1.
As It Occurs To Me
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As It Occurs To Me is an internet comedy sketch and stand-up show written and performed by Richard Herring and co-starring Dan Tetsell, Emma Kennedy and Christian Reilly. It was performed between 2009 and 2011 at the Leicester Square Theatre and occasionally at the Bloomsbury Theatre and was available as a podcast through the British Comedy Guide website. The show ran for three series, including three specials, in March 2014 Herring announced that the show could make a return in a filmed format depending on fans funding the filming of the project in return for extra content from his other shows. After a successful Kickstarter in 2016, the returned in a monthly format. Herring decided to pioneer the idea the following year, while the show is free to download, there is an admission fee to attend the recording in order to cover costs. The style of the show is similar to Herrings BBC Radio 2 show That Was Then. Herrings habit of turning his show titles into acronyms is continued in As It Occurs To Me, which has the abbreviation AIOTM, the show is recorded live and put out as a podcast unedited, retaining any mistakes and ad-libs. The rough nature of the show is referred to in the show itself. Tiny Andrew Collings is a representation of the broadcaster and writer Andrew Collins, with whom Herring hosted a podcast. The name Tiny Andrew Collings was first used in Episode Ten of Series One as part of a parody of A Christmas Carol, where he was represented as a Tiny Tim character. At the end of episode, the real Andrew Collins took to the stage after weeks of Richard refusing to let him have anything to do with it. Tiny Andrew Collings returned in Series Two, appearing in every episode, during the series Tiny Andrew Collings fathered a child, Tiny Tiny Andrew Collings, with his own mother, Tiny Mrs Collings, played by Emma Kennedy. By the end of the all three characters were killed by Richard Herring. Series Two saw the début of Tiny Andrew Collings catchphrase, used to highlight his two-faced bitchy comments, especially regarding Herring himself. Despite having died at the end of Series Two, Tiny Andrew returned on the Edinburgh special, Tiny Andrew Collings returned again in Series Three, in a smaller, Series One style capacity. Herring has since encouraged listeners to purchase merchandise from the Urban Dictionary website. In Series Two, Herring vowed to create all new catchphrases and so, for the Edinburgh special the term was dropped and replaced by Shaggis. For Series Three, this again to a Minted Cumpkin - the same as a regular cumpkin
2.
Pocklington
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Pocklington /ˈpɒklɪŋtən/ is a small market town and civil parish situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. In 2011, its population was 8,337 and it is located 13 miles east of York and 26 miles north-west of Hull The towns skyline is dominated by the 15th-century tower of All Saints Church. Pocklington lies at the centre of the ecclesiastical Parish of Pocklington, Pocklington appears on the 14th century Gough Map, the oldest route map in Great Britain. In the Iron Age Pocklington was a town of the Parisi tribe. Pocklington developed through the Middle Ages while many similar places fell into dramatic decline, wool was England’s principal export in the earlier Middle Ages. The Towns coat of arms shield is based on that of the Dolman family, the arms were granted to the town council in 1980. The crown at the base of the shield is the emblem of the saints, along with the cross, symbolises the towns historic connection with Paulinus of York. The towns motto is Service with Freedom, Pocklington falls under the authority of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, a unitary authority. The town is part of the Pocklington Provincial Ward and returns three councillors to the council, since 2001, Pocklington has been part of the East Yorkshire Parliamentary Constituency. The seat is held by Greg Knight for the Conservative Party. Pocklingtons Town Council consists of thirteen elected councillors and is responsible for the cemetery, allotments, the Croft play-park, there is some controversy surrounding the policy as local residents believe that the war heroes from Pocklington and nearby Barmby Moor should also be honoured in this way. In the last five years several groups have been formed to address local issues. Superfast broadband was rolled out in the town by March 2015, action Access A1079 - aim to improve the A1079 road, long-term goal for dual carriageway. Minsters Rail Campaign - aim to return the railway to Pocklington, Pocklington Space for Dogs - aim is to improve dog walking and sanitary facilities in and around Pocklington. The group was formed by Sharon and Bess Clark in 2008 and has lobbied the council for the installation of waste-collection sites in the local area. Pocklington is twinned with, Le Pays de Racan, France Trendelburg, Germany Pocklington is a spring line settlement, located at the base of the Yorkshire Wolds. Geologically speaking, the rocks underlying this area were lain down under tropical oceans, and, when the land rose, the chalk Wolds were formed from the skeletons and shells covering the sea floor. The landscape around Pocklington therefore varies from arable land primarily devoted to agriculture to the south and west
3.
East Riding of Yorkshire
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The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county of England. It is located in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber, the modern East Riding of Yorkshire, was formed in 1996 from the northern part of the non-metropolitan county of Humberside. The East Riding of Yorkshire may also refer to the riding of Yorkshire. The historic riding covered an area than the modern county, it included some areas now in North Yorkshire, but did not include the area of Goole. At the 2011 Census the Unitary Authority population was 334,179, the landscape consists of a crescent of low chalk hills, the Yorkshire Wolds, surrounded by the low-lying fertile plains of Holderness and the Vale of York. The Humber Estuary and North Sea mark its southern and eastern limits, archaeological investigations have revealed artefacts and structures from all historical periods since the last ice age. There are few settlements and no industrial centres. The area is administered from the ancient market and ecclesiastical town of Beverley, Christianity is the religion with the largest following in the area and there is a higher than average percentage of retired people in residence. The economy is based on agriculture and this, along with tourism, has contributed to the rural. These aspects are also reflected in the places of interest to visitors and major landmarks, which include buildings, nature reserves. The open and maritime aspects and lack of urban developments have also led to the county being allocated relatively high targets for the generation of energy from renewable sources. Bishop Burton is the site of a college, and Hull provides the regions only university. On the southern border, close to Hull, the Humber Bridge spans the Humber Estuary to enable the A15 to link Hessle with Barton-upon-Humber in North Lincolnshire. When the last glacial period ended, the hunter gatherers of the Palaeolithic period followed the herds across the land between continental Europe and Britain. Until about 6,000 BC, Mesolithic people appear to have exploited their environment as they found it, as communities came to rely on a smaller territorial range and as population levels increased, attempts began to be made to modify or control the natural world. In the Great Wold Valley, pollen samples of Mesolithic date indicate that the forest cover in the area was being disturbed and altered by man, the Yorkshire Wolds became a major focus for human settlement during the Neolithic period as they had a wide range of natural resources. The oldest monuments found on the Wolds are the Neolithic long barrows, two earthen long barrows in the region are found at Fordon, on Willerby Wold, and at Kilham, both of which have radiocarbon dates of around 3700 BC. From around 2000 to 800 BC, the people of the Bronze Age built the 1,400 Bronze Age round barrows that are known to exist on the Yorkshire Wolds and these are found both in isolation and grouped together to form cemeteries
4.
Stand-up comedy
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Stand-up comedy is a comic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience, usually speaking directly to them. The performer is known as a comic, stand-up comic, stand-up comedian. In stand-up comedy, the comedian usually recites a grouping of humorous stories, jokes and one-liners typically called a monologue, routine, some stand-up comedians use props, music, or magic tricks to enhance their acts. Stand-up comedy is often performed in clubs, bars and pubs, nightclubs. Outside of live performance, stand-up is often distributed commercially via television, DVD, CD, in stand-up comedy, the feedback of the audience is instant and crucial for the comedians act. Audiences expect a stand-up comic to provide a stream of laughs. Will Ferrell has called stand-up comedy hard, lonely and vicious, a stand-up comedy show may involve only one comedian, or feature a headline or a showcase format. This is followed by one or two middle or featured acts, who perform 15- to 20-minute sets, followed by a headliner who performs for longer, a showcase format may still feature an MC. Bringer shows are another opportunity for amateur performers, the performer must bring a specified number of paying guests in order to get stage time. The guests usually have to pay a charge and there is often a minimum number of drinks that must be ordered. These shows usually have a showcase format and this type of show gives comedians better exposure than open mics because there is usually better audience turnout and industry professionals sometimes go to watch. Different comedy clubs have different requirements for their bringer shows, gotham Comedy Club in New York City, for example, usually has ten-person bringers, while Broadway Comedy Club in New York City usually has six-person bringers. As the name implies, stand-up comedians usually perform their material while standing, stand-up comedy has its origin in classic Parrhesia in 400 BC used for cynics and epicureans in order to tell the reality without censorship. Stand-up comedy in the United Kingdom began in the halls of the 18th and 19th centuries. The heavy censorship regime of the Lord Chamberlains Office required all comedians to submit their acts for censorship, the act would be returned with unacceptable sections underlined in blue pencil. The comedian was then obliged not to deviate from the act in its edited form, the rise of the post-war comedians coincided with the rise of television and radio, and the traditional music hall circuit suffered greatly as a result. By the 1970s, music hall entertainment was virtually dead, alternative circuits had evolved, such as working mens clubs. The alternative comedy scene began to evolve
5.
