1.
Sleaford
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Sleaford is a market town and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England. It is on the edge of the fertile Fenlands, about 11 miles north-east of Grantham,16 miles west of Boston, with a population of 17,671 at the 2011 Census, the town is the largest settlement in the North Kesteven district. Bypassed by the A17 and the A15, it is connected to Lincoln, Newark, Peterborough, Sleaford railway station is on the Nottingham to Skegness and Peterborough to Lincoln Lines. The first settlement formed in the Iron Age where a prehistoric track crossed the River Slea and it was a tribal centre and home to a mint for the Corieltauvi in the 1st centuries BC and AD. Evidence of Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement has been uncovered, and by the late Saxon period the town was an economic and jurisdictional centre with a court and market. In the medieval period, records differentiate between Old and New Sleaford, the emerging in the areas around the present day market place. Sleaford Castle was constructed in the 12th century for the Bishops of Lincoln, granted the right to hold a market in the mid-12th century, New Sleaford developed into a market town and became locally important in the wool trade, while Old Sleaford declined. From the 16th century, the landowners were the Carre family, who operated tight control over the town, the manor passed from the Carre family to the Hervey family by the marriage of Isabella Carre to John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, in 1688. The Sleaford Navigation brought economic growth until it was superseded by the railways in the mid-1850s, in the 20th century, the sale of farmland around Sleaford by Bristol Estates led to the development of large housing estates. The subsequent availability of affordable housing combined with the educational facilities. As a result, the population underwent the fastest growth of any town in the county in the 1990s. The arrival of the made the town favourable for malting. Industry has declined, and in 2011 the most common occupations are in wholesale and retail trade, health and social care, public administration and defence and manufacturing. Regeneration of the centre has led to the redevelopment of the old industrial areas. The earliest records of the place-name Sleaford are found in a charter of 852 as Slioford, in the Domesday Book, it is recorded as Eslaforde and in the early 13th century as Sliforde. In the 13th century Book of Fees the name appears as Lafford, the name is formed from the Old English words sliow and ford, which together mean ford over a muddy or slimy river. Archaeological material from the Bronze Age and earlier has been recovered and excavations have shown there was unsustained late-Neolithic. The earliest known permanent settlement dates from the Iron Age and began where a track running northwards from Bourne crossed the River Slea, during the Roman occupation of Britain, the settlement was extensive and of considerable importance
2.
Lincolnshire
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Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It also borders Northamptonshire in the south for just 20 yards, Englands shortest county boundary, the county town is Lincoln, where the county council has its headquarters. The ceremonial county of Lincolnshire is composed of the county of Lincolnshire. Therefore, part of the county is in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. The county is the second-largest of the English ceremonial counties and one that is predominantly agricultural in land use, the county is fifth largest of the two-tier counties, as the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire are not included. The county can be broken down into a number of geographical sub-regions including, Lincolnshire derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough of Stamford. For some time the county was called Lindsey, and it is recorded as such in the 11th-century Domesday Book. In 1888 when county councils were set up, Lindsey, Holland and these survived until 1974, when Holland, Kesteven, and most of Lindsey were unified into Lincolnshire. A local government reform in 1996 abolished Humberside, and the south of the Humber was allocated to the unitary authorities of North Lincolnshire. These two areas became part of Lincolnshire for ceremonial such as the Lord-Lieutenancy, but are not covered by the Lincolnshire police and are in the Yorkshire. The remaining districts of Lincolnshire are Boston, East Lindsey, Lincoln, North Kesteven, South Holland, South Kesteven and they are part of the East Midlands region. Lincolnshire is home to Woolsthorpe Manor, birthplace and home of Sir Isaac Newton and he attended The Kings School, Grantham and its library has preserved his signature, applied to a window sill when he was a teenager. Lincolnshire is an area, growing large amounts of wheat, barley, sugar beet. In South Lincolnshire, where the soil is rich in nutrients, some of the most common crops include potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers. Most such companies are long gone, and Lincolnshire is no longer an engineering centre, however, as a result of the current economic climate some food production facilities have closed down, this has caused some reduction in the levels of migrant workers. The large number of people from Portugal is still obvious in the town of Boston. A coalition of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents currently controls Lincolnshire County Council, the Conservative Party comfortably controlled the County Council following the 2009 local elections, in which they increased their majority to 43 seats. The Labour Party lost a total of 15 seats including 7 in Lincoln, the Lincolnshire Independents gained a total of four seats, although one of their number moved to the Conservative group during 2010, increasing the number of Conservative seats to 61
3.
St Paul's Girls' School
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St Pauls Girls School is an independent day school for girls, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. The governors hold proprietorial responsibility, and some are representatives of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, the buildings for the school were designed by the architect Gerald Horsley, the son of the painter John Callcott Horsley and one of the founder members of the Art Workers Guild. The school has had several distinguished directors of music, most notably Gustav Holst, Holst composed his St Pauls and Brook Green suites for the pupils at the school. Holst also composed what is arguably his most well known work, The Planets, St Pauls girls have regularly performed extremely well in the GCSEs and A Levels. Over half of girls at the school get all A*s in their GCSEs, in 2014,99. 3% of GCSEs were graded at A*s or As with 93. 6% graded at A* alone. This was the highest ever A* percentage achieved by the school, in 2016, the school achieved the highest A Level results in its history with 60. 0% of entries achieving an A* grade and 93. 8% of entries achieving A* or A grades. Gardner wrote many pieces for the school, including his popular Christmas carols Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day and The Holly. The schools main theatre, where most school productions are staged, is named after alumna Celia Johnson, other productions are staged in the drama studio is a smaller space. The school awards up to twenty means-tested bursaries to students who join in Y7, for candidates who join in Y12, there is also the Ogden Trust science award for a UK citizen currently at a non-independent school who wants to study both physics and maths at A level. Bursaries fund up to 100% of tuition fees on a scale depending on family income and assets, plus exam entry fees. Holders of 100% bursaries entering in Y12 also receive a package to cover additional expenses, such as the cost of sports equipment. Year 7, The school awards up to four academic scholarships, year 12, The school may also award two music scholarships to current students and two more to new joiners, and two art scholarships to internal and external candidates. The Nora Day music scholarship is awarded every year to a new joiner who shows exceptional musical potential. The school also awards scholarships worth £250 a year for academic distinction in the Senior Scholarship, the school logo is a Grecian laurel wreath, representing the school’s competitive spirit. In 2007, this logo was replaced by High Mistress Clarissa Farr with a blossoming rose, the change provoked much opposition from students within the school, and an article in the Daily Mail. The traditional wreath was retained as the symbol of the Old Paulina Alumnae Association, in 2013 it was announced that the old logo would be reinstated. The headmistress of St Pauls Girls School is known as the High Mistress, official School Website Profile at The Good Schools Guide Profile at MyDaughter ISI Inspection Reports
4.
Royal Central School of Speech & Drama
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The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906 to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a constituent of the University of London in 2005 and its prominent alumni include Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench, michael Grandage, a Central graduate and artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, has now been appointed President. Elsie Fogerty founded The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art at the Royal Albert Hall in 1906, Fogerty was a specialist in speech training and held a firm belief in the social importance of education. She was committed to advancing the study of theatre as an academic discipline, in 1957 the school moved from the Royal Albert Hall, having acquired the lease of the Embassy Theatre at Swiss Cottage and its associated buildings. By 1961 three distinct departments had been established within Central, the stage department was running its three-year course for actors, with alumni including Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft already a part of its history, and a two-year course for stage managers. The teacher training department was preparing students for its own diploma, which was a teaching qualification. That diploma had been instituted in 1912 as a result of Fogertys campaign for the recognition of drama and drama teaching as subjects worthy of academic study. By this time, the school was as known for its speech therapy department as for its work in training actors, in 1972 Central became grant-aided by the Inner London Education Authority. In 1989 it was incorporated as an education college in its own right. Central had been offering degrees since 1986, firstly validated by the Council for National Academic Awards, in 2004 the Privy Council granted the Central the power to award its own taught degrees. In 2005 students from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art transferred to Central after a 100-year history of significant contributions to stage, in the same year, the school was designated as the Higher Education Funding Council for Englands Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre. With effect from September 2005 Central became a college of the University of London, apart from its notable alumni, who include Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench, Cameron Mackintosh, Harold Pinter, Jason Isaacs and James Fox, the school has had some notable staff. It is entitled to use it in official documentation, although it continues to be referred to as Central. The schools Patron, HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent, played a role in recommending the institution for the adjective, the schools theatre is located inside the new building which was awarded a BREEAM rating of very good. Deputy Principal / Deputy CEO / Clerk to Governors, Deborah Scully, prior to joining Central, Deputy Principal and Professor of Theatre, Simon Shepherd, joined Central in 2001. Previously a Professor of Drama at Goldsmiths, University of London, and before that Professor of Drama at the University of Nottingham, which he left in 1996. Dean of Studies and Professor of Sound, Ross Brown, formerly a painter, then a composer, performer and sound designer in theatre. Director of Research, Robin Nelson, is a member of the IFTR’s Theatre
5.
