Morag Hood
Morag Hood (12 December 1942 – 5 October 2002) was a British actress who featured in numerous television programmes, stage productions, and audio presentations in the UK from the 1960s up to the late 1990s. Early life Hood was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and attended Bellahouston Academy. She was a graduate of the University of Glasgow. Career Television One of Hood's earliest jobs was as a presenter of youth programmes on Scottish Television in 1963. In April 1964, she and fellow presenter Paul Young interviewed the Beatles. The interview, recorded at the Scottish Television studios in Cowcaddens, Glasgow, was thought to be lost for many years. The reel of 16mm film was found in 2008, in a rusting film can in a south London garage. She is best known for playing Natasha Rostova in the epic 1972 BBC television adaptation of ''War and Peace'', though several critics felt that she was miscast, and Frances Earnshaw in the 1970 film version of ''Wuthering Heights''. She ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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War And Peace (1972 TV Series)
''War and Peace'' is a British television dramatisation of the 1869 Leo Tolstoy novel ''War and Peace''. This 20-episode series began on 28 September 1972. The BBC dramatisation of Tolstoy's epic story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Anthony Hopkins heads the cast as Pierre Bezukhov, Morag Hood is Natasha Rostova, Alan Dobie is Andrei Bolkonsky and David Swift is Napoleon, whose decision to invade Russia in 1812 has far-reaching consequences for each of them and their families. The twenty-part serial was produced by David Conroy and directed by John Davies. Conroy's aim was to transfer the characters and plot from Tolstoy's novel to television drama to run for a duration of 15 hours. Scripted by Jack Pulman, this version of ''War and Peace'' contained battle sequences, which were filmed in Yugoslavia. The theme tune is the Russian imperial anthem, played by the band of the Welsh Guards. Hopkins received the British Academy Television Award f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Borderers
''The Borderers'' is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1970. Setting A historical drama series, ''The Borderers'' was set during the 16th century and chronicled the lives of the Ker family, who lived in the Scottish Middle March on the frontier between England and Scotland. Some episodes of the show depict the wider politics, mostly as it affects their relative Sir Walter Ker, warden of the Middle March The series was described by ''The Guardian'' in 2007 as "brave and original...a kind of north-eastern western". It shows an ordinary family trying to live as part of a society of Border Reivers, a world where raid and feud were unavoidable parts of daily life. The wars between England and Scotland had destroyed the normal processes of law enforcement. The setting is a particularly tense time, with Elizabeth of England and Mary, Queen of Scots, in competition. Also the struggle between Protestants and Catholics in both kingdoms. Amidst all ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Torben Betts
Torben Betts (born 10 February 1968, in Stamford, Lincolnshire) is an English playwright, screenwriter and actor. Betts attended the University of Liverpool, where he read English Literature and English Language, and originally trained to become an actor but later changed course to begin writing plays. Betts stated that part of the reason for this transition was the difficulty he faced as an actor without an agent and that playwriting allowed him to "exercise all my instincts as an actor without actually having to live the life". In 1999 Alan Ayckbourn invited him to be the resident dramatist at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre. ''A Listening Heaven'' premiered there that year before a second production took place at the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum in 2001. The play was nominated as the TMA Best New play that year. During this period Betts was enjoying success on the London fringe at the Battersea Arts Centre with plays like ''Incarcerator'', a drama in rhyming couplets and '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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David Greig (dramatist)
David Greig (born 1969) is a Scottish playwright and theatre director. His work has been performed at many of the major theatres in Britain, including the Traverse Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and been produced around the world. Early life Greig was born in Edinburgh in 1969, and was brought up in Nigeria. Returning to Edinburgh in his teens, he was a pupil at the independent Stewart's Melville College. He later studied English and Drama at Bristol University. Career After university, in 1990 he co-founded Suspect Culture Theatre Company with Graham Eatough and Nick Powell in Glasgow; he would go on to write the texts for almost all of their shows until 2004, including ''Timeless'' (1997), ''Mainstream'' (1999), ''Candide 2000'' (2000), ''Casanova'' (2001), ''Lament'' (2002), and ''8000m'' (2004). His stand-alone plays, from ''Stalinland'' (1992) began to be picked up by major theatres; the Trave ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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A Streetcar Named Desire
''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her once-prosperous situation to move into a shabby apartment in New Orleans rented by her younger sister and brother-in-law. Williams' most popular work, ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the twentieth century.Williams, Tennessee (1995). ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. Introduction and text. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers. It still ranks among his most performed plays, and has inspired many adaptations in other forms, notably a critically acclaimed film that was released in 1951.Production notesDecember 3, 1947—December 17, 1949IBDb.com Plot After the loss of her family home to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from Laurel, Mississippi, to the New Orleans Fre ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Servant Of Two Masters
