1.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
2.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
3.
City of London School
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It is the brother school of the City of London School for Girls and a member of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference. The School was founded by a private Act of Parliament in 1834, the original school was established at Milk Street, moving to the Victoria Embankment in 1879 and its present site on Queen Victoria Street in 1986. The school provides day education to about 900 boys aged 10 to 18 and employs approximately 100 teaching staff, the majority of pupils enter at 11, some at 13 and some at 16 into the Sixth form. There is an intake at 10 into Old Grammar, a year group consisting of two classes equivalent to primary school Year 6. Admissions are based on an examination and an interview. Among Old Citizens who have attained eminence in fields are prime minister H. H. The City of London School traces its origins to a bequest of land by John Carpenter, on his death in 1442, it was found that Carpenter had listed many bequests, most to his relatives but some to charitable causes. There were no bequests listed to directly support the education of boys in the City of London, until they be preferred, and then others in their places for ever. The four boys became known as Carpenters Children, little is known of the early years of the legacy. This bequest was administered by the Corporation of London in around 1460, in 1547, under the Chantries Act the Guildhall Chapel and Library were forfeited. The funding for the four boys was also discontinued, in 1823, a report published by the Charity Commission revealed that over the centuries, the income from the bequest vastly exceeded the expenses of the boys education. Had the Corporation instead looked for the will of John Don, lacking that guidance, discussions began on how the bequest money should be spent. The City Lands Committee suggested in a report that the bequest should be spent on educating a number of boys. In 1830, they proposed that the City of London Corporation School be founded with Taylor as a governor, in the mean time, a small number of boys, who became known as Carpenters scholars, were sent to Tonbridge School. In 1829, an Act of Parliament was passed to transform the workhouse into a school, conditions at the workhouse site had deteriorated and much money was needed for its maintenance. The only funds available, though, were the same £300 a year budget the workhouse had received. Over the next few years, the proposal was seen, by the City of London Lord Mayors deputation. In 1832, Warren Stormes Hale, who believed that the Workhouse proposal was not the best use of Carpenters legacy, was appointed to the City Lands Committee
4.
Exeter College, Oxford
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Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The college is located on Turl Street, where it was founded in 1314 by Devon-born Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, as a school to educate clergymen. From its foundation Exeter was popular with the sons of the Devonshire gentry and has associated with a number of notable people. As of 2012, the college had a financial endowment of £48.7 million. During its first century, it was known as Stapeldon Hall and was significantly smaller, the college grew significantly from the 15th century onward, and began offering rooms to its students. The College motto is Floreat Exon, as a result, over time, Exeter College became one of the leading colleges in the University. In the 18th century the college experienced declining popularity, as did all of Oxfords other colleges, University reforms in the 1850s helped to end this period of stagnation. Until 1979 the college did not allow students, but in 1993 Exeter College became the first of the former all-male colleges to elect a woman, Marilyn Butler. When Butlers tenure expired in October 2004, the college elected another woman – Frances Cairncross, in 2014, the author J. K. Rowling was elected an honorary fellow of the college. Exeter College is the basis for the fictional Jordan College in Philip Pullmans novel trilogy His Dark Materials, the 2007 film version of the first novel, The Golden Compass, used the college for location filming. The Front Quadrangle sits on roughly the site of the college, although of the earliest buildings. The quadrangle is dominated by the chapel, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and constructed in 1854–60, on the opposite side stands the Hall, constructed in 1618, notable for its vaulted ceilings and numerous fine portraits, underneath which is the college bar. Building work over the century resulted in the quadrangle taking on its current appearance in 1710. The Front Quadrangle also houses the Junior, Middle and Senior Common Rooms, as well as lodgings for fellows, the Rectors Lodgings were designed by Gilbert Scott and constructed in 1864, with staircases nine, ten and eleven also being erected during the 19th century. A passageway from the Front Quadrangle leads through to the colleges Fellows Garden, in which stands the library, the area is also bounded on the left hand side by Convocation House, the Divinity School and the Bodleian Library, and on the right by Brasenose Lane. The Mound, situated at the end of the Garden, offers views over Radcliffe Square, including All Souls College, in 2007–08, the college purchased the main site of Ruskin College on nearby Walton Street for £7 million. It will be refurbished as a city centre quadrangle. As one of the smaller Oxford colleges, Exeter has a reputation for having a student body
5.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
6.
Comedian
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A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, a comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comic. Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and this normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e. g. Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh, Louis C. K. and Malcolm Hardee. Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, often a comics career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, however, a comics stand-up success does not guarantee a films critical or box office success. Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes and he wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes comedy style took the form of satyr plays, the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has an ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeares other plays. Charles Chaplin was the most popular comedian of the first half of the 20th century. He wrote comedic silent films such as Modern Times and The Kid and his films still have a major impact on comedy in films today. One of the most popular forms of comedy is stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is a monologue performed by one or more people standing on a stage. Bob Hope was the most popular comedian of the 20th century. Other noted stand-up comedians include George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Louis CK, another popular form of modern-day comedy is talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, Daniel Tosh, Chris Hardwick, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, a third form of modern-day comedy is television programs in which many comedians band together to make skits, such as Saturday Night Live. These shows often receive high ratings, likely because many comedians band together to create jokes, one of the most successful comedians is Ellen Degeneres, who has parlayed her comic career into film, television shows, and hosting major media events. In 1986, Ellen DeGeneres appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since she began gaining popularity as a comic in the 1980s. Johnny Carson, who launched many contemporary comics careers, would invite them to join him on the couch for one-on-one conversation after their set
7.
Film director
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A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film, the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions, there are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors, other film directors have attended a film school. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors dialogue, while others control every aspect. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners, some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. Film directors create a vision through which a film eventually becomes realized/noticed. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of production, as well as directing the shooting timetable. This entails organizing the crew in such a way as to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful. Moreover, it is necessary to have an eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus. Thus the director ensures that all involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as a jigsaw puzzle with egos. It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when, omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating, thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that 20-hour days are not unusual, under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision
8.
City of London
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The City of London is a city and county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London, however, the City of London is not a London borough. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City and is colloquially known as the Square Mile. Both of these terms are often used as metonyms for the United Kingdoms trading and financial services industries. The name London is now used for a far wider area than just the City. London most often denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 London boroughs and this wider usage of London is documented as far back as 1888, when the County of London was created. The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council and it is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the current Lord Mayor, as of November 2016, is Andrew Parmley. The City is a business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the primary business centre. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008, the insurance industry is focused around the eastern side of the City, around Lloyds building. A secondary financial district exists outside of the City, at Canary Wharf,2.5 miles to the east, the City has a resident population of about 7,000 but over 300,000 people commute to and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. It used to be held that Londinium was first established by merchants as a trading port on the tidal Thames in around 47 AD. However, this date is only supposition, many historians now believe London was founded some time before the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. They base this notion on evidence provided by both archaeology and Welsh literary legend, archaeologists have claimed that as much as half of the best British Iron Age art and metalwork discovered in Britain has been found in the London area. One of the most prominent examples is the famously horned Waterloo Helmet dredged from the Thames in the early 1860s and now exhibited at the British Museum. Also, according to an ancient Welsh legend, a king named Lud son of Heli substantially enlarged and improved a pre-existing settlement at London which afterwards came to be renamed after him, the same tradition relates how this Lud son of Heli was later buried at Ludgate
9.
