title: Fletcher Cox

text: Cox finished the 2015 season with 71 tackles, 9.5 sacks, two passes defended, and three forced fumbles. For his efforts, Cox received Second-team All-Pro honors and was selected to the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career. He also received the Ed Block Courage Award. He was ranked 49th on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: In 2016, the Eagles reverted to a 4-3 scheme, leading to Cox switching back to defensive tackle. On June 13, 2016, Cox signed a six-year, $103 million extension with the Eagles with $63 million guaranteed. As a result of a successful 2016 season, Cox was named to his second consecutive Pro Bowl. He was also ranked 38th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2017.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: On September 10, 2017, in the season opening 30–17 victory over the Washington Redskins, Cox recovered a fumble from quarterback Kirk Cousins and returned it for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. On December 19, 2017, Cox was named to his third straight Pro Bowl. Cox could not play in the Pro Bowl because of his team advancing to the Super Bowl. The Eagles defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII 41-33 to give Cox his first Super Bowl ring. Cox recorded one tackle. He was ranked 69th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: In Week 17, Cox recorded three sacks, four tackles for loss, and a forced fumble in a 24-0 win over the Washington Redskins, earning him NFC Defensive Player of the Week. In addition to being named to his 4th Pro Bowl, he was selected as a 1st Team All-Pro for the first time in his career. He was ranked 28th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2019.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: In week 7 against the Dallas Cowboys, Cox recorded his first sack and forced fumble of the season on Dak Prescott in the 37–10 loss.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: In week 8 against the Buffalo Bills, Cox recorded 1.5 sacks on Josh Allen in the 31-13 win. He was named to his 5th Pro Bowl and was ranked 73rd by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2020. Following the season, Cox was selected as one of the four defensive tackles on the National Football League 2010s All-Decade Team.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: During the 2020 season, Cox registered 6.5 sacks and 41 tackles to go along with a forced fumble. With the Eagles already eliminated from the playoffs, he was inactive in week 17 against Washington.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: Cox was named to the Pro Bowl for the sixth time in his career and was ranked 63rd by fellow players in the NFL Top 100 Players of 2021.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: In week 15, Cox recorded two sacks and four QB hits against the NFC East rival Washington Football Team. On January 3, 2022, Cox was placed on the COVID list. He was activated one week later on January 10, missing just one game where the Eagles did not play their starters.


