After Elizabeth's husband dies, she begins to play her tenor saxophone again, and remembers when she was 15 and a member of the Blonde Bombshells, an all-girl (with one exception) swing band. Accompanied by the exception and urged on by her grand-daughter, Elizabeth hunts up all the old members of the band and urges them to perform, and in doing so, learns more than she knew about the band, its members, the roses on the drum set, and herself--the last of the Blonde Bombshells.
08-26-2000
1h 24m
THIS
HELLA
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Gillies MacKinnon
Writer:
Alan Plater
Production:
HBO Films, BBC, Universal Television, Working Title Films
Key Crew
Producer:
Su Armstrong
Co-Producer:
Analisa Barreto
Executive Producer:
Frank Doelger
Executive Producer:
Deirdre Keir
Executive Producer:
Simon Wright
Locations and Languages
Country:
GB; US
Filming:
GB; US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress.
Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer; however, most of her work during this period was in theatre. Not generally known as a singer, she drew strong reviews for her leading role in the musical Cabaret in 1968.
During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In television, she achieved success during this period, in the series A Fine Romance from 1981 until 1984 and in 1992 began a continuing role in the television romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.
Her film appearances were infrequent until she was cast as M in GoldenEye (1995), a role she played in each James Bond film until Skyfall (2012). She received several notable film awards for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), and has since been acclaimed for her work in such films as Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chocolat (2000), Iris (2001), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) and Notes on a Scandal (2006), and the television production The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2001).
Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as the leading British actress in polls, Dench has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include ten BAFTAs, seven Laurence Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award.
She was married to actor Michael Williams from 1971 until his death in 2001. They are the parents of actress Finty Williams.
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert CBE (September 12, 1931 – June 19, 2020) was an English actor. After beginning his career on the British stage as a leading member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in films. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Emmy Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1989 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Holm won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in the Harold Pinter play The Homecoming. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role in the 1998 West End production of King Lear. For his television roles he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for King Lear (1998), and the HBO film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2003).
He gained acclaim for his role in The Bofors Gun (1968) winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA Award win for his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (1981). Other notable films he appeared in include Alien (1979), Brazil (1985), Henry V (1989), The Madness of King George (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and The Aviator (2004). He gained wider appreciation for his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. He also voiced Chef Skinner in the Pixar animated film Ratatouille (2007).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Ian Holm, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Irene Joan Marion Sims was an English actress remembered for her roles in the Carry On films, including Carry On Nurse, Carry On Cleo, and Carry On Camping. She played Mrs Wembley, the cook with a liking for sherry in On the Up, and Madge Hardcastle in As Time Goes By.
Dame June Rosemary Whitfield DBE was an English radio, television and film actress. Her big break was a lead in the BBC Light Programme radio comedy Take It from Here from 1953. Television roles soon followed, including appearances with Tony Hancock throughout his television career.
Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 – May 1, 2021) was an American actress. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, more than 60 films and in 50 television series. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in theater. Not long after her arrival in New York City, she won an Obie Award for Best Actress in 1963 for her off-Broadway performance in Bertolt Brecht's Man Equals Man.
She later moved to film acting and won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, among other accolades, for her performance in Moonstruck (1987). She received another Golden Globe nomination for Sinatra (1992) and Emmy Award nominations for Lucky Day (1991), More Tales of the City (1998) and Joan of Arc (1999). Dukakis's autobiography, Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress, was published in 2003. In 2018, a feature-length documentary about her life, titled Olympia, was released theatrically in the United States.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Olympia Dukakis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Billie Honor Whitelaw, CBE was an English stage and screen actress. She worked in close collaborration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and wass regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She was also known for her portrayal of Mrs Baylock, the demonic nanny in The Omen.
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron (born 1 July 1931) is a French-American actress, dancer and writer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards.
