Showing titles in Film & TV

In Toast on Toast - part memoir, part "how to act" manual - Steven Toast draws on his vast and varied experiences, providing the reader with an invaluable insight into his journey from school plays to RADA and from "It's a Right Royal Knockout" to the Colony Club. Along the way he reveals the secrets of his success. He discloses how to brush up on and expand your technical and vocal skills, how to nail a professional voiceover, and how to deal with difficult work experience staff in a recording studio....

John Wayne projected dignity, integrity, and strength in all his films, even when his characters were flawed, and whatever character he played was always prepared to confront injustice in his own way. More than thirty years after his death, he remains the standard by which male stars are judged and an actor whose morally unambiguous films continue to attract sizeable audiences.

Honest and moving, this inspirational memoir from Harry Potter stuntman David Holmes reveals what it's like to rebuild your life in the wake of tragedy - with plenty of behind-the-scenes Potter anecdotes along the way. NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR, WITH A FOREWORD BY DANIEL RADCLIFFE NARRATED BY TOBY...

Described variously as a 'polymath', a 'renaissance man' and 'one of the most colourful characters in the music business', Mike Batt has led an extraordinarily vibrant and challenging life that has been full of both glorious victories and bitter failures. For better or for worse, he is a man who has always lived life on his own terms. Idiosyncratic but mainstream, complicated but compassionate, steadfastly maverick in spirit but avowedly commercial in outlook. He is a man of great contradictions, but even greater talent.

James Gandolfini: The Real Life of the Man Who Made Tony Soprano is the first biography of the actor, who died in June 2013 at age 51, widely recognized as one of the best - and most defining - actors of his generation. The audiobook, as performed by Gandolfini's Sopranos co-star John Ventimiglia (Artie Bucco), is informed by fresh interviews with Sopranos actors, HBO executives, the star’s acting teachers and coaches, his childhood friends, buddies from his days as a nightclub bouncer, and Hollywood figures including the directors of his posthumously released films.

From grand follies to misunderstood masterpieces, disastrous sequels to catastrophic literary adaptations, Tim Robey's hugely entertaining Box Office Poison tells an alternative history of Hollywood, through a century of its most notable flops. Freaks, Land of the Pharaohs, Dune, Speed 2, Catwoman, Cats: what can these films tell us about the Hollywood system, the public's appetite - or lack of it - and the circumstances that saw such box office disasters actually made? Away from the canon, here is the definitive take on these ill-fated, but essential celluloid failures.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER This “wickedly pacey page-turner” (Total Film) unfurls the behind-the-scenes story of the making of The Godfather, fifty years after the classic film’s original release. The story of how The Godfather was made is as dramatic, operatic, and entertaining as the film...

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are the creators of some of British television's most beloved comedies. Essex-born Clement teamed up with Geordie insurance salesman La Frenais in the early 1960s and scripted a series about two young pals from Newcastle, The Likely Lads, which became one of BBC...

ECW was one extreme contradiction piled on top of another. It was an incredibly influential company in the world of professional wrestling during the 1990s, yet it was never profitable. It portrayed itself as the ultimate in anti-authority rebellion, but its leadership was, at various points, working covertly with the two wrestling giants, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. Most of all, it blurred the line between real life and the fantasy world of professional wrestling like no other company before it.

Dorit Kemsley has spent years cultivating a persona that exudes elegance, ambition, and confidence. But behind the designer labels and otherwise picture-perfect image lies a story of resilience, transformation, and self-discovery. Now, for the first time, she's telling this story in full. Before the cameras started rolling, Dorit was raised in a Jewish home in Connecticut, shaped by her family's international roots.

What is it really like to be a housewife? We all want to know, but only the women we love to watch and the people who make the show have the whole story. Well, listen in close, because they’re about to tell all.

From First Footing to Samhain, Fringe Festival follies to whisky lore, Sam and Graham guide listeners through a year of Scottish legends, traditions, historical and contemporary events, sharing personal stories and tips as only these two chalk-and-cheese friends can. As entertaining as it is practical, The Clanlands Almanac is a light-hearted education in Scottish history and culture, told through the eyes of two passionate Scotsmen. The perfect escapist guide, The Clanlands Almanac is intended as a starting point for your own Scottish discoveries.

When Brian De Palma agreed to allow Julie Salamon unlimited access to the film production of Tom Wolfe's best-selling book The Bonfire of the Vanities, both director and journalist must have felt like they were on to something big. How could it lose? But instead Salamon got a front-row seat at the Hollywood disaster of the decade.

Come round to Louis Theroux’s house where the much-loved TV documentary-maker, podcaster and bestselling author of Gotta Get Theroux This finds himself in unexpected danger . . . Like millions of others, Louis’ plans were mothballed by the onset of Covid. Unable to escape to the porn sets...

"This is the book The West Wing deserves." Allison Janney "A joy and a MUST READ for all the Wingnuts out there!" Brad Whitford A behind-the-scenes look into the creation and legacy of The West Wing as told by cast members Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, with compelling insights from cast...

Read by the author, this is Louis Theroux's hilarious and thought-provoking journey through weird America. For 10 years, Louis Theroux has been making programmes about off-beat characters on the fringes of US society. Now he revisits America and the people who have most fascinated him to try to...

A Waterstones Best Book of 2024 'Marriage to Mike Leigh, the minutiae of working on Gavin and Stacey: it's a tribute to her range that there's something here to interest everybody' Telegraph The first memoir from the national treasure, critically acclaimed actress and much-loved Gavin and Stacey...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BERGER PRIZE FOR BRITISH ART HISTORY 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2017 A SUNDAY TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEAR A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEAR From his time as Bernard...

From the very first book publication in 1920 to the recent film release of Death on the Nile, this investigation into Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot celebrates a century of probably the world’s favourite fictional detective. This book tells his story decade-by-decade, exploring his...

Brought to you by Penguin. The insider account into the sitcom that barely survived its first season - but went on to become a modern classic. When Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, creators of The Office, came together to write a new comedy, they wanted to create something that would celebrate...