Dennis Main Wilson

…e. Let's see somebody who can actually sing rather than just bite the end off a mike with no bloody voice. And I brought in something which I regarded from my own selfish point of view as professional…

Margaret Thomson

…tricia kindly donated her copy of her interview with Margaret Thomson when Mike Dick met her at the  "Women Behind The Camera in World War II" event at the BFI Reuben Library on 15…

Alan Lawson

…ity of the recording is below par , however the content is valuable.  Mike Dick 15.12.16Summary [by Will Atkinson]: This interview reveals the tireless efforts Alan Lawson made to organ…

Philip Gilbert

In an interview conducted by Mike Dick, Philip Gilbert, Head of BBC Events Department in 1997, explains the difficult decisions that had […]

Women in West London Film Laboratories

[…] To: Matt Barton, Chris Brown, Kate Cheeseman, Hazel Mae Dawson, Mike Dick, Frances Galt, Christopher Hird, Jan Tovey, Julie Watkins Research […]

Organisation Structure & Activities

[…] especially those who cannot attend.   Management Committee Roy Fowler, President Mike Dick, Chair Darrol Blake, Vice chair Roy Lockett, Ex-chair Martin Sheffield, Treasurer and Archive Co-ordinator Sue Malden, Secretary Elaine […]

Our Organisation (old)

[…] especially those who cannot attend.   Management Committee Roy Fowler, President Mike Dick, Chair Darrol Blake, Vice chair Roy Lockett, Ex-chair Martin Sheffield, Treasurer and Archive Co-ordinator Sue Malden, Secretary Elaine […]

Madeline Smith

Madeline Smith (born 2 August 1949) is an English actress. After working as a model in the late 1960s, she went on to appear in many television and radio series and stage productions, plus comedy and horror films, in the 1970s and 1980s.She is perhaps best known for playing Bond girl Miss Caruso in Live and Let Die with Roger Moore (1973), but also had larger roles in the Hammer horror films The Vampire Lovers (1970), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Tam-Lin (1970), Theatre of Blood (1973) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) and comedy films including Up Pompeii (1971), Up the Front (1972) and Carry On Matron (1972) amongst others. She also appeared in the films The Killing of Sister George (1968), Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (1970), The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972) and the musical film Take Me High (1973) with Cliff Richard.After leaving the acting profession in the mid-1980s to raise her family, she returned to acting in 2011.Early life, family and educationSmith was born in Hartfield, Sussex, the only child of Robert and Ursula Smith (née Boas).[3] Her father owned an antiques shop and painting restoration business near Kew Gardens, and her Swiss mother was a translator. Madeline received a convent school education.In her late teens, she held a temporary job at Biba, a boutique located on Kensington High Street, London. At the instigation of Barbara Hulanicki, founder of Biba, Smith became a modelIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, she was regularly featured in the work of Disc cartoonist J Edward Oliver, who on one occasion devoted an entire strip to her entitled 'The Life and Habits of the Madeline Smith'.CareerSmith's first screen role was a small part in the film Escalation (1968) following this with a role in The Mini-Affair (1967), although the latter was released first. Smith first worked for Hammer Film Productions in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), billed as 'Maddy Smith' and playing an East End prostitute.[8] Among her other film appearances, she played opposite Ava Gardner in Tam-Lin, Peter Cushing in The Vampire Lovers and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Diana Dors in The Amazing Mr Blunden, Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii and Up the Front, and Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood. In 1972, Smith appeared in Carry On Matron in a scene alongside Hattie Jacques, Barbara Windsor and Joan Sims.In 1973, she played the Bond girl Miss Caruso in the post-opening titles sequence of Live and Let Die, the first James Bond film starring Roger Moore. Smith's role is therefore significant as Miss Caruso is the first Bond girl of the Roger Moore era.[9] Smith and Moore take part in a scene in which he unzips her dress with a magnetic wristwatch. She was recommended for the role by Moore himself, having previously appeared with him in an episode of the television series The Persuaders!.Smith's numerous stage credits include working with US director Charles Marowitz on Blue Comedy (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford) and The Snob (at Marowitz's Tottenham Court Road venue the Open Space). She also acted opposite Alec Guinness in the original West End production of Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus (playing Felicity Rumpers), supported Frankie Howerd again in the Volpone adaptation The Fly and the Fox (Churchill Theatre, Bromley), played Elma in a Cambridge Theatre Company revival of Frederick Lonsdale's Canaries Sometimes Sing, and spent two years playing the female lead in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap at the St Martin's Theatre.Her television credits include Doctor at Large (1971), The Two Ronnies (appearing in the serial 'Hampton Wick', 1971), Clochemerle (1972), His and Hers (1970) with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Casanova '73 (1973) with Leslie Phillips, Steptoe and Son (1974), The Howerd Confessions (1976), Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1980) and The Steam Video Company (1984). She also featured in two episodes of All Creatures Great and Small, as two different characters (as Angela Farmer in "Pride of Possession" (1978) and as Anne Grantley in the 1983 Christmas special). She was a member of the regular cast of the BBC2 series The End of the Pier Show (1974) and In The Looking Glass (1978) alongside satirists John Wells and John Fortune and composer Carl Davis.[13] Smith also starred in The Passionate Pilgrim (1984) which was the final screen appearance of Eric Morecambe.After the birth of her daughter in 1984, Smith gradually wound down her career to enable her time to raise her. In 2009, Smith interviewed in, and was the cover star of, the coffee-table book Hammer Glamour. She returned to acting in 2011 with an appearance in an episode of Doctors. She then followed this with a role in a docu-drama marking the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic before starring in the mini-series Dancing on the Edge (2013) and appearing in an episode of Not Going Out in 2014. In 2015 she appeared as a contestant on the red team in the BBC antiques gameshow Bargain Hunt. In December 2018, she appeared in episode 4 of the Christmas series of Celebrity Mastermind with The History of Kew Gardens as her specialist subject. In 2019, Smith reunited with her Up Pompeii! co-star Tim Brooke-Taylor and actors including Frazer Hines and Camille Coduri in a recorded audio play of the same name to mark 50 years of the series.

