title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta notes how her reception to film transformed and changed as she got older and was exposed to different types of cinema, which ultimately influenced her to become a filmmaker herself. She states:


title: Deepa Mehta

text: "When I was growing up in Delhi and I went to university in Delhi, I used to watch [Indian] films. I grew up with a very healthy dose of Indian commercial cinema. My father was a film distributor, so from a very young age I saw commercial Indian cinema. But once I went to university, or even my last year of school, I really started watching and enjoying Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak and had exposure to non-Hindi cinema and non-Hollywood cinema. At university, I was also exposed to directors like Truffaut and Godard. There was also intense exposure to Japanese cinema. So, Ozu, Mizoguchi."


title: Deepa Mehta

text: After graduating Mehta began working for a production company that made documentary and educational films for the Indian government. During the production of her first feature-length documentary focusing on the working life of a child bride, she met and married Canadian documentary filmmaker Paul Saltzman, who was in India making a film. She migrated to Toronto to live with her husband in 1973.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Once in Canada, Mehta and Saltzman along with Mehta's brother Dilip started Sunrise Films, a production company, initially producing documentaries but moved into television production creating the television series "Spread Your Wings" (1977–79) about the creative and artistic work of young people from around the world. Additionally, Mehta directed several episodes of the Saltzman produced CBC drama "Danger Bay" (1984–90).


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta also directed the documentaries "" (1975) and "Traveling Light" (1986), the latter focusing on the work of Mehta's brother Dilip as a photojournalist. "Traveling Light" would go on to be nominated for three Gemini Awards. In 1987, based on the works of Alice Munro, Cynthia Flood and Betty Lambert, Mehta produced and co-directed "Martha, Ruth and Edie". Screened at the Cannes International Film Festival, it would go on to win the Best Feature Film Award at the 11th International Film Festival in Florence in 1988.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: In 1991 she made her feature-film directorial debut with "Sam & Me" (starring Om Puri), a story of the relationship between a young Indian boy and an elderly Jewish gentleman in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale. It broke the record at the time for the highest-budgeted film directed by a woman in Canada at $11 million. It won Honorable Mention in the Camera d'Or category of the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Mehta followed this with her film "Camilla" starring Bridget Fonda and Jessica Tandy in 1994. In 2002, she directed "Bollywood/Hollywood", for which she won the Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta directed two episodes of George Lucas' television series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles". The first episode, "Benares, January 1910", aired in 1993. The second episode was aired in 1996 as part of a TV movie titled "Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father".


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta directed several English-language films set in Canada, including "The Republic of Love" (2003) and "Heaven on Earth" (2008) which deals with domestic violence and has Preity Zinta playing the female lead. It premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Also in 2008 Mehta produced the documentary "The Forgotten Woman", directed by her brother Dilip.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: In 2015, Mehta wrote and directed "Beeba Boys". It premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: In 2016, Mehta directed the drama film "Anatomy of Violence", which uses fiction to explore the root causes which led to the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: On 29 October 2020, Telefilm Canada announced that Mehta's film "Funny Boy" (2020) would represent Canada in the Academy Awards race for best international feature film. However, the film was disqualified by the Academy Awards as its mix of English, Sinhala and Tamil dialogue did not surpass the required percentage of non-English dialogue.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: At the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021, Mehta won the Best Director award for "Funny Boy". She and cowriter Shyam Selvadurai also won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: In November 2021, "Variety" announced that Mehta is set to direct a film adaptation of Avni Doshi's novel "Burnt Sugar", with Ben Silverman's Propagate Content producing the film.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta is best known for her Elements Trilogy — "Fire" (1996), "Earth" (1998) (released in India as "1947: Earth"), and "Water" (2005) — which won her much critical acclaim. Some notable actors who have worked in this trilogy are Aamir Khan, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, John Abraham, Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, and Nandita Das. These films are also notable for Mehta's collaborative work with author Bapsi Sidhwa. Sidhwa's novel "Cracking India" (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as "Ice Candy Man", 1988, England) is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film "Earth".


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta describes the conception of the idea for the "Elements" films to be extremely organic. She first conceived of the idea for "Water" while shooting in Varanasi, stating "You know, you read about widows — my grandmother is a widow — but I had never seen such institutionalization of widows until I went to Varanasi. There was a widow there called Gyanvati who was about 80 years old, and through her I got to know about ashrams and found it very moving. I thought that if I make a film, it would be about something surrounding widows; then I forgot about it. Then I wrote "Fire"."


title: Deepa Mehta

text: After completing the filming process for "Fire", Mehta told Shabana Azmi that her next film would be an adaptation of Bapsi Sidwha's "Cracking India"; when Azmi asked what it would be called, Mehta replied: "Earth". Mehta maintains that each film centers on politics of a certain phenomenon.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: "Fire" follows the love affair between two sisters-in-law whose own sexless marriages bring them together in a passionate romance. It caused controversy upon its release as several Hindutva groups took issue with its central lesbian romance, one that was seen to break traditional family and religious value within society, as there were protests in cities across India. Internationally, the film was critically acclaimed and would go on to win the Most Popular Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. This was also the first feature length dramatic film which Mehta both wrote and directed, a practice which she would continue throughout the rest of her career.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: "Earth" focuses on the time before and during the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and how the life of one family was uprooted by this historical event. The central focus for "Earth" was intended to be about "the division of the earth, but it is also metaphoric- what does our matrubhoomi (motherland) mean to us?" The film resembled Mehta's own family history as her parents fled the newly created Pakistan in 1947 whilst Mehta herself was born in Punjab, not far from the Indian/Pakistan border.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: "Water" is about is an eight-year-old girl who is suddenly widowed. In keeping with traditions of widowhood, she is left in an ashram, where she is to live from then on. The film, meant to be shot in India, was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists who saw the film as disrespectful and who took issues with Mehta's earlier films and their portrayal of Hindu culture. The regional government overruled the permission given from the central government to the production which allowed them to film in the holy city of Varanasi. Eventually the production moved to Sri Lanka. "Water" opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta directed "Midnight's Children" after collaborating on the screenplay with the novel's author, Salman Rushdie. Indian American actor Satya Bhabha played the role of Saleem Sinai while other roles were played by Shriya Saran, Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Siddharth Narayan, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Shahana Goswami and Darsheel Safary.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: The film was released on 9 September 2012 at Toronto International Film Festival and would be nominated for Best Motion Picture along with 7 other nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Many of Mehta's films across her career have focused on the duality of her national and cultural identity which has informed much of her filmmaking as she has been described as the "quintessential transnational filmmaker". With her childhood and heritage informing her of key Indian and Hindu traditions, she has been seen to compare these practices with a more "Westernized" philosophy that has often resulted in controversy. The production of her film "Water" was delayed by protests from Hindu fundamentalists whilst several of her other films releases have seen boycotts across India, including the film "Fire."


