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![Penpol is a Grade II listed building in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated at OS grid reference SX134902 two miles (3 km) east of Boscastle just outside the village of Lesnewth.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110426065914im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/34/22/c95979504dc072a48deec50555b6_grande.jpg "Penpol is a Grade II listed building in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated at OS grid reference SX134902 two miles (3 km) east of Boscastle just outside the village of Lesnewth.[1]")
| Name | BBC Two |
|---|---|
| Logosize | 200px |
| Logofile | BBC Two.svg |
| Logocaption | BBC Two logo |
| Launch | 20 April 1964 |
| Picture format | 576i (PAL) SDTV |
| Share | 7.1% |
| Share as of | December 2010 |
| Share source | BARB |
| Owner | BBC |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Former names | BBC2 (20 April 1964–3 October 1997) |
| Sister names | BBC OneBBC ThreeBBC FourBBC NewsBBC ParliamentBBC HD |
| Web | |
| Terr serv 1 | Analogue |
| Terr chan 1 | Normally tuned to 2 (To be phased out nationwide by 2012) |
| Terr serv 2 | Freeview |
| Terr chan 2 | Channel 2 |
| Sat serv 1 | Freesat |
| Sat chan 1 | Channel 102 |
| Sat serv 2 | Sky |
| Sat chan 2 | Channel 102 and BBC UK regional TV on satellite |
| Sat serv 3 | Sky (IRL) |
| Sat chan 3 | Channel 142 |
| Sat serv 4 | Astra 2D |
| Sat chan 4 | 10773H 22000 5/6 |
| Cable serv 1 | Virgin Media |
| Cable chan 1 | Channel 102 |
| Cable serv 2 | UPC (Republic of Ireland) |
| Cable chan 2 | Channel 109 |
| Cable serv 3 | Ziggo (Netherlands) |
| Cable chan 3 | Channel 51 |
| Cable serv 4 | UPC (Netherlands) |
| Cable chan 4 | Channel 51 |
| Cable serv 5 | Naxoo (Switzerland) |
| Cable chan 5 | Channel 214 |
| Adsl serv 1 | TalkTalk TV |
| Adsl chan 1 | Channel 2 |
| Online serv 1 | BBC Online |
| Online chan 1 | Watch live (UK only) |
| Online serv 2 | TVCatchup |
| Online chan 2 | Watch live(UK only) |
| Online serv 3 | BBC iPlayer |
| Online chan 3 | Watch live (UK only) |
Prior to its launch, BBC2 was promoted on the BBC Television Service channel soon to be renamed BBC1; the animated adverts featured the campaign mascots "Hullabaloo" (a mother kangaroo) and "Custard" (her joey). Prior to its formal launch (and for several years afterwards) the channel broadcast 'Trade Test Transmissions', short films made externally by companies such as Shell and BP, which served to enable engineers to test reception, but became cult viewing.
The channel was scheduled to begin at 19:20 on 20 April 1964 and show an evening of light entertainment, starting with the comedy show The Alberts, a performance from Soviet comedian Arkady Raikin, and a production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, culminating with a fireworks display.
However, at around 18:45 a huge power failure, originating from Battersea Power Station, caused Television Centre, and indeed much of west London, to lose all power. BBC1 was able to continue broadcasting via its facilities at Alexandra Palace, but all attempts to show the scheduled programmes on the new channel failed. Associated-Rediffusion, the London ITV franchise-holder, offered to transmit on the BBC's behalf, but their gesture was rejected.
However, at 22:00 BBC2 had no choice but to concede defeat and postpone programming until the following morning. As the BBC's news centre at Alexandra Palace was unaffected, they did in fact broadcast brief bulletins on BBC2 that evening, beginning with an announcement by the newsreader Gerald Priestland at around 19:25. There was believed to be no recording ever made of this bulletin, but one was discovered in early 2003.
By 11:00 on 21 April, power had been restored to the studios and programming began, thus making Play School the first programme to be shown officially on the channel. The launch schedule, postponed from the night before, was then successfully shown that evening, albeit with minor changes. In reference to the power cut, the transmission opened with a shot of a lit candle which was then sarcastically blown out by presenter Denis Tuohy.
To establish the new channel's identity and draw viewers to it, the BBC decided that a widely promoted, lavish series would be essential in its earliest days. The production chosen was The Forsyte Saga, a no-expense-spared adaptation of the novels by John Galsworthy, featuring well-established actors Kenneth More and Eric Porter. Critically for the future of the fledgling channel, the BBC's gamble was hugely successful, with an average of six million viewers tuning in per episode of a total of only 9 million able to receive the channel at the time, and BBC2 was safely established with the public.
Unlike the other channels available at that time (BBC1 and ITV), BBC2 was broadcast only on the 625 line UHF system, so was not available to viewers with 405-line VHF sets. This created a market for dual standard receivers which could switch between the two systems. The early technical problems, which included being unable to transmit US-made videotapes due to a lack of system conversion from the US NTSC system, were resolved by a committee headed by James Redmond.
BBC1 and ITV later joined BBC2 on 625-line UHF but continued to simulcast on 405-line VHF until 1985. On 1 July 1967, BBC2 became the first channel in Europe to begin regular broadcasts in colour, using the PAL system. The thirteen part series was created as a celebration of two millennia of western art and culture to showpiece the new colour technology. BBC1 and ITV simultaneously introduced PAL colour on UHF on 15 November 1969.
As the switch to digital-only terrestrial transmission progresses, BBC Two is (in each region in turn) the first analogue TV channel to be replaced with the BBC multiplex, four weeks ahead of the other four channels. This is required for those relay transmitters that have no current Freeview giving viewers time to purchase the equipment, unless they have already selected Freesat.
Jane Root, who was appointed in 1999 and was the first woman to be appointed controller of a BBC television channel, departed in May 2004 to become the executive vice president and general manager of the US-based Discovery Channel. BBC Two was channel of the year in 2007.
The channel has sometimes been judged in more recent years increasingly to have moved away from this original role and to have moved closer to the mainstream. The perception of its greater minority interest nevertheless persists in today's multi-channel world, so that a programme moved from BBC Two to BBC One will often attract a much larger audience, even though no other change has been made. Since 2004 there have been some signs of an attempt to return closer to parts of BBC Two's earlier output with the arts strand The Culture Show and intermittent night-time repeats of programming from BBC Four. Its most popular programme at the moment is Top Gear.
During the evenings, alternative programmes are broadcast on BBC Two Northern Ireland, BBC Two Scotland and BBC Two Wales. Until December 2008, BBC Wales broadcast a special, digital-only channel, BBC 2W, which contained more opt-outs than analogue-only BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Northern Ireland's offering includes local news and weather updates, whilst BBC Scotland broadcasts variations from the main network on BBC Two Scotland, such as Newsnight Scotland, and Gaelic-language programmes under the banner BBC Two Alba.
