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Reluctant Heroes (play)
''Reluctant Heroes'' is a comedy play by the British writer Colin Morris. It premiered at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings before transferring to the Whitehall Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 1,610 performances between 12 September 1950 and 24 July 1954. The original West End cast included Brian Rix, Larry Noble, Dermot Walsh, Wally Patch, Bruce Belfrage and Elspet Gray. Other actors who appeared during the run included John Slater, Peter Hammond, Darcy Conyers, Bernard Fox and Gene Anderson. It was the first of the Whitehall farces, and concerns a group of National Service recruits. Film adaptation In 1952 it was adapted into a film of the same title directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ronald Shiner Ronald Alfred Shiner (8 June 1903 – 29 June 1966) was a British stand-up comedian and comedy actor whose career encompassed film, West End theatre and music hall. Early life and career When he was seventeen, Shiner joined the Royal North-Wes ..., ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Morris (playwright)
Colin Morris (4 February 1916 – 31 March 1996) was a British playwright, screenwriter and actor. His best known work was the screen version of ''Reluctant Heroes ''Reluctant Heroes'' is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ronald Shiner, Derek Farr and Christine Norden. It is based on the popular farce of the same title by Colin Morris. The play, which had its West En ...'' (1952) based on his own hit play of the same title. As an actor, he appeared in the 1957 film '' The Silken Affair''. ''Reluctant Heroes'' premiered in 1950 at the Whitehall Theatre, and was the first of the Brian Rix company's Whitehall farces.Ray CooneObituary: John Chapman ''The Guardian'', 8 September 2001 Other plays of Morris's include: * '' Desert Rats'' (1945) * ''Woman at Large'' (English Theatre Guild, 1950) * ''The Terrible Crime of Mr Bat'' (children's drama; Samuel French, 1950) * ''Don't Bank On It'' * ''Missing, Believed Married'' (English Theatre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Fox (actor)
Bernard Lawson (11 May 1927 14 December 2016), better known as Bernard Fox, was a Welsh actor. He is remembered for his roles as Dr. Bombay in the comedy fantasy series ''Bewitched'' (1964–1972) of which he was the last surviving adult cast member, Colonel Crittendon in the comedy series ''Hogan's Heroes'' (1965–1971), Malcolm Merriweather in ''The Andy Griffith Show'' (1963–1965), Colonel Redford in ''Barnaby Jones'' (1975), Max in ''Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo'' (1977), and Archibald Gracie IV in the film ''Titanic'' (1997). Early life Fox was a fifth-generation performer. He was born in Port Talbot, Glamorgan, the son of Queenie (née Barrett) and Gerald Lawson, both stage actors. He had an older sister, Mavis, and his uncle was British actor Wilfrid Lawson. Career Film Fox began his film career at the age of 18 months, and by age 14 was an apprentice assistant manager of a theatre. After serving with the Royal Navy in World War II and the Korean War, he resumed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy Plays
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greece: in Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by political satire performed by comic poets in theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance pitting two groups, ages, genders, or societies against each other in an amusing '' agon'' or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions posing obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth then becomes constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to resort to ruses which engender dramatic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West End Plays
West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages (''ouest'' in French, ''oest'' in Catalan, ''ovest'' in Italian, ''vest'' in Romanian, ''oeste'' in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from the Indo-European root ''*wes'' reduced from ''*wes-pero'' 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος hesperos 'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב (maarav) 'west' from עֶרֶב (erev) 'evening'. West is sometimes abbreviated as W. Navigation To go west using a compass for navigati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Plays
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** British Isles, an island group ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** British Empire, a historical global colonial empire ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) * British Raj, colonial India under the British Empire * British Hong Kong, colonial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plays By Colin Morris
Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Play Mobile, a Polish internet provider * Xperia Play, an Android phone * Rakuten.co.uk (formerly Play.com), an online retailer * Backlash (engineering), or ''play'', non-reversible part of movement * Petroleum play, oil fields with same geological circumstances * Play symbol, in media control devices * Play (hacker group), a ransomware extortion group Concert residencies and tours * Play Tour, concert tour headlined by Spanish singer Aitana * Play (concert residency), 2022 Katy Perry concert residency Film * ''Play'' (2005 film), Chilean film directed by Alicia Scherson * ''Play'', a 2009 short film directed by David Kaplan * ''Play'' (2011 film), a Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund * ''Play!'', a Japanese film directed by T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950 Plays
