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Free-thinking Democratic League

The Free-thinking Democratic League (Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond, VDB) was a progressive liberal political party in the Netherlands. Established in 1901, it played a relatively large role in Dutch politics, supplying one Prime Minister, Wim Schermerhorn. The League is a predecessor of two of the major Dutch political parties, the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the social democratic Labour Party (PvdA). The social liberal Democrats 66 also claims that it and the VDB are ideologically connected.

Name
Like some other liberal parties in Europe, such as the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland, the party did not have the word "liberal" in its name because of its connotation with conservative liberalism. Instead it used the term vrijzinnig, which is difficult to translate into English. The term, which literally translated would be "free-thinking" or "free-minded" has meanings in the Protestant church referring to more liberal or latitudinarian tendencies in the church, rather than secular freethought, as well as more progressive and social tendencies in liberalism, as opposed to classical liberalism.

The term "Democratic" is included in the parties name because of its clear commitment to further democratisation of the Dutch political system. The term "League" is used instead of "Party" because the organisation was not a centralised, strictly organised mass party but rather a loose league of politicians and local caucuses. In liberal circles parties were seen as factionalist and incompatible with the common good.

Background
The VDB was a merger of two groups; one, the Radical League, was founded in 1892 as an Amsterdam secession of the Liberal Union; they left the Union over the issue of universal suffrage. The second group was the Free-thinking Democratic political club (Dutch: Vrijzinnig Democratische Kamerclub or VD-kamerclub). This was a club of Liberal Union MPs (in 1901, it had about 25 members, out of 35 Liberal Union MPs and 100 MPs in total). The second group left the Union over the same matter. In 1901, the board of the Liberal Union, supported by the VD-kamerclub, proposed that all its candidates would stand on a platform of universal suffrage. The party congress rejected this proposal. In reaction to this the party's board, some of the members of the VD-kamerclub, and some of the party caucuses left the party.

Founding and early history
The two groups, the Radical League and the VD-kamerclub, merged in 1901 to form the Free-minded Democratic League. In the 1901 elections they won nine seats. The party always remained rather small, but because of its strategic position and the quality of its MPs, the party was very influential.

Although the VDB had split from the Liberal Union and the other liberal split, the League of Free Liberals, was against universal suffrage, they still needed each other to form a liberal alternative to the Christian democratic Coalition. In many districts there was only one liberal candidate supported by all three liberal parties.

In 1905, the VDB won two additional seats. From 1905 to 1908 the Liberal Union and the VDB formed a liberal minority cabinet led by Theo de Meester. The cabinet was supported by Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). In the 1909 election the Coalition regained its majority. The VDB lost two seats, making its total nine. In the 1913 election the Christian democrats lost their majority. The VDB lost four seats, because it was not the only liberal party in favour of universal suffrage; the Liberal Union and the League of Free Liberals had also included in their programmes. Furthermore, the SDAP performed exceptionally well in these elections. The leader of the VDB, Dirk Bos, attempted to form a government with the liberals, free liberals, socialists and free-thinking democrats. The socialists refused to cooperate, because one of their major issues (unilateral disarmament of the Netherlands) could not be realised. A liberal extra-parliamentary cabinet was formed, led by Pieter Cort van der Linden. It implemented universal suffrage and proportional representation.

During this cabinet, a conflict between the VDB parliamentary party and minister Willem Treub led to his resignation. Treub left the party and founded the Economic League, which would merge with the Liberal Union to form the Liberal State Party.

Interwar years
In the 1918 elections, with universal suffrage and proportional representation in place, the liberal alliance lost nearly half its seats. The VDB remains relatively stable with five seats, but they were nonetheless forced to a position in opposition to a Christian democratic cabinet. In 1919, however, VDB leader Henri Marchant initiated the law for female suffrage. In the 1922 elections the party retained its five seats. Betsy Bakker-Nort became the party's first female member of the House of Representatives.

In 1925, the party was instrumental in the fall of the cabinet led by Hendrikus Colijn: each year the orthodox Protestant Reformed Political Party (SGP) proposed that the Dutch representation at the Vatican be removed. The Protestant SGP was fervently anti-Catholic. This proposal was always supported by the Protestant Christian Historical Union (CHU), which was part of the Catholic-Protestant cabinet, but nonetheless had an anti-Catholic history. For the Catholic leader Nolens, this Papal representation was of utmost importance. In 1925 the VDB had convinced the other opposition parties that this was their chance to let the government fall and create a progressive cabinet. The entire opposition voted with the SGP and CHU, and the cabinet fell. In the following 1925 elections the party gained two seats. The party leader, Marchant, attempted to form a progressive government with the Roman Catholic State Party (RKSP), the SDAP and the VDB. He failed, however, and a new Christian democratic cabinet was formed.

In the 1929 elections, the VDB retained its seven seats. In 1933, the party lost one seat. Nonetheless, the party was asked to cooperate in the centre-right government led by Colijn, which consisted of the Catholic RKSP, the Protestant CHU and ARP, and the liberal VDB and Liberal State Party. The VDB cooperated in the budget cuts and the strengthening of the Dutch armed forces. The previously good relations with the SDAP came under considerable strain from this. In 1933 the party's leader, Marchant, who also served as minister of Education, stepped down because he had turned Catholic. Pieter Oud took his place as political leader of the VDB, until he became major of Rotterdam in 1938. In 1937, they managed to retain their seven seats. In 1941, the party was forbidden by the German occupying force. The VDB played a minor role in the 1940-1945 cabinets in exile.

Dissolution
After the German occupation, there was a widespread feeling that a new political party was necessary, one that was not part of the pillarised system. This movement was called the Breakthrough. Willem Schermerhorn became the first Prime Minister after the Second World War. He led a cabinet composed out of progressives of all parties. In 1946 the VDB merged with the Social Democratic Workers' Party and the progressive Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to form the modern-day Labour Party (PvdA). However, this party soon strengthened its ties to democratic-socialist organisations. In 1948, a group dissatisfied with the failed "Breakthrough" and the increasingly socialist tint of the PvdA left the party. These were all former VDB members, led by former VDB leader Pieter Oud. They joined with the conservative liberal Freedom Party (PvdV) to form the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

Ideology and issues
The VDB started out as a left, social or progressive liberal party, committed to universal suffrage and the construction of a welfare state. It favoured the democratisation of the Dutch political system. Female suffrage was one of its most important issues. It favoured government influence in the national economy by nationalising crucial industries. It also believed that government should play an important part in ensuring the welfare of the population; hence, it favoured the implementation of state pensions for the elderly.

In the 1930s, the leader of the party, Pieter Oud, was somewhat more conservative than his predecessors, at least fiscally, supporting as Minister of Finance the strict fiscally conservative line of the Cabinet.

Before World War I, it favoured an army formed by national conscription. After the war and until the 1930s, it favoured unilateral disarmament. This position was abandoned with the rise of international tensions after 1933.

The VDB was mainly supported by atheists and liberal protestants from higher classes: the party was supported by civil servants, intellectuals and educated teachers. Regionally, the VDB received most of its support form the large cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam, but also from provincial centres in Groningen, Drenthe, North and South Holland.

Municipal government
In its strongholds of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the party provided various mayors. The former VDB leader Oud was mayor of Rotterdam between 1938 and 1941. In 1919, Maria Elisabeth Stellwag-Bes became party leader for the VDB in the municipal elections in Delft and was elected to the Delft municipal council. Deputy leader Corry Tendeloo, who later became instrumental in the legal advancement of women's rights, was a member of the municipal council in Amsterdam.

Parliamentary leadership

 * Parliamentary leaders in the House of Representatives
 * Hendrik Drucker (18 September 1901 – 29 June 1913)
 * Dirk Bos (29 June 1913 – 6 May 1916)
 * Henri Marchant (16 May 1916 – 27 May 1933)
 * Dolf Joekes (1 June 1933 – 20 September 1937)
 * Pieter Oud (20 September 1937 – 15 October 1938)
 * Dolf Joekes (16 October 1938 – 9 February 1946)

 * Parliamentary leaders in the Senate
 * David van Embden (September 1923 – 9 January 1946)

Pillarisation
The VDB lacked a real system of pillarised organisations around it. "Neutral" organisations, which were not linked to a pillar, often had friendly relations with the VDB. This included the general broadcasting association AVRO (Algemene Verenigde Radio Omroep, General United Radio Broadcasting Organisation), the general union ANWV (Algemene Nederlandse Werkelieden Vereniging, the General Dutch Workers' Association); furthermore, the neutral employers' organisation VNO and the financial paper Het Handelsblad had good relations with the League. Together with the other liberal party, the Liberal State Party, these organisations formed the weak general pillar.

Relationships with other parties
The VDB was part of the Concentration the alliance with the liberal Liberal Union and League of Free Liberals. These parties had good relations. The VDB served as bridge between the liberals and the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). The SDAP supported two liberal minority cabinets, but the SDAP was unwilling to join a cabinet with these bourgeoise parties in 1913. After 1918, when the liberals lost more than half of their seats, the relations with Concentration dissolved and the two other concentration parties merged to form the Liberal State Party. The VDB continued to serve as the bridge between liberals and socialists. This strategy resulted in the fall of the second Ruijs de Beerenbrouck cabinet in 1925. The VDB was unable to form a government of liberals, socialists and Catholics. In 1933 the relations between the SDAP and the VDB worsened as the VDB joined the Colijn cabinet, which had a very conservative economic policy. Their cooperation in World War II improved the relations between SDAP and VDB considerably. This led to the Doorbraak and the formation of the Labour Party with the SDAP and the VDB is its major components.

title: Free-thinking Democratic League


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Drzymała's wagon

Drzymała's wagon (wóz Drzymały) was a house on wheels built by peasant Michał Drzymała (1857-1937) as a protest against Imperial Germany's policy of Germanization in its Polish territories. Drzymała was not only able to circumvent German building regulations by moving his home every day, but with his wagon-home, became a Polish folk hero during the Partitions of Poland.