Doctorate
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There are a variety of doctoral degrees, with the most common being the Doctor of Philosophy, which is awarded in many different fields, ranging from the humanities to the scientific disciplines. The term doctor derives from the Latin docere meaning to teach, the doctorate appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach Latin at a university. Its roots can be traced to the church in which the term doctor referred to the Apostles, church fathers. The right to grant a licentia docendi was originally reserved to the Catholic church, the Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access—at that time largely free of charge—of all able applicants. This right remained a bone of contention between the authorities and universities that were slowly distancing themselves from the Church. The right was granted by the pope to the University of Paris in 1213 where it became a universal license to teach, according to Keith Allan Noble, the first doctoral degree was awarded in medieval Paris around 1150. The so-called professional, vocational, or technical curriculum of the Middle Ages included only theology, law, the doctorate of philosophy developed in Germany in the 17th century. The term philosophy does not refer solely to the field or academic discipline of philosophy, but is used in a sense in accordance with its original Greek meaning. In most of Europe, all fields were traditionally known as philosophy, the doctorate of philosophy adheres to this historic convention, even though the degrees are not always for the study of philosophy. D. University doctoral training was a form of apprenticeship to a guild, the traditional term of study before new teachers were admitted to the guild of Masters of Arts was seven years, matching the apprenticeship term for other occupations. Originally the terms master and doctor were synonymous, but over time the doctorate came to be regarded as a higher qualification than the masters degree, University degrees, including doctorates, were originally restricted to men. The use and meaning of the doctorate has changed over time, for instance, until the early 20th century few academic staff or professors in English-speaking universities held doctorates, except for very senior scholars and those in holy orders. After that time the German practice of requiring lecturers to have completed a research doctorate spread, universities shift to research-oriented education increased the doctorates importance. Today, a doctorate or its equivalent is generally a prerequisite for an academic career. Professional doctorates developed in the United States from the 19th century onward, the first professional doctorate to be offered in the United States was the M. D. The MD became the standard first degree in medicine during the 19th century, the MD, as the standard qualifying degree in medicine, gave that profession the ability to set and raise standards for entry into professional practice. The modern research degree, in the shape of the German-style Ph. D. was first awarded in the U. S. in 1861, in the UK, research doctorates initially took the form of higher doctorates, introduced from 1882 onwards. The PhD spread to the UK from the US via Canada, following the MD, the next professional doctorate, the Juris Doctor, was established by Chicago University in 1902
10.
Yiddish theatre
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Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad, operetta, musical comedy, themes such as immigration, assimilation and poverty can be found in many Yiddish theatre productions. Nonetheless, the culture of the Eastern European Jews was permeated with music, song and these elements were to figure prominently in the Yiddish theatre. As with ancient Greek drama, many elements of Yiddish theatre arose as a refinement of religious practice. In a Jewish context psalms to the glory of God were almost always sung rather than spoken, religious services involved what was known in Hebrew as menatseach, essentially call-and-response. Traditional dances were associated with holidays, such as Sukkot. Often satiric and topical, Purim plays were performed in the courtyard of the synagogue. These made heavy use of masks and other devices, the masquerade generally extended to the whole congregation. Over time, these stories became less a subject matter than a pretext for topical. Mordechai became a role for a clown. Purim plays were published as early as the early 18th century, at least eight Purim plays were published between 1708 and 1720, most of these do not survive, but one survives in the Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten, a collection by Johann Jakob Schudt. Another similar current in Jewish culture was a tradition of masked dancers performing after weddings, less refined versions of the same also occurred in 18th-century Germany. Additionally, there was a tradition of dialogues in the Jewish poetry known as Tahkemoni. Al-Harizis work contained dialogues between believer and heretic, man and wife, day and night, land and ocean, wisdom and foolishness, avarice, such dialogues figured prominently in early Yiddish theatre. The origin of theatre in Christian societies in Europe is often traced to Passion Plays and other religious pageants, Jews had far more exposure to secular European theatre once that developed. Professional Yiddish theatre is dated from 1876, although there is scattered evidence of earlier efforts. Schertspierer of Vienna, with characters and good dramatic situations. Around the same time, there are indications of a traveling Yiddish-language theatre troupe in Galicia, in 1854, two rabbinical students from Zhytomyr put on a play in Berdichev
11.
Stand-up comedy
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Stand-up comedy is a comic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience, usually speaking directly to them. The performer is known as a comic, stand-up comic, stand-up comedian. In stand-up comedy, the comedian usually recites a grouping of humorous stories, jokes and one-liners typically called a monologue, routine, some stand-up comedians use props, music, or magic tricks to enhance their acts. Stand-up comedy is often performed in clubs, bars and pubs, nightclubs. Outside of live performance, stand-up is often distributed commercially via television, DVD, CD, in stand-up comedy, the feedback of the audience is instant and crucial for the comedians act. Audiences expect a stand-up comic to provide a stream of laughs. Will Ferrell has called stand-up comedy hard, lonely and vicious, a stand-up comedy show may involve only one comedian, or feature a headline or a showcase format. This is followed by one or two middle or featured acts, who perform 15- to 20-minute sets, followed by a headliner who performs for longer, a showcase format may still feature an MC. Bringer shows are another opportunity for amateur performers, the performer must bring a specified number of paying guests in order to get stage time. The guests usually have to pay a charge and there is often a minimum number of drinks that must be ordered. These shows usually have a showcase format and this type of show gives comedians better exposure than open mics because there is usually better audience turnout and industry professionals sometimes go to watch. Different comedy clubs have different requirements for their bringer shows, gotham Comedy Club in New York City, for example, usually has ten-person bringers, while Broadway Comedy Club in New York City usually has six-person bringers. As the name implies, stand-up comedians usually perform their material while standing, stand-up comedy has its origin in classic Parrhesia in 400 BC used for cynics and epicureans in order to tell the reality without censorship. Stand-up comedy in the United Kingdom began in the halls of the 18th and 19th centuries. The heavy censorship regime of the Lord Chamberlains Office required all comedians to submit their acts for censorship, the act would be returned with unacceptable sections underlined in blue pencil. The comedian was then obliged not to deviate from the act in its edited form, the rise of the post-war comedians coincided with the rise of television and radio, and the traditional music hall circuit suffered greatly as a result. By the 1970s, music hall entertainment was virtually dead, alternative circuits had evolved, such as working mens clubs. The alternative comedy scene began to evolve
12.
Armando Iannucci
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Armando Giovanni Iannucci, OBE is a Scottish satirist, writer, television director, and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, Iannucci studied at Oxford University and left work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy. Starting on BBC Scotland and BBC Radio 4, his work with Chris Morris on the radio series On the Hour was transferred to television as The Day Today. A character from series, Alan Partridge, went on to feature in a number of Iannuccis television and radio programmes including Knowing Me, Knowing You. In the meantime, Iannucci also fronted the satirical Armistice review shows and in 2001 created his most personal work, The Armando Iannucci Shows, for Channel 4. Moving back to the BBC in 2005, Iannucci created the political sitcom The Thick of It as well as the spoof documentary Time Trumpet in 2006. Winning funding from the UK Film Council, he directed an acclaimed feature film, In the Loop. As a result of works, he has been described by The Daily Telegraph as the hardman of political satire. Iannucci created the HBO political satire Veep, and was its showrunner for four seasons from 2012 to 2015, other works during this period include an operetta libretto, Skin Deep, and his radio series Charm Offensive. In March 2012, it was announced that he is working on his first novel, Tongue International and his father, also called Armando, is from Naples, while his mother was born in Glasgow to an Italian family. His father, who came to Scotland in 1950, ran a pizza factory, Iannucci has two brothers and a sister. He was educated at St Peters Primary School, St. Aloysius College, Glasgow, the University of Glasgow, and University College, Oxford, in his teens, he thought seriously about becoming a Roman Catholic priest. He abandoned graduate work on 17th-century religious language, with reference to Miltons Paradise Lost. Iannucci first received fame as the producer for On the Hour on Radio 4. Baynham was closely involved with both Morriss and Lee & Herrings work – simultaneously at one point, between 1995 and 1999, Iannucci produced and hosted The Saturday Night Armistice. In 2000, he created two pilot episodes for Channel 4, which became The Armando Iannucci Shows and this was an eight-part series for Channel 4 broadcast in 2001, written with Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil. The series consisted of Iannucci pondering pseudo-philosophical and jocular ideas and fantasies in between surreal sketches, Iannucci has been quoted as saying it is the comedy series he is most proud of making. He told The Metro in April 2007 The Armando Iannucci Show on Channel 4 came out around 9/11, people had other things on their minds
13.
