Comedian, actor, artist, writer, musician and presenter, Billy Connolly (“Mrs. Brown”), will be honored with the BAFTA Fellowship at this year’s Virgin Media BAFTA TV Awards.
The fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA in recognition of an individual’s contribution to film, television or games across their career. Previous TV honorees include Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Jon Snow, Bruce Forsyth, Joanna Lumley, Melvyn Bragg, Michael Palin, Trevor MacDonald, David Attenborough, Julie Walters, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson, Katie Adie and Joan Bakewell.
In 1995, Connolly won the BAFTA Scotland entertainment category for “Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Scotland.” He has since received five BAFTA nominations, and has been presented with a BAFTA special award in 2002 and the BAFTA Scotland outstanding contribution to television and film in 2012.
Connolly left school at 15 and began a career as a musician and also started a folk duo with Gerry Rafferty called The Humblebums.
The fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA in recognition of an individual’s contribution to film, television or games across their career. Previous TV honorees include Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Jon Snow, Bruce Forsyth, Joanna Lumley, Melvyn Bragg, Michael Palin, Trevor MacDonald, David Attenborough, Julie Walters, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson, Katie Adie and Joan Bakewell.
In 1995, Connolly won the BAFTA Scotland entertainment category for “Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Scotland.” He has since received five BAFTA nominations, and has been presented with a BAFTA special award in 2002 and the BAFTA Scotland outstanding contribution to television and film in 2012.
Connolly left school at 15 and began a career as a musician and also started a folk duo with Gerry Rafferty called The Humblebums.
- 5/3/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Beryl Vertue, the prolific British producer behind BBC’s “Sherlock” and “Men Behaving Badly,” passed away peacefully Saturday night at her home, according to reports in the British press. She was 90.
“It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we have to share the sad news that mum/Beryl passed away peacefully last night,” her daughters and Hartswood Films co-producers Sue and Debbie said in a statement to Reuters. “It wasn’t Covid, it was just her nearly 91-year-old body saying enough is enough.”
They continued: “We were there so the passing was as good as one could hope for. Nothing wrong with her brain – even earlier this week she was grilling us both about work. It’s really impossible to believe that she has gone though, because I know we’re not alone in thinking that somehow she’d go on forever. She meant so much to so many.
“It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we have to share the sad news that mum/Beryl passed away peacefully last night,” her daughters and Hartswood Films co-producers Sue and Debbie said in a statement to Reuters. “It wasn’t Covid, it was just her nearly 91-year-old body saying enough is enough.”
They continued: “We were there so the passing was as good as one could hope for. Nothing wrong with her brain – even earlier this week she was grilling us both about work. It’s really impossible to believe that she has gone though, because I know we’re not alone in thinking that somehow she’d go on forever. She meant so much to so many.
- 2/13/2022
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
Beryl Vertue, the renowned British television producer and founder of Hartswood Films, died on Saturday, her family has confirmed. She was 90.
No cause of death has been given but her daughters, Sue and Debbie Vertue, who worked with her at Hartswood Films, confirmed she died “peacefully” and surrounded by family.
“It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we have to share the sad news that mum/Beryl passed away peacefully last night,” her daughters and Hartswood Films co-producers Sue and Debbie said in a statement. “It wasn’t Covid, it was just her nearly 91-year-old body saying enough is enough.”
“We were there so the passing was as good as one could hope for. Nothing wrong with her brain – even earlier this week she was grilling us both about work. It’s really impossible to believe that she has gone though, because I know we’re not alone in...
No cause of death has been given but her daughters, Sue and Debbie Vertue, who worked with her at Hartswood Films, confirmed she died “peacefully” and surrounded by family.
“It’s with the heaviest of hearts that we have to share the sad news that mum/Beryl passed away peacefully last night,” her daughters and Hartswood Films co-producers Sue and Debbie said in a statement. “It wasn’t Covid, it was just her nearly 91-year-old body saying enough is enough.”
“We were there so the passing was as good as one could hope for. Nothing wrong with her brain – even earlier this week she was grilling us both about work. It’s really impossible to believe that she has gone though, because I know we’re not alone in...
- 2/13/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Tony Hancock’s two leading film roles are a reminder of the extremes of his comic genius. Paul Merton talks about the legacy of his hero – and how comedy is too coarse today
Seven years before his suicide, Tony Hancock tried to become a movie star. The Rebel (1961) is a comedy about a clerk who quits his job and moves to Paris to become an artist, despite his total lack of talent. Scripted by Half Hour creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, it was a deluxe bespoke vehicle, designed to take Hancock across the Atlantic and turn him into the new Peter Sellers.
