Showing results by publisher "Spokenworld Audio & Ladbroke Audio Ltd" in Biographies & Memoirs

As 2000AD and Judge Dredd celebrate their 40th birthday in 2017, Pat Mills at last writes the definitive history of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic and the turbulent, extraordinary and exciting events that shaped it. The story begins in a garden shed in Scotland sometime in 1971...Pat Mills is the creator of 2000AD and one of the comic's top writers.

Jon Pertwee's acting career began with a public performance at the age of four. He seems to have been expelled from most of the schools his actor-writer father, Roland Pertwee, sent him to and finally joined RADA in 1936. From there, too, he was asked to leave. Jon went into Rep and had a checkered career. In Brighton panic set in when he dressed as an old gardener in Love from a Stranger instead of as a young cleric in Candida.

Propelled to stardom at the age of 15, until his tragic death from cancer at the age of 53, this is the story of actor Jack Wild, in his own words - published for the first time. Jack was just an ordinary young boy whose talent was spotted by chance by a theatrical agent and propelled onto the world stage through his performance in the 1968 film musical Oliver! It brought him an Oscar nomination and international stardom. As his fame grew, Jack also began to battle with alcoholism, which eventually dominated most accounts of his life.

Respected and loved, Patrick Troughton is probably best remembered as the second Doctor Who - a role in which he made television history. A prolific actor, he was also a complex and troubled man, constantly wrestling with two lives, one of which he was determined to keep secret. Michael Troughton presents here an entertaining and personal account of his father’s professional and private life.

The action was a series of fights in the ring and I played the boxing second. I had 34 entrances and exits, very few lines and a sponge. Throughout a career in theatre, television and film spanning over 75 years, actor Peter Vaughan has kept in mind a piece of advice given to him by his father: always see the ludicrous side of things. This may come as a surprise to those who associate him mainly with menacing, even brutal characters, in everything from Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs to Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Derek Fowlds is known the world over for his countless appearances in many household favourite television dramas and films. From apprentice printer to armed forces disc jockey, from the West End to Broadway, from the silver screen to worldwide television fame, Derek's career has seen him work alongside some of the greatest names in showbiz. He worked in films with Alec Guinness, Kenneth More, Dirk Bogarde and Gina Lollobrigida. He shook Sinatra's hand.

Immortalised through her roles in 24 of the iconic Carry On films, Joan Sims remains one of Britain's best-known comedy legends. For five decades - through more than 70 film appearances and work on stage, television and radio - she captured the hearts of audiences around the world. Yet behind the laughter was heartache and personal torment as the incredibly private actress battled depression, insecurity, loneliness and alcoholism.

Although known to an audience of millions the world over for his portrayal of The Doctor's arch nemesis The Master in Doctor Who during the 1980s, Anthony Ainley had a prolific career which encompassed starring roles in Spyders Web and It's Dark Outside as well as appearances in renowned dramas such as The Pallisers, Elizabeth R, Nicholas Nickleby, and Upstairs, Downstairs....

Voice Over Man is a fascinating insight into the life of one of the world’s most prolific voiceover artists. It’s a frank and very personal account of his career. Not in the full glare of the spotlight, but in the dark spaces behind the scenes that the public never get to see. From barking like a dog on pet food commercials to his universally recognised work on the world’s biggest television shows - The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent together with countless video games and live events; he recounts the highs and lows of his deeply unconventional career.

Witty, self-effacing and painfully honest, the themes of life, death and laughter come together as Daphne Ashbrook recounts her many on- and off-screen scrapes with mortality. Packed with rich anecdotes from her career in TV, stage and film, this refreshingly candid and conversational memoir spans a childhood in a theatrical family to pulling back the curtain of Hollywood, revealing the glamour and ridiculousness of a business mired in a struggle between art and profit.

During the decade that spanned the 1970s, teddy-boy draped rock 'n' roll band Showaddywaddy had a run of chart success unparalleled by any other artist or band. In 2005 they were still touring, but by then the heady days of teenybop hysteria were long gone. Offered a summer run of 33 holiday camp dates, the band took the fast buck and subsequently entered into uncharted territory.

Catherine Schell has lived a life more dramatic and colourful than any of her many acting roles. Her story sweeps from her birth during an Allied bombing raid in Budapest to life under postwar Russian occupation, escape, and life as a refugee in Austria; a strict convent school life in America; and on to Germany, where she became an actress.

Johnny Daukes’ memoir Shadowman tells the story of a young life corrupted by sexual abuse and a subsequent journey writing music, comedy and film that amounted to an unconscious recording and processing of that early trauma. The author’s experiences playing in bands, writing and performing radio and TV comedy and refusing to be defined by the inexplicable events of his youth makes for a fascinating, compelling and frequently hilarious dissection of an unconventional life.