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Michael Mills (British Producer)
Michael Mills (13 May 1919 – 7 January 1988) was an English television producer and director who served as the BBC's Head of Comedy from 1967 until 1972. Early life and career Mills was born in Prestwich, Lancashire (now part of Greater Manchester), England. He joined the BBC before the Second World War as a sound effects operator, and served in the Free French Navy (on secondment from the Royal Navy) during hostilities, where he undertook revue-type shows. In 1947, he returned to the BBC, as a light entertainment producer. Yvonne Littlewood, at the time his personal assistant, recalled one live production of the three act Vivian Ellis musical ''Jill Darling'' in February 1949 which used both studios at Alexandra Palace, the set being changed in one while the second act was being broadcast. Mills served as the BBC's Head of Comedy from 1967 to 1972. According to creator Jimmy Perry, it was Mills who in 1968 suggested that a forthcoming series should be titled ''Dad's Army'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prestwich
Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester, north of Salford and south of Bury. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ancient parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, centred around the Grade I listed Church of St Mary the Virgin. In recent times, it has grown in popularity as a commuter town of Manchester, being consistently named one of the best places to live in the UK by ''The Sunday Times'', and has been nicknamed the 'new Didsbury' in comparison with the affluent suburb in the south of the city. The oldest part of Prestwich, around Bury New Road, is known as Prestwich Village. There is a large Jewish community in Prestwich which, together with neighbouring Whitefield, Broughton and Crumpsall, makes up the second largest Jewish community in the UK outside London. Toponymy Prestwich is possibly of Old English origin, derived from ''preost'' and ''wic' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier (, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 191215 November 1983) was an English actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation comedy ''Dad's Army'' (1968–1977). A self-confessed "jobbing actor", Le Mesurier appeared in more than 120 films across a range of genres, normally in smaller supporting parts. Le Mesurier became interested in the stage as a young adult and enrolled at the Fay Compton, Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art in 1933. From there he took a position in repertory theatre and made his stage debut in September 1934 at the Palladium Theatre in Edinburgh in the J. B. Priestley play ''Dangerous Corner''. He later accepted an offer to work with Alec Guinness in a John Gielgud production of ''Hamlet''. He first appeared on television in 1938 as Seigneur de Miolans in the BBC broadcast of ''The Marvellous History of St Bernard''. During the World War II, Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 09:25 Monday morning to 17:15 Friday afternoon (19:00 Friday night until 1982) at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT). Formed as a joint company, it merged the television interests of British Electric Traction (trading as Associated-Rediffusion) owning 49%, and Associated British Picture Corporation—soon taken over by EMI—owning 51%. Like all ITV franchisees at that time, it was a broadcaster, a producer and a commissioner of television programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered and, as one of the "Big Five" ITV companies, for networking nationally across the ITV regions. After its loss of franchise in 1992, it continued as an independent production company until 2006. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wodehouse Playhouse
''Wodehouse Playhouse'' is a British television comedy series based on the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse. From 1974 to 1978, a pilot and three series were made, with 21 half-hour episodes altogether in the entire series. The series has been released on home video. Production P. G. Wodehouse introduced the episodes in the first series. These introductions were filmed in January 1975, shortly before his death. The pilot episode aired in the anthology series ''Comedy Playhouse''. The first and second series of ''Wodehouse Playhouse'' initially aired on BBC1. Reruns of these episodes aired on BBC2 in 1977, and the third series first aired on BBC2. The episodes were broadcast in the US on PBS television stations. In 2003, the series was released on home video. David Climie adapted all the episodes, including the pilot. The first series was produced by David Askey, the second series was produced by Michael Mills, and the third series was produced by Gareth Gwenlan. With the exc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. ''The Independent'' won the Brand of the Year Award in The Drum Awards for Online Media 2023. History 1980s Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330. It was produced by Newspaper Publishing plc and created by Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds. All three partners were former journalists at ''The Daily Telegraph'' who had left the paper towards the end of Lord Hartwell' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Took
