BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927, it produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television broadcasts is dated to 2 November 1936. The BBC's domestic television channels have no commercial advertising and collectively they account for more than 30% of all UK viewing; the services are funded by a television licence. As a result of the 2016 Licence Fee settlement, the BBC Television division was split, with in-house television production being separated into a new division called BBC Studios and the remaining parts of television being renamed as BBC Content; the BBC operates several television networks, television stations, related programming services in the United Kingdom. As well as being a broadcaster, the corporation produces a large number of its own programmes in-house and thereby ranks as one of the world's largest television production companies.
John Logie Baird set up the Baird Television Development Company in 1926. Baird used his electromechanical system with a vertically-scanned image of 30 lines, just enough resolution for a close-up of one person, a bandwidth low enough to use existing radio transmitters; the simultaneous transmission of sound and pictures was achieved on 30 March 1930, by using the BBC's new twin transmitter at Brookmans Park. By late 1930, thirty minutes of morning programmes were broadcast from Monday to Friday, thirty minutes at midnight on Tuesdays and Fridays after BBC radio went off the air. Baird's broadcasts via the BBC continued until June 1932; the BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. The studio moved to larger quarters in 16 Portland Place, London, in February 1934, continued broadcasting the 30-line images, carried by telephone line to the medium wave transmitter at Brookmans Park, until 11 September 1935, by which time advances in all-electronic television systems made the electromechanical broadcasts obsolete.
After a series of test transmissions and special broadcasts that began in August 1936, the BBC Television Service launched on 2 November 1936 from a converted wing of Alexandra Palace in London. "Ally Pally" housed two studios, various scenery stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms and the transmitter itself, which broadcast on the VHF band. BBC television used two systems on alternate weeks: the 240-line Baird intermediate film system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system; the use of both formats made the BBC's service the world's first regular high-definition television service. The first programme broadcast – and thus the first on a dedicated TV channel – was "Opening of the BBC Television Service" at 15:00; the first major outside broadcast was the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1937. The two systems were to run on a trial basis for six months. However, the Baird system, which used a mechanical camera for filmed programming and Farnsworth image dissector cameras for live programming, proved too cumbersome and visually inferior, ended with closedown on Saturday 13 February 1937.
The station's range was a 40 kilometres radius of the Alexandra Palace transmitter—in practice, transmissions could be picked up a good deal further away, on one occasion in 1938 were picked up by engineers at RCA in New York, who were experimenting with a British television set. The service was reaching an estimated 25,000–40,000 homes before the outbreak of World War II which caused the service to be suspended in September 1939. On 1 September 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was taken off air with little warning. Many of the television service's technical staff and engineers would be needed for the war effort, in particular on the radar programme; the last programme transmitted was a Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Gala Premier, followed by test transmissions. According to figures from Britain's Radio Manufacturers Association, 18,999 television sets had been manufactured from 1936 to September 1939, when production was halted by the war. BBC Television returned on 7 June 1946 at 15:00.
Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement, saying,'Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?'. The Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later. Alexandra Palace was the home base of the channel until the early 1950s when the majority of production moved into the newly acquired Lime Grove Studios. Postwar broadcast coverage was extended to Birmingham in 1949 with the opening of the Sutton Coldfield transmitting station, by the mid-1950s most of the country was covered, transmitting a 405-line interlaced image on VHF; when the ITV was launched in 1955, the BBC Television Service showed popular programming, including comedies, documentaries, game shows, soap operas, covering a wide range
Deram Records
Deram Records was a subsidiary record label of Decca Records established in the United Kingdom in 1966. At the time, U. K. Decca was a different company from the Decca label in the United States, owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings were distributed in the U. S. through UK Decca's American branch known as London Records. Deram was active until 1979 continued as a reissue label. In the 1960s Decca recording engineers experimented with ways of improving stereo recordings, they created a technique called "Decca Panoramic Sound." The term "Deramic" was created as abbreviation of this. The new concept allowed for more space between instruments, rendering these sounds softer to the ear. Early stereo recordings of popular music were mixed with sounds to the hard left, center, or hard right only; this was because of the technical limitations of the professional 4-track reel-to-reel recorders which were state of the art until about 1967. Decca conceived Deram Records as an outlet for Deramic Sound recordings of contemporary pop and rock music, but not all of the early recordings on Deram used this technique.'Deramic Sound' was intended to create recordings that had a more natural stereo spread.
