1.
Sandbach
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Sandbach is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements, Sandbach itself, Elworth, Ettiley Heath, known as Sanbec in 1086, Sondbache in 1260, and Sandbitch in the 17th–18th centuries, Sandbach derives its name from the Anglo-Saxon sand bæce, which can mean sand stream or sand valley. Traces of settlement are found in Sandbach from Saxon times, when the town was called Sanbec, little is known about the town during this period, except that it was subjected to frequent Welsh and Danish raids. The towns inhabitants were converted to Christianity in the 7th century by four priests, Cedda, Adda, Betti, the town has an entry in the Domesday Book from 1086, at which time it was sufficiently large to need a priest and a church. The entry states, Sanbec, Bigot de Loges,1 hide and 1½ virgates pay tax. 1 Frenchman has ½ plough,3 slaves, by the 13th century, during the reign of King John, much of the land around the township of Sandbach was owned by Richard de Sandbach who was the High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1230. Richard de Sandbach specifically owned a manor, he claimed an interest in the living of Sandbach and this claim against Earl Randle de Blundeville was unsuccessful. His son, John, however, was more successful as he won an interest temporarily against the Abbot of Dieulacres. The manor in Sandbach passed through families, including the Leghs. It was eventually bought by Sir Randulph Crewe, who became the Lord of the Manor, the charter also allowed for right to establish a Court-leet and a Court of Pied-powder. The original charter is preserved, and can be found in Chester, a reproduction can be found in the Sandbach Town Council chamber. The charter also granted the town the right to two annual fairs, which lasted for two days, and were held around Easter and early September. The Thursday market is held outdoors on Scotch Common, and in. And about 1621 William Webb writes that Our ale here at Sandbach being no less famous than that of a true nappe, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a Scottish army swept down into England before being forced to retreat at the Battle of Worcester. On 3 September 1651 Sandbach summer fair was being held, and a Scottish army of around 1,000 exhausted cavalry men passed through the town, this army had been under the command of David Leslie. The town was not a retreat route, however, as the people of Sandbach. This was the notable event of the Civil War to have happened in Sandbach. As the fair and the took place on the common of the town
2.
Cheshire
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Cheshire is a county in North West England, bordering Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south and Wales to the west. Cheshires county town is Chester, the largest town is Warrington, other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Macclesfield, Northwich, Runcorn, Widnes, Wilmslow, and Winsford. The county covers 905 square miles and has a population of around 1 million and it is mostly rural, with a number of small towns and villages supporting the agricultural and other industries which produce Cheshire cheese, salt, chemicals and silk. Cheshires name was derived from an early name for Chester. Although the name first appears in 980, it is thought that the county was created by Edward the Elder around 920, in the Domesday Book, Chester was recorded as having the name Cestrescir, derived from the name for Chester at the time. A series of changes occurred as English itself changed, together with some simplifications and elision, resulted in the name Cheshire. Because of the close links with the land bordering Cheshire to the west. The Domesday Book records Cheshire as having two complete Hundreds that later became the part of Flintshire. Additionally, another portion of the Duddestan Hundred later became known as Maelor Saesneg when it was transferred to North Wales. For this and other reasons, the Welsh name for Cheshire is sometimes used within Wales, after the Norman conquest of 1066 by William I, dissent and resistance continued for many years after the invasion. In 1069 local resistance in Cheshire was finally put down using draconian measures as part of the Harrying of the North, the ferocity of the campaign against the English populace was enough to end all future resistance. Examples were made of major landowners such as Earl Edwin of Mercia, William I made Cheshire a county palatine and gave Gerbod the Fleming the new title of Earl of Chester. When Gerbod returned to Normandy in about 1070, the king used his absence to declare the earldom forfeit, due to Cheshires strategic location on Welsh Marches, the Earl had complete autonomous powers to rule on behalf of the king in the county palatine. Cheshire in the Domesday Book is recorded as a larger county than it is today. It included two hundreds, Atiscross and Exestan, that became part of North Wales. At the time of the Domesday Book, it included as part of Duddestan Hundred the area of land later known as English Maelor in Wales. The area between the Mersey and Ribble formed part of the returns for Cheshire, an example is the barony of Halton. One of Hugh dAvranches barons has been identified as Robert Nicholls, Baron of Halton, in 1182 the land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire, thus resolving any uncertainty about the county in which the land Inter Ripam et Mersam was
3.
