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Whitehall Farce
The Whitehall farces were a series of five long-running comic stage plays at the Whitehall Theatre in London, presented by the actor-manager Brian Rix, in the 1950s and 1960s. They were in the low comedy tradition of British farce, following the Aldwych farces, which played at the Aldwych Theatre between 1924 and 1933. History The farces; critical reception The five farces were as follows: Rix built a company of regular players who appeared in some or all of these shows. They included Leo Franklyn, Larry Noble, Dennis Ramsden and Derek Royle, and members of Rix's family: his wife, Elspet Gray, his sister, Sheila Mercier and his brother-in-law, Peter Mercier. Others who appeared in one or more of the Whitehall farces include Terry Scott and Andrew Sachs. Rix starred in all five plays, in a range of roles: a "gormless recruit" to the army in ''Reluctant Heroes''; a timidly crooked bookie's runner in ''Dry Rot''; a street musician recruited as a secret agent in ''Simple Spym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Scott
Terry Scott (born born Owen John Scott; 4 May 1927 – 26 July 1994) was an English actor and comedian who appeared in seven of the '' Carry On films''. He is also well known for appearing in the BBC1 sitcoms '' Happy Ever After'' and '' Terry and June'' with June Whitfield. Early life Scott was born and brought up in Watford, Hertfordshire, and educated at Watford Field Junior School and Watford Grammar School for Boys. He was the youngest of three children, and the only surviving son after his brother Aubrey died when Scott was six.'' The Unforgettable'', ITV1, 22 September 2010 After National Service in the Navy at the end of the Second World War, he briefly studied accounting. Career Scott began his acting career with appearances on radio shows such as '' Workers Playtime'', which were followed by appearances on television. He gained an opportunity to perform in farce when he joined the Whitehall Theatre Company. With Bill Maynard he appeared at Butlin's Holiday Camp i ... [...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] |
Alan Dent
Alan Holmes Dent (7 January 1905 – 19 December 1978) was a Scottish journalist, editor and writer. Early life Alan Dent was born in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland, of English parents. He lost his mother when he was two years old. He was educated at Carrick Academy and Glasgow University, where he began to study medicine at the age of 16, but later switched to French, English and Italian. He left the university without a degree in 1926 heading for London. Career Dent approached the critic James Agate in the hope of becoming his secretary, and was appointed. He remained with Agate for 14 years. Later, in Agate's ''Ego'' volumes of diaries and letters, Dent was, according to John Gielgud, called "Jock". During the Second World War, Dent served in the Royal Navy. Later he was the London drama critic of the ''Manchester Guardian'' and the ''News Chronicle''. He became the film critic of the ''Illustrated London News'' and broadcast for the BBC's European Service. He edited the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Hobson
Sir Harold Hobson CBE, (4 August 1904 – 12 March 1992) was an English drama critic and author. Early life and education Hobson was born in Thorpe Hesley, near Rotherham, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He attended Sheffield Grammar School, from where he gained a scholarship to Oriel College at Oxford University, graduating with a second-class degree in Modern History in 1928. Career In 1931, he began to write London theatre reviews for ''The Christian Science Monitor''. In 1935, he was employed on the paper's staff, remaining its London drama critic until 1974. He was an assistant literary editor for ''The Sunday Times'' from 1944 and later became its drama critic (1947–76). Hobson was the only drama critic to recognise the early Harold Pinter's talent as a dramatist and wrote of '' The Birthday Party'': "I am willing to risk whatever reputation I have as a judge of plays by saying ... that Mr Pinter, on the evidence of this work, possesses the most orig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. As of 2025, he has written and produced 90 full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit '' Relatively Speaking'' opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967. Major successes include '' Absurd Person Singular'' (1972), '' The Norman Conquests'' trilogy (1973), '' Absent Friends'' (1974), ''Bedroom Farce'' (1975), ''Just Between Ourselves'' (1976), '' A Chorus of Disapproval'' (1984), '' Woman in Mind'' (1985), '' A Small Family Business'' (1987), '' Man of the Moment'' (1988), ''House'' & ''Garden'' (1999) and '' Private Fears in Public Places'' (2004). His plays have won numer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Travers
