title: A New Day Has Come

text: Sony Music Entertainment also released two promotional singles in the United States: "Aun Existe Amor" and "At Last". The first one was issued after Dion performed the song at the "Billboard" Latin Music Awards in May 2002 where she was honoured with a special award for "My Heart Will Go On", which was the first English-language song to top "Billboard"s Hot Latin Tracks chart. "At Last" was sent to the adult contemporary radio stations in December 2002 and peaked at number sixteen on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks. Although not changed, "Have You Ever Been in Love" was also included on Dion's next album, "One Heart" and released as a single in April 2003. The song spent fourteen weeks at number two on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks in the United States.


title: A New Day Has Come

text: The album garnered generally positive reviews from music critics. Chuck Taylor from "Billboard" gave it a favorable review, saying that Dion explores a "broader, more adventurous" range of pop music. Among the highlights, he mentioned "Sorry for Love" where Dion "dishes out her first all-out dance anthem" and holds a twelve-second "authentic note that puts the "d" in diva", "I'm Alive" and "When the Wrong One Loves You Right", which he described as "hitworthy uptempo gems", the rock-leaning "Ten Days", and a Spanish track, "Aun Existe Amor". According to Taylor, Dion does not disappoint with ballads like the "rafter-shaking" "I Surrender" where she sings of "forbidden love amid a firestorm of utterly volcanic instrumentation" and "The Greatest Reward", and two standards – the "diamond-dipped" "Nature Boy" and gospel "At Last". He called the album the most "versatile and gratifying" Dion's recording yet. Larry Flick, also from "Billboard" wrote about another song, "Have You Ever Been in Love" that "at a time when music is frightfully aggressive and the world at large is fraught with turmoil, a classic Dion power ballad is a warm source of comfort". The track "builds from a gentle, piano-laced opening into a deliciously theatrical, string-framed climax". All along, Dion offers an "appealing palette of vocal colors that range from delicate and breathy to full-bodied and appropriately dramatic".


title: A New Day Has Come

text: Chuck Taylor also reviewed all three singles from the album. He wrote that the life-affirming "A New Day Has Come" "comes off like a gentle exhale against the world's ills". The Ric Wake Radio Remix of "A New Day Has Come" opens with an "Enya-inspired whisper before a shuffle skips in and lifts the song upward like a dove gracefully taking flight". The Album Edit "comes sans the beat, allowing Dion's performance alone to fully color the message". According to him, on both versions Dion "embraces a particularly restrained performance – dramatic enough to steer the track's emotion, but still delicate to offer comfort". "I'm Alive" demonstrates a stylistic "left turn, with its throbbing tribal rhythms and a loose, sky-grazing vocal from Dion". The "percolating" Humberto Gatica Mix "adds juice" to the Album Version, while the uptempo Wake Up Mix, with assistance from Ric Wake and Richie Jones, is Dion's most "inspired and festive" remix to date, with Blondie's "Heart of Glass" woven into the beat to "splendid effect". Taylor criticized the choice of the third single, "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)", a ballad relegated solely to adult contemporary radio stations. He noticed that the song is "devastatingly beautiful", offering a loving tribute to one's mother at death's door and that Dion "delivers it with a heaving helping of passion, emotionally drawing one's attention to the devotional message". Although he felt that many will connect to the loss of a parent, on a commercial level, this was a disappointing decision. According to Taylor, songs like "Sorry for Love" and "When the Wrong One Loves You Right" were primed for radio airplay and dancefloor remixes and were ideal candidates for release.


title: A New Day Has Come

text: Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album three and a half out of five stars saying that its construction is "as perfect as it could be". It doesn't "deviate" from Dion's mainstream audience, yet it "dips its toe" into modern music, particularly dance, while "keeping hip" ("Nature Boy"). Although Erlewine described "Rain, Tax (It's Inevitable)" as "bizarre", he wrote that "there's really nothing to fault it on, actually," the album is "more ambitious than it needs to be, covers more stylistic territory than any other Dion record, while never abandoning the middle-of-the-road; it's a balancing act that nobody since Barbra Streisand has been able to pull off". According to Erlewine, the songs aren't "that particularly memorable", "the mood shifts effortlessly, it never seems to stay in one place," but it "never catches hold, either". Sal Cinquemani from "Slant Magazine" gave "A New Day Has Come" three out of five stars. According to him, Dion is great at what she does and "if she ever tried anything too edgy she'd probably just sound foolish". Cinquemani disliked "Rain, Tax (It's Inevitable)" but praised "Sorry for Love" on which Dion "gets the Cher treatment", an unexpected "change of pace that actually works". Among other highlights he mentioned two covers, a "soulful" rendition of "At Last" and a "simple and moving" arrangement of "Nature Boy". He also noticed that the album is "packed" with the usual adult contemporary songs: "I Surrender", a power ballad "only a singer with Dion's voice could pull off," "Ten Days", the guitar-driven "catchy pop-rocker with a surprisingly edgy vocal," "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)", a track featuring Shania Twain on backing vocals that "will leave you nauseous or in tears", "I'm Alive", the "uplifting" midtempo number and "A New Day Has Come", the "stirring" title track.


title: A New Day Has Come

text: Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the album B−. He felt that "A New Day Has Come" was "over-arranged" by producers, which works "against Dion's enthusiasm for the wonders of babies and innocence". Nevertheless, he praised the "jaunty disco" of "Sorry for Love", and "Have You Ever Been in Love" which "builds in intensity to sound like "a James Bond movie theme as delivered by Barbra Streisand". Tucker described "Rain, Tax (It's Inevitable)" as the most "idiosyncratic" and "idiomatic" song that Dion has ever recorded. According to the positive review from Mike Ross of Jam!, "A New Day Has Come" "picks up where "Falling into You" left off". Dion's album is a full of "bombast, melodrama and soaring love ballads indistinguishable from anything she's ever done". Attempts at modernity are "spotty", though "welcome". Ross noticed that ballads are the strongest tracks on the album and praised "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)", with "two soaring key changes" in the same song, which is then launched into a "high Earth orbit of melodrama by an orchestra that would make John Williams blush with envy". Barnes & Noble also gave the album favorable review and wrote that the new songs reveal a more "spiritual" and "edgier" Dion. They praised the "uplifting" title track, "heartfelt, country-tinged" "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)", "anthemic, gospel choir-accented ballad" "Prayer", "bluesy, honky-tonk rocker" "Ten Days", "soaring ballad" "Have You Ever Been in Love", and "solid renditions" of "Nature Boy" and "At Last".


title: A New Day Has Come

text: "A New Day Has Come" debuted at number one in 17 countries around the world. Dion earned two career achievements with the debut of "A New Day Has Come" in the United States. It became her first album to open at number-one on the "Billboard" 200 – her fourth number-one overall – and it set a personal best for first-week sales (558,000 units). Previously, 1997's "Let's Talk About Love" sold 334,000 in its first week, while 1999's "All the Way... A Decade of Song" opened with 303,000. The 558,000 tally became Dion's third largest one-week total, following 640,000 units of "All the Way ... A Decade of Song" and 624,000 copies of "Let's Talk About Love", both during Christmas periods. In the second week, "A New Day Has Come" fell to number two selling 263,000 copies. It stayed there for another week with sales of 226,000 units. For the next two weeks, "A New Day Has Come" occupied the number three position and sold 163,000 and 114,000 copies respectively. In the sixth week, it fell to number six selling 101,000 units and in the seventh week it climbed to number two with 143,000 copies sold. "A New Day Has Come" spent ten weeks inside the top ten on the "Billboard" 200. On the list of best selling albums of 2002 in the United States, it reached number 12 with sales of 2,645,000 units. In January 2003, it was certified three-times Platinum by the RIAA and as of 5 December 2010, it has sold 3,307,000 copies in the United States.


title: A New Day Has Come

text: In Canada, "A New Day Has Come" debuted at number-one, selling 151,600 copies — more than ten times her nearest competition, Shakira's "Laundry Service" (12,200). It stayed at number-one for seven straight weeks marking Dion's longest run at number-one, beating the six-week reign of "The Colour of My Love". It was certified six-times Platinum by the CRIA. "A New Day Has Come" topped the charts in most European countries and was certified Multi-Platinum, Platinum and Gold. After selling three million copies in Europe and spending seven weeks at number-one on the European Top 100 Albums, it was certified three-times Platinum by the IFPI. Billboard ranked "A New Day Has Come" as the 3rd Top Album of 2002 in Europe (behind Shakira's Laundry Service & Anastacia's Freak of Nature). "A New Day Has Come" also peaked at number-one in Australia and New Zealand and was certified two-times Platinum in both countries.


title: A New Day Has Come

text: The album entered number one in more than seventeen countries, becoming the biggest debut of 2002. The commercial success of "A New Day Has Come" led to its fifth position on the list of best selling albums of 2002, according to the IFPI. It has sold 12 million copies worldwide.


title: A New Day Has Come

text: In 2003, Dion won the American Music Award for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist and was nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. She also won a "Billboard" Music Award for Hot Adult Contemporary Artist and was nominated for Top Pop Catalog Artist and Hot Adult Contemporary Track ("A New Day Has Come"). Dion also won the following awards: Félix Award for Artist of the Year Achieving the Most Success in a Language Other Than French, IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award for Best Selling Foreign Release ("A New Day Has Come"), Arion Music Award for Best Selling International Album ("A New Day Has Come") and Dragon Award for International Female Artist of the Year. "A New Day Has Come" also won ASCAP Pop Award and BMI Pop Award for Most Performed Song, and three SOCAN Awards in categories: Pop Music, International Achievement and Classic Songs. Dion was also nominated for four Juno Awards of 2003, including: Artist of the Year, Fan Choice Award, Album of the Year ("A New Day Has Come") and Single of the Year ("A New Day Has Come"). Nominations for other awards include: People's Choice Award for Favourite Female Musical Performer, Echo Award for International Female Artist of the Year and MuchMoreMusic Award for "A New Day Has Come" music video.


