title: Land of the Lustrous

text: "Land of the Lustrous" is written and illustrated by Haruko Ichikawa. The manga began serialization in Kodansha's "Monthly Afternoon" magazine on October 25, 2012. In December 2020, it was announced that the manga would enter on hiatus. The series resumed publication on June 24, 2022. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual "tankōbon" volumes. The first volume was released on July 23, 2013, with a promotional video by Studio Hibari released on the same day. As of November 22, 2022, twelve volumes have been released.


title: Land of the Lustrous

text: Kodansha Comics announced during their 2016 New York Comic-Con panel that they have licensed the manga in North America in English. The first volume was released on June 27, 2017.


title: Land of the Lustrous

text: An anime television series adaptation aired in Japan between October 7 and December 23, 2017. Takahiko Kyōgoku directed the series at the Orange CG animation studio. Toshiya Ono wrote series scripts and Yōichi Nishikawa created the concept art. Asako Nishida designed the characters. The opening theme is by Yurika and the ending theme is by Yuiko Ōhara. Sentai Filmworks have licensed the series and streamed the anime on Anime Strike. MVM Films has licensed the series in the UK. The series ran for 12 episodes, which was released across six DVD and Blu-ray sets in Japan.


title: Land of the Lustrous

text: "Land of the Lustrous" was number 10 on the Takarajimasha's "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" list of top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey in 2014. It was number 48 on the 15th Book of the Year list by "Da Vinci" magazine in 2014. and 46 on the 20th edition in 2020. It was nominated for the eighth Manga Taishō award in 2015.


title: Land of the Lustrous

text: As of October 2017, the manga had 1.4 million copies in circulation. Volume 1 reached the 47th place on the weekly Oricon manga chart and, as of July 27, 2013, has sold 21,204 copies; volume 2 reached the 35th place and, as of February 2, 2014, has sold 44,511 copies; volume 3 reached the 30th place and, as of August 31, 2014, has sold 56,765 copies.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Francisco António Machado Mota de Castro Trincão (born 29 December 1999) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger for Primeira Liga club Sporting CP, on loan from Barcelona, and the Portugal national team.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: He started his career with Braga B, making his debut with the first team in 2018 and winning the 2019–20 Taça da Liga in his second season with the club. In January 2020, he signed with Barcelona for a reported €31 million fee, with the deal made effective in July. He then spent two years on loan, at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sporting CP.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Trincão is a former Portugal youth international, representing his country at various youth levels and being part of the under-19 team that won the 2018 European Championship where he was crowned top scorer. He made his senior international debut in 2020.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Born in Viana do Castelo, Trincão began his youth career with hometown club Vianense. He also had a spell at Porto and two at Braga, where he finished his development.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Trincão made his senior debut on 2 April 2016 for Braga's reserves in Segunda Liga, as an 81st-minute substitute for Carlos Fortes in a 2–1 away loss against Freamunde. He scored his first senior goal on 7 May 2017, but in a 2–3 home defeat to Porto's reserves. He scored five times in 2017–18, including twice on 1 October in a 5–4 home win over Nacional for a first victory of the season, and signed a new five-year contract at the end.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: On 28 December 2018, Trincão played his first competitive match with the first team in a 4–0 victory at Vitória de Setúbal in the group stage of the Taça da Liga where he replaced Fransérgio in the 62nd minute. Five days later, manager Abel Ferreira gave him a Primeira Liga debut when he came on for Dyego Sousa for the last four minutes of a home defeat of Marítimo.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Trincão scored his first goal for Braga on 12 December 2019 in the last group phase game of the UEFA Europa League, also assisting in the 4–2 win at Slovan Bratislava as his team advanced in first place. The following 4 January, given a first league start by new manager Rúben Amorim, he scored his first domestic league goal in a 7–1 away demolition of Belenenses SAD. Three weeks later, he was a 50th-minute replacement for Galeno as the "Arsenalistas" won the league cup final against Porto at the Estádio Municipal de Braga.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: On 31 January 2020, Barcelona announced the transfer of Trincão, initially effective on 1 July. He signed a five-year contract for a €31 million fee, with a buyout clause of €500 million. He made his La Liga debut on 27 September, playing 12 minutes of the 4–0 home victory over Villarreal. He was handed his first start on 20 October in the 5–1 home rout of Ferencváros in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, replacing Antoine Griezmann as the starting right winger and putting up a good performance.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Trincão scored his first goal on 7 February 2021, closing the 3–2 away win against Real Betis in the domestic league. He added a brace the following weekend after assists by Ilaix Moriba and Lionel Messi, helping the hosts defeat Alavés 5–1.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: On 4 July 2021, Trincão joined Wolverhampton Wanderers on a season-long loan, subject to medical and work permit and with an option to make the move permanent in the future; he reunited with Pedro Neto, with whom he had played as a child with Vianense and Braga. He made his Premier League debut on 14 August, starting in a 1–0 loss away to Leicester City. His first goal came ten days later, as a second-half substitute in a 4–0 victory at Nottingham Forest in the second round of the EFL Cup.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Trincão registered his first Premier League goal (also providing his first assist in the competition) in a 3–2 defeat at home to Leeds United on 18 March 2022, having come on as a first-half substitute for injured Rúben Neves. He totalled 30 appearances during his tenure, starting in 16 but being only involved in four team goals.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: On 13 July 2022, Trincão signed a one-year loan deal with Sporting CP for a €3 million fee, with a conditional €7 million obligation to buy 50% of his economic rights, with a reported buy-back clause between €20 and €25 million, depending on the moment it was exercised. He made his league debut on 7 August in a 3–3 draw against his former club Braga. His first goal came exactly one month later, his team's second in the 3–0 away win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League group phase, their first ever victory in Germany.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: In July 2018, Trincão was a member of the Portugal team which won the UEFA European Under-19 Championship beating Italy 4–3 after extra time; he scored once in the match in Seinäjoki, Finland. Along with teammate Jota, he finished joint top scorer in the tournament with five goals, his others being braces against Norway in the first group fixture and Ukraine in a 5–0 semi-final rout. At the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland he played all three games and scored the only goal of the opening win against South Korea, though his side did not advance from the group.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: Trincão won his first cap at under-21 level on 5 September 2019, scoring once and being involved in two other goals in the 4–0 win over Gibraltar for the 2021 European Championship qualifiers. He helped the Portuguese to a runners-up finish at the finals in Hungary and Slovenia, scoring a penalty in a 2–0 group defeat of England.


title: Francisco Trincão

text: In August 2020, Trincão had his first senior call-up for UEFA Nations League matches against Croatia and Sweden the following month. He made his debut on 5 September, replacing Bernardo Silva in the 78th minute of a 4–1 home victory over the former.


title: Bad Santa

text: Bad Santa is a 2003 American Christmas black comedy film directed by Terry Zwigoff and written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, with a supporting cast of Tony Cox, Lauren Graham, Brett Kelly, Lauren Tom, John Ritter and Bernie Mac. It was Ritter's last live-action film appearance before his death on September 11, 2003; the film was dedicated to his memory. The Coen brothers are credited as executive producers. The film was released in the United States on November 26, 2003, and was screened out of competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. It received positive reviews and was a commercial success.


title: Bad Santa

text: An unrated version was released on DVD on March 5, 2004, and on Blu-ray on November 20, 2007, as "Bad(der) Santa". A director's cut DVD was released in November 2006; it features Zwigoff's cut of the film (including an audio commentary with him and the film's editor), which is three minutes shorter than the theatrical cut and ten minutes shorter than the unrated version. A sequel, "Bad Santa 2", was released on November 23, 2016, and failed to match the critical and commercial success of the original.


title: Bad Santa

text: Willie T. Soke and his dwarf assistant Marcus Skidmore are professional thieves. Every year, Willie gets a job as a department store Santa Claus and Marcus as an elf to rob shopping malls at night, with Marcus' wife Lois as their getaway driver. Marcus takes his job seriously, but Willie, a sex-addicted cursing alcoholic, is steadily unable to perform with children. When they are hired at the Saguaro Square Mall in Phoenix, Willie's vulgarity shocks the prudish mall manager Bob Chipeska, who brings them to the attention of security chief Gin Slagel.


title: Bad Santa

text: At the mall, Willie is visited by Thurman Merman, a friendly but exceedingly gullible, dimwitted overweight young boy who assumes Willie is Santa and is constantly bullied by a teenage gang of skateboarders. At a bar, Willie meets Sue, a woman with a Santa Claus fetish, and they begin a sexual relationship. After some casual sex with Sue in Willie's beaten-up Impala, Willie is harassed and attacked by a man he had encountered earlier at the bar, but Thurman intervenes. Willie gives Thurman a ride home, where he lives with his senile grandmother. Thurman reveals that his mother died and his father, Roger, is "exploring mountains"—actually in jail for embezzlement. Willie tricks Thurman into letting him rob the house safe and steal Roger's BMW 740iL (E38).


title: Bad Santa

text: Bob informs Gin that he overheard Willie having sex in a dressing room and Gin starts to investigate. Willie sees his motel room being raided, and moves into Thurman's house, much to Thurman's delight. Marcus is angry at Willie for taking advantage of Thurman and states his disapproval of Willie's sex addiction when Willie makes a rude remark about Thurman's grandmother.


title: Bad Santa

text: Gin visits Roger, who indirectly reveals that Willie is staying with Thurman illegally. Gin confronts Willie and Marcus at the mall, and takes them to a bar. There, he reveals that he has figured out their plan, and blackmails them for half the score to keep silent. Willie and Marcus’ partnership begins to falter, further exacerbated when Willie shows up to work drunk and destroys the Santa attraction, to Marcus' and Gin's shock.


