Alternative Christmas Speech
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Alternative Christmas Speech
The alternative Christmas message is a message broadcast by Channel 4 since 1993, as a sometimes humorous and sometimes serious alternative to the traditional Royal Christmas message. Background Beginning in 1993, Channel 4 broadcast an "alternative Christmas message", usually featuring a contemporary, often controversial celebrity delivering a message in the manner of Queen Elizabeth II. This tradition started by accident when, running a series of programmes on "Christmas in New York", the channel invited Quentin Crisp (who, coincidentally, was born on Christmas Day) to give an alternative message – playing on the pejorative term 'queen' meaning a very feminine male homosexual. In contrast to the Queen's message, the alternative lasts only three to five minutes. The concept seems to date back to a sketch in a Christmas special of ''The Two Ronnies'', where Ronnie Barker delivered a Christmas message from "Your Local Milkman". Examples of recent variations to the alternative Ch ...
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Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including Television advertisement, advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the television licence, licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV (TV network), ITV. Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast ther ...
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Belfast
Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel. It is the second-largest city in Ireland (after Dublin), with an estimated population of in , and a Belfast metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of 671,559. First chartered as an English settlement in 1613, the town's early growth was driven by an influx of Scottish people, Scottish Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Presbyterians. Their descendants' disaffection with Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland's Protestant Ascendancy, Anglican establishment contributed to the Irish Rebellion of 1798, rebellion of 1798, and to the Acts of Union 1800, union with Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain in 1800—later regarded as a key to the town's industrial transformation. When granted City status in the United Kingdom#Northern Ireland, city s ...
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Marge Simpson
Marjorie Jacqueline "Marge" Simpson () is a character in the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' and part of the eponymous family (The Simpsons). Voiced by Julie Kavner, she first appeared on television in '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' short " Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Marge was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on '' Life in Hell'' but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He based the character on his mother Margaret Groening. After appearing on ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' for three seasons, the Simpson family received their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. Marge is the matriarch and housewife of the Simpson family. With her husband Homer, she has three children: Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Marge is the moralistic force in her family and often provides a grounding voice in the midst of her family's a ...
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Wife Swap (UK TV Series)
''Wife Swap'' is a British reality television programme that aired on Channel 4 from 7 January 2003 to 15 June 2017. In the programme, two families, usually from different social classes and lifestyles, swap wives/mothers – and sometimes husbands – for two weeks. In fact, the programme will usually deliberately swap wives with dramatically different lifestyles, such as a messy wife swapping with a fastidiously neat one. Despite using a phrase from the swinging lifestyle, couples participating in the show do not share a bed with the "swapped" spouse while "swapping" homes. In November 2009, Channel 4 announced that they had cancelled ''Wife Swap'', and no new episodes of the show would be made for the channel. The final episode was broadcast in December 2009. It was announced that ''Wife Swap'' would return for a special Brexit episode to air on 15 June 2017 on Channel 4. Synopsis During the first week, the new wife must adhere to exactly the same rules and life ...
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Heywood, Greater Manchester
Heywood is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Lancashire. It had a population of 28,205 at the 2011 Census. The town lies on the south bank of the River Roch, east of Bury, southwest of Rochdale, and north of Manchester. Middleton lies to the south, whilst to the north is the Cheesden Valley, open moorland, and the Pennines. The Anglo-Saxons cleared the densely wooded area, dividing it into heys or fenced clearings. In the Middle Ages, Heywood formed a chapelry in the township, around Heywood Hall, a manor house owned by a family with that surname. Farming was the main industry of a sparsely populated rural area. The population supplemented their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system. The factory system in the town can be traced to a spinning mill in the late 18th century. Following the introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Heywood developed into ...
