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Bernard
Archard, star of the TV series 'Spycatcher', has
died aged 91 (6 May 2008)
Disillusioned with the experience of regular
unemployment as an actor in Britain, in 1959
Bernard Archard booked a seat on the next boat to
Canada, with plans to make a new start. But then
he was asked to audition for the starring role in
Spycatcher, as Lt-Col Oreste Pinto, a wartime
Allied counter-espionage expert. The programme,
which ran to four series, finally made Archard a
star at the age of 43 and he became a prolific
character actor in films and on television.
Following his success in Spycatcher, Archard was
frequently typecast as policemen, in
long-forgotten films such as The Clue of the New
Pin (1960), Man Detained (1961), The Silent
Playground (1963) and The List of Adrian
Messenger (1963). On television, he was HM
Inspector of Constabulary on official visits to
the police stations in both Z Cars (1965) and its
spin-off, Softly Softly (1967). more.... |
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Humphrey
Lyttelton, broadcaster and jazz musician, has
died aged 86 (26 April
2008)
After spending
the Second World War as an officer in the
Grenadier Guards, Lyttelton became a pioneering
figure in the British jazz scene. He formed his
first band in 1948 after spending a year with
George Webb's Dixielanders, a band that pioneered
New Orleans-style jazz in the UK. The Humphrey
Lyttelton Band quickly became Britain's leading
traditional jazz group, and continental tours
gave them a following in Europe.
In 1949, he signed a recording contract with EMI
which led to a string of records in the
Parlophone Super Rhythm Style series and which
have become highly sought after. By the late
1950s he was branching out, enlarging his band
and experimenting with mainstream and
non-traditional material, and shocking his
established fans in the process. In 1959, the
band made a successful tour of the United States.
He was a keen amateur calligrapher and
birdwatcher, and in 1984 formed his own record
label, Calligraph. He composed more than 120
original songs during his career. In 1993 he won
the radio industry's highest honour, a Sony Gold
Award. He also won lifetime achievement awards at
the Post Office British Jazz Awards in 2000, and
the inaugural BBC Jazz Awards the following year.
It was in 1972 that, against his better
judgement, he took on the chairmanship of Radio
Four’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.
Nobody imagined that his role, somewhat like a
naïve and despairing schoolmaster who was forced
to read out double entendres that he never
understood, would last for the rest of his life.
His sharp humour was hilarious and yet without
malice. more.... |
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Hazel
Court, horror actress highly popular for her
appearances in Roger Corman's Poe cycle, has died
at the age of 82 (16 April 2008)
Hazel Court was born in England in 1926 and
became one of the 'Gainsborough girls' at the
Gainsborough production company in the 1940s, but
significant screen roles were to elude her until
her induction into the horror genre, notably in
the Hammer Film The Curse Of Frankenstein(1957),
where she played the evil count's unwanted
suitor. She also played the daughter of Jack
Warner and Kathleen Harrison (in their first
appearance as the Huggetts) and represented the
millions of girls who had lost their men in the
war.
Though appearing in the horror classic The Man
Who Could Cheat Death (1959), her enduring
popularity was initiated by her involvement in
Roger Corman's 'Poe cycle' of films. Of these
films, Court appeared in The Premature Burial
(1962), The Raven (1963) and The Masque Of The
Red Death (1964), in each case starring alongside
Vincent Price - and giving him a hard time;
Court's 'Poe' roles found her playing conspiring
and treacherous women, and at her worst she was
at her best...in the eyes of her many fans.
In later years, Court took an interest in
painting and the arts, exhibiting in the USA and
in Europe. more.... |
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Ollie
Johnston, leading animator with Walt Disney, has
died aged 95 (16 April
2008)
Johnston's first work was as an
"in-betweener" - the artist responsible
for the drawings that appear between the extremes
of an action drawn by an animator - on Mickey's
Garden (1935), the second colour Mickey Mouse
short. The following year, he was promoted to
apprentice animator, working under Fred Moore on
such shorts as Pluto's Judgment Day and Mickey's
Rival.
Under Moore, Johnston became assistant animator
on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937),
responsible for drawing the dwarfs (which Thomas
was also working on).
By Pinocchio (1940) he had progressed to
animator, and supervised the Blue Fairy sequence.
The same year he was in charge of the Pastoral
Symphony section of Fantasia before joining
Thomas, who had done preliminary work on Bambi.
As well as the young Bambi segments, Johnston
(credited as supervising animator) developed
Thumper. Johnston was also responsible for the
animation of the young Bambi.
He drew the stepsisters in Cinderella (1950);
Alice and the King of Hearts in Alice in
Wonderland (1951); and, two years later, Mr Smee
in Peter Pan. After the good fairies in Sleeping
Beauty (1959) and 101 Dalmatians, Johnston and
Thomas did some of their best work in The Sword
in the Stone (1963), for which Johnston was
responsible for all the leading characters. The
following year Thomas did the dancing penguins in
Mary Poppins; Johnston drew the ones who were
waiters. more.... |
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Willoughby
Goddard, versatile actor who deployed his
considerable bulk to impressive effect on stage
and on film, has died aged 81 (14 April
2008)
Widely remembered for his excessive corpulence on
stage and television, Willoughby Goddard spent
over 40 years never trying to disguise it. It
brought him authority, variety, monotony and joy.
Whether he was genial or aggressive, alarming or
soothing, he could be cast in all sorts of moods.
Sometimes he played up self-consciously to his
weightiness; sometimes it hardly mattered. He
could play judges, professors, mayors, landlords,
managing directors and chairmen; he could also
play sundry characters of no importance whatever.
On television he created first a fine impression
as Professor Mark Harrison in The Voices; and in
the Adventures of William Tell he put the shivers
up watchers as the hero's splendidly weighty main
protagonist Landberger Gessler.
As Sir Jason Tovey in The Mind of Mr Reeder he
was well cast; and as the monstrous Lord Charley,
who sought artistic grants from Hattie Jacques as
Miss Manger, it was said that “he knew his
business”.
