Barb (red jacket) directs
Kate Sheil (standing) and Dinah Shearing with
Backs to camera: Daniel Millar and Charlie Little
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Barb Angell has been credited with a Masters degree in the Visual and Performing Arts by Charles Sturt University, NSW |
| Member of the
Australian Writers'
Guild Barb is Australian born but lived and worked in the U.K. for more
than 20 years before returning to Australia under contract to work for
the Grundy Television organization, then forming her own company Angell
Productions Pty Limited.
|
Barb (red jacket) directs Kate Sheil (standing) and Dinah Shearing with Backs to camera: Daniel Millar and Charlie Little |
| Click
to E-mail:
Website: www.angellpro.com.au Webpage services SITE MAP |
Angell Productions is in TV and
film production, specializing in educational videos.
Top movie scripts also, under
sub-contract.
We'll quote for your next project
and
you will be surprised how reasonable we can be. We teach screenwriting
by e-mail. We work internationally.
Biography:
Barb was educated at Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne and from there studied for Diploma of Music at the Melba Conservatorium. Her first acting job was in the W.C. Strode play "The Guinea Pig" at the Melbourne Little Theatre. From there she went to work as a dancer-comedian with the Tivoli Circuit and remained with it for the next 4 years. She was a member of the regular cast of the very first television variety show, "Tivoli Party Time" and from there went on to appear in and write for most TV variety shows of the time - likely Australia's first female TV comedy writer.
She studied TV Directing at the
RMIT
before making her first trip to the U.K. in 1959-60 where she was
introduced
to Revue and began to write short material including sketches, music
and
lyrics. On her return to Australia she formed her own Revue company and
co-wrote and produced a series of successful stage shows. There
followed
many years of television as well as stage appearances. She was an
original
writer of the satirical "Mavis Bramston Show" and ended by starring in
it as well as writing for it during its 4 years of production.
 |
Barb with Gordon Chater
Mavis Bramston Show |
Stage acting appearances continued with "The Slaughter of St Teresa’s Day" at Melbourne Little Theatre, "Black Comedy" for J.C. Williamson with Madge Ryan, Trevor Bowen and Patsie Trench before she once again left for U.K. |
The next 20 years were spent in
England where she appeared in TV dramas and comedies including "Doctor
in the House", ""Staying On", "The Jensen Code", "The Top Secret Life
of
Edgar Briggs", "Not On Your Nellie", "Anne of Avonlea", "All Creatures
great and Small", 
"Shoestring",
"Angels" and the cult Australian drama "Prisoner Cell Block H". She
worked
under contract to the BBC as a script reader and assessor and also
received
a Bursary from the Arts Council of Great Britain which enabled her to
study
Arts Administration at the Polytechnic of Central London.
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Starring David Jason as the hapless and equally
hopeless espionage
agent Edgar Briggs, who is transferred to the Secret Intelligence
Service
as result of an administrative error. The first episode set the tone
for
what was to follow with Briggs falling over furniture and getting
soaked
whilst fully clothed in a Turkish bath. What set the series apart was
the
weekly dose of stunts, many of which Jason insisted on doing himself,
including
taking a dive from several storeys up to the ground. The series was
specially
written for Jason by Bernard McKenna and Richard Laing at the behest of
producer Humphrey Barclay, who had 'discovered' David performing in a
theatre
on Bournemouth pier and introduced him to the British public via Do Not
Adjust Your Set. With a little luck, a lot of patriotism and the love
of
his wife, Jennifer (Barbara Angell), Edgar Briggs, assistant to
the Commander (Noel Coleman), bumbled his way through 13
episodes.
It led the Daily Mirror's then TV critic Stan Sayer to declare, "David
is a modern Buster Keaton with most of that great silent film actor's
gift
of timing, rhythm and skill."
|
Visit Barb Angell's entry in the Internet Movie Database
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Barb Angell - some
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