Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov was a British actor, director and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. Ustinov received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award.
Petula Clark CBE is a British singer, actress, and songwriter. She started her professional career as a child performer and has had the longest career of any British entertainer, spanning more than 85 years.
Anthony Newley was an English actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest leading men", from 1959 to 1962 he scored a dozen entries on the UK Top 40 chart, including two number one hits. Newley won the 1963 Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "What Kind of Fool Am I?", sung by Sammy Davis Jr., and wrote "Feeling Good", which became a signature hit for Nina Simone. His songs have been sung by a wide variety of singers including Fiona Apple, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey.
Leslie Bricusse OBE was a British composer, lyricist, and playwright who worked on theatre musicals and wrote theme music for films. He was best known for writing the music and lyrics for the films Doctor Dolittle; Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Scrooge; Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; Tom and Jerry: The Movie; the titular James Bond film songs "Goldfinger" and "You Only Live Twice"; "Can You Read My Mind? " from Superman; and "Le Jazz Hot!" from Victor/Victoria.
Vice Versa: A Lesson to Fathers is a comic novel by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, writing under the pseudonym "F. Anstey", first published in 1882. The title originates from the Latin phrase "vice versa", meaning "the other way around".
Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death. Tall and broad with a mop of chestnut hair, Livesey used his highly distinctive husky voice, gentle manner and athletic physique to create many notable roles in his theatre and film work.
I Know Where I'm Going! is a 1945 romance film directed and written by the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown.
"Downtown" is a song written and produced by English composer Tony Hatch. Its lyrics speak of going to spend time in an urban downtown as a means of escape from everyday life. The 1964 version recorded by British singer Petula Clark became an international hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK Singles Chart. Hatch received the 1981 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
James Robertson Justice was a British actor. He often portrayed pompous authority figures in comedies, including each of the seven films in the Doctor series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in several adventure movies, notably The Guns of Navarone. Born in south-east London to a Scottish father, he became prominent in Scottish public life, helping to launch Scottish Television (STV) and serving as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.
Kenny Clayton was a British record producer, arranger, conductor and jazz pianist.
Treasure Island is a 1990 British-American made-for-television film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel of the same name, written and directed by Fraser Clarke Heston, and also starring several notable British actors, including Christian Bale, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee, Julian Glover and Pete Postlethwaite.
Medal for the General is a 1944 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey. The screenplay by Elizabeth Baron is based on the novel of the same title by James Ronald.
Maurice Elvey was one of the most prolific film directors in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year. He also produced more than fifty films – his own as well as films directed by others.
John Stanley Livingstone Harris was a Scottish composer, producer, arranger, conductor, and musical director. He lived in the United States from 1972 until his death.
Philip Arthur Reeves, known professionally as Kynaston Reeves, was an English character actor who appeared in numerous films and many television plays and series.
Vice Versa is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Brian Gilbert and starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage. It is the fourth film adaptation of F. Anstey's 1882 novel of the same name, following the British films released in 1916, 1937 and 1948.
David Hutcheson was a British character actor. He made his film debut in Fast and Loose in 1930 and played his only lead role in 1934's Romance in Rhythm. He went on to specialise in hooray henrys, silly asses and military types most prominently in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and Peter Ustinov's School for Secrets (1946) and Vice Versa (1948). He continued in film and television until the 1970s. During the 1960s he often played the role of Colonel Pickering in stage productions of My Fair Lady.
Vice Versa is a 1916 British silent fantasy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Charles Rock, Douglas Munro and Guy Newall. It is an adaptation of the 1882 novel Vice Versa by Thomas Anstey Guthrie. The screenplay concerns a schoolboy who magically swaps places with his pompous father.
Frederick Volpe, sometimes printed Volpé, was an English actor. He made his stage debut in his early twenties. From 1894 until his death he was a familiar figure on the West End stage, generally in undemanding comedies and other ephemeral productions. Among others, he created the role of Alexis in The Girl in the Taxi (1913). He made several films, beginning in 1917.
Vice Versa: A Lesson to Fathers is a play by Edward Rose that adapted the 1882 novel of the same name by Thomas Anstey Guthrie. The play debuted at the Gaiety Theatre, London on 9 April 1883. The story is about a body swap between a father and son. Rose played the son in the debut production; Charles Hawtrey played the father.
