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Fiddlers Three (1944 Film)
''Fiddlers Three'' is a 1944 British black-and-white musical comedy. It includes a number of musical sections, mainly focussing on replacing the word "home" with "Rome". The film was produced by Michael Balcon and directed by Harry Watt. The cast included Tommy Trinder, Sonnie Hale, Frances Day, Francis L. Sullivan, Diana Decker and Elisabeth Welch. Making their film debuts were James Robertson Justice, and Kay Kendall near the bottom of the cast list, as the "Girl Who Asks About Her Future At Orgy". The film follows the adventures of two sailors and a Wren who are struck by lightning and transported back to Ancient Rome, where they are accepted as seers. The title comes from the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole". The film was called ''While Nero Fiddled'' on its USA release. It is a loose sequel to the 1940 film '' Sailors Three'' which had also starred Trinder. The film was only moderately successful at the British Box Office but proved to be a major hit in Australia. Plot To ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Watt (director)
Raymond Egerton Harry Watt (18 October 19062 April 1987) was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty. His 1959 film '' The Siege of Pinchgut'' was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. Biography He was born in Edinburgh, the son of the Scottish Liberal MP Harry Watt. He studied at Edinburgh University but failed to complete his degree. He enlisted in the Merchant Navy and worked in a number of industrial jobs. Documentaries In 1932, Watt joined the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit under John Grierson and began working on documentaries. He was an assistant on ''Man of Aran'' (1934). In 1936 Watt became a director for the London unit of the American newsreel series '' March of Time'', where his films included ''England's Tithe War'' (1936). Watt then joined the GPO Film Unit where he made his reputation as a documentarian with ''Night Mail'' (1936) which received much acclaim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Women's Royal Naval Service
The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the World War I, First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the beginning of the World War II, Second World War, remaining active until integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993. WRNS included Cooking, cooks, clerks, Morse code, wireless telegraphists, Plot (radar), radar plotters, weapons analysts, Rangefinding telemeter, range assessors, electricians, air mechanics, ground transport vehicle drivers and despatch_rider, motorcycle dispatch riders. History First World War The WRNS was formed in 1917 during the World War I, First World War. On 10 October 1918, nineteen-year-old Josephine Carr from Cork (city), Cork became the first Wren to die on active service, when her ship, the RMS Leinster, RMS ''Leinster'' was torpedoed. By the end of the war the service had 5,500 members, 500 of them offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ENSA
The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes. In 1946 it was re-named to Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) operating under the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), until 2 March 2020, when the SSVC re-branded to the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), with the CSE likewise re-branding as BFBS Live Events. The first big wartime variety concert organised by ENSA was broadcast by the BBC to the Empire and local networks from RAF Hendon in north London on 17 October 1939. Among the entertainers appearing on the bill were Adelaide Hall, The Western Brothers and Mantovani. A newsreel of this concert showing Hall singing " We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line" accompanied by Mantovani and His Orchestra exists. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midsummer
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest Daytime, day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of European origin. These cultures traditionally regard it as the middle of summer, with the season beginning on May Day. Although the summer solstice falls on June solstice, 20, 21 or 22 June in the Northern Hemisphere, it was traditionally reckoned to fall on 23–24 June in much of Europe. These dates were Christianization of saints and feasts, Christianized as Saint John's Eve and Nativity of John the Baptist, Saint John's Day. It is usually celebrated with outdoor gatherings that include bonfires and feasting. History There is Archaeoastronomy, evidence that the summer solstice has been culturally important since the Neolithic era, with List of archaeoastronomical sites by country, many ancient monuments throughout Eurasia and the Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within Earthwork (archaeology), earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic British Isles, Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred ''tumuli'' (burial mounds). Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hitch-hiking
Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Signaling methods Hitchhikers use a variety of signals to indicate they need a ride. Indicators can be physical gestures or displays including written signs. The physical gestures, e.g., hand signals, hitchhikers use differ around the world: *In some African countries, the hitchhiker's hand is held with the palm facing upwards. *In most of Europe, North America, South America and Australia, most hitchhikers stand with their back facing the direction of travel. The hitchhiker typically extends their arm towards the road with the thumb of the closed hand pointing upward or in the direction of vehicle travel. Legal status Hitchhiking is historically a common practice worldwide and hence there are very few places in the world where laws exist to res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sweet Fanny Adams
