• Aerosmith
• Alice Cooper
• All Change
• Allan Warren
• Barry Cryer
• Barry Took
• BBC
• BBC Four
• BBC News
• BBC Radio 1
• BBC Two
• Benny Hill
• British Army
• Bruce Forsyth
• Camera
• Carry On Doctor
• Channel 4
• Cilla Black
• Comedian
• Comedy
• Cross, Somerset
• David Walliams
• Depression (mood)
• Double entendre
• England and Wales
• Eric Sykes
• Establishment Club
• Film Fun
• Frankie Howerd
• Fulham
• Further Up the Creek
• Galton and Simpson
• Garrick Theatre
• Gay
• George Burns
• Grammar School
• Gramophone record
• H.M.S. Pinafore
• Harley Street
• Heart failure
• Hollywood
• Homosexuality
• Humour
• Jane Birkin
• Johnny Speight
• Jumping for Joy
• June Whitfield
• Kensington
• Margaret Rutherford
• Marty Feldman
• Memorabilia
• Mendip Hills
• Miles Tredinnick
• Monologue
• Musical film
• Nicky Campbell
• Off-the-cuff
• Oh! What a Carry On!
• Peter Cook
• Peter Frampton
• Petula Clark
• Pianist
• Promiscuity
• Psychiatrist
• RADA
• Ray Galton
• Record label
• Respiratory
• River Amazon
• Robert Stigwood
• Serge Gainsbourg
• Shooters Hill
• Sitcom
• Soho
• Stage fright
• Steve Martin
• Sunny Rogers
• Superfrank!
• Talent manager
• Television
• Thames Television
• The Bee Gees
• The Cool Mikado
• The Fast Lady
• The Gong Show
• The Guardian
• The Ladykillers
• The Runaway Bus
• Theatre
• Tic
• Tourist attraction
• Trial by Jury
• University
• Up Pompeii (film)
• Up Pompeii!
• Up the Chastity Belt
• Up the Front
• Variety Bandbox
• Vince Powell
• Waiter
• Weare, Somerset
• West End theatre
• Whoops Baghdad
• Wikipedia Persondata
• Woolwich, London
• World War II
• York
• Yorkshire Television
• 
  

• 
  Cross, Somerset
  Coordinates: 51°17′42″N 2°52′08″W / 51.295°N 2.869°W / 51.295; -2.869
  Compton Bishop is a small village and civil parish, at the western end of the Mendip Hills in the English county of Somerset. It is located close to the historic town of Axbridge. Along with the village of Cross and the hamlets of Rackley and Webbington it forms the parish of Compton Bishop and Cross.
  It was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Comtone. It was the property of Giso, Bishop of Wells. The parish was part of the Winterstoke Hundred.
  The parish includes the hamlet of Rackley which was a trading port on the River Axe in the Middle Ages following construction of a wharf in 1200. It now north of the river Axe as the course has been diverted, but on the Cheddar Yeo near the confluence. In 1324 Edward II confirmed it as a borough, however by the end of the 14th century the port was in decline. In the 14th century a French ship sailed up the river and by 1388 Thomas Tanner from Wells used Rackley to export cloth and corn to Portugal, and received iron and salt in exchange. Later slate was imported through this route and it may have still be possible to trade through Rackley until the act of 1915 authorising the drainage of the Axe and installation of the flood gate at Bleadon.
  
  wn.com/Cross,_Somerset
• Establishment Club
  The Establishment was a London nightclub which opened in October 1961, at 18 Greek Street, Soho and was famous in retrospect for satire although actually more notable at the time for jazz and other events. It was founded by Peter Cook and Nicholas Luard, both of whom were also important in the history of the magazine Private Eye. The name "The Establishment" is a play on the meaning of "establishment" as in "institution," i.e. the club itself, and the broader definition meaning the prevailing social order of the time, which the satirists who founded, funded and performed at the club typically undermined. Peter Cook called it "the only good title I ever came up with."
  The venue allowed the opportunity for budding comedians and satirists to perform new material in a nightclub setting, outside the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain, whose censorship of language and content was a problem for many performers. Some who appeared included Lenny Bruce, Barry Humphries (as Edna Everage), and musically, The Dudley Moore Trio.
  
  wn.com/Establishment_Club
• 
  Fulham
  Coordinates: 51°28′36″N 0°12′50″W / 51.4767°N 0.2138°W / 51.4767; -0.2138
  Fulham ( /ˈfʊləm/) is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 (the successor to the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham) located 3.7 miles (6.0 km) south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Fulham was formerly the seat of the diocese of "Fulham and Gibraltar", and Fulham Palace served as the former official home of the Bishop of London, (now a museum), the grounds of which are now divided between public allotments and an elegant botanical garden.
  Having been through many transformations in its history, today it is a green London area within very close reach of many famously extravagant places such as Chelsea and Kensington and this is reflected in the high local house prices. It was included within Savills' 2007 list of "prime" London areas. Two Premier League football clubs, Fulham and Chelsea, are situated in Fulham. The former Lillie Bridge Grounds (which hosted the second FA Cup Final and the first ever amateur boxing matches) was also in Fulham.
  