In 1886, by resolution of the Prussian Landtag, a Settlement Commission had been established to encourage German settlement in the Province of Posen and West Prussia. The Commission was empowered to purchase vacant property of the Polish szlachta and sell it to approved German applicants. The Prussian government regarded this as a measure designed to counteract the German "Flight from the East" (Ostflucht) and reduce the number of Poles. In Polish eyes, the establishment of the Commission was an aggressive measure designed to drive Poles from their lands.

While the campaign against Polish landownership largely missed its aims, it produced a strong opposition with its own hero, Drzymała. In 1904 he purchased a plot of land in Pogradowitz in the Posen district of Bomst, but found that the newly implemented Prussian Feuerstättengesetz ("furnace law") enabled local officials to deny him as a Pole the permission to build a permanent dwelling with an oven on his land. The law considered any place of stay a house if it stayed in one place for more than 24 hours. To get around the rule, he set himself up in a former circus caravan and for several years tenaciously defied in the courts all attempts to remove him. Each day, Drzymała moved the wagon a short distance, thereby exploiting the loophole and avoiding any legal penalties, until in 1909 he was able to buy an existent farmhouse nearby.

The case attracted publicity all over Germany. The German Kulturkampf measures and the Settlement Commission ultimately succeeded in stimulating the Polish national sentiment that they had been designed to suppress.

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

title: Drzymała's wagon


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Radical League

The Radical League (Radicale Bond) was a progressive liberal political party in the Netherlands from its founding in 1892 until it merged with the left wing of the Liberal Union to form the Free-thinking Democratic League in 1901.

History
The Radical League originated out of the local progressive liberal caucus "Amsterdam". Leaders of this caucus initiated the formation of a national political party in July 1892, and this resulted in the founding of the Radical League on 9 November 1892. The foremost leader of the new party was the Amsterdam alderman Willem Treub. The party focused on the extension of universal suffrage as well as combating social deprivation.

In 1893, the party won the Leeuwarden seat in a by-election. The newly elected MP was former Amsterdam alderman Carel Victor Gerritsen, who was also the husband of feminist Aletta Jacobs. In 1894 the party won two additional seats. They played a minor role in parliament. In 1897 they won an additional seat. The Radicals supported the progressive liberal Pierson cabinet, although they were not necessary for its majority. On 17 March 1901, the League merged with another group of progressive former Liberal Union members to form the Free-thinking Democratic League.

Ideology & issues
The League was a progressive liberal and radical democratic party, committed to implementation of universal suffrage and social laws. The party was inspired by kathedersocialisme, the progressive politics professed by latitudinarian preachers. It championed democratisation of the political system by abolishing the Senate and the implementation of a referendum. It favoured the nationalisation of crucial industries like the railways.

Election results
This table shows the League's results in elections to the House of Representatives.

Local government
The party was particularly strong in Amsterdam. Treub was alderman there.

Electorate
The League's electorate centered on Amsterdam, where intellectuals, journalists, teachers and educated workers supported the party.

Pillarisation
The small and localised Radical League lacked a system of pillarised organisations around it. The weekly magazine De Amsterdammer ("The Amsterdammer") sympathised with the party however.

title: Radical League


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Ravensburg

Ravensburg (Swabian: Raveschburg) is a city in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg.

Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an important trading centre. The "Great Ravensburg Trading Society" (Große Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft) owned shops and trading companies all over Europe.

The historic city centre is still very much intact, including three city gates and over 10 towers of the medieval fortification. "The all-white Mehlsack (Flour sack) is a tower marking the Altstadt’s southern edge. A steep staircase leads up to the Veitsburg, a quaint baroque castle."

History
Ravensburg was first mentioned in writing in 1088. It was founded by the Welfs, a Frankish dynasty in Swabia who became later Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony and who made the castle of Ravensburg their ancestral seat.

By a contract of inheritance, in 1191 the Hohenstaufen Frederick Barbarossa acquired the ownership of Ravensburg from Welf VI, Duke of Spoleto and uncle of both Frederick Barbarossa and Henry the Lion.

With the death of Conradin 1268 in Naples the Hohenstaufen line became extinct. Their former estates became imperial property of the Holy Roman Empire. Like many other cities in Swabia, at the end of the 13th century Ravensburg became an Imperial Free City in 1276. The "Great Ravensburg Trading Society" (Große Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft) was founded at Ravensburg and Konstanz around 1380 by the merchant families of Humpis (from Ravensburg), Mötteli (from Buchhorn, modern-day Friedrichshafen) and Muntprat (from Constance). At first, the society mostly dealt in the production of linen and fustian. With the opening of one of the first paper mills north of the Alps in 1402 in Ravensburg, paper became another commodity. The Ravensburg stores also sold oriental spices, Mediterranean wines and Bohemian ores. After the liquidation of the Great Ravensburg Trading Society in 1530, Ravensburg stagnated economically. The Thirty Years' War caused a grave decline of the population. Swedish troops destroyed the old castle, now named "Veitsburg" after the St. Veit chapel at the castle grounds.

Following the Reformation a "paritetic" government emerged, meaning an equal distribution of public offices between the Catholic and Protestant confession. The city council was one half each Protestant and Catholic. For some time there was even a Catholic and a Protestant mayor at the same time, and both confessions celebrated the village fair, the "Rutenfest", apart from each other. This system was approved at the end of the Thirty Years' War in the Peace of Westphalia (1648) which named four "Paritetic Imperial Cities" (Paritätische Reichsstädte): Augsburg, Biberach, Dinkelsbühl and Ravensburg.

In 1803 the Immerwährende Reichstag passed the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, a bill which included the secularisation and mediatisation of many German states — the first meaning the confiscation of the estates belonging to the church, the second the incorporation of the imperial estates and Imperial Free Cities into larger regional states. As a result, Ravensburg first became a Bavarian exclave within Württemberg. After a swap of estates between Bavaria and Württemberg it was incorporated in the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1810.

Since Ravensburg was impoverished and depopulated after the Thirty Years' War, only a few new buildings were raised during the 18th and the early 19th century. The benefit of this economic stagnation was the conservation of a widely intact medieval city with nearly all towers and gates of the historic fortification.

20th century
During World War II Ravensburg was strategically of no relevance. Ravensburg did not harbor any noteworthy arms industry (unlike nearby Friedrichshafen with its large aircraft industry), but was home to a major aid supplies center belonging to the Swiss Red Cross. The historic city centre was not damaged by air raids.

By 1945, the city came into the French occupation zone and thus came in 1947 to the newly founded state of Württemberg-Hohenzollern, which in 1952 merged to the state of Baden-Württemberg.

In the 1970s, Ravensburg increased in population and territory by the incorporation of smaller communities like Eschach, Schmalegg and Taldorf. Ravensburg University of Cooperative Education was established in the city in 1978.

In the 1980s, the Old Town was renovated and all transit traffic was banned from the city centre.

Economy and infrastructure
Ravensburg is a thriving shopping city in the wealthy region of Upper Swabia. Unemployment is relatively low. The nearest large cities are Munich, Stuttgart and Zürich, approximately a two-hour drive away each. Ulm, Konstanz and Bregenz are each less than a one-hour drive away.

Ravensburg is part of an urban agglomeration that also comprises Weingarten (Württemberg) and several suburbs. Ravensburg, Weingarten, and Friedrichshafen (on the shores of Lake Constance) share the functionality of a Oberzentrum (that is, the highest-ranked centre in the system of spatial planning and development in Baden-Württemberg).

Transport
Ravensburg is located at a crossing of the federal roads (national highways) B30, B31 and B32. A by-pass highway around Ravensburg and Weingarten was completed recently. The regional airport is situated at Friedrichshafen, about 15 km south of Ravensburg. The nearest national motor-ways are the A7 and A8 (approach at Ulm) and the A96 (approach at Lindau or Wangen im Allgäu).

In 1847, the railway station of Ravensbug was put in operation, part of the so-called "Swabian Railroad" from Stuttgart to Friedrichshafen, the oldest railroad of Württemberg and well known in all of Germany by the folk-style song .

In 1888, the Ravensburg–Weingarten–Baienfurt tram line was open.

Local businesses
Mechanical engineering has traditionally been the main type of industry in the region. Based on the demand of the paper and textile industries (now widely reduced) and a long tradition of flour, paper and other mills, many engineering factories arose at the end of the 19th century. Today the primary engineering firms in Ravensburg are the left-overs of the former Escher-Wyss AG (a subsidiary of the Swiss Sulzer AG) which are now subsidiaries of the Austrian "Andritz Hydro".

Ravensburger AG, whose headquarters are located in the city, is a company internationally known for board games, jigsaw puzzles and children's books.

The pastry factory de:Tekrum (Theodor Krumm GmbH & Co. KG) is another company with an internationally known brand name. Since January 2005 it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Griesson–de Beukelaer.

Other large industrial companies include:
 * Vetter Pharma, a manufacturer of pre-filled injection systems
 * Omira, one of the largest dairies in southern Germany
 * the tool factory Hawera Probst (a subsidiary of Robert Bosch), the worldwide market leader in hammer drill bits
 * the component supplier EBZ Engineering Bausch & Ziege (formerly Nothelfer, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Automotive)
 * the packaging manufacturer "Coveris Rigid" (formerly Autobar Packaging)
 * two suppliers of solar power systems, Pro Solar Solarstrom and pro solar Energietechnik

Media
The local newspaper is the Schwäbische Zeitung.

