text:
Louise Gold

Louise Gold (born 1956) is an English puppeteer, actress and singer. Her long career has included puppetry on television and roles in musical theatre in the West End, as well as other television, film and voice roles.

Gold was raised in London, beginning training in the arts. She began to appear in musical theatre in the mid-1970s. She was a puppeteer and voice actress for The Muppet Show, for four seasons from 1977, and later for Sesame Street, and she has performed voice and puppet work on various other Muppet films, albums and television specials. She was a founder of, and lead puppeteer for, the satirical television show Spitting Image from 1984 to 1986 and occasionally thereafter.

Gold's appearances in musical theatre shows in the West End include Joe Papp's London production of The Pirates of Penzance in 1982. She has played such roles as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Kate in Kiss Me, Kate, Tanya in Mamma Mia!, Phyllis in Follies, Baroness Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Miss Andrew in Mary Poppins, Mrs Sowerberry and Mrs Bedwin in Oliver!, and Mazeppa in Gypsy. She was a regular performer in the Lost Musicals concert productions in London in the 1990s and performs in her own cabaret act.

Early life
Gold was born in London, to parents who were active with Unity Theatre in London. Her father was John Gold (1920–1998), a journalist, and her mother was an actress, Una Brandon-Jones (1916–2010). Her brother, Max (b. 1958), is also an actor. Gold trained at The Arts Educational Schools from age 11.

Early career, television and puppeteering
Gold made her professional debut in 1973, while still in her last year of school, in the Christmas pantomime Dick Whittington and his Cat, as Fairy Bowbells, at the Malvern Festival Theatre. She played in the musical Hair on tour in Britain in 1974. In 1975–76, she played Rachel in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the York Theatre Royal and then on tour (as Rachel and Potiphar's Wife).

In 1977, Gold joined The Muppet Show, during the show's second season, where Jim Henson trained her as a puppeteer. She played several characters during her four seasons with the show, including Annie Sue Pig. She also sang on several of The Muppets' albums and was often paired vocally with Jerry Nelson. She was a puppeteer in the films The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Dark Crystal (1982), and she appeared in various other Muppet series and specials. Muppet chronicler Christopher Finch wrote that Gold was "the most versatile female puppeteer to work on The Muppet Show [and] the only British member of the cast." During these years, she continued to appear in musicals and plays in between her commitments to The Muppets. Among her non-puppeteering television appearances, Gold was featured as Mrs Tyler, a Goodwife, in the first series episode "Witchsmeller Pursuivant" of Blackadder (1983). The same year, she appeared as Maureen Bedford in episode two of For 4 Tonight, a talk-show spoof. In 1991, she played the domineering Private Elsa Bigstern in two episodes of 'Allo! 'Allo!

From 1984 to 1986, and occasionally thereafter, Gold was a lead puppeteer and voice on the satirical television show Spitting Image and was the lead singer (as Nancy Reagan) on their first single, "Da Do Run Ron", a pastiche of The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron", released in 1984. Gold was the first puppeteer hired for the show and "helped out with the Spitting Image pre-pilot, so she naturally became the 'consultant' for the hiring [and training] of the rest" of the puppeteers. Peter Fluck, a creator of the show, commented, "Louise Gold always did the Queen and the mannerisms and facial expressions she put into it were wonderful. It was very exciting because this lump of clay we modelled with a fairly neutral expression came to life."

Gold's later puppeteering work includes the title character, Fughetta Faffner, in The Ghost of Faffner Hall (1989), a Muppet music education TV Series. She played several of the characters on Roland Rat The Series broadcasts in 1986 and 1988, Sesame Street in the early 1990s, on Mopatop's Shop in the early 2000s, and in The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and Muppet Treasure Island (1996). In 1992, Gold played Sally Spook in The Spooks of Bottle Bay. In 1995 and 1997, she played characters on series 2 and series 3 of Jim Henson's Animal Show with Stinky and Jake, including Tizzy Bee, an early example of a computer generated image puppet.

Gold lent her voice to an Australian puppet television programme in 2006, Five Minutes More. Gold was featured as a guest puppeteer, portraying the character of Babs (the female termite), on Transmission: Impossible with Ed and Oucho on BBC 2 television. She appeared in seven episodes broadcast from May to August 2009. In 2013–2014, Gold starred in That Puppet Game Show, a celebrity game show on BBC One, operating three of the puppet characters. She reprised her role as Annie Sue Pig in the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted, also operating a Muppet kangaroo. Also in 2014, she puppeteered on the CBeebies television series The Furchester Hotel, co-produced by Sesame Street. She plays Funella Furchester, the mother in a family of "cheerfully incompetent monsters" who own a hotel for monsters. In the Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which premiered in 2019, she voices and is the puppeteer for Maudra Argot and is also the puppeteer for The All-Maudra, skekAyuk/The Gourmand and Onica.

Stage roles to 1995
From 1982, Gold began to appear in West End musicals. The first of these was as Isabel in the Joseph Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance (1982–83; playing the role of Edith in the 1983 film adaptation of the production). Her other stage roles in the 1980s included Divine Dixie Diva in Mrs Cole's Music Hall at the Mill at Sonning (1984–85); Katisha, Countess of Grantham, in MetroPolitan Mikado, adapted from The Mikado by Ned Sherrin and Alistair Beaton at Queen Elizabeth Hall (1985); Bev in Angry Housewives at the Lyric Hammersmith Studio (1986); Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers at Watermill Theatre (1986); Maggot Scratcher in Sink the Belgrano! at Mermaid Theatre (1986); Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense at Fortune Theatre (1987; and singing on the original London cast album); Fanny Brice and other comedians in Ziegfeld (1988) at the London Palladium (which held the record, according to the Guinness Book of Records, for "Greatest Theatrical Losses"); and Dick Whittington in Poppy at Half Moon Theatre (1988–89).

Gold next starred as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes at Prince Edward Theatre (1990, replacing Elaine Paige; and on the 1995 studio cast album). In the summer of 1991 at Open Air Regents Park she played Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Adriana in The Boys from Syracuse (then toured as Adriana; "[W]hen the gleefully statuesque, not-so-pure Gold ripped into the splendid trio of "Sing for your Supper", we would have believed anything"). Throughout the 1990s, Gold was a regular performer in the Lost Musicals concert productions, taking roles in fifteen of them and singing in associated BBC radio broadcasts. One of these was the British première of Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus at the Barbican Centre in 1992, in which Gold sang the title character, which she reprised in another Lost Musicals production at the Lindbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, in 2000. These productions included four Cole Porter musicals in which Gold starred in roles that had been written for Ethel Merman.

Gold was Gussie in Merrily We Roll Along at Haymarket Theatre, Leicester (1992; and on the 1993 cast album). She next played Sara Jane Moore in Assassins at Donmar Warehouse (1992–93) and toured in Noël/Cole: Let's Do It, a Cole Porter and Noël Coward revue (1994 and 1995, beginning in Memphis, Tennessee; and on the cast album). She then played the title role in the stage musical adaptation of Calamity Jane at the Leicester Haymarket (1994–95). Gold appeared in Our Country's Good in 1995 as Lieutenant Will Dawes and Liz Morden, together with her brother Max Gold as Captain Arthur Phillip and John Wisehammer, at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre. Later that year, with the same cast, at the same theatre, the two performed in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, with Louise as Tractor Driver and Grusche, and Max as Soldier, Executioner, Blockhead, Lavrenti, Trooper, Blackmailer and Groom.

Stage roles since 1996
In 1996, Gold toured as Mrs Silvia Tebrick, the title character (who transforms into a fox in full view of the audience) in the musical adaptation of Lady into Fox. After this, she starred as Dunyasha the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Cherry Orchard at Albery Theatre in London and on tour (1996–97), followed by another summer in Regents Park as the title character in Kiss Me, Kate (1997). Paul Taylor, writing in The Independent, declared, "Louise Gold is a comically commanding figure – outdoing herself in campy gorge-rising revulsion and contentious, drop-dead postures on each successive verse of 'I Hate Men'. This is... delivered here by performers who really know how to pace the song". She was back at the Fortune Theatre as Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade (1999; one of the "Lost Musicals" series). The Stage commented, "Louise Gold also shines in the role of Lizzie, revealing her emotional torment in 'Old Maid', and an overwhelming joy in 'Is It Really Me?'" The last of Gold's Lost Musicals roles in the series for almost a decade was as May Daly/Mme Du Barry in DuBarry Was a Lady at Her Majesty's Theatre in November 2001 (which she had also played as part of the series in 1993).

She played Tanya in Mamma Mia! for two years at the Prince Edward Theatre (2000–02) followed by Phyllis in Follies at the Royal Festival Hall (2002). The Observer wrote, "Louise Gold's Phyllis is versatile and formidable: injured queen one moment, vamp the next." The Guardian found her "wonderfully acerbic". During the summer of 2003, she performed at the Festival Theatre, Chichester, playing the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers and starring as the fairy characters in The Water Babies. She then starred as Dotty Otley in Noises Off at the Piccadilly Theatre (2003). This was followed by Baroness Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium (2004–05). Critics noted, "Gold always gives excellent value in musicals: she’s talented, funny and energetic"; and "The highlight of the show for me has to be Christopher Biggins and Louise Gold as Baron and Baroness Bomburst. If they are not the funniest and most outrageous double act in the West End, I would love to see who could outdo them."

