William Edgar (Bill) Oddie, OBE, MA (Cantab.), born July 7, 1941 in Rochdale (at the time, part of Lancashire), is a comedy writer and performer, author, composer and musician. A birdwatcher since his childhood in Birmingham, Oddie has now established a reputation for himself as an ornithologist, conservationist and television presenter on wildlife issues. Some of his books are illustrated with his own paintings and drawings. Bill Oddie - Early life. On a 2004 episode of the BBC television series Who Do ...

Including:

• Bill Oddie - Early life
• Bill Oddie - Comedy and music
• Bill Oddie - Conservation and birdwatching
• Bill Oddie - Marriage and children
• Bill Oddie - Recognition
• Bill Oddie - Other performances
• Bill Oddie - Bibliography
• Bill Oddie - Contributions

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Television shows and stage plays sometimes include continuing characters — characters who are currently in frequent interaction with the other characters and who influences current story events — who are never seen or heard by the audience and only described by other characters. Radio shows and plays also feature characters who never speak, and books feature characters who are merely referred to. List of unseen characters - Unseen characters in television. Hidden characters appear in all varieties of fiction, ...

Including:

• List of unseen characters - Unseen characters in television
• List of unseen characters - Television programs
• List of unseen characters - Heard but never seen
• List of unseen characters - Neither seen nor heard
• List of unseen characters - Heard but never completely seen
• List of unseen characters - Unseen characters who were spoken of for a long time and then eventually seen
• List of unseen characters - Stage plays
• List of unseen characters - Movies
• List of unseen characters - Comic strips comic books webcomics and graphic novels
• List of unseen characters - Radio programs
• List of unseen characters - Books
• List of unseen characters - Video games
• List of unseen characters - Heard but never seen
• List of unseen characters - Unseen characters that are later seen usually final bosses

Read more here: » List of unseen characters: Encyclopedia - List of unseen characters

MW- 720 kHz" MW - 720 kHz BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of chiefly spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It is broadcast on 92 - 95 MHz FM (95.80 MHz in central Scotland, and 103-104.5 MHz in parts of Wales) and 198 kHz longwave 720 kHz Medium wave; and via DAB, satellite (FM is broadcast on Sky channel 854 and LW is broadcast on Sky channel 893), selected Cable television providers, Freeview channel 704 and the Internet. It superseded its ...

Including:

• BBC Radio 4 - History
• BBC Radio 4 - Programming and schedules
• BBC Radio 4 - Current schedule
• BBC Radio 4 - Current programmes
• BBC Radio 4 - News and current affairs
• BBC Radio 4 - Arts and drama
• BBC Radio 4 - Religion and ethics
• BBC Radio 4 - Comedy and quizzes
• BBC Radio 4 - Conversations
• BBC Radio 4 - Factual
• BBC Radio 4 - Science
• BBC Radio 4 - Miscellaneous
• BBC Radio 4 - Former programmes
• BBC Radio 4 - Radio 4 announcers and newsreaders

Read more here: » BBC Radio 4: Encyclopedia - BBC Radio 4

British Comedy, in film, radio and television, is known for its consistently quirky characters, plots and settings, and has produced some of the most famous and memorable comic actors and characters in the last fifty years. British comedy - Film comedy. British comedy films are legion, but among the most notable are the Ealing comedies, the 1950s satires of the Boulting Brothers, and innumerable popular comedy series including the St Trinian's films, the "Doctor" series, and the long-running Carry On films. ...

Including:

• British comedy - Film comedy
• British comedy - Radio
• British comedy - Television

Read more here: » British comedy: Encyclopedia - British comedy

Sketch comedy - Roots and Development. Sketch comedy has its origins in vaudeville and Music Hall, where a large number of brief but humorous acts were strung together to form a larger program. In England, it moved to stage performances by Cambridge Footlights, such as Beyond the Fringe and A Clump of Plinths (which evolved into Cambridge Circus), to radio with such shows as ITMA and ISIRTA and then to television with such shows as Monty Python's Flying Circus< ...