title: Fletcher Cox

text: On March 17, 2022, Cox was released by the Eagles at the start of the new league year but was then re-signed two days later on a one-year contract.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: USS "Pennsylvania" (BB-38) was the lead ship of the of super-dreadnought battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1910s. The "Pennsylvania"s were part of the standard-type battleship series, and marked an incremental improvement over the preceding , carrying an extra pair of guns for a total of twelve guns. Named for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, she was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in October 1913, was launched in March 1915, and was commissioned in June 1916. Equipped with an oil-burning propulsion system, "Pennsylvania" was not sent to European waters during World War I, since the necessary fuel oil was not as readily available as coal. Instead, she remained in American waters and took part in training exercises; in 1918, she escorted President Woodrow Wilson to France to take part in peace negotiations.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: During the 1920s and 1930s, "Pennsylvania" served as the flagship of first the Atlantic Fleet, and after it was merged with the Pacific Fleet in 1921, the Battle Fleet. For the majority of this period, the ship was stationed in California, based in San Pedro. "Pennsylvania" was occupied with a peacetime routine of training exercises (including the annual Fleet problems), port visits, and foreign cruises, including a visit to Australia in 1925. The ship was modernized in 1929–1931. The ship was present in Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941; she was in drydock with a pair of destroyers when the Japanese launched their surprise attack on the port. She suffered relatively minor damage in the attack, being protected from torpedoes by the drydock. While repairs were effected, the ship received a modernized anti-aircraft battery to prepare her for operations in the Pacific War.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" joined the fleet in a series of amphibious operations, primarily tasked with providing gunfire support. The first of these, the Aleutian Islands Campaign, took place in mid-1943, and was followed by an attack on Makin later that year. During 1944, she supported the landings on Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands and the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, including the Battles of Saipan, Guam, Peleliu, and Battle of Angaur. During the Philippines campaign, in addition to her typical shore bombardment duties, she took part in the Battle of Surigao Strait, though due to her inadequate radar, she was unable to locate a target and did not fire. During the Battle of Okinawa, she was torpedoed by a Japanese torpedo bomber and badly damaged, forcing her to withdraw for repairs days before the end of the war.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: Allocated to the target fleet for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in 1946, "Pennsylvania" was repaired only enough to allow her to make the voyage to the test site, Bikini Atoll. She survived both blasts, but was badly contaminated with radioactive fallout from the second test, and so was towed to Kwajalein, where she was studied for the next year and a half. The ship was ultimately scuttled in deep water off the atoll in February 1948.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: Part of the standard-type battleship series, the "Pennsylvania"-class ships were significantly larger than their predecessors, the . "Pennsylvania" had an overall length of , a beam of (at the waterline), and a draft of at deep load. This was longer than the older ships. She displaced at standard and at deep load, over more than the older ships. The ship had a metacentric height of at deep load.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The ship had four direct-drive Curtis steam turbine sets, each of which drove a propeller in diameter. They were powered by twelve Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers. The turbines were designed to produce a total of , for a designed speed of . She was designed to normally carry of fuel oil, but had a maximum capacity of . At full capacity, the ship could steam at a speed of for an estimated with a clean bottom. She had four turbo generators.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" carried twelve 45-caliber guns in triple gun turrets. The turrets were numbered from I to IV from front to rear. The guns could not elevate independently and were limited to a maximum elevation of +15° which gave them a maximum range of . The ship carried 100 shells for each gun. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by twenty-two 51-caliber guns mounted in individual casemates in the sides of the ship's hull. Positioned as they were they proved vulnerable to sea spray and could not be worked in heavy seas. At an elevation of 15°, they had a maximum range of . Each gun was provided with 230 rounds of ammunition. The ship mounted four 50-caliber three-inch guns for anti-aircraft defense, although only two were fitted when completed. The other pair were added shortly afterward on top of Turret III. "Pennsylvania" also mounted two torpedo tubes submerged, one on each broadside, and carried 24 torpedoes for them.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The "Pennsylvania"-class design continued the all-or-nothing principle of armoring only the most important areas of the ship begun in the "Nevada" class. The waterline armor belt of Krupp armor measured thick and covered only the ship's machinery spaces and magazines. It had a total height of , of which was below the waterline; beginning below the waterline, the belt tapered to its minimum thickness of . The transverse bulkheads at each end of the ship ranged from 13 to 8 inches in thickness. The faces of the gun turrets were thick while the sides were thick and the turret roofs were protected by of armor. The armor of the barbettes was thick. The conning tower was protected by of armor and had a roof eight inches thick.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The main armor deck was three plates thick with a total thickness of ; over the steering gear the armor increased to in two plates. Beneath it was the splinter deck that ranged from in thickness. The boiler uptakes were protected by a conical mantlet that ranged from in thickness. A three-inch torpedo bulkhead was placed inboard from the ship's side and the ship was provided with a complete double bottom. Testing in mid-1914 revealed that this system could withstand of TNT.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The keel for "Pennsylvania" was laid down on 27 October 1913 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News, Virginia. Her completed hull was launched on 16 March 1915, thereafter beginning fitting-out. Work on the ship finished in mid-1916, and she was commissioned on 12 June under the command of Captain Henry B. Wilson. The ship was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and then completed final fitting out from 1 to 20 July. "Pennsylvania" then began sea trials in 20 July, steaming first to the southern drill grounds off the Virginia Capes and then north to the coast of New England. Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight and officers from the Naval War College came aboard on 21 August to observe fleet training exercises. Three days later, the ship was visited by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then the Assistant Secretary of the Navy.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo transferred to "Pennsylvania" on 12 October, making her the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet. At the end of the year, she went into drydock at the New York Navy Yard for maintenance. After emerging from the shipyard in January 1917, she steamed south to join fleet exercises in the Caribbean Sea, during which she stopped in: Culebra, Puerto Rico; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. While in Port-au-Prince, "Pennsylvania" again hosted Roosevelt, who met with the President of Haiti aboard the ship. The battleship arrived back in Yorktown, Virginia on 6 April, the same day the United States declared war on Germany, bringing the country into World War I. Since "Pennsylvania" was oil-fired, she did not join the ships of Battleship Division Nine, as the British had asked for coal-burning battleships to reinforce the Grand Fleet. As a result, she stayed in American waters and saw no action during the war.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: In August, "Pennsylvania" took part in a naval review for President Woodrow Wilson. Foreign naval officers visited the ship in September, including the Japanese Vice Admiral Isamu Takeshita and the Russian Vice Admiral Alexander Kolchak. For the rest of the year and into 1918, "Pennsylvania" was kept in a state of readiness through fleet exercises and gunnery training in Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound. She was preparing for night battle training on 11 November 1918, when the Armistice with Germany came into effect, ending the fighting. She thereafter returned for another stint in the New York Navy Yard for maintenance that was completed on 21 November. She began the voyage to Brest, France, on 2 December by way of Tomkinsville, New York, in company with the transport ship that carried Wilson to France to take part in the peace negotiations; they were escorted by ten destroyers. The ships arrived on 13 December and the next day, "Pennsylvania" began the trip back to New York with Battleship Divisions Nine and Six. The battleships reached their destination on 26 December, where they took part in victory celebrations.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" and the rest of the Atlantic Fleet departed on 19 February, bound for the Caribbean for another round of exercises in Cuban waters. The ship arrived back in New York on 14 April, and while there on 30 June, Mayo was replaced by Vice Admiral Henry Wilson. On 8 July at Tomkinsville, a delegation consisting of: Vice President Thomas R. Marshall; Josephus Daniels, the Secretary of the Navy; Carter Glass, the Secretary of the Treasury; William B. Wilson, the Secretary of Labor; Newton D. Baker, the Secretary of War; Franklin K. Lane, the Secretary of the Interior; and Senator Champ Clark came aboard the ship for a cruise back to New York. The fleet conducted another set of maneuvers in the Caribbean from 7 January to April 1920, "Pennsylvania" returning to her berth in New York on 26 April. Training exercises in the area followed, and on 17 July she received the hull number BB-38.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: On 17 January 1921, "Pennsylvania" left New York, passed through the Panama Canal to Balboa, Panama, where she joined the Pacific Fleet, which together with elements of the Atlantic Fleet was re-designated as the Battle Fleet, with "Pennsylvania" as its flagship. On 21 January, the fleet left Balboa and steamed south to Callao, Peru, where they arrived ten days later. The ships then steamed north back to Balboa on 2 February, arriving on 14 February. "Pennsylvania" crossed back through the canal to take part in maneuvers off Cuba and on 28 April she arrived in Hampton Roads, Virginia, where President Warren G. Harding, Edwin Denby, the Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and Admiral Robert Coontz, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), came aboard the ship. Further training was held from 12 to 21 July in the Caribbean, after which she returned to New York. On 30 July, she proceeded on to Plymouth, Massachusetts for a visit that lasted until 2 August. Anothery drydock period in New York lasted from 5 to 20 August.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" departed New York thereafter, bound for the Pacific; she passed through the Panama Canal on 30 August and remained at Balboa for two weeks. On 15 September, she resumed the voyage and steamed north to San Pedro, Los Angeles, which she reached on 26 September. The ship spent most of 1922 visiting ports along the US west coast, including San Francisco, Seattle, Port Angeles, and San Diego, and from 6 March to 19 April, she underwent a refit at the Puget Sound Navy Yard. She won the Battle Efficiency Award for the 1922 training year. She went back to Puget Sound on 18 December, and remained there into 1923. She left the shipyard on 28 January and steamed south to San Diego, where she stayed from 2 to 8 February, before continuing on to the Panama Canal. After passing through, she steamed to Culebra for a short visit. The ship then passed back through the canal and arrived back in San Pedro on 13 April. Beginning in May, she visited various ports in the area over the course of the rest of 1923, apart from a round of fleet training from 27 November to 7 December. She ended the year with another stint in Puget Sound from 22 December until 1 March 1924.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The ship arrived in San Francisco on 3 March, where she loaded ammunition before joining the Battle Fleet in San Diego on 9 March. The fleet cruised south to the Gulf of Fonseca, then continued south and passed through the Panama Canal to Limon Bay. The ships visited several ports in the Caribbean, including in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico before returning to the Pacific in early April. "Pennsylvania" arrived back in San Pedro on 22 April, where she remained until 25 June, when she steamed north to Seattle. By this time, she was serving as the flagship of Battle Division 3 of the Battle Fleet. While in the Seattle area, she took part in training exercises with the ships of her division that lasted until 1 September. Further training exercises took place from 12 to 22 September off San Francisco. She thereafter took part in joint training with the coastal defenses around San Francisco from 26 to 29 September. The ship underwent a pair of overhauls from 1 to 13 October and 13 December to 5 January 1925. "Pennsylvania" then steamed to Puget Sound on 21 January for a third overhaul that lasted from 25 January to 24 March.