Gold had another long run as the tyrannical Miss Andrew in Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre (2006–08). In February 2008, she was the stoic widow O'Brien in Next Door's Baby. From December 2008 to January 2011, Gold appeared in Oliver!, as Mrs Sowerberry and Mrs Bedwin, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She sings these roles on the cast album. On Sundays in August and September 2010, while still performing in Oliver!, she returned to the Lost Musicals series, as Alice Challice in Darling of the Day, earning warm reviews. In 2011, she appeared as Montana in Mexican Hayride, another instalment of the Lost Musicals series. She played Berthe, the grandmother, in Pippin, in 2011–2012 at the Menier Chocolate Factory. In the autumn of 2014, she played Mazeppa in Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre. That production transferred to the Savoy Theatre in the West End in March 2015, with Gold earning critical praise.

Gold portrayed Yente in the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of Fiddler on the Roof from November 2018 until March 2019, which then transferred to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End.

Other performances
Gold appeared in the 1985 film Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, as the reporter, Miss Sullivan, and the 2000 film Topsy-Turvy, as Rosina Brandram, one of the original Gilbert and Sullivan performers, who plays Katisha in The Mikado during the course of the story.

Gold has also done a significant amount of radio and recording work and performs in her own cabaret show, which includes some puppeteering. She returned to television in 2011, guest-starring as a judge on a June 2011 episode of Coronation Street and as aunt Annie in an episode of the children's TV show Scoop, titled "Come in Digby, Your Time's Up".

Personal life
Gold lives with the actor James Vaughan. They have one son, Louis.

TV and films

 * The Muppet Show (1977–1981) – Afghan Hound, Annie Sue Pig, Lou, Mary Louise, Tootie, Zelda Rose, additional Muppets
 * The Great Muppet Caper (1981) – Annie Sue, Lou, additional Muppets
 * The Muppets Go to the Movies (1981) – Popcorn Girl, additional Muppets
 * The Dark Crystal (1982) – skekAyuk/The Gourmand (puppeteer)
 * Blackadder (1983) – Mrs Tyler
 * For 4 Tonight (1983) – Maureen Bedford
 * The Pirates of Penzance (1983) – Edith
 * Spitting Image (1984–1986) – Queen Elizabeth II, Nancy Reagan, Various
 * Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1985) – Miss Sullivan
 * The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986) – Mother Bunny
 * Roland Rat: The Series (1986; 1988) – Various
 * The Ghost of Faffner Hall (1989) – Fughetta Faffner, Tootie, additional Muppets
 * 'Allo! 'Allo! (1991) – Private Elsa Bigstern
 * Sesame Street (early 1990s) – Bob Lackey, Bonnie Rabbit, Charmin', Diva LaDiva, Maria, Super Nanny, The Grand Royal Square Lover, additional Muppets
 * The Spooks of Bottle Bay (1992) – Sally Spook
 * The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Mrs Dilber, Spider, additional Muppets (uncredited)
 * The Secret Life of Toys (1994) – Raisin, Hortense, Daffodil, additional Muppets
 * Jim Henson's Animal Show (1995; 1997) – Bunnie the Bear, Kiki the Rattlesnake, Mavis the Frog, Rhonda the Rat, Tizzy the Bee, additional Muppets
 * Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Brool the Minstrel, Original, Tourist Rat
 * Topsy-Turvy (2000) – Rosina Brandram
 * Mopatop's Shop (early 2000s) – Little Miss Kissy Kiss, Marsha Mouldylocks, Princess Lulabelle, Scary Mary, Shula the Shark,
 * Five Minutes More (2006) – Florrie
 * Transmission: Impossible with Ed and Oucho (2009) – Babs
 * Coronation Street (2011) – Judge
 * Scoop (2011) – Aunt Annie
 * That Puppet Game Show (2013–2014) – Various
 * Muppets Most Wanted (2014) – Annie Sue, Wanda
 * The Furchester Hotel (2014) – Funella Furchester and others
 * Strike Back: Retribution (2017) – Crowther
 * The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019) – Maudra Argot (voice and puppeteer), The All-Maudra, skekAyuk/The Gourmand, Onica (puppeteer for these characters)
 * Doctors (2023) – Julie Exton

title: Louise Gold


text:
Hugh Dennis

Peter Hugh Dennis (born 13 February 1962) is an English comedian, presenter, actor, impressionist and writer. He was a panellist in every episode of the comedy show Mock the Week (2005–2022).

He has also appeared in the comedy double act Punt and Dennis with Steve Punt and played Dr Piers Crispin in the sitcom My Hero (2000–2006), Pete Brockman in the sitcom Outnumbered (2007–2016, 2024), Toby in the sitcom Not Going Out (2014–present), and the Bank Manager in the first season of the comedy-drama series Fleabag (2016). He presents the community archaeology television show The Great British Dig (2020–present).

Early life
Peter Hugh Dennis was born in Kettering on 13 February 1962, the son of schoolteacher Dorothy Mary (née Hinnels) and Anglican priest John Dennis. His older brother, John Jr., is a diplomat who has served as the British Ambassador to Angola and the British Representative to Taiwan. He grew up in the Mill Hill suburb of London as his father was appointed vicar of the local John Keble Church soon after his birth. His father later became the Bishop of Knaresborough and then the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Dennis was educated at private University College School in London. During his time at UCS, he played rugby with Will Self and was head boy in his final year. He went on to read for the Geographical Tripos as an exhibitioner at St John's College, Cambridge. His thesis was titled "The Spatial Distribution of Elementary Education in 19th-century Wakefield". He also joined the Footlights, where he first met Steve Punt and club president Nick Hancock, and the trio collaborated on a number of projects besides the annual revue. In 2016, Dennis said that he was approached by MI5 agents whilst at Cambridge University and attended a preliminary interview to join them; he decided that he did not want to take the option any further, particularly after being told during the interview that the job would require him to "do people over".

After graduating with a first class honours degree, Dennis worked for Unilever for six years in the marketing department while performing comedy with Punt at venues including The Comedy Store in London at weekends. Whilst at Unilever, Dennis became a brand manager of Lynx deodorant. His time at Unilever came to an end when he and Punt had their BBC Radio 1 show The Mary Whitehouse Experience, which they had created alongside David Baddiel and Rob Newman, commissioned for BBC Two. Dennis was put on sabbatical by Unilever, as rehearsals for the show were to take place on a weekday, but he never returned to the company and instead chose to pursue comedy full-time as a result of the show's success.

Dennis uses his middle name Hugh as his stage name because the actor Peter Dennis was already a member of the performing arts union Equity.

Career
As an impressionist, Dennis did voices for Spitting Image and appeared with Punt as resident support comics on two TV series hosted on the BBC by Jasper Carrott. Dennis also appeared twice as a contestant on the topical panel show Have I Got News for You, including one opposite former schoolmate Self.

Punt and Dennis's radio career includes over a decade of performing Punt and Dennis, It's Been a Bad Week, The Party Line and the satirical radio comedy show, The Now Show. On The Now Show, Dennis was originally in a line-up including Punt, Mitch Benn, Laura Shavin, Jon Holmes and Marcus Brigstocke. He is friends with Chris Morris and has had cameos on Brass Eye as well as doing the narration for the CBBC show Sam and Mark's Guide to Dodging Disaster.

In December 2009, Dennis joined Oz Clarke in presenting the 60-minute Christmas special Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas broadcast on BBC Two. In December 2010 the pair returned for a four-part series called Oz and Hugh Raise the Bar, which puts them in a competition to create a bar featuring only local British food and drinks.

Dennis has starred in a number of sitcoms, including My Hero, in which he played obnoxious GP Piers Crispin. From 2007 to 2014, he starred in Outnumbered, a semi-improvised sitcom based around family life and won a BAFTA nomination in the comedy category for the 2009 Christmas special. On Radio 4 he also featured in the sitcom Revolting People which, like Outnumbered, was co-written by Andy Hamilton.

Besides his regular television work, Dennis was a panellist on Mock the Week and appeared in every episode since its premiere in 2005, with the exception of a special episode of the programme that was broadcast as part of David Walliams' 24 Hour Panel People. He is a regular guest on various BBC-broadcast comedy panel game shows such as They Think It's All Over, Would I Lie To You?, QI and has guest hosted Have I Got News for You. In 2011, Dennis hosted the short-lived improvisational comedy series Fast and Loose.

Beginning on 16 February 2012, Dennis and Julia Bradbury hosted a four-part BBC One documentary series The Great British Countryside. From October 2014, Dennis has started appearing in the sitcom Not Going Out as Toby.

In 2016, Dennis appeared as the Bank Manager in the BBC Three series Fleabag, acting alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the first, fourth, and final episodes of series 1.

In February 2021, Dennis started presenting The Great British Dig on More 4.

In the September 2021, Bond film No Time to Die, Dennis cameoed as a scientist in an MI6 laboratory.

Personal life
Dennis lives in London, having previously lived near Chichester. He married Miranda Carroll in 1987 and they divorced in 1993. He married Catherine Abbot-Anderson in 1996, and they had a son and a daughter before divorcing in 2015. In June 2018, it was confirmed that he was in a relationship with his Outnumbered co-star Claire Skinner.

Dennis is a supporter of Arsenal FC, and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He took part in the 2007 L'Étape du Tour, cycling an open stage of the Tour de France for amateurs which was held in the mountains two weeks before the main event, and completed it in 11 hours and 7 minutes.

In 2008, Dennis received an Honorary fellowship from the University of Northampton.

