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1-24 of 24
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Dudley Sutton was born on 6 April 1933 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Football Factory (2004), Cockneys vs Zombies (2012) and Noble House (1988). He was married to Marjorie Steele and Joan D Walker. He died on 15 September 2018 in Clapham, London, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Blonde Welsh leading actress who spent the majority of her career working in television. Her rare forays to the big screen resulted in two of the more intense heroines inhabiting the world of Hammer horror in the 60's. On both occasions she appeared opposite Noel Willman: as one of his victims in The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and as a newlywed wife in 19th century Cornwall by The Reptile (1966), who does not know that he is a sinister neighbor.
Jennifer began acting after a brief flirtation with performing music (as a clarinetist in the Welsh National Youth Orchestra). She studied at London's Central School of Speech and Drama and then went on to the repertory stage. Her earliest TV credits were mainly in anthology dramas and adaptations of classics, commencing with a tiny part in a BBC production of Great Expectations (1959). She went on to marry the star Dinsdale Landen who played Pip (a union which endured until his death in 2003). In Barnaby Rudge (1960), Jennifer had a more substantial role to play as the old locksmith's daughter, Dolly Varden. She also appeared for ITV as Ophelia, opposite Barry Foster's Hamlet (1961), as Lady Edith Plantagenet in Richard the Lionheart (1962) and even got to star in a short-lived (and, alas, forgotten) six-part BBC thriller entitled A Man Called Harry Brent (1965) (penned by the prolific Francis Durbridge). During the 70's and 80's, Jennifer remained much in demand providing poise and decorum to anything from cop shows (Barlow at Large (1971)), to period dramas (The Duchess of Duke Street (1976)) and sitcoms (Keeping Up Appearances (1990)).- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Costume Designer
- Writer
Vivienne Westwood was born on 8 April 1941 in Glossop, Derbyshire, England, UK. She was a costume designer and writer, known for Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Shadowboxer (2005) and Twenty-One (1991). She was married to Andreas Kronthaler and Derek Westwood. She died on 29 December 2022 in Clapham, South London, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dilys Watling was born on 5 May 1942 in Fulmer Chase, Buckinghamshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Theatre of Death (1967), Two Left Feet (1965) and Coronation Street (1960). She was married to Owen Teale and Bruce Anderson. She died on 10 August 2021 in Clapham Common, London, England, UK.- David Webb was born in Luton, Bedfordshire in 1931. His father was the son of a local baker for whom he worked until developing baker's asthma, after which he worked for a local brewery and then, until retirement, for the Vauxhall Motors Car Company. David's mother was the daughter of a local tailor and later hat manufacturer. David trained for an acting career at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) after obtaining a scholarship there in 1952. Prior to that he was a pupil at Luton Grammar School, becoming Head Prefect before leaving in 1950 for two years' National Service as an instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC).
After graduating from the RADA in April 1954, David began his career with York Repertory Company for a year and subsequently played with other 'rep' companies at Scarborough and Bromley. He then toured for a year in Emile Littler's musical "Love From Judy" and after did more 'rep' at Richmond and Worthing. Following a highly successful audition for BBC Television, he was summoned by the then Head of Drama, Michael Barry, and consequently launched into television, the medium in which his career has centered ever since, and in which he has made more than 700 appearances, playing a wide variety of roles, and working for all the major programme-producing companies. He was a prominent character in the early days of Coronation Street. Worried about the dangers of typecasting, he soon moved on, and, between the 1960s and the beginning of the present century, made well over 700 appearances in television programmes. These included Upstairs, Downstairs, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Tales of the Unexpected, Doctor Who, and The Avengers. He also found time for the cinema, appearing in, among much else, The Battle of Britain. In a profession which, notoriously, has an unemployment rate of 80 per cent, he was never out of work. He was at one point so committed to television, and so prolific, that he was mocked by some of his RADA friends as a "Telly Tart." His response was a magisterial wave of the arm and the explanation: "On the telly, dear boy, you don't have to get it right first time, and the repeat fees mean you'll never run out of gin." He was right. Even at the time of his death, it was an unusual week on ITV3 when David Webb is not seen and credited in one of its many repeats from the golden age of British television.
