Showing titles in Entertainment & Performing Arts

Hollywood was built on beautiful and complicated matinee idols: James Dean and Marlon Brando are classic examples, but in the 1990s, the actor who embodied that archetype was River Phoenix. As the brightly colored 1980s wound down, a new crew of leading men began to appear on movie screens. Hailed for their acting prowess and admired for choosing meaty roles, actors such as Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Keanu Reeves, and Brad Pitt were soon rocketing toward stardom while an unknown Leonardo DiCaprio prepared to make his acting debut. River Phoenix, however, stood in front of the pack.

Award-winning comedian Tom Allen is one of Britain's best and brightest stand-ups. He's appeared on Mock the Week, The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and Live at the Apollo, toured several sell-out solo shows, starred in his own TV pilot and even written an autobiography. He's always seemed pleasant and polite on the surface: but the truth is, he's a monster - or so he says. In Tom Allen Is Actually Not Very Nice, he stages a stand-up intervention to find out what turned him from sweet to naughty and how he can get back on the straight and narrow.

The story of how The Godfather was made is as dramatic, operatic, and entertaining as the film itself. Over the years, many versions of various aspects of the movie’s fiery creation have been told - sometimes conflicting, but always compelling. Mark Seal sifts through the evidence, has extensive new conversations with director Francis Ford Coppola and several heretofore silent sources, and complements them with colorful interviews with key players including actors Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, and others.

'Wired And Wonderful' was huge... 'XL' was big... 'Big' was even bigger... now the legendary Lee Evans embarks on his most ambitious tour to date. Roadrunner is Lee's amazing new show with over 60 nights in the biggest arenas in the country. Lee will be playing to more fans than ever on this record- breaking tour of the UK and Ireland in 2011 with the show recorded during his 5 nights at the O2.

A remarkably candid biography of the remarkably candid - and brilliant - Carrie Fisher. Sourced by friends, colleagues, and witnesses to all stages of Fisher’s life, Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge is an empathic and even-handed portrayal of a woman who - as Princess Leia, but mostly as herself - was a feminist heroine, one who died at a time when we need her blazing, healing honesty more than ever.

What does Josh Widdicombe do now? Well, bring out his second live DVD, that's what. Josh's frustrations are still bubbling over, from his overflowing shower to his contactless card via a night train back from Edinburgh. Josh is at his irritated best in this brand-new show recorded live in front of a packed house at the legendary Hammersmith Apollo.

Daniel Sloss' stand-up comedy engages, enrages, offends, unsettles, educates, comforts and gets audiences roaring with laughter - all at the same time. In his groundbreaking specials, seen on Netflix and HBO, he has brilliantly tackled everything from male toxicity and friendship to love, romance and marriage. Now, in his first book, he picks up where his specials left off, and goes after every conceivable kind of relationship.

Think you know what happened in 2018? Think again. Following hot on the heels of the success of The Audiobook of the Year (or, more precisely, 12 months later), The Audiobook of the Year (2018) bravely delves behind the headlines to sniff out the best and most bizarre facts of the past 12 months. Compiled and written by the creators of the award-winning hit comedy podcast No Such Thing as a Fish, all of whom are researchers for QI.

Random Facts You Should Know: WTF Edition is jam-packed with fun and strange facts that you will be itching to unpack in any conversation to impress those around you. Whether you enjoy listening through these by yourself, with a partner, or with a group, you are bound to lose track of time while having a laugh and learning something new.

Covering the Greeks, Sharks, World War II, and Star Wars, this performance was recorded in New York City during an American tour.

One of my dad’s favorite jokes about getting older was: “I went out for coffee when I was twenty-one and when I got back I was fifty-eight!” I get what he meant now. Time flies. My first book, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a "B" Movie Actor, was published back in 2001 and it chronicles the adventures of a “mid-grade, kind of hammy actor" (my words), cutting his teeth on exploitation movies far removed from mainstream Hollywood. This next book, an “Act II” if you will, could be considered my “maturing years” in show business, when I began to say “no” more often and gravitated toward self-generated material. Taking stock in the overall quality of my life, I fled Los Angeles and moved to a remote part of Oregon to renew, regroup and reload. If that sounds tame, the journey from Evil Dead to Spider-Man to Burn Notice was long, with plenty of adventures/mishaps along the way. I never pictured myself hovering above Baghdad in a Blackhawk helicopter, facing a pack of wild dogs in Bulgaria, or playing an aging Elvis Presley with cancer on his penis - how can you predict this stuff? The sheer lunacy of show business is part of the fun for me and I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Join Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, and Joan Sims as they go beyond Round the Horne. Taking over the mantle of Round the Horne, Stop Messing About carried on the comedy tradition that reunited Kenneth Williams with both Hugh Paddick and Kenneth's Carry On co-star, Joan Sims. These four episodes include such favorites as crusty old judge Sir Inigo Parchmutter, "Crackerjackanory With Mother", more visits to Tolpurgis Hall, as well as a couple who bear a bona fide similarity to Julian and Sandy.

This collection of William L. Shirer’s radio broadcasts tells the vivid story of WWII and brings the suspense of the times to life for today’s audience. As the first journalist hired by CBS to cover the war in Europe, Shirer compiled two and a half years’ worth of wartime broadcasts including Hitler’s invasion of Austria, the armistice between France and Nazi forces in June of 1940, daily roundups of news from Paris, Vienna, Berlin, London and Rome, documenting the conditions of these countries under invasion.

The first Doctor becomes the second in this exclusive recording of Doctor Who's orginal regeneration story, starring Patrick Troughton with linking narration by Anneke Wills.

It begins with just a few people falling ill. Another flu virus that spreads around the globe. And then the reports begin that people are dying.... When most of the world's population is wiped out, a handful of survivors are left to pick up the pieces. Cities become graveyards. Technology becomes largely obsolete. Mankind must start again....

Down and Dirty Pictures chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers and of the twin engines - the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films - that have powered them. Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse.

The queen of British comedy brings her fantastically funny mix of observations on life, jokes, and songs to audio, taken from the award-winning Victoria Wood - as Seen on TV.

For nine seasons Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute, everyone's favorite work nemesis and beet farmer. Viewers of The Office fell in love with the character and grew to love the actor who played him even more. Rainn founded a website and media company, SoulPancake, that eventually became a bestselling book of the same name. He also started a hilarious Twitter feed (sample tweet: "I'm not on Facebook" is the new "I don't even own a TV") that now has more than four million followers.

As a young schoolboy, David Essex dreamed of becoming a professional footballer and was signed up by his beloved West Ham United. But as a teenager, he developed a passion for music, which set him on a very different path, and ultimately led to superstardom. It wasn't, however, an easy start. Scraping a living on the edges of show business was a hard slog, and he endured many disappointments. Then, aged 23, he went along to an audition for a new musical called Godspell and won the role (Jesus) that shot him to fame.

The British are rather proud of their sense of humour - but where has that pride come from and what makes it unique? With the help of contemporary comedians, scholars and an appetite for enduring humour, Ian Hislop tracks down the earliest examples of enduring British comedy tropes and jokes, and guides us through some of the vital elements that make up that most curious thing: the British sense of humour.