In 2011, Dennis completed the Great South Run in Portsmouth for the Alzheimer's Society.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Hugh Dennis


text:
Gaston Frommel

Gaston Frommel (November 25, 1862, in Altkirch, France – May 18, 1906, in Geneva, Switzerland) was a French-Swiss protestant pastor and professor of theology at the University of Geneva from 1894 until his death.

Life
A Frenchman by birth, his family fled Alsace under German occupation in 1870 and he spent the rest of his life in Switzerland. He may best be described as continuing the spirit of Alexandre Rodolphe Vinet amid the mental conditions marking the end of the 19th century.

Like Vinet, he derived his philosophy of religion from a peculiarly deep experience of the Gospel of Christ as meeting the demands of the moral consciousness; but he developed even further than Vinet the psychological analysis of conscience and the method of verifying every doctrine by direct reference to spiritual experience. Both made much of moral individuality or personality as the crown and criterion of reality, believing that its correlation with Christianity, both historically and philosophically, was most intimate.

But while Vinet laid most stress on the liberty from human authority essential to the moral consciousness, the changed needs of the age caused Frommel to develop rather the aspect of man's dependence as a moral being upon God's spiritual initiative, "the conditional nature of his liberty." "Liberty is not the primary, but the secondary characteristic" of conscience; "before being free, it is the subject of obligation." On this depends its objectivity as a real revelation of the Divine Will. Thus he claimed that a deeper analysis carried one beyond the human subjectivity of even Kant's categorical imperative, since consciousness of obligation was "une experience imposée sous le mode de l'absolu." By his use of imposée Frommel emphasized the priority of man's sense of obligation to his consciousness either of self or of God. Here he appealed to the current psychology of the subconscious for confirmation of his analysis, by which he claimed to transcend mere intellectualism. In his language on this fundamental point he was perhaps too jealous of admitting an ideal element as implicit in the feeling of obligation. Still he did well in insisting on priority to self-conscious thought as a mark of metaphysical objectivity in the case of moral, no less than of physical experience.

Further, he found in the Christian revelation the same characteristics as belonged to the universal revelation involved in conscience, viz., God's sovereign initiative and his living action in history. From this standpoint he argued against a purely psychological type of religion (agnosticisme religieux; as he termed it)--a tendency to which he saw even in A Sabatier and the symbolofidéisme of the Paris School—as giving up a real and unifying faith. His influence on men, especially the student class, was greatly enhanced by the religious force and charm of his personality. Finally, like Vinet, he was a man of letters and a penetrating critic of men and systems.

title: Gaston Frommel


text:
Talk:Valladolid

Why "Pucela"?
Why do the Valladolianos call their town so differently ("Pucela")? --Menchi 12:32, 13 July 2003 (UTC)

 * No sé. - Montréalais — Preceding undated comment added 05:34, 5 August 2003 (UTC)

Apparently, there's no written document that solves that question; it is only an oral tradition. There are several theories about this fact; the most "historical" one says that in the 15th century people from Valladolid (called Vallisoletanos), were convinced partisans of Joan of Arc, from Orleans, France, who was known as pucelle in french, pucela in old spanish (both from latin pullicella; therefore, the name Pucelanos given to the soldiers from this town that went to the war, and Pucela to the town. Other theories consider this name as coming from a particular element of the town, such as a small well (pozuela), or a ceramic industry called pozuelana. As said, none of these theories has been proved by means of written historical documents. See: Almuiña, Celso. "El nombre de Valladolid". "Historia de Valladolid a través de sus personajes". edu18875, 9 Jan 2005 — Preceding undated comment added 10:43, 9 January 2005 (UTC)

"Vallisoletanos (or pucelanos) are reputed to speak the purest Castilian of all of Spain, a reputation similar to that of Tours or Aberdeen, Scotland." The relation to Tours and Aberdeen should be clarified, I think. It just seems to be hanging there as it is. --User:Jenmoa 01:56, 20 February 2005 (UTC)

Dialect
The perfect Castilian is spoken in the nearby cities of Palencia and Burgos. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.49.235 (talk) 18:14, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

 * The perfect Castillian is considered to be spoken in Castillia, that is: Burgos, Segovia, Soria and Avila. To this region you may add Valladolid and Palencia(sometimes are in Leon and sometimes in Castilla:-)). Anyway the difference between Palencia and Valladolid way of speaking is really small(I live next to both cities). Pter — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.155.194.216 (talk) 14:14, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Perhaps the discussion on the "purity of the language" should be justified. It is a strong assertion to say that the way a language is spoken or written by some group is "purer" than another.
 * Any good references for that? --Anonymous — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.78.104.85 (talk) 19:38, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I think there is a mistake here. The inhabitants of Castile do not speak the best Spanish in gramatical terms, they speak the best Spanish in pronounciation terms. As an example they have the leismo problem (considered gratamical) but in the other hand they pronounce correctly the last d in Valladolid, instead Valladoliz as it is done in the rest of Spain. An exception is the mentioned yeismo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.40.214.200 (talk) 20:06, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Origin of the name of Valladolid
It is unclear wether the name Valladolid has the arabic origin claimed here. I think there is a better explanation in the Spanish version. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 157.88.39.34 (talk) 09:54, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

There are several theories about the name of Valladolid, I don't speak english very well, but next links explains the origin of the name of Valladolid, anybody who write english better than me should write a short description of the origin of the name of Valladolid into this article: --Rapomon 11:58, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Nombre de Pucela
 * Origen del nombre de Valladolid (toónimo)

Cervantes House

 * he only surviving house of Miguel de Cervantes is also located in Valladolid.

There is a house of Miguel de Cervantes in Alcalá de Henares, now operating as a museum with reconstructions of period life and sundry editions of Don Quixote. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.250.143.131 (talk) 08:38, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Christopher Columbus House
In this year, 2006, the Christopher Columbus' House has been redesign. A new building ship-shaped has been added and wheelchair users will find it very easy the access to the house. It is 500 years since he died in this house of Valladolid, so the entrance will be free untill October. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Temporal (talk • contribs) 17:49, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Please note the artical states "Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid in 1506 in a house which is now a Museum dedicated to him." However the Museum link states it was contructed in 1968. Can someone clarify the discrepency? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.192.96.14 (talk) 14:59, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

References about the speech of Valladolid
I provide here two highly reputable references about the speech of Valladolid, to prevent further deletion of this information from the article on the untrue claim made by User:Temporal that they are "false" and "inaccurate". First, a reference to Valladolid leísmo: (emphasis mine) "Ocurre, sin embargo, que, desde antiguo, y con mucha fuerza ya en el siglo XVI, el pronombre le está invadiendo el empleo de lo en los territorios centrales de la Península (“Al presidente le pone nervioso...”); es el fenómeno llamado leísmo, de tanta pujanza, que al señor Romagosa le parece el evangelio gramatical. Y no, no lo es. Simplemente ocurre que lo oye más porque vive en Madrid; y le atronaría en los oídos si, cosa siempre recomendable, se diera un paseo por Valladolid". (Fernando Lázaro Carreter, late RAE member: El dardo en la palabra. Barcelona, Galaxia Gutenberg, 2001, page 362; quoted here). And now a reference to their use of intransitive verbs with transitive meaning: (again, emphasis mine) "El uso transitivo de caer y quedar es un fenómeno característico del área occidental del dominio castellano, es decir, un fenómeno propio del antiguo leonés, que hoy tiene gran vitalidad, todavía, en todas o casi todas las comarcas occidentales, principalmente en Zamora, Salamanca y Cáceres, y también, aunque con menos fuerza, en León, Palencia, Valladolid y Ávila. Como en el caso de entrar, también en los de caer y quedar el uso transitivo implica automáticamente un cambio de significado (caer 'caer' > caer 'derribar'; quedar 'quedar' > quedar 'dejar, olvidar'): caer el vaso, caer una silla [...]; quedar la cartera en casa [...], quedar admirado a alguien. No es necesario insistir en el carácter vulgar y regional de estas construcciones, y en su ilicitud, aunque en el dominio leonés sean el pan nuestro de cada día, y nadie que se haya criado en él –yo tampoco- pueda erradicarlas de su habla espontánea." (Antonio Llorente Maldonado de Guevara, renowned philologist from the University of Salamanca: "Consideraciones sobre el español actual". Anuario de Letras XVIII, 1980, page 32; quoted here). Uaxuctum 05:57, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Reconozco que algunos (no todos) de los errores gramaticales a los que haces referencia aquí son ciertos hoy en día, mas no lo son aquellos que utilizas como ejemplo en el artículo principal. Por lo cual me reafirmo en considerar que la información que das es imprecisa y/o falsa. Tampoco creo que hoy por hoy sea Valladolid la zona donde mejor se hable español, pero definitivamente no se comenten tantos errores al hablar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Temporal (talk • contribs) 10:45, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Los "errores" gramaticales a los que acabo de hacer referencia aquí, citando para ello las palabras de dos muy reconocidos lingüistas, son el leísmo y el uso de verbos intransitivos con significado transitivo, y esos (junto al laísmo y el yeísmo, de los que si quieres también te doy referencias) son los "errores" gramaticales que se mencionan en el artículo. Así que ya me explicarás con más detalle a qué te refieres con que no son "los que utilizo como ejemplo en el artículo", cuando de hecho uno de los ejemplos del artículo emplea el mismo verbo "quedar" que menciona explícitamente Antonio Llorente Maldonado. Aunque, si así te convence mejor, pues reemplaza los ejemplos de leísmo y uso transitivo de verbos intransitivos en el artículo por los que ejemplos de esos mismos fenómenos que dan Alarcos y Llorente. Pero no vuelvas a borrar la información, porque ya he dado referencias muy reputables para respaldarla, aparte de ser fenómenos que conozco personalmente de primera mano (creo que en 6 años no escuché a un solo vallisoletano que no fuera leísta, e incluso gente que no era de allí acababa "contagiada" de leísmo de tanto oírlo al llevar allí un cierto tiempo). Uaxuctum 19:49, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Sinceramente, no creo que esto sea una cuestión del número de referencias que seas capaz de encontrar o de los pequeños círculos en los cuales te hayas movido durante esos seis años. No obstante, entiendo que te gustan las referencias a las eminencias del campo. Seguro que en la versión en español de esta página habrá quien pueda combatir tus argumentos con citas de "reconocidos lingüistas". Como no soy un experto wikipedista, no sé cual es el modo habitual de llamar su atención al respecto. Sugiero que escribas la correspondiente traducción en el artículo principal (de la versión en español) y esperes su reacción. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Temporal (talk • contribs) 14:22, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Esto es una enciclopedia y en una enciclopedia las referencias es lo fundamental (léete Verifiability). Aquí se da cuenta de lo que especialistas en la materia (como quien fue presidente de la RAE durante siete años) han dicho y reportado sobre el tema en publicaciones, y no lo que tú o yo podamos opinar personalmente sobre ello, que es meramente anecdótico. Si tienes alguna referencia de algún reputado lingüista en la que afirme que en Valladolid no se da el leísmo, ni el laísmo, ni el yeísmo, ni la transitivización de los verbos intransitivos quedar y caer, pues proporciónala y entonces en el artículo aparecerán ambas visiones del asunto (la de lingüistas de reconocido prestigio como Lázaro Carreter y Llorente Maldonado, y la de las referencias que acaso proporciones). Por otro lado, te pediría que los próximos comentarios que hagas aquí sean en lengua inglesa, ya que esta es la Wikipedia en inglés y si seguimos conversando en castellano estamos excluyendo de la discusión a los demás wikipedistas que no hablan esta lengua. Uaxuctum 00:44, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Por favor, translademos la discusión a la versión en español. Inserta en el artículo principal de la versión en español la correspondiente traducción. Entiendo que la vesión en español ha de ser el referente, al menos en lo que respecta a este asunto. Aceptaré la apropiada traducción de lo que allí se considere aceptado. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Temporal (talk • contribs) 11:52, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
 * En una enciclopedia la verdad debería ser lo fundamental. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Temporal (talk • contribs) 11:54, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Other information
This article needs to be expanded to include other information about the city, such as the economy, culture, transportation, education, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.162.154.176 (talk) 16:43, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

