Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and poet regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and universal literature. His extant works include comedies, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets and more, his plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language itself is referred to as the "language of Molière". Born into a prosperous family and having studied at the Collège de Clermont, Molière was well suited to begin a life in the theatre. Thirteen years as an itinerant actor helped him polish his comic abilities while he began writing, combining Commedia dell'arte elements with the more refined French comedy. Through the patronage of aristocrats including Philippe I, Duke of Orléans—the brother of Louis XIV—Molière procured a command performance before the King at the Louvre. Performing a classic play by Pierre Corneille and a farce of his own, The Doctor in Love, Molière was granted the use of salle du Petit-Bourbon near the Louvre, a spacious room appointed for theatrical performances.
He was granted the use of the theatre in the Palais-Royal. In both locations Molière found success among Parisians with plays such as The Affected Ladies, The School for Husbands and The School for Wives; this royal favour brought a royal pension to the title Troupe du Roi. Molière continued as the official author of court entertainments. Despite the adulation of the court and Parisians, Molière's satires attracted criticism from churchmen. For Tartuffe's impiety, the Catholic Church denounced this study of religious hypocrisy followed by the Parliament's ban, while Don Juan was withdrawn and never restaged by Molière, his hard work in so many theatrical capacities took its toll on his health and, by 1667, he was forced to take a break from the stage. In 1673, during a production of his final play, The Imaginary Invalid, Molière, who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, was seized by a coughing fit and a haemorrhage while playing the hypochondriac Argan, he finished the performance but died a few hours later.
Molière was born in Paris, the son of Jean Poquelin and Marie Cressé, the daughter of a prosperous bourgeois family. Upon seeing him for the first time, a maid exclaimed, "Le nez!", a reference to the infant's large nose. Molière was called "Le Nez" by his family from that time, he lost his mother when he was ten and he does not seem to have been close to his father. After his mother's death, he lived with his father above the Pavillon des Singes on the rue Saint-Honoré, an affluent area of Paris, it is that his education commenced with studies at a Parisian elementary school. In 1631, Jean Poquelin purchased from the court of Louis XIII the posts of "valet de chambre ordinaire et tapissier du Roi", his son assumed the same posts in 1641. The title required an initial cost of 1,200 livres. Molière studied as a provincial lawyer some time around 1642 in Orléans, but it is not documented that he qualified. So far he had followed his father's plans. In June 1643, when Molière was 21, he decided to abandon his social class and pursue a career on the stage.
Taking leave of his father, he joined the actress Madeleine Béjart, with whom he had crossed paths before, founded the Illustre Théâtre with 630 livres. They were joined by Madeleine's brother and sister; the new theatre troupe went bankrupt in 1645. Molière had become head of the troupe, due in part to his acting prowess and his legal training. However, the troupe had acquired large debts for the rent of the theatre, for which they owed 2000 livres. Historians differ as to whether the lover of a member of his troupe paid his debts, it was at this time that he began to use the pseudonym Molière inspired by a small village of the same name in the Midi near Le Vigan. It was likely that he changed his name to spare his father the shame of having an actor in the family. After his imprisonment, he and Madeleine began a theatrical circuit of the provinces with a new theatre troupe. Few plays survive from this period; the most noteworthy are Le Docteur Amoureux. In the course of his travels he met Armand, Prince of Conti, the governor of Languedoc, who became his patron, named his company after him.
This friendship ended when Armand, having contracted syphilis from a courtesan, turned towards religion and joined Moliè
Clockwise (film)
Clockwise is a 1986 British comedy film starring John Cleese, directed by Christopher Morahan, written by Michael Frayn and produced by Michael Codron. The film's music was composed by George Fenton. For his performance Cleese won the 1987 Peter Sellers Award For Comedy at the Evening Standard British Film Awards. Most urban scenes were shot in the West Midlands and Lincolnshire, while rural scenes were shot in Shropshire. Brian Stimpson, headmaster of Thomas Tompion Comprehensive School, has been elected to chair the annual Headmasters' Conference. Disorganised as a young man, Stimpson is now obsessively organised and punctual, his school runs "like clockwork", he is the first headmaster of a comprehensive school to chair the Headmasters' Conference, that honour being reserved for heads of the more elite public schools. Despite repetitive rehearsal of his speech and preparations for the journey to the conference, Stimpson's ordered world unwinds as a series of misadventures plague him en route.