  wn.com/Fulham
• 
  Harley Street
  Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.
  Since the 19th century, the number of doctors, hospitals, and medical organizations in and around Harley Street has greatly increased. Records show that there were around 20 doctors in 1860, 80 by 1900, and almost 200 by 1914. When the National Health Service was established in 1948, there were around 1,500. Today, there are more than 3,000 people employed in the Harley Street area, in clinics, medical and paramedical practices, and hospitals such as The London Clinic. It has been speculated that doctors were originally attracted to the area by the development of commodious housing and central proximity to the important railway stations of Paddington, Kings Cross, St Pancras, Euston and, later, Marylebone. The nearest Tube stations are Regent's Park and Oxford Circus.
  Harley Street is owned by the de Walden family and managed by the de Walden Estate.
  
  wn.com/Harley_Street
• 
  Hollywood
  Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema. Today, much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as the Westside neighborhood, and the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys, but significant auxiliary industries, such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies remain in Hollywood, as does the backlot of Paramount Pictures.
  On February 16, 2005, California Assembly Members Jackie Goldberg and Paul Koretz introduced a bill to require California to keep specific records on Hollywood as if it were independent, although it is not the typical practice of the City of Los Angeles to establish specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. The bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor of California on August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The border can be loosely described as the area east of West Hollywood, south of Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon, Cahuenga Boulevard, and Barham Boulevard, and the cities of Burbank and Glendale, north of Melrose Avenue and west of the Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. This includes all of Griffith Park and Los Feliz^{[citation needed]} – two areas that were hitherto considered separate from Hollywood by most Angelenos. The population of the district, including Los Feliz, as of the 2000 census was 123,436 and the median household income was $33,409 in 1999.
  
  wn.com/Hollywood
• 
  Kensington
  Coordinates: 51°30′01″N 0°11′27″W / 51.5004°N 0.1909°W / 51.5004; -0.1909
  Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.
  To the north, Kensington is bordered by Notting Hill; to the east, by Brompton and Knightsbridge; to the south, by Chelsea and Earl's Court; and to the west, by Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush.
  The area is first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was written in Latin as "Chenesitone", which has been interpreted to have originally been "Kenesignetun" (Kenesigne's land or meadows) in Anglo-Saxon.
  The manor of Kensington, Middlesex, was granted by William I of England to Geoffrey de Montbray or Mowbray, bishop of Coutances, one of his inner circle of advisors and one of the wealthiest men in post-Conquest England. He in turn granted the tenancy of Kensington to his vassal Aubrey de Vere I, who was holding the manor in 1086, according to Domesday Book. The bishop's heir, Robert de Mowbray, rebelled against William Rufus and his vast barony was declared forfeit. Aubrey de Vere I had his tenure converted to a tenancy in-chief, holding Kensington after 1095 directly of the crown. He granted land and church there to Abingdon Abbey at the deathbed request of his young eldest son, Geoffrey. As the Veres became the earls of Oxford, their estate at Kensington came to be known as Earls Court, while the Abingdon lands were called Abbots Kensington and the church St Mary Abbots.
  
  wn.com/Kensington
• 
  Shooters Hill
  Coordinates: 51°28′09″N 0°04′01″E / 51.4691°N 0.0669°E / 51.4691; 0.0669
  Shooter's Hill (or Shooters Hill) is a district and electoral ward in south London, England, located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It lies east of Blackheath and west of Welling, south of Woolwich and north of Eltham. With a height of 434 feet, it is one of the highest points in London. Shooter's Hill also gives its name to the A road which passes through east to west and is part of the A207 road, the A2 road, and also Watling Street.
  It reputedly takes its name from the practice of archery there during the Middle Ages, although the name is also commonly linked to its reputation as a haunt for highwaymen and was infamous for its gibbets of the executed ones as referred to in 1661 in Samuel Pepys diary. The name is also linked to the Second World War, where it was the site of an array of anti-aircraft guns which protected London. Eltham Common was the site of Shooter's Hill police station (now closed). Eltham was allegedly the only town in England with two fully functional police stations (the other in Well Hall Road), having been placed there due to the lawlessness associated with that area.
  
