title: Great Western Railway

text: Most early wagons were four-wheeled open vehicles, although a few six-wheeled vehicles were provided for special loads. Covered vans followed, initially for carrying cattle but later for both general and vulnerable goods too. The first bogie wagons appeared in 1873 for heavy loads, but bogie coal wagons were built in 1904 following on from the large four-wheel coal wagons that had first appeared in 1898. Rated at 20 tons (20.3 tonnes) these were twice the size of typical wagons of the period, but it was not until 1923 that the company invested heavily in coal wagons of this size and the infrastructure necessary for their unloading at their docks; these were known as "Felix Pole" wagons after the GWR's general manager who promoted their use. Container wagons appeared in 1931 and special vans for motor cars in 1933.


title: Great Western Railway

text: When the GWR was opened no trains in the United Kingdom were fitted with vacuum brakes, instead handbrakes were fitted to individual wagons and trains also conveyed brake vans where a guard had control of a screw-operated brake. The first goods wagons to be fitted with vacuum brakes were those that ran in passenger trains carrying perishable goods such as fish. Some ballast hoppers were given vacuum brakes in December 1903, and general goods wagons were constructed with them from 1904 onwards, although unfitted wagons (those without vacuum brakes) still formed the majority of the fleet in 1948 when the railway was nationalised to become a part of British Railways.


title: Great Western Railway

text: All wagons for public traffic had a code name that was used in telegraphic messages. As this was usually painted onto the wagon it was common to see them referred to by these names, such as "Mink" (a van), "Mica" (refrigerated van), "Crocodile" (boiler truck), and "Toad" (brake van).


title: Great Western Railway

text: For the permanent way Brunel decided to use a light bridge rail continuously supported on thick timber baulks, known as "baulk road". Thinner timber transoms were used to keep the baulks the correct distance apart. This produced a smoother track and the whole assembly proved cheaper than using conventional sleepers for broad-gauge track, although this advantage was lost with standard- or mixed-gauge lines because of the higher ratio of timber to length of line. More conventional track forms were later used, although baulk road could still be seen in sidings in the first half of the twentieth century.


title: Great Western Railway

text: Brunel developed a system of "disc and crossbar" signals to control train movements, but the people operating them could only assume that each train reached the next signal without stopping unexpectedly. The world's first commercial telegraph line was installed along the from Paddington to West Drayton and came into operation on 9 April 1839. This later spread throughout the system and allowed stations to use telegraphic messages to tell the people operating the signals when each train arrived safely. A long list of code words were developed to help make messages both quick to send and clear in meaning.


title: Great Western Railway

text: More conventional semaphore signals replaced the discs and crossbars over time. The GWR persisted with the lower quadrant form, where a "proceed" aspect is indicated by lowering the signal arm, despite other British railways changing to an upper quadrant form. Electric light signals of the "searchlight" pattern were later introduced at busy stations; these could show the same red/green or yellow/green aspects that semaphore signals showed at night. An "automatic train control" system was introduced from 1906 which was a safety system that applied a train's brakes if it passed a danger signal.


title: Great Western Railway

text: The GWR is known admiringly to some as "God's Wonderful Railway", but jocularly to others as the "Great Way Round" as some of its earliest routes were not the most direct. The railway, however, promoted itself from 1908 as "The Holiday Line" as it carried huge numbers of people to resorts in Wales and south-west England.


title: Great Western Railway

text: Cheap tickets were offered and excursion trains operated to popular destinations and special events such as the 1851 Great Exhibition. Later, GWR road motors operated tours to popular destinations not served directly by train, and its ships offered cruises from places such as Plymouth. Redundant carriages were converted to camp coaches and placed at country or seaside stations such as and and hired to holidaymakers who arrived by train.


title: Great Western Railway

text: The GWR had operated hotels at major stations and junctions since the early days, but in 1877 it opened its first "country house hotel", the Tregenna Castle in St Ives, Cornwall. It later added the Fishguard Bay Hotel in Wales and the Manor House at Moretonhampstead, Devon, to which it added a golf course in 1930.


title: Great Western Railway

text: It promoted itself from 1908 as "The Holiday Line through a series of posters, postcards, jigsaw puzzles, and books. These included "Holiday Haunts", describing the attraction of the different parts of the GWR system, and regional titles such as S. P. B. Mais's "Cornish Riviera" and A. M. Bradley's "South Wales: The Country of Castles". Guidebooks described the scenery seen "Through the Window" of their trains. Other GWR books were designed to encourage an interest in the GWR itself. Published as "Books for Boys of All Ages", these included "The 10:30 Limited" and "Loco's of the Royal Road".


