W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham, CH, better known as W. Somerset Maugham, was a British playwright and short story writer, he was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. After both his parents died before he was 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle, cold. Not wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham trained and qualified as a physician; the initial run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, sold out so that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time. During the First World War he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he travelled in Southeast Asia. Maugham's father, Robert Ormond Maugham, was a lawyer who handled the legal affairs of the British embassy in Paris. Since French law declared that all children born on French soil could be conscripted for military service, his father arranged for Maugham to be born at the embassy, technically on British soil.
His grandfather, another Robert, was a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. Maugham refers to this grandfather's writings in Chapter 6 of his literary memoir, The Summing Up: "...in the catalogue of the Library at the British Museum there is a long list of his legal works. He wrote only one book, not of this character, it was a collection of essays that he had contributed to the solid magazines of the day and he issued it, as became his sense of decorum, anonymously. I once had the book in my hands, a handsome volume bound in calf, but I never read it and I have not been able to get hold of a copy since. I wish I had, for I might have learnt from it something of the kind of man he was." His family assumed his brothers would be lawyers. His elder brother, Viscount Maugham, enjoyed a distinguished legal career and served as Lord Chancellor from 1938 to 1939. Maugham's mother, Edith Mary, had tuberculosis, a condition for which her physician prescribed childbirth.
She had Maugham several years. His brothers were away at boarding school by the time. Edith's sixth and final son died on 25 January 1882, one day after his birth, on Maugham's eighth birthday. Edith died of tuberculosis six days on 31 January at the age of 41; the early death of his mother left. He kept his mother's photograph at his bedside for the rest of his life. Two years after Edith's death Maugham's father died in France of cancer. Maugham was sent to the UK to be cared for by his uncle, Henry MacDonald Maugham, the Vicar of Whitstable, in Kent; the move was damaging. Henry Maugham was cold and cruel; the boy attended The King's School, difficult for him. He was teased for his short stature, which he inherited from his father. Maugham developed a stammer that stayed with him all his life, although it was sporadic, being subject to his moods and circumstances. Miserable both at his uncle's vicarage and at school, the young Maugham developed a talent for making wounding remarks to those who displeased him.
This ability is sometimes reflected in Maugham's literary characters. Aged 16, Maugham refused to continue at The King's School, his uncle allowed him to travel to Germany, where he studied literature and German at Heidelberg University. During his year in Heidelberg Maugham met and had a sexual affair with John Ellingham Brooks, an Englishman ten years his senior, he wrote his first book there, a biography of Giacomo Meyerbeer, an opera composer. After Maugham's return to Britain his uncle found him a position in an accountant's office, but after a month Maugham gave it up and returned to Whitstable, his uncle tried to find Maugham a new profession. Maugham's father and three older brothers were distinguished lawyers. A career in the Church was rejected because a stammering clergyman might make the family appear ridiculous, his uncle rejected the Civil Service, not because of the young man's feelings or interests, but because his uncle concluded that it was no longer a career for gentlemen, since a new law required applicants to pass an entrance examination.
The local physician suggested Maugham's uncle agreed. Maugham had been writing since he was 15, wanted to be an author, but he did not tell his guardian. For the next five years he studied medicine at the medical school of St Thomas's Hospital in Lambeth; the school was independent, but is now part of King's College London. Some critics have assumed that the years Maugham spent studying medicine were a creative dead end, but Maugham did not feel this way about this time, he was living in the great city of London, meeting people of a "low" sort whom he would never have met otherwise, seeing them at a time of heightened anxiety and meaning in their lives. In maturity, he recalled the value of his experience as a medical student: "I saw. I saw. I saw what hope looked like and relief..."Maugham kept his own lodgings, took pleasure in furnishing them, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, continued writing nightly while at the same time studying for his medical degree. In 1897, he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences.
It drew its details from Maugham's experiences as a medical student doing midwifery wo
Veronica Guerin
Veronica Guerin was an Irish crime reporter, murdered by drug lords. Born in Dublin, she was an athlete in school, played on the Irish national teams for both football and basketball. After studying accountancy she ran a public-relations firm for seven years, before working for Fianna Fáil and as an election agent for Seán Haughey, she became a reporter in 1990, writing for the Sunday Business Sunday Tribune. In 1994 she began writing about crime for the Sunday Independent. In 1996 she was fatally shot; the shooting caused national outrage in Ireland. Investigation into her death led to a number of convictions; the daughter of accountant Christopher and his wife Bernadette, Guerin was nicknamed "Ronnie." She and her four siblings were born and brought up in Artane and attended Catholic school where she excelled in athletics. Besides basketball and camogie, aged 15 she played in the All-Ireland football finals with a slipped disc, she played for both the Ireland women's national basketball team and Republic of Ireland women's national football team, representing the latter in a match against England at Dalymount Park in May 1981.
