Charles Austin (comedian)
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Charles Austin (comedian)
Charles Austin (born Charles Reynolds; 4 April 1878 – 14 January 1942) was an English music hall comedian. He was born in London, and started performing in music halls in 1896, initially as one half of a double act, Lytton and Austin. Inspired by the sight of a redundant police station, he developed a solo act in the character of an inept policeman, "Parker, P.C.", which he first performed at Collins' Music Hall in Islington in 1908. ''Radio Times'', Issue 522, 1 October 1933
Retrieved 8 February 2021
Austin came to be described as "The King of Cockney Humour", and, starting in 1910, he recorded a number of es as Parker P.C. With ...
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Music Hall
Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls Rebranding, rebranded their entertainment as Variety show, variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Britain between bold and scandalous ''Music Hall'' and subsequent, more respectable ''Variety show, Variety'' differ. Music hall involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, #Speciality acts, speciality acts, and variety entertainment. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place. In North America vaudeville was in some ways analogous to British music hall, featuring rousing songs and comic acts. Originating in Bar (establishment), saloon bars within public houses during the 1830s, music hall entertainment became increasingly popular with audiences. So much so, that during the 1850s some public houses were demolished, and specialised music hall theatres developed in their ...
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Double Act
A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases for the artists' entire careers. Double acts perform on the stage, television and film. The format is particularly popular in the UK where successful acts have included Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (Cook’s deadpan delivery contrasted with Moore’s buffoonery), Morecambe and Wise and ''The Two Ronnies''. The tradition is also present in the US with acts like Wheeler and Woolsey, Abbott and Costello, Gallagher and Shean, Burns and Allen, and Lyons and Yosco. The British-American comedy double act Laurel and Hardy has been described as the most popular in the world. Format Humor is often derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin, and profession but drastically different in terms ...
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Police Station
A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms. Names Large departments may have many stations to cover the area they serve. The names used for these facilities include: *Barracks for many American state police and highway patrol stations and in Ireland *District office, typically used by American state police forces like the California Highway Patrol, but also used by smaller departments like the Calgary Police Service *Precinct house, or precinct, for some urban police departments in the United States such as the New York City Police Department, Memphis Police Department, and Newark Police Department, where stations are in charge of precincts *Police house *Police office, especially in Scotland ...
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Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other people may be granted powers of a constable without holding this title. Etymology Historically, the title comes from the Latin '' comes stabuli'' (attendant to the stables, literally ''count of the stable'') and originated from the Roman Empire; originally, the constable was the officer responsible for keeping the horses of a lord or monarch.p103, Bruce, Alistair, ''Keepers of the Kingdom'' (Cassell, 2002), Constable
Encyclopædia Britannica online
The title was imported to the monarchies of

Sam Collins (music Hall)
Sam Collins (born Samuel Thomas Collins Vagg; 22 March 1825 – 25 May 1865) was an English music hall comedian, singer and theatre proprietor. He was born in Marylebone, London, and started work as a chimney sweep. He began touring the music halls in London in the 1840s, in the guise of an Irish traveller, characteristically "wearing a brimless top hat, a dress coat, knee breeches, worsted stockings, and brogues... his clothes tied up in a bundle and a shillelagh on his shoulder." His songs, such as "Paddy's Wedding", "Limerick Races", and " The Rocky Road to Dublin", earned him the nickname "The Singing Irishman", and "he is still regarded as the prototype stage Irish comic". In 1855, he bought the Rose of Normandy tavern, and turned it into the Marylebone Music Hall, accommodating over 800 patrons. He sold it in 1861, and bought the Lansdowne Arms in Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Isl ...
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Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy High Street, Upper Street, Essex Road (former "Lower Street"), and Southgate Road to the east. Modern definition Islington grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the line of the Great North Road, and has provided the name of the modern borough. This gave rise to some confusion, as neighbouring districts may also be said to be in Islington. This district is bounded by Liverpool Road to the west and City Road and Southgate Road to the south-east. Its northernmost point is in the area of Canonbury. The main north–south high street, Upper Street splits at Highbury Corner to Holloway Road to the west and St. Paul's Road to the east. The Angel business improvement district (BID), an area centered around th ...
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Comedy Sketch
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke (or "bit") while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.Sketch
definition 3b, Merriam-Webster online. Retrieved 5/4/2019


History

Sketch comedy has its origins in

Billy Merson
Billy Merson (born William Henry Thompson; 29 March 1879 – 25 June 1947)Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , pp.227-228 was an English music hall performer, comedian and songwriter. Biography He was born in Nottingham. He began his career while working in a lace-making factory. He performed in the evenings in a duo with Bernard Whiteman, at first as "Whiteman and Thompson - Irish Comedians and Trapeze Performers", and later as "Snakella and Travella". With Whiteman, he toured Ireland and the north of England, and appeared in pantomimes. In 1904, they changed their name to "Keith and Merson". Merson was initially an acrobat and clown, and first played in London in 1905 under the character name "Ping-Pong".Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, ''British Music Hall: A story in pictures'', Studio Vista, 1965, p.158 It took some time until he could make a living from his stage work. "For five or six years on the stage, I su ...
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Short Film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". In the United States, short films were generally termed short subjects from the 1920s into the 1970s when confined to two 35 mm reels or less, and featurettes for a film of three or four reels. "Short" was an abbreviation for either term. The increasingly rare industry term "short subject" carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals and made by independent filmmakers with either a low budget or no budget at all. They are usually funded by film grants, nonprofit organizations, sponsor, or personal funds. Short films are generally used for industry experience and ...
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Hampshire Advertiser
The ''Hampshire Advertiser'' was a British local, broadsheet newspaper, based in Southampton, Hampshire. It ran from 1823 until 1940. Edward Langdon Oke (1775–1840), a corn merchant in the older part of the city (High Street), was credited with establishing the ''Hampshire Advertiser'' (previously the "Herald"). Oke, originally from Sherborne, was elected to the Town Council of Southampton and appointed Consul at Southampton for the Kingdom of Hanover by Prince Regent George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ... in 1818. References Publications disestablished in 1900 1823 establishments in England Publications established in 1823 Newspapers published in Hampshire {{England-newspaper-stub ...
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BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering the majority of musical genres, as well as local radio stations covering local news, affairs and interests. It also oversees online audio content. Of the national radio stations, BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Live are all available through analogue radio ( AM or FM (with BBC Radio 4 LW on longwave) as well as on DAB Digital Radio and BBC Sounds. The Asian Network broadcasts on DAB and selected AM frequencies in the English Midlands. BBC Radio 1Xtra, 4 Extra, 5 Sports Extra, 6 Music and the World Service broadcast only on DAB and BBC Sounds, while Radio 1 Dance and Relax streams are available only online. All of the BBC's national radio stations broadcast from bases in London and Manchester, usually in or near to Broadcasting ...
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We'll Smile Again
''We'll Smile Again'' is a 1942 British musical comedy film directed by John Baxter and starring Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen and Meinhart Maur. Premise A ring of Nazi spies infiltrate a film studio planning to use it for sending coded messages, but they are foiled by two of the low-level staff at the studio. Cast Production It was known as ''Glamourflage'' and filming started 4 May 1942. Critical reception The ''Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...'' gave the film three out of five stars, and wrote "Unlike many stage, radio or television double acts who flounder when put on the big screen, Flanagan and Allen fared rather well as movie stars, and this is a typical effort, combining bright comedy with songs and human interest...Directed with no preten ...
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