title: Mortal Engines

text: The pair eventually boards a small town called Speedwell, where the owner Orme Wreyland drugs them and plans to sell the pair as slaves for profit at a trading cluster. Tom and Hester escape from Wreyland, meeting a friendly airship pilot called Anna Fang, who takes them in her airship the "Jenny Haniver" to the neutral flying city of Airhaven where they can find passage to London. At Airhaven, they are then attacked by a cyborg "Stalker" called Shrike, who was sent after them by the London Mayor Magnus Crome to kill them and bring their bodies to him.


title: Mortal Engines

text: Tom and Hester escape by stealing a hot-air balloon and drift over the Hunting Ground. Hester reveals that when she was a child, her parents were killed by Valentine as they would not give up an Ancient machine. Valentine then injured her and believed that she was dead. Hester escaped, and Shrike took care of her for most of her childhood. Despite the fact that Shrike was not supposed to have feelings, he developed a fatherlike bond with her. Wanting to avenge her parents, Hester left Shrike despite his pleas for her to stay and travelled to London. Shrike followed her, reaching London first, but was captured by Crome and used to create more Stalkers for London.


title: Mortal Engines

text: Hester sees that a London-built scoutship is following them and lowers the balloon onto the Hunting Ground. The scoutship, with Shrike on board, finds the pair and the Stalker confronts them. Before he can explain why he wants Hester to die, two chasing towns run over him, and Tom and Hester manage to board the second of these, a pirate town called Tunbridge Wheels. The mayor, Chrysler Peavy, who knows Hester from her days with Shrike, frees Tom as he is a resident of London and Peavy wishes to learn etiquette worthy of a Londoner gentleman. Tom convinces him to free Hester, and Peavy informs them that he plans to consume the downed Airhaven. While charging at it over shallow water, Tunbridge Wheels beaches on a coral reef, sinking it whilst the survivors escape inland with Tom and Hester. Whilst attempting to feebly retake Airhaven, Peavy gets stuck in a bog and his pirate subordinates shoot him, then attempt to execute Tom and Hester, but Shrike intervenes and kills the remaining pirates. Shrike explains to Hester that Crome had agreed to resurrect her as a Stalker similar to him after he brings back her body. She agrees to this, but Tom intervenes by stabbing Shrike in the eye, shutting him down, and saving her life.


title: Mortal Engines

text: Valentine is sent away by Crome on a "secret mission", much to Katherine's dismay. Suspicious of her father, Katherine begins investigating events in London with the help of Apprentice Engineer Bevis Pod, whom she befriends after discovering he witnessed Tom chasing Hester. They discover that Valentine salvaged a monstrous ancient weapon called MEDUSA for London and that the Guild of Engineers had reassembled it inside St Paul's Cathedral. The Cathedral's dome splits open to reveal MEDUSA, which is then used to destroy a much larger city pursuing London.


title: Mortal Engines

text: Tom and Hester are rescued by Fang, who is revealed to be an Anti-Traction League agent and takes them to the Shield Wall of Batmunkh Gompa which protects the nation-state of the League. Fang suspects that the weapon that London has reassembled will be used to destroy the Shield Wall, and warns League Governor Khan of MEDUSA. Khan is skeptical that London will attack, but Fang insists that they should bomb London to destroy the weapon. Convinced that the League will kill innocent people and angry at the idea of destroying his home, Tom storms out and discovers Valentine has infiltrated Batmunkh Gompa as a monk. Tom raises the alarm, but Valentine successfully cripples the League's northern fleet of airships. Valentine duels and kills Fang by stabbing her in the neck, before escaping in his own airship the "13th Floor Elevator". Tom and Hester take the "Jenny Haniver" and fly it back to London in the hope of stopping Valentine and MEDUSA themselves.


title: Mortal Engines

text: With MEDUSA finally launched, Crome begins guiding London east towards the Anti-Traction League's base behind the Shield Wall of Batmunkh Gompa to destroy their defenses and devour all of their settlements. After Valentine returns, Katherine learns that MEDUSA was originally found by Hester's mother, Pandora and that he had killed her to steal it for London. He also admits that Katherine was likely Hester's half-sister. Disillusioned, and horrified by the destructive power of the weapon, Katherine and Bevis conspire to plant a bomb to destroy MEDUSA but are caught in their attempt.


title: Mortal Engines

text: The Guild of Historians, led by Tom's boss Chudleigh Pomeroy, come to their aid, and battle with the Engineers. Katherine travels up to the Top Tier to Saint Paul's Cathedral, with Bevis disguised as her captor. Tom and Hester arrive, and Hester attempts to fight her way to Valentine to avenge her parents. Tom is attacked by the "13th Floor Elevator" above London and shoots it down. Bevis is killed when the airship crushes him, but Katherine is able to reach Saint Paul's Cathedral. Inside, she sees Hester brought before Valentine. When he attempts to kill her, Katherine jumps in her father's way and is fatally wounded. She falls onto a keyboard, interrupting the firing sequence of MEDUSA, and causing it to malfunction. Valentine and Hester, briefly putting aside their differences, try to take Katherine to Tom to get help, but she dies before they can reach him.


title: Mortal Engines

text: Hester leaves with Tom in the airship, while Valentine chooses to stay behind in London. MEDUSA finally misfires, obliterating most of the city and killing Valentine. Hester tries to comfort a grief-stricken Tom as they fly away in the "Jenny Haniver", apparently the only survivors of the incident, and make their way to the Bird Roads.


title: Mortal Engines

text: A few of the people in "Mortal Engines" are named after places in Devon, where Reeve lives, including Chudleigh, Tamerton Foliot and the River Plym. In the quartet, Miss Plym and Chudleigh Pomeroy are both in the Guild of Historians, and Tamarton Foliot is an "Alternative" historian. Both Shrike and Smew are named after birds, and Pennyroyal is named after a flower.


title: Mortal Engines

text: The title is a quotation from Act III, Scene iii of William Shakespeare's play "Othello" ("Othello: And O you mortal engines whose rude throats/Th'immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit..." – Line 352). In the novel, it refers to the fact that the society of Municipal Darwinism is not sustainable living and that the cities' engines are indeed mortal.


title: Mortal Engines

text: The original drafts were intended to be an adult novel but after several rejections, Scholastic said they might be interested in "Mortal Engines" as a children's story. In the refactoring the story was simplified, removing several characters and much content such as the city politics that Reeve thought would not be interesting to children.


title: Mortal Engines

text: The Mortal Engines world was originally written as an alternative universe set in the early 1900s, but Reeve has stated this turned out to require just too much explaining as how and where history could have diverged. He was inspired to start then due to "The War of the Worlds".


title: Mortal Engines

text: "Publishers Weekly" praised the book, calling it "staggering feat of engineering ... [that] ... offers new wonders at every turn".


title: Mortal Engines

text: A film adaptation by Peter Jackson was announced in 2009. In October 2016, Jackson announced that the film would be his next project as producer and co-writer, alongside long-time collaborators Fran Walsh (also his wife) and Philippa Boyens. The film was directed by Jackson's long-time collaborator Christian Rivers. The film premiered on 27 November 2018. It was released in the UK on 7 December 2018 and on 14 December 2018 in the US. It received generally negative reviews and was a commercial failure. It was criticized for changing the book's climax and ending, removing the book's social commentary and satire, and its portrayal of Hester Shaw as a more traditionally heroic character. However, the design of the traction cities and Robert Sheehan's performance were praised.


title: Mortal Engines

text: On November 18, 2020, upon asked whether "Mortal Engines" would be rebooted for television, Reeve responded that, while that would be nice, it seemed unlikely.


title: Mortal Engines

text: Critics have suggested that the 2019 Amazon Prime Video series "Carnival Row" is influenced by the "Mortal Engines" series of novels, amongst other influences.


title: Drivetrain

text: A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivetrain is the components of a motor vehicle that deliver power to the drive wheels. This excludes the engine or motor that generates the power. In marine applications, the drive shaft will drive a propeller, thruster, or waterjet rather than a drive axle, while the actual engine might be similar to an automotive engine. Other machinery, equipment and vehicles may also use a drivetrain to deliver power from the engine(s) to the driven components.


title: Drivetrain

text: In contrast, the powertrain is considered to include both the engine and/or motor(s) as well as the drivetrain.


title: Drivetrain

text: The function of the drivetrain is to couple the engine that produces the power to the driving wheels that use this mechanical power to rotate the axle. This connection involves physically linking the two components, which may be at opposite ends of the vehicle and so requiring a long propeller shaft or drive shaft. The operating speed of the engine and wheels are also different and must be matched by the correct gear ratio. As the vehicle speed changes, the ideal engine speed must remain approximately constant for efficient operation and so this gearbox ratio must also be changed, either manually, automatically or by an automatic continuous variation.


title: Drivetrain

text: The final drive is the last in the set of components which delivers torque to the drive wheels. In a road vehicle, it incorporates the differential. In a railway vehicle, it sometimes incorporates the reversing gear. Examples include the Self-Changing Gears RF 28 (used in many first-generation diesel multiple units of British Railways) and RF 11 used in the British Rail Class 03 and British Rail Class 04 diesel shunting locomotives.


title: Drivetrain

text: In a motor vehicle, the powertrain consists of the source of propulsion (e.g. the engine or electric motor) and the drivetrain system which transfers this energy into forward movement of the vehicle.


title: Drivetrain

text: The powertrain consists of the prime mover (e.g. an internal combustion engine and/or one or more traction motors) and the drivetrain - all of the components that convert the prime mover's power into movement of the vehicle (e.g. the transmission, driveshafts, differential and axles); whereas the drivetrain does not include the power source and consists of the transmission, driveshafts, differential and axles.