title: Bad Santa

text: Willie attempts suicide by inhaling vehicle exhaust fumes. He gives Thurman a letter to give to the police, confessing his misdeeds and the heist planned for Christmas Eve. Willie notices Thurman's black eye, and abandons the suicide attempt to confront the skateboarders; he assaults their leader, intimidating them to leave Thurman alone.


title: Bad Santa

text: Furious at Gin's blackmail, Marcus and Lois set a trap for him. Feigning the need to jump-start their van, Lois hits Gin with the car, and then kills him by crushing him up against his Chevrolet Avalanche with their van. Willie and Thurman prepare for the approaching holiday with help from Sue. On Christmas Eve, Willie, Marcus, and Lois burglarize the mall. Although some technical difficulties arise, Willie is successfully able to crack the safe. Meanwhile, he also gets a pink stuffed elephant that Thurman had wanted for Christmas. However, Marcus reveals to Willie that he intends to kill him, fed up with his increasing carelessness. As Marcus is about to execute Willie, the police unexpectedly swarm in, tipped off by the letter Willie gave Thurman. A firefight ensues between Marcus and the cops while Willie flees. Determined to give Thurman his present, he leads the police on a chase to Thurman's house, ignoring their orders to freeze. He is shot repeatedly on Thurman's porch but survives.


title: Bad Santa

text: The epilogue is told through a letter from Willie, recovering in the hospital. He expresses his gratitude to Thurman and reveals that he was cleared of the robbery—the shooting of an unarmed Santa embarrassed the police—and will be working for the police as a sensitivity counselor. Sue is granted guardianship over Thurman and his house until his father's release. Marcus and Lois are in prison; Willie ends the letter by hoping that Roger will avoid them and telling Thurman that he should be out of the hospital soon and to be ready for his return. When the lead skateboard bully harasses Thurman again, Thurman finally stands up to him by kicking him hard in the crotch and riding away on his bike giving the finger to the downed bully.


title: Bad Santa

text: In January 2002, "Variety" announced that Terry Zwigoff would be directing "Bad Santa" (his fourth picture following "Ghost World") under Dimension Films, with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa writing the screenplay and the Coen brothers serving as executive producers.


title: Bad Santa

text: The Coens had developed the concept for "Bad Santa", before eventually hiring the writing team of Ficarra and Requa to bring the story to life. The Coens told Ficarra and Requa that the story would center on an alcoholic "bad Santa" who seeks redemption very later on; additionally, they wanted it to be as funny as "The Bad News Bears". Afterward, Ficarra and Requa completed what they described as a "really crass script", with the Coens adding "a bunch of crass jokes". When the script's final draft was sent to Universal Pictures, the studio rejected it because "[I]t was the foulest, disgusting, misogynistic, anti-Christmas, anti-children thing we could imagine," all of which influenced Bob Weinstein of Miramax to give it the green-light.


title: Bad Santa

text: The Coens initially tailored roles for specific actors, such as James Gandolfini as Willie (since they had worked with him on "The Man Who Wasn't There"), Danny Woodburn as Marcus, and Angus T. Jones as Thurman. Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson, and Robert De Niro were also considered for the role of Willie, but it eventually went to Billy Bob Thornton. Zwigoff cast Tony Cox for the role of Marcus and Brett Kelly for Thurman, which led to disagreements between himself and the producers. Upon learning of Cox's casting, the Coens told Weinstein that they "hate" him, and according to Zwigoff, Dimension was pining for "a more Disney-like generic cute kid" to play Thurman. "Maybe there are other actors who could do a great job with these parts. But Tony and Brett are just funny. They are these characters," explained Zwigoff.


title: Bad Santa

text: The movie was filmed in various parts of California. Filming began on July 8, 2002, and ended in September 2002. The "Miami Beach" sequence at the beginning of the movie was filmed in Long Beach, while all of the scenes at Thurman's house were filmed in West Hills. All of the Saguaro Square Mall scenes were filmed entirely in the northeastern wing of Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, particularly in the former Montgomery Ward building, which was used for the mall's fictional anchor store, "Chamberlain's." The store and the entire wing were both vacant at the time of the movie's filming. The wing and building where the movie was filmed have since been demolished and replaced with the mall's new open-air lifestyle center.


title: Bad Santa

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has rating, based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads: "A gloriously rude and gleefully offensive comedy, "Bad Santa" isn't for everyone, but grinches will find it uproariously funny." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 70 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a "B" grade on an A+ to F scale.


title: Bad Santa

text: An editorial in "The Washington Times" likened the movie to an "evil twin" of "Miracle on 34th Street" and chided The Walt Disney Company for allowing such a beloved figure as Santa Claus to be trashed by Miramax Films, then a Disney subsidiary.


title: Bad Santa

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film stars out of four, writing how "Bad Santa" was a "demented, twisted [and] unreasonably funny work of comic kamikaze style".


title: Bad Santa

text: On October 29, 2015, it was announced that Billy Bob Thornton would return for "Bad Santa 2", and that filming would begin in Montreal in January 2016 for a scheduled release of Christmas 2016. On November 3, 2015, it was announced that "Mean Girls" director Mark Waters would direct the film. On November 19, 2015, it was announced that Kathy Bates would join the cast as Willie's mother, and that Brett Kelly and Tony Cox would reprise their roles from the first film. On December 21, 2015, it was announced that "Bad Santa 2" would be released on November 23, 2016. On January 6, 2016, Christina Hendricks joined the cast.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Channel 5 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel launched in 1997. It is the fifth national terrestrial channel in the United Kingdom and is owned by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American media conglomerate Paramount Global, which is grouped under Paramount Networks UK & Australia division.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: During ownership by the RTL Group, it was branded as Five between 16 September 2002 and 13 February 2011. Richard Desmond purchased the channel from RTL on 23 July 2010, announcing plans to invest more money in programming and return to the name Channel 5 with immediate effect, and it was relaunched on 14 February 2011. On 1 May 2014 the channel was acquired by Viacom (now Paramount Global) for £450 million (US$759 million).


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Channel 5 is a general entertainment channel that shows both internally commissioned programmes such as "Our Yorkshire Farm", "The Gadget Show", "The Hotel Inspector", and "Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away!" and foreign programmes. The channel has been very successful with imports from the United States in particular, including the "CSI" franchise, the "NCIS" franchise, the first three series in the "Law & Order" franchise, "Power Rangers", "The Mentalist", "Body of Proof", "Once Upon a Time", "Dallas", "Under the Dome" and sitcom "Friends" (also on Comedy Central UK).


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited was licensed by the UK's then-independent statutory regulator the Independent Television Commission (ITC) in 1995 after a bidding process that started in 1993 and lasted throughout 1994. The initial round of bidders, which included a network of Citytv stations planned by Thames Television and the Italian politician and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi (who founded Mediaset, which owns Canale 5 and formerly owned La Cinq, which ceased operations in 1992; he retired his offer a few months later), was rejected outright and the ITC contemplated not awarding the licence at all.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The difficulty with the project lay in use of television broadcast frequencies that had been allocated to RF outputs from domestic videocassette recorders. To achieve national coverage, large numbers of domestic video recorders (which output at a nearby frequency) had to be retuned or fitted with a filter, at the bidding company's expense.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The project was revived in mid-1994 when the ITC re-advertised the franchise. Tom McGrath, then-president of Time Warner International Broadcasting, put together a revised frequency plan with NTL and consulting engineer Ellis Griffiths, involving less retuning and greater signal coverage. Lord Hollick, then chief executive of Meridian Broadcasting (later United News & Media, and UBM) took up the project as lead investor as UK law prohibited Time Warner from owning more than 25%. Pearson Television, who by now owned original licence bidders Thames Television, also came on board. When McGrath left to become President of Paramount, Time Warner dropped out of the project and was replaced by the Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT, known in the UK for Radio Luxembourg under CLT's former name of the Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Radiodiffusion, CLR). Other bidders for the licence included UKTV (led by Canwest and Select TV, who bid £36m for the licence), New Century Television (owned by BSkyB and Granada, who bid £2m), Virgin TV (backed by Virgin Communications) and Associated Newspapers (who bid £22m, the same as Channel 5 Broadcasting who won the licence).


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Wolf Olins and Saatchi & Saatchi were the main companies behind the pre-launch advertising campaign: "Give Me 5". The channel would be both modern and mainstream. A logo (a numeric "5" within a circle) and visual motif (a "candy stripe" bar of colours, reminiscent of TV test cards) were used, and an attempt was made to establish a collection of Channel 5 faces; through the spring of 1997, billboards of Jack Docherty were displayed, along with other unknown characters.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: A series of pre-launch screens were displayed on the frequencies Channel 5 would begin broadcasting on in the months before launch as well, including a trailer for the channel and information screens. After re-tuning, around 65% of the population's televisions could view the channel on launch night.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The channel's launch on 30 March 1997, Easter Sunday, at featured the Spice Girls singing a re-written version of Manfred Mann's hit "5-4-3-2-1" as "1-2-3-4-5". Presenters Tim Vine and Julia Bradbury introduced the nation to the UK's fifth (sixth including S4C) terrestrial channel with half-an-hour of previews.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The rest of the Channel 5 launch night schedule, along with the official viewing figures, was as follows:


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Overall, an estimated 2,490,000 tuned in to see Britain's fifth free channel launch, a figure higher than that achieved by launch of Channel 4, fourteen and a half years earlier.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 16 September 2002, Channel 5 re-branded to Five, in a multimillion-pound project directed by Trevor Beattie. The channel's director of marketing at the time, David Pullen, said:


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 27 February 2004, it was reported that Five and Channel 4 were discussing a possible merger. Channel 4 and Five announced in November of that year that merger plans were being called off. Early in 2009, rumours started re-surfacing about Five, Channel 4 and ITV conducting a three-way merger.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Pearson Television and CLT (which by that time merged with the television businesses of Bertelsmann's UFA to form CLT-UFA) later merged, becoming RTL Group which became part of Bertelsmann and therefore owned the channel, after buying UBM's 35.4% stake for £247.6 million on 20 July 2005. The acquisition was approved on 26 August 2005. After Holleck became involved, he and McGrath brought on board Greg Dyke (later Director-General of the BBC) as interim CEO during the application and launch phase of the project.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 18 November 2005, it was announced that Five had bought a stake in DTT's pay-TV operator, Top Up TV. It was said that the investment may lead to the development of new free and pay services on DTT, and other platforms.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Following this, Five launched two new digital TV channels in autumn 2006 on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media:


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Five was taken over by Richard Desmond's publishing group Northern & Shell on 23 July 2010 for £103.5 million. Desmond pledged to top up the broadcaster's total budget to about £1.5bn over the next five years, including new investment of £50m to £100m a year to boost programming and the equivalent of £20m promoting the channel and its shows in a marketing campaign in Northern & Shell publications.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The takeover was partly motivated by the opportunities for cross-promotion of Five from Desmond's newspapers ("Daily Express" and "Daily Star") and magazines (including "OK!"). One commentator warned that "readers will be bombarded with references to Five. The opportunity for cross-promotion between his publications and TV channel are enormous."