Film
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A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides
4.
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
5.
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
6.
Alan Partridge
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Alan Gordon Partridge is a fictional character portrayed by English actor and comedian Steve Coogan. Coogan described Partridge as a Little Englander, with right-wing values, Partridge was created by Coogan and Armando Iannucci for the 1991 BBC Radio 4 comedy programme On the Hour, a spoof of British current affairs broadcasting, as the shows sports presenter. In 1992, Partridge hosted a spin-off Radio 4 spoof chat show, Knowing Me, on the Hour transferred to television as The Day Today in 1993, followed by Knowing Me, Knowing You in 1994. It earned two BAFTAs and was followed by a series in 2002. Critics have praised Alan Partridges complexity, realism and pathos, vanity Fair called him a British national treasure and The Guardian described him as one of the greatest and most beloved comic creations of the last few decades. The character has been credited with influencing awkward comedies such as The Inbetweeners, Nighty Night, according to Den of Geek, Partridge has so influenced British culture that Partridgisms have become part of everyday vernacular. Alan Partridge was created for the 1991 BBC Radio 4 comedy programme On The Hour, the shows writers Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber, Richard Herring and Stewart Lee wrote much of Partridges original material, although Herring credits the creation to Coogan and Iannucci. Iannucci asked Coogan to do a voice for a sports reporter, according to Iannucci, Someone said, Hes an Alan. and someone else said. Within minutes we knew where he lived, wed worked out his back story, Coogan said Partridge was originally a one-note, sketchy character and freak show, but became more and more refined as sort of a dysfunctional alter ego over the years. He had performed a character for a BBC college radio station at university. Following On the Hour, Partridge presented six episodes of a spoof Radio 4 chat show, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, the series saw Partridge annoy and offend his guests, and coined the characters catchphrase, Aha. In 1993, On the Hour transferred to television as The Day Today, in 1994, Knowing Me, Knowing You transferred to television, the series ends with Partridge accidentally shooting a guest and attacking a BBC commissioning editor, ending his television career. It was nominated for the 1995 BAFTA for Light Entertainment Performance, a Christmas special, Knowing Me, Knowing Yule, was broadcast in December 1995. In 1997, Coogan starred in a sitcom, Im Alan Partridge, written by Coogan, Iannucci, Iannucci said the writers used the sitcom as a kind of social X-ray of male middle-aged Middle England. It won the 1998 BAFTA awards for Comedy Performance and Comedy Programme or Series, in 1999, Partridge appeared on the BBC telethon Children in Need, performing a medley of Kate Bush songs. The BBC broadcast a series of Im Alan Partridge in 2002. In March 2003, the BBC broadcast a mockumentary, Anglian Lives, Alan Partridge, about Partridges life, in 2008, Coogan performed a tour titled Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and other Less Successful Characters, featuring Partridge as a life coach. After a hiatus, Partridge returned in 2010 in a series of YouTube shorts, Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge, Coogan co-wrote the shorts with brothers Neil and Rob Gibbons, who submitted scripts to his company Baby Cow Productions, the brothers have co-written every Partridge project since
7.
