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Billy Liar
''Billy Liar'' is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, a Billy Liar (film), film, a Billy (musical), musical and a Billy Liar (TV series), TV series. The work has inspired and been featured in a number of popular songs. The semi-comical story is about William Fisher, a working-class 19-year-old living with his parents in the fictional town of Stradhoughton in Yorkshire. Bored by his job as a lowly clerk (position), clerk for an undertaker, Billy spends his time indulging in fantasies and dreams of life in the big city as a comedy writer. Characters ;William "Billy" Fisher :Billy is 19, and living with parents Alice and Geoffrey, and his grandmother, Florence Boothroyd. Billy lies compulsively to everyone he comes across, whether it is by claiming that his father is a retired naval captain/cobbler, or telling his parents that Arthur's mother has broken her leg. Billy works as a clerk for undertakers Shadrack & Duxbury. He is engaged to two girls ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keith Waterhouse
Keith Spencer Waterhouse Order of British Empire, CBE (6 February 1929 – 4 September 2009) was a British novelist and newspaper columnist and the writer of many television series. He was also a noted arbiter of newspaper style and journalistic writing. Biography Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, County Borough of Leeds, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He performed two years of national service in the Royal Air Force. His credits, many with lifelong friend and collaborator Willis Hall, include satires such as ''That Was The Week That Was'', ''BBC-3 (TV series), BBC-3'' and ''The Frost Report'' during the 1960s; the book for the 1975 musical ''The Card (musical), The Card''; ''Budgie (TV series), Budgie''; ''Worzel Gummidge (TV series), Worzel Gummidge''; and ''Andy Capp (TV series), Andy Capp'' (an adaptation of the comic strip). His 1959 book ''Billy Liar'' was subsequently filmed by John Schlesinger with Tom Courtenay as Billy. It was nominated in six categor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Finney
Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining fame for movie acting during the early 1960s, debuting with '' The Entertainer'' (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television. He is known for his roles in '' Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' (1960), '' Tom Jones'' (1963), '' Two for the Road'' (1967), '' Scrooge'' (1970), '' Annie'' (1982), ''The Dresser'' (1983), '' Miller's Crossing'' (1990), '' A Man of No Importance'' (1994), '' Erin Brockovich'' (2000), '' Big Fish'' (2003), '' A Good Year'' (2006), '' The Bourne Ultimatum'' (2007), ''Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'' (2007), and the James Bond film ''Skyfall'' (2012), and for his performances on stage and television. A recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Silver Bear and Volpi Cup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Rawle
Jeffrey Alan Rawle (born 20 July 1951) is a British actor from Birmingham, England. He is known for playing Billy in ''Billy Liar (TV series), Billy Liar'' (1973–1974), and for portraying George Dent in the news-gathering sitcom ''Drop the Dead Donkey'' (1990–1998), and Silas Blissett in ''Hollyoaks'' (2010–2022). Other credits include ''Minder (TV series), Minder'' (1993), ''Doc Martin'' (2004), ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' (2005), ''Grantchester (TV series), Grantchester'' (2023), and ''Beyond Paradise (TV series), Beyond Paradise'' (2024). Early life Rawle was born on 20 July 1951, in Birmingham. His first secondary school was King Edward VI Aston School, King Edward VI School in Aston, Birmingham. When he was 15, his family moved to Sheffield, and it was at High Storrs School (Sheffield), High Storrs Grammar School that he first became interested in drama when he appeared in school plays. He worked at the Sheffield ... [...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] |
British Sitcom
A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. British sitcoms have predominantly been recorded on studio sets, while some include an element of location filming. Live audiences and multi-cameras were first used in the US by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball for their American show ''I Love Lucy'' in 1951 and the system was adopted in the UK. Several are made almost entirely on location (for example, '' Last of the Summer Wine'') and shown to a studio audience prior to final post-production to record genuine laughter. In contrast to the American team writing system, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's huge successes were of such quality that they became the paradigm for British sitcom writing. By the time the television set had become a common part of home furnishing, sitcoms were significant expressions of everyday life and were often a window on the times of enormous social changes in the British class system and its conflicts and prejud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Rossiter
Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was an English actor. He had a long career in the theatre but achieved his highest profile for his television comedy roles starring as Rupert Rigsby in the ITV series '' Rising Damp'' from 1974 to 1978, and Reginald Perrin in the BBC's '' The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'' from 1976 to 1979. Early life Rossiter was born on 21 October 1926 in Wavertree, Liverpool, the second son of John and Elizabeth (née Howell) Rossiter. The family lived over the barber's shop owned by his father. He was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate School (1939–46). In September 1939, when the Second World War began, Rossiter was an evacuee, along with his schoolmates, and went to Bangor in north Wales, where he stayed for 18 months. While at school, his ambition was to go to university to read modern languages and become a teacher; however, his father, who served as a voluntary ambulanceman during the war, was killed in the May Blitz air ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finlay Currie