As an ardent opponent of censorship, in 1976 David founded the National Campaign for the Reform of the Obscene Publications Acts (NCROPA) and began his long campaign against the prudes and censors of every political and religious complexion. He ran NCROPA in the capacity of Honorary Director ever since. It is a law-reform organization championing the cause of the 'freedom of expression'. At the time the laws against pornography were, in their principle and intent, very clear - it was "No Sex, Please: We're British." Pornography was defined as anything a jury could be convinced had a tendency to "deprave and corrupt." Against this, David stated his own principle to anyone who would listen: "So long as it's by and for consenting adults, nothing should be forbidden."
In June 1983 he stood as an Anti-Censorship/Reform of Obscene Publications Acts candidate against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the constituency of Finchley at the General Election, he is a past member of the Council of the British Actors' Equity Association and a member of both the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association. David has participated in numerous TV and radio debates, interviews and 'phone-ins' on censorship and often contributes articles to various publications and undertaken speaking engagements on the issue.
In private life, David was a grand, convivial character, who loved good company, good food, good drink, and classical music. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early in 2012, and its progress was so rapid that he had no time to stop being the man his friends had all known and loved. He faced his end with the equanimity of a true follower of Epicurus. He died peacefully and in his sleep at Trinity Hospice in Clapham at approximately 5:30pm with his dear friend Penny and goddaughter Nikki by his side. He was 81. His funeral was at Mortlake Crematorium on the 17th July 2012. - Director
- Producer
- Writer
John Sheppard was born on 24 June 1940 in London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for It Was 20 Years Ago Today (1987), Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life (1964) and Screenplay (1979). He was married to Olga Sheppard. He died on 19 October 2009 in Clapham, London, England, UK.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Monti DeLyle was born on 19 November 1899 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), With Pleasure, Madame (1936) and The Bank Raiders (1958). He died on 28 March 1979 in Clapham, London, England, UK.- Writer
- Composer
- Music Department
Donald Ibrahím Swann (30 September 1923 - 23 March 1994) was a Welsh-born composer, musician and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders.
Donald Swann was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. His father, Herbert Alfredovich Swann, was a Russian doctor of English descent, from the expatriate community that started out as the Muscovy Company. His mother, Naguimé Sultán Swann (born Piszóva), was a Turkmen-Russian nurse from Ashgabat, now part of Turkmenistan. They were refugees from the Russian Revolution. Swann's great-grandfather, Alfred Trout Swan, a draper from Lincolnshire, emigrated to Russia in 1840 and married the daughter of the horologer to the Tsars. Some time later the family acquired a second 'n' to their surname. His uncle Alfred wrote the first biography of Alexander Scriabin in English.
The family moved to London, where Swann attended Dulwich College Preparatory School and Westminster School (where he first met Michael Flanders).
In 1941 Swann was awarded an exhibition to Christ Church, Oxford, to read modern languages. In 1942 he registered as a conscientious objector and served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit (a Quaker relief organisation) in Egypt, Palestine and Greece. After the war, Swann returned to Oxford to read Russian and Modern Greek.
A chance meeting between Swann and Flanders in 1948 led to the start of their professional partnership. They began writing songs and light opera, Swann writing the music and Flanders writing the words. Their songs were performed by artists such as Ian Wallace and Joyce Grenfell. They subsequently wrote two two-man revues, At the Drop of a Hat and At the Drop of Another Hat, which they performed all over the world until their partnership ended in 1967.
At the same time, Swann was maintaining a prolific musical output, writing the music for several operas and operettas, including a full-length version of C. S. Lewis's Perelandra, and a setting of J. R. R. Tolkien's poems from The Lord of the Rings to music in The Road Goes Ever On collection. In 1953-59 Swann provided music for seven plays by Henry Reed on the BBC Third Programme, generally known as the Hilda Tablet plays for one of the fictional characters, a lady composer of avant-garde "musique concrete". Besides incidental music, Swann composed for this character an opera, "Emily Butter" and several other complete works.
