Charlie Wallis has everything a girl could wish for. A loving boyfriend, a nice flat and a fantastic job as a journalist for London Core. Trouble is, Charlie's boyfriend isn't at all 'loving', her job title really reads 'office assistant' and her flat, at the top of a high-rise, isn't that nice either. Her new boss, Ben, is a huge bear of a man. A gentle giant, with chocolate brown eyes that hold a secret. While London Core investigates the disappearances of local prostitutes, Charlie, wants in on the action, deciding that dressing as a hooker and walking the streets is good research. Bumping into Ben was the last thing she expected.
Charlie Miller was the best young Scottish footballer of his generation. He made his Rangers debut under Walter Smith aged just seventeen and became a vital part of the lbrox club's legendary nine-in-a-row squad. Miller won four league titles, two Scottish Cups and one League Cup with Rangers, as well as being named the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year in 1995. Yet many believe he was a wasted talent. Here, Miller reveals how he's spent his entire life not knowing who his father is and relives his colourful upbringing in Castlemilk - one of Glasgow's toughest housing estates. He explains how the gang culture he was involved in almost ended his Rangers career before it had started and speaks openly about the impact drugs, alcohol and gambling has had on his life. Miller takes you inside the lbrox dressing-room, where he mixed with iconic figures like Ally McCoist, Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne and explains how he went from Rangers hero to rock bottom.
In her first collection of plays, writer and BAFTA-nominated actor Maxine Peake introduces four unique stories of resistance and passion based on real women. From the famous Leeds-born cyclist Beryl Burton battling through various obstacles to achieve success; to Lillian Bilocca, the 'headscarf revolutionary'; to four bold women protesting for Women Against Pit Closures, occupying a coal pit over Easter weekend in 1993; to former MP Baroness Betty Boothroyd, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons. Follow these women as Peake guides you through their stories with warmth and Northern candor. Beryl (2014): '...it is impossible to puncture the play's warmth... Beryl ensures audiences are holding on tight to the handlebars before rushing off with zeal into the life of a woman who deserves to be better known.' - Broadway World UK The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca (2017): 'Last Testament is exhilarating and moving, a show made for and with the people of Hull... It speaks truth to power and celebrates not just Bilocca but all the women who refuse to be shut up – then and now.' - The Stage Queens of the Coal Age (2018): '...a welcome corrective... a fierce cry for recognition, foregrounding the grit and resolve of the miners' wives who kept the strike of 1984-85 alive and went down fighting in the industry's dying days.' - Guardian 'Betty!' A Sort of Musical (2023): '...a timely and refreshing reminder that sometimes our politicians can have noble intentions... a charmingly daft comic biography of Baroness Betty Boothroyd, who resolutely held power to account across her groundbreaking, decades-long career.' - The Stage Maxine Peake, three-time BAFTA-nominated actor, writer, director and producer, has enjoyed a prolific career as a performer for screen and theatre, and as a writer for stage and radio. On television she has starred in Shameless, The Village, Anne, and Say Nothing; while her film roles have included The Theory of Everything, Peterloo, Funny Cow, and Words of War. In addition to being an acclaimed playwright, Maxine has led a diverse range of stage plays such as The Welkin, Hamlet and A Streetcar Named Desire.
A prison ship, transporting criminals through the galaxy to an uninhabited world, crash lands. The wardens try to keep control, but full of mutiny, anger and a desire for revenge the inmates wreak havoc and the result is catastrophic. Then human ship crash lands... Astronaut, Jenny finds herself stranded when her malfunctioning spaceship abandons her alone on a planet she was sent to explore. She has no way of getting home. She has no communication, shelter or food. No weapons. Then she realises she's not alone after all A story of survival, love and acceptance.
His Honor John Baker was first a solicitor and partner with several UK law firms, specializing in libel, copyright, and franchising of the early British Independent Television (ITV) stations before switching roles to become a barrister. Later he was appointed as a Crown Court Recorder then Circuit Judge, rising to become a deputy judge in the High Court of Justice. But John Baker also had a remarkable 'other life', which included being a regular broadcaster and celebrity on television and radio. This candid and often humorous autobiography traces his many experiences as a politician, broadcaster, lawyer, judge, and family man during the course of twin careers spanning over half a century at the hub of socio-politico-legal events.
