World of Sport (UK TV programme)
World of Sport is a British television sport programme which ran on ITV between 2 January 1965 and 28 September 1985 in competition with the BBC's Grandstand. Like Grandstand, the programme ran for several hours every Saturday afternoon. Eamonn Andrews was the first host and the programme itself was "compiled for Independent Television" by ABC Weekend Television. From the summer of 1968 it was produced by London Weekend Television - under the ITV Sport banner, with the other ITV stations supplying footage of events in their regions. Thames Television took over LWT's responsibilities for Bank Holiday editions. Dickie Davies took over as host in 1968 and would remain the face of the show until it ended in 1985. Other presenters were Steve Rider and Jim Rosenthal; the programme's title was Wide World of Sports, this was changed after about six weeks because all the initial programmes featured sports from within the UK and early Programme Editor John Bromley felt that "Wide" World of Sports would have looked rather silly.
The show included popular segments such as On the Ball, the ITV Seven, wrestling with commentator Kent Walton. It showed sports not seen elsewhere, such as women's hockey, lacrosse, water skiing and stock car racing or sports that were not popular with the British mainstream, such as NASCAR and ice speedway, it featured bizarre sports like the World Barrel Jumping Championships, death-defying stunts. It showed show jumping and other equestrian events in its earlier years, towards the end of its life it showed snooker extensively.'Minority' sports were a feature throughout its run. The BBC had purchased the rights to as many established events. A joke of the period was that the BBC were going through the list of sports in alphabetical order and had run out of cash before it reached wrestling, how ITV got it. Two sports in particular, ten-pin bowling and kart racing, benefited from television exposure to a British public hitherto unaware of them. Whilst the majority of ten-pin bowling shown from 1965 onwards focused on regional league competitions in the UK, a surge in popularity in the sport in the UK in the mid-1970s led to footage from the biennial WTBA World Championship, telecasts from the US Professional Bowlers Tour, being included in years.
British stock car drivers such as Barry Lee greatly benefited from the show's exposure. The programme occasionally acquired the rights to genuinely major sporting events, such as the Tour de France and the Ryder Cup. Admittedly this was in 1977 when the United States v Great Britain and Ireland match was regarded as something of a mismatch before Europe became the opposition. During the football season, the programme would finish with the Results Service, which began when the full-time whistles started to go in the day's football matches. Bob Colston read the classified results and he was the only regular results announcer throughout the duration of World of Sport. A typical edition would take on the following format. 12:20 On The Ball - football preview with Brian Moore and in years Ian St. John and Jimmy Greaves. 13:00 Sports Special 1 - A wide array of sports including clips from US show Wide World of Sports. Less prominent sports such as darts, bowls, water skiing, speedway and others would feature.
Sometimes Boxing would be shown in this slot. 13:30 Racing, The ITV Seven. 15:00 Sports Special 2 - see Sports Special 1. 15:45 Half-Time Scores - the half-time scores from that day's football, plus racing results from races that had taken place in the previous hour. 16:00 Wrestling - a mainstay of the World of Sport schedule from 1965 until it ended. Many of the wrestlers featured became household names in the UK and the greatest rivalry was between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks 16:45 Results Service - all the full-time football scores, match reports and league tables plus the last of the day's horse racing results; the FA Cup Final featured on World of Sport - with BBC and ITV competing for viewers by broadcasting unusual features with early starts to their broadcasts to entice viewers to watch their coverage. The Cup Final was the only football match, shown live on World of Sport. From the programme's launch until the lifting of restrictions on broadcasting hours in 1972, sports coverage was one of the few programming areas, exempt from the restrictions.