Caron started her career as a ballerina. She made her film debut in the musical An American in Paris (1951), followed by roles in The Man with a Cloak (1951), Glory Alley (1952) and The Story of Three Loves (1953), before receving critical acclaim for her role as an orphan in Lili (also 1953), which earned her the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and garnered nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
As a leading lady, Caron went on to star in films such as The Glass Slipper, Daddy Long Legs (both 1955), Gigi (1958), Fanny (1961), both of which earned her Golden Globe nominations, Guns of Darkness (1962), The L-Shaped Room (both 1962), Father Goose (1964) and A Very Special Favor (1965). For her role of a single pregnant woman in The L-Shaped Room, Caron, in addition to receiving a second Academy Award nomination, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and a second BAFTA Award.
Caron's other roles include Is Paris Burning? (1966), That's Entertainment! (1974), The Man Who Loved Women, Valentino (both 1977), Damage (1992), Funny Bones (1995), Chocolat (2000) and Le Divorce (2003). In 2007, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performance of a child molestation victim in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Leslie Caron, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Romola Sadie Garai (born 6 August 1982) is an English actress and model. She is known for appearing in the movies Amazing Grace, Atonement, and Glorious 39, and for appearing in the TV movie Emma.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Cosmos is known for his film roles as Angus MacLeod in Highlander, Campbell in Braveheart and as Father Christmas in the adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Over the years he has also had roles in films such as Trainspotting, The Last Legion, Troy, and 2081 . He also appeared in Take the High Road as Alex Geddes from 1982-83.
He is also a staple of British television, with credits in hundreds of television shows, Cosmo made a name for himself playing Scottish "tough guy" characters.
Thelma Ruby, also known as Thelma Ruby-Frye (born March 23, 1925), is a British actress. Born Thelma Wigoder, she grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Leeds. Her mother, Ruby, was an actress; her father, Louis, from Lithuania, was a dentist.
John Warnaby (6 November 1960 – 13 April 2024) was a British actor on stage, television and in films. In later life he became a Catholic priest.
John Michael Warnaby was born on 6 November 1960. He attended St Teresa’s Primary School in the Birmingham suburb of Handsworth Wood, before going to St Philip’s College in Edgbaston from 1971 to 1979. Between 1979 and 1982 he read theology at Oriel College, Oxford.
After university Warnaby worked for the Corporation of Lloyd’s as a regulator in the area of solvency and financial reporting. He set up an office in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, where he worked with investors for two years. He continued to work in this field until 2000.
While still working for Lloyd's, Warnaby embarked on a career as an actor.
His breakthrough came in 1988 in a stage adaptation of Tom Stoppard's radio play Artist Descending a Staircase, directed by Tim Luscombe, in which Warnaby played the young version of the character Donner (the older version being played by Frank Middlemass). It was first performed at the Kings Head, Islington, London, later transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End.
Warnaby joined the RSC for the 1990/91 season in The Swan in Stratford and the Pit at the Barbican in London. He played Paris in Sam Mendes' production of Troilus and Cressida (played by Ralph Fiennes and Amanda Root) and doubled as the Earl of Lancaster and the Abbot of Neath in Gerard Murphy's production of Edward II (played by Simon Russell Beale). He also appeared in Richard Nelson's Two Shakespearean Actors, directed by Roger Michell, and The Shakespeare Revue, devised by Chris Luscombe.
In 1996 Warnaby appeared at the National Theatre, playing Napoleon Bonaparte and Boris Dubretskoy in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace, directed by Nancy Meckler.
In 2001 Warnaby played Freddie in Laurence Boswell's revival of Peter Nichols’ play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at the Comedy Theatre in a cast which included Eddie Izzard, Victoria Hamilton and Prunella Scales.
In 2006 he appeared in the television adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s novel The Line of Beauty.
In Nicholas de Jongh's 2009 stage hit in London Plague Over England, Warnaby played both 1950s Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe and an acerbic theatre critic.
In later life, Warnaby retired from acting and trained as a Catholic priest. In 2013 he was sent to the Pontifical Beda College in Rome. On his ordination in 2017, his first appointment was as Assistant Priest at St Monica’s, Palmers Green. In 2019 he moved to St George’s, Sudbury as Assistant Priest. The following year he moved to St Joseph’s, Carpenders Park, initially as Assistant Priest and, from 2022, as Parish Priest.
Warnaby died after a short illness on 13 April 2024, at the age of 63. His funeral took place in his own parish of St Joseph's. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, presided over the Requiem Mass
