1.
Allan Warren
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Michael Allan Warren is an English portrait photographer, primarily known for his images of members of high society. After growing up in post-war London with his mother, Warren attended Terrys Juveniles and it was during this period that he attended auditions through which he received several assignments. Warren started his career at the age of 17 when he was acting in Alan Bennetts play Forty Years On with John Gielgud in the West End at the Apollo Theatre. Around this time Warren bought his first second-hand camera and began to take photographs of his fellow actors and his first major assignment was when his friend Mickey Deans asked him to cover his wedding to Judy Garland, which marked the beginning of Warrens work as a professional photographer. When in New York for personal reasons, he attended an audition for the Broadway production of Minnies Boys, however, he later declined the role offered to him in favour of returning to London and pursuing photography as his vocation. In the early 1980s Warren embarked on a quest to photograph all 26 non-royal, together with the 12th Duke of Manchester he set up the Dukes Trust, a charity for children in need. Warren has uploaded many pictures from his archive to Wikimedia Commons, in the early 90s Warren embarked on writing plays. One of his works, The Lady of Phillimore Walk, was directed by Frank Dunlop and critics went as far as comparing it to Sleuth, the cast of The Lady of Phillimore Walk consisted of Zena Walker and Philip Lowrie, and saw productions in the United States. Warren invented the Hankybreathe, a handkerchief which allows the user to inhale air through a filter at the mouth. The invention, which is meant to be dabbed in eucalyptus oil, harks back to the nosegay and stems from Warrens experience with asthma in heavily polluted London
2.
Armley
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Armley is a district in the west of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It starts less than 1 mile from Leeds city centre, like much of Leeds, Armley grew in the Industrial Revolution and had several mills, one of which is now the Armley Mills museum. Armley is predominantly and historically a working class area of the city, still retains many smaller industrial businesses. Armley is mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book reference to, Ristone, at the time there were eight villagers in Ristone and Ermelai. The actual population is indeterminable as this only accounts for the head of household, Armley Mills, now the Armley Mills Industrial Museum, was the worlds largest woollen mill when it was built in 1788. In the 18th and 19th centuries Armley was, through its mills, many of the buildings standing in and around Armley were built in the 1800s, including many of the churches, schools, shops and houses. Ledgard Way is named after the entrepreneur, Samuel Ledgard, Armley also has picturesque views over the rest of Leeds from certain vantage points. William Tetley started his business of malters in Armley in 1700, from the 1870s until 1956, Armley was home to the J W Roberts asbestos mattress and boiler lining factory. This facility exposed residents to asbestos fibres and resulted in a cancer cluster which persists to this day. One of the victims June Hancock launched a court action against Turner & Newall, although the court case was successful, corporate restructuring had, as of 2005, avoided the case being settled. Hancocks story was the subject of a play, Dust, by Kenneth F. Yates, performed in Armley, the parish church, St Bartholomews, is home to a notable pipe organ built by the German organbuilder, Edmund Schulze. Originally built for Meanwood Towers in 1866-69, it was opened by S. S. Wesley and it was moved to St Bartholomews in 1879. Schulzes work, and this organ in particular, had influence on the development of British organ building in the 19th century. Both church and organ have been restored, the smaller Christ Church is located at the end of Theaker Lane nearer the centre of Armley. Legend has it that a pedlar called Charlie used to rest and water his pony and he apparently sold spicy shortbread to the citizens of Upper Armley for 1d a piece. Today the triangular-shaped park is known as Charlie or Charley Cake Park, according to Armley Through the Camera, written in 1901, the park was within memory of many present residents of Armley, a patch of wasteland. Some of them regularly played cricket on its turf There were two stations in Armley. Armley Moor railway station closed 1966, and Armley Canal Road railway station closed 1965, Armley Town Street includes two high street names, charity shops and food and independent retailers
3.
Leeds
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Leeds /liːdz/ is a city in West Yorkshire, England. Historically in Yorkshires West Riding, the history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the name referred to an area of the Kingdom of Elmet. The name has applied to many administrative entities over the centuries. It changed from being the appellation of a small borough in the 13th century, through several incarnations. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a centre for the production. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a mill town, wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing. From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. The city has the third largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is also ranked as a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Leeds is served by four universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and has the fourth largest urban economy. After London, Leeds is the largest legal and financial centre in the UK, with over 30 national and international banks located in the city. Leeds is also the UKs third largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, the largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Outside of London, Leeds has the third busiest railway station, Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds and there are a number of twinning arrangements with towns and cities in other countries. The name Leeds derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning people of the fast-flowing river and this name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century. An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin, the term Leodensian is also used, from the citys Latin name. Leeds developed as a town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution it became a centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth. Leeds handled one sixth of Englands export trade in 1770, growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816
4.
Exeter College, Oxford
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Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The college is located on Turl Street, where it was founded in 1314 by Devon-born Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, as a school to educate clergymen. From its foundation Exeter was popular with the sons of the Devonshire gentry and has associated with a number of notable people. As of 2012, the college had a financial endowment of £48.7 million. During its first century, it was known as Stapeldon Hall and was significantly smaller, the college grew significantly from the 15th century onward, and began offering rooms to its students. The College motto is Floreat Exon, as a result, over time, Exeter College became one of the leading colleges in the University. In the 18th century the college experienced declining popularity, as did all of Oxfords other colleges, University reforms in the 1850s helped to end this period of stagnation. Until 1979 the college did not allow students, but in 1993 Exeter College became the first of the former all-male colleges to elect a woman, Marilyn Butler. When Butlers tenure expired in October 2004, the college elected another woman – Frances Cairncross, in 2014, the author J. K. Rowling was elected an honorary fellow of the college. Exeter College is the basis for the fictional Jordan College in Philip Pullmans novel trilogy His Dark Materials, the 2007 film version of the first novel, The Golden Compass, used the college for location filming. The Front Quadrangle sits on roughly the site of the college, although of the earliest buildings. The quadrangle is dominated by the chapel, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and constructed in 1854–60, on the opposite side stands the Hall, constructed in 1618, notable for its vaulted ceilings and numerous fine portraits, underneath which is the college bar. Building work over the century resulted in the quadrangle taking on its current appearance in 1710. The Front Quadrangle also houses the Junior, Middle and Senior Common Rooms, as well as lodgings for fellows, the Rectors Lodgings were designed by Gilbert Scott and constructed in 1864, with staircases nine, ten and eleven also being erected during the 19th century. A passageway from the Front Quadrangle leads through to the colleges Fellows Garden, in which stands the library, the area is also bounded on the left hand side by Convocation House, the Divinity School and the Bodleian Library, and on the right by Brasenose Lane. The Mound, situated at the end of the Garden, offers views over Radcliffe Square, including All Souls College, in 2007–08, the college purchased the main site of Ruskin College on nearby Walton Street for £7 million. It will be refurbished as a city centre quadrangle. As one of the smaller Oxford colleges, Exeter has a reputation for having a student body
5.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected
6.