English College Valladolid
There is an English Seminary in Valladolid called "Real y Pontifico Colegio de los Nobles Ingleses y de San Albano" which houses the famous status "Our Lady Vulnerata" (La Virgen/Nuestra Senora Vulnerata). I think this should be included but I am biased because English College Valladolid is my alma mater. The College was founded in 1589 and has 16 students who have been beatified or canonised, and one venerable. Former students include numerous senior clergy and bishops. The College website is www.valladolid.org, I hope someone feels that they can write a NPOV entry? 80.44.115.66 14:09, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I should add that the above entry was made by me, so please direct any comments to my talk page. Apologies for the oversight on my part. Oliver Keenan 15:48, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Inappropriate tone tag
This article reads like a travel guide, but wikipedia is not a travel guide. Please clean up. :) Calliopejen1 18:13, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

 * No, I find this article good writen.--Newuser0077 (talk) 19:01, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Burial place of Aodh Rua Ó Dónaill
I never heard of Valladolid until the past year when The Irish Times ran a story about a Franciscan monastery there being the burial place of no less than Aodh Rua Ó Dónaill, the joint leader of the native Irish during the Nine Years War. 400 years later, given the man's incredible stature in the Irish fight against the British conquest of Ireland and the centuries of persecution which followed, his burial in this city should be recorded here. 109.77.125.55 (talk) 15:29, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Fish
"Fish like red bream and hake are a major part of Valladolid's cuisine."

Do, they indeed? Well, I have restructured this part to remove the reference to the Cantabrian sea, as it would seem that red bream is found anywhere but there. Common bream, if that was meant, is a freshwater fish. Kelisi (talk) 01:36, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Valladolid is not the capital of Castilla y León Region
Valladolid is not the capital of the autonomous region of Castile and León — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.220.217.78 (talk) 12:26, 10 October 2013 (UTC)
 * While it is true that the statute of the autonomous region of Castilla y León intentionally omits mentioning the fact, Valladolid is the de facto capital and the seat of the regional parliament (�Ley 13/1987, de 29 de diciembre,... "Artículo único: Las Instituciones básicas de la Comunidad Autónoma de Castilla y León, Cortes de Castilla y León, Presidente de la Junta de Castilla y León y Junta de Castilla y León, en que se expresa su autogobierno, tendrán su sede en la ciudad de Valladolid.") Perhaps you could add something to the article explaining this specific situation for readers who do not "understand" the inherent historical/political complexities of Spain's autonomous regions. I don't have time right now, but I will try to get back to this later. --Technopat (talk) 15:47, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

Etymology of Valladolid
Valladolid is from Arabic بلد الوليد (Balad al-Walid) 'City of Al-Walid' and from Latin Valdoletum and from Latin Vallisoletum. Derwydd74 (talk) 05:03, 26 December 2022 (UTC)

Etymology of Valladolid
Valladolid is from Arabic بلد الوليد (Balad al-Walīd) 'City of Al-Walīd' and from Latin Valdoletum which is an alteration of Vallisoletum. Cappuccini Fiorentini (talk) 10:37, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Valladolid


text:
Michael Fenton Stevens

Michael Fenton Stevens (born 12 February 1958) is an English actor and comedian. He was a founder member of The Hee Bee Gee Bees and sang the lead on the Spitting Image 1986 number 1 hit "The Chicken Song". He also starred in KYTV, its Radio 4 predecessor Radio Active, Benidorm, and was an anchor on 3rd & Bird on CBeebies.

Radio and broadcasting
Fenton Stevens was one of the principal performers in the Radio 4 comedy series Radio Active during the 1980s, alongside Helen Atkinson-Wood, Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins and Philip Pope, which later led to the television series KYTV.

He also appeared in various roles in the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series. In 2007, he played the similarly named Michael Wenton Weeks in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. He plays the eponymous Inspector Steine in Lynne Truss' long-running Radio 4 comedy series.

He has also played a long-running role in the radio soap The Archers.

In 2020, Fenton Stevens released the first of a podcast series, My Time Capsule, produced by his son John Fenton Stevens. The show involves guests choosing four memories they would preserve in a time capsule, and a fifth memory they would wish to bury in the ground and never think about again. Guests have included Stephen Fry, Rebecca Front, Rick Wakeman, Mark Gatiss, Rufus Hound, David Mitchell, Anthony Head, Chris Addison, Rev Richard Coles, Griff Rhys Jones, Richard Herring and David Baddiel. In June 2023, it celebrated its 300th episode.

Television
Fenton Stevens featured in regular roles as Hank in the 1996 series The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, and as Ralph in Andy Hamilton's 2003 television sitcom Trevor's World of Sport, as well as in the Radio 4 version of the latter which was broadcast in 2004. He had previously appeared in a guest role in Drop the Dead Donkey, another television comedy series written by Hamilton, and appears regularly in various roles in Hamilton's Radio 4 sitcom Old Harry's Game. He has also featured in Ian Hislop's sitcom My Dad's the Prime Minister as the Home Secretary.

From 2004 until 2005 he appeared in two series of Julia Davis's dark comedy series Nighty Night as the Reverend Gordon Fox.

He has provided the voice of Mr Beakman, a toucan, in the CBeebies show 3rd & Bird, and has a recurring role in the sitcom My Family as Mr Griffith, the boss of the dental corporation Cavitex. He has played Sir Henry in Benidorm since series four, which was first broadcast in 2011.

Notable guest appearances have included the next door hotel guest in "Mr. Bean in Room 426", and the brother-in-law of Hee Bee Gee Bees bandmate, Angus Deayton's character in an episode of One Foot in the Grave. He played Alan Perkins, a holiday rep in Spain in "The Unlucky Winner Is" episode of Only Fools And Horses. He also played a guest role in Coronation Street in November 2004. In 2006, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio adventure The Kingmaker. He appeared in Series 3 Episode 3 of Outnumbered, as a substitute player called 'Lance' in a tennis match, and in the "Music 2000" episode of Look Around You as the chairman of the Royal Pop and Rock Association. In 2022 he appeared as Tony Vanoli in a fourth season episode of Ghosts.

Stage
Fenton Stevens has appeared as a Pantomime Dame in a number of pantomimes. From December 2006 until January 2007, he starred in and wrote the Cambridge Arts Theatre pantomime version of Aladdin in the role of Widow Twankey. In 2015, Stevens appeared as Dr. John Radcliffe in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Helen Edmundson's Queen Anne.