title: Drivetrain

text: Most passenger cars and commercial vehicles are powered by either an internal combustion engine, electric motor(s) or a combination of the two.


title: Drivetrain

text: Most purely electric vehicles use batteries for energy storage and are referred to as battery electric vehicles.


title: Drivetrain

text: Vehicles with both internal combustion engines and electric motors are called "hybrid vehicles". If a hybrid vehicle includes a charging socket, it is considered to be a plug-in hybrid, while vehicles that do not include a charging socket (therefore relying on the engine or regenerative braking to charge the batteries) are considered to be mild hybrids.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: Saint Peter's Square (, ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo. Both the square and the basilica are named after Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus whom Catholics consider to be the first Pope.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: At the centre of the square is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1586. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Doric colonnades, four columns deep, which embrace visitors in "the maternal arms of Mother Church". A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno in 1613.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace". Bernini had been working on the interior of St. Peter's for decades; now he gave order to the space with his renowned colonnades, using a simplified Doric order, to avoid competing with the palace-like façade by Carlo Maderno, but he employed it on an unprecedented colossal scale to suit the space and evoke a sense of awe.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: There were many constraints from existing structures ("illustration, right"). The massed accretions of the Vatican Palace crowded the space to the right of the basilica's façade; the structures needed to be masked without obscuring the papal apartments. The obelisk marked a centre, and a granite fountain by Maderno stood to one side: Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the foci of the ovato tondo embraced by his colonnades and eventually matched it on the other side, in 1675, just five years before his death. The trapezoidal shape of the piazza, which creates a heightened perspective for a visitor leaving the basilica and has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theater ("illustration, below right"), is largely a product of site constraints.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: According to the Lateran Treaty the area of St. Peter's Square is subject to the authority of Italian police for crowd control even though it is a part of the Vatican state.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: The colossal Doric colonnades, four columns deep, frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and the massive elliptical area which precedes it. The ovato tondo's long axis, parallel to the basilica's façade, creates a pause in the sequence of forward movements that is characteristic of a Baroque monumental approach. The colonnades define the piazza. The elliptical center of the piazza, which contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the visitor with "the maternal arms of Mother Church" in Bernini's expression. On the south side, the colonnades define and formalize the space, with the Barberini Gardens still rising to a skyline of umbrella pines. On the north side, the colonnade masks an assortment of Vatican structures; the upper stories of the Vatican Palace rise above.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: At the center of the "ovato tondo" stands the Vatican Obelisk, an uninscribed Egyptian obelisk of red granite, tall, supported on bronze lions and surmounted by the Chigi arms in bronze, in all to the cross on its top. The obelisk was originally erected in Heliopolis, Egypt, by an unknown pharaoh.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: The Emperor Augustus had the obelisk moved to the Julian Forum of Alexandria, where it stood until AD 37, when Caligula ordered the forum demolished and the obelisk transferred to Rome. He had it placed on the spina which ran along the center of the Circus of Nero.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: It was moved to its current site in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction of Pope Sixtus V; the engineering feat of re-erecting its vast weight was memorialized in a suite of engravings. The obelisk is the only obelisk in Rome that has not toppled since antiquity. During the Middle Ages, the gilt ball atop the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar. Fontana later removed the ancient metal ball, now in a Roman museum, and found only dust inside; Christopher Hibbert however writes that the ball was found to be solid. Though Bernini had no influence in the erection of the obelisk, he did use it as the centerpiece of his magnificent piazza, and added the Chigi arms to the top in honor of his patron, Alexander VII.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: The paving is varied by radiating lines in travertine, to relieve what might otherwise be a sea of setts. In 1817 circular stones were set to mark the tip of the obelisk's shadow at noon as the sun entered each of the signs of the zodiac, making the obelisk a gigantic sundial's gnomon. Below is a view of St. Peter's Square from the cupola (the top of the dome) which was taken in June 2007.


title: St. Peter's Square

text: St. Peter's Square today can be reached from the Ponte Sant'Angelo along the grand approach of the Via della Conciliazione (in honor of the Lateran Treaty of 1929). The "spina" (median with buildings which divided the two roads of "Borgo Vecchio" and "Borgo nuovo") which once occupied this grand avenue leading to the square was demolished ceremonially by Benito Mussolini himself on October 23, 1936, and was completely demolished by October 8, 1937. St. Peter's Basilica was now freely visible from the Castel Sant'Angelo. After the spina, almost all the buildings south of the passetto were demolished between 1937 and 1950, obliterating one of the most important medieval and renaissance quarters of the city. Moreover, the demolition of the spina canceled the characteristic Baroque surprise, nowadays maintained only for visitors coming from "Borgo Santo Spirito". The Via della Conciliazione was completed in time for the Great Jubilee of 1950.


title: Iron sights

text: Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly as a primitive finder sight for optical telescopes. The earliest sighting device, it relies completely on the viewer's naked eye (mostly under ambient lighting), and is distinctly different to optical sights such as telescopic sights, reflector (reflex) sights, holographic sights and laser sights, which make use of optical manipulation and/or active illumination, as well as the newer optoelectronics, which use digital imaging and even incorporate augmented reality.


title: Iron sights

text: Iron sights are typically composed of two components mounted perpendicularly above the weapon's bore axis: a rear sight nearer (or "proximally") to the shooter's eye, and a front sight farther forward (or "distally") near the muzzle. During aiming, the shooter aligns his/her line of sight past a gap at the rear sight's center towards the top edge of the front sight (which is usually shaped as a small post, bead, ramp, or occasionally, a ring), forming a "line of aim" that points straight at the desired target. "Open sights" are iron sights whose rear sight uses a notch of some sort, while "aperture sights" use some form of a circular hole. Most civilian, hunting and police long guns and nearly all handguns feature open sights, while many military battle rifles usually employ aperture sights.


title: Iron sights

text: The earliest and simplest iron sights were fixed and could not be easily readjusted. Many modern iron sights are designed to be adjustable for sighting in firearms by adjusting the sights for elevation or windage. On many firearms it is the rear sight that is adjustable.


title: Iron sights

text: For precision applications such as varmint hunting or sniping, the iron sights are usually replaced by a telescopic sight. Iron sights may still be fitted alongside other sighting devices (or in the case of some models of optics, incorporated integrally) for back-up usage.


title: Iron sights

text: In the case of firearms, where the projectile follows a curved ballistic trajectory below the bore axis, the only way to ensure it will hit an intended target is by aiming at the precise point on the trajectory at that target's intended distance. To do that, the shooter aligns his line of sight with the front and rear sights, forming a consistent "line of aim" (known as the sight axis) and in turn producing what is known as the "point of aim" (POA) within his own field of view, which then gets pointed directly (i.e. aimed) at the target. The physical distance between the front and rear sights is known as the sight radius, the longer of which produces smaller angular errors when aiming.


title: Iron sights

text: "Sighting in" is a process in which the sight axis is adjusted to intersect the trajectory of the bullet at a designated distance (typically at 100 yards/meters), in order to produce a pre-determined "point of impact" (POI) at that distance, known as a ""zero"". Using that "zero" as a default reference, the point of aim can be readily re-calibrated to superimpose with the bullet's point of impact when shooting at different distances. Modern iron sights can all provide some horizontal and vertical adjustments for sighting-in, and often have elevation markings that allow the shooter to quickly compensate (though with rather limited precision) for increasing bullet drops at extended distances. Because the sight axis (which is a straight line) and the projectile trajectory (which is a parabolic curve) must be within the same vertical plane to have any chance of intersecting, it will be very difficult to shoot accurately if the sights are not perpendicularly above the gun barrel (a situation known as canting) when aiming or sighting-in.


title: Iron sights

text: Rear sights on long guns (such as rifles) are usually mounted on a dovetail slot on the back part of the barrel or the receiver, closer to the eye of the shooter, allowing for easy visual pick-up of the notch. Front sights are mounted to the front end of the barrel by dovetailing, soldering, screwing or staking very close to the muzzle, frequently on a "ramp". Some front sight assemblies include a detachable hood intended to reduce glare, and if the hood is circular, then this provides a reference where the eye will naturally align one within the other.


title: Iron sights

text: In the case of handguns, the rear sight will be mounted on the frame (for revolvers and derringers) or on the slide (for nearly all semi-automatic pistols). Exceptions are possible depending on the type of handgun, e.g. the rear sight on a snub-nose revolver is typically a trench milled into the top strap of the frame, and the front sight is the to-be-expected blade. Certain handguns may have the rear sight mounted on a hoop-like bracket that straddles the slide.


title: Iron sights

text: With typical blade- or post-type iron sights, the shooter would center the front sight's post in the notch of the rear sight and the tops of both sights should be level. Since the eye is only capable of focusing on one focal plane at a time, and the rear sight, front sight and target are all in separate planes, only one of those three planes can be in focus. Which plane is in focus depends on the type of sight, and one of the challenges to a shooter is to keep the focus on the correct plane to allow for best sight alignment. The general advice, however, is to focus on the front sight.


title: Iron sights

text: Due to parallax, even a tiny error in the angle of sight alignment results in a trajectory that diverges from the target on a trajectory directly relative to the distance from the target, causing the bullet to miss the target; for example, with a 10 meter air rifle shooter trying to hit the 10 ring, which is merely a diameter dot on the target at and with a diameter pellet, an error of only in sight alignment can mean a complete miss (a point of impact miss). At , that same misalignment would be magnified 100 times, giving an error of over , 1,500 times the sight misalignment. Increasing the sight radius helps to reduce eventual angular errors and will, in case the sight has an incremental adjustment mechanism, adjust in smaller increments when compared to a further identical shorter sighting line. With the front sight on the front end of the barrel, sight radius may be increased by moving the rear sight from the barrel onto the receiver or tang.