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta's "Elements" trilogy notably explores themes of the emergence of new identities, particularly in the context of independence. In "Fire", the older character Radha's sense of agency and empowerment increases as she becomes sexually liberated through the younger character Sita. Professor Subeshini Moodley discusses how these women employ their bodies to cross boundaries & borders, stating how “their bodies being the marginal spaces that they occupy, these protagonists don’t always begin as women with agency, but grow and develop to that point. Their marginal spaces are first defined in order to show how they later redefine and transcend its boundaries”. Put otherwise, by allowing themselves to explore their sexuality with each other, these women are breaking free of the restrictive confines of the traditional female Indian archetype that used to define their value (such as traits of virtue & obedience), and instead are reclaiming their power by transgressing the boundaries of their culture.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Another way in which "Fire" exemplifies the emergence of modern female identities is through its deliberate defiance of patriarchal structures through religious & cultural symbolism. The protagonists’ names of Radha and Sita are direct references to the heroines of the traditional Hindu epic, Ramayana, in which the characters Radha and Sita represent contrasting elements of feminine virtue; Radha embodying the playful adventuress and Sita being the dutiful and dedicated wife. However, Mehta switches the defining characteristics of these characters for her film, making Radha the obedient matriarch and Sita the inquisitive newlywed. This is important to note when discussing a key scene in the film in which after Ashok learns of his wife’s affair with Sita, Radha’s sari catches fire from the kitchen stove and she nearly becomes engulfed in flames. This is a clear allusion to a sequence from the Ramayana in which Sita is forced to prove her purity for her husband Rama by walking through a fire. Dr. David Burton discusses how Mehta’s film subverts the traditional symbolism of the religious epic through its reversed meaning; in Fire, Radha survives the fire not to represent her purity for her husband, but rather to “assert her freedom from patriarchal control and traditional notions of sexual purity”, once again conveying how the film effectively depicts the inception of modernity in the female realm.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: As previously mentioned, Mehta based "Earth" on Pakistani author Bapsi Sidwha's acclaimed 1988 novel "Ice Candy Man", which employs a young Parsi girl from a wealthy family as its protagonist. Mehta's decision to maintain such a privileged protagonist is noteworthy; in one scene, Lenny’s mother attempts to explain to her daughter the role which Parsis play in the movement for India’s independence, in which she compares Parsis in India to sugar in milk: “sweet but invisible”. While this takes on a negative connotation within the film, in a larger historical context, Lenny’s observation further supports Mehta’s decision to have the film’s protagonist taken on by a figure of such religious, cultural and ethnic ambivalence. The main goal of Lenny’s wealthy Parsi family is to stay neutral during the political tensions of Partition, and her astute renouncement of her family’s invisibility only reinforces this. Furthermore, “the fact that Lenny is neither Hindu nor Muslim [frees] the narrative from a divisive communal dichotomy”. Lenny’s whole world is encompassed by her relationship with her Hindu nanny, her nanny’s adoration from two Muslim men, and their diverse friend group. When the conflict of Partition tears the group apart, Lenny’s whole world is simultaneously destroyed, and her humanist perspective allows for an unbiased portrayal of the negative effects which a fear of change and breaking tradition can inflict upon a society’s health.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta's last film in the "Elements" trilogy, "Water", showcases the gross oppression endured by Indian women during precolonial times. It also depicts the mistreatment of widows to present strong support for the breaking of traditional social norms and an embrace of contemporary identities for Indian women. One example of this can be seen through the Hindu male hegemony’s reliance upon the authority of Hindu scriptures to rationalize the mistreatment of widows. In "Water", when Narayan’s father is revealed to be a former client of Kalyani, he attempts to justify his sexual exploits to his son by using his class privilege, stating that Brahmins can sleep with whomever they want as the women they sleep with are blessed. Narayan’s response that Brahmins who interpret the Holy Scripture for their own benefit should not be honored elucidates the immense hypocrisy which underlines various ancient religious ideologies that are often employed solely by the caste of men who seek to benefit from such outdated customs. Burton also points out how such selfish reworkings of religious ideologies is the real killer of faith, instead of Mehta’s sensational films. He states, “Reformers… who often view the negative aspects of their religion as misreadings and cultural accretions are themselves in danger of essentializing Hinduism insofar as they imply that the version of Hinduism of which they approve is the only genuine one”. In other words, the insistence to uphold such outdated structures of patriarchal hegemony simply on the basis of religiosity is in itself more blasphemous and sacrilegious than any sin outlined by ancient scriptures. However, there are certain elements of Water that allude to the positivity of embracing modernity. For example, Chuyia’s eventual rescue by Shakuntala and potentially happy future with Narayan presents the promise of Gandhi-influenced reform within Indian society.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta often uses her films to explore the impacts of cultural and political unrest on the lives of normal citizens, stating, "A driving force in the stories I want to tell is definitely curiosity. I was intrigued by sectarian war. I’m appalled by it. I was immensely curious about how it affects the everywoman and everyman."


title: Deepa Mehta

text: In India, she met and married filmmaker Paul Saltzman whom she divorced in 1983. The couple have a daughter, Devyani Saltzman, an acclaimed author, curator and cultural critic.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta is currently married to producer David Hamilton. Her brother, Dilip Mehta, is a photojournalist and film director. He directed "Cooking with Stella", which he co-wrote with Deepa.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta participated in a TV PSA for the charity Artists Against Racism, and is a member of the organization.


title: Deepa Mehta

text: Mehta is credited with "infusing the energy of mainstream Indian cinema with fierce political consciousness". Her decision to explore controversial topics in her films, such as same-sex relationships and the challenging of religious norms, has branded her as a notoriously formidable figure in Indian film society.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Beverley Knight (born Beverley Anne Smith, 22 March 1973) is an English recording artist and musical theatre actress. She released her first album, "The B-Funk", in 1995. Heavily influenced by American soul music icons such as Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, Knight has released eight studio albums. Widely labelled as one of Britain's greatest soul singers, Knight is best known for her hit singles "Greatest Day", "Get Up!", "Shoulda Woulda Coulda", and "Come as You Are".


title: Beverley Knight

text: In 2006, Knight solidified her transition into the mainstream by starring in the BBC music TV series "Just the Two of Us", a role she reprised in 2007. After releasing a platinum-selling compilation album in 2006, Knight went on to tour the UK with a reformed Take That. She has also hosted four series of the BBC Radio 2 show "Beverley's Gospel Nights", which explores the origins and impact of gospel music. To date, the show has run for four seasons and has had interviews with stars such as Michelle Williams and Shirley Caesar. Knight is an ambassador for many charities such as Christian Aid and has travelled to areas affected by disease and poverty to help raise awareness. She is an active campaigner for anti-Aids organisations such as the Stop AIDS Campaign and The Terrence Higgins Trust and is also a vocal campaigner against homophobic lyrics in urban music. On Saturday, 15 August 2009, she performed live at the fourth annual UK Black Pride event in Regent's Park. On 4 December 2009, at the invitation of Sarah Jane Brown, wife of the then prime minister Gordon Brown, Knight performed the two songs "Shoulda Woulda Coulda" and "Gold" to an invited audience at 10 Downing Street in support of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood Million Mums charity.


title: Beverley Knight

text: After more than a decade in the music industry, Knight was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 in recognition of her contribution to British music. In September 2005, Knight was made an honorary Doctor of Music by the University of Wolverhampton. After receiving a host of awards, including three MOBO Awards, Knight was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 at the Urban Music Awards in London. Knight supported Prince during and also performed at the concert after parties. As a result of this, she was flown to perform at his Oscars party in front of A-list stars and received a standing ovation from stars such as Quincy Jones. Knight sang at the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony. The performance was praised, and a recorded version by Knight reached No. 101 on iTunes, her first charting single since "Soul Survivor" and highest since "Beautiful Night" in 2010 and 2009, respectively.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Knight has been twice nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2015 and 2022 for her performances in "Memphis" and "The Drifters Girl", respectively. Knight made her first foray into musical theatre in September 2013, replacing Heather Headley as Rachel Marron in "The Bodyguard". In 2017, she made her pantomime debut at the Birmingham Hippodrome as the Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella". In 2019, Knight celebrated 25 years in music with the release of the live album "BK25" which was recorded with the Leo Green Orchestra.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Knight attended Woodfield Infant and Junior Schools, and Highfields School in Wolverhampton. Knight was born to Jamaican parents and grew up in a strict Pentecostal household where church attendance was an important element in the life of the family. It was here that she began her singing career. "The first time I heard music would have been in church. My mum was often called upon: 'Come on sister Dolores. Lead us in song!' Singing was the most natural thing in the world. I thought, doesn't everybody's mum lead the congregation at church in song?" Knight sang in her local church throughout her childhood, and her musical education was continued at home where she was often exposed to gospel music. Because of her parents' religious beliefs, secular music was largely frowned upon, but artists such as Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin played a big part in her childhood.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Knight began writing her own songs at the age of 13; however, it was not until she turned 17 that she began to take it seriously. She began performing the songs she had written on stage in local clubs in her home town. At the age of 19, she performed on the demo songs of Wolverhampton songwriter Westley Jones, who was signed to Dome publishing in London. Peter Robinson, the managing director of the company, impressed with her vocals, asked Westley Jones to introduce her. Robinson and Jones – who had discovered Knight through demo recordings – also came up with the stage name of Beverley Knight (from Smith) as Peter had also signed another demo vocalist of Jones' from Birmingham, calling her Fiona Day. She was adamant that her education should come first and that she should have something to fall back on, and so went to Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education (now the University of Gloucestershire) to study theology and philosophy.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In late 1994, Knight signed a record deal with Dome Records, a small, independent label. Shortly after, she went into a studio to write and record her first album. The backbone of the project was produced by the London production trio 2B3, with additional beats provided by Don E (Knight's cousin), Ethnic Boyz and the hip-hop act Blak Twang. Klarmann/Weber, the German songwriter/producer team (Chaka Khan, Randy Crawford), also contributed two songs. The result was the album "The B-Funk", – hailed by her record label as "the best British soul album ever" when it was released in November 1995. Knight went on to win two Black Music Awards in 1996 ("Best R&B Artist" and "Best Producer" for 2B3) and was named Best R&B Act by "Blues and Soul" magazine, beating a number of American stars. However, the album only peaked at number 145 on the UK album chart. Several singles were released from the project, the biggest being "Flavour of the Old School", which peaked at number 33 in March 1996 when it was re-released.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In February 1997, Knight left Dome Records after disagreements, and signed a new four-album deal with EMI-controlled Parlophone. After returning to the studio with 2B3 and Don E and teaming up with new producers Dj Dodge and Carl McIntosh, Knight released her second album, "Prodigal Sista", in August 1998. Peaking at number 42 in Britain, the commercial success of the album proved to be much greater than her first. The album sold 150,000 copies in Britain and was certified Gold in 1999. It contained five top-40 hits, the biggest of which were "Greatest Day", peaking at number 14, and the Dj Dodge-produced "Made It Back" featuring the US rap star Redman, which peaked at number 21.