Radio
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When radio waves strike an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. The information in the waves can be extracted and transformed back into its original form, Radio systems need a transmitter to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it, for example using amplitude modulation or angle modulation. Radio systems also need an antenna to convert electric currents into radio waves, an antenna can be used for both transmitting and receiving. The electrical resonance of tuned circuits in radios allow individual stations to be selected, the electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna. Radio frequencies occupy the range from a 3 kHz to 300 GHz, a radio communication system sends signals by radio. The term radio is derived from the Latin word radius, meaning spoke of a wheel, beam of light, however, this invention would not be widely adopted. The switch to radio in place of wireless took place slowly and unevenly in the English-speaking world, the United States Navy would also play a role. Although its translation of the 1906 Berlin Convention used the terms wireless telegraph and wireless telegram, the term started to become preferred by the general public in the 1920s with the introduction of broadcasting. Radio systems used for communication have the following elements, with more than 100 years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialised for different communications purposes. Each system contains a transmitter, This consists of a source of electrical energy, the transmitter contains a system to modulate some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle such as amplitude, frequency, phase. Amplitude modulation of a carrier wave works by varying the strength of the signal in proportion to the information being sent. For example, changes in the strength can be used to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker. It was the used for the first audio radio transmissions. Frequency modulation varies the frequency of the carrier, the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is directly proportional to the instantaneous value of the input signal. FM has the capture effect whereby a receiver only receives the strongest signal, Digital data can be sent by shifting the carriers frequency among a set of discrete values, a technique known as frequency-shift keying. FM is commonly used at Very high frequency radio frequencies for high-fidelity broadcasts of music, analog TV sound is also broadcast using FM. Angle modulation alters the phase of the carrier wave to transmit a signal
6.
Television
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Television or TV is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in monochrome, or in color, and in two or three dimensions and sound. The term can refer to a set, a television program. Television is a medium for entertainment, education, news, politics, gossip. Television became available in experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, a form of black-and-white TV broadcasting became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses. During the 1950s, television was the medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US, for many reasons, the storage of television and video programming now occurs on the cloud. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity, another development was the move from standard-definition television to high-definition television, which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats, 1080p, 1080i, in 2013, 79% of the worlds households owned a television set. Most TV sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs, major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. In the near future, LEDs are gradually expected to be replaced by OLEDs, also, major manufacturers have announced that they will increasingly produce smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s, Television signals were initially distributed only as terrestrial television using high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the signal to individual television receivers. Alternatively television signals are distributed by cable or optical fiber, satellite systems and. Until the early 2000s, these were transmitted as analog signals, a standard television set is composed of multiple internal electronic circuits, including a tuner for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is correctly called a video monitor rather than a television, the word television comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε, meaning far, and Latin visio, meaning sight. The Anglicised version of the term is first attested in 1907 and it was. formed in English or borrowed from French télévision. In the 19th century and early 20th century, other. proposals for the name of a technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote. The abbreviation TV is from 1948, the use of the term to mean a television set dates from 1941
7.
Podcast
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The word arose as a portmanteau of iPod and broadcast. Thus, the files distributed are typically in audio or video formats, the distributor of a podcast maintains a central list of the files on a server as a web feed that can be accessed through the Internet. This process can be automated so that new files are downloaded automatically, files are stored locally on the users device, ready for offline use. Podcasting contrasts with webcasting or streaming which do not allow for offline listening, many podcast players allow listeners to adjust the playback speed. Podcasts are usually free of charge to listeners and can often be created for little to no cost and it is very much a horizontal media form, producers are consumers, consumers may become producers, and both can engage in conversations with each other. Podcast is a portmanteau, invented by BBC journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004, of the words pod — from iPod, despite the etymology, the content can be accessed using any computer or similar device that can play media files. Use of the term podcast predated Apples addition of support for podcasting to the iPod. Other names for podcasting include net cast, intended as a term without the loose reference to the Apple iPod. The name is used by shows from the TWiT. tv network, some sources have suggested the backronym portable on demand for POD, for similar reasons. Podcasting, once a method of spreading information, has become a recognized medium for distributing audio content. Podcasts are similar to programs, but they are audio files. Listeners can play them at their convenience, using devices that have more common than portable broadcast receivers. The first application to make this process feasible was iPodderX, developed by August Trometer, by 2007, audio podcasts were doing what was historically accomplished via radio broadcasts, which had been the source of radio talk shows and news programs since the 1930s. This shift occurred as a result of the evolution of internet capabilities along with increased access to cheaper hardware and software for audio recording and editing. In August 2004, Adam Curry launched his show Daily Source Code and it was a show focused on chronicling his everyday life, delivering news and discussions about the development of podcasting, as well as promoting new and emerging podcasts. Daily Source Code is believed to be the first podcast produced on a consistent basis, Curry published it in an attempt to gain traction in the development of what would come to be known as podcasting and as a means of testing the software outside of a lab setting. The name Daily Source Code was chosen in the hope that it would attract an audience with an interest in technology, Daily Source Code started at a grassroots level of production and was initially directed at podcast developers. As its audience became interested in the format, these developers were inspired to create and produce their own projects and, as a result, as more people learned how easy it was to produce podcasts, a community of pioneer podcasters quickly appeared
8.
British people
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British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era, because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists. Modern Britons are descended mainly from the ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century, Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse. The British are a diverse, multi-national and multicultural society, with regional accents, expressions. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them, the group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne inhabited by the different race of Hiberni, and Britain as insula Albionum, island of the Albions. The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that name derives from a Gaulish description translated as people of the forms. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, the term Britannia persisted as the Latin name for the island, during the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was used to refer to the Welsh people and Cornish people. At that time, it was the held belief that these were the remaining descendants of the ancient Britons. This notion was supported by such as the Historia Regum Britanniae. Wales and Cornwall, and north, i. e. Cumbria, Strathclyde and this legendary Celtic history of Great Britain is known as the Matter of Britain. The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, oppenheimer continues that the majority of the people of the British Isles share genetic commonalities with the Basques, ranging from highs of 90% in Wales to lows of 66% in East Anglia. Oppenheimers opinion is that. by far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia, ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales. The English had been unified under a single state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh. However, historian Simon Schama suggested that it was Edward I of England who was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood in the 13th century
9.
St Catherine's College, Oxford
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St Catherines College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its motto is Nova et Vetera, which translates as, the new, the college was founded by the historian Alan Bullock, who went on to become the first master of the college, and later Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £53m. The college traces its descent from the Delegacy of Non-Collegiate Students, nonetheless, the social role of a college was re-established by the Delegacys students, meeting as St Catherines Club, which was named after its meeting place in a hall on Catte Street. The club was recognised by the University in 1931 as St Catherines Society. It was thus developing the characteristics of a college, and in 1956 the Delegates decided to formalise this change in status, by 1960 Sir Alan Bullock raised a further £1,000,000 with invaluable assistance from two industrial notables, Sir Alan Wilson and Sir Hugh Beaver. After a total cost of £2.5 million, the college opened in 1962 to male students, in 1974 St Catz was one of the first mens colleges to admit women as full members, the others being Brasenose, Jesus College, Hertford and Wadham. The college is situated towards the east of Oxford, on the bank of the Cherwell river and its striking buildings in glass and concrete by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen marry modern materials with a traditional layout around a quadrangle. Jacobsens designs went further than just the fabric of the buildings, with cutlery, furniture, the dining hall is notable for its Cumberland slate floor. The original college buildings received a Grade I listing on 30 March 1993, the St Catherines Christmas carol concert has since been held in Harris Manchester Colleges chapel. The college has a bell tower however, it is visible since no college building is more than three storeys high. An extra floor was planned for most accommodation blocks, but due to regulations concerning safe building on marshland. There are also additional purpose-built conference facilities with lecture theatres, meeting rooms and bar, the dining hall, which seats 350 diners, has the largest capacity of any Oxford college. The majority of St Catherines buildings are in the form of staircases that open directly onto the quad outside, there is little indoor space in the college and St Catherines favours a minimalist, rather austere environment, though still comfortable. Student rooms are light and spacious, notable for their curtain wall glazing, prior to this, all undergraduates had the experience of living off-campus for their second year. These new staircases effectively form a quad, which is largely used to provide accommodation for conferences during the breaks between academic terms. The college celebrates its patron saint each year with a special Catz Night dinner, every three years the college also holds a ball, usually off site due to the problem of securing the colleges perimeter sufficiently for insurance purposes. The most recent off-site ball was held was 9 February 2008 at Heythrop Park, on 12 February 2011, the latest incarnation of the Catz Ball was held on-site
10.