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Upon completing his takeover of Five on 23 July 2010, Richard Desmond remarked; "I prefer Channel 5 to Five, but... we haven't met with the team yet to discuss these sorts of details". The day after, Desmond's "Daily Express" newspaper noted that the channel's name was to change: "From today the rather vague 'Five' (Five what? Days of the week? Fingers?) reverts to the much more informative Channel 5". On 11 August 2010, Desmond confirmed the restoration of the original name used from 1997 to 2002. The restoration was revealed onscreen on 14 February 2011.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The relaunch also saw investment in a range of new programming with the debut of the (now-cancelled) nightly entertainment show "OK! TV". Audience figures for the relaunch were boosted with increased viewing figures for the main "5 News" bulletins and improved figures for "OK! TV" in the 6.30 p.m. slot over its predecessor "Live from Studio Five". On 18 August 2011, Channel 5 relaunched "Big Brother", starting with "Celebrity Big Brother 8" and followed by "Big Brother 12", having bought the rights to air the programme following its cancellation by Channel 4 in April 2011. The deal was worth a reported £200 million. The show helped the channel's viewing figures and audience share to rise slightly year-on-year, from 4.4% to 4.5%, in 2012. It was only achieved by Channel 5 and BBC One later in 2012; all other terrestrial broadcasters fell in comparison.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In 2013, Ben Frow, the channel's Director of Programming, revealed that the station would be moving away from broadcasting just American imports, by introducing shows from other countries such as Canada, Ireland and Australia to the schedules. The station has since begun screening Australian prison drama "Wentworth Prison" and Irish gangland series "Love/Hate".


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In January 2014, it was reported that Richard Desmond was looking at selling Channel 5 for up to £700 million. BT, ITV, Channel 4, NBCUniversal, Endemol, Time Warner, Viacom, Scripps Network Interactive, Saban Capital Group, and a joint bid of BSkyB and Discovery Communications were all bidders reportedly interested in acquiring Channel 5.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 1 May 2014, Desmond agreed to sell Channel 5 to Viacom for £450 million (US$759 million). The deal was approved on 10 September 2014 and at the same time it was announced that it was to co-commission programmes with its pay channels such as Nickelodeon and MTV. On 15 April 2015, Channel 5 launched a British version of the American cable channel Spike (which would become rebranded as 5Spike, before taking on the Paramount Network name on Freeview channel 32). On 1 August 2015, Channel 5's five advertising regions: London, South/Central England and Wales, Northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland were closed with Viacom considering them financially unviable. The closure of the advertising regions allowed Channel 5 HD for Sky HD viewers to swap with the standard-definition version of Channel 5 on the EPG.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Under Viacom, the channel planned to increase its original programming output, increasing its budget by 10%. On 11 February 2016, Channel 5 also unveiled an overhauled brand, meant to reflect a new remit of "Spirited TV with an Emotional Heart".


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In December 2019, Viacom re-merged with CBS Corporation, forming ViacomCBS and making Channel 5 a sister to CBS in the United States and Network 10 in Australia. Since January 2020, the channels operate under the ViacomCBS Networks UK & Australia subsidiary (with the British CBS channels and Horror being part of a joint-venture with AMC). Channel 5 received Channel of the Year honours from the Royal Television Society and Broadcast Awards in 2020, with judges for both recognising the network's expansion under ViacomCBS.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In August 2021, ViacomCBS Networks International agreed a deal with Comcast Corporation's Sky Group to launch the Paramount+ streaming service in various European markets via Sky's set-top boxes and devices. As there could have been the situation where a premium pay streaming service with the Paramount name was operating in a marketplace where there was a free-to-air Paramount television channel offering emergency service reality TV shows, wrestling and action B-movies, it was decided to rename the channel (which had previously merged with 5Spike) as 5Action, with the change due to take place on 19 January 2022. The rebrand, to realign Freeview channel 32 with that of its parent channel once again, was announced in December 2021, around the same time that it was announced that Channel 5 had joined the organisation responsible for Freeview and Freesat, Digital UK, becoming the last of the UK's major Public Service Broadcasters to join the body.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The British frequency plan had only allowed for four channels to be transmitted over the whole of the UK using analogue terrestrial transmitters, but the ITC identified that UHF channels 35 and 37 could provide coverage of around 70% of the UK population. These channels were used by many domestic video recorders for RF connection to television sets. Before the channel could launch, the broadcaster had to provide over-the-phone instructions or visit any home that complained to either retune the video recorder or fit a filter to completely block the Channel 5 signal.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: For many transmitters, channels 35 and 37 were 'out of group', which meant that the roof-top receiving aerials were not designed to cover Channel 5's broadcast channels. Many people either could not receive the channel at all, or required a new aerial. The broadcaster progressively added to the transmitters to improve the analogue terrestrial coverage since that time. From 23 April 1997, the channel was also provided on the analogue Astra satellite service, which enabled people outside the terrestrial reception areas to receive it via a dish.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Unlike the other four analogue British television channels, the channel could not be received via analogue terrestrial broadcasts in many areas, including some parts of the south coast of England where the signal would otherwise interfere with signals from television stations in France; many areas of North East England, especially around the major Tyne & Wear conurbation; many areas in Scotland; most of Wales, most of Northern Ireland and parts of Cumbria. The channel is available on all digital platforms (Freesat, Sky satellite, IPTV and Freeview digital terrestrial, and also most cable operators). On 5 November 2008, the channel launched on digital satellite service Freesat, on the Astra 28.2°E satellites.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: It was the first analogue channel in the UK to use a permanent digital on-screen graphic, though this was removed in September 2002 – however, the children's programming strands kept the DOG. In October 2007, the channel's logo returned to the screen.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 30 September 2009, the channel temporarily ceased broadcasting on Freeview from around 9:30am until midday. This was due to changes to the Freeview platform, which meant moving Channel 5 from a commercial multiplex to a public service broadcasting multiplex to increase the coverage of the channel from around 70% to 99% across the country on relay transmitters which only carried the three PSB multiplexes but did not carry the three commercial multiplexes.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 20 September 2019 it was announced that Channel 5 had joined BritBox, a digital video subscription service created by the BBC and ITV.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Channel 5 HD is a high-definition simulcast of Channel 5. The channel launched on Sky channel 171 and Virgin Media channel 150 on 13 July 2010. In Summer 2015, Channel 5 and Channel 5 HD switched places, with Channel 5 HD now being located in Channel 5's original space of channel 105.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Upon the launch, only the Australian soaps "Neighbours" and "Home and Away" were shown in HD, with the letters HD placed in the top right hand corner of the screen.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Channel 5 HD was due to launch on Freeview during 2010 but was unable to reach 'key criteria' to keep its slot. In 2011 Channel 5 HD was the sole applicant for a fifth high-definition channel slot on Freeview, with the aim of launching in spring or early summer 2012. On 15 December 2011, Channel 5 dropped its bid to take the fifth slot after being unable to resolve "issues of commercial importance". Channel 5 said it "remains committed" to having a HD channel on Freeview in the future.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In October 2013, Channel 5 HD became a subscription channel on the Sky satellite platform. Previously, it was available as a free-to-view channel, but is now only available to Sky 'Family Bundle' customers or those with the HD pack.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The timeshifted Channel 5 +1 was launched on Freesat, Freeview and Sky on 6 December 2011. The channel was also expected to be made available via Virgin Media during 2012, eventually launching on 25 October 2012. As with other similar '+1' services, Channel 5 +1 rebroadcasts Channel 5's entire programming output on a one-hour time-delay, though the 'Supercasino' commercial gaming block is blacked out on the timeshift. The launch of Channel 5 +1 meant all three of the UK's commercial PSB services – ITV/STV/UTV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – now have one-hour timeshifts.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: My5 was a channel based on the most popular TV shows that are broadcast across all of the Channel 5 network. It was originally launched as Channel 5 +24, a 24-hour timeshift of the main Channel 5 schedule, and began broadcasting on 4 February 2014, available on Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media. The channel replaced 5* +1 on Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media. The channel was originally announced as 5 Later, but changed shortly before launch. 5* +1 returned on Freesat channel 132 on 16 September 2014, and launched on Sky on 4 November 2014, replacing BET +1 there.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Until 1 February 2016, two versions of Channel 5 +24 were broadcast: evening primetime content was the same on both, but the version carried to Freeview had continuous teleshopping presentations outside the primetime block, whilst the version carried to satellite and cable viewers interspersed teleshopping 'windows' with a three-hour programming block, broadcast at 10am, 4pm and 3am daily, comprising replays of the previous day's Channel 5 "Neighbours" and "Home & Away" episodes and the matinée movie shown on Channel 5 the previous afternoon – this was to get around restrictions that platform operators place on the amount of continuous teleshopping that can be broadcast on entertainment-category channels.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 10 August 2016, Channel 5 +24 was renamed My5. The channel was no longer a 24-hour timeshift of the Channel 5 schedule but showed a selection of programmes from across the network of channels, similar to 4seven. The renaming brought it in line with Channel 5's online on demand service, also called My5. On 17 December 2017, it was announced that My5 would be replaced by a new channel, 5Prime, with the channel showing critically acclaimed premium content and new commissions such as "The Secret Life of Owls" and "The Yorkshire Vet Casebook". However, on 3 January 2018 it was confirmed that the launch would not go ahead until at least early spring, with the broadcaster rethinking the new channel's strategy, look and potentially changing the name. The new channel was launched as 5Select on 13 February 2018, with the My5 brand being used for an on-demand service that, by 2019, also included programming from Pluto TV, Together and Spark