The radio companies Radio 7 and Südwestrundfunk run broadcasting studios at Ravensburg. In Horgenzell near Ravensburg, the Ravensburg-Horgenzell transmitter transmitted Deutschlandfunk on the medium wave frequency 756 kHz.

Culture
The city's most popular festival is the annual "Rutenfest", which takes place mid year.

Sport
The city's association football club FV Ravensburg, formed in 1893, has played in the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg on three occasions from 1978 to 1983, from 1998 to 2000 and again since 2003.

From 2006 to 2010, Ravensburg hosted the Air Canada Cup or MLP Nations Cup, an international women's ice hockey tournament.

Twin towns – sister cities
Ravensburg is twinned with:

 * 🇧🇾 Brest, Belarus
 * 🇩🇪 Coswig, Germany
 * 🇪🇸 Mollet del Vallès, Spain
 * 🇫🇷 Montélimar, France
 * 🇮🇹 Rivoli, Italy
 * 🏴 Aberdare, Wales, United Kingdom
 * Varaždin, Croatia

Notable people

 * Henry the Lion (1129/1131–1195), Duke of Saxony and Bavaria.
 * Ladislaus Sunthaym (c. 1440 – c. 1512), historian and geographer
 * Hans Buchner (1483–1538), organist and composer
 * Joannes Susenbrotus (c. 1484 – c. 1542), humanist, taught in Ravensburg from 1522
 * Franz Joachim Beich (1666–1748), painter
 * Gustav Rümelin (1815–1889), statistician, pedagogue and author.
 * August Natterer (1868–1933), art brut artist
 * Karl Erb (1877–1958), tenor
 * Elisabeth Gerdts-Rupp (1888–1972), jurist, lyric poet and ethnologist
 * Klaus Schwab (born 1938), economist, founder of the World Economic Forum
 * Theo Seiler (born 1949), ophthalmologist and physicist, pioneer of refractive surgery
 * Andreas Gestrich (born 1952), historian and director of the German Historical Institute London
 * Gregor Amann (born 1962), politician (SPD), Member of Bundestag 2005–2009
 * Kai Diekmann (born 1964), journalist and former chief editor of the Bild-Zeitung
 * Stefanie Dimmeler (born 1967), biologist and biochemist, Leibniz Prize winner
 * Kofi Ansuhenne (born 1973), boy group singer ("Bed & Breakfast")
 * Linus Roth (born 1977), classical violinist and academic teacher
 * Wilhelm, Duke of Württemberg (born 1994), head of the House of Württemberg

Sport

 * siblings Erich Buck, (born 1949) & Angelika Buck (born 1950), figure skaters
 * Simon Henzler (born 1976), football player and coach, played 146 games
 * Daniel Unger (born 1978), triathlete,
 * Susanne Fellner (born 1985), ice hockey player
 * Rahman Soyudogru (born 1989), footballer, played 198 games, mainly for FV Ravensburg
 * Ömer Toprak (born 1989), Turkish footballer, played over 300 games and 27 for Turkey
 * Emanuel Buchmann (born 1992), cyclist, comes from Vogt
 * Anna-Maria Wagner (born 1996), judoka.

title: Ravensburg


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Thomas Dowse

Thomas Dowse, also known as Thomas Dawse and Thomas Dawles (will read, June 4, 1683) was an English-American immigrant who represented City of Henricus in the first meeting of the House of Burgesses on July 30, 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia.

Biography
Dowse was born in England, but migrated to the American colonies, becoming one of the "ancient planters".

In 1619, Brown states in his "First Republic in America," that, "The City of Henricus included Henrico (Farrar's Island), extending thence on both sides of James River to the westward, the pale run by Dale between the said river and the Appomattox River being the line on the South Side." It was represented in the House of Burgesses by Thomas Dowse and John Pollington sometimes shown as John Polentine. Henrico having been selected as the site for a college and university, the first college in America, ten thousand acres (40 km²) were set by, as agreed, and the limits of the corporation were extended from the Falls of the James on the Popham side to what is now called Farrar's Island.

Dowse was the only survivor of the attack launched by Opossunoquonuske and her Appomattoc warriors against a party from the Jamestown settlement in 1610; he protected himself by using the rudder of the men's boat as a shield. The English destroyed the Indians' village in retaliation for the massacre.

title: Thomas Dowse


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Edge of Darkness

Edge of Darkness is a British television drama serial produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six 50 to 55-minute episodes in late 1985. A mixture of crime drama and political thriller, it revolves around the efforts of widowed policeman Ronald Craven (played by Bob Peck) to unravel the truth behind the murder of his daughter Emma (played by Joanne Whalley). Craven's investigations soon lead him into a murky world of government and corporate cover-ups and nuclear espionage, pitting him against dark forces that threaten the future of life on Earth.

Writer Troy Kennedy Martin was greatly influenced by the political climate of the time, dominated by the Thatcher government, and the aura of secrecy surrounding the nuclear industry – and by the implications of the Gaia hypothesis of environmentalist James Lovelock; these combined to him writing a thriller that mingled real world concerns with mythic and mystical elements. Kennedy Martin's original ending was more fantastic than that eventually used in the finished serial: he had proposed that Craven would turn into a tree but this was vetoed by members of the cast and crew.

First broadcast on BBC2, Edge of Darkness was met with such widespread critical acclaim that within days it had earned a repeat on BBC1. Winner of several prestigious awards, it remains highly regarded, often cited as one of the best and most influential pieces of British television drama. The series' director, Martin Campbell, filmed a remake, released in January 2010, starring Mel Gibson and set in the United States.

One: Compassionate Leave
Yorkshire police officer Ronald Craven is returning home with his daughter Emma having picked her up from a meeting of an environmental organisation at her university campus. On the doorstep of their home Emma is shot dead. The police concentrate their effort on the theory that her murder was a botched attempt on Craven's life by a criminal he had been responsible for convicting. However, as Craven goes through Emma's belongings, he discovers a geiger counter and a gun. He also learns that Emma's body and her possessions are radioactive. Travelling to London to assist with the inquiry, he is contacted by Pendleton, a polished official "attached to the Prime Minister's office", who informs him that Emma was known to them as a terrorist and that she may have been the gunman's target. (Aired 4 November 1985).

Two: Into The Shadows
As he continues his investigations, Craven is visited by Emma's ghost. The fingerprints on the getaway car used by Emma's killer match those of Lowe, a man Craven arrested 10 years ago. Pendleton takes Craven to meet his colleague, Harcourt, who informs him that Emma was a member of a subversive anti-nuclear group called Gaia. A team of six Gaia members, led by Emma, had broken into a low level radioactive waste facility at Northmoor; all are now either dead or missing. After Craven makes a televised appeal for information about Emma's killer, he is contacted by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Darius Jedburgh, an associate of Harcourt and Pendleton. Jedburgh shows Craven the CIA's file on Emma's activities: Gaia had become suspicious of Northmoor when a nearby reservoir had become contaminated with radioactive material, an occurrence that had also alerted the CIA, leading them to believe Northmoor was illegally storing plutonium. Jedburgh is played as a hard-bitten professional with a wry sense of humour and a passion for golfing. Along with Harcourt and Pendleton, he is keen to find the source and purpose of the plutonium. (Aired 11 November 1985).

Three: Burden of Proof
The police close in on their suspect, Lowe, who is severely injured in a fall while trying to escape. Dying, he tells Craven he was working with McCroon, a terrorist Craven had had convicted in Northern Ireland. Emma's boyfriend, Terry Shields, tells Craven that she was investigating a hot cell in Northmoor; he is later killed. Craven meets Harcourt and Pendleton at the House of Commons where an inquiry is taking place into the sale of International Irradiated Fuels (IIF) at Northmoor and run by Robert Bennett to the Fusion Corporation of Kansas, owned by Jerry Grogan. Pendleton tells Craven that he believes Bennett was behind Emma's death. Returning to Yorkshire for Emma's funeral, Craven is refused permission to seek a warrant to enter Northmoor. Returning home, he is observed by McCroon. (Aired 18 November 1985).

Four: Breakthrough
McCroon breaks into Craven's house intent on killing him. Craven demands McCroon tell him who he is working for but McCroon is shot by a police marksman before he can say anything. Through a contact of Mac (Struan Roger), a colleague from his time in Northern Ireland, Craven gains access to a terminal connected to the MI5 computer. He checks the MI5 records for Gaia, Northmoor and Emma and learns that McCroon was acting on the orders of Northmoor Security. He also obtains a three-dimensional map of Northmoor from the computer. Craven contacts Jedburgh and asks him to accompany him inside Northmoor. (Aired 25 November 1985).

Five: Northmoor
Craven and Jedburgh penetrate Northmoor and discover the hot cell which has been sealed off following an explosion – a consequence of Gaia's attempted break-in. Jedburgh, under orders from the CIA, enters the hot cell and steals the plutonium. At the House of Commons inquiry, IIF chief executive Robert Bennett is forced to admit the presence of plutonium at Northmoor and the deaths of the Gaia team. (Aired 2 December 1985).

Six: Fusion
Craven and Jedburgh escape Northmoor but both are dying from radiation poisoning. Jedburgh makes for the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland, which is hosting a NATO conference on directed energy weapons. Also present at the conference is Grogan, who announces that the British government has approved his company's purchase of IIF and speaks with cold passion of harnessing the power of the atom. The audience of military and civilian officials applauds but Jedburgh, in a U.S. Army uniform, takes the dais to denounce nuclear proliferation. He finishes by bringing together two bars of plutonium he has removed from Northmoor, causing a criticality accident and irradiating himself and the nearby Grogan.