Black comedy
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Black comedy or dark comedy is a comic style that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo. Literary critics have associated black comedy and black humor with authors as early as the ancient Greeks with Aristophanes, Black comedy corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor. The term black humor was coined by the Surrealist theorist André Breton in 1935 while interpreting the writings of Jonathan Swift. Bretons preference was to some of Swifts writings as a subgenre of comedy and satire in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism. Scholars have associated black humor with authors as early as the ancient Greeks with Aristophanes, Breton coined the term for his book Anthology of Black Humor, in which he credited Jonathan Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor, and included excerpts from 45 other writers. This victims suffering is trivialized, which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as found in the social commentary. Black humor is also related to that of the grotesque genre. Breton identified Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor, particularly in his pieces Directions to Servants, A Modest Proposal, A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick, the terms black comedy or dark comedy have been later derived as alternatives to Bretons term. Bruce Jay Friedman, in his anthology entitled Black Humor, imported the concept of comedy to the United States. He labeled many different authors and works with the idea, arguing that they shared the literary genre. The Friedman label came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, early American writers who employed black humor were Nathanael West and Vladimir Nabokov. In 1965 a mass-market paperback titled Black Humor, was released and this was one of the first American anthologies devoted to the conception of black humor as a literary genre, the publication also sparked nationwide interest in black humor. Among the writers labeled as black humorists by journalists and literary critics are Roald Dahl, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Warren Zevon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, popular themes of the genre include violence, discrimination, disease, sexuality, religion and barbarism. Comedians, like Lenny Bruce, that since the late 1950s have been labeled for using sick comedy by mainstream journalists, have also labeled with black comedy. By contrast, blue comedy focuses more on crude topics such as nudity, sex, in obscene humor, much of the humorous element comes from shock and revulsion, while black comedy might include an element of irony, or even fatalism. For example, the black comedy self-mutilation appears in the English novel Tristram Shandy. Tristram, five years old at the time, starts to urinate out of a window for lack of a chamber pot. The sash falls and circumcises him, his family reacts with both chaotic action and philosophic digression, cringe comedy Comedy horror Macabre Off-color humor
11.
Insult comedy
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Insult comedy is a comedy genre in which the act consists mainly of offensive insults directed at the performers audience or other performers. Typical targets for insult include individuals in the audience, the town hosting the performance. An insult comedian often maintains a competitive and interactive relationship with his or her audience, the style has been described as festive abuse. The style can be distinguished from an act based on satire, insult comedy is often used to deflect or silence hecklers even when the rest of the show is not focused around it
12.
Irony
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Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case. Irony may be divided into such as verbal, dramatic. Verbal, dramatic, and situational irony are often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth, other forms, as identified by historian Connop Thirlwall, include dialectic and practical irony. Also, Eric Partridge, in Usage and Abusage, writes that Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant, the use of irony may require the concept of a double audience. The term is used as a synonym for incongruous and applied to every trivial oddity in situations where there is no double audience. The American Heritage Dictionarys secondary meaning for irony, incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs and this sense, however, is not synonymous with incongruous but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony not only that incongruity is present, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, The term irony has its roots in the Greek comic character Eiron, a clever underdog who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character Alazon. The Socratic irony of the Platonic dialogues derives from this comic origin. e, the word came into English as a figure of speech in the 16th century as similar to the French ironie. It derives from the Latin ironia and ultimately from the Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning dissimulation, Romantic irony, A self-aware and self-critical form of fiction. Cosmic irony, A contrast between the absolute and the relative, the general and the individual, which Hegel expressed by the phrase, when the audience knows that the character will die before morning. It is most often used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, in tragic irony, the audience knows the character is making a mistake, even as the character is making it. Verbal irony is distinguished from situational irony and dramatic irony in that it is produced intentionally by speakers, for instance, if a man exclaims, Im not upset. But reveals an upset emotional state through his voice while truly trying to claim hes not upset, but if the same speaker said the same words and intended to communicate that he was upset by claiming he was not, the utterance would be verbal irony. This distinction illustrates an important aspect of verbal irony—speakers communicate implied propositions that are contradictory to the propositions contained in the words themselves. Were left in no doubt as to whos ambitious and whos honourable, the literal truth of whats written clashes with the perceived truth of whats meant to revealing effect, which is irony in a nutshell. Ironic similes are a form of verbal irony where a speaker intends to communicate the opposite of what they mean, a fair amount of confusion has surrounded the issue of the relationship between verbal irony and sarcasm. Fowlers A Dictionary of Modern English Usage states, Sarcasm does not necessarily involve irony and irony has often no touch of sarcasm and this suggests that the two concepts are linked but may be considered separately. 2 a, a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, the psychologist Martin, in The Psychology of Humour, is quite clear that irony is where the literal meaning is opposite to the intended and sarcasm is aggressive humor that pokes fun
13.
Wit
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Wit is a form of intelligent humour, the ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. A wit is a person skilled at making clever and funny remarks, forms of wit include the quip and repartee. As in the wit of Dorothy Parkers set, the Algonquin Round Table, witty remarks may be intentionally cruel, and perhaps more ingenious than funny. A quip is an observation or saying that has some wit but perhaps descends into sarcasm, or otherwise is short of a point, repartee is the wit of the quick answer and capping comment, the snappy comeback and neat retort. English poet John Donne is the representative of this style of poetry, more generally, ones wits are ones intellectual powers of all types. Native wit — meaning the wits with one is born — is closely synonymous with common sense. To live by ones wits is to be an opportunist, to have ones wits about one is to be alert and capable of quick reasoning. To be at the end of ones wits is to be immensely frustrated, hartford Wits New Oxford Wits Oxford Wits D. W. Jefferson, Tristram Shandy and the Tradition of Learned Wit in Essays in Criticism,1, 225-49
14.
Deadpan
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Deadpan or dry humor/wit describes the act of deliberately displaying a lack of or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blunt, sarcastic, laconic, the term deadpan first emerged as an adjective or adverb in the 1920s, as a compound word combining dead and pan. The oldest usage recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary comes from The New York Times, the usage of deadpan as a verb is recorded at least as far back as 1942. Early in his days, Buster Keaton developed his deadpan expression. Keaton realized that audiences responded better to his stony expression than when he smiled, many popular American sitcoms use deadpan expressions to deliver dry humor, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, and My Name Is Earl. More recent examples are Andre Braugher as Captain Raymond Holt from the TV show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jennette McCurdy as Sam Puckett in iCarly, another example is the often-philosophical comedy of Steven Wright. Dry humor is often confused with highbrow or egghead humor, because the humor in dry humor does not exist in the words or delivery, instead, the listener must look for humor in the contradiction between words, delivery and context. Failure to include the context or to identify the contradiction results in the finding the dry humor unfunny. However, the term deadpan itself actually refers only to the method of delivery, other deadpan comedians, Deadpan can vary in subtlety. Obvious deadpan uses a high amount of contrast either with characters or situations and it may also take the role of mirror to characters who are unaware of their folly. More subtle deadpan can test the limits of the audience. Blank expression Dark humor Minimisation Throwaway line
15.
Fist of Fun
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Fist of Fun was a British comedy enterprise, initially a BBC Radio 1 series in 1993 and then a BBC2 television series in 1995. It was written by and starred Lee and Herring, each episode of Fist of Fun consisted of disparate sketches, stand-up comedy segments, dialogues, and situations. It was broadcast at 9pm on Tuesday nights, and was successful, the second series was aired on Friday nights, and although its ratings were relatively good, the show suffered from network interference and poor promotion. The show was not given a series, but Lee and Herring went on to create This Morning with Richard Not Judy. Simon Quinlank, a self-proclaimed Hobby Lion and King of All Hobbies and Duke of Hobby, in each episode, he presents a slot related to his latest invented hobby. He is known for his maniacal laughter, frequent cries of Answer me, and loathing for never-seen rival Neil Petark. He also has a fondness for weak lemon drink, the character reappeared in Lee and Herrings later show This Morning with Richard Not Judy. Rod Hull, a character who claims to be the genuine Rod Hull but is in fact an obvious fraud. He has an obsession with jelly, and has a false arm and he persistently claims that the false arm is real despite the fact that he has an actual real arm tucked inside his shirt. Also played by the actor Kevin Eldon, Peter, a 31-year-old Welsh virgin from Balham who provides lifestyle tips from his unique perspective, usually cheap alternatives to well known recipes. The first series was released in early December 2011 and the series in November 2012 albeit with slight edits made for editorial reasons at the request of the BBC. This included material regarding Princess Diana and Morris Mitchener, whose parents attempted to sue the West Yorkshire playhouse after a production of Peter Pan scared the infant Mitchener. Ironically the material excised from the complete episodes is included as part of the unedited studio sessions presented elsewhere on the DVD set. Fist of Fun. net fansite, includes downloads of their shows and live performances, episode guides. Fist of Fun at the Internet Movie Database Lee and Herring. com Official Stewart Lee website Official Richard Herring website
16.
This Morning with Richard Not Judy
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This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ /təˈwʌmrəndʒə/ was a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2, the name was a satirical reference to ITVs This Morning which was at the time popularly referred to as This Morning with Richard and Judy. The show was a reworking of old material from their previous work together along with new characters, the show was hosted in a daytime chat show format in front of a live studio audience, although it featured a small proportion of pre-recorded location inserts. It was structured by the strange obsessions of Richard Herring, examples include his rating of the milk of all creatures. The show featured repetition, with regular and vigilant viewers being rewarded by jokes that would make no sense to casual viewers, the show seemed to oscillate between the intellectual and puerile. However, irony was often used, even though the citing of irony as an excuse was mocked by the stars in one of many self-referential jokes. A run of sketches featuring Eldon as the false Rod Hull was filmed for the second series, a new sketch was filmed as a tribute and featured as the closing item of the last programme in the series. TMWRNJ was the subject of complaints on Points of View. The Jesus sketches were much remarked upon on Points of View due to the time of broadcast, like Fist of Fun it remains a cult series fondly remembered by fans. Questions about life from a talking orange, played by Paul Putner. The name is derived from the album I Am Kurious Oranj by The Fall, at the end of the first series, having been revealed to be Richard Herrings illegitimate son, he was crushed to death and juiced, but he was later reconstituted by a mad scientist. Throughout the second series his behaviour became increasingly sinister, and for a while he was replaced by The Curious Alien, by the final episode, he had mutated into a tyrannical character reminiscent of Doctor Whos Davros. Ostensibly an extremely low-budget childrens television programme featuring two pirate crows, the titular Histor and his hapless first mate Pliny Harris, a running joke in this segment was that despite Plinys apparent idiocy, he would occasionally counter Histors right-wing views with extraordinarily eloquent and well constructed left-wing arguments. This would often result in Pliny being physically attacked by Histor or a third party, after the segment Lee would ask Herring if that cleared the matter up for him, with Herring praising the crows for this saying he now understands. The gag was less frequent in the second series, Richard Thomas played keyboards every week on the show and in series 1 would play a hymn at the end of the show. The Unusual Priest, played by Kevin Eldon, would present ethical dilemmas, a parody of the show When Animals Attack. with a voice-over supposedly by actor Greg Evigan. The last episode of this segment, in the first series, in the second series this was replaced by When Things Get Knocked Over, Spill, or Fall Out Of Cupboards. In each edition, a member of the audience would be crowned King or Queen of the Show, after being crowned, they would be offered various items from a trolley, these items would all be linked by the current theme of the show
17.
