He filmed the actor delivering a monologue from the Coward play, and Zanuck agreed he was perfect for the role.

Whether or not Coward would have agreed, in the 1940s the transformation of real-life gay relationships into onstage straight ones was essential.

After returning to London, Coward continued to work on the play.

In her book Noël Coward ( 1987 ), Frances Gray says that Brief Encounter is, after the major comedies, the one work of Coward's that almost everybody knows and has probably seen ; it has featured frequently on television and its viewing figures are invariably high.

Its story is that of an unconsummated affair between two married people Coward is keeping his lovers in check because he cannot handle the energies of a less inhibited love in a setting shorn of the wit and exotic flavour of his best comedies To look at the script, shorn of David Lean's beautiful camera work, deprived of an audience who would automatically approve of the final sacrifice, is to find oneself asking awkward questions.

His first work as a director was in collaboration with Noël Coward on In Which We Serve ( 1942 ), and he later adapted several of Coward's plays into successful films.

Before focusing work on their next album, the group recorded a version of " Poor Little Rich Girl " for the Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noel Coward in 1998.

A 1964 National Theatre production of Hay Fever, starring Edith Evans and Maggie Smith with Coward directing, was part of the revival of interest in his work toward the end of his life.

In 2007, his breakout year, Affleck gained recognition and critical acclaim for his work in Gone Baby Gone and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Coward had served the British government in intelligence work in the early years of the war.

Winston Churchill advised Coward that he could do more for the war effort by entertaining the troops and the home front than by attempts at intelligence work: " Go and sing to them when the guns are firing – that's your job!

His work in the theatre included Noël Coward's Present Laughter ( 1943 ) which starred Coward himself, and The Eagle with Two Heads ( 1947 ), You Never Can Tell ( 1948 ), and The Heiress ( 1949 ) with Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and Donald Sinden.

Admirers of her work included her close friend G. B. Stern ( with whom she collaborated on two books about Jane Austen ), Thomas Hardy, and Noël Coward.

Cant's theatre credits include Still Playing Away, The Railway Children, Present Laughter, An Ideal Husband, Habeas Corpus, Gaslight, Side by Side by Sondheim, The Canterbury Tales ( in which he memorably ad-libbed a reference to his work on Play School ), Oh Coward, There's No Place Like a Home and many more, as well as thirty two pantomimes, including an adaptation of " Aladdin " at the Wolverhampton Grand written by Ian Billings.

The Times said of her film work: " One role in a film written by Coward will remain always in the memory: with haughty disdain and an accent of fearful gentility Carey was the manageress of the station buffet in Brief Encounter, who froze her customers and slapped down attempts at familiarity from Stanley Holloway's ticket collector.

As the 1960s dawned he made a strong return to the theatre, occupying the dual role of actor / director in numerous West End productions including a revival of the Noël Coward work Present Laughter at the Queen's Theatre ( 1965 ) and Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking ( 1967 ) at the Duke of York's Theatre.

While Calthrop began the task of designing hundreds of costumes and dozens of sets, Coward worked on the script, which he completed in August 1931.

King George V and Queen Mary attended the performance on election night and received Coward in the Royal Box during the second interval.

Idle is an accomplished songwriter, having composed and performed many of the Pythons ' most famous comic pieces, including " Eric the Half-a-Bee ", " The Philosophers ' Song ", " Galaxy Song ", " Penis Song ( Not the Noel Coward Song )" and, probably his most recognised hit, " Always Look on the Bright Side of Life ", which was written for the closing scene of the Monty Python film Life of Brian, and sung from the crosses during the mass crucifixion.

Other characters in the play are based on Noël Coward, Harpo Marx and Gertrude Lawrence.

Le Lido, on the Champs-Élysées has been a venue of the finest shows with the most famous names since 1946 including Édith Piaf, Laurel & Hardy, Shirley MacLaine, Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier, and Noël Coward among them.

In 1941 Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit opened on the London stage at the Piccadilly Theatre, with Coward himself directing.

After working on The Italian Job with Noël Coward, and a solid role as RAF fighter pilot Squadron Leader Canfield in the all-star cast of Battle of Britain ( both 1969 ), Caine played the lead in Get Carter ( 1971 ), a British gangster film.