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" returned to San Pedro on 27 March and then joined the fleet in San Francisco on 5 April. The ships then steamed to Hawaii for training exercises before departing on 1 July for a major cruise across the Pacific to Australia. They reached Melbourne on 22 July, and on 6 August "Pennsylvania" steamed to Wellington, New Zealand, where she stayed from 11 to 22 August. On the voyage back to the United States, they stopped in Pago Pago in American Samoa and Hawaii, before reaching San Pedro on 26 September. "Pennsylvania" went to San Diego for target practice from 5 to 8 October, thereafter returning to San Pedro, where she remained largely idle for the rest of 1925. She left San Pedro with the Battle Fleet on 1 February 1926 for another visit to Balboa, during which the ships conducted tactical training from 15 to 27 February. "Pennsylvania" spent early March in California before departing for Puget Sound on 15 March for another refit that lasted until 14 May, at which point she returned to San Pedro. Another tour of west coast ports began on 16 June and ended on 1 September back in San Pedro.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" remained at San Pedro from 11 December to 11 January 1927 when she left for another refit at Puget Sound that lasted until 12 March. She returned to San Francisco on 15 March and then moved to San Pedro the next day. She left to join training exercises off Cuba on 17 March; she passed through the canal between 29 and 31 March and arrived in Guantánamo Bay on 4 April. On 18 April, she left Cuba to visit Gonaïves, Haiti before steaming to New York, arriving there on 29 April. After touring the east coast in May, she departed for the canal, which she crossed on 12 June. She remained in Balboa until 12 June, at which point she left for San Pedro, arriving on 28 June. The ship spent the rest of 1927 with training, maintenance, and a tour of the west coast. She went to Puget Sound for a refit on 1 April 1928 that lasted until 16 May, after which she went to San Francisco. She left that same day, however, and steamed back north to visit Victoria, British Columbia. She remained there from 24 to 28 May and then returned to San Francisco. She spent June visiting various ports, and in August she embarked Dwight F. Davis, the Secretary of War, in San Francisco; she carried him to Hawaii, departing on 7 August and arriving on the 13th. "Pennsylvania" returned to Seattle on 26 August.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: Another cruise to Cuba took place in January 1929, after which she went to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 1 June for a major refit and modernization. She received a number of modifications, including increased deck and turret roof armor, anti-torpedo bulges, new turbo-generators, new turbines, and six new three-drum boilers. Her main battery turrets were modified to allow them to elevate to 30 degrees, significantly increasing the range of her guns, and her secondary battery was revised. The number of 5-inch guns was reduced to twelve, and her 3-inch anti-aircraft guns were replaced with eight 5-inch /25 guns. Her torpedo tubes were removed, as were her lattice masts, which were replaced with sturdier tripod masts. Her bridge was also enlarged to increase the space available for an admiral's staff, since she was used as a flagship. Her living space was increased to 2,037 crew and marines, and she was fitted with two catapults for seaplanes.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" returned to service on 1 March 1931 and she conducted trials in Delaware Bay in March and April. She then steamed south to Cuba on 8 May for a training cruise before returning to Philadelphia on 26 May. Another cruise to Cuba followed on 30 July; the ship arrived there on 5 August and this time she steamed across the Caribbean to the Panama Canal, which she transited on 12 August to return to the Battle Fleet. She reached San Pedro on 27 August, where she remained for the rest of the year. She toured the west coast in January 1932 and before crossing over to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 3 February. There, she took part in extensive fleet maneuvers as part of Fleet Problem XIII. She returned to San Pedro on 20 March, remaining there until 18 April, when she began another cruise along the coast of California. She returned to San Pedro on 14 November and remained there until the end of the year.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The ship departed San Pedro on 9 February to participate in Fleet Problem XIV, which lasted from 10 to 17 February. She returned to San Francisco on 17 February and then went to San Pedro on 27 February, remaining there until 19 June. Another west coast cruise followed from 19 June to 14 November, and after returning to San Pedro, "Pennsylvania" stayed there inactive until early March 1934. From 4 to 8 March, she made a short visit to Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco and then returned to San Pedro. From there, she went to join the fleet for Fleet Problem XV, which was held in the Caribbean this year; she passed through the canal on 24 April, the maneuvers having already started on the 19th. They lasted until 12 May, at which point "Pennsylvania" went to Gonaïves with the rest of the fleet, which then continued on to New York, where it arrived on 31 March. There, "Pennsylvania" led the fleet in a naval review for now-President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 15 June, Admiral Joseph M. Reeves took command of the fleet aboard "Pennsylvania", which was once again the fleet flagship.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: On 18 June, "Pennsylvania" left New York for the Pacific, stopping in Hampton Roads on 20 June on the way. She passed through the canal on 28 June and reached San Pedro on 7 July. She then went to Puget Sound for a refit that lasted from 14 July to 2 October. The ship left the shipyard on 16 October and returned to San Francisco two days later, beginning a period of cruises off the coast of California and visits to cities in the state. She ended the year in San Pedro, remaining there or in San Francisco until 29 April 1935, when she took part in Fleet Problem XVI in the Hawaiian islands. The maneuvers lasted until 10 June, and were the largest set of exercises conducted by the US Navy at the time. The ship then returned to San Pedro on 17 June and embarked on a cruise of the west coast for several months; on 16 December, she went to Puget Sound for another overhaul that lasted from 20 December to 21 March 1936. Fleet Problem XVII followed from 27 April to 7 June, this time being held off Balboa. She returned to San Pedro on 6 June and spent the rest of the year with training exercises off the west coast and Hawaii, ending the training program for the year in San Pedro on 18 November.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The ship remained in port until 17 February, when she departed for San Clemente, California at the start of a tour along the west coast. She participated in Fleet Problem XVIII, which lasted from 16 April to 28 May. Another stint in Puget Sound began on 6 June and concluded on 3 September, when she returned to San Pedro. She spent the rest of the year alternating between there and San Francisco, seeing little activity. She made a short trip to San Francisco in February 1938 and took part in Fleet Problem XIX from 9 March to 30 April. Another period in San Pedro followed until 20 June, after which she embarked on a two-month cruise along the west coast that concluded with another stay at Puget Sound on 28 September. After concluding her repairs on 16 December, she returned to San Pedro by way of San Francisco, arriving on 22 December. Fleet Problem XX occurred earlier the year than it had in previous iterations, taking place from 20 to 27 February 1939 in Cuban waters. During the exercises, Franklin Roosevelt and Admiral William D. Leahy, the CNO, came aboard "Pennsylvania" to observe the maneuvers.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The ship then went to Culebra on 27 February, departing on 4 March to visit Port-au-Prince, Haiti from 6 to 11 March. A stay in Guantanamo Bay followed from 12 to 31 March, after which she went to visit the US Naval Academy in Annapolis on 5 April. "Pennsylvania" began the voyage back to the Pacific on 18 April and passed through the canal at the end of the month, ultimately arriving back in San Pedro on 12 May. Another tour of the west coast followed, which included stops in San Francisco, Tacoma, and Seattle, and ended in San Pedro on 20 October. She went to Hawaii to participate in Fleet Problem XXI on 2 April 1940. The exercises lasted until 17 May, after which the ship remained in Hawaii until 1 September, when she left for San Pedro. The battleship then went to Puget Sound on 12 September that lasted until 27 December; during the overhaul, she received another four 5-inch /25 guns. She returned to San Pedro on 31 December. Fleet Problem XXII was scheduled for January 1941, but the widening of World War II by this time led the naval command to cancel the exercises. On 7 January, "Pennsylvania" steamed to Hawaii as part of what was again the Pacific Fleet, based at Pearl Harbor. Over the course of the year, she operated out of Pearl Harbor and made a short voyage to the west coast of the United States from 12 September to 11 October.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: On the morning of 7 December, "Pennsylvania" was in Dry Dock No. 1 in Pearl Harbor undergoing a refit; three of her four screws were removed. The destroyers and were also in the dock with her. When it became clear that the port was under air attack from the Japanese fleet, "Pennsylvania"s crew rushed to their battle stations, and between 08:02 and 08:05, her anti-aircraft gunners began engaging the hostile aircraft. Japanese torpedo bombers unsuccessfully attempted to torpedo the side of the drydock to flood it; having failed, several aircraft then strafed "Pennsylvania". At 08:30, several high-altitude bombers began a series of attacks on the ship; over the course of the following fifteen minutes, five aircraft attempted to hit her from different directions. One of the Japanese bombers hit "Downes" and one scored a hit on "Pennsylvania" that passed through the boat deck and exploded in casemate No. 9. "Pennsylvania"s anti-aircraft gunners fired at all of these aircraft but failed to hit any of them, apparently owing to incorrect fuse settings that caused the shells to explode before they reached the correct altitude. The gunners did manage to shoot down a low-flying aircraft that attempted to strafe the ship; they claimed to have shot down another five aircraft, but the after-action investigation noted that only two aircraft were likely hit by "Pennsylvania"s guns.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: By 09:20, both destroyers were on fire from bomb hits and the fire had spread to "Pennsylvania", so the drydock was flooded to help contain the fire. Ten minutes later, the destroyers began to explode as the fires spread to ammunition magazines, and at 09:41, "Downes" was shattered by an explosion that scattered parts of the ship around the area. One of her torpedo tubes, weighing , was launched into the air, striking "Pennsylvania"s forecastle. As part of her crew battled the fire in her bow, other men used the ship's boats to ferry anti-aircraft ammunition from stores in the West Loch of Pearl Harbor. Beginning at 14:00, the crew began preparatory work to repair the bomb damage; a 5-inch /25 gun and a 5-inch /51 casemate gun were taken from the damaged battleship to replace weapons damaged aboard "Pennsylvania". In the course of the attack, "Pennsylvania" had 15 men killed (including her executive officer), 14 missing, and 38 wounded. On 12 December, "Pennsylvania" was refloated and taken out of the drydock; having been only lightly damaged in the attack, she was ready to go to sea. She departed Pearl Harbor on 20 December and arrived in San Francisco nine days later. She went into drydock at Hunter's Point on 1 January 1942 for repairs that were completed on 12 January.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The ship left San Francisco on 20 February and began gunnery training before returning to San Francisco the next day. Further training followed in March, and from 14 April to 1 August, she took part in extensive maneuvers off the coast of California; during this period, she underwent an overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in San Francisco. The work involved considerably strengthening the ship's anti-aircraft capabilities, with ten Bofors 40 mm quad mounts and fifty-one Oerlikon 20 mm single mounts. The tripod mainmast was removed, with the stump replaced by a deckhouse above which the aft main battery director cupola was housed. One of the new CXAM-1 radars was installed above the cupola. The older 5-inch /51 cal anti-ship guns in casemates and 5-inch /25 cal anti-aircraft guns were replaced with rapid fire 5-inch /38 cal guns in eight twin turret mounts. The new 5"/38 cal dual purpose guns could elevate to 85 degrees and fire at a rate of one round every four seconds. The ship briefly went to sea during the Battle of Midway as part of Task Force 1, commanded by Vice Admiral William S. Pye, but the ships did not see action during the operation.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: On 1 August, "Pennsylvania" left San Francisco, bound for Pearl Harbor. She arrived there on 14 August and took part in further training, including guard tactics for aircraft carrier task forces. Another overhaul followed in San Francisco from 3 to 10 January 1943. After further training and tests at San Francisco and Long Beach that lasted into April, she departed to join the Aleutian Islands Campaign on 23 April. She bombarded Holtz Bay and Chichagof Harbor on 11–12 May to support the forces that went ashore on the island of Attu. While she was leaving the area on the 12th, the Japanese submarine launched a torpedo at the ship, which was observed by a patrolling PBY Catalina flying boat. The Catalina radioed "Pennsylvania", which took evasive maneuvers and escaped unharmed; a pair of destroyers then spent the next ten hours hunting the submarine before severely damaging her and forcing her to surface. "I-31" was later sunk by another destroyer the next day.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" returned to Holtz Bay on 14 May to conduct another bombardment in support of an infantry attack on the western side of the bay. She continued operations in the area until 19 May, when she steamed to Adak Island for another amphibious assault. While en route, one of her gasoline stowage compartments exploded, which caused structural damage, though no one was injured in the accident. She was forced to leave Adak on 21 May for repairs at Puget Sound that lasted from 31 May to 15 June; during the overhaul, another accidental explosion killed one man and injured a second. She left port on 1 August, bound for Adak, which she reached on 7 August. There, she became the flagship of Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, commander of the task force that was to attack Kiska. The troops went ashore on 15 August but met no resistance, the Japanese having evacuated without US forces in the area having becoming aware of it. "Pennsylvania" patrolled off Kiska for several days before returning to Adak on 23 August.