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The Unvarnished Truth
''The Unvarnished Truth'' is a 1978 play by British playwright Royce Ryton. A comedy drama, ''The Unvarnished Truth'' was first produced by the Cambridge Theatre Company in January 1978, going on a short tour and, having been taken on by producer Michael Codron, transferring to London's Phoenix Theatre in April. It starred Ryton himself, Jo Kendall, Graeme Garden, and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and was directed by Jonathan Lynn. The script was published in 1978 by Samuel French Ltd. Synopsis Tom and Annabel are a reasonably happy married couple. One evening they have an argument as to who loves the other more. A rough-and-tumble ensues, and Tom discovers to his horror that Annabel has been killed by a flung beanbag chair. In his panic he phones the police as well as his literary agent, Bill. The policeman who appears shortly after turns out to be Tom's old friend from the army, Bert. After giving Bert the details of Annabel's death, Bert assures Tom that no one will believe such a ridi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many List of islands of the United Kingdom, smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royce Ryton
Royce Thomas Carlisle Ryton (16 September 1924 – 14 April 2009) was an English playwright. He was educated at Lancing College. During the war he served in the Royal Navy; afterward, he went to train as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. As an actor, he played in many repertory theatres, including Bromley, Minehead, and Worthing. He also toured extensively. Over the years he worked less as an actor so he could concentrate on his writing. Initially, he had some success with comedies (which were particularly well received in Germany), but later he became fascinated with the interaction of the private and public lives of royalty and politicians. He was married to Morar Kennedy (sister of Ludovic Kennedy) from 1955 until his death, aged 84; they have a daughter, Charlotte. Morar has a son, Roderick Orr-Ewing, from her first marriage. With ''Crown Matrimonial'' (1972), Ryton achieved an historical first – the serious portrayal of a living member of the Roy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Codron
Sir Michael Victor Codron (born 8 June 1930) is a British theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard. He has been honoured with a Laurence Olivier Award for Lifetime Achievement, and is a stakeholder and director of the Aldwych Theatre in the West End, London. Early life Codron was born in London, and studied at Worcester College, Oxford. Career ''The Birthday Party'' According to the American scholar and critic, John Nathan, Codron is possibly "most famous for the risk he took on a then virtually unknown playwright called Harold Pinter, who had a play called '' The Birthday Party''. Codron has said that it was his Jewishness that helped him recognise the play's and Pinter's worth."' ''The Birthday Party'' had its première at the Arts Theatre, in Cambridge, England, on 28 April 1958, where the play was "warmly received" on its pre-London tour, in Oxford and Wolverhampton, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located in Charing Cross Road (on the corner of Flitcroft Street). The entrances are on Phoenix Street and Charing Cross Road. The Phoenix Theatre was built on the site of a former factory and then music hall Alcazar before. Description Built for Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein, the theatre was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Bertie Crewe and Cecil Massey. It has a restrained neoclassical exterior, but an interior designed in an Italianate style by director and designer Theodore Komisarjevsky. Vladimir Polunin copied works by Tintoretto, Titian, Pinturicchio, and Giorgione. It has a safety curtain that holds Jacopo del Sellaio's ''The Triumph of Love''. There are golden engravings in the auditorium, and red seats, carpets and curtains. This look is based on traditional Italian theatres. There are decorated ceilings and sculpted wooden doors throughout the building. It opened on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jo Kendall
Josephine Mary Kendall ( Robinson, 17 February 1940 – 29 January 2022) was a British actress and writer. She was known for her work on the BBC radio comedy show '' I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'', which debuted in 1964, and for her role as Peggy Skilbeck on the ITV soap opera '' Emmerdale'' (then ''Emmerdale Farm'') from 1972 to 1973, in which she also spoke the programme's first line of dialogue in the inaugural episode. Early life Kendall was born Josephine Mary Robinson in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, on 17 February 1940. After leaving Leicester she trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and gained her Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM). Career While teaching English and drama at a state secondary school for girls at Cambridge, she acted with the university's dramatic society's productions with roles ranging from Desdemona in ''Othello'' at the ADC Theatre in 1962 to Maisie King in '' Expresso Bongo''. She also trained as a studio manager with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graeme Garden
