HOME
*



picture info

Gerald Durrell
Gerald Malcolm Durrell, (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British naturalist, writer, zookeeper, conservation movement, conservationist, and television presenter. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959. He wrote approximately forty books, mainly about his life as an animal collector and enthusiast, the most famous being ''My Family and Other Animals'' (1956). Those memoirs of his family's years living in Greece were adapted into two television series (''My Family and Other Animals (TV series), My Family and Other Animals'', 1987, and ''The Durrells'', 2016–2019) and one television film (''My Family and Other Animals (film), My Family and Other Animals'', 2005). He was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell. Early life and education Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, British Raj, British India, on 7 January 1925. He was the fifth and youngest child (an elder sister having died in infan ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sea Serpent
A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of dragon sea monster described in various mythologies, most notably Mesopotamian (Tiamat), Judaeo-Christian (Leviathan), Greek (Cetus, Echidna, Hydra, Scylla), and Norse ( Jörmungandr). Mythology and folklore Mediterranean and Western Asia The mytheme, the chief god in the role of the hero slaying a sea serpent, is widespread both in the ancient Near East and in Indo-European mythology, e.g. Lotan and Hadad, Leviathan and Yahweh, Tiamat and Marduk (see also Labbu, Bašmu, Mušḫuššu), Illuyanka and Tarhunt, Yammu and Baal in the Baal Cycle etc. The Hebrew Bible also has less mythological descriptions of large sea creatures as part of creation under God's command, such as the Tanninim mentioned in Book of Genesis 1:21 and the "great serpent" of Amos 9:3. In the Aeneid, a pair of sea serpents killed Laocoön and his sons when Laocoön argued against bringing the Trojan Horse into Troy. In antiquity and in the Bible, dragon ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Michael Hordern
Sir Michael Murray Hordern CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, May 2009, accessed 22 July 2015 was an English actor whose career spanned nearly 60 years. He is best known for his Shakespearean roles, especially that of King Lear, which he played to much acclaim on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1969 and London in 1970. He then successfully assumed the role on television five years later. He often appeared in film, rising from a bit part actor in the late 1930s to a member of the main cast; by the time of his death he had appeared in nearly 140 cinema roles. His later work was predominantly in television and radio. Born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, into a family with no theatrical connections, Hordern was educated at Windlesham House School in Pulborough, West Sussex, where he became interested in drama. He went on to Brighton C ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Windsor Davies
Windsor Davies (28 August 1930 – 17 January 2019) was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the sitcom '' It Ain't Half Hot Mum'' (1974–1981) over its entire run. The show's popularity resulted in Davies and his co-star Don Estelle achieving a UK number one hit with a version of "Whispering Grass" in 1975. He later starred with Donald Sinden in '' Never the Twain'' (1981–1991), and his deep Welsh-accented voice was heard extensively in advertising voice-overs. Early life Davies was born on 28 August 1930 in Canning Town, East London, to Welsh parents. In 1940 they returned to their native village of Nant-y-moel, Bridgend. Davies studied at Ogmore Grammar School and worked as a coal miner. He performed his National Service in Libya and Egypt, with the East Surrey Regiment, between 1950 and 1952. Following teacher training at Bangor Teacher Training College, he taught English and Maths at Leek in Staffordshire, and at a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Edward Kelsey
Edward Harry Kelsey (4 June 193023 April 2019) was an English actor. He was best known for voicing the role of Joe Grundy for 34 years in ''The Archers'' on BBC Radio 4 and for voicing various other characters on television. Early Life and career Kelsey was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, and educated at Churcher's College. In 1954, he joined the Radio Drama Company by winning the Carlton Hobbs BursaryCarlton Hobbs Bursary winners
at BBC.co.uk, accessed 23 January 2018 He was known for voicing the characters of Colonel K and Baron Silas Greenback in the animated series '' Danger Mouse'' produced by

