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Paul Henry (actor)
Paul Henry (born 1947) is an English actor, best known for his role as Benny Hawkins in the soap opera ''Crossroads''. Career Born in Aston, Birmingham, Henry attended the city's Alderlea Boys School in Shard End with Jeff Lynne. Henry trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama, which was followed by eight years at the Birmingham Rep. Between 1975 and 1988, he played his best-known role of Benny Hawkins, a handyman in ''Crossroads''. In 1977, Henry recorded "Benny's Theme" with the Mayson Glen Orchestra for Pye Records. It peaked at no. 39 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1978. He was in character as Benny in the song, but spoke rather than sang. Henry made a guest appearance on the Central Television game show '' Bullseye'', presented by Jim Bowen, on 11 February, 1985. He scored 215 and raised £215 for charity. His country-boy style gained him the part of Peter Stevens in ''The Archers'' for a time. Henry's post-''Crossroads'' career included minor stage role ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aston
Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre. History Aston was first mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as "Estone", having a mill, a priest and therefore probably a church, woodland and ploughland. The Church of Saints Peter and Paul was built in medieval times to replace an earlier church. The body of the church was rebuilt by J. A. Chatwin during the period 1879 to 1890; the 15th century tower and spire, which was partly rebuilt in 1776, being the only survivors of the medieval building. The ancient parish of Aston (known as Aston juxta Birmingham) was large. It was separated from the parish of Birmingham by AB Row, which currently exists in the Eastside of the city at just 50 yards in length. Aston, as Aston Manor, was governed by a Local Board from 1869 and was created as an Urban Distri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitchurch, Shropshire
Whitchurch is a market town in the north of Shropshire, England. It lies east of the Welsh border, 2 miles south of the Cheshire border, north of the county town of Shrewsbury, south of Chester, and east of Wrexham. At the 2011 Census, the population of the town was 9,781. Whitchurch is the oldest continuously inhabited town in Shropshire. Notable people who have lived in Whitchurch include the composer Sir Edward German, and illustrator Randolph Caldecott. History Early times There is evidence from various discovered artefacts that people lived in this area about 3,000 BC. Flakes of flint from the Neolithic era were found in nearby Dearnford Farm. Roman times Originally a settlement founded by the Romans about AD 52–70 called Mediolanum ( "Midfield" or "Middle of the Plain"), it stood on a major Roman road between Chester and Wroxeter. It was listed on the Antonine Itinerary but is not the Mediolanum of Ptolemy's ''Geography'', which was in central Wales. Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Beckinsale
Richard Arthur Beckinsale (6 July 1947 – 19 March 1979) was an English actor. He played Lennie Godber in the BBC sitcom ''Porridge'' (along with its sequel series '' Going Straight'') and Alan Moore in the ITV sitcom '' Rising Damp''. He is the father of actresses Samantha and Kate Beckinsale. Early life Beckinsale was born in Carlton, Nottinghamshire, the youngest of three children, to an Anglo-Burmese father, Arthur John Beckinsale, and an English mother, Maggie Barlow. Beckinsale stated in 1977 that he may have been a distant relative of the actor Charles Laughton. While attending College House Junior School in Chilwell, Beckinsale appeared in his first of many school plays, playing Dopey in ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.'' As a teenager at Alderman White Secondary Modern School, he played the lead in ''Tobias and the Angel'' and also appeared as Hsieh Ping-Kuei in ''Lady Precious Stream'', which earned him a positive review in the '' Nottingham Evening Post''. Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porridge (1974 TV Series)
Porridge is a food made by heating or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, (dried) fruit or syrup to make a sweet cereal, or it can be mixed with spices, meat or vegetables to make a savoury dish. It is usually served hot in a bowl, depending on its consistency. Oat porridge, or oatmeal, is one of the most common types of porridge. Gruel is a thinner version of porridge. Type of grains The term "porridge" is often used specifically for oat porridge (oatmeal), which is typically eaten for breakfast with salt, sugar, fruit, milk, cream or butter and sometimes other flavourings. Oat porridge is also sold in ready-made or partly cooked form as an instant breakfast. Other grains used for porridge include rice, wheat, barley, corn, triticale and buckwheat. Many types of porridge have their own names, such as congee, polenta, grits and kasha. Conventional us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Situation Comedy
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lennie Godber
