Cashback (film)
Cashback is a 2006 British romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Sean Ellis. Exhibited as a short in 2004, it was expanded to feature length in 2006. Both versions were produced by starring Sean Biggerstaff and Emilia Fox. Aspiring artist Ben Willis develops insomnia after a painful breakup with Suzy. To take his mind off Suzy and to occupy the extra waking hours he has gained, Ben begins working at a local Sainsbury's supermarket, where he meets colourful co-workers. Among them is his colleague Sharon, with whom he soon develops a mutual crush; as his personal means to escape the boredom inherent in the night shift, Ben lets his imagination run wild. In particular, he imagines that he can stop time so that he can walk around in a world, "frozen" like the pause of a film, he imagines female patrons of the supermarket stopped in time, allowing him to undress and draw them. The ability to stop time becomes real. A series of flashbacks occur with each progression of the plot, accompanied by Ben's narration and an examination of the effect the situation had had upon him.
He explains how he always has been impressed by the beauty of the female body: how he, as a young boy, witnessed a Swedish boarder walk naked from the shower to her room. In another flashback, the young Ben and his best friend Sean share Sean's discovery of his parents' adult magazines, Sean pays a neighbourhood girl fifty pence to show him, all the neighbourhood boys, her vulva. Ben's boss, Alan Jenkins, recruits the staff for a weekend football game and, after an embarrassing defeat, 26-Nil, Ben freezes time again; this time he discovers that he is not alone when he sees a mysterious stranger, able to move inside the frozen world as he can. When Jenkins throws a party to honour his own birthday and as a consolation for their defeat, Sharon asks Ben to be her date, to which he eagerly but nervously agrees. While there, Ben encounters his ex-girlfriend Suzy, who implores him to try their relationship again. Ben refuses her advance but she kisses him, just as Sharon witnesses from afar. Sharon angrily leaves the party.
Ben realizes Sharon has seen the kiss, freezes time. After spending several days "frozen", Ben concludes that although he can stop time, he cannot reverse it to correct the mistake, he seeks to explain himself to Sharon at her apartment, a confrontation similar to the film-opening breakup occurs. Sharon henceforth does not show up to work at the supermarket; as a practical joke, colleagues Barry and Matt phone Ben. When Ben arrives as agreed, the reaction of the owner reveals that he has been pranked. However, the gallery owner is nonetheless interested in Ben's work and decides to exhibit Ben's drawings. Sharon visits, she is moved as most of the pieces depict her and she greets Ben, congratulating him on his success. The finale occurs as Ben shares his ability to stop time with her and the two step outside into a time-frozen snowfall. Sean Biggerstaff as Ben Willis Emilia Fox as Sharon Pintey Shaun Evans as Sean Higgins Michelle Ryan as Suzy Stuart Goodwin as Alan Jenkins Michael Dixon as Barry Brickman Michael Lambourne as Matt Stephens Gayle Dudley as Natalie's mother Marc Pickering as Brian Keeley Hazell as Frozen Girl in Sainsbury's Hayley-Marie Coppin as Swedish boarder Jared Harris as Alex Proud The feature film was produced more than a year after the short was completed.
It includes nearly all of the content of the short. Following a decision in December 2005 to proceed with the feature, Ellis completed the expanded script in seven days. After getting commitments from his cast in March he secured financing and the film went into production in May; this schedule was exceedingly condensed by modern film making standards. As all of the key players were available to appear in the feature, it was possible to incorporate the original short without change; the feature film uses an original score composed by Guy Farley including one piece, "Frozen" which featured on the Classic FM album, The Quiet Room in July 2006. The feature had its North American premiere on September 10, 2006, at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was screened at a number of other international festivals. The film got a limited theatrical release in the US on 17 July 2007 and in the UK May 2008; the DVD for the European region was released in September 2007. The UK DVD was released in September 2008.
The feature received mixed reviews from critics, garnering a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which concluded that the film is "full of unlikable characters, messy editing, gratuitous nudity". In contrast, Justin Chang of Variety described it as "slickly charming erotic and directed with supreme polish". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film is "lightweight, as it should be", adding that Ben and Sharon "are delighted to be admired by such wonderful partners, we are happy for them, and that's about it." Matt Seitz of The New York Times called the film a "crock", criticizing its "validation of Ben’s adolescent concept of beauty, its wafer-thin characterizations, its gorgeous but overwrought widescreen photography and its abundance of'How did they do that?' Trick shots." Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film three of four stars, calling it "a sleek little meditation on beauty, desire and time", but saying it "isn't as deep as it pretends to be." Scott Tobias of The A. V.
Club graded the film as a "C–", noting its "luscious imagery" but calling it trite and unremarkable. Jeff Shannon of The Seattle Times gave the film a positi
Terry family
The Terry family was a theatrical dynasty of the late 19th century and beyond. The family includes not only those members with the surname Terry, but Neilsons and Gielguds, to whom the Terrys were linked by marriage or blood ties; the dynasty was founded by his wife, Sarah. The first member of the family to achieve national prominence was their eldest surviving daughter, Kate, her younger sister, achieved international fame, in partnership with Henry Irving. Ellen Terry was seen as the greatest star of the family for many decades, but her great-nephew John Gielgud became at least as celebrated from the 1930s to the end of the 20th century. Among those of the family who did not become actors, Gordon Craig, Ellen's son, was an internationally-known theatre designer and director. Members of the family who were professionally associated with the theatre, as performers, designers or managers, are given individual paragraphs below. Other members of the family are mentioned in the text; the graphic below is simplified to show the best-known family members.
For example, it shows only three of Gordon Craig's eight children. The names of actors and others connected with the theatre are shown in capital letters. Benjamin Terry was a moderately successful actor in the mid-19th century, his father called Benjamin, an innkeeper, married Catherine Crawford in 1838. The younger Benjamin's wife, Sarah, née Ballard, was the daughter of Peter Ballard, a builder and Master Sawyer who worked in Portsmouth, she had no theatrical connections before meeting Terry and marrying him without her parents' knowledge. She became an actress, adopting the stage name "Miss Yerrett", but it was Terry, the stronger theatrical influence on their children, he had been a member of William Charles Macready's company, shared Macready's regard for good diction. His daughter Ellen recalled that he "always corrected me if I pronounced any word in a slipshod fashion, if I now speak my language well it is in no small degree due to my early training." The couple had eleven children. Of the nine children who survived to adulthood only two, the eldest son and the next to youngest, had no theatrical history.
Benjamin went into commerce and emigrated to Australia and India, Tom, a drifter, lived on the fringes of criminality and poverty helped by his parents and siblings. The most prominent theatrical forebear on the Gielgud side of the family was the Polish actress Aniela Aszpergerowa, described by her great-grandson John Gielgud as "the greatest Shakespearean actress in all Lithuania", her husband, was a famous leading actor. Their daughter called Aniela, married Adam Gielgud, born at sea during his parents' flight from Poland after the failed rising against Russian rule in 1830, their son Frank married Kate Terry-Lewis. Listed in order of date of birth. Kate was the first of the Terry children to make the family name famous on the English stage, beginning her career as a small child. According to the academic Nina Auerbach, Kate may have been the most accomplished actor among her siblings gaining praise in the plays of Shakespeare, among others. Contemporary critics thought the same: The Manchester Guardian ended its report of her last performance before her retirement: "In our unwilling acceptance of her farewell, we must now rest satisfied with the memory of the peerless beauty of her merry-hearted acting...
Like the music of a bewitching melody piercing the stillness of the night, ending just when the ear longed for the next note." She gave up acting when she married the businessman Arthur James Lewis in 1867 when she was 23. She made only two stage appearances, the first in 1898, in a small role supporting her daughter Mabel in a new play in the West End. Of her four children, all daughters, only the youngest, followed her into the theatrical profession; the two middle daughters were Lucy. Kate's eldest daughter named Kate, married Frank Gielgud. Ellen followed her elder sister into the acting profession at an early age, she became the most celebrated of her generation of the family, with a long professional partnership with Henry Irving. She was known for her Shakespearian roles. In her silver jubilee celebrations at Drury Lane twenty members of the family appeared onstage with her, they were listed by The Illustrated London News. Ellen Terry married three times, but her two children and Gordon, were the product of a long-term unmarried relationship with the architect Edward William Godwin.