Personal life
In 2014, his mother, Olive Stevens, was accidentally killed by her own car when another motorist attempted to help her turn her vehicle around after fly-tipped rubbish blocked her path. She fell and hit her head which caused a bleed on the brain causing her death in hospital.

title: Michael Fenton Stevens


text:
Constituent assembly

A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected by popular vote, drawn by sortition, appointed, or some combination of these methods. Assemblies are typically considered distinct from a regular legislature, although members of the legislature may compose a significant number or all of its members. As the fundamental document constituting a state, a constitution cannot normally be modified or amended by the state's normal legislative procedures in some jurisdictions; instead a constitutional convention or a constituent assembly, the rules for which are normally laid down in the constitution, must be set up. A constituent assembly is usually set up for its specific purpose, which it carries out in a relatively short time, after which the assembly is dissolved. A constituent assembly is a form of representative democracy.

Unlike forms of constitution-making in which a constitution is unilaterally imposed by a sovereign lawmaker, the constituent assembly creates a constitution through "internally imposed" actions, in that members of the constituent assembly are themselves citizens, but not necessarily the political leaders, of the country for which they are creating a constitution. As described by Columbia University Social Sciences Professor Jon Elster:

"Constitutions arise in a number of different ways. At the non-democratic extreme of the spectrum, we may imagine a sovereign lawgiver laying down the constitution for all later generations.  At the democratic extreme, we may imagine a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage for the sole task of writing a new constitution.  And there are all sorts of intermediate arrangements."

Australia
Australia held four constitutional conventions, one each in 1891, 1897, 1973, and 1998

Chile
As of May 2021 Chile is the most recently elected constitutional assembly. The 155 members of this assembly were elected between 15 and 16 May 2021. The assembly has gender parity (50% females and 50% males) and has 17 seats reserved for people belonging to indigenous peoples. The assembly is granted 12 months to draft a new constitution, which has to be ratified by referendum once written, with compulsory voting.

Costa Rica
Immediately after the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War that overthrew the Rafael Angel Calderón Government, the leaders of the victorious side called for the election of a Constituent Assembly in the same year. The Assembly successfully drafted and approved the current Costa Rican Constitution.

Denmark
The Danish Constituent Assembly (Den Grundlovgivende Rigsforsamling; lit. The Constitution giving Assembly of the Realm) of 1848 established the Constitution of Denmark in 1849 (Danmarks Riges Grundlov; lit. The Constitutional Act of the Realm of Denmark) and formalized the transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. The assembly consisted of members of which 114 were directly elected in October 1848, 38 were appointed by the king and the rest were government ministers. The constituent assembly met at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen and first met on 23 October 1848. The assembly was overall split in three different groupings: the National liberals, the Friends of Peasants, and the Conservatives. A key topic for discussion was the political system, and the rules governing elections. On 25 May 1849, the constituent assembly approved the new constitution, and on 5 June 1849 it was signed by King Frederick VII. For this reason, it is also known as the June constitution. Today, 5 June is known as Constitution Day in Denmark.

European Union
The European Convention (2001) drafted the Constitution for Europe for approval by the European Council and ratification by the member states. This constitution was abandoned after being rejected in French and Dutch referendums, and was replaced by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007

France
During the French Revolution (from July 1789 to September 1791) a National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale constituante) was formed when representatives assembled at the only location available – a tennis court – and swore the Tennis Court Oath on June 20, 1789, promising that they would not adjourn until they had drafted a new constitution for France. Louis XVI recognized the validity of the National Constituent Assembly on June 27, 1789.

See also 1848 French Constituent Assembly election.

Germany
Parlamentarischer Rat (Parliamentary Council) (1948) – Drafted the Basic Law of the Federal Republic for ratification by the Länder. This council was not recognized as legitimate by Soviet-occupied East Germany, which drafted its own constitution in 1949 and would not accept the Basic Law until German reunification in 1990.

Iceland
On 27 November 2010, Iceland held an election for a constitutional assembly, with 522 people competing for 25 delegate seats. The assembly, in session for four months from early April until late July 2011, drafted a new constitution and passed it unanimously with 25 votes and no abstentions. On 20 October 2012 the parliament put the bill to a national referendum, in which 67% of the voters supported the bill. Further, 67% of the voters supported equal voting rights (one person, one vote) and 83% supported national ownership of natural resources, two key provisions of the bill. Parliament has failed to ratify the bill, however, inviting accusations that the political class is trying to thwart the will of the people by disrespecting the result of the 2012 constitutional referendum.

Ireland
In Ireland, the government elected in March 2011 has committed to establishing constitutional amendments on six specified issues and others it may consider; the government has separately promised amendments on five other issues.

India
The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to write the Constitution of India, and served as its first Parliament as an independent nation. It was set up as a result of negotiations between the leaders of the Indian independence movement and members of the British Cabinet Mission. The constituent assembly was elected indirectly by the members of the Provincial legislative assembly, which existed under the British Raj. It first met on December 9, 1946, in Delhi. On August 15, 1947, India became an independent nation, and the Constituent Assembly started functioning as India's Parliament. B. R. Ambedkar drafted the Constitution of India in conjunction with the requisite deliberations and debates in the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly approved the Constitution on November 26, 1949 (celebrated as Constitution Day), and it took effect on January 26, 1950 — a day now commemorated as Republic Day in India. Once the Constitution took effect, the Constituent Assembly became the Provisional Parliament of India.

Indonesia
The Constitutional Assembly of Indonesia was established to draw up a permanent constitution. Its membership was elected in November 1955, and it met for the first time in November 1956. After four sessions, it failed to agree on the fundamental basis for the state. It was dissolved in 1959, and the original constitution imposed by presidential decree.(OTP)

Italy
The Constituent Assembly of Italy was established in 1946 in the wake of Fascist Italy's defeat during World War II. It was elected with universal suffrage, simultaneously with a referendum about the adoption of Republic or the continuation of monarchy. Voters chose Republic, and the new assembly had the task to approve the new republic governments, as well as to write a new constitution. This was approved on 22 December 1947.

It was dissolved on 31 January 1948, to be replaced by the new Parliament of Italy.

Mexico
The Viceroyalty of New Spain sent deputies to the Cortes of Cadiz, which enacted the 1812 Constitution. By the time this Constitution was enacted, an insurgency fighting for independence from Spain was already established.

The first Constituent Congress of independent Mexico, known as the Congress of Anahuac, was first gathered in Chilpancingo whilst the war of independence was still ongoing. During the opening of Congress, José María Morelos outlined its program in a document called Sentimientos de la Nación (Feelings of the Nation), which was the first antecedent of the various Constitutions of Mexico. Being persecuted by royalist troops, the Congress fled Chilpancingo and gathered in Apatzingán.

On October 22, 1814, the Congress enacted the Constitutional Decree for the Liberty of Mexican America (Decreto Constitucional para la Libertad de la América Mexicana), known as the Constitution of Apatzingán. The 1814 Constitution entered into force in the territories dominated by the insurgents, but as the war continued and the first insurgent leaders (like Morelos) were defeated, it was largely forgotten.

After independence was consummated on September 27, 1821, and based on the Plan de Iguala and the Treaty of Córdoba, the Provisional Governing Junta was stablished. The Junta proclaimed the Act of Independence of the Mexican Empire and acted as a de facto legislative assembly until February 24, 1822, when the Constituent Congress was gathered. On May 19, 1822, the Constituent Congress proclaimed Agustín de Iturbide as Emperor. The relations between Emperor and Congress were always problematic, a situation that led to the dissolution of Congress by Iturbide on October 31, 1822, without a formal Constitution being enacted.

After the dissolution of Congress, Iturbide created the National Instituent Junta, which enacted the Provisional Political Bylaws of the Mexican Empire on December 18, 1822. The dissolution of Congress had resulted in an armed revolution under the Plan de Casa Mata, which called for the establishment of a Federal Republic and for the restoration of the Constituent Congress. Iturbide was forced to abdicate and he reinstalled the Constituent Congress.

The Congress then created a provisional government, called the Triumvirate, and enacted the Constituent Act of the Mexican Federation, by which the former Provinces of Mexico were transformed into free and sovereign States. After this, a Constituent Congress was formed with the participation of the States and it enacted the 1824 Constitution.

Many disputes aroused between federalists and centralists, which resulted in political instability and in 1836 the Siete Leyes (Seven Laws) were enacted. The Siete Leyes dissolved the federation and created a unitary republic, but that ended in 1846 when the Constitutive and Reforms Act was enacted and the 1824 Constitution, and thus the federation, was restored.

On October 16, 1854, President Juan Álvarez, under the Plan de Ayutla, decreed the formation of another Constituent Congress, which met in 1856. During the presidency of Ignacio Comonfort, the Constituent Congress enacted the 1857 Constitution, which was liberal in character. The Constitution was not well received by the church and Mexican conservatives, and the Plan de Tacubaya called for its derogation. This events led to the Reform War, which the liberals won, then restoring the 1857 Constitution and adding to it the Reform Laws.

After the Porfiriato, and whilst the Mexican Revolution was still being fought, President Venustiano Carranza formed a Constituent Congress, which met in Querétaro and enacted the still-current Political Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1917.

Nepal
Nepal had two Constituent assemblies, the last one being elected after its predecessor failed to deliver a constitution, despite multiple extensions. It also served as the country's parliament. Finally Nepal had made constitution with 89% majority. Nepal has adopted Federalism since.

Poland
The Great Sejm (also known as Four-Year Sejm) was held between 1788 and 1792. Its principal aim became to restore sovereignty to, and reform, the federative Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth politically and economically. These attempts were made by writing Constitution of 3 May 1791 that was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the Commonwealth and its system of Golden Liberties. The constitution lasted for merely a year because of the Polish-Russian War of 1792 and the Third Partition of Poland.