See also:

Sketch comedy, Sketch comedy - History, Sketch comedy - Roots and Development, Sketch comedy - Festivals, Sketch comedy - Amateurs, Sketch comedy - List of sketch comedy groups, Sketch comedy - Australia, Sketch comedy - Canada, Sketch comedy - China, Sketch comedy - Ireland, Sketch comedy - UK, Sketch comedy - USA, Sketch comedy - India

Read more here: » Sketch comedy: Encyclopedia II - Sketch comedy - History

After attending King Edward's School, Birmingham, Oddie studied English Literature at Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he appeared in several Cambridge University Footlights Club productions, one of which, A Clump of Plinths, was so successful during its run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that the revue was renamed as Cambridge Circus, and transferred the revue to the West End in London, and then later took the revue to New Zealand and Broadway. While still at Cambridge Oddie wrote scri ...

See also:

Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie - Early life, Bill Oddie - Comedy and music, Bill Oddie - Conservation and birdwatching, Bill Oddie - Marriage and children, Bill Oddie - Recognition, Bill Oddie - Other performances, Bill Oddie - Bibliography, Bill Oddie - Contributions

Read more here: » Bill Oddie: Encyclopedia II - Bill Oddie - Comedy and music

The Radio 4 Website Schedule Page shows the running order for the current day. Radio 4 splits from the World Service at 0529, with a brief introduction from the early shift continuity announcer, before the 5-minute "Radio 4 UK Theme" (composed by Fritz Spiegl). This is followed at 0535 by the shipping forecast, weather reports from coastal stations for 0400GMT and inshore waters forecasts. On weekdays, the Today programme runs from 0600 to 0900. On, or after the hour, with few exceptions, a news bulletin is broadcast - this is sometim ...

See also:

BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 - History, BBC Radio 4 - Programming and schedules, BBC Radio 4 - Current schedule, BBC Radio 4 - Current programmes, BBC Radio 4 - News and current affairs, BBC Radio 4 - Arts and drama, BBC Radio 4 - Religion and ethics, BBC Radio 4 - Comedy and quizzes, BBC Radio 4 - Conversations, BBC Radio 4 - Factual, BBC Radio 4 - Science, BBC Radio 4 - Miscellaneous, BBC Radio 4 - Former programmes, BBC Radio 4 - Radio 4 announcers and newsreaders

Read more here: » BBC Radio 4: Encyclopedia II - BBC Radio 4 - Programming and schedules

Monty Python - Michael Palin. The youngest Python by a matter of weeks, Palin is often labelled 'the nice one'. He attended Oxford, where he met his Python writing partner Terry Jones. The two also wrote the series Ripping Yarns together. Palin and Jones originally wrote together, but soon found it was more productive to write apart and then come together and review what the other had written. Therefore, Jones and Palin's sketches tended to be more focused than that of the other four, taking one bizarre, hilariou ...

See also:

Monty Python, Monty Python - History pre-Python, Monty Python - Flying Circus and the Python style, Monty Python - Life after Python, Monty Python - Python Monty Pictures, Monty Python - Going solo, Monty Python - The End?, Monty Python - The Pythons, Monty Python - Michael Palin, Monty Python - Terry Jones, Monty Python - Eric Idle, Monty Python - John Cleese, Monty Python - Graham Chapman, Monty Python - Terry Gilliam, Monty Python - The 7th Python, Monty Python - Python media, Monty Python - Television, Monty Python - Films, Monty Python - Albums, Monty Python - Theatre, Monty Python - Trivia, Monty Python - Sources

Read more here: » Monty Python: Encyclopedia II - Monty Python - The Pythons

Although comedy was once a significant part of American broadcast radio programming it is now mainly found in the archives of Old Time Radio enthusiasts and in internet streaming of comedy recordings. Exceptions to this are WSRN's "Audience of Two", Garrison Keillor's work on Minnesota Public Radio: "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Comedy College", and NPR's Car Talk, a comedy show thinly disguised as car advice. In Britain and Canada, however, the BBC and CBC respectively have continued making new radio comedy and drama. British radio comedy also has a home on Australia's Radio National and in Ireland there are alway ...

