April 30

Emma Jane Pierson, better known as Emma Pierson, (born 30 April 1981) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Anna Thornton-Wilton in the BBC television drama Hotel Babylon.

Lee Paul Roache (born 30 April 1984)[1] is an English footballer who played as a striker in the Football League for Barnet.

April 29

1916 – Easter Rising

The Easter Rising (Irish: Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion and referred to erroneously in some contemporary British reports as the Sinn Féin Rebellion, was an armed insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing an Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in World War I. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798.

April 28

Nicola Rachele-Beth "Nikki" Grahame (born 28 April 1982 in Watford, Hertfordshire) is a British model, author, columnist  and television personality, who rose to fame in the UK when she was chosen to be a housemate on Big Brother 7 in 2006. Grahame's conspicuous temper tantrums divided viewer opinion during her time on Big Brother and subsequently led to her being given her own reality television show entitled Princess Nikki. Grahame won a National Television Award for most popular TV contender in 2006, and featured in a series of advertisements for Domino's Pizza. As of 2007, Grahame writes a regular column in OK!'s "Hot Stars" magazine. She appeared in the tenth series of Big Brother, competing in a Silent Disco task against Karly Ashworth, as part of the Big Brother UK Tenth Anniversary Celebrations. After entering the UK Big Brother house again in 2010 she placed 2nd in Ultimate Big Brother.

Grahame spent most of her adolescence in psychiatric hospitals, battling with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, a condition that left her comatose and near death at the age of 12. Something she has told about in two autobiography books called "Dying To Be Thin - The True Story Of My Lifelong Battle Against Anorexia" released in 2009 and "Fragile - The True Story of My Lifelong Battle With Anorexia" released in 2012.

April 27

Nigel Barker (born 27 April 1972) is a Sri Lankan-English former reality TV show personality, photographer, author, spokesperson, filmmaker, and former model. He is best known for his participation as a judge and photographer on the reality show America's Next Top Model.

April 26

Jonathan "Jon" Lee 

(born 26 April 1982 in Devon, England) is an English actor and singer. Lee is best known as a former member of pop group S Club 7 (later S Club) which disbanded in April 2003. He was the youngest member. The group also starred in a number of their own TV sitcoms, playing themselves. Since the band split, Lee has carved a successful career in musical theatre, taking on lead roles in a number of productions including the West End shows Les Miserables and Jersey Boys.

Charlie Chester 

 

(26 April 1914 – 26 June 1997) was a British comedian and TV and radio presenter, broadcasting almost continuously from the 1940s to the 1990s. His style was similar to that of Max Miller.

Chester was born Cecil Victor Manser in Eastbourne, East Sussex. His first job after leaving education was as a grocer's errand boy, but he won talent competitions for his musical instrument playing and singing. Working as a travelling salesman for an embroidery company, Chester realised he had the gift of the gab and decided to become a professional comedian. Known as "Cheerful" Charlie Chester, he was well-known to British audiences in the 1940s from his BBC radio show Stand Easy. This show was adapted for television as The Charlie Chester Show in 1949 and became a standup and sketch show for the next 11 years. Frequent cast members included Edwina Carroll, Eric 'Jeeves' Grier, Len Lowe, Deryck Guyler, Len Marten, Arthur Haynes and Frederick Ferrari. A later recurring mini-serial in the show was "Whippit Kwik the Cat Burglar", whose whistled signature tune made Chester a national favourite. Tenor St Clair was replaced by Ferrari, known as "The Voice", and for whom Chester wrote the signature song "When Love Descended like an Angel". That was in fact the only fragment written, until listener demand forced him to write a full version so that Ferrari could record it.Chester's radio shows included A Proper Charlie and That Man Chester. Another series – which started out as a section of The Charlie Chester Show in 1950 – was the quiz Pot Luck, which was the first British TV programme to offer prizes for correctly answering questions.In 1958, Stanley Matthews arranged for his son, Stanley, Jr., to attend the Lawn Tennis Association in London. He lived at the Chester household in North Finchley, Charlie being a friend of Stanley, Sr.
In 1961, Chester starred in a BBC series called Charlie Chester On Laughter Service, a music and comedy show which visited military bases throughout Britain. Most were co-written by Bernard Botting and Charlie Hart. Late in his career, Chester appeared in the Channel 4 television sitcom Never Say Die.
In the 1960s he began presenting a record show on the BBC Light Programme, later BBC Radio 2. 1969 saw the start of his weekday show and then it became his long-running radio show Sunday Soapbox which came from the BBC's Birmingham studios. He opened the programme each week with the introduction "With a box full of records and a bag full of post, it's radio Soapbox and Charlie your host!" The programme was transmitted on Sunday afternoons until 1996. Its opening and signature tune was called Music To Drive By by Alan Moorhouse.

