title: Canadian dollar

text: In the economy of the Americas, the Canadian dollar plays a similar role to that of the Australian dollar (AUD) in the Asia-Pacific region. The Canadian dollar (as a regional reserve currency for banking) has been an important part of the British, French and Dutch Caribbean states' economies and finance systems since the 1950s. The Canadian dollar is held by many central banks in Central and South America as well.


title: Canadian dollar

text: By observing how the Canadian dollar behaves against the U.S. dollar, foreign exchange economists can indirectly observe internal behaviours and patterns in the U.S. economy that could not be seen by direct observation. The Canadian dollar has fully evolved into a global reserve currency only since the 1970s, when it was floated against all other world currencies. Some economists have attributed the rise of importance of the Canadian dollar to the long-term effects of the Nixon Shock that effectively ended the Bretton Woods system of global finance.


title: Cucumber

text: Cucumber ("Cucumis sativus") is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the Cucurbitaceae family that bears usually cylindrical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables. Considered an annual plant, there are three main varieties of cucumber—slicing, pickling, and seedless—within which several cultivars have been created. The cucumber originates from South Asia, but now grows on most continents, as many different types of cucumber are traded on the global market. In North America, the term "wild cucumber" refers to plants in the genera "Echinocystis" and "Marah", though the two are not closely related.


title: Cucumber

text: The cucumber is a creeping vine that roots in the ground and grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin, spiraling tendrils. The plant may also root in a soilless medium, whereby it will sprawl along the ground in lieu of a supporting structure. The vine has large leaves that form a canopy over the fruits.


title: Cucumber

text: The fruit of typical cultivars of cucumber is roughly cylindrical, but elongated with tapered ends, and may be as large as long and in diameter.


title: Cucumber

text: Cucumber fruits consist of 95% water (see nutrition table). In botanical terms, the cucumber is classified as a "pepo", a type of botanical berry with a hard outer rind and no internal divisions. However, much like tomatoes and squashes, it is often perceived, prepared, and eaten as a vegetable.


title: Cucumber

text: Most cucumber cultivars are seeded and require pollination. For this purpose, thousands of honey beehives are annually carried to cucumber fields just before bloom. Cucumbers may also be pollinated via bumblebees and several other bee species. Most cucumbers that require pollination are self-incompatible, thus requiring the pollen of another plant in order to form seeds and fruit. Some self-compatible cultivars exist that are related to the 'Lemon' cultivar.


title: Cucumber

text: A few cultivars of cucumber are parthenocarpic, the blossoms of which create seedless fruit without pollination, which degrades the eating quality of these cultivar. In the United States, these are usually grown in greenhouses, where bees are excluded. In Europe, they are grown outdoors in some regions, where bees are likewise excluded.


title: Cucumber

text: Traditional cultivars produce male blossoms first, then female, in about equivalent numbers. Newer gynoecious hybrid cultivars produce almost all female blossoms. They may have a pollenizer cultivar interplanted, and the number of beehives per unit area is increased, but temperature changes induce male flowers even on these plants, which may be sufficient for pollination to occur.


title: Cucumber

text: Raw cucumber (with peel) is 95% water, 4% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat. A reference serving provides of food energy. It has a low content of micronutrients: it is notable only for vitamin K, at 16% of the Daily Value (table).


title: Cucumber

text: Depending on variety, cucumbers may have a mild melon aroma and flavor, in part resulting from unsaturated aldehydes, such as , and the "cis"- and "trans"- isomers of 2-nonenal. The slightly bitter taste of cucumber rind results from cucurbitacins.


title: Cucumber

text: In general cultivation, cucumbers are classified into three main cultivar groups: slicing, pickled, and seedless/burpless.


title: Cucumber

text: Cucumbers grown to eat fresh are called "slicing cucumbers". The main varieties of slicers mature on vines with large leaves that provide shading.


title: Cucumber

text: Slicers grown commercially for the North American market are generally longer, smoother, more uniform in color, and have much tougher skin. In contrast, those in other countries, often called European cucumbers, are smaller and have thinner, more delicate skin, often with fewer seeds, thus are often being sold in plastic skin for protection. This variety may also be called a telegraph cucumber, particularly in Australasia.


title: Cucumber

text: Pickling with brine, sugar, vinegar, and spices creates various flavored products from cucumbers and other foods. Although any cucumber can be pickled, commercial pickles are made from cucumbers specially bred for uniformity of length-to-diameter ratio and lack of voids in the flesh. Those cucumbers intended for pickling, called picklers, grow to about long and wide. Compared to slicers, picklers tend to be shorter, thicker, less-regularly shaped, and have bumpy skin with tiny white or black-dotted spines. Color can vary from creamy yellow to pale or dark green.


title: Cucumber

text: Gherkins, also called cornichons, or baby pickles, are small cucumbers, typically those in length, often with bumpy skin, which are typically used for pickling. The word "gherkin" comes from the early modern Dutch "gurken" or "augurken" ('small pickled cucumber'). The term is also used in the name for "Cucumis anguria", the "West Indian gherkin", a closely related species.


title: Cucumber

text: Burpless cucumbers are sweeter and have a thinner skin than other varieties of cucumber. They are reputed to be easy to digest and to have a pleasant taste. They can grow as long as , are nearly seedless, and have a delicate skin. Most commonly grown in greenhouses, these parthenocarpic cucumbers are often found in grocery markets, shrink-wrapped in plastic. They are marketed as either burpless or seedless, as the seeds and skin of other varieties of cucumbers are said to give some people gas.


title: Cucumber

text: In 2020, world production of cucumbers and gherkins was 91 million tonnes, led by China with 80% of the total.


title: Cucumber

text: Cultivated for at least 3,000 years, the cucumber originated from India, where a great many varieties have been observed, along with its closest living relative, "Cucumis hystrix". It was probably introduced to Europe by the Greeks or Romans. Records of cucumber cultivation appear in France in the 9th century, England in the 14th century, and in North America by the mid-16th century.


title: Cucumber

text: According to Pliny the Elder, the Emperor Tiberius had the cucumber on his table daily during summer and winter. In order to have it available for his table every day of the year, the Romans reportedly used artificial methods of growing (similar to the greenhouse system), whereby "mirrorstone" refers to Pliny's "lapis specularis", believed to have been sheet mica:


title: Cucumber

text: Reportedly, they were also cultivated in "specularia", cucumber houses glazed with oiled cloth. Pliny describes the Italian fruit as very small, probably like a gherkin. He also describes the preparation of a medication known as "elaterium". However, some scholars believe that he was instead referring to "Ecballium elaterium", known in pre-Linnean times as "Cucumis silvestris" or "Cucumis asininus" ('wild cucumber' or 'donkey cucumber'), a species different from the common cucumber. Pliny also writes about several other varieties of cucumber, including the cultivated cucumber, and remedies from the different types (9 from the cultivated; 5 from the "anguine;" and 26 from the "wild").


title: Cucumber

text: Charlemagne had cucumbers grown in his gardens in the 8th/9th century. They were reportedly introduced into England in the early 14th century, lost, then reintroduced approximately 250 years later. The Spaniards (through the Italian Christopher Columbus) brought cucumbers to Haiti in 1494. In 1535, Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, found "very great cucumbers" grown on the site of what is now Montreal.


title: Cucumber

text: Throughout the 16th century, European trappers, traders, bison hunters, and explorers bartered for the products of American Indian agriculture. The tribes of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains learned from the Spanish how to grow European crops. The farmers on the Great Plains included the Mandan and Abenaki. They obtained cucumbers and watermelons from the Spanish, and added them to the crops they were already growing, including several varieties of corn and beans, pumpkins, squash, and gourd plants. The Iroquois were also growing them when the first Europeans visited them.


title: Cucumber

text: In 1630, the Reverend Francis Higginson produced a book called "New-Englands Plantation" in which, describing a garden on Conant's Island in Boston Harbor known as "The Governor's Garden", he states:The countrie aboundeth naturally with store of roots of great and good to eat. Our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are here both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England. Here are store of pompions, cowcumbers, and other things of that nature which I know not…In "New England Prospect" (1633, England), William Wood published observations he made in 1629 in America:


title: Cucumber

text: In the later 17th century, a prejudice developed against uncooked vegetables and fruits. A number of articles in contemporary health publications stated that uncooked plants brought on summer diseases and should be forbidden to children. The cucumber kept this reputation for an inordinate period of time, "fit only for consumption by cows," which some believe is why it gained the name, "cowcumber".


title: Cucumber

text: Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary on 22 August 1663:[T]his day Sir W. Batten tells me that Mr. Newburne is dead of eating cowcumbers, of which the other day I heard of another, I think.