George was treasurer. Marion had a stage career lasting more than fifty years, becoming known for creating roles in the plays of W. S. Gilbert, Oscar Wilde, Henry James and others; when she died, the last of her generation of Terry sisters, The Times printed a leading article about "a long, a strange, a beautiful and affecting story" of Kate, Ellen and Marion Terry. She never had no children. Florence Maud Terry like her eldest sister Kate, acted until her marriage and left the stage, she began her adult stage career in 187
Keeping Mum
Keeping Mum is a 2005 British black comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Niall Johnson and starring Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith and Patrick Swayze. It was produced by Isle of Man Film, Azure Films and Tusk Productions, was released in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2005 by Summit Entertainment; when a young pregnant woman named Rosie Jones boards a train, her enormous suitcase starts leaking blood. When questioned by the police about the two dead bodies found inside, Rosie calmly reveals that they are her unfaithful husband and his mistress, resulting in her being sentenced by the judge to be imprisoned in a secure unit for the criminally insane for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Forty-three years Walter Goodfellow, the vicar of the village of Little Wallop, is busy writing the perfect sermon for a convention while oblivious to the problems in his house which include the unfulfilled emotional needs of his wife Gloria, who subsequently starts an affair with her golf instructor Lance.
Everything changes with the arrival of a new housekeeper named Grace Hawkins. Grace becomes entrenched in the life of the family and begins to learn about the problems in the house: the neighbour, Mr. Brown's dog Jack Russell terrier, who disturbs Gloria's sleep by his nuisance barking. Grace commits to solving the problems in her own way by killing Clarence as well as Mr. Brown, sabotaging the brakes on the bullies' bicycles which injures one of them and killing the golf instructor with a flat iron outside the house for videotaping Holly undressing one night. While Walter is preparing his sermon for the conference, Grace introduces him to humor and suggests adding it to his preaching method. Further, she discovers that he has let his relationship with his wife slide on account of his devotion to God and she teaches him that he can love his wife as well as God by drawing his attention to the erotic references in the Song of Solomon; as the problems in the household seem to clear, Walter leaves for his convention.
Grace’s actions are discovered when Gloria and Holly see her picture on television in a news program showing her release and previous offences. It is revealed that Grace is Gloria's long-lost mother Rosie Jones, explaining why she came to Little Wallop in the first place. After processing the influx of information, Gloria argues and attempts to explain that when having a problem with someone, one cannot just kill them. Grace remarks that this is the one thing her doctors could never agree on. Despite their disagreements, Gloria can not handle it. Over a cup of tea, the three women decide not to tell Petey any of what has happened; when nagging congregant, Mrs. Parker comes over to discuss the problem of the "church flower arranging committee", under the false impression that Mrs. Parker is about to turn them in for their crimes, attempts to hit her over the head with a frying pan but is prevented by Gloria. Mrs. Parker, shocked by the attempt to murder her, dies. Walter returns from the convention just and sees Mrs. Parker's body, but doesn't realize she is dead.
Soon after this, Grace leaves the family when order is restored among the family. Walter talks to Bob and Ted, the water works employees about the pond at the Vicar's house, they say that there is too much algae and the pond needs to be drained. Remembering that Grace has disposed of her victims in the pond, with a disturbingly cheerful expression, offers the two men some tea; the film ends with an underwater shot depicting the bodies, placed in the pond, including the added bodies of Bob and Ted. Rowan Atkinson as Reverend Walter Goodfellow Kristin Scott Thomas as Gloria Goodfellow Maggie Smith as Rosie Jones/Grace Hawkins Emilia Fox as Young Rosie Jones Patrick Swayze as Lance Tamsin Egerton as Holly Goodfellow Toby Parkes as Petey Goodfellow Liz Smith as Mrs. Parker James Booth as Mr. Brown Patrick Monckton as Bob Rowley Irlam as Ted Vivienne Moore as Mrs. Martin Roger Hammond as the judge Principal photography began in February 2005; the main filming location was in the village of St Michael Penkevil in Cornwall.