With Charlie Drake in Drake's Progress Goddard
found a strong sense of fun, and one of his last
appearances was as Professor Siblington, last
seen watching from the elegant spires of an
English college in Porterhouse Blue (1987). more.... |
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John Hewer,
actor, has died aged 84 (20 March
2008)
The actor John
Hewer won worldwide fame playing Captain Birdseye
in the long-running fish finger TV commercials.
He played the role from 1967 until the late
1980s. The jovial, bearded naval captain
outlasted the Milky Bar Kid and Ronald MacDonald
to become the longest running "brand
personality" since food advertising began.
Hewer worked his way up to parts in the films The
Dark Man (1951, a melodrama in which his
taxi-driver character falls victim to Maxwell
Reed's seaside murderer) and the thriller
Assassin for Hire (1951, as a violinist whose
instrument and lessons are paid for by his
brother, a professional killer).
He then landed the title role in the BBC
children's series The Great Detective (1953),
playing it for the first four episodes, with
Graham Stark taking over for the final two –
curiously, with no explanation for the switch.
At about the same time, Hewer took the role of
John Parrish, the bank clerk wrongly suspected of
being involved in a heist, in the first episode
of the crime series Colonel March of Scotland
Yard (1955-56), which starred the horror actor
Boris Karloff as an eyepatch-wearing detective
investigating eerie cases involving criminals
known by names such as the Abominable Snowman and
the Missing Link.
During his career, the actor also produced
music-hall shows on Southend Pier with the
bandleader Henry Hall, and he was hired by
Canadian television to host the variety show The
Pig and Whistle (1967-77), set in a fictional,
traditional English pub and featuring British
music-hall entertainment. more.... |
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Barry
Morse, Actor who found fame as Philip Gerard,
police chief in 'The Fugitive' has died aged 89 (5 February
2008)
Barry Morse made his professional début in the
People's Theatre production If I Were King while
at Rada and finished his time at drama school by
taking the title role in Henry V for a Royal
Command Performance in front of George VI and
Queen Elizabeth. Then, in 1937, he made his first
television appearances in some of the BBC's
earliest broadcasts. He made his film début as a
stooge to Will Hay in the wartime espionage
comedy The Goose Steps Out (1942) and followed it
with character roles in pictures such as Thunder
Rock (1942) and When We Are Married (1943).
Morse's West End début came in School for
Slavery (Westminster Theatre, 1942), which he
followed with Crisis in Heaven (Lyric Theatre,
1944) directed by John Gielgud. In 1951, Morse,
his wife and their two children emigrated to
Canada, settling in Toronto when CBC introduced
the country's first television service the
following year, with Morse working as an actor,
producer and director.
Over the years, he won Canada's Best TV Actor
award five times, but he was also prolific on
radio, most notably acting in and producing the
drama series A Touch of Greasepaint (1954-68), a
chronicle of actors down the years.
But he became known worldwide through The
Fugitive, also directing a 1967 episode, before
moving back to London and playing Mr Parminter,
the secret service contact issuing assignments to
an American government agent played by Gene
Barry, in the British series The Adventurer
(1972-73). more.... |
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Allan
Melvin, character actor has died aged 84 (24 January
2008)
While working at a job in the sound effects
department of NBC Radio, Melvin did a nightclub
act and appeared and won on the Arthur Godfrey's
Talent Scouts radio show. While appearing on
Broadway in Stalag 17, he got his break into
television by getting the role of Cpl. Henshaw on
the popular The Phil Silvers Show program. TV
fans of this era usually best remember his role
as Henshaw, Sergeant Bilko's right hand man on
that show.
During this period, in addition to his role on
The Phil Silvers Show, Melvin was often cast in
slightly loud, occasionally abrasive, but
generally friendly second banana roles. Melvin
was also adept at "tough guy" roles; in
an example of his range as an actor, one episode
of Sergeant Bilko featured Melvin doing a
recognizable impersonation of Humphrey Bogart.
The jowly, jovial Melvin spent decades playing a
series of sidekicks, second bananas and lovable
lugs, including Archie Bunker's friend Barney
Hefner on "All in the Family". But his
place in pop culture will be fixed as butcher and
bowler Sam Franklin, the love interest of Brady
family maid Alice Nelson, who was played by Ann
B. Davis. Melvin played the role from 1970 to
1973. more.... |
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British
actress Pat Kirkwood, star of stage and screen,
has died aged of 86 (26 December 2007)
Pat Kirkwood's career spanned more than six
decades and she played the lead roles in the West
End shows of Noel Coward, Cole Porter and Leonard
Bernstein. After appearing in a talent contest on
the Isle of Man she was invited to an audition
with the BBC in Manchester She made her
professional debut, aged 14, as a singer on the
BBC radio programme The Children's Hour.
A year later, in April 1936, she made her first
stage appearance at the Royal Hippodrome,
Salford, billed as The Schoolgirl Songstress.
The following year she starred in her debut film
- Save a Little Sunshine.
After the success of the revue Black Velvet at
the London Hippodrome in 1939 she was hailed as
"Britain's first wartime star".
She became the first female to have her own
television series with The Pat Kirkwood Show in
1954 and also appeared in various TV plays. In
Our Marie (1953) she played the music hall star
Marie Lloyd; she also appeared in Pygmalion
(1956) and The Great Little Tilley (1956) as
another music hall star, Vesta Tilley, which was
directed by Hubert Gregg and subsequently became
the film After The Ball (1957). In 1953, she was
reunited with George Formby on the panel of
What's My Line but was seen on screen feeding
Formby questions to ask the contestants. more.... |
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Anton
Rogers, stage and screen actor, has died aged 74 (3 December
2007)
Anton Rogers was a member of the helicopter crew
that provided the focus for the BBC comedy series
The Sky Larks (1958). During the 1960s and early
1970s Rodgers secured fairly regular employment
as a guest star in Lew Grade's contemporary
thriller series, including Danger Man (1964-65),
The Saint (1967) and The Champions (1968).