title: Cucumber

text: A copper etching made by Maddalena Bouchard between 1772 and 1793 shows this plant to have smaller, almost bean-shaped fruits, and small yellow flowers. The small form of the cucumber is figured in Herbals of the 16th century, however stating that "[i]f hung in a tube while in blossom, the Cucumber will grow to a most surprising length."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Natural Born Killers is a 1994 American crime film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childhoods who become lovers and mass murderers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: The film is based on an original screenplay by Quentin Tarantino that was heavily revised by Stone, writer David Veloz, and associate producer Richard Rutowski. Tarantino received a story credit though he subsequently disowned the film. Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy, and Clayton Townsend produced the film, with Arnon Milchan, Thom Mount, and Stone as executive producers.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: "Natural Born Killers" was released on August 26, 1994 in the United States, and screened at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 1994. It was a box office success, grossing $110 million against a production budget of $34 million, but received polarizing reviews. Some critics praised the plot, acting, humor, and combination of action and romance, while others found the film overly violent and graphic. Notorious for its violent content and inspiring "copycat" crimes, the film was named the eighth most controversial film in history by "Entertainment Weekly" in 2006.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Mickey Knox and his wife Mallory stop at a diner in the New Mexico desert. A duo of rednecks arrive and begin sexually harassing Mallory as she dances by a jukebox. She initially encourages it before beating one of the men viciously. Mickey joins her, and the couple murder everyone in the diner, save one customer, to whom they proudly declare their names before leaving. The couple camp in the desert, and Mallory reminisces about how she met Mickey, a meat deliveryman who serviced her family's household. After a whirlwind romance, the couple had murdered Mallory's sexually abusive father and neglectful mother, but spared the life of Mallory's little brother, Kevin. The couple then have an unofficial marriage ceremony on a bridge.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Later, Mickey and Mallory hold a woman hostage in their hotel room. Angered by Mickey's desire for a threesome, Mallory leaves, and Mickey rapes the hostage. Mallory drives to a nearby gas station, where she flirts with a mechanic. They begin to have sex on the hood of a car, but after Mallory suffers a flashback of being raped by her father and the mechanic recognizes her as a wanted murderer, Mallory kills him. The pair continue their killing spree, ultimately claiming 52 victims in New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. Pursuing them is detective Jack Scagnetti, who became obsessed with mass murderers at the age of eight after having witnessed the murder of his mother at the hand of Charles Whitman. Beneath his heroic façade, he is also a violent psychopath and has murdered prostitutes in his past. Following the pair's murder spree is self-serving tabloid journalist Wayne Gale, who profiles them on his show "American Maniacs", soon elevating them to cult-hero status.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Mickey and Mallory become lost in the desert after taking psychedelic mushrooms, and they stumble upon a ranch owned by Warren Red Cloud, a Navajo man who provides them food and shelter. As Mickey and Mallory sleep, Warren, sensing evil in the couple, attempts to exorcise the demon that he perceives in Mickey, chanting over him as he sleeps. Mickey, who has nightmares of his abusive parents, awakens during the exorcism and shoots Warren to death. As the couple flee, they feel inexplicably guilty and come across a giant field of rattlesnakes, where they are badly bitten. They reach a drugstore to purchase snakebite antidote, but the store is sold out. A pharmacist recognizes the couple and triggers an alarm before Mickey kills him. Police arrive shortly after and accost the couple and a shootout ensues. The police end the showdown by beating the couple while a news crew films the action.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: One year later, the imprisoned Mickey and Mallory are thought to be criminally insane and are scheduled to be transferred to psychiatric hospitals, with Scagnetti overseeing their transfer. Warden Dwight McClusky tells the detective that he should kill the Knoxes during their transfer and claim they had tried to escape.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Meanwhile, Gale has persuaded Mickey to submit to a live interview that will air after the Super Bowl. During the interview, Mickey declares himself a "natural born killer", inspiring the other inmates to start a prison riot. After McClusky terminates the interview, Mickey is left alone with Gale, the film crew and several guards. He manages to overpower a guard and kill most of the people in the room, taking Gale and several others hostage. Gale and his crew give a live television report that profiles the riot. Meanwhile, when Scagnetti attempts to seduce Mallory in her cell, she beats him viciously before another guard subdues her with tear gas. Mickey and Gale reach Mallory's cell, where Mickey kills the guards and engages in a Mexican standoff with Scagnetti before Mallory kills Scagnetti.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Gale's entire television crew is killed trying to escape the riot, while Gale himself begins indulging in violence, shooting at prison guards. Mickey and Mallory steal a van and escape into the woods with Gale, to whom they give a final interview before declaring that he must die. He attempts various arguments to change their minds, appealing to their trademark practice of leaving one survivor. Mickey informs him that they are leaving a witness to tell the tale: his camera. Gale accepts his fate and is shot to death. Unbeknownst to the three, the entire exchange is transmitted to a horrified news anchor through Gale's in-ear microphone.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Several years later, Mickey and Mallory, still fugitives, travel in an RV, as a pregnant Mallory watches their two children play.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: One of the central themes of "Natural Born Killers" is the relationship between real-life violence and the mass media's coverage of it. This thematic preoccupation was declared in the film's promotional materials, with its theatrical poster advertising it as a "bold new film that takes a look at a country seduced by fame, obsessed by crime, and consumed by the media."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: The character of Wayne Gale, the television host of "American Maniacs", functions in the film as a figurehead of lurid true crime television documentaries, which recycle real-life incidents of violence and criminal activity into entertainment for the general public. On several occasions, expressionistic jump cuts featuring Gale as a blood-soaked Satan are interspersed into the film, which Muir suggests emphasizes the film's assertion that mass media and crime mutually reinforce one another.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Media representation of the nuclear family has been identified as another theme in the film, particularly with the depiction of Mallory's dysfunctional family life, which includes a neglectful mother and a sexually abusive father. Muir notes that the sequence depicting Mallory's home life—presented as a television sitcom with the title "I Love Mallory" (a parody of "I Love Lucy")—charts "the colossal gulf between the imagery sold to America regarding family life and the truth, for many Americans, of such family life in the 1990s." The "sitcom" representation of Mallory's household results in a visual dichotomy between her "life as she imagined it should be (replete with an oppressive laugh track eradicating any scary sense of ambiguity)" and the "grim truth of it."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Ian Cooper wrote that Mickey Knox's prison interview "parodies Geraldo Rivera's jailhouse interview with [Charles] Manson."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: "Natural Born Killers" was based on a screenplay written by Quentin Tarantino, in which a married couple suddenly decide to go on a killing spree. Tarantino had sold an option for his script to producers Jane Hamsher and Don Murphy for $10,000 after he had tried, and failed, to direct it himself for $500,000. Hamsher and Murphy subsequently sold the screenplay to Warner Bros. Around the same time, Oliver Stone was made aware of the script. He was keen to find something more straightforward than his previous production, "Heaven & Earth" (1993), a difficult shoot which had left him exhausted.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: David Veloz, associate producer Richard Rutowski, and Stone rewrote Tarantino's script, keeping much of the dialogue but changing the focus of the film from journalist Wayne Gale to Mickey and Mallory. The script was revised so drastically that Tarantino was credited for the story only. In a 1993 interview, Tarantino stated that he did not hold any animosity towards Stone, and that he wished the film well.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Initially, when producers Hamsher and Murphy had first brought the script to Stone's attention, he had envisioned it as an action film; "something Arnold Schwarzenegger would be proud of." As the project developed however, incidents such as the O. J. Simpson case, the Menendez brothers case, the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident, the Rodney King incident, and the Federal assault of the Branch Davidian sect all took place. Stone came to feel that the media was heavily involved in the outcome of all of these cases, and that the media had become an all-pervasive entity which marketed violence and suffering for the good of ratings. As such, he changed the tone of the film from one of purely action to a "vicious, coldhearted farce" on the media. Coloring Stone's approach to the material, and contributing to the violent nature of the film, were the anger and sadness he felt at the breakdown of his second marriage. He also said in an interview that the film was influenced by the "vitality" of Indian cinema.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Stone cast Woody Harrelson partly because, "frankly, he had that American, trashy look. There's something about Woody that evokes Kentucky or white trash." At the time, Harrelson was primarily known for his comedic performances, namely his role on the sitcom "Cheers", and Stone was compelled to cast him against type. Stone cast Lewis for similar reason, noting that, despite her success as portraying a defiled teenage daughter in "Cape Fear" (1991), he felt she could "pull off white trash, too. Juliette has malice in her eyes. She's got adorable eyes, but they jump and they gleam. I just felt they [were both] right. They didn't feel like they were upper-class people." Stone tried to convince Lewis to gain muscle mass for her role as Mallory so that she looked tougher, but she refused, saying she wanted the character to look like a pushover, not a bodybuilder.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Wayne Gale, the reporter chronicling the Knoxes; Downey prepared for his role as reporter Wayne Gale by spending time with Australian TV shock-king Steve Dunleavy, and later convinced Stone to allow him to portray Gale with an Australian accent. Tom Sizemore was cast as Detective Jack Scagnetti, the psychotic police officer with murderous impulses himself, while Tommy Lee Jones was cast as Dwight McClusky, a prison warden who appears in the last act of the film. Rodney Dangerfield, primarily known as a stand-up comedian, portrayed Mallory's rapist father and was allowed by Stone to rewrite all of his own character's lines.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Principal photography took 56 days to shoot. Filming locations included the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge just west of Taos, New Mexico, where the wedding scene was filmed, and Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois, where the prison riot was filmed. In Stateville, 80% of the prisoners are incarcerated for violent crimes. For the first two weeks on location at the prison, the extras were actual inmates with rubber weapons. For the subsequent two weeks, 200 extras were needed because the Stateville inmates were on lockdown. According to Tom Sizemore, during filming on the prison set, Stone would play African tribal music at full blast between takes to keep the frantic energy up. While shooting the POV scene wherein Mallory runs into the wire mesh, director of photography Robert Richardson broke his finger and the replacement cameraman cut his eye. According to Oliver Stone, he was not popular with the camera department on set that day. For the scenes involving rear projection, the projected footage was shot prior to principal photography, then edited together, and projected onto the stage, behind the live actors. For example, when Mallory drives past a building and flames are projected onto the wall, this was shot live using footage projected onto the facade of a real building. An alternate ending was filmed but not used, in which Mickey and Mallory are shot dead by Arliss Howard's character. Stone decided against using this ending because he believed "the 1990s were a time when the bad guys got away with it".


