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Five Go Mad In Dorset
''Five Go Mad in Dorset'' was the first of three ''Five Go Mad'' specials from the long-running series of ''The Comic Strip, The Comic Strip Presents...'' television comedy films. It first aired on the launch night of Channel 4 (2 November 1982), and was written by Peter Richardson (actor), Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, and directed by Bob Spiers. It was entirely filmed in Devon rather than Dorset. Plot The film is a parody of Enid Blyton's ''The Famous Five (characters), Famous Five'' books, involving siblings Julian (Richardson), Dick (Adrian Edmondson) and Anne (Jennifer Saunders), and their cousin George (Dawn French) and her dog Timmy. The four children arrive on holiday at Uncle Quentin (Ronald Allen) and Aunt Fanny's home. Upon learning that Uncle Quentin has been kidnapped, the Five decide to spend several days on a Bicycle touring, cycling holiday in Dorset. After picnicking and reporting some criminals to the local police they celebrate by buying some cakes from ...
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Parody
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can also be about a real-life person (e.g. a politician), event, or movement (e.g. the French Revolution or Counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture). Literary scholar Professor Simon Dentith defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice". The literary theorist Linda Hutcheon said "parody ... is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, parody music, music, Theatre, theater, television and film, animation, and Video game, gaming. The writer and critic John Gross observes in his ''Oxford Book of Parodies'', that parody seems to flourish on te ...
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Robbie Coltrane
Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. In 1990, Coltrane received the Evening Standard British Film Award Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. In 2011, he was honoured for his " outstanding contribution" to film at the British Academy Scotland Awards. Coltrane started his career appearing alongside Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, and Emma Thompson in the sketch series '' Alfresco''. In 1987, he starred in the BBC miniseries '' Tutti Frutti'' with Thompson, for which he received his first British Academy Television Award for Best Actor nomination. Coltrane then gained national prominence starring as criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the ITV television series '' Cracker'', a r ...
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Broadhembury
Broadhembury is a village and civil parish in the East Devon district of Devon, England, north-west of Honiton. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Kerswell, Dulford, Crammer Barton, Colliton and Luton, all to the west of the village. According to the 2001 census the civil parish had a population of 654. ''Broadhembury'' is part of the electoral ward of Tale Vale. The total population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 2,514. It is within the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. History Broadhembury is set in the centre of a horseshoe of the hills of Hembury Fort and North Hill, which rise to 1000 feet and create a sheltered valley. Hembury Fort, a prehistoric hill fort dating from 3000 BC, was also used by the Romans. After the departure of the Romans, this area of Devon was sparsely occupied by the Celtic people. In those years Hembury Fort was called Handria. With the arrival of the Saxons, little wattle churches were built and the v ...
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Berry Pomeroy Castle
Berry Pomeroy Castle, a Tudor period, Tudor mansion within the walls of an earlier castle, is near the village of Berry Pomeroy, in South Devon, England. It was built in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family which had held the land since the 11th century. By 1547 the family was in financial difficulties and sold the lands to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. Apart from a short period of forfeit to the Crown after Edward's execution, the castle has remained in the Seymour family ever since, although it was abandoned in the late 17th century when Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet, the fourth baronet moved to Wiltshire. After lying in ruins for a hundred years, in the 19th century the castle became celebrated as an example of the "picturesque", and it became a popular tourist attraction, a status which it retains today—aided by its reputation of being haunted. Between 1980 and 1996 the castle was subjected to extensive archaeological excavations that clarified much of its ...
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Staverton Railway Station
Staverton railway station is situated on the South Devon Railway, a heritage railway in Devon, England. It serves the village of Staverton. History The station was opened by the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway on 1 May 1872. The railway was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway in 1897 and this in turn was nationalised into British Railways on 1 January 1948. The station closed to passengers on 3 November 1958 although goods traffic continued until 10 September 1962. It was re-opened by the Dart Valley Railway, a heritage railway, on 5 April 1969. The South Devon Railway Trust took over the running of the line on 1 January 1991. Description There is a single platform on the north side of the line. There is a small brick building which houses the ticket office and two former goods sheds. There is a level crossing at the Totnes end of the station and a small signal box opposite the platform. Services The station is served by trains on all operating days ...
