BBC Television’s fondly remembered sitcom The Good Life (1975-1978), which boasted a brilliant cast comprised of the always warm, endearing and eternally optimistic Richard Briers, togethe…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:14AMWhen skiffle was at the height of its craze in the late 1950s, Chas McDevitt scored an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic with Freight Train, an American folk song he recorded with...
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:03AMActor Elspet Gray, the wife of Brian Rix, who was the king of farce in the West End for many years, has died at the age of 83. She met Rix, now Lord Rix, at...
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:04PMAs one of the founders of Scottish Opera, Peter Ebert oversaw some ambitious productions, including Wagner’s Ring Cycle and all five hours of The Trojans by Berlioz with a cast led by Jane…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:02AMOne of Britain’s best-loved actors, Richard Briers, has died at the age of 79. His agent, Christopher Farrar, said he passed away peacefully at his home in London yesterday (February 17). …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:34AMOne of the most talented light entertainment producers in BBC Television, John Ammonds, has died from the effects of a stroke, his family announced this morning. He was 88. During the 1960s …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:31AMOf all the girl singing groups, the Andrews Sisters were the most famous – LaVerne, Maxene and the youngest, Patty. Although their biggest fans were the American soldiers whose morale they…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:09PMDuring the 1940s and 1950s, Joyce Golding was one of Britain’s most successful variety acts. She sang and told jokes, but specialised in impersonating a wide range of stars, even including…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:06PMAlthough he appeared alongside three Doctor Who actors – Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker – the role with which Bernard Horsfall will be chiefly associated is that of the loc…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:46AMHe was panned by the critics, but loved by audiences. The American movie industry admired him, chiefly for working to schedule and bringing films in either to or below budget. But the Britis…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:04PMOf all the colourful characters in the London jazz world, none was more luminous than Jim Godbolt. The two adjectives his friends regularly used to describe him were ‘cantankerous’ and �…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:31AMAs a superb theatre administrator, Alexander Schouvaloff was the first curator of the popular and much-missed Theatre Museum in Covent Garden, which covered the history of the performing art…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:39PMThe hard-edged satirical musical Oh What a Lovely War (1963), originated by Charles Chilton, helped to change public attitudes to armed conflicts. The deference shown towards the generals wh…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:36AMAfter escaping persecution by the Nazis in her native Austria, Stella Mann founded one of Britain’s best-known dance schools. Over the years, hundreds of dancers have perfected their skil…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMThe Montreux Jazz Festival, one of the most famous in the world, attended each July by about 200,000 people, was founded by Claude Nobs. When he launched it in 1967, it was devoted purely to…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:09AMWhen film producer Cubby Broccoli was searching for an actor to replace Sean Connery for Live and Let Die (1973), the handsome and charismatic Jon Finch was offered the role of James Bond, b…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:03AMThe film director, Michael Winner, has died at the age of 77. In a statement, his wife, Geraldine, said: “Michael was a wonderful man — brilliant, funny and generous. A light has…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 10:11AMStella Mann, who established one of Britain’s best-known professional dance schools, has died at the age of 100. After escaping Nazi persecution in her native Austria, she arrived in Londo…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:27PMThe role of the casting director is often overlooked when the success of a production is celebrated. But throughout the television and film industries, the talents of Emma Style were widely …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:21AMEven before he began his career as the manager of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephen Gray was regarded as an expert talent spotter. When he was helping to run the Chelsea Op…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 07:20AMThe high point of the working life of the actress and singer Barbara Shotter, one of five sisters to make a career on the stage, was the title role in a nationwide tour of Annie...
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:44PMAs a BBC Television producer responsible for an enormously wide diversity of programmes, Barrie Edgar started out as a child actor. For the BBC’s Midlands region, he played the title role …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:42PMAn innovator in puppetry and children’s theatre, Violet Philpott experimented with new techniques and materials, albeit on very different lines from Thunderbirds’ Gerry Anderson. After s…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:10PMFor millions of young children in the 1950s and 1960s, Daphne Oxenford was one of the calm voices heard regularly on BBC Radio’s Listen With Mother, a mixture of stories, songs and nursery…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 01:09PMFor more than 20 years, Donald Loughman was the manager of the Westminster Theatre, which was run by Moral Rearmament, the worldwide movement for spiritual renewal. The son of a safety offic…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:35AMA self-taught guitarist, Huw Lloyd-Langton joined Hawkwind, one of the world’s longest running bands, in 1970, and immediately made his mark on its debut album. During the 1970s, he toured…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:33AMThe lofty reputation of the violin teacher Eta Cohen rested on a disarmingly simple way of making her pupils learn to feel comfortable with the instrument. When she took up the violin, she w…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:29AMBreaking the tradition that television newscasters should be heard, but not seen, Kenneth Kendall was the first reader to be screened by the BBC in September 1955, less than three weeks befo…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:24AMAfter teaching ballet in Canada and running her own dance school on the Isle of Wight, Ann Stephanie’s career ended in a way she never foresaw – as a member of the Roly Polys, Les...
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:21AMWorking as a BBC Television producer and director in Manchester, Ken Stephinson furthered the careers of many media personalities. He gave Rowan Atkinson his first break, made a star of the …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 11:17AMA revolution in television puppetry was inaugurated by Gerry Anderson, who captured the imaginations of millions of children in the 1960s with a string of futuristic series, the most famous …
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