title: Natural Born Killers

text: The famous Coca-Cola polar bear ad is seen twice during the film. According to Stone, Coca-Cola approved the use of the ad without having a full idea of what the film was about. When they saw the completed film, they were furious.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: "Natural Born Killers" was filmed and edited in a frenzied and psychedelic style and features both color and black and white cinematography, as well as animation (directed by Mike Smith), and other unusual color schemes and visual compositions. Editing of the film lasted approximately 11 months, with the final film containing almost 3,000 cuts (most films have 600–700). The film also employs a wide range of camera angles, featuring Dutch tilts prominently throughout, with the camera rarely angling along a horizontal field of vision. Film scholar Robert Kolker notes that the Dutch angle's employment in the film is "the visual equivalent of a profound dislocation, a loss of object constancy, the slipperiness of subjectivity itself." Kolker comments that, unlike such films as "Bonnie and Clyde" from which "Natural Born Killers" draws influence, "from the very beginning...  the viewer is forced into a dual situation, neither one of which allows easy access to the main characters. One situation, continued throughout the film, is a kind of rhythmic attention created by a startling flow of images. Stone builds his visuals on unexpected linkages and disorienting juxtapositions within the shots and edits."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Because the film is thematically preoccupied with media, Stone sought to implement visual elements of popular television into the film's visual tableau: "It had never quite been done before – a mixture of stocks and styles. I was influenced, I have to say, by MTV and some of the styles I saw in the early '80s and '90s on television. But no one had tried that style over the course of 90, 100 minutes." Commercials which were commonly on the air at the time of the film's release make brief, intermittent appearances as well.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Concurrent with Stone's preoccupation with television as both a visual and thematic reference point, portions of the film are narrated through parodies of popular television series, including a sequence presented in the style of a sitcom about Mallory's dysfunctional family (titled "I Love Mallory"), a parody of "I Love Lucy". In the film's final montage, splices of real-life television news coverage of various criminal cases of the time are included, such as the O. J. Simpson case, the Menendez brothers, and the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident. Film scholar John Kenneth Muir notes this inclusion as an "exclamation point" concluding the film's thesis: "It seems to say, 'Welcome to the tabloid-TV culture of America in the 1990s, where crime pays and pays well.'"


title: Natural Born Killers

text: The film's soundtrack was produced by Stone and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who reportedly watched the film over 50 times to "get in the mood". Reznor reportedly produced the soundtrack while on tour. On his approach to compiling the soundtrack, Reznor told MTV:


title: Natural Born Killers

text: I suggested to Oliver [Stone] to try to turn the soundtrack into a collage-of-sound, kind of the way the movie used music: make edits, add dialog, and make it something interesting, rather than a bunch of previously released music.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: In its opening weekend, "Natural Born Killers" grossed a total of $11.2 million in 1,510 theaters, finishing first at the US box office. It finished its theatrical run in the United States and Canada with a total gross of $50.3 million. It grossed an estimated $60 million internationally for a worldwide total of $110 million against its $34 million budget.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 49% based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Natural Born Killers" explodes off the screen with style, but its satire is too blunt to offer any fresh insight into celebrity or crime – pummeling the audience with depravity until the effect becomes deadening." On Metacritic, the film has an average weighted score of 74 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "Seeing this movie once is not enough. The first time is for the visceral experience, the second time is for the meaning." On his television show, his partner Gene Siskel agreed with him, adding extra praise to the scene featuring Rodney Dangerfield.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Other critics found the film unsuccessful in its aims. Much of the criticism centered around the perception that the film was not effective as a satire and its message was muddled. Janet Maslin of the "New York Times" wrote, "While '"Natural Born Killers"' affects occasional disgust at the lurid world of Mickey and Mallory, it more often seems enamored of their exhilarating freedom. If there is a juncture at which these caricatures start looking like nihilist heroes, then the film passes that point many times." Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" voiced a similar concern, saying ""'Killers"' is intended as a gonzo critique of the mass media and, by extension, of the bloodthirsty legions of couch potatoes whose prurient taste guarantees that the garbage rises to the top of the charts. But the film doesn't make it as a piece of social criticism. Primarily this is because the movie's jittery, psychedelic style is so obviously a kick for Stone to orchestrate. Bloody, pulpy excess is his thing; it's what he does best.” Hinson noted the film also loses its "symbolic footing" when it transitions into a prison film.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: Some critics felt the film's focus on the mass media as the main culprit of society's ills rang hollow or that the film did not adequately hold the characters of Mickey and Mallory accountable for their actions. Maslin continued, "for all its surface passions, "Natural Born Killers" never digs deep enough to touch the madness of such events, or even to send them up in any surprising way. Mr. Stone's vision is impassioned, alarming, visually inventive, characteristically overpowering. But it's no match for the awful truth."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: James Berardinelli gave the film a negative review but his criticism was different from many other such pans, which generally said that Oliver Stone was a hypocrite for making an ultra-violent film in the guise of a critique of American attitudes. Berardinelli noted that the movie "hits the bullseye" as a satire of America's lust for bloodshed, but repeated Stone's main point so often and so loudly that it became unbearable.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: At the 1994 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, Harrelson was nominated for Worst Actor but lost to Bruce Willis for "Color of Night" and "North". The film was nominated for Worst Picture but lost to "North".


title: Natural Born Killers

text: For the film's 25th anniversary in 2019, critics wrote about the film's impact in popular culture and its relevance today. Writing for "The Guardian", Charles Bramesco argued the film's rebuke of the media as responsible for violence does not hold up to current times. Bramesco wrote, "With every public bloodbath [in the news today], discourse inches closer to accepting their root cause as a combination of lax gun laws and an undercurrent of psychosis endemic to those feeling marginalized from society. Stone’s inquest may have been a shock to the system at the time, but his tracing of that psychosis back to the evils of television scans as borderline reactionary to present-day sensibilities." Bramesco also noted the film's inclusion of Native American mysticism into its plot felt like a "white understanding of native culture."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: In contrast, critic Owen Gleiberman said the film still "captures how our parasitical relationship to pop culture can magnify the cycle of violence..."'Natural Born Killers"' was the movie that glimpsed the looking glass we were passing through, the new psycho-metaphysical space we were living inside — the roller-coaster of images and advertisements, of entertainment and illusion, of demons that come up through fantasy and morph into daydreams, of vicarious violence that bleeds into real violence.”


title: Natural Born Killers

text: "Natural Born Killers" was released on VHS in 1995 by Warner Home Video. A director's cut version of the film was released the following year on VHS by Vidmark/Lionsgate, who also released a non-anamorphic DVD of the director's cut in 2000. Distribution rights to Stone's director's cut reverted from Lionsgate to Warner Bros. in 2009, after which Warner issued an anamorphic DVD edition as well as a Blu-ray.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: After Quentin Tarantino attempted to publish his original screenplay to "Natural Born Killers" as a paperback book, as he had done with his scripts for "True Romance" and his own directorial efforts, "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", the producers of "Natural Born Killers" filed a lawsuit against Tarantino, claiming that when he sold the script to them, he had forfeited the publishing rights; eventually, Tarantino was allowed to publish his original script. Tarantino disowned the film, saying, "I hated that fucking movie. If you like my stuff, don't watch that movie."


title: Natural Born Killers

text: When the film was first submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), employees told Stone they would give it an NC-17 unless he edited it. As such, Stone removed some violence by cutting approximately four minutes of footage and the MPAA re-rated the film as an R. In 1996, a Director's Cut was released on home video by Vidmark Entertainment and Pioneer Entertainment. Warner Home Video later released this cut on Blu-ray.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: The film was banned in Ireland, including – controversially – from cinema clubs. The ban was later lifted. In the UK, though the cinema release was delayed while the BBFC investigated reports that the film caused copycat murders in the USA and France, it was finally shown in cinemas in February 1995. The BBFC classified the film uncut at 18, citing strong bloody violence and sexual violence.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: The original intended UK home video release in March 1996 was cancelled due to the Dunblane massacre in Scotland. In the meantime, Channel Five showed the film in November 1997. It was finally released on video in July 2001. "Entertainment Weekly" ranked the film as the eighth most controversial film ever.


title: Natural Born Killers

text: From almost the moment of its release, the film has been accused of encouraging and inspiring numerous murderers in North America, including the Heath High School shooting and the Columbine High School massacre. The Columbine killers even code-named their attack: "NBK", an acronym for "Natural Born Killers".


title: Broadchurch

text: Broadchurch is a British crime drama television series broadcast on ITV for three series between 2013 and 2017. It was created by Chris Chibnall, who acted as an executive producer and wrote all 24 episodes and produced by Kudos in association with Imaginary Friends Productions Ltd. The series is set in Broadchurch, a fictional English town on the coast of Dorset and focuses on Detective Inspector Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman). Other members of the ensemble cast appearing in all three seasons are Jodie Whittaker, Andrew Buchan, Arthur Darvill, Carolyn Pickles, Jonathan Bailey, Matthew Gravelle, Charlotte Beaumont, and Adam Wilson.


title: Broadchurch

text: The first series, which premiered on 4 March 2013, focuses on the death of local 11-year-old Daniel "Danny" Latimer and the impact of grief, mutual suspicion and media attention on the town. Danny's family, his mother, Beth (Jodie Whittaker), father, Mark (Andrew Buchan) and sister, Chloe (Charlotte Beaumont), is a key focus. The second series, which premiered on 5 January 2015, follows the dual story lines of bringing Danny's killer to justice and a case from the past returning to haunt Hardy. The third and final series, which premiered on 27 February 2017, focuses on the rape of a local woman (Julie Hesmondhalgh) at a birthday party, while the Latimer family goes to extreme lengths to move on from Danny's death. Chibnall has stated that the third series was the last and that he had originally envisioned "Broadchurch" as a trilogy.


title: Broadchurch

text: All three series received positive reviews and praise for the writing, cinematography, performances (particularly Tennant and Colman) and character development.


title: Broadchurch

text: "Broadchurch" creator and writer Chris Chibnall described the project as a labour of love. He conceived "Broadchurch" in about 2003 while working on his first series, "Born and Bred". The concept for "Broadchurch" was to explore how a child's murder affects a small, close-knit local community and how the characters react to the media attention and mutual suspicion that arise.