Bedsitcom
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Bedsitcom is a British reality television hoax series that was broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2003. Pitched as somewhere between a sitcom and a reality TV show, the documented the lives of six young people living in a loft flat in London. Its hook was that its TV audience was aware that three of the participants—named Mel, Paul and Rufus—were actually actors being directed by a trio of writers in a garage on the ground floor, Bedsitcom was commissioned by the Channel Four Television Corporation and produced by Objective Productions. Producers auditioned thousands of people to be the genuine contestants. These six contestants were told that they would be starring in a new reality TV series called Making Friends, the programme ran for a single series of eight episodes and featured various storylines, involving dead goldfish, dodgy dealings, promiscuous mothers and telephone psychics. The show received negative feedback from television reviewers, who criticised the shows premise as a deeply offensive idea. It received a peak of 1.2 million with its final episode. Bedsitcom was not recommissioned for a series and is currently not available either on DVD or on Channel 4s on demand service. Bedsitcom was created by Peter James and Andrew OConnor, and was conceived as a parody of reality television and the traditional sitcom. It combined these two elements by featuring three members of the public being unknowingly placed in extraordinary situations by three actors being directed by writers, after being commissioned for Channel 4 by Danielle Lux, Bedsitcom was produced by Matt Crook and Kirsty Smith of Objective Productions. The show was pitched as somewhere between a sitcom and a reality TV show and was promoted as a new genre of television programme. Its title is a portmanteau of the words bedsit—a British term referring to a form of rented accommodation consisting of a single room, the title is technically a misnomer, as the accommodations bedroom and sitting area were separate, it was not a bedsit. Melanie Ash, Paul Gibbon and Rufus Jones were selected as the three actors to feature in Bedsitcom, Jones had previously portrayed the part of Crispin in the 2002 drama White Teeth, Gibbon had played the lead role of Link in the series Stone Cold. To avoid breaking character, all three used their names while living in the flat and went through weeks of rehearsals. OConnor described the process as exhausting. Six members of the public, named Barrington, Bob, Dave, David, Jessica, the plots for Bedsitcom were devised by a team of writers located in a garage on the ground floor of the apartment building that the contestants were staying in. The writers would appear on screen and explain to the TV audience what their intention for each episode was. They communicated with Ash, Gibbon and Jones either by ringing them on their mobile phones, among the team of writers were Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, who had created the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show with OConnor earlier that year, plus Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons
8.
Veep
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Veep is an American political satire comedy television series, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, that premiered on HBO on April 22,2012. The series was created by Armando Iannucci as an adaptation of the British sitcom The Thick of It, Veep is set in the office of Selina Meyer, a fictional Vice President, and subsequent President, of the United States. The series follows Meyer and her team as they attempt to make their mark and leave a lasting legacy without getting tripped up in the political games that define Washington. Veep has received acclaim and won several major awards. It has been nominated five years in a row for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, Louis-Dreyfus has won five consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics Choice Television Awards and one Television Critics Association Award for her performance. Supporting cast members Anna Chlumsky and Tony Hale have both received four consecutive Emmy nominations for their work on the series, including Hale winning in 2013 and 2015, the series has been renewed for a 10-episode sixth season which will premiere on April 16,2017. Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, a former Maryland Senator who, in the start of the series, is the titular Vice President, during this term, she often feels powerless, disregarded, and discontented in her position as second-in-command. During her tenure as Vice President, she has a relationship with the President. She ascends to the office of the presidency in season 3, after the sitting president resigns for personal reasons. Due to a complex manipulation of constitutional law, she loses the race in season 5. She is divorced with one daughter, but remains romantically entangled with her ex-husband during the first two seasons, Anna Chlumsky as Amy Brookheimer, the Vice Presidents Chief of Staff. She credits herself as the Vice Presidents trouble-shooter, problem-solver, issue-mediator, doubt-remover, conscience-examiner, thought-thinker, Amy is constantly sacrificing her own reputation to save Selinas political credibility. She is known to be uptight and overly dedicated to her career, unwilling to settle down and have children and she has history with both Jonah and Dan, and may still have feelings for the latter. Amy becomes Selinas campaign manager during her run, but resigns as a result of the brief appointment of an unopinionated friend of Selinas to her campaign team. She rejoins the Meyer team when a tie in the election leads to a statewide recount in Nevada. Chlumsky previously portrayed a character, Liza Weld, in Iannuccis 2009 film. She has received four consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her performance, Tony Hale as Gary Walsh, Selinas personal aide and body man. A long-term associate and confidant of Selina, Gary is portrayed as incredibly loyal, despite his menial job, Gary is actually a graduate of Cornell University, having majored in hotel management
9.