He was a Scotland Yard detective who teams up
with astrologer Anoushka Hempel in the
light-hearted series Zodiac (1974), another
policeman in the comic mystery series Murder Most
English (1977), Lillie Langry's weak-willed
spouse who has to turn a blind eye while she
conducts an affair with the Prince of Wales, in
Lillie (1978) and a country practice vet in
Noah's Ark (1997).
Few of his TV series attained the status of true
classics, though Fresh Fields and May to December
scored well in the ratings. Fresh Fields was
sufficiently popular for Thames Television to
reunite Rodgers and Julia McKenzie in their old
roles of William and Hester Fields, in a new
setting, in French Fields (1989-91) more.... |
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Verity
Lambert, the television and film producer, has
died aged 71 (24 November 2007)
In 1956 she landed her first job in television,
as a £7-a-week secretary in Granada's press
office. Sacked after six months, she moved to ABC
Television where she became production assistant
to the drama director Ted Kotcheff and worked on
the production of the Armchair Theatre series,
overseen by the company's new head of drama,
Sydney Newman.
As production assistant in a "live"
gallery, Lambert had to take over as studio
director in November 1958 when one of the actors
died on the set of the play Underground, just
before a scene in which he was supposed to
appear. Meanwhile Kotcheff used a commercial
break to reorganise the cast and cover the loss.
At the age of 28, she became the youngest
producer at the BBC and the drama department's
only woman producer when Doctor Who began the day
after President Kennedy was assassinated in
November 1963.
After 18 months Lambert moved on to produce the
first eight episodes of the twice-weekly serial
The Newcomers (1965-69), about a London family
adapting to life in a small East Anglian town,
and then supervised production on Adam Adamant
Lives! (1966-67). more.... |
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Frank
Cox, versatile artist who, with his brother, was
a stalwart of the variety scene, has died aged 86
(22 November 2007)
Frank Cox was
the identical twin of Fred Cox who, as the Cox
Twins, were one of British variety's most
enduring acts. Stalwarts of the RAF gang shows
during the Second World War, they played four
instruments, sang, tap-danced and performed
acrobatics.
After the war and until their retirement in 2000
they were regulars at the London Palladium,
notably supporting Johnny Ray, starred in summer
seasons and pantomimes and made several films,
including the 1972 version of Alice in Wonderland
with Peter Sellers, in which they appeared as
Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
The twins had irresistible, ebullient
personalities. Sporting huge black frizzy
hairstyles, they wore brightly coloured garish
suits (complete with red or yellow socks) and
were liable to burst into song at the drop of a
hat. They were virtually impossible to tell apart
and in conversation one twin would start a
sentence while the other would finish it. In the
1960s they complicated matters further by getting
married on the same day to the variety artistes
Estelle and Pauline Miles, who were also
identical twins. more.... |
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Moira
Lister, actress who excelled in sparkling comedy
roles ranging from Shakespeare to the moderns,
has died aged 84 (29 October
2007)
As an actress, Moira Lister was once compared to
the American comedienne Lucille Ball, because of
her way of turning glamorous women into witty
commentators on life. Whether it was in a play,
musical, film or television drama or even as a
guest on such TV shows as What's My Line?, Call
My Bluff and Life Begins at Forty, she stood
apart with her slim figure, bright blue eyes and
delicate, upper-class voice. She was an
accomplished actress whose regal bearing found
her often cast in patrician roles, though she
also had a splendid sense of humour and a
versatility that ranged from acclaimed
performances in Shakespearean tragedy to her
award-winning display of farcical expertise in
Move Over, Mrs Markham.
In 1954, Moira first teamed up with Tony Hancock
in the second series of "Star Bill".
She was brought into "Star Bill" to
replace Hancock's previous lady foil of the first
series, Geraldine McEwan. With considerable film
experience behind her, Moira's strong personality
proved her to be an ideal match for Hancock.
Her distinctive, husky voice made Lister a radio
stalwart in such series as Simon and Laura and A
Life of Bliss, and in South Africa her radio
roles included the leading parts in Rain, The
Deep Blue Sea (she had earlier played a
supporting role in the film version) and The
Millionairess. On television, she was a sparkling
critic of record releases in Juke Box Jury, and
she was a guest on such shows as Danger Man, Call
My Bluff and The Avengers.
For three years, 1967-69, she starred in her own
series, A Very Merry Widow. In 1971 she was the
subject of This Is Your Life, and her
autobiography, A Very Merry Moira, was published
in 1969. more.... |
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Deborah
Kerr, star of From Here To Eternity, has died
aged 86 (19 October 2007)
Deborah Kerr was the unfadingly ladylike and
prototypical English rose whose red-haired,
angular beauty and self-possessed femininity
distinguished more than 50 films in four decades
of cinema. She made serenity dramatic; and though
her poise might be ruffled at critical moments in
scenes of passion (most famously exemplified by
her encounter on the beach with Burt Lancaster in
From Here to Eternity in 1953), her well-bred
airs and social graces made her a model of
British womanhood in Hollywood. Her best-known
film was probably The King and I, in which she
played a haughty governess opposite Yul Brynner's
Siamese monarch; and her principal problem as an
accomplished actress was to convince Hollywood of
her sensual potential. Although she herself was a
more spirited, relaxed and informal person than
her image on the screen suggested, producers were
reluctant to cast her in passionate roles. more....
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Loss-making
Sooty up for sale after losing his magic (5 October
20067)
Sooty is going
on sale. TV rights to the mischevious puppet
bear, who never speaks, are being sold by his
owners Hit Entertainment. The puppet, famous for
his magic tricks and water pistol, has been on
British TV since the Fifties, alongside his
friends Sweep the squeaky dog and Soo the panda.
Hit Entertainment, which also produces Bob the
Builder, Pingu and Thomas the Tank Engine, is
said to have lost money after buying it in 1996
for £1.4 million from presenter Matthew Corbett.
A new series of Sooty was cancelled by ITV last
year. more.... |
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Marcel
Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought
poetry to silence, has died aged 84 (23
September 2007)
Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a
battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau
played the entire range of human emotions onstage
for more than 50 years, never uttering a word.