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annex the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establishes his headquarters and the colonies th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christine Norden
Christine Norden (born Mary Lydia Thornton; 28 December 1924 – 21 September 1988) was a British actress. Early life Norden was born in Mowbray Terrace, Sunderland. She was the daughter of a bus driver. Her childhood home was in Hylton Road, Sunderland, and she was educated at Hylton Road Primary School and Havelock School. Career Norden gained experience singing and dancing while performing in wartime ENSA concerts and variety shows as a teenager. One claim to fame was that she was the first entertainer to land on Normandy beaches after D-Day. At the age of 20 she was "discovered" in a cinema queue and given a screen test by Sir Alexander Korda. Her screen debut was as a nightclub singer in the 1947 film '' Night Beat''. In an interview with the ''Sunderland Echo'' on 3 June 1952, she said: "Please don't refer to me as the girl who was discovered in a cinema queue. I'm so tired of that tag. You see, nobody believes it, and it aggravates me so much because it happens to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Farr
Derrick Capel Farr (7 February 191221 March 1986) was an English actor who appeared regularly in British films and television from 1938 until his death in 1986. His more famous roles include Group Captain John Whitworth in '' The Dam Busters''. Career After working as a schoolteacher, he took to the stage in 1937, and in 1938 got his first film role. He served in the Second World War, and after the war resumed his acting career, mainly in character parts. He did, however, continue to appear as male leads and second male leads (with above-the-title billing) in a number of films in the late 1940s and 1950s, including ''Noose'' (1948), '' Murder Without Crime'' (1950) and '' Young Wives' Tale'' (1951). In 1952 he appeared in the West End in the thriller '' Murder Mistaken'' by Janet Green. In the early 1980s he played 16 roles in ''The War of the Roses'' cycle in the ''BBC Television Shakespeare'' series. Personal life His second marriage was in 1947 to actress Muriel Pavlo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Shiner
Ronald Alfred Shiner (8 June 1903 – 29 June 1966) was a British stand-up comedian and comedy actor whose career encompassed film, West End theatre and music hall. Early life and career When he was seventeen, Shiner joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police, after which he became a signalman and a wireless operator, then a farmer. He also worked as a greengrocer, milkman and bookmaker's clerk. He served for three years in the British Army. Army concerts gave him a taste for the stage. He made his stage debut in 1928 in ''Dr Syn'' and the following year became a stage director at the Stage Society. During the early 1930s he appeared in a number of West End plays at the Whitehall Theatre by Walter Hackett including '' Good Losers'', '' Take a Chance'', '' Afterwards'' and '' Road House''. Film Extra Shiner's first film was '' Wild Boy'' (1934) with Sonnie Hale and Flanagan & Allen. He had support roles in '' My Old Dutch'' (1934), '' Doctor's Orders'' (1934) and '' It's a B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Raymond
Jack Raymond (1886–1953) was an English people, English actor and film director. Born in Wimborne, Dorset in 1886, he began acting before the First World War in ''A Detective for a Day''. In 1921, he directed his first film and gradually he wound down his acting to concentrate completely on directing - making more than forty films in total before his death in 1953. He was associated with the Hepworth Pictures, Hepworth Studios of Walton on Thames, since his portrait appears on a studio publicity postcard when he was probably in his early twenties. He had a major success in 1930 with ''The Great Game (1930 film), The Great Game'', one of the earliest films devoted to association football, football and followed it up with ''Up for the Cup (1931 film), Up for the Cup'' a year later. He remade ''Up for the Cup (1950 film), Up for the Cup'' in 1950. Partial filmography Director *''The Vicar of Wakefield (1913 film), The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1913) *''Red, White and Blue Blood'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reluctant Heroes
''Reluctant Heroes'' is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ronald Shiner, Derek Farr and Christine Norden. It is based on the popular farce of the same title by Colin Morris. The play, which had its West End premiere at the Whitehall Theatre in September 1950, was the first of the Brian Rix company's Whitehall farces. The film was shot at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in West London. Its sets were designed by the art director Wilfred Arnold. Plot summary This comedy is set in an army boot camp. It displays a drill sergeant who must somehow turn an inept group of recruits into real soldiers. Cast * Ronald Shiner as Sergeant Bell * Derek Farr as Michael Tone * Christine Norden as Gloria Dennis * Brian Rix as Horace Gregory * Larry Noble as Trooper Morgan * Betty Empey as Pat Thompson * Angela Wheatland as Penny Roberts *Anthony Baird as Sgt. McKenzie * Colin Morris as Captain Percy - * Elspet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