See also:

Radio comedy, Radio comedy - Background and history, Radio comedy - List of radio comedies

Read more here: » Radio comedy: Encyclopedia II - Radio comedy - Background and history

Their first sitcom as a writing team came in 1966 with Room At The Bottom for the BBC. This followed the exploits of a group of maintenance men working for Saracens Manufacturing Company. Starting out as a pilot in the BBC's Comedy Playhouse programme, it lasted for one series the next year, starring Kenneth Connor, Deryck Guyler and Francis Matthews. In 1968 Esmonde and Larbey created one of their most popular comedies with Please Sir, which starred John Alderton as a naive teacher thrown in at the deep end in a ...

See also:

Esmonde and Larbey, Esmonde and Larbey - Early years, Esmonde and Larbey - Works of Esmonde and Larbey, Esmonde and Larbey - TV credits

Read more here: » Esmonde and Larbey: Encyclopedia II - Esmonde and Larbey - Works of Esmonde and Larbey

Wolstenholme started his career as a journalist with a newspaper in Manchester, before joining the RAF as a bomber pilot. After the war he became a freelance journalist, working for BBC radio before moving to television in 1948. While most sports commentators gain some recognition if their career is long enough, Wolstenholme is almost entirely remembered for his commentary of the 1966 Football World Cup Final, specifically the words he used as the match came to a conclusion during injury time, as a small pitch invasion took place just as Geoff Hurst scored to put England 4-2 ahead: 'Some people are on the pitch . ...

See also:

Kenneth Wolstenholme, Kenneth Wolstenholme - Career, Kenneth Wolstenholme - Legacy, Kenneth Wolstenholme - Quotations

Read more here: » Kenneth Wolstenholme: Encyclopedia II - Kenneth Wolstenholme - Career

The long-suffering but good-natured host of Just a Minute is Nicholas Parsons. He has held this position since its inception, although at one stage he also swapped the chair with one of the participants as an experiment which was not pursued. Until 1989, Ian Messiter sat quietly on the stage with a stopwatch and blew a whistle when the speaker's minute was up. Ian Messiter died in 1999. In the early years of Just a Minute the four guest spots were generally taken by regulars: Clement Freud (politician ...

See also:

Just a Minute, Just a Minute - Rules, Just a Minute - Scoring, Just a Minute - Inventor, Just a Minute - Regular participants, Just a Minute - Theme tune, Just a Minute - Swedish version, Just a Minute - Compare with

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I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Chairman. The chairman (except for a few episodes in the first series) is Humphrey Lyttelton, generally referred to as "Humph" and regarded as a national treasure. He reads the script introducing the programme and segments in an utterly deadpan manner. He claims the secret is just to read what is in front of him without understanding why it is funny. He adopts the grumpy persona of someone who would really rather be somewhere else, which he attributes to worrying that, surrounded by f ...

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I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - History, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Participants, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Chairman, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Panellists, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Musical Accompaniment, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Commentary, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Scorers, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Humour, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Format, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Games, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Uxbridge English Dictionary formerly New Definitions, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Historical headlines, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - One Song to the Tune of Another, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Cheddar Gorge, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Pick-up Song, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Straight face, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Limerick improvisation, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Word for Word, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Sound Charades, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Censored song, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Quote... Misquote formerly Complete Quotes, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Mornington Crescent, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Swanee-Kazoo, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Themed film/book club, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - Late arrivals at a society ball

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A number of standard signals have come into common usage in charades, though they are not required. To indicate the general category of a word or phrase: Person Stand with hands on hips. Book title Unfold your hands as if they were a book. Movie title Pretend to crank an old-fashioned movie camera. Play title Pretend to pull the rope that opens a theater curtain. Song title Pretend to sing. ...

See also:

Charades, Charades - Rules of the acted charade, Charades - Standard signals

Read more here: » Charades: Encyclopedia II - Charades - Standard signals

List of unseen characters - Heard but never seen. On the Batman TV series, the voice of Bonnie, who's the unseen (and even uncredited) secretary of Gotham City Police Headquarters, is often heard through the intercom in Commissioner Gordon's office. Throughout the run of Australian police drama Matlock Police all the regular characters communicated with radio operator Shirl. Her voice was regularly heard by viewers over the radio, yet she was never seen. In the show's final episode th ...