title: Iron sights

text: Sights for shotguns used for shooting small, moving targets (such as clay pigeon shooting) work quite differently. The rear sight is completely discarded, and the rear reference point is provided by the correct and consistent positioning of the shooter's head. A brightly colored (generally brass or silver-colored, white, or a fluorescent shade) round bead is placed at the end of the barrel. Often, this bead will be placed along a raised, flat "rib", which is usually ventilated to keep it cool and reduce mirage effects from a hot barrel. Rather than being aimed like a rifle or handgun, the shotgun is pointed with the focus always on the target, and the unfocused image of the barrel and bead are placed below the target (the amount below depends on whether the target is rising or falling) and slightly ahead of the target if there is lateral movement. This method of aiming is not as precise as that of a front sight/rear sight combination, but it is much faster, and the wide spread of shots can allow an effective hit even if there is some aiming error. Some shotguns also provide a "mid-bead", which is a smaller bead located halfway down the rib, which allows more feedback on barrel alignment. Some shotguns may also come equipped with rifle-style sights — typically shotguns intended for turkey hunting have this arrangement.


title: Iron sights

text: Open sights generally are used where the rear sight is at significant distance from the shooter's eye. They provide minimum occlusion of the shooter's view, but at the expense of precision. Open sights generally use either a square post or a bead on a post for a front sight. To use the sight, the post or bead is positioned both vertically and horizontally in the center of the rear sight notch. For a center hold, the front sight is positioned on the center of the target, bisecting the target vertically and horizontally. For a 6 o'clock hold, the front sight is positioned just below the target and centered horizontally. A 6 o'clock hold is only good for a known target size at a known distance and will not hold zero without user adjustment if these factors are varied. From the shooter's point of view, there should be a noticeable space between each side of the front sight and the edges of the notch; the spaces are called "light bars", and the brightness of the light bars provides the shooter feedback as to the alignment of the post in the notch. Vertical alignment is done by lining up the top of the front post with the top of the rear sight, or by placing the bead just above the bottom of the V or U-notch. If the post is not centered in the V or U notch, the shot will not be accurate. If the post extends over the V or U-notch it will result in a high shot. If the post does not reach the top of the V or U-notch it will result in a low shot.


title: Iron sights

text: "Patridge" sights, named after inventor E. E. Patridge, a 19th-century American sportsman, consist of a square or rectangular post and a flat-bottomed square notch and are the most common form of open sights, being preferred for target shooting, as the majority of shooters find the vertical alignment is more precise than other open sights. "V-notch" and "U-notch" sights are a variant of the patridge which substitute a V- or U-shaped rear notch.


title: Iron sights

text: Other common open sight types include the "buckhorn", "semi-buckhorn", and "express". Buckhorn sights have extensions protruding from either side of the rear sight forming a large ring which almost meets directly above the "V" of the notch. The semi-buckhorn is similar but has a wider gently curving notch with the more precise "V" at its center and is standard on classic Winchester and Marlin lever-action rifles. Express sights are most often used on heavy caliber rifles intended for the hunting of dangerous big game, and are in the form of a wide and large "V" with a heavy white contrast line marking its bottom and a big white or gold bead front sight. These sights do not occlude the target as much as some other styles which is useful in the case of a charging animal. In cases where the range is close and speed far outweighs accuracy (e.g. the shooter is being charged by dangerous big-game), the front sight is used like a shotgun bead; the rear sight is ignored, and the bead is placed on the target. When more time is available, the bead is placed in the "V" of the rear sight.


title: Iron sights

text: Open sights have many advantages: they are very common, inexpensive to produce, uncomplicated to use, sturdy, lightweight, resistant to severe environmental conditions, and they do not require batteries. On the other hand, they are not as precise as other forms of sights, and are difficult or impossible to adjust. Open sights also take much more time to use—the buckhorn type is the slowest, patridge, "U" and "V" type notch sights are only a bit quicker; only the express sight is relatively fast. In addition, open sights tend to block out the lower portion of the shooter's field of view by nature, and because of the depth of field limitations of the human eye, do not work as well for shooters with less than perfect vision.


title: Iron sights

text: Among those utilizing shotguns for hunting of upland game, directing a shotgun toward its target is considered a slightly different skill than aiming a rifle or pistol. Shotgunners are encouraged to "point" a shotgun versus the accurate aiming of a rifle. Some even espouse a mentality that eliminates the concept of "aim" altogether. Because much of shotgunning involves putting a scatter pattern in the path of moving targets, the concept of a sight is considered a subconscious aid. The front sight of a shotgun is a small spherical "bead" attached to the muzzle, acts as a reference, while the "rear sight" is nothing more than a narrow longitudinal groove on the receiver and barrel rib. When shooting, aligning the rear groove with the front bead is not to be consciously considered, as it comprises only a rough reference allowing the shooter to use his natural point of aim to make the shot.


title: Iron sights

text: In the tactical environment, where targets aren't moving across the visual field as quickly, sights do have a role. For many, a fiberoptic front sight is the preferred sighting reference in conjunction with a rear leaf. In this instance, the shotgun is used more like a rifle, allowing intentionally aimed shots. Some even equip their shotguns with open or aperture sights akin to a rifle.


title: Iron sights

text: Many shotgun bead sights are designed for a "figure 8" configuration, where a proper sight picture uses a bead mounted at the midpoint of the barrel in conjunction with a front bead mounted toward the muzzle. Many shotgun manufacturers, such as Browning, calibrate these sighting systems to produce a shotgun pattern that is "dead-on" when the front bead is stacked just above the mid-bead, producing the figure-8 sight picture.


title: Iron sights

text: Aperture sights, also known as "peep sights", range from the "ghost ring" sight, whose thin ring blurs to near invisibility (hence "ghost"), to target aperture sights that use large disks or other occluders with pinhole-sized apertures. In general, the thicker the ring, the more precise the sight, and the thinner the ring, the faster the sight.


title: Iron sights

text: The theory of operation behind the aperture sight is often stated that the human eye will automatically center the front sight when looking through the rear aperture, thus ensuring accuracy. However, aperture sights are accurate even if the front sight is not centered in the rear aperture due to a phenomenon called parallax suppression. This is because, when the aperture is smaller than the eye's pupil diameter, the aperture itself becomes the entrance pupil for the entire optical system of target, front sight post, rear aperture, and eye. As long as the aperture's diameter is completely contained within the eye's pupil diameter, the exact visual location of the front sight post within the rear aperture ring does not affect the accuracy, and accuracy only starts to degrade slightly due to parallax shift as the aperture's diameter begins to encroach on the outside of the eye's pupil diameter. An additional benefit to aperture sights is that smaller apertures provide greater depth of field, making the target less blurry when focusing on the front sight.


title: Iron sights

text: In low light conditions the parallax suppression phenomenon is markedly better. The depth of field looking through the sight remains the same as in bright conditions. This is in contrast to open sights, where the eye's pupil will become wider in low light conditions, meaning a larger aperture and a blurrier target. The downside to this is that the image through an aperture sight is darker than with an open sight.


title: Iron sights

text: These sights are used on target rifles of several disciplines and on several military rifles such as the Pattern 1914 Enfield and M1917 Enfield, M1 Garand, the No. 4 series Lee–Enfields, M14 rifle, Stgw 57, G3 and the M16 series of weapons along with several others.


title: Iron sights

text: Rifle aperture sights for military combat or hunting arms are not designed for maximal attainable precision like target aperture sights, as these must be usable under suboptimal field conditions.


title: Iron sights

text: The ghost ring sight is considered by some to be the fastest type of aperture sight. It is fairly accurate, easy to use, and obscures the target less than nearly all other non-optical sights. Because of this, ghost ring sights are commonly installed on riot and combat shotguns and customized handguns, and they are also gaining ground as a backup sighting system on rifles. The ghost ring is a fairly recent innovation, and differs from traditional aperture sights in the extreme thinness of the rear ring and the slightly thicker front sight. The thin ring minimizes the occlusion of the target, while the thicker front post makes it easy to find quickly. Factory Mossberg ghost ring sights also have thick steel plates on either side of the extremely thin ring. These are to protect the sight's integrity in cases where, if the shotgun were to fall and impact a surface in a way that could potentially damage or distort the shape of the ring.


title: Iron sights

text: Target aperture sights are designed for maximum precision. The rear sight element (often called "diopter") is usually a large disk (up to 1 inch or 2.5 cm in diameter) with a small hole in the middle, of approximately or less, and is placed close to the shooter's eye. High end target diopters normally accept accessories like adjustable diopter aperture and optical filter systems to ensure optimal sighting conditions for match shooters. Typical modern target shooting diopters offer windage and elevation corrections in to increments at . Some International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) (Olympic) shooting events require this precision level for sighting lines, since the final score of the top competitors last shots series is expressed in tenths of scoring ring points.


title: Iron sights

text: The complementing front sight element may be a simple bead or post, but is more often a "globe"-type sight, which consists of a cylinder with a threaded cap, which allows differently shaped removable front sight elements to be used. Most common are posts of varying widths and heights or rings of varying diameter—these can be chosen by the shooter for the best fit to the target being used. Tinted transparent plastic insert elements may also be used, with a hole in the middle; these work the same way as an opaque ring, but provide a less obstructed view of the target. High end target front sight tunnels normally also accept accessories like adjustable aperture and optical systems to ensure optimal sighting conditions for match shooters. Some high end target sight line manufacturers also offer front sights with integrated aperture mechanisms.