  wn.com/Shooters_Hill
• 
  Soho
  Coordinates: 51°30′47″N 0°07′52″W / 51.513°N 0.131°W / 51.513; -0.131
  Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable transformation. It now is predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues.
  The area of Soho was grazing farmland until 1536, when it was taken by Henry VIII as a royal park for the Palace of Whitehall. The name "Soho" first appears in the 17th century. Most authorities believe that the name derives from a former hunting cry. The Duke of Monmouth used "soho" as a rallying call for his men at the Battle of Sedgemoor, half a century after the name was first used for this area of London.
  In the 1660s the Crown granted Soho Fields to Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans. He leased 19 of its 22 acres (89,000 m²) to Joseph Girle, who gained permission to build and promptly passed his lease and licence to bricklayer Richard Frith in 1677. Frith began the development. In 1698 William III granted the Crown freehold of most of this area to William, Earl of Portland. Meanwhile the southern part of what became the parish of St. Anne, Soho, was sold by the Crown in parcels in the 16th and 17th centuries, with part going to Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester.
  
  wn.com/Soho
• 
  Weare, Somerset
  Coordinates: 51°16′08″N 2°50′24″W / 51.269°N 2.840°W / 51.269; -2.840
  Weare and Lower Weare are small villages in Somerset, England, on the River Axe, south of the Mendip Hills. The parish comprises the villages of Upper and Lower Weare, and the hamlets of Alston Sutton, Brinscombe and Stone Allerton.
  The name of the village may come from a Weir on the River Axe.
  After the Norman conquest the manor was granted to Walter of Douai and then passed to the Gaunt, Gourney and Brythemore families. The Gourneys established a borough original called Nether Weare and later Lower Weare and were granted the right to hold fairs and even sent members of parliament to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This new borough declined after 1316, however a borough court was still being held in Lower Weare in 1603.
  Alston Sutton was a separate manor at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. The name means Aethelnoth's settlement and was held in 1286 by Walter de Sutton. The village declined by 1548 and was largely demolished soon afterwards.
  
  wn.com/Weare,_Somerset
• 
  West End theatre
  West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.
  Total attendances first surpassed 12 million in 2002 and 13 million in 2007, setting a new record for the West End. Since the late 1990s there has been an increase in the number of famous screen actors on the London stage.
  The Theatre in London flourished after the English Reformation. The first permanent public playhouse, known simply as The Theatre, was constructed in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage. It was soon joined by The Curtain. Both are known to have been used by William Shakespeare's company. In 1599, the timber from The Theatre was moved to Southwark, where it was used in building the Globe Theatre in a new theatre district formed, beyond the controls of the City corporation. These theatres were closed in 1642 during the interregnum.
  
  wn.com/West_End_theatre
• 
  Woolwich, London
  Coordinates: 51°29′46″N 0°04′05″E / 51.4961°N 0.0681°E / 51.4961; 0.0681
  Woolwich ( /ˈwʊlɪtʃ/ or /ˈwʊlɪdʒ/) is a district in south London, England, located in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
  Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created. It is notable as a river crossing point, having the Woolwich Ferry (and the lesser-known Woolwich foot tunnel) to North Woolwich, and as the one-time home of the Woolwich Building Society (now owned by Barclays plc).
  In 1796 Daniel Lysons wrote, "this place in old charters is called Hulviz, Wolwiche, Wollewic, &c. I can find nothing satisfactory relating to its etymology." But it is now generally believed that the name Woolwich derives from the Anglo-Saxon name, "trading place for wool". Woolwich has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age, and a Roman fort was found in the current Riverside park.
  Woolwich remained a small Kentish village until it started to become a leading military and industrial town. It was home to the Woolwich Dockyard (founded in 1512), the Royal Arsenal (dating back to 1471), the Royal Military Academy (1741) and the Royal Horse Artillery (1793); the town still retains an army base at the Royal Artillery Barracks (although 16RA Royal Artillery left in 2007, Woolwich Barracks still house the Royal Artillery Band and more recently Second Battalion Princess of Wales Royal Regiment and Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery), and the Royal Artillery Museum, Firepower. The nearby Greenwich Heritage Centre also houses exhibits relating to the Royal Arsenal.
  
  wn.com/Woolwich,_London
• 
  York
  York (local ⁱ/ˈjɔːk/) is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of historic attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent, and a variety of cultural and sporting activities.
  The city was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, under the name of Eboracum. It became in turn the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jorvik. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England, a role it has retained.
  In the 19th century York became a hub of the railway network and a confectionery manufacturing centre. In recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, whilst tourism has become an important element of the local economy.
  
  wn.com/York

• 
  Aerosmith
  Aerosmith is an American rock band, formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton, originally in a band together called the Jam Band, met up with singer Steven Tyler, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarist Ray Tabano, and formed Aerosmith. In 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, and the band began developing a following in Boston. Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop,heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists.
  They were signed to Columbia Records in 1972, and released a string of multi-platinum albums, beginning with their 1973 eponymous debut album, followed by their 1974 album Get Your Wings. In 1975, the band broke into the mainstream with the album Toys in the Attic, and their 1976 follow-up Rocks cemented their status as hard rock superstars. The band released two more albums, toured extensively, and charted a string of Hot 100 singles. By the end of the 1970s, they were among the most popular hard rock bands in the world and developed a loyal following of fans, often referred to as the "Blue Army". However, drug addiction and internal conflict took their toll on the band, which resulted in the departures of Perry and Whitford in 1979 and 1981, respectively; they were replaced by Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay. The band did not fare well between 1980 and 1984, releasing a lone album, Rock in a Hard Place, which went gold but failed to match their previous successes.
  