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Sharon Osbourne
Sharon Rachel Osbourne (; born 9 October 1952) is an English-American television personality, music manager, and author. She is married to heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and came to prominence while appearing on '' The Osbournes'' (2002–2005), a reality television show that aired on MTV, which followed her family's daily life. Osbourne later became a judge on television talent competition shows, including ''The X Factor'' (2004–2007, 2013, 2016–2017) and '' America's Got Talent'' (2007–2012). Osbourne is credited with reviving her husband's heavy metal career by founding the summer Ozzfest tour, which was held almost annually between 1996 and 2018. In light of her success managing her husband, she branched out into managing other acts, such as Gary Moore, Motörhead, Lita Ford, and The Smashing Pumpkins, through her company Sharon Osbourne Management. From 2003 to 2004, Osbourne hosted her own talk show '' The Sharon Osbourne Show,'' which was syndicated to var ...
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World Trade Center (1973-2001)
World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001 ** World Trade Center site, also known as "Ground Zero" * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex built on the site of the above ** One World Trade Center, the signature building of the rebuilt complex * Taipei World Trade Center * CentralWorld, known as World Trade Center until 2002 * List of World Trade Centers Transit stations * World Trade Center station (IND Eighth Avenue Line), a New York City Subway terminal station, serving the * World Trade Center station (MBTA), a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority station in Boston * World Trade Center station (PATH), a Port Authority Trans-Hudson station in New York City * WTC Cortlandt station (also known as "World Trade Center"), a New York City ...
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September 11 Attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the third into the Pentagon (headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense) in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. The attacks killed 2,977 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. In response to the attacks, the United States waged the global war on terror over multiple decades to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, as well as the foreign governments purported to support them. Ringleader Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flig ...
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Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease
Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) is an incurable, always fatal neurodegenerative disease belonging to the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) group. Early symptoms include memory problems, behavioral changes, poor coordination, visual disturbances and auditory disturbances. Later symptoms include dementia, involuntary movements, blindness, deafness, weakness, and coma. About 70% of sufferers die within a year of diagnosis. The name "Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease" was introduced by Walther Spielmeyer in 1922, after the German neurologists Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt and Alfons Maria Jakob. CJD is caused by abnormal folding of a protein known as a prion. Infectious prions are misfolded proteins that can cause normally folded proteins to also become misfolded. About 85% of cases of CJD occur for unknown reasons, while about 7.5% of cases are inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. Exposure to brain or spinal tissue from an infected person may also result in spread. Ther ...
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Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Noam Baron Cohen ( ; born 13 October 1971) is an English comedian, actor and performance artist. Known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen, he has received various accolades throughout his career, including two BAFTA TV Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a SAG Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards and six Primetime Emmy Awards. Baron Cohen began his career in television late-night series '' The 11 O'Clock Show'' (1998–1999) before creating and starring as his character Ali G in the satirical sketch comedy show '' Da Ali G Show'' (2000–2004) where he received two British Academy Television Awards. He created and starred in the Showtime satirical mockumentary series '' Who Is America?'' (2018) for which he earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. He portrayed E ...
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Ali G
Alistair Leslie Graham, better known as Ali G, is a satirical fictional character created and performed by English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. A faux-streetwise poseur from Staines, England, Ali G speaks in rude boy-style Multicultural London English. He conducts interviews with unsuspecting subjects who do not realise they have been set up. Ali G first appeared as the "voice of da yoof" on Channel 4's '' The 11 O'Clock Show'' in 1998. Subsequently, he became the title character of ''Da Ali G Show'' in the early 2000s; he was also the title character of the film '' Ali G Indahouse''. In a 2001 poll by Channel 4, Ali G was ranked eighth on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In a 2007 interview with ''The Daily Telegraph'', Baron Cohen announced that Ali G, along with Borat (another fictional character made by Baron Cohen), had been retired. However, Ali G returned at the 2012 British Comedy Awards to accept Baron Cohen's Outstanding Achievement Award, causing cont ...
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Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Adrian Lawrence (13September 1974 – 22April 1993) was an 18-year-old black British citizen from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus on Well Hall Road, Eltham, on the evening of 22April 1993. The case became a ''cause célèbre'': its fallout included changes of attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice. It also led to the partial revocation of the rule against double jeopardy. Two of the perpetrators were convicted of murder on 3January 2012.Stephen Lawrence murder: A timeline of how the story unfolded
. , 7 March 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
After the initial investigation ...
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