All articles in Entertainment
7th August, 2017 in Entertainment
All you need is love
We forget perhaps that we only use the phrase ‘all you need is love’ because John Lennon did. The song with this straightforward title was written for the Beatles by Lennon in 1967, as the ultimate anthem of the Summer of Love. It was premiered as part of ‘Our World’,…
7th August, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment, Society & Culture
Travelling the world in a double-decker bus
Richard King, author of Band on the Bus, reveals how a small wager at the end of the ‘Summer of Love’ in 1967 sowed the seeds of an adventure that was to completely change his life… One evening in my ‘local’, a small country pub, The Deers Hut, just outside the Hampshir…
31st May, 2017 in Entertainment, Society & Culture
30 iconic album covers
On 1 June 1967, The Beatles released their psychedelic landmark eighth album – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Hailed as one of the greatest and most influential albums of all time, the 13 tracks (which included songs such as ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, ‘With a Little…
31st May, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment, Women in History
Why do people still love Marilyn Monroe?
American actress and model Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, and yet people around the world are still fascinated with her life and work. Here biographer Michelle Morgan explains why Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson in 1926, continues to have such an enchanting appeal… Over the past…
20th January, 2017 in Entertainment, Women in History
Audrey Hepburn: Life beyond Tiffany’s
Look back at the fashion and film of the 1960s and there is one waif-like, pixie-featured figure that will peer back at you from behind large dark glasses, beneath a wondrous hat and adorned in impeccable clothes. Audrey Hepburn has long since been an international icon of fashio…
14th December, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment
Why is Albert Finney special?
Ask any actor or director of a certain age who was the most influential actor in British cinema and theatre post-1960 and one name will immediately spring to mind. ALBIE! More than any other British actor Albert Finney was responsible for the so-called New Wave, giving free rein…
29th September, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment, Women in History
How Carole Lombard’s career was almost over before it began
In 1926, budding actress Carole Lombard was still a teenager, trying to work her way through the Hollywood minefield. She had already been employed by Fox, and hoped it would lead to big things. However, she soon learned that in order to become a star, she would have to do more t…
21st September, 2016 in Entertainment
Unsung heroes of Bond
When Harry Saltzman and Albert R ‘Cubby’ Broccoli produced Dr. No in 1962, they brought together an artistic and technical family, some of whom went on to become legends in the film industry: John Barry, Ken Adam, Ted Moore, Maurice Binder, not to mention Sean Connery. Norman Wan…
21st September, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment
Alan Tomkins recalls working on Cleopatra and Dr. No
In 1961, aged 22, Alan Tomkins had just completed a three-year apprenticeship and was happily contracted to continue in the employment of the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). However, when Tomkins heard that art director John Box, who was based over at Pinewood Stud…
16th August, 2016 in Entertainment
Five guitars that made rock history at Woodstock
In the summer of 1969 over 400,000 people congregated on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in rural New York State for ‘an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music’. Over the weekend a wide range of 32 acts performed, including Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, the Grateful…
13th April, 2016 in Entertainment
Bond hits and myths
James Bond experts Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury set right some wrongs about the James Bond films. Having been James Bond scholars for many years we noted how increasingly everybody was becoming a James Bond fan. After years of having to explain to non-fans – ‘civilians’ – the…
13th April, 2016 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment, Fiction
The beginnings of Bond
The idea of writing a spy novel had apparently been in Fleming’s mind for a decade before he finally decided to commit the book to paper. Little did he know the phenomenon he was about to create when he sat down behind his typewriter on the morning of 15 January 1952 to start the…