The Allisons were a singing duo who represented the UK in the Euovision Song Contest in 1961 with their song “Are You Sure”.
“Wikipedia” entry:
The Allisons were an English pop duo consisting of:
Bob Day (born Bernard Colin Day; 2 February 1941 – 25 November 2013)
John Alford (born Brian Henry John Alford; 31 December 1939)
They were marketed as being brothers, using the surname of Allison.
The Allisons represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 with the song “Are You Sure?“. They came second with 24 points. The song was released as a single on the Fontana Records label, and climbed to number 1 on the UK NMEpop chart. However, the chart compiled by The Official Charts Company shows the song spent six weeks at number 2 and a further three weeks in the top 4. ‘Are You Sure” sold over one million records, earning a gold disc. In Germany the single reached number 11. Despite a couple of minor follow-up hits, the duo disbanded in 1963.
Alford initially tried songwriting, but he and Day teamed up for short tours to keep ‘The Allisons’ name alive. Additionally, in the 1970s and 1980s Alford was joined by other “brothers” — Mike “Allison” and Tony “Allison”. By the 1990s, Day and Alford regularly reunited to perform on the oldies circuit.
Bob Day died on 25 November 2013, aged 71, after a long illness.
The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.
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Jonathan Hyde was born in 1948 in Brisbane, Australia. One of his first roles was in the TV series “The Professionals” in 1978. His movies include “Richie Rich” and “Titanic”. Recently he was featured in the hit British TV series “Endeavour”.
IMDB entry:
Jonathan Hyde was born on May 21, 1948 in Brisbane, Australia. He is an actor, known for Titanic (1997), Jumanji (1995) and The Mummy (1999). He is married to Isobel Buchanan. They have two children.Trade Mark (2) Rich baritone voice Often plays posh upper-class figures Is a respected member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Graduated from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). An Associate Member of Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Is a leading member of the Royal National Theatre Company. Father of actress Georgia King. On the opera visits during his youth: I remember seeing Joan Sutherland sing Semiramide, a wonderful production. Carmen, I remember well, and going to see Robert Speight in “A Man for All Seasons” and then these fantastic trips to Florentino’s. Any boarding school kid really learns the value of good food.
On his role in The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb (2006): And then I went to India to shoot an absolutely ghastly pile of tosh, but we were in Jaipur for seven weeks; I’d never been to India and I found it the most astonishingly beautiful, wonderful and nourishing country I’d ever been to in my life. Thank you very much: where next?
On his role as the Egyptologist in The Mummy (1999):…you end up with a bunch of people who are really fun, and find you are all in Marrakesh for a couple of weeks, then the middle of the desert for five weeks. What could be more wonderful?
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Denholm ElliottRobin And Marian, poster, US poster art, top from left: Robert Shaw, Audrey Hepburn, Sean Connery, bottom from left: Robert Shaw, Nicol Williamson, Denholm Elliott, Ronnie Barker, Kenneth Haigh, Ian Holm, Richard Harris, 1976. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)The Holly And The Ivy, poster, US poster, top from left: Celia Johnson, Ralph Richardson, bottom from left: Denholm Elliott, Margaret Leighton, 1952. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)
Denholm Elliott was born in Ealing, London in 1922. His first major movie role was “The Cruel Sea” in 1953. His other roles include “The Heart of the Matter”, “Trading Places” and “A Room With A View”. He died in 1992.
David Shipman’s “Independent” obituary:
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, actor, born 31 May 1922, CBE 1988, married 1954 Virginia McKenna (marriage dissolved 1957), 1962 Susan Robinson (one son, one daughter), died Ibiza 6 October 1992.A FEW weeks ago, Noises Off limped in and out of some of the country’s cinemas. It had been a co-production between two companies adept at making box- office successes, Disney and Amblin, ie Steven Spielberg, but likely to strike horror into the breasts of the more sensitive of us. In fact, Noises Off was hastily replaced by a revival of Spielberg’s Hook, a film as misconceived as any ever made. On stage, Michael Frayn’s farce ran for several years, and even though he endorsed the film version in a long article in the Observer no one seemed to believe him. The few of us who did see it laughed immoderately – and one of its joys was the wonderful teamwork of a cast including Michael Caine and Carol Burnett, Christopher Reeve and Denholm Elliott. Elliott was in his element as an ageing British actor (the rest of the cast, except Caine, played Americans), prone to tipple, forget his lines and turn up in the wrong place at the wrong time. As so often with this actor he stole every scene in which he appeared.