April 25

Walter de la Mare

Walter John de la Mare, OM, CH ( 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children and for his poem "The Listeners". He also wrote some subtle psychological horror stories, amongst them "Seaton's Aunt" and "Out of the Deep". His 1921 novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and his post-warCollected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books.

April 24

Jill Dorothy Ireland (24 April 1936 – 18 May 1990) was an English actress, best known for her many films with her second husband, Charles Bronson.

She began acting in the mid-1950s with bit parts in films including Simon and Laura (1955) and Three Men in a Boat (1956).

In 1957, Ireland married actor David McCallum. The couple met on Hell Drivers and starred opposite each other in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Quadripartite Affair" (season 1, episode 3 - 1964) and again four weeks later in episode 7, "The Giuoco Piano Affair". She came back a third time in "The Tigers Are Coming Affair" (episode 37 in 1965) and a fourth in the two-part episode The Five Daughters Affair (season 3, episodes 28 and 29 - 1967). They had three sons, Paul, Valentine and their adopted son, Jason McCallum, who died of a drug overdose in 1989, six months before Ireland's own death. McCallum and Ireland divorced in 1967. In 1968, Ireland married Charles Bronson. She had first met him when he and McCallum were filming The Great Escape some years earlier. Together they had a daughter, Zuleika and adopted a daughter, Katrina. They remained married until Ireland's death in 1990.

April 23

Stephen Maynard Clark (23 April 1960 – 8 January 1991) was an English musician, best known as one of multiple songwriters and co-lead guitarist for the British hard rock band Def Leppard up until his death in 1991 due to a combination of alcohol and multiple prescription drugs. In 2007 Clark was ranked #11 on Classic Rock Magazine's "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes".

Before joining Def Leppard in 1978, Clark played cover songs with his small band, Electric Chicken, in Sheffield. Around that time, he met Pete Willis (Def Leppard's original guitarist/founder).  According to Joe Elliott in Behind the Music, Clark auditioned for Def Leppard by playing all of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" without accompaniment.
Clark and Collen quickly bonded, becoming close friends and leading to the trademark dual-guitar sound of Def Leppard. He and Clark became known as the "Terror Twins," in recognition of their talents and friendship.

Part of their success as a duo was attributed by Collen (on BBC's Classic Albums show) to their ability to swap between rhythm and lead guitar, often both playing lead or both doing rhythm within the same song. Lead singer Joe Elliott told the same programme that Clark was not a technician, he was a guitarist who wore his instrument a few notches too low, and his style was a key part of the band's chemistry. Elliott called Clark the creative one, and Collen a 'total utter technician.'
Def Leppard enjoyed their most successful years commercially during the Steve Clark era

Happy Saint George's Day

Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George. It is celebrated by various Christian churches and by the several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint. Saint George's Day is celebrated on 23 April, the traditionally accepted date of Saint George's death in AD 303.

April 22

Sean Lock (born 22 April 1963) is an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio. He has written material for such comics as Bill Bailey, Lee Evans and Mark Lamarr and was voted the 55th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007 and again in the updated 2010 list as the 19th greatest stand-up comic.