Sporting coverage and outside broadcasts were provided with a separate quota of broadcasting hours per year. By the start of World of Sport this amounted to 350 hours per year; this meant World of Sport was a key part of ITV's Saturday schedules, as the five or so hours the programme was on the air did not count to the overall 50 hour a week restriction on normal broadcasting hours. After a 20-year run, the programme ended on 28 September 1985 because of a change in emphasis at ITV Sport - racing coverage had switched to Channel 4. Wrestling as a programme continued but it was transmitted on lunchtimes at 12.30 rather than teatimes, which proved terminal for the programme which had a working class audience. Work traditionally finished at half day on a Saturday in the UK which affected its audience as they were now still at work during the broadcast. Greg Dyke, in charge of the scheduling felt that sports such as
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the national public service media of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television and the Internet; the radio service began on 1 January 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on 31 December 1961, making it one of the oldest continuously operating public service broadcasters in the world. RTÉ publishes a weekly lifestyle magazine called the RTÉ Guide. RTÉ is financed through advertising; some RTÉ services are only funded by advertising, while other RTÉ services are only funded by the licence fee. RTÉ is a statutory body, run by a board appointed by the Government of Ireland. General management of the organisation is in the hands of the Executive Board headed by the Director-General. RTÉ is regulated by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. Radio Éireann, RTÉ's predecessor and at the time a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, was one of 23 founding organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950.
This section deals with the history of RTÉ as an organisation. For details on this history of the various services see the separate articles on those services. For history of the broadcasting service prior to 1960, see Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and RTÉ Radio 1. Broadcasting in Ireland began in 1926 with 2RN in Dublin. From that date until June 1960 the broadcasting service operated as a section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, those working for the service were directly employed by the Irish Government and regarded as civil servants. RTÉ was established on 1 June 1960 under the Broadcasting Authority Act 1960, the principal legislation under which it operates; the existing Radio Éireann service was transferred to the new authority, made responsible for the new television service. The television service started broadcasting on 31 December 1961, from the Kippure transmitter site near Dublin. Eamonn Andrews was the first Chairman of Radio Éireann, the first director general was Edward Roth.
The name of the authority was changed, at the suggestion of Áine Ní Cheanainn, to Radio Telefís Éireann by the Broadcasting Authority Act 1966, both the radio and television services became known as RTÉ in that year. The Broadcasting Act 2009 changed the name of the organisation from "Radio Telefís Éireann" to "Raidió Teilifís Éireann", to reflect the proper spelling of the name in Irish. However, the station retains "Radio Telefís Éireann" carved in stone at the entrance to its Donnybrook headquarters in Dublin. Under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960 the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs of the day could direct RTÉ "not to broadcast any matter, or any matter of any particular class". In 1971 the first such directive was issued by Gerry Collins, directing RTÉ not to broadcast "any matter that could be calculated to promote the aims or activities of any organisation which engages in, encourages or advocates the attaining of any particular objective by violent means". A year Collins dismissed the entire RTÉ Authority over a report of an interview with Seán Mac Stíofáin, the chief of staff of the Provisional IRA.
RTÉ reporter Kevin O'Kelly, who reported the Mac Stiofáin interview, was jailed for contempt in a court case arising out of the interview. Kelly refused to identify Mac Stiofáin's as the voice on a tape seized from his house by the Garda Síochána. In 1976 Conor Cruise O'Brien, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, amended Section 31 and thereafter issued a new annually-based directive to the RTÉ authority. RTÉ was now explicitly banned from broadcasting interviews or reports of interviews with spokespersons for Sinn Féin, the Provisional IRA, or any organisation banned in Northern Ireland under the UK's Northern Ireland Act 1973; these directives were reissued on an annual basis until the final one appeared in January 1993. During the late 1970s RTÉ was accused of extending the censorship rules into a system of self-censorship. A small minority of programme makers emerged who approved of Section 31 supporters of the Workers' Party, including Eoghan Harris, Gerry Gregg who opposed that party's official policy.