He misses the train to Norwich, loses the text of his speech, is left at the railway station by his wife, who thinks he departed on the train. Frantic to get to Norwich on time, Stimpson searches for his wife at home and at the hospital where she volunteers, but just misses her. Commandeering the car of a sixth form pupil, Stimpson travels to the conference with the student, called Laura. Stimpson's wife sees him with Laura at a petrol station and assumes the worst, suspecting that her husband is carrying on with the student and bringing her along to attend the conference. Mrs. Stimpson drives after both parties forget to pay for their petrol; the police are called and, responding to a call from Laura's parents as well, attempt to find Stimpson and arrest him for kidnapping. Stimpson's wife, Laura's parents, the police and Mr. Jolly, a teacher at Thomas Tompion who has secretly been dating Laura, all pursue Stimpson and Laura to the conference. En route and Laura try to call the conference from a telephone box.
A local calls the police. The local sends her daughter to Stimpson, but she turns out to be a childhood friend and former girlfriend of Stimpson. Stimpson coerces her into driving them to the conference; the group drive into a farm field and get stuck in deep mud whilst Stimpson's wife and the others arrive at the conference uninvited, much to the annoyance of the headmasters. Brian ends up instead having a bath at a nearby monastery, his ex-girlfriend drives away in the car but is soon arrested for assaulting a police officer. Stranded without transport and Stimpson attempt to hitchhike, they are picked up by a wealthy car salesman. They trick the traveller into swapping clothes with Stimpson under the ruse of naughty fun, but Stimpson and Laura run away and steal his car. Stimpson arrives at the conference in the torn suit of the car salesman and gives an improvised, abrasive speech to the shocked headmasters. During his speech various characters including the old women, Mr. Jolly and Laura's parents walk into the hall.
He directs all of the headmasters to stand and sing the hymn "To Be a Pilgrim", as he would to his own pupils. He is accosted by his disappointed wife, Laura's worried parents and several other parties he had hurt over the course of his journey; the film ends. John Cleese as Brian Stimpson Penelope Wilton as Pat Alison Steadman as Gwenda Stimpson Stephen Moore as Mr. Jolly Sharon Maiden as Laura Wisely Geoffrey Palmer as Headmaster Peter Cellier as Headmaster Joan Hickson as Mrs. Trellis Pat Keen as Mrs Wisely Constance Chapman as Mrs. Wheel Ann Way as Mrs. Way Tony Haygarth as Ivan with the tractor Michael Aldridge as Prior Sheila Keith as Pat's mother Mark Burdis as Glen Scully Nadia Sawalha as Mandy Kostakis Richard Ridings as Policeman at crash Alan Parnaby as Policeman at phone box The film was an original script by Michael Frayn better known as a novelist and playwright. Frayn wrote it on "spec", he said, "I had always wanted to write something about a man, late because I have considerable problems in relation to that myself, only get places early by enormous expenditure of psychic energy."He showed it to theatrical producer Michael Codron, who had produced five Frayn works on stage including the hugely successful Benefactors and Noises Off, asked if Codron would like to produce it.
"I said,'Why not?'" said the producer. "I've always been interested in movies."Codron showed the script to Nat Cohen at EMI Films who gave it to the company's head of production Verity Lambert and she agreed to finance. The title was Man of the Moment but this was changed when it was realised, used for a Norman Wisdom film. John Cleese was signed to star. "No one will believe it but I didnt have an idea for casting," said Frayn. Cleese said the script was "the best I've seen; the same day it landed on my front door, I rang my agent and said,'I have to do this.' ""Stimpson is a victim of circumstance," Cleese said. "As the pressures increase, his behavior becomes more erratic. Comedy is about things always going wrong, that's just what happens to him; when you first see him, he's in charge. But as events take over and he can't cope-that's when he falls apart." Codron and Lambert had a meeting to decide the director. They selected Chris Morahan, who had directed Frayn's Chekov adaptation Wild Honey on stage and had directed Jewel in the Crown for TV.