April 21

Elizabeth II ( born 21 April 1926) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states, known as the Commonwealth realms, and their territories and dependencies, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. She is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and, in some of her realms, carries the title of Defender of the Faith as part of her full title.

Charlotte Brontë ( 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell.

Alistair Stuart MacLean (21 April 1922 – 2 February 1987) was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillersor adventure stories, the best known of which are perhaps The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare, all three having been made into successful films. He also wrote two novels under the pseudonym Ian Stuart.

April 20

Amanda Fahy born in London on April 20, 1985 is a British actress most famous for her role as Shannon Parks in the BBC children's series Grange Hill.Amanda joined the long running CBBC show in 2001 leaving the series in 2004.She appeared in The Bill as Nikki McGrath in 2004 and a year later appeared in the Channel 4 made for TV drama Ahead of the Class about the notorious murder of head teacher Philip Lawrence.Amanda decided to take a break from acting when in June 2007 she gave birth to a baby daughter.In 2008 she decided not to return to a career in acting, giving birth to a second child in 2009.

Tina Cousins (born 20 April 1974) is an English singer-songwriter and former fashion model. She has had five singles in the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with others. She has also achieved popularity in Australia. She started her career as a model. She has co-presented Essex FM's 2 Smart 4 Drugs roadshow.

April 19

Alexis Korner (19 April 1928 — 1 January 1984) was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues". A major influence on the sound of the British music scene in the 1960s, Korner was instrumental in bringing together various English blues musicians.

Dorian Andrew Mientjez Yates was born on the 19^th of April in 1962. He is an English professional bodybuilder, winning the Mr. Olympia title six consecutive times beginning in 1992. He is fourth on the list of most Olympias won, and out of the seven in which he competed, he won six and placed second in his debut. Yates's supposed lack of elite genetics from birth and reputation for unique approaches and philosophies for training and nutrition have established his legendary status in IFBB history. He is widely considered one of the top athletes in modern bodybuilding history.

Alan Price (born 19 April 1942) is an English musician, best known as the original keyboardist for the British band the Animals and for his subsequent solo work. Price is a self-taught musician and was educated at Jarrow Grammar School, South Tyneside and was a founding member of the Tyneside group the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo, which was later renamed the Animals. His organ-playing on songs by the Animals, such as "House of the Rising Sun", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "Bring It On Home To Me" was a key element in the success of the group. After leaving the Animals, Price went on to have success on his own and with Georgie Fame. He introduced the songs of Randy Newman to a wider audience. Later, he appeared on his own television show, as well as achieving success with film scores including winning critical acclaim for his musical contribution to the 1973 film “O Lucky Man!”, and wrote the score to the stage musical “Andy Capp”. In addition, he has appeared as an actor in films and television productions.

April 18

Thomas Middleton was born this day. He is an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in comedy and tragedy. Also a prolific writer of masques and pageants, he remains one of the most noteworthy and distinctive ofJacobean dramatists.

Middleton wrote in many genres, including tragedy, history and city comedy. His best-known plays are the tragedies The Changeling (written with William Rowley) and Women Beware Women, and the cynically satirical city comedy A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Earlier editions of The Revenger's Tragedy attributed the play to Cyril Tourneur, or refused to arbitrate between Middleton and Tourneur. Since the statistical studies by David Lake and MacDonald P. Jackson, however, Middleton's authorship has not been seriously contested, and no scholar has defended the Tourneur attribution. The Oxford Middleton and its companion piece, Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture, offer extensive evidence not only for Middleton's authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy, but also for his collaboration with Shakespeare on Timon of Athens and his adaptation and revision of Shakespeare's Macbeth and Measure for Measure. It has also been argued that Middleton collaborated with Shakespeare on All's Well That Ends Well.

