The Queen Mother Theatre is a modern purpose-built theatre located on Walsworth Road in Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Named after Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the theatre offers a varied programme of amateur productions. It is the home of the local performing group the Bancroft Players and the critically acclaimed Big Spirit Youth Theatre [1] [2] founded in 1984 [3] and which included the actor Ben Whishaw among its members.
In 1977 the Bancroft Players made plans for a purpose-built theatre in Hitchin and launched an appeal for £80,000 to begin work. At first the fundraising efforts were slow but by 1981 the group was able to make a start; however, the £8000 raised from the 1981-1982 season was insufficient to complete the build. In September 1982 the foundation stone was laid by Jimmy Hill, the President of the Appeal to raise the funds for the new theatre. At the same ceremony local resident Richard Whitmore told the assembled crowd that Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who had connections with the area, had been approached for permission to name the theatre after her. It was suggested to her that the new theatre be named the Queen Elizabeth Theatre but instead she suggested the alternative name The Queen Mother Theatre. Thus the theatre has the distinction of being the United Kingdom's only theatre to carry this name. [4]
The theatre finally opened in 1983 with a production of A Man for All Seasons . Since then the theatre has been extended to include a larger foyer and a new workshop and studio, now named the Richard Whitmore Studio. [4] The actor Ben Whishaw was a member of the youth group Big Spirit Youth Theatre based at the theatre. [5] [6] [7]
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA, is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London, and is a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools.
James Allen Whitmore Jr. was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Academy Award nominations.
Dame Helen Mirren is an English actor. In a career spanning 60 years, she is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, five Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, an Olivier Award and a Tony Award. She has been honored with the BAFTA Fellowship in 2014, the Honorary Golden Bear in 2020, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2022. Mirren was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003.
Hitchin is a market town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. The town dates from at least the 7th century. It lies in the valley of the River Hiz at the north-eastern end of the Chiltern Hills. It is 16 miles (26 km) north-west of the county town of Hertford, and 35 miles (56 km) north of London. The population at the 2021 census was 35,220.
Ben Lyon was an American film actor and a studio executive at 20th Century-Fox who later acted in British radio, films and TV.
Benjamin John Whishaw is an English actor. After winning a British Independent Film Award for his performance in My Brother Tom (2001), he was nominated for an Olivier Award for his portrayal of the title role in a 2004 production of Hamlet. This was followed by television roles in Nathan Barley (2005), Criminal Justice (2008) and The Hour (2011–12) and film roles in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), I'm Not There (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008), and Bright Star (2009). For Criminal Justice, Whishaw received his first BAFTA Award nomination.
Stephen Lowe is an English playwright and director.
Richard Whitmore is a broadcaster, writer and actor. Whitmore is best known for his work as a BBC newsreader in the 1970s and 1980s and occasional work as a reporter.
Samuel Whitbread Academy is an Upper School and Sixth Form with Academy status serving the rural communities around the small market town of Shefford in Central Bedfordshire. Its school campus includes a nursery school and facilities for adult education.
The Scala Theatre was a theatre in Charlotte Street, London, off Tottenham Court Road. The first theatre on the site opened in 1772; the last was demolished in 1969, after a catastrophic fire. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was known as the Prince of Wales's Theatre.
The Whitefriars Theatre was a theatre in Jacobean London, in existence from 1608 to the 1620s — about which only limited and sometimes contradictory information survives.
The British Schools Museum is an educational museum based in original Edwardian and Victorian school buildings in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. The museum complex is made up of listed school buildings housing infants, girls and boys schools with houses for Master and Mistress. It includes a monitorial schoolroom based on the educational theories of Joseph Lancaster for 300 boys, which opened in 1837, and a rare galleried classroom, dating from 1853.
Marion Bailey is an English actress. She is best known for her work with her partner, filmmaker Mike Leigh, including the films Meantime (1983), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Mr. Turner (2014), for which she was nominated Supporting Actress of the Year by the London Film Critics' Circle, and Peterloo (2018). In 2019 and 2020, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in the third and fourth seasons of The Crown on Netflix, for which she won a Screen Actors Guild award winner for best ensemble in 2020 and 2021.
Highbury Ward is an electoral ward in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. It covers 230.174 hectares. It is a largely residential area bounded roughly to the north by the A505, to the south west by the A602, and by the railway line to the east. Schools in the ward include Highbury JMI and Whitehill Junior School.
Alexi Kaye Campbell is a Greek-British playwright and actor. In 2009, his play The Pride was given the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.
The Compass Theatre is a 158-seat theatre in Ickenham owned by the London Borough of Hillingdon.
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen, New York City.
The Priory School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Hitchin in the English county of Hertfordshire.
Paddington in Peru is a 2024 live-action animated adventure comedy film directed by Dougal Wilson and written by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont from a story by Paul King, Simon Farnaby, and Burton. It is the third installment in the Paddington film series, which are based on the Paddington stories by Michael Bond, and a sequel to Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2017). The film stars Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Carla Tous, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington.
This Is Going to Hurt is a British medical comedy-drama television miniseries, created by Adam Kay and based on his memoir of the same name. The show was co-produced by the BBC and AMC. It focuses on the lives of a group of junior doctors working on an obstetrics and gynaecology ward in a National Health Service hospital. It profiles their professional and personal lives and explores the emotional effects of working in a stressful work environment. The series closely follows the stories of Adam Kay and Shruti Acharya as they work through the ranks of hospital hierarchy. These characters both break the fourth wall and directly address viewers with dialogue. This Is Going to Hurt presents its stories with comedic and dramatic tones. The seven-part series premiered on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 8 February 2022. It began airing on AMC+ in the United States on 2 June 2022.