Lewis Gilbert film versions of Willy Russell's plays "Educating Rita" (1983) and "Shirley Valentine" (1989). Gilbert also directed the film "Stepping Out" (1991). Gilbert was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1997 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry. In 2001, Gilbert was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute, the highest accolade in the British film industry. In June 2010 he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Desert Island Discs". In it he said that his 1970 film "The Adventurers" was a disaster, and that he should never have made it. On
Rita Montaner nearly four years: the longest-running contract of her career. Mongo Santamaría commented: "This launched the era of the Cuban cabaret super-productions". Montaner continued to do theater work whenever her radio show was off the air. In 1955 she triumphed as Madame Flora in the opera "La Medium" by Menotti, and in 1956 in the comedy "Mi querido Charles". Beginning in 1954, she co-starred in the comedy television program "Rita y Willy" with Guillermo Alvarez Guedes. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she acted in numerous Mexican movies of the Rumberas film genre. These are the films Rita appeared in