Locations on the Isle of Man were used for all filming outside the village. The outer shots of the train is on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the scene with the car going over a small bridge with the train going over another is just outside Goathland. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 56% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based on 87 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The stellar cast, including Kristin Scott Thomas and Dame Maggie Smith, is an asset, but this black comedy is too uneven." On Metacritic, the film received an average score of 53 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". When the film was released in the United Kingdom, it opened on #4, behind Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Flightplan, it regained the spot the next weekend. Keeping Mum at AllMovie Keeping Mum at Box Office Mojo Keeping Mum on IMDb Keeping Mum at British Comedy Guide Keeping Mum at Rotten Tomatoes Keeping Mum – Keeping Mum – Original Soundtrack by Dickon Hinchliffe Album
Henry VIII (TV serial)
Henry VIII is a two-part British television serial produced principally by Granada Television for ITV from 12 to 19 October 2003. It chronicles the life of Henry VIII of England from the disintegration of his first marriage to an aging Spanish princess until his death following a stroke in 1547, by which time he had married for the sixth time. Additional production funding was provided by WGBH Boston and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, it stars Ray Winstone in his first role in a costume drama. His co-star is Helena Bonham Carter who played Anne Boleyn. David Suchet makes an appearance as Henry's first chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey; the second episode, which follows the last eleven years of Henry's life, sees Winstone act opposite Emilia Fox, as his docile third wife Jane Seymour, Sean Bean as Robert Aske, leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace, Emily Blunt as Catherine Howard, the promiscuous teenager, coerced into becoming Henry's fifth queen. The first episode opens to reveal a dying Henry VII mistaking his heir Henry VIII for his late son Arthur Tudor.
Concerned for the fragile chances of his family's dynasty, the dying king implores his son to marry his brother's widow Katherine of Aragon and have a son to secure the family line. Fifteen years Henry VIII is the most popular King to sit on the throne, but he still does not have a son by his Queen, only a daughter Mary. Elsewhere at Hever Castle in Kent the Boleyn Family celebrate the engagement of their daughter Anne to Henry Percy the future Earl of Northumberland; the head of the family the Duke of Norfolk assures her father, Thomas Boleyn, that he has the king's ear on the match and that he will give them permission to marry. But once the roving eye of the king falls upon Anne, he finds a reason for the marriage to be cancelled and wastes no time in persuading her for himself riding from his secluded coastal castle to Kent during an outbreak of illness. Resolved that Anne will not become his mistress, but his wife, the King instructs his chancellor Cardinal Wolsey to find a way for his marriage to his devoted wife to be annulled, prompting two opportunistic Protestants reformers, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer, to provide a way for the king to marry Anne Boleyn and bring untold wealth to his pocket but only if he breaks with the Catholic Church.
His wife Anne is soon pregnant, only for Henry's hopes to be dashed. Instead of the longed for son and heir, Anne delivers a daughter and Henry's ardor cools towards her more so when he meets the sister of two of his courtiers, Jane Seymour. Despite the growing tensions between the King and Queen, Anne becomes pregnant once more but goes into premature labor and delivers a stillborn son; the first episode ends with an angry King Henry demanding Cromwell get rid of Anne which results in her subsequent trial and execution. The second episode begins with Jane Seymour being dressed for her wedding and her subsequent introduction to the people who take her to their hearts, whilst the King and Cromwell differ on the dissolution of the monasteries which have angered the English Catholics and united them into a huge army to march on London in protest calling it, the Pilgrimage of Grace, headed by the King's former comrade Robert Aske whom the King tricks into incriminating himself into treason and is sentenced to a gruesome traitor's death.
Meanwhile, the country is on edge as the pregnant Queen goes into labour and gives birth to a son much to Henry's joy although it is cut short when the Queen dies. Two years after the Queen's death, whose power has risen through the days of Anne Boleyn encourages the King to consider marrying the Protestant Anne of Cleves but once he sets sights on her, the King is repulsed and seeks a way out of the marriage. Sensing the decline of Protestant influence the Duke of Norfolk devises a way to snatch the reign to power and arranges for his teenage niece Catherine Howard to enchant the obese and terrifying King and to marry him, it soon transpires that the young Queen has a promiscuous history and is carrying it on with a man in the king's service which the Protestant reformers seize as their opportunity to rid themselves of the Catholic faction. The Queen and her family are arrested and the young Queen dies at the hands of the executioner, like her cousin Anne Boleyn. With the demise of Catholic peers the reformers take the opportunity to consolidate their powers, enhanced by the wedding of the king to Catherine Parr who attempts to unite the royal family.