On the Hour
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On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992. On the Hour featured the first appearance of Coogans character Alan Partridge as the Sports Desk reporter and it did fool many people, with some listeners ringing in to complain about how the anchor treated his guests. The programme also utilised editing of out-of-context sound-clips and prank phone calls, episodes would often feature a main storyline interspersed between the various news items. Twelve episodes were made and broadcast in 1991 and 1992, the final episode of On the Hour closed with Morris introducing a set of headlines with the line And there is still just time to part the beef curtains on tomorrows news. Running throughout the episode was the announcement that On the Hour would be taking over all of Radio 4 to transmit 24-hour Perma-News. On the Hour was named Best Radio Comedy at the 1992 British Comedy Awards, the On the Hour team subsequently made a television series called The Day Today, which retained the same regular cast and several characters from On the Hour. Combative and overly zealous, h believes in the infallibility of the news, bombastically delivering slogans like Man is only 90% water, and These facts are ear-shaped, lets ram them home. Morris frequently talks over his guests and does not realise or will not admit when he has the person on the other end of the phone. Morris reprised his newsman persona for The Day Today and Brass Eye, Roger Blatt/Michael Blatt, Roger Blatt is the Disaster correspondent for a train crash report, the identically-voiced Michael Blatt is the Strategy correspondent for the On the Hour War Special. Wayne Carr, Cloyingly-upbeat and smug DJ with a penchant for contracting words, waynes reports include inappropriately-upbeat coverage of a train crash disaster, an exposé on hidden messages in pop records, and a chinnywag about endangered animals. The character of Wayne Carr was retained from Morriss previous radio projects and his name is a reference to the abusive term wanker. Morris later used the Continuity Announcers voice for the national emergencies propaganda reel in the episode of The Day Today. Lionel Cosgrave, An Everyman who appears in news reports. Lionels age varies according to each report – sometimes he is a youngster, lionel is usually presented as a victim. Rosy presents absurd environmental-themed news in the segment Green Desk and this segment is accompanied by new-age music, including synthesised whale song. Rosy later appeared in The Day Today, although her segment was re-titled Enviromation, jacques Œuf, Appears in two episodes as a French counterpart to Wayne Carr. Like Carr, his name is a slang term for masturbation. Highly incompetent, reporting dubious facts and figures before being forced by Morris to admit that he hasnt actually read the reports he is ostensibly presenting and he later appeared in The Day Today
14.
The Day Today
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The Day Today is a British comedy television show which parodies television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994 on BBC2. For The Day Today, Peter Baynham joined the writing team, the principal cast of On the Hour was retained for The Day Today. The Day Today is composed of six episodes and a selection of shorter. The six half-hour episodes were originally broadcast from 19 January to 23 February 1994 on BBC2, the Day Today has won many awards, including Morris winning the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. All six episodes are available on BBC DVD, having previously issued on VHS. Each episode is presented as a news programme, and the episodes rely on a combination of ludicrous fictitious news stories, covered with a serious. Each episode revolves around one or two stories, which are pursued throughout the programme, along with a host of other stories usually only briefly referred to. The final episode features reports from the fictitious documentary The Office, other non-news segments of the programme include the occasional physical cartoons of current events set in the studio. The programme occasionally features producer Armando Iannucci and writer Peter Baynham, John Thomson, Graham Linehan, Tony Haase, and Minnie Driver also appear. Michael Alexander St John provides the voiceover stings, as he did in On the Hour, much of the programmes humour derives from its excessively brash style of reporting, and its unnecessarily complex format. Morris presents aggressively, often arguing with reporters and guests on-air, the programme frequently lambasts Conservative government politicians in office at the time of the programmes production. Those repeatedly lampooned by the series include John Major, Michael Heseltine, Chris Patten, Douglas Hurd, Virginia Bottomley, Michael Portillo, each episode ends in a familiar style for news reports, with the camera panning out as the studio lights dim on Morris. The programme features surreal news items, examples include, Reports that explosive-packed terrorist dogs were being released in London by the IRA. These bomb dogs wreak havoc, and prompt the British police to begin executing any dog on sight and this story is accompanied by a clip of Steve Coogan impersonating a Gerry Adams-esque Sinn Féin leader, spouting rhetoric while inhaling helium to subtract credibility from his statement. Coverage of a feud between John Major and the Queen, coverage of an ongoing rail crisis, following a train trapped on the tracks in Hampshire. Trapped by a signal post, the stranded train rapidly becomes the scene of anarchy and paganism. In the fifth episode, Morris provokes a war between Hong Kong and Australia, and much of the episode revolves around the resulting conflict, subsequent reports of the war, delivered from Eastmanstown in the Upper Cataracts on the Australio-Hong-Kong border, are humorously blown out of proportion. Morris has several computers giving him the news instantly from around the world and he is always confrontational and aggressive, frequently picking fights with his staff and guests while on-air, and his efforts to resolve problems frequently make bad situations even worse
15.
I'm Alan Partridge
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Im Alan Partridge is a 1997 BBC situation comedy starring Steve Coogan and written by Coogan, Peter Baynham and Armando Iannucci. It features Alan Partridge, a tactless and inept radio DJ, after he has left by his wife. The show follows Partridge as he lives in a hotel, presents a graveyard slot on Norwich local radio. A second series followed in 2002, with Partridge now living in a static caravan after recovering from a mental breakdown, Iannucci said the writers used the sitcom as a kind of social X-ray of male middle-aged Middle England. Supporting Coogan are Felicity Montagu as his faithful but timid personal assistant, Lynn Benfield, Simon Greenall as Geordie handyman Michael, the series was nominated for three BAFTAs, two British Comedy Awards, and a Royal Television Society award. In a list drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted by industry professionals, the main character of the series, Alan, a former host on Knowing Me, Knowing You. By series two, following a mental breakdown, Alan has fixed himself slightly. He lives in a static caravan next to the house he is having built. Besides this, he has a show in the evening, hosts a military-based quiz show on digital television, has published his autobiography. Alan is generally loathsome and narcissistic with very poor social skills, Lynn is a member of a local Baptist church, which Alan finds strange but is willing to tolerate. Her mother, with whom Lynn possibly lives, is apparently housebound, when accompanying Alan, Lynn appears inhibited by him, but seems capable of easily blending into social situations when Alan is not present. Despite her intense and frequently ludicrous workload, Lynn receives a paltry £8,000 per year, by the second series, her mother has died, and Lynn finds romance with a fellow churchgoer, a retired policeman. At the celebration following her church baptism, she is shown to have friends and is held in high regard by other churchmembers. An all-purpose worker at the Linton Travel Tavern, Michael speaks with a heavy Geordie accent, Partridge and Alan clearly regards Michael with a great deal of disdain. Michael is almost as desperate and neurotic a character as Alan, Michael frequently tells stories of his time in the British army, to the delight of Alan, especially if they are of a salacious or violent nature. During a period of military placement in the Philippines, Michael married a Filipino woman, however, his wife left him and now lives with his brother in Sunderland, possibly shedding light on the origins of Michaels neuroticism. In the last episode of the first series, Michael appears at Alans party already drunk on Scrumpy Jack and he is also a recurring character in the second series of Im Alan Partridge, where he has left the Linton Travel Tavern and now works in a BP petrol station. Dave is a Radio Norwich DJ who runs the right after Alans graveyard slot show
16.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, 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 Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics 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, 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 manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate 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 and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and 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 Reiths 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 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 and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
17.