title: Beverley Knight

text: "Prodigal Sista" was a big step forward in Knight's career. "Q" magazine called the album "a triumph not only of Knight's musical vision but also of the strength in her character", while "The Times" remarked, ""Prodigal Sista" is a joy to hear – her vocal and intricate self-devised and performed harmonies can make you catch your breath in wonderment." The album won three MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards, with "Made It Back" and "Greatest Day" winning Best R&B Act in 1998 and 1999 respectively, and "Prodigal Sista" winning the Best Album Award.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Throughout 2001 Knight returned to the recording studio to write and record her third studio album. She was accompanied by an array of writers and producers handpicked largely by Kevin and Bev from Britain and the United States, which included James Poyser, Che Guevara, Derrick Joshua & Derrick Martin, D'Influence, Mike Spencer and Colin Emmanuel. The result was "Who I Am", released in March 2002. It was preceded by two singles, "Get Up!" and "Shoulda Woulda Coulda" – a first in that it introduced Knight to the world of Nashville and one of its most famous sons, Craig Wiseman, a giant in the country music business. This partnership became Knight's most successful single up to that point, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart. The success of the singles propelled the album to number seven on the album chart, making "Who I Am" her most commercially successful album to date. It was re-released with new versions of the singles "Gold" and "Shape of You (Reshaped)" and has sold 215,000 copies in Britain, earning a Gold sales certificate.


title: Beverley Knight

text: The critical response to "Who I Am" was largely positive, with "The Guardian" stating that "every song bubbles with the kind of expensive, polished confidence that often eludes British contenders, and she sings with the poise of an artist at the height of her powers", while the BBC remarked: ""Who I Am" marks a significant change in direction for this tenacious 28-year-old singer, signifying her own personal growth as a true artist and developing songwriter...on this her most personal work to date, she takes us on an intimate journey where she bares her soul with such raw honesty that you get the distinct impression a healing process is taking place". The album earned her two Brit Award nominations ("Best Female", "Best Urban Act") and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2002.


title: Beverley Knight

text: After touring Britain in 2002, Knight set about creating her fourth album and entered the studio in the summer of 2003. Without the architect of her most successful song in her camp her new A&R team attempted to appeal to a larger mainstream audience, enlisting the help of pop producers such as Guy Chambers and Peter-John Vettese as well as collaborating with R&B producers such as DJ Munro. The result was "Affirmation", which was released on Parlophone in June 2004. The album entered the charts at number 11 and was preceded by the single "Come as You Are" – a rock/pop orientated song written with and produced by Chambers. The song marked a more mainstream pop sound that alienated Knight's largely urban fan base and the song was not well received by urban radio stations. Nevertheless, it became her biggest hit to date, peaking at number nine on the singles chart. The song was followed by two more singles, "Not Too Late for Love" and "Keep This Fire Burning", which helped boost album sales and resulted in the album being awarded a Gold sales certificate in December 2004.


title: Beverley Knight

text: The themes running throughout the album, which were influenced by the events she had witnessed over the previous two years, marked a milestone in Knight's career as a lyricist. The main essence of the project was centred on Knight's relationship with Tyrone Jamison – a gay man whom she described as her "soulmate" and who died of an AIDS-related disease in 2003. Throughout the album, lyrics on tracks such as "Remember Me" ("One day we will be reunited, least I hope that is our destiny, so while you chill in the arms of angels, remember me, remember me") and "No One Ever Loves in Vain" clearly point to her close relationship with Tyrone and rank as her most personal work to date.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Compared to the praise of her previous albums, the critical response to "Affirmation" was mixed. The mainstream press such as "The Guardian" praised her for branching out, while the black music press such as "The Voice" and "Blues and Soul" accused Knight of selling out and being manipulated away from urban music by her record label, a claim she flatly denies: "Everything I've done musically has been completely me. I write my own songs so I'm not just a vocalist who can easily be dictated to."


title: Beverley Knight

text: In February 2006 Knight consolidated her move into the mainstream audience by appearing on BBC1 music show, "Just the Two of Us". The show, featuring celebrities who duet with established singers, ran for two weeks and proved to be a relative disappointment in terms of audience figures – averaging between 15 and 25 percent audience shares. Nevertheless, it provided a platform for Knight to reach out to a bigger audience and demonstrate her talent by performing a different array of songs than she would otherwise be known for. Reaching out to new audiences was also a driving force behind Knight's decision to join Take That on their reunion arena tour. "Take That – The Ultimate Tour 06", which ran from April to July 2006, sold 270,000 tickets in less than four hours on sale at the box office and featured Knight as a support act.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In March 2006 Knight released her fifth album, a compilation set featuring the majority of her top forty UK singles entitled "Voice – The Best of Beverley Knight". The album, which was certified Gold less than a month after its release, became her second highest charting of her career when it entered the UK albums chart at number ten and rose to number nine a month later. It was preceded by the single "Piece of My Heart" – a cover of the Erma Franklin classic made famous by Janis Joplin and entered the singles chart at number 16, spending 11 weeks inside the UK top 75 singles chart and becoming her longest-running chart single to date.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In October 2006, Knight recorded her fifth studio album, "Music City Soul", in Nashville. Completed in less than five days, the album was released on 7 May 2007 and features collaborations with musicians such as Ronnie Wood and Scotty Moore. It spawned three singles, "No Man's Land", released on 16 April 2007, "After You", released on 2 July 2007, and "The Queen of Starting Over", released on 15 October 2007. This turned out to be her final album for Parlophone.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Between August and September 2007 Knight supported Prince during and also performed at the concert after parties. As a result of this, she was also flown to perform at his Oscars party in front of A-list stars and got a standing ovation from stars such as Quincy Jones.


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 23 March 2009 Knight announced via her official web site that she had left Parlophone records after 11 years and would be releasing new material through her own label, Hurricane Records. Knight also announced that her sixth studio album would be released in summer 2009, having a more contemporary feel in comparison to previous retro soul album "Music City Soul". New songwriters and producers associated with the project include Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (whose previous credits include Janet Jackson, Usher and Mariah Carey) and The Rural, along with previous collaborators Guy Chambers and DJ Munro.


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 31 March 2009 Knight confirmed that she would be releasing her sixth studio album in September through her own record label, Hurricane Records. In a video blog on her website she said that "for the past year, I've been writing for the record. I've been working with some new names and some old names for the album." She also confirmed that she is expecting to go on tour in support of the album later this year.


title: Beverley Knight

text: The album is called "100%". The first finished track revealed from the album was Knight's collaboration with US producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, titled "Every Step". The lead single from the album was "Beautiful Night", co-written with Amanda Ghost and produced by The Rural. The album was released the same week on 7 September 2009 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number 17. The second single, "In Your Shoes", premiered on BBC 1Xtra on 5 October. The radio remix features UK rapper Chipmunk.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In March 2011, Knight announced in that she would be releasing her seventh studio album later that year and that it would be a collection of British soul covers. She also announced a one-off gig to be held at Porchester Hall, London, which would be filmed for her first live DVD, to be included with the album release. Knight confirmed the album would be entitled "Soul UK" at the Porchester Hall show.


title: Beverley Knight

text: The first single to be released from the album was "Mama Used to Say", a hit single originally recorded by Junior Giscombe. The single was released on 27 June 2011, with the album following on 4 July. The album was the highest new entry on the UK albums chart in its week of release, peaking at #13. Three further singles were released from "Soul UK", "Cuddly Toy" (originally by Roachford), "One More Try" (originally by George Michael) and "Round and Around" (originally by Jaki Graham). Other artists whose songs were covered on "Soul UK" include: Soul II Soul; Loose Ends; Omar; Jamiroquai, with whom she had previously recorded the song "Main Vain" with; Princess; Lewis Taylor; Heatwave; Freeez; and Young Disciples.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In 2013, Knight appeared on the 2013 album from The Overtones, entitled "Saturday Night at the Movies", which reached the UK albums chart top 5. Knight featured on the song "Hit the Road, Jack".


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 9 September 2013, Knight took over the role of Rachel Marron (played by Whitney Houston in the original 1992 film) from performer Heather Headley in the musical adaptation of "The Bodyguard". Knight was nominated for Best Takeover in a Role at the Whatsonstage.com Awards as a result. Her run performing the role finished on 31 May 2014.


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 21 February 2014, it was confirmed that Knight would star in the new West End production of "Memphis" at the Shaftesbury Theatre, opening on 23 October 2014, following previews from 9 October 2014. In January 2015 producers announced that Knight would extend her performing in "Memphis" until July 2015.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In 2015, it was announced that she would play Grizabella in the 2015 revival of "Cats" at the London Palladium. She performed a song from "Cats" as part of the 2015 Royal Variety Performance.


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 27 October 2015, it was announced that East West Records had signed Knight to release her eighth studio album, "Soulsville", which was released on 10 June 2016. The album includes a duet with Jamie Cullum and features covers of classic soul songs by William Bell and Judy Clay, Big Mama Thornton, Sam & Dave, Ann Peebles and Ben E. King, as well as some original tracks co-written by Knight. Upon release, "Soulsville" reached the Top 10 in the UK Albums Chart and the Scottish Albums Chart.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Knight returned to the West End in "The Bodyguard" musical on 15 July 2016 for a limited six-month run.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Knight was one of the guest artists at a BBC Prom in 2017, celebrating the soul music of Stax Records. Alongside host Jools Holland, his Orchestra, James Morrison, Ruby Turner and Sir Tom Jones, the show also featured some of Stax's greatest living artists (William Bell, Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Sam Moore and Eddie Floyd). Knight performed five times during the concert: "Sweet Soul Music" (with Jones and Morrison and again with the whole ensemble), "B-A-B-Y", duetted with Bell on "Private Number" and Moore on "Hold On, I'm Comin'".


title: Beverley Knight

text: In 2017, Knight teamed up with British singer Cassidy Janson and American actress Amber Riley to form a musical theatre supergroup, known collectively as the "Leading Ladies". Their debut album, "Songs from the Stage", was released on 17 November 2017 and features covers songs from "Cats", "" and "Rent" among others.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In 2019, Knight was announced to star as Faye Treadwell, the manager of The Drifters, in the new West End-bound musical "The Drifters Girl". Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production received a delayed opening at the Garrick Theatre in November 2021, following a limited run at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle. She received her second Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical in 2022.