After an unhappy childhood, he studied acting at RADA (on the advice of his psychiatrist), but he left after a year. He spent the war with the RAF, and it was his three years as a prisoner of war in Germany, playing in amateur productions, which intensified his interest in acting. He began his career in 1945 and went in to high gear when Laurence Olivier selected him to play his son in Christopher Fry’s comedy, Venus Observed, in 1950. Later that year, Elliott went to New York to play the dual role – done by Paul Scofield in London – in Fry’s adaption of Anouilh’s Ring Round the Moon. Both performances won awards for Elliott, who had already made his film debut in Dear Mr Prohack in 1949, based on a novel by Arnold Bennett. Cecil Parker played the title-role and Elliott was a minor civil servant who marries his daughter, Sheila Sim.
His performance suggested a career as a character actor, as did the one he gave as Ralph Richardson’s cowardly son in The Sound Barrier (1952) but the acclaim in London and New York brought him some straight leading roles, as in The Cruel Sea (1953), as the officer married to a two-timing actress (Moira Lister). He was much better cast as the civil servant who cuckolds Trevor Howard in The Heart of the Matter (1953), but in Lease of Life (1954) and The Man Who Loved Redheads (1954) he was merely just another jeune premier. He was not movie-star material, as he proved in the lead of Pacific Destiny (1956), based on Sir Arthur Grimble’s autobiography, A Pattern of Islands. Elliott’s rather remote, semi-aristocratic style (though this he would late use to good advantage) were never likely to make him a popular stage favourite. This he realised, continuing to act on the stage, notably in TS Eliot’s The Confidential Clerk in 1953 and in Tennessee Williams’s Camino Real in 1957.
The film offers became thin on the ground with the advent of Albert Finney and a sturdier kind of British hero. What changed Elliott’s career was a king-sized character role in Nothing but the Best (1964), a title which referred to what Alan Bates wanted, as he looks for his ‘room at the top’. However, this was not John Braine rehashed, but a clever social satire by Frederic Raphael, with Elliott wonderfully cast as the black sheep of an aristocratic family. Bates realises that the Elliott character can teach him much of what he needs to know in his ascent and Elliott, who has little of his past except a monthly cheque, is happy to accept. The film was directed by Clive Donner, but when he tackled something similar later, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, the result was disastrous. Elliott this time played the father of the girlfriend of the man on the make, Barry Evans, and was briefly amusing as the wine-snob given to chasing the maid. He did his first film in Hollywood, King Rat (1965), as one of the most cynical of the prisoners, but it was his role as a sleazy back-street abortionist in Alfie (1966) which really attracted national attention. He returned to Hollywood to play a self-appointed vice-finder in The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968). He had established himself in light villainy, and although too varied as an actor to be type-cast he was seldom to escape from this, but he did in Sidney Lumet’s film of Chekhov’s The Seagull (1968), in which he was the doctor.
He had a leading role in Patrick Garland’s version of A Doll’s House (1973), with Claire Bloom, as Krogstad, the conniving bank official aiming to replace Torvald (Anthony Hopkins), but was back on familiar ground with The Apprentice of Duddy Kravitz (1974), as a drunken has-been British director ‘used’ by Richard Dreyfuss in his rise to the top. He worked almost non-stop in films thereafter, in parts big and small, and the latter would include Harrison Ford’s academic superior in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and the second of its sequels, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Among the larger ones was the immensely snooty but bribable butler in Trading Places (1983) and Mr Emerson in A Room wth a View (1986): perhaps because this last was an unexpectedly big success Elliott was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor, but by the time the director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala had finished with Forster’s novel even an actor of Elliott’s skill could not make the character anything but unfathomable.
Apart from Noises Off, perhaps his best screen work during the last decade was as an ageing but brave Fleet Street hack in Defence of the Realm (1985). Gabriel Byrne, who played the lead, observed: ‘I amended the actor’s cliche to ‘Never work with children, animals or Denholm Elliott’.’
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Blythe Duff was born in 1962 in East Kilbride, Scotland. She is best known for her performance as D.I. Jackie Reid in the long running television series “Taggart”. She has worked extensively on the stage.
“Express” article on Life Choices from 2009:
FoodAlways the same or always game?
I’m much more adventurous than when I was younger. I used to be a fussy eater but having travelled a lot I’m much better now. In the past three years I’ve cut some things out of my diet like red meat and tomatoes and feel better for it. I have a tendency to find something I like then eat it all the time. At the moment it’s pesto.