title: Broadchurch

text: The series' location was partly inspired by the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, where Chibnall lived. Chibnall says that he initially did not have a location in mind for the series, but the opportunity to improve his work-life balance made setting the show in Dorset appealing. From 2006 to 2011, Chibnall spent most of his time travelling about the UK and Ireland, working on "Torchwood", "" and "Camelot". By setting the show in Dorset, Chibnall did not have to spend time away from his home and family. His decision to set the show on the Jurassic Coast also helped him generate more ideas and tighten the writing. For example, Dorset-born poet and author Thomas Hardy's surname was used for one of the main characters (DI Alec Hardy). Hardy's use of the term "Wessex" was used to name the fictional Wessex Police, and character Jack Marshall reads the Hardy novel "Jude the Obscure".


title: Broadchurch

text: The series' name also came from Dorset. Chibnall invented the name "Broadchurch" based on two settlements in Dorset: "I thought a lot about the literary heritage of this county. In true Thomas Hardy style, I came up with a compound location name of Broadchurch combining the hamlets of Broadoak and Whitchurch."


title: Broadchurch

text: Chibnall wrote the script for "Broadchurch" on spec after his work on "Camelot" had ended. He began using whiteboards in May 2011 to create backgrounds for each character and craft the plot of the series—which he envisioned as a trilogy. Series one was written to work both as the first of a trilogy and as a self-contained drama. He believed that it should be self-contained in case the show did not do well in the ratings and that a second series was not commissioned. Chibnall was assisted in this process by friends Sam Hoyle (a television script executive) and television director James Strong. The series was influenced by two American television shows, "Twin Peaks" (created by Mark Frost and David Lynch) and "Murder One" (created by Steven Bochco, Charles H. Eglee, and Channing Gibson).


title: Broadchurch

text: The story was nearly finished on the whiteboards when Chibnall began writing the script. After about two weeks, he had a draft of the first few episodes, but he had not yet settled on a killer. About two weeks later, Chibnall woke up one morning and realises the main suspect should be Joe Miller, DS Ellie Miller's husband. By making Joe the main suspect, Chibnall focused the series more closely on Ellie and improved the narrative structure of the series so that it became about two families (the Millers and the Latimers). He then redrafted the first script and re-plotted and re-outlined the series. However, Chibnall kept the script loose enough that he could choose another character as the murderer if his preferred solution leaked to the press during shooting.


title: Broadchurch

text: Only the first few episodes were written before filming began. Chibnall waited until casting was complete and he saw the actors perform their roles before writing subsequent scripts. These later scripts were shaped to take advantage of each performer's take on their role.


title: Broadchurch

text: In autumn 2011, Chibnall pitched "Broadchurch" to Laura Mackie, the Head of Drama at ITV, who proved very enthusiastic about the proposal. Just a few days after she finished reading the scripts, she suggested that Chibnall contact Kudos, a production company. Mackie then brought the show to ITV Director of Television Peter Fincham. "Broadchurch" was green-lit by Fincham almost immediately for airing in early 2013.


title: Broadchurch

text: Although ITV made a sizeable financial investment in "Broadchurch", additional funds were needed because of the cost of the large ensemble cast. Additional funds were sought from international partners, who would then win distribution rights in their territories. Before principal photography began, ZDF (German public-service television broadcaster) and BBC America (the American cable and satellite television network jointly owned by the BBC and AMC Networks) both provided additional funding.


title: Broadchurch

text: "Broadchurch" was created and written by Chibnall, and produced by Kudos in association with Shine America and Imaginary Friends. Chibnall served as executive producer along with Kudos's Jane Featherstone, while Richard Stokes was producer.


title: Broadchurch

text: The role of Reverend Paul Coates was written with actor Arthur Darvill in mind and was the first role cast. The role of DS Ellie Miller was second, as actress Olivia Colman was Chibnall's first choice to play Miller, and the role was offered to her without an audition. DI Alec Hardy was the third role cast, and the part was offered to David Tennant without an audition.


title: Broadchurch

text: All the remaining parts were cast through auditions, which took several weeks. Although Chibnall had determined who the murderer was by the time casting began, those who auditioned for the programme were not told the killer's identity. The roles of Mark Latimer (father of the murdered child) and Karen White (a reporter for a national newspaper who comes to Broadchurch to challenge DI Hardy) were cast after Colman, Darvill, and Tennant. The role of Beth Latimer was cast after Mark Latimer and Karen White.


title: Broadchurch

text: Matthew Gravelle was cast as Joe Miller, DS Miller's husband. Gravelle auditioned along with many other actors for the role, but Chibnall has said the casting team early on considered Gravelle their top choice for the role. The producers knew this was a critical casting decision: whoever they hired to play Joe Miller would need to act with great power in the final episode, so they researched Gravelle's past acting roles and watched as many of his performances as they could find. Chibnall paid particularly close attention to the Welsh language television series "", in which Gravelle had recently played a lead role.


title: Broadchurch

text: James Strong directed five episodes of series one of "Broadchurch"; Euros Lyn directed three. Matt Gray was both director of photography and camera operator, and said he approached "Broadchurch" as if it were a documentary film, rather than a television drama. In Britain, very few scripted television programs are filmed in the order seen on the air; it is far more common to shoot out-of-order. Usually, scripts are first broken down into their component scenes and shots. Scenes using the same locations or sets are shot at the same time, to minimise the time and expense of moving cameras and equipment. "Broadchurch", however, was shot in order, to keep the identity of the murderer a secret until the end of the production.


title: Broadchurch

text: Most of "Broadchurch" series one was shot on location to heighten the reality and intimacy of the series, and because the Dorset coast was integral to setting the mood of the drama. The first cast read-through occurred at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London on 7 August 2012. Principal photography began on interior sets at Vision Studios on 13 August 2012. Location shooting began the first week of September. Most location photography occurred in the town of Clevedon in north Somerset. Some scenes were also shot in the towns of Bridport and West Bay in Dorset. Three locations were used in the area around Yate, South Gloucestershire, and two in Bristol. Other filming locations included Shepton Mallet, Portishead, and Weston-super-Mare, and the villages of Eype and Flax Bourton. The oft-seen cliff where Danny Latimer's body is found, and which features heavily in the visuals of "Broadchurch", is Harbour Cliff and Harbour Cliff Beach in West Bay. Many of the villages involved in the shooting of "Broadchurch" received a boost in tourism, especially in West Bay and Bridport.


title: Broadchurch

text: Not all shooting was done on location. Some sets were built at Vision Studios near Bristol, because equipment needs made it impractical to film on location. Two shots required green screen shots to composite images together. These "green screen" shots were filmed at Waterloo Film Studios in London.


title: Broadchurch

text: Rehearsal on "Broadchurch" was kept to a minimum. To heighten the raw and tension-filled tone of the show, actors were often prevented from seeing the space they were to perform in until shooting began. Almost no improvisation of dialogue occurred on the set. A heavy reliance was also placed on getting the first take right. Director James Strong believed the first take was more spontaneous and more natural than subsequent takes. Subsequently, most of what the viewer sees in "Broadchurch" series one are first takes.


title: Broadchurch

text: Chibnall was determined to ensure that the identity of the killer did not leak until the final episode aired. One reason for the secrecy was commercial: it encouraged viewers to keep watching. But Chibnall also believed that it would enhance the acting, as actors could not in any way telegraph or signal their innocence or guilt.


title: Broadchurch

text: Several means were employed to maintain secrecy. All cast and crew were required to sign documents in which they agreed not to reveal the killer's identity.


title: Broadchurch

text: In part, secrecy was maintained by the way scripts were written. Performers were given the first two scripts at the start of principal photography, but additional scripts were written only after Chibnall had observed the actors bringing their characters to life. Once the scripts for episodes six, seven, and eight were finished, they were released all at once over a single weekend Even after the final three scripts were distributed, just 29 people knew the killer's identity while the final episodes were filmed, including the four cast members critical to the "reveal". Actor Oskar McNamara, who played Danny Latimer, was informed about the killer's identity several days in advance, in part so that he could prepare and in part so the scene could be choreographed and rehearsed. These three episodes were then shot together.


title: Broadchurch

text: "Broadchurch" creator Chris Chibnall had long been a fan of Icelandic composer and musician Ólafur Arnalds, and owned all of his albums. While writing "Broadchurch", Chibnall listened constantly to Ólafur's music. He later told Ólafur that the "entire feel of the show was inspired by" his music.


title: Broadchurch

text: Ólafur agreed to join the production in December 2012. To compose the music for the first series of "Broadchurch", Ólafur read the show's scripts to put himself in the right mood. He also researched sounds which might be heard in the Dorset area. He then improvised at the piano and composed several themes, some for the series as a whole and some for characters. Ólafur also composed certain sounds using synthesisers and electronic sound generators to go with certain spaces, such as the cliffs. Once he saw the completed footage for the first episode, he rearranged some themes to fit the imagery, and composed some new themes as well. Because there was so little time between his being hired and the air date, Ólafur composed very quickly and spent very long days at work. He had just four months to generate about 30 minutes of sound and music for each episode, spending one-and-a-half to two weeks on the music for each episode. Despite the time crunch, Ólafur credited Chibnall's relaxed attitude as the key to the music's success.


title: Broadchurch

text: The music for "Broadchurch" deliberately avoided a typical orchestral score, which Ólafur felt sounded too large and perfect. The score was written for a string quartet and piano, accompanied by electronic sound. Recording, which took just five days, was done in an empty church in Reykjavik. The musical soundtrack to "Broadchurch" series one includes four pieces: "So Close" (the only one to have lyrics), "Suspects", "Arcade", and "Broken". "So Close" plays at the end of each episode. Ólafur collaborated with the singer Arnór Dan of the Icelandic band Agent Fresco, with whom he had worked on his third studio album, "For Now I Am Winter", released in February 2013. Arnór wrote the vocal melody, while Ólafur wrote the rest of the song. Chibnall contributed the lyrics. According to Chibnall, the song holds clues to the killer's identity.


