Bedford

Carol Jean Vorderman MBE is a British media personality, best known for co-hosting the popular game show Countdown for 26 years from 1982 to 2008.... In September 2011 she became a co-host of the ITV1 panel show Loose Women. Vorderman was born in Bedford to a Dutch father Anton 'Tony' Vorderman and Welsh mother Jean . Her parents broke up three weeks after her birth, and her mother took the family back to her home town of Prestatyn, North Wales, where Vorderman and her siblings, Anton and Trixie, grew up in a one-parent household. Vorderman's parents divorced when she was a baby and she did not see him again until she was 42. In 1970 their mother married Armido Rizzi, a native of Italy. Vorderman was educated at the Roman Catholic comprehensive Blessed Edward Jones High School in Rhyl. At the age of seventeen she went to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1978, where she studied Engineering and gained a third class honours degree at age 20. Vorderman did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007 .
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John Oliver is a British comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known in the US for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, for which he won... an Emmy in 2009. He also plays a recurring character, Professor Ian Duncan, on the television series Community. He has worked extensively with Andy Zaltzman; their body of work includes hundreds of hours of satirical podcasts and radio broadcasts, including series such as Political Animal, The Department, and The Bugle. He is a permanent resident of the United States and lives in New York City. Oliver was born in Birmingham, brought up in Liverpool and Bedford, and educated at Mark Rutherford School. He is a graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he studied English and was Vice-President of the Cambridge Footlights for 1997–98, when the President was British comedian, actor, writer, and director Richard Ayoade. He also featured in that year's revue, Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Oliver first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001 as part of The Comedy Zone, a late-night showcase of newer acts. He performed his debut solo show in 2002 and returned in 2003.
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John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is best remembered for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC situation comedy... Dad's Army . Le Mesurier was born at No. 35 Chaucer Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire in 1912, the son of a solicitor, Charles Elton Halliley and Amy Michelle Le Mesurier, whose family was from Alderney in the Channel Islands. He was brought up in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk and educated at Sherborne School in Dorset before he began to study acting at the age of 20, using his mother's maiden name Le Mesurier as his stage name. Le Mesurier was at Drama School with Alec Guinness, and later worked with him in a production of Hamlet, directed by John Gielgud, in which the young Le Mesurier understudied Anthony Quayle as Guildenstern. He was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment on 28 June 1941. He served in the United Kingdom and British India during the Second World War, reaching the rank of captain.
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Carol Jean Vorderman MBE is a British media personality, best known for co-hosting the popular game show Countdown for 26 years from 1982 to 2008.... In September 2011 she became a co-host of the ITV1 panel show Loose Women. Vorderman was born in Bedford to a Dutch father Anton 'Tony' Vorderman and Welsh mother Jean . Her parents broke up three weeks after her birth, and her mother took the family back to her home town of Prestatyn, North Wales, where Vorderman and her siblings, Anton and Trixie, grew up in a one-parent household. Vorderman's parents divorced when she was a baby and she did not see him again until she was 42. In 1970 their mother married Armido Rizzi, a native of Italy. Vorderman was educated at the Roman Catholic comprehensive Blessed Edward Jones High School in Rhyl. At the age of seventeen she went to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1978, where she studied Engineering and gained a third class honours degree at age 20. Vorderman did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007 .
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Brian "Licorice" Locking was the bass guitarist with The Shadows between 1962-1963. He began playing double bass in several bands, notably with the... Lincolnshire based rocker Vince Eager . He switched to bass guitar, later joining The Wildcats, a backing group for the rock and roll singer Marty Wilde. A fellow Wildcat was the drummer and future Shadow, Brian Bennett. Locking also played several other instruments, including clarinet , which earned Locking the nickname "Licorice". When Marty Wilde parted company from The Wildcats, they changed their name to the Krew Kats and recorded instrumentals with modest success. Bennett then left to join the Shadows. In April 1962, at Bennett's suggestion, Licorice Locking was himself invited to join the Shadows to replace the departing Jet Harris. Stylistically, Locking had a solid "less is more" approach, which was the obverse of Harris's adventurous hard-driving style. The Shadows' sound changed as a result. Locking played on some of their best known tracks, including "Dance On", "Foot Tapper" and "Atlantis".
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Darrel Higham is an English rockabilly guitarist. Higham started playing lead guitar with British rockabilly bands in the late 1980s. By the... mid-1990s, he had created the band that would become his main gigging and recording project: Darrel Higham & The Enforcers. Higham's solo projects include session work as guitarist with Chrissie Hynde, Jeff Beck, Rocky Burnette, Billy Lee Riley, Shakin' Stevens . Eddie Cochran's last road band - The Kelly Four - employed Higham as their front man for a six month period in 1992 for gigs and recordings in the US. In 1996, he also appeared in London's Prince Of Wales Theatre playing the role of Scotty Moore and Eddie Cochran for 8 months in a revival of Jack Good's Elvis: The Musical. This would lead to further roles as Eddie Cochran in touring theatre shows around the UK for a couple of years afterwards. Higham co-owns Embassy Studios, a sixteen track analogue recording studio near Basingstoke, with Foot Tapping Records boss, Clive Duffin. They also run a small recording label, Ambassador Records. Higham is endorsed by Peavey and plays their amplifiers exclusively.
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