Graham McCann has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators. The most-rated is Spike & Co..
Cary Grant
Summary
For two moviegoing generations, Cary Grant was class—an effortless embodiment of gentlemanly grace and humor. But Cary Grant’s greatest achievement was in creating himself and the irresistible character he became. In this savvy, fascinating portrait, McCann tracks the transformation of a life and looks closely at the sources of Cary Grant’s charms, which did not come easily. Generously filled with anecdotes about fellow actors and directors, a realistic portrait of a complicated man emerges. And although Grant was criticized for remaining in Hollywood during World War II, it now seems that he may have worked as a special agent for British Intelligence: in 1947, Grant was awarded the King’s Medal for Service in the Cause for Freedom, an honor that was not made public at the time. One of classic Hollywood’s definitive leading men, Cary Grant was named one of the greatest male stars of all time by the American Film Institute. This biography yields a new appreciation of his work and his persona, which was at once familiar, yet always enigmatic, even to those who knew him best. Graham McCann was educated at King’s College, Cambridge. His books include Marilyn Monroe: The Body in the Library, Woody Allen: New Yorker, and Rebel Males: Clift, Brando, and Dean. A fellow and lecturer at Cambridge for twelve years, he now writes full time.
©1996 Graham McCann (P)1996 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Spike & Co.
Summary
This is the story of how four people, grouped together inside a set of offices five floors above a greengrocer's shop on Shepherd's Bush Green in West London, scaled the heights of British comedy. On any weekday morning, if you dared to clamber over the crates of fruit and veg that the greengrocer had allowed to pile up outside on the pavement, climbed the five flights up the dangerously rickety staircase, and crept inside the entrance to Associated London Scripts, you would have found Milligan, Sykes, Galton, and Simpson shaping the latest shows, swapping the odd story, and searching for a funnier line. Spike Milligan would have been in one office, often slumped over his typewriter, tapping away at the next script for The Goons. Eric Sykes would be seated at his desk in the next office, perhaps writing out in longhand another routine for Frankie Howerd or the cast of Educating Archie. And Galton and Simpson would have been in their own office, plotting, perchance, the next half hour for Tony Hancock. Together, this eclectic bunch, and their bizarre office block, were responsible for a golden age in British comedy, which included The Goons, Hancock's Half Hour, Sykes, Steptoe and Son, Comedy Playhouse, The Frankie Howerd Show, Beyond Our Ken, Round the Horn, The Arthur Haynes Show, The Army Game, Bootsie and Snudge, That Was The Week That Was, and Till Death Us Do Part, to name but a few.
©2006 Graham McCann (P)2006 Hodder and Stoughton Audiobooks