title: Broadchurch

text: The "Broadchurch (Music From the Original Soundtrack)" extended play album was released on 15 April 2013 by Mercury Classics, a division of Decca Records. A second edition that includes songs from the first two series (excluding "Broken" from the first edition) was released in January 2015.


title: Broadchurch

text: An album for the third series, titled "Broadchurch - The Final Chapter (Music from the Original TV Series)" was released on 1 April 2017.


title: Broadchurch

text: Some of Ólafur's work for "Broadchurch" appears in the trailer for the "Fantastic Four" movie reboot.


title: Broadchurch

text: The first series of "Broadchurch" was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom by Acorn Media UK on 20 May 2013. The series was released on DVD in the United States on 1 April 2014 by Entertainment One.


title: Broadchurch

text: After the first series ended, ITV announced that "Broadchurch" would return for a second series. The show's creator, Chris Chibnall, told "The Daily Mirror" in the summer of 2013 that "the focus of the next series will be on how the shattered community rebuilds itself after the grisly events" of series one. Series one actor Will Mellor, who does not appear in series two, strongly implied in an interview that a new murder would not be the focus of the second series, while David Tennant told the Associated Press that the series would go in a "very unexpected direction" which he called "as gripping as the first season." Chibnall said he mapped out the show's plot and characters on several whiteboards in his office. "You have to be very methodical," he said about plotting "Broadchurch". "It's like a mathematical puzzle where you put all these blocks together and move them around for the most satisfying thing."


title: Broadchurch

text: David Tennant, Olivia Colman, Andrew Buchan, Arthur Darvill, Jodie Whittaker, Charlotte Beaumont, Joe Sims, Carolyn Pickles, Jonathan Bailey, Pauline Quirke, Tanya Franks, Simone McAullay and Adam Wilson are returning cast members. Neither Tennant nor Colman was contractually obliged to return. Without them, Chibnall said, "We would not have done it, absolutely. Luckily they wanted to come back because they weren't contracted to." New series two cast members include Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James D'Arcy, Eve Myles, Charlotte Rampling, Meera Syal, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Tom Rosenthal. Rampling plays Broadchurch resident Jocelyn Knight. It was near her home that Danny Latimer argued with the postman a week before his death. Myles plays Claire Ripley, Jean-Baptiste's character is Sharon Bishop and Waller-Bridge plays Abby Thompson.


title: Broadchurch

text: Before broadcast, the plot of series two was closely guarded. Cast members were sworn to secrecy about the details and required to sign non-disclosure agreements. Actor Andrew Buchan said cast members were told little about the plot, except on a need-to-know basis as they prepared for their performances in each episode. Actor Joe Sims said that actors only receive two scripts at a time to ensure that they did not know where the plot was headed. Several different endings for series two were filmed.


title: Broadchurch

text: In August 2014, Erin Kelly, author of a book adaptation of "Broadchurch", said that writer Chris Chibnall inserted a one-line clue about Series 2 into her book three days before the book was due to begin printing. Kelly said the clue comes early in the novel. Although it does not spoil the plot, she said, it does provide a hint about it. The clue involved the argument the postman had with Danny Latimer. Jack Marshall identifies the location as being near Jocelyn Knight's home. On 19 December 2014, ITV revealed that Charlotte Rampling's character is named Jocelyn Knight.


title: Broadchurch

text: The second series filmed under the code name "Tea and Sympathy" in Devon, Dorset, North Somerset, and Reading in Berkshire. A car park next to the West Bay Hotel in Bridport served as the production's base camp. Each episode took 12-and-a-half days to film. Filming began in late May 2014. Shooting has taken place outside the George Hotel in Bridport, at Munchees café in Reading, and at the Riverside Restaurant, Wynn's funfair, the seafront, and The Lazy Lizard nightclub in Weymouth. A few scenes were shot on a beach between Freshwater Beach and East Beach in West Bay. St Andrew's Church in Clevedon has been used to depict the Broadchurch parish church and graveyard. Other Clevedon filming locations include Marshall's Field and Hill Road, and the house used to represent the Latimer family home in Lavington Close. The Forum building on the campus of the University of Exeter was used to represent the Wessex police station, while another campus structure served as a local courtroom. Some filming occurred in Bracknell Forest, in particular the Jennett's Park suburb and the John Nike Leisuresport Complex in Bracknell. The shopping district in Bracknell was decorated to mimic the Christmas holidays for filming.


title: Broadchurch

text: The production team was criticised by the West Bay coastguards in June 2014 for filming too close to the edge of East Cliff at West Bay, Dorset. Severe weather and recent rock-slides left the cliffs unstable, and a coastguard volunteer said the production team should have used stakes, safety lines, harnesses, and helmets. A spokesperson for the "Broadchurch" production defended the film crew, noting that the production team had received all necessary filming permits, had visited the site numerous times to ensure safety, and taken other reasonable health and safety precautions.


title: Broadchurch

text: James Strong, who directed five of the eight episodes in series one, directed the first two episodes of series two. Jane Featherstone and Chris Chibnall continued as executive producers, with Chibnall acting as lead writer again.


title: Broadchurch

text: Filming for series two of "Broadchurch" concluded the night of 12 October 2014. Final scenes were shot at the village of Eype in Dorset.


title: Broadchurch

text: On 9 November 2014, two 20-second teaser trailers began airing on ITV, each titled "The End Is Where It Begins". On 16 November 2014, a third 20-second teaser trailer aired on ITV, in two versions, voiced by characters Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller, respectively. These were also titled "The End Is Where It Begins". A fourth, series two trailer was released on 11 December. "Old Faces", a song written and performed by Laura Doggett, featured on the trailers.


title: Broadchurch

text: The first episode aired on 5 January 2015, on ITV in the UK and TV3 in Ireland. The Canadian TV channel Showcase and TV One in New Zealand both debuted series two on 11 January 2015. In Australia, the ABC first aired on 15 February 2015 while BBC America aired the second series in the United States beginning on 4 March 2015.


title: Broadchurch

text: On 1 December 2014, a number of media outlets reported that ITV had commissioned a third series of "Broadchurch". Later that day, ITV denied that a third series had yet been commissioned.


title: Broadchurch

text: ITV confirmed that "Broadchurch", as well as Tennant and Colman, would return for a third series immediately after the series two finale on 23 February 2015, repeating the use of ""Broadchurch" will return" after the closing credits.


title: Broadchurch

text: In February 2016, Olivia Colman gave an interview on "This Morning" where she stated that the final series would be shot in May 2016, and said that she did not yet know anything about the plot.


title: Broadchurch

text: On 12 April 2016, ITV officially announced the casting for the third and final series, with Jodie Whittaker, Andrew Buchan, Arthur Darvill, Carolyn Pickles and Adam Wilson returning. Filming for the third series began in May 2016 and broadcast started on 27 February 2017. Miller and Hardy investigate a serious sexual assault. Creator Chris Chibnall said, "We have one last story to tell, featuring both familiar faces and new characters. I hope it's a compelling and emotional farewell to a world and show that means so much to me."


title: Broadchurch

text: Series one of "Broadchurch" won critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first series has an approval rating of 94% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads "Well written and beautifully shot, "Broadchurch" is a deliberate, slowly unfolding mystery procedural with terrific performances from a fine cast." Metacritic gives the first series a weighted average score of 91 out of 100, based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". "Radio Times" named it the best television series of 2013, and "Entertainment Weekly" called it "a bona fide national obsession" in the UK.


title: Broadchurch

text: The second series received "generally favorable reviews", with a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on 18 critics, according to Metacritic. It has an approval rating of 87% based on 30 reviews, and an average score of 7.95/10, on Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus reads "Season two of "Broadchurch" builds on its predecessor's intrigue, with the added bonus of new characters who mesh well with the existing cast."


title: Broadchurch

text: Series three was met with critical acclaim. Metacritic rated it 85/100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim", while Rotten Tomatoes gave it an approval rating of 98% and an average score of 7.8/10, based on 43 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads "In its final season, "Broadchurch" establishes a high standard for police procedurals to come, combining socially conscious themes with suspenseful mystery and a pair of compelling leads."


title: Broadchurch

text: The first episode of "Broadchurch" series one was seen by an average of 9.1 million viewers (31 percent audience share). This included 6.15 million live viewers (25.2 percent audience share), with another 716,000 viewers (4.4 percent) on time-delayed viewing via digital video recorder, timeshifted channels (+1), and similar media and technologies. This was the best premiere episode of a weekday new drama series in the United Kingdom since ITV's "Whitechapel" debuted in January 2009. "Broadchurch" attracted an average weekly audience of 7.1 million "live" viewers during its run. After accounting for time-delayed viewing, "Broadchurch" averaged 9.2 million viewers per episode. An average of 8.4 million viewers (33 percent audience share) watched the final episode of "Broadchurch". About 8.8 million viewers tuned in at the start of the show, and a peak of 9.3 million viewers saw the murderer revealed. But only 7.9 million viewers remained with the episode after the reveal.


title: Broadchurch

text: "Broadchurch" series one was not a rating success in all countries, however. When it aired on BBC America in the United States, ratings were negligible. American consumption of the series on iTunes, Amazon.com and other streaming video sites was also small.


title: Broadchurch

text: The premiere episode of series two drew an average of 7.3 million viewers. for a 30.1 percent share on 5 January 2015. An average of 300,000 viewers watched it on ITV+1 an hour later. The episode opened with 6.8 million viewers at 9 pm and ended with 8.7 million viewers (with a peak viewership of 8.9 million). "Broadchurch" was the second-most-watched programme of the evening, with the most-watched being "Coronation Street" (which had a peak audience of 8.3 million). The series two premiere drew 800,000 (28.1 percent) more viewers than the series one premiere and was 22.6 percent higher than average ITV viewership (5.2 million) in the same time-slot over the past 12 months. The consolidated rating made this episode the highest rated drama episode on ITV in 2015.