William Finlay Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television.McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. pp. 175-176; He received great acclaim for his roles as Abel Magwitch in the British film ''Great Expectations'' (1946) and as Balthazar in the American film '' Ben-Hur'' (1959). In his career spanning 70 years, Currie appeared in seven films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, of which '' Around the World in 80 Days'' (1956) and ''Ben-Hur'' were winners. Career Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He attended George Watson's College and worked as organist and choir director. In 1898 he got his first job in Benjamin Fuller's theatre group, and appeared with them for almost 10 years. After emigrating to the United States in the late 1890s, Currie and his wife, Maude Courtney, did a song-and-dance act on the stage. He made his first film, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodney Bewes
Rodney Bewes (27 November 1937 – 21 November 2017) was an English television actor and writer who portrayed Bob Ferris in the BBC television sitcom '' The Likely Lads'' (1964–66) and its colour sequel ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'' (1973–74). Bewes' later career was of a much lower profile, but he continued to work as a stage actor. Early life Bewes was born in Bingley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to Horace, an Eastern Electricity Board showroom clerk, and Bessie, who was a teacher of children with learning difficulties. His family lived for a few years in the Crossflatts district of Bingley, before they moved to Luton, where he attended Stopsley Secondary School. Because of his early ill-health (he suffered from asthma and bronchitis), one of the reasons the family moved, his mother tended to keep him off school. His illness receded, and the family eventually returned to the north. Having seen an advertisement in the '' Daily Herald'', Bewes auditioned f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilfred Pickles
Wilfred Pickles, Order of the British Empire, OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter. Early life and personal life Pickles was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family in 1929, and worked with his father as a builder. He joined an amateur dramatic society, and in a local production there met Mabel Cecilia Myerscough (1906–1989), all of whose family had been connected with the stage. He remained a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its BBC Regional Programme, North Regional radio service, he went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during the World War II, Second World War. He was the first newsreader to speak in an accent other than Received Pronunciation, "a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters", and caused some comment by wishing his fello ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mona Washbourne
Mona Lee Washbourne (27 November 1903 – 15 November 1988) was an English people, English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film ''Stevie (1978 film), Stevie'' (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Award. She had, in 1977 Laurence Olivier Awards, 1977, won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in the Stevie (play), play it was based on. Early life Mona Washbourne was born in Sparkhill, Birmingham, and began her entertaining career training as a concert pianist. Her sister Kathleen Washbourne was a violinist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult. Career Washbourne was performing professionally from the early 1920s. She married the actor Basil Dignam. Her brother-in-law Mark Dignam was also a stage and film actor. In 1948, after numerous stage musical performances, Washbourne began ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. Christie's accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has appeared in six films ranked in the British Film Institute's BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century, and in 1997, she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement. Christie's breakthrough role on the big screen was in ''Billy Liar'' (1963). She came to international attention for her performances in '' Darling'' (1965), for which she won the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and '' Doctor Zhivago'' (also 1965), the eighth highest-grossing film of all time after adjustment for inflation. She continued to receive Academy Award nominations, for '' McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' (1971), '' Afterglow'' (1997) and '' Away from Her'' (2007). In addition, Christie starred in ''Fahrenheit 451'' (1966), '' Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1967), '' Petulia'' (1968), '' The Go-B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Courtenay
Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay (; born 25 February 1937) is an English actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he achieved prominence in the 1960s as part of actors of the British New Wave. Courtenay has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Silver Bear, and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, Emmy Award. He was Knight Bachelor, knighted for his services to cinema and theatre in the 2001 New Year Honours. Courtenay earned the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role in the coming-of-age film ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (film), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'' (1962) and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in David Lean's epic ''Doctor Zhivago (film), Doctor Zhivago'' (1965). Other notable f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