Following a long and important association with the Open University, which has always co-produced programming with the channel, BBC2 had also carried BBC Schools programmes from 1983 (til 2010) from BBC1. In 2010 primary school programmes were moved from daytime to BBC Learning Zone. In recent years the Open University programming has been broadcast under the wider category of the BBC Learning Zone, in its long-standing slot late at night and during the early hours. However, in 2004 the Open University announced it was to end the late-night programmes in favour of more primetime co-productions, modelled on Coast.
As a result of the channel's commitment to community broadcasting and amongst other programming the channel produced the symbolic Open Space series, a strand developed in the early 1970s in which members of the public would be allotted half an hour of television time, and given a level of editorial and technical training in order to produce for themselves a film on an issue most important to them. BBC2's Community Programme Unit kept this aspect of the channel's tradition alive into the 1990s in the form of Video Diaries and later Video Nation. The Community Programmes Unit was disbanded in 2004.
At Easter 1986 the computer-generated '2' was replaced by the word 'TWO' in red, green and blue on a white background. However, a survey carried out by the BBC in 1990 found that this ident gave the channel a 'worthy but dull' image. Then-controller Alan Yentob saw a major change of identity was necessary.
Branding agency Lambie-Nairn were commissioned, and in February 1991, the new custom '2' — and the signature colour, viridian — were unveiled on BBC Two, in idents that would successfully change public perception, and become world famous. The '2' always appeared in the same shape, in various forms; the earliest idents of 1991 featured solely inanimate '2' figures of different material in each, but also made use of camera angle tricks and properties such as refraction to achieve various effects. In later years it was given character, taking the form of a remote-controlled car, a rubber duck, a Dalek and a toy dog among many others. The expansive set of idents from 1991 to 2001 — lasting over a decade — are generally regarded as the best idents ever produced for a television channel; they ended in November 2001. The BBC corporate logo was updated within the idents in October 1997, though the idents moved away from the original viridan colour scheme in these latter years.
The subsequent presentation style, again created by Lambie-Nairn, was introduced on 19 November 2001 kept the same figure '2' — though it was now always shown white on a yellow background, and completely computer generated. Occasionally, to promote certain programmes on the channel the ident moved away from the standard style. For example, in a trail for the second series of The Catherine Tate Show, the character of Lauren Cooper was shown arguing with a '2' in the guise of a dog. This canine identity for the '2' was part of the BBC's Pedigree Comedy branding for comedy programmes in the Thursday night slot, and featured in 3 ident versions for use ahead of the programmes.
Withdrawn idents from years past have also made a return to BBC Two for special events. The "Garden" ident (in which a '2' grows out of flowers) returned for the 2001 Chelsea Flower Show after having been retired in 1997, and remained in occasional use until the November 2001 rebrand. For the 2006 Winter Olympics, the Christmas 2000 ident was used again (renamed "Frosty"), and remained in use until the February 2007 refresh. For the 2006 Chelsea Flower Show, "Predator" (where a '2' butterfly is eaten by a Venus fly-trap shaped '2') was used again (as "Venus Fly Trap"), and also remained in occasional use until the February 2007 rebrand. In each case, the branding was updated to match the then-current style.
The latest style of presentation was introduced on 18 February 2007, designed by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and produced by Red Bee Media. The figure 2 — which has been altered from Lambie-Nairn's original '2' design for the first time in 16 years — became a 'window on the world'. The first ident broadcast from this set was "Cappuccino Scoop". Additionally, the plum coloured box previously used for the BBC Two logo was changed to a teal colour, along with a font change from Gill Sans to Avenir across the channel.
On 18 March 2007 the ident "Tagging Football" was used to introduce Match of the Day 2. This ident is shot from the viewpoint of a man carrying a pink template with a 2 shaped cut-out hole, through which everything is seen; it is held up close to the camera. The man runs across a pitch, and hastily sprays the side of a football with a crude, bright pink '2' using the template and a can of spray paint. The camerawork is jittery, though likely intended to convey the frantic pace. Despite being different in style from the other current sequences, it is one of the idents issued as part of the initial set from AMV & Red Bee, and there are other versions of the same concept yet to air.
BBC Nations Category:BBC television channels in the United Kingdom Category:Television channels in the United Kingdom Category:Television channels and stations established in 1964 Category:Peabody Award winners
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| Name | Graham Norton |
|---|---|
| Caption | Norton in December 2004. |
| Birth name | Graham William Walker |
| Birth date | April 04, 1963 |
| Birth place | Clondalkin, Dublin, Ireland |
| Medium | Television, Radio |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Active | 1992–present |
| Genre | Observational comedy |
| Subject | Everyday life, pop culture |
| Awards | |
| Notable work | Host of The Graham Norton ShowMr. Puckov in Another Gay MovieTaylor in I Could Never Be Your Woman |
Norton entered University College Cork but dropped out to move to San Francisco in the USA, where he trained as a drama teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
In 1992 his stand-up comedy drag act in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a tea-towel clad Mother Teresa of Calcutta made the press when Scottish Television's religious affairs department mistakenly thought he represented the real Mother Teresa.
His first appearances in broadcasting were in his spot as a regular comedian and panellist on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends, when the show ran on Saturday mornings, in the early 1990s. His rise to fame began as one of the early successes of Channel 5, when he won an award for his performance as the stand-in host of a late-night TV talk show usually presented by Jack Docherty. This was followed by a comic quiz show on Channel 5 called Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment, which was not well received as a programme, but did further enhance Norton's individual reputation as a comic and TV host. In 1996, Norton co-hosted the late-night quiz show Carnal Knowledge on ITV with Maria McErlane.
Norton also played the part of Father Noel Furlong in 3 episodes of the popular Channel 4 series Father Ted in 1996; where he was often seen taking charge of a small youth folk-group.
In 2003, he was the subject of controversy when, on his show on Channel 4, he made a comedic reference to the recent death of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb. The Independent Television Commission investigated after complaints about this insensitivity were forwarded to it and eventually Channel 4 had to make two apologies: one in the form of a caption slide before the show, another from Norton in person.
Also in 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy (though Norton is Irish, the bulk of his television career has been in the UK).
In the summer of 2004, Norton moved across the Atlantic to start a new venture in American television. The Graham Norton Effect debuted on 24 June 2004 on Comedy Central, and was also broadcast in the UK on BBC Three. In the midst of controversy surrounding Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance, Norton was wary of moving into the market.
In 2006, Norton hosted the BBC One series How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in which Andrew Lloyd Webber tried to find a lead actress for his West End version of The Sound of Music. Norton has subsequently presented the 3 follow-up series: Any Dream Will Do in 2007, in which a group of males competed to win the role of Joseph in the West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; I'd Do Anything in 2008, in which Andrew Lloyd Webber seeks to find the part of Nancy and Oliver for Sir Cameron Mackintosh's production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!; and Over the Rainbow in 2010, following a similar format to find a new Dorothy for a Wizard of Oz West end Production.
Norton hosted various other shows for the BBC during this time, including When Will I Be Famous? (2007), The One and Only (2008) and Totally Saturday (2009). Since 2007, Norton has also been a regular host of The British Academy Television Awards. On 7 July 2007, Norton presented at Live Earth and undertook a trip to Ethiopia with the Born Free Foundation to highlight the plight of the Ethiopian wolf – the rarest canid in the world. In the same year, he was the subject of an episode of the BBC1 genealogy documentary Who Do You Think You Are?.