The Independent
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The Independent is a British online newspaper. The printed edition of the paper ceased in March 2016, nicknamed the Indy, it began as a broadsheet newspaper, but changed to tabloid format in 2003. Until September 2011, the paper described itself on the banner at the top of every newspaper as free from party political bias and it tends to take a pro-market stance on economic issues. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. In June 2015, it had a daily circulation of just below 58,000,85 per cent down from its 1990 peak. On 12 February 2016, it was announced that The Independent, the last print edition of The Independent on Sunday was published on 20 March 2016, with the main paper ceasing print publication the following Saturday. Launched in 1986, the first issue of The Independent was published on 7 October in broadsheet format and it was produced by Newspaper Publishing plc and created by Andreas Whittam Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds. All three partners were former journalists at The Daily Telegraph who had left the paper towards the end of Lord Hartwells ownership, marcus Sieff was the first chairman of Newspaper Publishing, and Whittam Smith took control of the paper. The paper was created at a time of a change in British newspaper publishing. Rupert Murdoch was challenging long-accepted practices of the print unions and ultimately defeated them in the Wapping dispute, consequently, production costs could be reduced which, it was said at the time, created openings for more competition. As a result of controversy around Murdochs move to Wapping, the plant was effectively having to function under siege from sacked print workers picketing outside, the Independent attracted some of the staff from the two Murdoch broadsheets who had chosen not to move to his companys new headquarters. Launched with the advertising slogan It is, and challenging both The Guardian for centre-left readers and The Times as the newspaper of record, The Independent reached a circulation of over 400,000 by 1989. Competing in a market, The Independent sparked a general freshening of newspaper design as well as, within a few years. Some aspects of production merged with the paper, although the Sunday paper retained a largely distinct editorial staff. It featured spoofs of the other papers mastheads with the words The Rupert Murdoch or The Conrad Black, a number of other media companies were interested in the paper. Tony OReillys media group and Mirror Group Newspapers had bought a stake of about a third each by mid-1994, in March 1995, Newspaper Publishing was restructured with a rights issue, splitting the shareholding into OReillys Independent News & Media, MGN, and Prisa. In April 1996, there was another refinancing, and in March 1998, OReilly bought the other 54% of the company for £30 million, brendan Hopkins headed Independent News, Andrew Marr was appointed editor of The Independent, and Rosie Boycott became editor of The Independent on Sunday. Marr introduced a dramatic if short-lived redesign which won critical favour but was a commercial failure, Marr admitted his changes had been a mistake in his book, My Trade
10.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image – film, television and game in the United Kingdom. David Lean was the founding Chairman of the Academy, the first Film Awards ceremony took place in May 1949 and honouring the films The Best Years of Our Lives, Odd Man Out and The World Is Rich. In 2005, it placed a cap on worldwide voting membership which now stands at approximately 6,500. BAFTA has offices in Scotland and Wales in the UK, in Los Angeles and New York in the United States and runs events in Hong Kong, amanda Berry OBE has been chief executive of the organisation since December 2000. Many of these events are free to online at BAFTA Guru. BAFTA runs a number of programmes across the UK, US. Launched in 2012, the UK programme enables talented British citizens who are in need of support to take an industry-recognised course in film. Each BAFTA Scholar receives up to £12,000 towards their annual course fees, since 2013, three students every year have received one of the Prince William Scholarships in Film, Television and Games, supported by BAFTA and Warner Bros. These scholarships are awarded in the name of in his role as President of BAFTA, since 2015, BAFTA has been offering scholarships for British citizens to study in China, vice versa. BAFTA presents awards for film, television and games, including entertainment, at a number of annual ceremonies across the UK and in Los Angeles. The BAFTA award trophy is a mask, designed by American sculptor Mitzi Cunliffe. Todays BAFTA award – including the mask and marble base – weighs 3.7 kg and measures 27 cm x 14 cm x 8 cm. BAFTAs annual film awards ceremony is known as the British Academy Film Awards, or the BAFTAs, in 1949 the British Film Academy, as it was then known, presented the first awards for films made in 1947 and 1948. Since 2008 the ceremony has held at the Royal Opera House in Londons Covent Garden. It had been held in the Odeon cinema on Leicester Square since 2000, the ceremony had been performed during April or May of each year, but since 2002 it has been held in February to precede the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Awards, or Oscars. They have been awarded annually since 1954, the first ever ceremony consisted of six categories. Until 1958, they were awarded by the Guild of Television Producers and Directors, from 1968 until 1997, BAFTAs Film and Television Awards were presented together, but from 1998 onwards they were presented at two separate ceremonies. The Television Craft Awards celebrate the talent behind the programmes, such as working in visual effects, production