title: Great Western Railway

text: The Great Western Railway effectively created the modern day tourist spots of the West Country and the southwest part of Wales that had previously been very difficult to reach. The Bristol Channel resorts of Wales and the West Country such as Minehead or the cliffs of Exmoor had been very remote from other parts of England before the advent of the GWR.


title: Great Western Railway

text: Railway enthusiasts were kept informed of new locomotives and other topics through the "Great Western Railway Magazine" from 1904. In 1911 the GWR became the first company to publish a book about its locomotive stock. "Names of Engines" was a booklet containing an alphabetic list of the company's named engines, with their number and wheel arrangement. Alternate pages showed formal vignetted photographs of different types of engine, mostly in photographic grey, annotated with their principal dimensions. No author was credited but the list was compiled by Arthur J.L White in the railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer's Office.


title: Great Western Railway

text: New editions were printed in 1914 and 1917 as "Great Western Railway Engines" edited by and then as "Great Western Railway Engines: Names, Numbers, Types and Classes" in 1919 with new editions at regular intervals up to 1929. These listed the named engines by class, each class having a formal photograph annotated with extensive dimensions and engineering details. Some classes of unnamed engines were also given a page with a photograph and similar annotations. No author was credited, but the introductory essay "Naming of Locomotives" was signed Arthur White died in 1929 and from 1932 new editions, now "The G.W.R. Engine Book" were published by the GWR's Publicity Department up to 1935.


title: Great Western Railway

text: From 1938 the editor was given as who was W.G. Chapman. The title was now "GWR Engines: Names, Numbers Types, Classes, etc. of Great Western Railway Locomotives". There were reprints (also listed as editions) following in 1938 (again) and 1939. A final edition was published in 1946. In addition to the locomotive listings, photographs and dimensions, there are numerous essays on many aspects of GWR locomotive development.


title: Great Western Railway

text: On a related subject, the GWR also published in 1935 a 56-page booklet entitled "Swindon Works and its place in Great Western Railway History". Illustrated with photographs on almost every opening, it recounts the history of the GWR as a locomotive-using and building company, the construction and development of Swindon Works, and the training of those employed there. It describes each section of the works, some of the latest locomotives to be built there, and finishes with various related organisations, from the Mechanics' Institution to the Annual Works Holiday.


title: Great Western Railway

text: The GWR attracted the attention of the artists from an early date. John Cooke Bourne's "History and Description of the Great Western Railway" was published in 1846 and contained a series of detailed lithographs of the railway that give readers a glimpse of what the line looked like in the days before photography. J. M. W. Turner painted his "Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway" in 1844 after looking out of the window of his train on Maidenhead Railway Bridge, and in 1862 William Powell Frith painted "", a large crowd scene on the platform at Paddington. The station itself was initially painted for Powell by W Scott Morton, an architect, and a train was specially provided by the GWR for the painting, in front of which a variety of travellers and railway staff form an animated focal point.


title: Great Western Railway

text: In 1935, as part of the celebration of the centenary of the GWR, the railway commissioned and published "Railway Ribaldry", a book of cartoons by W. Heath Robinson, giving that well-known cartoonist a free hand to re-imagine the history of the line for the amusement of its customers. The result is a 96-page softback book with alternating full-page cartoons and smaller vignettes, all on pertinent subjects.


title: Great Western Railway

text: The GWR has featured in many television programmes, such as the BBC children's drama series "God's Wonderful Railway" in 1980. It was also immortalised in Bob Godfrey's animated film "Great", which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film of 1975 which tells the story of Brunel's engineering accomplishments.


title: Great Western Railway

text: The GWR's memory is kept alive by several museums such as STEAM – the museum of the GWR (in the old Swindon railway works), and the Didcot Railway Centre, where there is an operating broad-gauge train. Preserved GWR lines include those from Totnes to Buckfastleigh, Paignton to Kingswear, Bishops Lydeard to Minehead, Kidderminster to Bridgnorth and Cheltenham to Broadway. Many other heritage railways and museums also have GWR locomotives or rolling stock in use or on display.


title: Great Western Railway

text: Numerous stations owned by Network Rail also continue to display much of their GWR heritage. This is seen not only at the large stations such as Paddington (built 1851, extended 1915) and Temple Meads (1840, 1875 & 1935) but other places such as Bath Spa (1840), (1878), (1879), (1897), and (1927). Many small stations are little changed from when they were opened, as there has been no need to rebuild them to cope with heavier traffic; good examples can be found at (1841), (1850, Network Rail's last surviving Brunel-style train shed), (1857), and (1859). Even where stations have been rebuilt, many fittings such as signs, manhole covers and seats can still be found with "GWR" cast into them.