Middleton's work is diverse even by the standards of his age. He did not have the kind of official relationship with a particular company that Shakespeare or Fletcher had; instead, he appears to have written on a freelance basis for any number of companies. His output ranges from the "snarling" satire of Michaelmas Term (performed by the Children of Paul's) to the bleak intrigues of The Revenger's Tragedy (performed by the King's Men). His early work was informed by the flourishing of satire in the late-Elizabethan period, while his maturity was influenced by the ascendancy of Fletcherian tragicomedy. His later work, in which satiric fury is tempered and broadened, also includes three of his acknowledged masterpieces. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, produced by theLady Elizabeth's Men, skilfully combines London life with an expansive view of the power of love to effect reconciliation. The Changeling, a late tragedy, returns Middleton to an Italianate setting like that in The Revenger's Tragedy; here, however, the central characters are more fully drawn and more compelling as individuals. Similar changes may be seen in Women Beware Women.

Middleton's plays are characterised by their cynicism about the human race, a cynicism that is often very funny. True heroes are a rarity: almost every character is selfish, greedy, and self-absorbed. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside offers a panoramic view of a London populated entirely by sinners, in which no social rank goes unsatirised. In the tragedies Women Beware Women andThe Revenger's Tragedy, amoral Italian courtiers endlessly plot against each other, resulting in a climactic bloodbath. When Middleton does portray good people, the characters have small roles, and are flawless. Thanks to a theological pamphlet attributed to him, Middleton is thought by some to have been a strong believer in Calvinism.

April 17

Sean Bean

Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean (born 17 April 1959) is an English actor of stage and screen. He is best known for portraying Boromir in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Eddard Stark in the HBO television series Game of Thrones and fictional British Officer Richard Sharpe in the ITV television seriesSharpe. Other notable works include Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond film GoldenEye, Odysseus in Troy, Dr. Merrick in The Island, Ian Howe in National Treasure, Zeus in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Ulric in Black Death.

April 16

Sir Peter Alexander Ustinovwas born on 16 April 1921. He was an English actor, writer, and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster, and television presenter. A noted wit and raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. He was also a respected intellectual and diplomat who, in addition to his various academic posts, served as aGoodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and President of the World Federalist Movement.

Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards over his life, including two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and BAFTA Awards for acting, a Grammy Award for best recording for children, as well as the recipient of governmental honours from, amongst others, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He displayed a unique cultural versatility that has frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance man. Miklós Rózsa, composer of the music for Quo Vadis and of numerous concert works, dedicated his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 22 (1950) to Ustinov.

In 2003 Durham University renamed its Graduate Society as Ustinov College in honour of the significant contributions Ustinov had made while serving as Chancellor of the University from 1992 onwards.

Sir Kingsley William Amis, (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism. According to his biographer, Zachary Leader, Amis was "the finest English comic novelist of the second half of the twentieth century." He was the father of English novelist Martin Amis.

In 2008, The Times ranked Kingsley Amis ninth on their list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

April 15

Emma Thompson was born on 15 April 1959 is a British actress, comedian, screenwriter and author. She first came to prominence in 1987 in two BBC TV series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War, she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her work in both. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End. The following year Thompson garnered dual Academy Award nominations, as Best Actress forThe Remains of the Day and as Best Supporting Actress for In the Name of the Father.

In 1995, Thompson scripted and starred in Sense and Sensibility, a film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel of the same name, which earned her anAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role among other awards. Other notable film and television credits have included the Harry Potter film series, Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Wit (2001), Love Actually (2003), Angels in America(2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), Last Chance Harvey (2008), An Education (2009), Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang(2010), Men in Black 3 (2012) and Brave (2012). In 2012, Thompson authored The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the publication of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Thompson is a patron of the Refugee Council and president of the Teaching Awards.

April 14

Sir Arthur John Gielgud (14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet, which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937. He was known for his beautiful speaking of verse and particularly for his warm and expressive voice, which his colleague Sir Alec Guinness likened to "a silver trumpet muffled in silk". Gielgud is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

April 13

Sir William Sterndale Bennett (13 April 1816 – 1 February 1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator.

