Philip Green

Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman and the Chairman of the Arcadia Group, a retail giant that includes Topshop, Topman, Wallis, Evans, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Outfit and previously BHS.

Biography

Philip Green was born on 15 March 1952 in Croydon, in South London, the son of a successful Jewish property developer and retailer. He has a sister, Elizabeth, five years his senior. His family moved to Hampstead Garden Suburb, a middle-class enclave in north London, and at the age of nine he was sent to the now-closed Jewish boarding school Carmel College in Oxfordshire.

When his father died of a heart attack, Green was in line to inherit the family business at the age of twelve. After leaving boarding school at 15, he worked for a shoe importer before travelling to the US, Europe and the Far East. It was on his return that he set up his first business with a £20,000 loan backed by his family (or £216,000 in 2014 dollars) at age 21, importing jeans from the Far East to sell on to retailers in London.

Got Talent

Got Talent is a talent show television format conceived and owned by Simon Cowell's SYCOtv company. A pilot was made in the United Kingdom in 2005, hosted by Paul O'Grady, but after O'Grady's split with ITV, the series was postponed, resulting in America's Got Talent – the first full series of the format.

It has spawned spin-offs in over 58 countries (as of April 2014), in what is now referred to as the Got Talent format, similar to that described by FremantleMedia of the Idol and The X Factor formats. In April 2014, the format was named the world's most successful reality TV format ever by the Guinness World Records.

History

Got Talent was an invention by The X Factor creator Simon Cowell, with comedian and talk show host Paul O'Grady producing a pilot for ITV in 2005 under the provisional title Paul O'Grady's Got Talent. O'Grady left the network after disputes with ITV, resulting in Cowell moving the concept to the United States while he and ITV searched for a new show host.

Due to these issues, the Got Talent franchise ended up debuting first as America's Got Talent on NBC on 21 June 2006, with judges David Hasselhoff, Brandy Norwood, and Piers Morgan. The show's original series was hosted by Regis Philbin. In 2016, the judging panel consisted of Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Melanie Brown, and Simon Cowell, and hosted by Nick Cannon, who has been the presenter since 2009. The grand prize on America's Got Talent is $1 million, and, since season 3, a chance to headline a show on the Las Vegas Strip. America's Got Talent proved extremely successful for NBC, pulling in high ratings in both total viewers and the younger 18-49 demographic. The show's initial success in America is credited with the eventual launch of the British series, and the overall global launch of the Got Talent franchise.

Britain's Got Talent

Britain's Got Talent (often shortened to BGT) is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent franchise. The show is a Thames production (formerly Talkback Thames) distributed by FremantleMedia and is produced in association with Syco TV. The show is broadcast on ITV and its sister show Britain's Got More Talent is broadcast on ITV2. Anyone of any age with some sort of talent can audition for the show. Acts compete against each other in order to gain the audience support while trying to win the title of "The winner of Britain's Got Talent''. The original judging panel consisted of the show's creator Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. Kelly Brook was brought in as a fourth judge in series 3, but was axed after one audition site. Morgan did not return for series 5 and Cowell was only present during the live shows, while David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre joined the panel. Alesha Dixon and David Walliams joined the panel in series 6 as replacements for McIntyre and Hasselhoff.

Green

Green is the color between blue and yellow on the spectrum of visible light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of roughly 495–570 nm. In the subtractive color system, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combination of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; in the RGB color model, used on television and computer screens, it is one of the additive primary colors, along with red and blue, which are mixed in different combinations to create all other colors.

The modern English word green comes from the Middle English and Anglo-Saxon word grene, from the same Germanic root as the words "grass" and "grow". It is the color of living grass and leaves and as a result is the color most associated with springtime, growth and nature. By far the largest contributor to green in nature is chlorophyll, the chemical by which plants photosynthesize and convert sunlight into chemical energy. Many creatures have adapted to their green environments by taking on a green hue themselves as camouflage. Several minerals have a green color, including the emerald, which is colored green by its chromium content.

Britain's Got Talent (series 7)

The seventh series of Britain's Got Talent began airing on ITV on 13 April 2013 and ended on 8 June 2013. Ant & Dec returned to present the main show on ITV, while Stephen Mulhern returned to present spin-off show Britain's Got More Talent on ITV2. The judges were Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams, all of whom were judges for the sixth series.

The auditions took place in January and February 2013. Auditions began in Cardiff for two days (16 and 17 January) and then moved to London for four days (20–23 January). They then took place in Glasgow on 28 January and Manchester for two days (2 and 3 February), before concluding with three days in Birmingham (8–10 February). The live semi-finals began on 27 May and concluded on 1 June. The live final took place on 8 June 2013 and was won by Hungarian shadow theatre troupe Attraction.

Judges and presenters

After the final of the sixth series of Britain's Got Talent on 12 May 2012, head judge Simon Cowell said that he and the three other judges, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams, would all be returning for series 7, "if they will accept [his] invitation". Dixon confirmed her return for the seventh series on 26 July 2012. On 13 October, during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, Walliams announced that he had signed on until 2014, in a deal reportedly worth £800,000. On 13 December, Cowell and Holden were confirmed to be returning to the show as well.