Entertainment Facts

Although it was not known as the BAFTA academy when it was first founded, the beginnings of the society commenced on 16th April 1947, when an elite group of members from the British film production industry met at a room in the Hyde Park Hotel.

The group of members present that day made David Lean a leading film director the Academy’s Chairman.

The academy all started in order to provide recognition for those who had contributed an outstanding creative piece of work towards the enhancement of British film.

After eleven years later, the British Film Academy decided to merge with the Guild of Television Producers and Directors, duly forming The Society of Film and Television Arts as its replacement.

With David Lean generously donating the royalties from his films “Bridge On The River Kwai” and “Doctor Zhivago” to The Society, this money became an invaluable source of capital for the newly founded society.

In 1976, with the opening of its new headquarters The Society became officially known as The British Academy of Film and Television Arts and BAFTA was born.

Although the BAFTA awards ceremony happens but once a year, the society itself is busy throughout the year with international programme of learning events and initiatives.

These programmes offer an unique access to some of the most inspiring techniques and talents through their various workshops, masterclasses, scholarships, lectures and mentoring schemes.

These initiatives are about connecting with the audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK, Los Angeles and New York.

On 12th February 2017, BAFTA awards ceremony which took place at The Royal Albert Hall, London, celebrated it’s 70th Anniversary.

Back in Roman times, a pantomime was a performance by one person, who mimed all the parts in a mythological story.

In 18th century England, a pantomime was still silent, but with a full cast of actors and dancers.   At that time only certain theatres known as  “Theatre Royals” were allowed to present proper plays with words.

So “music houses” such as Sadler’s Wells staged elaborate musical pantomimes with the lovers Harlequin and Columbine and clowns.

It was in the 1840’s that what we now think of as traditional pantomime was established.

A lavish Christmas entertainment for children based loosely on a fairy story, with the Principal Boy  acted by a woman, the Dame by a man and somewhere along the way a transformation scene from earth to fairyland, such as the Prince’s palace to Cinderella’s hovel.

 

After Facebook revealed that about 83 million people on the site don’t actually exist, they have commenced with the long awaited purge of the fake accounts.

Celebrities such as Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lady Gaga have seen a significant drop in their followers after the cull came into practice.  One of the most popular sites on the pages is Zynga’s Texas HoldEm poker lost more that 100,000 followers in one day.

Fake accounts take up around 8.7 percent of facebooks 845 million users.  These fake accounts generate ‘likes’ to falsely boost a brand’s figures.  It’s a scam which causes harmful misuse to the real accounts on facebook.

Hopefully with facebook addressing the problem it will reduce the number of false likes on a page by one percent.

We all like a good old fashioned ‘Who dun’it?’ and what better game than Cluedo.  But can you answer the mystery of who invented it?

It was invented by Anthony Pratt, a Midlands based solicitor’s clerk in 1944. Anthony and his wife Marjorie were enthusiastic ‘gamesters’ whose favourite activity was playing board games with their friends.

It was Marjorie who designed the board itself, as the fictitious home of the victim, Dr Black. For three years, they played their home-made ‘Cluedo’ among friends before they were urged to submit it to Waddingtons, the Leeds based games manufacturer, for possible commercial mass production.

The company liked the game, knowing thrillers and anything to do with crime always appealed to the public’s imagination, they launched it officially in 1948.

The game was so successful that the Cluedo characters of Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum and so on became household names in the last 50 years.

When Reverend Green was defrocked to plain old Mr Green by Waddingtons, there was public outrage.

The rules of the game are that a crime has been committed in a country house where six guests are gathered and six weapons are concealed.

There are nine rooms, including conservatory, billiard room, library etc.  You must discover who, when and where, but never why, poor Dr Black met his grisly end.

As there are 324 potential murder combinations, it’s very hard to tire of the game.