Quentin Falk

Charles Crichton is perhaps best remembered as the director of the unlikely blockbuster hit A Fish Called Wanda, made when he was seventy-seven years old. But the most significant part of his career was spent at Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s, working on such beloved comedies as Hue and Cry, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Titfield Thunderbolt. Nonetheless, as this pioneering study of Crichton’s work reveals, his filmmaking skills extended way beyond comedy to wartime dramas and film noir, and his adaptability served him well when he made the transition into primetime television, working on popular shows such as The Avengers, Space: 1999 and The Adventures of Black Beauty. Featuring first-hand testimony from colleagues ranging from Dame Judi Dench and Petula Clark to John Cleese and Sir Michael Palin, this riveting account of Crichton’s fascinating life in film will appeal to film scholars and general readers alike.

Charles Crichton

Too Good to Waste : a Biography

Anthony Hopkins

Including contributions from Hopkins and many pople who know and have worked with him, this biography has been updated to include the films Hannibal, Red Dragon and The Human Stain. It also covers his third marriage and his decision to take US citizenship.

The Biography

Ben Falk

Ever since John Logie Baird first publicly demonstrated this now all-pervasive medium in his small Soho laboratory, the history of television has been littered with remarkable but true tales of the unexpected. Ranging from bizarre stories of actors shenanigans to strange but true executive and marketing decisions, and covering over one hundred shows, series and episodes from both behind and in front of the camera in British and American television studios, 'Television's Strangest Moments' is the ultimate tome of TV trivia. Why did the quintessential English sleuth The Saint drive a Swedish car? What happened when Michael Aspel met Nora Batty on the set of the 1960s drama-documentary 'The War Game'? Why is the Halloween chiller 'Ghostwatch' still unofficially banned by the BBC? From live TV suicide to Ricky Martin's disastrous candid camera-style episode involving a young female fan and several cans of dog food, 'Television's Strangest Moments' will keep you hooked when there's nothing worth watching on the box.

Extraordinary But True Tales from the History of TV

Television's Strangest Moments

On October 8th, 1920 the body of a young woman named Kate Lilian Bailey, aged 22, was discovered. It transpired that her husband, George Arthur Bailey, had poisoned his pregnant wife with prussic acid, and sedated his young daughter. George was known as the 'musical milkman' because he could be heard whistling while on his daily milk rounds.

The Musical Milkman Murder

On October 8, 1920 the body of a young woman named Kate Lilian Bailey, aged 22, was discovered. It transpired that her husband, George Arthur Bailey, had poisoned his seven-months pregnant wife with prussic acid, and with a whiff of the same chloroform he used to ease her final anguish, sedated his three-year-old daughter whom he placed in bed next to the corpse. Fourteen hours later, he fled the cottage, taking his child to relatives in Swindon before being arrested three days after the murder, at Reading Station with four kinds of poison in his pockets. Police also found a note suggesting that Bailey had intended to kill his little girl as well as himself and his wife. So was this simply the botched suicide pact of a devoted couple that had gone tragically out of control? All would be revealed at a sensational 1921 trial at Aylesbury Assizes; a shabby record of forgery, fraud, theft, false information and army desertion. Bailey - also known to the police as George Cox and Ronald Gilbert Treherne, or Tremayne, was also, it's said, a budding sex criminal and a fantasist of the first order. Although, curiously, he didn't plead insanity at his trial, the accused had a history of mental disorder including nervous breakdowns and several suicide attempts. At his trial - where women would sit on an English murder jury for the first time - Bailey denied all the charges. The prosecution argued that Bailey murdered his wife in order to be free to seduce innocent local girls, and a conviction was swiftly secured after the four day trial. Despite an appeal, Bailey was hanged 'three clear Sundays' after the jury returned with its verdict. George was a milkman and was known as the 'musical milkman' because he could be heard whistling while on his daily rounds.

The Musical Milkman Murder - In the idyllic country village used to film Midsomer Murders, it was the real-life murder story that shocked 1920 Britain

Long before the picturesque village of Little Marlow became a well-known location for filming episodes of popular television crime shows such as Inspector Morse, Miss Marple and Midsomer Murders, the tranquil Thameside hamlet was the site of a real-life murder that would have taxed the imagination of even the most inventive TV screenwriter. In the immediate aftermath of the Great War, Little Marlow was thrown into a state of great excitement by the discovery of the body of a young married woman named Kate Lilian Bailey. The scene of the tragedy was Barn Cottage, a pretty countryside residence; the weapon of choice was poison, and the man accused of the murder was local milkman, George Bailey Kate's husband. Who was George Arthur Bailey? What drove this seemingly harmless milkman to murder his wife? Who, or what, sealed his fate? Almost a century later, through exhaustive research, author Quentin Falk brings to light the extraordinary and colorful facts of this strangely under-reported crime to reveal not just one astonishing story, but an intriguing crime and compelling weave of several stories. "The Musical Milkman Murder" paints a vivid picture of rural society in early 20th century England, reveals the grisly tale of a star-crossed couple torn apart by poison that subsequently lead to an execution and the suicides of a judge and a hangman and the tragic story of a daughter who would take half a lifetime to discover the terrible truth behind her parentage."

Quentin Falk

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