From the Vault — The Beatles’ Penny Lane trumpeter, David Mason

56 years ago today on January 17, 1967, The Beatles finished recording Penny Lane in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios including David Mason’s famous piccolo trumpet solo. As the story goes, the Beatles began recording Penny Lane on December 29. As time passed, Paul became somewhat dissatisfied at the initial attempts at the song’s instrumentation and […]

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Happy belated 68th, Rowan Atkinson!

Rowan Atkinson turned 68 on Friday. From this end, all we can do is wish him a very Happy Belated Birthday. All he’s done is give the world the gift of laughter over the years beginning with Not the Nine O’Clock News, then Blackadder, Mr. Bean and, finally, The Thin Blue Line. Stops along the […]

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Good & Evil join forces to avert the Apocalypse in ‘Good Omens’ from Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Based on the satirical 1990 end of the world novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens looks to be devilishly fun (sorry, couldn’t help it). For starters, David Tennant stars as the rockstarish demon Crawley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziriphale. The on-screen greatness begins when David Tennant’s ‘Crowley’ says, to Michael Sheen’s Aziriphale, “We need to talk…about […]

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First look at Dave Allen…at Large and at Peace

Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders star Aidan Gillen stars as comedian Dave Allen in BBC2’s upcoming biopic Dave Allen at Peace. The snappily-dressed Irish comic who died in 2005 was best-known for his 1970s comedy series, Dave Allen at Large, which featured a combination of sketches and Allen’s signature ‘solo joke telling while sitting on a stool with […]

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Ultimate ‘house robot’, BBC2, triumphs over Sir Killalot and Matilda by axing ‘Robot Wars’.

Robot Wars, one of the greatest ‘guilty pleasure’ shows of all-time, has been axed by BBC2 after three series. I absolutely loved this show when it was originally broadcast with Craig Charles (Red Dwarf, Coronation Street) and Phillipa Forrester! Thankfully, I never saw the first series with former Top Gear host, Jeremy Clarkson, as the original presenter. No […]

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Happy 63rd, Rowan Atkinson!

Rowan Atkinson, English actor, comedian, and screenwriter turned 63 on Saturday. While best known to audiences for his work on the sitcoms Blackadder and Mr. Bean, I first stumbled upon Atkinson’s brilliant talent in the BBC2 sketch comedy series, Not the Nine O’Clock News. Airing from 1979-1982, the series featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture […]

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Meet Buckingham Palace’s body double in ‘King Charles III’

As King Charles III premiered last night on BBC2 and when it transmits on PBS this coming Sunday evening on Masterpiece, one might immediately question how and/or why a program that imagines a future in which Prince Charles becomes King, causes havoc and won’t sign a crucial bill could actually be filmed in Buckingham Palace. Would the official London residence […]

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R.I.P. Jewel in the Crown’s Tim Pigott-Smith

Tim Pigott-Smith, the acclaimed British character actor, who catapulted to fame in the 1980s as the villainous police superintendent, Ronald Merrick, in the television series, The Jewel in the Crown, died on Friday in Northampton, England at the age of 70. Pigott-Smith won the BAFTA Award of Best Actor in 1985 for his work in The Jewel […]

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