Ben Travers (12 November 188618 December 1980) was an English writer. His output includes more than 20 plays, 30 screenplays, 5 novels, and 3 volumes of memoirs. He is most notable for his long-running series of farces first staged in the 1920s and 1930s at the Aldwych Theatre. Many of these were made into films and later television productions. After working for some years in his family's wholesale grocery business, which he detested, Travers was given a job by the publisher John Lane in 1911. After service as a pilot in the First World War, he began to write novels and plays. He turned his 1921 novel, '' The Dippers'', into a play that was first produced in the West End in 1922. His big break came in 1925, when the actor-manager Tom Walls bought the performing rights to his play '' A Cuckoo in the Nest'', which ran for more than a year at the Aldwych. He followed this success with eight more farces for Walls and his team; the last in the series closed in 1933. Most of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background.Geoffrey Wansell. ''Terence Rattigan'' (London: Fourth Estate, 1995); He wrote ''The Winslow Boy'' (1946), '' The Browning Version'' (1948), '' The Deep Blue Sea'' (1952) and '' Separate Tables'' (1954), among many others. A troubled gay man who saw himself as an outsider, Rattigan wrote a number of plays which centred on issues of sexual frustration, failed relationships, or a world of repression and reticence. Early life Terence Rattigan was born in 1911 in South Kensington,Wansell, p. 13. London, of Irish extraction. He had an elder brother, Brian. They were the grandsons of Sir William Henry Rattigan, a notable India-based jurist and later a Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for North-East Lanarkshire. His father was Frank Rattigan CMG, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal National Theatre
The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, adjacent to (but not part of) the Southbank Centre. The theatre was founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963 and List of Royal National Theatre Company actors, many well-known actors have since performed with it. The company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo Road, London, Waterloo until 1976. The current building is located next to the Thames in the The South Bank, South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, it tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities were suspended in February 2021 over concerns ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Coveney
Michael Coveney (born 24 July 1948) is a British theatre critic. Education and career Coveney was born in London and educated at St Ignatius’ College in Stamford Hill, and Worcester College, Oxford. After graduation, he worked as a script reader for the Royal Court Theatre and from 1972 he contributed theatre reviews to the ''Financial Times''. He was deputy editor (1973–75) and editor (1975–78) of '' Plays and Players'' magazineDennis Griffiths (ed.), ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press 1492–1992'', London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers, 1992, P. 172. and theatre critic and deputy arts editor of the ''Financial Times'' throughout the 1980s.About Michael Coveney page at |
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, Inc., Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson plc, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for Pound sterling, £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. In 2023, it was reported to have 1.3 million subscribers of which 1.2 million were digital. The newspaper has a prominent focus on Business journalism, financial journalism and economic analysis rather than News media, generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. It sponsors an Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, annual book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Walls
Thomas Kirby Walls (18 February 1883 – 27 November 1949) was an English stage and film actor, producer and director, best known for presenting and co-starring in the Aldwych farces in the 1920s and for starring in and directing the film adaptations of those plays in the 1930s. Walls spent his early years as an actor, from 1905, mostly in Edwardian musical comedy, musical comedy, touring the British provinces, North America and Australia and in the West End theatre, West End. He specialised in comic character roles, typically flirtatious middle aged men. In 1922 he went into management in partnership with the comic actor Leslie Henson. They had an early success in the West End with a long-running farce, ''Tons of Money (play), Tons of Money'', after which Walls commissioned and staged a series of farces at the Aldwych Theatre that ran almost continuously over the next decade. He and his co-star Ralph Lynn were among the most popular British actors of their time. In addition to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
