Absolutely Fabulous is a British television sitcom based on the French and Saunders sketch, "Modern Mother and Daughter", created by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The show was created and written by Saunders, who also stars as one of the main characters with Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha.
The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its powers were devolved to the London boroughs and other entities. A new administrative body, known as the Greater London Authority (GLA), was established in 2000.
Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English actress, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with her best friend and comedy partner, Dawn French. With French, she co-wrote and starred in their eponymous sketch show, French and Saunders, for which they jointly received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2009. Saunders later received acclaim in the 1990s for writing and playing her character Edina Monsoon in her sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.
Spitting Image is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television over 18 series which aired on the ITV network. The series was nominated and won numerous awards, including ten BAFTA Television Awards, and two Emmy Awards in 1985 and 1986 in the Popular Arts Category. The series features puppet caricatures of contemporary celebrities and public figures, including British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and the British royal family. The series was the first to caricature Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents..., which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others.
Peter Richardson is an English director, screenwriter, actor and comedian. He founded the Comic Strip troupe of performers, which showcased his double act with Nigel Planer and launched the careers of French and Saunders, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and Alexei Sayle. Richardson approached Channel 4 to make a series of short, self-contained one-off comedy films with this group, which led to The Comic Strip Presents..., many of which were written, directed by and featured him in acting roles.
There was an election to the Greater London Council held on 7 May 1981. Councillors were elected to serve until elections in May 1985. Those elections were cancelled and the term was extended until 1 April 1986.
The Line, the Cross and the Curve is a 1993 British musical short film directed by and starring singer Kate Bush, co-starring Miranda Richardson and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, who had served as dance mentor to Bush early in her career.
Eat the Rich is a 1987 British black comedy film directed by Peter Richardson, who also wrote the screenplay with Pete Richens. A co-production between Channel 4 Films, Iron Fist Motion Pictures and Michael White Productions, it features cast members from the popular television series The Comic Strip Presents....
The Strike is one of the short comedy films – written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, and directed by Richardson – which made up the long-running Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... First aired in January 1988, it also received a limited theatrical release, and won the Golden Rose of Montreux for the same year.
Five Go Mad in Dorset was the first of three Five Go Mad specials from the long-running series of The Comic Strip Presents... television comedy films. It first aired on the launch night of Channel 4, and was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, and directed by Bob Spiers.
"Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" is a song in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. It is the centrepiece of several individual songs in an extended set-piece performed by the Munchkins, Glinda and Dorothy Gale. Highlighted by the Lollipop Guild consisting of Frankie Rumpf, Jaelen Hurst and Jesse-Carr was also sung by studio singers as being sung by the Winkie soldiers. It was composed by Harold Arlen, with the lyrics written by E. Y. Harburg. The group of songs celebrate the death of the Wicked Witch of the East when Dorothy's house is dropped on her by the tornado and the death of the Wicked Witch of the West after being splashed with water.
"Love and Anger" is a song written and performed by the British singer Kate Bush. It was the third and final single to be released from her sixth studio album, The Sensual World (1989), on 26 February 1990 and peaked at No. 38 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1989, and was Bush's only chart-topper on any US chart until 2022. The song features Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist, David Gilmour.
Kenneth Robert Livingstone is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent East from 1987 to 2001. A former member of the Labour Party, he was on the party's hard left, ideologically identifying as a socialist.
The Jobs for a Change festivals were two music festivals that took place in London, England in the mid-1980s, against a background of high unemployment, a year-long miners' strike, and Margaret Thatcher's development plans for the abolition of the GLC. These events were free and attracted a huge audience. The first, on the South Bank in June 1984, drew about 150,000 people. The second, in Battersea Park the following July, attracted an estimated 250,000. The musicians included The Smiths, Billy Bragg, Hank Wangford, Aswad, The Redskins and The Pogues. There were also theatrical groups, cabaret, films and exhibitions, talks, debates and stalls set up by external organisations.
The Supergrass is a 1985 British comedy film directed by Peter Richardson, who also wrote the screenplay with Pete Richens. The film stars Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith Allen, Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle, Ronald Allen, and Robbie Coltrane. The Supergrass was the first feature-length film by the 1980s alternative comedy group The Comic Strip.
Adrian Charles Edmondson is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He was part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s and had roles in the television series The Young Ones (1982–1984) and Bottom (1991–1995), which he wrote together with his collaborator Rik Mayall. Edmondson also appeared in The Comic Strip Presents... series of films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For one episode of this he created the spoof heavy metal band Bad News, and for another he played his nihilistic alter-ego Eddie Monsoon, an offensive South African television star.
The Hunt for Tony Blair is a one-off episode of The Comic Strip Presents..., a British television comedy, which was first shown on Channel 4 on 14 October 2011. The 49-minute film was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens and presented in the style of a 1950s film noir. It stars Stephen Mangan as the former British prime minister Tony Blair, who is wanted for murder and on the run as a fugitive from justice. The film received its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August 2011. It first aired on Channel 4 on 14 October 2011; it received a mostly positive reaction from reviewers, and was nominated for a BAFTA award and the British Comedy Awards.
The Greater London Council leadership of Ken Livingstone refers to the period during which Ken Livingstone, a British Labour Party politician, was Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC). Livingstone took up the post on 17 May 1981, and remained in office until the GLC was abolished on 1 April 1986.