Cooking
Experimental or tried and tested?
Neither. I can’t cook at all. I’ve no interest in cooking but I don’t have to because my husband loves cooking and one of my stepdaughtersis following in his footsteps. Between the two of them I get cared for. Tuna and mayonnaise or a toastie are my limits. Why do something if you’re no good at it?
HolidaysBeach or piste?
I love going on holiday because it’s a chance to catch up with the family and visit other cultures. I’m not a beach person as I’m not very good in the sun – I’m very Scottish in that respect. America does it for me. I’ll go to New York at the drop of a hat – I must have been eight or nine times – and I’m off to West Virginia this summer.
Housekeeping
Aggie & Kim or Wayne & Waynetta?
I’m not manic about it. I don’t think I’m the cleanest person in the world but I’ve got my own sense of tidiness. I’ll make the bed and generally tidy up a room but I leave the rest to a cleaner.Drink
Beer or Bolli?
I don’t drink and never have. My husband is delighted as there’s never a fight about who’s driving home. People think it’s weird I’ve never been drunk but I’ve never liked the taste of alcohol.
Approach to Life
Mañana or right now?
Right now, my approach is to get on with things. If I put them off, I get really annoyed. I’m meticulous and organised about certain things but I have my own filing system – no one else would understand it.Cars
Boy racer or Sunday driver?
I am a big fan of the luxury car. You know, the Range Rover with the heated seats, heated steering wheel, the one people hate. When I start work at 5.30am in the middle of a Scottish winter, those warmed up seats and steering wheel help soften the blow. I enjoy driving but I’m not a boy racer. If you put your foot down in a car like that you could cause serious damage.
MoneyRainy day or live for today?
I’m a bit of both. I enjoy the fact I have a nice lifestyle but I’ve accounted for it and I spend only what I have. At least I’ve thought about what will happen when it all goes horribly wrong, which it’s bound to. However I make sure I enjoy myself too.
Property
Urban chic or rural retreat?
I like a balance. I live near the city and have a holiday house on the Isle of Bute. I couldn’t be stuck in a cottage far away in the country with no street lights. I would struggle with that.
ChildrenMary Poppins or Cruella de Vil?
Cruella de Vil, I’m afraid. It’s not that I don’t like children but I think we’ve lost the art of parenting. I try to be fair and listen to the kids’ point of view but they need to be told: “No, that’s not going to work.” I’m the disciplinarian in our house. Not that I need to be too firm as my stepdaughters are bright and sharp and lovely.
Décor
Minimal or cosy?
I’m a bit of a hoarder and keep clutter. Then it gets to the annoying stage and I’ll take everything away. When I was touring recently I stayed in a lot of minimalist apartments and it was lovely. I had to keep the places tidy and when I came home I felt my house was too cluttered. However I love colour and art and couldn’t live for too long without it.Fitness
Jane Fonda or Jim Royle?
I think I’m Jane Royle. I go through fits and starts with exercise. I’ve had a trainer which is the only way I can do it because there’s no escape. I can be quite diligent but then do absolutely nothing for months.
Blythe Duff appears in Taggart on ITV3.
The above “Express” article can also be accessed online here.
Lisa GastoniThe Baby And The Battleship, poster, adults from left: Lisa Gastoni, John Mills, 1956. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)SONY DSC
Lisa Gastoni was born in Italy in 1935. Virtually all her career has been in British films starting with “Doctor in the House” in 1954. Her other movies include “The Baby and the Battleship”, “Three Men In A Boat” and “Blue Murder At St Trinians”.
“Wikipedia” entry:
Daughter of an Italian father and an Irish mother, Gastoni moved to England after World War II and there began her film and modeling career. She appeared in various B-movies throughout the 1950s, as well as co-starring as Giulia in the Sapphire Films TV series The Four Just Men (1959) for ITV. Gastoni returned to Italy in the 1960s, at first appearing in sword-and-sandal and swashbuckler films, but eventually gaining the attention of respected directors. The turning point in her film career was her role in Grazie, zia by Salvatore Samperi. This would set the tone for the roles she would play for the next decade; bourgeois women who were seductive yet sexually frustrated, cruel and arrogant yet sad and sympathetic, manipulating the people around them to try and fill the emptiness in their own lives. After 1979, she retired from acting for over 20 years, focusing on painting and writing. She returned to the screen with an appearance in the film Cuore Sacro.
The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.
