Harry H. Corbett: The Front Legs of the Cow

Author: Susannah Corbett
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752480472
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 501

Book Description
Harry H. Corbett rose from the slums of Manchester to become one of the best-known television stars of the 20th century. Having left home as a 17-year-old Royal Marine during the Second World War, he fought in the North Atlantic and the jungles of the Pacific and witnessed first-hand the devastation wrought by the Hiroshima bomb. On his return home he wandered into the local theatre company and landed a starring role – The Front Legs of the Cow. Soon becoming a leading light in Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and a widely-respected classical stage actor, his life was changed forever by the television comedy Steptoe and Son. Overnight he became a household name as the series drew unparalleled viewing figures of over 28 million, with fans ranging from the working classes to the Royal Family. Naturally shy and a committed socialist, fame and fortune didn't sit easily on his shoulders, and for the next twenty years, until his untimely death at the age of only 57, he had to learn how to be ''Arold'. Written by his daughter, Susannah Corbett, an actor herself, this is the first biography of Harry H. Corbett, the man who was once described as being 'the English Marlon Brando'.

Albert Finney

Author: Gabriel Hershman
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750981873
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 375

Book Description
'Hershman has managed to gather a huge amount of information and distill it into a book that is not only respectful but full of insights into what makes this unstarriest of stars able to produce brilliant work without appearing to break a sweat.' - Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday He was a Salford-born, homework-hating bookie's son who broke the social barriers of British film. He did his share of roistering, and yet outlived his contemporaries and dodged typecasting to become a five-time Oscar nominee and one of our most durable international stars. Bon vivant, perennial rebel, self-effacing character actor, charismatic charmer, mentor to a generation of working-class artists, a byword for professionalism, lover of horseflesh and female flesh – Albert Finney is all these things and more. Gabriel Hershman's colourful and riveting account of Finney's life and work, which draws on interviews with many of his directors and co-stars, examines how one of Britain's greatest actors built a glittering career without sacrificing his integrity.

If the Cap Fits

Author: Steve Halliwell
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750958766
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
Steve Halliwell is best known as the loveable patriarch Zak Dingle in the hit TV show Emmerdale, a part he has played since 1994 and which has led him to become one of the UK’s most recognisable and treasured soap stars. Yet before he found success on the Yorkshire Dales, Halliwell spent many years desperately seeking work, often spending time on the streets in the search of food. This warts-and-all story of Halliwell’s rise to fame, where success was only won after great personal struggles, is inspirational to those who wish to establish a life and career for themselves in the face of similar hardships. Going beyond the experiences of one man, If the Cap Fits explores a wider social, cultural and class history that permeated the country in the sixties and seventies, and still lingers today. Above all else, this is an honest tale of rejection and redemption throughout a fascinating and colourful life that will appeal to all who have the ambition to better themselves.

Different Times

Author: David Stubbs
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571353487
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
They don't make comedy like they used to . . . From the slapstick comedy of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, the surrealism of Spike Milligan and Monty Python, and the golden age of political incorrectness helmed by Benny Hill, to the alternative scene that burst forth following the punk movement, the hedonistic joy of Absolutely Fabulous, the lacerating scorn of Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais, and Jo Brand and the meteoric rise of socially conscious stand up today: comedy can be many things, and it is a cultural phenomenon has come to define Britain like few others. In Different Times, David Stubbs charts the superstars that were in on the gags, the unsung heroes hiding in the wings and the people who ended up being the butt of the joke. Comedians and their work speak to and of their time, drawing upon and moulding Britons' relationship with their national history, reflecting us as a people, and, simply, providing raucous laughs for millions of people around the world. Different Times is a joyous, witty and insightful paean to British comedy.

The Moving Form of Film

Author: Lúcia Nagib
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197621708
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Book Description
The Moving Form of Film: Historicizing the Medium through Other Media charts the ways in which crossing borders between film and other arts and media can provide an encompassing, inclusive, and non-teleological understanding of film history. Evolutionary narratives of cinema have traditionally adopted the Second World War as a watershed that separates 'classical' Hollywood films from 'modern' European productions, a scheme that subjects the entire world to the cinematic history of two hegemonic centres. In turn, histories of film as a technological medium have focused on the specificity of cinema as it gradually separated from the other art and medial forms - theatre, dance, fairground spectacle, painting, literature, still photography and other pre-cinematic modes. Taking an ambitious step forward with relation to these approaches, this book focuses on the fluid quality of the film form by exploring an array of exciting and often neglected artistic expressions worldwide as they compare and interconnect films across temporal, geographical, and cultural borders. By observing the ebb and flow of film's contours within the bounds of other artistic and medial expressions, the chapters aspire to establish a flexible historical platform for the moving form of film, posited, from production to consumption, as a transforming and transformative medium.