The Oxford Revue
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The Oxford Revue is a comedy group featuring students from Oxford University, England. Founded in the early 1950s, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians, the Revue writes, produces and performs several shows each term. Shows are traditionally held in pubs, colleges and playhouses. The founding of the Revue in around 1952/3 is shrouded in mystery, from this, he helped found an offshoot group, the Oxford Revue Group, to take a revue up to the Edinburgh Fringe. Former members include, During the academic year 2009–10, the Oxford Revue performed regular Write Offs at the Wheatsheaf pub, in February 2010, the Revue ran for a week at the Burton-Taylor Studio, Oxford, in their Brighton-themed show The Oxford Revue Goes To Blighty. The show was rated 5 stars by The Oxford Theatre Review, the following term, the Oxford Revue invited the Durham Revue and the Cambridge Footlights for the trios annual show, The Oxford Revue and Friends at the Oxford Playhouse. The show sold out all 600 seats and was well received, aside from the shows at the Wheatsheaf, Burton-Taylor Studio and Oxford Playhouse, the Revue regularly performed at various college charity nights and balls, including the ball at the Oxford Union. They also travelled to Cambridge and Durham University to perform in large-scale shows, in August 2010, the Revue took the show, The Oxford Revue is Going Places, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, under the presidency of Ollie Mann and the direction of Rory OKeeffe. The poster was designed by photographer Adam Levy and they performed at the Underbelly venue and sold well, receiving 4 stars from Broadway Baby. During Michaelmas Term 2010, the Revue overhauled its website and have begun posting articles, videos and they performed two shows at the Wheatsheaf pub as well as the Trinity College charity night and the UNICEF Comedy night
7.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
8.
Dudley Moore
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Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. The double act worked on other projects until the mid-1970s, by which time Moore had settled in Los Angeles to concentrate on his film acting. His solo career as a film actor was heightened by the success of hit Hollywood films, particularly Foul Play,10. For the latter film, Moore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and he received a second Golden Globe for his performance in Micki & Maude. Moore was born at the original Charing Cross Hospital in central London, the son of Ada Francis, a secretary, and John Moore and his father was Scottish, from Glasgow. His mother stated that Dudley was 1/8th Jewish, Moore was brought up in Dagenham, Essex. He was notably short at 5 ft 2 in and was born with club feet that required hospital treatment and, coupled with his diminutive stature. This was something he remained very self-conscious of throughout his life, Moore became a choirboy at the age of six. At age eleven he earned a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and he rapidly developed into a highly talented pianist and organist and was playing the pipe organ at local church weddings by the age of 14. Moores musical talent won him a scholarship to Magdalen College. While studying music and composition there, he performed with Alan Bennett in the Oxford Revue. During his university years, Moore had developed a love of music and soon became an accomplished jazz pianist. He began working with leading musicians as John Dankworth and Cleo Laine. In 1960, he left Dankworths band to work on Beyond the Fringe, Moore then recommended Bennett, who in turn suggested Peter Cook. Beyond the Fringe was at the forefront of the 1960s UK satire boom, although the original runs in Edinburgh. There were also a number of items in the show, using Dudley Moores music. In 1962, the transferred to the John Golden Theatre in New York. President John F. Kennedy attended a performance on 10 February 1963, the show continued in New York until 1964
9.
Jonathan Miller
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Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, CBE is an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist, and medical doctor. Miller began directing operas in the 1970s and has become one of the worlds leading opera directors with several classic productions to his credit. His best-known production is probably his 1982 Mafia-styled Rigoletto set in 1950s Little Italy, in its early days he was an associate director at the National Theatre and later ran the Old Vic Theatre. As a writer/presenter of more than a dozen BBC documentaries, he has become a television personality. Miller grew up in St Johns Wood, London, in a well-connected Jewish family and his father Emanuel, who suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis, was a military psychiatrist, and subsequently a paediatric psychiatrist in Harley House. His mother Betty Miller was a novelist and biographer, Millers sister Sarah worked in television for many years and retained an involvement with Judaism that he, an atheist, has always eschewed. He was educated at Taunton School and St Pauls School, London where he developed an early interest in the biological sciences, while studying medicine, Miller was involved in the Cambridge Footlights, appearing in the revues Out of the Blue and Between the Lines. Miller helped to write and produce the musical revue Beyond the Fringe and this launched, in addition to his own, the careers of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Miller quit the show shortly after its move from London to Broadway in 1962, all these appointments were unsolicited invitations, the Monitor appointment arose because Miller had approached Huw Wheldon about taking up a place on the BBCs director training course. Wheldon assured him that he would pick it up as he went along, Millers first experience of directing a stage-play was for John Osborne, whose Under Plain Cover he directed in 1962. In 1964, he directed the play The Old Glory by the American poet Robert Lowell in New York City and it was the first play produced at the American Place Theatre and starred Frank Langella, Roscoe Lee Brown, and Lester Rawlins. The play won five Obie Awards in 1965 including an award for Best American Play as well as awards for Langella, Brown and he wrote, produced, and directed an adaptation for television of Alice in Wonderland for the BBC. He followed this with Whistle and Ill Come to You starring Michael Hordern, a adaptation of M. R. Jamess 1904 ghost story Oh, Whistle. By 1970, his reputation in British theatre was such that he mounted a National Theatre Company production of The Merchant of Venice starring Sir Laurence Olivier and he later resigned as associate director. Miller held a fellowship in the history of medicine at University College. In 1974, he started directing and producing operas for Kent Opera and Glyndebourne. Miller has become one of the leading opera directors with classic productions being Rigoletto. Miller drew upon his own experiences as a physician as writer and presenter of the BBC television series The Body in Question, for a time, he was a vice-president of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
10.