''Porridge'' is a British sitcom, starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale, written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977. The programme ran for three series, and included two Christmas specials and a feature film of the same name (in the United States, the film was released under the title ''Doing Time''). The sitcom focuses on two prison inmates, Norman Stanley Fletcher (played by Barker) and Lennie Godber (played by Beckinsale), who are serving time at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. Several characters from ''Porridge'' reappear in the sequel series '' Going Straight'' (1978) and in the 2003 spoof documentary '' Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher''. The 2016 sequel series of ''Porridge'' has different cast of characters, although Nigel Norman Fletcher in the 2016 series is the grandson of Norman Stanley Fletcher in the original series. Overview Mr Barrowclough Henry Barrowclough is a prison officer, portrayed by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronnie Barker
Ronald William George Barker (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005) was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as '' Porridge'', ''The Two Ronnies'', and ''Open All Hours''. Barker began acting in Oxford amateur dramatics whilst working as a bank clerk, having dropped out of higher education. He moved into repertory theatre with the Manchester Repertory Company at Aylesbury and decided he was best suited to comic roles. He had his first success at the Oxford Playhouse and in roles in the West End including Tom Stoppard's ''The Real Inspector Hound''. During this period, he was in the cast of BBC radio and television comedies such as ''The Navy Lark''. He got his television break with the satirical sketch series ''The Frost Report'' in 1966, where he met future collaborator, Ronnie Corbett. He joined David Frost's production company and starred in ITV shows. After rejoining the BBC, Barker achieved signific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Hancock
Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James, when it became known in early 1960, disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best-remembered work (including " The Blood Donor" and "The Radio Ham"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career declined. Early life and career Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham (then in Warwickshire), but, from the age of three, he was brought up in Bournemouth (then in Hampshire), where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Run For Your Wife (play)
''Run for Your Wife'' is a 1983 comedy play by Ray Cooney. Plot The story concerns bigamist John Smith, a London cab driver with two wives, two lives and a very precisely planned schedule for juggling them both, with one wife at a home in Streatham and another nearby at a home in Wimbledon. Trouble brews when Smith is mugged and ends up in hospital, where both of his addresses surface, causing both the Streatham and Wimbledon police to investigate the case. His careful schedule upset, Smith becomes hopelessly entangled in his attempts to explain himself to his two wives and two suspicious police officers, with help from his lazy layabout neighbour upstairs in Wimbledon. Productions Cast members have a precise schedule as well with many entrances and exits that create pressure and humour through this adult comedy. London Richard Briers and Bernard Cribbins took the lead roles in the original West End theatre production. It had a highly successful nine-year run in various theatre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bad Girls (TV Series)
''Bad Girls'' is a British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1 June 1999 until 20 December 2006. It was created by Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus of Shed Productions, who initiated the idea of developing a series primarily focusing on the inmates and staff of the fictional women's prison, Larkhall, located in the South London region. Following the success of previous series ''Within These Walls'' and the Australian-imported '' Prisoner: Cell Block H'', both of which screened on ITV, ''Bad Girls'' was commissioned by the network and was viewed as a realistic, modern portrayal of life in a women's prison. The series featured a large ensemble cast, including Linda Henry, Claire King, Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones, Debra Stephenson, Jack Ellis, Alicya Eyo, Helen Fraser, Kika Mirylees, Victoria Alcock, James Gaddas, Victoria Bush, Dannielle Brent and Liz May Brice. Unlike past prison series, ''Bad Girls'' storylines were portrayed in a more graphic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV1
ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for the central and northern areas of Scotland where STV (TV channel), STV provides the service. ITV1 as a consistent national channel (with dedicated slots for regional news and other regional programmes) evolved out of the old ITV (TV network), ITV network – a federation of separately owned regional companies which had significantly different local schedules and branding. During the 1990s, the differences between the schedules in each region gradually reduced – partly through the consolidation of ownership and partly through the standardisation in the volume and scheduling of regional programmes. In 2002, a major change of appearance occurred when all ITV regions in Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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