title: Great Western Railway

text: The Great Western Main Line was considered as a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006 but rejected in 2011. The proposal comprised seven sites: Temple Meads (including Brunel's GWR offices, boardroom, train shed, the B&ER offices, and the bridge over the River Avon); Bath (including the route from Twerton Tunnel to Sydney Gardens); Middlehill and Box Tunnels; the Swindon area including Swindon railway works and village; Maidenhead Railway Bridge; Wharncliffe Viaduct; and Paddington station.


title: Great Western Railway

text: Several locomotives have been given the name "Great Western". The first was an Iron Duke class broad-gauge locomotive built in 1846, the first locomotive entirely constructed at the company's Swindon locomotive works. This was withdrawn in 1870, but in 1888 a newly built locomotive in the same class was given the same name; this was withdrawn four years later when the broad gauge was taken out of use. A standard-gauge 3031 class locomotive, number 3012, was then given the name. The last GWR locomotive to carry the name was Castle class number 7007, which continued to carry it in British Railways days.


title: Great Western Railway

text: The name later reappeared on some BR diesels. The first was 47500 which carried the name from 1979 until 1991. Another Class 47, this time 47815, had the name bestowed on it in 2005; it is currently (2009) in operation with Riviera Trains. High Speed Train power car number 43185 also carried the same name and was operated by the modern Great Western Railway until 18 May 2019.


title: Great Western Railway

text: A number of engineers trained at or worked for the GWR, before moving to other companies including Archibald Sturrock (GNR), Thomas Russell Crampton (SER among others), James Holden (GER), Harold Holcroft (SECR, SR), William Stanier (LMS), William Stroudley (HR, LBSCR).


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: The Good Life is a British sitcom, produced by BBC television. It ran from 4 April 1975 to 10 June 1978 on BBC 1 and was written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde. Opening with the midlife crisis of Tom Good, a 40-year-old plastics designer, it relates the joys and setbacks he and his wife Barbara experience when they attempt to escape a modern "rat race" lifestyle by "becoming totally self-sufficient" in their suburban house in Surbiton. In 2004, it came 9th in "Britain's Best Sitcom". The lead roles are taken by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: John Esmonde and Bob Larbey wrote "The Good Life" for Richard Briers, the only cast member who was well known before the series was broadcast. Larbey and Esmonde were inspired by Larbey's 40th birthday, which seemed to them a milestone in most people's lives. Their story has the Goods' decision to pursue self-sufficiency conflicting sharply with the habits of the Leadbetters, who live next door. The conflict between the neighbours, balanced with an increasingly close friendship, creates comic tension as that friendship is tried to its limits.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Peter Bowles was originally cast to play Jerry but was unavailable. (He later starred opposite Penelope Keith in "To the Manor Born".) Hannah Gordon was considered for the role of Barbara but was ruled out, having recently played a similar role in the BBC sitcom "My Wife Next Door". Esmonde and Larbey chose Felicity Kendal and Penelope Keith after seeing them on stage together in "The Norman Conquests".