Filming took eight weeks in June and July 1985 in Hu
Nottingham Playhouse
Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Frank Dunlop; the current building opened in 1963. The architect of the current theatre, constructed as an example of Modern architecture. Was Peter Moro who had worked on the interior design of the Royal Festival Hall in London; when the theatre was completed, it was controversial as it faces the gothic revival Roman Catholic cathedral designed by Augustus Pugin. However, the buildings received a Civic Trust Award in 1965. Despite the modern external appearance and the circular auditorium walls, the theatre has a proscenium layout, seating an audience of 770. During the 1980s, when the concrete interiors were out of fashion, the Playhouse suffered from insensitive "refurbishment" that sought to hide its character. Since 1996, it has been a Grade II* listed building and in 2004, the theatre was sympathetically restored and refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The sculpture Sky Mirror by Anish Kapoor was installed between the theatre and the adjacent green space of Wellington Circus in 2001 at a cost of £1.25m. It is one of the main features of the 160 seat patio area of Cast Restaurant and in autumn 2007 won the Nottingham Pride of Place in a public vote to determine the city's favourite landmark. In 2014-15 Nottingham Playhouse underwent a complete environmental upgrade including insulation of the fly tower and double glazing and installing PV panels; the works were jointly funded by Arts Council England, Nottingham City Council, patron donations and philanthropist Sir Harry Djanogly. The award-winning works have been calculated to cut annual energy usage by over 35%; the new theatre's artistic direction was shared between Frank Dunlop and actor John Neville with Peter Ustinov as associate. The first production in the new theatre was Shakespeare's Coriolanus in a production by Tyrone Guthrie; this included a young Ian McKellen as Tullus Aufidius opposite Neville in the title role.
Subsequent artistic directors were Stuart Burge, Richard Eyre, Geoffrey Reeves, Richard Digby Day, Kenneth Alan Taylor, Pip Broughton and Martin Duncan. The Playhouse is under the leadership of Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive and Giles Croft, Artistic Director. In Spring 2017 it was announced that Adam Penford would succeed Croft as Artistic Director from September 2017. Nottingham Playhouse has a strong tradition of new works for children, both in the form of original writing and more in the form of classic pantomimes conceived by former artistic director Kenneth Alan Taylor. Taylor has directed 34 consecutive pantomimes at the theatre as of 2013. In common with most producing theatres, Nottingham Playhouse no longer has a repertory approach to programming although it continues to create up to 13 new productions per annum, its recent plays include Old Big'Ead in the Spirit of the Man, a homage to Nottingham legend Brian Clough, Rat Pack Confidential and Summer and Smoke, which both transferred to the West End and The Burial at Thebes, part of the Barbican BITE season of autumn 2007 and toured the US in 2008.
Its production of Oedipus. Created by Steven Berkoff. Toured to the Spoleto Festival and stage adaptation of On the Waterfront to the West End for an extended run. In 2013, an adaptation of The Kite Runner by Matthew Spangler produced by Nottingham Playhouse became the theatre's best selling drama up to that point in time. Autumn 2014 saw a successful UK tour of the piece. In 2013, Nottingham Playhouse celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Moro designed building; the commemorative season included world premiere productions of 1984, Grandpa in my Pocket, I Was A Rat by Philip Pullman and Charlie Peace: His Amazing Life and Astounding Legend. A major new production of Richard III, Alan Ayckbourn's Joking Apart and a revival of The Ashes along with Kenneth Alan Taylor's 30th pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk completed the year. In 2014, 2015 and 2016 the Nottingham Playhouse and Headlong Theatre production of 1984 played at the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End to positive reviews. In Autumn 2015' it toured to Australia and the USA.
In 2016' it was announced that the award-winning Nottingham Playhouse production of The Kite Runner would transfer to the West End from December 2016 to March 2017. The run has subsequently been extended to the Playhouse Theatre in summer 2017 prior to a second UK tour. In 2013, the theatre was awarded £1m from Arts Council England to undertake upgrading of the theatre's energy efficiency. Fiona Buffini's'Mass Bolero marked 2014 - a tribute to Nottingham born Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's gold medal winning performance at the 1984 winter olympics in Sarajevo by the people of Nottingham. Over 800 Nottingham residents took part and the work has been viewed 80,000 times on YouTube. In 2017 Touched by Nottingham writer Stephen Lowe and starring Nottingham-born actress Vicky McClure became the Playhouse's best-selling drama; the highlight of its 70th anniversary 2018 season will be The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett starring Mark Gatiss, Debra Gillett and Adrian Scarborough. Mass Bolero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WOO6qoEcgo Official Site
Orphan Black
Orphan Black is a Canadian science fiction thriller television series created by screenwriter Graeme Manson and director John Fawcett, starring Tatiana Maslany as several identical people who are clones. The series focuses on Sarah Manning, a woman who assumes the identity of one of her fellow clones, Elizabeth Childs, after witnessing Childs' suicide; the series raises issues about the moral and ethical implications of human cloning, its effect on issues of personal identity. The series is produced by Temple Street Productions, in association with BBC America and Bell Media's Space, it premiered on March 30, 2013, on Space on BBC America in the United States. On June 16, 2016, the series was renewed for a fifth and final 10-episode season, which premiered on June 10, 2017. An aftershow, After the Black, began airing in the third season on Space and was acquired by BBC America for the fourth season; the series begins with Sarah Manning, a con artist, witnessing the suicide of a woman, Beth Childs, who appears to be her doppelgänger.
