A biography narrating how the English working-class boy Archie Leach transformed himself into the actor Cary Grant and a role model of elegance and class for the socially ambitious around the world

Cary Grant: A Class Apart

McCann, Graham

Biographies & Memoirs

Columbia University Press

Cary Grant

Arts & Literature

Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and James Dean, the three male stars of the 1950s, were richly talented. They were symbols of masculinity, yet they reflected a new appreciation of the ambiguities of sexual identities, they were the heroes of a generation of young people, but compared to Hollywood's traditional idols, they were anti-heroes. This book features the three men, revealing the shared concerns that dominated their personal and professional lives. It explores the social and cultural reasons for their emergence and their continuing influence. Clift, Brando and Dean remain mythic stencils, against whom many people's ideas and ideals of their youth, adolescence and adulthood - images of masculinity and individuality - are patterned. They invoke American individualism, acting, politics and sexuality. They were culturally ravenous young men, testing everything that was new and exciting in the society around them. To study them is to study much of the popular culture of the time.

Rebel Males: Clift,Brando And Dean: Brando, Clift and Dean

Hamish Hamilton

Rebel Males: Brando, Clift and Dean

Humor & Entertainment

Hamish Hamilton Ltd.

Spike and Co

Television

Clearway Logistics Phase 7-9

Fawlty Towers was only on television screens for 12 half-hour episodes, but it has stayed in viewer's lives ever since. The Major; "Don't mention the war!;" "He's from Barcelona;" Basil the Rat—everyone has a favorite line, moment, or character. In the first biography of the show, Graham McCann holds up to the light each of the unpredictable elements—the demented brilliance of John Cleese, his creative partnership with Connie Booth—that added up to an immortal sitcom, beloved all over the world, even in Barcelona.

Fawlty Towers: The Story of Britain's Favourite Sitcom

Hodder&Stoughton

Fawlty Towers was only on our screens for 12 half-hour episodes, but it has stayed in our lives ever since. The Major; 'Don't mention the war!'; 'He's from Barcelona'; Basil the Rat - everyone has a favourite line, moment or character. In this, the first biography of the show, Graham McCann holds up to the light each of the unpredictable elements - the demented brilliance of John Cleese, his creative partnership with Connie Booth -  that added up to an immortal sitcom, beloved all over the world, even in Barcelona.

Fawlty Towers

The behind - the - scenes story of one of the most successful and admired sitcoms of the 1980s In 1977 the BBC commissioned a new satirical sitcom set in Whitehall. Production of its first series was stalled, however, by the death throes of Jim Callaghan's Labour government and the 'Winter of Discontent'; Auntie being unwilling to broadcast such an overtly political comedy until after the general election of 1979. That Yes Minister should have been delayed by the very events that helped bring Margaret Thatcher to power is, perhaps, fitting. Over three series from 1980 - and two more as Yes, Prime Minister until 1988 - the show mercilessly lampooned the vanity, self - interest and incompetence of our so - called public servants, making its hapless minister Jim Hacker and his scheming Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey two of the most memorable characters British comedy has ever produced. The new prime minister professed it her favourite television programme - a 'textbook' on the State in inaction - and millions of British viewers agreed. In the years since Yes Minister has become a national treasure: Sir Humphrey's slippery circumlocutions have entered the lexicon, regularly quoted by political commentators, and the series' cynical vision of government seems as credible now as it did thirty years ago. Much of this success can be credited to its writers, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, who drew on their contacts in Westminster to rework genuine political folly as situation comedy. Storylines that seemed absurd to the public were often rooted in actual events - so much so that they occasionally attracted the scrutiny of Whitehall mandarins. In A Very Courageous Decision acclaimed entertainment historian Graham McCann goes in search of the real political fiascos that inspired Yes Minister. Drawing on fresh interviews with cast, crew, politicians and admirers, he reveals how a subversive satire captured the mood of its time to become one of the most cherished sitcoms of Thatcher's Britain.

A Very Courageous Decision: The Inside Story of Yes Minister (16pt Large Print Edition)

Humor

ReadHowYouWant

Marilyn Monroe

This book is more than simply a biography of Marilyn Monroe: it analyzes the ways in which her life was interwoven with the images that were constructed of her and the myths that were spun around her. The book's claim to originality lies in its attempt to analyze in a serious way her life, her films and her relation to modern culture. Drawing on critical theory, feminism and film studies, the author re-examines the life and representations of Marilyn Monroe, from her first studio appearance in 1947 to her last tragic performance in "The Misfits". He analyzes the writings of the (mostly male) biographers who, he argues, represent Monroe as other than she was or wanted to be. He thus brings another Marilyn Monroe to light: he shows how this perceptive, intelligent and sensitive person was denied her own image. This book should appeal to a wide audience, and be used on courses in film and cultural studies. It amounts to an analysis of the sexual politics and cultural mythology of our time. It is intended for a general readership interested in Marilyn Monroe, film and contemporary culture, as well as students and academics in media and cultural studies, sociology and social theory.

Polity Press in association with Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK

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