Who is Michael Robbins?

Michael Robbins was an English actor and comedian best known for his on-going role as Arthur Rudge in the TV sitcom and film versions of On the Buses (1969–72).

Born in London, Robbins was a bank clerk who became an actor after appearing in amateur dramatic performances in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where he and his family lived at the time.

Robbins made his television debut as the cockney soldier in Roll-on Bloomin' Death.

Primarily a comedy actor, he is best remembered for the role of Arthur Rudge, the persistently sarcastic husband of Olive (Anna Karen), in the popular sitcom On the Buses (1969–73). Robbins and Karen provided the secondary comic storyline to Reg Varney's comedy capers at the bus depot. Robbins also appeared in the series film spin-offs, On the Buses, Mutiny on the Buses, and Holiday on the Buses.

His other comedy credits include non-recurring roles in Man About the House, The Good Life, One Foot in the Grave, The New Statesman, George and Mildred, Hi-de-Hi! and You Rang, M'Lord?. He appeared as a rather humorously portrayed police sergeant in the TV adaptation of Brendon Chase.

As well as these comic roles, he assumed various straight roles in some of the major British television shows of the 1960s and 1970s: including Minder, The Sweeney, Z-Cars, Return of the Saint, Murder Most English, The Avengers, Dixon of Dock Green and the 1982 Doctor Who story The Visitation.

Robbins's film credits included The Whisperers, Up The Junction, The Looking Glass War, Zeppelin and Blake Edwards' films The Pink Panther Strikes Again and Victor/Victoria'.
In the mid-1970s he also directed a film: How Are You?

Robbins was an indefatigable worker for charity. He was active in the Grand Order of Water Rats (being elected 'Rat of the Year' in 1978) and the Catholic Stage Guild; and received a Papal Award for his services in 1987.

In one of his last television appearances, in A Little Bit of Heaven Robbins recalled his childhood visits to Norfolk and spoke of his faith and love of the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham.

Robbins was married to actress Hal Dyer until he died from cancer in Caterham, Surrey, aged 62.
Hal Dyer died in 2011 from a brain haemorrhage.
Robbins is survived by his two children and four grandchildren.

Who is Bruce Forsyth?

Bruce Forsyth

Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson CBE was an English presenter, actor, comedian, singer, dancer, and screenwriter whose career spanned more than 75 years.
Forsyth came to national attention from the mid-1950s through the ITV series Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He went on to host several game shows, including The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right, The Price Is Right and You Bet!. He co-presented Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2013.
 
During his spell of hosting Sunday Night at the London Palladium as part of the show he hosted the 15-minute game show Beat the Clock. Forsyth's next success was The Generation Game (BBC1, 1971–1977, 1990–1994), which proved popular and attracted huge Saturday evening audiences. It was on this show that Forsyth introduced his "The Thinker" pose, emulating Rodin's sculpture. He also wrote and sang the theme for the show "Life is the Name of the Game." He was replaced on The Generation Game by Larry Grayson.

He left the BBC in 1978 to present Bruce Forsyth's Big Night, which was also transmitted on Saturday evening, but on rival broadcaster ITV. However, the show was not a success and lasted for just one series. Forsyth remained with ITV, hosting the game show Play Your Cards Right, which was the UK version of the US original Card Sharks, from 1980 to 1987, 1994 to 1999, and a brief period from 2002 to 2003, before the show was cancelled mid-run due to low ratings.
In 1986, he went to the United States to host a game show on ABC, Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. 

Forsyth starred in the Thames Television sitcom Slinger's Day in 1986 and 1987, a sequel to Tripper's Day which had starred Leonard Rossiter, whom Forsyth replaced in the new show. He was the original host of You Bet! (1988 to 1990).

Forsyth fronted the third version of The Price Is Right (1995 to 2001). During the 1970s Forsyth featured in the Stork margarine adverts on television, and then during the 1980s and 1990s he appeared in an advertising campaign for the furniture retailer Courts, in which he dressed as a judge.
In 2003, and again in 2010, Forsyth was a guest presenter on the news and satire quiz show Have I Got News for You. He co-presented Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2013, formally stepping down from hosting the regular live show in April 2014. This decision was made to reduce his workload and for the preparation of pre-recorded specials.




On 7 April 2010, Forsyth became one of the first three celebrities to be subjected to the British version of the American institution of a comedy roast, on Channel 4's A Comedy Roast. Forsyth was the subject of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 19 July 2010. On 20 March 2010, Forsyth appeared on the autobiography-interview programme Piers Morgan's Life Stories, which was broadcast on ITV.In 2011, Forsyth released a collection of songs on CD called These Are My Favourites.
From 1953 until their divorce in 1973, Forsyth was married to Penny Calvert, with whom he had three daughters named Debbie, Julie, and Laura. In 1973, he married Anthea Redfern, the hostess on The Generation Game. They had two daughters, Charlotte and Louisa, before
divorcing in 1979.