The basic difference was that, instead of overdubbing and mixing 4 individual tracks from a 4-track recorder, the Decca recording engineers used a pair of 4-track machines to layer multiple 2-channel recordings. This new concept, with additional tracks, permitted the engineer to place instruments more in any position within the stereo field. To launch the'Deramic Sound' concept Deram issued a series of six easy listening orchestral pop albums in October 1967; the albums all included the word Night in the title, i.e. Strings in the Night, Brass in the Night, etc; the label was soon moulded into a home for'alternative' or'progressive' artists. Among the first recordings in this series was the November 1967 album release Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues. Professional quality 8-track recorders began to appear in many British studios starting with Advision Studios and Trident Studios in 1968; these 8-track machines were far more flexible than the dual 4-track recorder setup. Since Decca engineers no longer had more tracks than other major studios the'Deramic Sound' concept became outdated and was dropped.
By late 1968 or early 1969 Decca had obtained its own 8-track recorder. The roster included British jazz and folk; some of the more progressive jazz musicians of the late 1960s were released under the Deram imprint, including Mike Gibbs, John Surman, Mike Westbrook. Deram albums bore a DML prefix for an SML prefix for stereo releases; as with other UK Decca subsidiary labels, Deram's U. S. counterpart was distributed under London Records. Decca positioned it against Island Records, Harvest Records, Vertigo Records, but it failed to compete. An'extra' progressive series with SDL prefixes did not improve the situation. From the start, Decca placed pop records next to progressive artists on Deram. Cat Stevens found early success there before moving to Island Records, David Bowie's first album appeared on the label. Three of Deram's earliest hits, Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and the Move's "Night of Fear" and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow", were produced outside the company by artists not directly signed to Deram.
They were part of a deal with Straight Ahead Productions, who moved their acts to EMI and had them released on the re-introduced Regal Zonophone imprint. In 1969, Decca launched a progressive label that lasted less than a year; this caused further confusion as simultaneous releases on Deram Nova and Decca Nova appeared. Decca released Justin Hayward's Night Flight vinyl albums on Deram; the label name was revived in the early 1980s when its roster included Bananarama, the Mo-dettes, Splodgenessabounds. Deram has been used as a reissue imprint for other recordings in the Decca/London catalogue. Record Collector. June 1981. Record Collector. July 1981. "Deram Label Discography - 45cat". Www.45cat.com. Retrieved 2010-05-24. Doggett, Peter. "Deram Psychedelia". Record Collector: 59. Gambaccini, Paul. British Hit Singles. London: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-633-2. Deram Records from BSN Pubs A discography of American Deram singles A discography of Canadian Deram releases
Fatfield
Fatfield is a village in Washington new town in the City of Sunderland local government district, in Tyne and Wear, England. The housing style in Fatfield consists of centrally located attached council houses and owned detached houses located in quiet cul-de-sacs on the outskirts. Washington Arts Centre is located in Fatfield; the southern part of the village by the River Wear is popular for country walks and the three public houses and working men's club that are situated on the banks of the river. The site of the original village is just to the west of the North Biddick Club. A school was built on the site of the old village, but was replaced by private housing several years ago. In 1814 the Hall Pit in Fatfield exploded with the loss of 32 lives. At 12:30 on Tuesday 28 September a fall of stone from the roof drove firedamp into contact with candles used by the miners for illumination. All the men below ground were killed. Contemporary reports refer to the survivors being affected by the afterdamp.
Although the colliery was claimed to be safe and well worked, there had been three previous explosions of firedamp which had each killed three men. Fatfield Primary School is located on Southcroft and educates around 235 pupils aged 4–11; the school has Investors in Healthy School awards. At their inspection on 14 June 2007, Ofsted rated the school as Satisfactory, point three on a four-point scale; the older primary school was located adjacent the Harraton Community Centre. The First Fatfield Scouts were located behind the site of the infant school and just North of the dining hall on land adjacent to the primary school; the Schools being relocated to the centre of Fatfield and the land sold off for housing, the Scouts site still now exists beside the new housing development. The parish church of Fatfield is St George's Church in Washington, built in 1879 on land given by the Earl of Durham; the church building is in what is now called Harraton, one of the Washington villages, but continues with the historic name, St George's church, Fatfield.
