Following Monday’s sad news of the untimely passing of producer/director, John Howard Davies, it started me thinking more about some of the individuals that have been a part of all of our British comedy lives for decades that we aren’t even aware of. We all know the talents of John Inman, Mollie Sugden, Richard Briers, […]
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If you’re ITV, you just can’t pay for this kind of press leading up to the premiere of the new season of your most highly successful series in some time. Scandal = audience in the 21st century. It’s definitely a case of art imitating life rather than the reverse when it comes to the mega-hit, Downton […]
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There are only a handful of individuals that any one of us crosses paths with, either directly or indirectly, who have an impact on so many lives. John Howard Davies was one such individual. You may not know the face, unless you happen to have a DVD of the 1948 classic David Lean film, Oliver […]
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Let me just start this off by, again, saying that I think Dame Judi Dench is about ten shades of brilliant. Now, B.B. King may still be the hardest working man in the music business, but you just can’t convince me that Jay Leno should continue to be tagged by his peers as the hardest […]
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According to the BBC, Dame Eileen Atkins will not return when filming commences on Upstairs Downstairs 2 in Cardiff in October. Atkins, who created the series with fellow actress, Jean Marsh, did not appear in the original 1970’s ITV series, but was cast in last years revival of the series as the free-thinking mother-in-law Maud, Lady […]
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Powell’s Bookstore in downtown Portland. Bookstore mecca. Billed as the largest new, used and out-of-print bookstore on the planet, it occupies a full city block with over 3500 sections and over 68,000 square feet of nothing but books. Ok, there’s a not to be missed coffee shop too, but, essentially, it’s books, books and more […]
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Harry Beck was a London Underground employee who, basically, decided that the physical locations of the mostly underground stations were irrelevant to travelers of the day whose main desire is to know how to get to one station from another. It was the topology of the railway mattered. His uncommissioned idea was make clearer design […]
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With Page Eight having recently premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and, then, the big announcement that it would close The Toronto International Film Festival, I really can’t wait for this. Actually, they had me at the cast given that it stars the likes of Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes, Tom […]
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It’s been a long road for young Matthew Crawley who started out as a middle-class Manchester solicitor and heir apparent of Downton Abbey. For the upcoming second series of the critically acclaimed, audience mega-hit, he now finds himself deep in the trenches of the First World War. “It was miserably cold and wet and muddy,” […]
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It can be both a blessing and a curse to be linked to a previous hit program or series. Calling a comedy “…the next Seinfeld” or a drama “…the next Sopranos” can be great for a few fleeting moments, but then you have to deliver. Tonight’s U.S. premiere of The Hour (after a July premiere […]
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