Comedy
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In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a Society of Youth and a Society of the Old, a revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Similarly scatological humour, sexual humour, and race humour create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, a comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society and uses humor to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms. The adjective comic, which means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage. Of this, the word came into usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the comedy to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average, however, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others, the mask, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, as time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the comedy became synonymous with satire. They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms and they viewed comedy as simply the art of reprehension, and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term gained a more general meaning in medieval literature. Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a playwright and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the satyr plays
6.
Parody
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A parody is a work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work—its subject, author, style, or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, parody … is imitation, another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice. Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music, animation, gaming, the writer and critic John Gross observes in his Oxford Book of Parodies, that parody seems to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche and burlesque. According to Aristotle, Hegemon of Thasos was the inventor of a kind of parody, in ancient Greek literature, a parodia was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epics but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects. Indeed, the components of the Greek word are παρά para beside, counter, against, Thus, the original Greek word παρῳδία parodia has sometimes been taken to mean counter-song, an imitation that is set against the original. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, defines parody as imitation turned as to produce a ridiculous effect, because par- also has the non-antagonistic meaning of beside, there is nothing in parodia to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridicule. Old Comedy contained parody, even the gods could be made fun of, the Frogs portrays the hero-turned-god Heracles as a Glutton and the God of Drama Dionysus as cowardly and unintelligent. The traditional trip to the Underworld story is parodied as Dionysus dresses as Heracles to go to the Underworld, roman writers explained parody as an imitation of one poet by another for humorous effect. In French Neoclassical literature, parody was also a type of poem where one work imitates the style of another to produce a humorous effect, the Ancient Greeks created satyr plays which parodied tragic plays, often with performers dressed like satyrs. In classical music, as a term, parody refers to a reworking of one kind of composition into another. The term is sometimes applied to procedures common in the Baroque period. The musicological definition of the parody has now generally been supplanted by a more general meaning of the word. In its more contemporary usage, musical parody usually has humorous, even satirical intent, in which familiar musical ideas or lyrics are lifted into a different, often incongruous, context. Musical parodies may imitate or refer to the style of a composer or artist. For example, The Ritz Roll and Rock, a song and dance performed by Fred Astaire in the movie Silk Stockings, parodies the Rock. Conversely, while the work of Weird Al Yankovic is based on particular popular songs. The first usage of the parody in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is in Ben Jonson, in Every Man in His Humour in 1598, A Parodie. The next citation comes from John Dryden in 1693, who also appended an explanation, suggesting that the word was in common use, in the 20th century, parody has been heightened as the central and most representative artistic device, the catalysing agent of artistic creation and innovation
7.
Ade Edmondson
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Adrian Charles Ade Edmondson is an English comedian, actor, writer, musician, television presenter and director. He came to prominence in the early 1980s and was part of the comedy boom. He is probably best known for his roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom. Edmondson also appeared in The Comic Strip Presents, Series of films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For one episode of this he created the heavy metal band Bad News, and for another he played his nihilistic alter-ego Eddie Monsoon. He played the role in The Comic Strips 1985 feature film. Since 2006 Edmondson has concentrated increasingly on music instead of acting, forming a band, The Bad Shepherds, and performing and writing for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. In 2011 he presented a series of shows for ITV, The Dales, which focused on working in the Yorkshire Dales. The series was so popular that a series aired in spring 2012. Edmondson has been married to fellow comedian Jennifer Saunders since 1985, Edmondson, the second of four children, was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. As a child, he spent time living with his family in a variety of places including Cyprus, Bahrain, and Uganda, later, for a period in the mid-1980s, his father became the deputy headmaster at the former Drummond Middle School in Manningham, Bradford. Edmondson attended Pocklington School, East Riding of Yorkshire from 1968 to 1975, in an interview with the Times Educational Supplement, he stated that he did not enjoy his education at Pocklington. Edmondson calculated that during his time at Pocklington, he received a total of 66 strokes of the cane as well as frequent slipperings. By the time he was in form, with his parents working abroad, Edmondson began to enjoy himself. He made some friends at the school and had a favourite teacher. Aubrey taught English and encouraged Edmondson to pursue drama, casting him in a number of school plays, after Pocklington, Edmondson went to the University of Manchester to study drama, where he met his future comedy partner Rik Mayall, and graduated with a 2,1 degree. Edmondson and Mayall soon became best friends and before long found work on the alternative comedy scene. Under the name 20th Century Coyote, Edmondson and Mayall became one of the attractions at The Comedy Store
8.
Ella Edmondson
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Eleanor Rose Ella Edmondson is an English singer-songwriter. Her primary instrument is the guitar although she can play the piano. Edmondson is the eldest of three daughters of comedians Adrian Edmondson and Jennifer Saunders and she has two younger sisters, Beatrice and Freya. The majority of Edmondsons childhood was spent in Richmond before her family relocated to Devon and she attended Exeter School where she wrote songs as part of her music GCSE. Edmondson became a fan of death metal because it was the music that her father didnt like. She went through a phase as a teenager and became a satanist. She worked as a instructor in Canada, a barmaid. She got the bug after supporting Jools Holland at the Plymouth Pavilions and she received her first guitar as a Christmas present from her father and taught herself to play by copying him. Her first gig was at 16 supporting Thousand Natural Shocks in Exeter and she made an appearance in an episode of her mothers sitcom Jam and Jerusalem in 2006 performing Breathe. In 2007, she released her first EP, Blame Amy and her debut album, Hold Your Horses, was released on 16 February 2009 on her fathers Monsoon record label. In 2010 she toured as the act to her fathers punk inspired folk act The Bad Shepherds. Ella married Dan Furlong on 30 September 2010, on 27 August 2012, Ella gave birth to a boy, Fred, and in February 2014 to another son, Albert Rafferty. She gave birth to her first daughter Ivy in August 2016
9.
Screenwriter
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One famous screenwriter is Jack Rosenthal, who has written for various TV shows over the years, including Londons Burning and Coronation Street. No education is required to become a screenwriter, just good storytelling abilities. Screenwriters are not hired employees, they are contracted freelancers, most, if not all, screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation, meaning they write without being hired or paid for it. If such a script is sold, it is called a spec script, what separates a professional screenwriter from an amateur screenwriter is that professional screenwriters are usually represented by a talent agency. Also, professional screenwriters do not often work for free, whereas amateur screenwriters will often work for free and are considered writers in training, spec scripts are usually penned by unknown professional screenwriters and amateur screenwriters. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the industry but it often takes years of trial-and-error, failure. In Writing Screenplays that Sell, Michael Hague writes Screenplays have become, for the last half of century, closet writers who used to dream of the glory of getting into print now dream of seeing their story on the big or small screen. Every screenplay and teleplay begins with a thought or idea, and screenwriters use those ideas to write scripts, with the intention of selling them and having them produced. In some cases, the script is based on a property, such as a book or persons life story. The majority of the time, a film project gets initiated by a screenwriter and because they initiated the project and these are referred to as exclusive assignments or pitched assignments. Screenwriters who often pitch new projects, whether original or an adaptation, when word is put out about a project a film studio, production company, or producer wants done, these are referred to as open assignments. In situations where screenwriters are competing for an assignment, more established writers will usually win these assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and personally offered a writing assignment, many screenwriters also work as full or part-time script doctors, attempting to better a script to suit the desires of a director or studio. For instance, studio management may have a complaint that the motivations of the characters are unclear or that the dialogue is weak, script-doctoring can be quite lucrative, especially for the better known writers. David Mamet and John Sayles, for instance, fund the movies they direct themselves, usually from their own screenplays, by writing and doctoring scripts for others. In fact, some writers make very profitable careers out of being the ninth or tenth writer to work on a piece, in many cases, working on projects that never see exposure to an audience of any size. Many up and coming screenwriters also ghost write projects and allow more established screenwriters to take credit for the project to increase the chances of it getting picked up. After a screenwriter finishes a project, he or she pairs with a representative, such as a producer, director, literary agent, entertainment lawyer
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
11.
