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Penelope Wilton
Dame Penelope Alice Wilton (born 3 June 1946) is an English actress. She was formerly married to fellow actor Sir Ian Holm and, as she has not remarried, retains her married style of Lady Holm. Wilton is known for starring opposite Richard Briers in the BBC sitcom ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' (1984–1989), playing Homily in '' The Borrowers'' (1992) and '' The Return of the Borrowers'' (1993), and her role as the widowed Isobel Crawley in the ITV drama ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2015). She also played the recurring role of Harriet Jones in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2008) and Anne in Ricky Gervais' Netflix dark comedy '' After Life''. Wilton has had an extensive career on stage, receiving six Olivier Award nominations. She was nominated for ''Man and Superman'' (1981), '' The Secret Rapture'' (1988), '' The Deep Blue Sea'' (1994), '' John Gabriel Borkman'' (2008) and '' The Chalk Garden'' (2009), before winning the 2015 Olivier Award for Best Actress for '' Taken at Midnight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dame
''Dame'' is a traditionally British honorific title given to women who have been admitted to certain orders of chivalry. It is the female equivalent of ''Sir'', the title used by knights. Baronet, Baronetesses Suo jure, in their own right also use the title ''Dame''. A woman appointed to the grades of Dame Commander or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg), Order of Saint John, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Catholic), Order of the Holy Sepulchre, the Order of the Bath, the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, the Royal Victorian Order, or the Order of the British Empire becomes a dame. A Central European order in which female members receive the rank of Dame is the Order of St. George (Habsburg-Lorraine), Order of Saint George. Since there is no female equivalent to a Knight Bachelor, women are always appointed to an Order (distinction), order of chivalry. Women who are appointed to the Order of the Garter or the Order of the Thistle are gi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Downton Abbey
''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV (TV network), ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States on PBS, which supported its production as part of its Masterpiece (TV series), ''Masterpiece Classic'' anthology, on 9 January 2011. The show ran for fifty-two episodes across six series, including five Christmas specials. The series, set on the fictional Yorkshire English country house, country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicts the lives of the Aristocracy (class), aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era, and the effects the great events of the time have on their lives and on the Social class in the United Kingdom, British social hierarchy. These events include news of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, sinking of the ''Titanic'' (first series); the outbreak of the First Wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taken At Midnight
''Taken At Midnight'' is a 2014 play by Mark Hayhurst on the life of Hans Litten, his cross-examination of Adolf Hitler in court in 1931 and his mother's attempts to secure his release after his arrest by the Nazis in 1933. Hayhurst also produced a television drama on the same topic in 2011, entitled '' The Man Who Crossed Hitler''. ''Taken At Midnight'' is Hayhurst's theatre debut. Production history It premiered in the Minerva Theatre at the Chichester Festival Theatre from 2 October 2014 (previews from 26 September) to 1 November 2014, directed by Jonathan Church and starring Penelope Wilton. It transferred to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, opening on 26 January 2015 (previews from 15 January) until 14 March 2015. Characters and original cast Hayhurst, Mark (2014) ''Taken At Midnight'', London: Bloomsbury, p.2. Hans Litten - Martin Hutson Irmgard Litten - Penelope Wilton Carl von Ossietzky - Mike Grady Erich Mühsam - Pip Donaghy Dr. Conrad - John Light Frit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olivier Award For Best Actress
The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier. This award was introduced in 1985, as Actress of the Year, then retitled to its current name for the 1993 ceremony. Prior to this award, from 1976 to 1984 (and again in 1988), there was a pair of awards given each year for this general category, one for Actress of the Year in a New Play and the other for Actress of the Year in a Revival. Winners and nominees 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple awards and nominations for Best Actress Note: The below awards and nominations include individuals awarded and nominated under the now-defunct categories Actress of the Year in a New Play and Actress of the Year in a Revi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chalk Garden
''The Chalk Garden'' is a play by Enid Bagnold that premiered in the USA in 1955 and was produced in Britain the following year. It tells the story of the imperious Mrs St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under the care of Miss Madrigal, a governess, whose past life is a mystery that is solved during the action of the play. The work has been revived numerous times internationally, and was adapted for the cinema in 1964. Background and first productions Bagnold wrote the play with an English premiere in mind, but the West End producer, Binkie Beaumont, turned it down: "I confess I find some of the symbolism confusing and muddling." The piece was taken up by the American producer Irene Selznick, who proposed a Broadway premiere. She found the play challenging and tantalising – "I am haunted by its gossamer flashes of poetry and beauty" – but lacking in focus. In July 1954 she travelled to England to work with Bagnold for six weeks, tightening the pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gabriel Borkman