Opponents of censorship were portrayed as secret IRA sympathizers. The effect of this ban was greater than and similar to, though less harsh than, the censorship provision introduced in 1988 in the United Kingdom; the UK ban did not prevent reports of interviews with spokespersons. This allowed interviews using actors' voices dubbing the direct speech of censored persons; this was not permissible on RTÉ. In 1992–93, in O'Toole vs RTÉ, RTÉ was found by the High Court and Supreme Court to have illegally and unconstitutionally extended the censorship ban to Sinn Féin members who were not speaking on behalf of the party; the RTÉ ban did not affect UK stations broadcasting in the Republic of Ireland as, until 1988 at least, viewers in the Republic were still able to hear the voices of Sinn Féin representatives. The following figures were issued by RTÉ as part of their annual report in 2012. In 2012 RTÉ received in total €180,894,000 in public funding from the licence fee, it received €127,100,000 in commercial revenue.
RTÉ total expenditure in 2012 was €327,023,000. They had restructuring costs of €46,161,000 in 2012. Losses for the year came to €65,147,000. Profit and Loss across radio and online services. RTÉ receives income from two main sources: The television licence fee. Within the State, it is necessary to pay a fee of €160 per annum to possess any piece of
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, public service outside the civil service. It was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V and comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. There is the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire and the Viceroy of India. Nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most Commonwealth countries ceased recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire when they created their own honours; the five classes of appointment to the Order are, in descending order of precedence: Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire Knight Commander or Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The senior two ranks of Knight or Dame Grand Cross, Knight or Dame Commander, entitle their members to use the title of Sir for men and Dame for women before their forename.
Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, may permit use of post-nominal letters but not the title of Sir or Dame. Honorary appointees are, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bob Geldof, for example. Honorary appointees who become a citizen of a Commonwealth realm can convert their appointment from honorary to substantive enjoy all privileges of membership of the order, including use of the title of Sir and Dame for the senior two ranks of the Order. An example is Irish broadcaster Terry Wogan, appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order in 2005, on successful application for British citizenship, held alongside his Irish citizenship, was made a substantive member and subsequently styled as Sir Terry Wogan. King George V founded the Order to fill gaps in the British honours system: The Orders of the Garter, of St Patrick honoured royals, peers and eminent military commanders.
In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War. When first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was formally divided into Military and Civil Divisions; the Order's motto is For the Empire. At the foundation of the Order, the'Medal of the Order of the British Empire' was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the'British Empire Medal', it stopped being awarded by the United Kingdom as part of the 1993 reforms to the honours system, but was again awarded beginning in 2012, starting with 293 BEMs awarded for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. In addition, the BEM is awarded by some other Commonwealth nations. In 2004, a report entitled "A Matter of Honour: Reforming Our Honours System" by a Commons committee recommended to phase out the Order of the British Empire, as its title was "now considered to be unacceptable, being thought to embody values that are no longer shared by many of the country's population".
The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, appoints all other members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three: Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales; the Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross, 845 Knights and Dames Commander, 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the total number of members of the fourth and fifth classes, but no more than 858 Officers and 1,464 Members may be appointed per year. Foreign appointees, as honorary members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Although the Order of the British Empire has by far the highest number of members of the British Orders of Chivalry, with over 100,000 living members worldwide, there are fewer appointments to knighthoods than in other orders. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, second-lowest of knighthood.
Because of this, an appointment as Dame Commander is made in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor. For example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges
County Dublin
County Dublin is one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. Prior to 1994 it was an administrative county covering the whole county outside of Dublin City Council. In 1994, as part of a reorganisation of local government within Dublin the boundaries of Dublin City were redrawn, Dublin County Council was abolished and three new administrative county councils were established: Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown and South Dublin. While it is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retains a strong identity in popular culture, it is in the province of Leinster, is named after the city of Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first parts of Ireland to be shired by John, King of England following the Norman invasion of Ireland. According to the 2016 census, the total population of County Dublin was 1,345,402; the county is a NUTS 3 region, is part of the NUTS 2 region of Eastern and Midland. There are four local authorities whose remit collectively encompasses the geographic area of the county and city of Dublin.