Entertaining television challenges the idea that the BBC in the 1950s was elitist and ‘staid’, upholding Reithian values in a paternalistic, even patronising way. By focusing on a number of (often controversial) programme case studies – such as the soap opera, the quiz/ game show, the ‘problem’ show and programmes dealing with celebrity culture - Su Holmes demonstrates how BBC television surprisingly explored popular interests and desires. She also uncovers a number of remarkable connections with programmes and topics at the forefront of television today, ranging from talk shows, 'Reality TV', even to our contemporary obsession with celebrity. The book is iconclastic, percipient and grounded in archival research, and will be of use to anyone studying television history.
The un-Bond-like British spy is back—from a multimillion-selling author who “hauls you aboard and won’t let you off until the roller coaster stops” (Los Angeles Times). “If Brian Freemantle isn’t the best writer of spy novels around, he’s certainly, along with John le Carré, in the top two.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer In his long-running Charlie Muffin series, Freemantle gives us an atypical British spy. Charlie is neither high cultured nor well mannered. He’s working-class, scruffy, and fond of a drink. But he gets the job done . . . Charlie Muffin U.S.A.: Officially declared dead, Charlie can breathe again without the intelligence forces of Great Britain and the United States hunting him. He puts his espionage skills to work for an English insurance company, ensuring the security of the Romanov stamps, a priceless collection assembled before the Russian Revolution. When the American government decides to use them as bait for a vicious drug lord, Charlie gets stuck in the middle. But he’s not licked yet. “Fine, lightweight-caper entertainment.” —Kirkus Reviews Madrigal for Charlie Muffin: Since British intelligence first turned on him and forced him to go into hiding, the ex-spy has had a rough few years. He takes a job for his only friend, Rupert Willoughby, who sends Charlie to Rome to check the security system for some valuable jewels. But Charlie has chosen the wrong time to visit the Eternal City. There’s a mole in the British embassy there, and with agents of the East and West homing in fast, he’s soon caught between a rock and a hard place. “The most degenerate and lovable character ever cast in the role of secret agent.” —Manchester Evening News The Blind Run: In this Edgar Award finalist, after a trumped-up trial, Charlie lands in jail for treason. But when KGB agents stage a prison break to free his fellow inmate, a convicted British traitor, Charlie also flees to Moscow. There he meets Natalia Fedova, the KGB interrogator assigned to determine if his defection is genuine. For anyone else, the risk would be suicidal. But for Charlie, the greatest danger may be falling in love. “Unpretentious, sly rather than stately, but powerful nonetheless: the best of the Muffin novels thus far.” —Kirkus Reviews See Charlie Run: Back at work for British intelligence, Charlie finally has a real assignment: A KGB agent in Tokyo wants to defect to the other side. Charlie’s role is to bring him across. But as he himself has learned from all those evasive years, there’s never anything simple or safe about running away. “Freemantle has merged the good humor of a Lawrence Block thriller, the seriousness of a le Carré spy novel and the slam-bang adventure of a popular espionage caper.” —Publishers Weekly
Whether you are traveling to Great Britain or just want to understand British popular culture, this unique dictionary will answer your questions. British English from A to Zed contains more than 5,500 British terms and their American equivalents, each with a short explanation of the term’s history and an example of its use. The appendixes provide valuable supplemental material with differences between British and American pronunciation, grammar, and spelling as well as terms grouped in specific areas such as currency, weight, and numbers. This dictionary will help you unravel the meanings of: • Berk (idiot) • Bevvied up (drunk) • Crisps (potato chips) • Erk (rookie) • To judder (to shake) • Noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) • And more! George Bernard Shaw famously said that the British and Americans were “two peoples separated by a common language.” This book bridges that gap.
Despite its enduring popularity with both broadcasters and audiences, the quiz show has found itself marginalised in studies of popular television. This book offers a unique introduction to the study of the quiz show, while also revisiting, updating and expanding on existing quiz show scholarship. Ranging across programmes such as Double Your Money, The $64,000 Dollar Question, Twenty-One, The Price is Right, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The Weakest Link to the controversial 'Quiz TV Call' phenomenon, the book explores programmes with a focus on question and answer. Topics covered include the relationship between quiz shows and television genre; the early broadcast history of the quiz show; questions of institutional regulation; quiz show aesthetics; the social significance of 'games'; 'ordinary' people as television performers, and questions of quiz show reception (from interactivity to on-line fandom). Key Features*Represents one of few book-length studies of the quiz show*Offers an accessible introduction to the genre for undergraduate students*Draws upon new archival research in order to contribute to knowledge about the early history of the quiz show*Demonstrates why the quiz show matters to Television Studies*Brings together key approaches in the field with new interventions and areas of study (such as the quiz show in the multi-platform age, and the study of 'ordinary' people as performers).
