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Longitude (TV Serial)
''Longitude'' is a 2000 TV drama produced by ITV Granada, Granada Television and the A&E Network for Channel 4, first broadcast between 2 and 3 January 2000 in the UK on Channel 4 and the US on A&E. It is a dramatisation of the 1995 Longitude (book), book of the same title by Dava Sobel. It was written and directed by Charles Sturridge and stars Michael Gambon as clockmaker John Harrison (1693–1776) and Jeremy Irons as Horology, horologist Rupert Gould (1890–1948). Plot ''Longitude'' presents the story of Harrison's efforts to develop the marine chronometer and thereby win the longitude rewards, Longitude prize in the 18th century. This is interwoven with the story of Gould, a retired naval officer, who is restoring Harrison's four chronometers and popularises his achievements in the early twentieth century. Cast Awards In 2001, ''Longitude'' was nominated for the British Academy Television Awards 2001, British Academy Television Awards in ten categories, win ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Period Drama
A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction such as artistic license, creative dialogue or scenes which compress separate events. The biographical film is a type of historical drama which generally focuses on a single individual or well-defined group. Historical dramas can include romance film, romances, adventure films, and swashbucklers. Historical drama can be differentiated from historical fiction, which generally present fictional characters and events against a backdrop of historical events. A period piece may be set in a vague or general era such as the Middle Ages, or a specific period such as the Roaring Twenties, or the recent past. Scholarship In different eras different subgenres have risen to popularity, such as the westerns and sword and sandal films that dominated Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Coy
Jonathan Coy (born 24 April 1953) is a British actor. He has worked since 1975 largely in television, notably as Henry in the long-running legal series ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' and as Bracegirdle in the television series '' Hornblower'', adapted from the books by C. S. Forester. He also appeared as the German character, Kurt, in the British television drama ''Brideshead Revisited'', in Episode 7, entitled "The Unseen Hook," and Colin Grove in '' The Sandbaggers'' in 1978. In 2008, he played Lloyd in a UK tour of the play ''Noises Off'', Leonato in the 2011 Wyndham's Theatre production of ''Much Ado About Nothing'', with David Tennant, and Colonel Luykin in Pinero's '' The Magistrate'' at the Royal National Theatre in 2012-13, a production that was included in Season 4 of National Theatre Live. In 1997, he appeared as Doug Arkwright in '' Hetty Wainthropp Investigates'' (“Daughter of the Regiment”, S3:E2). He also played a German spy called "Hans Maier" in the BBC Serie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Fry
Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' (1989–1995) and ''Jeeves and Wooster'' (1990–1993). He also starred in the sketch series ''Alfresco (TV series), Alfresco'' (1983–1984) with Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Robbie Coltrane, and in ''Blackadder'' (1986–1989) alongside Rowan Atkinson. Since 2011 he has served as president of the mental health charity Mind (charity), Mind. In 2025, he was Knight Bachelor, knighted for services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity. Fry's film acting roles include playing Oscar Wilde in the film ''Wilde (film), Wilde'' (1997), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor; Inspector Thompson in Robert Altman's murder mystery ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Whiston
William Whiston (9 December 166722 August 1752) was an English theologian, historian, natural philosopher, and mathematician, a leading figure in the popularisation of the ideas of Isaac Newton. He is now probably best known for helping to instigate the Longitude Act in 1714 (and his attempts to win the rewards that it promised) and his important translations of the ''Antiquities of the Jews'' and other works by Josephus (which are still in print). He was a prominent exponent of Arianism and wrote '' A New Theory of the Earth''. Whiston succeeded his mentor Newton as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. In 1710 he lost the professorship and was expelled from the university as a result of his unorthodox religious views. Whiston rejected the notion of eternal torment in hellfire, which he viewed as absurd, cruel, and an insult to God. What especially pitted him against church authorities was his denial of the doctrine of the Trinity, which he believ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Tandy (actor)
Mark Napper O'Connor Tandy is an Irish stage, film and television actor. Early life Mark Tandy was born in Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland on 8February 1957. His childhood was spent between the Republic of Ireland and the Persian Gulf. He was educated at Winchester College and the University of Bristol Drama Department, and was a member of the National Youth Theatre from 1974 to 1976. Career Tandy's first professional engagement in the theatre was for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, England in 1979, where appearances included the original stage production of '' The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'', which played for three seasons at the Aldwych Theatre, London and at the Plymouth Theatre, New York. Tandy has since appeared irregularly at the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, The Old Vic, London's West End and around the UK. Tandy's first television role was as WB Yeats for the BBC in 1982, and many subsequent television appeara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphry Ditton