Mr. Bean
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Mr. Bean is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, and starring Atkinson as the title character. Atkinson co-wrote all 15 episodes with either Curtis, Robin Driscoll,13 of the episodes were broadcast on ITV, from the pilot on 1 January 1990, until Goodnight Mr. Bean on 31 October 1995. A clip show, The Best Bits of Mr. Bean, was broadcast on 15 December 1995, Bean rarely speaks, and the largely physical humour of the series is derived from his interactions with other people and his unusual solutions to situations. The series was influenced by performers such as Jacques Tati. The series has received a number of awards, including the Rose dOr. The show has sold in 245 territories worldwide and has inspired an animated cartoon spin-off. The character of Mr. Bean was developed while Rowan Atkinson was studying for his masters degree in engineering at Queens College. A sketch featuring Bean was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 1980s, a similar character called Robert Box, played by Atkinson himself, appeared in the one-off 1979 ITV sitcom Canned Laughter, which also featured routines used in the film Bean. One of Beans earliest appearances occurred at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, when programme co-ordinators were scheduling him into the festival programme, Atkinson insisted that he perform on the French-speaking bill rather than the English-speaking programme. Having no French dialogue in his act at all, programme co-ordinators could not understand why Atkinson wanted to perform on the French bill instead. The characters name was not decided until after the first programme had been produced, Atkinson cited the earlier comedy character Monsieur Hulot, created by French comedian and director Jacques Tati, as an influence on the character. Stylistically, Mr. Bean is also similar to early silent films, relying purely upon physical comedy. This has allowed the series to be sold worldwide without any significant changes to dialogue, in November 2012, Atkinson told The Daily Telegraph of his intentions to retire the character, stating that someone in their 50s being childlike becomes a little sad. The title character, played by Rowan Atkinson, is a buffoon who brings various unusual schemes and contrivances to everyday tasks. He lives alone at the address of Flat 2,12 Arbour Road, Highbury, and is almost always seen in his tweed jacket. He also usually wears a digital calculator watch, Mr. Bean rarely speaks, and when he does, it is generally only a few mumbled words which are in a comically low-pitched voice. His first name and profession, if any, are never mentioned, in the first film adaptation, Mr. appears on his passport in the first name field, and he is shown employed as a guard at Londons National Gallery. The humour largely comes from his original solutions to problems and his disregard for others when solving them, his pettiness
18.
Hampstead Theatre
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Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in Swiss Cottage in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers, edward Hall has been the artistic director since 2010. The original theatre was created in 1959 in Moreland Hall, a church school hall in Holly Bush Vale. In 1962 the company moved to a cabin in Swiss Cottage where it remained for nearly 40 years, before, in 2003. The main auditorium seats 325 people, the studio theatre, Hampstead Downstairs, seats up to 100 people and was turned into a laboratory for new writing in 2010
19.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
20.
The Saturday Night Armistice
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The Saturday Night Armistice was a British satirical television comedy programme presented by Armando Iannucci with Peter Baynham and David Schneider, which ran from 1995 to 1999. The programme took an irreverent and often look back at topical events. Iannucci was the presenter and sat at a desk with Schneider. On Armandos desk was a rotund cuddly toy named Mister Tony Blair, the programme featured a title theme sung by Johnny More in the style of Frank Sinatra. The prize for spotting her appearances was originally The Saturday Night Armistice Hors dŒuvre Tree complete with a different selection of Hors dœuvres each week and this reward later changed to the much coveted set of Friday Night Armistice Dart Flights. Which showed a supposed CCTV clip that followed an item of news, in 1996, scheduling changes and low Saturday-night ratings meant the programme became The Friday Night Armistice. The team did a live 3 hour-long 1997 Election special and a series in 1998 and several Christmas and New Year specials. A fourth series was announced for broadcast in 1999 but was not produced, none of the episodes have ever been made available commercially and owing to their topical nature are unlikely to gain a release on DVD. However, episodes have been distributed on the internet via various BitTorrent download sites
21.
The Friday Night Armistice
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The Saturday Night Armistice was a British satirical television comedy programme presented by Armando Iannucci with Peter Baynham and David Schneider, which ran from 1995 to 1999. The programme took an irreverent and often look back at topical events. Iannucci was the presenter and sat at a desk with Schneider. On Armandos desk was a rotund cuddly toy named Mister Tony Blair, the programme featured a title theme sung by Johnny More in the style of Frank Sinatra. The prize for spotting her appearances was originally The Saturday Night Armistice Hors dŒuvre Tree complete with a different selection of Hors dœuvres each week and this reward later changed to the much coveted set of Friday Night Armistice Dart Flights. Which showed a supposed CCTV clip that followed an item of news, in 1996, scheduling changes and low Saturday-night ratings meant the programme became The Friday Night Armistice. The team did a live 3 hour-long 1997 Election special and a series in 1998 and several Christmas and New Year specials. A fourth series was announced for broadcast in 1999 but was not produced, none of the episodes have ever been made available commercially and owing to their topical nature are unlikely to gain a release on DVD. However, episodes have been distributed on the internet via various BitTorrent download sites
22.
All the Queen's Men
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All the Queens Men is a 2001 action comedy war film. It was directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and stars Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard, made on a budget of $15mn, the film earned only $23,662 in the United States, yielding an approximate -99. 92% return. During World War II the British army is attempting to retrieve an Enigma machine from Germany, having failed in previous attempts they decide to send four men undercover to the factory that makes the devices, deep in Berlin. Unfortunately the factory is populated entirely by women, and they only have men to send, american ORourke, British transvestite Tony Parker, genius Johnno and the reluctant Archie are sent to infiltrate the factory dressed as women. Dropped in the area, the team must first try to find their bearings. Aided by Romy, a sympathiser to their cause, they find their way to the factory and they manage to retrieve the Enigma machine, against the expectations of the British army. Just before they leave Germany, they realize they were tricked - the British government already had the device and they were specifically chosen as the team most likely to fail. Archie volunteers to be captured with the machine to allow the mission to fail, the movie has an answer to it, but it comes so late in the film that although it makes sense technically, the damage has already been done. Cross-dressing in film and television All the Queens Men at AllMovie All the Queens Men at the Internet Movie Database All the Queens Men at Box Office Mojo All the Queens Men at Rotten Tomatoes
23.
Stefan Ruzowitzky
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Stefan Ruzowitzky is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He studied drama and history at the University of Vienna and started directing music videos, for example for N Sync, in 1996, Ruzowitzky presented his first feature film, Tempo, about a group of youths living in Vienna. He was subsequently awarded with the Max Ophüls Preis and it also got a prize at the International Film Festival in Valladolid. In 2000 he directed the successful German horror film Anatomy, starring Franka Potente, between those two Ruzowitzkys first international co-production All the Queens Men from 2001, starring Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard, was received poorly by both critics and viewers. In 2007 Ruzowitzkys The Counterfeiters premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Bear award, the film is based on the memoirs of Adolf Burger, a Jewish Slovak typographer and Holocaust survivor involved in Operation Bernhard. The Counterfeiters, nominated on behalf of Austrian cinema, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards on 24 February 2008. He is currently working on the horror film The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which is based on Bram Stokers Dracula tale. On May 2,2014, Deadline Hollywood announced that Ruzowitzky will direct Screen Gems action-thriller Patient Zero based on a script by Mike Le. The film stars Matt Smith and Natalie Dormer, the cast included his Counterfeiters-star Karl Markovics in the non-singing role of Samiel, the production was conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Stefan Ruzowitzky at the Internet Movie Database
24.