title: Iron sights

text: The use of round rear and front sighting elements for aiming at round targets, like used in ISSF match shooting, takes advantage of the natural ability of the eye and brain to easily align concentric circles. Even for the maximum precision, there should still be a significant area of white visible around the bullseye and between the front and rear sight ring (if a front ring is being used). Since the best key to determining center is the amount of light passing through the apertures, a narrow, dim ring of light can actually be more difficult to work with than a larger, brighter ring. The precise sizes are quite subjective, and depend on both shooter preference and ambient lighting, which is why target rifles come with easily replaceable front sight inserts, and adjustable aperture mechanisms.


title: Iron sights

text: Front aperture size is a compromise between a tight enough aperture to clearly define the aiming point and a loose enough aperture so as to not cause 'flicker'. When the aperture is too small, the boundary between the target and front aperture outline becomes indistinct, requiring the shooter to consciously or subconsciously generate small eye movements to measure the distance around the target. USA Shooting recommends a front aperture that creates at least 3 Minutes of Angle (MOA) of boundary space. In research performed by Precision Shooting, it was found that this increased shooter confidence, reduced hold times, and created more decisive shots. There may be an upper bound to the front aperture size that improves performance, however. In 2013, researchers performed experiments with the game of golf, specifically the skill of putting which is another skill that combines visual alignment with motor skills. They found that by manipulating the perceived size of the target (the golf hole) by surrounding it with concentric rings of various sizes, there was a phenomenon that improved performance when the target was surrounded by smaller circles thereby increasing its perceived size. They found that when the target was perceived as larger, performance increased.


title: Iron sights

text: Aperture sights on military rifles use a larger aperture with a thinner ring, and generally a simple post front sight.


title: Iron sights

text: Rifles from the late 19th century often featured one of two types of aperture sight called a "tang sight" or a "ladder sight". Since the black powder used in muzzleloaders and early cartridges was not capable of propelling a bullet at high speed, these sights had very large ranges of vertical adjustments, often on the order of several degrees, allowing very long shots to be made accurately. The .45-70 cartridge, for example, was tested by the military for accuracy at ranges of up to , which required 3 degrees of elevation. Both ladder and tang sights folded down when not in use to reduce the chance of damage to the sights. Ladder sights were mounted on the barrel, and could be used as sights in both the folded and unfolded states. Tang sights were mounted behind the action of the rifle, and provided a very long sight radius, and had to be unfolded for use, though rifles with tang sights often had open sights as well for close range use. Tang sights often had vernier scales, allowing adjustment down to a single minute of arc over the full range of the sight.


title: Iron sights

text: Assault rifles and sporterized semi-automatic rifles can have foldable rear and front sight elements that can be readily flipped up or down by the user. Such iron sights are often used as secondary sighting systems in case the main weapon sight (typically an optical sight such as a telescopic sight or red dot sight) malfunctions or becomes unsuitable for the tactical situation at hand, and are therefore as backup iron sights (BUIS). Backup sights are usually mounted via Rail Integration Systems (most often Picatinny rails) in tandem with optical aiming devices, although "offset" BUISs that are mounted obliquely from the bore axis also exist. When used with non-magnifying optics (e.g. reflex or holographic sights), the flip-up rear and front elements often are designed to appear in the same sight picture, known as "cowitnessing", as the primary optical sights.


title: Iron sights

text: Fixed sights are sights that are not adjustable. For instance, on many revolvers, the rear sight consists of a fixed sight that is a groove milled into the top of the gun's receiver. Adjustable sights are designed to be adjustable for different ranges, for the effect of wind, or to compensate for varying cartridge bullet weights or propellant loadings, which alter the round's velocity and external ballistics and thus its trajectory and point of impact. Sight adjustments are orthogonal, so the windage can be adjusted without impacting the elevation, and vice versa. If the firearm is held canted instead of level when fired, the adjustments are no longer orthogonal, so it is essential to keep the firearm level for best accuracy.


title: Iron sights

text: The downside to adjustable sights is the inherent fragility of the moving parts. A fixed sight is a solid piece of metal, usually steel, and if firmly attached to the gun, little is going to be able to damage it beyond usefulness. Adjustable sights, on the other hand, are bulkier, and have parts that must move relative to the gun. Solid impact on an adjustable sight will usually knock it out of adjustment, if not knock it right off the gun. Because of this, guns for self defense or military use either have fixed sights, or sights with "wings" on the sides for protection (such as those on the M4 carbine).


title: Iron sights

text: Iron sights used for hunting guns tend to be a compromise. They will be adjustable, but only with tools—generally either a small screwdriver or an allen wrench. They will be compact and heavily built, and designed to lock securely into position. Target sights, on the other hand, are much bulkier and easier to adjust. They generally have large knobs to control horizontal and vertical movement without tools, and often they are designed to be quickly and easily detachable from the gun so they can be stored separately in their own protective case.


title: Iron sights

text: The most common is a rear sight that adjusts in both directions, though military rifles often have a "tangent sight" in the rear, which a slider on the rear sight has pre-calibrated elevation adjustments for different ranges. With tangent sights, the rear sight is often used to adjust the elevation, and the front the windage. The M16A2 later M16 series rifles have a dial adjustable range calibrated rear sight, and use an elevation adjustable front sight to "zero" the rifle at a given range. The rear sight is used for windage adjustment and to change the zero range.


title: Iron sights

text: While iron sights are very simple, that simplicity also leads to a staggering variety of different implementations. In addition to the purely geometric considerations of the front blade and rear notch, there are some factors that need to be considered when choosing a set of iron sights for a particular purpose.


title: Iron sights

text: Glare, particularly from the front sight, can be a significant problem with iron sights. The glare from the front sight can increase the apparent brightness of the light bar on one side of the sight, causing windage errors in aiming, or lower the apparent height of the front sight, causing elevation errors in aiming. Since the direction of the ambient light is rarely constant for a shooter, the resulting changing glare can significantly affect the point of aim.


title: Iron sights

text: The most common solution to the problem of glare is a matte finish on the sights. Serrating or bead blasting the sight is a common solution for brightly finished sights, such as blued steel or stainless steel. Matte finishes such as parkerizing or matte black paint can also help. "Smoking" a sight by holding a match or cigarette lighter under the sight to deposit a fine layer of soot is a common technique used by many shooters, and in fact special soot producing cigarette type lighters are sold for use by competition shooters. Even a thin layer of mud or dirt applied to the sight will help kill the glare, as long as the coating is thin and consistent enough not to change the shape of the sights.


title: Iron sights

text: Many target sights are designed with vertical or even undercut front sight blades, which reduces the angles at which light will produce glare off the sight—the downside of these sights is that they tend to snag on clothing, branches, and other materials, so they are common only on target guns. Sight hoods reduce the chances of snagging an undercut sight and are common on some types of rifles, particularly lever-action rifles, but they are prohibited in some shooting disciplines.


title: Iron sights

text: While target shooters generally prefer a matte black finish to their sights, to reduce the chance of glare and increase the contrast between the sights and the light bars, black sights don't offer good visibility with dark targets or in low light conditions, such as those often encountered in hunting, military, or self-defense situations. A variety of different contrast enhancements to the basic Patridge type sight and others have been developed to address this deficiency. The contrast enhancement of the front sight has to be somewhat larger compared to the contrast enhancement(s) used for the rear sight if all contrast enhancements should appear about equally large from the shooters perspective.


title: Crossing Lines

text: Crossing Lines is a German-French-Italian-American action crime thriller television series created by Edward Allen Bernero and Rola Bauer. The series premiered on June 9, 2013, at the screening for the Opening Ceremonies of the 53rd edition of the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo, the first time the festival opened with a television series. Its first television broadcast was in Italy on June 14, 2013, on the public broadcaster's channel Rai 2. "Crossing Lines" was premiered in the United States on NBC on June 23, 2013. Bernero and Bauer are the show's executive producers. The show was renewed for a twelve-episode second season by TF1, and was released in its entirety on Amazon Prime Instant Video in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2014. NBC did not broadcast the show after the first season. Netflix carried the series' first two seasons, and announced the debut of season three on February 19, 2015. Canada's CBC aired second-season episodes during late-night hours. On 20 February 2015, the show was renewed for a twelve-episode, third season. The third season began on September 15, 2015.


title: Crossing Lines

text: Former New York Police Department officer Carl Hickman's life has fallen apart after he was injured on the job; he has become addicted to morphine and works as a garbage collector at a carnival in the Netherlands. He is recruited to join the International Criminal Court's special crime unit (a fictional unit). Based in The Hague, it investigates a variety of crimes that cross international boundaries. The unit includes an anti–organized crime expert, a covert specialist from Italy, a technical specialist from Germany, a crimes analyst, a human-trafficking specialist from France and a weapons specialist and tactical expert from Northern Ireland.


title: Crossing Lines

text: "Crossing Lines" was co-commissioned by France's TF1 and Sony for its AXN network of channels. This is Tandem's first one-hour drama series, having previously produced miniseries, as well as its first project since being acquired by StudioCanal in 2012. The first season was filmed in Paris, Nice and Prague, with filming ending in February 2013. Locations in Prague were used for parts of Paris, Italy, the Netherlands, Berlin and Vienna. Audio post-production was done by SoundSquare in Prague while video post-production work was done by Universal Production Partners. Approximately €10 million was spent in the Czech Republic on the production of the first season.


title: Crossing Lines

text: Bernero said that the show would "feel familiar and help viewers find their orientation, but the European locations will make it feel fresh and very new".


title: Crossing Lines

text: "Crossing Lines" airs in Germany on Sat.1 on Thursdays at 9:15 pm, in the United States on NBC on Sundays at 10:00 pm (currently in off-season), in Canada on CBC on Tuesdays at 9:00 pm, in India on AXN every weekday at 9:00 pm (June 2016), and in France on TF1 on Thursdays at 9:00 pm.


