The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is an espionage British television series created in 1961. It focused on Dr. David Keel, aided by John Steed. Hendry left after the first series, his most famous assistants were intelligent and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King. The series ran from 1961 until 1969; the pilot episode, "Hot Snow", aired on 7 January 1961. The final episode, "Bizarre", aired on 21 April 1969 in the United States, on 21 May 1969 in the United Kingdom; the Avengers was produced by a contractor within the ITV network. After a merger with Rediffusion London in July 1968, ABC Television became Thames Television, which continued production of the series, though it was still broadcast under the ABC name. By 1969, The Avengers was shown in more than 90 countries. ITV produced a sequel series The New Avengers with Patrick Macnee returning as John Steed, two new partners. In 2007, The Avengers was ranked; the Avengers was marked by different eras as co-stars went. The only constant was John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee.
Associated British Corporation produced a single series of Police Surgeon, in which Ian Hendry played police surgeon Geoffrey Brent, from September through to December 1960. While Police Surgeon did not last long, viewers praised Hendry, ABC Television cast him in its new series The Avengers, which replaced Police Surgeon in January 1961; the Avengers began with episode "Hot Snow", in which medical doctor David Keel investigates the murder of his fiancée and office receptionist Peggy by a drug ring. A stranger named John Steed, investigating the ring and together they set out to avenge her death in the first two episodes. Steed afterward asked Keel to partner him, as needed, to solve crimes. Hendry was considered the star of the new series, receiving top billing over Macnee, Steed did not appear in two episodes; as the first series of The Avengers progressed, Steed's importance increased, he carried the final episode solo. While Steed and Keel used wit while discussing crimes and dangers, the series depicted the interplay—and tension—between Keel's idealism and Steed's professionalism.
As seen in one of the three surviving episodes from the first series, "The Frighteners", Steed had helpers among the population who provided information, similar to the "Baker Street Irregulars" of Sherlock Holmes. The other regular in the first series was Carol Wilson, the nurse and receptionist who replaced the slain Peggy. Carol assisted Keel and Steed in cases, in at least one episode was much in the thick of the action, but without being part of Steed's inner circle. Hafner had played opposite Hendry as a nurse in one episode of Police Surgeon; the series was shot on 405-line videotape using a multicamera setup. There was little provision for editing and no location footage; as was standard practice at the time, videotapes of early episodes of The Avengers were reused. At present, only three complete Season 1 episodes are known to exist and are held in archives as 16 mm film telerecordings: "Girl on the Trapeze", "The Frighteners" and "Tunnel of Fear". Additionally, the first 15 minutes of the first episode, "Hot Snow" exist as a telerecording.
The missing television episodes are being re-created for audio by Big Finish Productions under the title of The Avengers - The Lost Episodes and star Julian Wadham as Steed, Anthony Howell as Dr. Keel and Lucy Briggs-Owen as Carol Wilson. Production of the first series was cut short by a strike. By the time production could begin on the second series, Hendry had quit to pursue a film career. Macnee was promoted to star and Steed became the focus of the series working with a rotation of three different partners. Dr Martin King, a thinly disguised rewriting of Keel, saw action in only three episodes produced from scripts written for the first series. King was intended to be a transitional character between Keel and Steed's two new female partners, but while the Dr. King episodes were shot first, they were shown out of production order in the middle of the season; the character was thereafter and dropped. Nightclub singer Venus Smith appeared in six episodes, she was a complete "amateur", meaning that she did not have any professional crime-fighting skills as did the two doctors.