Fanny Adams (30 April 1859 – 24 August 1867) was an eight-year-old English girl who was murdered by a solicitor's clerk, Frederick Baker, in Alton, Hampshire, in 1867. Her murder was extraordinarily brutal and caused a national outcry in the United Kingdom. Baker child abduction, abducted Adams and took her into a Humulus lupulus, hop garden near her home, where he killed and dismemberment, dismembered her; some parts of her body were never found. An investigation suggested that two small knives were used for the murder, but it was later ruled they would have been insufficient to carry out the crime and that another weapon must have been used. Background Fanny Adams (born 30 April 1859) and her family lived in Tanhouse Lane on the northern side of Alton, Hampshire, Alton, a market town in Hampshire. The United Kingdom Census 1861, 1861 census shows that Fanny lived with her father and five siblings. The family was locally rooted; George Adams and his wife Ann, believed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tandem Bicycle
A tandem bicycle or twin is a bicycle (occasionally a tricycle) designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement (fore to aft, not side by side), not the number of riders. Patents related to tandem bicycles date from the mid-1880s. Tandems can reach higher speeds than the same riders on single bicycles, and tandem bicycle racing exists. As with bicycles for single riders, there are many variations that have been developed over the years. Terminology The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement (fore to aft, not side by side), not the number of riders. A bike with two riders side by side is called a sociable. Tandem bicycles are sometimes called "Daisy Bells". This is in reference to " Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" which is a popular song, written in 1892 by British songwriter Harry Dacre, with the well-known chorus, "Daisy, Daisy / Give me your answer, do. / I'm half crazy / all for the love of you", ending with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in England not located primarily on the Great Britain, mainland. The city is located south-east of Southampton, west of Brighton and Hove and south-west of London. With a population last recorded at 208,100, it is the most densely populated city in the United Kingdom. Portsmouth forms part of the South Hampshire urban area with Gosport, Borough of Fareham, Fareham, Borough of Havant, Havant, Borough of Eastleigh, Eastleigh and Southampton. Portsmouth's history can be traced to Roman Britain, Roman times and has been a significant Royal Navy dockyard and base for centuries. Portsmouth was founded by Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors in the south-west area of Portsea Island, a location now known as Old Portsmouth. Around this time, de Gis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the list of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country in the world and the largest in Oceania. Australia is the world's flattest and driest inhabited continent. It is a megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and Climate of Australia, climates including deserts of Australia, deserts in the Outback, interior and forests of Australia, tropical rainforests along the Eastern states of Australia, coast. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last glacial period. By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke 250 distinct l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Box Office
A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a metonym for the amount of business a particular production, such as a film or theatre show, receives. The term is also used to refer to a ticket office at an arena or a stadium. ''Box office'' business can be measured in terms of the number of tickets sold or the amount of money raised by ticket sales (revenue). The projection and analysis of these earnings is greatly important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for fans. This is predominant in the Hollywood movie industry. To determine if a movie made a profit, it is not correct to directly compare the box office gross with the production budget, because the movie thea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sailors Three
''Sailors Three'' (released in the US as ''Three Cockeyed Sailors'') is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Carla Lehmann. This was cockney music hall comedian Trinder's debut for Ealing, the studio with which he was to become most closely associated. It concerns three British sailors who accidentally find themselves aboard a German ship during the Second World War. Detailed surveys published in Britain in the early years of the war by the " Mass-Observation" organisation, showed the popularity of comedy with wartime cinema audiences. Films with the war as a subject were particularly well received, especially those movies showing the lighter side of service life, largely because many in the audience would soon be finding themselves in uniform. John Oliver writes in BFI screenonline, " to prepare such potential recruits for their own possible riotous and fun-packed life in the Royal Navy, Sandy Powell had alrea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