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: Two days later, the battleship departed Adak for Pearl Harbor, arriving there on 1 September. She embarked a contingent of 790 passengers before steaming on 19 September, bound for San Francisco. She arrived there six days later and debarked her passengers before returning to Pearl Harbor on 6 October to take part in bombardment training from 20 to 23 October and 31 October – 4 November. Now the flagship of Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, the commander of the Fifth Amphibious Force, itself part of the Northern Attack Force, "Pennsylvania" left Pearl Harbor on 10 November to lead the assault on Makin Atoll, part of the Gilbert Islands. She was joined by three other battleships, four cruisers, three escort carriers, and numerous transports and destroyers; they arrived off Makin on 20 November, and "Pennsylvania" opened fire on Butaritari Island that morning at a range of , beginning the Battle of Makin. Early on the morning of 24 November, the ship was rocked by an explosion off her starboard bow; lookouts reported that the escort carrier had been torpedoed and had exploded. Japanese torpedo bombers conducted repeated nighttime attacks on 25 and 26 November, but they failed to score any hits on the American fleet. "Pennsylvania" left the area on 30 November to return to Pearl Harbor.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: At the start of 1944, "Pennsylvania" was at Pearl Harbor; over the course of the first two weeks of January, she took part in maneuvers in preparation for landings on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. She departed Pearl Harbor on 22 January in company with the invasion fleet, and on 31 January she began her preparatory bombardment of the atoll to start the Battle of Kwajalein. Troops went ashore the next day, and "Pennsylvania" remained offshore to provide artillery support to the marines as they fought to secure the island. By the evening of 3 February, the Japanese defenders had been defeated, allowing the ship to depart to Majuro Atoll to replenish her ammunition supply. She left shortly thereafter, on 12 February, to support the next major attack on Eniwetok in the Marshalls; five days later she arrived off the island, the Battle of Eniwetok already underway, and over the course of 20 and 21 February, she shelled the island heavily to support the men fighting ashore. On 22 February, she supported the landing on Parry Island, part of the Eniwetok atoll.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: On 1 March, "Pennsylvania" steamed back to Majuro before proceeding south to Havannah Harbor on Efate Island in the New Hebrides. She remained there until 24 April, when she left for a short visit to Sydney, Australia from 29 April to 11 May, when she returned to Efate. She thereafter steamed to Port Purvis on Florida Island, in the Solomons, to participate in amphibious assault exercises. After replenishing ammunition and supplies at Efate, she left on 2 June, bound for Roi, arriving there six days later. On 10 June, she joined a force of battleships, cruisers, escort carriers, and destroyers that had assembled for the Marianas campaign. While en route that night, one of the escorting destroyers reported a sonar contact and the ships of the fleet took evasive maneuvers; in the darkness, "Pennsylvania" accidentally collided with the troop transport . "Pennsylvania" incurred only minor damage and was able to continue with the fleet, but "Talbot" had to return to Eniwetok for emergency repairs.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" began her bombardment of Saipan on 14 June to prepare the island for the assault that came the next day. She continued shelling the island while cruising off Tinian on 15 June as the assault craft went ashore. On 16 June, she attacked Japanese positions at Orote Point on Guam before returning to Saipan. She left the area on 25 June to replenish at Eniwetok, returning to join the preparatory bombardment of Guam on 12 July. The shelling continued for two days, and late on 14 July, she steamed to Saipan to again replenish her ammunition. Back on station three days later, she continued to blast the island through 20 July. This work also included suppressing guns that fired on demolition parties that went ashore to destroy landing obstacles. On the morning of 21 July, "Pennsylvania" took up her bombardment position off Orote Point as the assault craft prepared to launch their attack. The ship operated off the island supporting the men fighting there for the next two weeks.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" left Guam on 3 August to replenish at Eniwetok, arriving there on 19 August. From there, she steamed to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides before joining landing training off Guadalcanal. The ship left on 6 September as part of the Bombardment and Fire Support Group for the invasion of Peleliu. She bombarded the island from 12 to 14 September and supported the landings the next day. She shelled Anguar Island on 17 September and remained there for three days, departing on 20 September. She then steamed to Seeadler Harbor on Manus, one of the Admiralty Islands for repairs. On 28 September, she arrived there and entered a floating dry dock on 1 October for a week's repairs. "Pennsylvania" left on 12 October in company with the battleships , , , , and "West Virginia", under the command of Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf. These ships, designated Task Group 77.2, formed the Fire Support Group for the upcoming operations in the Philippines. They arrived off Leyte on 18 October and took up bombardment positions; over the next four days, they covered Underwater Demolition Teams, beach reconnaissance operations, and minesweepers clearing the way for the landing force.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: On 24 October, reports of Japanese naval forces approaching the area led Oldendorf's ships to prepare for action at the exit of the Surigao Strait. Vice Admiral Shōji Nishimura's Southern Force steamed through the Surigao Strait to attack the invasion fleet in Leyte Gulf; his force comprised Battleship Division 2—the battleships and , the heavy cruiser , and four destroyers—and Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima's Second Striking Force—the heavy cruisers and , the light cruiser , and four more destroyers. As Nishimura's flotilla passed through the strait on the night of 24 October, they came under attack from American PT boats, followed by destroyers, initiating the Battle of Surigao Strait. One of these destroyers torpedoed "Fusō" and disabled her, though Nishimura continued on toward his objective.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: In the early hours of 25 October, the Southern Force came into contact with Oldendorf's battleships, which had positioned themselves to cross Nishimura's T. At 03:53, "West Virginia" opened fire, followed by some of the other battleships, though "Pennsylvania" had trouble locating a target in the darkness with her search radar. Her older Mark 3 radar was not as effective as the more modern sets on "West Virginia" and some of the other battleships. Task Group 77.2's battleships effectively annihilated Battleship Division 2; Shima's Second Striking Force had fallen behind and had not yet entered the fray. "Yamashiro" was set on fire and then exploded; she turned to flee, covered by a salvo of torpedoes from the burning "Mogami", but the American battleships were able to evade them without damage. Despite having disengaged from Oldendorf's battleships, "Yamashiro" was hit by more torpedoes and capsized and sank around 04:20. Shima's ships passed the still-floating "Fusō" and realized that Nishimura had entered a trap, so he reversed course to flee; in the confusion, his flagship "Nachi" collided with "Mogami", damaging her and slowing her to be attacked by American light forces. She was later sunk, as were three of the four destroyers. Later on 25 October, "Pennsylvania"s anti-aircraft gunners helped to shoot down four aircraft that attacked a nearby destroyer.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: Late on 28 October, "Pennsylvania" shot down a torpedo bomber. The ship remained on station off Leyte until 25 November, when she departed for Manus, from which she steamed to Kossol Roads off Palau on 15 December to refill her magazines. She conducted gunnery training on 22 December, and on 1 January 1945, "Pennsylvania" re-joined Oldendorf's Fire Support Group on the way to Lingayen Gulf for the next major operation in the Philippines. Over the course of 4–5 January, Japanese aircraft repeatedly attacked the ships, including kamikazes that destroyed the escort carrier . "Pennsylvania" began bombarding Japanese positions on Santiago Island at the entrance to Lingayen Gulf on 6 January before entering the gulf that night to suppress Japanese guns while minesweepers cleared the area. The next morning, the rest of Oldendorf's ships joined her in the gulf to begin the main preparatory bombardment, which continued through the 8th. On 9 January, the amphibious assault began as troops from the Sixth United States Army went ashore.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: Japanese aircraft struck the invasion fleet on 10 January, and four bombs landed close to "Pennsylvania", though she was undamaged. Later that day, a fire control party directed "Pennsylvania" to shell a group of Japanese tanks that were massing to launch a counterattack on the beachhead. The ship patrolled outside the gulf from 10 to 17 January, when she returned to the gulf; she saw no further action, however, and she departed on 10 February for maintenance at Manus. From there, she left on 22 February for San Francisco, stopping in the Marshalls and at Pearl Harbor on the way. After arriving on 13 March, she underwent a thorough overhaul, including the replacement of her worn-out main battery and secondary guns. She also received more modern radar and fire control equipment and additional close-range anti-aircraft guns. With the work done, she went on sea trials off San Francisco, followed by training at San Diego. She left San Francisco on 12 July and arrived in Pearl Harbor on the 18th, where she engaged in further training from 20 to 23 July. The next day, she departed to join the invasion fleet off Okinawa.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: While transiting the Pacific, she stopped to bombard Wake Island on 1 August. In the artillery duel with Japanese coastal guns, one of their shells detonated close enough that fragments disabled one of the ship's fire control directors for her 5-inch guns. One of her Curtiss SC Seahawks was damaged in heavy seas, and the destroyer recovered the pilot. "Pennsylvania" loaded ammunition at Saipan before continuing on to Okinawa, arriving there on 12 August where she became flagship of Task Force 95. That night, while moored next to "Tennessee" in Buckner Bay, a Japanese torpedo bomber managed to penetrate the Allied defensive screen undetected; the aircraft launched its torpedo at "Pennsylvania" and hit her aft, causing serious damage. The torpedo opened a hole approximately in diameter, causing the ship to take on a considerable amount of water and begin to settle by the stern. Damage control teams were able to contain the flooding. Twenty men were killed and another ten were injured in the attack, including Oldendorf, who was aboard at the time and suffered several broken ribs. "Pennsylvania" was the last major US warship to be damaged in the war. The next day, salvage tugs towed her to shallow water where temporary repairs could be effected. On 15 August, the Japanese surrendered, ending the war.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: "Pennsylvania" was taken under tow by a pair of tugboats on 18 August, bound for Apra Harbor, Guam, where they arrived on 6 September. The next day, she was taken into a floating drydock, where a large steel patch was welded over the torpedo hole, which would allow the ship to make the voyage back for permanent repairs. The battleship relieved "Pennsylvania" as flagship on 15 September, and on 2 October, she was able to leave the drydock. Two days later, "Pennsylvania" steamed out of Guam, bound for Puget Sound, where repairs would be effected. She was escorted by the light cruiser and the destroyer . While still en route on 17 October, the ship's number 3 propeller shaft slipped aft. Divers were sent to cut the shaft loose; "Pennsylvania" now had just one operational screw, and the open propeller shaft was now allowing water to leak into the hull. She nevertheless completed the voyage to Puget Sound, arriving on 24 October. The ship received the Navy Unit Commendation for her wartime service there on 3 November.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: On 16 January 1946, "Pennsylvania" was designated to be expended as a target ship for the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll to be carried out later that year. Repairs were completed enough to allow her to sail to the Marshall Islands, and she left Puget Sound on 24 February. After stopping in Pearl Harbor, she arrived in Bikini Atoll on 31 May, where she was anchored along with another eighty-three warships. The first explosion, Test Able, took place on 1 July, and was an air burst. After tests determined that the ship had not been contaminated with radiation, the crew returned to the ship from 3 to 24 July. The second blast, Test Baker, was done the next day. This was an underwater detonation, and "Pennsylvania" was moored just from ground zero. She was only lightly damaged from the blast, but the surge of water caused significant radioactive contamination; work parties came aboard the ship from 17 to 21 August to prepare the ship to be towed, and on the 21st she was taken under tow by the transport , which took her to Kwajalein, where she was decommissioned on 29 August. Various radiological and structural studies were completed over the next year and a half until she was scuttled off Kwajalein on 10 February 1948. She was officially stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 February.