title: Chicago X

text: Chicago X is the eighth studio album, and tenth album overall, by the American band Chicago. It was recorded at Caribou Ranch and it was released by Columbia Records on June 14, 1976. The album made it to number three on the "Billboard" 200, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on June 21, 1976, a week after its release. It was the band's first album to be certified platinum, on September 14, 1976, and has since been certified multi-platinum. In honor of the group's platinum album achievement, Columbia Records awarded the group a 25-pound bar of pure platinum, made by Cartier. ("Billboard" magazine reported it as a 30-pound bar.)


title: Chicago X

text: "Chicago X" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and it won a Grammy Award for Best Album Package.


title: Chicago X

text: The album produced Chicago's first number one single in the United States, "If You Leave Me Now". The single went on to win two Grammy Awards: for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus, the band's first Grammy Award; and for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists, for arrangers James William Guercio and Jimmie Haskell. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. It would later go on to be featured in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V on the Los Santos Rock Radio station.


title: Chicago X

text: Two other songs from the album released as singles—"Another Rainy Day in New York City", and "You Are On My Mind"—made it into the "Billboard" Hot 100. "Another Rainy Day in New York City" made it to number 32, and "You Are On My Mind" went to number 49.


title: Chicago X

text: After recording "Chicago VIII" in a state of exhaustion, Chicago did not return to the studio until the spring of 1976, feeling refreshed after a substantial break away. "Chicago X" was released on June 14, 1976, to a receptive audience, giving Chicago a number three album on the "Billboard" 200 in the United States, and their first album to chart in the UK in years, at number 21.


title: Chicago X

text: The album featured two top forty singles: Robert Lamm's composition, "Another Rainy Day In New York City", which peaked at number 32 after a brief run in August 1976; and Peter Cetera's composition, "If You Leave Me Now", which became the band's first number one single in October of that same year. Originally written at the same time as "Chicago VII"'s "Wishing You Were Here", "If You Leave Me Now" was one of the last to be completed and, according to reports, was very nearly left off the final product. "We're a band where anyone can contribute anything, so when Peter wrote this song, we gave it our all, even though we thought it wasn't anything special. Shows how little we knew," said Robert Lamm. Guitarist Terry Kath didn't like the increased emphasis in ballads, singling out this song as an example. Band member Walter Parazaider has been quoted as saying he heard the song on the radio while cleaning his pool and initially thought "it sounded like McCartney," not realizing it was his own band's work. The song became the band's first number one hit in the US and UK, and some band members felt the song's success changed the public's perception of the band, leading to more demand from Columbia Records for ballads, although Robert Lamm has since acknowledged that the band had started moving away from their politically-oriented music into the mainstream years earlier, beginning with 1972's "Chicago V". Lamm and Kath, in particular, were uncomfortable with this turn of events.


title: Chicago X

text: Band members who normally were not vocalists received vocal credits on this album. The album is notable for the lead vocal debut of trombonist James Pankow. Different band singers tried "You Are On My Mind," but Pankow felt they were not nailing it the way he heard it in his head as the song's composer, so producer Guercio said, "You sing it," and that effort landed on the final album. "You Are On My Mind" was the third single for the album, reaching number 49 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in April 1977. "Cash Box" said of it that "the same mellow vocal blend is here, along with a velvety texture on the horns, but the rhythm section has speeded into a quick samba, decorated with colorful percussion.." Lee Loughnane contributed the lead vocal for his song "Together Again". (Both Pankow and Loughnane would contribute lead vocals again on the next album, "Chicago XI".) The brief vocal section of "You Get It Up" was sung by the entire band in unison — thus the album's atypical crediting of Danny Seraphine, Walter Parazaider, and Laudir de Oliveira with "vocals".


title: Chicago X

text: In 2002, "Chicago X" was remastered and reissued by Rhino Records with an early rendition of "Chicago XIV"'s "I'd Rather Be Rich" by Lamm, as well as Kath's "Your Love's An Attitude" — both cut in 1975 — as bonus tracks. This album was mixed and released in both stereo and quadraphonic.


title: Chicago X

text: For the summer 2007 tour, the band included "You Are on My Mind" with Pankow again on vocals — the first time this song had been performed live since 1976–1977.


title: Chicago X

text: Designed by Art Director of Columbia/CBS Records, John Berg, the album art depicts a partially unwrapped chocolate bar with the Chicago logo on it, resembling a Hershey's chocolate bar as it was packaged at the time, and winning for Berg a Grammy Award for Best Album Package. The cover design is labeled "chocolate bar" on the band's official web site. The cover art was included in a 2012-2013 exhibit of Berg's album covers at Guild Hall of East Hampton, and is now in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; , or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sport event held quadrennially in Israel. The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, and to all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion. It is the third-largest sporting event in the world by number of competitors, with 10,000 athletes competing (after the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup). The Maccabiah Games were declared a "Regional Sports Event" by, and under the auspices and supervision of, the International Olympic Committee in 1961.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Originally, the Maccabiah was held every three years. Since the 4th Maccabiah, the event has generally been held every four years, in the year following the Olympic Games.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, as well as to all Israeli athletes regardless of ethnicity or religion; Arab Israelis have also competed in it.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Competitions at the Maccabiah are organized into four divisions: 1) Open (Seniors); 2) Juniors; 3) Masters; and 4) Disabled. The Games are organized by the Maccabi World Union.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The name "Maccabiah" was chosen after Judah Maccabee, a Jewish leader who defended his country from King Antiochus. Modi'in, Judah's birthplace, is also the starting location of the torch that lights the flames at the opening ceremony, a tradition that started at the 4th Maccabiah.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah Games were the result of a proposal put forward by Yosef Yekutieli in 1929 at the "Maccabi World Congress". Yekutieli, who heard about the Stockholm Olympics, wanted to form a representation for Eretz Yisrael. Following the appointment of the new British Palestine High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, the Maccabiah got the go-ahead.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The 1st Maccabiah opened on March 28, 1932. The Maccabiah Stadium in Tel Aviv, which was built with donations, was filled to capacity. Roughly 400 athletes from 18 countries took part in everything from swimming, football, and handball, to various athletics. In the first Games, the Polish delegation took first place.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah Games were intended to take place at an interval of three years. Following the success of the first Games, the 2nd Maccabiah was held from April 2 to 10, 1935, despite official opposition by the British Mandatory government. Over 1,300 athletes from 28 nations participated. The 3rd Maccabiah, which was originally scheduled for spring of 1938, was postponed until 1950 due to British concerns of large-scale illegal immigration, World War II, and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It became the first Maccabiah to be held after the establishment of the State of Israel.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Starting from the 4th Maccabiah, the games were changed to take place every four years in the year following the Olympics and since 1953, the Games have taken place every four years, with the exception of the 21st Maccabiah, which was postponed for one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 15th edition was marred by what became known as the Maccabiah bridge disaster, when a temporary bridge built for the march of athletes at the opening ceremony collapsed, plunging about 100 members of the Australian delegation into the waters of the Yarkon River. Four athletes were killed, and 63 injured. More than 5,000 participants from over 50 countries competed in those Games.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Over the last two decades, the number of participants grew to 9,000 athletes in the 19th Maccabiah, from 78 countries, making it the 3rd-largest sporting event in the world and the second largest sporting event in 2013, behind the 2013 Summer Universiade. It is a forum for Jewish athletes to meet and convene, and provides the athletes with opportunities to explore Israel and Jewish history.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Approximately 10,000 athletes, from 80 countries, were expected to compete in 42 sports categories in the 21st Maccabaiah. It was reportedly the world's largest sporting event in 2022. President of the United States Joe Biden attended the opening ceremonies, cheering on the U.S. delegation of 1,400 athletes—larger than the U.S. delegation to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. This made him the first American president to attend the Maccabiah Games.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Prior to World War II there was an attempt to organize a winter Maccabiah. Due to the relatively warm temperatures in Palestine, the winter Maccabiot were organized in European nations. The 1st Winter Maccabiah was held in Zakopane, Poland, February 2 to 5, 1933. The games were met with great opposition; the "Gazeta Warszawska" newspaper encouraged Polish youth to intervene during the games to prevent the "Jewification of Polish winter sports venues".