Norton's chat show, The Graham Norton Show, began on 22 February 2007 on BBC Two. Although in a format that he had not been involved in for 4 years, it is very similar to his previous Channel 4 shows. On 6 October 2009, the show moved to BBC One, in a new one-hour format.
In May 2010 he stood in for Chris Evans' breakfast show on BBC Radio 2. Later that month, it was confirmed that he would be replacing Jonathan Ross' Saturday morning slot on the same station.
Graham Norton's advice column in the Daily Telegraph has been made into a book, Ask Graham, published in October 2010 by John Blake Publishing.
In October 2008, it was confirmed by the BBC that Norton would replace Terry Wogan as the BBC's presenter for the UK heats of the Eurovision Song Contest, in a show to be called Your Country Needs You.
On 5 December 2008 it was announced that Norton would also take over from Terry Wogan as the presenter of the main Eurovision Song Contest. The 54th Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Olimpiyskiy (Olympic) Stadium, Moscow on 16 May 2009.
Norton's jokes during his debut received some positive reviews from the British media. The Guardian noted his comments on Iceland's entry, which finished in second place, had "rooted around in a cupboard and found an old bridesmaid dress from 1987" and the Armenian singers, who finished in tenth place, were sporting traditional dress, "which would be true if you come from the village where Liberace is the mayor".
His comment “The bad news is you’re about to watch Albania. She’s only 17 so please bear that in mind. Where was her mother? Why didn’t she step in and say no?” which was made just before a young performer from Albania was set to take the stage dubbed an insult by many, sent ripples of outrage through not only Albania, but also the Albanian population in Britain. There was even a petition circling the net calling for a formal apology from Norton. The petition, which called his comment “very rude and insulting,” had drawn over 1,000 signatures.
Norton was involved in a high-publicity advertising campaign for the UK National Lottery as an animated unicorn, the stooge to a character based on Lady Luck (played by Fay Ripley). He has also advertised McVitie's biscuits.
In 2007, Norton featured in Girls Aloud and Sugababes' Comic Relief video for the single "Walk This Way".
In January 2009, Norton made his West End stage debut in a revival of La Cage Aux Folles at the Playhouse Theatre.
Since 2009, Norton has been the host of the comedy game-show Most Popular on US cable television channel WE tv.
Norton suffers from vitiligo, a skin disease.
In 1988 he was mugged, stabbed in the chest and left for dead on the streets.
Norton caused controversy on 7 October 2006, when he described cocaine and ecstasy as "fantastic".
Immediately after hosting the BAFTAs in 2009, he said he returned home only to fall down his stairs and break two ribs.
Sitting in for Chris Evans May /July 2010 BBC Radio 2
On 2nd October 2010, he began his weekly BBC Radio 2 Saturday show taking over from Jonathan Ross. The show airs from 10.00am-1.00pm and combines a mixture of music, chat and celebrity guests.
Category:1963 births Category:Gay actors Category:Irish comedians Category:Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:LGBT comedians Category:LGBT people from Ireland Category:LGBT television personalities Category:LGBT radio personalities Category:Living people Category:People from County Cork Category:People from Dublin (city) Category:Alumni of University College Cork Category:United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest Category:Eurovision Song Contest commentators Category:British television talk show hosts
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| Name | Neil Young |
|---|---|
| Landscape | yes |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Neil Percival Young |
| Alias | Bernard Shakey, Joe Canuck OC, OM (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He then forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and secondly as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997. |
The 1982 album Trans, which incorporated vocoders, synthesizers, and electronic beats, was Young's first for new label Geffen Records (distributed at the time by Warner Bros. Records, whose parent Warner Music Group owns most of Young's solo and band catalog) and represented a distinct stylistic departure. Young later revealed that an inspiration for the album was the theme of technology and communication with his son Ben, who has severe cerebral palsy and cannot speak. An extensive tour preceded the release of the album, and was documented by the video Neil Young in Berlin, which saw release in 1986.
Young's next album, 1983's Everybody's Rockin', included several rockabilly covers and clocked in at less than twenty-five minutes in length. Young was backed by the Shocking Pinks for the supporting U.S. tour. Trans had already drawn the ire of label head David Geffen for its lack of commercial appeal, and with Everybody's Rockin' following only seven months later, Geffen Records sued Young for making music "unrepresentative" of himself. The album was also notable as the first for which Young made commercial music videos – Tim Pope directed the videos for "Wonderin'" and "Cry, Cry, Cry". Also premiered in 1983, though little seen, was the eclectic full-length comedy film Human Highway, co-directed and co-written by Young, and starring Young and members of Devo.
1984 was the first year without a Neil Young album since the start of Young's musical career with Buffalo Springfield in 1966. Young's lack of productivity was largely due to the ongoing legal battle with Geffen, although he was also frustrated that the label had rejected his 1982 country album Old Ways. It was also the year when Young's third child, his second with wife Pegi was born; his daughter Amber Jean, a child who was later diagnosed with inherited epilepsy. Young spent most of 1984 and all of 1985 touring for Old Ways with his country band, the International Harvesters. The album was finally released in an altered form midway through 1985. Young also appeared at that year's Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, collaborating with Crosby, Stills and Nash for the quartet's first performance for a paying audience in over ten years.
Young's last two albums for Geffen were more conventional in genre, although they incorporated production techniques like synthesizers and echoing drums that were previously uncommon in Young's music. Young recorded 1986's Landing on Water without Crazy Horse, but reunited with the band for the subsequent year-long tour and final Geffen album, Life, which emerged in 1987. Young's album sales dwindled steadily throughout the eighties; today Life remains his all-time-least successful studio album, with an estimated four hundred thousand sales worldwide.
Switching back to his old label Reprise Records, Young continued to tour relentlessly, assembling a new blues band called The Bluenotes in mid-1987 (a legal dispute with musician Harold Melvin forced the eventual rechristening of the band as Ten Men Working midway through the tour). The addition of a brass section provided a new jazzier sound, and the title track of 1988's This Note's For You became Young's first hit single of the decade. Accompanied by a video that parodied corporate rock, the pretensions of advertising, and Michael Jackson, the song was initially unofficially banned by MTV for mentioning the brand names of some of their sponsors. Young wrote an open letter, "What does the M in MTV stand for: music or money?" Despite this, the video was eventually named best video of the year by the network in 1989. By comparison, the major music cable network of Young's home nation, Muchmusic, ran the video immediately.
Young reunited with Crosby, Stills and Nash to record the 1988 album American Dream and play two benefit concerts late in the year, but the group did not embark upon a full tour. The album was only the second-ever studio record for the quartet.
Young's 1989 single "Rockin' in the Free World", which hit #2 on the U.S. charts, and accompanying album, Freedom, rocketed him back into the popular consciousness after a decade of sometimes-difficult genre experiments. The album's lyrics were often overtly political; "Rockin' in the Free World" deals with homelessness, terrorism, and environmental degradation, implicitly criticizing the government policies of President George H.W. Bush.
