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Churchill, Sir Winston
Born Nov. 30, 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, Eng. Died Jan. 24, 1965, London
in full Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill British statesman, orator, and author who as prime minister (194045, 195155) rallied the British people during World War II and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory.
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After a sensational rise to prominence in national politics before World War I, Churchill acquired a reputation for erratic judgment in the war itself and in the decade that followed. Politically suspect in consequence, he was a lonely figure until his response to Adolf Hitler's challenge brought him to leadership of a national coalition in 1940. With Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin he then shaped Allied strategy in World War II, and after the breakdown of the alliance he alerted the West to the expansionist threat of the Soviet Union. He led the Conservative Party back to office in 1951 and remained prime minister until 1955, when ill health forced his resignation.
See also here.
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Chaplin, Charlie
Born April 16, 1889, London, England died Dec. 25, 1977, Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland
by name of Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin British comedian, producer, writer, director, and composer who is widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in motion picture history.
Named after his father, a British music hall entertainer, Chaplin spent his early childhood with his mother, the singer Hannah Hall. He made his own stage debut at age five, filling in when his mother lost her voice in mid-song.
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| The mentally unstable Hall was later confined to an asylum, whereupon Charlie and his half-brother Sydney were sent to a series of bleak workhouses and residential schools. Using his mother's show-business contacts, Charlie became a professional entertainer in 1897 when he joined the Eight Lancashire Lads, a clog-dancing act. |
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Did Reginald Perrin wear a bowler? He certainly should have!
Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is a 46-year-old senior sales executive with Sunshine Desserts, a company that manufactures instant puddings, jellies and ices. He lives in the London commuter-belt town of Climthorpe with his wife, Elizabeth. They have two children: Mark, a budding actor, and Linda, who is married to Tom Patterson. They have two small children, Adam and Jocasta.
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The series revolves around Reggie as he develops a mid-life crisis, and becomes more and more frustrated at living the life of a commuter in the rat-race, every day doing the same routine catching the same train to his office, seeing the same old faces at work, doing the same things all day, every day in his poky little office, and catching the same train home again. He feels that his life is going nowhere fast, and sets out to change that. He starts to behave eccentrically writing rude letters, embarking on an affair with his secretary Joan and giving a drunken speech at a seminar, culminating in leaving his clothes on a Dorset beach in a faked suicide attempt, and starting a new life. Reggie Perrin website here
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The Ministry of Silly Walks
John Cleese perfected the silly walk beyond that of any other member of Monty Python. Although Cleese perfected it and is best known for it, he hated the skit with a passion. He found it dull and even painfull at times to do. He also did the same basic skit in the short run Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans." But how can a silly walk be described in words, the only true way to understand it is to see it. Though ideally, watching the skit would be the best way, a good idea of what can be done with a silly walk can be depicted by a picture. See a relevant website here.
See this site
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Look at this site for video
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Mr Rumbold
Captain Peacock is admonished by Mr. Rumbold for wearing a Bowler hat instead of Hamburg, such as what senior floor staff are supposed to wear. Mr. Humphries arrives with the wrong hat and Mr. Lucus didn't have a hat at all. It's up to Captain Peacock to see to it that the floor staff wear the proper hat attire while covering up the fact that he doesn't really know what the rules are in the first place!
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Homepride Fred
see here
It is believed that Fred was 'born' in 1964. He was initially designed for use as a company logo, but in 1965 he appeared for the first time on the Homepride flour bag. This was the start of a long and distinguished career.
In 1969 the 'Fred' figure was used as the basis for the design of a plastic flour shaker. This was manufactured by 'Airfix' and was offered on the flour bags for just 3/6 (17.5p) and two special tokens. Fred was so popular that 500,000 people sent off for their very own Fred.
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Mr Benn (not to be confused with Anthony Wedgewood Benn)
Apparently Mr Benn`s address 52 Festive Road was based on 52 Festing Road in Putney, where the writer David McKee lived. See website here
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Mr Pastry
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Bowler Family
October 1950 - three generations of the Bowler family celebrated the centenary of the bowler hat.
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Arthur Stanley Jefferson (Stan Laurel)
was born on June 16, 1890 in Ulverston in North Lancashire (presently Cumbria), England. His family called him Stan, and in 1918 he adopted the stage name, Laurel. Stan's first professional theatrical engagement was as a boy-comedian at the Britannia Theater in Glasgow. He would become a film legend, and one-half of the world-famous comedy team of Laurel & Hardy. Stan Laurel's film career spanned 35 years and 182 pictures.
See website here
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Mr Bradford and Mr Bingley - Bradford and Bingley Building Society
The Bradford & MarketPlace is resurrecting the characters Mr Bradford and Mr Bingley, with Bingley now a woman.
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The new figures also bear a striking resemblance to characters from the film Men In Black.
Dressed in black suits and dark glasses, though retaining the famous bowler hats, the pair are known as the Advice Squad, Bradford and Bingley.
In the commercial, created by M&C Saatchi, Bradford and Bingley help Hugh Laurie find the best value financial products, represented by apples, in a market to stress the group's role as a product distributor.
The MarketPlace at Bradford & Bingley was launched in March 2001 as part of a shift by the former building society away from selling its own products to being a financial adviser offering other companies' mortgages and savings accounts.
The company's Clara Stafford said: "Bradford and Bingley are really well known financial services icons. We had them for more than 20 years and people still associate us with them.
"But it got to the point in 1996 where they did not have the right values associated with them and they were phased out as they were slightly old fashioned and fuddy duddy.
"We have bought in Bradford and Bingley in their new incarnation to represent a very professional, confident, knowing image. One is a woman because at least half of our workforce are now women."
Story filed: 00:29 Friday 4th October 2002
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