Offstage, however, he was famously chatty.
"Never get a mime talking. He won't
stop," he once said. A French Jew, Marceau
survived the Holocaust and also worked with the
French Resistance to protect Jewish children. His
biggest inspiration was Charlie Chaplin. Marceau,
in turn, inspired countless young performers.
Michael Jackson borrowed his famous
"moonwalk" from a Marceau sketch,
"Walking Against the Wind."
In 1949 Marceau's newly formed mime troupe was
the only one of its kind in Europe. But it was
only after a hugely successful tour across the
United States in the mid-1950s that Marceau
received the acclaim that would make him an
international star.
Marceau performed tirelessly around the world
until late in life, never losing his agility,
never going out of style. In one of his most
poignant and philosophical acts, "Youth,
Maturity, Old Age, Death," he wordlessly
showed the passing of an entire life in just
minutes. more.... |
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Peter
Graham Scott, award winning film and TV producer
and director, has died aged 83 (11 August
2007)
Scott was the producer behind many classic
television series of the 1960s and 1970s
including The Avengers, The Prisoner, The
Troubleshooters and The Onedin Line; he was also
a talented director in television and films.
An energetic perfectionist, Scott was one of the
pioneers of television drama, joining the BBC as
a trainee after the war before moving to ITV when
it launched in 1955. Scott had cut his teeth with
Associated-Rediffusion during ITV's early years,
directing, in Battle of Britain Week 1956, an
acclaimed live production of Richard Hillary's
Second World War classic The Last Enemy.
Scott secured, for cash, the television rights to
The Quare Fellow after an evening's heavy
drinking with Brendan Behan in a London pub; it
was broadcast live in November 1958, one of many
plays Scott produced and directed during what he
considered "the best years of ITV".
Scott had begun his career as a film editor on
Brighton Rock (1947), starring Richard
Attenborough, and later worked on other films
such as The Perfect Woman and Landfall (both
1949), Shadow Of The Eagle (1950), The Small
Miracle (1951) and River Beat (1954). As a
writer, Scott scripted Sing Along With Me (1952),
which he also directed, The Big Chance (1957)
and, in 1979, the ITV serial Kidnapped, which he
also produced. His producing credits also
included The Citadel (1960), The Curse Of King
Tutenkhamun's Tomb (1980), Arch Of Triumph and
Jenny's War (both 1985). more.... |
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Peter
Tuddenham, actor, has died aged 88 (9 August
2007)
Peter Tuddenham's earliest television appearances
included parts in Clara, The Maid of Durham: Or
Home Sweet Home (1955) and the BBC's
"Musical Playhouse" Ivor Novello
productions The Dancing Years (as Franzel, 1959)
and Perchance To Dream (as Lord Failsham, 1959).
He also had several roles in soap opera, on radio
in Mrs Dale's Diary (as Dr Mitchell, who famously
once sat on Mrs Freeman's cat) and Waggoners'
Walk, and as George Banham in ITV's East Anglian
vets serial Weavers Green (1966).
On television, Tuddenham was a regular as the pub
landlord in Backs to the Land (1977-78) and as
William in Double First (1988). He also
guest-starred as priests in the sitcom Nearest
and Dearest (1968) and the P.D. James thriller A
Mind To Murder (1995), and played doctors in
Quiller (1975), The Lost Boys (1978) and Nanny
(1981, 1982) and an auctioneer in Lovejoy (1986).
At the age of 60, after spending more than half
his adult life as an actor, Peter Tuddenham
became most familiar to television viewers as the
voices of three computers in the cult
science-fiction serial Blakes 7. more.... |
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Phil
Drabble, 'One Man and His Dog' presenter, has
died aged 93 (1 August
2007)
A countryman through and through, the writer and
naturalist Phil Drabble shared his love of nature
and rural ways in dozens of books but, most
famously, as the original presenter of One Man
and His Dog, which provided the spectacle of
working sheepdogs demonstrating their skills at
rounding up flocks in lush, green fields and
meadows, moving them around fences, gates and
enclosures while following their handlers'
whistles and commands.
He had made his radio début with a feature on
the Black Country's bull-rings and bull-stakes
for the BBC Midland Region in 1947. He continued
to make contributions for the next 13 years,
especially to the rural programme Countrylover,
before presenting its successors, Countryside and
In the Country, himself.
Drabble's television baptism came in 1952, when
he was invited to show off his tame badger for a
live broadcast and he was soon in demand for
children's programmes. Then, in 1961, he left his
day job to pursue writing and broadcasting full
time and, three years later, began a weekly
column in the Birmingham Evening Mail that ran
until 1990.
One Man and His Dog, screened on BBC2, brought
him national fame, as well as more television
work, beginning with the rural magazine programme
Country Game (1976-79), presented by Julian
Pettifer, then Angela Rippon, with Drabble as a
contributor. more.... |
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Ivor
Emmanuel, welsh actor and Singer, has died aged
80 (23 July 2007)
Ivor Emmanuel was renowned for his rendition of
Welsh song Men of Harlech in the classic film
Zulu.
He was born in 1927, in Pontrhydyfen, near Port
Talbot, the same village as fellow actor Richard
Burton.
The Hollywood star helped give him his theatrical
break, and he became a popular TV name in the
1950s.
He will probably be best remembered for 1964's
Zulu, showing the British Army, many of them
Welsh, defying an attack at Rorke's Drift in
South Africa. Roles on Broadway followed and he
made guest appearances on shows such as Morecombe
and Wise and Benny Hill. leading role in the
Welsh language music programme Gwlad y Gan (Land
of Song) in the late 1950s helped give him a
large following.
more.... |
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Frank
Maher, Film and TV stuntman, has died aged 78 (20 July
2007)
As a stunt performer and co-ordinator in
swashbuckling feature films and 1960s television
adventure series, Frank Maher made his career out
of being other people - notably
"doubling" for Errol Flynn and Burt
Lancaster in the cinema and Patrick McGoohan and
Roger Moore on the small screen. His move into
television came with The Adventures of Robin Hood
(1955-59), one of ITV's early adventure series,
based on the folk legend, filmed at Nettlefold
Studios, Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey, and
starring Richard Greene in the title role. The
programme was made by technicians who had a
background in the film industry, so it was
natural that some of those who had worked with
them would be given a chance in the burgeoning
new medium. All the fight sequences were
carefully planned and written down before they
were shot and the close-in, one-on-one sword
fights were recreated, with weapons copied from
those of the time preserved in museums.