The use of heavy feedback and distortion on several Freedom tracks was reminiscent of the Rust Never Sleeps album, and foreshadowed the imminent rise of grunge. The rising stars of the genre, including Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, frequently cited Young as a major influence, contributing to his popular revival. A tribute album called was released in 1989, featuring covers by alternative and grunge acts including Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, Soul Asylum, Dinosaur Jr, and the Pixies.
Young's 1990 album Ragged Glory, recorded with Crazy Horse in a barn on his Northern California ranch, continued this distortion-heavy aesthetic. Young toured for the album with Orange County, California country-punk band Social Distortion and alternative rock pioneers Sonic Youth as support, much to the consternation of many of his old fans. Weld, a two-disc live album documenting the tour, was released in 1991. Still enamored with the grunge scene, Young reconnected with Pearl Jam in 1995 for the live-in-the-studio album Mirror Ball and a tour of Europe with the band and producer Brendan O'Brien backing Young. 1995 also marked Young's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he was inducted by Eddie Vedder.
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Young's next collaborative partner was filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who asked Young to compose a soundtrack to his 1995 black and white western film Dead Man. Young's instrumental soundtrack was improvised while he watched the film alone in a studio. The death of longtime mentor, friend, and producer David Briggs in late 1995 prompted Young to reconnect with Crazy Horse the following year for the album and tour Broken Arrow. A Jarmusch-directed concert film and live album of the tour, Year of the Horse, emerged in 1997. From 1996–97 Young and Crazy Horse toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, including a stint as part of the H.O.R.D.E. Festival's sixth annual tour.
In 1998, Young renewed his collaboration with rock band Phish, sharing the stage at the annual Farm Aid concert and then at Young's Bridge School Benefit, where he joined headliners Phish for renditions of "Helpless" and "I Shall Be Released." Phish declined Young's later invitation to be his backing band on his 1999 North American tour.
The decade ended with the release in late 1999 of Looking Forward, another reunion with Crosby, Stills and Nash. The subsequent tour of the United States and Canada with the reformed super quartet earned $42.1 million, making it the eighth largest grossing tour of 2000.
In 2003, Young released Greendale, a concept album recorded with Crazy Horse members Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. The songs loosely revolved around the murder of a police officer in a small town in California and its effects on the town's inhabitants. Young, under the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", directed an accompanying film of the same name, featuring actors lip-synching to the music from the album. Young toured extensively with the Greendale material throughout 2003 and 2004, first with a solo, acoustic version in Europe, then with a full-cast stage show in North America, Japan, and Australia. Young began using biodiesel on the 2004 Greendale tour, powering his trucks and tour buses with the fuel. "Our Greendale tour is now ozone friendly,” Young said. “I plan to continue to use this government approved and regulated fuel exclusively from now on to prove that it is possible to deliver the goods anywhere in North America without using foreign oil, while being environmentally responsible.” Young spent the latter portion of 2004 giving a series of intimate acoustic concerts in various cities with his wife, who is a trained vocalist and guitar player.
In March 2005, while working on the Prairie Wind album in Nashville, Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. He was treated successfully with a minimally invasive neuroradiological procedure, performed in a New York hospital on March 29. Two days afterwards, Young passed out on a New York street from bleeding from the femoral artery, which surgeons had used to access the aneurysm. The complication forced Young to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Juno Awards telecast in Winnipeg, but within months he was back on stage, appearing at the close of the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario on July 2. During the performance, he debuted a new song, a soft hymn called "When God Made Me". Young's brush with death influenced Prairie Wind's themes of retrospection and mortality. The album's live premiere in Nashville was immortalized by filmmaker Jonathan Demme in the 2006 film .
Young's renewed activism manifested itself in the 2006 album Living With War, which was hastily recorded and released in less than a month. The album's overtly political songs rebuked U.S. President George W. Bush and the War in Iraq and included the provocatively titled "Let's Impeach the President". Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunited for the supporting "Freedom Of Speech Tour '06". CSNY Déjà Vu, a concert film of the tour directed by Young was released in 2008, along with an accompanying live album.
While Young had never been a stranger to eco-friendly lyrics, themes of environmentalist spirituality and activism became increasingly prominent in his work throughout the 1990s and 2000s, especially on Greendale and Living With War. The trend continued on 2007's Chrome Dreams II, with lyrics exploring Young's personal eco-spirituality. Also in 2007, Young accepted an invitation to participate in , contributing his version of "Walking to New Orleans".
In 2008, Young revealed his latest project, the production of a hybrid-engine 1959 Lincoln called Lincvolt. A new album loosely based on the Lincvolt project, Fork in the Road, was released on April 7, 2009. Unfortunately, the car caught fire in November, 2010, in a California warehouse, and along the way it burned an estimated $850,000 worth of Young's rock and roll memorabilia collection. Initial reports suggest the fire might have been triggered by an error in the vehicle's plug-in charging system. Young blamed the fire on human error and said he and his team were committed to rebuilding the car. "The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car," he said.
, England, on June 23 2009.]] A Jonathan Demme concert film from a 2007 concert at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, called the Neil Young Trunk Show premiered on March 21, 2009, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. It was featured at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2009 and was released in the US on March 19, 2010 to critical acclaim.
Young's most recent album appearance was on the album Potato Hole, released on April 21, 2009 by Memphis organ player Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG's fame. Young plays guitar on nine of the album's ten instrumental tracks, alongside Drive-By Truckers, who already had three guitar players, giving some songs on the album a total of five guitar tracks. Jones contributed guitars on a couple of tracks.
Young continues to tour extensively. In 2009, he headlined the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England, at Hard Rock Calling in London (where he was joined onstage by Paul McCartney for a rendition of "A Day in the Life") and, after years of unsuccessful booking attempts, the Isle of Wight Festival in addition to performances at the Big Day Out festival in New Zealand and Australia and the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.
Young currently lives in La Honda, California on the 1500-acre (6 km²) Broken Arrow Ranch, purchased in 1970 for $350,000 and named after one of his early Buffalo Springfield songs.
Three performances from the Performance Series of the archives were released individually before The Archives Vol. 1. Live at the Fillmore East, a selection of songs from a 1970 gig with Crazy Horse, was released in 2006. Live at Massey Hall 1971, a solo acoustic set from Toronto's Massey Hall, saw release in 2007. Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968, an early solo performance and, chronologically, the first disc in the performance series, emerged late in 2008.
In an interview in 2008, Neil Young discussed Toast, an album originally recorded with Crazy Horse in San Francisco in 2000 but never released. The album will be part of the Special Edition Series of the Archives. No release date currently exists for Toast. Another album Young has mentioned as a possible release is Treasure, from 1985 sessions with the Harvesters.
On July 14, 2009, Young's first four solo albums were reissued as remastered HDCD discs and digital downloads as discs 1–4 of the Original Release Series of the Archives.