title: Broadchurch

text: But ratings dropped significantly afterward. Viewership for the second episode fell to just 6.11 million viewers (a 22.4 percent share) after accounting for ITV+1 viewership. That was the lowest overnight viewership rating for the series since episode five of series one. It was still good enough to win its timeslot, however. Overnight ratings dropped again for the third episode to just 5.2 million viewers, the lowest for any episode of the series. Overnight viewership dropped again for episode four, reaching a low of 5.6 million viewers. However, the series still won its timeslot, beating "Silent Witness".


title: Broadchurch

text: "Broadchurch" series one was nominated for seven BAFTA awards. Olivia Colman won Best Actress, David Bradley won Best Supporting Actor and the show was named Best Drama Series. The show competed for the BAFTA Audience Award, but lost to "The Day of the Doctor" ("Doctor Who"), which Tennant also starred in. At the BAFTA Craft Awards, Ólafur Arnalds won Best Original Television Music, while James Strong was nominated for Best Director-Fiction for "Episode One", Mike Jones was nominated for Best Editing-Fiction for "Episode Eight", Catrin Meredydd as nominated for Best Production Design and Chris Chibnall was nominated for Best Writer-Drama.


title: Broadchurch

text: "Broadchurch" series one was also nominated for and won many additional awards, including honours at the Freesat Awards, TV Choice Awards, National TV Awards, Broadcast Awards, Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards. It also won a Peabody Award for its distinguished and meritorious contributions to excellence in quality television.


title: Broadchurch

text: "Broadchurch" series three won the award for best Crime Drama at National Television Awards in early 2018. This was the first year the award was presented and "Broadchurch" was competing against "Sherlock", "Line of Duty" and "Little Boy Blue". Julie Hesmondhalgh was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role but lost to Vanessa Kirby from "The Crown".


title: Broadchurch

text: In early 2014, the Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States announced that it had licensed the rights to "Broadchurch" and would produce a U.S. version of the series, named "Gracepoint". The Fox series, also starring David Tennant, was created and written by Chris Chibnall and directed by James Strong. Fox specifically said "Gracepoint" would have a different ending from "Broadchurch". "Gracepoint" began airing on 2 October 2014. Following very low ratings, "Gracepoint" was not renewed for a second season.


title: Broadchurch

text: The French channel France 2, on which "Broadchurch" aired in February 2014, also announced an adaptation. The French series, produced in association with Shine France, was titled "Malaterra" and was directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Gods of Egypt is a 2016 fantasy action film directed by Alex Proyas based on a fantastical version of some ancient Egyptian deities. It stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Chadwick Boseman, Élodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, Gerard Butler, and Geoffrey Rush. The film portrays the Egyptian god Horus who partners with a mortal Egyptian thief, on a quest to rescue his love, and to save the world from Set.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Filming took place in Australia under the film production and distribution company Summit Entertainment in conjunction with Thunder Road Pictures and Proyas' production company Mystery Clock Cinema. While the film's production budget was the parent company Lionsgate's financial exposure was less than $10 million due to tax incentives and pre-sales. The Australian government provided a tax credit for 46% of the film's budget. When Lionsgate began promoting the film in November 2015, it received backlash for its predominantly white cast playing Egyptian deities. In response, Lionsgate and director Proyas apologized for ethnically inaccurate casting.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Lionsgate released "Gods of Egypt" in theaters globally, starting on , 2016, in 2D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D, and in the United States, Canada, and 68 other markets on . It grossed a total of $150 million against a $140 million budget, becoming a box office bomb and losing the studio up to $90 million. It received five nominations at the 37th Golden Raspberry Awards.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: In an alternative ancient Egypt where the gods live among the mortals, King Osiris is killed by his jealous brother Set during the coronation of Osiris's son Horus. Set then defeats Horus and takes his eyes, proclaiming himself the new king and commanding mankind to pay riches to pass into the afterlife.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: One year later, with most of Egypt enslaved by Set, Zaya, a slave to Set's chief architect Urshu, gives plans for Set's pyramid to her lover, Bek. Using them, Bek infiltrates Set's treasure vault and steals one of Horus's eyes, but he and Zaya are caught by Urshu, who kills Zaya as she and Bek escape. Bek takes her body to the exiled Horus along with the eye, promising to help find the other if he brings Zaya back from the dead.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: They visit the divine vessel of Horus's grandfather Ra. Neutral about the conflict with Set, and at war with the shadow beast Apophis that threatens to devour the world, Ra does not restore Horus’s power, but allows him to take a vial of divine waters to weaken Set. Ra explains that Horus’s loss of his powers is the result of not fulfilling his destiny, which Horus believes means avenging his parents' deaths.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Set asks Hathor to take him to the underworld, but she refuses and joins up with Bek and Horus. They hatch a plan to infiltrate Set's pyramid, recruiting Thoth to solve the riddle of the guardian sphinx. Overcoming the pyramid's entryway and the sphinx's riddle, they reach the source of Set's power. Before they can use the divine water, they are ambushed by Set, who destroys the divine water and takes Thoth's brain, but Horus saves Hathor and Bek. Hathor calls on Anubis to take Bek to the underworld and offers her bracelet as Zaya's payment for passage to the afterlife, sacrificing herself as doing so exiles her to the underworld.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Absorbing Thoth's brain, Osiris's heart, Horus's eye and wings from Nephthys, Set confronts Ra aboard his solar barge. Ra explains Set's mistreatment were tests to prepare him to take Ra's place as defender of the world against Apophis. Dismayed, Set decides to destroy the afterlife to become immortal, using his new powers to overpower Ra. Taking Ra's spear and casting him off the barge, Set frees Apophis to consume the mortal and underworld realms.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: As Apophis attacks the gate to the afterlife are closed. Zaya, having refused Hathor's gift for not wanting an afterlife without Bek, encourages Bek to return to the mortal world and help Horus stop Set. As Horus battles Set atop an obelisk, Bek defeats and kills Urshu, before removing Horus's other eye from Set's armor, mortally wounding himself in the process and falling from the great height. Regaining his power to transform, Horus saves Bek from falling over retrieving his eye and flies him to safety, realizing that his true destiny was to protect his people. With renewed strength, Horus outmaneuvers and kills Set. Finding Ra wounded in the aether, Horus returns his spear, allowing Ra to repel Apophis and Anubis to reopen the gates.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: A child returns Horus's other eye and the god lays a dying Bek in Osiris's tomb beside Zaya. For his deeds, Ra offers to bestow Horus with any power, Horus asks that Bek and Zaya be brought back to life. Ra grants his wish and the other gods are restored, except Horus's parents, who had already passed into the afterlife. Horus is crowned king and declares access to the afterlife will be paid with good deeds in life. Bek is made chief advisor and gives Horus Hathor's bracelet; Horus leaves to rescue her from the underworld.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: "Gods of Egypt" is directed by Alex Proyas based on a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The film was produced under Summit Entertainment. Proyas was contracted by Summit in May 2012, to write the screenplay with Sazama and Sharpless, and to direct the film. Proyas said he sought to make a big-budget film with an original premise, to contrast franchise films. The director cited the following films as influences on "Gods of Egypt": "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "The Man Who Would Be King" (1975), "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), and Sergio Leone's Western films. Lionsgate anticipated that "Gods of Egypt" would be the first film in a new franchise after it finished releasing "The Hunger Games" films.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was cast in June 2013. Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush, and Brenton Thwaites joined the cast toward the end of 2013. Chadwick Boseman and Élodie Yung joined the cast at the start of 2014.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: The film was shot in Australia. A crew of 200 began pre-production in Sydney in New South Wales, and producers considered filming in Melbourne in Victoria, to take advantage of the state's tax incentive. Docklands Studios Melbourne was too booked to accommodate "Gods of Egypt", and producers were instead offered an airport facility for production. The Australian states New South Wales and Victoria competed to be the location of the film's production, and Summit selected NSW in February 2014. The state's deputy premier, Andrew Stoner, estimated that the production would add 400 jobs to the state and contribute million to its economy.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Principal photography began on , 2014 at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney. The setting of Anubis' temple was filmed at Centennial Park in Sydney, and visual effects were laid over the scene. The production budget was . Jon Feltheimer, the CEO of Summit's parent company Lionsgate, said Lionsgate's financial exposure was under due to tax incentives of filming in Australia, as well as foreign pre-sales. The Australian government's tax credit to have the film produced in the country covered 46% of the production budget, and most of the remaining budget was covered by the foreign pre-sales.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: In the film, the gods in humanoid form are tall and in "battle beast" form are over tall. Proyas used forced perspective and motion control photography to portray the difference in height between the actors portraying the gods and the humans. Proyas called the logistical challenge a "reverse Hobbit", referring to "The Lord of the Rings" films, in which Hobbits are depicted as shorter than humans. For the Sphinx, actor Kenneth Ransom portrayed the giant creature via motion capture. For the god Thoth, who can appear as many copies, actor Chadwick Boseman was filmed hundreds of times from different angles. For a scene with many copies of Thoth, other actors took a day to film the scene, where Boseman filmed the scene for three days.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Composer Marco Beltrami, who scored Proyas's previous films "Knowing" (2009) and "I, Robot" (2004), returned to score "Gods of Egypt".


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: The film drew criticism due to the fact that none of the main actors were of Egyptian descent. White actors, predominantly of northwestern European descent, make up most of the principal cast of "Gods of Egypt". When Lionsgate began marketing the film, the Associated Press said the distributor received backlash for ethnically inaccurate casting. Lionsgate and director Alex Proyas both issued apologies. The AP said, "While some praised the preemptive mea culpa... others were more sceptical, concluding that it's simply meant to shut down any further backlash."