She was excited to be participating in a "spy" adventure alongside secret agent Steed. Nonetheless, she appears to be attracted to him and their relationship is somewhat similar to that portrayed between Steed and Tara King, her episodes featured musical interludes showcasing her singing performances. The character of Venus underwent some revision during her run, adopting more youthful demeanor and dress; the first episode broadcast in the second series had introduced the partner who would change the show into the format for which it is most remembered. Honor Blackman played Dr Cathy Gale, a self-assured, quick-witted anthropologist, skilled in judo and had a passion for leather clothes. Widowed during the Mau Mau years in Kenya, she was the "talented amateur" who saw her aid to Steed's cases as a service to her nation, she was said to have bee
The Breaking of Bumbo
The Breaking of Bumbo is a 1970 British comedy film written and directed by Andrew Sinclair, a former Coldstream Guards National service officer, updated from his 1959 novel of the same name that featured the Suez Crisis. It starred Joanna Lumley, Jeremy Child and Edward Fox. Newly commissioned Guards Ensign'Bumbo' Bailey learns the facts of life from his new girl friend in Swinging London as well as from his platoon and commanding officer. Richard Warwick - Bumbo Joanna Lumley - Susie Natasha Pyne - Sheila Jeremy Child - Billy John Bird - Jock Donald Pickering - Jorum Derek Newark - CSM Peters Don McKillop - RSM Peter Myers - CO Simon Williams - Crutcher Timothy Carlton - Bean Edward Fox - Horwood George Janson - Farquhar Robert Swann - Machaffie Peter Whitting - Downley Robert Russell - Sergeant Clegg Howard Southern - Lance-Corporal Johnson Warren Clarke - Guardsmen Andrews Andrew Bradford - Guardsmen Simons Michael Burrell - Guardsmen Matt Jon Croft - Guardsmen James Ron Davies - Guardsmen Bart Peter Laird - Guardsmen Munch Michael Taylor - Guardsmen Smith Robert Tayman - Guardsmen Phillips Francis Wallis - Guardsmen Thomson William Fox - Brigadier Anouska Hempel - Debutante Jeffry Wickham - Medical Officer The novel was published in 1959.
In January 1970 Andrew Sinclai and Jeffrey Selznick announced they had formed a company, Timon Films, to make a film of Breaking of Bumbo in association with Associated British. Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo were going to direct but dropped out after a fall out with the producers. Jacquemine Charrott Lodwidge was the film's fashion co-ordinator; the film's release was delayed. The Breaking of Bumbo at British Comedy Guide The Breaking of Bumbo on IMDb
Internet Broadway Database
The Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community; the website has a corresponding app for both the IOS and Android. This comprehensive history of Broadway provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre in the 18th century up to today. Details include cast and creative lists for opening night and current day, song lists and other interesting facts about every Broadway production. Other features of IBDB include an extensive archive of photos from past and present Broadway productions, links to cast recordings on iTunes or Amazon and attendance information, its mission was to be an interactive, user-friendly, searchable database for League members, journalists and Broadway fans. The League added Broadway Touring shows to the database for ease of tracking shows that play in theatres across the country.
It is managed by Karen Hauser, Michael Abourizk, Mark Smith of the Broadway League. Internet Theatre Database – ITDb Internet Movie Database – IMDb Internet Book Database – IBookDb Lortel Archives – IOBDb The Broadway League Official website Broadway League website
England
England is a country, part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to Scotland to the north-northwest; the Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south; the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century, since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world; the English language, the Anglican Church, English law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in England, the country's parliamentary system of government has been adopted by other nations.
The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's terrain is chiefly low hills and plains in central and southern England. However, there is upland and mountainous terrain in the west; the capital is London, which has the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. England's population of over 55 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom concentrated around London, the South East, conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century; the Kingdom of England – which after 1535 included Wales – ceased being a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union put into effect the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year, resulting in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The name "England" is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means "land of the Angles"; the Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages. The Angles came from the Anglia peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea; the earliest recorded use of the term, as "Engla londe", is in the late-ninth-century translation into Old English of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The term was used in a different sense to the modern one, meaning "the land inhabited by the English", it included English people in what is now south-east Scotland but was part of the English kingdom of Northumbria; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that the Domesday Book of 1086 covered the whole of England, meaning the English kingdom, but a few years the Chronicle stated that King Malcolm III went "out of Scotlande into Lothian in Englaland", thus using it in the more ancient sense.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its modern spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, in which the Latin word Anglii is used; the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars. How and why a term derived from the name of a tribe, less significant than others, such as the Saxons, came to be used for the entire country and its people is not known, but it seems this is related to the custom of calling the Germanic people in Britain Angli Saxones or English Saxons to distinguish them from continental Saxons of Old Saxony between the Weser and Eider rivers in Northern Germany. In Scottish Gaelic, another language which developed on the island of Great Britain, the Saxon tribe gave their name to the word for England. An alternative name for England is Albion; the name Albion referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus the 4th-century BC De Mundo: "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean that flows round the earth.