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 8 November 2019, Knight released a live album, "BK25" which was recorded in May 2019 at the Royal Festival Hall in London with the Leo Green Orchestra. The albums celebrates Knight's 25 years of music. On 13 November 2020, Knight performed as part of BBC Children in Need 2020 singing Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". Knight performed a concert with a small audience at the London Palladium in Summer 2021, which aimed test new measures limiting the spread of COVID-19 in theatres. From February 2022, Knight was part of the judging panel on ITV's "Starstruck", a revived and reformatted version of "Stars in Their Eyes".


title: Beverley Knight

text: As Knight grew up in a Pentecostal environment of Jamaican descent, music – especially gospel music – became a staple part of her childhood. She entered the gospel choir of her local church at just four years of age and eventually became the musical director before she left in her late teens. Her musical education continued at home, where her family would often sing together around the piano and listen to music from their favourite gospel and soul artists such as Sam Cooke.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In 2005, Knight revisited her childhood when she hosted "Beverley's Gospel Nights", a BBC Radio 2 series exploring gospel music. Featuring interviews with artists such as Shirley Caesar, Percy Sledge and Destiny's Child stars Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, the six-part series explored the roots of gospel music and the impact it had upon the black community. Such was the success of the show that a second six-part series was commissioned and began in March 2006 and featured new interviews with artists such as Candi Staton, David McAlmont and Marvin Winans. Knight's interview technique and her ability to get her guests to open up and discuss issues in their personal lives such as domestic violence and depression received favourable reviews and led the "Radio Times" to comment "Knight's passion for the music is obvious – but so is her warmth, which makes her a rarity among interviewers."


title: Beverley Knight

text: The first artist to make an impact upon Knight was one of the true founders of contemporary gospel and soul music, Sam Cooke. Despite his untimely death in 1964, his music endured and became a staple part of Knight's childhood:


title: Beverley Knight

text: The impact of Cooke can be seen throughout Knight's career as she has often performed and recorded Cooke classics, the most notable of which is "A Change Is Gonna Come". The track, which came to exemplify the civil rights movement in the 1960s, has featured in many of Knight's live performances (usually with the aid of the London Community Gospel Choir) and she even recorded a studio version with musician Jools Holland, which featured on his "Small World, Big Band Volume 2" album.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Another major influence in Knight's childhood was Aretha Franklin. Besides leading a tribute to Franklin at the BBC's "Music of the Millennium" concert in 1999, Knight has recorded several of Franklin's tracks, most notably "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Think", both of which were released as B-sides on Knight's singles "Rewind (Find a Way)" and "Made It Back 99" respectively. It was Franklin's vocal delivery that has most had an impact upon Knight:


title: Beverley Knight

text: Knight has also recorded songs of other artists such as Stevie Wonder (whose "Love's in Need of Love Today" featured on the Warchild album "Hope") and Curtis Mayfield (whose "Hard Times" appeared on Courtney Pine's "Back in the Day" album). But this influence has also manifested itself on stage where Knight often incorporates songs by her heroines such as Nina Simone ("Feelin' Good"), Chaka Khan ("I Feel For You" and "Sweet Thing") and Billie Holiday ("God Bless the Child") into her live performances.


title: Beverley Knight

text: In addition to the pioneering soul and gospel artists of the mid-20th century, modern artists such as Mary J. Blige and D'Angelo have also played a role in shaping Knight's musical outlook. The most significant of her contemporary peers comes in the form of Prince, a man she describes as one of her heroes: "Prince goes back to me listening to preachers when I was a child, who tell a story to illustrate a point...the first song I heard by him was 'Little Red Corvette', when I was nine. Of course, I didn't have a clue about what he was singing about; the sexuality is implicit and I love that." The influence of Prince, whom Knight even mentions on her "Prodigal Sista" and "Who I Am" album sleeves, can be seen throughout her back catalogue with songs such as "Get Up!", "Hurricane Jane" and "Supersonic" being compared to Prince due to their mix of funk and soul.


title: Beverley Knight

text: Throughout her childhood, Knight's musical exposure developed as she got older. Gospel led to soul, which led to funk which led to R&B – but growing up in the Midlands meant that she was exposed to many other influences: "It wasn't a case that there was a huge black community who all stuck together and only listened to reggae or R&B or strictly black music. I find that London is a bit more segregated. In Wolverhampton, black people weren't so segregated and I think that had a massive impact on my musical influences." This diversity is illustrated best by Knight's fourth studio album, "Affirmation". After working with Guy Chambers, the album had a more mainstream flavour compared to her previous albums and was led by the rock guitar driven single "Come as You Are". Although the song became her highest charting single to date, Knight was largely criticised by urban radio and media for moving too far away from her urban sound. Nevertheless, the song illustrated Knight's determined effort not to become boxed in and "ghettoised".


title: Beverley Knight

text: Knight appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2006 Birthday Honours for services to music. The award was bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in February 2007. After the ceremony Knight remarked that the recognition "reflects not only on my whole career but the work I do for charities, which is immensely important to me. I do not do that to be awarded for it, I just do it because it's in my heart, but to be recognised for it, hopefully will put the magnifying glass on to them as well".


title: Beverley Knight

text: In September 2005 Knight was presented with an honorary degree from the University of Wolverhampton "in recognition of her outstanding contribution to music and the local community, and in recognition of her extensive charity work." Upon being made a Doctor of Music, she stated she was proud to be black, female, and British, adding: "it is still all me, I have not forgotten my roots."


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 7 January 2010 Knight won an edition of the BBC's television quiz series "Celebrity Mastermind", answering questions on "The Life and Times of Prince". Knight's chosen charity for the show was the Terrence Higgins Trust.


title: Beverley Knight

text: On 16 May 2018, Knight was presented with the Freedom of the City of Wolverhampton. Knight said "this personal award which I'm able to share with the whole city is beautiful. I was born and raised in Wolverhampton and to have such an accolade given to me is seismic". On Twitter the following day, Knight continued "I am now an honorary Freeman of the City of Wolverhampton. There are only around 30 in the city's history. Disclaimer: My eye are red from tears of joy".


title: Beverley Knight

text: Beverley Knight is a keen supporter of home city football club Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. Knight married her boyfriend, James O'Keefe, on 8 September 2012.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: Ferrari Driver Academy is an initiative from Formula One team Scuderia Ferrari to promote young talent inside its own organisation, with several drivers being selected and funded by the team, being under long-term contracts. Some notable former members include, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: The idea of the concept came from Felipe Massa's grooming within the Ferrari organisation, with the Brazilian being loaned out to Sauber for three seasons whilst being under contract with Ferrari. Jules Bianchi became the first recruit to the scheme in December 2009, being followed by Mirko Bortolotti, Daniel Zampieri and Raffaele Marciello in March 2010. In late 2010, Ferrari confirmed Sergio Pérez had been signed up to the scheme, the Mexican being set to be its first graduate to Formula One competition, having already signed for Ferrari-powered Sauber days before the announcement. Pérez ceased being a member of the academy after signing to McLaren in . Bianchi also ceased being a member in July 2015 after dying from injuries he sustained at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix while racing for the Ferrari-powered Marussia team. Lance Stroll ceased being a member following his departure to Williams. Marciello ceased to be a member for personal reasons.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: After rumours of the academy being disbanded, it was announced that the programme would be expanded with Massimo Rivola as its new head. On 23 June 2015, Antonio Fuoco had his first Formula One test with Ferrari during the 2-day post-Austrian Grand Prix test in Spielberg at the Red Bull Ring. In March 2016, it was announced that Charles Leclerc would be inducted into the Ferrari Driver Academy. In November of that year, Enzo Fittipaldi was among five drivers invited to join the Ferrari Driver Academy and was confirmed as a Ferrari Driver Academy member alongside Marcus Armstrong the following month. In late 2017 Ferrari added Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman and Gianluca Petecof to their line-up. Mick Schumacher, the son of multiple Formula One World champion Michael Schumacher was added to the lineup in 2019.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: In September 2018, it was announced Leclerc would become the first academy member to graduate to Ferrari in 2019.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: Mick Schumacher graduated to F1 with Haas F1 after winning the 2020 Formula 2 Championship, while Championship runner-up Callum Ilott was given a test and reserve driver role at Scuderia Ferrari. After 2020 three drivers left the academy: Giuliano Alesi, Enzo Fittipaldi and reigning Formula Regional European Champion Gianluca Petecof, meanwhile Australian karter James Wharton joined it after winning the Ferrari Scouting competition.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: In January 2021, Maya Weug, 16, became the first female driver to join the academy. In Autumn of 2021 Ferrari added European Karting vice-champion Rafael Câmara and Italian F4 and ADAC F4 champion Ollie Bearman to their lineup, after the pair won the Ferrari's Scouting World Final.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: Following the second running of the Girls On Track – Rising Stars competition Laura Camps Torras was signed to the setup.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: In 2019 Ferrari established the FDA Esports Team to compete in the Formula One Esports Series. Their first championship victory came that same year, with Italian David Tonizza winning the drivers' championship.


