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Follyfoot
''Follyfoot'' is a children's television series co-produced by the majority-partner British television company Yorkshire Television (for transmission on ITV) and the independent West German company ''TV München'' (for transmission on the ZDF channel). It aired in the United Kingdom between 1971 and 1973, repeated for two years after that and again in the late 1980s. The series starred Gillian Blake in the lead role. Notable people connected with the series were actors Desmond Llewelyn and Arthur English and directors Jack Cardiff, Stephen Frears, Michael Apted and David Hemmings. It was originally inspired by Monica Dickens' 1963 novel ''Cobbler's Dream'' (republished in 1995 as ''New Arrival at Follyfoot''); she later wrote four further books in conjunction with the series—''Follyfoot'' in 1971, ''Dora at Follyfoot'' in 1972, ''The Horses of Follyfoot'' in 1975, and ''Stranger at Follyfoot'' in 1976. Background and production The series, which was filmed on the H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monica Dickens
Monica Enid Dickens, MBE (10 May 1915 – 25 December 1992) was an English writer, the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Biography Known as "Monty" to her family and friends, she was born into an upper-middle-class London family to Henry Charles Dickens (1878–1966), a barrister, and Fanny Dickens (née Runge). She was the granddaughter of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens KC. Disillusioned with the world she was brought up in – she was expelled from St Paul's Girls' School in London for throwing her school uniform into the Thames before she was presented at court as a debutante – she decided to go into domestic service despite coming from the privileged class; her experiences as a cook and general servant would form the nucleus of her first book, ''One Pair of Hands'' in 1939. ''One Pair of Feet'' (1942) recounted her work as a nurse, and subsequently she worked in an aircraft factory and on the ''Hertfordshire Express'' – a local newspaper in Hitchin; her experience ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Hodson
Stephen Leslie Hodson (5 November 1947 – 16 February 2025) was a British actor who played the role of Steve Ross in ''Follyfoot''. Life and Career Hodson was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire on 5 November 1947. He was working as a civil servant in Bradford when he won a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. From then-on he began appearing in roles on stage and later in television, appearing in ''The Grievance'' and '' The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes''. In 1971, he auditioned for role of Steve in ''Follyfoot'', but was initially unsuccessful. Another actor was employed, but later dismissed and Hodson was recruited to the part. He appeared in all three series of its run, from 1971 to 1973. During this period, there was a Steve Hodson fan club. In January 1973, he released a single called "Crystal Bay", written by Maurice Gibb and Billy Lawrie. Hodson appeared in a number of television series over the next few years, including '' All Creatures Great a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gillian Blake
Gillian Blake (born 10 May 1949) is a retired British actress who is best known for her role as Dora in the 1970s tv series ''Follyfoot''. Blake studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began her professional career in the late 1960s. She appeared (uncredited) in the 1969 film '' Goodbye Mr. Chips.'' She went on to perform additional roles on television. In 1971 she landed the lead role in a Yorkshire Television Production ''Follyfoot'', which ran for three series until 1973. Her last role of note was in two episodes of the ''BBC2 Playhouse'' series in 1980. Blake has retired from acting, having spent some years concentrating on motherhood. She made a rare television appearance on '' This Is Your Life'' in 1995, celebrating the career of Desmond Llewelyn (her co-star in ''Follyfoot''). In 1977, she married actor Peter Whitbread Peter Bruce Pauling Whitbread (25 October 1928 – 26 October 2004) was an English actor and screenwriter. He was born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Rodska
Christian Rodska (born Christian Rodskjaer; 5 September 1945 – 21 March 2024) was an English actor who appeared in many television and radio series and narrated a number of audiobooks, including Sir Winston Churchill's Nobel Prize winning '' The Second World War''. He is perhaps best known for his regular role as Ron Stryker in 1970s series, ''Follyfoot.'' Career Rodska began acting professionally in the late 1960s and got his first big break when he was chosen to appear in ''Follyfoot'', which ran for three years from 1971 to 1973. From then on, he appeared in numerous series such as the 1977 BBC adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliff's '' The Eagle of the Ninth'', in which he played Esca, and the film version of '' The Likely Lads'', ''Z-Cars,'' ''The Tomorrow People,'' ''Coronation Street,'' '' Brookside,'' '' Bergerac'' and ''Casualty'', and Duncan Fraser in the feature-length Tenko Christmas special ''Reunion''. More recently he worked extensively as a voice artist, featuring ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desmond Llewelyn
Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn (; 12 September 1914GRO Register of Births: DEC 1914 11a 490 NEWPORT M. – Desmond W. Llewelyn, mmn = Wilkinson – 19 December 1999GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 2000 A70E 247 EASTBOURNE – Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn, DoB = 12 September 1914, aged 85) was a Welsh actor. He was best known for his role as Q in 17 of the ''James Bond'' films between 1963 and 1999. Biography Early life Llewelyn was born on 12 September 1914 at Blaen-y-Pant House in Bettws in Newport, the son of Mia (née Wilkinson) and Ivor Llewelyn. Desmond's father was a coal mining engineer, who notably purchased the first Bentley production automobile, a Bentley 3-litre from W. O. Bentley in 1921. His paternal grandfather, Llewelyn Llewelyn of Kings Hill was the High Sheriff of Monmouthshire as well as General Manager of the Powell-Dyffryn Steam Coal Company. While Llewelyn originally wanted to be a minister, he became involved in theatrical productions during his education at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gillian Bailey
