 2000, Ealing Studios has resumed releasing films under its own name, including the revived '' St Trinian's'' franchise. In more recent times, films shot there include ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (2002) and ''Shaun of the D ...
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W Postcode Area
The W (Western and Paddington) postcode area, also known as the London W postcode area is a group of postcode districts covering part of central and part of West London, England. The area originates from the Western (W1) and Paddington (W2-14) districts of the London postal district. This area covers 35 postcode districts and around 18,554 live postcodes. Postal administration The Western district consists of the single original W1 postal district. The area that it covers is high-density and so has been subdivided into a number of smaller postcode districts. When districts are used for purposes other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs, the W1 subdivisions continue to be classed as one 'district'. In June 2000, there was a recoding of the area, with the W1M, W1N, W1P, W1R, W1V, W1X and W1Y districts being replaced. The mail centre for W1 is London Central, and that for W2-14 is Greenford. Deliveries for W1 (and for WC1 and ...
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Devs (miniseries)
''Devs'' is an American science fiction thriller television miniseries created, written, and directed by Alex Garland. It premiered on March 5, 2020, on FX on Hulu. The series explores themes related to free will and determinism, as well as Silicon Valley. It received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its imagination, cinematography, acting, and soundtrack. Synopsis Lily Chan is a software engineer for Amaya, a quantum computing company run by Forest. Lily soon becomes embroiled in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, who died on the first day of his new job at the Devs team at Amaya. Cast and characters Main * Sonoya Mizuno as Lily Chan, a software engineer at Amaya * Nick Offerman as Forest, CEO of Amaya * Jin Ha as Jamie, a cybersecurity specialist and Lily's ex-boyfriend * Zach Grenier as Kenton, head of security at Amaya * Stephen McKinley Henderson as Stewart, a member of the Devs team at Amaya * Cailee Spaeny as Lyndon, a member of the Devs team speci ...
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Went The Day Well?
''Went the Day Well?'' is a 1942 British war film adapted from a story by Graham Greene and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. It was produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios and served as unofficial propaganda for the war effort. The film shows a village in southern England taken over by German paratroopers, reflecting the greatest fear of the British public of the time, although the threat of German invasion had largely receded. The film is notable for its unusually, for the time, frank depiction of ruthless violence. Plot The story is told in flashback by Charles Sims. During the Second World War, a group of seemingly authentic British soldiers arrive in the small, fictitious English village of Bramley End. It is the Whitsun weekend, life is even quieter than usual, and there is almost no road traffic. At first, they are welcomed by the villagers, until doubts set in about their true purpose and identity. After they are revealed to be German soldiers intended to form the v ...
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Will Hay
William Thomson Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian who wrote and acted in a schoolmaster sketch that later transferred to the screen, where he also played other authority figures with comic failings. His film '' Oh, Mr Porter!'' (1937), made by Gainsborough Pictures, is often cited as the supreme British-produced film-comedy, and in 1938 he was the third highest-grossing star in the UK. Many comedians have acknowledged him as a major influence. Hay was also a keen amateur astronomer. Early life Hay was born at 23 Durham Street in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham. He was one of two sons and three daughters of William Robert Hay (1859–1920) and his wife, Elizabeth (1859–1910) (née Ebden). When Will Hay Jr. was less than a year old the family moved to Lowestoft in Suffolk. By his late teens, Hay had become fluent in Italian, French and German and secured employment as an interpreter. Career Early career Hay decided to become an actor when he ...
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Stanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles Stanley Holloway on stage and screen, on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in ''My Fair Lady''. He was also renowned for his Songs and monologues of Stanley Holloway, comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career. Born in London, Holloway pursued a career as a clerk in his teen years. He made early stage appearances before infantry service in the First World War, after which he had his first major theatre success starring in ''Kissing Time'' when the musical transferred to the West End theatre, West End from Broadway theatre, Broadway. In 1921, he joined a Concert party (entertainment), concert party, ''The Co-Optimists'', and his career began to flourish. At first, he was employed chiefly as a singer, but his skills as an actor and re ...
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George Formby Jr
George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George, son of Andrew I of Hungary Places South Africa * George, South Africa, a city ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa, a city * George, Missouri, a ghost town * George, Washington, a city * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Computing * George (algebraic compiler) also known as 'Laning and Zierler system', an algebraic compiler by Laning and Zierler in 1952 * GEORGE (computer), early computer built by Argonne National Laboratory in 1957 * GEORGE (operating system), a range of operating systems (George 1–4) for the ICT 1900 range of computers in the 1960s * GEORGE (programming language), an autocode system invented by Charles Leonard ...