Emma's ghost appears to Craven and tells him of a time when black flowers grew, warming the Earth and preventing life from becoming extinct. She tells him that the black flowers have returned and will melt the polar icecaps, destroying mankind so that life can continue. Craven goes to dissuade Jedburgh from the next step in his plan, which is to cause a nuclear explosion in Scotland with the rest of the plutonium. He succeeds, though the secret service follow him and kill Jedburgh. Craven, who like Jedburgh and Grogan has been fatally exposed to radiation, wanders into the mountains to die, calling Emma's name. On the mountains, as Emma predicted, the black flowers are growing, foreshadowing the planet's defensive war against humanity. (Aired 9 December 1985).

Cast

 * Ronald Craven was played by Bob Peck, an actor who was well known in theatre but, at the time he was cast as Craven, had appeared in only minor roles on television. In creating the role of Craven, Peck drew upon his experience gained from the two years he played the title role in Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Notable roles after Edge of Darkness included On the Black Hill (1987), Slipstream (1989), Natural Lies (1992) and Jurassic Park (1993). He died in 1999.
 * Joanne Whalley, who played Emma Craven, began acting during childhood, first appearing in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street (1960–present) in 1974 at the age of 13. She had also appeared in supporting roles in several series including Juliet Bravo (1980–1985), Bergerac (1981–1991) and Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983). Following Edge of Darkness, Whalley was cast in the equally well regarded BBC television serial The Singing Detective (1986), written by Dennis Potter. Moving to Hollywood, she appeared in such films as Willow (1988), Scandal (1989) and Shattered (1991) as well as television mini-series such as Scarlett (1994) and Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000). During her eight-year marriage to the actor Val Kilmer, between 1988 and 1996, she was often credited as Joanne Whalley-Kilmer.
 * Cast as Darius Jedburgh was Joe Don Baker, who had been acting since the 1960s and was known for his roles in Westerns such as Gunsmoke (1955–1975) and as the lead in the detective series Eischied (1979–1980). He also starred as Sherriff Buford Pusser in the original 1972 film Walking Tall. The script of Edge of Darkness so impressed him that he agreed to take the part at lower than his usual fee. He was later cast, by Edge of Darkness director Martin Campbell, as CIA agent Jack Wade in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995), a role he reprised in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
 * Charles Kay, who played Pendleton, was a well established character actor who had appeared in Fall of Eagles (1974), I, Claudius (1976) and The Devil's Crown (1978). He has since acted in many television productions such as Fortunes of War (1989), The Darling Buds of May (1991–1993), Jonathan Creek (1997–2004) and Midsomer Murders (1997–present).
 * Edge of Darkness was an early role for Ian McNeice, who played Harcourt. He went on to act in a wide variety of film and television parts including The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) and Frank Herbert's Dune (2000), as well as regular roles in Doc Martin (2004–present), Rome (2005–2007) and regular appearances as Winston Churchill in the BBC's revived Doctor Who.

Several other faces familiar to British viewers appeared during the course of the episodes, including John Woodvine (as Craven's superior DCS Ross), Tim McInnerny (as Emma's boyfriend Terry Shields), Hugh Fraser (as IIF chief executive Robert Bennett), Kenneth Nelson as Grogan, Zoë Wanamaker (as intelligence agent Clementine), Allan Cuthbertson (as Chilwell of the Investigation Committee) and Blake's 7 cast members David Jackson (as Colonel Lawson) and Brian Croucher (as Northmoor security chief Connors). Playing themselves were television reporters Sue Cook and Kenneth Kendall, weatherman Bill Giles and Labour MP Michael Meacher. Long-standing BBC visual effects designer Mat Irvine, who contributed visual effects to the series, received a brief cameo as a police diver in "Breakthrough".

Crew

 * Writer Troy Kennedy Martin was the creator of the long-running BBC police drama Z-Cars (1962–1978). He also wrote the screenplay for the films The Italian Job (1969) and Kelly's Heroes (1970) and scripts for television series such as Colditz (1972–1974), The Sweeney (1975–1978) (which was created by his brother Ian Kennedy Martin) and Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983). Following Edge of Darkness, he wrote the screenplays for the films Red Heat (with Walter Hill) (1988) and Bravo Two Zero (1999). He died in September 2009.
 * Director Martin Campbell had developed a reputation for handling action thrillers with credits including The Professionals (1977–1983), Minder (1979–1994) and Shoestring (1979–1980). A few years after Edge of Darkness, Campbell moved into feature films, directing the James Bond films GoldenEye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006) as well as The Mask of Zorro (1998), Vertical Limit (2000) and The Legend of Zorro (2005).
 * Producer Michael Wearing had worked on Play for Today for which he had produced Alan Bleasdale's The Black Stuff (1978) and which he and Bleasdale subsequently spun off into the highly acclaimed Boys from the Blackstuff (1982). He also produced the conspiracy thriller Bird of Prey (1982). Following Edge of Darkness he continued to be one of British television's most high profile and successful producers, appointed Head of Serials at the BBC between 1989 and 1998 where he was responsible for such programmes as Pride and Prejudice (1995), Our Friends in the North (1996) and Dennis Potter's final two plays Karaoke (1996) and Cold Lazarus (1996).
 * Walt Patterson, who acted as series adviser, was a leading commentator on nuclear affairs, best known for his book Nuclear Power (Penguin, 1976–1986). Following Edge of Darkness, he acted as specialist adviser to the British House of Commons Select committee on Environment for their 1986 study, Radioactive Waste. He continues to contribute to the policy debate about energy and environmental issues. Advice on the policing aspects of the serial was provided by the West Yorkshire Police and former Scotland Yard detective Jack Slipper, famous for his pursuit of the train robber Ronnie Biggs.

Music
The musical score was provided by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen. Clapton was approached to provide the score by producer Michael Wearing. Shortly afterwards, when Michael Kamen brought Clapton to a screening of Brazil (1985), which Kamen had scored, Clapton suggested a collaboration between the two on Edge of Darkness. Kamen became one of Hollywood's most successful film composers, writing the scores for many blockbuster films including the Lethal Weapon series (1987–1998) (also with Clapton), the first three Die Hard films (1988, 1990, 1995), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and X-Men (2000). He died in 2003.

Aside from the Clapton/Kamen soundtrack, Willie Nelson's "The Time of the Preacher", New Model Army's "Christian Militia", and Tom Waits' "16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six" are featured in the series. "Christian Militia" is on the record player when Terry's body is found. Craven listens to "The Time of the Preacher" when he is in Emma's room in the first episode. It later emerges Jedburgh is familiar with the song and both he and Craven sing it on two occasions, the lyrics being significant.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation used the music to illustrate stories on the Chernobyl disaster the following year. Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen performed the movie's main theme with the National Philharmonic Orchestra during the 24 Nights period in 1990 and 1991.

Origins
"I am writing this story about a detective who turns into a tree" was what writer Troy Kennedy Martin told his colleagues when asked what he was working on during the early 1980s. Kennedy Martin had become frustrated that "at the BBC there was no political dimension to their drama whatsoever" but had chosen to write a political story anyway, not really believing it would be made. The election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister and Ronald Reagan as President of the United States had brought about a major shift in the global political landscape. Kennedy Martin was motivated to write out of concern arising from such issues as the Greenham Common protests, the Falklands War, the Miners' strike and arising out of the escalation of the Cold War the fear that "born-again Christians and Cold War warriors appeared to be running the United States".

By 1983, Kennedy Martin had written the first draft of what became Edge of Darkness – at this stage it was called Magnox (a reference to the Magnox type of nuclear reactor) and was about trade union problems in the nuclear industry. The script was given to BBC head of drama series and serials, Jonathan Powell, who encouraged Kennedy Martin to continue its development. The script went through many changes and revisions. A particular influence was the speech made by President Ronald Reagan on 23 March 1983 announcing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) which proposed protecting the United States from attack by nuclear missiles. One of the supporters of SDI was Lyndon LaRouche, on whom Kennedy Martin based the character of Jerry Grogan, owner of the Fusion Corporation of Kansas. Kennedy Martin was also influenced by the secrecy surrounding the UK's policy on nuclear power in light of the inquiry into the construction of the Sizewell B nuclear power station and the concerns about the safety record of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant; this led him to conceive International Irradiated Fuels and its chief executive Robert Bennett.

The other major influence was the Gaia hypothesis, that the Earth is a single living system that self-regulates to maintain the optimum conditions for life, formulated by climate scientist James Lovelock and popularised in his 1979 book Gaia: A new look at life on Earth. Kennedy Martin used the name Gaia for the environmental organisation Emma Craven was involved in and drew the notion for the black flowers seen at the serial's conclusion from a passage in Lovelock's book that describes a dark marsh grass that grew on the surface of the Earth trapping heat during a time when the planet was too cold to sustain life, simulated in Lovelock's Daisyworld model.