As one of the original founders of Farm Aid, he remains an active member of the board of directors. For one weekend each October, in Mountain View, California, he and his wife host the Bridge School Concerts, which have been drawing international talent and sell-out crowds for nearly two decades with some of the biggest names in rock having performed at the event including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Waits, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Matthews. The concerts are a benefit for the Bridge School, which develops and uses advanced technologies to aid in the instruction of children with disabilities. Young's involvement stems at least partially from the fact that both of his sons have cerebral palsy and his daughter, like Young himself, has epilepsy.
Young was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his song "Philadelphia" from the film Philadelphia. Bruce Springsteen won the award for his song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the same film. In his acceptance speech, Springsteen said that "the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song." That same night, Tom Hanks accepted the Oscar for Best Actor and gave credit for his inspiration to the song "Philadelphia".
He was part owner of Lionel, LLC, a company that makes toy trains and model railroad accessories. In 2008 Lionel emerged from bankruptcy and his shares of the company were wiped out. At this time his status with Lionel is unknown, according to Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese he is still a consultant for Lionel. He was instrumental in the design of the Lionel Legacy control system for model trains
Young has twice received honorary doctorates. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1992, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University in 2006. The latter honour was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School. In 2006, Young was given Manitoba's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Manitoba. In 2009, he was then given Canada's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Canada.
Rolling Stone magazine in 2000, ranked Young thirty-fourth in its list of the 500 greatest artists of all time, and in 2003, included five of his albums in its list of 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2000, Young was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, Paste magazine compiled a "Greatest Living Songwriters" list; Young was ranked second behind Bob Dylan. (While Young and Dylan have occasionally played together in concert, they have never collaborated on a song together, or played on each others' records). He ranked thirty-ninth on VH1's 100 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock that same year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame explained that while Young has "avoided sticking to one style for very long, the unifying factors throughout Young’s peripatetic musical journey have been his unmistakable voice, his raw and expressive guitar playing, and his consummate songwriting skill." Dave Matthews lists Neil Young as one of his favorite and most inspirational songwriters and covers his songs on occasion. The British Indie band The Bluetones named their number one debut album after the song "Expecting to Fly" (written by Young when still with Buffalo Springfield and have covered the song while touring. Young also inspired Oasis singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher, with Gallagher covering "My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black)" on the live album Familiar to Millions.
The Australian rock group Powderfinger named themselves after Young's song "Powderfinger" from Young's Rust Never Sleeps. The members of the Constantines have occasionally played Neil Young tribute shows under the name Horsey Craze. While in Winnipeg on November 2, 2008 during the Canadian leg of his tour, Bob Dylan visited Young's former home in River Heights, where Young spent his teenage years. Dylan was interested in seeing the room where some of Young's first songs were composed.
Jason Bond, an East Carolina University biologist, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider in 2007 and named it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi after Young, his favorite singer (a previous similar case was the dinousaur Masiakasaurus knopfleri named after the musician Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits).
In 2001, Young was awarded the Spirit of Liberty award from the civil liberties group People for the American Way. Young was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, 2010, two nights prior to the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. In addition was also nominated for two Grammy Awards; Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance ("Fork In The Road") and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package ["Neil Young Archives Vol. I (1963–1972)"]. Young won the latter Grammy Award. In 2010, Young was ranked #26 in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
Other notable (or odd) instruments played by Young include:
Category:1945 births Category:Living people
Category:Anti-Iraq War activists Category:Anti-Vietnam War activists Category:Buffalo Springfield members Category:Canadian country guitarists Category:Canadian country rock musicians Category:Canadian country singers Category:Canadian film directors Category:Canadian folk guitarists Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian people of American descent Category:Canadian people of French descent Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian rock guitarists Category:Canadian rock singers Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian environmentalists Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young members Category:Juno Award winners Category:Lead guitarists Category:Musicians from Manitoba Category:Writers from Manitoba Category:Members of the Order of Manitoba Category:Neil Young and Crazy Horse members Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:Writers from Ontario Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People with epilepsy Category:People from Toronto Category:People from Winnipeg Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers
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| Name | Ken Block |
|---|---|
| Pixels | 250px |
| Caption | Ken Block in 2008. |
| Nationality | American |
| Date of birth | November 21, 1967 |
| Place of birth | Long Beach, California |
| Current series | Rally America |
| First year | 2005 |
| Current team | Monster World Rally Team |
| Prev teams | Subaru World Rally Team |
| Co-driver | Alex Gelsomino |
| Career points | 453 |
| Best finish | 2nd Overall in Rally America |
| Year | 2006 and 2008 |
| Award years | 2004 2005 is a professional rally racer with the Monster World Rally Team. Block is also one of the co-founders and recently appointed Chief Brand Officer of DC Shoes. Vermont SportsCar prepared a 2005 Subaru WRX STi for Block to compete. His first event of the rallying season was Sno*Drift, where he ended up finishing seventh overall and fifth in the Group N class. During the 2005 season, Block had five top five finishes and placed third overall in the Group N class and fourth overall in the Rally America National Championship. |
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| Name | Block, Ken |
| Date of birth | 1967-11-21 |
| Place of birth | Long Beach, California |
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Colour | #DEDEE2 |
|---|---|
| Name | Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. |
| Series | Indiana Jones |
| Caption | Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| First | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| Latest | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull |
| Creator | George Lucas |
| Portrayer | Films:Harrison Ford (ages 36–58)River Phoenix (age 13)TV series:Neil Boulane (baby)Corey Carrier (ages 8–10)Sean Patrick Flanery (ages 16–21)George Hall (age 93)Video games:Doug Lee (voice)David Esch (voice) |
| Birthdate | July 1st, 1899 |
| Birthplace | New Jersey (U.S.) |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Occupation | ArchaeologistAssociate deanCollege professorSoldierSpy |
| Title | DoctorColonel |
| Family | Henry Walton Jones, Sr. (father, deceased)Anna Mary Jones (mother, deceased)Susie Jones (sister, deceased) |
| Spouse | Deirdre Campbell Jones (1926) |
| Relatives | Pete (uncle)Grace Jones (aunt)Frank (cousin)Caroline (granddaughter)Lucy (granddaughter)/Theist}} |
Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. Ph.D. is a fictional American adventurer, OSS operative, professor of archaeology, and the central protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials. The character first appeared in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, to be followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles from 1992 to 1996, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. Alongside the more widely known films and television programs, the character is also featured in novels, comics, video games, and other media. Jones is also featured in the theme park attraction Indiana Jones Adventure, which exists in similar forms at Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.
Jones is most famously played by Harrison Ford and has also been portrayed by River Phoenix (as the young Jones in The Last Crusade), and in the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles by Corey Carrier, Sean Patrick Flanery, and George Hall. Doug Lee has supplied Jones's voice to two LucasArts video games, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, while David Esch supplied his voice to Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb.
Particularly notable facets of the character include his iconic look (bullwhip, fedora, and leather jacket), sense of humor, deep knowledge of many ancient civilizations and languages, and fear of snakes.