Matt LeBlanc
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LeBlanc also stars as a fictional version of himself in the BBC/Showtime comedy series Episodes. He won a Golden Globe award for his work on Episodes, since 2016, LeBlanc has hosted the BBC motoring show Top Gear. LeBlanc was born in Newton, Massachusetts and his mother, Patricia, was an office manager, and his father, Paul LeBlanc, was a mechanic. His mother is of Italian ancestry and his father is French-Canadian and he attended Newton North High School and graduated in 1985 with comedian Louis CK. LeBlanc first appeared in a 1987 Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercial, in 1988, he starred in the television drama TV101 for one season. In 1991, he had a role on the hit Fox sitcom. He played Vinnie Verducci, the son of one of the friends of the protagonist, Al Bundy and he went on to star in two short-lived spin-offs of Married. With Children, Top of the Heap in 1991 and Vinnie and he appeared in two of Jon Bon Jovis music videos, Miracle, from the Young Guns II soundtrack in 1990, and Say It Isnt So in 2000. LeBlanc found success in the role of Joey Tribbiani on Friends, Friends was successful and LeBlanc, along with his co-stars, gained wide recognition among viewers. For his performance, LeBlanc received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three Golden Globe award nominations, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. During this time he appeared in the films Lookin Italian, Ed, Lost in Space, Charlies Angels. His production company, Fort Hill Productions, co-produced the made-for-TV movie, The Prince, following the cancellation of Joey, LeBlanc announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from acting, which later turned into a five-year hiatus from acting. His next role would be as a version of himself on Episodes. In 2011, LeBlanc began appearing as a version of himself in Episodes. The series is written by Friends co-creator David Crane and his partner Jeffrey Klarik, LeBlanc won the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Series Comedy for his performance, and was nominated for an additional four Primetime Emmy Awards. The latest season of Episodes, its fifth, began filming in 2016 and he also appeared in Series 19 Episode 4 to race the New Kia Ceed, and beat the old car time. In February 2016, the BBC announced LeBlanc was to be one of the new presenters of Top Gear, in September 2016, LeBlanc signed a new two-year deal to continue hosting Top Gear. He is also starring in CBS new sitcom Man with a Plan, LeBlanc married Melissa McKnight, a former model, in May 2003
25.
Eddie Izzard
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Edward John Eddie Izzard is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer and political activist. His comedic style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and he has also worked as a voice actor in The Wild, Igor, The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian, and Cars 2. Izzard has cited his main role model as Monty Python. In 2009, he completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief despite having no history of long-distance running. He has won awards including a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for his comedy special Dress to Kill. Izzards website won the Yahoo Peoples Choice Award and earned the Webby Award, Izzard was born on 7 February 1962, in the Colony of Aden, the younger son of English parents. His mother, Dorothy Ella, was a midwife and nurse, his father, a year after Izzards birth, the family moved to Bangor, County Down, and lived there until he was five. The family then moved to Skewen, West Glamorgan, where his mother died of cancer when Izzard was six and his brother, Izzard and his brother built a model railway to occupy their time while their mother was ill, it was donated to the Bexhill Museum in 2016. The Izzard family name is of French Huguenot descent, following his mothers death, Izzard attended boarding schools such as St Johns School in Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan, as well as St Bedes Prep School and Eastbourne College in East Sussex. He said that he knew he was a person at the age of four, after watching another boy being forced to wear a dress by his sisters. Izzard began to toy with comedy at the University of Sheffield, after leaving his accountancy degree course, he and Ballard took their act to the streets, often in Covent Garden. After his split with Ballard, Izzard spent a deal of the early 1980s working as a street performer in Europe. He then moved his act into the stand-up comedy venues of Britain and his first gig was at the Banana Cabaret in Balham, London. In 1987, he made his first stage appearance at the Comedy Store in London and he refined his material throughout the 1980s, and in the early 1990s he finally began earning some measure of recognition through his improvisation, in part at his own club Raging Bull in Soho. Izzard has performed stand-up in French, as well as German, Spanish, Russian and Arabic, in 1994, Izzard made his West End drama debut as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamets The Cryptogram with Lindsay Duncan, in the production at Londons Comedy Theatre. The success of that led to his second starring role in David Beairds black comedy 900 Oneonta. In 1995, he portrayed the character in Christopher Marlowes Edward II. In 1998 Izzard appeared briefly on stage with the Monty Python team in The American Film Institutes Tribute to Monty Python
26.
Gimme Gimme Gimme (TV series)
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Gimme Gimme Gimme is a BBC television sitcom by Tiger Aspect Productions that was first aired in three series from 1999 to 2001. It was written by Jonathan Harvey, who developed the series with Kathy Burke, the theme music is a cover of ABBAs Gimme. The first two series were shown on BBC Two and were deemed successful enough for the third series to be shown on BBC One. The series is repeated on Gold, Gimme Gimme Gimme centres around loudmouthed Londoner Linda La Hughes and her gay flatmate, actor Tom Farrell. A modern twist on the odd couple format, much of Gimme Gimme Gimmes humour springs from its lubricious innuendo subplot. Linda is characterised by her red perm, white glasses, and plump, boorish, unattractive Linda is convinced she is a stunner, in series three she is finally diagnosed with reversed body dysmorphic disorder. It is suggested that Linda and Tom first met at a nightclub, bonded instantly, what follows is, as writer Jonathan Harvey describes, one long comedown. Linda often tells humorous anecdotes about her family and childhood which suggest abuse or neglect and she also claims that her Daddy now lives in an iron lung, although the only proof she has is a photo of a sideboard. Linda also lived in a convent and a borstal as a teenager and she has crushes on Liam Gallagher, Robbie Williams, and both male members of HearSay. She also imagines having sex with Dale Winton in a toilet cubicle, Tom is melodramatic yet fails in his desire to get acting roles. He believes himself to be gifted in the art of acting. He also appeared in Daylight Robbery as an extra, standing in a queue in the background and he had one line but it was cut due to timekeeping. He insists that the series was ruined due to the axing of his line. Tom has an obsession with appearing to be even though he hails from a working-class background. It is often suggested that Tom has no friends whatsoever but unlike Linda he usually tries to pretend he is popular, Tom is in love with the actor Simon Shepherd. Although they appear to each other, Tom and Linda are beholden to each other due to the simple fact that nobody else can tolerate them. They are in many ways alike, selfish, unsuccessful, the hapless duo live in a Kentish Town flat rented from elderly ex-prostitute Beryl Merit. Other regular characters are the middle-class, horny married couple Jez, many of the storylines revolve around the fact that Tom and Linda find Jez sexually attractive and despise the oblivious Suze
27.
BBC Radio 4
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BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967, the station controller is Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the BBC Radio department. The station is broadcast from the BBCs headquarters at Broadcasting House and it is also available through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and on the Internet. It is notable for its news bulletins and programmes such as Today and The World at One, BBC Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station by total hours, after Radio 2 – and the most popular in London and the South of England. It recorded its highest audience, of 11 million listeners, in May 2011 and was UK Radio Station of the Year at the 2003,2004 and 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards and it also won a Peabody Award in 2002 for File On 4, Export Controls. Costing £71.4 million, it is the BBCs most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be its flagship. There is no comparable British commercial network, Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review, in 2010 Gwyneth Williams replaced Mark Damazer as Radio 4 controller. Damazer became Master of St Peters College, Oxford, music and sport are the only fields that largely fall outside the stations remit. It broadcasts occasional concerts, and documentaries related to forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based Desert Island Discs. As a result, for around 70 days a year listeners have to rely on FM broadcasts or increasingly DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave is now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts take precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast, as well as news and drama, the station has a strong reputation for comedy, including experimental and alternative comedy, many successful comedians and comedy shows first appearing on the station. The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967 and it had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its radio stations. For a time during the 1970s Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday and these were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and an evening bulletin was aired at 5. 55pm. There were also programme variations for the parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations and these included Roundabout East Anglia, a VHF opt-out of the Today programme broadcast from BBC Easts studios in Norwich each weekday from 6.45 am to 8.45 am. Roundabout East Anglia came to an end in 1980, when local services were introduced to East Anglia with the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk. All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980 apart from in the south west, in September 1991 it was decided that the main Radio 4 service would be on FM as coverage had extended to cover almost all of the UK. Opt-outs were transferred to long wave, currently Test Match Special, extra shipping forecasts, The Daily Service, long wave very occasionally opts out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010
28.
