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Mark Bignell
Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian, presenter and writer. French is known for writing and starring on the BBC comedy sketch show ''French and Saunders'' with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders, and played the lead role as Geraldine Granger in the BBC sitcom ''The Vicar of Dibley''. She has been nominated for seven BAFTA TV Awards and won a BAFTA Fellowship with Saunders in 2009. Early life Dawn Roma French was born on 11 October 1957 in Holyhead, Wales, to English parents Felicity Roma (''née'' O'Brien; 1934 – 2012) and Denys Vernon French (5 August 1932 – 11 September 1977), who married in their home town of Plymouth in 1953. French has an older brother, Gary. Her father served in the Royal Air Force, stationed at RAF Valley and later RAF Leconfield, where Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother went to tea at French's home when French was three years old. An RAF archive footage of this event was included in French's comedy to ...
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Holyhead
Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is separated from Anglesey island by the narrow Cymyran Strait and was originally connected to Anglesey via the Four Mile Bridge. In the mid-19th century, Lord Stanley, a local philanthropist, funded the building of a larger causeway, known locally as "The Cobb", it now carries the A5 and the railway line. The A55 dual carriageway runs parallel to the Cobb on a modern causeway. The town houses the Port of Holyhead, a major Irish Sea port for connections towards Ireland. Etymology The town's English name, ''Holyhead'', has existed since the 14th century at least. As is the case with many coastal parts of Wales, the name in English is significantly different from its name in Welsh. It refers to the holiness of the locality and has taken ...
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Plymouth College
Plymouth College is a co-educational independent school in Plymouth, Devon. History The school was established in 1877. In 1896 Plymouth College bought Mannamead School (founded in 1854), and was temporarily known as Plymouth and Mannamead College. In 1976, the first girls were admitted to the school's sixth form. Plymouth College became fully coeducational in 1995. In 2004, the school absorbed St Dunstan's Abbey School, an independent school for girls founded by Lydia Sellon. The Whiteworks Outward Bound centre on Dartmoor has a 20-bed bunkhouse. Sports The swimming programme has a partnership with the Plymouth Leander Swimming Club. At the 2012 Olympic Games, Rūta Meilutytė won the gold medal in the 100m breaststroke for Lithuania. Former teachers * Henry John Chaytor Notable alumni *Paul Ackford *Michael Ball *Steve Banyard * Patrick K. Collins *Chris Constantinou *Sir Alfred Woodley Croft *William Crossing * Richard Deacon *Tom Daley * Stephen Davies *Sir ...
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Nigel Planer
Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, comedian, musician, novelist and playwright. He played Neil in the BBC comedy '' The Young Ones'' and Ralph Filthy in ''Filthy Rich & Catflap''. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including original casts of ''Evita'', ''Chicago'', ''We Will Rock You'', ''Wicked'', and ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. He has also appeared in ''Hairspray''. He won a BRIT award in 1984 and has been nominated for Olivier, TMA, WhatsOnStage and BAFTA awards. Early life Planer's father's Hungarian-Romanian family left Nazi Germany in 1933 and settled in Mortlake, London. He established a medical equipment company, which pioneered technology in controlled-rate freezers, IVF and stem cells. Nigel, who has two brothers, was born in Westminster, London. He attended King's House School in Richmond and Westminster School in central London, where he wrote a satirical play about the school with fellow pupil Stephen Poliakoff. Hav ...
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Rik Mayall
Richard Michael Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English actor, stand-up comedian and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University and was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the 1980s. Mayall starred in numerous successful comedy series throughout his career, including '' The Young Ones'', '' The Comic Strip Presents...'', ''Blackadder'', ''Filthy Rich & Catflap'', ''The New Statesman'', ''Bottom'' and ''Believe Nothing''. Mayall also starred in the comedy films ''Drop Dead Fred'' and ''Guest House Paradiso''; he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his voice-over work in '' The Willows in Winter''. His comedic style was described as energetic "post-punk". Mayall died suddenly at his home in London on 9 June 2014 at the age of 56. BBC Television director Danny Cohen praised him as a "truly brilliant" comedian with a unique stage presence, whose "fireball creativity" and approach to sitcom had inspired a ...