Indiana Jones remains one of cinema's most revered movie characters. In 2003, he was ranked as the second greatest movie hero of all time by the American Film Institute. He was also named the sixth greatest movie character by Empire magazine. Entertainment Weekly ranked Indy 2nd on their list of The All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture. Premiere magazine also placed Indy at number 7 on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. Since his first appearance in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he has become a worldwide star. On their list of the 100 Greatest Fictional Characters, Fandomania.com ranked Indy at number 10. In 2010, he ranked #2 on Time Magazine's list of the greatest fictional characters of all time, surpassed only by Sherlock Holmes.
Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, was first introduced in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, set in 1936. He is portrayed as an adventurous throwback to the 1930s film serial treasure hunters and pulp action heroes, with an alter ego of Doctor Jones, a respected archaeology professor at Marshall College (named after producer Frank Marshall) a fictional college in Connecticut. In this first adventure, he is pitted against the Nazis, traveling the world to prevent them from recovering the Ark of the Covenant (see also Biblical archaeology). He is aided by Marion Ravenwood and Sallah. The Nazis are led by Jones's archrival, a Nazi-sympathizing French archaeologist named René Belloq, and Arnold Toht, a sinister Gestapo agent.
The 1984 prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, set in 1935, took the character into a more horror-oriented story, skipping his legitimate teaching job and globe trotting, and taking place almost entirely in India. This time, Jones attempts to recover children and the Sankara stones from the bloodthirsty Thuggee cult. He is aided by Short Round and accompanied by Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw).
The third film, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, set in 1938, returned to the formula of the original, reintroducing characters such as Sallah and Marcus Brody, a scene from Professor Jones's classroom (he now teaches at Barnett College), the globe trotting element of multiple locations, and the return of the infamous Nazi mystics, this time trying to find the Holy Grail. The film's introduction, set in 1912, provided some back story to the character, specifically the origin of his fear of snakes, his use of a bullwhip, the scar on his chin, and his hat; the film's epilogue also reveals that "Indiana" is not Jones's first name, but a nickname he took from the family dog. The film was a buddy movie of sorts, teaming Jones with his father, often to comical effect. Although Lucas intended at the time to do five films, this ended up being the last for over eighteen years, as Lucas could not think of a good plot element to drive the next installment.
The 2008 film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, became the latest film in the series. Set in 1957, 19 years after the third film, it pits an older, wiser Indiana Jones against Soviet agents bent on harnessing the power of a crystal skull discovered in South America by his former colleague Harold Oxley (John Hurt). He is aided in his adventure by an old lover, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and her son—a young greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), later revealed to be his biological child Henry Jones III. There are rumors that LaBeouf will take over the Indy franchise. This film also reveals that Jones was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor department to the CIA) during World War II, attaining the rank of Colonel and running covert operations with MI6 agent George McHale on the Soviet Union.
One episode, "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues", is bookended by Harrison Ford, reprising his role as the character. Indiana loses one of his eyes sometime between 1957 and when the "Old Indy" segments take place.
The show provided some backstory for the films, as well as new information regarding the character. He was born July 1, 1899, and his middle name is Walton (Lucas's middle name). It is also mentioned that he had a sister called Suzie who died as an infant of fever, and that he eventually has a daughter and grandchildren who appear in some episode introductions and epilogues. His relationship with his father, first introduced in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was further fleshed out with stories about his travels with his father as a young boy. A large portion of the series centered around his activities during World War I.
In 1999, Lucas removed the episode introductions and epilogues by George Hall for the VHS and DVD releases, as he re-edited the episodes into chronologically ordered feature-length stories. The series title was also changed to The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.
In 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull film, Jones makes passing mention to the events of the episode in which he met Pancho Villa; this was included to reinforce that the TV series is indeed part of the same official continuity as the movies.
Following this, the games branched off into original storylines with Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. Emperor's Tomb sets up Jones's companion Wu Han and the search for Nurhaci's ashes seen at the beginning of Temple of Doom. The first two games were developed by Hal Barwood and starred Doug Lee as the voice of Indiana Jones; Emperor's Tomb had David Esch fill the role and Staff of Kings starred John Armstrong.
There is also a small game from Lucas Arts Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures. A video game was made for young Indy called Young Indiana Jones and the Instruments of Chaos, as well as a video game version of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
Two Lego Indiana Jones games have also been released. was released in 2008 and follows the plots of the first three films. It was followed by in late 2009. The sequel includes an abbreviated reprise of the first three films, but focuses on the plot of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Indiana Jones has also made cameo appearances as an unlockable character in the games and .
The Indiana Jones Adventure attractions at Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea ("Temple of the Forbidden Eye" and "Temple of the Crystal Skull," respectively) place Indy at the forefront of two similar archaeological discoveries. These two temples each contain a wrathful deity who threatens the guests who ride through in World War II troop transports. The attractions, some of the most expensive of their kind at the time, opened in 1995 and 2001, respectively, with sole design credit attributed to Walt Disney Imagineering. Disney did not license Harrison Ford's likeness for the North American version; nevertheless, a differentiated Indiana Jones audio-animatronic character appears at three points in both attractions. However, the Indiana Jones featured in the DisneySea version does use Harrison Ford's likeness but uses Japanese audio for all of his speaking parts.
Disneyland Resort Paris also features an Indiana Jones-titled ride where people speed off through ancient ruins in a runaway mine wagon similar to that found in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is a looping roller coaster engineered by Intamin AG and opened in 1993.
The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! is a live show that has been presented in the Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park of the Walt Disney World Resort with few changes since the park's 1989 opening under a different name. The 25-minute show presents various stunts framed in the context of a feature film production, and recruits members of the audience to participate in the show. Stunt artists in the show re-create and ultimately reveal some of the secrets of the stunts of the Raiders of the Lost Ark films, including the well-known "running-from-the-boulder" scene. Stunt performer Anislav Varbanov was fatally injured in August, 2009 while rehearsing the popular show.
Like many characters in his films, Jones has some autobiographical elements of Spielberg. Indiana lacks a proper father figure because of his strained relationship with his father, Henry Senior. His own contained anger is misdirected at the likes of Professor Abner Ravenwood, his mentor at the University of Chicago, leading to a strained relationship with Marion Ravenwood. Marcus Brody acts as Indiana's positive role model at the college.
Because of Indiana's strained relationship with his father, who was absent much of Indiana's youth searching for the Holy Grail, the character does not pursue the more spiritual aspects of the cultures he studies. Indiana uses his knowledge of Shiva to ultimately defeat Mola Ram. In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Jones is older and wiser, whereas his sidekicks Mutt and Mac are youthfully arrogant and greedy, respectively.
The character was originally named "Indiana Smith" (perhaps in a nod to the 1966 Western film Nevada Smith), after an Alaskan Malamute Lucas owned in the 1970s ("Indiana"); however, Spielberg disliked the name "Smith," and Lucas casually suggested "Jones" as an alternative. Costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis said the inspiration for Indiana's outfit was Charlton Heston's Harry Steele in Secret of the Incas: "We did watch this film together as a crew several times, and I always thought it strange that the filmmakers did not credit it later as the inspiration for the series."
