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Birthday:
03-30-1922
Deathday:
09-13-2009 (87 years)
Birthplace:
Harwell, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Biography
Felix Hervè Talbot Bowness was an English comedy actor best remembered for his portrayal of the jockey Fred Quilley in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.
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Their works
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Mary Millington's World Striptease Extravaganza
Act like Audience Member
event1981 star_border 1
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As a 'tribute' to the late Mary Millington, a bunch of would-be strippers compete in London to become the 'World's Best'. Blue comedian Bernie Winters punctuates the action with a load of dirty jokes.
80,000 Suspects
Act like Wellford
event1963 star_border 6.5
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A doctor's already-shaky marriage is tested to an even greater extent when he has to contend with a smallpox epidemic.
Hi-De-Hi!: All the Laughs & More
Act like Self (archive footage)
event2022 star_border 8
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A celebration of the much-loved holiday camp sitcom, featuring classic scenes and interviews with members of cast and crew including Su Pollard, Ruth Madoc, Jeffrey Holland, Paul Shane and Jimmy Perry. The programme reveals that Butlin's, the real-life inspiration for the series, were not impressed with the show, and there are backstage secrets, such as the day several cast members nearly drowned in the swimming pool
Blobbyvision
event1994
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Mr Blobby displays his skills as only he can in 'Blobbywatch', 'Blindblob', 'Masterblob' and 'Blobstand'.
Benny Hill: The Lost Years - Benny and the Jests
Act like Various
event2000 star_border 9
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Part 2 of 3, featuring sketches never broadcast in America, this hilarious medley contains vintage material from Benny when his cheeky humor established him as one of England's funniest - and naughtiest - comedians. Filled with riotous musical send-ups, fractured fairy tales, wacky commercial spoofs and pitch-perfect impressions, this collection captures the vast range of one of England's most inspired comics!
Benny Hill: The Lost Years - Bennies from Heaven
Act like Various
event2000 star_border 9
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Part 1 of 3, featuring sketches never broadcast in America, this hilarious medley contains vintage material from Benny when his cheeky humor established him as one of England's funniest - and naughtiest - comedians. Filled with riotous musical send-ups, fractured fairy tales, wacky commercial spoofs and pitch-perfect impressions, this collection captures the vast range of one of England's most inspired comics!
Queen of the Blues
Act like Eddie
event1979 star_border 2.4
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A seedy striptease club in London's West End becomes the target for unpleasant crooks.
Dad's Army
(2 ep.)
event1968 star_border 7.4
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Introducing the Walmington-On-Sea home guard. During WW2, in a fictional British seaside town, a ragtag group of Home Guard local defense volunteers prepare for an imminent German invasion.
Are You Being Served?
Act like Customer (2 ep.)
event1972 star_border 7.2
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This comedy series, which follows the exploits of employees at London's fictional "Grace Brothers" department store, is full of sexual innuendo, slapstick, visual gags, and double entendres. Much of the show's humor parodies Britain's class system, and many of the show's characters are based on stereotypes of the period, including the effeminate Mr. Humphries and the rich, but stingy, store owner.
The Brittas Empire
Act like Workman (1 ep.)
event1991 star_border 6.6
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The Brittas Empire is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie plays Gordon Brittas, the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre.
The show ran for seven series and 53 episodes — including two Christmas specials — from 1991 to 1997 on BBC1. Norriss and Fegen wrote the first five series, after which they left the show.
The Brittas Empire enjoyed a long and successful run throughout the 1990s, and gained itself large mainstream audiences. In 2004 the show came 47th on the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom poll, and all series have been released on DVD.
The creators Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen often combine farce with either surreal or dramatic elements in episodes. For example in the first series, the leisure centre prepares for a royal visit, only for the doors to seal, the boiler room to flood and a visitor to become electrocuted. Unlike the traditional sitcom, deaths were quite common in The Brittas Empire.
Hi-de-Hi!
Act like Fred Quilley (58 ep.)
event1981 star_border 7
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Hi-de-Hi! is a British sitcom set in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, during 1959 and 1960, and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum amongst others. It aired on the BBC from 1980 to 1988.
The series revolved around the lives of the camp's management and entertainers, most of them struggling actors or has-beens.
The inspiration was the experience of writers Perry and Croft: after being demobilised from the army, Perry was a Redcoat at Butlin's, Pwllheli during the holiday season.
The series gained large audiences and won a BAFTA as Best Comedy Series in 1984. In 2004, it came 40th in Britain's Best Sitcom and in a 2008 poll on Channel 4, 'Hi-de-Hi!" was voted the 35th most popular comedy catchphrase.
Oh, Doctor Beeching!
(19 ep.)
event1996 star_border 7.3
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Oh, Doctor Beeching! is a British television sitcom
The Goodies
(1 ep.)
event1970 star_border 7.5
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A British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s, combining surreal sketches and situation comedy.
Hannay
(2 ep.)
event1988 star_border 5
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Hannay was a 1988 spin-off from the 1978 film version of John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps which had starred Robert Powell as Richard Hannay.
In the series, Powell reprised the role of Hannay, an Edwardian mining engineer from Rhodesia of Scottish origin. It features his adventures in pre-World War I Great Britain. These stories had little in common with John Buchan's novels about the character, although some character names are taken from his other novels.
There were two series, the first with six episodes, the second with seven. The combined 13 episodes ran for a total of 652 minutes.
One episode, A Point of Honour, was based on a story of the same name by Dornford Yates that appeared in his 1914 book The Brother of Daphne, although Yates was not credited.
Another episode used a plot device from the Leslie Charteris Saint story The Unblemished Bootlegger, from the 1933 book The Brighter Buccaneer, again uncredited.
The Growing Pains of PC Penrose
Act like Wally Threadgold (1 ep.)
event1975 star_border 5.5
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Earnest new recruit PC Penrose has left his home town and joined the force in the Yorkshire town of Slagcaster. He's young and naive but seasoned officer Sergeant Flagg takes him under his wing and shows him the ropes, though his methods can be a little unconventional.
Cilla
Act like Self (2 ep.)
event1968 star_border 10
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A mostly live weekly entertainment show starring Cilla Black and her special guests.
Sykes
Act like Delivery Man (1 ep.)
event1972 star_border 6.4
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Classic sitcom starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques as brother and sister twins who have to tackle the trials and tribulations of suburban life.
You Rang, M'Lord?
Act like Mr. Pearson (4 ep.)
event1990 star_border 7.4
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You Rang, M'Lord? is a British comedy series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC. The show was a comedy set in the house of an aristocratic family in the 1920s, contrasting the upper-class family and their servants in a house in London, along the same lines as the popular drama Upstairs, Downstairs.
The series featured many actors who had also appeared in their earlier series, notably Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland and Su Pollard, all of whom had previously been in Perry and Croft's holiday camp sitcom, Hi-de-Hi!. Also featured were Donald Hewlett and Michael Knowles from Perry and Croft's It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and Bill Pertwee and occasionally Frank Williams from Dad's Army. The memorable 1920s-style theme tune was sung by Bob Monkhouse.
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