Asked to judge the 1980 Miss World competition, Forsyth met Puerto Rican beauty queen Wilnelia Merced, who was a fellow judge. They were married from 1983 until his death in 2017. They had one son together, Jonathan Joseph, better known as "JJ". By his six children, Forsyth had nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Towards the end of his life, Forsyth suffered from ill health, which reduced his appearances in public. On 8 October 2015, he was hospitalized for cuts and a minor concussion after falling at his home, having tripped over a rug and hit his head. A month later, he made his last TV appearance, on Strictly Children in Need Special. Filming took place prior to Forsyth undergoing surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm on 12 November. As a result of his surgery, he was unable to host that year's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special as planned, but a spokesman representing him later stated he would play a part in the production, recording a special video message for it.
After 2015, Forsyth made no further public appearances, as his health began to decline, with his wife commenting that he struggled to move easily following his surgery.

On 18 August 2017, after struggling with further health problems, Forsyth passed away at his Wentworth Estate home, aged 89. Several celebrities paid tribute to Forsyth following his death, including his former Strictly Come Dancing co-host Tess Daly; his friends Michael Parkinson, Jimmy Tarbuck, and Des O'Connor; and the BBC director general Tony Hall. BBC One aired Sir Bruce Forsyth – Mr Entertainment, in place of the scheduled The One Show, in tribute.
RIP Sir Bruce Forsyth TV legend dies aged 89

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Who is Diana Coupland?

Diana Coupland

Diana Coupland was an English actress and singer best remembered for her role as Jean Abbott on Bless This House, which she played from 1971 to 1976

Betty Diana Coupland was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1928, the only child of Elsie and Denis Coupland. She originally wanted to be a ballet dancer, but could not fulfill this ambition due to a horse-riding accident.

Her music career began at the age of 11. Barney Colehan, a BBC producer, heard Coupland sing and invited her onto one of his radio shows. By the time she reached 14, she was singing full-time at the Mecca Locarno in Leeds, and the following year, moved to London with her parents, where she became a resident singer at Mecca's Tottenham Court Road ballroom. During the 1940s and 1950s, she became a leading singer of the day, singing at the Dorchester Hotel and the Savoy Hotel. Coupland also dubbed the singing voices of actresses who could not sing, namely Lana Turner in Betrayed, and was most famously heard performing the song "Under the Mango Tree" in the first James Bond film Dr. No. She gave up professional singing in the 1960s.

Coupland serenades the opening scene of the film Flannelfoot (1953) where she starred as a nightclub singer. In 1959, she was unexpectedly cast by Joan Littlewood as Sally in the Theatre Workshop musical Make Me An Offer, and soon appeared in a number of West End shows including Gigi and Not Now, Darling.

She made her television debut in a 1961 episode of Emergency – Ward 10. Her other early roles were in Dixon of Dock Green, The Wednesday Play, Softly, Softly and Z-Cars. However, after playing a mother in Please Sir! and the Siberian wife in Mel Brooks's film The Twelve Chairs (1970), she gained her when she was cast as Jean Abbott, the long-suffering wife of Sid James's character, in Bless This House, which began its run in February 1971. She reprised the role in the 1972 feature film and continued in the role until James died in 1976. She appeared in a few other films including The Millionairess (1960), The Family Way (1966), Charlie Bubbles (1967), Spring and Port Wine (1969), The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970), The Best Pair of Legs in the Business (1973) and Operation Daybreak (1975).

During the late 1970s and 1980s, Coupland appeared in Wilde Alliance, Triangle, Dickens of London and Juliet Bravo. She was cast in soap opera Triangle after the original actor due to play the owner of the line died. She had been on the set with her husband, a director on the programme, and was offered the part. In 1992, she appeared in an episode of One Foot in the Grave, and in 2000 she had a six-week role as Maureen Carter in EastEnders. Following this, Coupland appeared in Doctors, Casualty and in 2005 Rose and Maloney, her final television appearance.

Diana Coupland married twice. She and her first husband, composer Monty Norman, divorced after 20 years of marriage, having had one daughter. In 2001, she gave evidence in a High Court case after her former husband sued The Sunday Times following a 1997 article suggesting that Norman had falsely taken credit and royalties for the James Bond theme music, which had actually been written by John Barry. Coupland described the article as "blatantly untrue" and her former husband was awarded £30,000.

She married Marc Miller, a producer, in 1980. Coupland, who was a patron of National Lupus UK, died aged 78 at the University Hospital, Coventry in 2006 after failing to recover following an operation to resolve long-term heart problems.

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