Raising Laughter

Author: Robert Sellers
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750998377
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Book Description
The 1970s were the era of the three-day week, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the winter of discontent, trade union Bolshevism and wildcat strikes. Through sitcoms, Raising Laughter provides a fresh look at one of our most divisive and controversial decades. Aside from providing entertainment to millions of people, the sitcom is a window into the culture of the day. Many of these sitcoms tapped into the decade's sense of cynicism, failure and alienation, providing much-needed laughter for the masses. Shows like Rising Damp and Fawlty Towers were classic encapsulations of worn-out, run-down Britain, while the likes of Dad's Army looked back sentimentally at a romanticised English past. For the first time, the stories behind the making of every sitcom from the 1970s are told by the actors, writers, directors and producers who made them all happen. This is nostalgia with a capital N, an oral history, the last word, and an affectionate salute to the kind of comedy programme that just isn't made anymore.

Docudrama on European Television

Author: Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137499796
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
This book explores docudrama as a creative response to troubled times. With generic characteristics formed via traditions in theatre as well as film, and with claims to fact underscored by investigative journalism, television docudrama examines key events and personalities in unfolding national histories. Post-Fall of the Berlin Wall, docudrama has become a means for nations to work through traumatic experiences both within national borders and Europe-wide. In this regard, it is an important genre for television networks as they attempt to make sense of complex current events. These authors offer a template for further study and point towards ways in which European television cultures, beyond those discussed here, might be considered in the future.

'You Dirty Old Man!'

Author: David Clayton
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 1803991399
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Wilfrid Brambell was one of Britain's most loved and complex character actors. As Albert Ladysmith Steptoe, the unscrupulous rag-and-bone man with questionable habits in Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's long-running Steptoe & Son, he quickly became a household name with co-star Harry H. Corbett. But despite scores of other successes in roles on stage, TV and film, Brambell died a sad and lonely man. Alongside fame and fortune, ' You Dirty Old Man!' reveals how Brambell suffered unbelievable personal heartache, battling an inner turmoil that eventually drove him to drink as his marriage collapsed in the most deceitful circumstances imaginable. His torment led to a secretive life off camera where he did everything possible to stay out of the public eye. Featuring original interviews with film directors Richard Lester, Terence Davies and Tony Palmer, as well as recollections from his own family members, the family of Harry H. Corbett and those who worked alongside him, author David Clayton seeks to re-examine the legacy of a man whose loyal fanbase remains undiminished sixty years on from his heyday.

Biographical Television Drama

Author: Hannah Andrews
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030646785
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Book Description
“Biographical Television Drama breaks new ground as, to my knowledge, the first book-length exploration of the terms in which television engages in biographical storytelling. Backed by robust research in biography studies and British television history, Hannah Andrews deftly unravels the complexities behind the accessibility of biographical television drama. Her book tackles key questions head-on, notably rhetorics and style, narrative and performance and, innovatively, ethics, while also shedding light on the interconnections with other biographical screen forms through a rich corpus. This is an essential critical study that vindicates television drama’s unique place in the histories and practices of screen biography.” -Belén Vidal, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London and co-editor of The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture This book explores what happens when biography and television meet, in a novel fusion of the two fields of study. Andrews compares core concepts in biography and television studies such as intimacy, the presentation of the self and the uneasy relationship between fact and fiction. The book examines biographical drama’s generic hybridity, accounting for the influence of the film biopic, docudrama, melodrama and period drama. It discusses biographical television drama’s representation of real lives in terms of visual style, performance and self-reflexivity. Andrews also assesses how life stories are shaped for televisual narrative formats and analyses the adaptation process for the biographical drama. Finally, the book considers various kinds of reputation – of the broadcast institution, author, biographical subject – in relation to the ethics of televisual biography.

A Man Called Harris

Author: Michael Sheridan
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750951621
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 301

Book Description
Richard Harris was a giant who oozed charisma on screen. But off screen he was troubled and addicted to every pleasure life could offer. Coming from a repressed Irish Catholic background, he was forced by a teenage illness to abandon his beloved rugby, but not his macho appetites. Discovering theatre saved him. He had found his calling. Despite marrying the daughter of a peer, he never tried to fit in. He was always a hell-raiser to the core, along with legendary buddies Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. But he was more; he was a gifted poet and singer. He was an intelligent family man who took great interest in his craft, a Renaissance man of the film world. Every time his excesses threatened to kill his career – and himself – he rose magnificently from the ashes, first with an Oscar-winning performance as Bull McCabe in The Field, then in the Harry Potter franchise.