''The Servant of Two Masters'' ( it, Il servitore di due padroni, links=no) is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Harlequins in history. His earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1789 in the version that exists today. The play draws on the tradition of the earlier Italian ''commedia dell'arte''. Plot The play opens with the introduction of Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead brother in search of the man who killed him, Florindo, who is also her lover. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his sister's honor. Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo (her dead brother) so that he can collect dowry money from Pantaloon (also spelled Pantalone), the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed. She wants to use this money to help her lover escape, and to allo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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West End Theatre
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1195, Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage. There are a total of 39 theatres in the West End, with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in May 1663, the oldest theatre in London. The Savoy Theatre – built as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan – was entirely lit by electricity in 1881. Opening in October 2022, @sohoplace is the first new West End theatre in 50 years. The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) announc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Metropole Theatre
The Metropole Theatre started as the Scotia and was built in 1862 at 116, Stockwell Street, Glasgow, Scotland. Built to the designs of architect Robert Black for James Baylis, who later built the Theatre Royal in the Cowcaddens area of the city, it opened as the Scotia Hall, holding over 3000 people, with stalls and two galleries, reputed to be the first purpose built commercial music-hall in Scotland. Due to fire in 1875 it was rebuilt to the designs of architects Campbell Douglas and James Sellars and renamed The Scotia Variety Theatre, claiming to be the largest and best variety company in Scotland. The Baylis family headed by Christina Baylis continued to run it until 1892, selling it on her retiral to Moss Empires who ran it until 1897 when they opened their new Empire Palace in Sauchiehall Street. At this point Edward Moss leased the theatre to HH Morrell and F Mouillot who named it The Metropole and presented plays, usually melodramas. Successive lessees included Arthur J ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sam Cree
Samuel Raymond Cree (1928–1980) was a Northern Irish playwright. During the 1960s and 1970s he wrote several long running and popular plays for comedians James Young and Jimmy Logan. His plays remain a favourite with Northern Ireland audiences and amateur theatre companies. Life Sam Cree was born in Lisburn on 19 February 1928, the son of Robert Campbell Cree and his wife Sarah (''née'' Hanna). Early in his life he worked in a drawing office in Lisburn. Whilst there he was asked to do 'something entertaining' for the company's Christmas party. Cree wrote a sketch called ''A Day in the Life of a managing director''. Cree would continue writing these sketches, much to the embarrassment of his co-workers. Driven by this success Cree submitted a sketch to comedian James Young for inclusion in his summer variety show. Young's business partner Jack Hudson claimed that it was the worst script he had ever read. The set required a street of houses, the dialogue unfunny and t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jimmy Nail
James Michael Aloysius Bradford (born 16 March 1954), known as Jimmy Nail, is an English singer-songwriter, actor, film producer, and television writer. He played the role of Leonard "Oz" Osborne in the television show '' Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' and the title role in ''Spender''. He also recorded a 1992 number one single, " Ain't No Doubt". His role as Agustin, the oily crooner in the 1996 film '' Evita'', gave him international recognition. Early life James Michael Aloysius Bradford was born in Newcastle upon Tyne to father Jimmy and mother Laura. His father was an Irish Catholic shipyard worker, amateur boxer, and professional footballer. He describes himself as an angry kid who was expelled from secondary school for setting fire to curtains. When he was 13, his sister, Shelagh, died at the age of 20. He later spent time drinking, fighting, and generally rebelling against authority. He was involved in a fight after a football match and was sent to prison. After being released ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' () is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven British construction workers who leave the United Kingdom to search for employment overseas. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf. The series was created by Franc Roddam after an idea from Mick Connell, a bricklayer from Stockton-on-Tees, and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who also wrote '' The Likely Lads'', '' Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'' and ''Porridge''. It starred Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Christopher Fairbank, Pat Roach and Gary Holton, with Noel Clarke replacing Holton for series three and four and the two-part finale. The series were broadcast on ITV in 1983–1984 and 1986. After a sixteen-year gap, two series and a Christmas special were shown on BBC One in 2002 and 2004. In 2000, series 1, set in Germany, was ranked number #46 on the 100 Greatest British Television Program ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hamish Macbeth (TV Series)
''Hamish Macbeth'' is a Scottish mystery comedy-drama television series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 26 March 1995 to 4 May 1997. It is loosely based on a series of mystery novels by M. C. Beaton ( Marion Chesney). The series concerns a local police officer, Constable Hamish Macbeth, in the fictitious town of Lochdubh on the west coast of Scotland. The title character was played by Robert Carlyle. It consisted of three series, with the first two series containing six episodes and the third containing eight. The series was released on DVD in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2005 and 2006, respectively, with the exception of the first series episode "West Coast Story". This was due to rights issues surrounding the episode's extensive use of excerpts from the 1961 film '' West Side Story''. Synopsis Hamish Macbeth, a police constable in the Northern Constabulary, accompanied by his dog, a West Highland Terrier named Wee Jock (later another West Highland ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |