Drake's Progress - An Autobiography

by Charlie Drake

Born in the poor south East End of London, Charlie Drake worked hard to achieve the success which kept him at the very top of the show business ladder for over a quarter of a century. His films were box office hits, he had hugely popular television series which won him two Golden Rose of Montreux Comedy Awards, starred in many London Palladium productions and appeared in fifteen Royal Command Variety Shows.
Small wonder he developed expensive tastes: fine food and wine, fast cars, gambling, motor boats. Wealthy, happily married, father of three sons, he had everything.
Utterly professional, his demands for the highest of standards led to a belief that he was difficult to work with. This culminated in a row with Equity and a ban on his working in provincial theatres. When it was lifted, eighteen months later, his career - and his marriage - were in ruins...

Drake’s Progress is compelling reading - the fascinating, frank story of one man’s struggle to the pinnacle of his profession, his fall from it, and his soul-searching, sometimes painful, climb back up to a new level of success.

Blue boards / Gold inscribed spine

Great TV Entertainment

by Rosalie Horner

Great TV Entertainment is a glorious celebration of fifty years of television viewing. Since it first flickered into life, television has poured forth a stream of entertainment - soaps, comedy, drama, news, current affairs, documentaries, adventure, chat, celebrities, games, children's programmes, sport, outside broadcasts, music and arts - engaging the imagination of the viewing millions like no other medium in history. Inside these pages you will find all your favourite television personalities and programmes, from Tony Hancock to Hill Street Blues, from Eamonn Andrews to EastEnders, and from Postman Pat to Sportsnight.

Rosalie Horner was the television writer and critic on the Daily Express for six years and was Chairman of the Broadcasting Press Guild. To bring you the inside story on just what goes on behind your television screen she has spent many hours researching television archives and talking to producers, presenters and actors. She has already written one highly successful book on the subject, Inside BBC Television, published in 1983.

Just Williams - An Autobiography

by Kenneth Williams

Kenneth Williams was one of the great institutions of British entertainment. For nearly forty years his inimitable performances on stage, screen and radio delighted audiences around the world, and his autobiography recalls the most memorable moments from this time.
Barrack-room life in Singapore, post-war repertory, his roles in revue and on the London stage of the fifties and sixties, his famous cameos in great radio shows such as Hancock’s Half Hour, Round the Horne and Just a Minute, his friendships with people such as Ingrid Bergman, Maggie Smith, Orson Welles, Noel Coward, Joe Orton, Stanley Baxter and Gordon Jackson - all these are described with his special brand of humour and intelligence.

‘Fascinating ... amiable, intelligent, and full of good stories’ John Lahr, TLS

‘Exceptionally well written ... laughs to be had in plenty’ Paul Bailey, OBSERVER

Bring Me Laughter

A Celebration of TV Comedy

by Bruce Crowther & Mike Pinfold

Since the early 'fifties, comedy has been a mainstay of both British and American television. Evoking memories of such shows as I Love Lucy, The Rag Trade, Burns and Allen, The Likely Lads, Hancock, Monty Python, Rhoda, Steptoe and Son and Till Death Us Do Part, Bring Me Laughter follows the TV comedy trail through to the present-day mix of sitcom, alternative comedy and the rebirth of the stand-up comic. Bruce Crowther and Mike Pinfold, the authors', interest in TV comedy dates from their earliest days, when popular catchphrases dotted their conversation the social phenomenon enjoyed by millions before the advent of television.

Theatrical Digs - Tales From The Green Room

by Various (see below)

A star-studded cast of show-business personalities recount some of their more hilarious adventures on stage and on tour, and in particular their experiences in theatrical digs - the legendary boarding houses (with their even more legendary landladies) frequented by theatre folk. A dead body under the bed, a boarding house that is really a bawdy house, and a mysterious thumping in the night which turns out to be a family of midgets jumping for the lavatory chain, are just a few of the entertaining items on the bill.

Tales told by: Miss Julie Andrews, Mr William Rushton, Mr Barry Cryer, Sir John Mills, Mr Leslie Crowther, Mr Donald Sinden, Sir Harry Secombe, Miss Googie Withers, Mr Michael Aspel, Mr Barry Took and other illustrious members of The Lord's Taverners' Company.

Pictorial laminated boards / No dust jacket

Teaching Popular Television

by Mike Clarke

'Why teach about television?'
As the impact of television on our culture, is no longer open to question, the laced to teach children to understand it has become increasingly important. The acceptance of media studies within GCSE is further evidence of its value in the curriculum.

'Teaching strategies'
A particular strength of this book is that it offers practical teaching strategies and activities to take into the classroom which will develop understanding and critical awareness. Teaching Popular Television will give teachers new to the subject the confidence to tackle this essential area, and provides fresh approaches for those already involved.

The Best of Steptoe and Son

by Ray Galton & Alan Simpson

Their words as funny on the page as they are on television, renowned script-writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson present twelve of the series' most hilarious episodes.

Includes the following 12 scripts:

Cuckoo in the Nest | Men of Letters | A Star is Born | Oh, What a Beautiful Mourning | Live Now, P.A.Y.E. Later | Loathe Story | Divided We Stand | The Desperate Hours | Christmas 1973 | And So To Bed | Porn Yesterday | Upstairs, Downstairs, Upstairs, Downstairs

Pictorial laminated boards / No dust jacket

The Benny Hill Story

by John Smith

with a foreword by Bob Monkhouse

Benny Hill is one of the best-known comics in the world. His mischievous, roly-poly face peers out of television sets from Australia to Zimbabwe, and his inspired clowning and saucy comedy have made him a cult figure across the globe. In fact, more than 80 countries regularly screen The Benny Hill Show and in some American cities it is actually possible to watch the show every night of the week. But the former Southampton milkman who began his career earning £1 a night in working men's clubs is in some ways an unlikely superstar. Always surrounded on screen by beautiful girls, Benny is in fact a life-long bachelor who lives alone. And though he is a millionaire, he still prefers public transport to a chauffeured limousine.

The Benny Hill Story is a revealing portrait of the man behind the comic mask as well as a warm-hearted tribute to one of Britain's best-loved laughtermakers.

Red boards / Gold inscribed spine

Writing For Radio

by Rosemary Horstmann

Radio is a much more accessible medium for writers than many might imagine - and this book provides a helpful guide to the different broadcasting markets where freelance material can be submitted. Radio drama and adaptations, features and documentary writing, educational material, comedy scripts and gags, writing for serials and other fields are all discussed, with advice on the requirements of various departments and the way in which synopses and scripts should be submitted. The particular demands of writing for the spoken word are emphasised throughout, and a chapter is included on useful skills for the radio writer - effective handling of a tape recorder and how to edit an audio-tape.

Rosemary Horstmann, after some years as a BBC radio talks producer and subsequently a freelance broadcaster, held senior university and polytechnic appointments in the audiovisual field. She has lectured widely on broadcasting and related topics and now runs a consultancy assisting new radio writers.

The Benny Hill Story

by John Smith

with a foreword by Bob Hope

What is it that men and women do at night in bed, in easy chairs, or on the floor - depending on where they'll enjoy it most? Watch The Benny Hill Show, of course! Britain's bawdy Benny Hill is known throughout the world for his racy humor, witty songs, and winning smile. Always with a leer on his face and a beautiful woman at his side, Benny Hill has charmed millions of people in the more than eighty countries in which his variety show is syndicated. Benny's skits double you up with laughter, his humor goes innuendo and out the other, and his cast leaves you ogling for more. But just as you can't judge a book by its cover, you can't judge Benny by his show. Born Alfred H. Hill, Jr., Benny started out working as a milkman before turning his talents to stand-up comedy. And despite his tremendous success - even Benny himself doesn't know how much he's worth - Benny remains true to his working-class origins. He still does his own shopping, he still prefers mass transit to limousines, and he still lives in his family house in Southampton. And Benny Hill has remained a bachelor all his life.

Black boards / Gold inscribed spine

The Best of Steptoe and Son

by Ray Galton & Alan Simpson

Includes the following 12 scripts:

Cuckoo in the Nest | Men of Letters | A Star is Born | Oh, What a Beautiful Mourning | Live Now, P.A.Y.E. Later | Loathe Story | Divided We Stand | The Desperate Hours | Christmas 1973 | And So To Bed | Porn Yesterday | Upstairs, Downstairs, Upstairs, Downstairs

Ken Dodd - Laughter and Tears

by Gus Smith

An enigmatic loner beloved of millions, Ken Dodd is a man of many contrasts: a stand-up comedian in the music hall tradition of fellow Liverpudlians Tommy Handley and Arthur Askey, he has played Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, has had his stagecraft analysed by Jonathan Miller in the New Statesman and was compared by critic Michael Billington to Olivier and Scofield. As Prime Minister, an admiring Harold Wilson twice saw him perform at the London Palladium, yet he remains Margaret Thatcher's favourite comedian and has lent his support to successive Tory election campaigns. The epitome of carefree laughter, he has lived a life with more than its share of private pain, from the tragic death of the woman he loved for twenty years to the financial revelations that shocked his fans in 1988.
In Laughter and Tears Gus Smith reveals the man behind the comic mask, examining the roots of his unique humour and tracing the many triumphs of a thirty-year career as Britain's favourite salesman of mirth.

Black boards / Silver inscribed spine

DG - The Memoirs of a British Broadcaster

by Alasdair Milne

In September 1954 Alasdair Milne joined the BBC as a graduate trainee. At the end of January 1987, by now the BBC's Director General, he was sacked. From making programmes in the exciting days when the BBC was reacting to the arrival of ITV, through the administrative ranks, to the top job of DG, his had been a story of steady success. But now everything had gone wrong. Why? The answers are largely political. DG is both his personal story and a chronicle of increasing hostility between the BBC and Mrs Thatcher's government. Coverage of the Falklands War, the miners' strike, libel actions and the Real Lives and Secret Society rows are just some of the points of difference. At its heart lie the vital issues of state control versus BBC independence.

'Indispensable...for everyone intrigued by the shifts and balances in British culture in the second half of the twentieth century. It is also a gripping read' - Melvyn Bragg in The Independent

A Clown Too Many - Tells it as it happened

An Autobiography

by Les Dawson

Les Dawson has been many things in his time: slum kid, soldier, boxer (I was on the canvas so often I was known as the battling Rembrandt), insurance agent, vacuum cleaner salesman... and one of Britain's best-loved comedians, adored by millions and enormously respected by his fellow entertainers.
In this no-holds-barred autobiography, by turns moving and hilarious, he tells of ten hard years in the northern clubs; of his famous friends, his many TV series, his Royal Variety Performances, This is Your Life and the phenomenally successful Blankety Blank; of his own recent illness and of his wife Meg's tragic battle with cancer, a battle she could not win despite the love of Les and her family.
It has been a long haul for the Manchester lad. And, as Arthur Marshall once said, We could do with some more like him.