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The original Channel 5 logo was a numeric "5" within a circle, sometimes accompanied by "candy stripes" of five colours (an idea based around the colour bars used by vision engineers to monitor picture output). Between 30 March 1997 and 15 September 2002, Channel 5 was the only UK terrestrial channel to display a digital on-screen graphic (DOG) in the top left-hand corner. On some programmes in the channel's early years, commercial breaks were introduced by an "end of part one" sign emerging horizontally from the DOG; when the programme returns after the break, this would become a "part two" sign, which then disappears back into the DOG.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 14 April 1997, Teletext reported that 70% of viewers who took part in a poll were in favour of removing the DOG. Channel 5 refused to remove it though they did state since launch, the DOG had been toned down. Channel 5 explained their reasons for keeping the DOG on screen, in an interview on 30 March 1997, they explained that:


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 6 September 1999, Channel 5 launched its new 'celebrity' idents, making the candy stripe more frequently used in idents and graphics, most notably in a hole in the backdrop of the idents. The set of idents were refreshed on 11 September 2000, as well as new idents from 4 March 2002, featuring the logo on coloured backgrounds by going widescreen. These idents were used until a major rebrand on 16 September 2002.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In 2002, Channel 5 took the decision to drop the word 'Channel' from its name and refer to the channel as 'five'. A new look launched on 16 September 2002 featuring live action footage with the new logo sliding in from the left of the screen. The new idents would sometimes be accompanied by pieces of chart music, such as Children by Robert Miles. The new look made frequent use of the Helvetica typeface. The informal name "Five" was used in early continuity announcements and idents containing a lower case 'five' had been used on the channel from the launch.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The final set with this logo was launched on 23 May 2006, based on four letter words such as Hope, Fast and Love. The idents at first did not feature the logo, but the idents were revised on 2 January 2007 to include the word Five again.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 6 October 2008 at 9pm, Five aired a new look, replacing the lower-case "five" logo with an upper-case "FIVE" in a circle occasionally with pink, turquoise and purple light effects. The rebrand was conducted by DixonBaxi, and according to them, the new look was "more vocal, expressive and creative." The relaunch included a mix of live action and CGI idents; some of these included supermarket trolleys, the Food Chain, Invisible Superheroes and Drawings.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The look was refreshed in July 2009, making the logo notably larger. As part of the refresh, special idents were made for popular shows such as "The Mentalist", "Paul Merton in Europe", "", "The Gadget Show" and "FlashForward" with the 2008 set being withdrawn except for the 'news safe' CGI idents. In February 2010, an additional ident was introduced, featuring a CGI aurora forming the logo tilted on its side. This was used at closedown and, sometimes, before news bulletins.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: After the takeover by Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell, major changes and considerable financial investment were promised by the new owners, alongside a return to the 'Channel 5' moniker.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In October 2010, Desmond revealed the station's new look and confirmed its official on-screen identity as "Channel 5" during a press launch. Desmond promoted these changes in his tabloid newspapers, the "Daily Express" and "Daily Star". There is also cross-promotion between Northern & Shell's newspaper and magazine titles with their websites promoted on the Channel 5 website. In 2010, afternoon movies on Channel 5 were sponsored by the "Daily Express".


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The new logo for Channel 5 replaced the "FIVE" logo on 14 February 2011. The logo is a "5" in a red circle; the extended version of the logo has the word "CHANNEL" in upper case font to its left. The launch DOG revived the "5" motif, originally as a transparent '5' cutout in a bright grey circle. From 18 February 2011, the DOG was modified to a white semi-transparent '5' on a faint grey circle. The DOG was later returned to the transparent '5' cutout in a bright grey circle. On 5 March 2013, the DOG was moved into the 16:9 safe area, along with the rest of their channels.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: A range of new idents for Channel 5 were launched in February 2011 incorporating the "5" motif featuring live action and CGI elements. They echo the predominantly red colour scheme of the channel's new corporate image, each based in a spacious studio with a large screen as the backdrop for the action. "Drums" features a drummer against a backdrop of animated shapes with the "5" appearing on a screen behind. In "Equaliser", a "5" contained in a cube emerges from a graphic equaliser display. "Imagination" features a battle between a toy dinosaur and robot figure with the "5" logo imposed in neon lights (outlined). "VIP" features a model walking on a red carpet formed from the big screen with the logo formed out of the camera flashes. "Car Chase" features a police car chasing another car which eventually crash 'through' the big screen with the logo being on the side of the police car. A generic ident with the Channel 5 logo pulsating on the studio screen was introduced in April 2012. Several special idents have also been used for "The Hotel Inspector", "The Walking Dead", "Impossible?", "Big Brother", "The Bachelor", "Europa League", "The Mentalist", "Tamara Ecclestone: Billion $$ Girl", "It's All About Amy", "How to Take Stunning Pictures", and "The Gadget Show: World Tour" also based around the same theme of the studio and screen. Programme preview cards feature the font "Gotham" in upper case. Break bumpers featured the "5" logo in the left-hand corner of the screen with a pattern of circles radiating out from the logo in an alternating red and black colour scheme.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: This logo was retired from use on 10 February 2016; a virtually identical logo would later be used by ABC affiliate WEWS-TV beginning in September of that year, albeit in a blue colour.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 11 February 2016, Channel 5 launched a new logo across all of its properties—a segmented 5 which can be rendered with various designs and animations, alongside a new series of "cinematic" idents, and break bumpers with text messages on them. The new branding was meant to signify a more upmarket and "creative" positioning for the broadcaster; vice-president of marketing Jo Bacon explained that "Our core proposition is Spirited TV, with emotional heart, reflecting the diverse, lively, colourful and creative content that has been the driving force behind our new strategic approach." Critics noted similarities between 5's new logo and that of competitor Channel 4. However, Bacon contrasted Channel 4, explaining that "our content allows millions of normal people access to diverse entertainment with no fuss. We are a playful challenger brand and can appeal to all audiences. The rebrand is a big opportunity to really redefine the DNA of the Channel 5 brand and how it is perceived." 5Star and 5USA also adopted the new logo, while the catch-up service Demand 5 was renamed My5.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The idents were replaced on 26 February 2020 with a new set focusing more on the logo on coloured backdrops mainly pink, green, orange, blue, teal and black.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Below are the official audience shares in percent for Channel 5 since its launch in 1997. Data provided by BARB. The channel consistently is the fifth most watched channel in country, usually being beaten by main rivals BBC One, BBC Two, ITV and Channel 4.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Audience share rose consistently for the first seven years of broadcast, reaching a peak of 6.6% in 2004. Two years later the audience share had dropped to under 5.0%. In 2012, the audience share rose to 4.5%, the first yearly rise for the channel in audience share since 2009. In July 2013, Channel 5 overtook Channel 4 when taking into account consolidated shares, for the first time. As of 2020 (the last full year published by BARB), the channel averages 4.1% of the total audience share.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Channel 5, like all the public service broadcasters, broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. The channel mainly broadcasts documentaries and drama with a few entertainment programmes, reality television and quiz shows in the schedule. In the early days, the channel was known for a high number of imported American dramas, including the broadcast rights to "NCIS" and "CSI" spin-offs, "" and "", all of which Channel 5 had acquired by October 2014. By 2021, the rights to these shows had either expired or these titles were moved over to Channel 5's sister channels as the channel decided to focus its drama budget on its 'Original Dramas'.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The channel broadcasts some sports events not covered by other broadcasters, but is notable for having been for several years the only terrestrial channel to show cricket, in the shape of highlights of England's summer test matches and one-day games. It also broadcasts its own news service, which is currently produced by ITN but was produced between 2005 and 2012 by Sky News.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The channel frequently sticks to a regular schedule during the day, which during the 2010s included a phone-in chat show at 9:15am (currently "Jeremy Vine", which replaced "The Wright Stuff" in 2018), TV movies in the afternoon, after the Australian soap, "Home and Away". "5 News" programmes goes out between 5pm and 6pm.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Flagship programmes for the channel include shows about farming, trains and royalty such as "Our Yorkshire Farm", "Springtime On The Farm" and "World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys". Saturday night royal documentaries have been a ratings winner for Channel 5, with programmes about past members of the British Royal Family also getting good viewing figures, with a programme about King George V (whose reign was from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936) achieving a rating of 1.4 million viewers when it was first broadcast.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The channel has picked up a number of formats in the last 20 years that have been previously broadcast on other channels. These programmes have included titles such as Celebrity Big Brother (ex-Channel 4, becoming shared between Channel 5 and MTV), Blind Date (ex-ITV) and the nightly quiz show Eggheads (previously broadcast on BBC Two). In the early 2000s it was also the home of "Fifth Gear", a continuation of the original incarnation of the BBC show "Top Gear" with ex-presenters Quentin Willson, Tiff Needell, and Vicki Butler-Henderson, presenting the consumer advice series on Channel 5, whilst the BBC version of "Top Gear" became more of an entertainment car show.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Children's programming begins at 6am every day with "Milkshake!" showing children's programmes includes "Thomas and Friends", "PAW Patrol", "Peppa Pig", "Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom", "Little Princess", "Fifi and the Flowertots", "Roary the Racing Car" "Fireman Sam", "Joshua Jones", "Pingu"; "Postman Pat", and many more.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In 2021, Channel 5 scheduled a number of music documentaries and countdowns on Friday nights, with shows such as "Greatest Hits of the 80s", "The Story of Songs" and "Britain's Biggest 90s Hits" made by Viacom International Studios UK, the British production arm of owner ViacomCBS.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In September 2021, Ofcom approved the removal of Channel 5's 6.30pm news slot by in order for the channel to schedule "Neighbours" at 6pm and "Eggheads" at 6.30pm (with a new hour long "5 News" programme going out at 5pm). These changes saw the early evening repeat of "Home and Away" moved to 5Star, with the Australian soap only broadcast on the main channel at lunchtime. The first hour long-version of "5 News at 5" was broadcast by Channel 5 on 8 November 2021, with the programme still produced for the channel by ITN. "5 News at 5" is presented by Sian Williams and Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije, and has a live reporting team across the UK.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Also at the start of November 2021, P. D. James adaptation "Dalgliesh" debuted on the channel with four million viewers, while "Our Yorkshire Farm" achieved a rating of 3,260,437. On Saturday nights, the network's other new drama "The Madame Blanc Mysteries" was drawing in over two million viewers to the channel.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In February 2022, Channel 5 confirmed funding for "Neighbours" would be stopped with the production shutting down and the last episode aired 29 July 2022. As Paramount Global's 10 Peach scheduled the last episode for 7.30pm on 28 July 2022 in Australia, Channel 5 brought back the broadcast of the final episode a few days to 29 July 2022, with "The Finale" becoming part of a "Neighbours" night alongside the Viacom UK programmes "Neighbours Made Me a Star: From Ramsay St to Hollywood" and "Neighbours: All the Pop Hits & More, Especially For You". In addition, the 'Spirit of Queensland' episode of the channel's Bill Nighy narrated luxury train travel series was held back a week with the Al Andalus train journey from Seville taking its place on 22 July and the Brisbane to Cairns trip's title amended to "Australia's Most Scenic Railway Journeys" to fit in with the "Neighbours" theme night on 29 July 2022.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 7 September 2022, a two-part day-by-day documentary with Xand van Tulleken and Raksha Dave called "The Great Smog of 1952" started with the second episode scheduled for the following night. With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the concluding part was dumped from the schedule after the channel went into a rolling royal documentary mode for the rest of the night. Their schedules for the following days were then amended to take out a number of thriller films, the over-night casino slots and documentaries which may have featured members of the Royal Family, like a forthcoming episode of "The Cotswolds and Beyond with Pam Ayres", replacing these programmes with a range of their travel documentaries. The second part of "The Great Smog of 1952" was re-scheduled for 13 September 2022, with the documentary and a repeat of Paramount Pictures' award winning romantic drama film, "An Officer and a Gentleman", replacing a double bill of murder investigations. "Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly", "The Yorkshire Vet" and the last episode of "The Pyrenees with Michael Portillo" were kept in the schedule as previously listed, going out in hourly slots between 7pm and 10pm.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: Even though the channel are known for their royal documentaries, on the day of the funeral Channel 5 decided to go with a counter-alternative schedule to all the royal coverage due to be shown on the BBC, ITV and Sky, with their regular "Home and Away" episode and "Jeremy Vine" dropped to make way for family friendly productions like "The Emoji Movie", "The Adventures of Paddington" and "Stuart Little".