At the age of ten Bennett was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he remained for ten years. By the end of this time, he had begun to make a reputation as a concert pianist, and his compositions received high praise. Among those impressed by Bennett was the German composer Felix Mendelssohn, who invited him to Leipzig, Germany. There Bennett became friendly with Robert Schumann, who shared Mendelssohn's admiration for the Englishman's compositions. Bennett spent three winters composing and performing in Leipzig.

In 1837 Bennett returned to England to teach at the Royal Academy of Music for 20 years also later teaching at the Queen's College, London. For most of the 1840s and 1850s he composed very little, although he performed as a pianist and directed the Philharmonic Society for ten years. In 1858 he returned to composition, but his later works were considered old-fashioned and did not arouse as much enthusiasm as his youthful compositions had done. He was professor of music at the University of Cambridge from 1856 to 1866, and principal of the Royal Academy of Music from 1866 until his death.

April 12

Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, and was cited by Pele as the greatest defender that he had ever played against. He won a total of 108 caps for the England team, which at the time of his international retirement in 1973 was a national record. This record was later broken by 125-cap goalkeeper Peter Shilton. Moore's total of 108 caps continued as a record for outfield players until 28 March 2009, when David Beckham gained his 109th cap. However, unlike Beckham, Moore played every minute of every one of his caps. 

April 11

Jocelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer, songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist. Her second album, the equally multi-platinum Mind Body & Soul, topped the UK Albums Chart for one week and spawned the top ten hit "You Had Me", Stone's most successful single on the UK Singles Chart to date. Both album and single each received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, while Stone herself was nominated for Best New Artist, and in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2004 was ranked fifth as a predicted breakthrough act of 2004. She became the youngest British female singer to top the UK Albums Chart in history to have her first album at number one. In early 2009, she joined the eclectic supergroup SuperHeavy. Stone's third album, Introducing Joss Stone, released in March 2007, achieved gold record status by the RIAA and yielded the second-ever highest debut for a British female solo artist on the Billboard 200, which became Stone's first Top 5 album in the United States and first non-Top 10 album in the United Kingdom.

April 10

Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor (born 10 April 1979) is an English singer, songwriter, model and occasional DJ. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s, as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded, Ellis-Bextor went solo, achieving widespread success in the early 2000s (decade). Her music is a mixture of mainstream pop, disco, nu-disco, and 1980s electronic influences.

Her solo debut album, Read My Lips, was released in September 2001. The album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The record experienced international success, selling more than 2 million copies worldwide. It produced four singles, three of which reached the top three in the UK. In 2003, Read My Lips won the Edison Award for "Best Dance Album". Ellis-Bextor's second album, Shoot from the Hip, was released in October 2003. The album reached number nineteen in the UK and produced two top ten singles. Trip the Light Fantastic, her third album, was released in May 2007 and reached number seven in the UK. The album produced three singles, one of which reached the top ten in the UK.

In 2009, Ellis-Bextor released the Freemasons collaboration "Heartbreak (Make Me a Dancer)" and her first extended play, Sophie Ellis-Bextor: iTunes Live in London. Her fourth studio album, Make a Scene, was released in April 2011 and was a Top 20 success in Russia where it reached No.12 and was certified Gold status.

April 9

This day in 2005: Prince Charles married Camilla.

The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles have finally become husband and wife - more than 30 years after their romance first began.

More than 20,000 people cheered as they arrived at Windsor's Guildhall for their small private civil wedding.

Afterwards they returned to Windsor Castle for a service of blessing led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

About 800 of the couple's family and friends attended including the Queen and Prince Philip.

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Alban, Kt., KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Although his political career ended in disgrace, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.

Bacon has been called the creator of empiricism. His works established and popularised inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the scientific method. His demand for a planned procedure of investigating all things natural marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, much of which still surrounds conceptions of proper methodology today.
Bacon was knighted in 1603, and created both the Baron Verulam in 1618 and the Viscount St. Alban in 1621; as he died without heirs, both peerages became extinct upon his death. He famously died by contracting pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat, bringing him into a rare historical group of scientists who were killed by their own experiments.