title: Maccabiah Games

text: A second attempt at the winter games was relatively more successful. The 2nd Winter Maccabiah took place February 18 to 22, 1936, in Banská Bystrica (then Czechoslovakia). In the games, 2,000 athletes from 12 nations participated. This was the last time a winter Maccabiah was ever held, and the only two Maccabiot to not take place in the Land of Israel; although Maccabi still runs smaller regional winter games to date.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabi Junior Carnivals are a sporting event held for the Jewish youth of Australia or New Zealand. It has been held annually since 1982, usually in January.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah ceremonies are two ceremonial events that take place during the first and last days of the Maccabiah games. The ceremonies are an important part of the Jewish culture in Israel and the Zionist movement. The ceremonies of the Maccabiah trace their roots to the Olympic Games of the early 20th century. As such, they share many similarities.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah opening ceremony, which is organized by the Maccabi World Union, has recently been presented in English, Hebrew, and Spanish.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The opening ceremonies represent the official commencement of the Maccabiah. Some sports however, such as golf and rugby, might start prior to the opening ceremonies in order to finish on time.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The opening ceremony for the first Games was held at the new Maccabiah Stadium. The Stadium, which is located next to the Yarkon River in Tel Aviv, was finished just the night before. The Stadium also hosted the 2nd Maccabiah in 1935. For the 3rd Maccabiah, the opening ceremony took place in a new stadium in Ramat Gan. The stadium has been hosting the opening ceremonies of the Maccabiah ever since, with the exception of the 16th, 19th, and 20th Maccabiah Games which were held in Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The ceremonies often start with the introduction of the active participants of the Maccabi youth movement. After the parade of nations, the opening ceremony continues on with a presentation of artistic displays of music, singing, dance, and theater representative of the Jewish culture. In recent games, Jewish singers from around the world participated in the opening ceremony. For example, in 2013, Grammy Award-winner Miri Ben-Ari and "X Factor" USA finalist Carly Rose Sonenclar performed at the opening ceremony.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Just like at the Olympics, the Maccabiah starts out with a "Parade of Nations", during which most participating athletes march into the stadium, country by country. The countries enter the stadium in accordance with the Hebrew alphabet. The parade of nations, in contrast to some other games, include junior and disabled athletes who also partake in the competitions. In accordance with the Maccabiah's tradition, the Israeli delegation always enters last.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The closing ceremony of the Maccabiah Games takes place after all sporting events have concluded. Typically, a member of Maccabi or some other well-known figure makes the closing speech and the Games officially close. The ceremony includes large artistic displays of music, singing, and dance. Various Jewish singers perform during the closing ceremony. In recent years, the closing ceremonies included popular musicians and live music and dancing.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: A medal ceremony is held after each Maccabiah event is concluded. The winner, second, and third-place competitors or teams stand on top of a three-tiered rostrum to be awarded their respective medals. Medals are awarded by an official Maccabi member.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah Games recognize all 28 current Olympic sports, plus a number of other sports such as chess, cricket, and netball. In contrast with the Olympic Games and other major international sporting events, the Maccabiah rules regarding accepting new sports are very lenient. New sports are accepted to the Maccabiah Games provided that competitions will only take place if at least four delegations bring competitors for that sport (three in the case of female sports, as well as the junior divisions). As a result, the Maccabiah has held various unique competitions such as duplicate bridge.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Karate, not yet on the Olympic schedule, made its debut in 1977 at the 10th Maccabiah Games. The requisite number of initial countries signed on and agreed to send delegations. Since 1977, karate has participated uninterrupted. Although at the beginning karate was only contested in the fighting or kumite category, forms or kata was included in 1981. In 1985, women's karate was added. Junior and youth categories made their debut in 2009. The World Karate Federation, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), oversees and supervises the rules of karate competition at the Maccabiah.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: In recent Maccabiot there has been a renewed interest in introducing new sports to the Maccabiah. In the 15th Maccabiah Games, ice hockey was first introduced. Ice hockey was not included in immediately subsequent games, but returned in the 19th Maccabiah. Squash became an official sport in the 10th Maccabiah Games in 1977. The 19th Maccabiah was also granted provisional approval for dressage and jumping competitions from the FEI.


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Athletes who have competed in the Maccabiah Games include many Olympic gold medalists, world champions, and world record holders. Among them have been Mark Spitz, Lenny Krayzelburg, Jason Lezak, Marilyn Ramenofsky, and Anthony Ervin (swimming); Mitch Gaylord, Abie Grossfeld, Ágnes Keleti, Valery Belenky, and Kerri Strug (gymnastics); Ernie Grunfeld, Danny Schayes, (coaches); Larry Brown, Nat Holman, and Dolph Schayes (basketball); Carina Benninga (field hockey); Lillian Copeland, Gerry Ashworth, and Gary Gubner (track and field); Angela Buxton, Brad Gilbert, Julie Heldman, Allen Fox, Nicolás Massú, and Dick Savitt (tennis); Angelica Rozeanu (table tennis); Sergey Sharikov, Vadim Gutzeit, Soren Thompson, and Mariya Mazina (fencing); Isaac Berger and Frank Spellman (weightlifting); Lindsey Durlacher, Jason Goldman, Fred Oberlander, and Henry Wittenberg (wrestling); Max Fried and Dean Kremer (baseball); Donald Spero and Michael Oren (rowing); Bruce Fleisher (golf); Adam Bacher, Dennis Gamsy, Neil Rosendorff, Marshall Rosen, Bob Herman (cricket); Boris Gelfand and Judit Polgár (chess); Irwin Cotler (ping pong); Marcelo Lipatin, Jeff Agoos, and Jonathan Bornstein (association football); Steve March Tormé (fast-pitch softball); Shawn Lipman (rugby); Dov Sternberg (karate); and Ori Sasson (judo).


title: Maccabiah Games

text: The Maccabiah Games have grown into one of the world's largest sporting events, with 85 participating countries in the current edition of the Maccabiah. Below is a list of countries that participated in the most recent games in 2017. Scroll down for participating nations from the 2014 edition and other games


title: Maccabiah Games

text: Early games featured many delegations from the Arab nations. Iran, a Muslim, but not Arab country, which debuted at the 7th Maccabiah, stopped participating following the Iranian Revolution. Some of these countries have participated under multiple flags. Countries that previously participated but did not in the most recent Maccabiah are:


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Texas v. Pennsylvania, 592 U.S. ___ (2020), was a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the administration of the 2020 presidential election in certain states, in which Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Filed by Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton on December 8, 2020, under the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction, "Texas v. Pennsylvania" alleged that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin violated the United States Constitution by changing election procedures through non-legislative means – thus violating the Independent state legislature theory. The suit sought to temporarily withhold the certified vote count from these four states prior to the Electoral College vote on December 14. The suit was filed after about 90 lawsuits arising from disputes over the election results filed by Trump and the Republican Party had failed in numerous state and federal courts.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The suit had been drafted by a team of lawyers with ties to the Trump presidential campaign. Paxton agreed to file the case after other state attorneys general declined to do so. The Solicitor General of Texas Kyle D. Hawkins objected to the suit and refused to let his name be added. Paxton hired Lawrence J. Joseph, who had helped draft the suit, as special counsel to assist with the suit.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Within one day of Texas's filing, Trump, over 100 Republican Representatives, and 18 Republican state attorneys general filed motions to support the case. Trump referred to this case as "the big one" of the election-challenging lawsuits. Attorneys general for the defendant states, joined in briefs submitted by their counterparts from twenty other states, two territories, and the District of Columbia, urged the Court to refuse the case, with Pennsylvania's brief calling it a "seditious abuse of the judicial process". Legal experts argued that the case was not likely to be heard and not likely to succeed if it did get heard, and that it was thus a "Hail Mary" action.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The Supreme Court issued orders on December 11, declining to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of the election held by another state.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Several states changed their voting laws prior to the 2020 United States presidential election to make postal voting easier, due to fears that in-person voting would expose people to COVID-19. Numerous legal challenges to voting changes were raised across the country. A number of these cases involved voting regulations that were altered by states' executive branches and not by state legislatures. In "Texas v. Pennsylvania", Texas claimed that such alterations violated Article Two of the United States Constitution.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The initial tallies of votes in the election, completed within the week of election day, showed that Joe Biden had won sufficient votes in the Electoral College to secure the presidency over incumbent Donald Trump. Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) launched numerous lawsuits against various swing states challenging their vote tallies, particularly in states that had voted for Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election but had turned to Biden in 2020, such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Most of these cases raised by Trump and the RNC have been dismissed on procedural grounds or rejected on substantive grounds in the courts, and in so being have not affected the projected Electoral College result. PolitiFact noted that the forces behind reversing the election had by this point "lost dozens of election lawsuits."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Before and after the election, Trump stated his expectation that the Supreme Court would determine the outcome. After the election, his legal team sought a path to bring a case before the Court, on which conservative justices—including three appointed by Trump—held a 6–3 majority.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The case was filed on December 8, 2020, directly with the Supreme Court as it holds original jurisdiction over disputes between states. Such cases are infrequent: there were 123 "original jurisdiction" cases from 1789 to 1959. Original jurisdiction cases are immediately docketed pursuant to Rule 17 once the plaintiff submits its motion for leave to file and pays its docket fees. Because the suit requested expedited consideration, the Court set a deadline at 3:00 p.m. on December 10 for the four defendant states to respond. Whereas a typical case submitted through a writ of "certiorari" requires only four justices to accept to be certified by the Supreme Court, this case would have required five justices.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The suit was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. It claimed that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin violated the Constitution by changing their election procedures to limit the spread of COVID-19. The case was filed on the same day as the "safe harbor" threshold, beyond which Congress must accept certified results from states ahead of the Electoral College's official vote on December 14, 2020. The suit alleged that the four states "ignor[ed] statutory requirements as to how [mail-in ballots] were received, evaluated and counted". It further argued that electoral processes in the four defendant states "suffered from significant and unconstitutional irregularities", and therefore that it was not clear who "legitimately won the 2020 election".