In it are two large islands called Britannia. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, i.e. it was written in the Graeco-Roman period or afterwards. The word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins, it either derives from a cognate of the Latin albus meaning white, a reference to the white cliffs of Dover or from the phrase the "island of the Albiones" in the now lost Massaliote Periplus, attested through Avienus' Ora Maritima to which the former served as a source. Albion is now applied to England in a more poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England and made popular by its use in Arthurian legend; the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximate
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, the entire Forest of Dean; the county town is the city of Gloucester, other principal towns include Cheltenham, Tewkesbury and Dursley. Gloucestershire borders Herefordshire to the north west, Wiltshire to the south and Somerset to the south west, Worcestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the east, Warwickshire to the north east, the Welsh county of Monmouthshire to the west. Gloucestershire is a historic county mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 10th century, though the areas of Winchcombe and the Forest of Dean were not added until the late 11th century. Gloucestershire included Bristol a small town; the local rural community moved to the port city, Bristol's population growth accelerated during the industrial revolution. Bristol became a county in its own right, separate from Gloucestershire and Somerset in 1373, it became part of the administrative County of Avon from 1974 to 1996.
Upon the abolition of Avon in 1996, the region north of Bristol became a unitary authority area of South Gloucestershire and is now part of the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. The official former postal county abbreviation was "Glos.", rather than the used but erroneous "Gloucs." or "Glouc". In July 2007, Gloucestershire suffered the worst flooding in recorded British history, with tens of thousands of residents affected; the RAF conducted the largest peacetime domestic operation in its history to rescue over 120 residents from flood affected areas. The damage was estimated at over £2 billion. Gloucestershire has three main landscape areas, a large part of the Cotswolds, the Royal Forest of Dean and the Severn Vale; the Cotswolds take up a large portion of the east and south of the county, The Forest of Dean taking up the west, with the Severn and its valley running between these features. The Daffodil Way in the Leadon Valley, on the border of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire surrounding the village of Dymock, is known for its many spring flowers and woodland, which attracts many walkers.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Gloucestershire at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. The following is a chart of Gloucestershire's gross value added total in thousands of British Pounds Sterling from 1997-2009 based upon the Office for National Statistics figures The 2009 estimation of £11,452 million GVA can be compared to the South West regional average of £7,927 million. Gloucestershire has comprehensive schools with seven selective schools. There are 42 state secondary schools, not including sixth form colleges, 12 independent schools, including the renowned Cheltenham Ladies' College, Cheltenham College and Dean Close School. All but about two schools in each district have a sixth form, but the Forest of Dean only has two schools with sixth forms. All schools in South Gloucestershire have sixth forms. Gloucestershire has two universities, the University of Gloucestershire and the Royal Agricultural University, four higher and further education colleges, Gloucestershire College, Cirencester College, South Gloucestershire and Stroud College and the Royal Forest of Dean College.
Each has campuses at multiple locations throughout the county. The University of the West of England has three locations in Gloucestershire. Gloucestershire has one city and 33 towns: Gloucester The towns in Gloucestershire are: Town in Monmouthshire with suburbs in Gloucestershire: Chepstow The county has two green belt areas, the first covers the southern area in the South Gloucestershire district, to protect outlying villages and towns between Thornbury and Chipping Sodbury from the urban sprawl of the Bristol conurbation; the second belt lies around Gloucester and Bishop's Cleeve, to afford those areas and villages in between a protection from urban sprawl and further convergence. Both belts intersect with the boundaries of the Cotswolds AONB. There are a variety of religious buildings across the county, notably the cathedral of Gloucester, the abbey church of Tewkesbury, the church of Cirencester. Of the abbey of Hailes near Winchcombe, founded by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1246, little more than the foundations are left, but these have been excavated and fragments have been brought to light.
Most of the old market towns have parish churches. At Deerhurst near Tewkesbury and Bishop's Cleeve near Cheltenham, there are churches of special interest on account of the pre-Norman work they retain. There is a Perpendicular church in Lechlade, that at Fairford was built, according to tradition, to contain a series of stained-glass windows which are said to have been brought from the Netherlands; these are, adjudged to be of English workmanship. Other notable buildings include Calcot Barn in a relic of Kingswood Abbey. Thornbury Castle is a Tudor country house, the pretensio
Battle of the Bulge (film)
Battle of the Bulge is a 1965 American widescreen epic war film produced in Spain, directed by Ken Annakin, starring Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, Charles Bronson. The feature was exhibited in 70 mm Cinerama. Battle of the Bulge had its world premiere on December 16, 1965, the 21st anniversary of the titular battle, at the Pacific Cinerama Dome Theatre in Hollywood, California; the filmmakers attempted to condense the Ardennes Counteroffensive, a World War II battle that stretched across parts of Germany and Luxembourg and lasted nearly a month, into under three hours. They shot parts of the film on terrain that did not resemble actual battle locations; this left them open to criticism for lack of historical accuracy, but they claimed in the end credits that they had "re-organized" the chronological order of events to maximize the dramatic story. Unlike most World War II epics, Battle of the Bulge contains no portrayals of actual senior Allied leaders, civilian or military.
