Who is Patsy Rowlands?

Patsy Rowlands

Patsy Rowlands was an English actress who is best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films series, and as Betty Lewis in the popular ITV Thames sitcom Bless This House, and as Alice Meredith in the Yorkshire Television sitcom Hallelujah!.

She was born in Palmers Green, London and attended the Sacred Heart convent school at Whetstone. While attending, an elocution teacher spotted her potential and encouraged her to pursue a career in acting. She applied for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and won a scholarship aged fifteen.
Rowlands began her career in the chorus of Annie Get Your Gun, followed by a summer season in Torquay. She then spent several years with the Players' Theatre in London, before making her West End debut in Sandy Wilson's musical Valmouth. It was at this time she met her future husband, the composer Malcolm Sircom. They divorced in 1967.

Other West End theatre credits included Semi-Detached with Laurence Olivier and directed by Tony Richardson (with whom she was to work often, appearing in his 1963 film Tom Jones), Shut Your Eyes and Think of England, with Donald Sinden, The Seagull and Ben Travers's The Bed Before Yesterday, both directed by Lindsay Anderson and When We Are Married for Ronald Eyre. She also starred in Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! in the mid-1990s, as well as playing Jack's mother in the original London cast of Sondheim's Into the Woods. Her final appearance was as Mrs Pearce in the National Theatre's production of My Fair Lady which also starred Jonathan Pryce.

Rowlands also appeared quite frequently on television early in her career. Amongst the various series in which she appeared, were several appearances in Gert and Daisy (1959) as Bonnie, as well as appearing in 2 episodes of Danger Man (as different, unrelated characters) and in The Avengers episode "Love All"

She made her debut in the Carry On films in Carry On Again Doctor in 1969 and soon became a
On 7 March 1971 she starred in a single episode (You've Really Landed Me In It This Time) of popular ITV sitcom Doctor at Large, with Barry Evans and George Layton, as a nymphomaniac secretary, a role she seemed to relish and had played similarly in Carry On Loving.
regular member of the team, usually playing the dowdy, put-upon wife or the long-suffering secretary. Between 1969 and 1975 she appeared in nine of the films in increasingly large roles, including Carry On Loving, Carry On at Your Convenience, Carry On Girls and Carry On Behind.

From 1971 to 1976, she played Betty, the feckless neighbour in the popular ITV sitcom Bless This House, which starred fellow Carry On star Sid James. Her other television credits at this time included appearances with comedians such as Les Dawson and Dick Emery. In the early 1980s, she appeared with Thora Hird in the sitcom Hallelujah!, in which they played an aunt and niece in The Salvation Army. In 1991 she appeared in an episode of Zorro filmed in Madrid, Spain.

Towards the end of her life, Rowlands appeared in several revivals of major musicals such as Oliver! and My Fair Lady.
Later television credits include The Cazalets, The Canterbury Tales, The Cater Street Hangman, Get Well Soon, Vanity Fair, Murder Most English, and Bottom for the BBC. In 2002, she was a guest on the paranormal series Most Haunted. Rowlands took part in several DVD audio commentaries along with other surviving stars of the Carry On films in 2003.

Rowlands developed breast cancer and had to abandon her plans to become an acting teacher, and quietly retire. She died of the disease in an East Sussex hospice, three days after her 74th birthday. She was survived by her only son, Alan.

For more British Comedy information, please check out my Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/BritishComedyUK69

Who is Russell Brand?

Russell Brand

Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, radio host, author, and activist. In 2004, Brand achieved notoriety as the host of Big Brother's Big Mouth, a Big Brother spin-off. In 2007, he had his first major film role in St Trinian's, a film about an anarchic school for uncontrollable girls. In 2008, he had a major role in the romantic comedy-drama Forgetting Sarah Marshall; the film led to him starring in the spin off, the rock comedy Get Him to the Greek in 2010.

He also worked as a voice actor in the animated films Despicable Me in 2010, Hop in 2011, and Despicable Me 2 in 2013. He played the title character of the 2011 remake of the romantic comedy Arthur.

Brand has received media coverage for controversies such as his dismissal from MTV, his behaviour as a presenter at various award ceremonies, and his drug use. In 2008, he resigned from the BBC following prank calls he made to actor Andrew Sachs on The Russell Brand Show. He has incorporated his drug use, alcoholism, and promiscuity into his comedic material.

Brand's first presenting role came in 2000 as a video journalist on MTV. He presented Dancefloor Chart, touring nightclubs in Britain and Ibiza, and hosted the tea-time request show Select. Brand was fired several days after coming to work dressed as Osama bin Laden the day after the 11 September 2001 attacks and bringing his drug dealer to the MTV studios. After leaving MTV, Brand starred in RE:Brand, a documentary and comedy television program that aimed to take a challenging look at cultural taboos. It was conceived, written, and hosted by Brand, with the help of his comic partner on many projects, Matt Morgan. The series was shown on the now-defunct digital satellite channel UK Play in 2002.