Maher subsequently acted and did stunt work in
programmes such as Man in a Suitcase (1968), The
Champions (1969), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
(1969), The Persuaders! (with Roger Moore again,
1971) and Space 1999 (1976), before working as
stunt co-ordinator on the first two series
(1978-79) of the science-fiction serial Blakes 7,
created by Terry Nation, who invented the Daleks
in Doctor Who. Maher also did some work on the
cult heist film The Italian Job (starring Michael
Caine, 1969) after a stunt company was fired
during shooting. more.... |
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George
Melly the jazz singer, author and raconteur has
died aged 80 (5 June 2007)
Melly leched, drank and blasphemed his way around
the clubs and pubs of the British Isles and
provided pleasure to the public for five decades.
His involvement in jazz was born out of a
romantic nostalgia for a golden age of brothel
music. Appearing in the 1950s with Mick
Mulligan’s Magnolia band and later for
nearly three decades with John Chilton’s
Feetwarmers, "Good time George"
followed a well-established routine of singing
numbers from the 1920s (his foremost influences
being Bessie Smith, Fats Waller and Jelly Roll
Morton) interspersed with camp asides and bawdy
anecdotes. more....
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Alan
Chivers, one of BBC television’s leading
outside broadcast producers has died aged 89 (5 June
2007)
Chivers was responsible for events from the
Queen’s Coronation in 1953 to the Moscow
Olympic Games in 1980. During the 1966 World Cup
in England he was the executive producer of the
BBC/ITV consortium responsible for the TV
coverage. By 1948 he was involved in the early TV
outside broadcasts, first at Alexandra Palace and
then at Wembley, in the years when new standards
of programming, engineering and invention were
set. There was a brief flirtation with ITV in
1959 when he helped to launch World of Sport,
ITV’s answer to the BBC’s Grandstand,
but he returned to the BBC in 1962, as a
producer, then a senior producer and, for an
unhappy spell, as head of events. more.... |
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Gordon
Scott, Tarzan actor, has died aged 79 (9 May
2007)
Gordon Scott
played a string of classic heroes in the 1950s
and 1960s including Samson, Hercules, Goliath,
Zorro and Buffalo Bill in films where the heroes
relied largely on their own strength and agility,
rather than superpowers or an arsenal of military
hardware. But for many who grew up in the 1950s
Scott's defining role was as Tarzan.
His physique enabled him to play the role of
Tarzan in six films between 1955 and 1960. His
Tarzan was a barrel-chested, very physical,
slightly dim manifestation, though the earlier
films still managed to present him as a jungle
version on the average suburban American of the
time, with wife Jane, son Boy and family pet
Cheeta. more.... |
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Dick
Vosburgh, comedy writer, lyricist, broadcaster
and film buff, has died aged 78 (21 April
2007)
Dick Vosburgh was an immensely talented writer,
broadcaster and lyricist who provided material
for virtually every leading comic performer in
the UK, plus such American superstars as Bob
Hope, Dean Martin, Carol Channing and Peggy Lee.
Vosburgh's quick wit and invention put him much
in demand as a gag writer, and stars for whom he
provided sitcoms and sketches included Stanley
Baxter, Frankie Howerd, Bob Monkhouse, John
Cleese, Ronnie Corbett, Lenny Henry and Roy Hudd.
He contributed to film scripts for Frankie Howerd
(Up Pompeii and Up the Chastity Belt) and Bob
Hope (Call Me Bwana), as well as Carry On Nurse.
In 1953 he wrote his first radio show, Breakfast
with Braden, starring the Canadian humorist
Bernard Braden.
From writing for radio programmes, including over
50 editions of The Show Band Show, he moved into
television, and his credits over the following
decades would fill several pages. They included
Alfred Marks Time (1956), Bresslaw and Friends
(1961), The Stanley Baxter Show (1963) and Frost
Over Europe (1967), starring David Frost, which
won the Golden Rose at Montreux. more.... |
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BBC to
open up archive for trial (19 April
2007)
The BBC is to open up its vast archive of video
and audio in an on-demand trial involving more
than 20,000 people in the UK.
Full-length programmes, as well as scripts and
notes, will be available for download from the
BBC's website.
The pilot is part of the BBC's plans to
eventually offer more than a million hours of TV
and radio from its archive.
He said the corporation's end ambition was
"one day enabling any viewer to access any
BBC programme ever broadcast via their
television", and highlighted the need to
bridge the divide between TV and content with
online connections.
The archive trial will make available 1,000 hours
of content drawn from a mix of genres to a closed
number of people. About 50 hours - of both TV and
radio programmes - will be available in an open
environment for general access. more.... |
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Terry
Hall, ventriloquist, has died aged 80 (11 April
2007)
Terry Hall entertained the baby-boom generation
as the creator and sidekick of Lenny the Lion.
Traditionally, these sidekicks had been boy
puppets, such as Arthur Worsley with Charlie
Brown and Peter Brough with Archie Andrews, but
Hall took advantage of the booming television
medium in the 1950s to tweak the format.
Making their BBC debut in 1956 alongside Eric
Syke, Hall and Lenny were an instant hit with
children, who were captivated by the idea of a
talking lion that was, by turns, cowardly,
bashful and generally unleonine, and whose
catchphrase - "Aw, don't embawass me!"
- became one of the best-known on the air. Hall
was invited to guest-star on the legendary Ed
Sullivan Show in the United States (1958) and
returned home to take his puppet to two more
popular programmes, Lenny's Den (1959-61) and
Pops and Lenny (1962-63).