The film closes. His obsession with Anne Boleyn, his quiet but steady affection for Jane Seymour, his lust for the young Catherine Howard; the king's over indulgent lifestyle catches up with him and he suffers a seizure and dies in a scene reminiscent of the films opening, imploring his son to be successful as a man before he can be successful as a king. He dies with last wife beside him; the closing scene of the film provides a summary of the lives of the remaining characters, the summary is as follows.' Edward became King Edward VI. He died of consumption aged fifteen. Edward Seymour, Lord Protector of England, ruled by proxy until 1551 when he was imprisoned in the Tower and beheaded. Thomas Seymour did marry Katherine Parr, but broke her heart when he attempted to seduce the fourteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth, he was executed for treason in 1549. Bloody Mary came to the throne in 1553, she burned hundreds of Protestants as heretics and died embittered and unloved in 1558
Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (2000 TV series)
Randall & Hopkirk is a British television series, produced by Working Title Television for BBC One and produced by Charlie Higson. It is a remake of the 1960s television series Randall and Hopkirk and stars Vic Reeves as Marty Hopkirk and Bob Mortimer as Jeff Randall, two partner private detectives, Emilia Fox as Jeannie Hurst, Hopkirk's fiancée, Tom Baker as Wyvern, a spirit mentor. Two series were commissioned and were broadcast in 2000 and 2001 with the pilot episode airing 18 March 2000. In keeping with the original series, in the initial episode Hopkirk is murdered during an investigation and returns to Earth as a ghost tied to his partner Randall. Randall is the only living main character, able to see him although other characters can; the remake paid much more attention to where Hopkirk went when he wasn’t on Earth than the original and introduced Limbo, a place where he could meet other ghosts. It introduced the character Wyvern, a mentor who helps Hopkirk hone his powers, introduces him to other ghosts, is terrible at poetry.
The remake made Jeannie a more central character than the original and changed her status to Hopkirk’s fiancée, rather than widow, allowing for a love-triangle element between the three main characters to form. Two series were made, the first in 1999 and the second in 2001; the show was produced by Charlie Higson, who directed some episodes. Writers for the show include Gareth Roberts, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson, Paul Whitehouse, Higson; when the rights to the series were first obtained by WTTV, Simon Wright, the company's executive producer and president, envisaged the series as a straight thriller, but this changed after he suggested casting a comedian as Marty Hopkirk with Robbie Coltrane and Rik Mayall considered for the role. After discovering that the rights had been bought by WWTV, Reeves and Mortimer showed a strong interest in the two lead roles. After being offered the roles, the pair suggested Charlie Higson as writer. Mortimer was to play Hopkirk, to echo the physical characteristics of the original actors, but this was changed as Higson felt that Reeves' "manic energy" better suited Hopkirk’s personality and situation.
Reeves and Mortimer are both fans of the original series, with Reeves citing Marty Hopkirk as the inspiration behind his all-white outfit in the pilot episode of Vic Reeves Big Night Out. Reeves and Higson’s connections helped to draw in many cameos and guest stars from the comedy world and beyond, to play bit parts or larger roles in individual episodes. Guest stars include Hugh Laurie, Derek Jacobi, Simon Pegg, Mark Gatiss, Charles Dance, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Reece Shearsmith, Martin Clunes. Higson himself cameos in every episode, twice as characters who appear in more than one: these were Gomez the Limbo barman in "A Blast from the Past" and "Marshall and Snellgrove" and civil servant Bulstrode in "Paranoia" and "Pain Killers". Many episodes mentions that pay homage to the original series. In the fifth episode of series one, a clip of Mike Pratt - who played Jeff Randall in the original series and had died before the new series was created - was used, from the episode "The Smile Behind the Veil".