Brits flocked. Homegrown critics raved. And Hollywood absolutely hated it.
Seven years before his suicide, Tony Hancock tried to become a movie star. The Rebel (1961) is a comedy about a clerk who quits his job and moves to Paris to become an artist, despite his total lack of talent. Scripted by Half Hour creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, it was a deluxe bespoke vehicle, designed to take Hancock across the Atlantic and turn him into the new Peter Sellers.
Brits flocked. Homegrown critics raved. And Hollywood absolutely hated it.
- 9/20/2019
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Mark Harrison Aug 5, 2016
Hello! From Armageddon to Harry Potter, we salute the screen work of Mr Jason Isaacs...
This feature contains spoilers for Event Horizon and the Harry Potter films. This spoiler warning contains spoilers for the list.
Hello to Jason Isaacs! Through roles in an impressive array of movies, from indies to massive blockbusters on both sides of the pond, he's become one of our favourite character actors. We've found that no matter how the film turns out, you can guarantee that if he's in it, his performance is going to be one of the highlights.
Off-screen, Isaacs has a whole other profile of popularity. Out of several prominent celebrity fans of Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's film review show on BBC Radio 5 Live, he's the patron saint of their “church of Wittertainment”, and “hello to Jason Isaacs” is the show's first, most popular catchphrase.
Some might argue...
Hello! From Armageddon to Harry Potter, we salute the screen work of Mr Jason Isaacs...
This feature contains spoilers for Event Horizon and the Harry Potter films. This spoiler warning contains spoilers for the list.
Hello to Jason Isaacs! Through roles in an impressive array of movies, from indies to massive blockbusters on both sides of the pond, he's become one of our favourite character actors. We've found that no matter how the film turns out, you can guarantee that if he's in it, his performance is going to be one of the highlights.
Off-screen, Isaacs has a whole other profile of popularity. Out of several prominent celebrity fans of Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's film review show on BBC Radio 5 Live, he's the patron saint of their “church of Wittertainment”, and “hello to Jason Isaacs” is the show's first, most popular catchphrase.
Some might argue...
- 8/3/2016
- Den of Geek
Simply Media
To celebrate the release of An Actor’s Life For Me, Hugh and I and Get Well Soon on DVD, we are giving 2 lucky WhatCulture readers the chance to win a bundle containing all three!
An Actor’s Life for Me is a British sitcom starring a stand out cast including John Gordon Sinclair (Gregory’s Girl), Victor Spinetti (A Hard Day’s Night and Gina McKee (Notting Hill). Written by The Vicar of Dibley’s co-writer Paul Mayhew Archer, and based on a hit Radio 4 series, it originally aired in 1991. Robert Neilson (Sinclair) is a struggling actor, desperate to hit the big time, however unrealistic his ambitions are and never quite achieves the dizzy heights he aspires to.
With the help of his incompetent agent Desmond Shaw (Spinetti), he tries to secure the romantic lead opposite Kim Basinger, attempts to play a corpse while suffering from a...
To celebrate the release of An Actor’s Life For Me, Hugh and I and Get Well Soon on DVD, we are giving 2 lucky WhatCulture readers the chance to win a bundle containing all three!
An Actor’s Life for Me is a British sitcom starring a stand out cast including John Gordon Sinclair (Gregory’s Girl), Victor Spinetti (A Hard Day’s Night and Gina McKee (Notting Hill). Written by The Vicar of Dibley’s co-writer Paul Mayhew Archer, and based on a hit Radio 4 series, it originally aired in 1991. Robert Neilson (Sinclair) is a struggling actor, desperate to hit the big time, however unrealistic his ambitions are and never quite achieves the dizzy heights he aspires to.
With the help of his incompetent agent Desmond Shaw (Spinetti), he tries to secure the romantic lead opposite Kim Basinger, attempts to play a corpse while suffering from a...
- 9/8/2015
- by Laura Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
Deadbeat - Makes You Stronger (review here) proves that sometimes death is only the start of our problems. We recently chatted with author Guy Adams about his new novel, what inspired its dark moments and what lies ahead for the Deadbeat series.
Amanda Dyar: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us. To start off, can you tell us a little about yourself and your recent work as a writer?
Guy Adams: No problem at all, thanks for asking me!
I'm an English writer currently living in Spain because if you're going to lock yourself in your office all day, it may as well be a nice outside world you're not seeing.