title: Crossing Lines

text: In the United Kingdom, the series was released on the LoveFilm platform on October 25, 2013. The second season was released on Amazon Video on August 15, 2014, with all seasons available on the platform as of 2019. It is now being shown on Alibi (2015). All 3 seasons are being shown on Netflix. (May 2018). In November 2020, Ovation announced it had acquired the American broadcast rights to the entire series and it returned broadcast in the United States on December 7, 2020. The show will air Monday nights at 7 PM ET, with 3 episodes back to back and episodes reran Tuesday afternoons at 4pm ET in the first season. The series returned for the second season on January 11, 2021.


title: Crossing Lines

text: The series is second one to be picked up by the network in US to not finish its American run originally, after "The Code (Australian TV series)". It also makes it the second series co-produced with and owned by Sony Pictures Television, after the Canadian-Hungarian spy thriller crime drama action series "X Company".


title: Crossing Lines

text: Tom Conroy of "Media Life Magazine" found the European flavour of the show, seen in such things as travelling by train to various cities, to be a refreshing change from the norm of American shows. He felt that Donald Sutherland was cast purely for the name-recognition factor and that he was given some lines in which he philosophically talks to pigeons as a means of justifying the cost of casting him. Overall, Conroy found it an "unimaginative procedural" that, despite its title, "generally colors within the lines". David Wiegand of the "San Francisco Chronicle" also found the location to be what sets "Crossing Lines" apart. He felt the presence of Donald Sutherland was a benefit to the show. Joanne Ostrow of Heritage Newspapers felt the show to be a "contrivance for foreign sales more than a serious drama".


title: Crossing Lines

text: "Crossing Lines" has been criticised as misrepresenting the International Criminal Court's nature and purpose, which, in reality, only has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The International Criminal Court lacks an organization comparable to the special crime unit, and has no police force of its own. Kevin Jon Heller, Associate Professor & Reader in international criminal law at the University of Melbourne, noted the show creates unacceptable misconceptions about the court's power and the way it operates, which depends on states consenting to its jurisdiction through ratification of the Rome Statute and co-operating with the court to provide resources required to perform investigations and prosecutions.


title: Crossing Lines

text: Without all the shooting, "Crossing Lines" is more closely related to the special crimes investigations unit of the first International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague in the Netherlands. These crime investigators from all over the world do indeed operate across national jurisdictional lines in connection with major crimes such as murder, rape, torture and kidnapping that occurred in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. John Cencich's "The Devil's Garden: A War Crimes Investigator's Story" (Potomac Books, Washington, D.C.) demonstrates how police investigators from Germany, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, and many others worked pursuant to the authority of the United Nations Security Council, without relying on national police forces, to investigate and bring to justice some of the world's worst criminals.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: The A Head Full of Dreams Tour was the seventh concert tour undertaken by British rock band Coldplay. It was announced on 27 November 2015 in support of their seventh studio album, "A Head Full of Dreams", and marked a return to live performing at stadiums following the intimate shows from Ghost Stories Tour (2014), which saw the band playing in venues such as the Beacon Theatre and Royal Albert Hall. With exception of "Fun" and hidden track "X Marks the Spot", all songs from the album were played. The band combined extensive use of laser light and pyrotechnic special effects with raw, acoustic segments between stages, complementing performances with a new version of the Xylobands from Mylo Xyloto Tour (2011–12).


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: The concert run consisted of 122 shows in eight legs across five continents, starting at Argentina's Estadio Ciudad de La Plata on 31 March 2016 and finishing at the same venue on 15 November 2017. It also marked their first solo shows in Latin America since Viva la Vida Tour (2009–10). According to "Billboard", Coldplay grossed $523 million from 5.38 million tickets sold in total, making A Head Full of Dreams Tour the third-highest-grossing tour of all time upon conclusion. The band later released "Live in Buenos Aires" (2018), their fifth live album, promoting it along with "Live in São Paulo" and "". The documentary featured previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage and was directed by Mat Whitecross, one of their long-time collaborators.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Following the release of Coldplay's sixth album, "Ghost Stories" (2014), the band announced they would not be making an usual tour for it, limiting themselves to one-off concerts at smaller venues around the world. On 6 November 2015, "Adventure of a Lifetime" was made available as the lead single for "A Head Full of Dreams". The song was succeeded by the tour announcement on 27 November, which included numerous stadium dates spread across 14 countries in Europe and Latin America for the next year. During an interview for "The Late Late Show with James Corden", the band mentioned they would also be visiting Asia and North America. In April 2016, Coldplay announced 12 new arena shows in the United States. Months later, they published teasers on social media with dates for Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. In 2017, the band further promoted the tour's namesake album by releasing a companion piece named "Kaleidoscope EP", which included four new songs and a live version of "Something Just Like This".


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Before starting the tour, Coldplay performed the Super Bowl 50 halftime show, which included guest appearances from Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson and the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, earning the biggest audience in history for a group and male act performing at the event as well. The band later appeared in multiple festivals, including the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Exeter. Lead singer Chris Martin said he lived "the first few years of my life less than 500 yards from where we'll be performing so this couldn't be more of a homecoming for me". In 2016, they were announced as headliners for Glastonbury Festival, setting the record for most headlining sets ever by any act. Months later, the band appeared at Global Citizen Festival in Mumbai, where they played "Maa Tujhe Salaam" with A. R. Rahman. Martin has been the event's curator since 2015 and plans to fulfil the role for the next 15 years. He invited Colombian singer Shakira for the Hamburg edition. In 2017, Coldplay were part of the iHeartRadio Music Festival.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Most of the tour included two supporting acts on each concert, with British singer Lianne La Havas opening all performances held during the first Latin American and European legs, marking the first stadium shows of her career. She noted being a fan of Coldplay for many years and grew up listening to them. Canadian singer Alessia Cara supported the first European and North American runs as well, which additionally included Foxes and Birdy. In selected dates, local artists from their respective country were invited to serve as opening acts: Ximena Sariñana and Hana Ciliberti performed in the Mexico City shows, while Radwimps played at the Tokyo Dome on 9 April 2016. Remaining dates for the Asian leg were supported by Jess Kent, who also participated in the concerts held in Australia and New Zealand.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: For their second run in Europe, Coldplay included AlunaGeorge and Swedish singer Tove Lo, with whom they collaborated on the song "Fun", from "A Head Full of Dreams" (2015). The local acts invited for Hannover, Gothenburg and Cardiff were German singer Femme Schmidt, Danish group Mew and English band Embrace, respectively. Meanwhile, the second leg in North America featured singers Izzy Bizu and Alina Baraz. In November 2017, Coldplay finished the tour with shows in Brazil and Argentina, which were opened by Jon Hopkins and Dua Lipa. The former has been a collaborator of the band since their fourth album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" (2008), while Martin co-wrote the song "Homesick" for the latter's debut album. After being asked about the experience, she commented it was "amazing" and "surreal to get to sit next to him on the piano and hear him perform so close to me" and thanked the singer for the opportunity, adding she learned a lot from him when they were on studio.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Similar to Mylo Xyloto Tour (2011–12), the band combined performances including laser light and pyrotechnic visuals at the main stage with intimate sets at the B-stage and C-stage. During the latter segment, songs were played strictly in acoustic renditions. Shows usually featured between 22 and 25 tracks, which sometimes incorporated new intros and outros: "Paradise" started regularly but ended in its Tiësto remix version, while "Fix You" was performed with an additional instrumental background from "Midnight". Before the tour began, Martin said Coldplay would "finally have a set list where we feel good about it from start to finish". He joked about being "at the point in our career where we can get through a concert without playing anything shit" as well.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Aside from their own catalogue, the band often covered songs from other artists, most notably "Heroes" by David Bowie during the first four legs of the tour. According to Martin, they were good friends with Bowie, though he rejected a collaboration for "Lhuna", a charity single released with Australian singer Kylie Minogue in 2008, claiming the track was "not one of your best". The band also performed Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" in selected shows. Coldplay originally wrote "Til Kingdom Come" as a collaboration with the singer, but he died before being able to record it. Additionally, the band had a "Fan Dedication Song" segment at the C-stage: "We'd ask people to give us a reason why they want us to play that song so there is a purpose behind why we play it".


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Fans who pre-ordered "A Head Full of Dreams" (2015) from Amazon were given early access to buy tickets for the United Kingdom performances on 26 November 2015, with general sales for the entire first European leg being opened in the following day. Due to high demand, Coldplay later announced extra dates in Mexico City, Barcelona, Manchester, Zurich, London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. On 7 December 2016, a fourth show at Wembley Stadium was scheduled. More than 900,000 people attempted to buy tickets for the concerts in Seoul, leading online servers to crash. With 67,451 tickets sold, the band's 17 April 2016 show at Foro Sol had the venue's biggest single-day attendance, a record they also broke at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium. Additionally, Coldplay grossed $12.4 million from 102,508 tickets at Singapore National Stadium, the biggest boxscore ever in the region. The concerts at Wembley Stadium and Stade de France were the most prolific of their career in both attendance and gross according to "Pollstar". Following the last show in La Plata, "Billboard" reported the A Head Full of Dreams Tour was the third-highest-grossing tour of all time, earning $523,033,675 from 5,389,586 admissions.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: The tour was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, with Ludovic Hunter-Tilney from the "Financial Times" describing it as a "bubble of positivity making its way around a turbulent world". He stated large venues were a "natural home" for Coldplay and where their "uplifting platitudes make most sense". Writing for "The Sydney Morning Herald", Bernard Zuel commented the concert was "very big, but just on the right side of huge. They get loud and in your face but never up your nose. They grab for audience participation but collegially rather than greedily", praising how they crafted a "continuously satisfying pop show that has elements of U2 and Taylor Swift, Springsteen and Kylie, but somehow retains a sliver of modesty". In his five-star Wembley Stadium review for the "Evening Standard", David Smyth stated Coldplay were "playing more stadium shows in London than anyone else this summer because no one else is doing this kind of thing better. Long may they shine". Similarly, "The Guardian" Kitty Empire rated their Croke Park performance with 4/5 stars and mentioned it felt "like the encore, the kind that sends you out into the night streets, hollering the chorus" even when the band were "just two songs in".


