The Sharp End

Last updated

The Sharp End
Created by Roy Clarke
Directed byBrian Parker
David Penn
Starring Gwen Taylor
James Cosmo
Philip Martin Brown
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes8
Production
Running time50 minutes
Original release
Network BBC1
Release12 April (1991-04-12) 
31 May 1991 (1991-05-31)

The Sharp End was a 1991 British television comedy drama starring Gwen Taylor, James Cosmo and Philip Martin Brown. It was written by Roy Clarke and directed by Brian Parker and David Penn, and ran for eight episodes on BBC1 from 12 April 1991. The programme was filmed on location in Stoke-on-Trent.

Taylor took the leading role of Celia Forrest, a recent widow who had decided to take on the running of her late husband's Debt Collection Agency. However, her decision to do this was much to the displeasure of her more ruthless business rival (Martin Brown), who tried everything in his power to close her business down.

James Cosmo also starred as Carmichael, an illiterate hermit who was hired by Forrest as her assistant. He spent much of the series riding around on a pushbike with a tape recorder on which Forrest would record instructions of his tasks for the day.

The duo managed to keep the company running, but the series was less successful, and was cancelled after one season. It also aired on ABC TV in Australia.


Related Research Articles

<i>Forrest Gump</i> 1994 American film by Robert Zemeckis

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis. An adaptation of the 1986 novel by Winston Groom, the screenplay of the film is written by Eric Roth. It stars Tom Hanks in the title role, alongside Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field in lead roles. The film follows the life of an Alabama man named Forrest Gump (Hanks) and his experiences in the 20th-century United States.

<i>Dallas</i> (1978 TV series) American television series

Dallas was an American prime time soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolved around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who owned the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. The series originally focused on the marriage of Bobby Ewing and Pam Ewing, whose families were sworn enemies. As the series progressed, Bobby's elder brother, oil tycoon J. R. Ewing, became the show's breakout character, whose schemes and dirty business became the show's trademark. When the show ended on May 3, 1991, J. R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode.

<i>Cosmopolitan</i> (magazine) American fashion and culture magazine

Cosmopolitan is an American quarterly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, since 1965, has become a women's magazine. Cosmopolitan is one of the best-selling magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Phoenix</span> American actor (1970–1993)

River Jude Phoenix was an American actor. Phoenix was known as a teen actor before taking on leading roles in critically acclaimed films. He received numerous accolades, including the Volpi Cup and the Independent Spirit Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.

<i>Designing Women</i> American sitcom television program

Designing Women is an American television sitcom created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that aired on CBS between September 29, 1986 and May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163 episodes. It was a joint production of Bloodworth/Thomason Mozark Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television for CBS.

<i>The Fairly OddParents</i> American animated television series

The Fairly OddParents is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy with two fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda who grant him wishes to solve his everyday problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmo Kramer</span> Fictional character in the American television sitcom "Seinfeld"

Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to simply by his surname, is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998) played by Michael Richards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natascha McElhone</span> English actress (born 1971)

Natascha Abigail Taylor, known professionally as Natascha McElhone, is an English actress. In film, she has starred in the action thriller Ronin (1998), the psychological comedy-drama The Truman Show (1998) and the science fiction drama Solaris (2002). On television, she has starred in the Showtime comedy-drama series Californication (2007–2014), the ABC political drama series Designated Survivor (2016–2017), the Hulu science fiction drama series The First (2018), the Netflix historical series The Crown (2022) and the Paramount+ military science fiction series Halo.

<i>Murphy Brown</i> American television sitcom (1988–1998, 2018)

Murphy Brown is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television newsmagazine, and later for Murphy in the Morning, a cable morning news show.

<i>Grand Hotel</i> (musical) Musical by Robert Wright, George Forrest, Maury Yeston

Grand Hotel is a musical with a book by Luther Davis, music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston.

<i>The House of Eliott</i> British television series

The House of Eliott is a British television series produced and broadcast by the BBC in three series between 31 August 1991 and 6 March 1994. The series starred Stella Gonet as Beatrice Eliott and Louise Lombard as Evangeline Eliott, two sisters in 1920s London who establish a dressmaking business and eventually their own haute couture fashion house, Aden Gillett as photographer and film maker Jack Maddox and Maggie Ollerenshaw as head of the workroom Florence Ranby. It was created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, who had previously devised Upstairs, Downstairs. The series was written by several writers, including Jill Hyem, Peter Buckman, Deborah Cook and Ginnie Hole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trixie Belden</span> Title character of "detective" mystery books

Trixie Belden is the title character in a series of "detective" mysteries written between 1948 and 1986. The first six books were written by Julie Campbell Tatham, who also wrote the Ginny Gordon series; the stories were then continued by various in-house writers from Western Publishing under the pseudonym Kathryn Kenny. Today the rights to the series are owned by Random House. The series was out of print for a number of years, but Random House began releasing a new edition of the books in mid-2003. As of mid-2006, volumes 1 – 15 have been reissued.

<i>E Street</i> (TV series) Australian television series (1989–1993)

E Street is an Australian television soap opera created by Forrest Redlich and produced by his production company, Westside Television Productions, for Network Ten. It was broadcast twice weekly, from Wednesday, 24 January 1989 to Thursday, 20 May 1993. The series won several Logie awards.

<i>Lady Luck</i> (1946 film) 1946 film

Lady Luck is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Robert Young, Barbara Hale and Frank Morgan. It was produced and distributed by RKO Pictures. The picture tells the story of a professional gambler who falls in love with a woman who hates gambling and tries to reform him.

Richard James Lumsden is an English actor, writer, composer and musician. He has made regular appearances on TV and film throughout his career. Notable series include Channel 4's Emmy-award winning Sugar Rush, Is it Legal, Wonderful You and The Singapore Grip. He played Ray in Radio 4's long-running comedy Clare in the Community.

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest was the seventh season of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) produced reality television series The Ultimate Fighter, and premiered on April 2, 2008 on Spike, after UFC Fight Night 13. Unlike several other seasons which focused on two weight classes, season 7 featured only Middleweight fighters (171–185 lb).

<i>Thirteen at Dinner</i> (film) Television mystery film

Thirteen at Dinner is a 1985 British-American made-for-television mystery film featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Adapted by Rod Browning from the 1933 Agatha Christie novel Lord Edgware Dies, it was directed by Lou Antonio and starred Peter Ustinov, Faye Dunaway, Jonathan Cecil, Diane Keen, Bill Nighy and David Suchet, who was later to play Poirot in the long-running television series entitled Agatha Christie's Poirot. The film first aired on CBS Television on October 18, 1985.

Jarrett (1973) is an NBC TV film, directed by Barry Shear and starring Glenn Ford as an investigator who specializes in art cases. A feature-length pilot, it was envisioned as a weekly series, but the network did not pick it up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmo the Spacedog</span> Marvel Comics character

Cosmo the Space-dog is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Cosmo, a telepathic Soviet space dog, is the security chief of the space station Knowhere and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. The character was created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning as a reference to Laika and first appeared in Nova vol. 4 #8.