The Beatles made one of their earliest television
appearances in a May 1963 episode of Pops and
Lenny, singing their first No 1 single,
"From Me To You", and "Please
Please Me", as well as joining Hall and his
puppet for a song titled "After You've
Gone".
The pair remained popular in summer seasons and
pantomimes on stage and as guest stars in
television variety programmes including Big Night
Out (1965), David Nixon's Comedy Bandbox (1966)
and The Blackpool Show (1966). more.... |
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George
Sewell, the actor, has died aged 82 (5 April
2007)
George Sewell had one of the best-known faces in
Britain, thanks to dozens of appearances on
television and in films. With his sandblasted
features and shifty, haunted looks, Sewell was as
at home playing shady villains as he was in
police and thriller roles, which dated from the
early 1960s, when he appeared in series such as
Z-Cars, to the 1990s comedy The Detectives.
He appeared as Detective Chief Inspector Alan
Craven in 25 episodes of Special Branch, a 1970s
television drama series made by Euston Films in
which he was cast opposite Patrick Mower as
Haggerty. At the height of his Special Branch
fame, his appearance on This Is Your Life topped
the television ratings in December 1973. more.... |
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Dame Vera
Lynn celebrates 90th Birthday (20 March
2007)
Lords and
ladies turned out to pay their respects to
Britain's Forces' Sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn, who
has just celebrated her 90th birthday. The House
of Lords hosted a special party sponsored by the
Royal British Legion in the first of half-a-dozen
parties for a woman whose singing inspired the
nation during the darkest days of war.
As one of the guests told her: "You put a
smile on everybody's face, even in those terrible
times. Our wireless was always on."
A sprightly Dame Vera, who said she felt like she
was aged 60, was in chatty mood as she mingled
with her friends. Even now she is engaged in
charity work for many causes, not simply those
involving ex-servicemen.
She said: "I don't know where the years have
gone. It is amazing what you can do for others.
It is up to everybody to utilise whatever talents
they have to use to help others inasmuch as they
can. I hope I have spent my life well. I tried to
do what I could to help others." more.... |
 |
Betty
Hutton, the original "Blonde Bombshell"
has died aged 86 (14 March
2007)
She was once
described as "the noisiest girl in
Hollywood". The actress and singer made her
name in the 1940s in a series of hectic musical
comedies, including The Fleet's In and The
Miracle of Morgan's Creek, but was probably best
remembered for her starring role in Annie Get
Your Gun in 1940 in which she starred opposite
Howard Keel.
She followed it later that year with Let's Dance,
in which she starred opposite Fred Astaire. It
flopped.
In 1948 Betty Hutton visited Britain for the
premiere of her film Dream Girl. When she
appeared at the London Palladium, critics
described her as "a big strong, lively girl,
always eager to please" but complained that
her voice was so loud "she deafened the
first two rows of the auditorium".
In 1952, after learning a trapeze act for her
performance in Cecil B De Mille's Greatest Show
On Earth, Betty Hutton left Paramount Studios and
returned to The London Palladium. Hutton's show
remained essentially the same although, having
learned the trapeze, she now included some aerial
acrobatics in her act. more.... |
 |
Ray
Evans, the Oscar-winning lyricist, has died aged
92 (23 February 2007)
Ray Evans
wrote the words to such familiar songs as Que
Sera, Sera - which was a hit for Doris Day - and
Mona Lisa, which was very nearly not a hit for
Nat "King" Cole.
With his songwriting partner Jay Livingston,
Evans wrote Mona Lisa in 1950 for an Alan Ladd
film called Captain Carey, USA; the planned title
for the song - Prima Donna - was changed at the
suggestion of Evans's wife, who preferred Mona
Lisa.
They won their first Oscar for best song with
Buttons And Bows, from the comedy Western 'The
Paleface' (1948); the jaunty number was
introduced by Bob Hope who, as the cowardly
dentist "Painless" Peter Potter, sang
it to Jane Russell; later Dinah Shore had a hit
with it.
In later years Evans and Livingston wrote theme
music for long-running television series,
including Bonanza and Mr Ed. Jay Livingston died
in 2001.more.... |
 |
Derek
Waring, actor, has died aged 79 (23
February 2007)
Derek Waring
was born Derek Barton Chapple in Mill Hill, north
London, in 1927, the son of Wing Cdr Harry Barton
Chapple, an electrical engineer who assisted John
Logie Baird in his early television experiments.
(Derek's elder brother, Richard, went on to
become a sitcom writer and BBC script editor,
under the name Richard Waring.)
On television, Waring appeared in episodes of
early ITV series such as The Adventures of Sir
Lancelot (1957), The Adventures of Robin Hood
(1957, 1958), Ivanhoe (1958), William Tell (1959)
and No Hiding Place (1959), and was even seen
modelling men's spring fashions in Flair, a 1959
advertising magazine - a type of programming
finally banned three years later. He was marrried
to Dame Dorothy Tutin. more.... |
| |
BFI
archives to be free to public (23
February 2007)
Items from the BFI archive will be made available
free of charge
Britain's national film and television archive is
to be opened up in order for it to be accessed by
the public.
Visitors to the British Film Institute (BFI),
which is in London, will be able to choose items
from the collection and watch them free of
charge.
Items range from footage of the Queen's
coronation to early scenes from long-running soap
Coronation Street more.... |
 |
The
original Mr. Turnip is coming up for auction! (9 February
2007)
On March 15th 2007 Vectis Auctions - the world's
largest toy auctioneer - will be auctioning the
Joy Laurey Collection including the original Mr
Turnip puppet prop together with associated
ephemera including several lots relating to
Twizzle. Including the Gerry Anderson and Joy
Laurey original A.P.Films hand written signed
contract, 1957, plus other agreements between A.P
Films and the Laurey Puppet Company detailing the
contract concerning the making of Twizzle.