The church was massively reordered in the 1980s and inside is warm and contemporary, reflecting the informal and lively style of worship that takes place. The newly formed Catholic Parish of St John XXIII covers the area of Fatfield; the Parish was created at 10AM on 27 April 2014, when Pope John XXIII was canonised by Pope Francis. The area was served by Washington Parish, founded from St Michaels Houghton in 1864, but the modern Washington cluster was established in 2002, includes Our Lady Queen of Peace Penshaw in addition to the modern Washington Churches. Fatfield had national publicity in the 1990s when the village was challenged to lose weight on the Fatfield Diet as part of a BBC television programme. Apart from the TV show, Fatfield is well known for the legend of the Lambton Worm, said to have terrorised the village. Bobby Thompson, was brought up here. Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS, was born here. Alan Price, keyboardist for the Animals, was born here
Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey occupying the east of the village of Woburn, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, along with the diverse estate surrounding it, including the historic landscape gardens and deer park, as well as more added attractions including Woburn Safari Park, a miniature railway and a garden/visitor centre. Woburn Abbey, comprising Woburn Park and its buildings, was set out and founded as a Cistercian abbey in 1145. Taken from its monastic residents by Henry VIII and given to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, in 1547, it became the seat of the Russell family and the Dukes of Bedford; the Abbey was rebuilt starting in 1744 by the architects Henry Flitcroft and Henry Holland for the 4th Duke. Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, originated the afternoon tea ritual in 19th-century England. In April 1786 John Adams visited other notable houses in the area. After visiting them he wrote in his diary "Stowe and Blenheim, are superb.
Wotton is both great and elegant, though neglected". However in his diary he was damning about the means used to finance the large estates, he did not think that the embellishments to the landscape, made by the owners of the great country houses, would suit the more rugged American countryside. From 1941 Woburn Abbey was the headquarters of the secretive Political Warfare Executive which had its London offices at the BBC's Bush House. Following World War II, dry rot was discovered and half the Abbey was subsequently demolished; when the 12th Duke died in 1953, his son the 13th Duke was exposed to heavy death duties and the Abbey was a half-demolished, half-derelict house. Instead of handing the family estates over to the National Trust, he kept ownership and opened the Abbey to the public for the first time in 1955, it soon gained in popularity as other amusements were added, including Woburn Safari Park on the grounds of the Abbey in 1970. Asked about the unfavourable comments by other aristocrats when he turned the family home into a safari park, the 13th Duke said, "I do not relish the scorn of the peerage, but it is better to be looked down on than overlooked."
The 13th Duke moved to Monte Carlo in 1975. His son Robin, who enjoyed the courtesy title Marquess of Tavistock, ran the Abbey with his wife in his father's absence. In the early 1990s, the Marquess and The Tussauds Group planned to turn the Abbey into a large theme park with the help of John Wardley, creator of the roller coasters "Nemesis" and "Oblivion". However, Tussauds built one there instead. From 1999 to 2002, the Marquess and the Marchioness, the former Henrietta Joan Tiarks, were the subjects of the Tiger Aspect Productions reality series Country House in three series, totalling 29 episodes, which aired on BBC Two, it detailed the business of running the Abbey. It inspired several Monarch of the Glen storylines; the Marquess of Tavistock became the 14th Duke on the death of his father in November 2002 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The 14th Duke was the briefest holder of the Dukedom and died in June 2003. On the death of the 14th Duke, his son Andrew became the 15th Duke, he continues his father's work in running the Woburn Abbey Estate.
The building is listed in the highest category of architecture at Grade I. The art collection of the Duke of Bedford is amongst the finest in private hands, encompasses a wide range of western artwork; the holdings comprise some 250 paintings, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck and Velasquez. Moreover, the collection encompasses examples of the most expensive manufacturers of furniture and English in many periods, a diverse collection of porcelain and silverware. Dutch School Asselyn, Jan – 1 painting Cuyp, Aelbert Jacobsz – 5 paintings Delen, Dirk van – 1 painting Flinck, Govert – 1 painting Goyen, Jan van – 1 painting Potter, Paulus – 2 paintings Rembrandt, Harmenszoon van Rijn – 2 paintings Ruisdael, Jacob van – 2 paintings Steen, Jan – 2 paintings Velde, Willem van de Velde – 1 painting Werff, Adrian van der – 1 paintingEnglish School Gainsborough, Thomas – 1 painting Gheeraerts, Marcus – 2 paintings Hayter, Sir George – 4 paintings Hoppner, John – 2 paintings Knapton, George – 1 painting Landseer, Edwin Henry – 2 paintings Reynolds, Joshua – 12 paintings George Gower – Flemish School Critz, John de – 1 painting Dyck, Anthony van – 10 paintings Eworth, Hans – 1 paintingFrench School Bercham, Nicholas – 1 painting Lorrain, Claude – 2 paintings Lefebvre, Claude – 1 painting Loo, Carl van – 1 painting Poussin, Nicolas – 2 paintings Vernet, Claude Joseph – 2 paintingsGerman School Holbein, Hans – 1 paintingItalian School Batoni, Pompeo – 1 painting Canaletto – 24 paintings Ricci, Sebastiano – 1 painting Salvi, Giovanni – 2 paintingsSpanish School Murillo, Bartolomé Esteban – 1 painting Velázquez, Diego – 1 painting CFF produced the film "Five Clues To Fortune" aka "The Treasure At Woburn Abbey" in 1957, starring David Hemmings and David Cameron who married German actress Hildegard
Baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone or "bari sax" is one of the larger members of the saxophone family, only being smaller than the bass and subcontrabass saxophones. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use; the baritone saxophone uses a mouthpiece and ligature in order to produce sound. It is larger than the tenor and soprano saxophones, which are the other found members of the family; the baritone saxophone is used in classical music such as concert band, chamber music, military bands, jazz. It is employed in marching bands, though less than other saxophones due to its size and weight; the baritone saxophone was created in 1846 by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax as one of a family of 14 instruments created to be a tonal link between the woodwinds and brasses, which Sax believed to be lacking. The family was divided into two groups of seven saxophones each from the soprano to the contrabass; the family consisting of saxophones ranged in the keys of B♭ and E♭ were more successful because of their popularity in military bands.
