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The Monocled Mutineer
''The Monocled Mutineer'' is a 1986 BBC television drama series starring Paul McGann about the Étaples mutiny in 1917 during the First World War. The four-part serial, which was the first historical screenplay written by Alan Bleasdale, dramatised the life of British Army deserter Percy Toplis. It was adapted from the 1978 book of the same name by William Allison and John Fairley. After ten million people watched the first episode, British right-wing media vilified the series as an example of left-wing bias at the BBC. The series was produced and broadcast at a time the Peacock Committee was deciding the future of the BBC (there was renewed pressure for the public broadcaster to use advertising). At the same time, the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Norman Tebbit, was monitoring the BBC for evidence of "left-wing bias". Legal action was brought against the BBC over the ''Panorama'' programme "Maggie's Militant Tendency", which caused 100 Conservative MPs to sign a motion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Bleasdale
Alan George Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946) is an English screenwriter, best known for social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people. A former teacher, he has written for radio, stage and screen, and has also written novels. Bleasdale's plays typically represented a more realistic, contemporary depiction of life in Liverpool than was usually seen in the media. Early life Born in Liverpool, Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother in a grocery shop. From 1951–57, he went to the St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Infant and Junior Schools in Huyton-with-Roby outside Liverpool. From 1957–64, he attended the Wade Deacon Grammar School in Widnes. In 1967, he obtained a teaching certificate from the Padgate College of Education in Warrington (which became Warrington Collegiate Institute, now part of the University of Chester). For four years he worked as a teacher at St Columba's Secondary Modern School in Huyton from 1967–71, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (FDU Press) is a publishing house under the operation and oversight of Fairleigh Dickinson University, the largest private university in New Jersey, which has international campuses in Vancouver, British Columbia and Wroxton, Oxfordshire. History FDU Press was established in 1967 by the university's founder Peter Sammartino, in cooperation with the publisher Thomas Yoseloff, formerly the director of University of Pennsylvania Press. Yoseloff had left this position in the previous year to found Associated University Presses (AUP), intended to operate as a consortium of small-to-medium-sized university presses and publisher/distributor of humanities scholarship. FDU Press became the first participating member of AUP in 1968. Charles Angoff was the chief editor of FDU Press from 1967 to 1977. Harry Keyishian was director of the press from 1977 to 2017, and remains on its Editorial Committee. James Gifford is the current director of FDU Press. Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)
Special Branch was a unit in the Metropolitan Police in London, formed as a counter-terrorism unit in 1883 and merged with another unit to form Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) in 2006. It maintained contact with the Security Service and had responsibility for, among other things, personal protection of (non-royal) VIPs and performing the role of examining officer at designated ports and airports, as prescribed by the Terrorism Act 2000. History In response to the escalating terror campaign in Britain carried out by the militant Irish Fenians in the 1880s, the Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt established the first counter-terrorism unit ever in 1883, named Special Irish Branch, to combat Irish republican terrorism through infiltration and subversion. It initially formed a section of the Criminal Investigation Department within the London Metropolitan Police. Harcourt envisioned a permanent unit dedicated to the prevention of politically motivated violence through the use o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Expeditionary Force (World War I)
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the six-divisions the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the 1906–1912 Haldane reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902). The term ''British Expeditionary Force'' is often used to refer only to the forces present in France prior to the end of the First Battle of Ypres on 22 November 1914. By the end of 1914—after the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne and Ypres—the existent BEF had been almost exhausted, although it helped stop the German advance.Chandler (2003), p. 211 An alternative endpoint of the BEF was 26 December 1914, when it was divided into the First and Second Armies (a Third, Fourth and Fifth being created later in the war). "British Expeditionary Force" remained the official name of the British armies in France and Flanders thro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Étaples
Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer (; vls, Stapel, lang; pcd, Étape) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river. History Étaples takes its name from having been a medieval staple port (''stapal'' in Old Dutch), from which word the Old French word ''Estaples'' derives. As a port it was part of the administrative and economic complex centred on Montreuil after access from the sea to that town was restricted by silting. The site of modern Étaples lies on the ridge of dunes which once lay to seaward of a marsh formed off-shore from the chalk plateau of Artois. From the Canche northwards, the dunes tend to extend inland, all the way to the old chalk cliff. It lay just outside the southern edge of the mediaeval Boulonnais and some eighteen kilometres () south of the geological region of that name. The dunes were established as the sea level rose during the Quaternary and show signs of habitation during the Pala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julian Putkowski