Sarah assumes Beth's occupation after Beth's death. During the first season, Sarah discovers that she is a clone, that she has many'sister' clones spread throughout North America and Europe that are all part of an illegal human cloning experiment, that someone is plotting to kill them and her. Alongside her foster brother, Felix Dawkins, two of her fellow clones, Alison Hendrix and Cosima Niehaus, Sarah discovers the origin of the clones: a scientific movement called Neolution; the movement believes that human beings can use scientific knowledge to direct their evolution as a species. The movement has an institutional base in the large and wealthy biotech corporation, the Dyad Institute, headed by Dr. Aldous Leekie; the Dyad Institute conducts basic research, lobbies political institutions, promotes its eugenics program, aided by the clone Rachel Duncan. It seeks to profit from the technology the clones embody and has thus placed "monitors" into the clones' personal lives to study them scientifically, but to keep them under surveillance.
Sarah discovers that she's wanted by the police and by a secret religious group, the Proletheans. A faction of the Proletheans carries out the clone assassinations, because they believe clones are abominations, they use Sarah's biological twin sister, Helena, to kill the other clones. Sarah and Helena share a surrogate birth mother and are twins both genetically and with respect to their early maternal environment; the Dyad Institute and the Proletheans learn that Sarah has a daughter, the only known offspring of a clone. The plot lines of the series revolve around Sarah and Kira's efforts to avoid capture by the sinister Neolutionists and Proletheans, as well as around the efforts made by each clone to give sense to her life and origin; the attempt to control the creation of human life is a dominant theme that drives various story lines. A second key theme forms around the intrigues made by the Dyad Group and the Proletheans, along with the earlier intrigues made by the authors of Project Leda, Mrs. S.
Sarah's foster mother, her political network. Both themes intersect in the effort to control the creation of human life. Sarah, who matures because of her struggles, defends the bond between parent and child against the Neolutionists and Proletheans. Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Rachel Duncan and several Project Leda clones, all born in 1984 to various women by in vitro fertilization. Dylan Bruce as Paul Dierden, an ex-military mercenary, Beth's monitor and boyfriend. Jordan Gavaris as Sarah's foster brother and confidant, he identifies as moonlights as a prostitute. He is the first person. Kevin Hanchard as Detective Arthur "Art" Bell, Beth's police partner. Michael Mando as Victor "Vic" Schmidt, Sarah's abusive, drug-dealing ex-boyfriend. Maria Doyle Kennedy as Siobhan Sadler and Felix's Irish foster mother, they call her "Mrs. S." She acts as guardian to Sarah's daughter Kira. Évelyne Brochu as Dr. Delphine Cormier, Cosima's monitor and fellow scientist. Ari Millen as Mark Rollins, a Prolethean.
Kristian Bruun as Donnie Hendrix, Alison's husband and monitor. Josh Vokey as Scott Smith, a fellow student of Cosima at the University of Minnesota, who joins her and Delphine at the Dyad Institute. Skyler Wexler as Kira Manning and Cal's biological, naturally-conceived, daughter; the only child of a clone, she has inherited the apparent accelerated healing ability demonstrated by Sarah and Helena, has shown the ability to tell the clones apart when they are posing as each other. Inga Cadranel as Detective Angela "Angie" Deangelis, Art's new partner, trying to uncover the clone conspiracy behind Art's back. Matt Frewer as Dr. Aldous Leekie, frontman of the Institute and the face of the Neolution movement. Matthew Bennett as Daniel Rosen, a Dyad associated lawyer, assigned to do Rachel's shady work, he had a sexual relationship with Rachel and acted as her monitor with her knowledge. Daniel Kash as Tomas, responsible for the kidnapping and subsequent psychological and physical abuse of Helena.