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: After the tour was finished, Coldplay released "Live in Buenos Aires" (2018), their fifth live album. It consisted of two CDs with songs played during their last show in La Plata. The record was marketed along with "The Butterfly Package", a set which additionally contained "Live in São Paulo", their first music film to include a concert in full, and "", a documentary featuring previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage. A one-night-only premiere for the latter was held at selected cinemas across the world one month earlier, grossing $3.5 million from over 300,000 tickets sold and reaching number-one at the box office of Netherlands; number two in Australia, Italy and United Kingdom; and number five in the United States. Both projects were directed by Mat Whitecross, a long-time collaborator of the band. Sam Sodomsky from "Pitchfork" stated "Live in Buenos Aires" made "a strong case for the legacy of one of the 21st century's most enduring live acts", while "Live in São Paulo" was nominated for a UK Music Video Award.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: This set list was taken from the band's 7 November 2017 concert in São Paulo, Brazil. It does not represent all shows throughout the tour.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Credits taken from the band's official tour book, which was sold exclusively on merchandise booths and their online store.


title: A Head Full of Dreams Tour

text: Credits taken from "Projection, Lights & Staging News", with product quantities being represented between parenthesis.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: World War Z is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Saber Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 16 April 2019, and a Nintendo Switch version was released on 2 November 2021. It was released for Google Stadia on 5 April 2022. Loosely based on the 2006 novel of the same name and set in the same universe as the 2013 film adaptation, the game follows groups of four survivors of a zombie apocalypse in the cities of New York, Jerusalem, Moscow, Tokyo, Marseille, Rome and Kamchatka.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: The game is a co-operative third-person shooter in which four players fight against massive hordes of zombies in seven locations, including New York, Jerusalem, Moscow, Tokyo, Marseille, Rome and Kamchatka.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: Players can choose from seven classes: the Gunslinger (specializes in range), the Hellraiser (specializes in explosives), the Fixer (engineer), the Medic (healer), the Slasher (specializes in melee), the Exterminator (specializes in crowd control), and the Dronemaster (specializes in offensive/defensive support drones). New perks can be unlocked for each class as players continue progressing in the game.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: The game can support up to 1,000 enemies appearing on-screen simultaneously, and they can climb onto each other to reach players on a higher level. Players can collect different items in the battlefield, but their locations are procedurally generated. In addition to fighting zombies, players also need to complete different objectives, such as escorting survivors, in each location.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: Each location, or episode as it is known in-game, is divided into 3-5 individual levels. After completing a level, players receive "supplies" based on a resulting defeat or victory. Supplies can be used to upgrade weapons and unlock new attachments. Aforementioned perks can also be bought for specific classes using supplies.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: The game features five competitive multiplayer modes. The Player vs Player vs Zombie mode pits two teams of players against each other while the zombie hordes attack both teams. Other modes include Swarm Deathmatch, Swarm Domination, and King of the Hill.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: A group of survivors fail to reach an evacuation point set up by the U.S. Army and are forced to fight their way back down to the streets. They are soon contacted by another group of survivors, who have procured a subway train that will take them to another evacuation site. The group manage to reach the train and help prepare it for departure while fighting off swarms of zombies trying to overrun them. Although they manage to get the train started, they are stopped by a sealed door that was previously guarded by other survivors who were supposed to open it upon their arrival. After opening the sealed door, the group fights their way to the last Army evacuation site but find all the ships have left and the remaining soldiers and survivors have been killed. Finding a boat attached to a winch, the group desperately try to bring it ashore as their last chance of escape while fighting off a massive zombie horde. After boarding the boat, the survivors leave New York. Somewhere along the way, however, the boat runs out of fuel and the survivors are once again left stranded in a zombie-infested town. They eventually come across another evacuation site still occupied by the Army and full of wounded civilians. With the help of a gunship, the group desperately tries to defend the site under siege from multiple hordes as the soldiers evacuate the civilians. Things take a turn for the better when the Air Force arrives and destroys the remaining hordes, allowing everyone else to escape via helicopters.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: A group of IDF soldiers and a photo journalist are tasked with rescuing a scientist whom high command regards as crucial in putting an end to the zombie epidemic. The group manages to rescue the scientist, who reveals that he was part of a team developing an experimental orbital particle cannon that can be used to wipe out large swarms of zombies in a single shot. They escort the scientist to the facility where the weapon can be fired and manage to protect him long enough to activate the weapon and escape. While flying away from the facility, the group witnesses the devastating firepower of the cannon, which wipes out a large zombie swarm which overrun the facility.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: A group of survivors searching for food and other supplies witnesses the crash of a military helicopter and move in to save anyone who survived. When they reach the crash site, they find only one survivor, a female Russian Army officer, and fight off a massive swarm that attempts to overrun the crash site. After fending off the zombies, the officer enlists the groups' help in activating a deadly nerve agent throughout Moscow that is lethal to both humans and zombies. The plan is to evacuate any survivors in the city and kill all of the zombies, but the nerve agent will leave Moscow uninhabitable for six months. After sending out a signal to warn all survivors to evacuate before the nerve agent is released, the group infiltrate a secret facility where the nerve agent can be released. They successfully release it throughout Moscow, killing all of the zombies in the city. Five days after being stranded in the bunker, the group believes they have been abandoned, but re-establish a connection with the officer who tells them to gas the tunnels to kill off the zombies hiding inside. Soon after, the Russian Army arrives and evacuates the group from the station as it is being attacked by multiple zombie hordes.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: Following the outbreak, the entirety of Japan is being evacuated. A volunteer rescue team finishes a final check for survivors in the city and assists in escorting a bus of survivors to a military checkpoint. The team is then tasked with assisting the JSDF in defending a large cruise ship, the only remaining evacuation transport. The team manage to hold off a massive swarm by destroying a large fuel facility that acts as a wall of fire and manage to reach the cruise ship in time as it departs Japan. However, some infected have gotten aboard due to rushed screening operations, leaving the ship in danger of being overrun as the infection spreads. The team assists the onboard military forces in repelling and ultimately eliminating the infected from the ship. Though they have abandoned their country, the team hold hope that they will one day return to reclaim their land.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: With one of the largest zombie hordes in Europe headed straight for Marseille, four members of the French Resistance battle their way through the streets to obtain weapons and medicine before it arrives. They soon learn that a missile battery set up in Fort Niolon across the bay has gone dark, depriving the area of its much needed firepower required to stop the horde. Volunteering to investigate, the group finally arrives at the fort after fighting through a town and a factory. There, they find survivors holed up in a fortified building, and a giant swarm of zombies climbing up the hill towards their position. With no time to lose, the group is forced to commandeer the battery in order to stop the swarm. Using missile launchers to trigger avalanches that halt the swarm, they eventually succeed in lifting the siege, and returns to Marseille upon learning that the city is under attack. Rallying at Fort Saint-Jean, the group stages a final stand against the horde as night approaches, setting up fire moats and sealing breaches along the way. Overwhelmed and outnumbered, they struggle to contact Fort Niolon as their radios are disabled in the attack. They eventually signal the battery with a flare gun, who respond with a missile barrage that obliterates much of the horde, thereby saving the city.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: Approximately 100 people of Saber Interactive worked on the game. The studio decided to use the "World War Z" license for the game as they felt that there were too many risks involved in marketing a brand new intellectual property. Matt Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive, described the game as the combination of both the 2013 film and the 2006 novel. Gerry Lane, the character played by Brad Pitt in the 2013 movie, is not in the game as the team opted to include multiple survivors who have their own stories. The team took inspiration from "" when they were exploring how they could incorporate elements from the film and the book into the game. "Left 4 Dead" also inspired the developer when they were crafting the game's gameplay. A proprietary game engine named the Swarm Engine was used to power the game and render the huge zombie hordes.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: The game was announced at The Game Awards 2017. The game was released on 19 April 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Focus Home Interactive and Mad Dog Games served as the title's distributor. It was also an Epic Games Store exclusive. Saber planned to support the game by introducing more episodes, characters, settings, and competitive game modes, after the game's launch.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: A "Game of the Year Edition" of the game was released on 5 May 2020, and includes new weapon and character packs, a new three-mission PvE episode set in Marseille, France, as well as all previously released downloadable content. Alongside the reveal of the "Game of the Year Edition", a Nintendo Switch port was announced. Matt Karch, the CEO of developer Saber Interactive, called getting the game to run on Nintendo's console "the hardest thing that we have had to do". It was released on 2 November 2021.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: An upgraded version of the game titled "Aftermath", which includes the Game of the Year Edition and introduces three new locations (Rome, Vatican City, and the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia), new characters, a revamped melee system and a first-person mode, was released on 21 September 2021.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: According to review aggregator Metacritic, the game received "mixed or average reviews" from critics. "Game Informer" compared it to "Left 4 Dead" series and praised its shooting mechanics, visuals and story, but criticized its soundtrack and lack of non-vocal player interactions.


title: World War Z (2019 video game)

text: It was the best-selling retail game in the UK in its week of release. As of 23 April 2019, more than 1 million units of the game have been sold. It sold almost 2 million copies in the first month after the release. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version of "World War Z" sold 27,872 copies within its first week of release in September 2019, placing it at number seven on the all format video game sales chart.


title: Comic Relief

text: Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make the public laugh, while raising money to help people around the world and in the United Kingdom. A new CEO, Samir Patel, a digital expert, was announced in January 2021.