Philippines
The Philippines has had several conventions:

 * 1898 – drafted the 1898 Malolos Constitution, the basic law of the First Philippine Republic, the first constitutional republic in Asia. The drafted constitution was written by Felipe Calderón y Roca and Felipe Buencamino as an alternative to a pair of proposals to the Malolos Congress by Apolinario Mabini and Pedro Paterno. After a lengthy debate in the latter part of 1898, it was enacted on 21 January 1899.
 * 1935 – to draft a constitution to create the autonomous Commonwealth of the Philippines under the U.S. Tydings–McDuffie Act. The constitution was also used in the 3rd Republic (1946) until the passage of the 1973 constitution. Members were elected through the 1934 Philippine Constitutional Convention election
 * 1971 – to draft a revised constitution to replace the old U.S. 1935 Philippine constitution. Members were elected through the 1970 Philippine Constitutional Convention election. The system of government changed from presidential to parliamentary to presidential-parliamentary (in 1984 amendment).
 * 1986 – The ex-constitution lasted until the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Corazon Aquino appointed members to draft the 1987 Constitution through the 1986 Commission.

Russia
The Russian Constituent Assembly was established in Russia in the wake of the October Revolution of 1917 to form a new constitution after the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government.

Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan Parliament approved the creation of a Sri Lanka Constitutional Assembly on March 9, 2016, proposed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. The assembly will draft a new constitution for Sri Lanka.

Turkey
Constituent Assembly of Turkey was established in 1961 after the 1960 Turkish coup d'état to prepare a democratic constitution. The constitution was prepared and approved by the voters in a referendum of 1961.

Federal
The U.S. Constitutional Convention drafted the still-current United States Constitution in 1787. Its delegates were appointed by the states, not directly elected, and not all states sent delegates; moreover, the convention was originally charged with drafting amendments to the Articles of Confederation rather than a new constitution.

The US Constitution contains no provision for its own replacement (and because of the presence of entrenched clauses it cannot be revoked through an amendment). Article V of the Constitution does permit Congress to appoint a national constitutional convention to propose amendments but it has never done so. While Congress has the option to submit both its own proposals for amendments and those of a national convention to state conventions rather than the state legislatures for ratification; this process has been used only once (for the Twenty-first Amendment).

States

A long tradition in the use of constituent assemblies exists at the state level of Constitutionalism. In fact, constituent assemblies met in the states before the formation of the Federal Constitution in 1787 as well as after its ratification. Since 1776 nearly 150 state constitutional conventions have met to draft or revise state constitutions.

These early state constitutional conventions frequently did not use procedural steps like popular ratification that became commonplace in the mid-19th century. Yet they were considered to be constituent assemblies that exercised their authority as that of the people. As American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War by Christian G. Fritz notes:. "'A legitimate constitution depended on whether the sovereign people authorized it, not whether a particular procedure was used or whether revolutionary conventions were free of other responsibilities, such as passing ordinary legislation. It was the people as the sovereign who authorized drafting those first [state] constitutions that gave them their legitimacy, not whether they used procedures that matched what was later understood to be necessary to create fundamental law.'"

American state constituent assemblies in the 19th and 20th centuries reflected many qualities of a citizen's movement. From the start of state American constitution-making, delegates to constitutional conventions studied earlier state models of constitutions. They often self-consciously "borrow[ed]" constitutional text and provisions from other states. They often used in their drafting and debates compact and pocket-sized compilations of all the existing American constitutions, so that the constituent's assembly could draw upon the latest in constitutional design. The powers of these state constituent assemblies were also highly contested, with some claiming that they had unlimited legal power and others claiming that they must operate within the pre-existing legal landscape. In the end, a common law of constituent power emerged which held that elected constituent assemblies had limited powers.

Several U.S. states have held multiple conventions over the years to change their particular state's constitutions.

 * Missouri has held six, in 1820, 1845, 1865, 1875, 1922, and 1945.
 * Michigan has held four, in 1835, 1850, 1908 and 1963.
 * Massachusetts has held six, in 1778, 1779–80, 1820–21, 1853, 1917–18, and most recently 2016.
 * The Constitution of New York has been amended, or re-established de novo, through nine Constitutional Conventions: in 1776–1777, 1801, 1821, 1846, 1867–1868, 1894, 1915, 1938, and 1967; a Constitutional Commission in 1872–1873; and a Judicial Convention in 1921.
 * Vermont's first constitution was drafted by a convention that met in July 1777 and revised by a convention that met in 1786, both of these conventions occurring when Vermont was still independent of the United States. Vermont was admitted into the United States in 1791 and its government continued to function under the 1786 constitution. Two years later in 1793 held another convention to bring some provisions of its constitution into line with the Constitution of the United States.
 * Virginia Conventions have included six unlimited meetings. Constitutions were promulgated by fiat in 1776, 1864 and 1901–02, and ratified by referendum in 1829–30, 1850, and 1868. Limited Conventions and Constitutional Commissions resulting in revisions were held in 1927, 1945, 1956 and 1968. Subsequently, the state legislature proposes amendments that are ratified in popular referendum.

State constitutional conventions
All 50 states have had at least one Constitutional Convention, numbering over 233. 11 were illegal and defeated by arms (Confederacy and Dorr's Rebellion). 12 were illegal and won through arms (Revolutionary War, Republic of Texas, and Vermont Republic). 37 were made in accordance with a Federal enabling law.

Legislative restrictions surpassed
State legislatures put restrictions on conventions that were not followed in these cases.

 * Georgia 1789 proposed alternatives instead of accepting or rejecting a constitution.
 * Illinois 1862 and 1869 disregarded a requirement for an oath.
 * New York 1867 worked past its deadline and submitted its work later.
 * Pennsylvania 1872 against restriction altered the Bill of Rights.
 * Alabama 1901 increase delegate pay above limit.
 * Michigan 1908 submitted its work in November not April.

Countries without an entrenched constitution
A few countries do not have an entrenched constitution, which can thus be amended by normal legislative procedures; the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Israel are examples. In these countries there is no need to call constituent assemblies, and no provision to do so, as the legislature can effectively modify the constitution.

Although it lacks a written constitution, the United Kingdom has had several conventions at the subnational level including:

 * Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention (1975–1976) – a failed attempt to find a solution to the status of Northern Ireland.
 * Scottish Constitutional Convention (1989) – produced a plan for Scottish devolution.

The constitution of New Zealand consists of a collection of statutes (Acts of Parliament), Treaties, Orders-in-Council, Letters Patent, decisions of the Courts and unwritten constitutional conventions. Because it is not supreme law, the constitution is comparatively easy to reform, requiring only a majority of Members of Parliament to amend it.

The constitutional law of Israel is determined by the Knesset which, since 1949, serves as the country's ongoing constituent assembly. The Knesset has the power to create Basic Laws of Israel, laws which are entrenched legislation and will become part of a "future" constitution of Israel, as well as "regular" statutory legislation.

title: Constituent assembly


text:
KYTV (TV series)

KYTV is a British television comedy series about a fictional television station. It ran on BBC2 from 1989 to 1993, and satirised satellite television in the UK at the time.

History
The show was in effect the television version of Radio Active, which spoofed local radio stations, and was developed by the same team.

It was written by Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins, produced by Jamie Rix, directed by John Kilby and John Stroud, with music by Philip Pope. The majority of the programme's scripts had already aired on Radio Active.

The five key actors all performed various roles, some multiple, others on a single occasion. Their main characters as presenters were:

 * Angus Deayton as Mike Channel
 * Helen Atkinson-Wood as Anna Daptor
 * Michael Fenton Stevens as Martin Brown
 * Geoffrey Perkins as Mike Flex
 * Philip Pope simply as The Continuity Announcer (not named)

The pilot episode was broadcast on 12 May 1989, and a series of six programmes began on 3 May 1990. A second series of six began on 17 March 1992, and a final six episodes were broadcast between 17 September and 22 October 1993, plus an additional Children in Need special, making a total of 19 episodes.

In 1992, the series won the Silver Rose and the Special Prize of the City of Montreux at the Festival Rose d'Or for the episode "Good Morning Calais". In the DVD commentary for The Micallef Programme, lead writer and performer Shaun Micallef cites the series as an inspiration for his series' format.

Format
KYTV combined irreverent sketches and variety elements (such as song-and-dance routines) with a broad-based satire of the public perception of UK satellite television – that of opportunistic entrepreneurs producing cheap, low-quality television in order to exploit viewers.

KYTV was a fictional low-budget satellite television station named after its owner Sir Kenneth Yellowhammer, and bore a suspicious similarity to Sky Television.

In the second series, KYTV merged with the fictional 'BSE Television', just as Sky merged with BSB. The channel's new name was also KYTV, composed from the first two letters of KYTV and the last two from BSETV. This is similar to BSkyB, composed from the three letters of BSB and the remainder from Sky. The third series featured parodies of the early idents and logo used by Carlton Television.

Each episode featured a central theme (for example, a terrorist siege, the Channel Tunnel, or a costume drama) around which sketches could revolve.

Comedic elements included:

 * malfunctioning equipment;
 * rolling news channels with little content or analysis;
 * sensationalist and dumbed down shows (Murder. Gruesome, bloody murder. Coming right up, after the break. Tell your neighbours);
 * underpaid, incompetent and amateurish staff;
 * lavish 'showcase sequences' compared to shoddy, makeshift visuals or unfinished sets;
 * endless repeats of imported or old (and therefore cheap) programmes as an attempt to fill yawning gulfs of airtime;
 * relentless commercial intrusions, including plugs for shopping channels ('By the way, Mike, that's a very smart tie you have on!' 'Yes, and it's only £18.99 at Sofa Shop!')