The Collings and Herrin Podcast
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The Collings and Herrin Podcast was a topical podcast produced by broadcaster Andrew Collins and comedian Richard Herring. Its title derives from the recurring Richard Herring trope of misspelling names for comic effect, described as a sideways look at the news, the podcast was discursive and based mainly on humorous analysis of the weeks media coverage. It was light in tone but often veered into black comedy and it contained frequent uses of strong language and was described by a review in The Times as unsuitable for sensitive souls. A typical episode length was one hour, six minutes and thirty-six seconds, due to this being the length of a GarageBand recording. The podcast was made for and hosted by the British Comedy Guide and was distributed via iTunes. The Guardian noted that the podcast captured the spirit of Derek, between 10 April 2005 and 25 March 2007, Richard Herring would review the weeks newspapers on Andrew Collins BBC6 Music radio show. These segments would end with corpsing. Collins and Herring have mentioned that they had felt constrained by BBC guidelines and had wanted to produce a darker, the idea of producing an independent podcast was first mooted publicly on Collins blog on 14 January 2008, leading to a number of comments in support of the idea. The first Collings and Herrin Podcast went live on 1 February 2008, in June 2011, the podcast was announced to be on hiatus due to bad feelings between the pair. Andrew took an opportunity to host their old Saturday 6Music slot with another comedian, Josie Long, the podcast was resurrected on 4 November 2011 for podcast 167, but on 21 November the podcast ended permanently due to Andrew Collins feeling it was time to end the project. During 2009 these were presented alongside Andrew Collins solo 60 minute Secret Dancing performances. On 1 February 2010, the anniversary of their first podcast. Radio, In January 2010 it was announced that the duo would be filling in for Adam and their residency continued until April 2011. Each week the highlights were released as podcasts on the BBC website, CD, On 22 March 2010 they released a CD of exclusive podcasts called Collings and Herrin, The Best of Earth, Wind and Fire* * through Go Faster Stripe. A second CD called Collings and Herrin, War and Peace, Crime, vodcast, A number of video podcasts have been released parallel to the official podcast count. These are usually released as bonus features on Richard Herring comedy DVDs, for three weeks, the podcast was assumed lost until a fan came forward with a bootleg recording of poor but serviceable sound quality. Humour is mainly derived from the media coverage, particularly that of the tabloid newspapers. A favourite source of comedy has been the writing of Sun columnist Jon Gaunt
18.
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
19.
One-person show
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A one-person show is a solo performance, featuring a comedian or actor who stands on stage and entertains an audience. While a one-person show may be the musings of a comedian on a theme, in the preface of the book Extreme Exposure, editor Jo Bonney uses the term solo performance to encompass those performers who do not necessarily have a comedic history. She suggests that at the most basic level, despite their limitless backgrounds and performance styles and this assumption is based on her assertion that a number of solo shows have a storyline or a plot. When creating a show, a performer is not limited to creating and performing the show themselves. They can use directors, writers, designers, and composers, an example of how Eric Bogosian builds a character can be found in the published version of his show Wake Up And Smell the Coffee, by Theatre Communications Group, New York City. The backgrounds of solo performers over the range from vaudeville, stand-up comedy, poetry, music, the visual arts, magic, cabaret. We may assume that individuals have told stories in front of members of their tribe or society for thousands of years. They would have passed down many of todays myths and legends in this manner. Edgar Allan Poe both lectured and recited poetry as a performer between 1843 and 1849, his performances stand as a paradigm of the one-person show hybrid simply called the lecture-recital. The reading tours of Charles Dickens in Britain and America between 1858 and 1870 created a sensation and his American tour of 1867-68 was unparalleled until the arrival of the Beatles in the early 1960s. One person shows enjoyed an artistic and commercial vogue in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. Literary historians often associate the Victorian period with the highest development of the monologue as a poetic form. By the time the United States entered the 20th century, the number, by the 1960s, the term performance art became popular and involved any number of performance acts or happenings, as they were known. Many performers, like Laurie Anderson, developed through these happenings and are still performing today, since solo shows have long been the domain of comic performers, it should be no surprise that many American comedians, past and present, have come to prominence through this genre. Several performers have presented shows in tribute to famous personalities. The blueprint for this type of show may have been drafted by Hal Holbrook, jack Aranson starred in a one-man, 13-character production of Moby Dick. One-person shows may be personal, autobiographical creations, sometimes, solo shows are simply traditional plays written by playwrights for a cast of one. Examples, Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell, I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, The Blonde, the Brunette, a performer of shows of this type is Chris Harris, whose performances in the genre include Kemps Jig, Thats The Way To Do It
20.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
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The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the worlds largest arts festival, which in 2016, spanned 25 days and featured 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Edinburgh, Scotlands capital and it is an open access performing arts festival, meaning there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The Fringe has often showcased experimental, challenging or controversial works that might not be invited to a more conservative arts festival, the Fringe board of directors is drawn from members of the Festival Fringe Society, who are often Fringe participants themselves – performers or administrators. Elections are held once a year, in August, and Board members serve a term of four years, the Board appoints the Fringe Chief Executive, who is currently Shona McCarthy and assumed the role in March 2016. The Chief Executive operates under the chair, currently Professor Sir Timothy OShea, the Fringe started life when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. With the official festival using the major venues, these companies took over smaller. Seven performed in Edinburgh, and one undertook a version of the morality play Everyman in Dunfermline Abbey, about 20 miles north. These groups aimed to take advantage of the large assembled theatre crowds to showcase their own alternative theatre, although at the time it was not recognised as such, this was the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This meant that two defining features of the future Fringe were established at the very beginning – the lack of invitations to perform. I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings. The word fringe had in fact used in a review of Everyman in 1947. Late night revues, which would become a feature of Fringes, the first one was the New Drama Groups After The Show, a series of sketches taking place after Donald Pleasences Ebb Tide, in 1952. Among the talent to appear in early Fringe revues were Ned Sherrin in 1955, due to many reviewers only being able to attend Fringe events late night after the official festival was finished, the Fringe came to be seen as being about revues. It was a few years before an official programme for the Fringe was created. John Menzies compiled a list of shows under the title Other Events in their omnibus festival brochure and this was funded by participating companies and was entitled Additional Entertainments, since the name Fringe was still not yet in regular usage. It also used a strange cover motif, a first attempt was made to provide a central booking service in 1955 by students from the university, although it lost money, which was blamed on those who had not taken part. Formal organisation progressed in 1959, with the formation of the Festival Fringe Society, the push for such an organisation was led by Michael Imison, director of Oxford Theatre Group. A constitution was drawn up, in which the policy of not vetting or censoring shows was set out, nineteen companies participated in the Fringe in that year
21.
Andrew Collins (broadcaster)
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Andrew Collins is an English writer and broadcaster. He is the creator and writer of the Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky and his TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out. Collins has also worked as a music, television and film critic, Collins was a member of the Labour Party between the late 1980s and early 1990s, leaving after Labours defeat in the 1992 General Election. In 2007, he was patron of Thomass Fund, a Northampton-based music therapy charity for children with life-limiting illnesses. Collins started his career as a music journalist, writing for the NME, Vox, Select and he also wrote for and edited film magazine Empire in 1995. In 1998, Collins published his first book, Still Suitable for Miners, the book was updated in 2002 and again in 2007. Collins often appeared on BBC, ITV and Channel 4 list shows and he stated on BBC Threes The Most Annoying TV Programmes We Love to Hate that he had appeared on 37 such list shows, and that this would be his last one. He subsequently appeared on Heroes Unmasked on BBC Three and he devoted a full chapter to the experience of appearing as a talking head on such shows in his third volume of autobiography, Thats Me in the Corner, and continues to appear on similar shows. Heaven Knows Im Miserable Now and Thats Me in the Corner published in May 2007 and he produced a regular podcast, the Collings & Herrin Podcast, with comedian Richard Herring, which began in February 2008 and was named Podcast of the Week in the Times in July 2008. A hiatus from June 2011 to 4 November 2011 was due to what Herring joked was Collins duplicitous careerism, Herring announced that the November podcast would most likely be the last, as Collins had lost enthusiasm for it. Collins presented a Saturday morning radio show with Josie Long on BBC Radio 6 Music between July and December 2011 and he co-wrote the first series of the sitcom Not Going Out for BBC One with Lee Mack, and co-wrote various episodes for the second, third and fourth series. The fifth was the first series he did not work on, the first series won the Rose DOr for Best Comedy, and he and Mack won the RTS Breakthrough award. He worked on the team-written sitcom Gates for Sky Living in 2012, and re-teamed with Simon Day to co-write Colin, in recent years, Collins has moved into script editing. In 2014, he acted as a consultant on The Inbetweeners 2. Collins is currently the editor for Radio Times. He wrote and filmed a weekly TV review column, Telly Addict, for The Guardian website and it returned in June 2016 on YouTube, now hosted and produced by UKTV. He took over the radio show Saturday Night at the Movies on classical music station Classic FM in March 2015. Collins first solo-written comedy, Mr Blue Sky for BBC Radio 4, starred Mark Benton and Rebecca Front and aired in May and it was recommissioned for a second series in 2012
22.