Guerin studied accountancy at Dublin. She married Graham Turley in 1985, the couple had a son, Cathal, she was a big fan of Manchester United football team. After she graduated, her father employed her at his company. In 1983–84, she served as secretary to the Fianna Fáil group at the New Ireland Forum, she served as Charles Haughey's personal assistant, became a family friend, taking holidays with his children. In 1987 she served as election party treasurer in Dublin North for Seán Haughey. In 1990, she changed careers again, switching to journalism as a reporter with the Sunday Business Post and Sunday Tribune, working under editor Damien Kiberd. Craving first-hand information, she pursued a story directly to the source with little regard for her personal safety, to engage those she deemed central to a story; this allowed her to build close relationships with both the legitimate authorities, such as the Garda Síochána, the criminals, with both sides respecting her diligence by providing detailed information.
She reported on Irish Republican Army activities in the Republic of Ireland. From 1994 onwards, she began to write about criminals for the Sunday Independent. Using her accountancy knowledge to trace the proceeds of illegal activity, she used street names or pseudonyms for underworld figures to avoid Irish libel laws; when she began to cover drug dealers, gained information from convicted drugs criminal John Traynor, she received numerous death threats. The first violence against her occurred in October 1994, when two shots were fired into her home after her story on murdered crime kingpin Martin Cahill was published. Guerin dismissed the "warning"; the day after writing an article on Gerry "The Monk" Hutch, on 30 January 1995, she answered her doorbell to a man pointing a revolver at her head. The gunman shot her in the leg. Regardless, she vowed to continue her investigations. Independent Newspapers installed a security system to protect her, the Gardaí gave her a 24-hour escort. On 13 September 1995, convicted criminal John Gilligan, Traynor's boss, attacked her when she confronted him about his lavish lifestyle with no source of income.
He called her at home and threatened to kidnap and rape her son, kill her if she wrote anything about him. Guerin received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in December 1995. On the evening of 25 June 1996, Gilligan drug gang members Charles Bowden, Brian Meehan, Kieran'Muscles' Concannon, Peter Mitchell and Paul Ward had met at their distribution premises on the Greenmount Industrial Estate. Bowden, the gang's distributor and ammunition quartermaster, had supplied the three with a Colt Python revolver loaded with.357 Magnum Semiwadcutter bullets. On 26 June 1996, while driving her red Opel Calibra, Guerin stopped at a red traffic light on the Naas Dual Carriageway near Newlands Cross, on the outskirts of Dublin, unaware she was being followed, she was shot six times, fatally, by one of two men sitting on a motorcycle. About an hour after Guerin was murdered, a meeting took place in Moore Street, between Bowden and Mitchell. Bowden denied under oath in court that the purpose of the meeting was the disposal of the weapon but rather that it was an excuse to appear in a public setting to place them away from the incident.
At the time of her murder, Traynor was seeking a High Court order against Guerin to prevent her from publishing a book about his involvement in organised crime. Guerin was killed two days; the topic of her segment was "Dying to Tell the Story: Journalists at Risk."Her funeral was attended by Ireland's Taoiseach John Bruton, the head of the armed forces. It was covered live by Raidió Teilifís Éireann. On 4 July, labour unions across Ireland called for a moment of silence in her memory, duly observed by people around the country. Guerin is buried in County Dublin. Guerin's murder caused outrage, Taoiseach John Bruton called it "an attack on democracy"; the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament, realised the potential of using tax enforcement laws as a means of deterring and punishing criminals. Within a week of her murder, it enacted the
Canada
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border, its capital is Ottawa, its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra, its population is urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons. Various indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Beginning in the 16th century and French expeditions explored, settled, along the Atlantic coast.
As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces; this began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom. This widening autonomy was highlighted by the Statute of Westminster of 1931 and culminated in the Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Westminster tradition, with Elizabeth II as its queen and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the federal cabinet and head of government; the country is a realm within the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie and bilingual at the federal level. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, education.