The Saint (1997 film)
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The film was a financial success with a worldwide box office of $169.4 million, rentals of $28.2 million, and continuous DVD sales. It is loosely based on the character of Simon Templar created by Leslie Charteris in 1928 for a series of books published as The Saint, which ran until 1983. At the Saint Ignatius Orphanage, a boy named John Rossi refers to himself as Simon Templar. Just as Simon is caught by the head priest, he witnesses the death of a girl he had taken a liking to when she accidentally falls from a balcony. As an adult, Simon —now a professional thief dubbed The Saint for using the names of Catholic saints as aliases—steals a valuable microchip belonging to a Russian oil company, Simon stages the burglary during a political rally held for the companys owner, Ivan Tretiak. Tretiak is a former Communist party boss and a billionaire oil, Simon is caught in the act by Tretiaks son Ilya but escapes with the microchip. After learning of the heist, Tretiak contacts Simon and hires him to steal a cold fusion formula discovered by American electrochemist Emma Russell. He wishes to acquire Emmas formula—which creates clean, inexpensive energy—so he can monopolize the market during a severe oil shortage in Russia. Using the alias Thomas More, Simon poses as a South African traveller, Tretiak learns Emmas formula is incomplete and orders his henchmen, led by Ilya, to kill Simon and kidnap Emma in order to obtain the remaining information. Heartbroken, Emma reports the theft to Inspector Teal and Inspector Rabineau of Scotland Yard, Emma tracks down Simon to a hotel in Moscow and confronts him about the theft and his betrayal. The Russian police, loyal to Tretiak, arrest Simon and Emma, however, they manage to escape from the police van as they are being brought to Tretiaks mansion. As they flee through the suburbs, Simon and Emma are helped by a prostitute, later, they meet Frankie, a fence who sells them the directions through an underground sewer system that lead to the American embassy. Simon and Emma exit the tunnel only to find Ilya. Emma safely makes it to the embassy for political asylum, while Simon allows himself to be caught by Ilya as a distraction and he escapes after rigging a car bomb that severely burns Ilya. Tretiak then plans to use the political fallout to install himself as President, Emma finishes the equations to complete the formula, and Simon delivers the information to Tretiaks physicist, Dr. Lev Botkin, who builds an apparatus which proves the formula works. Simon infiltrates the Presidents Kremlin residence and informs him of Tretiaks conspiracy just before Tretiak loyalists detain him and he is also revealed to have caused the heating oil shortage in Moscow by illegally stockpiling vast amounts of heating oil underneath his mansion. Sometime later, at a conference at the University of Oxford. Simon attends the conference in disguise and once again avoids being captured by Inspectors Teal, as he drives away, he listens to a news radio broadcast reporting that $3 billion was recently donated to the Red Cross, Salvation Army and the United Nations Childrens Fund
29.
28 Days Later
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Successful both commercially and critically, the film is credited with reinvigorating the zombie genre of horror film. The film spawned a 2007 sequel,28 Weeks Later, a novel titled 28 Days Later, The Aftermath, which expands on the timeline of the outbreak. In Cambridge, three animal liberation activists break into a research laboratory. A scientist in the lab desperately warns them against releasing the captive chimpanzees, ignoring his pleas, the activists release a chimp, which infects a female activist. She then attacks and infects everyone else present,28 days later, in London, Jim, a bicycle courier, awakens from a coma in St Thomas Hospital. He finds the hospital deserted. He wanders the streets of London, finding it deserted as well, Jim enters a church and finds a priest, who turns out to be infected. Jim flees, attracting attention of more infected, but Selena, at one of their safehouses, they explain to Jim that while he was in a coma, a virus spread among the populace, resulting in societal collapse. They claim the virus has been reported in Paris and New York City as well, the next day, Selena and Mark accompany Jim to his parents house in Deptford, where he discovers they committed suicide in bed together. That night, the three are attacked by more infected, Mark is bitten, and Selena kills him. She curtly explains that the virus spreads through blood and saliva and she warns that should Jim become infected, she will kill him in a heartbeat. The two see some blinking Christmas lights from Balfron Tower and head there and they discover two more survivors – cab driver Frank and his daughter Hannah – who allow them to take shelter. The next day, Frank informs them that their supplies – particularly water – are dwindling and he plays them a pre-recorded radio broadcast from a military blockade near Manchester, claiming they have the answer to infection and promises to protect any survivors who reach them. The group board Franks cab and head to Manchester, bonding with one another throughout the trip, at the deserted blockade, Frank is infected when a drop of blood falls into his eye. He is killed by the soldiers, who take the remaining survivors to a fortified mansion under the command of Major Henry West. West reveals to Jim that his answer to infection entails waiting for the infected to starve to death and luring female survivors into sexual slavery, the group attempts to flee, but Jim is captured and chained next to Sergeant Farrell, a dissenting soldier. Farrell shares with Jim his speculation that the virus has not spread beyond Great Britain, the next day, the soldiers prepare the girls for gang rape, while two soldiers lead Jim and Farrell to execution. When his executioners argue after killing Farrell, Jim escapes and spots a NATO aircraft flying overhead, Jim lures West and another soldier to the blockade, where Jim kills the latter and leaves West stranded for arriving infected
30.
A Knight's Tale
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A Knights Tale is a 2001 medieval adventure comedy film written, produced, and directed by Brian Helgeland. The film stars Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer, and James Purefoy as Sir Thomas Colville/Edward, the Black Prince. Told in a style with many modern references, the film follows a peasant who pretends to be a knight, along with his companions. William poses as a knight and competes in tournaments, winning accolades and acquiring friendships with such figures as Edward. The film takes its title from Chaucers The Knights Tale in his Canterbury Tales, garnering $117,487,473 with a budget of $65 million, it was a modest success at the box office. At a jousting tournament in 14th-century Europe, young squires William Thatcher, Roland, If he had completed one final pass he would have won the tournament. Destitute, William wears Ectors armour to impersonate him, winning the tournament, although only nobles are allowed in tournaments, William is now inspired to compete and win more prizes. Roland and Wat would rather take their share of coins and leave, at the tournament, William is brought before Simon the Summoner and Peter the Pardoner, Chaucer has a gambling problem and is in their debt. William demands Chaucer be released and promises payment, in the course of competition, Williams armour is damaged. He goads Kate, a blacksmith, to repair it without payment, the proceedings are observed by Jocelyn, a noblewoman with whom William has become infatuated, and Count Adhemar, a rival both in the joust and for Jocelyns heart. In the final joust of the tournament, Adhemar defeats William, Kate joins Williams party and forges new lightweight armour allowing him greater mobility. In the following tournament, Adhemar and William are both assigned to tilt against Sir Thomas Colville, but they learn that he is actually Edward, Adhemar withdraws, but William continues the match and then addresses the prince by name, further earning Edwards respect. Adhemar is called away to the battlefield, and William achieves several victories in his absence. William proves his love for Jocelyn by complying when she first asks him to deliberately lose, the group travels to London for the World Championship. William recalls leaving his father to squire for Sir Ector and learn to become a knight hoping to change his stars, Adhemar has also arrived in London and announces that he is in negotiations with Jocelyns father for her hand in marriage. William dominates at the tournament and he returns to visit his father, now blind and living alone in Cheapside, but is discovered by Adhemar, William is placed in the pillory, but is defended from the hostile crowd by his friends. Just as the mob reaches its frenzy, Prince Edward emerges from the crowd, in acknowledgement of Williams honour, Edward announces that, William is in fact, beyond contestation, descended from a noble lineage, and knights him Sir William. William returns to the tournament to face Adhemar in the final match, entering the final pass, William is losing by two lances and must unhorse Adhemar to win
31.