The screenplay is by Noël Coward, and is based on his 1936 one-act play Still Life.

The film is based on Noël Coward's one-act play Still Life ( 1936 ), one of ten short plays in the cycle Tonight at 8: 30, designed for Gertrude Lawrence and Coward himself to be performed in various combinations as triple bills.

He favored Clifton Webb, who had left films in 1930 to concentrate on the stage and at that time was appearing in the Noël Coward play Blithe Spirit in Los Angeles.

From the start Coward was happy to let production crew members take charge in their individual areas of expertise, while he concentrated on directing the actors and creating his own portrayal of Kinross.

In March 2012, The Criterion Collection released " In Which We Serve " on Blu-ray and DVD as part of the " David Lean Directs Noel Coward " Box Set, which includes a short documentary on the making of In Which We Serve.

premiered in the West End at the New Theatre ( now the Noël Coward Theatre ) on June 30, 1960 and ran for 2, 618 performances.

In the theatrical world he was known for his appearances in the plays of Noël Coward, notably Blithe Spirit, as well as career on Broadway in a number of very successful musical revues.

The play was performed on the London stage in 1926 and featured Noël Coward and Edna Best.

Special Collections also contains the Chamberlain collection of papers from Neville Chamberlain, Joseph Chamberlain and Austen Chamberlain, the Avon Papers belonging to Antony Eden with material on the Suez Crisis, the Cadbury Papers relating to the Cadbury firm from 1900 to 1960, the Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern Manuscripts of Alphonse Mingana, the Noël Coward Collection, the papers of Edward Elgar, Oswald Mosley, and David Lodge, and the records of the English YMCA and of the Church Missionary Society.

He also co-produced the London transfer of Avenue Q, which opened at the Noël Coward Theatre on 1 June 2006.

She next played Sara Jane Moore in Assassins at Donmar Warehouse ( 1992 – 93 ) and toured in Noël / Cole: Let's Do It, a Cole Porter and Noël Coward revue ( 1994 and 1995, beginning in Memphis, Tennessee ; and on the cast album ).

In short order, a new building was built on the same site, and soon Harrods extended credit for the first time to its best customers, among them Oscar Wilde, Lillie Langtry, Ellen Terry, Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Sigmund Freud, A.

Coward began researching the project while appearing in the Broadway production of Private Lives, finding inspiration in back issues of The Illustrated London News he had brought to New York City with him expressly for that purpose.

the play's strongly patriotic themes were credited by the Conservative Party for helping them secure a large percentage of the middle class votes, despite the fact Coward had conceived the project a full year before the election was held, and the playwright strenuously denied having any motivation to influence its outcome.

Coward had experience directing plays, but he was a novice when it came to films, and he knew he needed to surround himself with professionals if the project was to succeed.

Coward was anxious that it succeed, not only because it was his first film project, but because he felt it was his contribution to the war effort and he wanted it to be perceived as such by the public.

Coward disliked appearing in long runs, and the London run was therefore a limited three-month season.

In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, " A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if, by careful writing, acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride, I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions.

This rich history includes a long line of notable alumni, known as Dukies, including senior generals ( such as Sir Archibald Nye and Gary Coward ), famous musicians ( such as Debroy Somers and Henry Lazarus ), sportsmen ( like Maurice Colclough ), many leading academic scientists ( including Professors Paul Shaw, Timothy Foster and Mark Gardiner ) and clergymen ( James Jones and Bill Ind ) and a long list of decorated armed forces personnel.

The notices were excellent, with The Observer writing: " Mr Coward ’ s production is so inventive, and his own performance so adroit in its mockery of the vain, posturing, and yet self-scrutinising and self-amused matinee idol, that Present Laughter is likely to be future mirth for as long as Mr Coward cares to run it.

Joyce Carey, OBE ( 30 March 1898 – 28 February 1993 ) was a British actress, best known for her long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward.

A parody of The Petrified Forest ( 1936 ) entitled The Petrified Florist is then shown featuring Bette Savis ( Bette Davis ) and Lester Coward ( Leslie Howard ), with rather long cast credits.