title: Comic Relief

text: The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, an annual (previously biennial) telethon held in March. The first live fundraising evening, held on 4 April 1986, featured comedians and pop stars, including Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Kate Bush and co-founder Lenny Henry.


title: Comic Relief

text: A prominent annual event on British television, Comic Relief is one of two high-profile telethon events held in the UK, the other being Children in Need, held annually in November. At the end of the Red Nose Day telethon on 14 March 2015, it was announced that in the 30-year history of Comic Relief, the Red Nose Day and Sport Relief appeals had raised in excess of £1.4 billion. According to the OECD, Comic Relief's financing for 2019 development increased by 31% to US$46.3 million.


title: Comic Relief

text: Comic Relief was launched live on Noel Edmonds' "Late, Late Breakfast Show" on BBC1, on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. The idea for Comic Relief came from the charity worker Jane Tewson, who established it as the operating name of Charity Projects, a registered charity in England and Scotland.


title: Comic Relief

text: On 4, 5 and 6 April 1986 the inaugural live fund-raising show, "Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Live", was staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London featuring popular alternative comedians and pop stars (including Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Kate Bush and Cliff Richard). An audio recording was released on WEA which included a live performance of the charity single "Living Doll" by Cliff Richard and the Young Ones.


title: Comic Relief

text: The highlight of Comic Relief is Red Nose Day. On 8 February 1988, Lenny Henry went to Ethiopia and celebrated the very first Red Nose Day Telethon. Over 150 celebrities and comedians participated. The event raised 15 million British pounds sterling and attracted 30 million television viewers on BBC1. To date, Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry are still active participants of the Red Nose Day Telethon which continues to raise funds for numerous charities that help children in need and tackle worldwide poverty.


title: Comic Relief

text: The charity states that its aim is to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people, which we believe requires investing in work that addresses people's immediate needs as well as tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice".


title: Comic Relief

text: One of the fundamental principles behind working at Comic Relief is the "Golden Pound Principle" where every single donated pound (£) is spent on charitable projects. All operating costs, such as staff salaries, are covered by corporate sponsors, or interest earned on money waiting to be distributed.


title: Comic Relief

text: Currently, its main supporters are the BBC, BT, Sainsbury's supermarket chain and British Airways. The BBC is responsible for the live television extravaganza on "Red Nose Day"; BT provides the telephony, and Sainsbury's sells merchandise on behalf of the charity.


title: Comic Relief

text: The July 2010 accounts for charity registration 326568 show grant payments of £59 million, net assets of £135 million, with an investment portfolio held in a range of managed pooled funds and fixed term deposits. The average full-time staff was 214, with 14 staff paid over £60,000 with remuneration for the year, excluding pensions, for Kevin Cahill, chief executive of £120,410.


title: Comic Relief

text: In 2002, Comic Relief and BBC Sport teamed up to create Sport Relief, a new initiative, aiming to unite the sporting community and culminate in a night of sport, entertainment and fund-raising on BBC One. Sport Relief was a biennial charity event, and the campaign deliberately alternated years with Red Nose Day, Comic Relief's flagship event. Red Nose Day occurs in odd-numbered years, and Sport Relief in even-numbered years.


title: Comic Relief

text: In 2009, Comic Relief launched a website calling for a financial transaction tax, the "Robin Hood" tax.


title: Comic Relief

text: At the end of the 2015 Red Nose Day telethon on 14 March it was announced that in the 30-year history of Comic Relief the Red Nose Day and Sport Relief appeals had raised in excess of £1bn (£1,047,083,706).


title: Comic Relief

text: In 2021, it was announced that Red Nose Day would become an annual event and starting from 2022, there would be no more Sport Relief telethons, for the same year onwards, the appeal shows of Red Nose Day would now take place at the former Sport Relief studio at Dock10, MediaCityUK in Salford.


title: Comic Relief

text: The television programming begins in the afternoon, with CBBC having various related reports, money raising events and celebrity gunging. This is all in-between the regular programmes, but after the six o'clock news, the normal BBC One schedule is suspended at 7 pm in favour of a live show, with a break at 10 pm for the regular news programme. Whilst the BBC News at Ten is aired on BBC One, Comic Relief continues on BBC Two, and then resumes on BBC One at 10:35 pm, with each hour overseen by a different celebrity team. These celebrities do the work for free, as do the crew, with studio space and production facilities donated by the BBC.


title: Comic Relief

text: Regular themes throughout the shows include parodies of recent popular shows, films and clips, events, and specially filmed versions of comedy shows. "Smith and Jones", and a parody sketch starring Rowan Atkinson are both regularly featured.


title: Comic Relief

text: The First Red Nose Day was held on Friday 5 February 1988 with the slogan: "The Plain Red Nose", and raised £15million.


title: Comic Relief

text: The Second Red Nose Day was held on Friday 10 March 1989 with the slogan: "Red Nose Day 2", and raised £27million. (This is also when the event would start generally being scheduled in mid-March, often close to, or on 17 March – St Patrick's Day.)


title: Comic Relief

text: The Third Red Nose Day was held on Friday 15 March 1991 with the slogan "The Stonker", and Raised £20 million. The charity song was a double A-sided single featuring "The Stonk" performed by Hale & Pace and "The Smile Song" performed by Victoria Wood.


title: Comic Relief

text: The Fourth Red Nose Day was held on Friday 12 March 1993 with the slogan "The Invasion of the Comic Tomatoes", and Raised £18 million.


title: Comic Relief

text: The Fifth Red Nose Day was held on Friday 17 March 1995, with the slogan "What A Difference A Day Makes", and Raised £22 million.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 1997 Red Nose Day event was held on 14 March. Its slogan for the year was "Small Change – Big Difference". The event raised over £27m for charitable causes. The Spice Girls song "Who Do You Think You Are" became the official Comic Relief single of this event and sold 672,577 copies. The telethon was hosted by Father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan) and Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon), characters from the sitcom "Father Ted".


title: Comic Relief

text: The 1999 Red Nose Day was held on 12 March and raised over £35m. Perennial hosts Jonathan Ross and Lenny Henry were joined by Davina McCall, Chris Evans, Ben Elton, Jack Dee and Julian Clary, with Peter Snow providing regular updates on donations. Angus Deayton hosted a live cross-over panel game, "Have I Got Buzzcocks All Over". A parody of the "Doctor Who" series starring Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor, "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death", was featured during the show, as was "Wetty Hainthropp Investigates" (a Victoria Wood parody of "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates") and "The Naughty Boys" (a mock 1967 pilot for "Men Behaving Badly").


title: Comic Relief

text: On Radio 1, Simon Mayo set the record of 37 hours of consecutive broadcasting (which was later broken in March 2011 by Chris Moyles on the same station for 52 hours, "BBC Radio 1's Longest Show Ever with Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave for Comic Relief", the world record for the longest show in radio history). The 1999 Comic Relief song was "When the Going Gets Tough" by Boyzone.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2001 Red Nose Day was held on 16 March. The total raised was £55 million . As well as donations on the night of the TV show, money is raised from countrywide sponsored events and from merchandising, particularly of the red noses themselves. 5.8 million red noses were sold, approximately one-tenth of the UK population. "Celebrity Big Brother 1" was produced in honour of Comic Relief, with the finale airing as part of the Red Nose Day festivities.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2003 Red Nose Day was held on 14 March. The fund raising activities included Lenny Henry providing the voice of the speaking clock between 10 and 23 March with the cost of the call going to Comic Relief. On the night of the live show itself, £35m was raised, an on-the-night record. A total of £61.6 million was raised that year, setting a new record.


title: Comic Relief

text: Jack Dee stood outside at the top of a pole for the duration of the show, parodying the acts of David Blaine. "Celebrity Driving School" led up to the event, with the test results announced during the telethon: they all failed.


title: Comic Relief

text: As usual a variety of specially filmed versions of television shows were made. Popular BBC talent show "Fame Academy" returned as "Comic Relief does Fame Academy". Other shows included:


title: Comic Relief

text: "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan", a parody of Harry Potter, starring Dawn French as Harry Potter, Jennifer Saunders as Ron Weasley and Miranda Richardson as Hermione Granger.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2005 event was also noteworthy for supporting the Make Poverty History campaign – many of the videos recorded for the MPH campaign (including videos by Bono and Nelson Mandela) were shown throughout the evening. £65m was raised.


title: Comic Relief

text: As usual a variety of specially filmed versions of television shows were made. Popular BBC talent show "Comic Relief does Fame Academy" was attended by celebrities singing cover versions of songs. Viewers voted for their favourite, with the proceeds going to the cause and the celebrity. Other shows included:


title: Comic Relief

text: McFly released the official single, a double A-side of "All About You/You've Got a Friend" which reached Number 1 in the UK singles chart, and also Number 1 in the Irish singles chart. The cover is predominantly red and features the members of McFly dressed in red, wearing red noses, in honour of Red Nose Day.


title: Comic Relief

text: 2007's Red Nose Day was held on 16 March. Its tagline is "The Big One" which is also representative of the novelty nose. Walkers, Kleenex and Andrex also promoted the charity, as well as Sainsbury's. The event raised £67.7 million.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2009 event took place on Friday 13 March 2009. Fundraisers had three different nose designs to choose from: "this one", "that one" and "the other one" – all with different facial expressions. The Saturdays provided the official single, a cover of 'Just Can't Get Enough'. The event raised £82.3 million.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2011 event took place on Friday 18 March 2011. £74.3 million was raised on the night, the highest ever 'on the night' total. This was beaten by £0.8 million on Red Nose Day 2013's on the night event. The total for the whole campaign was £108.4 million, the highest so far raised for one event.