Peter Cook
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Peter Edward Cook was an English actor, satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in British comedy, Cook is widely regarded as the light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was closely associated with the anti-establishment comedy that emerged in the UK, Cook was born at his parents house, Shearbridge, in Middle Warberry Road, Torquay, Devon. He was the son and eldest of the three children of Alexander Edward Alec Cook, a colonial civil servant, and his wife Ethel Catherine Margaret. He was educated at Radley College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, as a student, Cook initially intended to become a career diplomat like his father, but Britain had run out of colonies, as he put it. Although politically largely apathetic, particularly in life when he displayed a deep distrust of politicians of all hues. It was at Pembroke that Cook performed and wrote comedy sketches as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Club and his hero was fellow Footlights writer and Cambridge magazine writer David Nobbs. Beyond the Fringe became a success in London after being first performed at the Edinburgh Festival and included Cook impersonating the prime minister. This was one of the first occasions satirical political mimicry had been attempted in live theatre, during one performance, Macmillan was in the theatre and Cook departed from his script and attacked him verbally. In 1961, Cook opened The Establishment, a club at 18 Greek Street in Soho in central London, Cook said it was a satirical venue modelled on those wonderful Berlin cabarets. Which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the outbreak of the Second World War, Cook befriended and supported Australian comedian and actor Barry Humphries, who began his British solo career at the club. Humphries said in his autobiography, My Life As Me, that he found Cooks lack of interest in art, Cooks chiselled looks and languid manner led Humphries to observe that whereas most people take after their father or mother, Cook seemed more like an aunt. Dudley Moores jazz trio played in the basement of the club during the early 1960s, when he returned, the pilot had been refashioned as That Was the Week That Was and had made a star of David Frost, something Cook resented. The 1960s satire boom was closing and Cook said England was about to sink giggling into the sea and this incident occurred in the summer of 1963, when the rivalry between the two men was at its height. Cook had realised that Frosts potential drowning would have looked deliberate if he had not been rescued, around this time, Cook provided financial backing for the satirical magazine Private Eye, supporting it through difficult periods, particularly in libel trials. Cook invested his own money and solicited investment from his friends, for a time, the magazine was produced from the premises of the Establishment Club. In 1963, Cook married Wendy Snowden, the couple had two daughters, Lucy and Daisy, but the marriage ended in 1970, Cook expanded television comedy with Eleanor Bron, John Bird and John Fortune. Cooks comedy partnership with Dudley Moore led to Not Only and this was originally intended by the BBC as a vehicle for Moores music, but Moore invited Cook to write sketches and appear with him
11.
Beyond the Fringe
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Beyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller. It played in Londons West End and then in America, both on tour and on New Yorks Broadway in the early 1960s, hugely successful, it is widely regarded as seminal to the rise of satirical comedy in 1960s Britain. John Bassett, a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, who was Ponsonbys assistant, recommended Dudley Moore, his jazz bandmate, Moore in turn recommended Alan Bennett, who had had a hit at Edinburgh a few years before. Bassett also chose Jonathan Miller, who had been a Footlights star in 1957, Bennett and Miller were already pursuing careers in academia and medicine respectively, but Cook had an agent, having written a West End revue for Kenneth Williams. Cooks agent negotiated a higher fee for him, but by the time the agents fee was deducted Cook actually earned less than the others from the initial run. The majority of the sketches were by Cook and were based on material written for other revues. Among the entirely new material were The End of the World, TVPM, Cook and Moore revived some of the sketches on their later television and stage shows, most famously the two-hander One Leg Too Few. In 1962 the show transferred to the John Golden Theatre in New York, president John F. Kennedy attended a performance on 10 February 1963. The show continued in New York, with most of the original cast, until 1964, the revue was widely considered to be ahead of its time, both in its unapologetic willingness to debunk figures of authority, and by virtue of its inherently surrealistic comedic vein. Macmillan — according to Cook — was not particularly fond of the slurred caricature, since Beyond the Fringe was not owned by the BBC, however, the quartet enjoyed relative carte blanche. The only protocol they were obliged to adhere to stipulated that their sketches be sent to the Lord Chamberlain for approval prior to performance. Most specifically, its lampooning of the British war effort in a sketch titled The Aftermyth of the War was scorned by some war veterans for its supposed insensitivity. One British visitor to the Broadway performance was said to have stood up and shouted rotters. many see Beyond the Fringe as the forerunner to British television programmes That Was the Week That Was, At Last the 1948 Show and Monty Pythons Flying Circus. As with the comedy revue, it was a series of satirical sketches and musical pieces using a minimal set. Although all of the cast contributed material, the most often quoted pieces were those by Cook, in 2006, Jonathan Miller recounted that the breach of decorum this represented was a source of embarrassment to both audience and performers. However, the show wasnt all that satirical, merely making fun of things — such as war films — though even this was a forward in comedy. Shakespearean drama was another target of their comedy, there were also a number of musical items in the show, using Dudley Moores music, most famously an arrangement of the Colonel Bogey March which resists Moores repeated attempts to bring it to an end. The show prefigured the Satire Boom of the 1960s, Cook and Moore formed a comedy team and appeared in the popular television show Not Only
12.
Edinburgh Festival
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The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that takes place each summer, mostly in August, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh Festival is member of the Global Cultural Districts Network, the Edinburgh International Festival was established in 1947 in a post-war effort to provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit. The EIF and the Fringe remain independent bodies and run separate programmes each year, in more recent years various other annual cultural festivals have been created in Edinburgh, again by separate organizations, though taking place at around the same time. Edinburgh Festival Fringe * — now the largest of all the festivals, includes theatre, comedy, music, musicals, dance and childrens shows. co
13.
The Madness of George III
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The Madness of George III is a 1991 play by Alan Bennett. It is a biographical study of the latter half of the reign of George III of the United Kingdom, his battle with mental illness. It was adapted for film in 1994 as The Madness of King George, the play had its premiere on 28 November 1991 at the Lyttelton Theatre of the National Theatre in London. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner and designed by Mark Thompson, after its London run, the production toured the UK and the United States, returned to the National Theatre in 1993 and was then presented in Athens and Israel in 1994. The play was staged at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre in San Diego, on 18 January 2012, the play was revived at the Apollo Theatre where it is currently playing. Willis Karen Winchester as Margaret Nicholson Chris McCalphy as Willis Henchman Haseeb Malik as Warrens assistant
14.
The Madness of King George
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The Madness of King George is a 1994 British biographical historical comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted by Alan Bennett from his own play, The Madness of George III. At first, the Kings habits appear mildly eccentric, and are ignored for reasons of state. In fact, the King is growing more unsettled, largely over the loss of America, George, his oldest son, aggravates the situation, knowing that he would be named regent in the event the King was found incapacitated. George chafes under his fathers repeated criticism, but also hopes for regency to allow him freedom to marry his Catholic mistress. Knowing that the King’s behavior is exacerbated in public, the Prince arranges for a playing the music of Handel. The King reacts as expected, interrupting the musicians, acting inappropriately towards Lady Pembroke, attendant to the Queen, meanwhile, Baron Thurlow, the Chancellor, discovers that the Prince was secretly and illegally married to his Catholic mistress. Thurlow pays the minister to keep his mouth shut, and himself out a record of the marriage from church rolls. The King soon shows signs of recovery, becoming less eccentric, restored, the King asserts control over his family, forces the Prince to “put away” his mistress. With the crisis averted, those who had been closest to the king are summarily dismissed from service, during conversations with Pitt, the King appears more at ease and in control of himself. He is less antagonized by America, but also signs that his insanity remains. In adapting the play to film, the title was changed from The Madness of George III to The Madness of King George. One commonly stated explanation for the change, that American audiences would think the film was a sequel because of the use of Roman numerals in the title, is an urban legend. Principal photography took place from 11 July to 9 September 1994, pauls Cathedral, London Syon House, Brentford, Middlesex Thame Park, Oxfordshire Wilton House, Wilton, Wiltshire The Madness of King George debuted strongly at the box office. The film grossed $15,238,689 from 464 North American venues, the film received largely positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 93% Certified Fresh score based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7. 8/10. Reviewing the film for Variety, Emanuel Levy praised the film highly, writing, Under Hytners guidance, boasting a rich period look, almost every shot is filled with handsome, emotionally charged composition. The Madness of King George at Snopes. com, Urban Legends Reference Pages
15.
