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Kevin Elyot
Kevin Elyot (18 July 1951 – 7 June 2014) was a British playwright, screenwriter and actor. His most notable works include the play ''My Night with Reg'' (1994) and the film ''Clapham Junction'' (2007). His stage work has been performed by leading theatre companies including the Royal Court, National Theatre, Bush Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Donmar Warehouse and in the West End. He finished his final play, ''Twilight Song'', not long before he died in 2014, which received a posthumous premiere at London's Park Theatre in 2017. Early life Kevin Elyot was born in the Birmingham suburb of Handsworth, West Midlands, England, on 18 July 1951. As a child he was a member of the Anglo-Catholic church of St Peter's choir, and studied the piano. He studied at King Edward's School, Birmingham, where he acted the part of Desdemona, and sang in the third performance of Britten's "War Requiem". He also sang in the Birmingham Cathedral choir as a treble. As children he and his sist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is known as the second city of the United Kingdom. Located in the West Midlands region of England, approximately from London, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately west of the city centre. Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Porter
Eric Richard Porter (8 April 192815 May 1995) was an English actor of stage, film and television. Early life Porter was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, to bus conductor Richard John Porter and Phoebe Elizabeth (née Spall). His parents hoped he would become an electrical engineer, so he was educated at the Technical College in Wimbledon, then worked for the Marconi Telegraph and Wireless company as a joint-solderer. He made his stage debut at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in 1945 at the age of 17. Career In 1955, Porter played the title role in Ben Jonson's ''Volpone'' at the Bristol Old Vic. He won the London Evening Standard award in 1959 for his performance in Ibsen's ''Rosmersholm'' at the Royal Court Theatre. In 1960 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company; that year, he played Ferdinand in John Webster's '' The Duchess of Malfi''. In 1962, he performed as Iachimo in '' Cymbeline''. Other roles included Ulysses, Macbeth, Leontes, Malvolio, Shylock, King Lear and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Bamber
David James Bamber (born 19 September 1954) is an English actor. He has worked in television and theatre. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Early years Bamber was born in Walkden, Lancashire. By September 1973, he was at the Manchester Youth Theatre, playing Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida. Bamber studied drama at Bristol University, continuing his training at RADA where he won the Gold Medal in 1979. Career Bamber has worked on many British television series, mini-series and TV films. He appeared in the BBC adaptations of Hanif Kureishi's '' The Buddha of Suburbia'' and Jane Austen's ''Pride and Prejudice'', in which he portrayed the Bennets' clergyman cousin, Mr. Collins. He also played the part of a junior treasury minister and stamp collecting enthusiast, Julian Whitaker, in an episode of ''The New Statesman'', in which Alan frames Whitaker and forces his resignation. In 1997 he starred as Eric Slatt in two series of Steven Moffat's ''Chalk'', con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Michell
Roger Michell (5 June 1956 – 22 September 2021) was a South African-born British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as ''Notting Hill'' and ''Venus'', as well as the 1995 made-for-television film ''Persuasion''. Early life and education Michell was born on 5 June 1956 in Pretoria, Union of South Africa. He was not South African, as is sometimes mistakenly assumed, but was born there because his father was a British diplomat who had been posted to South Africa. On account of his father's job, Michell spent parts of his childhood in Beirut, Damascus, and Prague; he and his family were in Prague during the 1968 invasion. He was educated at Clifton College in Bristol, where he began directing and writing short plays, before reading English at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he directed and acted in dozens of plays, winning both the RSC Buzz Goodbody Award for Best Student Director at the NSDF, and a Fringe First Award at the Edi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Daldry
Stephen David Daldry CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Olivier Awards for his work in the West End and three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway. He has received three Academy Awards nominations for Best Director, for films '' Billy Elliot'' (2000), '' The Hours'' (2002), and ''The Reader'' (2008). From 2016 to 2020, he produced and directed the Netflix television series ''The Crown'', for which he received one Producers Guild Award nomination, one Producers Guild Award win, two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and one Primetime Emmy Award win for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Drama Series. Daldry joined an elite group of directors by receiving nominations for direction in theatre, television, and film. Early years Daldry was born in Dorset, the son of singer Cherry (née Thompson) and bank manager Patrick Daldry. The family moved to Taunton, Somerset, where his fath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since 2019. History The original theatre (The Hampstead Theatre Club) was created in 1959 in Moreland Hall, a parish church school hall in Holly Bush Vale, Hampstead Village. James Roose-Evans was the founder and first Artistic Director, and the 1959–1960 season included '' The Dumb