Happy belated 90th, Dame Patricia Routledge!
Thank you, Dame Patricia, for the lifetime of laughter you have given us over the years and the continued smiles that await us all in the years to come.
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Home » Steptoe and Son
From the Vault: Frank Thornton supplies the wine in ‘The Wild Affair’
Thornton had been acting in radio, stage, film and telly for about a decade by the time he took this minor role.
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‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ and ‘Steptoe and Son’ co-creator, Alan Simpson, dies at 87.
British sitcom legend and one half of Galton and Simpson, the writing duo who created Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son – has died at the age of 87 after a long battle with lung disease. While you may not be familiar with his name and, quite possibly, might not be familiar with his […]
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Classic ‘lost’ sitcoms become part of BBC tribute to comedy
There has been quite a bit of chatter the last several weeks about the one-off reboots of Are You Being Served, Keeping Up Appearances, Porridge and Goodnight Sweetheart as part of the forthcoming Landmark Sitcom Season on the BBC. While both the AYBS one-off, which takes the staff of Grace Brothers Department Store and places them in the late 80s, […]
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Happy 86th, Patricia Routledge!
Armed with her early theatre training background from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Patricia Routledge launched her career at the Liverpool Playhouse. She spent years, professionally, on stage and in theatre (which included a 1968 ‘Best Actress in a Musical’ Tony Award for her performance in Darling of the Day) in addition to several big screen appearances including To Sir, With […]
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BBC revives Comedy Playhouse with 'Over to Bill'
This Spring will see two brilliant returns to the telly. Not so coincidentally, brilliance will collide when Doug Naylor’s Over to Bill launches as one of three pilots scheduled for the revival of the BBC’s Comedy Playhouse strand. Comedy Playhouse began in 1961 and ran until 1975 as an anthology series which served as the […]
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R.I.P. – Frank Thornton (a.k.a. Captain Peacock)
Sadly, this is getting all-too frequent these days. Most recently was the passing of Richard Briers and, now, the passing of the great Frank Thornton at age 92. Known to us all as simply Captain Peacock and, more recently, Truly Truelove in Last of the Summer Wine, Frank Thornton rivaled Richard Briers for who had […]
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Happy 40th to Sanford & Son; Happy 50th to Steptoe & Son
Happy 40th, Sanford and Son A quiet milestone anniversary passed on Saturday involving one of the greats in American sitcom history with roots in British situation comedy. Sanford and Son, which starred Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson, premiered on NBC on January 14, 1972. Based on the brilliant British situation comedy, Steptoe and Son, the […]
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'Lost' British comedy gem discovered
The are many that believe comedy, British comedy in particular, began with Tony Hancock and the brilliant, Hancock’s Half Hour. The original BBC Radio series and subsequent BBC television series of the same name from the mid-50’s is thought to be, by many, the beginning of the British sitcom introducing “situation” into the comedy mix […]
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R.I.P. John Howard Davies – Thanks for a lifetime gift of smiles and laughter
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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