It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. A developed country, Canada has the sixteenth-highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the twelfth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index, its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the etymological origins of Canada, the name is now accepted as coming from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning "village" or "settlement".
In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona. Cartier used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village but to the entire area subject to Donnacona. From the 16th to the early 18th century "Canada" referred to the part of New France that lay along the Saint Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named the Canadas. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country at the London Conference, the word Dominion was conferred as the country's title. By the 1950s, the term Dominion of Canada was no longer used by the United Kingdom, which considered Canada a "Realm of the Commonwealth"; the government of Louis St. Laurent ended the practice of using'Dominion' in the Statutes of Canada in 1951. In 1982, the passage of the Canada Act, bringing the Constitution of Canada under Canadian control, referred only to Canada, that year the name of the national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day.
The term Dominion was used to distinguish the federal government from the provinces, though after the Second World War the term federal had replaced dominion. Indigenous peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Métis, the last being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers; the term "Aboriginal" as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in some legal documents, including the Constitution Act 1982. The first inhabitants of North America are hypothesized to have migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 14,000 years ago; the Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Canadian indigenous societies included permanent settlements, complex societal hierarchies, trading networks; some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations.
The indigenous population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000
Tracy Barlow
Tracy McDonald is a fictional character and the main antagonist from the British ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. She was born on screen during the episode broadcast on 24 January 1977, she was played by Christabel Finch until 21 November 1983. Holly Chamarette played the role from 8 July 1985 until 23 March 1988. Dawn Acton played the role from 12 December 1988, until 14 June 1995, Acton reprised the role in November 1996, departed in December 1997, she reprised the role once again on 17 March 1999 and made her final appearance as Tracy on 10 October 1999. Kate Ford took over the role from 25 December 2002, until 8 April 2007. Ford reprised the role for a brief stint from late May to early June 2010, before returning full-time from 24 December 2010 onwards. Tracy is the daughter of Deirdre Barlow. Tracy never had much to do with Ray and was adopted by Deirdre's new husband Ken Barlow. Early storylines featuring Tracy concentrated on her childhood, she went on to feature in storylines about drugs, various family crises, relationships with Roy Cropper and Steve McDonald, a feud with Steve's wife Karen McDonald, a short-lived marriage to Robert Preston.
Her exit storyline in 2007 was the culmination of a storyline that saw Tracy imprisoned for her boyfriend Charlie Stubbs's murder. In the on-screen events, Tracy was sentenced to 15 years in prison, her brief return in May 2010 saw the character lie about Gail McIntyre confessing to murdering husband Joe McIntyre. Her return in December 2010 saw her released from prison after forensic evidence used at her trial was discredited, getting her daughter Amy Barlow back and attempting to steal Steve from his wife Becky McDonald and failing. Tracy sparked a feud with Tina McIntyre, which worsened after it transpired that Tina had kissed Rob Donovan. Rob would murder Tina and after discovering this and Rob's sister, Carla Connor, turned him in and he was arrested, sparking a new feud between Tracy and Carla. Tracy's former husband Robert Preston returned, with Tracy going on to reunite with him. Tracy Lynette Langton is the daughter of Ray and Deirdre Langton, born in January 1977. Ray leaves when Tracy is a baby and she is raised by Deirdre and her husband, Ken Barlow, who adopts her.
Ken and Deirdre separate in December 1989 when Ken has an affair with Wendy Crozier, his secretary at the Weatherfield Recorder. Tracy supports Deirdre, but above all else Tracy wants a return to family life. Once Ken sees the error of his ways and begins seeking a reconciliation, in opposition to Deirdre who wants a divorce, Tracy's allegiance shifts to Ken. Deirdre is subjected to further resentment when she takes up with Dave Barton, who rescues Tracy when she accidentally sets the kitchen on fire; the divorce affects Tracy's school life as Ken gets a teaching job there in 1990, as he can stay updated on Deirdre's exploits through Tracy. Caught between Ken and Deirdre, Tracy starts to rebel by playing truant from school, going instead to the amusement arcade with twin brothers Steve and Andy McDonald. 1991 sees Tracy get her first boyfriend, Graham Egerton, but it does not last long and they end their relationship. Tracy meets Robert Preston, they decide to marry in 1996, they intend to marry in London, where they are living but on telling Ken and Deirdre the news, Tracy decides to marry in Weatherfield instead, on the cheap.