title: Ferrari Driver Academy

text: In 2021 two-time Esports champion Brendon Leigh joined the team from Mercedes to partner Tonizza. They finished 4th in the teams' championship on 125 points with 1 win and 2 podiums, both from Tonizza.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: Ex on the Beach is a British reality television series that is broadcast on MTV. The series was first announced in February 2014, and premiered on 22 April 2014. The series is narrated by Andrew Maxwell. "Ex on the Beach" follows the format of cast members staying abroad and beginning relationships, which are typically interrupted by their exes arriving at various points throughout the series. MTV in the United States airs an American version of the series.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: On 20 March 2019, it was confirmed that transmission of the tenth series had been cancelled following the suicide of cast member Mike Thalassitis. Producers decided not to air any of the episodes from the series, and did not reveal the rest of the cast members involved in the series. From 2020, celebrity versions of the series have aired.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The first series of the show was announced in February 2014 and premiered on MTV on 22 April 2014. The series ran for eight episodes and concluded on 10 June 2014. The official list of cast members was released on 13 March 2014 and includes four single boys: Ashley Cain, Jack Lomax, Liam Lewis and Marco Alexandre; as well as four single girls: Chloe Goodman, Emily Gillard, Farah Sattaur and Vicky Pattison. It was announced that "Geordie Shore" star Vicky Pattison would be taking part in the series; she was joined by ex-fiancé and former "Geordie Shore" co-star Ricci Guarnaccio as well as Australian fling Daniel Conn who featured briefly in series 6 of "Geordie Shore". On 7 January 2015, cast member Chloe Goodman entered the "Celebrity Big Brother" house to compete in the fifteenth series. However she became the first Housemate to be evicted. Ashley later returned for Series 2 as an ex, while Vicky returned in the third series. Liam and Chloe both returned again for Series 5, while Ashley and Joss made appearances as exes. Ross was another cast member from this series to make a return, this time during Series 6.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The second series of the show began airing on 27 January 2015 and ran for eight episodes, concluding on 17 March 2015. This was confirmed on 23 July 2014 when it was announced that filming would begin soon, with the series airing in 2015. The official list of cast members was released on 6 January 2015. It included four single boys: Connor Hunter, Luke Goodfellow, Morgan Evans and Rogan O'Connor, as well as four single girls: Anita Kaushik, Kayleigh Morris, Loren Green and Melissa Reeves. It was also announced that "Geordie Shore" stars Charlotte Crosby and Gary Beadle would be taking part in the series.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: Ahead of the launch of the new series, it was confirmed that Series 1 cast member Ashley Cain would be returning for the second series as an ex. Rogan later returned for the third series, while Jess and Gary both returned for the fifth series as main cast, with Kayleigh and Melissa appearing as exes. Kayleigh also went on to appear in the eighteenth series of "Big Brother" in 2017, but was removed from the house on Day 13 due to threatening behaviour. In 2018, Jess Impiazzi, an ex during this series went onto appear in the twenty-first series of "Celebrity Big Brother".


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The third series of the show began on 11 August 2015. The official list of cast members was released on 14 July 2015. This series was filmed in Cancun, Mexico, making this the first series to be filmed outside of Europe. They include four boys: Graham Griffiths, Jayden Robins, Kirk Norcross and Stephen Bear, and four girls: Amy Paige Cooke, Laura Alicia Summers, Megan McKenna and Megan Rees. With the announcement of the line-up it was confirmed that former "Geordie Shore" cast member and star of the first series, Vicky Pattison, would be making her return as an ex alongside Series 2 star Rogan O'Connor. "The Only Way Is Essex" cast member Kirk Norcross was also confirmed to be taking part in the series, with his ex-fiancée and "Celebrity Big Brother" star Cami-Li featuring as his ex. Star of "Magaluf Weekender" Jordan Davies was also revealed to be taking part in the series, also featuring as an ex. Megan McKenna and Jordan later returned for the fourth series. On 5 January 2016, cast member Megan McKenna entered the "Celebrity Big Brother" house to compete in the seventeenth series, and on 28 July 2016, Stephen Bear entered the house to compete in the eighteenth series where he left as the winner. Jordan Davies made another return to the show, this time during the fifth series with Jemma and Bear, and Holly also returning as an ex again. In August 2017, both Jemma Lucy and Jordan Davies took part in the twentieth series of "Celebrity Big Brother".


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The fourth series of the show began on 19 January 2016. This series was filmed in Portugal. The official cast list was revealed on 15 December 2015 and includes four girls: Helen Briggs, Nancy-May Turner, Naomi Hedman and Olivia Walsh, as well as four boys: Joe Delaney, Lewis Good, Youssef Hassane and "Geordie Shore" star Scotty T. Megan McKenna and "Magaluf Weekender" cast member Jordan Davies would be returning to the series as exes, having previously appeared during the previous series. Olivia later returned to the beach for the fifth series, while Kieran Lee went onto appear in the eighteenth series of "Big Brother", but was evicted during the final week.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The fifth series of the show began on 16 August 2016. This series took place in Koh Samui, Thailand. The series was confirmed on 8 March 2016 after the finale of the fourth series. It was also announced that faces from the past would return for this series with "unfinished business". The official list of cast members were released on 5 July 2016. It features four boys and four girls from previous series. From the first series it includes Chloe Goodman and Liam Lewis. "Geordie Shore" star Gary Beadle and Jess Impiazzi return having previously appeared in the second series, while Jemma Lucy, Jordan Davies and Stephen Bear from the third series all return. Finally Olivia Walsh returns having previously appeared in series 4. Over the course of the series they will be joined by their exes, which also include familiar faces. Series 1's Ashley Cain will be making his third appearance on the show, while Joss Mooney also returns. Kayleigh Morris and Melissa Reeves will be back having already appeared in the second series. Holly Rickwood from Series 3 will also be back on the beach. New cast members include Lillie Lexie Gregg, Charlotte Dawson, David Hawley, Aimee Kimber, Conor Scurlock and Alex Stewart. While the series was airing, Stephen Bear took part in the eighteenth series of "Celebrity Big Brother". He later went on to win the series. Kayleigh also went on to appear in the eighteenth series of "Big Brother" in 2017, but was removed from the house on Day 13 due to threatening behaviour. Later in the year, in August 2017, both Jemma Lucy and Jordan Davies took part in the twentieth series of "Celebrity Big Brother", who were both followed by Jess Impiazzi, who later went onto appear in the twenty-first series.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The sixth series of the show began on 17 January 2017. This series was filmed on location in Crete, Greece. The series was confirmed on 2 November 2016. The official list of cast members included four boys; Alex Leslie, Josh Ritchie, Ross Worsick and Sean Pratt, and four girls; Harriette Harper, Maisie Gillespie, Zahida Allen and ZaraLena Jackson. Ross has previously appeared in the first series of the show whereas Josh featured in the first series of "Love Island". With the announcement of the line-up it was also confirmed that "Geordie Shore" star Aaron Chalmers would be arriving on the beach as an ex as well as former "The Only Way Is Essex" cast member Nicole Bass. Chanelle McCleary, an ex from this series, later went onto appear in the eighteenth series of "Big Brother" but was evicted a week before the final.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The seventh series of the show began on 20 June 2017. This series was filmed on location on the island of Bali in Indonesia. The cast members for the series were confirmed on 23 May 2017 which include "Geordie Shore" stars Chloe Ferry and Marty McKenna, "Love Island" contestants Max Morley and Josh Ritchie, as well as "Beauty School Cop Outs" cast member Savannah Kemplay. Marty and Josh had previously appeared in the third and sixth series of the show respectively.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The eighth series of the show is expected to begin on 20 March 2018, and was filmed in Spain. The series was confirmed in August 2017. The cast for this series was revealed on 20 February 2018, and includes "Geordie Shore" star Marnie Simpson as well as "The X Factor" contestant, and Stereo Kicks and Union J singer Casey Johnson, and former "Ibiza Weekender" star Laura Louise.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The ninth series began on 15 August 2018, and concluded on 31 October 2018 following twelve episodes, making this the longest series to date. The series was confirmed at the end of the eighth series final episode in May 2018. The cast members for this series were confirmed on 23 July 2018, and features former "Made in Chelsea" cast member Daisy Robins, as well as "The Valleys" star Natalee Harris. Jack Delvin, who previously appeared in the sixth series, returned to this series once again, this time as another ex. The series was filmed in Tulum, Mexico.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The tenth series of "Ex on the Beach" was set to premiere in spring 2019, but the broadcast was cancelled after the death of Mike Thalassitis, a cast member featured on the series. None of the other cast members featured on the tenth series were announced.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The first series of "Celebrity Ex on the Beach", began airing 21 January 2020, and concluded on 28 April 2020. The cast includes Olympic athlete Ashley McKenzie, television personality Calum Best, "The Only Way Is Essex" star Joey Essex, and "Love Island" stars Michael Griffiths and Georgia Harrison, "The Valleys" star Lateysha Grace, playboy model Lorena Medina and "Mob Wives" star Marissa Jade.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The second series of "Celebrity Ex on the Beach", will begin airing in 2022. The cast includes "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" queen A'Whora, "The Only Way Is Essex" cast member James "Lockie" Lock, star of "Too Hot To Handle" Kori Sampson, "Love Island UK" islanders Kaz Crossley, Megan Barton-Hanson and Michael Boateng, "Married at First Sight Australia" cast member KC Osborne, "Geordie Shore"'s Nathan Henry and "Love Island Sweden" islander Sofie Karlstad. This series was filmed in Gran Canaria.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: A new spin-off show was launched in late 2020 with an altered format. Each episode features 2 celebrities going on a blind date in a London reasturant with their ex arriving halfway through. At the end of the date, the celebrity must decide who between the two to continue to date.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The series was filmed according to social distancing guidelines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series premiered on 8 December 2020. The cast featured "Love Island UK" stars Megan Barton-Hanson, Michael Griffiths, Jon Clark, Amy Hart and Jess Gale, television personality Calum Best, "The Only Way Is Essex" stars Liam ‘Gatsby’ Blackwell and Charlie King, former "Hollyoaks" actor Malique Thompson-Dwyer, "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" star Gothy Kendoll, former Sugababes member Amelle Berrabah and "Big Brother UK" star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace. Some notable exes included media personality Summer Monteys-Fulham, "Love Island" stars Charlie Brake, Nabila Badda and Ched Uzor, "The X Factor UK" contestant Bradley Hunt, fitness model Waz Ashayer and Tinder’s most swiped right man Stefan-Pierre Tomlin.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: The second series is slated to premiere on 20 October 2021. The cast featured "Love Island UK" stars Leanne Amaning, Eve Gale, Arabella Chi, Josh Ritchie and Jack Fincham, "Big Brother UK 7" star Imogen Thomas, "A Place in the Sun" presenter Danni Menzies, "The Only Way Is Essex" stars Bobby Norris and Demi Sims, "The Circle UK" stars Manrika Khaira and Freddie Bentley, rugby union player Levi Davis, "Ibiza Weekender" stars Callum Izzard and Deano Bailey, "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" contestant Tia Kofi and Olympic gymnast Lisa Mason.