title: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38)

text: The ship's bell is on display at The Pennsylvania State University near the main entrance of the Wagner Building, home of the university's ROTC programs. It has been on permanent loan to the university from the Department of the Navy since 1955. Two of the ship's 14-inch guns that had been replaced during the 1945 overhaul are on outdoor display at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Being Human is a British supernatural comedy-drama television series created and written by Toby Whithouse and broadcast on BBC Three. The show blends elements of flatshare comedy and horror drama. The pilot episode starred Andrea Riseborough as Annie Sawyer (a ghost), Russell Tovey as George Sands (a werewolf), and Guy Flanagan as John Mitchell (a vampire) – all of whom are sharing accommodation and attempting as well as they can to live a "normal" life and blend in with the ordinary humans around them, striving to fit in more.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Two of the main cast were replaced in the series by Aidan Turner (Mitchell) and Lenora Crichlow (Annie). Russell Tovey was the only original main cast member. In the third series, Sinead Keenan became part of the main cast as Nina Pickering (a werewolf). In the fourth series, the ensemble was joined by Michael Socha as Tom McNair (a werewolf) and Damien Molony as Hal Yorke (a vampire). The fifth series added Kate Bracken as Alex Millar (a ghost). The first two series were set in Totterdown, Bristol, and the third series onwards relocated , across the River Severn, to Barry, Wales.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: On 13 March 2011, series creator Toby Whithouse announced that Turner had left the show and that new characters would be introduced. On 11 November 2011, Tovey announced that he was leaving "Being Human" after the first episode of Series 4 to work full-time on his other television series "Him & Her". Furthermore, Keenan announced on 9 January 2012 that she had not filmed any scenes for Series 4, and would exit the show off-screen.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The series is one of the most popular shows on BBC's iPlayer. The second series premiered on BBC Three on 10 January 2010. The third series launched on 23 January 2011. The day following the final broadcast for Series 3, the BBC announced a fourth series would premiere on the BBC in 2012. Series 4 began airing on BBC Three on 5 February 2012. The BBC Media Centre announced a fifth series had been commissioned, which started broadcasting on 3 February 2013. The BBC announced on 7 February 2013 that the fifth series would be the last. The final episode of "Being Human" was broadcast on 10 March 2013.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The central premise of "Being Human" is that various types of supernatural beings exist alongside human beings, with varying degrees of menace; that three of these supernatural beings are opting to live "amongst" human beings rather than apart from them; and that these three characters are attempting (as much as is possible) to live ordinary human lives despite the pressures and dangers of their situations. They are constantly threatened with exposure or persecution, with pressure from other supernatural creatures, and with problems caused by their attempts to deal with their own natures.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Series 1 is set in the English city of Bristol and introduces George Sands (a reluctant werewolf in his mid-twenties) and John Mitchell (a vampire with the appearance and behaviour of a young man in his mid-twenties who is over a hundred years old). Both are attempting to reject their nature as supernatural predators – George by strictly managing his transformations and their effect on others, Mitchell by abstaining from blood-drinking. Despite a long history of antipathy between the werewolf and vampire races, Mitchell and George have formed a deep friendship, they have low-profile, low-status jobs as hospital porters and live as housemates.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Moving into a new house together, they discover that it already has an occupant – Annie Sawyer, the ghost of a young woman in her mid-twenties. Annie had lived in the house with her fiancé Owen but died after falling down the stairs. She has remained to haunt the property while Owen, unaware of her presence, has rented it out to Mitchell and George. As supernatural beings, George and Mitchell can see, touch and communicate with Annie, who is delighted to have their company and becomes the third member of the surrogate family.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: All three have problems, Mitchell's central challenge is his struggle with his desire to feed (which is presented as being similar to a struggle against drug addiction). George's is to manage his monthly werewolf transformations in such a way that he does not kill anyone or pass on the werewolf affliction. He considers his condition to be "a curse", over which he is in a certain state of denial (including referring to his wolf-self as if it were a different person). Annie's challenge is to deal with her new existence as a ghost (including the isolation and loneliness which results from it) and to discover the reason why she has remained on Earth instead of passing over to the afterlife.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The remainder of Series 1 deals with the protagonists' attempts to deal with these situations and with the various characters (human or otherwise) with whom they come into contact or conflict. All of the problems are finally brought to a ferocious climax which the trio survive but with their existence no less precarious.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Series 2 (also set in Bristol) deals with the aftermath of Series 1. Mitchell must struggle with the dual responsibilities of managing his own urges and attempting to manage the now scattered and rudderless Bristol vampire community. George must cope with the responsibilities of intimacy and the problem of having passed on his "curse" despite his best efforts. Annie must find a new purpose in her continued presence (having resolved the initial issues that kept her on Earth) and must also deal with the malignant attention of another type of supernatural being, resident in the afterlife but able to influence events in the earthly world.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The lives of Mitchell, George, and Annie are further complicated by other new factors. There is now a need to fit George's girlfriend Nina into the household, and deal with urgent new problems she is facing herself; there are problems with the police, and two powerful and playful vampires (Ivan and Daisy) have arrived in Bristol with the threat of causing mayhem. The trio are also subject to the growing attentions of a mysterious organisation (possibly called the Centre for the Study of Supernatural Activity, or CenSSA) led by the scientist Dr Jaggatt and the priest-administrator Kemp. This organisation has identified and classified the three different types of supernatural creature – vampire, werewolf and ghost – and is continuing to research them, although it is evident from the start that they are quite prepared to let subjects die in the course of the research. The lives of each of the four main protagonists gradually draw them closer and closer to the organisation, despite the threat it may pose to all of them.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Series 3 saw the protagonists move to Barry Island in South Wales (as the result of events in Series 2). They set up house in a former bed-and-breakfast hotel and attempt to resume their "normal" lives, despite the overhang of the results of the Series 2 climax, including Mitchell having briefly snapped and murdered twenty people on a train in the Box Tunnel, in Wiltshire. As Series 3 progresses, the quartet must deal with the return of various figures and events from the characters' pasts as well as the complications of their relationships, notably after George and Nina conceive a child in their werewolf state and must determine what their child will be. In addition, they must deal with further supernatural incursions – more vampires (including a teenager and a pair of suburban swingers), a zombie girl and a pair of werewolves, Tom McNair and his adoptive father (who have set themselves up as vampire hunters). Events lead up to a finale that leaves the household changed dramatically. Aidan Turner left the show at the end of the third series, which also marked the final appearance of Sinead Keenan as Nina.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Nina has been killed in a vampire attack and the gang now has to take care of baby Eve, whose werewolf heritage appears to have attracted the attention of vampire overlords known as the Old Ones. In the first episode George dies while rescuing Eve, leaving her in the custody of Tom (who moves into Honolulu Heights) and Annie. Another trio of elderly werewolf Leo, ghost Pearl and vampire Hal later come to Honolulu Heights seeking help for Leo's transformations after a strange experience, but in the end Leo dies, passing on with Pearl while Hal remains to become the new vampire at Honolulu Heights. Lawyer Nick Cutler, a vampire created by Hal in 1950, plans to expose werewolves as part of a larger plan involving a vampire conquest of Earth. Cutler tries to get Hal back to his old ways of drinking blood, Tom and Annie learning that Hal is actually a former Old One and vampire ruler, with Cutler's efforts eventually succeeding in breaking Hal down. The blood sends Hal into overdrive and he repulses Alex, whom he is dating, with his crude and unusual behaviour when they meet for a second date. Alex leaves angrily but is followed by one of Cutler's men. Meanwhile, Eve, from the future, reveals to Annie that in her future, most of humankind are dead or living in concentration camps and vampires now rule every inch of the world. Annie is shocked to learn that Hal is the ruthless leader of the new vampire revolution. To save the world, Eve asks Annie to kill her when she is a baby. Cutler reveals Alex's dead body drained of blood as revenge for Hal murdering his wife in similar fashion in 1950. Cutler then locks Hal up, but Alex returns as a ghost and helps Hal escape. The Old Ones then arrive in Barry. To save the world, Annie blows up Eve and the Old Ones, completing her unfinished business, and "passes over" as she is no longer an Earth-bound spirit. The series ends with Hal, Alex, and Tom living together in Honolulu Heights.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: On 26 March 2012, the day following the Series 4 finale, it was revealed that Series 5 of "Being Human" would air in 2013 and comprise six episodes. Michael Socha and Damien Molony were announced to be reprising their roles as Tom and Hal respectively. Lenora Crichlow did not return for Series 5 as the production team felt her storyline had reached a natural conclusion. Kate Bracken confirmed her return to the show in an interview before the series started shooting. The BBC referred to Alex (Kate) as "our new ghost", implying that Alex would become a main character in Series 5.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: On 17 January 2013, the series synopsis was released, explaining that Alex would be adjusting to life as a ghost with Tom while Hal tries to keep his bloodlust in check, and they decide to take up jobs at the Barry Grand Hotel. The three must deal with Mr. Rook, a government agent whose job is to keep the truth about supernatural beings from the public, and a pensioner named Captain Hatch (Phil Davis) who is secretly a vessel for the Devil. The fifth series of "Being Human" was announced to be the final series on 7 February 2013; the final episode was broadcast on 10 March 2013.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: In October 2011, Netflix announced it had obtained rights to stream episodes of "Being Human" via its home video service in the United States and Canada.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Creator Toby Whithouse was approached by production company Touchpaper Television to develop a drama series about a group of friends who buy a house together. Whithouse was not enthusiastic about the idea, but came up with three characters, George, Mitchell, and Annie. Touchpaper Television liked the characters so they started developing the project. For months, Whithouse and Touchpaper Television struggled to come up with a storyline for the first episode. Eventually, they had a final meeting to see if they could come up with a storyline or the project would be scrapped. Whithouse came up with the supernatural elements and the characters were changed.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Whithouse was contacted by the BBC who told him they were making a series of pilots. Whithouse was not a fan of the television pilot process, but believed that the show would never get made otherwise, so the pilot script was submitted. In 2007, Danny Cohen, the controller of BBC Three, commissioned the pilot of "Being Human", as well as "West 10 LDN", "Mrs In-Betweeny", "The Things I Haven't Told You", "Dis/Connected" and "Phoo Action" pilots as part of the rebranding of BBC Three. Before the pilots were broadcast, Whithouse was told that only "Phoo Action" would be commissioned for a series. The pilot episode was broadcast on 18 February 2008. The journalist Narin Bahar of the "Reading Chronicle" started an online petition to lobby BBC Three commissioning editors to greenlight a full series, which was signed by over 3,000 people. "Phoo Action" was cancelled after it was decided that the scripts for the series were not good enough and "Being Human" was then commissioned.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The pilot episode starred Guy Flanagan as Mitchell the vampire, Andrea Riseborough as Annie the ghost, and Russell Tovey as George the werewolf, as well as featuring Adrian Lester as Herrick (the vampire leader and main antagonist of Series 1), Dylan Brown as Seth (another vampire) and Dominique McElligott as the recent vampire convert Lauren (converted by Mitchell). With the exception of George and Seth, these parts were recast when the series went into full production.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The first and second series were set and filmed in Bristol featuring views of Clifton Suspension Bridge and Clifton Village. Windsor Terrace, Totterdown, Bristol, was the location of Mitchell, Annie, and George's home and the pub shown in the pilot. Scenes set at the hospital where Mitchell and George work were filmed in and around Bristol General Hospital and Glenside, Bristol.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The third series was filmed and set in Barry (Barry Island). The new house is located on Canon Street. Some filming took place in Hensol Woods near Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, in July 2010. The move to Barry Island and Wales was prompted by the BBC's "Out of London" project, which sought to move productions away from London and to new production facilities in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Some interior filming occurred at an abandoned bus depot, which had been converted into a film studio.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: On 13 March 2011, Whithouse and BBC Three announced that "Being Human" would return for a fourth series. Eight 60 minute episodes were commissioned and co-produced with BBC America. The producer also said some old characters would return, and he intended to introduce new ones and that the characters will continue to live on Barry Island. The filmmakers returned to Barry Island to film the fourth series in late July 2011, where they continued to use local man Gary Rowe's house as the group's bed-and-breakfast base of operations. Students from the drama and theatre programme at Coleg Gwent were used as extras and in minor roles on the show. The internal and external cafe scenes were filmed in the Pillgwenlly area of Newport.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The pilot episode was not widely reviewed, and some reviews were not positive. A review in "The Daily Telegraph" called the pilot one of BBC Three's "wildly uneven" new shows. Brian McIver, writing for the "Daily Record" felt the show lacked sex appeal and that the plot was boring, concluding: "so what?" But, by late January 2009, the "Daily Record" reported that most of the reviews of the pilot had raved about the new show. Viewership for the pilot was very high, and a massive online petition drive helped turn the pilot into a series.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Reception of the series has been extremely favourable. Stephen Armstrong in "The Guardian" gave the show a warm review, noting that its primary appeal was not supernatural or horror. It was, he wrote, "a curious genre mash-up drama about a ghost, werewolf and vampire sharing a flat in Bristol, which deals more with the horror of living in modern Britain than the horror of the undead." David Belcher writing in the "Glasgow Herald" was effusive, however, calling the series "Easily the sole good programme on BBC3... "Being Human": the supernatural drama that's super in its depiction of human nature." At the conclusion of the first series, Andrea Mullaney of "The Scotsman" had high praise for the show's premise and writing:


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: When it debuted on BBC America in 2009, the show won similar plaudits. The "Miami Herald" Glenn Garvin praised the show's balance of humour and pathos: "What it is darkly funny, deeply affecting and utterly cockeyed, a work that celebrates life by dwelling on death, love by abiding loneliness. It's a tale of cold, dead noses pressed up against the window pane of humanity... But for all the laughs, "Being Human" never loses sight of the menace of its characters." Writing in "The New York Times", Alessandra Stanley called the series "compelling" and praised its equal emphasis on horror, remorse, and humour:


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: Writing for the "Chicago Tribune", Mary McNamara lauded the show's humour, but emphasised its moral seriousness and metaphorical nature. "[D]espite more than a few laugh-out-loud moments, "Being Human" is no sitcom, no "Will & Grace" with monsters," she wrote, "Creator Toby Whithouse takes all the themes associated with the cursed and the damned very seriously, and if his exploration of them is less baroque than other franchises, it promises to be even more effective. Addiction is the obvious comparison, and Whithouse makes it nicely – the relationship between John and Lauren (Annabel Scholey), the woman he hopes is his last victim, plays like classic junkie love."


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The praise continued throughout various periods of the series' run. Matt Roush from "TV Guide", having given critical plaudits to the third series, said of the series, "Can't recommend it highly enough." Reviewing the Series 3 Blu-ray release, the "Wichita Falls Times-Record-News" noted, "So many movies and TV programmes will suggest how evil people can be and how much characters can suffer. "Being Human" actually can make viewers feel something of that horror and awfulness." Melinda Houston, writing for the "Sydney Morning Herald", applauded the way the show took the common television theme of the "disenfranchised... suddenly retaliat[ing]" and inverted it. "Moving beyond the teen tropes, it sets itself squarely in a mire of 20-something Gen Y angst. Being special and having power has no upside; being different is a burden and a nuisance and all anyone wants is a life of ordinariness."


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The show was nominated for Best Drama Series at the 2010 British Academy Television Awards, but lost to "Misfits". It was nominated for the same award again in 2011, but lost to "Sherlock".


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: "Being Human" was crowned Best Drama Series at the 2011 "TV Choice" Awards and Best Television Drama Series at Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards in 2009, 2010 and 2012.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: "Being Human" garnered "some of the largest audiences in the network's history" when it debuted on BBC America in 2009, and again during its second series run in 2010.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: In March 2011, the BBC announced that live, delayed, and online viewership for the launch of "Being Human" third series was 1.8 million viewers, the largest viewing audience for a series premier in BBC Three history. The average viewership per episode was 1.4 million viewers on television, with an additional 400,000 viewers via the show's release on iPlayer. The network also revealed that "Becoming Human" finale, which aired on BBC Three rather than online, received more than 1.5 million viewers on television and iPlayer.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: In August 2011, the BBC's Director of Television, George Entwistle, revealed that "Being Human" had 330,000 Facebook fans, compared to 2.3 million for the Facebook pages of "EastEnders" and 220,000 for "Springwatch". Two months later, the website InsideSocialGames.com reported that Utinni Games was developing a social network game based on the show, in which players can create their own character and participate in an extensive, constantly evolving storyline set in the show's universe.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: A remake of the series produced by Muse Entertainment Enterprises aired on Space in Canada and Syfy in the U.S. in 2011. The first series comprised 13 episodes. A second series premiered on 16 January 2012, and a third series premiered on 14 January 2013.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: On 25 February 2014 it was announced that the show was coming to an end. The final episode aired on 7 April 2014.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The BBC commissioned an online extension called "Becoming Human", which was launched midway through the transmission of the third series. "Becoming Human" stars Craig Roberts as teenage vampire Adam, Leila Mimmack as werewolf Christa, and Josh Brown as ghost Matt, the three working together to solve Matt's recent murder.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: There are three audiobooks read by the actors of the series. The audiobook "The Road" is read by Lenora Crichlow (Annie).


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: The audiobook "Chasers" is read by Russell Tovey (George), and "Bad Blood" is read by Lucy Gaskell (Sam Danson). "The Road" and "Bad Blood" are available on audio CD.


title: Being Human (British TV series)

text: In 2011, a soundtrack was released for "Being Human" that contained music from Series 1 and Series 2. The music was composed by Richard Wells, and featured a track listing of 24 songs. A soundtrack for the third series was released on 25 March 2013. It featured 48 minutes and 25 tracks of music composed by the same composer.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: What Is a Woman? is a 2022 American online documentary film about gender and transgender issues presented by conservative political commentator Matt Walsh, produced and released by "The Daily Wire", and directed by Justin Folk. The film features Walsh asking various people "What is a woman?" and arguing for his views. Walsh said it was made in opposition to the concept of gender ideology.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: The film was released to subscribers to "The Daily Wire" website on June 1, 2022, at the beginning of Pride Month. It had a divided reception; Walsh's approach was praised by some commentators, but criticized by some others who described it as transphobic. Trans activists said Walsh had tried to trick people into participating in the film under false pretenses. Walsh's tour to screen the film on college campuses set off protests.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: The film features Walsh asking "What is a woman?" and related questions to a variety of people, including politicians, a pediatrician, a gender studies professor, a psychiatrist, a gender-affirming family and marriage therapist, a transgender opponent of medical transition for minors, a surgeon who specializes in gender-affirming surgery, a father of a 14-year-old transgender boy, and media personality, psychologist, and author Jordan Peterson. Walsh also discusses the terms "non-binary" and "transgender" with a Maasai tribe in Kenya and interviews a gay man practicing public nudity in San Francisco. The film discusses sex reassignment surgery, puberty blockers, transgender youth, and transgender athletes in women's sports.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: It features a speech given by Walsh at a meeting of the Loudoun County School Board that was called so people could express their opinions on Policy 8040, which would allow transgender students to use their preferred name and pronouns as well as allow the students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. During the speech, Walsh says: "You are all child abusers. You prey upon impressionable children and indoctrinate them into your insane ideological cult, a cult which holds many fanatical views but none so deranged as the idea that boys are girls and girls are boys."


title: What Is a Woman?

text: At the end of the film, Walsh's wife defines a woman as "an adult human female, who needs help opening this", handing a jar to Walsh.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Walsh said that he made "What Is a Woman?" because he did not think anyone had been able to answer its titular question after a tweet he had made four years prior. According to Walsh, during the production, "Most of the people we talked to either didn't want to talk about it or they appeared to be confused about something as simple as what a woman is." Asked how he would define a woman, Walsh said "An adult human female" and "I would have given an answer that is biological, because that is 100% the answer." Walsh also said that "I think gender ideology can be beaten because it cannot withstand any scrutiny at all. And so all it requires is us to have a little bit of boldness, to look at it in the face and ask some basic questions." Walsh said that he wanted to talk to people he disagreed with to get the answers he was seeking.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: In February 2022, Eli Erlick, a transgender activist, alleged that Walsh had invited dozens of people to participate in the film under false pretenses. Kataluna Enriquez, Fallon Fox, and other transgender public figures corroborated the account. Walsh created a group called the Gender Unity Project, which the activists said attempted to lure them into participating in the film. The Gender Unity Project's Twitter account and website were taken down shortly after the allegations were made. Erlick claimed there were at least 50 other recruited interviewees, including a 14-year-old transgender girl.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: "What Is a Woman?" was released for subscribers to "The Daily Wire" website on June 1, 2022, to coincide with the beginning of Pride Month.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: "The Daily Wire" said it was hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack during the premiere. An article by "The Daily Dot" cast doubt on the DDoS claim, noting previous technical problems with the website.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: On June 14, Walsh published a book and self-narrated audiobook based on the film, titled "What Is a Woman?: One Man's Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation", through DW Books, "The Daily Wire"'s publishing branch.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: In September 2022, "The Daily Dot" reported that event management website Eventbrite was refusing to allow users to use its platform to show the film, citing violations of its community guidelines, including the prohibition of hateful content regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. On September 7, Walsh accused the website of refusing screenings since July and said that "It is absolutely ludicrous and indefensible to categorize our film as 'hate speech'". Many fans of Walsh accused Eventbrite of censorship. Walsh also accused Eventbrite of hypocrisy for permitting the screening of drag shows.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Walsh screened the film on his "What Is a Woman?" college tour at the University of Houston on October 13, 2022. Police estimated that 435 people attended, with 400 protesters (including transgender rights activists) and counter-protesters outside. A screening by Walsh at the University of Wisconsin also was met by protesters.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: In May 2022, a transgender man alleged that Walsh used an image from his Instagram account in "What Is a Woman?" without his permission. Twitter refused a request to take down a trailer containing the image.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: On June 6, 2022, Walsh said that he received death threats and had police involved after the release of the film.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Texas state representative Matt Schaefer, a Republican, promoted the film, encouraging his Twitter followers to "Ask your Senator or Representative if they have watched".