Also original film scripts by Mary Lee, hand
coloured photostats from the books by Roberta
Leigh, finely painted in gonache, used by Joy
Laurey to create puppet personas for the TV
series, christmas cards, post cards - many
signed, original BBC TV Whirligig scripts,
photographs, scrapbooks etc.Vectis
website |
 |
Frankie
Laine, singer, has died aged 93 (8
February 2007)
Frankie Laine was the most successful of the
black-influenced white singers who came to
prominence in the post-war era belting out blues
in American nightclubs; he became one of the
country's biggest stars, with a string of more
than 70 hits and international sales of more than
250 million.
Laine's soulful, masculine style and highly
emotional delivery dealt a blow to the gentler
crooning styles of the day and paved the way for
later blues and rock and roll artists such as
Johnnie Ray and Elvis Presley.
From the 1950s Laine enjoyed a second career
recording versions of the title songs of
Hollywood and television Westerns such as
Gunfight At OK Corral; 3:10 To Yuma; Bullwhip;
Champion the Wonder Horse and Rawhide. more.... |
 |
Les
Henry, Harmonica player and comedian who
contributed 'Cedric' to the Three Monarchs' has
died aged 86. (26 January 2007)
Les Henry was “Cedric”, the lugubrious
comic turn in the Three Monarchs, the hugely
popular harmonica-playing trio who topped variety
bills in Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The trio was founded in 1946, with the musicians
Eric York and Jimmy Prescott, and as it gained
fame in clubs and on radio in The Forces Show,
Henry developed the character of
“Cedric”. His shuffle, tiny black
beard, brilliant timing and squeaky voice turned
them into a top-rating variety act. They appeared
more times than any other musical act at the
London Palladium, starred in revue and cabaret in
London, Las Vegas and South Africa, and notched
up several Royal Variety performances. In the
1960s they were an almost permanent fixture with
the Black and White Minstrel Show. It was Henry
who christened the trio the Three Monarchs —
billed in variety as “Kings of
Harmonica”. Initially the act was purely
musical but the character of Cedric became so
popular that extra comic routines were added. As
well as the harmonica the Monarchs also played
trumpet, drums, piano, guitar and saxophone. more.... |
| |
End of an
era for iconic sports show (26 January
2007)
Legendary BBC sports show Grandstand will end on
Sunday 28th January after 48 years of
broadcasting. Grandstand first appeared on 11
October 1958 on Saturday afternoon, with the
remit "to feature sports and events as they
happen, where they happen". It went
head-to-head with ITV rival World of Sport,
presented by Dickie Davies, but viewers preferred
tuning in to the BBC on a Saturday. Past
presenters included Peter Dimmock, David Coleman,
Frank Bough, Cliff Morgan, Des Lynam, Tony Gubba
and Steve Rider. more.... |
 |
Barbara
Kelly, television personality, has died aged 82 (16 January
2007)
Barbara Kelly was one of showbusiness's brightest
personalities in the 1950s, often appearing with
her husband, Bernard Braden; she was probably
best known for her appearances on the panel show
What's My Line? Barbara Kelly was in regular
demand in radio dramas and scored a hit in Male
Animal in the West End, but soon joined her
husband on the radio variety show Breakfast with
Braden, which was so popular that in 1950 it was
moved to a later slot and renamed Bedtime with
Braden.
They made their television debut on An Evening at
Home With Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly in
1951 but, though popular, it ran for only one
series.
In 1953 she joined What's My Line?, which
featured Eamonn Andrews as the chairman, and
David Nixon, Gilbert Harding and Isobel Barnett
as the other contestants attempting to guess the
occupations of members of the public.
Her other television work included Kelly's Eye,
Criss Cross Quiz and Leave Your Name and Number
as well as the sitcom B and B in 1968, where she
again teamed up with her husband, and in which
their younger daughter Kim also appeared. more.... |
 |
Yvonne De
Carlo, film star of the 1940s and 1950s, has died
aged 84 (12 January 2007)
In the 1940s and early 1950s Yvonne De Carlo was
Hollywood’s favourite Arabian Nights
heroine, a dark-haired beauty waiting for a
handsome leading man to loosen her chains. If her
function was to look decorative, rather than to
stretch herself as an actress, she carried it off
with style.
But despite efforts to broaden her range she
became typecast in exotic roles and when these
were no longer in demand, her career floundered.
Ironically, it was with another exotic character,
Lily in The Munsters, that she won a new
following from a generation who barely remembered
her films.
In the 1950s she made two films in Britain: Hotel
Sahara, where she starred opposite Peter Ustinov,
and The Captain’s Paradise, in which she
played Alec Guinness’s wife, revealing a
talent for comedy she was seldom able to display
elsewhere. In 1956 she was back in costume
playing Sephora, wife of Charlton Heston’s
Moses, in Cecil B. de Mille’s The Ten
Commandments, and was a mulatto girl sold as a
slave in 19thcentury Kentucky in Band of Angels,
with Clark Gable.
But on television she had a big hit as the
156-year-old Dracula-inspired Lily Munster
opposite Fred Gwynne’s Herman in the spoof
horror series, The Munsters, which ran for two
years in the mid-1960s. She also appeared in
several made-for-television films. more.... |
 |
Lila
Prentice, variety artiste, has died aged 98 (7 January
2007)
Lila Prentice
was one half of the rope-spinning, whip-cracking
variety act El Granadas, which played halls,
theatres and miners' galas from the 1920s until
the 1970s; they took part in the Royal Command
Performance in 1946 at the Palladium, an evening
that included performances by Arthur Askey, Sid
Field, Tessie O'Shea and Terry Thomas.
Lila's partner was Cecil Prentice, a variety
artist whom she first met on stage in pantomime
in Derby in 1928. He was a stepbrother of Kay
Smart, of Billy Smart's Circus.
Their stage act featured fancy rope-spinning,
stock-whips, unicycling, lassooing and
baton-swinging.
There were numerous memorable occasions. Once
Danny Kaye tried to ride Peter's unicycle and
promptly fell off; they appeared on Blue Peter in
its early days, and with Judy Garland at the
London Palladium in 1947 in a variety show that
also featured Max Bygraves, Dina Shaw and the
Debonairs. more.... |
 |
Slapstick
comic Charlie Drake dies at 81 (24
December 2006)
Actor and comic Charlie Drake will be best
remembered for his slapstick comedy and his
catchphrase "Hallo, my darlings!" He
also enjoyed late success in straight theatre.
