
Norman Wisdom
Actor · 1915 – 2010 · Marylebone, London, England
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin. These films initially made more money than the James Bond film series, and secured Wisdom a celebrity status in lands as far apart as South America, Iran and many Eastern Bloc countries, particularly in Albania where his films were permitted by Enver Hoxha – Wisdom was the only Western actor to enjoy this privilege. Charlie Chaplin famously referred to Wisdom as his "favourite clown". Wisdom later forged a career on Broadway and as a television actor, winning critical acclaim for his dramatic role of a dying cancer patient in the television play Going Gently in 1981. It was broadcast on 5 June that year. He toured Australia and South Africa. After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, a hospice was named in his honour. In 1995 he was given the Freedom of the City of London and of Tirana. The same year he received an OBE. Wisdom was knighted in 2000 and spent much of his later life on the Isle of Man. Some of his later appearances included roles in Last of the Summer Wine and Coronation Street, and he retired from acting at the age of 90 after his health declined.
Movies24
Movie5.6AdventureFantasyThe Psammead is an 'it', an ancient, ill-tempered sand-fairy with a spider-shaped body, bat-like ears, and snail-like eyes. It is grumpy but has the power to grant one wish a day, which must be made before sunset. Five siblings—Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and infant Hilary—encounter It and experience the highs and lows of frivolous wish-making.
Five Children and It
2004 · 234 votes
Movie5.5ComedyRachel arrives in New York from her Amish community intent on becoming a dancer. Unfortunately Billy Minsky's Burlesque is hardly the place for her Dances From The Bible. But the show's comedian Raymond sees a way of wrong-footing the local do-gooders by announcing the new Paris sensation "Mme Fifi" and putting on Rachel's performance as the place is raided. All too complicated, the more so since her father is scouring the town for her and both Raymond and his straight-man Chick are falling for Rachel.
The Night They Raided Minsky's
1968 · 27 votes
MovieComedyExpresso is a series of eight micro-stories, that develop the viewer as they watch the visitors during one day, to one table in a typical UK coffee shop.
Expresso
2007
Movie7.5DramaTV MoviePlay about two elderly cancer patients suffering in hospital.
Going Gently
1981 · 2 votes
- Movie8.0Documentary
After starting his career producing religious film shorts, J. Arthur Rank went on to become Britain's first and only movie mogul with his establishment of the legendary Pinewood Studios. Narrated by Michael Caine, THE GOLDEN GONG chronicles Pinewood's rise to success.
Movie7.6ComedyNorman Pitkin is the assistant helping to run a small, old fashioned dairy which is threatened by a larger, modern organisation. Pitkin does his best to save the dairy (and his horse) and the usual chaos ensues
The Early Bird
1965 · 36 votes
Movie6.1ComedyNorman Puckle, a well-meaning but clumsy grocer's assistant, can't seem to do anything right. After being rejected by Marlene, the love of his life, he attempts suicide, but can't even do that. He is saved from jumping off a cliff at 'Lover's Leap' by a Royal Navy petty officer. He persuades Puckle to join the Royal Navy, where he'll meet 'lots of girls'. Life in the Navy proves not to be as rosy as it's been described, and Puckle fails at every task during basic training. But despite this, he's regarded by the Admiral in charge of a rocket project to be a 'typical average British sailor', and chosen to be the first man to fly into outer space in an experimental rocket.
The Bulldog Breed
1960 · 19 votes
Movie7.4ComedyAn accident in the butchers shop leads Norman Pitkin and Mr Grimsdale to the hospital where, after causing the normal amount of chaos, Pitkin finds Lindy, a little girl who hasn't spoken or smiled since her parents were killed in an aeroplane accident. Pitkin decides to help.