See also:

List of unseen characters, List of unseen characters - Unseen characters in television, List of unseen characters - Television programs, List of unseen characters - Heard but never seen, List of unseen characters - Neither seen nor heard, List of unseen characters - Heard but never completely seen, List of unseen characters - Unseen characters who were spoken of for a long time and then eventually seen, List of unseen characters - Stage plays, List of unseen characters - Movies, List of unseen characters - Comic strips comic books webcomics and graphic novels, List of unseen characters - Radio programs, List of unseen characters - Books, List of unseen characters - Video games, List of unseen characters - Heard but never seen, List of unseen characters - Unseen characters that are later seen usually final bosses

Read more here: » List of unseen characters: Encyclopedia II - List of unseen characters - Television programs

The three actors in The Goodies met as students at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where Tim Brooke-Taylor was studying for a Law Degree, Graeme Garden was studying for a Medical Degree, and Bill Oddie was studying for an English Degree. It was as undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge that Tim, Bill and Graeme also met John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle, who would later become founding members of Monty Python. The group of students became close friends and studied together. Tim Brooke-Taylor a ...

See also:

The Goodies, The Goodies - Cambridge University, The Goodies - Further information, The Goodies - Towards The Goodies, The Goodies - The Goodies, The Goodies - Repeats and commercial releases, The Goodies - Basic plot structure, The Goodies - Characters and production techniques, The Goodies - Famous Guest Stars, The Goodies - Cultural influence, The Goodies - Other collaborations, The Goodies - 2005 Australian reunion shows

Read more here: » The Goodies: Encyclopedia II - The Goodies - Cambridge University

John Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England to Reginald Francis Cleese and Muriel Cross. His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father, an insurance salesman, changed his surname to "Cleese" upon joining the army in 1915 [1]. As a boy, Cleese was educated at Clifton College in Bristol, from which he was expelled for a humorous defacing of school grounds: he used painted footsteps to suggest that the school's statue of Field Marshal Douglas Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet. His ta ...

See also:

John Cleese, John Cleese - Biography, John Cleese - Cleese in Spamalot, John Cleese - Radio credits, John Cleese - Television credits, John Cleese - Filmography, John Cleese - Video game credits, John Cleese - Trivia

Read more here: » John Cleese: Encyclopedia II - John Cleese - Biography

List of comedies - Australia. All Together Now (sitcom) Aunty Jack (satire/sketch comedy) Australia, You're Standing In It (sketch comedy) CNNNN (satire/parody of CNN) Daas Kapital (satire/sketch comedy) The D-Generation (sketch comedy) Double the Fist (satire with sketch elements) Fast Forward (sketch comedy) Frontline (satire/sitcom) Full Frontal (sketch co ...

See also:

List of comedies, List of comedies - Television comedies, List of comedies - Australia, List of comedies - Belgium, List of comedies - Canada, List of comedies - United Kingdom, List of comedies - United States, List of comedies - Theatrical comedies, List of comedies - France, List of comedies - Russia, List of comedies - United Kingdom, List of comedies - United States, List of comedies - Radio comedies, List of comedies - Canada, List of comedies - United Kingdom, List of comedies - USA

Read more here: » List of comedies: Encyclopedia II - List of comedies - Television comedies

British comedy films are legion, but among the most notable are the Ealing comedies, the 1950s satires of the Boulting Brothers, and innumerable popular comedy series including the St Trinian's films, the "Doctor" series, and the long-running Carry On films. Some of the best known British film comedy stars include Will Hay, George Formby, Norman Wisdom, Peter Sellers and the Monty Python team. Other actors associated with British comedy films include Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Margare ...

See also:

British comedy, British comedy - Film comedy, British comedy - Radio, British comedy - Television

Read more here: » British comedy: Encyclopedia II - British comedy - Film comedy

Although many popular shows of recent years began life on BBC radio, there have been many successful and influential series which were designed purely for T.V. Following the success of Hancock's Half Hour, the sitcom became firmly entrenched in the television schedules. Some of the most successful examples include Steptoe and Son, Dad's Army, The Likely Lads, Porridge, Fawlty Towers, The Good Life, Yes Minister, Only Fools and Horses< ...

See also:

British comedy, British comedy - Film comedy, British comedy - Radio, British comedy - Television

Read more here: » British comedy: Encyclopedia II - British comedy - Television