I've done a real mixture of stuff over the years. I wrote a novel called The World House for Angry Robot books followed by a sequel Restoration. I've written three novels...
Amanda Dyar: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us. To start off, can you tell us a little about yourself and your recent work as a writer?
Guy Adams: No problem at all, thanks for asking me!
I'm an English writer currently living in Spain because if you're going to lock yourself in your office all day, it may as well be a nice outside world you're not seeing.
I've done a real mixture of stuff over the years. I wrote a novel called The World House for Angry Robot books followed by a sequel Restoration. I've written three novels...
- 6/12/2013
- by Amanda Dyar
- DreadCentral.com
Script for fourth episode of 1955 show catalogued along with those for and by the likes of Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers
When Tony Hancock failed to turn up for three episodes of his radio show in 1955, producers simply replaced him with Harry Secombe as if nothing had happened. The fourth episode followed Hancock and Sid James as they travelled to Swansea to thank him – where they found him singing down a coalmine.
The recorded episode was wiped and continues to be lost, but the script – along with a host of others – has now emerged. They have been catalogued by the actor turned rare books dealer, Neil Pearson.
It is a true treasure trove, featuring scripts by and for comedy stars such as Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams. "It is a rather extraordinary and rather moving collection of material that reminds us of how we used to...
When Tony Hancock failed to turn up for three episodes of his radio show in 1955, producers simply replaced him with Harry Secombe as if nothing had happened. The fourth episode followed Hancock and Sid James as they travelled to Swansea to thank him – where they found him singing down a coalmine.
The recorded episode was wiped and continues to be lost, but the script – along with a host of others – has now emerged. They have been catalogued by the actor turned rare books dealer, Neil Pearson.
It is a true treasure trove, featuring scripts by and for comedy stars such as Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams. "It is a rather extraordinary and rather moving collection of material that reminds us of how we used to...
- 12/3/2012
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
The Day Off revisited
Its not often that an unmade film can get revived and given a world premiere, least of all when its script was abandoned 50 years ago. But that is in a sense what has happened this year with The Day Off - a unfilmed script written by Steptoe And Son creator team Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and premiered at this years London Comedy Film Festival via a live cast reading to an audience. Written with the intention of starring comedy legend Tony Hancock in 1961 (Galton and Simpson having worked with him before on the film The Rebel in 1961, and earlier in radio...
Its not often that an unmade film can get revived and given a world premiere, least of all when its script was abandoned 50 years ago. But that is in a sense what has happened this year with The Day Off - a unfilmed script written by Steptoe And Son creator team Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and premiered at this years London Comedy Film Festival via a live cast reading to an audience. Written with the intention of starring comedy legend Tony Hancock in 1961 (Galton and Simpson having worked with him before on the film The Rebel in 1961, and earlier in radio...
- 1/29/2012
- by Owen Van Spall
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Art films don’t have to be serious, but a lot of them are. Madness, suffering, death—at times these become depressingly familiar themes at film festivals. For this reason, the rare comedy film is welcome: comedy highlights of last year’s festivals were Matchmaking Mayor at Berlin and Sons of Norway in Reykjavik. Although you’re primed to enjoy them, comedies are a reliable choice, as they typically have to be original, as well as funny, to be included in the festival.
What if you could have a festival that showed nothing but comedies? And what if it cheered you up during the most depressing month of the year? That’s just what the charity ‘Loco’ has done this year. London’s very first comedy film festival is taking place this weekend at the BFI. It started last night, and you’ll have to be quick if you want...
What if you could have a festival that showed nothing but comedies? And what if it cheered you up during the most depressing month of the year? That’s just what the charity ‘Loco’ has done this year. London’s very first comedy film festival is taking place this weekend at the BFI. It started last night, and you’ll have to be quick if you want...
- 1/28/2012
- by Alison Frank
- The Moving Arts Journal
They made TV history together and were planning their next film – until Tony Hancock rejected their script. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson reveal why The Day Off is now back on
The best review we ever had wasn't from a critic. It was from an artist, Lucian Freud. He said that The Rebel was the greatest film ever made about modern art. The 1961 movie was the first, and sadly the only, film we made with Tony Hancock. It's the story of an office clerk, played by Hancock, who believes himself to be a great but undiscovered artist. When he's fired from his job he moves to Paris, in the hope that the art world will recognise him for the genius he is. Of course, being Hancock, he's a terrible painter, but his ability to act like a genius persuades a group of fashionable young artists that he might be the real deal.