A Stitch in Time
1963 · 36 votes
Movie6.0ComedyNorman Wisdom does to P.G. Wodehouse in Girl on the Boat what Jerry Lewis did to Gore Vidal in Visit to a Small Planet. The zany Wisdom, put in charge of his aunt's cottage during an English summer in the roaring twenties, decides to invite several of his friends to his posh new digs. Among the invitees is the title character, played by the delightful comedienne Millicent Martin. All sorts of slapstick chaos ensues, but Wisdom manages to save the day before things get hopelessly out of hand. Like Jerry Lewis, Norman Wisdom is an acquired taste, but he's worth sampling at least once. ...The Girl on the Boat
The Girl on the Boat
1962 · 6 votes
Movie6.5ComedyA man with a sandwich-board (advert) wanders around London meeting many strange characters.
The Sandwich Man
1966 · 8 votes
Movie6.6ComedyWhen a law-abiding demolition expert is duped by a gang of criminals into helping them he is caught and jailed. When he is released he goes straight and then notices a leading citizen in his town is cheating his neighbours.
There Was a Crooked Man
1960 · 8 votes
Movie9.0MusicTV MovieThe story of Androcles, the simple-hearted Christian tailor whose friendship with a lion saves himself and his friends from martyrdom in the Roman Colosseum.
Androcles and the Lion
1967 · 1 votes
Movie6.5WarComedyNorman Pitkin and Mr Grimsdale are council workmen mending the road outside an Army base when they come into conflict with the military. Shortly afterwards, they get drafted and fall into the clutches of the Sergeant they have just bested. They are sent to France to repair roads in front of the Allied advance but get captured. Pitkin takes advantage of a useful similarity to impersonate General Schreiber and manages to return a hero
The Square Peg
1958 · 33 votes
Movie6.4ComedyNorman is a window cleaner who has to clean a manor house with hundreds of windows. He is distracted by the son of the house who persuades him to go into town. When some villains try and kidnap the young heir Norman fights them off but the heir has banged his head and can't remember Norman's heroic stand
Up in the World
1956 · 16 votes
Movie7.5MusicComedyThe suburban peace of the Bentley household is shattered when John Bentley is informed by his wife Stella that their two married daughters, Pat and Corrine, are in trouble and need funds to come home and bring their husbands, Peter, a penniless Parisian artist, and Barnaby, a Texas cowboy, with them. And the youngest daughter, Gwen, has tricked an American singer, Bobby Denver, into visiting them on the pretext that it is the home of a noted British film magnate. When all the women in the household – including the maid – fall for the singer's charms, Bentley consults a crackpot psychiatrist, Dr. Schneider, who almost succeeds in ousting not the singer but Bentley's wife, with his advice to Bentley to make her jealous by living it up with Pearl, a showgirl recruited for the purpose.
As Long as They're Happy
1955 · 4 votes
Movie6.2ComedyMusicNorman Truscott is a store worker who dreams of stardom. Vernon Carew is a singer whose star is fading. Vernon manages to get a recording of Norman singing and passes it off as himself.
Follow a Star
1959 · 15 votes
Movie7.7ComedyCrimeNorman Pitkin wants to be a policeman like his father was, but he fails the height test (amongst others). One day he gets out his father's old uniform and "walks the beat". This leads to a level of chaos that only Pitkin could cause
On the Beat
1962 · 33 votes
Movie2.1HorrorWith the aim of investigating the disappearance of horror novelist George Carney, a group of students, encouraged by Gary, enter the forest Harrow Woods where he was last seen two years ago. Uncovering more than they had bargained for, the students soon find themselves in a battle for survival.
The Legend of Harrow Woods
2008 · 6 votes
Movie6.2ComedyNorman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children's Home and now acts as their caretaker. All the orphans are very happy and well cared for. The adventures start when a nasty property developer who is also the chairman of the orphanage board wants to close the orphanage and build a factory on the site. The children are sent to Brighton for the day and Norman is very excited because he's "Never seen the Sea". When they get back they discover the plan to close the orphanage and have to decide what to do
One Good Turn
1955 · 12 votes
Movie10.0ComedyDocumentaryCompilation of classic British comedy moments
To See Such Fun
1977 · 1 votes
Movie5.9ComedyNorman is quite happy selling newspapers outside Westminster station but his Grandfather (the Prime Minister) wants to get him "a more responsible job". A few favours are called in and Norman becomes the newest reporter at the seaside town of Tinmouth. After causing chaos at a local council meeting and causing the demolition of a new house he tries to organise a beauty pageant. A slapstick tale of corruption in high and low places
Press for Time
1966 · 17 votes
Movie10.0ComedyBruce Forsyth entertains a VIP audience as he stars in a spectacular one-man show.
