Bøker av John Antrobus

THREE AMAZING PLAYS FOR THE STAGE OF GOOD REPORT A historical take on the early days of a comedy-writing partnership between John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Mix in fifties BBC Radio corridors and a determination to root out left wing elements. There was no blacklist at the Beeb, that would not be subtle, but a writer could find himself unemployed, no reason given. We also meet bomb-happy ex-army officers become producers who were intent on imposing get-your-hair-cut discipline amongst anyone with artistic leanings. First produced at The White Bear Theatre, December, 2004, and was directed by John Antrobus. Heralded as 'play of the week' in Time Out... LACK OF MORAL FIBRE Produced on BBC Radio Drama, 1976, with Richard Briars and Brian Murphy. A play always intended for the stage, still knocking on the door. Wing Commander Teddy Wilmot, Bomber Command, retired, runs a pub on the moors in the early postwar days, a dream come true shared with his wife, 'We'll build a sweet little nest, somewhere in the west...' except that it is becoming a bit of a nightmare as he struggles with rising debt. However, he keeps drinking in the company of his ex-army barman, Dennis. Did Dennis abandon the front line in Italy to flog cigarettes in Naples? That is unclear... Where is Teddy's wife? Gone to stay at her sister's; except that turns out not to be the case. She is in hospital and it is Dennis who reveals this. Teddy, the Skipper, attempts to bring all his morale-boosting wartime skills to this phase of his life. What will the results be? The play's the thing... THE LOONEYS First produced at the Traverse Theatre, director Michael Rudman, who subsequently recast the parts of the looneys at The Hampstead Theatre, London, starring Leonard Rossiter and Colin Welland. A dysfunctional family living in the country are celebrating Katey's 21st birthday as they wait for daddy to return home. He is a film star who's star has fallen. But the first visitors to arrive are two escaped inmates from the local mental hospital. When the alcoholic father, Arnold Gosport, eventually arrives home he decides he can use the disturbed and maybe dangerous visitors to his own advantage but with an enabling wife and his own off-the wall personality and his long-suffering agent who turns up for the party, the mix becomes the stuff of an absurd series of outcomes...

This book is essentially about me - me midst the Goons! Me! Me! Me! (How disgusting! What's this fellow going on about?)It is an unashamed celebration of MY life not in the past but TODAY and in that, it becomes a celebration of YOUR lives TODAY...This is not some pious documentary or painstaking recollection of THOSE days!It is about TODAY and the book you are holding in your hands and you are wonderful RIGHT NOW. You are the LIFE of all the heroes you admire! You can say, Oh! It's a pack of lies then? Inventions of an author clawing his way back into the limelight? Or trying to. That's a laugh in itself. Yes, do say that. I don't mind...But the GOONS depicted were inventions of their own lives no less than I have reinvented them. They would be grateful for these tales based upon fragments or reality in the history of place and years and days and ever the present moment when the GOONS in respite from their self-inventions faced a silence because the real journey is to discover how WONDERFUL we all are already!!So if you want to cast this book aside a great good has already been done for you. You are more amazing than the whole world of books you have read or not yet read or will never read because the book world and indeed the whole world can only reflect the wonder of being you...I will be in touch again with more amazing works. Thanks for reading this back cover at no expense and do have a nice day. Unless you have already made other plans. As Peter Ustinov once remarked... PS: Appearing in these pages you will find Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. They seek their arch enemy the dreaded Count Moriarty for this very villain has been ridiculed in the Goon Shows and now seeks his revenge.Holmes is aware of the great danger he and Watson face of becoming ensnared as characters in the book - of being trivialised now they are out of copyright. Watson has no idea that they are continually being rewritten, a vision only granted to the out of this world opium pipe smoking Holmes!

Appreciation for The Milligan Papers...I have been manifestly and magnificently misrepresented! For this much thanks!Winston Churchill One of my soldier boys died laughing! What a way to go!Florence Nightingale Liberating! After reading The Milligan Papers I freed another fifty serfs!Leo Tolstoy From snowy peaks to flowery dellThe laughter rises and larks tellIn songs rapture comic capersBe sure to read The Milligan Papers.Will Shakespeare

Appreciation for The Milligan Papers.I have been manifestly and magnificently misrepresented! For this much thanks! Winston ChurchillOne of my soldier boys died laughing! What a way to go! Florence NightingaleLiberating! After reading The Milligan Papers I freed another fifty serfs! Leo TolstoyFrom snowy peaks to flowery dell The laughter rises and larks tell In songs rapture comic capers Be sure to read The Milligan Papers. Will Shakespeare

This hilarious farce begins quietly enough with Howard and Penny asleep. A burglar climbs through the window and steals various items, including Howard''s suit. Awakening, Howard announces his intention to get back to the wife! But how can he in only vest and underpants? Before you can say "jockey shorts" he is being chased around the flat by his Danish au pair, the Home Secretary and a randy constable who doubles as a flasher. Add to this a punk with rainbow coloured hair, a gravelly voice Captain and a singing telegram Gorilla and you have the ingredients for a night of outrageous fun!|3 women, 6 men