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Footlights
The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy society is run by the students of the University of Cambridge. History Footlights' inaugural performance took place in June 1883. For some months before the name "Footlights" was chosen, the group had performed to local audiences in the Cambridge area (once, with a cricket match included, at the "pauper lunatic asylum"). They wished to go wider than the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC), founded in 1855, with its membership drawn largely from Trinity College, and its theatre seating only 100. They were to perform every May Week at the Theatre Royal, Barnwell, Cambridge, the shows soon open to the public. A local paper commended the club's appeal to the "general public, the many different classes of which life in Cambridge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and feminist, regarded as one of the major voices of the second-wave feminism movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literature, she has held academic positions in England at the University of Warwick and Newnham College, Cambridge, and in the United States at the University of Tulsa. Based in the United Kingdom since 1964, she has divided her time since the 1990s between Queensland, Australia, and her home in Essex, England. Greer's ideas have created controversy ever since her first book, ''The Female Eunuch'' (1970), made her a household name. An international bestseller and a watershed text in the feminist movement, it offered a systematic deconstruction of ideas such as womanhood and femininity, arguing that women were forced to assume submissive roles in society to fulfil male fantasies of what being a woman entailed. Greer's subsequent work has focused on liter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Idle
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles. Idle studied English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and joined Cambridge University Footlights. He has received a Grammy Award as well as nominations for two Tony Awards. Idle reached stardom in the 1970s when he co-created and acted in the Python sketch comedy series '' Flying Circus'' (1969–1974) and the films '' Holy Grail'' (1975), '' Life of Brian'', (1979) and '' The Meaning of Life'' (1983) with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Known for his elaborate wordplay and musical numbers, Idle composed and performed many of the songs featured in Python projects, including " Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". After ''Flying Circus'' ended, Idle created another sketch show '' Rutland Weekend Television'' (1975–1976), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor (17 July 194012 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of The Goodies. Brooke-Taylor became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and became president of the Footlights, touring internationally with its revue in 1964. Becoming more widely known to the public for his work on BBC Radio with ''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'', he moved into television with ''At Last the 1948 Show'', working together with old Cambridge friends John Cleese and Graham Chapman. With Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, he starred in ''The Goodies (TV series), The Goodies'' (1970–1982), picking up international recognition in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He appeared as an actor in various sitcoms and was a panellist on BBC Radio's ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' for almost 50 years. Early life and education Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor was born on 17 July 1940 in Buxton, Derbyshire, son of Edward B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monty Python
Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy series '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which aired on the BBC from 1969 to 1974. Their work then developed into a larger collection that included live shows, films, albums, books, and musicals; their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. (The live version of the Web page does not contain the quoted line, but the archived version does.) Their sketch show has been called "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy". ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' was loosely structured as a sketch show, but its innovative stream-of-consciousness approach and Gilliam's animation skills pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in style and content. A self-contained comedy unit, the Pythons had creative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Goodies
The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940 – 12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their The Goodies (TV series), eponymous television comedy show from 1970 until 1982, combining sketch comedy, sketches and situation comedy. Beginnings The three actors met each other while undergraduates at the University of Cambridge, where Brooke-Taylor (Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke) was a law student, Garden (Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Emmanuel) was studying medicine and Oddie (Pembroke) was reading English literature, English. Their contemporaries included Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle, who later became members of Monty Python, and with whom they became close friends. Brooke-Taylor and Cleese studied together and swapped lecture notes, for they were both law students, but at different colleges within the university.''From Fringe to Flying Ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridge Union