Emmy Award
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An Emmy Award, or simply Emmy, recognizes excellence in the television industry, and corresponds to the Academy Award, the Tony Award, and the Grammy Award. Because Emmy Awards are given in various sectors of the American television industry, Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television. In addition, International Emmys are awarded for excellence in TV programming produced, each is responsible for administering a particular set of Emmy ceremonies. The Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences established the Emmy Award as part of an image-building and public relations opportunity. The first Emmy Awards ceremony took place on January 25,1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club, shirley Dinsdale has the distinction of receiving the very first Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, during that first awards ceremony. In the 1950s, the ATAS expanded the Emmys into a national event, in 1955, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was formed in New York City as a sister organization to serve members on the East Coast, and help to also supervise the Emmys. The NATAS also established regional chapters throughout the United States, with each one developing their own local Emmy awards show for local programming, the ATAS still however maintained its separate regional ceremony honoring local programming in the Los Angeles Area. Originally there was only one Emmy Awards ceremony held per year to honor shows nationally broadcast in the United States, in 1974, the first Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was held to specifically honor achievement in national daytime programming. Other area-specific Emmy Awards ceremonies soon followed, also, the International Emmy Awards, honoring television programs produced and initially aired outside the U. S. was established in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, all Emmys awarded prior to the emergence of these separate, in 1977, due to various conflicts, the ATAS and the NATAS agreed to split ties. However, they agreed to share ownership of the Emmy statue and trademark. With the rise of television in the 1980s, cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988. The ATAS also began accepting original online-only web television programs in 2013, the Emmy statuette, depicting a winged woman holding an atom, was designed by television engineer Louis McManus, who used his wife as the model. The TV Academy rejected a total of forty-seven proposals before settling on McManus design in 1948. The statuette has become the symbol of the TV Academys goal of supporting and uplifting the art and science of television, The wings represent the muse of art. When deciding a name for the award, Academy founder Syd Cassyd originally suggested Ike, however, Ike was also the popular nickname of World War II hero and future U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Academy members wanted something unique. Finally, television engineer and the third president, Harry Lubcke, suggested the name Immy. After Immy was chosen, it was feminized to Emmy to match their female statuette
12.
British Comedy Award
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The British Comedy Awards was an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year. Jonathan Ross announced that he would not be presenting the 2008 awards, the 2007 show occurred on 6 December 2007, but was not televised due to the 2005 controversy and subsequent investigations. The following years ceremony was shown live on 6 December 2008, Compliance for the show was the responsibility of the ITV Compliance Unit of ITV Network Limited. In June 2010, it was announced that awards were to be broadcast on Channel 4 for three years, which was extended for one more year. Shortly afterwards, the 2010 ceremony was postponed until the 2010 ceremony finally aired in January 2011, in June 2015 Channel 4 announced they would be dropping the ceremony. The 2015 ceremony was cancelled due to a lack of a suitable broadcast partner. A new broadcast partner is being lined up for the 2016 ceremony, at the 2005 British Comedy Awards show, the wrong show received the Peoples Choice Award. Charged by the show with investigating the allegations of irregularities. It was understood that he would be if the recipients were Anthony McPartlin. In order to ensure his attendance, this assurance was given, but it could not be definitively established that Williams involvement led to the wrong winner being announced. Ant & Decs Saturday Night Takeaway did however receive the Peoples Choice Award at the British Comedy Awards 2006, beginning on 26 July 2007, British tabloid newspapers reported the alleged involvement of the British Comedy Awards in the 2007 British television phone-in scandal. ITV announced that they postponed the British Comedy Awards 2007 due to the voting irregularities, in a statement, the company said, Pending conclusion of the investigation, broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 will be postponed. ITV will not make any comment regarding this matter until the conclusion of the investigation. The 2007 awards did take place on 5 December 2007, in early May 2008 Ofcom announced its fining and sanctioning ITV plc in a press release. On 15 August 2008, it was announced that a scandal could have been committed in the award ceremony at the 2004 Awards. Angus Deayton replaced Jonathan Ross as the host of the British Comedy Awards, Ross returned to presenting the awards in 2009. Best Comedy Panel Show, Would I Lie to You, British Comedy Awards at British Comedy Guide
13.
Rose d'Or
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The Rose dOr is an international awards festival in entertainment broadcasting and programming. Eurovision first acquired the Rose d’Or in 1961, when it was created by Swiss Television in the city of Montreux. The awards stayed with Eurovision for almost 40 years, Eurovision re-acquired the awards in 2013 and successfully re-launched the event that year in Brussels. In 2014 the event took place on 17 September in Berlin, for the first time in its 53-year history, the competition categories were extended to include radio and online video programmes in addition to the traditional focus on television. Producers, executives from independent and public broadcasters and heads of production companies from several countries took part. The Rose dOr rewards originality, quality and creativity and sets the standard of excellence in entertainment programming. He had the idea that Switzerland could produce an entertainment programme, the festival was held in the spring to have programmes ready for broadcast in the summer, and the Golden Rose awards established as an extra incentive. As the festival grew, programme swaps ceased to be viable and this idea – widely copied since then – rapidly turned the Rose dOr into one of the worlds most important entertainment programme markets. The Strike 1989, Hale & Pace 1990, Mr
14.
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
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The Writers Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds and it represents writers working in television, radio, film, theatre, books and multimedia. These agreements are regularly renegotiated and in most cases the minimum fees are reviewed annually, WGGB advises its members on all aspects of their working lives. This includes contract vetting, legal advice, help with copyright problems, regular events are organised for members. The Annual General Meeting each summer features an address by an industry professional/s, WGGB makes a point of highlighting the importance of writing for children in all media. WGGB representatives attend regular briefings with the Arts Council, Ofcom, International connections include, International Affiliation of Writers Guilds, European Writers Congress, Fédération des Scénaristes dEurope, UNI-MEI. WGGB has a membership and services arrangement with the Irish Playwrights. UK WGGB members who achieve TV or film writing contracts in the US can join the Writers Guild of America without paying the usual $2,500 initial fee. The Writers Guild Pension Scheme provides personal pension plans customised for freelance writers who may need to make irregular, the scheme is coupled with clauses in several Guild MTAs entitling members to pension contributions in addition to their writing fees. Over the years the Writers Guild Welfare Fund has accumulated more than £40,000, the union was founded in 1959 as the Television and Screen Writers Guild, the successor to the Screenwriters Association dating back to 1938. During the 1960s it expanded to radio and book writers. WGGB also hosts the annual Writers Guild Awards, in 1997 WGGB merged with the Theatre Writers Union, and membership now stands at around 2,400. Full Membership is open to anyone who has received payment for a piece of work under a contract with terms no less than those negotiated by WGGB. Writers who do not qualify can join as Candidate Members, the WGGB Awards were first given out in 1961. It also awards the Tinniswood Award for radio dramas, which are incorporated into the BBC Audio Drama Awards
15.
People's Choice Awards
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The Peoples Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing the people and the work of popular culture, voted on by the general public. The show has been held annually since 1975, the Peoples Choice Awards is broadcast on CBS and is produced by Procter & Gamble and Mark Burnett. In Canada, it is shown on Global, the award shows creator was Bob Stivers, who produced the first show in 1975. The first awards recognized The Sting as Favorite Picture of 1974, Barbra Streisand as the years Favorite Film Actress, ratings for the annual event peaked in 1977, when the third Peoples Choice Awards attracted 35. Procter & Gamble, the only sponsor, bought the show from Stivers in 1982. Apart from the local advertising and network promotional time, all advertising during the awards show is solely by P&G brands. The award categories have varied over the years, for example, the 16th Peoples Choice Awards had categories including Favorite All-Around Movie, and both a Favorite Movie Actor and a World Favorite Movie Actor. At the 23rd Peoples Choice Awards, Rob Reiner was named the Peoples Choice Awards Honoree, in 2008, the Peoples Choice Awards introduced a new category, Favorite Sci-Fi Show. The nominees were Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who, Stargate Atlantis was the first recipient of the award. In the 20th century, the awards were based on results from Gallup polls, each year, Gallup took a survey of different categories for favorite actor, actress, movie, artist, television program or group. The scope was unlimited—the public could choose whomever or whatever it liked, the results of the annual survey were announced in the form of the Peoples Choice Awards. Since polls have margins of error, many awards have had ties in at least one category. For instance, in 2003, both Spider-Man and The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring were recognized as Favorite Motion Picture, the winners of the 31st Peoples Choice Awards were decided by online voting rather than Gallup polls. The nominees submitted for Internet voting were selected using a process involving editors at Entertainment Weekly, the shows production team. After being presented with a list of candidates determined by national ratings averages, box office grosses and album sales, the nominees for the 2010 Peoples Choice Awards were determined by the media research company Visible Measures, which specializes in measuring Internet video audience behavior. To measure True Reach, Visible Measures deploys a robust and patented set of technologies with the goal of capturing the universe of Internet video viewership data in near real-time, the first ceremony in 1975 had 14 categories. From Entertainment Weekly A 35th Anniversary article from The Hollywood Reporter
16.