The bari sax, pitched in E♭, is the fifth member of this family. The baritone saxophone, like other saxophones, is a conical tube of thin brass, it has a wider end, flared to form a bell, a smaller end connected to a mouthpiece. The baritone saxophone uses a single reed mouthpiece like that of a clarinet. There is a loop in the neck to reduce it to a practical height. Baritone saxophones come in two sizes with one ranging to low A and the other to low B♭. All baritone saxophones were low B♭ instruments, but over time players began modifying their horns to reach the low A below the staff. In the 1980s, it became common for saxophone manufacturers to produce low A instruments. In modern times, the low A is considered standard and is written in sheet music for the instrument. Despite the ubiquity of the low A horn, some players still prefer to use B♭ horns because of the added weight and less crisp sound of low A horns; as with other saxophones, some are manufactured with a high F ♯ key. The baritone saxophone's large mass has led to the development of harness-style neckstrap that distributes the instrument's weight across the user's shoulders.
Several different kinds exist, produced by brands as well known as Neotech and Vandoren, which each distributes weight differently across the saxophonist's neck and shoulder blades. Many marching saxophonists prefer this style for its ability to decrease fatigue; those who perform seated, on the other hand, may dislike the decreased ability to move one's upper body. It is a transposing instrument in the key of E♭, pitched an octave plus a major sixth lower than written, it is one octave lower than the alto saxophone. Modern baritones with a low A key and high F♯ key have a range from C2 to A4. Adolphe Sax produced a baritone saxophone in F intended for orchestral use, but these fell into disuse as the saxophone never became a standard orchestral instrument; as with all saxophones, its music is written in treble clef. To transpose a baritone sax part to concert pitch, it is only necessary to change the treble to a bass clef and modify the accidentals accordingly; the baritone saxophone is used as a standard member of concert bands and saxophone quartets.
It has been called for in music for orchestra. Examples include Richard Strauss' Sinfonia Domestica, which calls for a baritone saxophone in F. 4, composed in 1910–1916. In his opera The Devils of Loudun, Krzysztof Penderecki calls for two baritone saxes. Karlheinz Stockhausen includes a baritone saxophone in Gruppen, it has a comparatively small solo repertoire although an increasing number of concertos have appeared, one of these being "Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra" by American composer Philip Glass. This is a piece that can be played with or without an orchestra that features the baritone sax in the second movement. A number of jazz performers have used the baritone saxophone as their primary instrument, it is part of standard big band instrumentation. As phrased by Alain Cupper from JazzBariSax.com, "Used a few times in contemporary classical music...it is in jazz that this wonderful instrument feels most comfortable." One of the instrument's pioneers was Harry Carney, longtime baritone saxophone player in the Duke Ellington band.