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: In the lawsuit, Texas alleged that the defendant states, by changing their election processes, violated three clauses of the Constitution: the Electors Clause (ArticleII, Section1, Clause2), the Equal Protection Clause, and the Due Process Clause. In particular, it argued the Constitution requires changes to electoral procedures to be made only by state legislatures, and not by executives such as secretaries of state. Accordingly, it argued, changes to election procedures made by executive action, and not by alterations to state law, rendered election results constitutionally infirm.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Texas argued it had standing to sue to prevent its votes from becoming "diluted". Texas instead alleged that "fraud becomes undetectable" because "unlawful actions of election officials effectively destroy the evidence". Whether "voters committed fraud" was not the "constitutional issue" in this case, according to Texas. Therefore, Texas declared that it did not need to "prove" fraud.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Texas sought relief by requesting the Supreme Court block those four states from voting in the electoral college and extend the deadline by which states must submit their certified vote.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Texas, in its December 11 response to the defendant states, stated "Defendant States do not seriously address grave issues that Texas raises, choosing to hide behind other court venues and decisions in which Texas could not participate and to mischaracterize both the relief that Texas seeks and the justification for that relief." In an interview, Paxton further argued that "the only place we can file is the Supreme Court, and we did what we did appropriately, so to call it 'seditious' is really ridiculous." In response to commentators who said the action was a Hail Mary, Paxton said, "Unless you throw the pass, you can't complete it."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: On the same day, Trump filed a motion to intervene in his personal capacity, thereby attempting to join the case as a plaintiff. Trump's brief was filed by Chapman University School of Law professor John C. Eastman, who in August 2020 authored an article published in "Newsweek" questioning Kamala Harris's eligibility for the position of vice president. On social media, the president referred to the case as "the big one". Over 120 Republican members of the House of Representatives filed an amicus in support of the suit, including leader Kevin McCarthy and his deputy Steve Scalise.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: 106 members of the House initially signed on to the lawsuit in support of the plaintiff. 20 additional members of the House signed on to the lawsuit in support of the plaintiff before it was dismissed.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Later on December 10, attorneys general of six states that had already responded in an "amicus" brief, Arkansas, Utah, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and South Carolina, petitioned to the Supreme Court to let them join Texas as a plaintiff in the case. This effort was led by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: An "amicus curiae" brief on the side of the defendants was filed by a group of former Republican office holders and officials.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The defendant states responded on December 10, urging the Court to reject the case. Pennsylvania's reply called the suit a "seditious abuse of the judicial process". The states urged that the justices "send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated".


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Attorneys general of the District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and 20 states filed a brief in support of the defendant states the same day:


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Although Montana Attorney General Tim Fox participated in the joint brief filed on December 9 supporting Texas, outgoing Montana Governor Steve Bullock filed a separate brief on December 10 in support of the defendants.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: On December 10, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a motion supporting neither side, but stated that "the [s]tates need this Court to decide, at the earliest available opportunity, the question whether the Electors Clause permits state courts (and state executive officials) to alter the rules by which presidential elections are conducted." Yost also stated Ohio could not support Texas's request for relief because Ohio's position is that state legislatures' power over elections should not be overridden by federal courts. Arizona also filed a brief on jurisdiction but supporting neither party.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The suit was criticized by legal experts and called "outlandish". University of Texas School of Law law professor Stephen I. Vladeck called the suit the "craziest lawsuit filed to purportedly challenge the election". Election law expert Rick Hasen characterized the lawsuit as a "press release masquerading as a lawsuit" and "the dumbest case I've ever seen filed on an emergency basis at the Supreme Court." Edward Foley, director of the election law program at Ohio State University, urged the court to ignore the case and refrain from interfering in the election.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School described the 11th-hour case a "Hail Mary pass" that was "creative but unlikely to win", because alleging that Texas, instead of its voters, was injured (in order to bypass the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) is "far-fetched"; he also expressed concern that the case was filed too late.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Senator Ted Cruz, who has served as Solicitor General of Texas and has argued several cases before the Court, accepted Trump's request to argue the case should the Court hear it.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Law professor Noah Feldman characterized the lawsuit as a coup attempt by Republicans to overturn the results of the election.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Legal experts also did not expect the Supreme Court to certify the case, given its reluctance to hear post-election challenges. On the same day as Texas's filing, the Court refused to hear arguments in another post-election challenge, "Kelly v. Pennsylvania", without any dissents. The defendants also argued that the legal principle of laches, which may bar an action if it is filed too late, is grounds for dismissing Texas's claim.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signaled his support for the case, saying the case "tries to accelerate the process, providing certainty and clarity about the entire election process. The United States of America needs that."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: President Trump retweeted several tweets that expressed support for the suit. On December9, he promised to intervene in the suit, and filed a motion to do so the same day, thereby attempting to join the case as a plaintiff. On December 10, he tweeted "the Supreme Court has a chance to save our Country from the greatest Election abuse in the history of the United States." On December 11 he tweeted, "I just want to stop the world from killing itself! ... Now that the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, it is much easier for the Supreme Court of the United States to follow the Constitution and do what everybody knows has to be done."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both involved in close runoff races in Georgia, voiced support for the suit. In a tweet, Republican Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt stated his support for the suit, promising to "lead the effort in support of Texas's #SCOTUS filing today". On Twitter, Republican Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge stated she would legally support the motion. Republican Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry also supported the complaint.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: In response to an email to every Republican member of the House of Representatives from Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, 125 Republicans joined him to sign an amicus brief supporting the suit. The number represented a clear majority of the Republican caucus in the House. "Politico" referred to the large number of GOP House members supporting the suit as "jaw-dropping". Republican members of the Senate, on the other hand, were much less likely to speak in favor of the suit, reflecting their different temperaments and political imperatives.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The office of Republican Georgia attorney general Chris Carr also criticized the suit and Paxton. On December8, Carr's spokeswoman said that Paxton was "constitutionally, legally[,] and factually wrong about Georgia". Georgia's deputy secretary of state Jordan Fuchs denounced the suit as "false and irresponsible". Trump warned Carr to not rally other Republican officials in opposition to the suit, and the Republican majority in the Georgia State Senate expressed their approval for the filing.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel criticized the suit, labelling it a "publicity stunt... beneath the dignity" of the Texas attorney general office and saying "[t]he erosion of confidence in our democratic system isn't attributable to the good people of Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia[,] or Pennsylvania but rather to partisan officials, like Mr.Paxton, who place loyalty to a person over loyalty to their country." Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul called the case "genuinely embarrassing". Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro stated that "[t]hese continued attacks on our fair and free election system are beyond meritless, beyond reckless—they are a scheme by the President of the United States and some in the Republican party to disregard the will of the people—and name their own victors."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Attorney and Lincoln Project founder George Conway called the lawsuit the "most insane thing yet". Former Federal Elections Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky said, "By almost any measure, this is the legal equivalent of a Hail Mary pass."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Chip Roy, a Republican Texas congressman and former chief of staff to Texas senator Ted Cruz, characterized the suit as "a dangerous violation of federalism [that] sets a precedent to have one state asking federal courts to police the voting procedures of other states". Republican Texas senator and former Texas Supreme Court justice John Cornyn said he was unable "to understand the legal theory" behind the suit.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Emails from Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody's office revealed that lawyers in the office ridiculed the lawsuit as “batshit insane” and “weird,” and speculated about Paxton's motivations for filing it.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Governor Gary Herbert and Governor-elect Spencer Cox of Utah, both Republicans, denounced Republican Utah state attorney general Sean Reyes's decision to join the amicus brief in support of the lawsuit. Several other states also saw division among Republicans about whether coming out in favor of the suit was wise. The Associated Press wrote that the action "has quickly become a conservative litmus test."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Michael Steele, formerly the chair of the Republican National Committee, called Republican House members' decision to join the suit "an offense to the Constitution" that would "leave[] an indelible stain" on their "political skin". Jeb Bush opined on the suit: "This is crazy. It will be killed on arrival".


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins, who normally would speak on behalf of the state in matters before the Supreme Court, was not listed on the suit.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The lawsuit included a declaration from Charles Cicchetti, who claimed that his statistical analysis showed that there was a less than one-in-one-quadrillion chance of Biden's having won any of the states in question. Cicchetti's analysis was widely criticized, since it assumed that voters behaved the same in 2020 as they had in 2016 and because it assumed that vote tallying patterns were random over time. In reality, Biden was a different candidate than Hillary Clinton had been in 2016, and the marked shift of early Republican vote counts to later Democratic votes counts had been anticipated well in advance, because several battleground states had forbidden mail-in ballots from being counted earlier; mail-in ballots favored Biden in part because Trump had long attempted to discredit the reliability of mail-in voting.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Writing at PolitiFact, Eric Litke described the analysis as "wildly illogical", citing professors of political science who described the analysis as "ludicrous" and "statistical incompetence", with one wrong assumption being that "votes are all independently and randomly distributed". At "The Volokh Conspiracy", David Post described Cicchetti's analysis as "idiotic" because it was based on two blatantly false assumptions: (1) that voters' preferences had not changed since 2016, and (2) that party preferences did not differ between mail-in and in-person voters. Post stated that Paxton's use of Cicchetti's work was "unethical" because Paxton had not mentioned Cicchetti's key assumptions. At "The Washington Post", Philip Bump said that the analysis in the lawsuit was "utterly ridiculous", noting that the 2016 results could not be extrapolated to 2020, because Biden was more popular than Clinton and because voters had become more polarized. Bump also wrote that vote-counting was not "homogeneous", with the "blue shift" phenomenon being entirely expected due to mail-in ballots favoring Biden.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: On December 11, in an unsigned ruling, the court ruled that Texas lacked standing and denied the suit.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The State of Texas's motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: Justice Alito, joined by Justice Thomas, disagreed with the ruling denying leave to file a bill of complaint, but did not otherwise find for the plaintiffs. He wrote that the Court is duty-bound to hear the case, referencing Thomas's dissent in "Arizona v. California", 589 U. S. ___ (Feb. 24, 2020):


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction... I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: After the Court declined to hear the case, Allen West, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, suggested that "law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution". The statement was criticized by Illinois Republican Adam Kinzinger, saying the call for secession was dangerous. The Lincoln Project's George Conway and "National Review" editor Rich Lowry also criticized West's remarks, stating they were unrepresentative of the "Party of Lincoln".


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: President Trump harshly criticized the Court's decision, saying "This is a great and disgraceful miscarriage of justice. The people of the United States were cheated, and our Country disgraced. Never even given our day in Court!" White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany echoed the notion that the case was never given a chance, saying the justices "hid behind procedure ... There's no way to say it other than they dodged." Paxton, for his part, said the decision was "unfortunate".