Julian Putkowski (born 1947) is a British university teacher, military historian, researcher, and broadcaster. He has written extensively on military executions in World War I. Putkowski graduated from the University of Essex in 1976. He has since then been researching military discipline and dissent. In 1989, he was co-author, with Julian Sykes, of ''Shot at Dawn: Executions in World War I by Authority of the British Army Act''. The publication of the book led indirectly to renewed public interest in the topic of soldiers executed during the war, culminating in the issue of pardons to 306 men who were shot for various offenses, including cowardice. Later, Putkowski wrote a book entitled ''Murderous Tommies'' with Mark Dunning, a lawyer interested in British Army capital courts martial cases. ''Murderous Tommies'' is also about the First World War, and gives an account of 13 soldiers who committed homicide in France and Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alasdair Milne
Alasdair David Gordon Milne (8 October 19308 January 2013) was a British television producer and executive. He had a long career at the BBC, where he was eventually promoted to Director-General, and was described by ''The Independent'' as "one of the most original and talented programme-makers to emerge during television's formative years". In his early career, Milne was a BBC producer and was involved in founding the current affairs series ''Tonight'' in 1957. Later, after a period outside the BBC, he became controller of BBC Scotland and BBC Television's director of programmes. He served as Director-General of the BBC between July 1982 and January 1987, when he was forced to resign from his post by the BBC Governors following several difficult years for the BBC, which included sustained pressure from the Thatcher government about editorial decisions which had proved controversial. Early life Milne was born in British India to Charles Gordon Shaw Milne, an Aberdonian surgeon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Member Of Parliament (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, a member of Parliament (MP) is an individual elected to serve in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Electoral system All 650 members of the UK House of Commons are elected using the first-past-the-post voting system in single member constituencies across the whole of the United Kingdom, where each constituency has its own single representative. Elections All MP positions become simultaneously vacant for elections held on a five-year cycle, or when a snap election is called. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 set out that ordinary general elections are held on the first Thursday in May, every five years. The Act was repealed in 2022. With approval from Parliament, both the 2017 and 2019 general elections were held earlier than the schedule set by the Act. If a vacancy arises at another time, due to death or resignation, then a constituency vacancy may be filled by a by-election. Under the Representation of the People Act 198 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the Two-party system, two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. It is the current Government of the United Kingdom, governing party, having won the 2019 United Kingdom general election, 2019 general election. It has been the primary governing party in Britain since 2010. The party is on the Centre-right politics, centre-right of the political spectrum, and encompasses various ideological #Party factions, factions including One-nation conservatism, one-nation conservatives, Thatcherism, Thatcherites, and traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist conservatives. The party currently has 356 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament, 264 members of the House of Lords, 9 members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 16 members of the Senedd, Welsh Parliament, 2 D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Controversies
This article outlines, in chronological order, the various controversies surrounding or involving the BBC. Early years 1926 General Strike In 1926, the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called a General Strike to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Labour Party politicians such as party leader Ramsay MacDonald and Philip Snowden criticised the BBC for being "biased" and "misleading the public" during the strike. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was coached by John Reith during a national broadcast about the strike which he made from Reith's house. When Ramsay MacDonald asked to make a broadcast in reply, Reith supported the request. However, Baldwin was "quite against MacDonald broadcasting" and Reith refused the request. Baldwin's government blocked the BBC from broadcasting statements about the strike by the Labour Party and TUC leaders. When Philip Snowden, the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panorama (TV Programme)
''Panorama'' is a British BBC Television current affairs documentary programme. First broadcast in 1953, it is the world's longest-running television news magazine programme. ''Panorama'' has been presented by many well-known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby and Jeremy Vine. it broadcasts in peak time on BBC One, without a regular presenter. The programme also airs worldwide through BBC World News in many countries. History ''Panorama'' was launched on 11 November 1953 by the BBC; it emphasises investigative journalism. ''Daily Mail'' reporter Pat Murphy was the original presenter, who only lasted one episode after accidentally broadcasting a technical mishap. Max Robertson then took over for a year. The programme originally had a magazine format and included arts features. Richard Dimbleby took over in 1955 and presented the show until his death in 1965. His son, David Dimbleby, later presented the programme from 11 November 1974—the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Tebbit
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit (born 29 March 1931) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–1985), and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1987). He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970–1974) and Chingford (1974–1992). In 1984, Tebbit was injured in the Provisional Irish Republican Army's bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where he was staying during the Conservative Party Conference. His wife Margaret was left permanently disabled after the explosion. He left the cabinet after the 1987 general election to care for his wife.Tebbit, p. 332. Tebbit considered standing for the Conservative leadership following Margaret Thatcher's resignation in 1990, but came to the decision not to stand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