Talking Heads (series)
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Talking Heads is a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television by British playwright Alan Bennett. The two series were first broadcast in 1988 and 1998, and have since been broadcast on BBC Radio and included on the A-level, a few episodes also aired on PBS in the United States as part of its Masterpiece Theatre programme. In 2002, seven of the pieces were performed at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles for a highly praised engagement, in 2003, several of the monologues were staged in New York City at the Off-Broadway Minetta Theatre. The entire series is now available on DVD and also in published form. There are two series of Talking Heads, six monologues in each, along with a play, A Woman of No Importance. Although the plays deal with a variety of subjects, there are recurring themes, such as death, illness, guilt. Most of the plays give some hint as to where they are set, mostly in Leeds, although not the real Leeds, for example, Matthias Robinsons, in which Miss Fozzard works, closed in the 1970s. Each episode consists of a monologue and therefore in most episodes only one character appears. The only exception is when Steven Beard features as a policeman in A Cream Cracker under the Settee, julie Walters, Patricia Routledge and Thora Hird appear as different characters in both series. The music was written by George Fenton, actors are named for the BBC television versions. It is soon revealed, through hints that she has lost her job and her co-workers havent bothered to visit, that she is not as popular and significant as she assumed. After one too many accusations of misconduct from Irenes pen, she is sent to prison – where, for the first time in her life, ironically, she feels free. Interestingly, she not feel cheated when Ramesh Ramesh moves on to marry. However, given her sons ineptitude with money, and the secret behind Margarets illness. It is not clear to what extent Lesley understands that she is appearing in a pornographic film. Alone and injured, she wonders whether the place left for her in society is a care home which she distrusts. Resisting this with all her being, she decides shed rather die on her own in considerable pain than live in a care home smelling of pee and it is this that gives her the satisfaction her life was missing, as she begins to stop caring what other people think. Shes particularly put out when one elderly woman whom shes visited, celia is somewhat soothed when the Canadian gives her a small box of the womans things, which includes a curious drawing of a finger
16.
The History Boys
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The History Boys is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London on 18 May 2004 and its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where 185 performances were staged before it closed on 1 October 2006. The play won multiple awards, including the 2005 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, the play opens in Cutlers Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional boys grammar school in the north of England. Set in the early 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxford, Hector is discovered sexually fondling a boy and later Irwins latent homosexual inclinations emerge. The character of Hector was based on the schoolmaster and author Frank McEachran, does not appear on stage in the published text, but was seen in filmed projections featuring Rio by Duran Duran during the original production. Royal National Theatre The play opened at the Lyttelton Theatre in London on 18 May 2004 and it played to sell-out audiences and its limited run was frequently extended. Richard Griffiths, James Corden, Dominic Cooper, Russell Tovey, Sacha Dhawan, on 24 November 2005, the same production was revived once again at the Lyttelton Theatre where it played another successful run. Future Doctor Who actor Matt Smith took on the role of Lockwood in the November revision of the cast, the original cast reunited in the final week in February 2006. Broadway The American premiere of the play took place on 23 April 2006 when the same National production opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. West End Following its Broadway triumph and second UK tour, the opened at Londons Wyndhams Theatre on 2 January 2007. The production closed on 14 April 2007, a further West End run of the play opened once again at the Wyndhams Theatre on 20 December 2007 running through 26 April 2008. British National Tours The first national tour of the production opened in 2005, a second Britain wide tour began on 31 August 2006 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, touring to eight further venues. A fourth national tour co-produced by the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Theatre Royal Bath commenced in early 2010 and this was a new production not produced by the National Theatre and directed by Christopher Luscombe. The first non-professional UK production was staged by Daisy and Rose Theatre Productions at Ermysteds Grammar School in Skipton, North Yorkshire, the play had its amateur debut in Melbourne, Australia, performed at the Cromwell Road Theatre from 18–25 July 2009 and directed by Bryce Ives. The first amateur production of the play was performed at the St Helens Theatre Royal, the play made its Chicago premiere on 25 April 2009, at TimeLine Theatre. The same production formed the plays premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2010, an Italian adaptation debuted on 19 September 2010 at Teatro ElfoPuccini in Milan. Directors, Elio de Capitani and Ferdinando Bruni and it won the Premio UBU2011 as best show. A Catalan adaptation debuted on 24 September 2008 at Teatre Goya in Barcelona, timms, Matt Hardie and is directed by Jesse Peach
17.
The History Boys (film)
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The History Boys is a 2006 British comedy-drama film adapted by Alan Bennett from his play of the same name, which won the 2005 Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner, who directed the production at the Royal National Theatre in London. The school scenes were filmed in Watford in two schools, Watford Grammar School for Boys and Watford Grammar School for Girls, the film uses the uniform of Watford Boys. Locations in Elland and Halifax, West Yorkshire are used to create the landscape of Sheffield in which the story is set. The General Studies teacher, known by staff and boys alike by his nickname Hector, is much beloved, and works alongside their deputy head and regular History teacher, Mrs Lintott. The Headmaster, known by all as Felix, appoints a temporary contract teacher, Tom Irwin, Irwin is only a few years older than his students but proves to be a bold and demanding teacher, and particularly difficult to impress. As part of their General Studies, the acts out scenes from romantic films. At the conclusion of each class, Hector offers a lift to one of the students on his motorbike, the only one he never takes along is Posner, a slight Jewish boy, who doesnt hide his infatuation with Dakin. Dakin, who himself as an aspiring lecher, is currently pursuing an affair with the headmasters secretary. He is not displeased by Posners attention, but finds himself increasingly interested in Irwin, gradually, Dakins quest to impress Irwin on an intellectual level evolves into a flirtatious, potentially sexual pursuit of his young teacher, who is visibly attracted to Dakin. Meanwhile, Hectors indiscretions are shockingly revealed and Felix instructs him to retire early, the boys continue their studies and all gain places at Oxford and Cambridge, including the famously dimwitted Rudge, with Posner and Dakin winning scholarships. On their last day at the end of term, Dakin calls out Irwin on a lie and asks him out for a drink, overtly revealing his sexual interest in him, much to Irwins confusion and they agree to get together that very Sunday. Dakin then proceeds to the Headmasters office and, by threatening to reveal Felixs own sexual harassment of Fiona, as the boys prepare to leave the grammar school, Hector agrees to give Dakin a ride home on the motorbike for old times sake. However, before they leave, the headmaster runs out and stops them and he suggests that Hector take Irwin instead. Dakin gladly hands the helmet to him, and the screen fades to white as they drive off, off-screen, there is a motorcycle accident, Hector is killed and Irwin injured. Dakin says that Irwin had never been on the back of a bike and so unbalanced Hector, leading to Hectors death, the boys sing Bye Bye Blackbird at Hectors memorial service and the Headmaster gives a general speech. Mrs Lintott then turns and asks Will they come to my funeral, I wonder. The school hall is shown only the boys sitting and each recounts his life, Akthar, a headmaster, Crowther, a magistrate, Timms, a drug-taking dry-cleaning manager, and Dakin
18.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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Alices Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children and it is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. The journey began at Folly Bridge in Oxford and ended 3 miles north-west in the village of Godstow, during the trip, Dodgson told the girls a story that featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure. The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it down for her and he began writing the manuscript of the story the next day, although that earliest version no longer exists. The girls and Dodgson took another boat trip a month later when he elaborated the plot to the story of Alice, and in November he began working on the manuscript in earnest. To add the finishing touches, he researched natural history for the animals presented in the book and he added his own illustrations but approached John Tenniel to illustrate the book for publication, telling him that the story had been well liked by children. Some, including Martin Gardner, speculate that there was a version that was destroyed later by Dodgson when he wrote a more elaborate copy by hand. Chapter One – Down the Rabbit Hole, Alice is feeling bored and drowsy while sitting on the riverbank with her older sister and she then notices a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch, talking to itself as it runs past. She follows it down a hole, but suddenly falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a key to a door too small for her to fit through. She then discovers a bottle on a table labelled DRINK ME, the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key and she eats a cake with EAT ME written on it in currants as the chapter closes. Chapter Two – The Pool of Tears, Chapter Two opens with Alice growing to such a size that her head hits the ceiling. Alice is unhappy and, as she cries, her tears flood the hallway, after shrinking down again due to a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse, who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him in elementary French, offends the mouse and he tries to escape her. Chapter Three – The Caucus Race and a Long Tale, The sea of tears becomes crowded with other animals, Alice and the other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry again. The Mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror, a Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner
19.