David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of The Goodies and a regular panellist on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. Early life and education Garden was born in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and raised in Preston, Lancashire, England, only son (with a daughter) of (1910-1982), an eminent orthopaedic surgeon who created the Garden classification of hip fractures, and his wife Janet Ann (née McHardy). R. S. Garden's parents, John and Elizabeth, farmed at Macduff, Banff and Buchan, Aberdeenshire. Garden was educated at Repton School, and studied medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he joined the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club and served as its president in 1964, while also performing in the 1964 Footlights revue, ''Stuff What Dreams Are Made Of'' at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Garden qualified in medicine at King's College London, but has neve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE (17 July 194012 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian best known as a member of The Goodies. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and became president of the Footlights, touring internationally with its revue in 1964. Becoming more widely known to the public for his work on BBC Radio with ''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'', he moved into television with ''At Last the 1948 Show'', working together with old Cambridge friends John Cleese and Graham Chapman. With Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, he starred in ''The Goodies'' (1970–1982), picking up international recognition in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He appeared as an actor in various sitcoms and was a panellist on BBC Radio's ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' for almost 50 years. Early life and education Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor was born on 17 July 1940 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, son of Edward Brooke-Taylor, a solicitor and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as '' Clue'', '' Nuns on the Run'', '' My Cousin Vinny'', and '' The Whole Nine Yards''. He also co-created and co-wrote the television series ''Yes Minister''. Early life Lynn was born in Bath, Somerset, the son of physician Robin Lynn and sculptor Ruth Helen (née Eban), whose first cousin on her mother's side was the neurologist Oliver Sacks. Another cousin, Caroline Sacks, married Nicholas Samuel, 5th Viscount Bearsted. Lynn was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, between 1954 and 1961, after which he studied law at Pembroke College, Cambridge. (His maternal uncle, Israeli statesman Abba Eban, had also studied at Cambridge in the 1930s.) There he participated in the Cambridge University Footlights Club revue '' Cambridge Circus'' (appearing with the revue in 1964 on Broadway and on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''). Career Acti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel French Ltd
Samuel French, Inc. is an American company, founded by Samuel French and Thomas Hailes Lacy, who formed a partnership to combine their existing interests in London and New York City. It publishes plays, represents authors, and sells scripts from their Los Angeles, UK, and online bookstores. The firm has offices in New York City; London; and Hollywood, California. An office in Toronto, Canada, closed in 2007. The company's London subsidiary, Samuel French Ltd., publishes stage plays for the UK market, mostly acting editions, serves as licensing agent for performance rights, and runs a theatrical bookshop on its premises at Fitzrovia in central London, England. In December 2018, Concord Music acquired Samuel French to form Concord Theatricals. History Samuel French was born in Massachusetts shortly after the turn of the 19th century and began publishing ''French’s American Drama'' in the mid-1800s in New York. It soon became the most widely distributed catalogue of d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by ''The Times'' as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured a post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, ''Truth'', in 1953. Levin reviewed television for the ''Manchester Guardian'' and wrote a weekly political column in ''The Spectator'' noted for its irreverence and influence on modern parliamentary sketches. During the 1960s he wrote five columns a week for the ''Daily Mail'' on any subject that he chose. After a disagreement with the proprietor of the paper over attempted censorship of his column in 1970, Levin moved to ''The Times'' where, with one brea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Feydeau
Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914. Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parents and raised in an artistic and literary environment. From an early age he was fascinated by the theatre, and as a child he wrote plays and organised his schoolfellows into a drama group. In his teens he wrote comic monologues and moved on to writing longer plays. His first full-length comedy, ''Tailleur pour dames'' (Ladies' tailor), was well received, but was followed by a string of comparative failures. He gave up writing for a time in the early 1890s and studied the methods of earlier masters of French comedy, particularly Eugène Labiche, Alfred Hennequin and Henri Meilhac. With his technique honed, and sometimes in collaboration with a co-author, he wrote seventeen full-length plays between 1892 and 1914, many of which have become sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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