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Ripping Yarns
''Ripping Yarns'' is a British television adventure comedy anthology series. It was written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame and transmitted on BBC 2. Following an initial pilot episode in January 1976, it ran for two series — five episodes in September and October 1977 and three episodes in October 1979. Each episode had a different setting and characters, looking at a different aspect of British culture and parodying pre-World War II literature aimed at schoolboys. In the title, "ripping" is a chiefly British slang colloquialism for "exciting" or "thrilling", with "yarn" used in the sense of a story. Pilot episode In 1975, the BBC commissioned a pilot episode from Palin and Jones, which was envisaged to be a light entertainment comedy piece. The result was ''Tomkinson's Schooldays'' (a title loosely inspired by '' Tom Brown's Schooldays'' and suggested by BBC director Terry Hughes). Palin and Jones both wrote and starred in multiple roles. Once the ...
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Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, Inc., Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson plc, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for Pound sterling, £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. In 2023, it was reported to have 1.3 million subscribers of which 1.2 million were digital. The newspaper has a prominent focus on Business journalism, financial journalism and economic analysis rather than News media, generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. It sponsors an Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, annual book ...
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Sodomy Law
A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term ''sodomy'' are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood and defined by many courts and jurisdictions to include any or all forms of sexual acts that are illegal, illicit, unlawful, unnatural and immoral. Sodomy typically includes anal sex, oral sex, manual sex, and bestiality. In practice, sodomy laws have rarely been enforced to target against sexual activities between individuals of the opposite sex, and have mostly been used to target against sexual activities between individuals of the same sex. As of April 2025, 63 countries as well as 3 sub-national jurisdictions have laws that criminalize sexual activity between 2 individuals of the same-sex. In 2006 that number was 92. Among these 62 countries, 40 of them not only criminalize male same-sex sexual activity but also have laws that criminalize female same-sex sexual activity. In 11 of them, se ...
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University Of Leicester
The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, University College, Leicester, gained university status in 1957. The university had an income of £384.6 million in 2023/24, of which £74.5 million was from research grants. The university is known for the invention of genetic fingerprinting, and for partially funding the discovery and the DNA identification of the remains of exhumation of Richard III, King Richard III in Leicester. History Desire for a university The first serious suggestions for a university in Leicester began with the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society (founded at a time when "philosophical" broadly meant what "scientific" means today). With the success of Owens College in Manchester, and the establishment of the University of Birmingham in 1900, and then o ...
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The English Association
The English Association is a subject association for English dedicated to furthering the study and enjoyment of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general. It was founded in 1906 by a group of English scholars including F. S. Boas, A.C. Bradley and Sir Israel Gollancz. Since December 1993, the association has been based at the University of Leicester. It received its royal charter (under the legal name of the Chartered English Association) on 5 September 2006. Past presidents have included John Galsworthy, Harley Granville-Barker, John Bailey, Sir Ernest Gowers, Sir Kenneth Clark, C.V. Wedgwood, Elaine Treharne, Peter Kitson, and George Steiner Francis George Steiner, Fellow of the British Academy#Fellowship, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between .... The associatio ...
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Ginger Beer
Traditional ginger beer is a sweetened and carbonated, usually non-alcoholic beverage. Historically it was produced by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar. Modern ginger beers are often mass production, manufactured rather than brewing, brewed, frequently with flavour and colour additives, with artificial carbonation. Ginger ales are not brewed. Ginger beer is still produced at home using a Symbiosis, symbiotic colony of yeast and a ''Lactobacillus'' (bacteria) known as a "ginger beer plant" or from a "ginger bug" starter created from fermenting ginger, sugar, and water. History Brewed ginger beer originated in Yorkshire in England in the mid-18th centuryThomas Sprat (1702) ''A history of the Royal Society of London'', page 196 "of Brewing Beer with ''Ginger'' instead of ''Hops''" and became popular throughout Britain, the United States, Ireland, South Africa, the Caribbean and Canada, reaching a peak of popularity in the early 20th century. ...
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Snobbery
''Snob'' is a pejorative term for a person who feels superior due to their social class, education level, or social status in general;De Botton, A. (2004), ''Status Anxiety''. London: Hamish Hamilton it is sometimes used especially when they pretend to belong to these classes. The word ''snobbery'' came into use for the first time in England during the 1820s. Examples Snobs can through time be found ingratiating themselves with a range of prominent groups – soldiers (Sparta, 400 BCE), bishops (Rome, 1500), poets (Weimar, 1815) – for the primary interest of snobs is distinction, and as its definition changes, so, naturally and immediately, will the objects of the snob's admiration. Snobbery existed also in medieval feudal aristocratic Europe when the clothing, manners, language, and tastes of every class were strictly codified by customs or law. Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet moving in the court circles, noted the provincial French spoken by the Prioress among the Canterbury ...
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