These are Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council and Fingal County Council. Prior to the enactment of the Local Government Act 1993, the county was a unified whole though it was administered by two local authorities – Dublin County Council and Dublin Corporation. Since the enactment of the Local Government Act 2001 in particular, the geographic area of the county has been divided between three entities at the level of "county" and a further entity at the level of "city", they rank as first level local administrative units of the NUTS 3 Dublin Region for Eurostat purposes. There are 34 LAU 1 entities in the Republic of Ireland; each local authority is responsible for certain local services such as sanitation and development, the collection of motor taxation, local roads and social housing. Dublin County Council was abolished in 1994 and the area divided among the administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown and South Dublin each with its county seat.
To these areas may be added the area of Dublin city which collectively comprise the Dublin Region and come under the remit of the Dublin Regional Authority. The area lost its administrative county status in 1994, with Section 9 Part 1 of the Local Government Act, 1993 stating that "the county shall cease to exist." In discussing the legislation to dissolve Dublin County Council, Avril Doyle TD said, "The Bill before us today abolishes County Dublin, as one born and bred in these parts of Ireland I find it rather strange that we in this House are abolishing County Dublin. I am not sure whether Dubliners realise that, what we are about today, but in effect, the case."The county is part of the Dublin constituency for the purposes of European elections. For elections to Dáil Éireann, the area of the county is divided into eleven constituencies: Dublin Bay North, Dublin Bay South, Dublin Central, Dublin Fingal, Dublin Mid-West, Dublin North-West, Dublin Rathdown, Dublin South-Central, Dublin South-West, Dublin West, Dún Laoghaire.
Together they return 44 deputies to the Dáil. Despite the legal status of the Dublin Region, the term "County Dublin" is still in common usage. Many organisations and sporting teams continue to organise on a "County Dublin" or "Dublin Region" basis; the area known as "County Dublin" is now defined in legislation as the "Dublin Region" under the Local Government Act, 1991 Order, 1993, this is the terminology used by the four Dublin administrative councils in press releases concerning the former county area. The term Greater Dublin Area, which might consist of some or all of the Dublin Region along with counties of Kildare and Wicklow, has no legal standing; the Dublin Region is a NUTS Level III region of Ireland. The region is one of eight regions of the Republic of Ireland for the purposes of Eurostat statistics, its NUTS code is IE061. It is co-extensive with the old county; the regional capital is Dublin City, the national capital. The latest Ordnance Survey Ireland "Discovery Series" 1:50,000 map of the Dublin Region, Sheet 50, shows the boundaries of the city and three surrounding counties of the region.
Extremities of the Dublin Region, in the north and south of the region, appear in other sheets of the series, 43 and 56 respectively. Local radio stations include 98FM, FM104, 103.2 Dublin City FM, Q102, SPIN 1038, Sunshine 106.8, TXFM, Raidió Na Life and Radio Nova. Local newspapers include Northside People, Southside People and the Liffey Champion. Most of the area can receive the five main UK television channels as well as the main Irish channels, along with Sky TV and Virgin Media Ireland cable television. Road: The major roads are the N2, N3, N4 and N7 national primary roads, the M1, M11 and M50 motorways. Heavy rail: The InterCity and Commuter rail services. Light rail: The Luas tram system serving Dublin City and its southern and western suburbs. Rapid transit: The DART and the proposed Dublin Metro line. Port: Dublin Port and Dún Laoghaire Harbour. Air: Dublin International Airport; the economy of County Dublin was identified as being the powerhouse behind the Celtic Tiger, a period of strong economic growth of the state.
This resulted in the economy of the county expanding by 100% between the early 1990s and 2007. This growth resulted from incoming high-value industries, such as financial services and software manufacturing, as well as low-skilled retail and domestic services, w
London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
Ralph Edwards
Ralph Livingstone Edwards was an American radio and television host, radio producer, television producer, best known for his radio-TV game shows Truth or Consequences and This Is Your Life. Born in Merino, Edwards worked for KROW Radio in Oakland, California while he was still in high school. After graduating from high school in 1931, he worked his way through college at the University of California, earning a B. A. in English in 1935. While there, he worked at every job from janitor to producer at Oakland's KTAB, now KSFO. Failing to get a job as a high school teacher, he worked at KFRC and hitchhiked across the country to New York City, where, he said, "I ate ten-cent and slept on park benches". After some part-time announcing jobs, he got his big break in 1938 with a full-time job for the Columbia Broadcasting System on the original WABC, where he worked with two other young announcers who would become broadcasting fixtures - Mel Allen and Andre Baruch; the young director had an assured, professional manner, in a few years he was well established as a nationally famous announcer.