Simon Pegg
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Simon John Pegg is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He co-wrote and starred in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy of films, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and he and Nick Frost wrote and starred in the sci-fi film Paul. Pegg portrayed Benji Dunn in the Mission, Impossible film series and Montgomery Scott in Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond, co-writing the latter. Pegg was born and raised in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, the son of Gillian Rosemary, a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham. His parents divorced when he was seven and he took the surname of his stepfather after his mother remarried, Pegg attended Castle Hill Primary School, Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School, and The Kings School, Gloucester. Pegg moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire when he was 16 and studied English Literature and Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon College. He graduated from the University of Bristol in 1991 with a BA in Theatre, Film, while there, he performed as a member of a comedy troupe called David Icke and the Orphans of Jesus, alongside David Walliams, Dominik Diamond, and Jason Bradbury. Peggs early appearances in TV series and films include Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train, between 1998 and 2004, Pegg was regularly featured on BBC Radio 4s The 99p Challenge. He played various roles during the tour of Steve Coogans 1998 live stage show The Man Who Thinks Hes It, in 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. The series was directed by Edgar Wright, with whom Pegg and Stevenson had previously worked on Asylum, for his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. At George A. Romeros invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romeros zombie film, in 2004, Pegg starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger. 50,000 Zombies. in which he played a hunter named Dr. Fell. He played mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog and he also narrated the first series of the making-of documentary series Doctor Who Confidential. When the film Mission, Impossible III was subsequently made, Pegg appeared in it as Benji Dunn and he reprised the role of Benji Dunn in the 2011 film Mission, Impossible – Ghost Protocol and the 2015 film Mission, Impossible – Rogue Nation. In 2006, he played Gus in Big Nothing alongside David Schwimmer, the same year, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night and Run Fatboy Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton, in 2008, he wrote the dialogue for an English language re-release of the cult 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy. Pegg received screenwriting credit for this, and Pegg also voiced one of the characters in the English-language version. Pegg co-wrote the script for a film called Paul, about two men who encounter a comedic extraterrestrial alien during a road trip across the US
23.
Russell Brand
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Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, radio host, author, and activist. Beginning his career as a comedian and later becoming an MTV presenter, Brand first achieved notoriety in 2004 as the host of Big Brothers Big Mouth. He also worked as an actor in the animated films Despicable Me in 2010, Hop in 2011, and Despicable Me 2 in 2013. In 2013, he released the successful stand-up special Messiah Complex, in 2014, Brand launched his political-comedy web series The Trews, released a book entitled Revolution, and began work on a documentary about financial inequality with Michael Winterbottom. He has incorporated many of his public antics into his comedic material. In 2015 a biographical documentary called Brand, A Second Coming was released, Russell Edward Brand was born in Orsett Hospital in Grays, Essex, England. He is the child of Barbara Elizabeth and photographer Ronald Henry Brand. Brands parents split up when he was six months old, when he was 7, a tutor sexually abused him. When Brand was 8, his mother contracted uterine cancer and then breast cancer one year later, while she underwent treatment, Brand lived with relatives. When he was 14, he suffered from bulimia nervosa, when he was 16, he left home because of disagreements with his mothers partner. Brand then started to use drugs such as cannabis, amphetamines, LSD. Brand says he had a relationship with his father, whom he saw sporadically. He made his debut at the age of 15 in a school production of Bugsy Malone. Brand attended Grays School Media Arts College and in 1991, he was accepted to the Italia Conti Academy and had his first year of tuition funded by Essex County Council, after his first year at Italia Conti Academy, Brand was expelled for illegal drug use and poor attendance. Brand performed stand-up at the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year final in 2000, although he finished fourth, his performance attracted the attention of Gagged and Bound Comedy Ltd agent Nigel Klarfeld. That year, he made his Edinburgh debut as one-third of the stand-up show Pablo Diablos Cryptic Triptych, alongside ventriloquist Mark Felgate. In 2004, he took his first one-man show, the confessional Better Now, to the Edinburgh Festival and he returned the following year with Eroticised Humour. He launched his first nationwide tour, Shame, in 2006, Brand drew on embarrassing incidents in his own life and the coverage about him in the tabloid press
24.
Stephen Fry
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Stephen John Fry is an English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist. While at university, he involved with the Cambridge Footlights. As half of the double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and also took the role of Jeeves in Jeeves. He was also the long-time host of the BBC television quiz show QI and he has also filmed commercials, including an advertisement where he explains the essence of British culture to foreigners arriving at Londons Heathrow Airport. Fry was born in Hampstead, London, on 24 August 1957, the son of Marianne Eve Fry and Alan John Fry, a British physicist and inventor. The Fry family originates in Dorset, at Shillingstone and Blandford, in the early 1800s, Samuel Fry settled in Surrey, Frys mother is Jewish, but he was not brought up in a religious family. His maternal grandparents, Martin and Rosa Neumann, were Hungarian Jews, rosas parents, who originally lived in Vienna, Austria, were sent to a concentration camp in Riga, Latvia, where they were murdered. His mothers aunt and cousins were sent to Auschwitz and Stutthof, Frys father is English, and his paternal grandmother had roots in Kent and Cheshire. Fry grew up in the village of Booton near Reepham, Norfolk, having moved from Chesham, Buckinghamshire and he has an elder brother, Roger, and a younger sister, Joanna. He was expelled from Uppingham when he was 15 and subsequently from the Paston School, at 17, after leaving Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, Fry absconded with a credit card stolen from a family friend. He had taken a coat when leaving a pub, planning to spend the night sleeping rough and he was arrested in Swindon, and, as a result, spent three months in Pucklechurch Prison on remand. While Fry was in Pucklechurch, his mother had cut out the crossword from every copy of The Times since he had been away, Fry later stated that these crosswords were the only thing that got him through the ordeal. Following his release, he resumed his education at City College Norwich and he scored well enough to gain a scholarship to Queens College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Fry joined the Cambridge Footlights, appeared on University Challenge, Fry also met his future comedy collaborator Hugh Laurie at Cambridge and starred alongside him in the Footlights Club. Frys career in television began with the 1982 broadcasting of The Cellar Tapes, a second series, retitled Alfresco, was broadcast in 1983, and a third in 1984, it established Fry and Lauries reputation as a comedy double act. In 1983, the BBC offered Fry, Laurie and Thompson their own show, which became The Crystal Cube, undeterred, Fry and Laurie appeared in an episode of The Young Ones in 1984, and Fry also appeared in Ben Eltons 1985 Happy Families series. In 1986 and 1987 Fry and Laurie performed sketches on the LWT/Channel 4 show Saturday Live, forgiving Fry and Laurie for The Crystal Cube, the BBC commissioned, in 1986, a sketch show that was to become A Bit of Fry & Laurie. The programme ran for 26 episodes spanning four series between 1986 and 1995, and was very successful, in a 1988 television special, Blackadders Christmas Carol, he played the roles of Lord Melchett and Lord Frondo
25.
British Library
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The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the second largest library in the world by number of items catalogued. It holds well over 150 million items from many countries, as a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media. The Librarys collections include around 14 million books, along with holdings of manuscripts. In addition to receiving a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland, the Library adds some three million items every year occupying 9.6 kilometres of new shelf space. Prior to 1973, the Library was part of the British Museum, the Euston Road building is classified as a Grade I listed building, of exceptional interest for its architecture and history. The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the library was part of the British Museum. In 1983, the Library absorbed the National Sound Archive, which holds many sound and video recordings, with over a million discs, the core of the Librarys historical collections is based on a series of donations and acquisitions from the 18th century, known as the foundation collections. From 1997 to 2009 the main collection was housed in this new building. Construction work on the Newspaper Storage Building was completed in 2013, the collection has now been split between the St Pancras and Boston Spa sites. The British Library Document Supply Service and the Librarys Document Supply Collection is based on the site in Boston Spa. Collections housed in Yorkshire, comprising low-use material and the newspaper and Document Supply collections, the Library previously had a book storage depot in Woolwich, south-east London, which is no longer in use. The new library was designed specially for the purpose by the architect Colin St John Wilson, facing Euston Road is a large piazza that includes pieces of public art, such as large sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi and Antony Gormley. It is the largest public building constructed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century, in December 2009 a new storage building at Boston Spa was opened by Rosie Winterton. The building was Grade I listed on 1 August 2015, in England, Legal Deposit can be traced back to at least 1610. The other five libraries are, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the University Library at Cambridge, the Trinity College Library at Dublin, in 2003 the Ipswich MP Chris Mole introduced a Private Members Bill which became the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003. The Act extends United Kingdom legal deposit requirements to electronic documents, such as CD-ROMs, the Library also holds the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections which include the India Office Records and materials in the languages of Asia and of north and north-east Africa
26.