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: The Biden campaign said of the ruling: "The Supreme Court has decisively and speedily rejected the latest of Donald Trump and his allies' attacks on the democratic process. This is no surprise—dozens of judges, election officials from both parties, and Trump's own attorney general have dismissed his baseless attempts to deny that he lost the election."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that "The Court has rightly dismissed out of hand the extreme, unlawful and undemocratic GOP lawsuit to overturn the will of millions of American voters." and admonished that "Republicans must once and for all end their election subversion—immediately." Additionally she reprimanded House members who supported the lawsuit: "The 126 Republican Members that signed onto this lawsuit brought dishonor to the House. Instead of upholding their oath to support and defend the Constitution, they chose to subvert the Constitution and undermine public trust in our sacred democratic institutions."


title: Texas v. Pennsylvania

text: New Jersey Representative Bill Pascrell, citing section three of the 14th Amendment, called for Pelosi to not seat Republicans who signed the "amicus curiae" brief supporting the suit. This proposal would have applied to nearly two-thirds of the Republican representatives of the incoming 117th United States Congress. Pascrell stated, "The text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that."


title: Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai

text: Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai ("My Heart is with You") is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language romantic action drama film directed by Satish Kaushik, produced by Boney Kapoor, released on 24 August 2000. The film stars Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai and Sonali Bendre in the lead roles. It is a remake of the Telugu film "Pellichesukundam".


title: Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai

text: Preeti Vyas (Aishwarya Rai) is a young woman who bravely comes forward as a witness to a heinous assault carried by Bhavani Choudhry (Mukesh Rishi) and his men on a poor teacher whose land they wanted. The injured man is helped to the hospital by Preeti and a courteous and brave man called Avinash (Anil Kapoor), who holds strong morals and values.


title: Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai

text: Preeti's testimony angers the Choudhry family and, as a result, Choudhry's younger brother, Babloo Choudhry (Puru Raaj Kumar), rapes her. Subsequently, she is disowned by her family and ostracised by society.


title: Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai

text: She finds shelter with Avinash, who welcomes her to his home. Avinash lives alone with two young children. He later tells Preeti that the children are the result of a clandestine affair his father had with his secretary. The latter contacted Avinash on her deathbed to beg him to take care of the children. His father flat out refuses to acknowledge the children. Avinash takes them in and moves out of his parents' house. Preeti works at Avinash's office and helps him take care of the children at home. The two live well together as friends but this union invites a social opprobrium and strong uproar, and there is no other solution but marriage. They soon fall in love, and Avinash decides to ask Preeti for her hand in marriage. She refuses as she sees that as another favor and kind act, and Avinash respects her decision. Both of them attend a wedding where Preeti sees that her friend is marrying Babloo, the man who had raped her so Avinash beats him up and the police arrest Babloo and take him away.


title: Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai

text: After a year, Avinash's childhood friend Khushi (Sonali Bendre) returns from America. She tries to win his heart, as she is in love with him. This arouses jealousy in Preeti, and she realizes the depth of her love for Avinash. Avinash's parents never approved of his living arrangement with Preeti and want him to marry Khushi. Avinash's mother eventually approaches Preeti and insists that she will drop dead with shame if her son marries a rape victim. She begs Preeti to send Avinash to Khushi. Instead of being outraged at this insulting request, Preeti sheds a few tears and agrees. Avinash moves back to his parents' house and agrees to marry Khushi. But Preeti's friend tells Khushi about what Avinash's mother did. Khushi calls off the wedding and tells Avinash the truth. In the end, Preeti and Avinash are reunited.


title: Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai

text: The soundtrack of the film contains eight songs. The music is conducted by the duo Sanjeev–Darshan and the songs are written by Javed Akhtar. The song "Gham Hai Kyon" is a remake of the song "Kadhala Kadhala" with a slight change in instrumentation from the Tamil movie "Avvai Shanmughi".


