Salford

Russell Watson is an English tenor who has released singles and albums of both operatic-style and pop songs. The self-styled "People's Tenor" had... been singing since he was a child, and became known after performing at a working men's club. He came to attention in 1999 when he sang "God Save the Queen" at the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, "Barcelona" at the last match of the Premiership season between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford and a full set of songs at the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final in Barcelona between Manchester United and Bayern Munich. Watson's debut album entitled The Voice was released in May 2001; four others followed. However, an album planned for November 2006 was delayed due to the removal of a benign pituitary tumour. This album, entitled That's Life, was eventually released on 5 March 2007. On 24 October 2007, it was discovered that there had been a regrowth of his pituitary tumour and bleeding into his brain. He underwent emergency surgery and was discharged from hospital on 31 October. He underwent an extensive rehabilitation programme, including radiotherapy.
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Robert Powell is an English television and film actor, probably most famous for his title role in Jesus of Nazareth and as the fictional secret... agent Richard Hannay. His distinctive voice has become well known in advertisements and documentaries. He is also known for his role as Mark Williams in BBC One medical drama, Holby City, and in the sitcom The Detectives alongside Jasper Carrott. Powell was born in Salford, Lancashire the son of Kathleen and John Wilson Powell. Powell was educated at Manchester Grammar School, an independent school for boys in the city of Manchester in North West England, and later at the University of Salford. One of his classmates was Sir Ben Kingsley, another famous actor, from nearby Pendlebury also in Salford. Powell took up acting while an undergraduate. He had aspired to become a lawyer and in 1963-4 attended an external London University LLB degree Course at the Manchester College of Commerce but at the same time quietly took his early opportunities he had secured with Trevor Nunn to pursue the Acting Life.
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Ewan MacColl was a British folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan... Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music. He was the father of the late singer/songwriter Kirsty MacColl. Ewan sang Sacred Harp with Calum MacColl and Mike Seeger. MacColl was born as James Henry Miller in Broughton, Salford, Lancashire to Scottish parents, William Miller and Betsy Miller née Hendry. Both of his parents were socialists and William Miller was an iron-moulder and militant trade unionist who had moved to Salford with his wife to look for work after being blacklisted in almost every foundry in Scotland. They lived amongst a group of émigré Scots and Jimmy, their only surviving child of four, was brought up in an atmosphere of fierce political debate interspersed with the large repertoire of songs and stories his parents had brought from Scotland.
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Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included... Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992. After holding the job for 22 years, and having worked in television for 42 years, Cooke retired in 1992, although he continued to present Letter from America until shortly before his death. He was the father of author and folk singer John Byrne Cooke. Born in Salford, Lancashire, England, his father was a lay Methodist preacher and metalsmith by trade; his mother's family were of Irish Protestant origin. Originally named Alfred, he changed his name to Alistair when he was 22. He was educated at Blackpool Grammar School, and won a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree in English. He was heavily involved in the arts, was editor of Granta, and set up The Mummers, Cambridge's first mixed sex theatre group, from which he notably rejected a young James Mason, telling him to stick to architecture.
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Peter Hook is an English bass player, musician and author. He was a co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division along with Bernard Sumner in the... mid-1970s. Following the death of lead singer Ian Curtis, the band reformed as New Order, and Hook played bass with them throughout their career until his departure in 2007. He has also recorded an album with Revenge , two albums with Monaco and one album with Freebass as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist. Born in Salford, Lancashire, to Irene Acton , and John Woodhead. In 1959, his parents divorced and he and his brothers were brought up by his maternal grandmother Alicia Acton until 1962, when his mother re-married Ernest W. Hook. Like his band-mate Bernard Sumner did, he took his step-father's surname, although in contrast of his friend he kept it, even more, he created his nickname, Hooky, from it. Because of his step-father's work, he spent part of his childhood in Jamaica before returning to Salford.
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Anthony Howard Wilson known as Tony Wilson , was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and... journalist for Granada Television and the BBC. Wilson was the music mogul behind some of Manchester's most successful bands. He was the founder and manager of The Haçienda nightclub, and was one of the five co-founders of Factory Records . Wilson was also known as Mr. Manchester, dubbed as such for his work in promoting the greater cultural status of Manchester throughout his career. He was portrayed by actor Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, and by Craig Parkinson in Anton Corbijn's 2007 film Control. Wilson was born 20 February 1950 in Hope Hospital, Salford, Lancashire to Sydney Wilson and Doris Knupfer , and moved to Marple, Stockport at the age of 5. His maternal grandfather was German. After passing his Eleven plus exam, Wilson attended the De La Salle Grammar School in Weaste Lane, Pendleton, Salford.
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Mike Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further... at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterized by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style. His well-known films include Life is Sweet , the comedy-drama Career Girls , the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy Turvy , and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing . His most notable works are arguably Naked for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning Palme d'Or winner Secrets & Lies and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake . His films and stage plays, according to the critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period.
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