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David Spenser
David Spenser ('' né'' De Saram; 12 March 1934 – 20 July 2013) John Tydemanbr>David Spenser obituary ''The Guardian'', 1 August 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2013 was a British actor, director, producer and writer. Spenser played the title role in a 1948 radio production of Richmal Crompton's '' Just William'', and also appeared in popular films and TV series including ''Doctor Who''. His documentary about Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies won an International Emmy Award. He was the elder brother of actor Jeremy Spenser. Aged 11 he appeared in plays on BBC radio's ''Children's Hour''. He was cast in ''Just William'' by the author of the books, Richmal Crompton. He played Harry in the first production of Benjamin Britten's opera ''Albert Herring''. Spenser was a regular on television, with appearances in episodes of '' Z-Cars'', ''Dixon of Dock Green'', and '' The Saint''. In 1967 Spenser appeared as Thonmi in the ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Abominable Snowmen'' alongside Patrick Trou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colombo
Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to the Greater Colombo area which includes Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, the legislative capital of Sri Lanka, and Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is situated within the Colombo metro area. It is also the administrative capital of the Western Province and the district capital of Colombo District. Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life, colonial buildings and monuments. It was made the capital of the island when Sri Lanka was ceded to the British Empire in 1815, retaining its capital status when Sri Lanka gained independence in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police and CID detectives in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978. ''Z-Cars'' ran for 801 episodes, of which fewer than half have survived. Regular stars included Stratford Johns (Detective Inspector Barlow), Frank Windsor (Det. Sgt. Watt), James Ellis (Bert Lynch), and Brian Blessed ("Fancy" Smith). Barlow and Watt were later spun into a separate series '' Softly, Softly''. Origin of the title The title comes from the radio call signs allocated by Lancashire Constabulary. Lancashire police divisions were lettered from north to the south: "A" Division (based in Ulverston) was the detached part of Lancashire at the time around Barrow-in-Furness, "B" Division was Lancaster, and so on (see Home Office radio). The TV series took the n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conflict Of Wings
''Conflict of Wings'' (also known as ''Norfolk Story''; U.S. title: ''Fuss Over Feathers'' ) is a 1954 British comedy film, comedy drama film directed by John Eldridge (director), John Eldridge and starring John Gregson, Muriel Pavlow and Kieron Moore (Irish actor), Kieron Moore. It was written by John Pudney and Don Sharp based on the 1954 novel of the same title by Sharp. Villagers in Norfolk rally to prevent the RAF from attempting to use an island for target practice. It was a production of Group 3 Films with backing from the National Film Finance Corporation, NFFC. Shooting took place at Beaconsfield Studios and location shooting, on location in Norfolk. The film's sets were designed by the art director Ray Simm. It is one of the rare British aviation films that focused on the ground crew as opposed to aircrew. It was distributed by British Lion Films, British Lion. Plot A small Norfolk village is outraged when it is discovered that the Ministry of Land Acquisition propos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dodie Smith
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (3 May 1896 – 24 November 1990) was an English novelist and playwright. She is best known for writing '' I Capture the Castle'' (1948) and the children's novel '' The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1956). Other works include '' Dear Octopus'' (1938) and '' The Starlight Barking'' (1967). ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' was adapted into a 1961 animated film and a 1996 live-action film, both produced by Disney. Her novel ''I Capture the Castle'' was voted number 82 as "one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels" by the British public as part of the BBC's The Big Read (2003), and was adapted into a film released the same year. Biography Early life Smith was born on 3 May 1896 in a house named Stoneycroft (number 118) on Bury New Road, Whitefield, near Bury in Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angus Wilson
Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for '' The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot'' and later received a knighthood for his services to literature. Biography Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to an English father, William Johnstone-Wilson, and South African mother, Maude (née Caney), of a wealthy merchant family of Durban.Angus Wilson, Averil Gardner, Twayne Publishers, 1985, pg 4Angus Wilson, Jay L. Halio, Oliver & Boyd, 1964, pg 1 Wilson's grandfather had served in a prestigious Scottish army regiment, and owned an estate in Dumfriesshire, where William Johnstone-Wilson (despite being born at Haymarket) was raised, and where he subsequently lived. Wilson was educated at Westminster School and Merton College, Oxford, and in 1937 became a librarian in the British Museum's Department of Printed Boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benny Hill
Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 18 April 1992) was an English comedian, actor and scriptwriter. He is best remembered for his television programme, ''The Benny Hill Show'', a comedy-variety show whose amalgam of slapstick, burlesque, double entendre and innuendo in a format that included both live and filmed segments, featured Hill himself at the focus of almost every segment. The BFI called Hill "the first British comedian to attain fame through television" and that he was "a major star for over forty years". Making his television debut in 1949, he appeared on BBC variety shows where he developed his Sketch comedy, parodic sketches and, in 1954, was voted television personality of the year. ''The Benny Hill Show'', which debuted in 1955, was among the List of most watched television broadcasts in the United Kingdom#Most watched programmes, most-watched programmes in the UK; his audience was more than 21 million in 1971. The show was also exported to over 100 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akhnaton
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the fifth year of his reign, he was known as Amenhotep IV (, meaning "Amun is satisfied", Hellenized as ''Amenophis IV''). As a pharaoh, Akhenaten is noted for abandoning traditional ancient Egyptian religion of polytheism and introducing Atenism, or worship centered around Aten. The views of Egyptologists differ as to whether the religious policy was absolutely monotheistic, or whether it was monolatristic, syncretistic, or henotheistic. This culture shift away from traditional religion was reversed after his death. Akhenaten's monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were destroyed, and his name excluded from lists of rulers compiled by later pharaohs. Traditional religious practice was gradually restored, notably under his cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mr Norris Changes Trains
''Mr Norris Changes Trains'' (published in the United States as ''The Last of Mr. Norris'') is a 1935 novel by the British writer Christopher Isherwood. It is frequently included with '' Goodbye to Berlin'', another Isherwood novel, in a single volume, '' The Berlin Stories''. Inspiration for the novel was drawn from Isherwood's experiences as an expatriate living in Berlin during the early 1930s, and the character of Mr Norris is based on Gerald Hamilton. In 1985 the actor David March won a Radio Academy Award for Best Radio Actor for his performance in a dramatisation of the novel for BBC Radio 4. Isherwood began work on a much larger work he called ''The Lost'' before paring down its story and characters to focus on Norris. The book was critically and popularly acclaimed but years after its publication Isherwood denounced it as shallow and dishonest. Plot summary The novel follows the movements of William Bradshaw, its narrator, who meets a nervous-looking man named Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical novel which inspired the musical ''Cabaret'' (1966); ''A Single Man'' (1964), adapted into a film directed by Tom Ford in 2009; and '' Christopher and His Kind'' (1976), a memoir which "carried him into the heart of the Gay Liberation movement". Biography Family Isherwood was the elder son of Francis Edward Bradshaw Isherwood (1869–1915), known as Frank, a professional soldier in the York and Lancaster Regiment, and Kathleen Bradshaw Isherwood, née Machell Smith (1868–1960), the only daughter of a successful wine merchant. He was the grandson of John Henry Isherwood, squire of Marple Hall and Wyberslegh Hall, Cheshire, and he included among his ancestors the Puritan judge John Bradshaw, who signed the death warrant of King C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Way We Live Now
''The Way We Live Now'' is a satirical and political novel by Anthony Trollope, published in London in 1875 after first appearing in serialised form. It is one of the last significant Victorian novels to have been published in monthly parts. The novel is Trollope's longest, comprising 100 chapters, and is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s; Trollope had just returned to England from abroad, and was appalled by the greed and dishonesty those scandals exposed. This novel was his rebuke. It dramatised how such greed and dishonesty pervaded the commercial, political, moral, and intellectual life of that era. Writing and publication Trollope began writing ''The Way We Live Now'' on 1 May 1873, five months after returning from an extended trip to Australia and New Zealand. He paused work in order to write the shorter novel ''Harry Heathcote of Gangoil'', a Christmas novel he had already promised his publisher, but he resume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' and the Palliser novels, as well as his longest novel, ''The Way We Live Now''. His novels address political, social, and gender issues and other topical matters. Trollope's literary reputation dipped during the last years of his life, but he regained somewhat of a following by the mid-20th century. Biography Anthony Trollope was the son of barrister Thomas Anthony Trollope and the novelist and travel writer Frances Milton Trollope. Though a clever and well-educated man and a Fellow of New College, Oxford, Thomas Trollope failed at the Bar due to his bad temper. Ventures into farming proved unprofitable, and his expectations of inheritance were dashed when an elderly, childless uncle remarried and fathered children. Thomas Trollope was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Troughton
Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor. He became best known for his roles in television, most notably starring as the Second Doctor, second incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the long-running British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' from 1966 to 1969; he reprised the role three times between 1972 and 1985. Classically trained, Troughton's early work included appearances in Laurence Olivier's films ''Hamlet (1948 film), Hamlet'' (1948) and ''Richard III (1955 film), Richard III'' (1955), and he later appeared in films including ''Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film), Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963), ''The Gorgon'' (1964), ''Scars of Dracula'' (1970) and ''The Omen'' (1976), as well as the fantasy television series ''The Box of Delights (TV series), The Box of Delights'' (1984). Early life Troughton was born on 25 March 1920 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