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy Mitchell (also Butcher) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders". Peggy was initially played by Jo Warne when she first appeared in the episode broadcast on 30 April 1991, featuring in 10 episodes. Peggy was reintroduced in 1994, recast to Barbara Windsor, who made her first appearance in the episode broadcast on 7 November 1994. Peggy became a regular character, and Windsor played the role until she was forced to take a long break due to poor health and departed on 23 May 2003. She returned for two episodes broadcast on 16 and 17 September 2004, before rejoining as a regular character on 8 September 2005. Windsor announced in October 2009 that she would be leaving the show and departed on 10 September 2010. Windsor returned to the show for guest appearances on 20 September 2013, 25 September 2014, 17 February 2015 (as part of the show's 30th anniversary celebrations; see "EastEnders" Live Week) and 15 January 2016. She then appeared in six episodes between 9 and 17 May 2016, where the character was killed off. Her voice is last heard in the following episode, on 19 May 2016. Peggy's funeral aired on 4 July 2016. An archived recording of her voice was heard on 25 January 2022. On 26 July 2022, it was announced that Peggy would feature in a flashback episode set in 1979, alongside her husband Eric and their children Phil, Grant and Sam. Jaime Winstone played the role of Peggy for this special episode, which aired on 5 September 2022.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy is fiercely protective of her family and the Mitchell name, and is famous for her catchphrase "Get outta my pub!", used when ejecting people from The Queen Victoria when she was the landlady. Her storylines have seen her embark on a series of failed romances, including marriages to colleague Frank Butcher (Mike Reid) and then brother-in-law Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb). She has been central to several plot lines revolving around health issues, launching a hate campaign against the HIV positive character Mark Fowler (Todd Carty), and going on to make amends with him when she is later diagnosed with breast cancer, which she recovers from. The cancer later returns, ultimately leading to her suicide in 2016.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy married Eric Mitchell (George Russo) because she was pregnant with their son Phil (Steve McFadden). Eric grew to be a keen boxer and he soon ended up working for his gangland boss, Johnny Allen (Billy Murray). This impacted the marriage as Johnny constantly taunted Eric, making him do demeaning jobs because Eric was a better boxer than him. Eric fell in love with a glamorous woman called Maureen Loftus and planned to elope with her, but he changed his mind at the last minute – unable to desert his family, who he grew to resent. Eric took his anger out on Peggy and was often violent towards her and Phil. The abuse eventually ended when Peggy told the police that Eric was involved in a Post office robbery and he was sent to prison. Peggy considered leaving when her sons, Phil and Grant (Ross Kemp) were teenagers, and once even tried to seduce Johnny, but he turned her down. It was then Eric had cheated on Peggy with Claudette Hubbard (Ellen Thomas), who he also intended to run away with, but he changed his mind again – leading to Claudette hating the entire family. Soon afterwards, Peggy turned to Eric's younger brother Archie (Larry Lamb) for comfort because he was there for Peggy when Eric began to abuse her. She tried to save her marriage by having another child in 1975 – her only daughter Samantha (Danniella Westbrook; Kim Medcalf). Her relationship with Eric improved, but only temporarily, and when Kevin Masters (Colin McCormack) employed Peggy to work at his minicab firm, they ended up having a secret affair. When Eric developed cancer, Peggy gave up work to care for him until he eventually died in 1985. Following Eric's death, Kevin acquainted himself with Peggy once more and her children grew to harbour resentment towards him.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy makes her first appearance in Albert Square when her son, Grant, decides to reenlist with the army and returns when her daughter Sam's desire to escape from her family causes her to elope with Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen), at the age of sixteen. Peggy, along with Kevin, tries to persuade Sam that getting married at the age of sixteen will ruin her life, but she is unsuccessful. Peggy later accepts Sam and Ricky's relationship and leaves, after giving the couple her blessing.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy is not seen for three years, during which time her relationship with Kevin ends. She returns to Walford when her sons fall out after Phil's affair with Grant's wife, Sharon Mitchell (Letitia Dean), is revealed. Peggy becomes acting landlady of The Queen Victoria public house and blames Sharon for the affair. Peggy tries to force her out of Walford, resulting in Sharon signing over her share of the pub and leaving the Mitchell family as the sole owners, with Peggy in charge.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy starts dating businessman George Palmer (Paul Moriarty), unaware that he is a gangster involved in illegal money laundering. She also instigates a hate campaign against local resident Mark Fowler (Todd Carty) when she discovers he is HIV positive, and in doing so clashes with his mother Pauline (Wendy Richard) on several occasions. Peggy later realises she was wrong when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. She initially refuses surgery and ends things with George, fearing that he will not be able to handle her illness. However, supported by George and her family, she eventually has a lumpectomy. Peggy and George get engaged but their relationship ends when Phil reveals his illicit activities. Peggy goes on to date local car lot owner, Frank Butcher (Mike Reid), and they become engaged. Peggy has doubts about the wedding when her cancer returns and she has to have a mastectomy, but eventually decides to go through with it. Tension soon develops between Peggy and Phil when Grant leaves for Rio de Janeiro after a violent fight with his brother. To spite Peggy, Phil sells Grant's share in the pub to his business partner Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass) for £5. The result of this causes Peggy to loathe Dan, and the two frequently argue over the running of The Queen Vic. At one point, Frank gets involved and punches Dan after the latter insults Frank's daughter Janine (Charlie Brooks). Eventually, she and Phil call a truce and force Dan out of Walford. Peggy discovers Frank is planning to leave her for his ex-wife, Pat Evans (Pam St Clement), so she shames them by reading Frank's Dear Jane letter to the entire pub and then slaps them both. She throws Frank out and he leaves Walford. Afterwards, Peggy becomes depressed and begins to rely heavily on tranquilizers. When Janine taunts her on Christmas Day about her father moving on, Peggy begins drinking heavily and smashes up the pub with a baseball bat. The next year, Peggy is forced to sell the pub as Frank left her in debt, and is furious to discover the new owner is Sharon Watts.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy later begins dating Harry Slater (Michael Elphick), a womanizer who owns a bar in Spain and convinces her to move there with him. They become engaged, but this relationship abruptly ends when Peggy learns that Harry has sexually abused his niece Kat (Jessie Wallace) when she was 13; not only that, but Harry got Kat pregnant and is therefore the father of her teenage daughter Zoe (Michelle Ryan), initially believed to be Kat's youngest sister. When Phil begins dating Sharon again and becomes joint owner of The Queen Vic, Peggy moves back in. She later becomes sole licensee again when Sharon sells her half of the pub back to her. Peggy is briefly reunited with Frank when she travels to Spain to attend his funeral. She discovers he faked his own death to avoid creditors. While she's in Spain, she shockingly finds Sam working as a lap dancer and takes her home. Peggy later decides to move to Brazil to be with Grant but visits Walford for Sam's wedding to Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs) before returning to Brazil.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: When Peggy returns to Walford in 2005, she is furious to discover Sam has lost possession of The Queen Vic – with the new licensee now being Sharon's stepmother Chrissie (Tracy-Ann Oberman). Later on, Peggy learns from Sam that she is framed by Chrissie for the murder of the latter's late husband Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). While trying to exonerate Sam and reclaim ownership of the pub, Peggy is surprised to learn that Johnny is now the square's new gangland kingpin and the two establish a feud when he also wishes to buy The Queen Vic. Johnny hires a mobster to assault Peggy, but she is saved by her sons Phil and Grant at the last minute. They are able to deal with Johnny, secure Sam's release from prison, and return Peggy to The Queen Vic. Peggy begins a romance with Jack Edwards (Nicky Henson), the father-in-law of Peggy's nephew Billy (Perry Fenwick). However, when Peggy discovers Billy's newborn daughter Janet (Grace) has Down syndrome, she declares that the baby should be put up for adoption – causing friction in her relationship with Jack as a result. Although Peggy eventually comes to accept the baby, Jack breaks up with her and leaves Walford for good.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: A few years later, Peggy finds herself reacquainted with Archie after reuniting, and later living with, his two daughters Ronnie (Samantha Womack) and Roxy (Rita Simons) respectively. She forms a relationship with him and the pair get engaged, although Archie quickly begins to subtly controlling Peggy. They nonetheless get married, but it ends a few hours later when it is publicly transpires that Archie lied to Ronnie about her infant daughter's death. Peggy has Archie evicted from The Queen Vic and attempts to have Phil kill him in revenge, but she is left furious when Phil lets doesn't go through with it in the end. Peggy files for divorce and Archie plots revenge on the entire Mitchell family. When Peggy loses the bail surety she has paid on behalf of her daughter Sam (who breaks the conditions of her bail following coercion from Archie), the Mitchells are forced to use The Queen Vic to gain a collateral loan from Phil's sworn arch-rival and estranged stepson Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt). Thereafter Archie uses Janine to blackmail Ian into selling him the loan, and when the Mitchells are unable to meet the loan repayment, Archie evicts them and assumes ownership of the pub. However, Archie is murdered on Christmas Day 2009 by an unknown assailant (see Who Killed Archie?). Peggy grieves for Archie, but she and various other members of her family become suspects for his murder. Following a police enquiry, local residents Bradley Branning (Charlie Clements) is posthumously found guilty of the murder, though unbeknown to everyone, the actual murderer is Bradley's wife Stacey Branning (Lacey Turner) after Archie raped her months ago. In his will, Archie leaves The Queen Vic to Roxy, who reinstates Peggy.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: After being disgusted with the state of the Square and learning that a councillor has stood down, Peggy and Pat both decide to run for council and are interviewed by journalist Harvey Freeman (Martin Jarvis). Eventually they both pull out of the election, but Harvey hears of this and individually invites them both out. They both finally discover his two-timing, and humiliate him in punishment. When Phil prevents his daughter Louise (Brittany Papple) from contacting her mother Lisa Shaw (Lucy Benjamin) in any circumstances, Peggy interjects and Phil punches her. Believing that her son is an unfit parent and fearing for Louise's safety, Peggy takes Louise to Lisa against Phil's wishes. Although Lisa promises to allow Phil visitation, she flees with Louise. Phil blames Peggy for the loss of his child and begins using alcohol and crack cocaine. Peggy tries to stop Phil using crack by locking him in her pub, but Phil escapes and in a drunken bid for revenge, he sets fire to Peggy's pub (see Queen Vic Fire Week). Peggy watches in horror as it is destroyed. Realising her role in Phil's problems, Peggy decides to leave Walford for his sake. After saying tearful goodbyes to her family and making peace with Phil, Peggy takes one last look at The Queen Vic and leaves Albert Square.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: In January 2012, Peggy misses Pat's funeral as she is on a cruise, and in 2013, Phil visits Peggy in Cornwall with Ben's baby daughter, Lexi Pearce (Dotti-Beau Cotterill). Three months later, Peggy flies into London to visit Phil in hospital, and encourages him to get rid of Carl White (Daniel Coonan) – an ex-conman who seeks to take over the Mitchell business empire. Afterwards, she visits Pat's old house and leaves a bottle of gin on the doorstep as a way of saying goodbye. In September 2014, Peggy appears in Portugal, telling Ronnie to go back to Walford and stop Phil from marrying Sharon. In February 2015, Peggy returns to the square to confront her old friend Dot Cotton (June Brown), after the latter's infamous son Nick (John Altman) cut the brakes on a car and falsely incriminated Phil. She learns from Dot that Nick has died, and comforts her and invites her to move in with her and Grant in Portugal. Peggy is also in on the secret that Ben's mother and Phil's ex-wife, Kathy Sullivan (Gillian Taylforth), had faked her own death ten years ago and wants to return to Walford. Before returning to Portugal, Peggy visits The Queen Vic and meets its new landlord, Mick Carter (Danny Dyer), who tells her to "get out of my pub" – which Peggy was known for saying as landlady.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: In January 2016, Phil calls Peggy's older sister Sal (Anna Karen) and wants to know Louise's (now played by Tilly Keeper) address. When he soon goes to visit at her house, Peggy is there, having returned a week earlier. Peggy is disgusted to see that Phil has returned to alcoholism, but does give him Louise's address. She then reveals her breast cancer has returned, and she is dying. Phil tries to admit that he has cirrhosis of the liver, but she refuses to see him again and he leaves. In May, Peggy turns up on Ronnie's doorstep, and the next day Sal arrives with the news that Peggy's chemotherapy is not working and she is dying. A hospital appointment confirms that Peggy's cancer has spread to her brain and it is terminal. Peggy finally faces Phil, who is in recovery from his alcoholism, and admits she is dying. He is upset that she is refusing any more treatment, and takes her on a boat trip on the Thames, and back to their childhood home, to try to make her fight. However, Peggy is not convinced and asks Phil to help her die.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Sharon calls Grant back to Walford, and he persuades Phil not to help Peggy. She tells them both she will not kill herself, and after talking with Dot and settling old feuds with Sharon and Stacey, Peggy receives a vision of her old friend, Pat. She decides she wants to be remembered as a strong woman, not as an invalid, so takes a lethal overdose of pills that she hid from her sons and dies in her sleep that night. Phil is devastated to find her body, and a letter from her urges him to love himself as others love him. Peggy's funeral takes place on 4 July 2016. Phil is due to give a eulogy, but gets too emotional and rushes home. Sharon later calms him down by revealing that Peggy was the one who had Eric sent to prison when Phil was a child, not corrupt police officers as he was previously told, and that she did it to protect him. Phil later works up the courage to finish his eulogy to Peggy at the wake, and then returns to her grave at the church to finish his goodbyes to her, unaware that Grant has secretly left a rose at the grave.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy was introduced as a guest character in April 1991, by executive producer Michael Ferguson. The character was brought in as the mother of the already established Mitchell clan: Phil (Steve McFadden), Grant (Ross Kemp) and Sam (Danniella Westbrook). Specifically, she played a key role in a storyline about the elopement of her daughter Sam with Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen). Peggy was played by actress Jo Warne for a period of three months, but was written out upon the completion of the storyline. Two other actresses had been cast in the part before Warne: the first quit before she could film any scenes, and the second, Frances Cuka (who had appeared in the "EastEnders" prequel "CivvyStreet"), filmed eight episodes, though all of her scenes were scrapped before broadcast.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: The character did not make another appearance until 7 November 1994, when she was reintroduced by series producer Barbara Emile as a regular character. The actress was recast, the role being taken over by Barbara Windsor, already well known to viewers as a comic actress, notably appearing in the long-running "Carry On" films. Scott Matthewman of "The Stage" commented on the recast in 2006: "Quite the biggest – and most inexplicable – transformation is that of Peggy Mitchell in "EastEnders". While Barbara Windsor has dominated the role...first appearing in [1994], the character had appeared briefly [three] years earlier, played by Jo Warne, a lady who physically is as different from our Babs as it's possible to get."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Steve McFadden and Ross Kemp had attempted to persuade "EastEnders" writer Tony Jordan to develop a spin-off for their characters, which would star Windsor as Peggy. The idea never advanced beyond informal discussions, but when the producers decided to reintroduce Peggy, McFadden and Kemp suggested Windsor play her. Windsor had previously expressed a desire to join the cast of "EastEnders". Chat show host Chris Evans of Channel 4's "The Big Breakfast" made a public broadcast instructing viewers to fax or phone the BBC with pleas for Windsor's instatement. However, Windsor was already in negotiations with the BBC about appearing in the serial. June Deitch, the "EastEnders" casting director, had met with Windsor to discuss the matter, and was convinced when Windsor declared that she would "like to play my own age for a change". At the time, the producers had already thought about reintroducing Peggy, and Windsor was cast despite originally being considered too "well-known". Windsor has spoken of her "terrified" reaction to being asked to audition, commenting: "I had the weekend to prepare and I cried all the time. I didn't know how to do soap acting. I was so used to using my hands, my eyes." She auditioned with two scenes, one emotion, one "jolly" which Windsor has described as "agony", explaining: "I was afraid of playing Barbara Windsor, so when I had to laugh I went 'huh, huh'. Anything rather than 'tee, hee, hee'." In an interview with the "Walford Gazette", a US-based newspaper dedicated to "EastEnders", Windsor commented on her casting: "I was thrilled, I could rest my tired bones working on a marvelous television show that I deeply respected. I was very excited about the possibility [of] playing this feisty lady who would come in and shake up her two boys' lives."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Windsor has been described as the biggest "name" that "EastEnders" has ever added to its cast, and her arrival came at a time in the show's history that has been branded its "worst creative period". Mark Lawson for "The Independent" wrote that Windsor's casting was intended to combat low ratings, commenting: "The Windsor initiative seems to be a direct response to suggestions that "EastEnders" has become too gloomy: a view heavily advanced by Roy Hattersley, former deputy leader of the Labour Party, and fan of the BBC series' rival on ITV, "Coronation Street". Certainly, Miss Windsor has been associated throughout her career with the lighter touch." According to Windsor, 27 million viewers watched her first appearance as Peggy on-screen. Mark Lawson for "The Daily Telegraph" has stated that five million extra viewers watched her first scenes, reporting that initially: "The critics said that she lacked the 'brassiness and vulnerability' for soap acting and that, stripped of her bubbly image, 'nothing much of interest was revealed'. Ironically, viewers complained that she was too upmarket." Windsor has commented of the impact of her pre-existing celebrity status:


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Hilary Kingsley, author of "The EastEnders Handbook" (1991), has described Peggy as tough, with a "knack for getting her own way". She adds, "Peggy likes to think she looks much younger [than she is]. She's flash, fast-talking and nobody's fool. She has always done things her own way, and heaven help anyone who crosses her, though her bark's usually worse than her bite."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: When Windsor took over the role in 1994, she was unhappy with the way Peggy was being scripted. She has commented, "a few things weren't quite right about Peggy at the beginning. On a purely superficial level, the wig didn't fit right. And the clothes weren't right either. They appeared too downmarket. I was particularly worried about how the character was viewed by the producer and writers. I saw her as much ballsier than they did. I think they envisioned Peggy as this rather sad, vulnerable lady who spent all her time worrying about her children." However, early in 1995, "EastEnders" acquired a new executive producer, Corinne Hollingworth, who shared Windsor's vision of Peggy. It was Hollingworth who decided that Peggy would be a central character, the new landlady of The Queen Victoria public house, one of the soap's main focal points. Hollingworth stated that Peggy was "not going to be allowed to just sit in some flat polishing her nails". Windsor has said: "It was like a dream. [Hollingworth] let me go out with the costume designer and choose Peggy's wardrobe, which needed to be a lot more flash and upmarket. Corinne and I worked on getting Peggy right and I finally began to believe...".


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Windsor has described Peggy as "from the old school, the generation which doesn't put up with rubbish from anybody...She can get through practically anything because she's tough, tough, tough." The character has been classified by Rupert Smith, author of "EastEnders: 20 Years in Albert Square", as a matriarch, assuming "papal infallibility. Whatever anybody does — particularly her own children — she knows better." She has also been branded a "battleaxe" by Dave West of entertainment website Digital Spy, and someone who "wears her heart on her sleeve" by Windsor. Family-orientated, Windsor adds that: "[Peggy] loves her family with a passion. Her worst qualities are that she's blinkered, sometimes wrongly passionate about her family."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: It has been speculated that Windsor based Peggy on Violet Kray, mother of the infamous East End gangsters, the Kray twins; however Windsor has denied this. Instead, she claims that Peggy is based on women she has seen in East End pubs and her own mother: "women whose hair is great and their outfits are more Walthamstow market, they get it wrong slightly...Some things I've done with Peggy is from my Mum. She was one of those East End snobs. I drew on all of those experiences." In a 2009 radio interview with Dale Winton, Windsor said three people have influenced her portrayal of Peggy: Violet Kray (thus retracting her earlier statement), her own mother, and the actor Mike Reid, who played her on-screen husband Frank Butcher.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy has been central to numerous high-profile storylines, including a battle with breast cancer, a failed marriage to Frank Butcher, and various business and family upsets.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: In 1996, Peggy featured in a storyline about breast cancer. It was the first time that the soap had given one of its characters the illness, though the issue was covered much less substantially in 1987 as a means of promoting breast cancer screening, when Sue Osman (Sandy Ratcliff) discovered a lump on her breast, which turned out to be benign.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy's breast cancer storyline was devised at the suggestion of a scriptwriter in a story conference session and, according to the production staff, was an idea "that had been knocking about for a long time." In Lesley Henderson's book, "Social Issues in Television Fiction", an "EastEnders" researcher explains that: "A lot of illnesses [...] translate quite readily into strong dramatic material", and the experience of being hospitalised or waiting on test results is something everyone can identify with. The programme sought expert advice on "storyline visuals" from a variety of sources including cancer organisations, breast cancer charities and medical professionals. There were anticipated problems with running a breast cancer story, such as timing, characterisation, casting, and interweaving the plot with other ongoing storylines. A story editor has explained: ""EastEnders" is perceived as being an issue-led show, but it isn't, it's character and story-led [...] If you haven't got the character to fulfill that storyline then it won't work. You've got to be careful to make sure that the illness actually impacts on the family dynamics and the character development."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Producers decided to use Peggy in the breast cancer storyline, conforming to a soap opera tradition of reserving strong roles for a firmly established middle-aged matriarch. The audience were familiar with Peggy's history, knew that her first husband had died from cancer, consequently making her fear hospitals, and she had: "the right mentality for [the story theme], which was about 'a woman who discovers a lump and then refuses to accept that anything's wrong'. An added factor was that in choosing Peggy the programme could avoid appearing too issue driven, and [the] storyline could be used as a device to expand and develop her characterisation." Additionally, as the causes of breast cancer are not attributable to risky behaviour, the disease was deemed "more attractive" in storyline terms. A member of the "EastEnders" production team explains:


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: In the view of the production team, Peggy's breast cancer was a catalyst, creating new dynamics and tensions amongst existing characters. Realism was also an issue. As a middle-aged woman, Peggy was epidemiologically at higher risk for developing breast cancer. In 2001, it was reported that Peggy's character was one of only a few media portrayals of older females to be given the disease, and source organisations have praised "EastEnders" for this.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: The storyline used elements of suspense, created by the use of "shared secrets" between Peggy and her daughter-in-law Tiffany Mitchell (Martine McCutcheon), who invented elaborate cover stories to mask Peggy's trips to hospital from her sons and partner. Tension was deliberately built for viewing pleasure, posing the questions of whether Peggy's lump was benign or malignant and whether she would die, but also in terms of Peggy's relationships, whether her children would discover the truth or if George would end their relationship. Henderson has suggested that: "such devises [added] pathos to Peggy's treatment path. Audiences [knew] that she [was] terrified and about to discover her biopsy results, but must watch as she is casually castigated by her son Grant for pestering his wife Tiffany to accompany her to 'the dentist'." Hospital scenes were also played for narrative pace to build tension and drama.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Because "radical, body-altering" surgery on a long-running character would cause the production team ongoing problems with continuity, it was decided that Peggy would have a "less visible" lumpectomy, rather than a mastectomy. A member of the "EastEnders" production team explained: "We have to think about costume and what it's going to look like afterwards and what we're lumbering ourselves with [...] you have to think of that for a long-term character." Additionally, giving Peggy a lumpectomy at that stage of her disease was viewed favourably by source organisations, as it helped to spread a message that a mastectomy is not necessary in all breast cancer cases. However, the storyline was revisited several times over the next few years. In August 1997, Peggy was given the "all-clear" at her follow-up mammogram, and in March 1999 the cancer returned and she underwent a mastectomy, while in 2000 she had a breast reconstruction. It has been reported that Peggy was the first soap opera character to undergo a mastectomy. BBC Production chief executive Matthew Bannister praised Windsor's portrayal of Peggy coming to terms with a mastectomy, commenting: "It's brought a good deal of comfort and help to us and a lot of other people."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Oncology nurses and consultants were involved in the development of the storyline, which was based on a real life case study. In Clive Seale's book, "Health and the Media", "EastEnders" was praised for putting its message across without being "gruelling". It has also been praised for showing "potent scenes" of a woman coming to terms with her diagnosis, scenes that also provided "rare opportunities" to portray a cancer patient "behaving badly" and depicting "ambivalent feelings (such as denial or anger)" — as it had been noted that cancer patients are typically portrayed in the media as "beatific, serene figures". When Peggy had a mastectomy, hundreds of viewers wrote to the BBC to thank producer, Matthew Robinson for tackling "a difficult subject so sensitively". However, not all viewers were impressed with the storyline. Felicity Smart, who had undergone a mastectomy, wrote to the BBC on behalf of the Breast Carer Support Group at St Thomas' Hospital in London to say that emotionally the storyline "hit the spot", but medically it was "hopelessly inaccurate" as according to Smart: "No one pulls pints and wisecracks with customers three days after having a mastectomy."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: In 1998, Peggy was romantically paired on-screen with the character Frank Butcher (Mike Reid). Their coupling was part of producer Matthew Robinson's plan to place the focus of the soap back on to the Butcher and Mitchell families, while various other long-running characters were axed following a decline in ratings. The soap was attracting 15.74 million viewers in May 1998, as opposed to rival soap "Coronation Street's" 16 million.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Played by Mike Reid, Frank had been a regular character in the serial from 1987 to 1994, and had appeared in a recurring role until 1998, when Reid agreed to return full-time. Frank's history on the show included a former marriage to another long-running matriarch, Pat Butcher (Pam St. Clement). Their history as lovers featured prominently in Peggy's narrative in 1998, when, after agreeing to marry Frank, Peggy was wrongly told that Frank and Pat were having an affair. A special two-hander episode aired in November 1998, featuring only Pat and Peggy for the entire duration. It concentrated on Peggy's reaction to the suspected affair, whilst simultaneously addressing Pat's unresolved history with Frank and the apparent destruction of Pat's own marriage to Roy (Tony Caunter), who had also responded badly to the rumours about his wife's infidelity. The episode, written by Tony Jordan, featured what the "Sunday Mirror" described as one of "the most vicious fights ever filmed by a soap", with both throwing glasses at one another and Pat slapping Peggy across the face exclaiming "You bitch!" and Peggy responding by slapping Pat exclaiming "You cow!". According to press reports, the fight scene between the characters was "so powerful that it had to have scenes and dialogue cut so it could be screened before the 9 pm watershed." Barbara Windsor was reportedly bruised during the filming. Windsor commented, "The writer didn't want a namby- pamby cat fight between two silly girls. We were throwing chairs and bottles and the adrenaline was at a high. When I saw the programme I couldn't believe how good it was. Pam and I were really proud." The "Sunday Mirror" described it as: "one of the most impressive episodes of all time". In the climax of the storyline, both couples resolved their differences, and their relationships remained intact.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy and Frank were married on-screen on 1 April 1999. A "hen night" was thrown for Windsor with the show's make-up team, and the BBC threw a "massive" party in the show's Albert Square to celebrate the event. Actors Windsor and Reid joined fellow stars, celebrities and TV executives for a celebration on the programme's set in Elstree, Hertfordshire. Windsor admitted she had been so nervous before filming the wedding she was sick on set. She commented, "I broke out in spots and threw up in the vestry. I was very nervous – we were both very nervous. The day you stop getting nervous you can hold your hands up. It shows you care." The soap wedding was filmed in Harrow, North West London in February 1999. A BBC spokesman commented: "It is one of the best weddings Walford has ever seen but it is not problem free. There are a lot of people who do not want to see Frank and Peggy married – Grant being one of them – and it remains to be seen whether they will get through the day without a major upset. And as if the wedding is not gripping enough, there are certainly shocking revelations back at the Vic." In the eventual episode, it was actually Grant Mitchell who persuaded his mother to marry Frank – with whom he had been feuding following his accidental killing of wife Tiffany – after Peggy was having second thoughts, thinking that Frank was only marrying her out of pity. Nearly 20 million viewers watched Peggy and Frank marry.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Together Frank and Peggy ran The Queen Victoria, and were involved in various family and business crises, including a "tug-of-war" for their public house with "cuckoo-in-the-nest" Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass). After taking time off in 2000 due to ill-health, Reid announced that he was quitting the soap in May 2000. After Reid publicly declared that he would love Frank to have a last fling with Pat before he left, "EastEnders"' bosses granted his wish and an affair was scripted. The pair enjoyed a liaison on a Spanish beach during a week-long August special set on the Costa Blanca, which saw Frank and Peggy go away with Pat and Roy and Terry and Irene Raymond (Gavin Richards and Roberta Taylor). A BBC spokesperson said: "Pat is obviously incredibly torn between her love for her husband, Roy, and her old feelings for Frank. She's been hurt by Frank in the past, but she's coming to realise that she still has strong feelings for him and he has made no secret of his soft spot for her. I can confirm they do enjoy a romantic kiss on the beach." On-screen, Pat and Frank's affair continued until they decided, in November 2000, to elope. In the specially extended episode marking Frank's official exit — which aired on 2 November 2000, but was Guy Fawkes Night in the on-screen events – Peggy discovered the affair amidst Frank's attempt to retrieve a letter of confession, following Pat's change of heart.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: After revealing their deception to a busy Queen Victoria public house, Peggy slapped both Pat and Frank, rebuffed Frank's attempt at reconciliation and left him to depart alone. In December 2000, Ian Hyland of the "Sunday Mirror" voted the scene in which Peggy slaps both Pat and Frank as one of the "TV fights of the year", saying "It was Peggy's speech which really made it a Bonfire Night to remember. But the slaps were equally well dispatched." Commenting on Reid's exit, Windsor has said, "We fell out when I found out he was leaving because it was a shock for me. I was really upset. I've known him 30 odd years and I really like working with him. We had a great relationship as friends as well as performers. I got my own back when I had to slap him after I found out he was fooling around with Pat. I did the slap twice as I didn't think I did it hard enough the first time."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy was written out of "EastEnders" in 2003, sent to live in Rio de Janeiro with her son Grant for two years, while Windsor took a sabbatical from the show after being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus. Windsor had previously never taken more than two weeks leave annually during her eight years on the show, as Peggy was considered such a central character to the series. Windsor's absence was originally only supposed to be a year long. She stated at the time: "This has been a very hard decision for me to make because I'm so happy here on "EastEnders" but it's been a long time without a proper break. I just feel some time off would be good for me and for the character too." Louise Berridge, then "EastEnders"<nowiki>'</nowiki> executive producer, commented: "Barbara has been an absolute trouper for more than eight years on this show. We hope she has a great time and look forward to bringing her back with a big story in 2004."


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Although Peggy did return briefly in 2004 to attend her daughter Sam's wedding to Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs), it was not until 2005 that she resumed her role as a series regular. Her full return was announced in January 2005, with John Yorke, the BBC controller of continuing drama series, stating he was "delighted" as "[Peggy] is a hugely loved character and one we think will be stirring things up from the moment she steps back into Walford." Windsor said that she was "over the moon" to return, adding: "I had a great time when I came back to film for a couple of weeks recently. It really reminded me that the square is where I feel at home." BBC executives hoped that Peggy's return would help to revive "EastEnders"<nowiki>'</nowiki> ratings. Her absence coincided with a two-year ratings slump for "EastEnders", with David Liddiment in "The Guardian" drawing direct correlation between her return and the show's "ratings rejuvenation". The episode in which she returned was watched by 10 million viewers, winning "EastEnders" a 47% audience share in the timeslot.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: In March 2008, the BBC announced that Larry Lamb had been cast as Archie Mitchell, the brother of Peggy's late husband Eric. Archie was scripted as a love-interest for Peggy and Peggy's backstory was retconned to incorporate a romantic history with Archie. Portrayed as an adulterous villain, Archie began controlling Peggy, changing her clothing and her hair style and instructing her on how to behave.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: In 2009 Peggy ran as an independent candidate in the local council elections against Archie's wishes. Writers wanted a storyline that allowed Peggy to stand up for her beliefs, and felt that running for local government would allow her to speak passionately about the community. After a scene showed Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) asking Peggy, "Where would Tony Blair have been without Alastair Campbell?", Campbell responded by giving advice to Peggy in a video blog. A response from Peggy was then recorded, thanking Campbell for his input. Peggy pulled out of the election at Archie's request ahead of their wedding, however the storyline set up a later episode in which Boris Johnson made a guest appearance in "EastEnders". On 1 October 2009, Johnson appeared in the show as himself, visiting Walford and The Queen Victoria and conversing with Peggy. Johnson commented on his appearance: "It was, of course, a tremendous honour to step inside that most venerable of London landmarks, The Queen Vic, and share a scene with another of the capital's icons, the fabulous Barbara Windsor." Executive producer Diederick Santer stated: "We couldn't let the visit pass without the Mayor entering London's most famous pub, The Queen Vic, and meeting its formidable and politically active landlady Peggy Mitchell." The episode was watched by 8 million viewers, winning "EastEnders" a 38% audience share in the timeslot.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy and Archie's wedding was filmed on location in North London in January 2009 and was screened on 2 April 2009 that year in an hour-long special. To promote the storyline, "EastEnders" screened a trailer showing Peggy being assembled in her wedding outfit by a robot, which symbolised Archie's control of her. Realising the extent to which Archie had been controlling and trying to change her throughout their engagement, Peggy gave him an ultimatum at the altar: he either accept the real her, or call the wedding off. Archie chose to marry her, though Tim Teeman for "The Times" commented: "'[T]he real Peggy' is a hazy concept: there’s Peggy the big-hearted East End landlady and Peggy the crone famous for rasping 'Get ahht my pub' to anyone who crosses her path. For someone into evil mind control, Archie has brilliant taste. The wedding outfit he had chosen for Peggy was much nicer than the tatty net curtains that even Miss Havisham would have rejected that the 'real Peggy' chose to marry in." Peggy and Archie's wedding was watched by 10.6 million viewers, winning "EastEnders" a 48% audience share. A further 1.2 million viewers watched the episode's repeat on BBC Three at 10 pm. However, the marriage lasts only as long as the reception; when Peggy realises Archie has been manipulating other members of his family, Peggy throws him out and a feud ignites between Archie and the Mitchell clan.


title: Peggy Mitchell

text: Peggy resumes her plan to run for council in 2010, but is furious to discover that Pat is also running. The storyline introduces the character of Harvey Freeman, played by Martin Jarvis, a freelance journalist who is reporting on the election. Harvey is a potential love interest for both Peggy and Pat, and causes friction between the friends.