A lifelong friendship with Sydney Carter resulted in scores of songs, the best known being "The Youth of the Heart" which reappeared in At the Drop of A Hat, and a musical Lucy & the Hunter. After his partnership with Flanders ended, Swann continued to give solo concerts and to write for other singers. He also formed the Swann Singers and toured with them in the 1970s. Throughout the 1980s and early '90s he continued performing in various combinations with singers and colleagues and as a solo artist. In the later years of his life he 'discovered' Victorian poetry and composed some of his most profound and moving music to the words of William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Oscar Wilde and others. He wrote a number of hymn tunes which appear in modern standard hymn books.
Donald Swann was married twice; he married Janet Oxborrow in 1955 and they were divorced in 1983; his second wife was the art historian Alison Smith. In 1992 he was diagnosed with cancer. He died at in South London on 23 March 1994, survived by both wives and two children from his first marriage: Rachel and Natasha.
It is estimated that Swann wrote or set to music nearly 2,000 songs during his career.- Jonathan Battersby was born on 1 December 1952 in Nottingham, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Doctor Who (2005), Emmerdale Farm (1972) and Taggart (1983). He died on 22 May 2010 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- William Fazan was born on 25 May 1877 in Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Murder! (1930), Once in a New Moon (1934) and Break the News (1938). He died on 13 December 1942 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- Director
- Actor
- Cinematographer
Alf Collins was born on 16 June 1866 in Newington, London, England, UK. He was a director and actor, known for The Dancing Girl (1908), Rescued by Lifeboat (1906) and A Race for a Rose (1908). He died on 20 December 1951 in Clapham, London, England, UK.- Samuel Pepys was born on 23 February 1633 in Salisbury Court, London, England [now UK]. He was a writer, known for The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1958), The Sunday Programme (1994) and L'honorable Mr. Pepys (1957). He was married to Elisabeth de St Michel. He died on 26 May 1703 in Clapham [now London], England [now UK].
- Quinton McPherson was born on 26 October 1870 in Holborn, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Amazing Adventure (1936), The Man Who Won (1932) and Beloved Impostor (1936). He died on 2 January 1940 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- Soundtrack
Marie Kendall was born on 27 July 1873 in Hackney, London, England, UK. She was married to Steve McCarthy. She died on 5 May 1964 in Clapham, London, England, UK.- Ursula Hirst was born on 23 February 1909 in Pancras, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Great Expectations (1967), ITV Play of the Week (1955) and Melissa (1974). She died on 30 October 2002 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- Tom Mowbray was born on 23 June 1861 in Camberwell, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Brass Bottle (1914), Dick Turpin (1906) and A Bunch of Violets (1916). He died on 18 April 1926 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- Brendan Barry was born on 22 October 1918 in Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic (1978), BBC Play of the Month (1965) and Doctor Who (1963). He died in March 2011 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- H.J. Byron was born on 8 January 1835 in Manchester, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Uncle Dick's Darling (1920) and Our Boys (1915). He died on 11 April 1884 in Clapham Park, London, England, UK.
- Vilma Stuttle was born on 5 January 1937 in Iran. She was an actress, known for Doctor Who (1963). She died on 16 October 1973 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- Teddy Royce was born on 11 August 1841 in Eversholt, Bedfordshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Tansy (1921). He died on 24 January 1926 in Clapham Park, London, England, UK.
- Harold G. Robert was born on 16 March 1907 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Mask for Alexis (1959), Duty Bound (1958) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He died on 19 February 1983 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- Herbert Darnley was born in 1872 in Chatham, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Napoleon and the English Sailor (1908) and Moving In (1908). He was married to Wynifred Blundell (actress). He died on 7 February 1947 in Clapham, London, England, UK.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Rosetta Hightower was born on 23 June 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Son of the Bride (1973), Peter Sarstedt (1969) and The Stanley Baxter Show (1963). She died on 2 August 2014 in Clapham, London, England, UK.- Ronald Plaisted was born on 9 August 1932 in Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for The Nutcracker (1968), Music for You (1951) and Pineapple Poll (1959). He died on 2 November 2005 in Clapham, London, England, UK.