Although Kennedy Martin's notion for the serial was influenced by real political events, he had for a long time railed against naturalism in television drama – most notably in a 1964 article for the theatre magazine Encore, titled "Nats Go Home. First Statement of a New Drama for Television", in which he sought "to free the camera from photographing dialogue, to free the structure from natural time and to exploit the total and absolute objectivity of the television camera". Edge of Darkness producer Michael Wearing has noted that "there is a mystical dimension to Troy's imagination. His instincts are visual and non-naturalistic". Kennedy Martin, therefore, crafted a serial that on the one hand placed its events squarely within the real, present day world but on the other also placed itself within the realm of the mystical and the mythic. Realism and authenticity was provided by the appearances of real life television presenter Sue Cook and Labour MP Michael Meacher. There was also use of contemporary stock footage, such as Robin Day's interview with Margaret Thatcher and references to real persons like Michael Heseltine and places such as Sellafield, alongside the references to fictitious characters and places contained in the plot. The mystical dimension is provided by Emma's ghost while the mythic is provided by Craven himself and by Jedburgh and Grogan. Kennedy Martin, influenced by John Darragh's The Real Camelot (Thames and Hudson, 1981) which examined the pagan origins of the Arthurian legend, saw Craven as a modern-day Green Man who would confront the threats to the Earth on behalf of Gaia. Jedburgh was conceived by Kennedy Martin as a Knight of the Marches, one of the Teutonic Knights who defended the borders of Eastern Europe, opposed to Grogan, who Kennedy Martin saw as a descendant of the Knights Templar who, according to legend, had guarded a special wisdom in the Temple of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. These aspects would reach their apotheosis in the serial's conclusion in which Kennedy Martin envisaged that Craven, having found the plutonium stolen by Jedburgh, would be shot by a sniper and would be transformed into a tree.

Production
By 1983, Jonathan Powell was keen to put the serial into production and offered the scripts to producer Michael Wearing who was immediately impressed by the scenes in the first episode, "Compassionate Leave", depicting Craven's reaction to Emma's death, describing them as "the most sustained evocation of individual grief in bereavement that I can remember". The budget was set at £2 million, of which £400,000 came from an American co-producer, Lionheart Television International. Director Martin Campbell came on board shortly afterwards and soon clashed with Troy Kennedy Martin, demanding rewrites, in particular to the notion that Craven had known about Emma's involvement with Gaia right from the start; this was removed at Campbell's behest. Further clashes over the script occurred between Kennedy Martin and star Bob Peck over the conclusion in which his character would turn into a tree; Peck recalled that "it didn't seem to be working in script terms, it seemed as though we wouldn't be able to make it work for the audience", a view echoed by Michael Wearing who felt that it was "likely not to come off as an effect". Kennedy Martin capitulated, introducing instead the concept of the black flowers seen in the finished production. However, some elements of Kennedy Martin's original vision persist in the final script: for example, in episode three, "Burden of Proof", the ghost of Emma urges Craven, as he undergoes a breakdown, to be strong, like a tree.

Shooting on Edge of Darkness began on 9 July 1984 and ran for five months until 5 December 1984. Location filming took place in London (including the Barbican Arts Centre, BBC Television Centre and the Hilton International hotel in Kensington), Yorkshire (including the headquarters of the West Yorkshire Police in Bradford, the Middleton Railway, the headquarters of Systime Computers (now the Arlington Business Centre) in Leeds where Craven hacks into the MI5 computer and at Westwood Cottage, Ilkley (for Craven's home), Scotland (including the Gleneagles Hotel, where Jedburgh addresses the NATO conference and also where President Reagan's Reykjavík policy was formulated ) and Wales (including Clogau Gold Mine and Manod, Blaenau Ffestiniog, at Graig Ddu quarry, doubling as Northmoor with the hot cell a set constructed at a factory in Penygroes). The hospital scenes were filmed at Northwick Park Hospital accident unit.

Throughout the entire shoot, the production continued to be known as Magnox; the title Dark Forces was briefly considered before the serial was renamed Edge of Darkness in April 1985. As the shoot progressed it became apparent to the cast and crew that they had a potential hit on their hands; Bob Peck recalled, "I think we knew when we were making it that it was a good piece of work" while Kennedy Martin told reporters "I haven't had this feeling about something for 20 years. It's wonderful, after all this time, to get something that actually works".

Broadcast and critical reception
Edge of Darkness was promoted on the cover of the listings magazine Radio Times and was broadcast on Monday nights on BBC2 at 9:30pm, beginning 4 November 1985. The serial averaged an audience of 4 million viewers over its run. The critical response was generally positive with most commentators concentrating their praise on Peck's performance as Craven and the scale of the programme's political themes. "A good television thriller is very hard to find but Edge of Darkness promises to be one of the best", wrote Celia Brayfield in The Times, "The central character is played by Bob Peck, who has the gift of looking tragic and intelligent simultaneously. [...] There was humour to lift the gloom and superb characterisation to flesh out the stock situation". Ruth Baumgarten, in The Listener, praised the serial as "a grandiosely ambitious and compelling piece of fiction". Speaking on the BBC's review programme Did You See...?, the writer Sarah Dunant said, "this is a very classy piece of television drama, on all levels, I think on the plot level, I think on the level of emotion and I think stylistically [...] it looks absolutely wonderful, it's shot like a feature film". Not so impressed was Byron Rogers, television critic of The Sunday Times, who initially hailed the series as one that "stayed in the mind and will stay there long [...] because of its portrayal of human grief" but later felt he was "beginning to find Edge of Darkness slightly irritating" and decried the final episode as "an insult to its considerable following".

Aware of the critical buzz surrounding the show, BBC1 Controller, Michael Grade, quickly announced that the series would be repeated on BBC1, stating, "I think it will reach a wider audience and it deserves it", and so Edge of Darkness was duly shown, in double episodes, over three consecutive nights between 19 December and 21 December 1985, the fastest time between original broadcast and repeat in the BBC's history. These repeats were accompanied by a disclaimer that the Gaia organisation depicted in the programme was not connected with the Gaia publishing company supported by Prince Philip. It was a move that paid off – Edge of Darkness doubled its audience on BBC1 to 8 million viewers.

Cultural significance
Edge of Darkness tapped into a cultural zeitgeist of concern about nuclear power and nuclear warfare in the early to mid 1980s. In 1980, current affairs programme Panorama broadcast "If The Bomb Drops", a documentary that examined how well prepared Britain was for a nuclear attack; in 1983, The Day After (an American TV movie about a nuclear war) aired, as well as seeing the release of the feature film WarGames, showing the 'no winner' outcome of nuclear war; in 1984, the BBC broadcast On the Eighth Day, a documentary about the effects of a nuclear winter and Threads, a drama about a nuclear attack on Sheffield while 1985 saw the first screening of Peter Watkins' nuclear war television film The War Game, banned on television since 1965. Edge of Darkness also rode on a wave of preoccupation with the secretive nature of the State in both fact (e.g. This Week's “Death on the Rock” (1988) about the killing of three Provisional IRA members in Gibraltar and Secret Society (1987) about undisclosed matters of public interest which led to the sacking of BBC Director-General Alasdair Milne) and fiction (e.g. the films Defence of the Realm (1985) and The Whistle Blower (1987) and the television serials A Very British Coup (1988) and Traffik (1989)).

Edge of Darkness continues to be well regarded to this day. When it was repeated on BBC2 in 1992, Sean Day-Lewis wrote in The Daily Telegraph, "Edge of Darkness is a masterpiece. It is one of those very rare television creations so rich in form and content that the spectator wishes there was some way of prolonging it indefinitely". Andrew Lavender, writing in British Television Drama in the 1980s, has said that Edge of Darkness "captured the spirit of its age but went far beyond the drama of its time. [...] It pushed against expectations attaching to the thriller form, often transcending the limits of the genre". Fred Inglis, in his analysis of the serial in Formations: 20th Century Media Studies, takes it "as one of the most remarkable works of art made for British television". According to Lez Cooke, in British Television Drama: A History, "In a reactionary climate, when the possibilities for the production of 'social issue' drama were limited, Edge of Darkness proved that, by adapting to changed circumstances and adopting a serialised thriller format, it was still possible to produce ambitious and progressive television drama in Britain in the mid-1980s", a view echoed by Sean Cubit in EcoMedia who notes that "the series neatly echoed the chill that descended on radical politics in the Thatcher years in the United Kingdom". The television historian Andrew Pixley has described the series as "possibly the finest BBC drama ever made" and "one of the few television programmes where every element can be said to have worked to complete effect"; John Hartley, in Tele-ology: Studies in Television, called it "the best police drama series ever made for television" and said that "its method of investigative drama can unravel some of the complexities of public life more truthfully than investigative journalism".

Edge of Darkness was placed 15th (fourth position out of the dramas featured on the list) on the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes in 2000, the BFI describing it as "a gripping, innovative six-part drama which fully deserves its cult status and many awards". Radio Times television editor Alison Graham, in 2003, listed it as one of the 40 greatest television programmes ever made. It was one of only seven dramas listed in Broadcast magazine's list of the 50 most influential television programmes, published in July 2004. In March 2007, Edge of Darkness was placed third in Channel 4's list of the Greatest TV Dramas. Also on Channel 4, Darius Jedburgh was listed 84th in its list of the One Hundred Greatest TV Characters in 2001.

Awards
Edge of Darkness received eleven nominations and won six awards at the 1986 BAFTA Awards:
 * Won: Best Drama Series or Serial (Martin Campbell & Michael Wearing)
 * Won: Best Actor (Bob Peck).
 * Nominated: Best Actor (Joe Don Baker).
 * Nominated: Best Actress (Joanne Whalley).
 * Won: Best Original Television Music (Eric Clapton & Michael Kamen).
 * Won: Best Film Cameraman (Andrew Dunn).
 * Won: Best Film Editor (Ardan Fisher, Dan Rae).
 * Won: Best Film Sound (Dickie Bird, Rob James, Christopher Swanton, Tony Quinn).
 * Nominated: Best Makeup (Daphne Croker).
 * Nominated: Best Graphics (Andy Coward, Linda Sherwood-Page).
 * Nominated: Best Design (Graeme Thompson).

At the 1986 Broadcasting Press Guild television critics' awards, Edge of Darkness won two awards:
 * Won: Best Actor (Bob Peck) (joint winner with Ben Kingsley for Silas Marner).
 * Nominated: Best Actor (Joe Don Baker).
 * Won: Best Drama Series.