Mission: Impossible (film)
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Mission, Impossible is a 1996 American action spy film directed by Brian De Palma, produced by and starring Tom Cruise. Based on the series of the same name, the plot follows Ethan Hunt. Work on the script had begun early with filmmaker Sydney Pollack on board, before De Palma, Steven Zaillian, David Koepp, Mission, Impossible went into pre-production without a shooting script. De Palma came up with action sequences, but Koepp. U2 band members Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton produced a dance version of the original theme music. The tune went into the lists of music charts around the world and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The film was a critical and commercial success, eventually becoming the third highest-grossing film of 1996, the films success spawned four sequels, Mission, Impossible II, Mission, Impossible III, Mission, Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Mission, Impossible – Rogue Nation. Years after the events of the series, Jim Phelps and his team and their mission fails, Phelps is shot, his wife Claire dies in a car bombing, and the rest of the team except Ethan Hunt are eliminated by unknown assassins. As Hunt is the only left, Kittridge suspects him of being the mole. Returning to the Prague safe house, Hunt realizes Job 314 refers to Bible verse Job 3,14, Claire arrives at the safe house, explaining she escaped the bomb after Phelps aborted the mission. Hunt arranges a meeting with Max, and warns her that the list she possesses has a tracking device and he promises to deliver the real list in return for $10 million and Jobs identity. Hunt, Max, and her agents escape just as a CIA team arrives, Hunt recruits two disavowed IMF agents, computer expert Luther Stickell and pilot Franz Krieger. They infiltrate CIA headquarters in Langley, steal the real list, Kittridge, detecting the theft, has Hunts mother and uncle falsely arrested for drug trafficking. He provides media coverage of the arrest, forcing Hunt to contact him from Liverpool Street Station, Hunt allows the CIA to trace him to London before hanging up, but is surprised to find Phelps nearby. Phelps recounts surviving the shooting, naming Kittridge as the mole, Hunt realizes Phelps is the mole, having discovered that Phelps stole a Bible from a Chicago hotel. He also suspects Krieger as the one who killed the other IMF members on the Prague job, Hunt arranges with Max to exchange the list aboard the TGV train to Paris the next day. On the train, Hunt remotely directs Max to the list, Max verifies it and gives Hunt the code to a briefcase containing the payment along with Job in the baggage car. Ethan calls Claire and tells her to him there
32.
Getlink
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Groupe Eurotunnel SE manages and operates the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France including the vehicle shuttle services, and earns revenue on other trains through the tunnel. It is listed on both the Euronext London and Euronext Paris markets, and was listed on the London Stock Exchange until 19 July 2012, the company is based in Paris. Signalling and electric supply at 25 kV AC are also under Eurotunnel control. Train operation consists of shuttle trains conveying cars and coaches and other trains conveying heavy goods vehicles between the two terminals, other trains using Eurotunnel infrastructure are operated by the respective owners. The company was formed on 13 August 1986 with the objective of financing, building and operating a tunnel between Great Britain and France, the company awarded a contract for the construction of the tunnel to TransManche Link. The tunnel cost around £9. 5bn to build, about double TMLs original estimate of £4. 7bn. The tunnel was financed partly from investment by shareholders and partly from £8bn of debt, and was opened on 6 May 1994 by HM Queen Elizabeth II. In its first year of operation the company lost £925m because of disappointing revenue from passengers and freight, in April 2004, a dissident shareholder group led by Nicolas Miguet succeeded in taking control of the board. However, in February 2005, Jean-Louis Raymond, the Chief Executive appointed after the coup, resigned and Jacques Gounon took complete control becoming Chairman. In July 2006, shareholders voted on a deal which would have half the debt, by then reduced to £6. 2bn. However this plan failed, and on 2 August 2006, the company was placed into bankruptcy protection by a French court for six months. Following the restructuring, Eurotunnel was able to announce a small net profit in 2007, of €1 million, half year earnings for 2008 rose to €26 million.04 per euro value. The return to financial health allowed the company to announce on 28 October 2009, the anticipated voluntary redemption of some of its convertible debt. By anticipating to November 2009 the reimbursement of debt due in July 2010, it aimed to issue up to 119.4 million new ordinary shares, in December 2009, the company and SNCF acquired Veolia Cargo, splitting the business between them. Socorail has not been announced as being rebranded, in January 2010 the Port of Dunkirk awarded the company a seven year concession, to operate its 200 km railway system. In June 2010, the company acquired British railfreight company FirstGBRf for £31 million, on 11 June 2012, a bid by the company for three Channel ferries belonging to the former operator SeaFrance for lease to another operator was accepted. On 11 June 2012, Eurotunnel acquired the assets of SeaFrance ferries Berlioz, Rodin and they were chartered to start the MyFerryLink ferry company on 20 August 2012, owned by Eurotunnel. In the year 2015, statistics estimate that over 10.5 million passengers travelled on the Eurotunnel with 2,556,585 cars,58,387 coaches and 1,483,741 goods vehicles making use of Eurotunnels services
33.
Joseph Goebbels
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Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust, Goebbels, who aspired to be an author, obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, and worked with Gregor Strasser in their northern branch and he was appointed as Gauleiter for Berlin in 1926, where he began to take an interest in the use of propaganda to promote the party and its programme. After the Nazi Seizure of Power in 1933, Goebbels Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted controlling supervision over the media, arts. He was particularly adept at using the new media of radio. Topics for party propaganda included antisemitism, attacks on the Christian churches, as the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children joined him in Berlin. They moved into the underground Vorbunker, part of Hitlers underground bunker complex, Hitler committed suicide on 30 April. In accordance with Hitlers will, Goebbels succeeded him as Chancellor of Germany, the following day, Goebbels and his wife committed suicide, after poisoning their six children with cyanide. Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on 29 October 1897 in Rheydt, both of his parents were Catholics with modest family backgrounds. His father Fritz was a clerk, his mother Katharina was ethnically Dutch. Goebbels had five siblings, Konrad, Hans, Maria, Elisabeth, and Maria, in 1932, Goebbels published a pamphlet of his family tree to refute the rumors that his grandmother was of Jewish ancestry. During childhood, Goebbels suffered from ill health, which included a bout of inflammation of the lungs. He had a right foot that turned inwards, due to a congenital deformity. It was thicker and shorter than his left foot and he underwent a failed operation to correct it just prior to starting grammar school. Goebbels wore a metal brace and special shoe because of his shortened leg and he was rejected for military service in World War I due to his deformity. Goebbels was educated at a Christian Gymnasium, where he completed his Abitur in 1917 and he was the top student of his class and was given the traditional honor to speak at the awards ceremony. His parents initially hoped that he would become a Catholic priest and he studied literature and history at the universities of Bonn, Würzburg, Freiburg, and Munich, aided by a scholarship from the Albertus Magnus Society. By this time Goebbels had begun to distance himself from the church, historians, including Richard J. Evans and Roger Manvell, speculate that Goebbels lifelong pursuit of women may have been in compensation for his physical disabilities
34.
Satirical
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Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society. This militant irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of the things the satirist wishes to attack. Satire is nowadays found in artistic forms of expression, including literature, plays, commentary, television shows. The word satire comes from the Latin word satur and the subsequent phrase lanx satura, satur meant full but the juxtaposition with lanx shifted the meaning to miscellany or medley, the expression lanx satura literally means a full dish of various kinds of fruits. The word satura as used by Quintilian, however, was used to denote only Roman verse satire, a genre that imposed hexameter form. Quintilian famously said that satura, that is a satire in hexameter verses, was a genre of wholly Roman origin. He was aware of and commented on Greek satire, but at the time did not label it as such, the first critic to use the term satire in the modern broader sense was Apuleius. To Quintilian, the satire was a literary form. The odd result is that the English “satire” comes from the Latin satura, by about the 4th century AD the writer of satires came to be known as satyricus, St. Jerome, for example, was called by one of his enemies a satirist in prose. Subsequent orthographic modifications obscured the Latin origin of the satire, satura becomes satyra. The word satire derives from satura, and its origin was not influenced by the Greek mythological figure of the satyr, in the 17th century, philologist Isaac Casaubon was the first to dispute the etymology of satire from satyr, contrary to the belief up to that time. Laughter is not a component of satire, in fact there are types of satire that are not meant to be funny at all. Conversely, not all humour, even on such topics as politics, religion or art is necessarily satirical, even when it uses the tools of irony, parody. Even light-hearted satire has a serious after-taste, the organizers of the Ig Nobel Prize describe this as first make people laugh, Satire and irony in some cases have been regarded as the most effective source to understand a society, the oldest form of social study. They provide the keenest insights into a groups collective psyche, reveal its deepest values and tastes, some authors have regarded satire as superior to non-comic and non-artistic disciplines like history or anthropology. In a prominent example from ancient Greece, philosopher Plato, when asked by a friend for a book to understand Athenian society, historically, satire has satisfied the popular need to debunk and ridicule the leading figures in politics, economy, religion and other prominent realms of power. Satire confronts public discourse and the imaginary, playing as a public opinion counterweight to power, by challenging leaders. For instance, it forces administrations to clarify, amend or establish their policies, Satires job is to expose problems and contradictions, and its not obligated to solve them
35.