Barry Took (19 June 192831 March 2002) was an English writer, television presenter and comedian. His decade-and-a-half writing partnership with Marty Feldman led to the television series '' Bootsie and Snudge'', the radio comedy ''Round the Horne'' and other projects. He is also remembered in the UK for presenting '' Points of View'', a BBC Television programme featuring viewers' letters on the BBC's output, and the BBC Radio 4 programme '' The News Quiz''. Took was known as the "Father of Monty Python", for bringing together the comedy performers who would establish ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. Early life and education The son of a manager at the Danish Bacon Company, Took was born in Victoria Road, Muswell Hill, north London, and lived in Winton Avenue, Bounds Green. When evacuated to Wisbech in Cambridgeshire during the Second World War, he ran away from his assigned home there, cycling 20 miles to Peterborough in order to get a train back to London. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on ''The Frost Report''. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus.'' Along with his Python costars Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975), ''Monty Python's Life of Brian, Life of Brian'' (1979), and ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, The Meaning of Life'' (1983). In the mid-1970s, Cleese and first wife Connie Booth cowrote the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'', in which he starred as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, for which he won the 1980 British Academy Television Award for Best Ente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, who became known collectively as "Monty Python", or the "Pythons". The first episode was recorded at the BBC on 7 September 1969 and premiered on 5 October on BBC1, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV. A feature film adaptation of several sketches, ''And Now for Something Completely Different'', was released in 1971. The series stands out for its use of Surreal humour, absurd situations, mixed with risqué and innuendo-laden humour, Visual gag, sight gags, and observational sketches without punch line, punchlines. Live-action segments were broken up with animations by Gilliam, often merging with the live action to form Segue#In film or broadcast news production, segues. The overall for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Liver Birds
''The Liver Birds'' is a British sitcom, set in Liverpool, North West England, which aired on BBC1 from April 1969 to December 1978, and again in 1996. The show was created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor. The two Liverpudlian housewives had met at a local writers club and decided to pool their talents. Having been invited to London by Michael Mills, the BBC's then Head of Comedy, and asked to write about two women sharing a flat, Mills brought in sitcom expert Sydney Lotterby to work with the writing team. Lotterby had previously worked with Eric Sykes and Sheila Hancock, and on '' The Likely Lads''. For the Liver Birds, Carla Lane wrote most of the episodes, Taylor co-writing only the first two series. The pilot was shown on 14 April 1969 as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'', the BBC's breeding ground for sitcoms at the time.BBC ''Comedy Connections'' Premise The series charted the ups and downs of two "dolly birds" sharing a flat on Liverpool's Huskisson Street, concentrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johns Hopkins University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publishes books and journals, and operates other divisions including fulfillment and electronic databases. Its headquarters are in Charles Village section of Baltimore, Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east .... In 2017, after the retirement of Kathleen Keane, who is credited with modernizing JHU Press for the digital age, the university appointed new director Barbara Pope. Overview Daniel Coit Gilman, the first president of Johns Hopkins University, inaugurated the press in 1878. The press began as the university's Public ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Up Pompeii!
''Up Pompeii!'' is a British television comedy series set in ancient Pompeii and broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the ''Carry On'' films, and the second series by Rothwell and Sid Colin. Two later specials were transmitted in 1975 and 1991 and a film adaptation was released in 1971. Background ''Up Pompeii!'' first appeared in the '' Comedy Playhouse'' series, after Michael Mills and Tom Sloan from BBC Comedy and Light Entertainment visited the ruins of Pompeii. Since Mills had recently seen Frankie Howerd in the stage musical ''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' he casually remarked to Sloan that he half expected Howerd to suddenly appear round the corner. Sloan had replied 'Why not?', and the idea took root. Talbot Rothwell was invited to write a script and the designer Sally Hulke visited Pompeii with a sketch book and camera to ensure realism and authenticity. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (254–184 BC), specifically '' Curculio'', '' Pseudolus'', '' Miles Gloriosus'', and '' Mostellaria'', the musical tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door. The plot displays many classic elements of farce, including puns, the slamming of doors, cases of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as one another), and satirical comments on social class. The title derives from a line often used by vaudeville comedians to begin a story: "A funny thing happened on the way to the theater". The musical's original 1962 Broadway run won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Author (Musical). ''A Funny Thing'' has enjoyed several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