This is because of controversies surrounding the battle, both during the war and after. Though Allied forces won the battle, the initial German counteroffensive caught them by surprise and caused many casualties, it is December, 1944. Military Intelligence officer and former policeman Lt. Col. Daniel Kiley and his pilot, are flying a reconnaissance mission over the Ardennes forest. Spotting a German staff car the plane photographs the officer. Alarmed, the chauffeur flees the car. "Petrol is blood," rebukes the German officer, marking a theme of the film, the German shortage of fuel. In a subterranean lair, it is revealed the officer is Col. Martin Hessler, a fictional Panzer tank commander loosely based on SS-Standartenführer Jochen Peiper. Hessler is briefed by his superior, Gen. Kohler, on a new German attack, piercing west against the American lines. Kohler points out a clock with a 50-hour countdown, the time allotted for the operation, beyond which Germany has no resources for full-scale attack.
At the same time German soldiers disguised as American troops, led by Lt. Schumacher, are tasked with seizing vital bridges and sowing confusion behind the Allied lines. Meanwhile, Kiley returns to headquarters where he warns that the Germans are planning one more all-out offensive, his superiors, Gen. Grey and Col. Pritchard, dismiss it out of hand: all available intelligence points to Germany not having the resources and manpower to launch another attack. Hessler, having become concerned about the abilities of his tank commanders after his orderly, points out the staggering losses Germany has sustained since the war began, reviews them, discovering they are all young and lacking in experience. Overhearing his criticism, the commanders break into a chorus of Panzerlied, restoring Hessler's faith. Hoping to uncover more proof, Kiley visits a US infantry position on the Siegfried Line under command of Maj. Wolenski. A patrol led by Lt. Weaver and Sgt. Duquesne capture some young and inexperienced German soldiers.
Kiley concludes that experienced German troops have been replaced by these men and withdrawn for an offensive, but Pritchard dismisses this as well, rebuking Kiley for "crackpot hunches" and determining to relieve him of duty. Hessler launches his attack the next day. Awakened by the noise of German tanks, Wolenski leads his men into the wooded area of the Schnee Eifel, where they try to fight them off but are overrun. A group of Allied tanks led by Sgt. Guffy attempts to slow the Panzers, but their tanks' weak guns and thin armor make them ineffective, forcing him and his crew to retreat. Lt. Schumacher and his disguised troops capture the only bridge over the Our River capable of carrying heavy tanks. Hessler continues his spearhead toward Ambleve, while being observed by Kiley, who discovers that a German truck is carrying empty fuel drums. Schumacher takes control of a vital intersection of three roads connecting Ambleve and the Siegfried Line, he sabotages the road signs, the rear echelon of Wolenski's troops take the wrong road to Malmedy.
Lt. Weaver manages to escape, but Duquesne is killed. US soldiers become suspicious when they witness Schumacher's "military police" lay explosives incorrectly on the Our bridge, his masquerade is revealed, though too late to stop Hessler; when Kohler orders Hessler to bypass Ambleve, Hessler replies that the Americans have no concept of defeat, citing that they will ship things as trivial as a fresh chocolate cake to their front-line troops. He feels he can break their will to fight, Kohler gives him the night to do so. Hessler's tanks and infantry storm Ambleve taking the town. Although many Americans, including Wolenski, are captured, Pritchard and others escape to the River Meuse. American forces begin to reorganize for a counterattack. Facing the dangers of a foggy night, Col. Kiley conducts an aerial reconnaissance in an attempt to locate the main German spearhead, he orders the pilot to shut off the engine and glide in an attempt to listen for enemy tanks. Through a gap in the fog, he spots Hessler's tank column heading toward American lines.
Kiley radios in the coordinates, but his plane is hit by German fire and crashes near an American fuel depot. In Hessler's command vehicle, Conrad confronts the Colonel about his warmongering ways after Hessler boasts about the war going on forever, meaning Conrad's sons will have to become soldiers and fi
The Thirty Nine Steps (1978 film)
The Thirty Nine Steps is a British 1978 thriller film directed by Don Sharp, with screenplay by British playwright Michael Robson, based on the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It was the third film version of the 1915 novel; this version of Buchan's tale starred Robert Powell as Richard Hannay, Karen Dotrice as Alex, John Mills as Colonel Scudder, a host of other well-known British actors in smaller parts. It is regarded as the closest to the novel, being set before the Great War; the early events and overall feel of the film bear much resemblance to Buchan's original story, albeit with a few changes such as the re-casting of Scudder as a more sympathetic character and the introduction of a love interest. It introduces a different meaning for the "thirty-nine steps", although unlike its filmed predecessors it returns to Buchan's original notion of being an actual staircase, it is known for the Big Ben sequence near the end, inspired by the film My Learned Friend, starring Will Hay, although this is its most fundamental deviation from Buchan's original story, which reaches its culmination in a coastal location in Kent.