Churchill: The Hollywood Years
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Churchill, The Hollywood Years is a 2004 film, directed by Peter Richardson. It stars Christian Slater as Winston Churchill, and Neve Campbell as Elizabeth II, miranda Richardson and Antony Sher also co star. The film is a satire on the Hollywood take on history, such as U-571, in this parody, the British court and war government consist mainly of idiots and traitors. Adolf Hitler moves into Buckingham Palace and plans to marry into the Windsors, mainly filmed at the Royal William Yard, Stonehouse, Plymouth Oldway Mansion doubles as Buckingham Palace Powderham castle, Exeter The old fish quay at Brixham, Devon doubles as Plymouth Docks. The taxi driver and the King mistake Adolf Hitler for Charlie Chaplin, the Siegfried Line rap takes its title and some of its lyrics from the British wartime song Were Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line. The introduction to the song is a reference to Top Gun, the song Hitler Has Only Got One Ball is frequently referenced, including once where it is delivered by Tommy Trinder. The presence of Irish Cockneys is a reference to the passengers in Titanic. Churchills final exit in a Spitfire references the portrayal of the American contribution to the Battle of Britain early in the film Pearl Harbor, brian Perkins commentary on Hitler and Elizabeths wedding is a parody of Richard Dimblebys hushed radio commentaries of royal events. Eva Braun is shown listening to the end of an episode of The Archers, even though it did not start until six years after the war ended
36.
CITV
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CITV is a British childrens television channel from ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6am to 9pm which was previously 6am to 6pm until 21 February 2016 in an attempt to compete with CBBC and it is also the title of a programming block on the ITV network at weekends. Childrens ITV launched on 3 January 1983, as an afternoon programming block on the ITV network. It replaced the earlier Watch It, branding and introduced networked in-vision continuity links between programmes. These links were originally pre-recorded from a small London studio, up until 1987 when Central won the contract to produce live links from their Birmingham studios, in 2004, presentation of CITV was relocated to Granada Television in Manchester, which saw the demise of in-vision continuity. Nine years later, operations moved to ITV Granadas MediaCityUK studios in Salford, in 2006, CITV launched as a channel in its own right. The CITV channel averages around 100,000 viewers between 4pm-6pm every day, the CITV strand on the ITV network airs on weekend mornings from 6am to 9, 25am, as part of the ITV Breakfast time slot. Before being known as Childrens ITV, the timeslot for childrens programmes on the ITV Network was briefly branded as Watch It, brand started on 29 December 1980 and was presented live by the duty continuity announcer in each ITV region. On many occasions, the ITV regions were able to broadcast whatever programmes they wished, many non-childrens programmes appeared, ATV provide different animations each season, to freshen up what was available to each company. Most regions, including Southern/TVS and Granada, would use their own station announcers during Watch It, shortly after the start of new franchises in 1982, some ITV stations raised concerns that Watch It. had not gone far enough to address previous concerns. Centrals Controller of Childrens Programmes, Lewis Rudd, suggested a different approach to the presentation method, as a result, the Central promotions department came up with the initial concept for Childrens ITV. The new look was devised, and links between programmes were pre-recorded using presenters drawn from the constituent programmes, initially featuring a different presenter each month, the links were pre-recorded in advance in a small studio at a London facility called Molinare, using a single locked-off camera. The first set design was a ship and was used for the first few months. The concept was retired, and the set and style of presentation used began to reflect the artist presenting that month or the programme that he/she fronted. By 1984, the links were still being recorded, but using a common, the exterior of this fictitious location also featured in the animations and stings. Technical considerations often left the system flawed, with each programme coming from a different playout source, and each link being pre-recorded, things often went wrong on air, programmes would be rolled early and the links would be cut short. Programmes would also fail to appear and the presenter would be left on screen, pre-recording the links also meant that late schedule changes could not be easily referenced. In September 1985, the BBC revamped their own childrens presentation with the introduction of Childrens BBC, using the BBC1 announcer booth at BBC Television Centre, later dubbed The Broom Cupboard, Phillip Schofield provided links between the programmes
37.
Slapstick
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Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity which exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. The term arises from a device developed during the broad, physical comedy style known as Commedia dellarte in 16th Century Italy, the physical slap stick remains a key component of the plot in the traditional and popular Punch and Judy puppet show. The name slapstick originates from the Italian language word batacchio or bataccio — called the stick in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in commedia dellarte. When struck, the batacchio produces a loud smacking noise, though little force transfers from the object to the person being struck, actors may thus hit one another repeatedly with great audible effect while causing very little actual physical damage. Along with the bladder, it was among the earliest special effects. Slapstick comedys history is measured in centuries, shakespeare incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies, such as in his play The Comedy of Errors. In Punch and Judy shows, a large slapstick is wielded by Punch against the other characters, british comedians who honed their skills at pantomime and music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, George Formby and Dan Leno. American producer Hal Roach described Fred Karno as not only a genius and we in Hollywood owe much to him. Slapstick is also common in Disneys Goofy shorts, MGMs Tom and Jerry, silent slapstick comedy was also popular in early French films and included films by Max Linder and Charles Prince. In England, slapstick was an element of the Monty Python comedy troupe and in television series such as Fawlty Towers. Slapstick has remained an art form to the present day. Laughter List of slapstick comedy topics Slapstick film Comedy film Physical comedy Stage combat Schadenfreude
38.
Hotel Babylon
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The show followed the lives of workers at a glamorous five-star hotel. The show was cancelled after its series, leaving the series 4 finale cliffhanger unresolved. Nigel Harman as Sam Franklin – the hotel owner, Anna Wilson-Jones as Juliet Miller – the general manager. Dexter Fletcher as Tony Casemore – the head concierge, Martin Marquez as Gino Primirola – the head barman. Ray Coulthard as James Schofield – the food and beverage manager, Alexandra Moen as Emily James – the PR manager. Michael Obiora as Ben Trueman – acting the head receptionist, formerly receptionist, Amy Nuttall as Melanie Hughes – the receptionist. Danira Gović as Tanja Mihajlov – the head of housekeeping, formerly maid, Tamzin Outhwaite as Rebecca Mitchell – former general manager. Natalie Mendoza as Jackie Clunes – the former head of housekeeping, Lee Williams as Jack Harrison – former general manager, former deputy manager. Max Beesley as Charlie Edwards – the former manager, former deputy manager, former head receptionist Emma Pierson as Anna Thornton-Wilton – the former head receptionist. Paul Telfer as Luke Marwood – the former junior concierge, Jack Thomson as George Oakley – junior concierge. Sam Franklin arrives at the beginning of the series, when London is brought to a halt by terrorist alarms. The charismatic, attractive businessman was previously unsuccessful but due to investments in a Chinese wind farm has now become a multi-millionaire, when a potential deal falls through, he steps in and buys the hotel himself, saving it from closure. When he loses everything except the hotel, he becomes involved in management. Despite their divorce, they decide to celebrate their wedding anniversary, however, when he discovers that she had had an abortion when he left, they break up, and he begins to fall for Emily, the PR manager. Juliet Miller arrived originally as a bailiff when the hotel was facing closure in the opener of series four and she is described as professional and first rate at her job, Juliet takes no prisoners and has no room for sentiment when livelihoods and millions of pounds are at stake. Juliet has no issue making tough decisions but when it comes to her life she is thrown off course when former husband Sam turns up at the hotel. However, the two decided to work together and became friendly together, however, in episode 5, a brief incident involving Meredith Sutton made a rupture in the relationship. Meredith Sutton was a consultant who Sam hired to build the hotels management team, however, Meredith was actually Sams girlfriend and Juliet grew jealous and briefly left Hotel Babylon