Upon requests by Spielberg and Lucas, the costume designer gave the character a distinctive silhouette through the styling of the hat; after examining many hats, the designers chose a tall-crowned, wide-brimmed fedora. As a documentary of Raiders pointed out, the hat served a practical purpose. Following the lead of the old "B"-movies that inspired the Indiana Jones series, the fedora hid the actor's face sufficiently to allow doubles to perform the more dangerous stunts seamlessly. Examples in Raiders include the wider-angle shot of Indy and Marion crashing a statue through a wall, and Indy sliding under a fast-moving vehicle from front to back. Thus it was necessary for the hat to stay in place much of the time.
The hat became so iconic that the filmmakers could only come up with very good reasons or jokes to remove it. If it ever fell off during a take, filming would have to stop to put it back on. In jest, Ford put a stapler against his head when a documentary crew visited during shooting of The Last Crusade. This created the urban legend that Ford stapled the hat to his head. Although other hats were also used throughout the movies, the general style and profile remained the same. Elements of the outfit include:
The fedora was supplied by Herbert Johnson Hatters in England for the first three films. It was referred to as "The Australian Model" by costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis and was fitted with a Petersham bow. Indy's fedora for Crystal Skull was made by Steve Delk and Marc Kitter of the Adventurebilt Hat Company.
Jones's fedora and leather jacket (as used in The Last Crusade) are on display at the Smithsonian's American History Museum in Washington, D.C. The collection of props and clothing from the films has become a thriving hobby for some aficionados of the franchise. Jones' whip was the third most popular film weapon, as shown by a 2008 poll held by 20th Century Fox, which surveyed approximately two thousand film fans.
George Lucas has said on various occasions that Sean Connery's portrayal of British secret agent James Bond was one of the primary inspirations for Jones, a reason Connery was chosen for the role of Indiana's father in the third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
While himself a homage to various prior adventurers, aspects of Indiana Jones also directly influenced some subsequent characterizations: Lara Croft, the female archaeologist of the Tomb Raider franchise, was originally designed as a man, but was changed to a woman, partly because the developers felt that the original design was too similar to Indiana Jones. Paramount Pictures, which distributed the Indiana Jones film series, would later make two films based on the Tomb Raider games. Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes explained that their "inspiration was anything Harrison Ford has ever done: Indiana Jones, Han Solo." The video game series Uncharted is also very heavily influenced by Indiana Jones, as well as some of the influences that led to Indiana Jones himself, such as pulp magazines and movie serials. The design team felt the sources shared themes of mystery and "what-if scenarios" that romanticized adventure and aimed to include those in Uncharted.
Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1981 Category:Fictional archaeologists Category:Fictional characters from New Jersey Category:Fictional professors Category:Fictional American people Category:Fictional American people of Scottish descent Category:Fictional secret agents and spies Category:Fictional colonels Category:Child characters in television Category:Fictional World War I veterans Category:Fictional World War II veterans Category:Indiana Jones characters
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Tennant was educated at Ralston Primary and Paisley Grammar School where he enjoyed a fruitful relationship with English language teacher Moira Robertson, who was among the first to recognise his potential. He acted in school productions throughout primary and secondary school (his talent at this young age was spotted by actress Edith MacArthur, who after seeing his first role aged 11, told his parents she predicted he would become a successful stage actor). He also attended Saturday classes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. At 16 he passed an audition for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, one of their youngest students, and studied there between the ages of 17-20. He earned a bachelor's degree and was flatmates with friend Louise Delamere.
At the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was a fan of Doctor Who, and they tried to encourage him to do more conventional work. Although such an aspiration might have been common for any British child of the 1970s, Tennant says he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing his goal. He adopted the professional name "Tennant" — inspired by Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, after reading a copy of Smash Hits magazine — because there was another David McDonald already on the books of the Equity union. His first choice for a stage name was David Brandon and his second choice was David Tennant.
Tennant also contributed to several audio dramatisations of Shakespeare for the Arkangel Shakespeare series (1998). His roles include a reprisal of his Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, as well as Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice, Edgar/Poor Tom in King Lear, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, all of which he performs in his natural accent.
In 1995, Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw. The plot required Tennant to appear naked on stage.
In television, Tennant appeared in the first episode of Reeves and Mortimer's re-vamped Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) in 2000, playing an eccentric artist. This is one of his few TV roles in his native Scottish accent. During the Christmas season of 2002, he starred in a series of television commercials for Boots the Chemists.
Tennant began to appear on television more prominently in 2004 and 2005, when he appeared in a dramatisation of He Knew He Was Right (2004) Blackpool (2004), Casanova (2005) and The Quatermass Experiment (2005).
In film, he appeared in Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things (2003), and played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Tennant has expressed enthusiasm about fulfilling his childhood dream. He remarked to an interviewer for GWR FM, "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor? I've even got my own TARDIS!" In 2006, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Tennant 'Best Doctor!', over perennial favourite Tom Baker. In 2007, Tennant's Doctor was voted the "coolest character" on UK television in a Radio Times survey. When Tennant was cast as Eccleston's successor, he had wanted to use his native Scottish accent and become 'the first kilted Doctor' according to an interview in the Daily Star, but writer Russell T Davies did not want the Doctor's accent 'touring the regions', so he used "estuary" English instead.
Tennant had previously had a small role in the BBC's animated Doctor Who webcast Scream of the Shalka. Not originally cast in the production, Tennant happened to be recording a radio play in a neighbouring studio, and when he discovered what was being recorded next door managed to convince the director to give him a small role. This personal enthusiasm for the series had also been expressed by his participation in several audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series which had been produced by Big Finish Productions, although he did not play the Doctor in any of these productions. His first such role was in the Seventh Doctor audio Colditz, where he played a Nazi lieutenant guard at Colditz Castle. In 2004 Tennant played a lead role in the Big Finish audio play series Dalek Empire III. He played the part of Galanar, a young man who is given an assignment to discover the secrets of the Daleks. In 2005, he starred in for Big Finish, recreating his role of Brimmicombe-Wood from a Doctor Who Unbound play, Sympathy for the Devil. He also played an unnamed Time Lord in another Doctor Who Unbound play Exile. UNIT: The Wasting, was recorded between Tennant getting the role of the Doctor and it being announced. He also played the title role in Big Finish's adaptation of Bryan Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (2005). In 2006, he recorded abridged audio books of The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner, The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole and The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards, for BBC Worldwide.
He made his directorial debut directing the Doctor Who Confidential episode that accompanies Steven Moffat's episode "Blink", entitled "Do You Remember The First Time?", which aired on 9 June 2007. In 2007, Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in a Doctor Who special for Children in Need, written by Steven Moffat and entitled "Time Crash". This was the first "multi-Doctor" story in the series since The Two Doctors in 1985 (Not counting the 1993 special Dimensions in Time). Tennant also later performed alongside Davison's daughter, Georgia Moffett, in the 2008 episode "The Doctor's Daughter" with her taking the titular role as Jenny.