title: Ex on the Beach (British TV series)

text: On 12 December 2017 it was announced that Vicky Pattison would host a spin-off show entitled ""Ex on the Beach: Body SOS"" where she will attempt to help members of the public to get into shape. The first series began airing on 17 January 2018 and features Joss Mooney, who rose to fame by appearing in the first series of "Ex on the Beach".


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit television, road-rule enforcement cameras, or cameras specifically designed for the task. ANPR is used by police forces around the world for law enforcement purposes, including to check if a vehicle is registered or licensed. It is also used for electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads and as a method of cataloguing the movements of traffic, for example by highways agencies.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Automatic number-plate recognition can be used to store the images captured by the cameras as well as the text from the license plate, with some configurable to store a photograph of the driver. Systems commonly use infrared lighting to allow the camera to take the picture at any time of day or night. ANPR technology must take into account plate variations from place to place.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Privacy issues have caused concerns about ANPR, such as government tracking citizens' movements, misidentification, high error rates, and increased government spending. Critics have described it as a form of mass surveillance.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: ANPR was invented in 1976 at the Police Scientific Development Branch in Britain. Prototype systems were working by 1979, and contracts were awarded to produce industrial systems, first at EMI Electronics, and then at Computer Recognition Systems (CRS, now part of Jenoptik) in Wokingham, UK. Early trial systems were deployed on the A1 road and at the Dartford Tunnel. The first arrest through detection of a stolen car was made in 1981. However, ANPR did not become widely used until new developments in cheaper and easier to use software were pioneered during the 1990s. The collection of ANPR data for future use ("i.e"., in solving then-unidentified crimes) was documented in the early 2000s. The first documented case of ANPR being used to help solve a murder occurred in November 2005, in Bradford, UK, where ANPR played a vital role in locating and subsequently convicting killers of Sharon Beshenivsky.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The software aspect of the system runs on standard home computer hardware and can be linked to other applications or databases. It first uses a series of image manipulation techniques to detect, normalize and enhance the image of the number plate, and then optical character recognition (OCR) to extract the alphanumerics of the license plate. ANPR systems are generally deployed in one of two basic approaches: one allows for the entire process to be performed at the lane location in real-time, and the other transmits all the images from many lanes to a remote computer location and performs the OCR process there at some later point in time. When done at the lane site, the information captured of the plate alphanumeric, date-time, lane identification, and any other information required is completed in approximately 250 milliseconds. This information can easily be transmitted to a remote computer for further processing if necessary, or stored at the lane for later retrieval. In the other arrangement, there are typically large numbers of PCs used in a server farm to handle high workloads, such as those found in the London congestion charge project. Often in such systems, there is a requirement to forward images to the remote server, and this can require larger bandwidth transmission media.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: ANPR uses optical character recognition (OCR) on images taken by cameras. When Dutch vehicle registration plates switched to a different style in 2002, one of the changes made was to the font, introducing small gaps in some letters (such as "P" and "R") to make them more distinct and therefore more legible to such systems. Some license plate arrangements use variations in font sizes and positioning—ANPR systems must be able to cope with such differences to be truly effective. More complicated systems can cope with international variants, though many programs are individually tailored to each country.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The cameras used can be existing road-rule enforcement or closed-circuit television cameras, as well as mobile units, which are usually attached to vehicles. Some systems use infrared cameras to take a clearer image of the plates.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: During the 1990s, significant advances in technology took automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) systems from limited expensive, hard to set up, fixed based applications to simple "point and shoot" mobile ones. This was made possible by the creation of software that ran on cheaper PC based, non-specialist hardware that also no longer needed to be given the pre-defined angles, direction, size and speed in which the plates would be passing the camera's field of view. Further scaled-down components at lower price points led to a record number of deployments by law enforcement agencies globally. Smaller cameras with the ability to read license plates at higher speeds, along with smaller, more durable processors that fit in the trunks of police vehicles, allowed law enforcement officers to patrol daily with the benefit of license plate reading in real time, when they can interdict immediately.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Despite their effectiveness, there are noteworthy challenges related with mobile ANPRs. One of the biggest is that the processor and the cameras must work fast enough to accommodate relative speeds of more than 100 mph (160 km/h), a likely scenario in the case of oncoming traffic. This equipment must also be very efficient since the power source is the vehicle electrical system, and equipment must have minimal space requirements.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Relative speed is only one issue that affects the camera's ability to read a license plate. Algorithms must be able to compensate for all the variables that can affect the ANPR's ability to produce an accurate read, such as time of day, weather and angles between the cameras and the license plates. A system's illumination wavelengths can also have a direct impact on the resolution and accuracy of a read in these conditions.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Installing ANPR cameras on law enforcement in the vehicles requires careful consideration of the juxtaposition of the cameras to the license plates they are to read. Using the right number of cameras and positioning them accurately for optimal results can prove challenging, given the various missions and environments at hand. Highway patrol requires forward-looking cameras that span multiple lanes and are able to read license plates at high speeds. City patrol needs shorter range, lower focal length cameras for capturing plates on parked cars. Parking lots with perpendicularly parked cars often require a specialized camera with a very short focal length. Most technically advanced systems are flexible and can be configured with a number of cameras ranging from one to four which can easily be repositioned as needed. States with rear-only license plates have an additional challenge since a forward-looking camera is ineffective with oncoming traffic. In this case one camera may be turned backwards.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The complexity of each of these subsections of the program determines the accuracy of the system. During the third phase (normalization), some systems use edge detection techniques to increase the picture difference between the letters and the plate backing. A median filter may also be used to reduce the visual noise on the image.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: There are a number of possible difficulties that the software must be able to cope with. These include:


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: While some of these problems can be corrected within the software, it is primarily left to the hardware side of the system to work out solutions to these difficulties. Increasing the height of the camera may avoid problems with objects (such as other vehicles) obscuring the plate but introduces and increases other problems, such as adjusting for the increased skew of the plate.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: On some cars, tow bars may obscure one or two characters of the license plate. Bikes on bike racks can also obscure the number plate, though in some countries and jurisdictions, such as Victoria, Australia, "bike plates" are supposed to be fitted. Some small-scale systems allow for some errors in the license plate. When used for giving specific vehicles access to a barricaded area, the decision may be made to have an acceptable error rate of one character. This is because the likelihood of an unauthorized car having such a similar license plate is seen as quite small. However, this level of inaccuracy would not be acceptable in most applications of an ANPR system.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: At the front end of any ANPR system is the imaging hardware which captures the image of the license plates. The initial image capture forms a critically important part of the ANPR system which, in accordance to the garbage in, garbage out principle of computing, will often determine the overall performance.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: License plate capture is typically performed by specialized cameras designed specifically for the task, although new software techniques are being implemented that support any IP-based surveillance camera and increase the utility of ANPR for perimeter security applications. Factors which pose difficulty for license plate imaging cameras include the speed of the vehicles being recorded, varying level of ambient light, headlight glare and harsh environmental conditions. Most dedicated license plate capture cameras will incorporate infrared illumination in order to solve the problems of lighting and plate reflectivity.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Many countries now use license plates that are retroreflective. This returns the light back to the source and thus improves the contrast of the image. In some countries, the characters on the plate are not reflective, giving a high level of contrast with the reflective background in any lighting conditions. A camera that makes use of active infrared imaging (with a normal colour filter over the lens and an infrared illuminator next to it) benefits greatly from this as the infrared waves are reflected back from the plate. This is only possible on dedicated ANPR cameras, however, and so cameras used for other purposes must rely more heavily on the software capabilities. Further, when a full-colour image is required as well as use of the ANPR-retrieved details, it is necessary to have one infrared-enabled camera and one normal (colour) camera working together.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: To avoid blurring it is ideal to have the shutter speed of a dedicated camera set to 1/1000 of a second. It is also important that the camera use a global shutter, as opposed to rolling shutter, to assure that the taken images are distortion-free. Because the car is moving, slower shutter speeds could result in an image which is too blurred to read using the OCR software, especially if the camera is much higher up than the vehicle. In slow-moving traffic, or when the camera is at a lower level and the vehicle is at an angle approaching the camera, the shutter speed does not need to be so fast. Shutter speeds of 1/500 of a second can cope with traffic moving up to 40 mph (64 km/h) and 1/250 of a second up to 5 mph (8 km/h). License plate capture cameras can produce usable images from vehicles traveling at .