Powell reprised the role in the ITV series Hannay which ran for 13 episodes from 1988 to 1989. In 1914, German spies are everywhere in London. After a spate of assassinations of important British politicians, a retired British intelligence officer, Colonel Scudder, realises his life and his mysterious black notebook are in danger, he turns to Richard Hannay, a mining engineer, visiting Britain for a short time before returning to South Africa, who happens to be staying in a flat in the same building. Scudder tells Hannay of a plot by Prussian'sleeper' agents, who are planning to pre-empt a war against the Triple Entente powers by assassinating the Greek prime minister visiting the UK. Hannay reluctantly gives Scudder shelter in his flat, despite his initial distrust of him. In the morning, Hannay leaves to purchase a train ticket to his family hometown, the village of Strathallan in Scotland, while Scudder remains at work on his notes in the flat; when the Prussian agents attempt to enter the flat, Scudder flees down the fire escape but he is spotted.
Posting a package containing his secret notebook in a pillar box, Scudder flees to the St Pancras railway station, where he knows Hannay will be, to give him a second black book. At the railway station, just seconds before he can reach Hannay, Scudder is murdered by the agents. With his dying breath he gives Hannay a message. Hannay is mistaken by witnesses at the railway station as being the assailant and arrested but is soon captured by the Prussians when transferred to jail, he is allowed to escape from the Prussians in the hope that he will lead them to the secret notebook. Hannay manages to get Scudder's second notebook back at St Pancras, but this turns out to be a dummy, with only a three-word riddle in it that only Hannay could understand to find his real book, which sends Hannay to Scotland. Hannay flees to Scotland on a train, but he is forced to make a daredevil escape on a bridge when police board. Hannay attempts to solve the mystery whilst on the run from the police, led by Chief Supt Lomas, the Prussian agents, led by Edmund Appleton, a Prussian sympathiser placed in the British government.
With the aid of Alex Mackenzie and her fiance, David Hamilton, whom Hannay meets on the Scottish moors, claiming to be taking part in a wager, Scudder's book is found, the coded information deciphered and the true plans of the Prussian agents are revealed. The agents intend to murder the visiting Greek Prime Minister, leading to unrest in the Balkans and thus causing a world war, by planting a bomb in parliament; the "Thirty Nine Steps" refers to the number of stairs in the clock tower of Big Ben. When he reaches the top of the clock tower, the agents have planted the bomb and have locked the clock room. Hannay realises. To give the Police more time, Hannay breaks the glass of the clock-face, climbs out onto the face of the clock and physically stops the minute hand as it moves towards the nine. By hanging from the big hand, Hannay manages to jam the clock at 11.44am long enough for the Police to break into the clock room where they kill the remaining spies and deactivate the bomb. The clock mechanism stops working and the clock's big hand falls into a vertical position, but Hannay hangs on and one of the officers saves him with a looped rope.
Sir Edmund Appleton is convicted of treason and Hannay is declared a hero for helping Britain gain valuable time to prepare for the Great War. Producer Greg Smith said he wanted to make the film because he had always been a fan of John Buchan's books and wanted to do a version of The 39 Steps, "true to the period in which the novel was set, just prior to the Great War, when Europe was one huge powderkeg and nobody knew what a world war was."Smith claimed "the Hitchcock version was about 20 percent Buchan and 80 percent Hitchcock. Our goal was to turn it around and make the film 80 percent Buchan and 20 percent invention." Smith chose Sharp to direct "because he's one of Britain's best action adventure directors and he was familiar with the period."Robert Powell was cast in part because of his success in the mini series Jesus of Nazareth. The script did add a romantic interest for Hannay, played by Karen Dotrice. "You can't make a movie without women," said Smith. "You can't go through life without women."The film added a new climax with Hannay climbing on to Big Ben.
Smith: In the book, the 39 steps lead down to a beach and filmically there is not much you can do with that. Today, audiences demand more of a grandstand finish; that was the majo