Double act
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If the audience identifies primarily with one character, the other will often be referred to as a comic foil. The term feed comes from the way a man is wont to set up jokes. Despite the names given to the roles, the straight man need not be humorless. Where the straight man serves no personal comic purpose but acts as a device to make the comic look good and this is sometimes considered a derogatory term. Most often, however, the humor in a double act comes from the way the two personalities play off other, rather than from the individuals themselves. In many successful acts the roles are interchangeable, the template for the modern double act began in the British music halls and the American vaudeville scene of the late nineteenth century. Here, the man was a necessity, as he would repeat the lines of the comic. This was done simply because the audience would be noisy, soon the dynamic developed so that the straight man became a more integral part of the act, setting up jokes to which the comic could then deliver the punchline. At various stages, acts such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, Abbott and Costello, Flanagan and Allen, Gallagher and Shean, the dynamic continued to develop, with Abbott and Costello using a modern and recognizable formula in routines such as Whos On First. In the 1930s and Flanagan and Allen using cross talking, by the 1920s, double acts were beginning to attract worldwide fame more readily through the silent era. However, because of the restrictions, the comedy was not derived from cross talk or clever verbal exchanges but through slapstick routines. The first double act to gain fame through film was Laurel. Before meeting, the pair had never worked together on stage, though both had worked in vaudeville—Stan Laurel with Charlie Chaplin as part of Fred Karnos Army and Oliver Hardy as a singer. Laurel could loosely be described as the comic, though the pair were one of the first not to fit the mold in the way that many double acts do, the pair first worked together as a double act in the 1927 film Duck Soup. The first Laurel and Hardy film was called Putting Pants on Philip though their characters had not yet been established. The first film both appeared in was Lucky Dog in 1917. Indeed, they were one of the few silent acts who made a successful transition to spoken word pictures in the 1930s. The year 1940 saw the release of Laurel and Hardys Saps at Sea, their film for long-term producer
17.
Dawn French
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Dawn Roma French is a British actress, writer, and comedian. French has been nominated for seven British Academy Television Awards and also won a BAFTA Fellowship with Jennifer Saunders, French was born in Holyhead, Wales to English parents Denys Vernon French and Felicity Roma French, who married in their hometown of Plymouth in 1953. She was educated at the independent St Dunstans Abbey School and her father served in the Royal Air Force, stationed at RAF Valley. The RAF partly funded her private education, when her father was stationed at the former RAF Faldingworth, she attended Caistor Grammar School in Caistor, boarding in the schools Lindsey house. She later won a scholarship that brought her to study at the Spence School in New York. French has claimed that her self-confidence and self-belief stem from her father and she stated, He taught me to value myself. He told me that I was beautiful and the most precious thing in his life and he had a history of severe depression and attempted suicides but managed to conceal his illness from Dawn and her brother. She studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1977 and they had grown up on the same base, even having had the same best friend, although never meeting. At first, as far as Saunders was concerned, French was a cocky little upstart, French considered Saunders snooty and aloof. French and Saunders shared a flat whilst at college and were influenced to do comedy by their flatmates as part of their projects for college, after talking in depth for the first time, they came to be friends. While at college she broke up with her fiancé, a former Royal Navy officer, after they graduated, they formed a double-act called the Menopause Sisters. Saunders has described the act, which involved wearing tampons in their ears, the manager of the club recalled, They didnt seem to give a damn. There was no star quality about them at all, French and Saunders came to public attention as members of the Comic Strip, part of the alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s. French has also written a best-selling epistolary autobiography, which she has titled Dear Fatty, French was paid a £1.5 million advance for the book, which was released in 2008. On an appearance on The Paul OGrady Show on 6 October 2008, French said that Fatty is her nickname for Jennifer Saunders, French said that she became great friends with Saunders well before they started working together, which was over 30 years ago. The book consists of letters to the different people who have been in her life, French has had an extensive career on television, debuting on Channel 4s The Comic Strip Presents series in an episode called Five Go Mad in Dorset in 1982. Each episode presented a story and, in addition to French and Saunders, showcased Comic Strip performers Peter Richardson, Rik Mayall, Robbie Coltrane. She acted in 27 of the 37 episodes and wrote two of them, One episode featured a parody of spaghetti westerns and another a black and white film about a hopelessly goofy boy
18.
French and Saunders
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French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act, the duo continue to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been successful starring in their own shows. Her other work includes being the face of Barclays Bank and BBC America, meanwhile, French starred in the highly successful sitcom The Vicar of Dibley which received great critical acclaim as well as numerous holiday specials and future airplay, achieving cult status. She also starred in three series of the comedy show Murder Most Horrid, for many years she became popular for her appearances in the Terrys Chocolate Orange adverts saying the famous line Its not Terrys, its mine. And is currently the voice of W H Smith and Tesco adverts and she recently released her autobiography Dear Fatty, referring to Saunders, to whom she gave the nickname Fatty. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedians Comedian, the duo were voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and their last special, 2005s French and Saunders Christmas Celebrity Special, aired on 27 December 2005 on BBC One. In 2006, both Saunders and French announced that their show was now dead, and that they had moved on to more age appropriate material. Their last ever concert, and last ever performing as a duo act, Still Alive tour ran until the end of 2008, in 2009, they were jointly awarded the BAFTA Fellowship. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders met in 1978 while attending the Central School of Speech and Drama, French and Saunders were featured on the live comedy album of The Comic Strip recorded by comedy entrepreneur Martin Lewis for his Springtime. Label and was released in 1981, the duo made their first mainstream television appearance in the sketch comedy show The Comic Strip Presents. Where they appeared in approximately 30 episodes each as well as writing material for the show, in 1985, French and Saunders collaborated on their programme Girls on Top, which they once again wrote and starred in. Co-stars Tracey Ullman and Ruby Wax rounded out a set of four oddball roommates, in 1986, French and Saunders made their first of many appearances on Comic Relief, and they signed a long-term contract with the BBC. In 1987, French and Saunders created their eponymous sketch show and their show began humbly, but immediately established its own niche as a spoof on other types of shows. In the first season, it was set up to look like a low-budget variety show in which the duo were constantly attempting grandiose stunts. Often a famous guest star would be brought on then treated badly, as their show progressed and ratings skyrocketed, French and Saunders received higher and higher budgets with which to create elaborate parodies of mainstream culture. These ranged anywhere from recreations of films to spoofs on popular music artists, certain spoken phrases and sight gags that referenced previously performed sketches were incorporated for loyal fans. Saunders goads French to try the accent by saying, How are you, and French responds with an interpretation sounding more like a strong Northern Irish accent. Since then, the duo often break character in the middle of elaborate sketches to do an accent check, the show also contained numerous meta references, an awareness that the viewer was actually watching a parody
19.
Edina Monsoon
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Edina Monsoon is the main character in the BBC programme Absolutely Fabulous, played by Jennifer Saunders, who is also the creator of the show. The character is known for her extravagance and various attempts to follow new crazes, Edina was born Edwina Margaret Rose Monsoon on 6 August 1951 in London, her parents only child. She later changed her name to Edina and is always called Eddy, only her mother. It is never established whether Monsoon is her maiden or married name and her mother is only ever referred to as Mrs M and her second husband Justins last name is never revealed. As his daughter also goes by the surname Monsoon, its possible its Edinas married name, in the episode Gay she has completely forgotten that her first husbands surname was Turtle. According to Patsy, Edinas teenage nickname was The Shredder due to her addiction to eating huge amounts of tissues, Edina is the owner of a successful metropolitan PR company. It seems that this stems partly from her being at the places at the right times. In several episodes, including Fashion and The Last Shout, Edina demonstrates the creativity, organisational ability, in the first episode, Fashion she prides herself as going down in history as the woman that put Princess Anne in a Vivienne Westwood basque. However more often not, in numerous episodes her ventures fail rather than triumph. In the episode Small Opening, Edina asked her assistant Bubble, How would I normally ensure a flop. and Bubble replied, Promote it. She also runs her own shop which sells ethnic ornaments, but the shop is largely unsuccessful, a self-loathing yet self-obsessed neurotic, Edinas self-image is based on 1960s counterculture and the world of fashion and celebrity. She is fixated on self-indulgence and her ideas of self-actualisation, Edina subscribes to every trend that arises, including New Age spirituality—she calls herself a Buddhist—and feng shui. She aspires to move in the highest circles of creativity, fashion and she is a die-hard fan of Christian Lacroix and is quick to point out Its Lacroix, sweetie, Lacroix. Others often draw attention to Edinas weight, aware of her obsession with it only adds to her neurosis. In later years, this was switched to model Twiggy and Spice Girl Emma Bunton, Edina is desperate to give off the aura of success, wealth and fabulousness. Her outrageous but always expensive wardrobe is one of her ways of doing this and she is extremely status conscious, loudly clarifying that her house is in Holland Park whenever someone identifies the neighbourhood as Shepherds Bush. In an early episode, Edina says that she has always voted Labour and she collects hefty alimony payments from her two ex-husbands, Justin and Marshall, until they are cut off in the episode Poor. Saffys father Justin is homosexual and for a time has a boyfriend named Oliver, Marshall Turtle, Edinas first husband, is the father of her homosexual and almost perpetually off-screen son Serge
20.