picture info

Roy Kinnear
Roy Mitchell Kinnear (8 January 1934 – 20 September 1988) was a British character actor. He was known for his roles in films such as The Beatles' '' Help!'' (1965), Clapper in '' How I Won the War'' (1967) and Planchet in ''The Three Musketeers'' (1973). He reprised the role of Planchet in the 1974 and 1989 sequels, and died following an accident during filming of the latter. He played Private Monty Bartlett in ''The Hill'' (1965), Henry Salt in the 1971 film ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'', and cruise director Curtain in ''Juggernaut'' (1974), ''The Dick Emery Show'' (1979–1981), and in the sitcoms '' Man About the House'' (1974–1975), '' George and Mildred'' (1976–1979) and '' Cowboys'' (1980–1981). Early life Kinnear was born on 8 January 1934 in Wigan, Lancashire, the son of Annie (''née'' Durie, previously Smith) and Roy Kinnear. He had a sister, Marjory. His parents were Scottish, originally from Edinburgh. His father was an international in both rugb ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mollie Sugden
Mary Isobel Sugden (21 July 19221 July 2009), known professionally as Mollie Sugden was an English actress. She was best known for being an original cast member in the British sitcom ''Are You Being Served?'' (1972–1985) as senior saleswoman Mrs. Slocombe and appeared reprising the character in the AYBS spin-off ''Grace & Favour'' (1992–1993). She is also well known for playing Nellie Harvey in ''Coronation Street'' (1965–1976), Mrs Hutchinson in ''The Liver Birds'' (1971–1996), Ida Willis in '' That's My Boy'' (1981–1986) and Nora Powers in '' My Husband and I'' (1987–1988). Early life Sugden was born on 21 July 1922 in Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire. When she was 4 years old, she heard a woman reading a poem at a village concert making people laugh. The following Christmas, after being asked if she could "do anything", Sugden read this poem and everyone fell about laughing. She later remarked that their response made her "realise how wonderful it was to make p ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Freddie Jones
Frederick Charles Jones''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916-2005.''; at ancestry.com (12 September 1927 – 9 July 2019) was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for almost sixty years. In theatre, he was best known for originating the role of Sir in ''The Dresser''; in film, he was best known for his role as the showman Bytes in '' The Elephant Man'' (1980); and in television, he was best known for playing Sandy Thomas in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' from 2005 to 2018. Early life Jones was born on 12 September 1927 in Dresden, a suburb of the town of Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, the son of Ida Elizabeth (née Goodwin) and Charles Edward Jones. Charles was a porcelain thrower, Ida a clerk and pub pianist. He worked briefly at Creda, the consumer electrical goods vendors, in Longton before he joined the British Ceramic Research Association in Penkhull, where he worked for ten years. His girlfriend a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

ITV (TV Network)
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs the ITV1 channel, and STV Group, which runs the STV channel. The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channe ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Cosgrove Hall Films
Cosgrove Hall Films (also known as Cosgrove Hall Productions) was an English animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall; its headquarters was in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was once a major producer of children's television and animated programmes/films; Cosgrove Hall's programmes are still seen in over eighty countries. The company was wound down by its then owner, ITV plc, on 26 October 2009. It was mainly known for its series ''Danger Mouse'', ''The Wind in the Willows'' and '' Count Duckula''. History Stop Frame Productions Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall first met while both were students at Manchester College of Art and Design, which is now part of Manchester Metropolitan University. They later became co-workers at Granada Television, where they produced television graphics. Hall left his job in 1969 and founded his own production company, Stop Frame Productions. Cosgrove joined the company shortly after its establishment. Their first ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Woolly Wolstenholme
Barclay James Harvest are an English progressive rock band. They were founded in Oldham, in September 1966 by bassist/vocalist Les Holroyd (b. 1948), guitarist/vocalist John Lees (b. 1947), drummer/percussionist Mel Pritchard (1948–2004), and keyboardist/vocalist Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme (1947–2010). History After signing with EMI's Parlophone label in the UK for one single in early 1968, they moved to the more progressively inclined Harvest label. The name for the band, according to The International Barclay James Harvest Fan Club, signifies nothing specifically. Having exhausted other possibilities, each of the band members wrote single words on pieces of paper which were drawn out of a hat one by one. All were rejected until only three were left: James, a man who used to sing with the band, Harvest because they were living in a farmhouse, and Barclay after Barclays bank, because they aspired to make money. These were then rearranged to get the best-sounding name ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Rosemary Anne Sisson
Rosemary Anne Sisson (13 October 1923 – 28 July 2017) was an English television dramatist and novelist. She was described by playwright Simon Farquhar in 2014 as being "one of television's finest period storytellers", and in 2017 fellow dramatist Ian Curteis referred to her as "the Miss Marple of British playwriting". Early life Sisson was born in Enfield Town, Middlesex to Shakespeare scholar Charles Jasper Sisson (1885–1966), Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of London, who edited the complete works of Shakespeare and published a textual study, ''New Readings in Shakespeare'', and his wife Vera Kathleen (1895–1995), daughter of David George Ginn. She had an elder sister. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she developed a love of literature. She started reading English at University College London during the Second World War and took a two-year hiatus from her course to volunteer for the Women's Auxiliary Air Forc ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]