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In November 2022, Channel 5 confirmed that one of their recent hits, "Our Yorkshire Farm", would not be returning to the channel in its original form, with a three-part spin-off programme called "Beyond The Yorkshire Farm: Reuben & Clive" due to be launched on the channel on 6 December 2022. This series will show the father and son farming duo launching a digging business venture which sees them in the Cumbrian village of Langwathby digging out a series of ponds.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: The following is a list of the twelve most watched broadcasts on Channel 5 up to 5 March 2021, based on Live +28 data supplied by BARB.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: From 1997 to 2011 Channel 5 operated its own analogue teletext service providing a basic range of programme listings, film summaries and programme previews of Channel 5 content. The service was provided by Sky Text until 2002 when Teletext Ltd. took over as provider of Channel 5's teletext service. The service was withdrawn due to the digital switchover and the shift to internet and social media.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: As of December 2021, Channel 5 has a number of channels streaming 24 hours a day on ViacomCBS' free TV app Pluto TV. The channels include:


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: 5 on The Farm is Channel 5's own festival which first took place at Cannon Hall Farm in Cawthorne, South Yorkshire on August Bank Holiday Weekend in 2021. The three-day event was based around Channel 5's "...on the Farm" series (featuring series regulars Rob and Dave Nicholson, chef Tim Bilton as well as presenters Adam Henson, Helen Skelton, Jules Hudson and JB Gill) with appearances from people featuring in a range of Channel 5 programmes associated with farming, food and animals. These people included Peter Wright and Julian Norton from "The Yorkshire Vet", Reuben and Amanda Owen from "Our Yorkshire Farm", Ben Fogle from "", Graeme Hall from "Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly" and Stefan Gates from "Secrets of your Supermarket Food". The festival also has an area for children branded as the "Milkshake! Meadow" which (in 2021) featured presenters Derek Moran, Jen Pringle and Kemi Majeks alongside characters from "Milkshake!" including Peppa Pig, Milkshake! Monkey and Fireman Sam.


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: In a "Radio Times" interview with Mark Lawson, Channel 5's director of programmes Ben Frow gave answers to some of the regular criticisms viewers had over the past few years about scheduling. Firstly, Channel 5 is known for giving programmes numerous programme titles, with the listing in the "Radio Times" not matching the EPG or the actual programme title. Secondly, a six-part series can be launched in a regular slot and then be dropped from the schedule after a few weeks (with the third series of Rob Bell's "Building the Impossible" actually dropped after one episode and replaced in its 9pm slot by the repackaged "The Dalgliesh Mysteries"). Frow apologised to all the "Radio Times" readers who were annoyed by these regular occurrences, but explained that when listings go to press he does not know what the competition from other channels might be and so may have to retitle a programme to make it stand out on the EPG or temporarily remove that show from the schedule until there is a better place for it. For example, the programme "Billion Dollar Holiday City" which turned up in the Channel 5 schedule on 17 July 2022 before new episodes of holiday series "Bargain-Loving Brits by the Sea" and "The Cruise" was a revised and retitled version of late-night programme "Secret World of Las Vegas: 24/7" which originally was broadcast by the channel in 2019, and put into production as "Vegas 24:7" by Viacom Studios UK (now VIS UK).


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 22 June 2022, Paramount Plus launched in the UK, with Channel 5 showing the first episode of streaming series "Halo" on that night as a 'taster'. However the marketing around this episode made it look like it was a new free-to-air series that was going to continue on the channel and on Paramount Plus every week, which resulted in the first of a number of Feedback letters to the "Radio Times" about the practice of 'taster TV'. This time the viewer complained that this was just a 'puff piece' to get people to subscribe to a paid service and thought the practice might be against the channel's PSB commitments, while in the magazine's 20–26 August 2022 issue, after one-off starter episodes of "Halo", "La Brea" and "The Box" had been shown on the channel, a piece of viewer criticism headlined "Taster TV is no good to me" was highlighted as the magazine's "Letter of the Week".


title: Channel 5 (British TV channel)