Absolutely Fabulous
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Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a BBC television sitcom created by, written by and starring Jennifer Saunders. It is based on a 1990 French & Saunders sketch created by Saunders, the series features Saunders as Edina Monsoon, a heavy-drinking, drug-abusing PR agent who spends her time chasing bizarre fads in a desperate attempt to stay young and hip. The series also stars June Whitfield as Edinas sarcastic and thieving mother, Absolutely Fabulous returned for three special episodes which were originally broadcast on 25 December 2011,1 January 2012 and 23 July 2012 to mark the shows 20th anniversary. The episode broadcast on 23 July 2012 featured the 2012 Summer Olympics which were being held in London that week, a film based on the series was released to theatres on 1 July 2016. On 28 November 2016, Jennifer Saunders announced that the series is finished, the show has had an extended and sporadic run. The first three series were broadcast on the BBC from 1992 to 1995, followed by a series finale in the form of a television film entitled The Last Shout in 1996. Creator Jennifer Saunders revived the show for a series in 2001, after having written and submitted a pilot entitled Mirrorball. The pilot was intended to be turned into a series of episodes, however, Saunders felt the characters were far too rich and interesting to put aside, and were far better suited for her new story ideas. Instead of Mirrorball, a new series of Absolutely Fabulous was proposed to the BBC, which later commissioned the fourth series in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, two series were produced, along with three one-off hour-long specials, Gay in 2002, Cold Turkey, a Christmas special in 2003, and White Box. A Comic Relief sketch was broadcast in 2005, in August 2011, Lumley confirmed the planned filming of three new episodes. In 2011, plans for a 20th anniversary revival were welcomed in The Guardian, the first new special was broadcast on 25 December with the second episode being shown on 1 January 2012. The third, and final special coincided with the 2012 Summer Olympics, a film version of the series was released in summer 2016. In the United States, the first of the three new 20th anniversary specials aired in January 2012 for broadcast by both BBC America and Logo Channel, both channels also co-produced the 20th Anniversary episodes, although Logo removed some scenes for its airings. BBC America broadcast it in full, both channels aired the episode in a 40-minute block to allow for commercial interruptions. Absolutely Fabulous is ranked as the 17th greatest British TV show of all time by the British Film Institute, a scene from the show was included in the 100 Greatest TV Moments programme broadcast by Channel 4. In 1997, the episode, Fashion, was ranked number 47 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time list. In 2004 and 2007, the series was ranked number 24, Absolutely Fabulous evolved from a French & Saunders sketch called Modern Mother and Daughter, which starred Saunders as the mother and French as the daughter, already named Saffron
21.
Roseanne
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Roseanne is an American sitcom that was broadcast on ABC from October 18,1988, to May 20,1997. Lauded for its portrayal of the average American family, the series stars Roseanne Barr, and revolves around the Conners. The series reached #1 in the Nielsen ratings, becoming the most watched show in the United States from 1989 to 1990. The show remained in the top four for six of its nine seasons, in 1993, the episode A Stash from the Past was ranked #21 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time. In 2002, Roseanne was ranked #35 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, in 2013, it was ranked #32 on TV Guides 60 Best Series of All Time. In coming up with ideas for new shows, Marcy Carsey, up until that point, there had been shows with working mothers, but only as an adjunct to the father in the family. Werner had suggested that they take a chance on Barr whom they had seen on The Tonight Show and this was because he saw the unique in your face voice that they were looking for, and he contacted her agent and offered her the role. The show is centered on the Conners, an American working-class family struggling to get by on a household income in the fictional town of Lanford. Lanford was nominally located in Fulton County, but other on-air references over the years suggest the town is in the vicinity of Aurora, Elgin, and DeKalb, which are much closer to Chicago. The family consisted of outspoken Roseanne, married to husband Dan, later in the series, Roseanne becomes pregnant again and gives birth to a boy named Jerry Garcia Conner. Establishing shots were photographed in Evansville, Indiana, the hometown of first-season producer Matt Williams, exterior shots of the Conner household were based on a real home located in Evansville, located at 620 Runnymede Ave, a few blocks from Williams alma mater, University of Evansville. My show seeks to portray various slices of life, and homosexuals are a reality. Both actresses appeared together in one episode, story arcs occasionally spanned across several episodes or an entire season. Roseanne is a worker at Wellman Plastics, along with her sister Jackie. Jackie has a relationship with Booker, the foreman at Wellman. Dan finds sporadic work as a contractor and faces a strained relationship with his irresponsible. Roseannes parents, Beverly and Al, consider moving to Lanford, tomboy Darlene struggles with her femininity as she enters puberty and gets her first period. Becky faces dating problems with her first boyfriend Chip, who is introduced in the Lovers Lane episode, Season one also finds the Conners experiencing, and surviving, a tornado
22.
Friends
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Friends is an American television sitcom, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22,1994, to May 6,2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman, Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC, after several script rewrites and changes, including a title change to Six of One and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends. Filming took place at Warner Bros, All ten seasons of Friends ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings, ultimately reaching the No.1 spot with its eighth season. Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular shows of all time. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season. The show ranked no.21 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, in 1997, the episode The One with the Prom Video was ranked no.100 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time. In 2013, Friends ranked no.24 on the Writers Guild of Americas 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time, Rachel Green flees her wedding day and seeks out childhood friend Monica Geller, a New York City chef. Episodes typically depict the friends comedic and romantic adventures and career issues, the six characters each have many dates and serious relationships, such as Monica with Richard Burke and Ross with Emily Waltham. The series featured six main characters throughout its run, Jennifer Aniston portrays Rachel Green, Rachel first moves in with Monica in season one after nearly marrying Barry Farber, whom she realizes she does not love. Rachel and Ross Geller are later involved in a relationship throughout the series. Rachel’s first job is as a waitress at the coffeehouse Central Perk, Rachel and Ross have a daughter named Emma in The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two at the end of season eight. In the final episode of the series, Ross and Rachel finally confess their love for each other, Courteney Cox portrays Monica Geller, the mother hen of the group and a chef, known for her perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive nature. Monica is often teased by the others for having been extremely overweight as a child. Monica works as a chef in various restaurants throughout the show, Monica’s first serious relationship is with long-time family friend Richard Burke, who is twenty-one years her senior. The couple maintains a relationship for some time, until Richard expresses that he does not want to have children. Lisa Kudrow portrays Phoebe Buffay, a masseuse and self-taught musician
23.
DreamWorks Animation
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DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is an American animation studio that is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. It is based in Glendale, California and produces animated feature films, television programs, DreamWorks Animation currently maintains its Glendale campus, as well as satellite studios in India and China. On August 22,2016, NBCUniversal acquired DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, as of January 2017, its feature films have grossed $13.83 billion worldwide, with a $419.2 million average gross per film. Shrek 2 is among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, although the studio also made traditionally animated films in the past, as well as stop-motion co-production with Aardman Animations, all of their films now use computer animation. The studio has received three Academy Awards, as well as 22 Emmy and numerous Annie Awards, and multiple Golden Globe & BAFTA nominations, in recent years, the animation studio has acquired and created new divisions in an effort to diversify beyond the high-risk movie business. To build the talent base, Spielberg brought over artists from his London-based studio, Amblimation, some of Amblimations artists came to DreamWorks in 1995, when the studios last feature was completed, with the rest doing so following the studios closure in 1997. In 1995, DreamWorks signed a deal with Pacific Data Images to form subsidiary PDI. This new unit would produce computer-generated feature films, beginning with Antz in 1998, in the same year DreamWorks SKG produced The Prince of Egypt, which used both CGI technology and traditional animation techniques. In 1997, DreamWorks partnered with Aardman Animations, a British stop-motion animation studio, to co-produce and distribute Chicken Run, two years later they extended the deal for an additional four films. With Aardman doing stop-motion, they covered all three styles, besides traditional and computer animation. This partnership had DreamWorks participating in the production of films in Bristol. Three years later, DreamWorks SKG created DreamWorks Animation, a new division that would regularly produce both types of animated feature films. The same year DW acquired majority interest in PDI, and reformed it into PDI/DreamWorks, in 2001, Shrek was released and went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Due to the success of CGI animated films, DWA decided the year to exit hand-drawn animation business after the next two of total four hand-drawn films. Beginning with Shrek 2, all released films, other than some co-produced with Aardman, were expected to be produced with CGI, the releases of Shrek 2 and Shark Tale also made DWA the first studio to produce two CGI animated features in a single year. The animation division was spun off into a publicly traded company named DreamWorks Animation SKG, Katzenberg headed the new division, while Spielberg and Geffen remained on board as investors and consultants. DWA also inherited interests in PDI/DreamWorks and they made an agreement with their former parent to distribute all of their films until they deliver twelve new films, or December 12,2010, whichever came last. On January 31,2006, DWA entered into an agreement with Paramount Pictures
24.