Hollywood adaptation
In 2010, a Hollywood remake of the show was released in cinemas. It was released on 28 January in the UK, 29 January in the US and 4 February in Australia. Mel Gibson plays Detective Craven. The film is directed by Martin Campbell, who also directed the original.

Home media
Edge of Darkness was released on VHS videotape by the BBC in 1987. There was also a release from CBS/Fox Video in North America at the same time. The serial was also released as a two-tape set by Warner Home Video in Germany under the title Die Plutonium Affäre. The soundtrack was also released as an album entitled Edge of Darkness.

The serial was re-issued on VHS in 1998 by Revelation Films who also issued the serial on DVD in 1999. In 2003, BBC Worldwide re-issued Edge of Darkness on DVD (encoded for both regions 2 and 4) with several extra features including Magnox: The Secrets of Edge of Darkness, a specially made "making-of" documentary; an isolated soundtrack of Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen's score; a Bob Peck interview from BBC Breakfast Time; a contemporary report on the programme's BAFTA wins and coverage of the programme's wins at the Broadcasting Press Guild awards. A Region 1 DVD set was released on 3 November 2009.

The serial was released by the BBC in HD on Blu-ray on 4 Nov 2019, remastered from the original 16mm film.

Other media
Troy Kennedy Martin's original script for episode one and the final scripts for episodes two to six of the serial were published by Faber and Faber in 1990; the script book also included an introduction by Kennedy Martin and two appendices – the first giving background to the story and the main characters and the second giving comments on the script by experts on nuclear power and police procedures.

title: Edge of Darkness


text:
Zlatograd

Zlatograd (Златоград,, ) is a town in Smolyan Province, southern-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Zlatograd Municipality. In December 2009, the town had a population of 7,110.

It is located 60 km from the province centre of Smolyan. The Greek border is 5 km from the town. The cross-border Zlatograd - Thermes (Greece) road was inaugurated on 15 January 2010.

History
During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the area was a township of the Ottoman Sanjak of Gümülcine in Adrianople Vilayet between 1867 and 1912 known as Darıdere. The town still retains its characteristic Ottoman-era architecture, with numerous old buildings as well as two 19th-century Orthodox churches and a mosque.

Geography
Zlatograd is located in a valley between the eastern and central massif of the Rhodope mountains.

The municipality's climate is included in the transient-Mediterranean climate region. Mineral resources include lead-zinc ore.

The territory of the municipality is crossed by Varbitza river which is 98.1 km long and its catchment basin is 1202.8 km. Nedelinska and Kushlenska rivers are tributaries of Varbitza. There is a dam lake named "Zlatograd" with water capacity of 4,4.106 m. and a micro dam lake called "Hasidere" (0,4.106 m).

Forest covers an area of 144.60 km2. Species including beech, hornbeam, oak, birch and cornel-tree are mostly spread among the broad-leaved forests. Prevailing coniferous trees are spruce, fir-tree, white and black pine.

Agriculture covers 25 km2 and the arable land is 12 km2. The cultures grown in the municipality are tobacco, potatoes, vegetables and strawberries (representatives of perennial plants).

There is a tailings pond called "Erma Reka" which is 8 km away from the town of Zlatograd and 5 km away from the village of Erma Reka. The municipality is rich in underground resources. In the surroundings of Erma Reka there is a geothermal deposit of hot mineral water.

Soils are maroon forest leached (97.59 km2); brown forest-dark (12 km2); brown forest-transient (83.37 km2); brown forest light (117.59 km2); alluvial-delluvial (0.59 km2); humus-carbonate (11.07 km2).

Demographics
The rate of unemployment is 32.64%, which is the highest since 1990. The active population is 8,063 of whom 50,97% are employed in the public sector and 49.03% in the private sector.

Honour
Zlatograd Rock on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Zlatograd.

title: Zlatograd


text:
Lang

Lang may refer to:

 * Lang (surname), a surname of independent Germanic or Chinese origin

Places

 * Lang Island (Antarctica), East Antarctica
 * Lang Nunatak, Antarctica
 * Lang Sound, Antarctica
 * Lang Park, a stadium in Brisbane, Australia
 * Lang, New South Wales, a locality in Australia
 * Division of Lang, a former Australian electoral division.
 * Electoral district of Sydney-Lang, a former New South Wales electoral division.
 * Lang, Austria, a town in Leibniz, Styria, Austria
 * Lang, Saskatchewan, a Canadian village
 * Lang Island, Sunda Strait, Indonesia
 * Lang, Iran, a village in Gilan Province, Iran
 * Lang Varkshi, Khuzestan Province, Iran
 * Lang Glacier, Bernese Alps, Valais, Switzerland
 * Lang Suan District, southern Thailand
 * Lang County, or Nang County, Tibet
 * Lang, Georgia, United States
 * Lang Chánh District, Vietnam
 * Lang Trang, a cave formation located in Vietnam

Computing

 * S-Lang, a programming language created in 1992
 * LANG, environment variable in POSIX standard that sets multiple locale parameters
 * The  attribute in HTML, for identifying the language of content

Other uses

 * "Langue", Ferdinand de Saussure's linguistic term for "competency" or "I-language" (both Chomsky), referring to a cognitive "language" as distinct from surface forms—natural spoken language
 * Lang, variety of the jujube tree, whose fruits have a thicker skin compared to the fruits of other varieties
 * Lang Film, a film and TV production company in Freienstein, Switzerland
 * Lang Law, the informal name given to French law relating to book prices
 * Lang Propellers, British company specializing in aircraft propellers
 * Lang School, U.S. private school for gifted students, New York City
 * Lang Syne Plantation, U.S. plantation near St. Matthews, Calhoun County, South Carolina
 * Lang Van, a Vietnamese production company in Westminster, CA and Ho Chi Minh City
 * Battle of Lang Vei, Vietnam War

title: Lang


text:
Talk:Drzymała's wagon

Drzymala's car, Drzymala's caravan, Drzymala's wagon, Drzymala caravan, Drzymala wagon, Drzymala's vagon, Drzymala vagon

Untitled
Wouldn't Drzymała's wagon be the best name for this article? Van has a more modern meaning. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 21:01, 5 November 2005 (UTC)
 * "Van," as used here, is an abbreviation of "caravan," and refers to "a large closed truck or wagon." Perhaps additonal historical information could clarify the best choice of word, between "wagon" and "van."  In either case, I think it should be the possessive "Drzymała's" rather than the adjectival "Drzymała."  logologist 22:01, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

 * I can't resist the suggestion that we should rotate the name of this article every 24 hours to each of the above names. A little late I know.Volunteer Marek (talk) 08:10, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

No picture
Xx236 16:05, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

huh?
where the Polish movement was dominated by peasants - where did someone find that? Gonna remove it.Volunteer Marek (talk) 04:03, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

not going to template anyone's talk page
but Herkus, can you explain this edit.

Per Gdansk/Danzig vote, In biographies of clearly Polish persons, the name should be used in the form Gdańsk (Danzig) and later Gdańsk exclusively. This article is about a clearly Polish person. Hence it should be "Grodzisk Wielkopolski (Grätz)". Actually, I wasn't sure if G/D applied to locations in Wielkopolska (unlike Royal and Ducal Prussia) for the same reasons why some have tried to exclude (Western) Pomerania from it. Anyway, can you make it in accordance with G/D vote?

Second, I don't see what is POV about the phrase "became a Polish folk hero in the Prussian- and later German-occupied sector of Greater Poland. " compared to the phrase "became a Polish folk hero in Greater Poland."? Dzymala lived (well, sort of) in Wielkopolska, but his story was known through out all of Prussian partition, it was reported on by German papers even within Germany proper - he was a folk hero outside of Wielkopolska. The original formulation was factually correct. I certainly don't see any POV in it.Volunteer Marek (talk) 08:08, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

 * Drzymała's wagon is not a person and this is not a biography. In general we use the contemporary name and add the modern name in brackets.
 * "occupied sector" is definitely a POVish term, or do you think "Chinese-occupied Tibet" is a neutral description? (not to compare both situations in detail)
 * The whole story happened in the early 20th century - "later German occupied" is simply wrong because the area was part of the German Empire right at that time.
 * "folk hero in Greater Poland" - well, that's what the article already said before, but "in Poland" might be more fitting. HerkusMonte (talk) 11:03, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Drzymała's wagon is not a person and this is not a biography. - are you seriously going to try to Wikilawyer that? The article is about a Polish person, about a part of Poland that was annexed by Prussia during the Polish partitions and then returned to Poland after WWI.Volunteer Marek (talk) 20:31, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Drzymała's wagon


text:
Talk:Dennis Potter

Brimstone and Treacle
Brimstone_and_Treacle -- what more do you think we need, Pigsonthewing?  11:47, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Nigel Barton plays
I don't see how Potter's television debut - the Nigel Barton plays - can be described as "conventional". It is true that they are naturalistic, and lack the fantastic elements of his later work, but for their day they were extremely radical politically, and "worried" the BBC establishment on that account. The personal father-son drama in "Stand Up, Nigel Barton" - painful to watch even today - was also on a different level from most TV drama of the day.

I have therefore edited out the "conventionally enough" comment. I hope this is not controversial.

Blue Remembered Hills
If you would like the National Film Institute to re-publish the classic 1979 BBC production on DVD, please contact the head of BFI Video, Erich Sargeant, at erich.sargeant@bfi.org.uk.