The best review we ever had wasn't from a critic. It was from an artist, Lucian Freud. He said that The Rebel was the greatest film ever made about modern art. The 1961 movie was the first, and sadly the only, film we made with Tony Hancock. It's the story of an office clerk, played by Hancock, who believes himself to be a great but undiscovered artist. When he's fired from his job he moves to Paris, in the hope that the art world will recognise him for the genius he is. Of course, being Hancock, he's a terrible painter, but his ability to act like a genius persuades a group of fashionable young artists that he might be the real deal.
- 1/23/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
London, Jan 2: The script that led comic legend Tony Hancock to leave his hit writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, is going to be made into a film, more than 50 years after it was first written.
Galton and Simpson, who had penned all of Hancock's television and radio series from the early Fifties onwards, came up with movie script The Day Off in 1961.
But Hancock, who was keen to crack Hollywood at the time, insisted it 'wasn't international' enough.
He then split from Galton and Simpson - a move which is regarded as the biggest mistake of his career. While they went on to write the hit sitcom Steptoe And Son, Hancock succumbed.
Galton and Simpson, who had penned all of Hancock's television and radio series from the early Fifties onwards, came up with movie script The Day Off in 1961.
But Hancock, who was keen to crack Hollywood at the time, insisted it 'wasn't international' enough.
He then split from Galton and Simpson - a move which is regarded as the biggest mistake of his career. While they went on to write the hit sitcom Steptoe And Son, Hancock succumbed.
- 1/2/2012
- by Diksha Singh
- RealBollywood.com
The Day Off, by writing team Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, was unearthed during research for a new biography of the duo
They wrote some of the funniest, most memorable British comedy of the 20th century. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's scripts for Tony Hancock had lines so brilliant, characters so absurd and jokes so sublime that they embedded themselves in the national consciousness.
Fans should prepare themselves for a treat, though, because the best may be yet to come. The Observer can reveal that Galton and Simpson completed a feature-length film script for Hancock that has never been made public. The Day Off, the gut-wrenching tale of a hapless bus conductor who just can't get anything right, has been hailed as a lost masterpiece and "the holy grail of comedy".
"It's probably the best thing they ever wrote," said Christopher Stevens, the author and journalist who stumbled on...
They wrote some of the funniest, most memorable British comedy of the 20th century. Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's scripts for Tony Hancock had lines so brilliant, characters so absurd and jokes so sublime that they embedded themselves in the national consciousness.
Fans should prepare themselves for a treat, though, because the best may be yet to come. The Observer can reveal that Galton and Simpson completed a feature-length film script for Hancock that has never been made public. The Day Off, the gut-wrenching tale of a hapless bus conductor who just can't get anything right, has been hailed as a lost masterpiece and "the holy grail of comedy".
"It's probably the best thing they ever wrote," said Christopher Stevens, the author and journalist who stumbled on...
- 8/27/2011
- by Lizzy Davies
- The Guardian - Film News
Director best known for Georgy Girl, a romantic comedy set in 60s London
The film and TV director Silvio Narizzano, who has died aged 84, handled several genres throughout his career, including black comedies, period pieces, social dramas, action thrillers and horror movies. But one picture, his swinging London romantic comedy Georgy Girl (1966), stands out from the rest of his eclectic filmography.
Georgy Girl was part of the trend in which British cinema shifted the focus from provincial life and back to the metropolis, celebrating new freedoms and social possibilities. Narizzano, influenced by the French New Wave and his chic contemporaries Richard Lester, John Schlesinger and Tony Richardson, explored such "shocking" subjects as abortion, illegitimacy, adultery and sexual promiscuity with a light touch. The film, which took its cue from the jaunty title song by the Seekers, had superb performances from Lynn Redgrave as the virginal and plain Georgina; Charlotte Rampling...
The film and TV director Silvio Narizzano, who has died aged 84, handled several genres throughout his career, including black comedies, period pieces, social dramas, action thrillers and horror movies. But one picture, his swinging London romantic comedy Georgy Girl (1966), stands out from the rest of his eclectic filmography.
Georgy Girl was part of the trend in which British cinema shifted the focus from provincial life and back to the metropolis, celebrating new freedoms and social possibilities. Narizzano, influenced by the French New Wave and his chic contemporaries Richard Lester, John Schlesinger and Tony Richardson, explored such "shocking" subjects as abortion, illegitimacy, adultery and sexual promiscuity with a light touch. The film, which took its cue from the jaunty title song by the Seekers, had superb performances from Lynn Redgrave as the virginal and plain Georgina; Charlotte Rampling...
- 7/29/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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