(season
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola was a French novelist, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse…! Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902. Zola was born in Paris in 1840, his father, François Zola, was an Italian engineer, born in Venice in 1795, who engineered the Zola Dam in Aix-en-Provence, his mother, Émilie Aubert, was French. The family moved to Aix-en-Provence in the southeast. Four years in 1847, his father died, leaving his mother on a meager pension. In 1858, the Zolas moved to Paris. Zola started to write in the romantic style, his widowed mother had planned a law career for Émile. Before his breakthrough as a writer, Zola worked as a clerk in a shipping firm and in the sales department for a publisher.
He wrote literary and art reviews for newspapers. As a political journalist, Zola did not hide his dislike of Napoleon III, who had run for the office of president under the constitution of the French Second Republic, only to misuse this position as a springboard for the coup d'état that made him emperor. In 1862, Zola was naturalized as a French citizen. In 1865, he met Éléonore-Alexandrine Meley, who called herself Gabrielle, a seamstress, who became his mistress, they married on the 31 May 1870. She was instrumental in promoting his work; the marriage remained childless. Alexandrine Zola had a child before she met Zola that she had given up, because she was unable to take care of it; when she confessed this to Zola after their marriage, they went looking for the girl, but she had died a short time after birth. In 1888, he obtained a near professional level of expertise. In 1888, Alexandrine hired Jeanne Rozerot, a seamstress, to live with them in their home in Médan. Zola fell in love with Jeanne and fathered two children with her: Denise in 1889 and Jacques in 1891.
After Jeanne left Médan for Paris, Zola continued to visit her and their children. In November 1891 Alexandrine discovered the affair, which brought the marriage to the brink of divorce; the discord was healed, which allowed Zola to take an active role in the lives of the children. After Zola's death, the children were given his name as their lawful surname. During his early years, Zola wrote numerous short stories and essays, four plays, three novels. Among his early books was Contes à Ninon, published in 1864. With the publication of his sordid autobiographical novel La Confession de Claude attracting police attention, Hachette fired Zola, his novel Les Mystères de Marseille appeared as a serial in 1867. After his first major novel, Thérèse Raquin, Zola started the series called Les Rougon-Macquart, about a family under the Second Empire. In Paris, Zola maintained his friendship with Cézanne, who painted a portrait of him with another friend from Aix-en-Provence, writer Paul Alexis, entitled Paul Alexis Reading to Zola.
More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac, who in the midst of his literary career resynthesized his work into La Comédie Humaine, Zola from the start, at the age of 28, had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution; the series examines two branches of a family—the respectable Rougons and the disreputable Macquarts—for five generations. As he described his plans for the series, "I want to portray, at the outset of a century of liberty and truth, a family that cannot restrain itself in its rush to possess all the good things that progress is making available and is derailed by its own momentum, the fatal convulsions that accompany the birth of a new world."Although Zola and Cézanne were friends from childhood, they experienced a falling out in life over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Cézanne and the Bohemian life of painters in Zola's novel L'Œuvre.
From 1877, with the publication of l'Assommoir, Émile Zola became wealthy. Because l'Assommoir was such a success, Zola was able to renegotiate his contract with his publisher Georges Charpentier to receive more than 14 percent royalties and the exclusive rights to serial publication in the press, he became a figurehead among the literary bourgeoisie and organized cultural dinners with Guy de Maupassant, Joris-Karl Huysmans, other writers at his luxurious villa in Médan, near Paris, after 1880. Germinal in 1885 the three "cities"—Lourdes and Paris, established Zola as a successful author; the self-proclaimed leader of French naturalism, Zola's works inspired operas such as those of Gustave Charpentier, notably Louise in the 1890s. His works, inspired by the concepts of heredity, social Manicheanism, idealistic socialism, resonate with those of Nadar and subsequently Flaubert, he is considered to be a significant influence on those writers that are credited with the creation of the so-called new journalism.
Essex
Essex is a county in the south-east of England, north-east of London. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, London to the south-west; the county town is the only city in the county. For government statistical purposes Essex is placed in the East of England region. Essex occupies the eastern part of the ancient Kingdom of Essex, which united with the other Anglian and Saxon kingdoms to make England a single nation state; as well as rural areas, the county includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury and the borough of Southend-on-Sea. The name Essex originates in the Anglo-Saxon period of the Early Middle Ages and has its root in the Anglo-Saxon name Ēastseaxe, the eastern kingdom of the Saxons who had come from the continent and settled in Britain during the Heptarchy. Recorded in AD 527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what became Middlesex and most of what became Hertfordshire.
