Hi
Chooks are trainable to an extent... use food
My girls have individual names, but if I want to gather them together I just shout "come on girls" while carrying the corn. Actually if I make an appearance in the garden they usually all come running as they see me as the "bringer of food"
Hens will automatically put themselves to bed in the hen house at dusk, providing you keep them shut in for about 24 hours when you first get them. At this point they associate the house with sleeping. If it doesn't work, a herding approach for a few day usually does the trick. If mine are hanging around (and I have a couple of dirty stop-outs) I usually call "bedtime girls" and then they usually go into the coop - i say usually, sometimes they like to remember that they are the boss and don't *hve* to do everything I say lol!
Now, about breeds... ask 10 people which breed is best and you will get 15 different answers lol!
You could get bog standard (sorry girls) warrens/ISAs - these are the "normal" brown barnyard hens. They lay like mad for about 18 months then they start to run out of ova. This is what they have been bred for. I've found that ISAs are pretty hardy, but independent and a bit stand offish - so a bit difficult if you want to cuddle your chooks.
There are many different hybrids out there which are laying machines. Some of them look the same, because basically they are the same cross, but each "production farm" tends to almost patent the name.
I have a bunch of Cou Nu roux (the red naked necks you saw in France) - just 4 weeks old at the moment. They are incredibly inquisitive, and are getting more friendly by the day - although I had bought them as table birds, I'm going to keep one for eggs as they are a typical French dual purpose breed... but I don't think they are too widly available in the UK.
Good luck with your new venture... I'll leave the breeds to more experienced UK people, as I can only really chat about the French ones lol!