Winnie-the-Pooh
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Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne also included a poem about the bear in the childrens verse book When We Were Very Young and many more in Now We Are Six. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard, hyphens in the characters name were dropped by Disney when the company adapted the Pooh stories into a series of features that became one of its most successful franchises. In popular film adaptations, Pooh Bear has been voiced by actors Sterling Holloway, Hal Smith, a. A. Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh for a teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin. The rest of Christopher Robin Milnes toys, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, two more characters, Owl and Rabbit, were created by Milnes imagination, while Gopher was added to the Disney version. Christopher Robins toy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City. Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo, and Pooh, a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in White River, Ontario, Canada and he named the bear Winnie after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnie was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained recognition as The Fort Garry Horse regimental mascot. Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France, after the war she was donated to the zoo. Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young, in the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply Pooh, But his arms were so stiff. They stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and I think – but I am not sure – that that is why he is always called Pooh. The Winnie-the-Pooh stories are set in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, the forest is a large area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty situated 30 miles south of London. In 1925 Milne, a Londoner, bought a home a mile to the north of the forest at Cotchford Farm. And we would spend a whole glorious month there in the spring, in the centre of this hilltop was a clump of pines. Most of his fathers visits to the forest at this time were, he noted, Christopher added that, inspired by Ashdown Forest, his father had made it the setting for two of his books, finishing the second little over three years after his arrival. Many locations in the stories can be linked to places in. As Christopher Milne wrote in his autobiography, Pooh’s forest and Ashdown Forest are identical, the landscapes depicted in E. H
20.
The Co-operative Group
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It is the largest consumer co-operative in the UK and owned by more than 4 million active members. No year end dividend was paid in 2015, the Co-operative Group has over 70,000 employees across the UK. It introduced The Co-operative brand in 2007, which is used by many consumers co-operatives in the UK and it replaced this for its own businesses with a revitalised version of its late 1960s Co-op logo in 2016. It has held the Fair Tax Mark since 2015, the Groups roots are traced back to the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, established in 1844. Although The Co-operative Group incorporates the original Rochdale Society, the core for much of its history were its wholesale operations. This began in 1863 when the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Industrial, by 1872, it was known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society and it was wholly owned by the co-operatives which traded with it. The CWS grew rapidly and supplied produce to co-operative stores across England and it was this continued and fierce competition with other non-co-operative wholesalers which led to the CWS becoming highly innovative. By 1890 the CWS had established significant branches in Leeds, Blackburn, Bristol, Nottingham and Huddersfield alongside a number of factories which produced biscuits, Boots, Soap and textiles. In an attempt to drive down the significant cost of transportation for produce the CWS even began its own shipping line which initially sailed from Goole docks to parts of continental Europe. One of the CWS steamships, the Pioneer, was the first commercial vessel to use the Manchester Ship Canal. This rapid expansion continued so that by the outbreak of World War One the CWS had major offices in the United States, Denmark, Australia and a tea plantation in India. There was a deal of consideration on the role of the CWS in the British co-operative movement around the turn of the twentieth century. In contrast to this, the CWS had its aim to be the centrepoint for the whole movement in the UK. To this end, they started to assist the local societies in more ways than simply as a wholesaler. The CWS Bank, the precursor to The Co-operative Bank, financed loans for societies to use for expansion through purchasing new buildings and it was hoped that these financial ties, as well as the CWS corporate dividend, would increase loyalty to the CWS. This report received criticism from the fiercely local co-operative societies. The Co-operative Independent Commission was tasked with investigating the decline in the co-op movement and this was not to say that the Co-op had not been modernising, notably through opening self-service stores and supermarkets. The CWS responded with operation facelift in 1968 which introduced the first national co-operative branding, though Operation Facelift led to some improvements, the movement remained largely unreformed with its grocery marketshare continuing a downward trend
21.
Lawnswood School
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Lawnswood School is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in the Lawnswood area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The school was founded in 1972 and had its first comprehensive intake in 1974, the sixth form was judged as Grade 2 and consistently good in the 2009 Ofsted inspection, but the school as a whole was rated as Grade 4 for overall effectiveness. And consequently placed into special measures, however, the school was said to be improving. During an early 2011 Ofsted visit, the school was judged to be making progress in all the key areas. In late 2013, Ofsted rated the school Grade 2 for overall effectiveness, alan Bennett, English playwright, screenwriter and author James Brown, founder of Loaded John Craven BBC journalist and television presenter Mark Curry, Television presenter
22.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
23.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
24.