text: On 19 September 2022, the funeral of Elizabeth II was occurring. BBC One, BBC Two, and ITV broadcast the funeral, while Channel 4 broadcast a documentary about Elizabeth. However, Channel 5 played the 2017 film "The Emoji Movie" instead of the funeral. The move had mixed reactions. Some mocked the channel and insulted it for disrespecting a former member of the Royal Family. Other people online actually praised the channel for airing child friendly alternatives during a dark day in the nation. Other kid movies were aired on the channel, including the 1999 film "Stuart Little". Channel 5 has yet to comment.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the "Symphonie fantastique" and "Harold in Italy", choral pieces including the Requiem and "L'Enfance du Christ", his three operas "Benvenuto Cellini", "Les Troyens" and "Béatrice et Bénédict", and works of hybrid genres such as the "dramatic symphony" "Roméo et Juliette" and the "dramatic legend" "La Damnation de Faust".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: The elder son of a provincial doctor, Berlioz was expected to follow his father into medicine, and he attended a Parisian medical college before defying his family by taking up music as a profession. His independence of mind and refusal to follow traditional rules and formulas put him at odds with the conservative musical establishment of Paris. He briefly moderated his style sufficiently to win France's premier music prize – the Prix de Rome – in 1830, but he learned little from the academics of the Paris Conservatoire. Opinion was divided for many years between those who thought him an original genius and those who viewed his music as lacking in form and coherence.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: At the age of twenty-four Berlioz fell in love with the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, and he pursued her obsessively until she finally accepted him seven years later. Their marriage was happy at first but eventually foundered. Harriet inspired his first major success, the "Symphonie fantastique", in which an idealised depiction of her occurs throughout.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz completed three operas, the first of which, "Benvenuto Cellini", was an outright failure. The second, the huge epic "Les Troyens" (The Trojans), was so large in scale that it was never staged in its entirety during his lifetime. His last opera, "Béatrice et Bénédict"based on Shakespeare's comedy "Much Ado About Nothing"was a success at its premiere but did not enter the regular operatic repertoire. Meeting only occasional success in France as a composer, Berlioz increasingly turned to conducting, in which he gained an international reputation. He was highly regarded in Germany, Britain and Russia both as a composer and as a conductor. To supplement his earnings he wrote musical journalism throughout much of his career; some of it has been preserved in book form, including his "Treatise on Instrumentation" (1844), which was influential in the 19th and 20th centuries. Berlioz died in Paris at the age of 65.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz was born on 11 December 1803, the eldest child of Louis Berlioz (1776–1848), a physician, and his wife, Marie-Antoinette Joséphine, "née" Marmion (1784–1838). His birthplace was the family home in the commune of La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, in south-eastern France. His parents had five more children, three of whom died in infancy; their surviving daughters, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout their lives.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz's father, a respected local figure, was a progressively minded doctor credited as the first European to practise and write about acupuncture. He was an agnostic with a liberal outlook; his wife was a strict Roman Catholic of less flexible views. After briefly attending a local school when he was about ten, Berlioz was educated at home by his father. He recalled in his "Mémoires" that he enjoyed geography, especially books about travel, to which his mind would sometimes wander when he was supposed to be studying Latin; the classics nonetheless made an impression on him, and he was moved to tears by Virgil's account of the tragedy of Dido and Aeneas. Later he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and – because his father planned a medical career for him – anatomy.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Music did not feature prominently in the young Berlioz's education. His father gave him basic instruction on the flageolet, and he later took flute and guitar lessons with local teachers. He never studied the piano, and throughout his life played haltingly at best. He later contended that this was an advantage because it "saved me from the tyranny of keyboard habits, so dangerous to thought, and from the lure of conventional harmonies".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: At the age of twelve Berlioz fell in love for the first time. The object of his affections was an eighteen-year-old neighbour, Estelle Dubœuf. He was teased for what was seen as a boyish crush, but something of his early passion for Estelle endured all his life. He poured some of his unrequited feelings into his early attempts at composition. Trying to master harmony, he read Rameau's "Traité de l'harmonie", which proved incomprehensible to a novice, but Charles-Simon Catel's simpler treatise on the subject made it clearer to him. He wrote several chamber works as a youth, subsequently destroying the manuscripts, but one theme that remained in his mind reappeared later as the A-flat second subject of the overture to "Les Francs-juges".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In March 1821 Berlioz passed the baccalauréat examination at the University of Grenoble – it is not certain whether at the first or second attempt – and in late September, aged seventeen, he moved to Paris. At his father's insistence he enrolled at the School of Medicine of the University of Paris. He had to fight hard to overcome his revulsion at dissecting bodies, but in deference to his father's wishes, he forced himself to continue his medical studies.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: The horrors of the medical college were mitigated thanks to an ample allowance from his father, which enabled him to take full advantage of the cultural, and particularly musical, life of Paris. Music did not at that time enjoy the prestige of literature in French culture, but Paris nonetheless possessed two major opera houses and the country's most important music library. Berlioz took advantage of them all. Within days of arriving in Paris he went to the Opéra, and although the piece on offer was by a minor composer, the staging and the magnificent orchestral playing enchanted him. He went to other works at the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique; at the former, three weeks after his arrival, he saw Gluck's "Iphigénie en Tauride", which thrilled him. He was particularly inspired by Gluck's use of the orchestra to carry the drama along. A later performance of the same work at the Opéra convinced him that his vocation was to be a composer.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: The dominance of Italian opera in Paris, against which Berlioz later campaigned, was still in the future, and at the opera houses he heard and absorbed the works of Étienne Méhul and François-Adrien Boieldieu, other operas written in the French style by foreign composers, particularly Gaspare Spontini, and above all five operas by Gluck. He began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library in between his medical studies, seeking out scores of Gluck's operas and making copies of parts of them. By the end of 1822 he felt that his attempts to learn composition needed to be augmented with formal tuition, and he approached Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel and professor at the Conservatoire, who accepted him as a private pupil.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In August 1823 Berlioz made the first of many contributions to the musical press: a letter to the journal "Le Corsaire" defending French opera against the incursions of its Italian rival. He contended that all Rossini's operas put together could not stand comparison with even a few bars of those of Gluck, Spontini or Le Sueur. By now he had composed several works including "Estelle et Némorin" and "Le Passage de la mer Rouge" (The Crossing of the Red Sea) – both since lost.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In 1824 Berlioz graduated from medical school, after which he abandoned medicine, to the strong disapproval of his parents. His father suggested law as an alternative profession and refused to countenance music as a career. He reduced and sometimes withheld his son's allowance, and Berlioz went through some years of financial hardship.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In 1824 Berlioz composed a "Messe solennelle". It was performed twice, after which he suppressed the score, which was thought lost until a copy was discovered in 1991. During 1825 and 1826 he wrote his first opera, "Les Francs-juges", which was not performed and survives only in fragments, the best known of which is the overture. In later works he reused parts of the score, such as the "March of the Guards", which he incorporated four years later in the "Symphonie fantastique" as the "March to the Scaffold".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In August 1826 Berlioz was admitted as a student to the Conservatoire, studying composition under Le Sueur and counterpoint and fugue with Anton Reicha. In the same year he made the first of four attempts to win France's premier music prize, the Prix de Rome, and was eliminated in the first round. The following year, to earn some money, he joined the chorus at the Théâtre des Nouveautés. He competed again for the Prix de Rome, submitting the first of his Prix cantatas, "La Mort d'Orphée", in July. Later that year he attended productions of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet" at the Théâtre de l'Odéon given by Charles Kemble's touring company. Although at the time Berlioz spoke hardly any English, he was overwhelmed by the plays – the start of a lifelong passion for Shakespeare. He also conceived a passion for Kemble's leading lady, Harriet Smithson – his biographer Hugh Macdonald calls it "emotional derangement" – and obsessively pursued her, without success, for several years. She refused even to meet him.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: The first concert of Berlioz's music took place in May 1828, when his friend Nathan Bloc conducted the premieres of the overtures "Les Francs-juges" and "Waverley" and other works. The hall was far from full, and Berlioz lost money. Nevertheless, he was greatly encouraged by the vociferous approval of his performers, and the applause from musicians in the audience, including his Conservatoire professors, the directors of the Opéra and Opéra-Comique, and the composers Auber and Hérold.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz's fascination with Shakespeare's plays prompted him to start learning English during 1828, so that he could read them in the original. At around the same time he encountered two further creative inspirations: Beethoven and Goethe. He heard Beethoven's third, fifth and seventh symphonies performed at the Conservatoire, and read Goethe's "Faust" in Gérard de Nerval's translation. Beethoven became both an ideal and an obstacle for Berlioz – an inspiring predecessor but a daunting one. Goethe's work was the basis of "Huit scènes de Faust" (Berlioz's Opus 1), premiered the following year and reworked and expanded much later as "La Damnation de Faust".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz was largely apolitical, and neither supported nor opposed the July Revolution of 1830, but when it broke out he found himself in the middle of it. He recorded events in his "Mémoires":