Gillian Bailey (born 14 June 1955 in Wimbledon, London), also known as Gilli Bush-Bailey, is a British actress and professor. She was a child actress and appeared as Billie in '' Here Come the Double Deckers'' (1970–71). Other roles included Phyllis in a television version of ''The Railway Children'' (1968), Janey in '' The Witch's Daughter'' (1971), Lavinia in '' Thursday's Child'' (1972–73) and Callie in ''Follyfoot'' (1971–73). As an adult actress she played Jinny Carter in series 1 of '' Poldark'' (1975), Ravella in the first episode of ''Blake's 7'' " The Way Back" (1978), Southern TV Live: (1980)‘Together’ Julie Dunn and Maureen Galbraith in the BBC TV series ''County Hall'' (1982). In the 1990s she found that work dried up and began working as a script reader. In 1992, she returned to complete her education at Kingston University. After a period at the Drama and Theatre department at the Royal Holloway, University of London she is now Professor of Women's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur English
Arthur Leslie Norman English (9 May 1919 – 16 April 1995) was an English television, film and stage actor and comedian from the music hall tradition. Early life English was born at 22 Lysons Road in Aldershot,'Arthur English, ''Aldershot Historical & Archaeological Society'' (AHAS), Yearbook 23 (2010) pg7 Hampshire, the son of Walter Frederick English (1856–1948) and Ethel English (née Parsons) (1886–1975), who married at Holy Trinity church in Aldershot in 1909. Arthur English had two older brothers: Walter (born 1910) and John Edgar (born 1912). All three boys were born in their parents' bedroom in Lysons Road and all three were baptised at Holy Trinity church. He attended West End Boys School in Aldershot (now the West End Centre) from the age of 5 to 14. His first stage appearance was aged 10 when he joined a group from Gale & Polden called the 'Five O'clock Follies' as an acrobat.AHAS, pg8 On leaving school in 1933 he briefly worked at Fisher's Hotel in nearby F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin (7 July 1911 – 11 July 2005) was an English actress and dancer with a career in show business spanning over 70 years. She played Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap opera ''EastEnders'' on a regular basis from 1985 until 1988. After this she returned to the show intermittently. These appearances became briefer and more widely spaced. Her final appearance was in 2000, when her character was killed off. Early life Gretchen Gordon Franklin was born in Covent Garden, Central London, into a theatrical family, the only child of her parents Gordon and Violet Franklin. Her father had a song-and-dance act, while her grandfather was a well-known music-hall entertainer at the turn of the 20th century. Her younger cousin was the comedian Clive Dunn (1920–2012). Franklin entered show business as a teenager, making her début as a pantomime chorus girl in Bournemouth. In 1929, she took dancing lessons at the ''Theatre Girls Club'' in Soho in London's W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Settlers (band)
The Settlers were an English folk-oriented music group, originally from the English West Midlands, who formed in the mid-1960s. The band folded in the early 1980s, relaunched in 2018, and disbanded again in 2021. Formation and genre The group started as a trio, but almost immediately expanded by adding a bassist to their line-up. The original members were: * Cynthia "Cindy" Kent MBE (vocals and tambourine), born 7 August 1945, Oldbury, Worcestershire; * Mike Jones (vocals and guitar), born Michael Edwin Jones, 16 September 1943, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, died 11 May 2008, Exeter, Devon; * John Fyffe (banjo), born 3 July 1943, Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, Scotland; * Mansel Davies (double bass), born 22 March 1942, Newquay, Cornwall. The Settlers were initially known as the Birmingham Folk Four, in July 1963 but became known as the Settlers after the relative success of their first single, "Settle Down". A six-month residency on a BBC television series, ''Singalong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathy Staff
Kathy Staff (born Minnie Higginbottom; 12 July 1928 – 13 December 2008) was an English actress known for her work on British television. She is best known for her portrayal of Nora Batty in ''Last of the Summer Wine'', the longest running sitcom in the world. Career Early career She began her acting career with touring repertory companies in 1946, changing her name to Katherine Brant. After she married John Staff in 1951, she adopted the surname as her stage name, hence Kathy Staff. She retired from the stage at this point to raise her family, but started working as an extra for Granada Television in Manchester in the 1960s. In her autobiography, Staff revealed herself to be a Conservative, and noted that she had once stood as an election candidate for the party. This appears to have been in 1971, when a Ms. M. Staff contested the Central ward in the Municipal Borough of Dukinfield. The seat was comfortably held by Labour, with the Liberals beating all three Conservative c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pam St Clement
Pamela Ann Clements (born 11 May 1942), known professionally as Pam St Clement, is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Pat Butcher in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' from 12 June 1986 until 1 January 2012, with a guest appearance in May 2016, thereby becoming one of the programme's longest-serving cast members. Early life St Clement's parents, Ann Tribe and Reginald Clements, married in 1940. Shortly after St Clement's birth in 1942, her mother died of tuberculosis, and she was put into foster care when her father remarried. St Clement subsequently grew up in various foster homes until she was taken in by a family who owned a farm in Devon. She has commented: "I was very fortunate in the end. I was always being farmed off to holiday homes, then when I was just pre-teens I went down to Devon to some people who were very good at taking on youngsters, and what originated as a business arrangement became my home." St Clement's father rose to become the mana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Frears
Sir Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is a British director and producer of film and television, often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply-drawn characters. He has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. In 2008, ''The Daily Telegraph'' named Frears among the 100 most influential people in Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture. In 2009, he received the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He received a knighthood in 2023 for his contributions to the film and television industries. Born in Leicester and educated at Gresham's School and Trinity College, Cambridge, Frears started his career working as an assistant director in theatre and film while directing many television plays. Frears directed his debut feature film ''Gumshoe (film), Gumshoe'' in 1971 and received critical acclaim for his films in the 1980s su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