Church of England
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The Church of England is the state church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor, the Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It dates its establishment as a church to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. The English church renounced papal authority when Henry VIII sought to secure an annulment from Catherine of Aragon in the 1530s, the English Reformation accelerated under Edward VIs regents before a brief restoration of papal authority under Queen Mary I and King Philip. This is expressed in its emphasis on the teachings of the early Church Fathers, as formalised in the Apostles, Nicene, in the earlier phase of the English Reformation there were both Catholic martyrs and radical Protestant martyrs. The later phases saw the Penal Laws punish Roman Catholic and nonconforming Protestants, in the 17th century, political and religious disputes raised the Puritan and Presbyterian faction to control of the church, but this ended with the Restoration. Papal recognition of George III in 1766 led to religious tolerance. Since the English Reformation, the Church of England has used a liturgy in English, the church contains several doctrinal strands, the main three known as Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical and Broad Church. Tensions between theological conservatives and progressives find expression in debates over the ordination of women and homosexuality, the church includes both liberal and conservative clergy and members. The governing structure of the church is based on dioceses, each presided over by a bishop, within each diocese are local parishes. The General Synod of the Church of England is the body for the church and comprises bishops, other clergy. Its measures must be approved by both Houses of Parliament, according to tradition, Christianity arrived in Britain in the 1st or 2nd century, during which time southern Britain became part of the Roman Empire. The earliest historical evidence of Christianity among the native Britons is found in the writings of such early Christian Fathers as Tertullian, three Romano-British bishops, including Restitutus, are known to have been present at the Council of Arles in 314. Others attended the Council of Sardica in 347 and that of Ariminum in 360, Britain was the home of Pelagius, who opposed Augustine of Hippos doctrine of original sin. Consequently, in 597, Pope Gregory I sent the prior of the Abbey of St Andrews from Rome to evangelise the Angles and this event is known as the Gregorian mission and is the date the Church of England generally marks as the beginning of its formal history. A later archbishop, the Greek Theodore of Tarsus, also contributed to the organisation of Christianity in England, the Church of England has been in continuous existence since the days of St Augustine, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as its episcopal head. Despite the various disruptions of the Reformation and the English Civil War, while some Celtic Christian practices were changed at the Synod of Whitby, the Christian Church in the British Isles was under papal authority from earliest times. The Synod of Whitby established the Roman date for Easter and the Roman style of monastic tonsure in Britain and this meeting of the ecclesiastics with Roman customs with local bishops was summoned in 664 at Saint Hildas double monastery of Streonshalh, later called Whitby Abbey
25.
Patrick Garland
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Patrick Ewart Garland was a British director, writer, and actor. Garland was educated at St Marys College, Southampton, and St Edmund Hall, where he studied English and was Literary Editor of Isis, President of the Oxford University Poetry Society and President of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. His poetry had appeared in John Lehmanns The London Magazine and the annual PEN anthology during his teens and he was photographed in Oxford at 23 by Lord Snowdon and later. His maternal grandfather was an artist and editor of Connoisseur Magazine and his appearances as an actor included An Age of Kings, where he played Prince John in Henry IV, Part 2 and Clarence in Richard III, among others. Garland started Poetry International in 1963 with Ted Hughes and Charles Osborne and he was a director and producer for the BBCs Music and Arts Department, and worked on its Monitor series. In 1964, he directed the Monitor film, Down Cemetery Road and his work with the BBC arts department also included interviews with Noël Coward, Stevie Smith, and Marcel Marceau. His television film of The Snow Goose won a Golden Globe for Best Movie made for TV, meanwhile, his career in the theatre had begun to develop. He also raised money to build and open the second auditorium. He was the director to have had four plays running in the West End of London at the same time. In 1978 Patrick directed Under the Greenwood Tree at Salisbury Playhouse and this production transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre in the Strand London West End in the spring of 1979. In 1980, Garland was responsible for the York Mystery Plays and he directed the revival of My Fair Lady on Broadway in the early 1980s with Rex Harrison and Don Giovanni and in Japan, Handels opera Ottone. He also directed Eileen Atkins in his own adaptation of Virginia Woolfs book A Room of Ones Own. In 2000, he directed Simon Callow in The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd, followed by a tour that culminated in Australia and Broadway and he also worked with Alan Bennett again, directing Patricia Routledge in the second Talking Heads and Bennett himself in Telling Tales. He directed Fanfare for Elizabeth at Covent Garden on Queen Elizabeth IIs 60th Birthday,1989 he directed the Thanksgiving Service in Westminster Abbey for Lord Olivier. In 1998 Garland devised A Christmas Glory for the 300th anniversary of St Pauls Cathedral and he has also devised and presented several performances for the Charleston Festival. Garland had been working on his memoirs as well as a book about Corsica, both remained unfinished at the time of his death. It was announced that his memoirs will be completed by Simon Callow, Garland was married to the actress Alexandra Bastedo from 1980. The wedding took place at Chichester Cathedral and he was awarded Honorary D Litt at the University of Southampton 1994 and an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1997
26.
London Weekend Television
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London Weekend Television was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm to Monday mornings at 6, 00am. Like most ITV franchises, including Carltons, the London weekend franchise is operated by ITV plc. As of 2014, the franchise is still licensed, but unlike many other franchises. LWT is now managed with Carlton Television as an entity. London Weekend Television Ltd is, along with most other companies owned by ITV plc. The London Television Consortium was created and led by television presenter David Frost, the consortium also consisted of three ex-BBC members of staff, Michael Peacock, Frank Muir and Doreen Stephens. Frost had originally considered applying for the new Yorkshire region franchise, changes elsewhere in the system led Frost to believe that the existing Midlands weekday broadcaster ATV had a significant risk of losing its London weekend contract. The consortiums application promised a variety of arts and drama productions. It accordingly caught the attention of the regulator, the Independent Television Authority, so keen were the ITA that they were quoted at the time as saying the LTC had to have its chance, whatever the repercussions. The new company, renamed London Weekend Television, benefited from an extension in broadcasting hours. Having previously worked weekdays for Rediffusion, transmission staff now had to work at weekends and this led to threats of industrial action, and with the dispute still unresolved, fifteen seconds into their opening night of 2 August 1968, technicians went on strike and the screens went blank. An emergency service was provided by management from the centre of ATV at Foley Street. As a consequence viewers deserted their primetime offerings in favour of the more mainstream Saturday night viewing on BBC1, other ITV stations refused to show LWT productions because of the poor ratings. The situation came to a head during a meeting of the Network Programme Committee on 9 September 1968. The NPC was being chaired by Lew Grade, ATVs managing director, and I know I hate David Frost. Frost was present but no one else spoke out against LWTs programming policy, meanwhile, the £6.5 million they had initially put up for the franchise began to drain away more quickly than their audience figures. Michael Peacock, the architect in David Frosts vision for the future of television, ATV dropped Frosts major Saturday night slot altogether and replaced him with comedian Dave Allen, while Yorkshire and Granada relegated the show to the late evening. In September 1969, Michael Peacock was sacked by the board while six executives resigned from LWT in support, the ITA made it clear that LWTs franchise proposals must be retained
27.