Tennant also featured as the Doctor in an animated version of Doctor Who for Totally Doctor Who, The Infinite Quest, which aired on CBBC. He will also star as the Doctor in another animated six-part Doctor Who series, Dreamland. Tennant guest-starred as the Doctor in a two-part story in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, broadcast in October 2009. Tennant continued to play the Tenth Doctor into the revived programme's fourth series in 2008. However, on 29 October 2008, Tennant announced that he would be stepping down from the role after three full series. He played the Doctor in four special episodes in 2009, before his final episode aired on the 1st of January 2010. The Daily Mirror reported that Tennant was forbidden from attending Doctor Who fan conventions while playing the role. This was done to avoid the chance that Tennant could accidentally let slip any plot points during filming of the series. He said at the Children in Need concert that his favourite Doctor Who story is Genesis of the Daleks from the Tom Baker era, while another interview included him mentioning that his favourite classic monsters were the Zygons; although he never appeared in a television story with the Zygons, his Doctor confronted them in the novel Sting of the Zygons.
On 25 February 2007, Tennant starred in Recovery, a 90-minute BBC1 drama written by Tony Marchant. Tennant played Alan, a self-made building site manager who attempted to rebuild his life after suffering a debilitating brain injury. His co-star in the drama was friend Sarah Parish, with whom he had previously appeared in Blackpool and an episode of Doctor Who. She joked that "we're like George and Mildred - in 20 years' time we'll probably be doing a ropey old sitcom in a terraced house in Preston." Later in 2007 he starred in Learners, a BBC comedy drama written by and starring Jessica Hynes (another Doctor Who co-star, in the episodes "Human Nature", "The Family of Blood" and "The End of Time"), in which he played a Christian driving instructor who became the object of a student's affection. Learners was broadcast on BBC One on 11 November 2007. Tennant had a cameo appearance as the Doctor in the 2007 finale episode of the BBC/HBO comedy series Extras alongside Ricky Gervais. In November 2008 Tennant played Sir Arthur Eddington in the BBC and HBO biopic Einstein and Eddington, which was filmed in Cambridge and Hungary.
In 2009 he worked on a film version of the RSC's 2008 Hamlet for BBC2. From October 2009, he hosted the Masterpiece Contemporary programming strand on the American Public Broadcasting Service. In December 2009, he filmed the lead in an NBC pilot, Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, playing Rex, a Chicago lawyer who starts to coach clients to represent themselves when he starts suffering panic attacks. The pilot was not picked up and the project was shelved. In October 2010 he starred as Dave, a man struggling to raise five children after the death of his partner, in the British drama Single Father. In 2011 he will star in the BBC Two British TV film United, which tells the story of the Manchester United "Busby Babes" team and the 1958 Munich air disaster, playing coach and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy.
Tennant appeared in Derren Brown's Trick or Treat. In the 26 April–2 May issue of TV & Satellite Week Brown is quoted as saying "One of the appeals of Doctor Who for David is time travel, so I wanted to give him that experience. He was open and up for it, and I got a good reaction. He's a real screamer!". The episode aired on Channel 4 on 16 May 2008, and showed Tennant apparently predicting future events correctly by using automatic writing. Tennant also returned for the final episode of the series with the rest of the participants from the other episodes in the series to take part in one final experiment.
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Tennant appeared in the 2008 episode "Holofile 703: Us and Phlegm" of the radio series Nebulous (a parody of Doctor Who) in the role of Doctor Beep, using his Lothian accent.
In 2008, Tennant voiced the character of Hamish the Hunter in the 2008 English language DVD re-release of the 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy, alongside Woody Harrelson. The English language version of the film has dialogue written by Simon Pegg, who also starred in it as a main voice actor.
In early 2009 Tennant narrated the digital planetarium space dome film "We are Astronomers" commissioned by the UK's National Space Centre.
On 13 March 2009, Tennant presented Comic Relief with Davina McCall. He played guitar with band Franz Ferdinand on a special Comic Relief edition of Top of the Pops.
In Summer 2009, he filmed in which he plays the antagonist, Pomfrey. The film was released in December 2009.
At the October 2009 Spooky Empire convention, John Landis announced Tennant's casting in his movie Burke and Hare, starring alongside Simon Pegg. In January 2010 it was announced Tennant had dropped out of the film (replaced by Andy Serkis) due to scheduling problems.
In November 2009, Tennant co-hosted the Absolute Radio Breakfast Show with Christian O'Connell for three consecutive days. He returned to co-host the show for one day in October 2010.
Tennant also provides the narration and all the character voices for the audio book versions of the Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III stories by Cressida Cowell such as How to Train Your Dragon. In these audio books, Tennant employs his vocal skills to create a vast cast of recognisably distinct voices. Some of his most memorable characterisations include the Norfolk yokel of Norbert the Nutjob, the broad Glaswegian of Gobber the Belch, the hissing and whining of Toothless the Dragon and the sly insinuations of Alvin the Treacherous. He also played the role of Spitelout in the recent animated film adaption of said books. On 7 March 2010 he also appeared as George in a one-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Of Mice and Men in the Classic Serial strand.
Tennant will be appearing alongside former co-star Catherine Tate in the Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing at London's Wyndham's Theatre from 16 May to 3 September 2011.
He was ranked the 24th most influential person in the British media, in the 9 July 2007 MediaGuardian supplement of The Guardian. Tennant appeared in the paper's annual media rankings in 2006.
In December 2008 Tennant was named as one of the most influential people in show business by British theatre and entertainment magazine The Stage, making him the fifth actor to achieve a ranking in the top 20 (in a list typically dominated by producers and directors). One of the editors for The Stage said that Tennant placed highly on the list because he was "the biggest box office draw in recent memory".
The popularity of Tennant has led to impersonations of him on various social networking sites, leading the BBC to issue a statement making it clear that Tennant does not use any of these sites and any account or message purporting to be or from him is fake.
In 2008 Tennant was voted "Greenest Star on the Planet" in an online vote held by Playhouse Disney as part of the Playing for the Planet Awards. Later that year he underwent surgery for a prolapsed disc.
Tennant is a supporter of the Labour Party and appeared in a party political broadcast for them in 2005. In 2010 he declared his support for then-UK prime minister, Gordon Brown and in April 2010 he lent his voice to a Labour Party election broadcast. He is a celebrity patron of the Association for International Cancer Research.
Tennant dated Sophia Myles in 2006.
On 4 January 2011, several news outlets reported that Tennant was engaged to actress Georgia Moffett, the daughter of Doctor Who actor Peter Davison. Tennant and Moffett have not confirmed the reports.
Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:Scottish Protestants Category:Audio book narrators Category:Paisley Grammar School alumni Category:People from Crouch End Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama alumni Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Scottish film actors Category:Scottish stage actors Category:Scottish television actors Category:Scottish voice actors Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Scottish actors Category:People from Bathgate Category:People from Paisley
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![Penpol is a Grade II listed building in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated at OS grid reference SX134902 two miles (3 km) east of Boscastle just outside the village of Lesnewth.[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110426065914im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/34/22/c95979504dc072a48deec50555b6_thumb.jpg "Penpol is a Grade II listed building in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated at OS grid reference SX134902 two miles (3 km) east of Boscastle just outside the village of Lesnewth.[1]")
