Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 128 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Meet the Wife, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, Up Pompeii!, Not in Front of the Children, Me Mammy, That's Your Funeral, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and particularly Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In all, 27 sitcoms started from a pilot in the Comedy Playhouse strand.
Joseph Gladwin was an English actor, best known for his roles as Fred Jackson in Coronation Street, Stan Hardman in Nearest and Dearest, and Wally Batty in the world's longest-running sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine (1975–1987).
Oliver Rutledge Hudson is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Adam Rhodes in the CBS comedy series Rules of Engagement (2007–2013), Jeff Fordham on the ABC musical drama series Nashville (2013–2015) and Wes Gardner in the Fox horror comedy Scream Queens. He appeared as one of the main cast members of the ABC sitcom Splitting Up Together, produced by Ellen DeGeneres. In 2022, he played FBI agent Garrett Miller in Fox's The Cleaning Lady.
Hylda Baker was an English comedian, actress and music hall performer. Born and brought up in Farnworth, Lancashire, she is perhaps best remembered for her role as Nellie Pledge in the Granada ITV sitcom Nearest and Dearest (1968–1973) and for her role in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
David Ross is an English actor who has worked in theatre, cinema and television. His best-known roles include playing the first Kryten and the second Talkie Toaster in science-fiction comedy Red Dwarf, Elgin Sparrowhawk in the BBC One sitcom The Green Green Grass, and as Mr. Sedley in a 1998 serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair.
John Smethurst was an English television and film comic actor. He was best known for his role as Eddie Booth in the British television sitcom Love Thy Neighbour.
Madge Hindle is an English retired actress, known for her roles in British television shows.
James Arthur Thomas Jewel Marsh, known professionally as Jimmy Jewel, was an English comedian and actor whose long career in stage, radio, television and film productions, included a 32-year partnership with his cousin Ben Warriss.
Peter Eckersley was a British television producer. His television career began on Granada's Scene at 6.30 magazine programme, where Eckersley worked with his friend Michael Parkinson. Eckersley went on to become Head of Drama at Granada Television in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sheila Reid is a Scottish actress, known for playing Madge Harvey in the ITV sitcom Benidorm (2007–2016). An original member of the Royal National Theatre in 1963, she played Bianca in the National's 1965 film version of Othello, with Laurence Olivier in the title role. Her other film appearances include Brazil (1985), The Winter Guest (1997) and Containment (2015).
Anthony John Melody was an English television character actor who appeared in a number of long running comedies and soap operas. with more than 100 television roles.
Thicker than Water is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from June 13, 1973, to August 8, 1973. The series is based on the UK sitcom Nearest and Dearest.
Not On Your Nellie is a British sitcom that ran from 1974 until 1975. It starred veteran actress Hylda Baker as Nellie Pickersgill, a Bolton woman who moves to London to help run her ailing father's Chelsea pub. Seventeen episodes of the series were produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network.
Vincent Joseph Powell was a British television scriptwriter. He collaborated with a writing partner, Harry Driver, until 1973.
Benidorm is a British sitcom written and created by Derren Litten and produced by Tiger Aspect for ITV that aired for ten series from 1 February 2007 until 2 May 2018. The series features an ensemble cast of holiday makers and staff at the Solana all-inclusive hotel in Benidorm, Spain over the course of a week each year.
Harry Driver was a British television scriptwriter and executive producer. He is best remembered for his partnership with Vince Powell on comedy television programmes including Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width, Nearest and Dearest, Bless This House and Love Thy Neighbour.
Our House is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1960 to 1962. The main writer of the programme, which starred many actors known for their roles in the Carry On films, was Norman Hudis, who wrote the first six Carry On films from 1958 to 1962. Our House is based on the premise of nine people of differing backgrounds sharing a house together.
Nearest and Dearest is a 1972 British comedy film directed by John Robins and starring Hylda Baker and Jimmy Jewel. A spin-off from the long running TV sitcom Nearest and Dearest, it was written by Roy Bottomley and Tom Brennand and produced by Hammer Films in conjunction with a film subsidiary of Granada TV.
All Star Comedy Carnival was an annual Christmas-special produced by ITV, containing new mini-episodes of popular British sitcoms and light entertainment programmes with some musical interludes. This was broadcast annually on 25 December on ITV, from 1969 to 1973. It was hosted by Des O'Connor in 1969, Max Bygraves in 1970, Mike and Bernie Winters in 1971 and Jimmy Tarbuck in 1972 and 1973, All Star Comedy Carnival was a direct competitor to the BBC's Christmas Night with the Stars. All had short five-minute sketches devised and produced for transmission within the festive period, written by the original writers of each comedy series.
Gareth Langton John Forwood was a British actor. Forwood was the only child of actors Glynis Johns and Anthony Forwood. He made his screen debut in 1965 and went on to prosper as a character actor with over 40 credits in film, television and theatre. His career was marked with recurring roles in several large productions, particularly with the British public broadcast network ITV. In his later career, Forwood was typecast in several British television adaptations of classic novels.
