253 stories by "Richard Anthony Baker"
The 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...
As 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 in…
An 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 study…
For 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 r…
For 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…
A 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 w…
The 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…
Breaking 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…
After 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...
Working 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 …
A 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 …
Charles Chilton, who originated the satirical musical, Oh! What a Lovely War (1963), has died at the age of 95. It started out as a radio play and was then staged at the Theatre Royal,...
Playing leading roles in the West End and at Stratford-upon-Avon, Joy Parker was forever in the shadow of her husband, Paul Scofield, something she never regretted. The couple met in rep in …
In the forefront of the revival of folk music in the 1960s, Ian Campbell was one of the few entertainers to record a single that made the charts. This was his version of Bob Dylan's...
Working with the cream of British comic talent, Bob Kellett directed a swathe of films that fell somewhere between the Carry On pictures and the Confessions series of sex comedies. After pro…
Robin Pemberton-Billing was the founder of the innovative Octagon Theatre in Bolton and was its artistic director for five years. The theatre, the first to be built in north-west England sin…
A key figure in creating the image of the Who, pop impresario Chris stamp founded his own label, Track Records, with his business partner Kit Lambert. One of their first signings was Jimi He…
Working with some of Britain's leading jazzmen, including Humphrey Lyttelton and George Melly, pianist Stan Greig was widely admired for his blues and boogie-woogie playing. During the early…
As an undergraduate, Philip Ledger took a double first in music at Kings College, Cambridge, and 16 years later was appointed its director of music, overseeing the most important date in its…
As the fiddler with the traditional Irish folk group the Chieftains, Martin Fay never expected his career to follow the course that brought him worldwide celebrity. Having been classically t…
To become a professional actor in mid-life is unusual, but not rare. But to make a farewell performance in a smash hit in the West End and on Broadway is something else. Fred Ridgeway did...
Vital ingredients of the success of the Merchant Ivory films were the scores, nearly all of which were composed by Richard Robbins. His music for Maurice (1987), adapted from the EM Forster …
The Aldeburgh Festival on the Suffolk coast had links with American composer Elliott Carter from 1968 until 2009, when he made his final visit there at the age of 100. His great age brought …
The only portrait photographer to win a BAFTA award for services to the film industry, Cornel Lucas worked for the Rank Organisation during the 1950s, creating images of a young Joan Collins…
The actress Dinah Sheridan, who appeared in the classic films, Genevieve (1953) and The Railway Children (1970), has died at the age of 92. Her agent said she died peacefully at her home in …