Shrek 2
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Shrek 2 is a 2004 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation. As the sequel to the 2001 film Shrek, it was directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, who reprise their roles from the first film, are joined by Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, like its predecessor, Shrek 2 received positive reviews. It went on to be the film of 2004. It is also the seventh-highest animated film of all-time in ticket sellings, the associated soundtrack reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 200. Shrek and Fiona return from their honeymoon to find they have been invited by Fionas parents to a ball to celebrate their marriage. Shrek refuses to go at first, but Fiona talks him into it and they meet Fionas parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian, who are shocked to see their daughter as an ogre, with Harold particularly repulsed. Shrek worries that he has lost his love, particularly after finding her childhood diary. Harold arranges for Shrek and Donkey to join him on a hunting trip. However, Puss is unable to defeat Shrek and, revealing that he was paid by Harold, requests to come along, the three sneak into the Fairy Godmothers potion factory and steal a Happily Ever After potion that Shrek thinks will restore Fionas love for him. In order to make the permanent, Shrek must kiss Fiona by midnight. Shrek, Donkey and Puss return to the castle to discover that the potion has transformed Fiona back into her human self as well. However, the Fairy Godmother, having discovered the theft, intercepts Shrek and sends Charming to pose as him. At the Fairy Godmothers urging, Shrek leaves the castle, thinking that the best way to make Fiona happy is to let her go, to ensure that Fiona falls in love with Charming, the Fairy Godmother gives Harold a love potion to put into Fionas tea. This exchange is overheard by Shrek, Donkey and Puss, who are later arrested by the royal guards. He is too late to them, instead of falling in love with Charming, though. Harold reveals that he never gave Fiona the love potion, whereupon the now enraged Fairy Godmother attacks Shrek and he had used the Happily Ever After potion years before in order to marry Lillian, but she tells him that she loves him regardless of his appearance. As the clock strikes midnight, Shrek and Fiona let the potions effects wear off and they revert to their ogre forms, Harold gives his blessing to the marriage and apologizes for his earlier behavior, and the party resumes
25.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
26.
Minions (film)
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Minions is a 2015 American 3D computer-animated comedy film, serving as a spin-off/prequel to the Despicable Me franchise. Produced by Illumination Entertainment for Universal Pictures, it was directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, written by Brian Lynch, and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy. The film stars the voices of Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, and Jennifer Saunders with the narration provided by Geoffrey Rush. It was first foreshadowed in the end credits of Despicable Me 2, where Kevin, Stuart, Minions had its premiere on June 11,2015, in Leicester Square, London, and went into general release in the United States on July 10,2015. The film has grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, making it the 11th highest-grossing film of all time, the 2nd highest-grossing animated film, a sequel is announced to be released on July 3,2020. Minions are small, yellow creatures who have existed since the beginning of time, after many years, the Minions become depressed, restless and unmotivated without a master to serve. To regain their dignity and sense of purpose, Kevin, one fearless Minion, decides to set out to find a new master, Stuart, a musically inclined Minion and Bob, a young and inexperienced but enthusiastic Minion, are recruited. The trio journey to New York where the year is 1968, the trio manage to hitchhike a ride with a family of villains called the Nelsons and impress them with their accidental villainy. Once at the convention, they see Scarlet Overkill, the first female supervillain and they make their way to England to find Kevin, Bob, and Stuart. Enraged by this, Scarlet confronts the Minions, and Bob abdicates in her favor, Making their way to Westminster Abbey, the three of them interrupt the coronation by accidentally dropping a chandelier on Scarlet, who immediately orders their execution. Dozens of villains chase them and Bob and Stuart are caught while Kevin finds his way into a pub and he sees Scarlet on a television, promising that she will kill Stuart and Bob if Kevin doesnt show up by dawn. Kevin sneaks into Scarlets home to weapons, but inadvertently triggers a machine Herb was building. He tramples through London, rescuing his friends just as the other Minions reunite with them, Scarlet tries to eradicate them, but Kevin swallows a massive missile she fires at them. Scarlet and Herb attempt to escape with her rocket-dress, but Kevin holds onto it, the missile detonates, apparently killing Kevin and the Overkills. After the Minions briefly mourn him, Kevin reappears, having returned to his normal size, Bob gives his crown to the frozen Scarlet, as the Minions see Gru as their new potential master and give chase to follow him home. Sandra Bullock as Scarlet Overkill, a female supervillain. On August 21,2012, it was announced that the film would be released on December 19,2014, in February 2013, Sandra Bullock joined the cast to voice Scarlet Overkill, with Jon Hamm joining two months later as her husband Herb Overkill. The official soundtrack for the film was released on July 10,2015, the soundtrack also features the films original music, composed by Heitor Pereira
27.
Royal Air Force
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The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period
28.
Air marshal
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Air marshal is a three-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. Air marshal is a rank and has a NATO ranking code of OF-8. In other NATO forces, such as the United States Armed Forces and the Canadian Armed Forces, the rank of air marshal is immediately senior to the rank of air vice-marshal and immediately subordinate to the rank of air chief marshal. Officers in the rank of air marshal typically hold senior appointments such as commander-in-chief of an air force or a large air force formation. Officers in the ranks of air marshal and air vice-marshal are also referred to generically as air marshals. Occasionally, air force officers of rank are considered to be air marshals. Prior to the adoption of RAF-specific rank titles in 1919, it was suggested that the RAF might use the Royal Navys officer ranks, for example, the rank that later became air marshal would have been air vice-admiral. However, air marshal was preferred and was adopted on 1 August 1919, the rank of air marshal was first used on 11 August 1919 when Sir Hugh Trenchard was promoted to the rank and it has been used ever since. The rank insignia consists of two light blue bands over a light blue band on a broad black band. This is worn on the sleeves of the dress uniform or on shoulders of the flying suit or working uniform. The command flag for an air marshal is defined by the broad red band running in the centre of the flag. The vehicle star plate for an air marshal depicts three white stars on an air force blue background and it is also used in the Nigerian Air Force, Ghana Air Force, Hellenic Air Force, Air Force of Zimbabwe and the Royal Thai Air Force. The Brazilian Air Force does not use air marshal ranks as an equivalent to general ranks, however, its highest rank is marechal-do-ar, the equivalent to a Brazilian Army marshal. Marechal-do-ar can be translated as air marshal or marshal of the air, similarly, the Royal Malaysian Air Forces five-star rank of marshal udara translates as air marshal. The Australian Air Corps adopted the RAF rank system on 9 November 1920 and this usage was continued by its successor, however, the rank of air marshal was not used by the Australian Armed Forces until 1940 when Richard Williams, an RAAF officer, was promoted. In New Zealand, the head of the air force holds the rank of air vice-marshal. However, when an air force holds the countrys senior military appointment, Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force. The last air force Chief of the Defence Force was Air Marshal Sir Bruce Ferguson who served in that appointment from 2001 to 2006, in official French Canadian usage, the rank title was maréchal de lair
29.
British Aerospace
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British Aerospace plc was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, in 1999 it purchased Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, to form BAE Systems. The company was formed in the United Kingdom as a corporation on 29 April 1977 as a result of the Aircraft. This called for the nationalisation and merger of the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, in 1979 BAe officially joined Airbus, the UK having previously withdrawn support for the consortium in April 1969. On 4 February 1981 the government sold 51. 57% of its shares, the British government sold its remaining shares in 1985, maintaining a £1 golden share which allows it veto foreign control of the board or company. On 26 September 1985, the UK and Saudi Arabian governments signed the Al-Yamamah arms deal with BAe as prime contractor, the Al Yamamah deals are valued at anything up to £20 billion and still continue to provide a large percentage of BAE Systems profits. In 1986, With Alenia Aeronautica, CASA and DASA, BAe formed Eurofighter GmbH for the development of the Eurofighter Typhoon, on 22 April 1987, BAe acquired Royal Ordnance, the British armaments manufacturer, for £190 million. Heckler & Koch GmbH was folded into this division when BAe acquired it in 1991, in 1988, BAe purchased the Rover Group which then was privatised by the British government of Margaret Thatcher. In August 1991, BAe formed a naval systems joint venture, BAeSEMA, BAe acquired Semas 50% share in 1998. 1991 also saw BAe begin to experience major difficulties, BAe saw its share price fall below 100p for the first time. On 9 September 1991, the company issued a profits warning, Evans described the troubles as a confluence of events, our property company was hit with a lousy market. Sales of the Rover Group sank by about a fifth and losses mounted, the governments defence spending volumes underwent a major review. Losses in our commercial aerospace division increased dramatically with the recession in the airline industry, in 1992, BAe formed Avro RJ Regional Jets to produce the Avro RJ series, an evolution of the BAe 146. In mid-1992 BAe wrote off £1 billion of assets, largely as part of redundancies and this was largest asset write-off in UK corporate history. The General Electric Company, later to sell its interests to BAe. BAe cut 47% of its workforce,40,000 of which were from the aircraft division. Evans decided to sell non-core business activities which included The Rover Group, Arlington Securities, BAe Corporate Jets, BAe Communications and Ballast Nedam. Although the rationale of diversification was sound the company could not afford to continue the position
30.