Kenneth Cope, who played the original Marty Hopkirk, declined. Place names paid homage to the original series: Spooner Drive and Berman Street - after creator Dennis Spooner and producer Monty Berman - are used in the first episode of series one; the series was shot in 16:9 widescreen. However, the Region 2 & 4 DVD of Series 1 was released in a pan and scan 4:3 format only, to the apparent disappointment of series producer Charlie Higson; the Series 2 DVD is in the original aspect ratio. The first print of the cover of the Series 1 VHS and DVD uses lenticular printing so that when the viewing angle is changed Marty's image appears and disappears. A soundtrack album to the series was released by Island Records in 2000; the show's theme, which plays over the opening titles of the series, was written by David Arnold but was not included on the soundtrack album. Incidental music for the show was written by Murray Gold who wrote various stings and pieces based on Arnold's theme. An original song, "My Body May Die", was written for the show by Pulp and featured The Swingle Sisters.
This song became associated with Marty's character. A vocal version of the theme sung by Nina Persson of The Cardigans was released in 2000 and featured in the episode "Revenge of the Bog People"; the vocal version was written as a duet, with Reeves to sing with Persson. While not featuring on the final theme, a bonus track sung by Reeves was included on the single, a cover of "Ain't That A Kick in the Head"; the extended instrumental of Arnold's theme was included as a B-side on the single. A tie-in book Randall and Hopkirk: the files was released after the second series, written by Andy Lane with an introduction by Charlie Higson. Two novelisations of the series were released, Ghosts from the Past, written by Graeme Grant and Ghost in the Machine by Andy Lane. Both were published by Macmillan Publishers. List of ghost films Randall & Hopkirk on IMDb Interview with Charlie Higson about the series
St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its motto is Nova et Vetera, which translates as: "Things both new and old". Catz claims to be "Oxford’s youngest undergraduate college and one of its largest", it developed out of the university's Delegacy for Unattached Students St Catherine's Society, was founded in 1962 by the historian Alan Bullock, who went on to become the first Master of the college, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. As of 2018, the college had an estimated financial endowment of £84.8m. The college traces its descent from the Scholares Non Ascripti, or Delegacy for Unattached Students, founded by Statute on 11 June 1868; this was established as part of an expansion of the University so that students would be able to gain an Oxford education without the costs of college membership. During the academic year 2018/2019, the College will therefore be celebrating its 150th Anniversary, in recognition of these origins; the delegacy was headed by two Censors, George Kitchin and George S. Ward, who oversaw the administration and welfare of the students.
Nineteen students matriculated in October 1868 as Scholares Non Ascripti and were joined throughout the year by another forty, bringing the total number in the first year to fifty-nine. By 1914, more than 4,000 men had matriculated as Non-Collegiate students; the Delegacy students met as St Catherine's Club from 1874, named after its meeting place in a hall on Catte Street. The club was recognised by the University in 1931 as St Catherine's Society, it was thus developing the characteristics of a college, in 1956 the Delegates decided to formalise this change in status. After acquiring 8 acres from Merton College, Oxford on part of Holywell Great Meadow for £57,690, monies were sought from the University Grants Committee who agreed to supply £250,000 towards the building, additional funds up to £400,000 for all facilities. By 1960 Sir Alan Bullock raised a further £1,000,000 with invaluable assistance from two industrial notables, Sir Alan Wilson and Sir Hugh Beaver. After a total cost of £2.5 million, the college opened in 1962 to male students.
In 1974 St Catz was one of the first men's colleges to admit women as full members, the others being Brasenose, Jesus College and Wadham. The college is situated on the bank of the Cherwell river, its striking buildings in glass and concrete by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen marry modern materials with a traditional layout around a quadrangle. Jacobsen's designs went further than just the fabric of the buildings, with cutlery and lampshades being of his own idiosyncratic design; the dining hall is notable for its Cumberland slate floor. The original college buildings received a Grade I listing on 30 March 1993. Jacobsen's plans for the college did not include a chapel: St Cross Church on the corner of Manor Road and Longwall Street used to serve this purpose when required before its decommission in the Autumn of 2008; the St Catherine's Christmas carol concert has since been held in Harris Manchester College's chapel. The college has a bell tower however. An extra floor was reputedly planned for most accommodation blocks, but due to regulations concerning safe building on marshland, this was removed from the final design.