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: The casting practice of white actors as Ancient Egyptian characters was first reported after filming started in March 2014, when "Daily Life"s Ruby Hamad highlighted the practice as "Hollywood whitewashing". Lionsgate released a set of character posters in November 2015, and "The Guardian" reported that the casting received a backlash on Twitter over the predominantly white cast. Some suggested that the casting of black actor Chadwick Boseman, who plays the god Thoth, played into the Magical Negro stereotype. The previous year, the biblical epic "" by director Ridley Scott received similar backlash for having a white cast. "The Washington Post"'s Soraya Nadia McDonald also disparaged the casting practice for "Gods of Egypt" and said Lionsgate released the posters at an unfortunate time. She said with the release of Aziz Ansari's TV series "Master of None" in the previous week, "Whitewashed casting and the offensiveness of brownface has pretty much dominated the pop culture conversation this week. Promotion for the movie is beginning just as we're wrapping a banner year for discussions of diversity and gender pay equity in the film industry."


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: When Lionsgate followed its release of posters with a release of a theatrical trailer, Scott Mendelson at "Forbes" said, "The implication remains that white actors, even generic white actors with zero box office draw, are preferable in terms of domestic and overseas box office than culturally-specific (minority) actors who actually look like the people they are supposed to be playing." He said almost none of the actors, aside from potentially Butler, qualified as box office draws. BET's Evelyn Diaz said while Ridley Scott had defended his casting practice for "Exodus" by claiming the need to cast box office draws, ""Gods of Egypt" is headlined by character actors and Gerard Butler, none of whom will have people running to the theater on opening day." "Deadline"s Ross A. Lincoln said of the released trailer, "Casting here stands out like a sore thumb leftover from 1950s Hollywood. I suspect this film generates a lot of conversation before it hits theaters February 26, 2016."


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: In response to criticisms of its casting practice, director Alex Proyas and Lionsgate issued apologies in late November 2015 for not considering diversity; Lionsgate said it would strive to do better. Mendelson of "Forbes" said the apologies were "a somewhat different response" than defenses made by Ridley Scott for "Exodus" and Joe Wright for "Pan" (2015). Ava DuVernay, who directed "Selma" (2014), said, "This kind of apology never happens... for something that happens all the time. An unusual occurrence worth noting." "The Guardian"s Ben Child said, "The apologies are remarkable, especially given that "Gods of Egypt" does not debut in cinemas until 26 February and could now suffer at the box office." Michael Ordoña of "San Francisco Chronicle" said of the apologies, "That's little comfort to the nonwhite actors denied opportunities or the Egyptians who will see a pale shadow of their ancestral traditions." The Casting Society of America applauded the statements from Lionsgate and Proyas. Professor Todd Boyd, chairman for the Study of Race and Popular Culture at the University of Southern California, said, "The apology is an attempt to have it both ways. They want the cast that they selected and they don't want people to hold it against them that it's a white cast."


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Boseman, who plays the god Thoth, commenting on the whitewashing, said he expected the backlash to happen when he saw the script. He said, "I'm "thankful" that it did, because actually, I agree with it. That's why I wanted to do it, so you would see someone of African descent playing Thoth, the father of mathematics, astronomy, the god of wisdom." Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau said, "A lot of people are getting really worked up online about the fact that I'm a white actor. I'm not even playing an Egyptian; I'm an 8-foot-tall god who turns into a falcon. A part of me just wants to freak out, but then I think, 'There's nothing you can do about it.' You can't win in that sort of discussion."


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: In the month leading up to release, director Proyas said his film was fantasy and not intended to be history. He cited "creative license and artistic freedom of expression" to cast the actors he found to fit the roles. He said "white-washing" was a justified concern but for his fantasy film, "To exclude any one race in service of a hypothetical theory of historical accuracy ... would have been biased." Proyas said that films "need more people of color and a greater cultural diversity" but that "Gods of Egypt" "is not the best one to soap-box issues of diversity with". He argued that the lack of English-speaking Egyptian actors, production practicalities, the studio's requirement for box office draws, and Australia having guidelines limiting "imported" actors were all factors in casting for the film. He concluded, "I attempted to show racial diversity, black, white, Asian, as far as I was allowed, as far as I could, given the limitations I was given. It is obviously clear that for things to change, for casting in movies to become more diverse many forces must align. Not just the creative. To those who are offended by the decisions which were made I have already apologised. I respect their opinion, but I hope the context of the decisions is a little clearer based on my statements here." After the film was critically panned, Proyas said, "I guess I have the knack of rubbing reviewers the wrong way. This time of course they have bigger axes to grind – they can rip into my movie while trying to make their mainly pale asses look so politically correct by screaming 'white-wash!!!'"


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Lionsgate spent an estimated on marketing the film. It released a set of character posters in November 2015, for which it received backlash due to white actors playing Egyptian characters, as noted above. Later in the month, it released a theatrical trailer. Lionsgate aired a 60-second spot for "Gods of Egypt" during the pre-game show of the Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016, though they released the trailer online a day earlier.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: In the week before the film's release, Lions released the tie-in mobile game "Gods of Egypt: Secrets of the Lost Kingdom" on iOS and Android.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: "BoxOffice" forecast two months in advance that "Gods of Egypt" would gross on its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, and that it would gross total on its theatrical run. The magazine said the film had "a strong ensemble cast" and that its director has "had a noteworthy following". "BoxOffice" also said the premise could attract movie-goers who saw "Clash of the Titans", "Wrath of the Titans", and the "Percy Jackson" films. Admissions to 3D screenings would help boost "Gods of Egypt"s gross. The magazine said factors negatively affecting the film's gross were a "lackluster reaction" to its marketing and the backlash to its predominantly white cast causing negative buzz. It anticipated that the film's release would be front-loaded (focused on profiting mainly from opening weekend) due to the poor buzz, its categorization as a fantasy film, and with "London Has Fallen" opening the following weekend.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: A week before the film's release, "TheWrap" Todd Cunningham reported an updated forecast of for its opening weekend in the United States and Canada. "The Hollywood Reporter"s Pamela McClintock said it was tracking to gross between and . Cunningham said the expected gross was low for the film's triple-digit budget as well as additional marketing costs. He said the film could attract Alex Proyas's fan base but that it had suffered "some negativity out there" due to the predominantly white casting as well as the film being perceived to have an "old-fashioned" feel. Exhibitor Relations senior media analyst Jeff Bock said the film "feels late" years after the release of "300" (2007) and "Immortals" (2011), and an earlier production and release would have been more advantageous. Cunningham said with Lionsgate's financial exposure only being and the expected opening gross, the film could gross between and for its theatrical run in the United States and Canada and ultimately avoid a loss. "The Hollywood Reporter"s McClintock said "ancient epics" in recent years had not performed well at the box office, citing the 2014 films "Hercules", "The Legend of Hercules", and "Pompeii".


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Ryan Faughnder of the "Los Angeles Times" said in the week before the film's release that the expected opening weekend gross meant that Lionsgate's plans to make "Gods of Egypt" the first film in a new franchise were unlikely. Faughnder said the film would need to perform strongly in territories outside the United States and Canada for a sequel to be developed. "Variety"s Brent Lang reported that analysts said the film would need to open to or more in the United States to justify a sequel.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: "Gods of Egypt" grossed $31.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $119.6 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $150.7 million against a production budget of $140 million. "The Hollywood Reporter" estimated the film lost the studio up to $90 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Lionsgate released "Gods of Egypt" in theaters globally starting on , 2016. It was released in 2D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D. Lionsgate released the film in the United States and Canada on the weekend of February 26–28, as well as in 68 other markets, including Russia, South Korea, and Brazil. Jaguar Films released the film in the United Arab Emirates (February 25) and other countries in the Middle East under the title "Kings of Egypt". Viacom 18 released the film in India on , 2016 in four languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was released in . It grossed an estimated $800,000 in Thursday-night previews and $4.8 million on Friday, lowering the projected weekend gross to $11–13 million. It went on to gross $14.1 million in its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office behind "Deadpool" ($31.5 million). It competed with fellow newcomers "Eddie the Eagle" and "Triple 9", as well as with "Deadpool", which opened two weekends earlier. Opening-day audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. "The Christian Science Monitor"s Molly Driscoll said the "Gods of Egypt"s US release was during "a traditionally quiet time at the box office". Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" commented on supporting versus opposing a successful debut of the film, as "It's an example of a great wrong in modern Hollywood (whitewashing) while existing as a great right (an original fantasy from a gifted and visionary director) at the same time."


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Outside North America, the film got a staggered release. In its opening weekend, it was number one across Central America, Eastern Europe and South East Asia. Top openings were in Russia ($4.3 million), Brazil ($1.9 million) and Philippines ($1.7 million).


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Le Vision Pictures acquired rights from Lionsgate in November 2015 to distribute "Gods of Egypt" in China, and released the film there on , 2016. China was the film's largest territory, with . Lionsgate also released the film in the United Kingdom on , 2016.


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: "Gods of Egypt" was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 15% based on 195 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. Metacritic gives the film a score of 25 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Alonso Duralde of TheWrap wrote, "A mishmash of unconvincing visual effects and clumsy writing—not to mention another depiction of ancient Egypt in which the lead roles are almost all played by white folks—"Gods of Egypt" might have merited a so-bad-it's-good schadenfreude fanbase had it maintained the unintentional laughs of its first 10 minutes. Instead, it skids into dullness, thus negating the camp classic that it so often verges on becoming." Joycelyn Noveck of the "Chicago Sun Times" gave the film a half star out of four, writing, "It's obvious the filmmakers were gunning for a sequel here. But this bloated enterprise is so tiresome by the end, it seems more likely headed for a long rest somewhere in the cinematic afterlife." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of "The A.V. Club" called "Gods of Egypt" "overlong and very silly," and said: "A treasure trove of gilded fantasy bric-a-brac and clashing accents, Proyas' sword-and-sandals space opera is a head above the likes of "Wrath of the Titans", but it rapidly devolves into a tedious and repetitive succession of monster chases, booby traps, and temples that start to crumble at the last minute."