title: Hector Berlioz

text: The cantata was "La Mort de Sardanapale", with which he won the Prix de Rome. His entry the previous year, "Cléopâtre", had attracted disapproval from the judges because to highly conservative musicians it "betrayed dangerous tendencies", and for his 1830 offering he carefully modified his natural style to meet official approval. During the same year he wrote the "Symphonie fantastique" and became engaged to be married.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: By now recoiling from his obsession with Smithson, Berlioz fell in love with a nineteen-year-old pianist, Marie ("Camille") Moke. His feelings were reciprocated, and the couple planned to be married. In December Berlioz organised a concert at which the "Symphonie fantastique" was premiered. Protracted applause followed the performance, and the press reviews expressed both the shock and the pleasure the work had given. Berlioz's biographer David Cairns calls the concert a landmark not only in the composer's career but in the evolution of the modern orchestra. Franz Liszt was among those attending the concert; this was the beginning of a long friendship. Liszt later transcribed the entire "Symphonie fantastique" for piano to enable more people to hear it.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Shortly after the concert Berlioz set off for Italy: under the terms of the Prix de Rome, winners studied for two years at the Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome. Within three weeks of his arrival he went absent without leave: he had learnt that Marie had broken off their engagement and was to marry an older and richer suitor, Camille Pleyel, the heir to the Pleyel piano manufacturing company. Berlioz made an elaborate plan to kill them both (and her mother, known to him as "l'hippopotame"), and acquired poisons, pistols and a disguise for the purpose. By the time he reached Nice on his journey to Paris he thought better of the scheme, abandoned the idea of revenge, and successfully sought permission to return to the Villa Medici. He stayed for a few weeks in Nice and wrote his "King Lear" overture. On the way back to Rome he began work on a piece for narrator, solo voices, chorus and orchestra, "Le Retour à la vie" (The Return to Life, later renamed "Lélio"), a sequel to the "Symphonie fantastique".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz took little pleasure in his time in Rome. His colleagues at the Villa Medici, under their benevolent principal Horace Vernet, made him welcome, and he enjoyed his meetings with Felix Mendelssohn, who was visiting the city, but he found Rome distasteful: "the most stupid and prosaic city I know; it is no place for anyone with head or heart." Nonetheless, Italy had an important influence on his development. He visited many parts of it during his residency in Rome. Macdonald comments that after his time there, Berlioz had "a new colour and glow in his music ... sensuous and vivacious" – derived not from Italian painting, in which he was uninterested, or Italian music, which he despised, but from "the scenery and the sun, and from his acute sense of locale". Macdonald identifies "Harold in Italy", "Benvenuto Cellini" and "Roméo et Juliette" as the most obvious expressions of his response to Italy, and adds that "Les Troyens" and "Béatrice et Bénédict" "reflect the warmth and stillness of the Mediterranean, as well as its vivacity and force". Berlioz himself wrote that "Harold in Italy" drew on "the poetic memories formed from my wanderings in Abruzzi".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Vernet agreed to Berlioz's request to be allowed to leave the Villa Medici before the end of his two-year term. Heeding Vernet's advice that it would be prudent to delay his return to Paris, where the Conservatoire authorities might be less indulgent about his premature ending of his studies, he made a leisurely journey back, detouring via La Côte-Saint-André to see his family. He left Rome in May 1832 and arrived in Paris in November.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: On 9 December 1832 Berlioz presented a concert of his works at the Conservatoire. The programme included the overture of "Les Francs-juges", the "Symphonie fantastique" – extensively revised since its premiere – and "Le Retour à la vie", in which Bocage, a popular actor, declaimed the monologues. Through a third party, Berlioz had sent an invitation to Harriet Smithson, who accepted, and was dazzled by the celebrities in the audience. Among the musicians present were Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Niccolò Paganini; writers included Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier, Heinrich Heine, Victor Hugo and George Sand. The concert was such a success that the programme was repeated within the month, but the more immediate consequence was that Berlioz and Smithson finally met.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: By 1832 Smithson's career was in decline. She presented a ruinously unsuccessful season, first at the Théâtre-Italien and then at lesser venues, and by March 1833 she was deep in debt. Biographers differ about whether and to what extent Smithson's receptiveness to Berlioz's wooing was motivated by financial considerations; but she accepted him, and in the face of strong opposition from both their families they were married at the British Embassy in Paris on 3 October 1833. The couple lived first in Paris, and later in Montmartre (then still a village). On 14 August 1834 their only child, Louis-Clément-Thomas, was born. The first few years of the marriage were happy, although it eventually foundered. Harriet continued to yearn for a career but, as her biographer Peter Raby comments, she never learned to speak French fluently, which seriously limited both her professional and her social life.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Paganini, known chiefly as a violinist, had acquired a Stradivarius viola, which he wanted to play in public if he could find the right music. Greatly impressed by the "Symphonie fantastique", he asked Berlioz to write him a suitable piece. Berlioz told him that he could not write a brilliantly virtuoso work, and began composing what he called a symphony with viola obbligato, "Harold in Italy". As he foresaw, Paganini found the solo part too reticent – "There's not enough for me to do here; I should be playing all the time" – and the violist at the premiere in November 1834 was Chrétien Urhan.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Until the end of 1835 Berlioz had a modest stipend as a laureate of the Prix de Rome. His earnings from composing were neither substantial nor regular, and he supplemented them by writing music criticism for the Parisian press. Macdonald comments that this was activity "at which he excelled but which he abhorred". He wrote for "L'Europe littéraire" (1833), "Le Rénovateur" (1833–1835), and from 1834 for the "Gazette musicale" and the "Journal des débats". He was the first, but not the last, prominent French composer to double as a reviewer: among his successors were Fauré, Messager, Dukas and Debussy. Although he complained – both privately and sometimes in his articles – that his time would be better spent writing music than in writing music criticism, he was able to indulge himself in attacking his bêtes noires and extolling his enthusiasms. The former included musical pedants, coloratura writing and singing, viola players who were merely incompetent violinists, inane libretti, and baroque counterpoint. He extravagantly praised Beethoven's symphonies, and Gluck's and Weber's operas, and scrupulously refrained from promoting his own compositions. His journalism consisted mainly of music criticism, some of which he collected and published, such as "Evenings in the Orchestra" (1854), but also more technical articles, such as those that formed the basis of his "Treatise on Instrumentation" (1844). Despite his complaints, Berlioz continued writing music criticism for most of his life, long after he had any financial need to do so.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz secured a commission from the French government for his Requiem – the "Grande messe des morts" – first performed at Les Invalides in December 1837. A second government commission followed – the "Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale" in 1840. Neither work brought him much money or artistic fame at the time, but the Requiem held a special place in his affections: "If I were threatened with the destruction of the whole of my works save one, I would crave mercy for the "Messe des morts"".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: One of Berlioz's main aims in the 1830s was "battering down the doors of the Opéra". In Paris at this period, the musical success that mattered was in the opera house and not the concert hall. Robert Schumann commented, "To the French, music by itself means nothing". Berlioz worked on his opera "Benvenuto Cellini" from 1834 until 1837, continually distracted by his increasing activities as a critic and as a promoter of his own symphonic concerts. The Berlioz scholar D. Kern Holoman comments that Berlioz rightly regarded "Benvenuto Cellini" as a work of exceptional exuberance and verve, deserving a better reception than it received. Holoman adds that the piece was of "surpassing technical difficulty", and that the singers were not especially co-operative. A weak libretto and unsatisfactory staging exacerbated the poor reception. The opera had only four complete performances, three in September 1838 and one in January 1839. Berlioz said that the failure of the piece meant that the doors of the Opéra were closed to him for the rest of his career – which they were, except for a commission to arrange a Weber score in 1841.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Shortly after the failure of the opera, Berlioz had a great success as composer-conductor of a concert at which "Harold in Italy" was given again. This time Paganini was present in the audience; he came on to the platform at the end and knelt in homage to Berlioz and kissed his hand. A few days later Berlioz was astonished to receive a cheque from him for 20,000 francs. Paganini's gift enabled Berlioz to pay off Harriet's and his own debts, give up music criticism for the time being, and concentrate on composition. He wrote the "dramatic symphony" "Roméo et Juliette" for voices, chorus and orchestra. It was premiered in November 1839 and was so well received that Berlioz and his huge instrumental and vocal forces gave two further performances in rapid succession. Among the audiences was the young Wagner, who was overwhelmed by its revelation of the possibilities of musical poetry, and who later drew on it when composing "Tristan und Isolde".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: At the close of the decade Berlioz achieved official recognition in the form of appointment as deputy librarian of the Conservatoire and as an officer of the Legion of Honour. The former was an undemanding post, but not highly paid, and Berlioz remained in need of a reliable income to allow him the leisure for composition.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: The "Symphonie funèbre et triomphale", marking the tenth anniversary of the 1830 Revolution, was performed in the open air under the direction of the composer in July 1840. The following year the Opéra commissioned Berlioz to adapt Weber's "Der Freischütz" to meet the house's rigid requirements: he wrote recitatives to replace the spoken dialogue and orchestrated Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" to provide the obligatory ballet music. In the same year he completed settings of six poems by his friend Théophile Gautier, which formed the song cycle "Les Nuits d'été" (with piano accompaniment, later orchestrated). He also worked on a projected opera, "La Nonne sanglante" (The Bloody Nun), to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, but made little progress. In November 1841 he began publishing a series of sixteen articles in the "Revue et gazette musicale" giving his views about orchestration; they were the basis of his "Treatise on Instrumentation", published in 1843.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: During the 1840s Berlioz spent much of his time making music outside France. He struggled to make money from his concerts in Paris, and learning of the large sums made by promoters from performances of his music in other countries, he resolved to try conducting abroad. He began in Brussels, giving two concerts in September 1842. An extensive German tour followed: in 1842 and 1843 he gave concerts in twelve German cities. His reception was enthusiastic. The German public was better disposed than the French to his innovative compositions, and his conducting was seen as highly impressive. During the tour he had enjoyable meetings with Mendelssohn and Schumann in Leipzig, Wagner in Dresden and Meyerbeer in Berlin.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: By this time Berlioz's marriage was failing. Harriet resented his celebrity and her own eclipse, and as Raby puts it, "possessiveness turned to suspicion and jealousy as Berlioz became involved with the singer Marie Recio". Harriet's health deteriorated, and she took to drinking heavily. Her suspicion about Recio was well founded: the latter became Berlioz's mistress in 1841 and accompanied him on his German tour.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz returned to Paris in mid-1843. During the following year he wrote two of his most popular short works, the overtures "Le carnaval romain" (reusing music from "Benvenuto Cellini") and "Le corsaire" (originally called "La tour de Nice"). Towards the end of the year he and Harriet separated. Berlioz maintained two households: Harriet remained in Montmartre and he moved in with Recio at her flat in central Paris. His son Louis was sent to a boarding school in Rouen.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Foreign tours featured prominently in Berlioz's life during the 1840s and 1850s. Not only were they highly rewarding both artistically and financially, but he did not have to grapple with the administrative problems of promoting concerts in Paris. Macdonald comments:


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz's major work from the decade was "La Damnation de Faust". He presented it in Paris in December 1846, but it played to half-empty houses, despite excellent reviews, some from critics not usually well disposed to his music. The highly romantic subject was out of step with the times, and one sympathetic reviewer observed that there was an unbridgeable gap between the composer's conception of art and that of the Paris public. The failure of the piece left Berlioz heavily in debt; he restored his finances the following year with the first of two highly remunerative trips to Russia. His other foreign tours during the rest of the 1840s included Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Germany. After those came the first of his five visits to England; it lasted for more than seven months (November 1847 to July 1848). His reception in London was enthusiastic, but the visit was not a financial success because of mismanagement by his impresario, the conductor Louis-Antoine Jullien.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Soon after Berlioz's return to Paris in mid-September 1848, Harriet suffered a series of strokes, which left her almost paralysed. She needed constant nursing, which he paid for. When in Paris he visited her continually, sometimes twice a day.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: After the failure of "La Damnation de Faust", Berlioz spent less time on composition during the next eight years. He wrote a Te Deum, completed in 1849 but not published until 1855, and some short pieces. His most substantial work between "The Damnation" and his epic "Les Troyens" (1856–1858) was a "sacred trilogy", "L'Enfance du Christ" (Christ's Childhood), which he began in 1850. In 1851 he was at the Great Exhibition in London as a member of an international committee judging musical instruments. He returned to London in 1852 and 1853, conducting his own works and others'. He enjoyed consistent success there, with the exception of a revival of "Benvenuto Cellini" at Covent Garden which was withdrawn after one performance. The opera was presented in Leipzig in 1852 in a revised version prepared by Liszt with Berlioz's approval and was moderately successful. In the early years of the decade Berlioz made numerous appearances in Germany as a conductor.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In 1854 Harriet died. Both Berlioz and their son Louis had been with her shortly before her death. During the year Berlioz completed the composition of "L'Enfance du Christ", worked on his book of memoirs, and married Marie Recio, which, he explained to his son, he felt it his duty to do after living with her for so many years. At the end of the year the first performance of "L'Enfance du Christ" was warmly received, to his surprise. He spent much of the next year in conducting and writing prose.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: During Berlioz's German tour in 1856, Liszt and his companion, Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, encouraged Berlioz's tentative conception of an opera based on the "Aeneid". Having first completed the orchestration of his 1841 song cycle "Les Nuits d'été", he began work on "Les Troyens" – The Trojans – writing his own libretto based on Virgil's epic. He worked on it, in between his conducting commitments, for two years. In 1858 he was elected to the Institut de France, an honour he had long sought, though he played down the importance he attached to it. In the same year he completed "Les Troyens". He then spent five years trying to have it staged.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In June 1862 Berlioz's wife died suddenly, aged 48. She was survived by her mother, to whom Berlioz was devoted, and who looked after him for the rest of his life.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: "Les Troyens" – a five-act, five-hour opera – was on too large a scale to be acceptable to the management of the Opéra, and Berlioz's efforts to have it staged there failed. The only way he could find of seeing the work produced was to divide it into two parts: "The Fall of Troy" and "The Trojans at Carthage". The latter, consisting of the final three acts of the original, was presented at the Théâtre‐Lyrique, Paris, in November 1863, but even that truncated version was further truncated: during the run of 22 performances, number after number was cut. The experience demoralised Berlioz, who wrote no more music after this.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz did not seek a revival of "Les Troyens" and none took place for nearly 30 years. He sold the publishing rights for a large sum, and his last years were financially comfortable; he was able to give up his work as a critic, but he lapsed into depression. As well as losing both his wives, he had lost both his sisters, and he became morbidly aware of death as many of his friends and other contemporaries died. He and his son had grown deeply attached to each other, but Louis was a captain in the merchant navy, and was more often than not away from home. Berlioz's physical health was not good, and he was often in pain from an intestinal complaint, possibly Crohn's disease.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: After the death of his second wife, Berlioz had two romantic interludes. During 1862 he met – probably in the Montmartre Cemetery – a young woman less than half his age, whose first name was Amélie and whose second, possibly married, name is not recorded. Almost nothing is known of their relationship, which lasted for less than a year. After they ceased to meet, Amélie died, aged only 26. Berlioz was unaware of it until he came across her grave six months later. Cairns hypothesises that the shock of her death prompted him to seek out his first love, Estelle, now a widow aged 67. He called on her in September 1864; she received him kindly, and he visited her in three successive summers; he wrote to her nearly every month for the rest of his life.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In 1867 Berlioz received the news that his son had died in Havana of yellow fever. Macdonald suggests that Berlioz may have sought distraction from his grief by going ahead with a planned series of concerts in St Petersburg and Moscow, but far from rejuvenating him, the trip sapped his remaining strength. The concerts were successful, and Berlioz received a warm response from the new generation of Russian composers and the general public, but he returned to Paris visibly unwell. He went to Nice to recuperate in the Mediterranean climate, but fell on rocks by the shore, possibly because of a stroke, and had to return to Paris, where he convalesced for several months. In August 1868, he felt able to travel briefly to Grenoble to judge a choral festival. After arriving back in Paris he gradually grew weaker and died at his house in the Rue de Calais on 8 March 1869, at the age of 65. He was buried in Montmartre Cemetery with his two wives, who were exhumed and re-buried next to him.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: In his 1983 book "The Musical Language of Berlioz", Julian Rushton asks "where Berlioz comes in the history of musical forms and what is his progeny". Rushton's answers to these questions are "nowhere" and "none". He cites well-known studies of musical history in which Berlioz is mentioned only in passing or not at all, and suggests that this is partly because Berlioz had no models among his predecessors and was a model to none of his successors. "In his works, as in his life, Berlioz was a lone wolf". Forty years earlier, Sir Thomas Beecham, a lifelong proponent of Berlioz's music, commented similarly, writing that although, for example, Mozart was a greater composer, his music drew on the works of his predecessors, whereas Berlioz's works were all wholly original: "the "Symphonie fantastique" or "La Damnation de Faust" broke upon the world like some unaccountable effort of spontaneous generation which had dispensed with the machinery of normal parentage".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Rushton suggests that "Berlioz's way is neither architectural nor developmental, but illustrative". He judges this to be part of a continuing French musical aesthetic, favouring a "decorative" – rather than the German "architectural" – approach to composition. Abstraction and discursiveness are alien to this tradition, and in operas, and to a large extent in orchestral music, there is little continuous development; instead self-contained numbers or sections are preferred.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz's compositional techniques have been strongly criticised and equally strongly defended. It is common ground for critics and defenders that his approach to harmony and musical structure conforms to no established rules; his detractors ascribe this to ignorance, and his proponents to independent-minded adventurousness. His approach to rhythm caused perplexity to conservatively-inclined contemporaries; he hated the "phrase carrée" – the unvaried four- or eight-bar phrase – and introduced new varieties of rhythm to his music. He explained his practice in an 1837 article: accenting weak beats at the expense of the strong, alternating triple and duple groups of notes and using unexpected rhythmic themes independent of the main melody. Macdonald writes that Berlioz was a natural melodist, but that his rhythmic sense led him away from regular phrase lengths; he "spoke naturally in a kind of flexible musical prose, with surprise and contour important elements".


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz's approach to harmony and counterpoint was idiosyncratic, and has provoked adverse criticism. Pierre Boulez commented, "There are awkward harmonies in Berlioz that make one scream". In Rushton's analysis, most of Berlioz's melodies have "clear tonal and harmonic implications" but the composer sometimes chose not to harmonise accordingly. Rushton observes that Berlioz's preference for irregular rhythm subverts conventional harmony: "Classic and romantic melody usually implies harmonic motion of some consistency and smoothness; Berlioz's aspiration to musical prose tends to resist such consistency." The pianist and musical analyst Charles Rosen has written that Berlioz often sets the climax of his melodies in relief with the most emphatic chord a triad in root position, and often a tonic chord where the melody leads the listener to expect a dominant. He gives as an example the second phrase of the main theme – the "idée fixe" – of the "Symphonie fantastique", "famous for its shock to classical sensibilities", in which the melody implies a dominant at its climax resolved by a tonic, but in which Berlioz anticipates the resolution by putting a tonic under the climactic note.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Even among those unsympathetic to his music, few deny that Berlioz was a master of orchestration. Richard Strauss wrote that Berlioz invented the modern orchestra. Some of those who recognise Berlioz's mastery of orchestration nonetheless dislike a few of his more extreme effects. The pedal point for trombones in the "Hostias" section of the Requiem is often cited; some musicians such as Gordon Jacob have found the effect unpleasant. Macdonald has questioned Berlioz's fondness for divided cellos and basses in dense, low chords, but he emphasises that such contentious points are rare compared with "the felicities and masterstrokes" abounding in the scores. Berlioz took instruments hitherto used for special purposes and introduced them into his regular orchestra: Macdonald mentions the harp, the cor anglais, the bass clarinet and the valve trumpet. Among the characteristic touches in Berlioz's orchestration singled out by Macdonald are the wind "chattering on repeated notes" for brilliance, or being used to add "sombre colour" to Romeo's arrival at the Capulets' vault, and the "Chœur d'ombres" in "Lélio". Of Berlioz's brass he writes:


title: Hector Berlioz

text: Berlioz wrote four large-scale works he called symphonies, but his conception of the genre differed greatly from the classical pattern of the German tradition. With rare exceptions, such as Beethoven's Ninth, a symphony was taken to be a large‐scale wholly orchestral work, usually in four movements, using sonata form in the first movement and sometimes in others. Some pictorial touches were included in symphonies by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and others, but the symphony was not customarily used to recount a narrative.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: All four of Berlioz's symphonies differ from the contemporary norm. The first, the "Symphonie fantastique" (1830), is purely orchestral, and the opening movement is broadly in sonata form, but the work tells a story, graphically and specifically. The recurring "idée fixe" theme is the composer's idealised (and in the last movement caricatured) portrait of Harriet Smithson. Schumann wrote of the work that despite its apparent formlessness, "there is an inherent symmetrical order corresponding to the great dimensions of the work, and this besides the inner connexions of thought", and in the 20th century Constant Lambert wrote, "Formally speaking it is among the finest of 19th-century symphonies". The work has always been among Berlioz's most popular.


title: Hector Berlioz

text: "Harold in Italy", despite its subtitle "Symphony in four parts with viola principal", is described by the musicologist Mark Evan Bonds as a work traditionally seen as lacking any direct historical antecedent, "a hybrid of symphony and concerto that owes little or nothing to the earlier, lighter genre of the symphonie concertante". In the 20th century critical opinion varied about the work, even among those well-disposed to Berlioz. Felix Weingartner, an early 20th century champion of the composer, wrote in 1904 that it did not reach the level of the "Symphonie fantastique"; fifty years later Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor found it "romantic and picturesque ... Berlioz at his best". In the 21st century Bonds ranks it among the greatest works of its kind in the 19th century.