  wn.com/Aerosmith
• 
  Alice Cooper
  Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and musician whose career spans more than four decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors, and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal designed to shock.
  Originating in Detroit in the late 1960s, Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. The original Alice Cooper band broke into the international music mainstream with the 1971 hit "I'm Eighteen" from the album Love It to Death, which was followed by the even bigger single "School's Out" in 1972. The band reached their commercial peak with the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.
  Furnier's solo career as Alice Cooper, adopting the band's name as his own name, began with the 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare; in 2011 he released Welcome 2 My Nightmare, his 19th album as a solo artist, and his 26th album in total. Expanding from his Detroit rock roots, in his career Cooper has experimented with a number of musical styles, including conceptual rock, art rock, hard rock, New Wave, pop rock, experimental rock and industrial rock.
  
  wn.com/Alice_Cooper
• 
  Allan Warren
  Michael Allan Warren (born 26 October 1948 in Wimbledon, London) is an English society-photographer, writer and former actor. His work encompasses works of many celebrities during the late 1960s, 70s and into the 80s, such as members of the British Royal Family, influential politicians and artists in both music and literature as well as some of the most important people in Hollywood at their time.
  After growing up in post-war London, Warren attended Terry's Juveniles, a stage school based in the Drury Lane Theatre. It was during this time that he attended auditions through which he received several assignments. One such piece of work was as a child presenter in "The Five O'clock Club", which afforded him the opportunity to associate with a variety of people, including a young Marc Bolan (then performing as "Toby Tyler") who would later employ Warren as his first manager.
  Warren started his photographic career at the age of 17 when he was acting in Alan Bennett's play Forty Years On with John Gielgud in the West End at the Apollo Theatre. Around this time Warren bought his first second-hand camera and started to take photographs of his fellow actors. His first major assignment was when his friend Mickey Deans asked him to cover his wedding to Judy Garland, which marked the beginning of Warren's work as a professional photographer. Upon travelling to New York for personal reasons, he attended an audition for the Broadway production of Minnie's Boys. However, he later declined the role offered to him in favour of returning to London and pursuing photography as his vocation.
  
  wn.com/Allan_Warren
• 
  Barry Cryer
  Barry Charles Cryer OBE (born 23 March 1935) is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise.
  Cryer also wrote episodes for the Doctor in the House television comedy series in Britain.
  Cryer was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Educated at Leeds Grammar School, he went on to study English Literature at the University of Leeds. He has lived in Hatch End, a suburb of Pinner, since 1967.
  After appearing in University revue, Cryer was offered a week's work at the famous Leeds City Varieties theatre, home of The Good Old Days, the longest-running television entertainment show in the world. Cryer left university after learning his first year results and travelled to London. After impressing impresario Vivian Van Damm, Cryer began the bottom billing act at the Windmill Theatre in London, a theatre which showed comedy acts in between nude tableau shows.
  
  wn.com/Barry_Cryer
• Barry Took
  Barry Took (19 June 1928 – 31 March 2002) was an English comedian, writer and television presenter. He is best remembered in the UK for his weekly role as presenter of Points of View, a BBC TV programme in which viewers' letters criticising or praising the BBC were broadcast. He also presented the BBC Radio 4 programme The News Quiz for over a decade until 1995.
  Took was born in Muswell Hill, North London and brought up there during the war, running away from the home in Wisbech to which he had been evacuated. He attended Minchenden School. It was during his period of National Service that he began performing seriously, and it was also then that he met his first wife, Dorothy, known as Dot, with whom he had three children: Barry, Susan and David. He later worked as a stand-up comedian, eventually becoming a West End revue performer, working on For Amusement Only and For Adults Only.
  In terms of his comedy writing, Took was the writing partner of Marty Feldman and wrote for several television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including The Army Game and its spin-off Bootsie and Snudge. He co-wrote Beyond Our Ken for two seasons (1958–1959) with Eric Merriman for BBC Radio before leaving after a disagreement with his fellow writer. With Marty Feldman he wrote most episodes of Round the Horne.
  