Boarding school
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A boarding school is a school at which most or all of the students live during the part of the year that they go to lessons. The word boarding is used in the sense of bed and board, i. e. lodging, some boarding schools also have day students who attend the institution by day and return to their families in the evenings. Many independent schools are boarding schools, Boarding school pupils normally return home during the school holidays and often weekends, but in some cultures may spend most of their childhood and adolescent life away from their families. In the United States, boarding schools comprise various grades, most commonly grades seven or nine through grade twelve—the high school years, other schools are for younger children, grades two through eight. A military school, or military academy, also features military education, in the former Soviet Union schools were introduced, these sometimes are known as Internat-schools. Some schools were a type of specialized school with a focus in a particular field or fields such as mathematics, physics, language, science, sports. Other schools were associated with orphanages after all children enrolled in Internat-school automatically. Also, separate boarding schools were established for children with special needs, general schools offered extended stay programs featuring cheap meals for children and preventing them from coming home too early before parents were back from work. In post-soviet countries, the concept of boarding school differs from country to country, the term boarding school often refers to classic British boarding schools and many boarding schools around the world are modeled on these. A typical boarding school has separate residential houses, either within the school grounds or in the surrounding area. Pupils generally need permission to go outside defined school bounds, they may be allowed to travel off-campus at certain times, depending on country and context, boarding schools generally offer one or more options, full, weekly, or on a flexible schedule. Each may be assisted in the management of the house by a housekeeper often known as matron. In the U. S. boarding schools often have a resident family that lives in the dorm and they also have janitorial staff for maintenance and housekeeping, but typically do not have tutors associated with an individual dorm. Nevertheless, older pupils are often unsupervised by staff, and a system of monitors or prefects gives limited authority to senior pupils, houses readily develop distinctive characters, and a healthy rivalry between houses is often encouraged in sport. Houses may also have common rooms for television and relaxation and kitchens for snacks, some facilities may be shared between several houses or dorms. In others, separate houses accommodate needs of different years or classes, in some schools, day pupils are assigned to a dorm or house for social activities and sports purposes. Each student has a timetable, which in the early years allows little discretion. Boarders and day students are taught together in school hours and in most cases continue beyond the day to include sports, clubs and societies
31.
Oxbridge
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Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Although both universities were founded more than eight centuries ago, the term Oxbridge is relatively recent, in William Thackerays novel Pendennis, published in 1849, the main character attends the fictional Boniface College, Oxbridge. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this is the first recorded instance of the word, virginia Woolf used it, citing Thackeray, in her 1929 essay A Room of Ones Own. By 1957 the term was used in the Times Educational Supplement, when expanded, the universities are almost always referred to as Oxford and Cambridge, the order in which they were founded. Both were founded more than 800 years ago, and continued as Englands only universities until the 19th century, between them they have educated a large number of Britains most prominent scientists, writers and politicians, as well as noted figures in many other fields. Each has a collegiate structure, whereby the University is a co-operative of its constituent colleges. Both universities have many buildings of great beauty and antiquity, and are sited on level terrain ideal for cycling and they are the top-scoring institutions in cross-subject UK university rankings, so they are targeted by ambitious pupils, parents and schools. Entrance is extremely competitive and some schools promote themselves based on their achievement of Oxbridge offers, combined, the two universities award over one-sixth of all English full-time research doctorates. Oxford and Cambridge have common approaches to undergraduate admissions, until the mid-1980s, entry was typically by sitting special entrance exams. Camford was also used in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Creeping Man, other words have been derived from the term Oxbridge, though none has achieved widespread recognition. The term Loxbridge is sometimes seen, and was adopted as the name of the Ancient History conference now known as AMPAH
32.
Chalk Farm
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The land slopes upwards more steeply to the north-west and abruptly to form a knoll to the south-west which is Primrose Hill. Chalk Farm tube station is the closest underground station to all parts. This is true of much of the therefore loosely more Chalk Farm-associated upmarket western residential definition and its name was formerly Chalcot when it was a hamlet of the once vast Hornsey parish. Before the post-1791 development of Camden Town the residents of Primrose Hill, Chalk Farm equates to the northern neighbourhood of Camden Town and features many lively pubs, live music venues, and restaurants. Within immediate reach of the station is The Roundhouse, a former circular railway engine turntable shed converted to 360° arts. Chalk Farm contains Haverstock School Business & Enterprise College, Camden College of English was in Chalk Farm For over 70 years major bus routes were operated from Chalk Farm bus garage, in Harmood Street, now long gone. Today the long-established route 27 and the newer route 393 both terminate at Chalk Farm and these buses reach opposite destinations outside central London, Chiswick Business Park and Clapton respectively. Walden Books is a secondhand bookshop located just off Chalk Farm Road. Primrose Hill Camden Town Regents Park Kentish Town Maitland Park St Johns Wood Swiss Cottage, South Hampstead Chalk Farm on the north-south Northern line, the nearest London Overground station is centred 0.5 miles east, Kentish Town West
33.
Tampon
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A tampon is a mass of absorbent material, primarily used as a feminine hygiene product. Historically, the word originated from the medieval French word tampion, meaning a piece of cloth to stop a hole. At present, tampons are designed to be inserted into the vagina during menstruation. However, using tampons may be difficult or impossible for those with untreated vaginismus or an untreated imperforate hymen, several countries regulate tampons as medical devices. In the United States, they are considered to be a Class II medical device by the Food and they are sometimes used for hemostasis in surgery. Women have used tampons during menstruation for thousands of years, in her book Everything You Must Know About Tampons, Nancy Friedman writes, here is evidence of tampon use throughout history in a multitude of cultures. The oldest printed medical document, Papyrus Ebers, refers to the use of soft papyrus tampons by Egyptian women in the fifteenth century B. C. Roman women used wool tampons. Women in ancient Japan fashioned tampons out of paper, held them in place with a bandage, traditional Hawaiian women used the furry part of a native fern called hapuu, and grasses, mosses and other plants are still used by women in parts of Asia. R. G. Dr. Earle Haas patented the first modern tampon, Tampax, gertrude Tendrich bought the patent rights to their company trademark Tampax and started as a seller and spokesperson in 1933. During her study of anatomy, German gynecologist Dr. Judith Esser-Mittag developed a digital style tampon. In the late 1940s, Dr. Carl Hahn, together with Heinz Mittag, Dr. Hahn sold his company to Johnson and Johnson in 1974. Several political statements have made in regards to tampon use. In 2000, a 10% Goods and Services Tax was introduced in Australia, while lubricant, condoms, incontinence pads and numerous medical items were regarded as essential and exempt from the tax, tampons continue to be charged GST. Prior to the introduction of GST, several states also applied a tax to tampons at a higher rate than GST. Specific petitions such as Axe the Tampon Tax have been created to oppose this tax, although no change has been made. In the UK, tampons are subject to Value Added Tax at a rate of 5%. In 2014 a petition, started by Laura Coryton founder of the Stop Taxing Periods campaign, the petition pointed out that there is no tax on exotic meats, but it has also been noted that there is a 20% rate on toilet paper and toothpaste. Changes to EU legislation, which would require the approval of all 27 EU member states, Tampon design varies between companies and across product lines in order to offer a variety of applicators, materials and absorbencies
34.
Peter Richardson (actor)
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Peter Richardson is an English director, screenwriter, actor, and comedian. Richardson approached Channel 4 to make a series of short, self-contained one-off comedy films with this group, many of which were written, directed by and featured him in acting roles. Richardson began his career as a teenager acting in Alan Bennetts Forty Years On, trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1971-73. He later created his own theatre shows with Nigel Planer amongst others, mixing comedy. Two of these shows, Rank and The Wild Boys toured nationally, films, one of the first examples of alternative comedy to appear on British television. Richardson has been involved in the production of over 40 Comic Strip films and has directed 17 of them, the series won a Rose DOr for The Strike in 1988. He developed the series into films, The Supergrass, Eat the Rich, The Pope Must Die. In the 1990s, Richardson introduced a new generation of performers, Doon Mackichan, Mark Caven, Phil Cornwell, Sara Stockbridge, George Yiasoumi and Gary Beadle and he co-wrote and also directed the 1990s cult mockumentary comedy series Stella Street with Phil Cornwell and John Sessions. In 2004, Richardson co-founded the production company Great Western Features with Nick Smith, in 2005, he directed the Comic Strip film Sex Actually. In the 2010s, Richardson wrote and directed two more Comic Strip films, 2011s The Hunt for Tony Blair and 2012s Five Go To Rehab, Richardson was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, England and lived in a house near Denbury. His parents ran a summer camp school. The family moved to Dartmoor when Richardson was ten, the family did not have a television, but his father had a cine camera with which they would make films. Richardson credits this as the beginning of his interest in filmmaking and he moved to London when he was seventeen, having decided he wanted to be an actor. At one point he was a lifeguard at a swimming pool, Richardson appeared as one of the schoolboys in Alan Bennetts Forty Years On. This work led to him getting an agent and performing in TV plays as an extra and he then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. It was here in the year he became reacquainted with Nigel Planer. With the assistance of Caroline Jay, they produced a show called Rank, inspired by the raid of the 1974 Windsor Free Festival. Planer and Richardson played all the characters in the play, which numbered around forty, the play was well received and enabled the pair to get an Arts Council grant to take it on tour
35.