The Cambridge Union Society, also known as the Cambridge Union, is a historic debating and free speech society in Cambridge, England, and the largest society in the University of Cambridge. The society was founded in 1815 making it the oldest continuously running debating society in the world. Additionally, the Cambridge Union has served as a model for the foundation of similar societies at several other prominent universities, including the Oxford Union and the Yale Political Union. The Union is a private society with membership open to all students of Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University. The Cambridge Union is a registered charity and is completely separate from the Cambridge University Students' Union. The Cambridge Union has a long and extensive tradition of hosting prominent figures from all areas of public life in its chamber, both state- and international-based, including the Dalai Lama, US presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, Bill Gates, Ste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
At Last The 1948 Show
''At Last the 1948 Show'' is a satirical television show made by David Frost's company, Paradine Productions (although it was not credited on the programmes), in association with Rediffusion London. Transmitted on Britain's ITV network in 1967, it brought Cambridge Footlights humour to a broader audience. The show starred and was written by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Marty Feldman. Cleese and Brooke-Taylor were also the programme editors. Aimi MacDonald (usually billed as "the lovely Aimi MacDonald") was the cheerfully ditsy host who introduced the show and also appeared in occasional (and brief) in-show linking segments, but she did not appear in sketches. The director was Ian Fordyce. Chapman and Cleese would later be among the founders of the Monty Python comedy troupe, and several of the sketches first performed in ''At Last the 1948 Show'' would later be performed by Monty Python in various formats. Cleese and Chapman's future Python partner E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beyond The Fringe
''Beyond the Fringe'' was a British comedy Play (theatre), stage revue written and performed by Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore. It debuted at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival and went on to play in London's West End theatre, West End and then in America, both on tour and on New York City, New York's Broadway theatre, Broadway in the early 1960s. Hugely successful, it is widely regarded as seminal to the "satire boom", the rise of Satire, satirical comedy in 1960s Britain. The show The idea for ''Beyond the Fringe'' came from Robert Ponsonby, who was the director of the Edinburgh International Festival from 1956 to 1960. Ponsonby's idea was to bring together the best parts of the revues staged by the Cambridge Footlights and The Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe in previous years. He said that the Festival should put on a late-night revue "to beat The Fringe at its own game." By 1960, the Festival was so firmly established th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russell Davies
Robert Russell Davies (born 5 April 1946) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Davies was born in Barmouth, North Wales. He attended Manchester Grammar School, according to his own statement on a November 2010 '' Brain of Britain'' programme. Also according to the programme, his grandfather was a mole-catcher. During his time at MGS (1957–64) he acted in dramatic society productions and was appointed school vice-captain. He gained a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, and was awarded a first class degree in Modern and Mediaeval Languages in 1967, but soon abandoned his post-graduate studies in German literature when the opportunity arose to tour with the Cambridge Footlights revue. During his time in Cambridge, he contributed topical cartoons to the news pages of '' Varsity'', the undergraduate newspaper, under the pseudonym Dai. In 1970, Davies co-starred with fellow Footlights alumni Pete Atkin, Clive James and Julie Covington across three London Weekend Telev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Bron
Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in '' Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967) and Hermione Roddice in ''Women in Love'' (1969). She has appeared in television series such as ''Yes Minister'', ''Doctor Who'' and ''Absolutely Fabulous''. Early life Bron was born on 14 March 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, into a Jewish family. Before her birth, her father Sydney had legally changed his name from Bronstein to Bron, in an effort to enhance his newly founded commercial enterprise, Bron's Orchestral Service. Her elder brother was the record producer Gerry Bron. She attended the North London Collegiate School and then Newnham College, Cambridge, where she read Modern Languages. She later characterised her time at Newnham as "three years of unparalleled pampering and privilege". Career Early work Bron began her career in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sketch Comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in music hall in Britain and vaudeville in North America, today it is used widely in variety shows, as well as in late night talk shows and even some sitcoms. While sketch comedy is now associated mostly with adult entertainment, certain children's television series such have used it, too. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. History Sketch comedy has its origins in music hall and vaudeville, where many brief humorous acts were strung together to form a larger programme. In the 1890s, music hall impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue, and in 1904 he produced a sketch called ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,746 different shows across 262 venues from 60 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows. Established in 1947 as an unofficial offshoot to (and on the "fringe" of) the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The combination of Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. It is an open-access (or " unjuried") performing arts festival, meaning that there is no selection committee, and anyon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