  wn.com/Barry_Took
• 
  Benny Hill
  Benny Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.
  Alfred Hawthorne Hill was born in Southampton and attended Taunton's School. During World War II, he was evacuated to Bournemouth.^{[citation needed]}
  After leaving school, Hill worked at Woolworth's, as a milkman, a bridge operator, a driver and a drummer before he finally got a foot in the door of the entertainment industry by becoming assistant stage manager with a touring review. He was called up in 1942 and trained as a mechanic, but transferred to the Combined Services Entertainment division before the end of the war. It was there that he met his future agent, Richard Stone, then a colonel.^{[citation needed]}
  Inspired by the "star comedians" of British music hall shows, Hill set out to make his mark in show business. For the stage, he changed his first name to 'Benny', in homage to his favourite comedian, Jack Benny. Hill began appearing at working men's clubs and Masonic dinners before moving on to nightclub and theatre jobs. Hill auditioned for Soho's famed Windmill Theatre (home of Revudeville, a popular show of singers, comedians and nude girls), but he was not hired. Hill's first job in professional theatre as a performer was as Reg Varney's straight man, beating a then unknown Peter Sellers to the role.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Benny_Hill
• 
  Bruce Forsyth
  Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson CBE, (born 22 February 1928), commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality. He became known through the series Sunday Night at the London Palladium, going on to present television series such as The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right, The Price Is Right (UK), You Bet! and Strictly Come Dancing.
  Forsyth was born in Edmonton, London, the son of Florence Ada (née Pocknell) and John Thomas Forsyth-Johnson. His family owned a car repair garage in Victoria Road, Edmonton, and as members of the Salvation Army his parents played brass instruments and his mother was a singer. His great grandfather Joseph Forsyth Johnson (1840–1906) was a landscape architect who worked in Russia, Ireland and the United States. His great-great-great-great grandfather William Forsyth (1737–1804) was a founder of the Royal Horticultural Society and the namesake of the plant genus Forsythia.
  Forsyth attended The Latymer School. After watching Fred Astaire in films at age eight, he trained in dance in Tottenham and then Brixton. He started in show business aged 14, with a song, dance, and accordion act called "Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom." His first appearance was at the Theatre Royal, Bilston, with The Great Marzo at the top of the bill. Forsyth made his television debut in 1939 as a child, singing and dancing on a talent show introduced by Jasmine Bligh, probably an episode of Come and Be Televised (BBC, 1939), broadcast from Radiolympia.
  
  wn.com/Bruce_Forsyth
• Eric Sykes
  Eric Sykes, CBE (born 4 May 1923) is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, most notably through his work on The Goon Show. He became a TV star in his own right in the early 1960s when he co-starred with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series. A trademark of Sykes's work is the idea of taking a single comic idea to its extremes, as epitomised by what is probably his best remembered work, the slapstick film The Plank.
  Sykes was born in Oldham, Lancashire; his mother died during his birth. He was the second child of his parents' marriage; his older brother (by two years) was named Vernon. Sykes' father was a labourer in a cotton mill and a former army sergeant. When he was two, his father remarried and he gained a half-brother named John. Sykes was educated at Ward Street Central School in Oldham. He joined the Royal Air Force during World War II, qualifying as a wireless operator with the rank of Leading Aircraftman.
  
  wn.com/Eric_Sykes
• 
  Frankie Howerd
  Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE (6 March 1917, York – 19 April 1992) was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.
  Howerd was born the son of a soldier, Francis Alfred William (1887–1935) and Edith Florence Howard (née Morrison, 1888–1962) at the City Hospital in York, England, in 1917 (not 1922 as he later claimed). He was educated at Shooters Hill Grammar School in Woolwich, London. His first stage appearance was at age 13 but his early hopes of becoming a serious actor were dashed when he failed an audition for RADA. He began to entertain during World War II service in the British Army. It was at this time that he adapted his surname to Howerd "to be different". Despite suffering from stage fright, he continued to work after the war, beginning his professional career in the summer of 1946 in a touring show called For the Fun of It.
  His act was soon heard on radio, making his debut in early December 1946 on the BBC's Variety Bandbox programme with a number of other ex-servicemen. His profile rose in the immediate postwar period (aided by material written by Eric Sykes, Galton and Simpson and Johnny Speight). In 1954, he made his screen début opposite Petula Clark in The Runaway Bus, which had been written for his specific comic talents, but he never became a major film presence. The film was so low-budget that they could not afford scenery; instead they used a fog generator so that little was visible behind the action. Even so, the film was an immediate hit.
  
  wn.com/Frankie_Howerd
• Galton and Simpson
  Ray Galton OBE (born 17 July 1930), and Alan Simpson OBE (born 27 November 1929), are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based. They are best known for their work with comedian Tony Hancock on radio and television between 1954 and 1961, and their long-running television situation comedy, Steptoe and Son, eight series of which were aired between 1962 and 1974.
  The partnership's break in comedy writing came with the Derek Roy vehicle Happy Go Lucky, although this was not a success. The Hancock connection began with their involvement with later radio variety series, and from November 1954 continued with Hancock's Half Hour on radio; a series featuring their scripts for Hancock ran on television between 1956 and 1961. In October that year Hancock ended his professional relationship with the writers, and with Beryl Vertue who worked with the writers' at their agency Associated London Scripts. This writers' co-operative had been founded by Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan, with others involved, including Hancock for a time.
  