A regular feature was "Mike Flex's Master Quiz", in which contestants typically had to answer one question correctly to win 'a château in the Loire'. Flex always managed to arrange the questions in such a way that nobody's answer was ever quite right. ("Name That Tune": 'Beatles, Yellow Submarine!' 'Sorry, it was The Beatles, "Yellow Submarine". Bad luck.')

Pilot
"Siege Side Special" (12 May 1989)

Series 1
Series 1 was released on DVD in 2006.
 * 1) "Launch" (3 May 1990)
 * 2) "Big Fight Special" (10 May 1990)
 * 3) "The Green Green Show" (17 May 1990)
 * 4) "Those Wonderful War Years" (24 May 1990)
 * 5) "It's A Royal Wedding" (31 May 1990)
 * 6) "Challenge Anna" (7 June 1990)

Series 2
Series 2 was released on DVD in 2006.
 * 1) "KY Tellython" (17 March 1992)
 * 2) "God Alone Knows" (24 March 1992)
 * 3) "Good Morning Calais" (31 March 1992)
 * 4) "Crisis Special" (7 April 1992)
 * 5) "Speak For Yourself" (14 April 1992)
 * 6) "Talking Head" (21 April 1992)

Series 3
Series 3 was due for release on DVD in January 2007, but this was ultimately cancelled.
 * 1) "The Making of David Chizzlenut" (17 September 1993)
 * 2) "Those Sexciting Sixties" (24 September 1993)
 * 3) "Fly on the Walls" (1 October 1993)
 * 4) "2000 and Whither?" (8 October 1993)
 * 5) "Hot Crimes" (15 October 1993)
 * 6) "Get Away With You" (22 October 1993)

title: KYTV (TV series)


text:
Louis Auguste Sabatier

Louis Auguste Sabatier (22 October 1839 – 12 April 1901), French Protestant theologian, was born at Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardèche and died in Strasbourg.

He was educated at the Protestant theological faculty of Montauban as well as at the universities of Tübingen and Heidelberg.

After holding the pastorate at Aubenas in Ardèche from 1864 to 1868, he was appointed professor of reformed dogmatics at the Protestant theological faculty of Strasbourg. His markedly French sympathies during the War of 1870 led to his expulsion from Strassburg in 1872. After five years' effort he succeeded in establishing a Protestant Faculty of Theology in Paris (today: Faculté de théologie protestante de Paris) along with Eugène Ménégoz, and became professor and then dean. In 1886, he became a teacher in the newly founded religious science department of the École des Hautes Etudes at the Sorbonne.

His brother, Paul, was a noted theological historian. He is the father of two daughters, Marguerite Chevalley, translator, and Lucie Chevalley. Claude Chevalley, mathematician, is his grandson.

Published works
Among Louis Auguste Sabatier's chief works were: These works show Sabatier as "at once an accomplished dialectician and a mystic in the best sense of the word".
 * Mémoire sur la notion hébraique de l'Esprit (1879).
 * Les origines littéraires et la composition de l'apocalypse de Saint Jean (1888).
 * The Vitality of Christian Dogmas and their Power of Evolution (1898).
 * Outlines of a philosophy of religion based on psychology and history (1902).
 * The Apostle Paul (1903).
 * The doctrine of the atonement and its historical evolution; and, Religion and modern culture (1904).
 * Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit; translation of Les religions d'autorité de la religion de l'esprit (1904, posthumous), to which his colleague Jean Réville prefixed a short memoir.

title: Louis Auguste Sabatier


text:
Alistair McGowan

Alistair Charles McGowan (born 24 November 1964) is an English impressionist, comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression (formerly Alistair McGowan's Big Impression), which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes – winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003. He has also worked extensively in theatre and appeared in the West End in Art, Cabaret, The Mikado and Little Shop of Horrors (for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination). As a television actor, he played the lead role in BBC1's Mayo. He wrote the play Timing (nominated as Best New Comedy at the whatsonstage.com awards ) and the book A Matter of Life and Death or How to Wean Your Man off Football with former comedy partner Ronni Ancona. He also provided voices for Spitting Image.

He made his debut broadcast as a tennis commentator.

In 2012, McGowan wrote and hosted the ITV comedy sports show You Cannot Be Serious!, in which his impressions included Roy Hodgson, Jedward and Louie Spence.

He has written and starred in three plays for BBC Radio 4 about Erik Satie (Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear), John Field (The Peregrinations of a Most Musical Irishman) and George Bernard Shaw (The 'B' Word). He devised stage shows showcasing the music and verse of Noël Coward (Sincerely Noel), and the music and writings of Erik Satie (Erik Satie's-faction). He wrote the stage play Timing (nominated as Best New Comedy at the 2009 whatsonstage.com awards ).

Career
McGowan found work as a comedian, and performed some of the voices for the ITV television series Spitting Image. His sporting impressions were showcased on the BBC 2 football magazine programme Sick as a Parrot. He also appeared as the recycling man in the BBC show Think about Science.

Later he took over from Stephen Tompkinson playing Spock in the Tim Firth comedy drama, Preston Front. In his early career, McGowan had minor roles in shows such as Children's Ward, and in the pilot episode of Jonathan Creek. He also was a series regular in the first season of Dead Ringers.

McGowan also appeared in the Scottish football sketch show Only an Excuse? from 1996 to 1998. He also hosted and starred in a sporting impressions show on BBC Radio 5 Live called The Game's Up in the late 1990s.

In 1998, McGowan provided all of the voice characterisation in the 1998 revival of James the Cat for Channel 5 and later in the 2000s, McGowan went on to provide guest voices for Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! and Planet Sketch both for CITV (Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! later went onto air on both the BBC and CBeebies in 2008).

From 2 June to 7 July 2012, McGowan has hosted and written the ITV comedy series, You Cannot Be Serious! Impressions include England manager Roy Hodgson, Eurovision duo Jedward, and TV personality Louie Spence.

McGowan is patron of the Ludlow Fringe Festival, where he first performed live in 2013. At the town's St Laurence's Church during the 2021 festival, he performed The Piano Show combining classical pieces played on a Steinway Grand Piano with stand-up comedy and impressions.

The Big Impression
McGowan is best known for the TV show The Big Impression, formerly Alistair McGowan's Big Impression, with Ronni Ancona. His celebrity impressions include David Beckham, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Gary Lineker, Nicky Campbell, Richard Madeley, Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Robert Kilroy-Silk, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Angus Deayton, Terry Wogan and the fictional characters Ross Geller (from Friends) and Dot Cotton (from EastEnders). McGowan and Ancona are probably best known for their portrayal of Posh and Becks, with McGowan as David Beckham and Ancona in the role of Victoria Beckham.

Return to acting and radio work (2005)
He made a return to dramatic acting in 2005, appearing in the BBC's adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel Bleak House. He also appeared at the Chichester Festival Theatre in two plays; the first was a new translation of Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector by Alistair Beaton, the second was a new play called 5/11, which was produced to mark the 400-year anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. In 2006, he starred in the detective series Mayo. He also presented an episode of Have I Got News for You on 20 October 2006. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for the Christmas 2006 season playing Mr Page in Merry Wives: the Musical (a version of The Merry Wives of Windsor) opposite Judi Dench, Simon Callow and Haydn Gwynne.

Despite his acting commitments, he continued to appear on BBC Radio and television as an announcer and as an impersonator. He has re-voiced video footage of BBC Sports Personality of the Year and Match of the Day.

In 2007, McGowan starred as Orin Scrivello (and other, smaller characters) in the West End transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory's revival of Little Shop of Horrors, and filmed My Life in Ruins, an American comedy film set in the ruins of ancient Greece. In 2008 he made his directing debut at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (where he studied) with Noël Coward's classic comedy Semi-Monde.

In January and February 2008, McGowan starred as the eponymous protagonist of The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, in a revival by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. On 21 April 2008, he took over the role of Emcee in Cabaret at London's Lyric Theatre. In July of that year, he appeared in a revival of They're Playing Our Song at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

In March 2009, McGowan starred as the Duke in the stage version of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

McGowan appeared as a host on one episode of the fifth series of Live at the Apollo, which aired on 1 January 2010.

McGowan appeared in Skins in February 2011, playing Nick's coach in the fifth episode of the new series. On 12 March, he played the part of the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, at the Barbican Centre, London. and, later in the year, took over from Rupert Everett in the part of Henry Higgins in Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre, opposite Kara Tointon as Eliza Doolittle. In April 2011, he took to the stage at the Djanogly Theatre, Lakeside Arts Centre at the University of Nottingham in David Mamet's controversial drama Oleanna. On 9 June 2011 he was unveiled as the newest addition to the BBC Wimbledon commentary team.

Also in 2011, he co-starred in season one of the CBBC series Leonardo as Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (being replaced in the role for season 2 by James Clyde).

In 2013, McGowan embarked on a fifty-date stand-up tour in his show Not Just A Pretty Voice. He also took part, with Eddie Izzard, in the first ever stand-up show performed by two English comics totally in French in Sheffield. His voice appeared in the film The Unbeatables.

From 10 June to 11 July 2015, McGowan starred as Jimmy Savile in An Audience with Jimmy Savile, a play written by Jonathan Maitland, at the Park Theatre in London. McGowan was praised for his performance. The show was transferred to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. He made another cameo as Savile in the movie, Creation Stories about Creation Records owner, Alan McGee.