Humphry Ditton (29 May 1675 – 15 October 1715) was an English mathematician. He was the author of several influential works. Life Ditton was born on 29 May 1675 in Salisbury, the only son of Humphry Ditton, gentleman and ardent nonconformist, and Miss Luttrell of Dunster Castle, near Taunton. He studied theology privately, and was for some time also a dissenting minister, at Tonbridge, where he married a Miss Ball.Raymond Flood: "Ditton, Humphry umphrey, ODNBRetrieved 29 May 2021./ref> On his father's death, Ditton devoted himself mainly to the study of mathematics. Through the influence of Isaac Newton he was elected mathematical master in Christ's Hospital. He produced also a theological work, ''A Discourse Concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ'', which sought to take a mathematical, deductive approach to the subject. The first of its four editions appeared in 1712 and it was translated into French and German. He was unable to complete his response to various critic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Wood (actor)
David Bernard Wood OBE (born 21 February 1944) is an English actor, author, composer, director, magician and producer. ''The Times'' called him "the National Children's Dramatist". In 1979, he joined Bernard Cribbins, Maurice Denham, and Jan Francis in a reading of ''The Hobbit'' for the BBC Television show ''Jackanory''. Early life Wood was born on 21 February 1944 in Sutton, Surrey. He was educated at Chichester High School for Boys and Worcester College, Oxford. Stage work Along with John Gould, he founded the Whirligig Theatre, a touring children's theatre company. His most famous story, '' The Gingerbread Man'' (1976), has been all across the world since its premiere at the Towngate Theatre in Basildon. Wood, FilmFair, and Central adapted the musical into an animated children's television series. The adaptation, also called '' The Gingerbread Man'', aired on ITV in 1992. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2004 Queen's Birth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Upon his return to England, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and with the help of King Charles II of England, Charles II, was granted a master's degree from University of Oxford, Oxford. Halley encouraged and helped fund the publication of Isaac Newton's influential ''Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica'' (1687). From observations Halley made in September 1682, he used Newton's law of universal gravitation to compute the periodicity of Halley's Comet in his 1705 ''Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets''. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wood (English Actor)
John Lamin Wood (5 July 1930 – 6 August 2011) was an English actor known for his Shakespearean performances and his lasting association with Tom Stoppard. In 1976, he received a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Stoppard's ''Travesties''. He was nominated for further Tony Awards for his roles in ''Sherlock Holmes (play), Sherlock Holmes'' (1975) and ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' (1968). His films included ''WarGames'' (1983), ''The Purple Rose of Cairo'' (1985), ''Ladyhawke (film), Ladyhawke'' (1985), ''Jumpin' Jack Flash (film), Jumpin' Jack Flash'' (1986), ''Orlando (film), Orlando'' (1992), ''Shadowlands (1993 film), Shadowlands'' (1993), ''The Madness of King George'' (1994), ''Richard III (1995 film), Richard III'' (1995), ''Sabrina (1995 film), Sabrina'' (1995), and ''Chocolat (2000 film), Chocolat'' (2000). In 2007, Wood was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's New Year Honours List. Early l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gemma Jones
Jennifer "Gemma" Jones (born 4 December 1942) is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include ''Sense and Sensibility (film), Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), the Bridget Jones (film series), ''Bridget Jones'' series (2001–2025), the Harry Potter (film series), ''Harry Potter'' series (2002–2011), ''You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger'' (2010), and ''Ammonite (film), Ammonite'' (2020). For her role in the BBC television film ''Marvellous'' (2014), she won the 2015 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had received three previous nominations in the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress, Best Actress category in 1971, 1972 and 1977 for her television roles. Her other roles on television include ''Rainbow City (TV series), Rainbow City'' (1967), ''The Duchess of Duke Street'' (1976–1977), ''Trial & Retribution'' (2003–2008), ''Spooks (TV series), Spooks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Harrison (instrument Maker)
William Harrison (20 May 1728 – 24 April 1815) was an English instrument maker, the son of John Harrison, inventor of the marine chronometer. Early life He was born in Barrow-upon-Humber but moved to London to assist his father in developing the chronometer. Development of marine watches In 1761 he sailed to Jamaica on HMS ''Deptford'' in charge of his aged father's latest development, the "sea watch", now known as the H4 marine watch, which was to undergo critical performance trials during the transatlantic crossing. Parliament had offered a large prize (20,000 pounds) for a practical working solution to the problem of determining longitude at sea and set up the Board of Longitude to evaluate submissions. In spite of the success of the H4 trials, where the timepiece was shown to be very accurate and reliable and had enabled the longitude to be accurately determined, the Board of Longitude insisted on a second transatlantic crossing to confirm the results. He undertook a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Pelham (died 1763)
Charles Pelham ( – 6 February 1763) of Brocklesby, Lincolnshire, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons for 28 years between 1722 and 1754. Early life Pelham was born in into a junior branch of the Pelhams of Sussex. He was the eldest son of Charles Pelham of Brocklesby and his wife Elizabeth Warton, daughter of Michael Warton, MP of Beverley, Yorkshire. His father died in 1692, and he succeeded to his estates. In 1725, as co-heir to Beverley estates of his uncle, Sir Michael Warton, MP for Beverley. Career Pelham was returned as a Tory Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby at the 1722 general election. He inherited property from his uncle Sir Michael Warton in 1725 and at the 1727 general election he was returned instead as MP for Beverley. In Parliament he voted against the Government. He was defeated significantly at the 1734 general election, but was elected for Beverley again at a by-election on 2 February 1738. On the mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