The wedding is a success and Robert and Tracy return to London. Tracy visits Weatherfield three times over the next few years: she comes to Deirdre and her fiancé Jon Lindsay's engagement party in 1997 and approves of Jon, in 1999, she seeks refuge in Weatherfield after falling out with Robert, who accused Tracy of having an affair with her friend after he saw them kissing. Robert follows Tracy to Weatherfield and they reconcile when he accepts her story that she and the man are just friends. Tracy is delighted when Ken and Deirdre reconcile. Tracy returns on Christmas Day 2002, claiming that Robert has cheated on her but it emerges that she was sleeping with Robert's best friend. Tracy has a brief fling with Dev Alahan but when she realises Dev thinks she is not "marriage material", she dumps him before cutting up his suits and stealing his credit card. In August 2003, Tracy places a bet with Bev Unwin, she spikes his drink and claims they slept together when he wakes up in her bed the next morning.
Roy is racked with guilt and his wife Hayley Cropper is heartbroken and when Tracy discovers she is pregnant, she threatens to have an abortion unless Roy and Hayley buy the baby for £15,000. With Hayley being a transsexual, they agree, much to the disgust of the Barlow family. Roy and Hayley worry Tracy will flee with their money and the baby so Roy marries Tracy to gain legal rights to the baby. In February 2004, after delivering her daughter, whom Roy and Hayley name Patience, Tracy wants her daughter back and admits at Steve and Karen Phillips' wedding that Steve is her daughter's biological father, not Roy and she lied about them having sex. Not thi
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual ceremony at which the awards are presented is a major part of the film industry's awards season, which culminates each year in the Academy Awards; the eligibility period for the Golden Globes corresponds to the calendar year. The 76th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television in 2018, were held on January 6, 2019; the 77th Golden Globe Awards will take place on January 5, 2020. In 1943, a group of writers banded together to form the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and, by creating a generously distributed award called the Golden Globe Award, they now play a significant role in film marketing; the 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, were held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at various venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
In 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to establish a special honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as an international figure within the entertainment industry, the first award was presented to director and producer, Cecil B. DeMille; the official name of the award thus became the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Beginning in 1963, the trophies commenced to be handed out by one or more persons referred to as "Miss Golden Globe", a title renamed on January 5, 2018 to "Golden Globe Ambassador"; the holders of the position were, the daughters or sometimes the sons of a celebrity, as a point of pride, these continued to be contested among celebrity parents. In 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned; the New York firm Society Awards collaborated for a year with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to produce a statuette that included a unique marble and enhanced the statuette's quality and gold content.
It was unveiled at a press conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show. Revenues generated from the annual ceremony have enabled the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to donate millions of dollars to entertainment-related charities, as well as funding scholarships and other programs for future film and television professionals; the most prominent beneficiary is the Young Artist Awards, presented annually by the Young Artist Foundation, established in 1978 by Hollywood Foreign Press member Maureen Dragone, to recognize and award excellence of young Hollywood performers under the age of 21 and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically or financially challenged. The qualifying eligibility period for all nominations is the calendar year from January 1 through December 31. Voice-over performances and cameo appearances in which persons play themselves are disqualified from all of the film and TV acting categories. Films must be at least 70 minutes and released for at least a seven-day run in the Greater Los Angeles area, starting prior to midnight on December 31.
Films can be released on pay-per-view, or by digital delivery. For the Best Foreign Language Film category, films do not need to be released in the United States. At least 51 percent of the dialogue must be in a language other than English, they must first be released in their country of origin during a 14-month period from November 1 to December 31 prior to the Awards. However, if a film was not released in its country of origin due to censorship, it can still qualify if it had a one-week release in the United States during the qualifying calendar year. There is no limit to the number of submitted films from a given country. A TV program must air in the United States between the prime time hours of 11:00 p.m.. A show can air on basic or premium cable, or by digital delivery. A TV show must either be made in the United States or be a co-production financially and creatively between an American and a foreign production company. Furthermore and non-scripted shows are disqualified. For a television film, it cannot be entered in both the film and TV categories, instead should be entered based on its original release format.
If it was first aired on American television it can be entered into the TV categories. If it was released in theaters or on pay-per-view it should instead to be entered into the film categories. A film festival showing does not count towards disqualifying. Actors in a TV series must appear in at least six episodes during the qualifying calendar year. Actors in a TV film or miniseries must appear in at least five percent of the time in that TV film or miniseries. Active HFPA members need to be invited to an official screening of each eligible film directly by its respective distributor or publicist; the screening must take place in the Greater Los Angeles area, either before the film's release or up to one week afterwards. The screening can be a regular screening in a theater with a press screening; the screening must be cleared with the Motion Picture Association of America so there are not scheduling conflicts with other official screenings. For TV programs, they must be available to be seen by HFPA members in any common format, including the original TV broadcast.