Cheddar, Somerset
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Cheddar is a large village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset. It is situated on the edge of the Mendip Hills,9 miles north-west of Wells. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Nyland and Bradley Cross, the village, which has its own parish council, has a population of 5,755 and the parish has an acreage of 8,592 acres as of 1961. Cheddar Gorge, on the edge of the village, is the largest gorge in the United Kingdom and includes several show caves. The gorge has been a centre of settlement since Neolithic times including a Saxon palace. It has a climate and provides a unique geological and biological environment that has been recognised by the designation of several Sites of Special Scientific Interest. It is also the site of limestone quarries. The village gave its name to Cheddar cheese and has been a centre for strawberry growing, the crop was formerly transported on the Cheddar Valley rail line, which closed in the late 1960s but is now a cycle path. The village is now a major tourist destination with several cultural and community facilities, the village supports a variety of community groups including religious, sporting and cultural organisations. Several of these are based on the site of The Kings of Wessex Academy, the name Cheddar comes from the Old English word ceodor, meaning deep dark cavity or pouch. There is evidence of occupation from the Neolithic period in Cheddar, britains oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years old, was found in Cheddar Gorge in 1903. Older remains from the Upper Late Palaeolithic era have been found, there is some evidence of a Bronze Age field system at the Batts Combe quarry site. There is also evidence of Bronze Age barrows at the mound in the Longwood valley, the remains of a Roman villa have been excavated in the grounds of the current vicarage. The village of Cheddar had been important during the Roman and Saxon eras, there was a royal palace at Cheddar during the Saxon period, which was used on three occasions in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. The ruins of the palace were excavated in the 1960s and they are located on the grounds of The Kings of Wessex Academy, together with a 14th century chapel dedicated to St. Columbanus. Roman remains have also uncovered at the site. Cheddar was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ceder, meaning Shear Water, from the Old English scear, an alternate spelling in earlier documents, common through the 1850s is Chedder. As early as 1130 AD, the Cheddar Gorge was recognised as one of the Four wonders of England, historically, Cheddars source of wealth was farming and cheese making for which it was famous as early as 1170 AD
27.
Somerset
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Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is a county of rolling hills such as the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park. There is evidence of occupation from Paleolithic times, and of subsequent settlement in the Roman. The county played a significant part in the consolidation of power and rise of King Alfred the Great, and later in the English Civil War, the city of Bath is famous for its substantial Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somersets name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, an alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning settlers by the sea lakes. The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, Sumorsǣte ealle, adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, but some hill names include Brittonic Celtic elements, for example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh. Some modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, the caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. Bones from Goughs Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC, examples of cave art have been found in Avelines Hole. Some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole, the Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the worlds oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, the exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle, on the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD47. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around AD409, a variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke, Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples, by AD600 they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was Englands oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610. In the English Civil War Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton, in 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset
28.
The Kings of Wessex Academy
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The Kings of Wessex Academy, formerly known as The Kings of Wessex School, is a coeducational secondary school located in Cheddar, Somerset, England. It has 1,176 students aged 13 to 18 as of 2015, Kings is a Church of England school. It was awarded the specialist status of Technology College in 2001, enabling it to develop its IT facilities and improve courses in Science, Mathematics, in June 2011, the school became an academy following its outstanding rating by Ofsted in 2010. It received the rating under a new inspection regime instituted in September 2009. However, its rating was lowered to good after the schools latest inspection in 2015, the school grounds contain the ruins of an ancient Saxon palace and chapel. The school has achieved accreditation from Investors in People and it has also received a Sportsmark award and two Artsmark awards in the 2001–2002 and 2004–2005 academic years. The school produces strong academic results and its Key Stage 3 scores for 2005 were an aggregate percentage score of 250, compared with 225 for schools in Somerset and 217 for schools in England. At GCSE level 73% of pupils achieved 5 or more A* to C grade passes, compared with 56% in Somerset, in 2006 the measure of GCSE performance was changed to 5 or more A* to C grade passes including Mathematics and English. Using this new stricter measure the school scored 64% compared with 44. 4% in Somerset and 45. 8% in England, in 2008, three GCSE RE students obtained marks which placed them in the top ten nationally of the 67,739 students who took the exam. In 2010, the record 2009 results were slightly improved on with 82% of pupils gaining five or more A* to C passes, and 70% gaining five A* to C passes including maths and English. In 2011, the number of pupils gaining five or more A* to C passes increased 9% to 91%, since 2001, the schools GCSE results have been consistently higher than both the local authority and English schools averages. In 2014 they were sixth best of 83 schools in Somerset, national results from 2005 are for Pupils at the end of key stage 4, in England, including at non-state funded schools. In March 2015, Ofsted rated the school as good, the report stated The most-able students perform well and achieve the highest grades in a range of subjects. And that Teachers have good knowledge and are enthusiastic about passing on their expertise. However, the inspection concluded that Teachers do not always check on students’ learning in lessons closely enough. Consequently, some students, particularly the less able, are either not challenged enough or do not receive the help they need to succeed, in February 2010, Ofsted rated the school as outstanding. The report called the school amazing and praised the head, staff and its chief recommendation for improvement was the raising of teaching standards, by increasing the proportion of lessons rated outstanding from their current good rating. The SIAS inspector summarised that The distinctiveness and effectiveness of The Kings of Wessex School as a school are outstanding
29.
The Oxford Revue
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The Oxford Revue is a comedy group featuring students from Oxford University, England. Founded in the early 1950s, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians, the Revue writes, produces and performs several shows each term. Shows are traditionally held in pubs, colleges and playhouses. The founding of the Revue in around 1952/3 is shrouded in mystery, from this, he helped found an offshoot group, the Oxford Revue Group, to take a revue up to the Edinburgh Fringe. Former members include, During the academic year 2009–10, the Oxford Revue performed regular Write Offs at the Wheatsheaf pub, in February 2010, the Revue ran for a week at the Burton-Taylor Studio, Oxford, in their Brighton-themed show The Oxford Revue Goes To Blighty. The show was rated 5 stars by The Oxford Theatre Review, the following term, the Oxford Revue invited the Durham Revue and the Cambridge Footlights for the trios annual show, The Oxford Revue and Friends at the Oxford Playhouse. The show sold out all 600 seats and was well received, aside from the shows at the Wheatsheaf, Burton-Taylor Studio and Oxford Playhouse, the Revue regularly performed at various college charity nights and balls, including the ball at the Oxford Union. They also travelled to Cambridge and Durham University to perform in large-scale shows, in August 2010, the Revue took the show, The Oxford Revue is Going Places, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, under the presidency of Ollie Mann and the direction of Rory OKeeffe. The poster was designed by photographer Adam Levy and they performed at the Underbelly venue and sold well, receiving 4 stars from Broadway Baby. During Michaelmas Term 2010, the Revue overhauled its website and have begun posting articles, videos and they performed two shows at the Wheatsheaf pub as well as the Trinity College charity night and the UNICEF Comedy night
30.
History
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History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory and it is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians and their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In Asia, a chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-century BC texts survived. Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries, the modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary education, the word history comes ultimately from Ancient Greek ἱστορία, meaning inquiry, knowledge from inquiry, or judge. It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι, the ancestor word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions. History was borrowed from Latin into Old English as stær, and it was from Anglo-Norman that history was borrowed into Middle English, and this time the loan stuck. In Middle English, the meaning of history was story in general, the restriction to the meaning the branch of knowledge that deals with past events, the formal record or study of past events, esp. human affairs arose in the mid-fifteenth century. With the Renaissance, older senses of the word were revived, and it was in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the sixteenth century. For him, historia was the knowledge of objects determined by space and time, in an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like Chinese now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in general. In modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, which are synthetic and highly inflected. The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669, Historian in the sense of a researcher of history is attested from 1531. Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current dominant ideas of how to interpret the past, in the words of Benedetto Croce, All history is contemporary history. History is facilitated by the formation of a discourse of past through the production of narrative. The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the production of this discourse. All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical record, the task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents
31.