It was Edwards who introduced Major Bowes every week on the Original Amateur Hour and Fred Allen on Town Hall Tonight. Edwards perfected a chuckling delivery, sounding as though he was in the midst of telling a funny story; this "laugh in the voice" technique served him well when 20th Century Fox hired him to narrate the coming-attractions trailers for Laurel and Hardy movies. Edwards was the second host of the NBC radio children's talent show The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour, he appeared in a few films, including Radio Stars On Parade with the comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney, I'll Cry Tomorrow with Susan Hayward. Truth or Consequences started out as a radio game show that premiered on NBC Radio in March 1940, aired for 38 years on radio and television. After a ridiculously difficult trivia question was asked, Beulah the Buzzer went off when they failed to answer, contestants were asked to perform ridiculous stunts for prizes of cash or merchandise. From the start contestants preferred to miss the question, with Edwards commenting "Most of the American people are darned good sports."After years of experimental broadcasts, the Federal Communications Commission approved commercial television broadcasts starting on July 1, 1941, NBC's New York station WNBT was the first to make the changeover, with Edwards hosting a one-time episode of the show over WNBT to commemorate the first day of commercial telecasting.
The show was based in New York, with Allen as announcer, but moved to Los Angeles. After the U. S. entered World War II in late 1941, causing early television broadcasts to be cut back its radio run started on CBS, Edwards' and Allen's home network moved to NBC. The show played for sentiment, as contestants were surprised on stage by a sweetheart in the military, a family member, or a long-lost friend. Truth or Consequences, New Mexico was named after the show following Edwards' promise to broadcast the show from the first city that renamed itself; the city in southern New Mexico features several public facilities that bear his name. Beginning in 1950 and continuing for the next 50 years, Edwards traveled to that city during the first weekend of May every year. Edwards and the Truth or Consequences radio show were featured in a Superman story in Action Comics #127. In 1948 Edwards created and hosted This Is Your Life on NBC Radio, moving to NBC-TV in 1952-1961; each week Edwards would surprise some unsuspecting person and review the subject's personal and professional life in front of the TV audience introducing figures from their past as live guests.
The show drew great interest from viewers because the identity of the subject wasn't revealed until the show went live. Throughout the half-hour Edwards would guide the narrative of the show, ushering visitors on and off stage, prompting the honoree to recall a personal turning point. Edwards was showman enough to draw upon his Truth or Consequences experience, emphasizing the sentimental elements that appealed to viewers and listeners at home, his on-air tributes would recount some heroic sacrifice or tragic event, bringing the audience to the point of tears. Celebrity subjects included Marilyn Monroe, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Bob Hope, Andy Griffith, Buster Keaton, Barbara Eden, Bette Davis, Shirley Jones, Jayne Mansfield, Carol Channing. Edwards famously surprised Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane when she was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in a story published in the D. C. Comic "Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane" #9, May 1959. Edwards produced dozens of game shows, including About Faces, Place the Face, It Could Be You, Name That Tune and The Cross-Wits.
In 1981, with Stu Billett, he executive-produced the first program of its type. In 1996, along with Stu Billett, they did Bzzz!. He had a notable acting role, his character a jovial and decreasingly skeptical radio dj, in the episode of the CBS Radio series Suspense "Ghost Hunt" in 1949. Edwards burnished the career of his protégé Bob Barker; the 1940s-1950s TV version of Truth or Consequences had featured Edwards, Jack Bailey, Steve Dunne. When the show returned for another NBC run in late 1956, Edwards hired Barker, a popular West Coast radio and TV personality on December 21 after hearing his radio show on his car radio. During the 20