title: Comic Relief

text: In addition to the continued absence of Rowan Atkinson, two more prominent supporters of the charity were absent for 2011 – this was the first ever Comic Relief event to feature no input from Dawn French, and the first for over ten years to feature no input from Matt Lucas. Similarly, several other frequent contributors from previous years appeared only in appeal films or as part of the "24 Hour Panel People" event. Lenny Henry however finally returned after an absence to perform comedic material.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2013 event took place on Friday 15 March 2013. By the end of the night, Comic Relief raised £75,107,852. In total that year Comic Relief raised £100.3 million.


title: Comic Relief

text: One Direction recorded the official single "One Way or Another", a medley of Blondie's "One Way or Another" and "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones. The single was released on 17 February 2013.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2015 event took place on Friday 13 March 2015. It was broadcast live for the first time at the London Palladium, with £99.4 million being raised.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2017 event took place on Friday 24 March 2017, broadcast live from Building Six at The O2 in London. It was widely criticised, for both the quality of sound, sketches, and going from films on poverty to a biscuit competition. The event raised £82.1 million.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2019 event took place on Friday 15 March 2019 live from BBC Elstree Centre. The event raised £63,548,668.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2021 event took place on Friday 19 March 2021. The event raised £52 million and was once again hosted by Sir Lenny Henry alongside Davina McCall, Paddy McGuinness, David Tennant and Alesha Dixon.


title: Comic Relief

text: Sketches included a crossover between Catherine Tate's Nan character and James Bond (Daniel Craig), a Comic Relief Zoom meeting featuring Jack Whitehall and various celebrities and a trailer for "2020 - The Movie" featuring Keira Knightley, Michael Sheen, Jodie Whittaker, KSI, Anna Friel and Dame Joan Collins. Sheen and Tennant also starred in a special edition of their TV show "Staged" while McGuinness and his "Top Gear" co-stars, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris were asked questions by kids in a segment hosted by Radio 1's Jordan North. "The Vicar of Dibley"s Geraldine Granger (played by Dawn French) appeared alongside the Reverend Kate Bottley to open the show. There were musical performances from The Proclaimers, Gabrielle and the cast of "Back to the Future the Musical". After the main show, Amanda Holden and Jason Manford presented "The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon".


title: Comic Relief

text: Some of 2022's fundraising challenges that took place prior to the main televised event included a 100-mile river challenge, which saw BBC Radio 1 presenter Jordan North rowing from London to Burnley, and Tom Daley's Homecoming Challenge which involved rowing, swimming, cycling and running. Footage of the latter challenge, which took place between the Aquatics Centre in London and Plymouth, was featured in a BBC One documentary called "Tom Daley's Hell of a Homecoming" which was broadcast on 14 March 2022.


title: Comic Relief

text: The main Red Nose Day programming was split into three sections with the three-hour comedy special and "The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon" appearing on BBC One before and after the news, whilst "Comic Relief at the Movies" took a 10pm slot on BBC Two.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2022 Comic Relief show featured parodies of "The Repair Shop" (with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Dame Judi Dench) as well as various popstars in David Walliams and Matt Lucas' "Rock Profile" sketches, whilst Tim Vine and Kiri Pritchard-McLean took part in a "One Man and His Dog" competition. The late-night programme "The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon" was presented by Vernon Kay and AJ Odudu, with an hour long "Best Bits" compilation being transmitted a couple of days after the event.


title: Comic Relief

text: Sketches include a special guest appearance Steps and their own sketch "Expert Advice", A Comic Relief sketch called "R-Town", A trailer for "Chums: The Film" with Ant McPartlin, Dec Donnelly, Cat Deeley, Simon Pegg, Emily Atack, Eamonn Holmes, Ruth Langsford, Joe Cole, Jodie Whittaker, Kelvin Fletcher, Holly Valance, Steps, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Veronica Green, Joe Lycett, Fleur East, David Tennant, Hilary Swank, Stuart Murphy, Emma Ledden, Stephen Mulhern, Harriet Scott, Ronan Keating, Michelle Visage, Tom Price, Lisa Stansfield and Tony Hawks, Hilary Duff and Dr. Hilary Jones did a sketch called "The Two Hilary's", Rock Steady with Arctic Monkeys and more…


title: Comic Relief

text: Various items of merchandise have been sold to promote and raise money for Comic Relief. In 1991, "The Totally Stonking, Surprisingly Educational And Utterly Mindboggling Comic Relief Comic" was published by Fleetway. Conceived, plotted and edited by Neil Gaiman, Richard Curtis, Grant Morrison and Peter K. Hogan, it featured contributions from a vast array of British comics talent, including Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, Dave Gibbons, Mark Millar, Simon Bisley, Mark Buckingham, Steve Dillon, D'Israeli, Jamie Hewlett and Bryan Talbot. (Alan Moore, arguably Britain's most famous comics writer, was not credited as working on the book having sworn never to work for Fleetway again, but was said to have worked with partner Melinda Gebbie on her pages.) The comic was unique in that it featured appearances by characters from across the spectrum of comics publishers, including Marvel and DC superheroes, "Beano", "Dandy", "Eagle" and "Viz" characters, "Doctor Who", the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", in addition to a cavalcade of British comedy figures (both real and fictional). These were all linked by the twin framing narratives of the Comic Relief night itself, and the tale of "Britain's meanest man" Sir Edmund Blackadder being persuaded to donate money to the event. The comic "sold out in minutes", raising over £40,000 for the charity, and is now a highly prized collectors' item. Comic Relief have also sold Fairtrade Cotton Socks from a number of vendors. This is mainly for their Sport Relief charity.


title: Comic Relief

text: In 1993 a computer platform game was released, called "Sleepwalker". The game featured voice overs from Lenny Henry and Harry Enfield, and several other references to Comic Relief and tomatoes; the theme for the 1993 campaign.


title: Comic Relief

text: In 2001 J. K. Rowling wrote two books for Comic Relief based on her famous Harry Potter series, entitled "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and "Quidditch Through the Ages". The Fantastic Beasts book, would ultimately lead to the mid-late 2010s series of films of the same name as part of the expanded "Potterverse".


title: Comic Relief

text: In 2007, Walkers complemented the usual merchandise by adding their own take on the red nose, promoting red ears instead. The large ears, dubbed 'Walk-ears', are based on a very old joke involving the actual ears of ex-footballer Gary Lineker, who has fronted their ad campaign since the early 1990s. Walkers previously promoted the charity in 2005, making four limited edition unusual crisp flavours.


title: Comic Relief

text: The 2007 game for Red Nose Day, "Let It Flow", could be played online. This game was developed by Matmi, worldwide viral marketeers, and set in the African wilderness. Mischievous hyenas had messed up the water irrigation system which fed the crops. You had to help re-arrange the pipes to let the water flow to the crops to keep them alive. Once the pipes were arranged, you needed to operate the elephant's trunk to pump the water through the water pipes.


title: Comic Relief

text: For the 2007 campaign Andrex, known for their ad campaign fronted by a Labrador puppy, gave away toy puppies with red noses.


title: Comic Relief

text: The most prominent symbol of Comic Relief is a plastic/foam "red nose", which is given in various supermarkets and charity shops such as Oxfam in exchange for a donation to the charity and to make others laugh. People are encouraged to wear the noses on Red Nose Day to help raise awareness of the charity. The design of the nose has been changed each year, beginning with a fairly plain one, which later grew arms, turned into a tomato and even changed colour. This regular re-design was in part to stop people from re-using previous years designs, and having to buy the latest version, as for example some people may re-use the same Poppy, repeatedly, rather than buying a new one each year. In 2007, the red nose was made of foam; this was to facilitate the "growing" of the nose (by rolling it in the user's hands) to keep in line with that year's tagline, "The Big One" (see the table below). Larger noses are also available and are designed to be attached to the fronts of cars, buildings and, in 2009, a diameter inflatable nose was attached to the DFDS Seaways cruiseferry "King of Scandinavia". However, the nose's material used for buildings was classed as a fire hazard and was banned from the "Comic Relief Does Fame Academy" shows.


title: Comic Relief

text: , Comic Relief has sold 50 different red noses over 17 Red Nose Days. Two noses were available for the 1995 event. Three noses per event were available from 2009 to 2013. In 2015, nine noses were released, and in 2017, there were 10 different noses available—for both these years, this included a rare collector's nose. For 2019, 11 different noses are available to buy, including "rare" and "ultra-rare" noses. 10 different plastic free noses are available for Red Nose Day 2021.


title: Comic Relief

text: A selection of Red Nose Day "car noses" have been produced over the years, to show support for the charity while out on the road. They have traditionally been a curved nose which attaches to the car's radiator grille. In 2009, this was replaced with a magnetic design owing to safety concerns. The original grill-attachable design returned for 2011, for the first time since 1999.


title: Comic Relief

text: 2014 saw the new release of 2 Flip Flap noses, the Poppy and England flag red nose designs and the first paper noses for cars and the 1st year for 2 car noses.


title: Comic Relief

text: In April 1986, the first Comic Relief charity record was released. It featured Cliff Richard and the cast of "The Young Ones" in a rendition of Richard's late 50s hit "Living Doll".


title: Comic Relief

text: Some of the money raised from the sale of each single is donated to Comic Relief. Normally, a song is released just before the official Red Nose Day. There have been exceptions, such as "(I Want To Be) Elected" which was released to coincide with the 1992 UK general election. Before the single released in 1995, Comic Relief records were all more-or-less comedy releases, mostly involving an actual band or singer teamed up with a comedy group. From 1995 on, they have been generally more serious, although the promo videos still feature comical moments.


title: Comic Relief

text: 2003 saw a return to the format of old. From 2005 to 2011, two Comic Relief singles were released each Red Nose Day, a song by a mainstream artist and also a comedy song.