Still Laughing is a lively, deeply nostalgic exploration of a golden age of the 1980s British sitcom. From Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder and Yes Minister to Red Dwarf and The Young Ones, Robert Sellers revisits the comedies that defined a turbulent decade shaped by Thatcherism, social change and the arrival of Channel 4.As politics grew sharper, so too did sitcom. Bread and Desmond's captur...

Unveils the untold story of the iconic franchise, exploring its origins, secrets, and the complex legacy of Peter Sellers.The Pink Panther series is one of the most enduring and financially successful franchises in movie history, beginning with 1963’s The Pink Panther, which introduced audiences to the iconic Inspector Clouseau, unforgettably played by Peter Sellers.Drawing on previously unseen material and ‘exclusive’ interviews with stars of the films and...

1971 was a great year for cinema.Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Dario Argento, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Sergio Leone, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Roman Polanski, Nicolas Roeg and Steven Spielberg, among many others, were behind the camera, while the stars were also out in force. Warren Beatty, Marlon Brando, Michael Caine, Julie Christie, Sean Connery, Faye Dunaway, Clint Eastwood, Jane Fonda, Dustin Hoffman, Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and Vanes...

'God put me on this earth to raise sheer hell.' Richard Burton'I was a sinner. I slugged some people. I hurt many people. And it's true, I never looked back to see the casualties.' Richard Harris'Booze is the most outrageous of all drugs, which is why I chose it.' Peter O'Toole'I don't have a drink problem. But if that was the case and doctors told me I had to stop I'd like to think I would be brave enough to drink ...

I don’t know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I’m going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass.”-Marlon BrandoI should have been dead ten times over. I believe in miracles. It’s an absolute miracle that I’m still around.”-Dennis HopperYou only lie to two people in your life: your girlfriend and the police.”-Jack NicholsonThe best time to get married is noon. That way, if things don’t work ...

Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period in the early 70s he came within a hairsbreadth of replacing Sean Connery as James Bond - but he is an august member of that small band of people, like George Best and Eric Morecambe, who transcended their chosen medium, became too big for it even, and grew into cultural icons.For the first time Reed's close family has agreed to collaborate on a project about the man himself. The result is a fascinating new ins...

'I don't know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I'm going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass.' Marlon Brando'I should have been dead ten times over. I believe in miracles. It's an absolute miracle that I'm still around.' Dennis Hopper'The best time to get married is noon. That way, if things don't work out, you haven't blown the whole day.' Warren Beatty'You only lie ...

The 1970s were the era of the three-day week, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the winter of discontent, trade union Bolshevism and wildcat strikes. Through sitcoms, Raising Laughter provides a fresh look at one of our most divisive and controversial decades. Aside from providing entertainment to millions of people, the sitcom is a window into the culture of the day.Many of these sitcoms tapped into the decade's sense of cynicism, failure and alienation, ...

An A-Z of Hellraisers is the last word on inebriated misbehaviour, and the miscreant mob in this whopper of a book constitute the most amazing grouping to see print: from Alexander the Great, whose drunken revelries once ended with the destruction of an entire city; to W. C. Fields, who passed critical judgement on a brass band by urinating over them from a hotel balcony; Dylan Thomas, who drove a sports car onto Charlie Chaplin's private tennis court; to Led Zeppelin drummer John...

The incredible, hilarious insider's story of Britain's favourite film company!It all started when Beatle George Harrison stepped in to fund Life of Brian when Monty Python's original backers pulled out. His company, HandMade films, went on to make some of the best British films of the 80s (Withnail and I, Time Bandits and Mona Lisa among them), but then things started to go wrong... This is the incredible and often hilarious insiders' story of what happen...

In the league table of the funniest universities in the world, Cambridge wears the crown. Home of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupe, the Cambridge Footlights, it has been a veritable conveyor belt of comic talent that's been rolling for more than a century.From Monty Python, The Goodies and Not the Nine O'Clock News to Peep Show, QI and The Great British Bake-Off, its alumni are behind many of the sh...

"This lively, funny, moving history of a movie studio and the people who made it feels uncannily like ... an Ealing comedy." Martin ScorseseA behind-the-scenes account of life at Ealing Studios - one of the great cinematic success stories of post-war Britain, and a byword for a particular strain of comic film-making that continues to inspire imitators over half a century on.This is the only full narrative history of Ealing, focusing on its output in the 1940s and '...