Entry forms for films need to be received by the HFPA within ten days of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
BBC One
BBC One is the first and principal television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution, it was renamed BBC TV in 1960, using this name until the launch of the second BBC channel BBC2 in 1964, whereupon the BBC TV channel became known as BBC1, with the current spelling adopted in 1997. The channel's annual budget for 2012–13 was £1.14 billion. The channel is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBC's other domestic television stations, shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising, it is the most watched television channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership, ITV. As of June 2013 the channel controller for BBC One was Charlotte Moore, who succeeded Danny Cohen as an Acting Controller from May 2013; the BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932.
The BBC Television Service began regular broadcasts on 2 November 1936 from a converted wing of the Alexandra Palace in London. On 1 September 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was taken off air with little warning, with one of the last programmes to be shown before the suspension of the service being a Mickey Mouse cartoon. 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; the BBC held a statutory monopoly on television broadcasting in the United Kingdom until the first Independent Television station began to broadcast on 22 September 1955, when ITV started broadcasting. The competition forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a large reduction in its audience; the 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, that ITV lacked any serious programming.
It therefore decided that Britain's third television station should be awarded to the BBC. The station, renamed BBC TV in 1960, became BBC1 when BBC2 was launched on 20 April 1964 transmitting an incompatible 625-line image on UHF; the only way to receive all channels was to use a complex "dual-standard" 405- and 625-line, VHF and UHF, with both a VHF and a UHF aerial. Old 405-line-only sets became obsolete in 1985, when transmission in the standard ended, although standards converters have become available for enthusiasts who collect and restore such TVs. BBC1 was based at the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, London between 1960 and 2013. Television News continued to use Alexandra Palace as its base—by early 1968 it had converted one of its studios to colour—before moving to new purpose-built facilities at Television Centre on 20 September 1969. In the weeks leading up to 15 November 1969, BBC1 unofficially transmitted the occasional programme in its new colour system, to test it.
At midnight on 15 November with ITV and two years after BBC2, BBC1 began 625-line PAL colour programming on UHF with a broadcast of a concert by Petula Clark. Colour transmissions could be received on monochrome 625-line sets until the end of analogue broadcasting. In terms of audience share, the most successful period for BBC1 was under Bryan Cowgill between 1973 and 1977, when the channel achieved an average audience share of 45%; this period is still regarded by many as a golden age of the BBC's output, with the BBC achieving a high standard across its entire range of series, plays, light entertainment and documentaries. On 30 December 1980, the BBC announced their intention to introduce a new breakfast television service to compete with TV-am; the BBC stated it would start broadcasting before TV-am, but made clear their hands were tied until November 1981 when the new licence fee income became available, to help finance extending broadcast hours, with the hope of starting in 1982. On 17 January 1983, the first edition of Breakfast Time was shown on BBC1, becoming the first UK wide breakfast television service and continued to lead in the ratings until 1984.
In 1984, Bill Cotton become managing director of Television at the BBC, set about overhauling BBC1, slated for poor home grown shows, its heavy reliance on US imports, with Dallas and The Thorn Birds being BBC1's highest rated programmes and ratings being over 20% behind ITV. Cotton recruited Michael Grade to become Controller of BBC1, the first time the Corporation had recruited someone outside of the BBC, replacing Alan Hart, criticised for his lack of knowledge in general entertainment, as he was head of BBC Sport prior to 1981; the first major overhaul was to axe the unpopular Sixty Minutes current affairs programme: this was a replacement for the news and magazine show Nationwide. Its replacement was the BBC Six O'Clock News, a straight new programme in a bid to shore up its failing early evening slot, it was believed the BBC were planning to cut short the evening news and move more light entertainment programming in from the 18:20 slot, but this was dismissed. The Miss Great Britain contest was dropped, being described as verging on the too offensive after the January 1985 contest, with Worlds Strongest Man and International Superstar being axed.
BBC1 was relaunched on 18 February 1985 with a new look, new programming including Wogan, EastEnders and a revised schedule to help streamline and maintain viewers thr