Since the mid-1950s, baritone saxophone soloists such as Gerry Mulligan, Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams achieved fame, while Serge Chaloff was the first baritone saxophone player to achieve fame as a bebop soloist. In free jazz, Peter Brötzmann is notable. More recent notable performers include Hamiet Bluiett, John Surman, Scott Robinson, James Carter, Stephen "Doc" Kupka of the band Tower of Power, Nick Brignola, Gary Smulyan, Brian Landrus, Ronnie Cuber. In the avant-garde scene, Tim Berne has doubled on bari. Another modern bari sax player is Leo Pellegrino of "Lucky Chops" and "Too Many Zooz" A noted Scottish performer is Joe Temperley, who has appeared with Humphrey Lyttelton as well as with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; the baritone sax is common in musical theater. The baritone sax plays a notable role in many Motown hits of the 60s, is in the horn sections of funk, Latin, soul bands, is used in rock music although it is not as common. Prominent baritone saxophoni
Washington, Tyne and Wear
Washington is a new town in the City of Sunderland local government district of Tyne and Wear and part of historic County Durham. Washington is located geographically at an equal distance from the centres of Newcastle and Sunderland, hence it has close ties to all three cities. Washington was designated a new town in 1964 and became part of the City of Sunderland in 1974, it expanded by the creation of new villages and the absorption of areas of Chester-le-Street, to house overspill population from surrounding cities. At the 2011 census, Washington had a population of 67,085, compared to 53,388 in 2001. Early references appear around 1096 in Old English as Wasindone; the etymological origin is disputed and there are several proposed theories for how the name "Washington" came about. Early interpretations included Wassyngtona; the origins of the name Washington are not known. The most supported theory is that Washington is derived from Anglo-Saxon Hwæsingatūn, which means "estate of the descendents of Hwæsa".
Hwæsa is an Old English name meaning "wheat sheaf", the Swedish House of Vasa being a more famous cognate. Due to the evolution of English grammar, modern English lacks the Germanic grammatical features that permeated Anglo-Saxon English; this adds an air of confusion for most in regards to the name Hwæsingatūn. It is composed of three main elements: "Hwæsa" – most the name of a local Anglo-Saxon chieftain or farmer. "ing" – a Germanic component that has lost its original context in English: ing means " of/from". In the name Hwæsingatūn, "ing" is conjugated to "inga" in accordance with the genitive plural declension of OE. "tūn" – root of the modern English "town", is a cognate of German Zaun, Dutch tuin and Icelandic tún. The word means "fenced off estate" or more "estate with defined boundaries"; the combined elements therefore create the name Hwæsingatūn with a full and technical meaning of "the estate of the descendants of Hwæsa". However, there has been no evidence found of any chieftain/land owner/farmer in the area by the name of Hwæsa, although any such records from the time would have been long lost by now.
Although this is by no means the definite theory of origin, most scholars and historians agree that it is the most likely. Another of the popular origin theories is that Washington is in fact derived from the Old English verb wascan and the noun dūn meaning "hill"; this theory originates from the proximity of the river Wear to the actual Anglo-Saxon hall at the time. This idea is not backed by linguistic evidence. Combining the two Old English words "wascan" and "dūn" would have meant "washed hill" and not "washing hill"; the Old English "dūn" meant a range of rolling hills, as evidenced by the naming of the North and South Downs in southern England. William de Wessyngton was a forebear of George Washington, the first President of the United States, after whom the US capital and many other places in the United States are named. Though George Washington's great-grandfather John Washington left for Virginia from Hertfordshire, Washington Old Hall was the family home of George Washington's ancestors.
The present structure incorporates small parts of the medieval home. American Independence Day is marked each year by a ceremony at Washington Old Hall; the Old Hall may have been built by William de Hertburn, who moved to the area in 1183. As was the custom, he took the name of his new estates, became William de Wessyngton. By 1539, when the family moved to Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire, the spelling "Washington" had been adopted; the present Hall is an early 17th-century small English manor house of sandstone. Only the foundations and the arches between the Kitchen and the Great Hall remain of the original house. Sir Isaac Bell and his wife Margaret, parents of Gertrude Bell, lived in Washington New Hall on The Avenue. After Margaret's death in 1871, Sir Isaac set up an orphanage in the house, named Dame Margaret Home in his late wife's honour, it became a Barnardo's home until World War II. After the war, it was taken over by the National Coal Board as a training centre, it is now a private residence.
Washington's design was developed through the New Towns concept aiming to achieve sustainable socio-economic growth. The new town is divided into small self-sufficient "villages", it was also divided into the 15 numbered districts, a fate that confused many visitors to the area. These numbered districts have been removed as well as increased, now road signs indicate the villages' names instead of district number. Washington's villages are called: Donwell Usworth Concord Sulgrave Albany Glebe Barmston Biddick Washington Village Columbia Blackfell Oxclose Ayton Lambton Fatfield Harraton RickletonMount Pleasant was added to the list of numbered districts, despite being out of the Town "boundary line" of the River Wear and having a DH4 Postcode. Built on industry, Washington contains several industrial estates, named after famous local engineers, such as Parsons, Stephenson, Pattinson and Emerson. A lot of the land that makes up the town was purchased from the Lambton family