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: To maximize the chances of effective license plate capture, installers should carefully consider the positioning of the camera relative to the target capture area. Exceeding threshold angles of incidence between camera lens and license plate will greatly reduce the probability of obtaining usable images due to distortion. Manufacturers have developed tools to help eliminate errors from the physical installation of license plate capture cameras.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Several State Police Forces, and the Department of Justice (Victoria) use both fixed and mobile ANPR systems. The New South Wales Police Force Highway Patrol were the first to trial and use a fixed ANPR camera system in Australia in 2005. In 2009 they began a roll-out of a mobile ANPR system (known officially as MANPR) with three infrared cameras fitted to its Highway Patrol fleet. The system identifies unregistered and stolen vehicles as well as disqualified or suspended drivers as well as other 'persons of interest' such as persons having outstanding warrants.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The city of Mechelen uses an ANPR system since September 2011 to scan all cars crossing the city limits (inbound and outbound). Cars listed on 'black lists' (no insurance, stolen, etc.) generate an alarm in the dispatching room, so they can be intercepted by a patrol.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Federal, provincial, and municipal police services across Canada use automatic licence plate recognition software; they are also used on certain toll routes and by parking enforcement agencies. Laws governing usage of information thus obtained use of such devices are mandated through various provincial privacy acts.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: 180 gantries over major roads have been built throughout the country. These together with a further 250 fixed cameras is to enable a levy of an eco tax on lorries over 3.5 tonnes. The system is currently being opposed and whilst they may be collecting data on vehicles passing the cameras, no eco tax is being charged.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: On 11 March 2008, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that some areas of the laws permitting the use of automated number plate recognition systems in Germany violated the right to privacy. More specifically, the court found that the retention of any sort of information (i.e., number plate data) which was not for any pre-destined use (e.g., for use tracking suspected terrorists or for enforcement of speeding laws) was in violation of German law.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In 2012 a state consortium was formed among the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, the National Police Headquarters and the Central Commission of Public Administration and Electronic Services with the aim to install and operate a unified intelligent transportation system ("ITS") with nationwide coverage by the end of 2015. Within the system, 160 portable traffic enforcement and data-gathering units and 365 permanent gantry installations were brought online with ANPR, speed detection, imaging and statistical capabilities. Since all the data points are connected to a centrally located ITS, each member of the consortium is able to separately utilize its range of administrative and enforcement activities, such as remote vehicle registration and insurance verification, speed, lane and traffic light enforcement and wanted or stolen vehicle interception among others.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Several Hungarian auxiliary police units also use a system called Matrix Police in cooperation with the police. It consists of a portable computer equipped with a web camera that scans the stolen car database using automatic number-plate recognition. The system is installed on the dashboard of selected patrol vehicles (PDA-based hand-held versions also exist) and is mainly used to control the license plate of parking cars. As the Auxiliary Police do not have the authority to order moving vehicles to stop, if a stolen car is found, the formal police is informed.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Vehicle registration plates in Saudi Arabia use white background, but several vehicle types may have a different background. There are only 17 Arabic letters used on the registration plates. A challenge for plates recognition in Saudi Arabia is the size of the digits. Some plates use both Eastern Arabic numerals and the 'Western Arabic' equivalents. A research with source code is available for APNR Arabic digits.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Several cities have tested—and some have put into service—the KGYS (Kent Guvenlik Yonetim Sistemi, City Security Administration System), i.e., capital Ankara, has debuted KGYS- which consists of a registration plate number recognition system on the main arteries and city exits. The system has been used with two cameras per lane, one for plate recognition, one for speed detection. Now the system has been widened to network all the registration number cameras together, and enforcing average speed over preset distances. Some arteries have limit, and some , and photo evidence with date-time details are posted to registration address if speed violation is detected. As of 2012, the fine for exceeding the speed limit for more than 30% is approximately US$175.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The project of system integration «OLLI Technology» and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Department of State Traffic Inspection (STI) experiments on the introduction of a modern technical complex which is capable to locate stolen cars, drivers deprived of driving licenses and other problem cars in real time. The Ukrainian complex "Video control" working by a principle of video fixing of the car with recognition of license plates with check under data base.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The Home Office states the purpose of automatic number-plate recognition in the United Kingdom is to help detect, deter and disrupt criminality including tackling organised crime groups and terrorists. Vehicle movements are recorded by a network of nearly 8000 cameras capturing between 25 and 30 million ANPR ‘read’ records daily. These records are stored for up to two years in the National ANPR Data Centre, which can be accessed, analysed and used as evidence as part of investigations by UK law enforcement agencies.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In 2012, the UK Parliament enacted the Protection of Freedoms Act which includes several provisions related to controlling and restricting the collection, storage, retention, and use of information about individuals. Under this Act, the Home Office published a code of practice in 2013 for the use of surveillance cameras, including ANPR, by government and law enforcement agencies. The aim of the code is to help ensure their use is "characterised as surveillance by consent, and such consent on the part of the community must be informed consent and not assumed by a system operator. Surveillance by consent should be regarded as analogous to policing by consent." In addition, a set of standards were introduced in 2014 for data, infrastructure, and data access and management.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In the United States, ANPR systems are more commonly referred to as ALPR (Automatic License Plate Reader/Recognition) technology, due to differences in language (i.e., "number plates" are referred to as "license plates" in American English)


