It's become a cliché in Britain to call somebody in the entertainment field a national institution -- but that's exactly what Dawn French is. As both comedienne and actress (the latter in both comedy and straight parts), she has become one of the best loved entertainers in the country. Her range is not wide (unlike her dimensions -- and that's the sort of joke she’d crack), but she is utterly winning...
If you liked Julie Walters in any of her work, Mrs O on stage or screen, Billy Elliot, Mrs Weasley in the well known Harry Potter films, Rita (the first and best), Petula Gordino or any number of fantastic characters then this is the book for you.
This is the story behind the characters. I knew very little about said author, the bare minimum of being with Grant (though how they got together...
Just Me
Before I got as far as hearing any of it, I was slightly frustrated at having to go around trying every CD player in the house, as there was no mention on either the cover, or the Amazon description, that this was not suited to certain players. It played on 2 computers, and my clock/radio/CD, but would not play on my DVD player, nor 2 other CD players, one of which was brand new. A Bloomsbury...
Paul O'Grady, apart from being one of Britain's best loved entertainers, is a classic example of reinvention, as At My Mother’s Knee demonstrates. The young Liverpool entertainer, an altar boy from Irish Catholic Birkenhead, becomes the acid-tongued and outrageous drag queen Lily Savage, and moves from gay pubs to national television, creating something of a British comic institution en route...
Like so many other reviewers, I couldn't put this book down. I read it on Boxing day and my partner kept giving me funny looks when I was chuckling away to myself at Alan's antics.
Alan's story goes to show that there are good times and bad times when you're a struggling artiste, but that he made it because of (and not despite) his slightly goofy look and camp, high pitched voice.
A fantastic,...
Travelled almost 400 miles to see Sir Roger and get the book signed at Waterstones in Castle Street, Norwich, then queued for around 2 hours where we were given raffle tickets to get in. The first 200 were guaranteed, and only 300 would be done. After being handed a set of ''rules" namely no pictures, no dedications, no talking, virtually no nothing we were regimented through the store and got all...
Gavin and Stacey has been something of a little phenomenon, winning awards aplenty and appealing to a wide cross-section of ages. Its success lies in creating a skewed but completely believable world populated by eccentric but lovable characters. Its essential sweetness is ideal for disguising the odd completely filthy gag or piercing satirical observation (the surnames of Gavin and Stacey being Shipman...
Yet again another attempt of a painfully poor, talentless Z list celebrity to cash in. Rather than create sympathy, it made me loathe this imbecile even more.
As many have said in these pages, he does not reveal all, but what he does reveal is enough to start the ball rolling and get you thinking in ways that you woud not have done.
Of course he will not give everything away, that would spoilt it for us all (although I would really like to know how he does these things!).