19th May 1956: Italian film actress Lisa Gastoni is featured for the cover of Picture Post magazine. Original Publication: Picture Post Cover – Vol 71 No 7 – pub. 1956. (Photo by John Chillingworth/IPC Magazines/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Simon Dee was a very popular TV talk show host who made two films, “Doctor in Trouble” in 1970 and “The Italian Job”. He died in 2009 at the age of 74.
Anthony Hayward’s “Guardian” obituary:
Simon Dee, who has died of bone cancer at the age of 74, was a radiodisc jockey of the Swinging Sixties who took his larger-than-life personality to television as host of the chatshow Dee Time. Dee began his broadcasting career as one of the pirate radio DJs who brought the latest pop sounds to Britain’s teenagers. His was the first voice to be heard on Radio Caroline, the country’s inaugural offshore pirate station, which took to the airwaves in 1964, anchored three miles off the Essex coast, just outside British territorial waters. His theme tune was On the Sunny Side of the Street.
The following year, Dee left to present a late-night Saturday show on theBBC Light Programme and was also heard on Radio Luxembourg. When, in 1967, the BBC finally launched Radio 1 and the Marine Offences Act outlawed Caroline and other pirates, Dee was among the original team of DJs on the new channel, presenting the Monday edition of Midday Spin. Like some of his colleagues, he also presented Top of the Pops.
However, he was by then already making waves on television with his chatshow Dee Time (1967-69), which attracted up to 18 million viewers. Anyone who was anybody wanted to appear in the programme, which opened with the upbeat introduction “It’s Si-i-i-i-mon Dee!” and closed with film of the host driving off in an E-type Jaguar, with a blonde in the passenger seat. Sammy Davis Jr, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rod Taylor, Richard Harris and John Lennon were among the guests who queued up to be interviewed by Dee. He was even reported to have been asked to audition for the role of James Bond in 1969.
But Dee walked out on the show after only two years when the BBC refused to bow to his salary demands. He took his massive ego to the ITV company LWT, which offered him a salary of £100,000 to host The Simon Dee Show (1970), although it already employed the heavyweight interviewer David Frost.
When Dee fell out with his new bosses, the latenight Sunday show was axed. This followed the broadcast of an interview with the new Bond actor George Lazenby, who used the programme to make claims about American senators he believed to have been involved in the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Dee’s fall from grace proved at the time to be one of the fastest and most sudden in broadcasting history. His career was over, never to be revived.
He was born Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd in Lancashire, although at the height of his fame his publicity material claimed that the star’s birthplace was Ottawa, Canada. Privately educated, he attended Shrewsbury school, Shropshire, then worked in a coffee bar and as a vacuum-cleaner salesman, photographer and designer, before joining Radio Caroline. This was when he changed his name, combining his son’s forename with the initial letter of his surname to become Simon Dee.
While establishing himself on tele- vision as a symbol of the era, he hosted the 1967 Miss World contest, before making appearances in the films The Italian Job (1969) and Doctor in Trouble (1970). Of that first cameo, he recalled: “Mike [Michael Caine] had been on the show and thought he’d do me a favour. I played a poofy Savile Row tailor and I was so good that poofs started chasing me.”
The comedian Benny Hill parodied Dee as Tommy Tupper, host of the chat-show Tupper Time, and, many years later, it was claimed that he was the inspiration for the Austin Powers spoof spy films.
After his show was axed, Dee was spotted signing on the dole at Fulham labour exchange. However, he remained in the news, claiming that he had been ousted as a result of his opposition to Britain entering the EEC and that his phone was tapped by the intelligence services. Dee said: “Being a high-flier in the media, I knew I’d have my phone tapped by British intelligence. It was perfectly obvious that the CIA, who controlled our media and still do, would be on my case.” In 1974, he served 28 days in Pentonville prison for non-payment of rates on his former Chelsea home.
Although he made brief comebacks as a DJ with the Reading-based commercial station Radio 210 in the late 1970s and as host of Sounds of the Sixties on BBC Radio 2 in 1988, they did not last. When Dee returned with a one-off live edition of Dee Time on Channel 4 in 2003, one critic wrote that Dee reminded him of “Alan Partridge – a toxic mix of naff, bitterness, strange vulnerability and pompous self-regard”. The show was followed by the documentary Dee Construction, charting the star’s rise and fall.
Dee, who moved to Winchester in 1994, was married three times and had three sons and one daughter.
• Simon Dee (Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd), disc-jockey and television presenter, born 28 July 1935; died 29 August 2009
The above “Guardian” obituary can be accessed online here.