From being the uneducated son of a south London
newspaper seller, Charlie Drake went on to become
to a multi-millionaire entertainer and one of
Britain's best-loved comedians. After serving in
the RAF in World War II, Drake turned
professional, becoming a noted knockabout
comedian, and made his first television
appearance in the mid-1950s.
He was in the slapstick children's show Mick and
Montmorency and then several of his own shows,
including The Worker.
Before long, Charlie Drake was one of
television's most popular stars. His catchphrase,
"Hallo, my darlings," delivered in his
trademark high-pitched voice, was soon to be
heard around the country. Gradually the money
started rolling in. Drake was starring in films,
back-to-back television series, appearing in
pantomimes and summer seasons around the country
and regularly topping the bill at the London
Palladium.
At the 1968 Montreux festival his TV show, The
World of Charlie Drake, won the Charlie Chaplin
award as the funniest show. The programme
included a comic sequence in which he played
numerous parts in a comic version of the 1812
Overture. Charlie Drake also made a number of
film comedies in the 1960s, most notably Sands of
the Desert, Petticoat Pirates and The Cracksman.
The 1980s saw Charlie turn to straight acting,
with some success. He was a perfectionist. He
wrote many of his own scripts, and would rehearse
again and again until he'd got what he wanted.
And, on more than one occasion, he was injured
during a slapstick routine. When, in 1961, when
he was knocked unconscious during a television
sketch, 2,000 people telephoned to see if he was
all right. more.... |
 |
Joseph
Barbera, animation producer has died aged 95 (20
December 2006)
Barbera was, with his partner William Hanna, the
only rival to Walt Disney in the art of making
animated cartoons; his creations included Tom and
Jerry, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo and Yogi Bear.
They began their association at MGM's fledgling
animation unit in 1937. Hanna's precise comic
timing and technical skills were the ideal
complement to Barbera's genius as a storyboard
artist and animator.
In 1957 Hanna and Barbera were told by MGM to
disband their unit. Instead the pair resigned and
set up their own company (H-B Enterprises, soon
changed to Hanna-Barbera Productions) to make
cartoons specifically for television. In order to
do this successfully, they had to cut corners by
developing ways of creating animated pictures
more quickly and cheaply, using less detail and
movement, more stock footage, and fewer drawings
– 300 for a minute of film rather than the
1,000 they produced for MGM.
Hanna-Barbera's first offering for television was
Ruff and Reddy, a tale of a cat and a dog, but
they made their fortune in 1958 with the
first-ever animated children's television series,
The Huckleberry Hound Show. Its mildly satirical
tone attracted adults as well as children and the
series was so successful that one of its regular
characters, Yogi Bear, was soon given his own
show. more.... |
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Ronnie
Stevens, actor, has died aged 81 (15
November 2006)
Ronnie Stevens possessed the sort of lantern jaw
and mobile features that lend themselves to
comedy, and enjoyed a versatile and prolific
career on television, in films and on the West
End stage. After making his film debut in Scarlet
Web (1954) and his television debut in Dick and
the Duchess (1957), an American sit-com set in
London, he continued to take character roles on
television and in films into the 1990s.
His first appearances were in intimate revue, and
he performed frequently in Peter Myers shows in
the West End alongside Joan Sims, who became a
life-long friend. He went on to play comic
character roles in some 40 films, including I'm
All Right Jack (1958, with Peter Sellers),
Dentist in the Chair (1960, with Bob Monkhouse)
and Carry On Cruising (1962). In the 1970s and
1980s he was a leading member of the Prospect
Theatre Company, playing the Fool in King Lear
(1972) and Sir Nathaniel in Love's Labour's Lost
(1984). He was also a founder member, with Ian
McKellen, of the Actors' Company. On television
he appeared in numerous drama and comedy series,
including The Goodies, Hi-di-Hi!, Yes, Prime
Minister, Goodnight Sweetheart, Rumpole of the
Bailey and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. more.... |
 |
Diana
Coupland, singer and actress, has died aged 74 (11
November 2006)
She began her career at the age of 11 when the
BBC producer Barney Colehan heard her sing and
gave her a spot on one of his radio shows.
By the time she was 14 she was singing full-time
at the Mecca Locarno in Leeds, and a year later
moved with her parents to London, where Mecca
gave her a job as resident singer at their
ballroom in Tottenham Court Road.
During the 1940s she worked with many big name
bands, including those of Teddy Foster, Geraldo,
Cyril Stapleton and Stanley Black.
She established herself as one of the leading
singers of the day, with seasons at the
Dorchester and Savoy hotels and bookings at
London's leading nightclubs. These led to
appearances on BBC Television: Diana Coupland
starred in the series Hit Parade, and continued
to sing professionally until the 1960s.
But her career took an unexpected turn when Joan
Littlewood cast her as Sally in Wolf Mankowitz's
musical Make Me An Offer (1959). more.... |
 |
Nigel
Kneale, Creator of Quatermass, has died aged 84 (2 November
2006)
During the 1950s and 1960s, the writer Nigel
Kneale bestrode the world of British television
like a colossus. At a time when the wildest
science fiction, in books, magazines and on the
big screen, seemed in imminent danger of becoming
scientific fact, Kneale's clever and terrifying
imaginings became obligatory viewing for a TV
audience which had only just recovered from the
shock of watching the Coronation.
Kneale wrote many television plays and serials,
as well as film scripts, including the
ground-breaking and highly controversial
small-screen version of George Orwell's Nineteen
Eighty-four (1954).
Kneale's greatest achievement as a melder of
science fiction and horror was undoubtedly
Quatermass and the Pit, which kept people out of
the pubs while it was running. He cheerfully
threw aliens from Mars, pagan rituals, the
"Horned God" and race memory into the
mix and scored a huge popular success. more.... |
| |
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