 * Does anyone else feel that the paragraph in the Television works section detailing the themes of the play seems more like a review? I've resisted rewriting/editing it, but I don't want to do so without consensus. Absurdtrousers (talk) 10:55, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

The Singing Detective
I can't BELIEVE there isn't an entry for this. It is probably DP's masterpiece and therefore a key piece of UK TV drama. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 83.100.152.92 (talk) 23:02, 10 March 2007 (UTC).

 * Oh there has been since 2004. M URGH   disc.  00:53, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Where is he buried?
Hi:

Just wondering, for the sake of completeness.

AG —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.92.22.192 (talk) 22:24, 22 March 2007 (UTC).

The film "Mesmer"
Dennis Potter also wrote the manuscript for this 1994 film, see imdb. Rune Kock 19:39, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Parliamentary aspirations
I've removed the statement "but Walker-Smith lost his seat", as the pages for both Derek Walker-Smith and East Hertfordshire (UK Parliament constituency) state that W-S was the MP between 1955 and 1983, with no breaks. Deadlock (talk) 09:50, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Television Plays - Query...
It is stated that Moonlight on the Highway and Son of Man were preceeded by several poorly received projects... This isn't strictly true: Where the Buffalo Roam was deemed successful enough to warrant a repeat broadcast a year after its original transmission, while Message for Posterity was reviewed favourably by television critics and nominated by the Writers Guild for Best Drama (Single Play). This statement also implies that both Moonlight and Son of Man were successful projects - the latter certainly was (transferring to the stage a year after broadcast with Frank Finlay in the lead), but Moonlight was an obscure production, albeit a notable one, that provoked little press reaction. Just wondering if other editors feel this should be rephrased? Absurdtrousers (talk) 15:07, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

 * I was thinking of Shaggy Dog and The Bonegrander when I typed "several poorly received projects" based on the comments in secondary sources I have access to. This article was written decades after the play's first transmission, and is going to reflect contemporary attitudes primarily. Source material clearly needs to be cited at this point, or a rephrase as you suggest. Philip Cross (talk) 15:37, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

what is his wife's name?
This article gives 2 versions of Potter's wife's name in consecutive sentences, why? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.23.133.112 (talk) 18:32, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

The Wednesday Play section
(1) I have amended apparently inconsistent use of the past and present tenses. The Wikipedia style manual recommends reporting of actual past events in the simple past tense, and summarising of works of fiction in the present tense. The tense necessarily vacillates here, but I hope it is now more closely aligned to the manual.

(2) There is mention of threatened litigation but no citation for any subsequent legal action and resulting judgement; nor does the section refer to evidence that Potter did intend to expose a particular organisation. I have therefore added the word 'alleged' to the relevant passage.Humboles (talk) 01:23, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

 * It is usual to open sections on the talk page in chronological order, ratheer than posting them at the top of the page. The reference to the Dale Carnegie Institute was quite correct and I have added citations. Potter's intentions are most clear in Humphrey Carpenter's biography. He had written an article for the Daily Herald, which he said was not published because the DCI was an advertiser for the newspaper. Litigation did not develop beyond an exchange of letters. As no recording of The Confidence Course exists, and it is considered a minor work, it does not seem appropriate to develop the passage any further, at least not until more detail is added to the passages on Potter's major works. Philip Cross (talk) 10:25, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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'criticism' - etc.
The 'criticism' section is presently one unsourced gripe of Alan Bennett's, supposedly from a diary entry. Not convinced this justifies an entire section or even a mention (i.e. even if sourced) - will remove if there are no objections.

More generally, I think there's potential for a really good article on Potter - the present article is a perfectly acceptable introduction, but no more than that (i.e. there's very little on his actual work: much more needs to be said about The Singing Detective, for instance, and there needs to be something on his working relationship with Trodd). Might sketch out a suggested plan for an overhaul at some point. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DanielFeeld (talk • contribs) 18:38, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

‘Bibliography’ box?
Looking at the works listed inside the box at the end of the article, which is headed with the word ‘Bibliography’, one can’t help but notice that what is being offered is instead only a selected bibliography. Doing no more than simply checking another Wikipedia page shows more works: Dennis_Potter_bibliography

For example, just a quick glance shows these plays to be missing from the box (a box which decorates many other Wikipedia articles and so will be thought authoritative) and there is probably more missing as well:

1967 Message for Posterity

1968 The Bonegrinder

1969 Moonlight on

1970 Lay Down your Arms

1970 Angels Are So Few

1971 Paper Roses

1973 Only Make Believe

1973 A Tragedy of Two Ambitions

1974 Schmoedipus

1976 Double Dare

Can someone help make things more consistent? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.69.61.92 (talk) 23:17, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Potter's full name
This obituary in The Independent (ref.22) has his full name as Christopher George Dennis Potter but we give his full name as Dennis Christopher George Potter (unsourced). Is there a reliable source that shows that to be correct? If not, we should change it to the order shown in the obituary which is most likely to be accurate. Rodney Baggins (talk) 15:31, 27 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately his gravestone only says Dennis Potter. Maybe in life he strongly objected to the Christopher George bit and chose to drop those two names altogether, so it might be safer for us to follow suit as that is probably what he would have liked ;) Rodney Baggins (talk) 12:03, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dennis Potter


text:
Freedom Party (Netherlands)

The Freedom Party (Partij van de Vrijheid, PvdV) was a short-lived conservative liberal political party in the Netherlands active from 1946 to 1948. The PvdV was the successor of the Liberal State Party and a predecessor of the modern-day People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).

Party history
The PvdV was founded on 23 March 1946 by a group around the young liberal Korthals and the director of Heineken. After the foundation they were joined by the rest of the top of the pre-war Liberal State Party. The party was supposed to be less conservative and more modern that its predecessor. In 1948 it merged with social liberal dissidents from the Labour Party, led by Pieter Oud, to become the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). In the 1946 elections it received six seats and it was confined to a minor position in opposition.

Ideology and issues
The PvdV was classical liberal party with progressive leanings, committed to individual freedom and free market economics.

Representation
This table shows the PvdV's results in elections to the House of Representatives, Senate and States-Provincial, as well as the party's political leadership: the fractievoorzitter, is the chair of the parliamentary party and the lead candidate is the party's top candidate in the general election, these posts are normally taken by the party's leader.

Electorate
The PvdV mainly received support from atheists or latitudinarian Protestants from higher classes: businessmen, civil servants, wealthy farmers, and voters with free professions (such as lawyers and doctors). The party performed particularly well in the major trading cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the rich municipalities around Hilversum and The Hague and in northern rural provinces, like Groningen and Drenthe.

Pillarisation
The PvdV lacked a real system of pillarized organisations around it. 'Neutral' organisations, which were not linked to a pillar, often had friendly relations with the PvdV. This included the general broadcasting association AVRO (Algemene Verenigde Radio Omroep, General United Radio Broadcasting Organisation), the general union ANWV (Algemene Nederlandse Werkelieden Vereniging, the General Dutch Workers' Association), furthermore the neutral employers' organisation VNO and the financial paper Het Handelsblad had good relations with the party.

title: Freedom Party (Netherlands)


text:
Talk:6th millennium BC

Crab Nebula
removed: "Chinese astrologers record a nova in the constallation Taurus, it will become known as the Crab Nebula"this happened in 1054 -- I have no idea how it got here... Dbachmann 11:48, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Equids
"c. 6000 BC — Equids, in official dogma, disappear from the Americas." Is this really "official dogma"? Who are the officials? (Kejo13 (talk) 23:08, 27 December 2007 (UTC))
 * Removed the "official dogma".Richard Keatinge (talk) 13:33, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Events section
Currently the standard for the year pages describes the events section as follows:"The events section is divided into months, each month has a calendar at the beginning and lists any important events that occurred. The month header once linked to the particular month in the year (if the page exists, eg. January 2004), but doesn't anymore. Every item links to the day."I would like to propose a similar standard for the millennial pages, but instead of dividing them by century, I propose that we divide them by geography. The geographical divisions I propose at this time are: West Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Africa, America, Europe and Australia. More specific or more general geographic sections may be more appropriate for different millennia. As a reader, I think such sections would make the event list much easier to read and take in. This might be particularly appropriate for millennial pages like this one which do not have corresponding century pages since our current scope states: "Articles for the year 500 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant decade. Articles for the year 1700 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant century. Articles for the year 4000 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant millennium." What do you think? -ErinHowarth (talk) 22:42, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

This is not an event
I cut the following event from the events section because it doesn't really describe an event which occured during the 6th millenium. It really described an archeological find which dates to the 6th millenium "*c. 6000 BC — 53 clay figurines, stone tools and agriculture in 24 settlements of the 'Four-lakes' culture in the region surrounded by the lakes Vegoritida, Heimaditida, Petron and Zazari between the towns of Kozani and Florina west of Thessaloniki, Greece. (4/3/07)"This seems to be referring to an acheological find described here: news archives at stone pages dot com If someone can rewrite this item so that it describes an event, I think it can be moved back to the article. -ErinHowarth (talk) 03:50, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

dating inconsistencies
I would appreciate help with the following inconsistencies. I followed the link from here to the copper age article, and the dates don't match. I can't believe its so hard to date some of these things. Any help would be appreciated.- ErinHowarth (talk) 06:43, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

black pastoral culture
I'm removing the following event for two reasons"c. 6000 BC — Saharan black pastoral culture . (1968 Almanac)"First, it is not a sentence, so its very difficult to guess what event is being described here. Second, this reference refers to these people in the 4th millennium."In the Saharan highlands, the pastoral culture of the fourth millennium BC left magnificent rock paintings which show three human groups: a Negroid people…, black but non-Negroid pastoralists…, and lighter-skinned pastoralists… Africans: The History of a Continent By John Iliffe; Published by Cambridge University Press, 1995; ISBN 0521484227, 9780521484220"If you can improve the above listing, please add it back to the article. -ErinHowarth (talk) 07:10, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Use of BCE instead of BC
I believe the title of this article should be changed to "6th millennium BCE" with a redirect from "6th millennium BC" instead of how it is set up now. The use of BCE and CE instead of BC and AD would draw greater readership and editors if we transition toward less religious based references.