Stewart Lee
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Stewart Graham Lee is an English stand-up comedian, writer, director and musician. He made his name in the mid-1990s as one half of the radio duo Lee and Herring, alongside Richard Herring, a success followed through with extensive touring to build up a live following. After a return to the circuit, and through BBC and Channel 4 specials and series, Lee has rebuilt an audience. Lee remains a significant draw in UK stand up, in recent years, Lee has been successful in selling out large venues including the ICC in his home city of Birmingham as well as larger venues in London. In December 2011 he won British Comedy Awards for best male television comic, a 2009 article in The Times referred to him as the comedians comedian, and for good reason and named him face of the decade. In June 2012 Lee was placed at number 9 in the Top 100 Most Influential People in UK Comedy and his stand-up features frequent use of repetition, call-backs, nonchalant delivery and deconstruction, a device he often self-consciously refers to on stage. Lee has written reviews for publications including The Sunday Times. Through the early 2000s he was a presenter on Resonance FM. Asked in 2003 what his favourites were, he said Most of my favourites are still going like The Fall, Giant Sand, I listen to a lot of jazz, 60s and folk music but I really like Ms. Dynamite, and The Streets. His debut novel, The Perfect Fool, includes an audio bibliography – a list of recommended listening, Lee mentions that it was his love of the band Giant Sand that first attracted him to visit the Southwestern United States. Lee was born in Wellington, Shropshire and he was adopted as a child and grew up in Solihull in the West Midlands. He attended the public school Solihull School on a part scholarship. As a teenager he suffered from ulcerative colitis and he is married to fellow comic Bridget Christie, with whom he has two children. He is a patron of the British Humanist Association, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and his influences include Ted Chippington, Simon Munnery, Kevin McAleer and Johnny Vegas. Having moved to London and begun performing stand up comedy after university, he rose to prominence in 1990. Throughout the late nineties he continued performing solo stand-up and has collaborated with, amongst others, Julian Barratt, Lee returned the favour by going on to direct their 1999 Edinburgh show, Arctic Boosh, which remains the template for their live work. In 2001, Lee published his first novel, The Perfect Fool, in the same year he performed Pea Green Boat, a stand-up show which revolved around the deconstruction of the Edward Lear poem The Owl and the Pussycat and a tale of his own broken toilet. This would later be condensed to focus mainly on the poem itself, in 2007, Go Faster Stripe released a 25-minute edit on CD &10 Vinyl
32.
Chris Morris (satirist)
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Christopher J Chris Morris is an English comedian, writer, director, actor, voice actor, and producer. He is known for his humour, surrealism, and controversial subject matter. His tendency to avoid the media spotlight has seen him become one of the more enigmatic figures in British comedy, in the early 1990s, Morris teamed up with his radio producer, Armando Iannucci, to create On the Hour, a satire of news programmes. This was expanded into a spin off, The Day Today, which launched the career of Steve Coogan. Morris further developed the satirical news format with Brass Eye, which lampooned celebrities whilst focusing on such as crime. For many, the apotheosis of Morriss career was a Brass Eye special and it quickly became one of the most complained about programmes in British television history, leading the Daily Mail to describe him as the most loathed man on TV. Meanwhile, Morriss postmodern sketch and ambient music radio show Blue Jam helped him to gain a cult following and he went on to win a BAFTA for Best Short Film after expanding a Blue Jam sketch into My Wrongs 8245–8249 &117, which starred Paddy Considine. Blue Jam was adapted into the TV series Jam and this was followed by Nathan Barley, a sitcom written in collaboration with a then little-known Charlie Brooker that satirised hipsters, which had low ratings but found success upon its DVD release. Morris followed this by joining the cast of the Graham Linehan sitcom The IT Crowd, in 2010, Morris directed his first feature-length film, Four Lions, which satirised Islamic terrorism through a group of inept British Pakistanis. Reception of the film was positive, earning Morris his second BAFTA. Since 2012, he has directed four episodes of Iannuccis political comedy Veep and appeared onscreen in The Double and he has two younger brothers, including theatre director Tom Morris. From an early age he was a prankster, and also had a passion for radio, from the age of 10 he was educated at Stonyhurst College, an independent Jesuit boarding school in Lancashire. He went to study zoology at the University of Bristol, where he gained a 2,1, on graduating, Morris pursued a career as a musician in various bands, for which he played the bass guitar. He then went to work for Radio West, a radio station in Bristol. He then took up a news traineeship with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and he also spent time in early 1987 hosting a 2–4pm afternoon show and finally ended up presenting Saturday morning show I. T. In July 1987, he moved on to BBC Radio Bristol to present his own show No Known Cure, the show was surreal and satirical, with odd interviews conducted with unsuspecting members of the public. He was fired from Bristol in 1990 after talking over the news bulletins, in 1988 he also joined, from its launch, Greater London Radio. He presented The Chris Morris Show on GLR until 1993, when one show got suspended after a sketch was broadcast involving a child outing celebrities, in 1991, Morris joined Armando Iannuccis spoof news project On the Hour
33.
Armando Iannucci
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Armando Giovanni Iannucci, OBE is a Scottish satirist, writer, television director, and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, Iannucci studied at Oxford University and left work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy. Starting on BBC Scotland and BBC Radio 4, his work with Chris Morris on the radio series On the Hour was transferred to television as The Day Today. A character from series, Alan Partridge, went on to feature in a number of Iannuccis television and radio programmes including Knowing Me, Knowing You. In the meantime, Iannucci also fronted the satirical Armistice review shows and in 2001 created his most personal work, The Armando Iannucci Shows, for Channel 4. Moving back to the BBC in 2005, Iannucci created the political sitcom The Thick of It as well as the spoof documentary Time Trumpet in 2006. Winning funding from the UK Film Council, he directed an acclaimed feature film, In the Loop. As a result of works, he has been described by The Daily Telegraph as the hardman of political satire. Iannucci created the HBO political satire Veep, and was its showrunner for four seasons from 2012 to 2015, other works during this period include an operetta libretto, Skin Deep, and his radio series Charm Offensive. In March 2012, it was announced that he is working on his first novel, Tongue International and his father, also called Armando, is from Naples, while his mother was born in Glasgow to an Italian family. His father, who came to Scotland in 1950, ran a pizza factory, Iannucci has two brothers and a sister. He was educated at St Peters Primary School, St. Aloysius College, Glasgow, the University of Glasgow, and University College, Oxford, in his teens, he thought seriously about becoming a Roman Catholic priest. He abandoned graduate work on 17th-century religious language, with reference to Miltons Paradise Lost. Iannucci first received fame as the producer for On the Hour on Radio 4. Baynham was closely involved with both Morriss and Lee & Herrings work – simultaneously at one point, between 1995 and 1999, Iannucci produced and hosted The Saturday Night Armistice. In 2000, he created two pilot episodes for Channel 4, which became The Armando Iannucci Shows and this was an eight-part series for Channel 4 broadcast in 2001, written with Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil. The series consisted of Iannucci pondering pseudo-philosophical and jocular ideas and fantasies in between surreal sketches, Iannucci has been quoted as saying it is the comedy series he is most proud of making. He told The Metro in April 2007 The Armando Iannucci Show on Channel 4 came out around 9/11, people had other things on their minds
34.
On the Hour
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On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992. On the Hour featured the first appearance of Coogans character Alan Partridge as the Sports Desk reporter and it did fool many people, with some listeners ringing in to complain about how the anchor treated his guests. The programme also utilised editing of out-of-context sound-clips and prank phone calls, episodes would often feature a main storyline interspersed between the various news items. Twelve episodes were made and broadcast in 1991 and 1992, the final episode of On the Hour closed with Morris introducing a set of headlines with the line And there is still just time to part the beef curtains on tomorrows news. Running throughout the episode was the announcement that On the Hour would be taking over all of Radio 4 to transmit 24-hour Perma-News. On the Hour was named Best Radio Comedy at the 1992 British Comedy Awards, the On the Hour team subsequently made a television series called The Day Today, which retained the same regular cast and several characters from On the Hour. Combative and overly zealous, h believes in the infallibility of the news, bombastically delivering slogans like Man is only 90% water, and These facts are ear-shaped, lets ram them home. Morris frequently talks over his guests and does not realise or will not admit when he has the person on the other end of the phone. Morris reprised his newsman persona for The Day Today and Brass Eye, Roger Blatt/Michael Blatt, Roger Blatt is the Disaster correspondent for a train crash report, the identically-voiced Michael Blatt is the Strategy correspondent for the On the Hour War Special. Wayne Carr, Cloyingly-upbeat and smug DJ with a penchant for contracting words, waynes reports include inappropriately-upbeat coverage of a train crash disaster, an exposé on hidden messages in pop records, and a chinnywag about endangered animals. The character of Wayne Carr was retained from Morriss previous radio projects and his name is a reference to the abusive term wanker. Morris later used the Continuity Announcers voice for the national emergencies propaganda reel in the episode of The Day Today. Lionel Cosgrave, An Everyman who appears in news reports. Lionels age varies according to each report – sometimes he is a youngster, lionel is usually presented as a victim. Rosy presents absurd environmental-themed news in the segment Green Desk and this segment is accompanied by new-age music, including synthesised whale song. Rosy later appeared in The Day Today, although her segment was re-titled Enviromation, jacques Œuf, Appears in two episodes as a French counterpart to Wayne Carr. Like Carr, his name is a slang term for masturbation. Highly incompetent, reporting dubious facts and figures before being forced by Morris to admit that he hasnt actually read the reports he is ostensibly presenting and he later appeared in The Day Today
35.