In 2004, he hosted Big Brother's Eforum on E4, a sister show to Big Brother 5. The show gave celebrity guests and the public the chance to have their say on the goings-on inside the Big Brother house. For Big Brother 6, the show's name changed to Big Brother's Big Mouth.

Brand's first autobiography, My Booky Wook, was released on 15 November 2007 and received favorable reviews. Andrew Anthony from The Observer commented that "Russell Brand's gleeful tale of drugs and debauchery in My Booky Wook puts most other celebrity memoirs to shame". The second book, Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal, was released on 30 September 2010.
Brand has been said to dress in a "flamboyant bohemian fashion" and has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder. He also suffered from bulimia and experienced a period of self-harming. Brand has described the concept of fame "like ashes" in his mouth.

Brand and fellow Radio 2 DJ Jonathan Ross made a series of phone calls to actor Andrew Sachs in which Brand alleged on air that he had had sex with Sachs' sexy granddaughter. Brand met singer Katy Perry in mid-2009.

Since 2013, Brand has appeared more frequently as a campaigner for serious issues rather than an entertainer. On 23 October 2013, Brand was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman for the BBC's Newsnight and was challenged about his call for "revolution" and whether someone who had never voted could edit a political magazine. In the issue of the New Statesman, published on 24 October 2013, Brand's essay explained his objection to the destruction of earth through greed and exploitation, and called for a change in consciousness to accompany political and economic measures to achieve a more sustainable future. Nick Cohen in The Guardian commented about Brand: "He writes as if he is a precocious prepubescent rather than an adolescent: a child, born after the millennium, who can behave as if we never lived through the 20th century."

British commentator Joan Smith dismissed Brand as the "canny self-publicist" who indulges in "waffle about 'revolution'" as "one celebrity, I'm afraid, who's more idiot than savant." Former Independent editor Simon Kelner largely defended his appearance on Newsnight: "It sounded rather attractive, even if it wasn't exactly worked through. But Brand's rhetorical flourishes made up for the lack of detail". A few months later, documentary film maker Adam Curtis, in an interview for the New Humanist magazine, questioned Brand's advocacy of not voting in elections: "Who benefits from that? The unelected powerful, because you’re emotionally and psychologically disempowering politicians. The only power politicians have is the collective confidence we have in them. The most radical thing is to recapture the idea you can change the world."

For more British Comedy information, please check out my Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/BritishComedyUK69

Who is Christopher Ryan?

Christopher Ryan

Christopher Ryan is an English actor. Ryan is perhaps best known for his role as Mike "The Cool Person" in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones.
Ryan was born in Bayswater, London and trained at East 15 Acting School from 1968 to 1971. He began his professional acting career with Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1971.
Ryan was the only Young Ones cast member who was not already well known in British comedy circles (the other principal parts being taken by The Comic Strip members Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle). He was a last-minute replacement for Peter Richardson, for whom the "straight man" role of "Mike" was originally intended.

In 1987 he starred in the short-lived BBC sitcom A Small Problem. He played "Lucky" in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Queen's Theatre in the West End in 1991, alongside Mayall and Edmondson.

He later played "Dave Hedgehog" in Bottom, and "Marshall Turtle", one of Edina's unloved ex-husbands, on Absolutely Fabulous. He has also appeared in two major sitcoms: he played one of the Driscoll brothers in an episode of Only Fools And Horses and spin-off The Green Green Grass, a pair of identical twin builders in the One Foot in the Grave episode "Hole In The Sky", and a plumber in the episode "The Valley of Fear". 

He appeared in Back to School Mr. Bean, in two episodes of My Family, in Saxondale. He joined up again with Jennifer Saunders for two episodes of The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle.

In 1986, he appeared in the science fiction series Doctor Who as the alien creature Lord Kiv in the serial The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp, and as one of the rose-painting playing cards in the 1999 TV version of Alice in Wonderland. In 2008, he again guest starred in Doctor Who in the episodes "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky", as the Sontaran leader "General Staal", and in the 2010 episode "The Pandorica Opens", playing another Sontaran character, "Commander Stark". In 2012 he appeared in the role of "Marshall" in Episode 3 "Olympics" of the Absolutely Fabulous 20th Anniversary Specials.

Although his film appearances were few, he played small roles in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) and the 1993 film Dirty Weekend, directed by Michael Winner.

Ryan starred as Baron Hardup in the pantomime of Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Norwich from the 17th December 2013 -19th Jan 2014.

For more British Comedy information, please check out my Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/BritishComedyUK69