title: What Is a Woman?

text: According to AJ Eckert of "Science-Based Medicine", the film "has been widely advertised by pundits, traditional media, and social media platforms opposed to gender-affirming care and especially the use of pronouns, restrooms, and locker rooms" aligning with trans people's gender identities.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Dimitrije Vojnov of Radio Television of Serbia said that Walsh could become the American Right's equivalent of Michael Moore, and just as biased. Sasha Stone of "Awards Daily" said that the documentary is "more or less a profile of Matt Walsh" that "reflects his past year of asking the question to activists, 'what is a woman' since apparently this is a difficult thing to explain."


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Rich Lowry of "National Review" wrote that, while he had only watched clips of "What Is a Woman?", they were "mesmerizing and extremely disturbing." Rod Dreher of "The American Conservative" argued that the film shows that Walsh had "the courage to ask the questions and demand the answers" from his opponents. Kaylee McGhee White of the "Washington Examiner" said that the film reveals "the effort to erase the female identity and objective truth ... harming individuals, their families, and communities." Leor Sapir of "City Journal" compared the film to other books and movies that "sparks a demand for social reform", such as Ralph Nader's "Unsafe at Any Speed", and said that it "has been virtually ignored by the left-of-center media." Karol Markowicz of the "New York Post" praised the film for "expos[ing] the lunacy of pro-trans extremism", calling it "a cross between Michael Moore's 1989 documentary "Roger & Me" where the filmmaker pursued General Motor's CEO Roger Smith, and the Borat movies in which Sacha Baron Cohen pretends to be clueless journalist Borat Sagdiyev from Kazakhstan making films about American culture." Author and journalist Matt Taibbi said that Walsh "tries and fails to get trans activists, academics, and medical professionals to offer a definition of womanhood" and in doing so, he "pranks the pants off America's silliest intellectuals." Transgender YouTuber and political commentator Blaire White praised the film in "The Spectator Australia".


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Dante James of "Film Threat" gave it a rating of 8 out of 10, calling it "a deep dive into the conversation of 'are Trans women real women' and, more importantly, does biology matter anymore." James asserted that "Many so-called 'film critics' chose not to review "What Is A Woman" for fear of backlash from the LGBTQIA+ community. I want to call these people out as cowards."


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Laura Dodsworth of "The Critic" argued that the film's "success lies in its determined pursuit of the answer to one question", but criticized it for not "interrogat[ing] the meaning of gender as much as it could". Debbie Hayton of "The Spectator" argued that it shows "The naivety of the gender identity brigade", but said that "while Walsh is critical of gender identity ideology, he did not explain why such a bizarre idea has captivated society." Nina Power of "Compact" said that "The documentary presents a searing and unforgettable indictment of today's gender ideology that should rouse action across the political spectrum.", but added that "Walsh's framing doesn't always do justice to the possibilities of such a cross-partisan alliance in defense of woman, man, and reality." Jo Bartosch of "Spiked" called it "a must-watch documentary" that "captures a strange moment in time when politicians, clinicians and the corporate world are gleefully promoting the lie that humans can change sex", but criticized it for ignoring the contributions of feminists who have been critical of the transgender movement, including Helen Joyce, Kathleen Stock, Abigail Shrier, and Janice Raymond. Christian Toto, a film critic and contributor to "The Daily Wire", wrote that "Walsh's elementary question leads to larger, disturbing queries", but said the film "could use some hard data, along with more experts" and empathy towards transgender people.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Movieguide called it "Lively, provocative, informative, and brilliant" with an entertainment rating of four stars. Samuel Sey of "The Christian Post" called the film "both hilarious and haunting" and "truly fantastic", adding that "Walsh's infamous ability to maintain an impeccable level of satire and seriousness is what makes [the documentary] so compelling." Erika Ahern of CatholicVote.org said that "While [the documentary] is about exposing the culture of 'sexual justice' for what it truly is, it is more profoundly a film about Pilate's last question to Christ, '' And it's about what happens when we answer, 'I am my own truth.'" Amy Welborn of "The Catholic World Report" called the film "well-produced, amusing, and frustrating", but said that Walsh "fails to drill down into the more potent questions for his topic". Mathew De Sousa of "The Catholic Weekly" said it "provides a fair scope of both leftist and conservative beliefs on core gender issues", but that it "could be a more robust resource for Christians if a little more time was given to those arguments against gender ideology and the transgender agenda." Brett McCracken of "The Gospel Coalition" praised it for a "basic but brilliant narrative concept", but added that "a bit more empathy could have strengthened Walsh's case", criticizing his "name-calling" of transgender people as "not a great tactic in persuasion, nor in evangelism."


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Ann Schneible of the "National Catholic Register" gave the film a "B+", praising "how easily it breaks through the cognitive dissonance exhibited by supporters of gender ideologies and their inability or unwillingness to answer the simplest questions on this topic." and opined that "Walsh's interview style works well in this context.", but criticized the film for its "stylistic and narrative choices" and criticized "The Daily Wire" for limiting its distribution by putting it "behind a paywall on the "Daily Wire" site.", while also opining that doing so "gives the appearance that they intend to be exclusionary".


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Kai Burkhardt of the German newspaper "Die Welt" called Walsh a "conservative Michael Moore" and praised the film for stirring up America's "gender war" by efficiently asking seemingly easy questions to supposed experts in the field, who are unable to answer.


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Claire Goforth of "The Daily Dot" called "What Is a Woman?" transphobic and argued that "Duplicity is central to the creation of this documentary". John Kendall Hawkins of "CounterPunch" called the film "more conservative silliness", concluding that it "just adds to the relentless white noise we can't seem to escape and adds nothing to our humanity. The film is not worth watching, but its posture is worth noting." Malcolm Harris of Intelligencer argued that the film is a part of "The right's dangerous 'just asking questions' anti-trans campaign", concluding that "The plan is working: This year's Pride month looks to have a casualty count. If Walsh and his ilk are successful, next year's will be higher. They're begging for it." Nathan J. Robinson of "Current Affairs" argued that the film shows "Conservative Ignorance" and treats "cruel, mindless prejudices ... as 'common sense'", concluding that "Debunking this stuff is easy.", but that "Slick propaganda like "What Is A Woman?" will cause real harm to trans people, and while I generally consider censorship counterproductive, we should not understate the toxicity of a film like this." Katie Kadue of "Gawker" opined that "For Walsh and other patrollers of the gender boundary, trans women are a contamination risk. They stand accused of infiltrating not only physical women's spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms but also the clean conceptual space of the category 'woman': they are, according to this transphobic logic, men who fraudulently claim to be women." Moises Mendez II of "Rolling Stone" also called the film transphobic and argued that it represents an "essentialist ideology". Mendez criticized social media companies for allowing "The Daily Wire" to feature advertisements of the film on their platforms, saying that "the ease with which the Daily Wire is allowed to promote this project through ads across multiple platforms is telling of the social media companies' priorities during Pride month — or any month."


title: What Is a Woman?

text: AJ Eckert of "Science-Based Medicine" called the film "every bit as much of a science denying propaganda film disguised as a documentary as antivax films like "VAXXED" or the anti-evolution film "", and such films tend to be potent messaging tools", concluding that "Walsh clearly did not set out to honestly seek answers to a perplexing question, even if they are complex. Instead, he started with a conclusion and then sought out sources to support that conclusion, no matter how dubious the source, making this film an exercise not in honest truth-seeking but rather motivated reasoning."