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: Jordan Hoffman of "The Guardian" said, "This is ridiculous. This is offensive. This shouldn't be, and I'm not going to say otherwise if you can't bring yourself to buy a ticket for this movie. But if you are on the fence you can always offset your karmic footprint with a donation to a charity, because this movie is a tremendous amount of fun." Olly Richards of "Empire" was heavily critical, calling the film a "catastrophe" and "the Dolly Parton of movies, without any of the knowing wit".


title: Gods of Egypt (film)

text: In response to the reviews, director Proyas posted to Facebook calling critics "diseased vultures pecking at the bones of a dying carcass", who were "trying to peck to the rhythm of the consensus. I applaud any film-goer who values their own opinion enough to not base it on what the pack-mentality says is good or bad."


title: Catherine Tate

text: Catherine Jane Ford (born 5 December 1969), known professionally as Catherine Tate, is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series "The Catherine Tate Show" (2004–2007), as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTAs. Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of "Doctor Who", and later reprised her role, becoming the Tenth Doctor's regular companion for the fourth series in 2008.


title: Catherine Tate

text: Following the success of "The Catherine Tate Show", Tate starred as Joanie Taylor ("Nan") in the BBC One comedy series "Catherine Tate's Nan" (2009–2015) and in the film "The Nan Movie" (2022). In 2011, she began a recurring role as Nellie Bertram in the U.S. version of "The Office", and was a regular until the series ended. She played the role of Miss Sarah Postern in the BBC One sitcom "Big School" (2013–2014) and voiced Magica De Spell in the animated series "DuckTales" (2017–2021). In 2022, Tate starred as six characters in the Netflix comedy series, "Hard Cell", which she also co-wrote and co-directed.


title: Catherine Tate

text: Tate has also appeared in films, including "Love and Other Disasters" (2006), "Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution" (2007), "Gulliver's Travels" (2010), "Monte Carlo" (2011), and "SuperBob" (2015).


title: Catherine Tate

text: Tate was born in Bloomsbury, London on 5 December 1969 and was raised in the Brunswick Centre. Her mother, Josephine, was a florist. Tate has said that the character of Margaret in "The Catherine Tate Show", who shrieks at the slightest of disturbances, is based largely on her mother. Tate never knew her father as he left very early on in her life and, consequently, she was brought up in a female-dominated environment, being cared for by her mother, grandmother, and godparents. As a child, Tate suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and was obsessed with word association. For example, she was not able to leave a jumper on the floor because it might have brought misfortune to her mother, whose name began with the letter "J" like "jumper".


title: Catherine Tate

text: Tate attended St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School in Holborn, and Notre Dame High School, a convent secondary school for girls in Southwark. By the time she was a teenager, she knew she wanted a professional acting career; following the abolition of the sixth form at her secondary school, she was sent to a boys' Roman Catholic school, Salesian College in Battersea, at the age of 16, as it had the necessary facilities for drama. She left school without sitting her A levels. She then tried for four years to get a place in the Central School of Speech and Drama, succeeding on her fourth attempt. She studied there for three years. Prior to getting a place there, Tate went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, but left after a week, later stating, "Even at that age, I realised I wasn't Bonnie Langford. It was very competitive." She was also a member of the National Youth Theatre.


title: Catherine Tate

text: Born Catherine Ford, she changed her name when she got her Equity card as an actress. She chose her new surname after the character of Jessica Tate, played by Katherine Helmond, from the American sitcom television series "Soap".


title: Catherine Tate

text: From 1988 to 1990 Tate toured with the National Youth Theatre production of "Blood Wedding", which also starred Daniel Craig and Jessica Hynes. In 1994, she got the part of Lydia Lubey in the Oxford Stage Company production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons". She then worked at the Royal National Theatre, playing small roles in "The Way of the World" (1995) and "The Prince's Play" (1996). Tate also performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company during its 10-month tour across the UK, Australia and the USA with Lee Hall's adaptation of "The Servant of Two Masters" (2000–2001).


title: Catherine Tate

text: Her television acting career began with roles in serial dramas such as "The Bill" and "London's Burning". Her debut happened in an episode of the sitcom "Surgical Spirit" in 1991. She was offered an audition for the part by the casting director who also owned a sandwich shop Tate used to go in and knew she was about to go to drama college. On the set, she got to work with actor Duncan Preston, whom she was a big fan of.


title: Catherine Tate

text: In 1996 Tate began performing stand-up comedy. Soon after, she co-wrote and starred in "Barking" (1998), a late-night sketch show broadcast on Channel 4 featuring a host of performers who included David Walliams, Peter Kay and Mackenzie Crook. In 2000, she became involved with Lee Mack's Perrier Comedy Award-nominated "New Bits" show at the Edinburgh Film Festival and appeared in television sketch shows such as "The Harry Hill Show" and "That Peter Kay Thing". The next year, she returned to the festival with her own sell-out one-woman show, which was followed by roles in comedy series "Big Train", "Attention Scum", Charlie Brooker's "TVGoHome" and several BBC Radio productions.


title: Catherine Tate

text: After being spotted at Edinburgh by the casting director Tracey Gillham, she was given her first major television role as Angela in the comedy "Wild West" (2002–2004) set in the small Cornish town. Tate became pregnant before filming the first series and had to wear a lot of baggy clothes as Angela. The show also starred Dawn French as her lesbian partner and local shop and post office co-owner Mary, who commented, "Catherine Tate is far too talented and she must be destroyed."


title: Catherine Tate

text: Tate was approached at a post-show party at the Edinburgh Festival by then-BBC controller of comedy Geoffrey Perkins, who encouraged Tate to develop her character ideas, especially to push the boundaries with her teenage character Lauren Cooper. Undertaking Perkins's advice, after a live show, Tate found the audience walking out of the show repeating the character's catchphrase "Am I bovvered?".Produced by Perkins at Tiger Aspect, Tate was given her own programme on BBC Two in 2004, which she co-wrote and starred in with Derren Litten, entitled "The Catherine Tate Show", which ran for three series. Two of the show's well-known characters are teenager Lauren Cooper and Joanie "Nan" Taylor, the cockney grandmother. Tate's inspiration for the grandmother character came from visits to old people's homes when she was at drama college. Tate won a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Newcomer for her work on the first series of "The Catherine Tate Show", and with the first series becoming a success, in March 2005, Tate made a guest appearance during the BBC's Red Nose Day as the character of Lauren, alongside boy band McFly, which gained her further exposure.


title: Catherine Tate

text: In November 2005 Tate appeared in another charity sketch as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need telethon. The segment was a crossover between "EastEnders" and "The Catherine Tate Show", featuring "EastEnders" characters Peggy Mitchell, Little Mo Mitchell and Stacey Slater, whilst Tate appeared as Lauren. Also at that time, she was a guest star at the 77th "Royal Variety Performance", appearing again in the guise of Lauren Cooper. During the sketch, Tate looked up at the Royal Box and asked the Queen, "Is one bovvered? Is one's face bovvered?", while her co-star Niky Wardley (in character as Liese) remarked: "That old man sitting next to her has fallen asleep." Prince Philip then reportedly complained to the show's executive producer, saying he had been insulted. Tate later won a British Comedy Award for Best British Comedy Actress for her work in the second series of "The Catherine Tate Show".


title: Catherine Tate

text: In January 2005, she appeared as Mitzi Kosinki in the ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel "A Murder Is Announced", starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple. Towards the end of the year, Tate played the part of Kate in the unaired pilot episode of Lee Mack's sitcom "Not Going Out" and Mrs Chadband in an episode of the BBC television adaptation of "Bleak House".


title: Catherine Tate

text: Tate returned to the stage for the first time since working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, to play a role in the original West End production of "Some Girl(s)" (2005), alongside Sara Powell, Lesley Manville, Saffron Burrows and "Friends" star David Schwimmer. In an interview, Tate commented that she could not look Schwimmer in the eye during her time with him, leading to speculation that the pair did not get on. Tate immediately denied the rumours, explaining that she was joking about her attempts to act "cool" around Schwimmer, whom she described as "a very funny, personable man, and easy to get along with".


title: Catherine Tate

text: The third series of "The Catherine Tate Show" aired in 2006, going on to win the National Television Award for most popular comedy as voted for by the public, and Tate's catchphrase "bovvered", used by her character Lauren Cooper, became so influential in popular culture that it was named Word of the Year and was even poised to enter the "Oxford English Dictionary". Tate also played the role of Donna Noble in "Doctor Who", a temp worker from Chiswick who suddenly appears in the TARDIS at the end of the episode "Doomsday". The following episode, the Christmas special entitled "The Runaway Bride", saw Tate's character in a major role, where she was temporarily the Doctor's companion. On her appearance in the series, Tate commented, "I'm honoured and delighted to be joining David Tennant aboard the TARDIS. I was holding out for a summer season at Wigan rep but as a summer job, this'll do."Tate had roles in three films in 2006, these included "Starter for 10" starring James McAvoy, "Sixty Six" starring Helena Bonham Carter and Eddie Marsan, and "Scenes of a Sexual Nature", a debut feature screenplay from "The Catherine Tate Show" co-writer Aschlin Ditta. She later appeared in the films "Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution", in which she played the title character opposite Iain Glen, and "Love and Other Disasters". In the television adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name, "The Bad Mother's Handbook", she played the dramatic lead role and co-starred with Anne Reid, Holliday Grainger and Robert Pattinson.


title: Catherine Tate

text: On 16 March 2007 Tate appeared for a second time on the Red Nose Day telethon as some of her well-known characters from "The Catherine Tate Show". She acted in sketches with David Tennant, her fellow National Youth Theatre alumni Daniel Craig, Lenny Henry and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, who used the show's famous catchphrase, "Am I bovvered?". Tate also appeared as Nan in an episode of "Deal or No Deal", hosted by Noel Edmonds.