Lets discuss and affirm the change or keep the article as is. To start the discussion read Common Era.

I share former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's conviction that too many people with different religious convictions use the Gregorian calendar by default. They should not be put off by exclusively Christian references (BC and AD) to dates. Wikipedia is all about our shared world knowledge of our history. A common references, that avoids specific religious events, within a shared calendaring system is available now and Wikipedia should use it.

I'll come back to this article in three months and if there is no discussion I will make the title and redirect changes.

PeterEdits (talk) 19:04, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Your move was reverted. According to Naming conventions (numbers and dates), years, decades, centuries, and millennia should use BC, not BCE. Please don't move unless new consensus is reached. Thanks. --Neo-Jay (talk) 17:04, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Sorry, didn't realize the decision on which convention to use (BCE or BC) had already been reached by the Wiki community. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PeterEdits (talk • contribs) 17:26, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
 * That's all right. Thanks for your contributions. --Neo-Jay (talk) 17:48, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Removing unsourced entries
WP:VERIFY says, LOUD AND CLEAR, that "that other people using the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Wikipedia does not publish original research. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than the beliefs or experiences of editors. Even if you're sure something is true, it must be verifiable before you can add it".

I have tried very hard to verify much of the content in the series from 10th millennium BC to 6th millennium BC and, frankly, much of it is completely unverifiable or is in the wrong place. I've lost count of the number of entries that have had to be revised and then moved into other millennia. This is taking far too much of my time and why should I waste my time searching for sources that other people have been too lazy to add, assuming they ever existed in the first place? Invariably, they didn't. I am therefore deleting all unsourced content from this article under the terms of WP:UNSOURCED which says that "the burden to demonstrate verifiability lies with the editor who adds or restores material". As the editors concerned can't be bothered or are guilty of "subtle vandalism", a very telling phrase I saw earlier today, the unsourced stuff is OUT.

I should add that I have my own sources, which are all reliable, and I will continue to improve these millennium articles. As a result, a few of the entries now being removed could end up being restored in one way or another, but with the proper level of citation as verifcation. No Great Shaker (talk) 21:20, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

Birth of Hindu God Rama
Hindu God Rama was also born in 5114 BCE at Ayodhya according to Astronomical research. is this accurate? Other pages on God Rama indicates his birth was during the 1st Millennium BC 96.248.95.252 (talk) 00:12, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:6th millennium BC


text:
Kay Cottee

Kay Cottee (née McLaren, born 25 January 1954) is an Australian sailor, who was the first woman to perform a single-handed, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the world. She performed this feat in 1988 in her 37 ft yacht Blackmores First Lady, taking 189 days.

Personal life
Born Kay McLaren, the youngest of four daughters, in Sydney on 25 January 1954, Cottee grew up in the southern Sydney suburb of Sans Souci. She was born into a yachting family and was taken sailing for the first time when only a few weeks old. For secondary schooling, she attended Moorefield Girls High School in Kogarah, New South Wales.

Over the next nine years Cottee moved to Pittwater where she built a yacht and established a bareboat charter business.

Cottee now lives in Yamba on the far NSW north coast with television producer husband Peter Sutton. She is an international motivational speaker, boat builder, writer, painter and sculptor.

Solo circumnavigation
On 5 June 1988 at age 34, Cottee became the first woman to sail round the world alone non-stop and unassisted when she sailed through the heads of Sydney harbour. She was greeted by tens of thousands of well-wishers. Cottee had left the harbour 189 days earlier, on 29 November 1987.

The historic voyage on her 37 ft yacht Blackmores First Lady was also the fastest sailing trip around the world by a woman and the first solo, non-stop and unassisted voyage around the world by a woman.

In the Southern Ocean, Cottee's boat was knocked down continuously and she was washed overboard. When Cottee rounded Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, she celebrated with a lunch of crab, mayonnaise and self baked bread, and a bottle of Grange, a prestigious Australian wine.

Cottee and her major sponsor Blackmores Limited used the voyage to raise over $1M for the Rev. Ted Noffs' Life Education Program. Cottee also undertook an 18-month national schools tour, speaking to over 40,000 senior high school students, imparting the message you can achieve your dreams if you work steadily towards them.

Yacht building
In 2002 Cottee designed and built the first Kay Cottee 56, a fibreglass/foam sandwich construction yacht designed as a bluewater cruiser. With husband Peter Sutton, Cottee set up a boat building business near Yamba on the north coast of NSW in order to produce the yachts, each one which would take an anticipated 8 months to build.

Awards
Since her round the world trip, Kay Cottee has received numerous accolades.
 * In 1988, Cottee received the Australian of the Year Award.
 * In January 1989, Cottee was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.
 * Cottee is also the first Australian recipient of the Cutty Sark Medal presented by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
 * Cottee was also made a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary and an International Honorary Zontion by Zonta International
 * Inaugural inductee of the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame in 2017

Australian National Maritime Museum
In 1991, Cottee joined the advisory board of the Australian National Maritime Museum. She was chair of the museum from 1995 until 2001. In 2000, Blackmores First Lady, was acquired by the museum and placed on permanent display.

Publications
Cottee is the author of two books. Her first book, First Lady, was published by Macmillan in 1989. Her second book, All at Sea on Land, was published by Pan Macmillan in 1998, about her life in the ten years since the voyage.

title: Kay Cottee


text:
Widecombe in the Moor

Widecombe in the Moor is a village and large civil parish in Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. Its church is known as the Cathedral of the Moors on account of its tall tower and its size, relative to the small population it serves. It is a favourite tourist centre, partly for its scenic character and partly for its connection to the popular song "Widecombe Fair".

History
The name is thought to derive from 'Withy-combe' which means Willow Valley. According to Widecombe's official website, there are 196 households in the village, although its large and sprawling parish stretches for many miles and encompasses dozens of isolated cottages and moorland farms. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Manaton, Ilsington, Ashburton, Buckland-in-the-Moor, Holne and Dartmoor Forest.

Tourism is a major source of income for Widecombe today, and within a small area of the village there are several gift shops (including a general store), one cafe and two pubs (the Old Inn and the Rugglestone Inn).

The village is known for Widecombe Fair, held annually and celebrated by a folksong of the same name, featuring "Old Uncle Tom Cobley and All". Its words were first published in 1880, and the characters from the song are featured in many of the souvenirs on sale in the local shops. Also popular are the traditional Toby Jugs; a type of mug, with a handle, shaped as a three-dimensional caricature of a person's head, sometimes fictional, sometimes a celebrity.

The church
The church of St Pancras is known as the "Cathedral of the Moors" in recognition of its 120-foot tower and relatively large capacity for such a small village. Originally built in the fourteenth century, in the Perpendicular style (late Gothic), using locally quarried granite, it was enlarged over the following two centuries, partly on the proceeds of the local tin mining trade. Inside, the ceiling is decorated with a large number of decorative roof bosses, including the tinner’s emblem of a circle of three hares (known locally as the Tinners' Rabbits).

It was badly damaged in the Great Thunderstorm of 1638, apparently struck by ball lightning during an afternoon service. The building was packed with about 300 worshippers, four of whom were killed and around 60 injured. Local legend relates that the disaster was caused by a visit from the Devil.

Education
The Karuna Institute, a collaboration partner of Middlesex University is located here.

Widecombe Primary School is a primary school that educates around 70 pupils.

Other features
In Widecombe churchyard is the grave of novelist Beatrice Chase who lived for much of her life in a cottage close to the village.

Next to the church stands the Church House, built in 1537. It is thought to have originally been built as a brewery for the production of church ales, became adapted as an almshouse, and later became the village school. Today, it is used as a meeting place for local people. Sexton's Cottage forms the western end of the building and is now a National Trust shop and Dartmoor National Park information point. It is now managed by the National Trust. Standing in front of the building is a 15-inch naval shell, which was donated to the village after the First World War to thank the villagers for supplying troops with sphagnum moss. This grows in abundance in the damp Dartmoor conditions, and is said to have healing properties. It was used as an emergency field dressing for injured troops.

The size of the parish meant that, for centuries, families were obliged to walk for miles to attend the church every Sunday. The task was even more challenging when it came to burying their dead, whose coffins had to be carried over rough ground and both up and down exceptionally steep hills. Halfway up Dartmeet Hill, for example, lies the Coffin Stone, close to the road, where the body would be placed to allow the bearers to take a rest. The rock is split in two, along its length. Local legend has it that the body of a particularly wicked man was laid there. God took exception to this, and struck the stone with a thunderbolt, destroying the coffin and splitting the stone in two.

The deserted medieval village of Hutholes and the abandoned farmstead Dinna Clerks (also spelt Dinah Clark's) are nearby. The Rippon Tor Rifle Range lies within five miles of the village.

In popular culture
In the reality show Celebrity Ghost Stories, American actor Daniel Stern claimed to have had an unsettling, and possibly supernatural, experience while on a brief visit to the village during his honeymoon in 1980. He also recounted that people in the region considered Widecombe to be haunted, and that the Great Thunderstorm of 1638 was blamed. The official Widecombe-in-the-Moor website responded to the claims and dismissed the alleged hauntings as a legend borne of superstitions.

In 2010, Widecombe-in-the-Moor was one of the filming locations for the Steven Spielberg film War Horse.

title: Widecombe in the Moor


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