''John Gabriel Borkman'' is a 1896 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was his penultimate work. Plot The Borkman family fortunes have been brought low by the imprisonment of John Gabriel who used his position as a bank manager to speculate with his investors' money. The action of the play takes place eight years after Borkman's release when John Gabriel Borkman, Mrs. Borkman, and her twin sister Ella Rentheim fight over young Erhart Borkman's future. Though ''John Gabriel Borkman'' continues the line of naturalism and social commentary that marks Ibsen's work over the preceding thirty years, the final act suggests a new phase for the playwright which was brought to fruition in his final symbolic work '' When We Dead Awaken''. Characters * John Gabriel Borkman * Mrs. Gunhild Borkman * Erhart Borkman, their son * Ella Rentheim, Mrs. Borkman's twin sister * Mrs. Fanny Wilton * Vilhelm Foldal * Frida Foldal, his daughter * Malene, housekeeper Background The Norwe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Deep Blue Sea (play)
''The Deep Blue Sea'' is a British stage play by Terence Rattigan from 1952. Rattigan based his story and characters in part on his secret relationship with Kenny Morgan, and the aftermath of the end of their relationship. The play was first performed in London on 6 March 1952, directed by Frith Banbury, and won praise for actress Peggy Ashcroft, who co-starred with Kenneth More. In the US, the Plymouth Theater staged the play in October 1952, with Margaret Sullavan. The play with Sullavan subsequently transferred to Broadway, with its Broadway premiere on 5 November 1953, and running for 132 performances. Prior to Rattigan's coding of his relationship with Morgan into the heterosexual relationship between Hester and Freddie, his first draft of the play more specifically treated the relationship between the lead characters as a homosexual relationship, and also hinted that the reason for the striking off of Miller, the ex-doctor in the play, from the medical register was M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Secret Rapture (play)
''The Secret Rapture'' is a 1988 British play by David Hare. Its premiere in the Lyttelton auditorium of the Royal National Theatre was directed by Howard Davies. British revivals of the play have included one at the Salisbury Playhouse in 2001 and at the Lyric Theatre, London in 2003. Hare later adapted it as 1993 film of the same title, also directed by Davies. It is set in 1980s Britain and examines the impact of Thatcherism on personal relationships within the family of a junior government minister after her father's death. Hare states that its title refers to a nun's feeling of ecstasy on being received by God at the moment of her death, rather than the Protestant concept of the Rapture. Synopsis Estranged sisters Isobel and Marion are forced to reunite when their father dies and they must decide how to handle Katherine, their young, alcoholic, mentally unstable stepmother who has been left nothing but the rural home in which they were raised. Isobel and her lover Irwin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Man And Superman
''Man and Superman'' is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903, in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. ''Man and Superman'' opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 21 May 1905 as a four-act play produced by the Stage Society, and then by John Eugene Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker on 23 May, without Act III ("Don Juan in Hell"). A part of the third act (Scene 2), was performed when the drama was staged on 4 June 1907 at the Royal Court. The play was not performed in its entirety until 1915, when the Travelling Repertory Company played it at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. Summary Mr. Whitefield has recently died, and his will indicates that his daughter Ann should be left in the care of two men, Roebuck Ramsden and John Tanner. Ramsden, a venerable old man, distrusts John Tanner, an eloquent youth with revolutionary ideas, whom Shaw's stage directions describe as "prodigiously fluent of speech, restless, excita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olivier Award
The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of West End Theatre Awards, but they were renamed in honour of the English actor of the same name in 1984. The awards are given annually to individuals involved in West End productions and other leading non-commercial theatres based in London across a range of categories covering plays, musicals, dance, opera and affiliate theatre. A discretionary non-competitive Special Olivier Award is also given each year. The Olivier Awards are recognised internationally as the highest honour in British theatre, equivalent to the BAFTA Awards for film and television, and the BRIT Awards for music. The Olivier Awards are considered equivalent to Broadway's Tony Awards, France's Molière Award, Spain's Premios Max and Australia's Helpmann Awards. Since inception, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
After Life (TV Series)
''After Life'' is a British black comedy drama television series created, written, executive produced, and directed by Ricky Gervais, who plays lead character Tony Johnson. It premiered on 8 March 2019 on Netflix. The second series premiered on 24 April 2020. The third and final series premiered on 14 January 2022. Premise Set in the fictional town of Tambury, ''After Life'' follows newspaper writer Tony Johnson, whose life is turned upside down after his wife dies from breast cancer. He contemplates suicide, but instead decides to spend his life punishing the world for his wife's death by saying and doing whatever he wants regardless of how it makes other people feel. Although he thinks of this as his "superpower", his plan is undermined as he realises he does care about a select few people. Over the course of the series, he stops trying to be awful and, despite never really moving on from his wife's death and remaining suicidal, decides true meaning in life comes from helping ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple languages. Launched in 2007, nearly a decade after Netflix, Inc. began its pioneering DVD-by-mail movie rental service, Netflix is the most-subscribed video on demand streaming media service, with 301.6 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries as of 2025. By 2022, "Netflix Original" productions accounted for half of its library in the United States and the namesake company had ventured into other categories, such as video game publishing of mobile games through its flagship service. As of 2025, Netflix is the 18th most-visited website in the world, with 21.18% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 6.01%, Canada at 4.94%, and Brazil at 4.24%. History Launch as a mail-based renta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