Rik Mayall
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Richard Michael Rik Mayall was an English comedian, actor, and writer. His acting style was described as energetic post-punk, Blackadder, Filthy Rich & Catflap, The New Statesman, and Bottom. He also starred in the comedy films Drop Dead Fred and Guest House Paradiso and he won an Emmy Award in 1997 for his voice-over work in the television film The Willows in Winter. In 1998, Mayall suffered a head injury in a quad bike accident near his Devon home. He died of a cardiac event on 9 June 2014 at the age of 56. Mayall, the second of four children, was born in Harlow, Essex, to John and he had an older brother, Anthony, and two younger sisters, Libby and Kate. When Mayall was three years old, he and his parents—who taught drama—moved to Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, where he spent the rest of his childhood, there he also met Ben Elton, a fellow student, and Lise Mayer, with whom he later co-wrote The Young Ones. Edmondson and Mayall gained their reputation at The Comedy Store, from 1980, apart from performing in their double act, 20th Century Coyote, Mayall developed solo routines, using characters such as Kevin Turvey and a pompous anarchist poet named Rick. Mayalls Kevin Turvey character gained a slot in A Kick Up the Eighties. He appeared as Rest Home Ricky in Richard OBriens Shock Treatment and he played Dentonvales resident attendant as the love interest to Nell Campbells Nurse Ansalong. Mayalls television appearances as Kevin Turvey warranted a mockumentary based on the character titled Kevin Turvey – The Man Behind The Green Door, the previous year, he appeared in a bit role in An American Werewolf in London. His stage partnership with Edmondson continued, with them often appearing together as The Dangerous Brothers, Channel 4 offered the Comic Strip group six short films, which became The Comic Strip Presents. The series, which continued sporadically for years, saw Mayall play a wide variety of roles. It was known for anti-establishment humour and for such as Bad News on Tour. At the time The Comic Strip Presents. was negotiated, the BBC took an interest in The Young Ones, the series was commissioned and first broadcast in 1982, shortly before Comic Strip. Mayall played Rick, a sociology student and Cliff Richard devotee. Despite the sitcom format, Mayall maintained his double-act with Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan also starred, with additional material written and performed by Alexei Sayle. The first series was successful and a second was screened in 1984, the show owed a comic debt to Spike Milligan, but Milligan was disapproving of Mayall
36.
Robbie Coltrane
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Robbie Coltrane, OBE is a Scottish actor and author. He has a sister, Annie, and a younger sister. Coltrane is the great-grandson of Scottish businessman Thomas W. Howie and he was educated at Glenalmond College, an independent school in Perthshire, from which he was nearly expelled after hanging the prefects gowns from the school clocktower. Though he later described his experiences there as deeply unhappy, he played for the rugby First XV, was head of the debating society. Coltrane moved into acting in his twenties, taking the stage name Coltrane and working in theatre. I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee, on television, he also appeared in The Young Ones, Tutti Frutti, as Samuel Johnson in Blackadder, and in a number of stand-up and sketch comedy shows. He played the part of Falstaff in Kenneth Branaghs Henry V He co-starred with Eric Idle in Nuns on the Run and he also played a would-be private detective obsessed with Humphrey Bogart in the TV play The Bogie Man. His roles continued in the 1990s with the TV series Cracker, the role won him three BAFTA awards. Roles in bigger films followed, the James Bond films GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough, there is also an unnamed 8ft actor who stands in for the 6ft 1in Coltrane in some scenes. Coltrane has also presented a number of programmes for the British ITV network based around his twin passions for travel. In these programmes he dismantled and rebuilt several engines and he also single-handedly removed the engine from a Trabant car in 23 minutes. In August 2007, Coltrane presented a series for ITV called B-Road Britain, in which he travelled from London to Glasgow, stopping in towns, Coltrane married Rhona Gemmell on 11 December 1999. The couple have two children, son Spencer, and daughter Alice, won Evening Standard British Film Award – Peter Sellers Award for Comedy 1990. He was awarded the OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours for his services to drama, in 2011 was honoured for his outstanding contribution to film as the British Academy Scotland Awards. Robbie Coltrane at the Internet Movie Database Robbie Coltrane biography and credits at the British Film Institutes Screenonline
37.
Raymond Revuebar
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The Raymond Revuebar was a theatre and strip club at 11 Walkers Court, in the heart of Londons Soho district. For many years, it was the venue in London that offered full-frontal, on-stage nudity of the sort commonly seen in other cities in Europe. Its huge brightly lit sign declaring it to be the World Centre of Erotic Entertainment made the Revuebar a local landmark, in 1980, the Boulevard Theatre section of the venue was hired by comic actor Peter Richardson to stage his alternative comedy revue, The Comic Strip. This attracted a younger audience to the venue. In 1989, the Boulevard became Eddie Izzards stand-up venue, in the 1990s, the Revuebar struggled, with its dated image and competition from newer more sophisticated venues such as Spearmint Rhino and Stringfellows. The name and leasehold was bought by Gérard Simi in 1997, the Revuebar closed on 10 June 2004 and became a gay bar and cabaret venue called Too2Much, designed by Anarchitect. In November 2006, it changed its name to Soho Revue Bar and was the home of club nights and special events. On 29 January 2009, the Soho Revue Bar closed, reopening in February 2011 as The Box Soho, billed as A theatre of varieties, the Raymond Revuebar was the creation of property magnate and magazine publisher Paul Raymond. The theatre was formerly the Doric Ballroom, when it opened on 21 April 1958 it offered traditional burlesque-style entertainment, which included strip tease, and was popular with leading entertainment figures of the day. Even though homosexual acts between men were illegal at that time, the Revuebar also incorporated a Sunday night show aimed at a gay audience, by 1967, the venue was purely hosting striptease. This would, in turn, make way for glitzy, big budget erotic shows of the type presented by Continental clubs such as the Crazy Horse, performers were mostly female, with a small number of male dancers. Shows involved a mixture of solo striptease acts mixed with simulated boy/girl and girl/girl sex and these were packaged together as a show known as The Festival of Erotica which ran for many years, with as many as three performances nightly. In 1980 Peter Richardson, with assistance from Michael White sourced the Revuebars second venue and it opened in October 1980 and ran until 1981. In 1989, the Boulevard Theatre was also home to Eddie Izzards stand-up venue, the name and control of the theatre was bought by Gérard Simi in 1997. Who reconfigured the show as a more conventional striptease revue, gradually the theatres fortunes waned, with Simi citing rising rent demands from Raymond as the cause. The Revuebar closed on 10 June 2004 and became a gay bar and cabaret venue called Too2Much, on 29 January 2009, the Soho Revue Bar closed. The venue reopened on 8 January 2011, with a new name and new management,31 December 1960. Raymond King of Strip Clubs. An article by Ernest Dudley. Today Magazine January,1961. A Nice Quite Country Town, Paul Raymond talks about the Raymond Revuebar
38.
Dustin Hoffman
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Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor and a director, with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. Hoffman has been known for his portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer, and in 1989 for Rain Man. Widely considered one of the finest actors in history, Hoffman first drew praise for starring in the play, Eh. for which he won a Theatre World Award. This achievement was followed by his breakthrough 1967 film role as Benjamin Braddock. Since that time, Hoffmans career has largely focused on the cinema, with sporadic returns to television. Hoffmans notable films include, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Straw Dogs, Papillon, Lenny, Marathon Man, All the Presidents Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Hook and he made his directorial debut in 2012, with Quartet. Along with 2 Academy Award wins, Hoffman has been nominated for 5 additional Academy Awards and he has won 4 BAFTAs,3 Drama Desk Awards,2 Emmy Awards, and a Genie Award. Hoffman received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012, Dustin Lee Hoffman was born on August 8,1937 in Los Angeles, California, the second son of Lillian and Harry Hoffman. His father worked as a supervisor at Columbia Pictures before becoming a furniture salesman. Hoffman was named after stage and silent screen actor, Dustin Farnum and his older brother, Ronald, is a lawyer and economist. Hoffman is Jewish, from an Ashkenazi family of immigrants from Ukraine, Poland and his upbringing was non-religious, and he has said, I don’t have any memory of celebrating holidays growing up that were Jewish, and that he had realized he was Jewish at around age 10. Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955 and enrolled at Santa Monica College with the intention of studying medicine. He left after a year to join the Pasadena Playhouse, although when he told his family about his career goal and he also took classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Hoffman initially hoped to become a classical pianist, having studied piano during much of his youth, while at Santa Monica College, he also took an acting class, which he assumed would be easy, and caught the acting bug. He recalls, I just was not gifted in music, now an aspiring actor, he spent the next ten years doing odd jobs, being unemployed, and struggling to get any available acting roles. He composed a song called Shooting the Breeze and Bette Midler wrote the words and his first acting role was at the Pasadena Playhouse, alongside future Academy Award-winner, Gene Hackman. After two years there, Hackman headed for New York City, with Hoffman soon following, Hoffman, Hackman and Robert Duvall lived together in the 1960s, all three of them focused on finding acting jobs
