A man who always seems to be clad in either a toga or a long coat (or, at the end of The...
From a theatre perspective (darling) a career of untold promise cut short in the 1960s by a descent into alcoholism that ruined...
Even where none was present on his noggin, the dogged, moustachioed and often terminally repressed characters in which James Cossins specialised always...
Not one for our own personal Hall of Fame, but nominations came in from several friends of the Unusual Stain, including Steve...
We’ll pause for thirty seconds here to get the words ‘eyebrow’ and ‘creaky’ out of the way. Say what you like about...
Ach, it’s a pain writing billings for the more well-known stars, as you’ll know everything already. (‘A milkman, you say? Well, never...
Ah, ‘The Stranger in our Midst’. The mask behind the mask. His own name escapes him. The only role that was beyond...
‘I’ve been number two in films for donkey’s years,’ quoth the stalwart support actor’s stalwart support actor, and he was right. Not...
His stentorian bronchial tones have been the source material for a thousand shite after dinner impressions, but no matter, for his on-screen...
It’s not easy to make a successful career out of being a grumpy, permanently annoyed buffoon. Just ask John Prescott [SATIRE] but...
The hinterland of the sex comedy may have meant that superbly lunatic Charles Murray’s film career will never be pondered by wonks...
Not many film actors can say they have come to the sound stage from a position of pre-eminence in not only the...
If an Australian film doesn’t have Bud Tingwell in it, it could at least have the grace to include the other prop...
Let’s be perfectly blunt here; if a film doesn’t have Bud Tingwell in it, then it isn’t a proper Australian film. Even...
Bless little Cyril, he was hardly out of a labcoat in films long enough to get any other sort of part. Or...
Being remembered only for Withnail & I is a brutal testament. PolPot might be more pleased with his legacy. But unfortunately for...
The celebrated wine bibber and talky-singer is now inextricably linked, thanks to wet bank holidays innumerable, with his gruff attempts at carrying...
Or Jimmy Stewart as was. And just like his transatlantic namesake, he was the finest example of the old fashioned, clean cut...
‘The clergy’s loss was the stage’s gain!’ ‘Which one was he, again?’ Ah, to be a Grand Old Man of the stage...
Easily forgotten (by Americans, at least) that he was an Ulverston lad, but the heavy reliance that Hollywood film comedy had on...
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush”, “To Sir With Love”, “Prudence And The Pill”, “Percy’s Progress”, “Doomwatch”, “Dominique” (“will make you...
A genius. No, really. And we don’t even feel the need to preface that with the mealy-mouthed ‘of course, the word “genius”...
Long before he donned an ill-fitting rug and stepped gamely into the tape-measure-wielding breach when Mr Grainger no longer found himself free,...
Actor or novelist? Dandy or raconteur? The British Rock Hudson or John Sessions in a Panama hat? The public may never have...
If you’re going to set up your own production company, make it a punning one. And so Albert did, his Memorial Enterprises...
We can only presume that Carmichael’s celestial briar is fuming at the sought not to mention sound of the clodhopping ‘teen’ remake...
Okay, so there are two contenders for the crown of greatest ever film star if we whittle it down to a straight...
Actual proper genius runs anyone whose name might be raised as a contender for best film star of all time – fact!...
David Cronenberg wishes he had anything as scary as Renee Houston in his films. Music hall comedy act (no easy job for...
If Margaret Rutherford was the female equivalent of a galleon in full sail, Peggy Mount was the Bismarck. In the films she...
For many years on celluloid, supercilliousness had a name, and it’s name was Patrick Cargill. The debonair, cravat-bound old rogue smirked his...
Siren of the 60s, former Miss Norway became the woman that, given the endless lewd mentions of her in The Goon Show,...
Useless at almost everything he did, or was purported to do – ‘photographer’ it often said on the card, though we’ve never...
Oozing charm from every pore he oiled his way across the floor, to purloin a phrase from a small time musical, Dinsdale...
One of the legion of unknown, unremembered and unnamed supporting actors that littered films of all shades up until the world went...
No-one really knew quite what to do with Dennis Price, did they? The poshly sardonic one never fitted in at the House...
The Cosmic Wheels really were coming off Donovan's wagon by the early seventies.
'Coming Of Age' dramas about young men seeking their identity in the dying days of the sexual revolution were pretty much ten...
Gentle tale of one man's psychologically questionable close tie with an otter set in the backdrop of a swoonsome Scottish village.
Aloof, rouged and razor cheeked, a would-be heiress but instead reluctant makeshift Governess (Valerie Hobson) arrives at Claire estate to help run...
For some reason, loads of light-hearted oriental action comedy fare seems to get marketed over here with the C-O prefix – Carry...
People tend to remember this as a Sid ‘n’ Babs romp, but it’s Ronald ‘Don’t talk to me about unemployment, young man’...
Aka – wait for it – Carry On, Nurse On Wheels. Oh, yes. This Rogers/Thomas extra-currucular romp (it even has Norman Hudis...
Largely forgotten, thanks to a mystifying lack of commercial release on VHS, Beta or DVD. But should it be Certainly the cast...
Horror paperback editor Kenneth Connor and bookie Sid James are challenged by Donald Pleasence to spend a night in a haunted house...
Carry On meets the nouvelle vague? Sort of. Bob Monkhouse and Alfred Marks are two down-at-heel brothers competing to do in their...
It gets more convoluted still. This sanitorium-based whimsy started life as ‘Ring for Catty’, a (fairly) serious Patrick ‘Wives’ Cargill play, before...
Aka, er, Roommates. But this slight music college tale has Sid, Kenny, Jim Dale and Liz Fraser (plus Esma ‘Flo’ Cannon!), mixed...
Aka, would you believe it, Carry On TV. In some circles, at least. This is the second and best of the orthodontic...
Aka, confusingly enough, Carry On Admiral. (It is, it is!) Based on another creaky old stage farce, Something About a Sailor, and...
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