A Question of Attribution
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A Question of Attribution is a 1988 one-act stage play, written by Alan Bennett. It was premièred at the National Theatre, London in December 1988, the two plays are collectively called Single Spies. The one-act play formed the basis of a 1991 television film of the same name broadcast as part of the BBCs Screen One series. The film was directed by John Schlesinger and stars James Fox as Anthony Blunt, David Calder as Chubb, an MI5 officer, the film was produced by long-time Bennett collaborator Innes Lloyd, and is dedicated to his memory. The New York Times called the film a razor-sharp psychological melodrama, Prunella Scales was nominated for Best Actress. The play and subsequent film is based on Anthony Blunts role in the Cambridge Spy Ring and, as Surveyor of the Queens Pictures, personal art advisor to Queen Elizabeth II. It portrays his interrogation by MI5 officers, his work researching and conserving art works, his work at the Courtauld Institute, Bennett described the piece as an inquiry in which the circumstances are imaginary but the pictures are real. As Blunts public exposure as a spy in 1979 draws near, at the end of the film, the time of Blunts exposure, Blunt tells Chubb that X-rays had revealed the presence of a fourth and fifth man. One of the sub-texts in the scene with the Queen is whether or not Her Majesty knew that Blunt was a former Soviet spy. They briefly discuss the Dutch Vermeer forger Han van Meegeren, and how his paintings now look like fakes, but were accepted as genuine in the 1940s, after she has left and an assistant asks what they were talking about, Blunt replies I was talking about art. Im not sure that she was, James Fox - Sir Anthony Blunt David Calder - Chubb Geoffrey Palmer - Donleavy Prunella Scales - H. M. Q. Cambridge Spies, a 2003 BBC TV play about the Cambridge Ring, a Question of Attribution at the Internet Movie Database BBC profile of John Schlesinger, retrieved 17 January 2006
28.
Harold Pinter Theatre
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The Harold Pinter Theatre, formerly the Comedy Theatre until 2011, is a West End theatre, and opened on Panton Street in the City of Westminster, on 15 October 1881, as the Royal Comedy Theatre. It was designed by Thomas Verity and built in just six months in painted stone, by 1884 it was known as just the Comedy Theatre. In the mid-1950s the theatre underwent major reconstruction and re-opened in December 1955, in 1883, the successful operetta Falka had its London première at the theatre, and in 1885, Erminie did the same. The theatres reputation grew through the First World War when Charles Blake Cochran, famous actors who appeared here include Henry Daniell who played John Carlton in Secrets in September 1929. The theatre was notable for the role it played in overturning stage censorship by establishing the New Watergate Club in 1956, the Theatres Act 1843 was still in force and required scripts to be submitted for approval by the Lord Chamberlains Office. Formation of the club allowed plays that had been banned due to language or subject matter to be performed under club conditions. Plays produced in this way included the UK premières of Arthur Millers A View from the Bridge, Robert Andersons Tea and Sympathy, the theatre was Grade II listed by English Heritage in June 1972. On 7 September 2011 it was announced that the theatres owner, howard Panter, Joint Chief Executive and Creative Director of ATG, told the BBC, The work of Pinter has become an integral part of the history of the Comedy Theatre
29.
The Lady in the Van
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The Lady in the Van is a 2015 British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, written by Alan Bennett, and starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings. It tells the story of Mary Shepherd, an elderly woman who lived in a dilapidated van on Bennetts driveway in London for 15 years. Smith previously portrayed Shepherd twice, in the original 1999 theatrical production, the film was shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and received largely positive reviews from critics. She stayed there for 15 years, as the story develops Bennett learns that Miss Shepherd is really Margaret Fairchild, a former gifted pupil of the pianist Alfred Cortot. This includes, Samuel Barnett, Samuel Anderson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Dominic Cooper, James Corden, Sacha Dhawan, Andrew Knott, Clive Merrison, Jamie Parker, and Russell Tovey. The Lady in the Van was greenlit on 3 June 2014, with TriStar Productions, TriStar won the film rights to handle worldwide distribution, while the BBC was the first to show the film on television in the UK. The involvement of Maggie Smith and Nicholas Hytner was announced simultaneously with the film, principal photography began at 23 Gloucester Crescent in north London in October 2014. The film was shot in and around Bennetts old house in Camden Town, according to Hytner, they never considered anywhere else, and it was entertaining to see the look on all the residents’ faces, many of whom were there when the van drove down the crescent. Filming was an experience for Smith because she spent most of her time confined to one van or another. She joked that not a lot of method was required when one were dressed as was, the production crew filmed for two days in November 2014 in Broadstairs in Thanet, Kent, notably Viking Bay, featuring Morellis Gelato and the Palace Cinema. Buckmaster House in Broadstairs, the filming location outside London, was featured as Bennetts mothers nursing home in Weston-super-Mare. The scenes which take place in church were filmed at the Church of St. Silas the Martyr in Kentish Town, the films score consists of classical music by Chopin and others, some additional music was composed by George Fenton. It was released as an album through Sony Classical Records. This was followed by an 11 December release in the United States, the worldwide premiere was held on 12 September 2015, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in UK theatres on 13 November 2015, while there was a theatrical release on 15 January 2016 in the US. The first trailer was released on 26 February 2015, followed by a poster on 5 March. A new and extended trailer was released on 4 September, as of 20 March 2016, The Lady in the Van has grossed $35.8 million worldwide, $18.9 million in the United Kingdom and $8.8 million in North America. The Lady in the Van received positive reviews, with praise being aimed at Smiths acting
30.
London Review of Books
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The London Review of Books is a British journal of literary essays. The LRB was founded in 1979, when publication of The Times Literary Supplement was suspended during the year-long lock-out at The Times, for its first six months, it appeared as an insert in The New York Review of Books. In May 1980, the London Review became an independent publication with an orientation described by Alan Bennett, unlike The Times Literary Supplement, the majority of the articles the LRB publishes are long essays. Some articles in each issue are not based on books, while several short articles discuss film or exhibitions, political and social essays are frequent. The magazine is headquartered in Bloomsbury, London, mary-Kay Wilmers took over as editor in 1992. Average circulation per issue for 2015 was 67,529, in 2011, when Pankaj Mishra criticised Niall Fergusons book Civilisation, The West and the Rest in the London Review of Books, Ferguson threatened to sue for libel. The London Review Bookshop opened in Bloomsbury in May 2003 and the next door, reaching which involves walking through from the bookshop. The bookshop is used as a venue for presentations and discussions. Contributors have included, Literary criticism Elizabeth Day, is the LRB the best magazine in the world
31.