Music
In 2013 McGowan explained in a piece for The Guardian that he had "... hero-worshipped the French composer Erik Satie for many years. Not only was he a hugely innovative and visionary composer – but he was also a man with a passion for all forms of art." In 2014 McGowan narrated, in the guise of Satie, a concert of surrealist ballet music from Paris in the 1920s, given by the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and broadcast live by BBC Radio 3. In 2017 he released a debut album on Sony Classical featuring piano performances of classical music. Having previously had a very limited repertoire, McGowan practised intensively for nine months to complete the recording.

Environmental work
McGowan serves as an ambassador to WWF-UK, part of the global World Wide Fund for Nature, and campaigns on a number of environmental issues. He is a patron of the urban tree-planting charity Trees for Cities.

In 2004 he launched 'the BIG recycle' national recycling campaign. In August 2006 he appeared on Steve Wright's BBC Radio 2 show to appeal to listeners to be more energy aware. In June 2007 he appeared on the James Whale Show on Talksport to also talk this issue.

In January 2009 it was announced that McGowan in partnership with three other Greenpeace activists, including actress Emma Thompson, had bought land near Sipson, Middlesex, a village under threat from the proposed third runway for Heathrow Airport. It is hoped that the area of ground, half the size of a football pitch, will prevent the government from carrying through its plan to expand Heathrow. The field, bought for an undisclosed sum from a local land owner, will be split into small squares and sold across the globe. When interviewed Mr McGowan said: "BAA were so confident of getting the Government's go ahead, but we have cunningly bought the land they need to build their runway."

In 2009 he attended the Bromley Environmental Awards and was the celebrity guest at Bromley Civic Centre where the awards were presented to various schools in the borough.

In June 2011 it was announced that McGowan had become a Patron of the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery, where over 30 members of his extended family are interred.

Other work

 * ElvenQuest, radio 2009, as Lord Darkness.
 * He has written the book A Matter of Life and Death (2009) with his former comedy partner Ronni Ancona.

Personal life
McGowan was in a relationship for seven years with fellow television comedian Ronni Ancona. In August 2013 McGowan married his girlfriend Charlotte Page alongside whom he had performed in The Mikado.

McGowan is a supporter of Leeds United, even claiming that he decided to study at Leeds partly because of its proximity to Elland Road, and Coventry City, the team closest to the area where he spent his late teens, and his interest in football forms the basis of his 2009 book A Matter of Life and Death. On the 17 December 2012 edition of Countdown, Susie Dent revealed that McGowan neither owns a car nor drives.

Since 2020 McGowan has lived in Ludlow, Shropshire.

title: Alistair McGowan


text:
Kate Robbins

Kate Elizabeth Robbins (born 21 August 1958) is an English actress, singer, and songwriter. She came to prominence in the early 1980s when she scored a top ten single on the UK Official Charts with "More Than in Love", while she was appearing in the television soap opera Crossroads. She went on to become a prolific voice actress, most notably for nine years with the satirical show Spitting Image.

Early life
Robbins is the older sister of fellow actress Amy Robbins, sculptor Jane Robbins, and The Sheilas singer Emma Robbins. Her older brother is radio broadcaster and actor Ted Robbins. Through her sister Emma she was the sister-in-law of Simon Shelton and through her sister Amy she is the sister-in-law of actor Robert Daws.

Her father was Mike Robbins, who grew up in Hightown, Wrexham, the son of Ted, who served as the secretary of the Football Association of Wales for more than 35 years.

She attended Wirral Grammar School for Girls in Bebington, Cheshire.

Robbins is a first cousin once removed of Paul McCartney as her mother Elizabeth "Bett" Robbins (née Danher) was McCartney's cousin. In 1960, McCartney and John Lennon performed as "The Nerk Twins" at the Fox and Hounds pub in Caversham, Reading, which was run by Bett and her husband Mike.

Career
Robbins' first released recording, in 1978, was the song Tomorrow, from the musical Annie. Robbins' first chart appearance was as a backing singer, along with her sister Jane, on the minor Top 40 hit "Lines" by Liverpool group Planets, a spin-off from Deaf School.

Her profile was raised soon afterwards when both she and Jane represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 as part of the group Prima Donna. They finished third.

The following year, Robbins joined the cast of the ITV soap opera Crossroads, playing the part of a pop singer who was recording a single in the fictional motel's basement recording studio. The song, "More Than in Love", was released commercially in the UK, credited as Kate Robbins and Beyond and gave Robbins a major hit single, reaching number 2 in the UK Singles Chart. It was her only lead-vocal hit.

In late 1982, Robbins provided backing vocals on the Top 3 single Story of the Blues by Wah!.

Robbins wrote the first theme tune to Surprise, Surprise performed by Cilla Black.

She provided almost all the female voices on the television show Spitting Image in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She sang the lead vocals on "The Chicken Song" with Michael Fenton Stevens which reached number 1 in 1986.

The 1986 Granada Television sketch show Robbins featured Kate, her brother Ted Robbins, and her sisters Amy Robbins, Jane Robbins and Emma Robbins.

She participated in the 1989 Children's Royal Variety Performance BBC, singing her own comic songs at the piano, and featured in the original series of Dead Ringers on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.

In 1995, Robbins provided all of the voices, including the male ones, in the children's television series The Caribou Kitchen.

During the 1990s, Robbins performed a number of different roles as both an impersonator and a singer in the BBC Radio 4 satirical comedy series A Look Back at the Nineties and its sequel series A Look Back at the Future.

Robbins also provided the English language dubbing for Europeans, featured on the Channel 4 series Eurotrash and, in 2006, made two appearances on the BBC Radio 4 programme Just a Minute.

In 2007, Robbins was awarded an Honorary Bachelor of Arts degree from Bedfordshire University, for her lifetime contribution to the Performing Arts.

In December 2010, Robbins released her third album, a jazz based affair, entitled Soho Nights, which was written as a collaboration with the Italian saxophonist Alessandro Tomei, and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Robbins also co-wrote the easy listening album We're Just Passing Through with broadcaster and journalist Nicky Campbell, which was released in 2014.

Robbins was one of the Grumpy Old Women tour in 2014 with comedian Jenny Eclair and actress Susie Blake which toured again in 2015.

Film and television work
Robbins has acted in many feature films.

She was named Best Supporting Actress at the Angel Awards of the Monaco International Film Festival, for her role as Kathleen in the low-budget British film, Fated.

In 2005, she played Joan in Sex Lives of the Potato Men.

The following year she appeared with James Franco and Jean Reno in the film Flyboys, playing the role of Clarisse, a brothel Madame.

In the comedy Lunchbox she starred as man-hungry teacher, Suzanne.

She also starred in Farrena Films' comedy-thriller short movie The Other Side With Valerie Hope.

Robbins appeared in two series of the comedy series Dinnerladies, playing the character Babs, a friend of Petula Gordeno, played by Julie Walters, BBC.

Robbins later appeared with the sitcom's writer Victoria Wood in the Christmas special Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings and Victoria Wood's Big Fat Documentary.

Alongside daughter Emily Atack, Robbins appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox and is a regular contributor on Steph's Packed Lunch for Channel 4.

Robbins has worked on many comedy and drama TV shows including:

Last of the Summer Wine (BBC), Heartbeat (ITV), The Harry Enfield Show (BBC), Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights (Channel 4), Shooting Stars (BBC), Holby City (BBC), Where the Heart Is (ITV - 2 seasons), Doctors (BBC), Casualty (BBC), Citizen Khan (BBC), The Legend of Dick and Dom (BBC), Soapington Way (ITV -written by Harry Hill), EastEnders (BBC - character of Jen Glover 2021), Mandy (BBC - character of Joan McDonald), After Life (Netflix - character of Penny Spencer-Wright, Season 3)

Robbins can also be heard as a voice-over artist on many commercials.

She was the Edith Piaf soundalike on a lager advert. She was the 'Doris Day' voice in a Waitrose commercial. Her singing can be heard on television advertisements for Clover, Debenhams, First Choice Holidays and many more. She also recorded the Capital Radio jingle package for Sue Manning Productions.

She also played The Singing Ring in the mini-series The 10th Kingdom, which aired in 2000.

Personal life
Robbins divorced musician Keith Atack in 2007 after 19 years of marriage. The couple had three children: actress Emily Atack (born 1989); Martha Atack (born 1991), a Talent Director; and George Atack (born 1992), a musician and TV researcher.

Singles

 * 1978 "Tomorrow" (Anchor)
 * 1980 "Love Enough for Two" (Ariola) (with Prima Donna) UK No. 48
 * 1980 "Just Got to be You" (Ariola) (with Prima Donna)
 * 1981 "More Than in Love (RCA) UK No. 2
 * 1981 "I Want You Back" (RCA)
 * 1981 "Run Wild" (RCA)
 * 1983 "The Real Me" (RCA)
 * 1983 "That First Love"
 * 1986 "The Chicken Song" (Lead female vocal)
 * 1988 "If You Wanna Help Somebody"

Albums

 * 1981 Kate Robbins (RCA)
 * 2008 Songs from the Pool
 * 2010 Soho Nights
 * 2014 We're Just Passing Through (Long Lunch Music)

Voices

 * The Beano Video - Neighbour's Wife
 * The Beano Videostars - Nurse
 * Discworld (Video Game) - Various Characters

title: Kate Robbins