Alan Partridge
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Alan Gordon Partridge is a fictional character portrayed by English actor and comedian Steve Coogan. Coogan described Partridge as a Little Englander, with right-wing values, Partridge was created by Coogan and Armando Iannucci for the 1991 BBC Radio 4 comedy programme On the Hour, a spoof of British current affairs broadcasting, as the shows sports presenter. In 1992, Partridge hosted a spin-off Radio 4 spoof chat show, Knowing Me, on the Hour transferred to television as The Day Today in 1993, followed by Knowing Me, Knowing You in 1994. It earned two BAFTAs and was followed by a series in 2002. Critics have praised Alan Partridges complexity, realism and pathos, vanity Fair called him a British national treasure and The Guardian described him as one of the greatest and most beloved comic creations of the last few decades. The character has been credited with influencing awkward comedies such as The Inbetweeners, Nighty Night, according to Den of Geek, Partridge has so influenced British culture that Partridgisms have become part of everyday vernacular. Alan Partridge was created for the 1991 BBC Radio 4 comedy programme On The Hour, the shows writers Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber, Richard Herring and Stewart Lee wrote much of Partridges original material, although Herring credits the creation to Coogan and Iannucci. Iannucci asked Coogan to do a voice for a sports reporter, according to Iannucci, Someone said, Hes an Alan. and someone else said. Within minutes we knew where he lived, wed worked out his back story, Coogan said Partridge was originally a one-note, sketchy character and freak show, but became more and more refined as sort of a dysfunctional alter ego over the years. He had performed a character for a BBC college radio station at university. Following On the Hour, Partridge presented six episodes of a spoof Radio 4 chat show, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, the series saw Partridge annoy and offend his guests, and coined the characters catchphrase, Aha. In 1993, On the Hour transferred to television as The Day Today, in 1994, Knowing Me, Knowing You transferred to television, the series ends with Partridge accidentally shooting a guest and attacking a BBC commissioning editor, ending his television career. It was nominated for the 1995 BAFTA for Light Entertainment Performance, a Christmas special, Knowing Me, Knowing Yule, was broadcast in December 1995. In 1997, Coogan starred in a sitcom, Im Alan Partridge, written by Coogan, Iannucci, Iannucci said the writers used the sitcom as a kind of social X-ray of male middle-aged Middle England. It won the 1998 BAFTA awards for Comedy Performance and Comedy Programme or Series, in 1999, Partridge appeared on the BBC telethon Children in Need, performing a medley of Kate Bush songs. The BBC broadcast a series of Im Alan Partridge in 2002. In March 2003, the BBC broadcast a mockumentary, Anglian Lives, Alan Partridge, about Partridges life, in 2008, Coogan performed a tour titled Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge and other Less Successful Characters, featuring Partridge as a life coach. After a hiatus, Partridge returned in 2010 in a series of YouTube shorts, Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge, Coogan co-wrote the shorts with brothers Neil and Rob Gibbons, who submitted scripts to his company Baby Cow Productions, the brothers have co-written every Partridge project since
36.
BBC Radio 4
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BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967, the station controller is Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the BBC Radio department. The station is broadcast from the BBCs headquarters at Broadcasting House and it is also available through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and on the Internet. It is notable for its news bulletins and programmes such as Today and The World at One, BBC Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station by total hours, after Radio 2 – and the most popular in London and the South of England. It recorded its highest audience, of 11 million listeners, in May 2011 and was UK Radio Station of the Year at the 2003,2004 and 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards and it also won a Peabody Award in 2002 for File On 4, Export Controls. Costing £71.4 million, it is the BBCs most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be its flagship. There is no comparable British commercial network, Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review, in 2010 Gwyneth Williams replaced Mark Damazer as Radio 4 controller. Damazer became Master of St Peters College, Oxford, music and sport are the only fields that largely fall outside the stations remit. It broadcasts occasional concerts, and documentaries related to forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based Desert Island Discs. As a result, for around 70 days a year listeners have to rely on FM broadcasts or increasingly DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave is now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts take precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast, as well as news and drama, the station has a strong reputation for comedy, including experimental and alternative comedy, many successful comedians and comedy shows first appearing on the station. The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967 and it had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its radio stations. For a time during the 1970s Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday and these were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and an evening bulletin was aired at 5. 55pm. There were also programme variations for the parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations and these included Roundabout East Anglia, a VHF opt-out of the Today programme broadcast from BBC Easts studios in Norwich each weekday from 6.45 am to 8.45 am. Roundabout East Anglia came to an end in 1980, when local services were introduced to East Anglia with the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk. All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980 apart from in the south west, in September 1991 it was decided that the main Radio 4 service would be on FM as coverage had extended to cover almost all of the UK. Opt-outs were transferred to long wave, currently Test Match Special, extra shipping forecasts, The Daily Service, long wave very occasionally opts out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010
37.
BBC Radio 1
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Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7,00 pm, including electronic dance, hip hop, rock, indie or interviews. It was launched in 1967 to meet the demand for music generated by radio stations. Recently, the BBC claimed that it targets the 15–29 age group. BBC Radio 1 started 24-hour broadcasting on 1 May 1991, Radio 1 was established in 1967 as a successor to the BBC Light Programme, which had broadcast popular music and other entertainment since 1945. Radio 1 was conceived as a response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London. Radio 1 was launched at 7,00 am on Saturday 30 September 1967. The first words on Radio 1 – after a countdown by the Controller of Radios 1 and 2, Robin Scott, welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1. This was the first use of US-style jingles on BBC radio, the first complete record played on Radio 1 was Flowers in the Rain by The Move. The second single was Massachusetts by The Bee Gees, the breakfast show remains the most prized slot in the Radio 1 schedule, with every change of breakfast show presenter exciting considerable media interest. Despite this, it gained massive audiences, becoming the most listened to station in the world with audiences of over 10 million claimed for some of its shows, in the early-mid-1970s Radio 1 presenters were rarely out of the British tabloids, thanks to the Publicity Departments high-profile work. Alan Freemans Saturday Rock Show was voted Best Radio Show 5 years running by readers of a music publication. In his last few months as controller, Johnny Beerling commissioned a handful of new shows that in some set the tone for what was to come under Matthew Bannister. One of these Loudnproud was the UKs first national radio series aimed at a gay audience, far from being a parting quirk, the show was a surprise hit and led to the networks first coverage of the large outdoor Gay Pride event in 1994. Bannister took the reins fully in October 1993 and his aim was to rid the station of its Smashie and Nicey image and make it appeal to the under 25s. Although originally launched as a station, by the early 1990s. Many listeners rebelled as the first new DJs to be introduced represented a crossover from other parts of the BBC with Emma Freud, Evans was a popular but controversial presenter who was eventually sacked in 1997 after he demanded to present the breakfast show for only four days per week. Evans was replaced from 17 February 1997 by Mark and Lard – Mark Radcliffe and they were replaced by Zoë Ball and Kevin Greening eight months later in October 1997, with Greening moving on and leaving Ball as solo presenter. Documentaries like John Peels Lost in Music which looked at the influence that the use of drugs have had over popular musicians received critical acclaim but were slated inside Broadcasting House, later in the 1990s the Britpop boom declined, and manufactured chart pop came to dominate the charts
38.
Frank Skinner
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Frank Skinner is an English writer, comedian, TV and radio presenter, and actor. At the 2001 British Comedy Awards, he was awarded the Best Comedy Entertainment Personality and he presented on television The Frank Skinner Show from 1995–2005, Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned from 2000–2005 and Room 101 from 2012–present. Skinner was born in West Bromwich, England, and grew up in a house in neighbouring Oldbury. He was the youngest of four born to former semi-professional footballer John Collins. He has two brothers, Keith and Terrence, and an older sister, Nora. Skinner attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St. Huberts Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968 and he passed two O-levels in summer 1973 and took A-levels in English Language and Art, along with several O-level resits, at Oldbury Technical School Sixth Form. He subsequently took 4 A-levels at Warley College of Technology and graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic in 1981 with a degree in English and this was followed by a Masters degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick in Coventry the following year. Despite his given first name, his parents called him Graham, all his friends referred to him, Skinner once explained that whenever someone called at his house to ask if Chris was there, his mother would say yes, only to then turn around and shout for Graham. He took on the stage name Frank Skinner when the actors union Equity told him there was someone called Chris Collins on their books. He took the name from a member of his late fathers dominoes team, after graduating, he spent three and a half years on unemployment benefit before finding work as a lecturer in English at Halesowen College. In 1987, he decided to give stand-up comedy a try on the side, Skinner performed his first stand-up gig in 1987 and made his television debut a year later. In 1990, he co-wrote and starred in the variety show Packet Of Three on Channel 4. Before becoming a performer in 1989, he suffered a bout of influenza in September 1986 that made him give up drinking. Skinner won the 1991 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, beating Jack Dee and he has worked with David Baddiel, notably on the popular late night entertainment show Fantasy Football League, from 1994 to 2004, and on Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned from 2000 to 2005. The duo also co-wrote and performed the football song Three Lions with the Lightning Seeds and the England national football team for Euro 96, the song reached #1 in the UK charts both times. In 2001, he released his autobiography Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner, in 1998, he took part in a documentary titled A Little Bit Of Elvis. He paid over £11,000 at auction for a shirt which he believed was worn by Elvis Presley at his famous 1956 Tupelo concert, Skinner visited the USA to find out if the shirt was the genuine article. After a slightly awkward conversation with Dave Hebler, Presleys bodyguard, it appeared the shirt did once belong to Presley, Skinner had been a fan of Elvis as a child and used to buy Elvis Monthly
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