Maggie Smith
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Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, CH, DBE, known as Maggie Smith, is an English actress. She has had an extensive, varied career in stage, film, Smith has appeared in over 50 films and is one of Britains most recognisable actresses. Smith began her career on stage at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952 and she received Tony Award nominations for Private Lives and Night and Day, before winning the 1990 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage. Other stage roles include Stratford Shakespeare Festival productions of Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth, on screen, Smith first drew praise for the crime film Nowhere to Go, for which she received her first BAFTA Award nomination. She has won two Academy Awards, winning Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite and she is one of only six actresses to have won in both categories. She has won a record four BAFTA Awards for Best Actress, a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, a six-time Oscar nominee, her other nominations were for Othello, Travels with My Aunt, A Room with a View, and Gosford Park. Smith played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series and her honorary awards include the BAFTA Special Award, the BAFTA Fellowship, and the Special Olivier Award. She received the Stratford Shakespeare Festivals Legacy Award in 2012, Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, but moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She is the daughter of Nathaniel Smith, a Newcastle-born public health pathologist who worked at Oxford University, and Margaret, as a child, her parents used to tell Smith the romantic story of how they had met on the train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She has older twin brothers, Alistair and Ian, who went to architecture school and she attended Oxford High School until age sixteen, when she left to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1952, aged 17, under the auspices of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, in 1954, she appeared in the television programme Oxford Accents produced by Ned Sherrin. In 1957, she starred opposite Kenneth Williams in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, in 1958, she received the first of her 18 BAFTA Film and TV nominations for her role in the film Nowhere to Go. In 1962, Smith won the first of a record five Best Actress Evening Standard Awards for her roles in Peter Shaffers plays The Private Ear and The Public Eye, again opposite Kenneth Williams. She appeared opposite Olivier in Ibsens The Master Builder and played roles in The Recruiting Officer. Her other films at this time included Go to Blazes, The V. I. P. s, The Pumpkin Eater, Hot Millions and Oh. Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the role of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Vanessa Redgrave had originated the role on stage in London and Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, the role also won Smith her first BAFTA Award. In 1970, she played the role in Ingmar Bergmans London production of the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler
32.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
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Nigel Hawthorne
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Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne CBE was an English actor. He portrayed Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary in the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister, for this role, he won four BAFTA TV Awards for Best Light Entertainment Performance. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying King George III in The Madness of King George. He later won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor, for the 1996 series The Fragile Heart and he was also an Olivier Award and Tony Award winner for his work in the theatre. Hawthorne was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, the son of Agnes Rosemary and Charles Barnard Hawthorne, when Nigel was three years old, the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where his father had bought a practice. Initially they lived in the Gardens and then moved to a newly built house near Camps Bay and he was educated at St Georges Grammar School, Cape Town and, when the family moved, the now defunct Christian Brothers College, where he played on the rugby team. He described his time at the latter as not being a happy experience. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town but withdrew and returned to the United Kingdom in the 1950s to pursue a career in acting, Hawthorne made his professional stage debut in 1950, playing Archie Fellows in a Cape Town production of The Shop at Sly Corner. He made his Broadway debut in 1974 in As You Like It and he returned to the New York stage in 1990 in Shadowlands and won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He won a sixth BAFTA for the 1996 TV mini-series The Fragile Heart, Hawthorne was also a voice actor, and lent his voice to two Disney films, in 1985, Fflewddur Fflam in The Black Cauldron, and in 1999, Professor Porter in Tarzan. They met in 1968 when Bentham was stage-managing the Royal Court Theatre, from 1979 until Hawthornes death in 2001, they lived together in Radwell near Baldock and latterly at Thundridge, both in Hertfordshire, England. The two of them became fund raisers for the North Hertfordshire hospice and other local charities, Hawthorne had several operations for pancreatic cancer, although his immediate cause of death was from a heart attack, aged 72. He was survived by Bentham, and his service was held at St Marys. His funeral was attended by Derek Fowlds, Maureen Lipman, Charles Dance, Loretta Swit and Frederick Forsyth along with friends, the service was led by the Right Reverend Christopher Herbert, the Bishop of St Albans. The coffin had a wreath of white lilies and orchids and Trevor Bentham and he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987, and was knighted in 1999. Nigel Hawthorne at the Internet Movie Database Nigel Hawthorne at the Internet Broadway Database
34.
Helen Mirren
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren DBE is an English actor. The Audience was written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen, Tingle, Gosford Park, Calendar Girls, The Last Station, Hitchcock, and The Hundred-Foot Journey. She played Victoria Winslow in the action-comedy films Red and Red 2, in 2003, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to the Performing Arts. In 2013, Mirren was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and she was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of Kathleen Kitty Alexandrina Eva Matilda and Vasily Petrovich Mironoff. Her mother was English and her father was Russian, originally from Kuryanovo, Mirrens paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating a deal in Britain when he. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family and his son, Helen Mirrens father, anglicised the family name to Mirren in the 1950s and changed his name to Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, Mirrens mother was a working-class Londoner from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been very anti-monarchist, Mirren was the second of three children, she was born three years after her older sister, Katherine, and also had a younger brother, Peter Basil. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, aged eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted. By the time she was 20, she was playing Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, as a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, in 1970, the director/producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The film was made for ATV and shown on the ITV Network in the UK and she then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975. According to Beauman, there were no repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC. Her performance earned her the London critics Plays & Players Best Actress award, beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers new farce The Bed Before Yesterday. In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friels Faith Healer, – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983. On 15 February 2013, at the West Ends Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgans The Audience, the show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role, a further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenevs A Month in the Country
35.
Richard Griffiths
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Richard Thomas Griffiths, OBE was an English actor of film, television, and stage. For the 2006 film adaptation, Griffiths was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, earlier in his career, he had a prominent supporting role as British journalist Collins in Richard Attenboroughs Academy Award-winning film Gandhi. Griffiths was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Jane and his father was a steelworker who also fought in pubs for money, while his mothers occupation was described as bagger. He and his brother John were raised in the Roman Catholic faith and his parents were both deaf, and he learned sign language at an early age in order to communicate with them. During his childhood he attempted to run away from many times. He dropped out of Our Lady & St Bede School in Stockton-On-Tees at age 15 and worked as a porter for Littlewoods for a while and he decided to attend a drama class at Stockton & Billingham College. He continued his education in drama at Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama, after graduating, Griffiths earned a spot on BBC Radio. He also worked in theatres, sometimes acting and sometimes managing. He eventually settled in Manchester and began to get roles in plays. From there, he began to appear on television and then got his big break in film in It Shouldnt Happen to a Vet, by the early 1980s, he was selected for the lead role in Bird of Prey, an early computer-conspiracy thriller. His character Henry Jay was reprised in Bird of Prey 2, in 1981, he also gave a memorable performance as Chilean secret police victim William Beausire in an edition of the BBC Prisoners of Conscience series. Griffiths went on to supporting roles in a number of films, including The French Lieutenants Woman, Chariots of Fire. On stage, in 1985–86, he performed the role of Verdi in Julian Mitchells After Aida, in Wales and he appeared in The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. Griffiths film roles were in contemporary and period pieces, such as Gorky Park, Withnail and I, King Ralph, The Naked Gun 2½, The Smell of Fear, Guarding Tess. He appeared as Inspector Henry Crabbe, disillusioned policeman and pie chef extraordinaire, in Pie in the Sky and he also made an extended appearance in the 2005 version of Charles Dickens Bleak House. In 2004, he originated the role of Hector in Alan Bennetts play The History Boys, directed by Nicholas Hytner, during the plays subsequent United States run, he added a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Tony Award. He reprised his role in the version, which was released in October 2006. Later, in 2009, he replaced Michael Gambon as W. H. Auden prior to the premiere of The Habit of Art at the National Theatre, once again directed by Hytner
