- published: 19 Dec 2011
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The Daily Mail is a British, daily middle-markettabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust.
First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. The Daily Mail was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at the newly literate "lower-middle class market resulting from mass education, combining a low retail price with plenty of competitions, prizes and promotional gimmicks", and the first British paper to sell a million copies a day.
It was, from the outset, a newspaper for women, being the first to provide features especially for them, and is the only British newspaper whose readership is more than 50% female.
The Daily Mail has had substantial and controversial political positions over its history, including accusations of warmongering before World War I. Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook were instrumental in launching the United Empire Party in 1929 which sought a British Empire trading block. Rothermere was sympathetic to the fascist movement in Great Britain until 1934, when the British Union of Fascists held a rally where violence occurred.
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan (born 14 October 1965) is a BAFTA-winning English actor, comedian, writer, impressionist and producer. Born in Middleton, Lancashire, he began his career as a stand-up comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early 1990s, Coogan began creating original comic characters which he presented in stage shows, this led to him winning the 1992 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, for his show with long-time collaborator John Thomson. The most prominent characters he developed at this time were Paul Calf, a stereotypical lower class Mancunian and his sister the promiscuous Pauline (played by Coogan in drag).
Working with Chris Morris, Patrick Marber and Armando Iannucci for On the Hour and The Day Today, Coogan developed his most popular and most developed character; Alan Partridge, a socially awkward and politically incorrect regional media personality, who developed to feature in his own eponymous television series, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge and I'm Alan Partridge, which were well received and were nominated for five BAFTAs in total. Outside the UK, Coogan is better known for his roles in films including 24 Hour Party People, The Wind in the Willows, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Night at the Museum, Tropic Thunder, Hamlet 2, A Cock and Bull Story, The Trip and The Other Guys.
Toby Young, FRSA is a British journalist and the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. Young served as a regular judge in seasons five and six of the Emmy Award-winning television show Top Chef and is the co-founder of the West London Free School.
Young was born in Buckinghamshire and brought up in Highgate, North London, and South Devon. His mother was the BBC Radio producer, artist and writer Sasha Moorsom and his father was Michael Young, the Labour life peer and pioneering sociologist who coined the word "meritocracy".
Young was educated at Creighton School (now Fortismere School), Muswell Hill; King Edward VI Community College, Totnes; and William Ellis School, Highgate. After failing most of his O-levels, he got two Bs and a C at A-level and managed to get in to Oxford after Brasenose College sent him an acceptance letter by mistake. He got a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and, after a six-month period as a News Trainee at The Times, went to Harvard University as a Fulbright scholar, where he worked as a teaching fellow in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. This was followed by a two-year stint at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he worked as a teaching assistant in the Social and Political Sciences Faculty and carried out research for a doctorate which he didn't complete. He is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Buckingham.