  wn.com/Galton_and_Simpson
• 
  George Burns
  George Burns (January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996), born Naftaly Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.
  He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century. Beginning at the age of 79, Burns' career was resurrected as an amiable, beloved and unusually active old comedian, continuing to work until shortly before his death, in 1996, at the age of 100.
  Naftaly (late called Nathan) Birnbaum was the ninth of 12 children born to Louis and Dorah (nèe Bluth) Birnbaum, Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States from Romania. Burns was an active member of the First Roumanian-American congregation. His father was a substitute cantor at the local synagogue but usually worked as a coat presser. During the influenza epidemic of 1903, Lippe Birnbaum contracted the flu and died at the age of 47. Nattie (as he was then called) went to work to help support the family, shining shoes, running errands, and selling newspapers.
  
  wn.com/George_Burns
• 
  Jane Birkin
  Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE (born 14 December 1946) is an English actress and singer who lives in France. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Burma.
  Jane Mallory Birkin was born on 14 December 1946, in Marylebone, London. Her mother, Judy Campbell, was an English actress, best known for her work on stage. Her father, David Birkin, was a Royal Navy lieutenant-commander and World War II spy. Her brother is the screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin. She was educated at Upper Chine School, Isle of Wight.
  Birkin emerged in the Swinging London scene of the 1960s, appearing briefly in the 1966 film Blowup, and as the fantasy-like model in the psychedelic Wonderwall from 1968. That same year, she auditioned in France for the lead female role in Slogan. Though she did not speak French, she won the role. She co-starred with Serge Gainsbourg, and performed with him on the film's theme song, "La chanson de slogan" — the first of many collaborations between the two. In 1969, she and Gainsbourg released the duet "Je t'aime... moi non plus" ("I love you... me neither"). Gainsbourg originally wrote the song for Brigitte Bardot. The song caused a scandal for its sexual explicitness, and was banned by radio stations in Italy, Spain, and the UK.
  
  wn.com/Jane_Birkin
• Johnny Speight
  Johnny Speight (2 June 1920 – 5 July 1998), was a British television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.
  He emerged in the mid 1950s. He wrote for the radio comics; Frankie Howerd, Vic Oliver, Arthur Askey, and Cyril Fletcher. For television he wrote for the Arthur Haynes Show, Morecambe & Wise, and Peter Sellers. Then he began to write Till Death Us Do Part, which included his most famous creation, the controversial bigot Alf Garnett. His shows often explored the themes of racism and sexism through satire, and many are regarded as classics.
  John Speight was born at 57 Chester Rd Canning Town,West Ham, Essex (now Greater London), and began contributing scripts to comedy shows in 1955, starting with Great Scott - It's Maynard!. His first major series was Sykes And A... (1961), which starred Eric Sykes, Hattie Jacques and Richard Wattis (see Sykes). Speight was one of many great writing talents on that series which also included the star Sykes, John Antrobus and Spike Milligan.
  He created the iconic working class tramp figure played by Arthur Haynes in the latter's long-running and top-rating ATV comedy series. Haynes died in 1966.
  
  wn.com/Johnny_Speight
• June Whitfield
  June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE (born 11 November 1925) is an English actress, well known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series.
  Her first big break was a lead role in the radio comedy Take It From Here, and television followed, including appearances with Tony Hancock throughout his television career. In 1966, Whitfield played her first television sitcom role, in Beggar My Neighbour, and this ran for two years. She also starred in several Carry On films.
  In 1968, June Whitfield and Terry Scott began their long television partnership which peaked with roles as husband and wife in Happy Ever After (1974–78) and Terry and June (1979–87). Since 1992, Whitfield has appeared in Jennifer Saunders's sitcom Absolutely Fabulous playing Edina Monsoon's mother. In recent years she has played a regular character in Last of the Summer Wine as well as a recurring character in The Green Green Grass.
  June Rosemary Whitfield was born in Streatham, London in 1925. She made her first stage appearance aged three after her mother, Bertha, enrolled her at Robinson's Dance Studio. Whitfield attended Streatham Hill High School, before being evacuated in World War II to Bognor Regis, where she attended St Michael's School, and to Penzance in Cornwall. She then moved with her parents to Huddersfield where she learnt shorthand and typing. She then continued to study secretarial skills at Pitman's College, Brixton Hill. In 1944, Whitfield graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with a diploma. In 1955, June Whitfield married Timothy John Aitchison; they had a daughter, Suzy, who became an actress.
  