Ronald Grant

Ronald Grant is one of the co-founders of The Cinema Museum in London, along with Martin Humphries. Wikipedia+3Wikipedia+3Museums EU+3Before founding the museum, Grant was a cinema projectionist, originally from Aberdeen. BFI+2thevanderlust.com+2As a projectionist and cinephile, he began collecting cinema artefacts (projectors, posters, uniforms, seats, etc.) especially as many old cinemas were closing down, and the equipment and interior fittings were being discarded. He rescued many of these items. BFI+2thevanderlust.com+2The Cinema MuseumOrigins & FoundingThe private collection of Ronald Grant (many decades of collecting) and that of Martin Humphries formed the basis for establishing The Cinema Museum. Wikipedia+1The museum was founded in 1984 initially, and then obtained charitable status in 1986. FilmInt.nu+2Wikipedia+2Location & BuildingSince 1998, The Cinema Museum has been housed at 2 Dugard Way, London Borough of Lambeth, in the former administration block (Master’s House) of the old Lambeth Workhouse. Wikipedia+2BFI+2The building is owned by the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Wikipedia+1The Lambeth Workhouse has a connection to Charlie Chaplin: he lived there as a child when his mother faced destitution. This historical connection is part of the museum’s narrative. BFI+1Collection & ActivitiesThe museum preserves and exhibits objects related to the experience of cinema-going: projectors, uniforms, seats, carpets, posters, lobby décor, promotional materials, publicity, memorabilia, etc. ronaldgrantarchive.co.uk+2BFI+2There is also an archive: books, periodicals, photographs, negatives, etc., documenting cinema history, exhibition, projection, audiences, and related ephemera. Time Out Worldwide+1They run guided tours (by appointment), events: silent film screenings, talks, special events related to cinema history. Time Out Worldwide+2Wikipedia+2Challenges & CampaignsThe museum has faced threats to its existence, mostly related to its building and land ownership. There have been periods when the NHS Trust owning the building considered selling, lease issues, and concerns that the museum might be evicted or dispersed. BFI+2The Guardian+2There have been campaigns (“Save the Cinema Museum”) to secure its future by fundraising and negotiating to purchase or preserve the site.

Jill Langley

Jill Langley worked at Sapphire Films with Hannah Fisher on the television series"The Adventures Of Robin Hood"  before becoming a film production secretary – her first film was Circle of Deception at Walton-on-Thames studios in 1960.  She worked with Sydney Poitier, Catherine Deneuve, Ray Charles, Charlotte Rampling and Lynn Redgrave on important sixies movies such as "To Sir With Love" , "Georgie Girl", "Repulsion", and " Ballad in Blue"