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Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was a British actress, singer and comedian. A star of cinema and music hall, she was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the highest paid film star in the world in 1937. Fields was known affectionately as ''Our Gracie'' and ''the Lancashire Lass'' and for never losing her strong, native Lancashire accent. She was appointed a Order of the British Empire, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and an Venerable Order of Saint John, Officer of the Venerable Order of St John (OStJ) in 1938, and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1979. Life and work Early life Fields was born Grace Stansfield, a daughter of Frederick Stansfield (1874–1956) and his wife Sarah Jane 'Jenny' Stansfield née Bamford (1879–1953), over a Fish and chips, fish and chip shop owned by her grandmother, Sar ...
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Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribution, and exhibition facilities as well as manufacturing projection equipment and chairs. It diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers (as one of the owners of Rank Xerox). The company name lasted until February 1996, when the name and some of the remaining assets were absorbed into the newly structured Rank Group plc. The company itself became a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox and was renamed XRO Limited in 1997. The company's logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the group's distribution company General Film Distributors
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Michael Balcon
Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in west London from 1938 to 1956. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film studios of the day. In an industry short of Hollywood-style moguls, Balcon emerged as a key figure, and an obdurately British one too, in his benevolent, somewhat headmasterly approach to the running of a creative organization. He is known for his leadership, and his guidance of young Alfred Hitchcock. Balcon had earlier co-founded Gainsborough Pictures with Victor Saville in 1923, later working with Gaumont British, which absorbed their studio. Later still he worked with MGM-British. In 1956 he founded a production company known as Ealing Films, and later headed British Lion Films. He served as chairman of the British Film Institute production board to help fund and encourage new work. Balcon was described in his obituary in ''The T ...
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Reginald Baker (film Producer)
Reginald Poynton Baker, MC FCA FRSA (19 July 1896 – 31 January 1985) was a British film producer and a major contributor to the development of the British film industry. Along with his younger brother Leslie Forsyth, he played a decisive role in establishing Ealing Studios. He was the father of Conservative MP Peter Baker. Baker died in Australia aged 89. From 1943 to 1946, Baker was president of the Kinematograph Renter's Society of Great Britain and Ireland (KRS) and from 1950 to 1953, president of the British Film Producers Association (BFPA). He lived at Loddenden Manor, a 300 acres estate situated in Staplehurst, Kent until 1954. Family and early life A soldier, a successful accountant and a movie magnate, Baker was the fourth of the five children of Samuel Henry Baker (1866–1918), a manager of chemical works who lived at 44 James Lane in Leytonstone, Essex and his wife Jane Louisa Baker (1870–1955), the daughter of builder John Cort Christoffer (1834–1913). ...
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Stephen Courtauld
Sir Stephen Lewis Courtauld (27 February 1883 – 9 October 1967) was an English philanthropist associated with geographical exploration, the restoration of Eltham Palace in south-east London, and cultural and education causes, both in the UK and in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where he and his wife Virginia also donated to organisations promoting racial equality. Family, education and military service Courtauld was a member of the wealthy English Courtauld textile family. He was born in Bocking, Essex, the son of Sydney Courtauld (10 March 1840 – 20 October 1899) and Sarah Lucy Sharpe (1844–1906) and youngest brother of Samuel Courtauld, founder of the Courtauld Institute of Art. He was educated at Rugby and King's College, Cambridge. He did not enter the family business but his wealthy background enabled him to travel extensively and to pursue cultural and philanthropic interests. Serving in the Artists' Rifles, Worcestershire Regiment and the Machine Gun Cor ...
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Basil Dean
Basil Herbert Dean CBE (27 September 1888 – 22 April 1978) was an English actor, writer, producer and director in the theatre and in cinema. He founded the Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool Repertory Company in 1911 and in the First World War, after organising unofficial entertainments for his comrades in the army, he was appointed to do so officially. After the war he produced and directed mostly in the West End theatre, West End. He staged premieres of plays by writers including J. M. Barrie, Noël Coward, John Galsworthy, Harley Granville-Barker and Somerset Maugham. He produced nearly 40 films, and directed 16, mainly in the 1930s, with stars including Gracie Fields. Together with Leslie Henson, Dean set up and ran the Entertainments National Service Association, or ENSA, in 1939 to provide a wide range of entertainment for British armed forces personnel during the Second World War. After the war he resumed his West End career successfully but without regaining his pre-war do ...
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