An Audience with Bruce Forsyth
1997 · 1 votes
Movie6.6ComedyNorman is a file clerk who accidentally becomes a British delegate to a diplomatic conference, befriends the queen of a remote island, and winds up a knight. Norman leaves rooms in shambles, tailors in shreds, and diplomats in bandages. Chased by gunmen and assassins of foreign powers, Norman finds himself running through active TV studio sets and interrupts various programs and performances in progress
Man of the Moment
1955 · 17 votes
Movie5.4ThrillerCrimeExpert safecracker Arthur Clutten masterminds heists for a criminal syndicate he belongs to. But after witnessing the brutal methods of persuasion being meted out by gang leader, Ignatius Smith Clutten decides to quit. But he realizes the gang would sooner see him killed than quitting. After stealing some documents incriminating Smith and his boss, Edward Ross, Clutten then puts his family in hiding and goes on the run...but his daughter has been kidnapped by the gang and a hitman has been hired and is close to finding Clutten.
Double X: The Name of the Game
1992 · 5 votes
Series15
TV5.8ComedyTalk ShowThe Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia.
The Mike Douglas Show
1961 · 11 votes
TV6.8Talk ShowThe Merv Griffin Show
1962 · 12 votes
TV6.2DramaSoapDrama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
Casualty
1986 · 88 votes
TVTalk ShowThe Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre.
Tony Awards
1956
TV5.3Talk ShowChat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities.
Wogan
1982 · 7 votes
TV7.2ComedyUnencumbered by wives, jobs or any other responsibilities, three senior citizens who've never really grown up explore their world in the Yorkshire Dales. They spend their days speculating about their fellow townsfolk and thinking up adventures not usually favored by the elderly. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1973. The show ran for 295 episodes until 2010. It is the longest running comedy Britain has produced and the longest running sitcom in the world.
Last of the Summer Wine
1973 · 41 votes
TV7.0DramaJim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.
Bergerac
1981 · 25 votes
TV7.0DramaA one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.
Playhouse
1974 · 1 votes
TV5.3Talk ShowAn Audience with... is a British entertainment television show produced by London Weekend Television, in which a host, usually a singer or comedian, performs for an invited audience of celebrity guests, interspersed with questions from the audience, in a light hearted revue/tribute style.
An Audience with...
1978 · 3 votes
TV6.4MysteryCrimeIn the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton, the unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-China-shop-copper DS Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick DS, later DI, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining down-to-Earth wit and humour.
Dalziel and Pascoe
1996 · 28 votes
TV6.7DocumentaryThis is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American show of the same name. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, and then from 1969 until his death in 1987 aged 64. Michael Aspel then took up the role of host until the show ended in 2003. It returned in 2007 as a one-off special presented by Trevor McDonald, which to date was its most recent airing. In the show the host surprises a special guest, before taking them through their life with the assistance of the 'big red book'. Both celebrities and non-celebrities have been 'victims' of the show. The show was originally broadcast live, and over its run it has alternated between being broadcast on the BBC and on ITV.
This Is Your Life
1955 · 9 votes
TV7.8CrimeDrama"Dangerous" Davies always gets the cases no one else wants, and no one notices when he eventually succeeds. But his old-fashioned decency and dogged determination have won him legions of loyal fans.
The Last Detective
2003 · 12 votes
- TV6.5Comedy
It's Only TV But I Like It
1999 · 2 votes
TV5.2ComedyDramaBetween the Sheets is a 2003 British six-part miniseries. A carnal, comedic drama based around the love life and sexual hang-ups of several different couples all linked in some way. Emotional, touching, and sometimes humorous, the story follows these couples as they're forced to face their demons.
Between The Sheets
2003 · 5 votes
TVComedyA series of occurrences launch Norman Wisdom on a succession of remarkable and unpredictable adventures.