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Erin Rook of "LGBTQ Nation" called the film "propaganda" that is "full of transphobic lies", adding that "Walsh paints a frightening image of mutilated children and confused professionals — of an immoral ideology threatening the Western Christian way of life", and that it "provides ammunition for those who seek to deprive transgender people of access to affirming and life-saving healthcare." Gwendolyn Ann Smith of the "Bay Area Reporter" and co-founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance argued that "The point of the film, of course, is to paint transgender people and those who support us as deluded, foolish, or both", concluding that "people like Walsh want to paint us as monsters rather than people." Eli Erlick, founder of the organization Trans Student Educational Resources, told "Rolling Stone" that "to believe what's in [the documentary] requires a fantastical hatred of trans people" and that it shows an "appalling lack of research on the trans community".


title: What Is a Woman?

text: Jennifer Graham of "Deseret News" said that Walsh "may be trolling all of us with the film," but that "he could be asking the question that turns the culture war." Jason Whitlock of Blaze Media called the film "great" and its ending "clever", but criticized it for not mentioning God or Christianity, saying that "It fights a spiritual war on secular terms" and that "Before we answer 'what is a woman,' we need to relearn the meaning of being Christian." Adam Zivo of the Canadian newspaper "The National Post" praised the film for "reveal[ing] activist absurdity", but said it "ultimately fails" because "Walsh seems more interested in capturing 'gotcha' moments with his interviewees" and argued that Walsh used "bad-faith storytelling to rile up audiences while oversimplifying complex issues." Zoran Janković of the Serbian magazine "Vreme" praised it for acting as a "complementary counterpoint" to films on the other side of the LGBT debate and praised Walsh's presentation, but also argued that it was "in its ... essence a propaganda work".


title: Elizabeth Berrington

text: Elizabeth Berrington (born 3 August 1970) is an English actress and graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art; she is best known for her roles as Ruby Fry in "Waterloo Road", Paula Kosh in "Stella", Mel Debrou in "Moving Wallpaper", and Dawn Stevenson in "The Syndicate". She has also featured in British television series such as "The Bill", "Doctor Who", "The Office", "Casualty", "The Lakes", "The Grimleys", and "Rose and Maloney".


title: Elizabeth Berrington

text: From 1996 to 1999 Berrington appeared alongside Emma Wray and Tony Robinson in the ITV comedy-drama "My Wonderful Life". In 1999 she played Marie Antoinette in "Let Them Eat Cake", starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.


title: Elizabeth Berrington

text: In cinema Berrington has featured in many films, such as "The Little Vampire" and, more recently, "Nanny McPhee" with Emma Thompson and "In Bruges" alongside Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. In 2008 and 2009 she played Mel in "Moving Wallpaper", and was in the 2008 "Poirot" episode "Cat Among the Pigeons". Berrington also featured in the 1993 Mike Leigh film "Naked", and had a role in Leigh's 1996 drama film "Secrets & Lies", starring Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Timothy Spall.


title: Elizabeth Berrington

text: In 2009 Berrington and actress Shirley Henderson were the stars of the popular ITV drama "May Contain Nuts" in which she played Ffion, a snobbish suburban mother. Berrington also played Nicola, a nurse, in the BBC Two comedy "Psychoville". She appeared as Food Technology teacher Ruby Fry in the BBC TV series "Waterloo Road" from 2009 to 2011, departing after two series. She played "Auntie" in "The Doctor's Wife", an episode in series 6 of "Doctor Who". In 1997 she appeared in a TV Licence advert. In 2012 she was in an episode of "New Tricks", playing a murderer called Grace. From 2012 to 2013 she portrayed Paula Kosh in the Sky 1 comedy series "Stella"; in 2015 she returned for two episodes.


title: Elizabeth Berrington

text: In 2011 Berrington appeared in the BBC Christmas show "Lapland" as Paula, a role which she reprised in the six-part spin-off series "Being Eileen", which aired from February 2013.


title: Elizabeth Berrington

text: Berrington appeared on stage in the 2013 play "The Low Road". Later, in August 2014, she appeared in Series 2, Episode 4 of "Cuckoo" as Sandra.


title: Elizabeth Berrington

text: In 2016 Berrington appeared in "Hated in the Nation", the sixth episode of the third season of the Netflix original, "Black Mirror".


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, also known as the Sewri–Nhava Sheva Trans Harbour Link, is an under-construction 21.8 km (13.5 mi) 6-lane expressway grade road bridge, which will connect Mumbai with Navi Mumbai, its satellite city. When completed, it would be the longest sea bridge in India. The bridge will begin in Sewri, South Mumbai, will cross Thane Creek north of Elephanta Island and will terminate at Chirle, near Nhava Sheva. The road will be linked to the Mumbai–Pune Expressway in the east and to the under-construction Coastal Road in the west. The 6-lane highway will be 27 meters in width, in addition to two emergency exit lanes, edge strip and a crash barrier.


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: The project is estimated to cost . The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) awarded contracts for the project in November 2017, construction began in April 2018, and was scheduled to complete within 4.5 years. Construction was delayed by around 8 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is currently expected to complete by December 2023. The MMRDA estimates that 70,000 vehicles will use the bridge daily after it opens.


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: Transportation and traffic planning for Greater Bombay was commissioned for Wilbur Smith and Associates in mid-1962. The firm's report, based on extensive studies conducted over 18 months, was handed over to the Union Ministry of Transport on 19 December 1963. Among other projects, the report proposed the construction of a sea link, known as the Uran Bridge, to connect Mumbai with the mainland near the town of Uran. However, Smith was unsure of the link's feasibility. Citing poor traffic expectations in Uran even in 1981, his report advised a more detailed study of this connection and recommended waiting until "the Trans-Thana area develops further and more community services are extended to Uran." In 1973, the Vashi Bridge linking Mankhurd in Mumbai with Vashi in Navi Mumbai was opened.


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: The first concrete attempt to build the sea link was made in 2004, when Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) submitted a proposal to implement the project on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) also submitted a counter proposal. However, the IL&FS proposal was side-lined by the government, for undisclosed reasons.


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: Another attempt was made in 2005, when the MSRDC invited bids for the project. The bids submitted by the Ambani brothers were considered to be unrealistic. A consortium of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company Reliance Energy (REL) and Hyundai Engineering & Construction quoted a concession period of nine years and 11 months against 75 years quoted by Mukesh Ambani's Sea King Infrastructure (the only other short-listed bidder left, after Larsen & Toubro-Gammon and IFFCO opted out). The REL-Hyundai consortium was initially disqualified at the technical bid stage as Hyundai did not meet the criteria of $200 million net worth specified in the bid document. However, the consortium challenged the disqualification in the Supreme Court, and the Court granted them 90 days to submit their bid that ended on 15 December 2007. The consortium eventually won the bid in February 2008. However, the MSRDC was not sure about viability of the low concession period. The MSRDC felt that the concession periods were "unrealistic" and that both bids "seemed frivolous in nature".


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: The Government of Maharashtra called for fresh bids for the project in 2008. However, none of the 13 companies that had shown interest submitted bids. The media criticized the political feud between the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Indian National Congress coalition, as being responsible for slowing "down the pace of Mumbai's development". The city's two infrastructure agencies, the MSRDC and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), under the NCP and Congress respectively, were both planning to construct the MTHL at the same time. The project underwent two failed rounds of tendering under the MSRDC, and was stuck for nearly two years (between 2009 and 2011), before the state government decided to hand over the mandate to MMRDA. Following the decision, the MSRDC asked MMRDA to pay if it wanted access to any of the studies on the project conducted by the former. After the MMRDA was tasked with executing the MTHL, the MSRDC took up the expansion of the Vashi Bridge by adding six more lanes to ease congestion at the entrance to Navi Mumbai. However, the MMRDA refused the MSRDC's request to allocate funds for the expansion of the Vashi Bridge, as the former believed that the expansion would divert some ridership from the MTHL.


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: The MMRDA appointed Arup Consultancy Engineers and KPMG to conduct the techno-economic feasibility study of the MTHL in August 2011. The MTHL project was proposed as a public-private-partnership (PPP) model. The project received clearance from Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on 22 October 2012. "The Times of India" described the MTHL's delay as being "symbolic of all that's wrong with infrastructure planning and implementation in Mumbai". The paper also stated that a project being "on the drawing board after more than forty years would be in the realm of fiction in any other country".


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: The project received environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on 23 October 2012. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) had obtained clearance for the project in March 2005, but the certificate was valid only for 5 years and lapsed due to the delays in the bidding process. The MoEF laid down 11 conditions that the MMRDA had to follow. Some of the conditions were that the MMRDA put up noise barriers, replant five times the number of mangroves destroyed, not carry out dredging or reclamation, use construction equipment with exhaust silencers and work in consultation with the Bombay Natural History Society to minimize the impact on migratory birds. Environmental activists are opposed to the clearance. They point out there was no public hearing following the second application for environmental clearance. They believe that the sea link is not allowed as per the new Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 2011. Activists also claim that the sea link would damage a huge mudflat and mangrove tract towards Sewri and Nhava which is a habitat for migratory birds like flamingos. MMRDA plans to construct sound barriers on the bridge so that it does not affect the flamingo habitat at Sewri. The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has directed MMRDA to construct a six-km long view barrier to cut the view of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The MTHL received coastal regulation zone clearance from the MoEF on 19 July 2013.


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: On 31 October 2012, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) granted in-principle approval for the MTHL. The DEA recommended granting with a concession period of 35 years for the project. In the first meeting, between MMRDA and DEA officials in September 2012, the ministry had asked the authority to treat the sea link as a road and reduce the proposed concession period from 45 years to 30 years. They also expected an internal rate of return of 15% for the project. However, the MMRDA wanted a higher rate as they claimed the project was very risky. An internal rate of return of 17% was agreed upon. The termination clause in the concession agreement comes into effect after 30 years into the concession period. The MMRDA can invoke the clause based on certain conditions such as the capacity being higher than expected. The conditions will be reviewed in the 20th year of the concession agreement. The DEA is the first tier of the three-tier clearance process to get viability gap funding (VGF) for the project. The project must also receive approval from an Empowered Committee and finally from the Finance Minister. On 9 November 2012, the State Government issued a state-support agreement and a toll notification for the project. The empowered committee approved VGF for MTHL on 12 December 2012. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram cleared the project on 18 January 2013.


title: Mumbai Trans Harbour Link

text: The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) asked the MMRDA to build the MTHL at a height of 51 metres, instead of the proposed 25 metres, for a span of 300 metres to accommodate its expansion plans for its fifth container terminal and to allow safe passage of bigger vessels. MMRDA expressed that a height of 51 metres would not be feasible as it would have a huge impact on the cost. However, MMRDA officials expressed willingness to raise the height of the bridge to 31–35 metres. On 8 January 2012, Minister of State for Shipping and MP from South Mumbai, Milind Deora told reporters that JNPT would issue a No Objection Certificate to the State Government to go ahead with the project.