Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Entertainment & Performing Arts

Cilla Black is without doubt one of Britain's most treasured personalities. Generations have grown up with Cilla's music, TV shows, and performances. But how much do we really know about "the girl with the bright red hair and the jet black voice"? What's It All About? is Cilla's own story, told for the first time ever.

Fred Dibnah's World celebrates the life and work of Britain's best known steeplejack and national treasure, Fred Dibnah. Before his death in 2004, Fred presented many popular series, including Magnificent Monuments, The Age of Steam and Made in Britain, all of which attracted viewers in their millions.Fred is the companion to the 12-part BBC2 series celebrating the life of this great man, which combines highlights from some of Dibnah's classic programmes with previously unseen footage.

‘I never once attended a Sunday morning church service in Stanford. There was always the feeling that they weren’t aimed at families like ours.’ Pam Ayres was the sixth child in a hard-up family who lived in a council house, her parents’ generation were harrowed by the war. Yet they lived by the green in the village of Stanford in the Vale, where everything you needed was within walking distance and the sound of motorcars was rarely heard.

With a star that rose from unforgettable child acting roles, such as A. C. Slater in Saved by the Bell, to the forefront of today's entertainment media, Mario Lopez is nothing short of a pop culture sensation. Now, as he turns forty, Mario looks back on his life with a newfound perspective and a humorous sensibility of how things have changed with age, divulging for the first time the endearing, surprising, and sometimes difficult experiences that shaped him into the loving father and husband he is today.

Motsi opens up about the determination, hard work and resilience it took to get to where she is today from the moment she fell in love with the glitterball world as a young child watching a dance tournament whilst on holiday. She takes us back to growing up in apartheid South Africa where she experienced exclusion and discrimination, raising money to compete in cut-throat international competitions and the huge leap of faith she took giving up her law degree, moving to Germany to be with her dance partner and throwing everything in to becoming the best dancer she could be.

In a wise, warmhearted memoir that celebrates her extraordinary life and stellar career, Swoosie Kurtz shares just the right combination of personal misadventure and showbiz lore, candidly reflecting on the right choices that empowered her, the wrong choices that enlightened her, and the intimate journey of caring for an aging parent.

The wonderful history-cum-guide answers these and many other questions about the irreplaceable world of Radio 4. Released to mark the station's 40th anniversary it's essential listening for every devotee.

For the last two years, Frank Skinner has managed to squeeze in a weekly column for The Times. Without fail, he sat down every week and wracked his brain to think of something to write 900 words about. This is the brilliant result.

The reigning queen of Albert Square, Laila Morse shares her incredible story for the first time. This is a book that will shock, humble, and inspire.

Norman Wisdom's early years could easily have come straight from the pages of a Dickens novel. Left by their frightened mother and ill-treated by a brutal father, Norman and his brother were forced to fend for themselves, sleeping rough in London and stealing food to survive. This is a rags to riches tale of the man Charlie Chaplin said would take his mantle and who went on to make millions laugh around the world for over five decades.

Jo Whiley is someone millions of us recognise and very few of us know. Jo's a mother, sister, DJ, wife and music-industry insider who throughout her career - and in an age of fleeting celebrity - has earned the respect of her peers and fans by simply being herself and by her constant enthusiasm, be it for established rock 'n roll royalty or for emerging talent. For Jo Whiley, it's all about the music.

Lorraine has been a fixture on our TV screens for 35 years and is beloved by thousands for her warmth and down-to-earth interviewing style. Whether making small changes to your daily routine or overhauling your lifestyle and achieving those bucket-list goals, Shine will show you how to live every day to the fullest. Let Lorraine guide you on the journey to your best self with candid anecdotes from her own life, tips from the experts and practical exercises.

The "Fox Mole" delivers a funny, opinionated memoir of his eight years at the unfair, unbalanced Fox News Channel. An Atheist in the FOXhole has everything that liberals and Fox haters could desire: details about how Fox’s right-wing ideology is promoted throughout the channel; why specific angles and personalities are the only ones broadcasted; the bizarre stories Fox anchors actually believed (and passed on to the public); and tales of behind-the-scenes mayhem and mistakes, all part of reporting Fox’s version of the news.

14 November, 2012 marks the 90th anniversary of the BBC's first-ever broadcast and the beginning of the British love affair with radio. This fascinating book takes as its starting point those early, tentative programmes broadcast from Marconi House on the Strand, and follows the story of those magical radio voices through the years of economic depression, war and austerity, to the swinging 60s and up to the digital era. Above all, it celebrates the great, the forgotten and the notorious voices of radio from the last nine decades, and the programmes they made famous.

Russell 'The Voice' Watson is a star with a real story to tell. While most stars of today find success early, Russell was still working in a Salford factory at the age of 30. He spent the evenings singing in working men's clubs for extra cash to keep the bailiffs from his family's door. The chairman of Manchester United gave him his big break in May 1999: the opportunity to sing at Old Trafford. His extraordinary performance was quickly followed by a record deal and his phenomenal debut album.

From 1935 to 1939, the Federal Theatre Project staged over a thousand productions in 29 states that were seen by thirty million (or nearly one in four) Americans, two thirds of whom had never seen a play before. At its helm was an unassuming theater professor, Hallie Flanagan. It employed, at its peak, over twelve thousand struggling artists, some of whom, like Orson Welles and Arthur Miller, would soon be famous, but most of whom were just ordinary people eager to work again at their craft. The Playbook takes us through some of its most remarkable productions.