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Peter Richardson (actor)
Peter Richardson (born 15 October 1951) is an English director, screenwriter, actor and comedian. He founded the Comic Strip troupe of performers, which showcased his double act with Nigel Planer and launched the careers of French and Saunders, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and Alexei Sayle. Richardson approached Channel 4 to make a series of short, self-contained one-off comedy films with this group, which led to ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', many of which were written, directed by and featured him in acting roles. Richardson began his career as a teenager acting in Alan Bennett's '' Forty Years On''. Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1971–73. He later created his own experimental theatre shows with Nigel Planer amongst others, mixing comedy and improvisation with rock music. Two of these shows, ''Rank'' and ''The Wild Boys'' toured nationally. Although he did not reach the same level of public recognition as some of his contemporaries, Richardson was influ ...
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The Comic Strip
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others. Early history Two double acts, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall under the name " 20th Century Coyote" and Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson as "The Outer Limits", started performing at the newly opened Comedy Store in London in 1980, alongside compere Alexei Sayle who had been resident there since the Comedy Store opened in 1979. Concurrently Richardson searched for a venue to mount a play he had produced with Michael White. He planned to run the Comic Strip late at night after the play's performances. He sourced the Raymond Revuebar in Soho, but reali ...
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The Comic Strip Presents
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others. Early history Two double acts, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall under the name " 20th Century Coyote" and Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson as "The Outer Limits", started performing at the newly opened Comedy Store in London in 1980, alongside compere Alexei Sayle who had been resident there since the Comedy Store opened in 1979. Concurrently Richardson searched for a venue to mount a play he had produced with Michael White. He planned to run the Comic Strip late at night after the play's performances. He sourced the Raymond Revuebar in Soho, but reali ...
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Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 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 BBC One and BBC Two, and a single commercial broadcasting network ITV (TV network), ITV. The network's headquarters are based in London and Leeds, with creative hubs in Glasgow and Bristol. It is publicly owned and advertising-funded; 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 Digital, 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 ...
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Alternative Comedy
Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe content that was an "alternative" to the mainstream of live comedy, which often involved racist and sexist material. In other contexts, it is the nature of the form that is "alternative", avoiding reliance on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt has defined it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material." In an interview with ''The A.V. Club'' after his performance in the 2011 comedy-drama film ''Young Adult'', Oswalt stated: I had come up out of that whole alternative scene, which was all about, "Don’t try it, man. Just go up and wing it. ...
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The Comic Strip
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others. Early history Two double acts, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall under the name " 20th Century Coyote" and Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson as "The Outer Limits", started performing at the newly opened Comedy Store in London in 1980, alongside compere Alexei Sayle who had been resident there since the Comedy Store opened in 1979. Concurrently Richardson searched for a venue to mount a play he had produced with Michael White. He planned to run the Comic Strip late at night after the play's performances. He sourced the Raymond Revuebar in Soho, but reali ...
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Tampons
A tampon is a menstrual product designed to absorb blood and vaginal secretions by insertion into the vagina during menstruation. Unlike a pad, it is placed internally, inside of the vaginal canal. Once inserted correctly, a tampon is held in place by the vagina and expands as it soaks up menstrual blood. However, in addition to menstrual blood, the tampon also absorbs the vagina's natural lubrication and bacteria, which can change the normal pH, increasing the risk of infections from the bacterium ''Staphylococcus aureus'', which can lead to toxic shock syndrome (TSS). TSS is a rare but life-threatening infection that requires immediate medical attention. The majority of tampons sold are made of rayon, or a blend of rayon and cotton, along with synthetic fibers. Some tampons are made out of organic cotton. Tampons are available in several absorbency ratings. Brands include (but are not limited to) Kotex, Playtex, Tampax (Always), O.B., Cora, Lola, Sustain, Honest Company, ...
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Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service. From the middle decades of the 17th century, and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century, it was the world's most powerful navy until the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire, and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superiority globally. Owing to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, to ref ...
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