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Since 2019, private companies like Flock Safety have grown rapidly, promoting stationary ALPR cameras to private individuals as well as neighbourhood associations and law enforcement. By April 2022, 1500 cities across the United States had implemented Flock cameras, despite criticism from the ACLU and other civil rights organisations and concerns about whether the system actual reduces crime.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Mobile ANPR use is widespread among US law enforcement agencies at the city, county, state and federal level. According to a 2012 report by the Police Executive Research Forum, approximately 71% of all US police departments use some form of ANPR. Mobile ANPR is becoming a significant component of municipal predictive policing strategies and intelligence gathering, as well as for recovery of stolen vehicles, identification of wanted felons, and revenue collection from individuals who are delinquent on city or state taxes or fines, or monitoring for Amber Alerts. With the widespread implementation of this technology, many U.S. states now issue misdemeanor citations of up to $500 when a license plate is identified as expired or on the incorrect vehicle. Successfully recognized plates may be matched against databases including "wanted person", "protection order", missing person, gang member, known and suspected terrorist, supervised release, immigration violator, and National Sex Offender lists. In addition to the real-time processing of license plate numbers, ANPR systems in the US collect (and can indefinitely store) data from each license plate capture. Images, dates, times and GPS coordinates can be stockpiled and can help place a suspect at a scene, aid in witness identification, pattern recognition or the tracking of individuals.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a federal database to combine all monitoring systems, which was cancelled after privacy complaints. In 1998, a Washington, D.C. police lieutenant pleaded guilty to extortion after blackmailing the owners of vehicles parked near a gay bar. In 2015, the Los Angeles Police Department proposed sending letters to the home addresses of all vehicles that enter areas of high prostitution.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Early private sector mobile ANPR applications have been for vehicle repossession and recovery, although the application of ANPR by private companies to collect information from privately owned vehicles or collected from private property (for example, driveways) has become an issue of sensitivity and public debate. Other ANPR uses include parking enforcement, and revenue collection from individuals who are delinquent on city or state taxes or fines. The technology is often featured in the reality TV show "Parking Wars" featured on A&E Network. In the show, tow truck drivers and booting teams use the ANPR to find delinquent vehicles with high amounts of unpaid parking fines.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Laws vary among the states regarding collection and retention of license plate information. , 16 states have limits on how long the data may be retained, with the lowest being New Hampshire (3 minutes) and highest Colorado (3 years). The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled in 2018 that data collected from ALPRs can constitute personal information. As a result, on 1 April 2019, a Fairfax County judge issued an injunction prohibiting the Fairfax County Police Department from collecting and storing ALPR data outside of an investigation or intelligence gathering related to a criminal investigation. On October 22, 2020, the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned that decision, ruling that the data collected was not personal, identifying information.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In April 2020, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found that the warrantless use of automated license plate readers to surveil a suspected heroin distributor's bridge crossings to Cape Cod did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution only because of the limited time and scope of the observations.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: ANPR is used for speed limit enforcement in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Dubai (UAE), France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, the UK, and Kuwait.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: This works by tracking vehicles' travel time between two fixed points, and calculating the average speed. These cameras are claimed to have an advantage over traditional speed cameras in maintaining steady legal speeds over extended distances, rather than encouraging heavy braking on approach to specific camera locations and subsequent acceleration back to illegal speeds.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In has developed a monitoring system named covering more than 2500 km (2012). The Tutor system is also able to intercept cars while changing lanes. The Tutor or Safety Tutor is a joint project between the motorway management company - Autostrade per l'Italia - and the State Police. Over time it has been replaced by other versions for example the SICVe-PM where PM stands for PlateMatching and by the SICVe Vergilius. In addition to this average speed monitoring system, there are others Celeritas and T-Expeed v.2.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Average speed cameras ("trajectcontrole") are in place in the Netherlands since 2002. As of July 2009, 12 cameras were operational, mostly in the west of the country and along the A12. Some of these are divided in several "sections" to allow for cars leaving and entering the motorway.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: A first experimental system was tested on a short stretch of the A2 in 1997 and was deemed a big success by the police, reducing overspeeding to 0.66%, compared to 5 to 6% when regular speed cameras were used at the same location. The first permanent average speed cameras were installed on the A13 in 2002, shortly after the speed limit was reduced to 80 km/h to limit noise and air pollution in the area. In 2007, average speed cameras resulted in 1.7 million fines for overspeeding out of a total of 9.7 millions. According to the Dutch Attorney General, the average number of violation of the speed limits on motorway sections equipped with average speed cameras is between 1 and 2%, compared to 10 to 15% elsewhere.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: One of the most notable stretches of average speed cameras in the UK is found on the A77 road in Scotland, with being monitored between Kilmarnock and Girvan. In 2006 it was confirmed that speeding tickets could potentially be avoided from the 'SPECS' cameras by changing lanes and the RAC Foundation feared that people may play "Russian Roulette" changing from one lane to another to lessen their odds of being caught; however, in 2007 the system was upgraded for multi-lane use and in 2008 the manufacturer described the "myth" as "categorically untrue". There exists evidence that implementation of systems such as SPECS has a considerable effect on the volume of drivers travelling at excessive speeds; on the stretch of road mentioned above (A77 Between Glasgow and Ayr) there has been noted a "huge drop" in speeding violations since the introduction of a SPECS system.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Recent innovations have contributed to the adoption of ANPR for perimeter security and access control applications at government facilities. Within the US, "homeland security" efforts to protect against alleged "acts of terrorism" have resulted in adoption of ANPR for sensitive facilities such as embassies, schools, airports, maritime ports, military and federal buildings, law enforcement and government facilities, and transportation centers. ANPR is marketed as able to be implemented through networks of IP based surveillance cameras that perform "double duty" alongside facial recognition, object tracking, and recording systems for the purpose of monitoring suspicious or anomalous behavior, improving access control, and matching against watch lists. ANPR systems are most commonly installed at points of significant sensitivity, ingress or egress. Major US agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense have purchased ANPR for perimeter security applications. Large networks of ANPR systems are being installed by cities such as Boston, London and New York City to provide citywide protection against acts of terrorism, and to provide support for public gatherings and public spaces.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The Center For Evidence-Based Crime Policy in George Mason University identifies the following randomized controlled trials of automatic number-plate recognition technology as very rigorous.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In addition to government facilities, many private sector industries with facility security concerns are beginning to implement ANPR solutions. Examples include casinos, hospitals, museums, parking facilities, and resorts. In the US, private facilities typically cannot access government or police watch lists, but may develop and match against their own databases for customers, VIPs, critical personnel or "banned person" lists. In addition to providing perimeter security, private ANPR has service applications for valet / recognized customer and VIP recognition, logistics and key personnel tracking, sales and advertising, parking management, and logistics (vendor and support vehicle tracking).


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Many cities and districts have developed traffic control systems to help monitor the movement and flow of vehicles around the road network. This had typically involved looking at historical data, estimates, observations and statistics, such as:


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: CCTV cameras can be used to help traffic control centres by giving them live data, allowing for traffic management decisions to be made in real-time. By using ANPR on this footage it is possible to monitor the travel of individual vehicles, automatically providing information about the speed and flow of various routes. These details can highlight problem areas as and when they occur and help the centre to make informed incident management decisions.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Some counties of the United Kingdom have worked with Siemens Traffic to develop traffic monitoring systems for their own control centres and for the public. Projects such as Hampshire County Council's ROMANSE provide an interactive and real-time website showing details about traffic in the city. The site shows information about car parks, ongoing road works, special events and footage taken from CCTV cameras. ANPR systems can be used to provide average point-to-point journey times along particular routes, which can be displayed on a variable-message sign(VMS) giving drivers the ability to plan their route. ROMANSE also allows travellers to see the current situation using a mobile device with an Internet connection (such as WAP, GPRS or 3G), allowing them to view mobile device CCTV images within the Hampshire road network.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The UK company Trafficmaster has used ANPR since 1998 to estimate average traffic speeds on non-motorway roads without the results being skewed by local fluctuations caused by traffic lights and similar. The company now operates a network of over 4000 ANPR cameras, but claims that only the four most central digits are identified, and no numberplate data is retained.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society published some papers on the plate number recognition technologies and applications.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Ontario's 407 ETR highway uses a combination of ANPR and radio transponders to toll vehicles entering and exiting the road. Radio antennas are located at each junction and detect the transponders, logging the unique identity of each vehicle in much the same way as the ANPR system does. Without ANPR as a second system it would not be possible to monitor all the traffic. Drivers who opt to rent a transponder for C$2.55 per month are not charged the "Video Toll Charge" of C$3.60 for using the road, with heavy vehicles (those with a gross weight of over 5,000 kg) being required to use one. Using either system, users of the highway are notified of the usage charges by post.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: There are numerous other electronic toll collection networks which use this combination of Radio frequency identification and ANPR. These include:


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Portuguese roads have old highways with toll stations where drivers can pay with cards and also lanes where there are electronic collection systems. However most new highways only have the option of electronic toll collection system.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: When the smart tag is installed in the vehicle, the car is quickly identified and owner's bank account is automatically deducted. This process is realized at any speed up to over 250 km per hour.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: If the car does not have the smart tag, the driver is required to go to a pay station to pay the tolls between 3rd and 5th day after with a surplus charge. If he fails to do so, the owner is sent a letter home with a heavy fine. If this is not paid, it increases five-fold and after that, the car is inserted into a police database for vehicle impounding.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: This system is also used in some limited access areas of main cities to allow only entry from pre-registered residents. It is planned to be implemented both in more roads and in city entrance toll collection/access restriction. The efficacy of the system is considered to be so high that it is almost impossible for the driver to complain.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: The London congestion charge is an example of a system that charges motorists entering a payment area. Transport for London (TfL) uses ANPR systems and charges motorists a daily fee of £11.50 if they enter, leave or move around within the congestion charge zone between 7 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., Monday to Friday. A reduced fee of £10.50 is paid by vehicle owners who sign up for the automatic deduction scheme. Fines for traveling within the zone without paying the charge are £65 per infraction if paid before the deadline, doubling to £130 per infraction thereafter.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: There are currently 1,500 cameras which use automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology. There are also a number of mobile camera units which may be deployed anywhere in the zone.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: It is estimated that around 98% of vehicles moving within the zone are caught on camera. The video streams are transmitted to a data centre located in central London where the ANPR software deduces the registration plate of the vehicle. A second data centre provides a backup location for image data.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Both front and back number plates are being captured, on vehicles going both in and out – this gives up to four chances to capture the number plates of a vehicle entering and exiting the zone. This list is then compared with a list of cars whose owners/operators have paid to enter the zone – those that have not paid are fined. The registered owner of such a vehicle is looked up in a database provided by the DVLA.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In Johannesburg, South Africa, ANPR is used for the etoll fee collection. Owners of cars driving into or out of the inner city must pay a charge. The number of tolls passed depends on the distance travelled on the particular freeway. Some of the freeways with ANPR are the N12, N3, N1 etc.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: In Stockholm, Sweden, ANPR is used for the Stockholm congestion tax, owners of cars driving into or out of the inner city must pay a charge, depending on the time of the day. From 2013, also for the Gothenburg congestion tax, which also includes vehicles passing the city on the main highways.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Several UK companies and agencies use ANPR systems. These include Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Transport for London.


title: Automatic number-plate recognition

text: Vehicle owners have used a variety of techniques in an attempt to evade ANPR systems and road-rule enforcement cameras in general. One method increases the reflective properties of the lettering and makes it more likely that the system will be unable to locate the plate or produce a high enough level of contrast to be able to read it. This is typically done by using a plate cover or a spray, though claims regarding the effectiveness of the latter are disputed. In most jurisdictions, the covers are illegal and covered under existing laws, while in most countries there is no law to disallow the use of the sprays. Other users have attempted to smear their license plate with dirt or utilize covers to mask the plate.