  wn.com/June_Whitfield
• Margaret Rutherford
  Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, DBE (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1963 she won the best supporting actress Oscar as The Duchess of Brighton in The VIPs.
  She is probably best known for her 1960s performances as Miss Marple in several films based loosely on Agatha Christie's novels.
  Margaret Rutherford's father, William Rutherford Benn, suffered from mental illness. During his honeymoon he had a nervous breakdown and was confined to an asylum. He was eventually released on holiday and on 4 March 1883, he murdered his father, the Reverend Julius Benn, a Congregational church minister, by bludgeoning him to death with a chamberpot (Worcester Spode). Shortly afterwards, William tried to kill himself as well, by slashing his throat with a pocketknife. After the murder, William Benn was confined to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Several years later he was released, reportedly cured of his mental affliction. He changed his surname to Rutherford, and returned to his wife, Ann (née Taylor).
  
  wn.com/Margaret_Rutherford
• 
  Marty Feldman
  Martin Alan "Marty" Feldman (8 July 1934 – 2 December 1982) was an English comedy writer, comedian and actor who starred in a series of British television comedy shows, including At Last the 1948 Show, and Marty, which won two BAFTA awards and was the first Saturn Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Young Frankenstein.
  Feldman was born in the East End of London, the son of Jewish immigrants from Kiev. He recalled his childhood as "solitary".
  A BBC documentary also explained that an operation due to his Graves' disease resulted in his eyes being more protruded, together with a squint (strabismus). Leaving school at 15, he worked at the Dreamland fun fair in Margate. By the age of 20, he had decided to pursue a career as a comedian.
  In 1954, Feldman formed a writing partnership with Barry Took. They wrote situation comedies such as The Army Game and Bootsie and Snudge for British television, and the BBC radio show Round the Horne, which starred Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams. This put Feldman and Took "in the front rank of comedy writers" (Denis Norden).
  
  wn.com/Marty_Feldman
• 
  Nicky Campbell
  Nicholas Andrew Argyll "Nicky" Campbell (born 10 April 1961) is a Scottish radio and television presenter and journalist. He is known for his time presenting on programmes such as the consumer affairs programme Watchdog. He also presented the gameshow Wheel of Fortune from 1988 to 1996 and currently presents both the BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast programme and BBC One's flagship faith and ethics show The Big Questions.
  Campbell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was adopted as a four-day old baby, and was educated at the independent school Edinburgh Academy. Its former pupils include Robert Louis Stevenson and Magnús Magnússon. His adoptive mother was a psychiatric social worker and his adoptive father a publisher of maps.
  After graduating from the University of Aberdeen with a 2:1 in history, he toyed with ideas of becoming an actor and got involved in commercial production for radio in order to gain his Equity card. At university, his best friend had been the actor Iain Glen. He worked at Northsound Radio in Aberdeen from 1981 to 1985, first as a jingle writer, before going on to host the breakfast show.
  
  wn.com/Nicky_Campbell
• 
  Peter Cook
  Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. Cook has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath", although his work was also controversial. Cook was closely associated with anti-establishment comedy which emerged in Britain and the United States in the late 1950s.
  Cook was born at his parents' house "Shearbridge", in Middle Warberry Road, Torquay, Devon. He was the only son and eldest of the three children of Alexander Edward (Alec) Cook (1906–1984), a colonial civil servant, and his wife Ethel Catherine Margaret, née Mayo (1908–1994). He was educated at Radley College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied French and German. As a student, Cook initially intended to become a career diplomat like his father, but Britain "had run out of colonies", as he put it. Although politically largely apathetic, particularly in later life when he displayed a deep distrust of politicians of all hues, he did join the Cambridge University Liberal Club.
  
  wn.com/Peter_Cook
• 
  Petula Clark
  Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress and composer whose career has spanned eight decades.
  Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1950s she started recording in French and having international success in both French and English, with such songs as "The Little Shoemaker", "Baby Lover", "With All My Heart" and "Prends Mon Coeur". During the 1960s she became known globally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "Colour My World", "A Sign of the Times", and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". She has sold in excess of 68 million records throughout her career.
  Born to English father Leslie Norman Clark and Welsh mother Doris (née Phillips), both nurses at Long Grove Hospital, in Epsom, Surrey, England, she was christened Petula Sally Olwen Clark. Her father Leslie coined her first name, jokingly alleging it was a combination of the names of two former girlfriends, Pet and Ulla. As a child, she sang in the chapel choir and showed a talent for mimicry, frequently impersonating Vera Lynn, Carmen Miranda and Sophie Tucker for the amusement of family and friends. Her father introduced her to theatre when he took her to see Flora Robson in a 1938 production of Mary Tudor; she later recalled that after the performance "I made up my mind then and there I was going to be an actress ... I wanted to be Ingrid Bergman more than anything else in the world." However, her first public performances were as a singer, performing with an orchestra in the entrance hall of Bentall's Department Store in Kingston upon Thames for a tin of toffee and a gold wristwatch, in 1939.
  