St Catherine's has a number of lecture theatres and seminar rooms, a music house, two student computer rooms, a small gym, squash courts, a punt house, among the most spacious common rooms in Oxford. There are additional purpose-built conference facilities with lecture theatres, meeting rooms and bar, car parking available for non-students; the dining hall, which seats 350 diners, has the largest capacity of any Oxford college. The majority of St Catherine's buildings are in the form of'staircases' that open directly onto the quad outside. There is little indoor space in the college and St Catherine's favours a minimalist, rather austere environment, though still comfortable. Student rooms are spacious, notable for their ` curtain wall' glazing. In 1994 and 2004, the college completed construction of three and seven new accommodation staircases designed by Hodder and Partners with en-suite rooms, which means that most undergraduates can live on the main college site for the duration of their course.
Prior to this, all undergraduates had the experience of living off-campus for their second year. These new staircases form a second quad, used to provide accommodation for conferences during the breaks between academic terms; the college celebrates its patron saint each year with a special Catz Night dinner, attended by junior and senior members of the college. Every three years the college holds a ball off-site due to the problem of securing the college's perimeter sufficiently for insurance purposes; the Wallace Watson Award is a travel scholarship granted annually to a student or group students to undertake an expedition in a remote region of the world. In 2018, St Catherine's College ranked 3rd on the Norrington Table, with a score of 78.15%, climbing from 26th place in 2017 when it had a score of 68.68%. St Catherine's College Boat Club is the rowing club of the college. In Torpids 2012, the men's first boat was fourth on the river and were bumped three times, ending seventh; the first boat was ninth on the river after being bumped in the Summer Eights.
The women's first boat held headship in Torpids a few years ago. In 2017, the w
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, it employs over 20,950 staff in total. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time and fixed-contract staff are included; the BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee, charged to all British households and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up; the fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. Since 1 April 2014, it has funded the BBC World Service, which broadcasts in 28 languages and provides comprehensive TV, online services in Arabic and Persian.
Around a quarter of BBC revenues come from its commercial arm BBC Studios Ltd, which sells BBC programmes and services internationally and distributes the BBC's international 24-hour English-language news services BBC World News, from BBC.com, provided by BBC Global News Ltd. From its inception, through the Second World War, to the 21st century, the BBC has played a prominent role in British culture, it is known colloquially as "The Beeb", "Auntie", or a combination of both. Britain's first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920, it was sponsored by the Daily Mail's Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The Melba broadcast caught the people's imagination and marked a turning point in the British public's attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts.
But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests and moved to rescind its ban in the wake of a petition by 63 wireless societies with over 3,000 members. Anxious to avoid the same chaotic expansion experienced in the United States, the GPO proposed that it would issue a single broadcasting licence to a company jointly owned by a consortium of leading wireless receiver manufactures, to be known as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast; the company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved domestic manufacturers. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to "inform and entertain"; the financial arrangements soon proved inadequate. Set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee.
The Committee recommended a short term reorganisation of licence fees with improved enforcement in order to address the BBC's immediate financial distress, an increased share of the licence revenue split between it and the GPO. This was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired; the BBC's broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, as was the prohibition on advertising. The BBC was banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00 and was required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee. By now, the BBC, under Reith's leadership, had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a public service rather than a commercial enterprise.
The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production, with restrictions on news bulletins waived, the BBC became the primary source of news for the duration of the crisis; the crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position. On one hand Reith was acutely aware that the Government might exercise its right to commandeer the BBC at any time as a mouthpiece of the Government if the BBC were to step out of line, but on the other he was anxious to maintain public trust by appearing to be acting independently; the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PM's own. Thus the BBC was granted sufficient leeway to pursue the Government's objectives in a manner of its own choosing; the resulting coverage of both striker and government viewpoints impressed millions of listeners who were unaware that the PM had broadcast to the nation from Reith's home, using one of Reith's sound bites inserted at the last moment