Its territory was restricted to lands east of the River Lea. Colchester in the north-east of the county is Britain's oldest recorded town, dating from before the Roman conquest, when it was known as Camulodunum and was sufficiently well-developed to have its own mint. In AD 824, following the Battle of Ellandun, the kingdoms of the East Saxons, the South Saxons and the Jutes of Kent were absorbed into the kingdom of the West Saxons, uniting Saxland under King Alfred's grandfather Ecgberht. Before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England. After the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the entire county in a period to 1204, when the area "north of the Stanestreet" was disafforested; the areas subject to forest law diminished, but at various times they included the forests of Becontree, Epping, Hatfield and Waltham. Essex County Council was formed in 1889. However, County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities.
12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections and planning, as shown in the map on the right. A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford and Sawbridgeworth. At the time of the main changes around 1900, parts of Helions Bumpstead, Sturmer and Ballingdon-with-Brundon were transferred to Suffolk. Part of Hadstock, part of Ashton and part of Chrishall were transferred to Cambridgeshire and part of Great Horkesley went to Suffolk; the boundary with Greater London was established in 1965, when East Ham and West Ham county boroughs and the Barking, Dagenham, Ilford, Romford and Wanstead and Woodford districts were transferred to form the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Waltham Forest. Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having been part of the South East England region.
In 1998, the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the administrative county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the two unitary authorities; the county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford. Before 1938, the council met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts of the county close to that point and the dominance of railway travel had been more convenient than any place in the county, it has 75 elected councillors. Before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100; the County Hall, made a listed building in 2007, dates from the mid-1930s and is decorated with fine artworks of that period the gift of the family who owned the textile firm Courtaulds. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, which reaches 482 feet; the ceremonial county of Essex is bounded to the south by its estuary.
The pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. The Metropolitan Green Belt has prevented the further sprawl of London into the county, although it contains the new towns of Basildon and Harlow developed to resettle Londoners after the destruction of London housing in the Second World War, since which they have been developed and expanded. Epping Forest prevents the further spread of the Greater London Urban Area; as it is not far from London with its economic magnetism, many of Essex's settlements those near or within short driving distance of railway stations, function as dormitory towns or villages where London workers raise their families. Part of the s
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, it employs over 20,950 staff in total. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time and fixed-contract staff are included; the BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee, charged to all British households and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up; the fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has funded the BBC World Service, which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, online services in Arabic and Persian.
Around a quarter of BBC revenues come from its commercial arm BBC Studios Ltd, which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and distributes the BBC's international 24-hour English-language news services BBC World News, from BBC.com, provided by BBC Global News Ltd. From its inception, through the Second World War, to the 21st century, the BBC has played a prominent role in British culture, it is known colloquially as "The Beeb", "Auntie", or a combination of both. Britain's first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920, it was sponsored by the Daily Mail's Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The Melba broadcast caught the people's imagination and marked a turning point in the British public's attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts.
But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3,000 members. Anxious to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the United States, the GPO proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufactures, to be known as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast; the company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved domestic manufacturers. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform and entertain"; the financial arrangements soon proved inadequate. Set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee.
The Committee recommended a short term reorganisation of licence fees with improved enforcement in order to address the BBC's immediate financial distress, an increased share of the licence revenue split between it and the GPO. This was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired; the BBC's broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, as was the prohibition on advertising. The BBC was banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00 and was required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee. By now, the BBC, under Reith's leadership, had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a public service rather than a commercial enterprise.
The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production, with restrictions on news bulletins waived, the BBC became the primary source of news for the duration of the crisis; the crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position. On one hand Reith was acutely aware that the Government might exercise its right to commandeer the BBC at any time as a mouthpiece of the Government if the BBC were to step out of line, but on the other he was anxious to maintain public trust by appearing to be acting independently; the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PM's own. Thus the BBC was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the Government's objectives in a manner of its own choosing; the resulting coverage of both striker and government viewpoints impressed millions of listeners who were unaware that the PM had broadcast to the nation from Reith's home, using one of Reith's sound bites inserted at the last moment