Waiter'' and '' The Room'' by Harold Pinter, Eugène Ionesco's ''Jacques'' and ''The Sport of My Mad Mother'' by Ann Jellicoe. In 1962 the company moved to a portable cabin in Swiss Cottage where it remained for nearly 40 years, before, in 2003, the new purpose-built Hampstead Theatre opened in Swiss Cottage. The main auditorium seats 373 people. The studio theatre, Hampstead Downstairs, seats up to 100 people and was turned into a laboratory for new wri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory. The Barbican Centre is a member of the Global Cultural Districts Network. The London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are based in the centre's Concert Hall. In 2013, it once again became the London-based venue of the Royal Shakespeare Company following the company's departure in 2001. The Barbican Centre is owned, funded, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It was built as the City's gift to the nation at a cost of £161 million (equivalent to £480 million in 2014) and was officially opened to the public by Queen Elizabeth II on 3 March 1982. The Barbican Centre is also known for its brutalist architecture. Performance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linda Bassett
Linda Bassett (born 4 February 1950) is an English actress. Her television credits include Victoria Wood's '' dinnerladies'' (1999), ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' (2008–11), ''Grandma's House'' (2010–12) and ''Call the Midwife'' (2015–present). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1999 film '' East Is East'' and for the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for the 2013 revival of the play '' Roots'' at the Donmar Warehouse. Biography Bassett was born in Pluckley, Kent, England, to a typist mother and a police officer father. Her roles include the award-winning part of Ella Khan in the 1999 British comedy film '' East is East''. Other roles include Mrs. Jennings in the three-part BBC adaptation ''Sense and Sensibility'', Queenie Turrill in ''Lark Rise to Candleford'', Doll in the film ''Cass''. In film, she first gained notice when she was cast as Gertrude Stein opposite Linda Hunt as Alice B. Toklas in '' Waiting for the Moon' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Ostrovsky
Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Остро́вский; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 original plays, Ostrovsky "almost single-handedly created a Russian national repertoire." His dramas are among the most widely read and frequently performed stage pieces in Russia. Biography Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born on 12 April 1823, in the Zamoskvorechye region of Moscow, to Nikolai Fyodorovich Ostrovsky, a lawyer who received religious education. Nikolai's ancestors came from the village Ostrov in the Nerekhta region of Kostroma governorate, hence the surname. Later Nikolai Ostrovsky became a high-ranked state official and as such in 1839 received a nobility title with the corresponding privileges. His first wife and Alexander's mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, came from a clergyman's family. For some time the family lived in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for '' The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which has been proposed as the first modern English detective novel. Born to the London painter William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian and French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After ''Antonina'', his first novel, appeared in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became a friend and mentor. Some of his work appeared in Dickens's journals ''Household Words'' and '' All the Year Round''. They also collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins gained financial stability and an international following by the 1860s, but became addicted to the opium he took for his gout, so that his health and writing quality declined in the 1870s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. The station controller is Mohit Bakaya. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM broadcast band, FM, Longwave, LW and Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, and on BBC Sounds, it can be received in the eastern counties of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, northern France and Northern Europe. It is available on Freeview (UK), Freeview, Sky (UK & Ireland), Sky, and Virgin Media. Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it the UK's second most-popular radio station after BBC Radio 2, Radio 2. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as ''Today (BBC Radio 4), Today'' and ''The World at One'', heralded on air by the Greenwich Ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peggy Ramsay
Margaret Francesca Ramsay (27 May 1908 - 4 September 1991) was an Australian-born British theatrical agent.Christopher Stevens ''Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams'', London: John Murray, 2010, p.409 Early life Peggy Ramsay was born to English parents in Molong, New South Wales, Australia. Her father's name was originally Vilenski, but her mother believed this Jewish name was a social drawback so had it changed to Venniker. Her family had settled in South Africa by the end of the Great War, in which her father served in the South African Medical Corps. During a brief and unhappy marriage, she came to England in 1929; her husband Norman Ramsay was under investigation in South Africa. After touring with an opera company, and a spell as an actress, she began reading scripts for theatrical managers including Peter Daubeny, who was later known for organising annual World Theatre Seasons. Theatrical agent As she was gaining no financial return from scripts she was fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