  wn.com/Petula_Clark
• Ray Galton
  Ray Galton OBE (born 17 July 1930), and Alan Simpson OBE (born 27 November 1929), are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based. They are best known for their work with comedian Tony Hancock on radio and television between 1954 and 1961, and their long-running television situation comedy, Steptoe and Son, eight series of which were aired between 1962 and 1974.
  The partnership's break in comedy writing came with the Derek Roy vehicle Happy Go Lucky, although this was not a success. The Hancock connection began with their involvement with later radio variety series, and from November 1954 continued with Hancock's Half Hour on radio; a series featuring their scripts for Hancock ran on television between 1956 and 1961. In October that year Hancock ended his professional relationship with the writers, and with Beryl Vertue who worked with the writers' at their agency Associated London Scripts. This writers' co-operative had been founded by Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan, with others involved, including Hancock for a time.
  
  wn.com/Ray_Galton
• 
  Serge Gainsbourg
  Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg (French pronunciation: [sɛʁʒ ɡɛ̃sbuʁ]; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer, songwriter, poet, composer, artist, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize. His legacy has been firmly established, and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.
  He was born Lucien Ginsburg in Paris, France, the son of Russian Jewish emigrants, Joseph Ginsburg (28 December 1898, Kharkov (Ukraine) – 22 April 1971) and Olga Bessman (1894 – 16 March 1985), who fled to France after the 1917 Russian Revolution. He had a twin sister, Liliane. His childhood was profoundly affected by the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, during which he and his family, as Jews, were forced to wear the yellow star and eventually flee Paris. Before he was 30 years old, Gainsbourg was a disillusioned painter, but earned his living as a piano player in bars.
  He first married Elisabeth "Lize" Levitsky on 3 November 1951, and divorced her in 1957. He married a second time on 7 January 1964, to Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi (b. 28 July 1931), with whom he had two children: a daughter named Natacha (b. 8 August 1964) and a son, Paul (born in spring 1968, after Serge had gotten back together with Béatrice). They divorced in February 1966.
  
  wn.com/Serge_Gainsbourg
• 
  Steve Martin
  Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, author, playwright, producer, musician and composer. Martin came to public notice as a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.
  Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor in both comedic and dramatic roles, as well as an author, playwright, pianist, and banjo player, eventually earning Emmy, Grammy, and American Comedy awards, among other honors.
  
  wn.com/Steve_Martin
• Sunny Rogers
  Sunny Rogers (May 10, 1913–December 30, 2005) was an English entertainer best known for her work with comedian Frankie Howerd.
  Rogers was born Jessie Mary Rogerson in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. Her nickname "Sunny" comes from her constant smiling. When attending the Welbeck Street Primary School, the headmistress wrote to her parents saying that "You really should consider sending little Jessie for dancing lessons as she entertains us all day with her singing and dancing."
  Rogers began as a dancer at The Trocadaro in London and then joined the Tiller Girls; she went on from there to become a choreographer and producer of floor shows.
  With her deadpan comedy expression, she became the long-suffering sidekick of Frankie Howerd, a role she played for over 35 years. She was his accompanying pianist who would be continually mocked by the comedian ("She's deaf you know - can't hear a word - poor old soul!"). One of the best examples of her work with the star is the Channel 4 hour-long special "Superfrank!" recorded in 1986.
  
  wn.com/Sunny_Rogers
• Vince Powell
  Vince Powell (6 August 1928 – 13 July 2009) was a British television writer.
  Powell was born as Vincent Smith to Roman Catholic parents in Miles Platting, Manchester. When he was five, his mother died; two years later, his father remarried. Powell was best known as a British sitcom creator and television writer, active at ITV from the mid-1960s.
  With his writing partner, Harry Driver (1931–1973), Powell created and wrote 11 sitcoms for ITV in an eight-year period, including the successful shows Bless This House and Love Thy Neighbour, though other writers contributed scripts to both series. The latter programme, according to The Times, was "intended to debunk racial stereotypes but came to be widely condemned for doing exactly the opposite. ... Powell and Driver were not racists, they merely tried to poke fun at racial bigotry in an era before political correctness would have made such a show impossible."
  Other popular series created and written by them for ITV include:
  After Driver's death, Powell created Mind Your Language (1977–79, 1986). He also penned a number of scripts for the popular 1980s sitcom Never the Twain (1981–91) starring Windsor Davies and Donald Sinden, also for Thames Television, writing all of the final episodes from 1989 to 1991. Plus he wrote 3 series (20 episodes) of the Radio 2 sitcom For Better Or For Worse, starring Gorden Kaye and Su Pollard, between 1993 and 1996.
  
  wn.com/Vince_Powell

• It's All Right with Me
• Song & Dance Man

Born: 1917-03-06

Died: 1992-04-19

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001