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Outdoor filming took place in the northern Greater London suburb of Northwood, although the series was set in Surbiton, south-western Greater London. The producers searched extensively for a suitable pair of houses, eventually chancing on Kewferry Road, Northwood. The grounds of the Goods' house were returned to their original state after the filming of each series' inserts, and all livestock removed at the end of each day's filming.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: On his 40th birthday, Tom Good is no longer able to take his job seriously and gives up work as a draughtsman for a company that makes plastic toys for breakfast cereal packets. With their house in The Avenue, Surbiton, paid for, he and his wife Barbara adopt a sustainable, simple and nearly self-sufficient lifestyle while staying in their house. They turn their front and back gardens into allotments, growing soft fruit and vegetables. They introduce chickens, pigs (Pinky and Perky), a goat (Geraldine) and a cockerel (Lenin). They generate their own electricity with methane from animal waste, and attempt to make their own clothes. They sell or barter surplus crops for essentials they cannot make themselves. They cut their monetary requirements to the minimum, with varying success.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Their actions horrify their kindly but conventional neighbours, Margo and Jerry Leadbetter. Margo and Jerry were intended to be minor characters, but their relationship with one another and the Goods became an essential element of the series. Under the influence of the Goods' homemade wine, called "peapod burgundy" (the strength of which becomes a running joke), their intermingled attractions to one another become apparent.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Tom's career has been as a draughtsman, a job he thoroughly dislikes. He feels his life is meaningless, nothing more than work and consumption. Becoming self-sufficient is his idea, but Barbara, after expressing concerns, supports him. Tom is determined to succeed at self-sufficiency, and is mostly cheerful about his new lifestyle. Despite being an eternal optimist most of the time, Tom can also be obstinate and pigheaded, often to Barbara's detriment or irritation. On the few occasions that he is pessimistic, Barbara becomes the optimist.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Barbara is a normal, middle-class housewife when the series begins. While she sometimes wilts under Tom's determined and dominant nature, her sharp tongue puts her on an equal footing. She is the heart of the enterprise, while Tom's engineering brain designs and builds what they need. She occasionally misses the luxuries but her own determination to succeed, with Tom's single-minded persuasion, keeps her going.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Jerry works for JJM, having joined the same day as Tom. (Jerry and Tom knew each other for at least two years before they went to work for JJM.) By his own account, Jerry has risen to senior management through cunning and self-promotion rather than talent – he tells Tom directly that he has only 10% of Tom's talent. As the series progresses, he moves within striking distance of the managing director's job. Jerry is convinced that the Goods' go-it-alone attempt will fail and on several occasions pleads with Tom to come back. But he grows to appreciate the character it has taken for Tom to leave the system. He is henpecked at home but has the strength to make his case.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Margo cannot understand her neighbours' lifestyle, but their friendship is important to her. As a child, she was bullied at school for having no sense of humour. A social climber, staunchly Conservative and unafraid to challenge anyone who gets on her nerves, Margo nevertheless reveals a heart of gold. She involves herself with organisations such as the Pony Club and the Music Society, always wishing to play the lead role, although frequently the Goods' activities frustrate her attempts to impress her social circle. Margo is occasionally made aware of her faults by others, including her husband, and is not too proud to apologise.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Andrew, "Andy" or "Sir", is managing director of JJM. He feigns ignorance of Tom's existence ("Mr Ummm of the Fourth Floor"), but once Tom leaves, Andy becomes desperate to bring him back. His wife, Felicity, is more relaxed. She is one of the few characters to support the Goods and finds their attempt at self-sufficiency exciting. She says, "I wanted to do something exciting when I was young, and then I met Andrew and that was the end of that." They have one son, unseen, called Martin. Andrew calls Tom and Barbara "Tim and Fatima", but in the episode "Anniversary" admits he has always known their names and pretends to forget – "an old executive ploy to put people at a disadvantage." Andrew appears alone after series 1 with one more reference to Felicity by Jerry and Margo in the episode "Mutiny".


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Mrs Weaver buys the house next door to Tom & Barbara in series 2, much to the relief of Margo, who approves of Mrs Weaver's conservative values as opposed to the two students boarding with the Goods who had initially threatened to purchase the house. Initially, the Goods and Mrs Weaver have an embarrassing introduction to each other, but when Mrs Weaver is impressed by the pottery skills of Tom, they become friendly. Mrs Weaver's enthusiasm for Tom's pottery encourages him to take up making ceramics, but he baulks at the idea of doing it professionally. Mrs. Weaver is not seen in series 3 and by series 4, it is revealed she has moved away, leaving the house empty, but with a full tank of oil. The Goods contact her and (off screen) she agrees to them taking the oil, but they discover the leaking tank has destroyed the Good's garden.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Several characters are mentioned but unseen. Margo is at odds with Miss Dolly Mountshaft, dictatorial leading light of the Music Society. The overweight Mrs Dooms-Paterson is an equally dictatorial acquaintance and a fellow member of the Pony Club. Mr and Mrs Pearson, the Leadbetters' gardener and housekeeper, are mentioned in several episodes.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: "The Good Life" aired for four series and two specials from 4 April 1975 to 10 June 1978. The final one-off episode, "When I'm Sixty-Five", was a Royal Command Performance in front of The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and senior BBC management. The cast and crew were presented to The Queen and Prince Philip after the recording. The episode was originally broadcast in a 45-minute slot with footage either side of the 30-minute episode showing the Royal Party entering and exiting. The Command Performance came about after the BBC invited Queen Elizabeth to attend a recording of a television programme for the first time to mark her Silver Jubilee and to this end, Buckingham Palace was asked to confirm her favourite entertainment show. Reputedly, this was "The Good Life", but this was problematic as the series had ended before it was possible to facilitate the Queen's attendance. Thus a 'Christmas Special' episode was commissioned, but it proved impossible for the Queen's schedule to accommodate the recording and a further subsequent episode was commissioned, although this was not recorded until 1978, after the jubilee year. Despite being informed that "The Good Life" was the Queen's favourite, when Felicity Kendal's son presented her with a bouquet upon her arrival at TV Centre, the Queen asked "who is Felicity Kendal?"


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Two novelisations of "The Good Life" were written, both by Esmonde and Larbey. The first, "The Good Life", was published in 1976 by Penguin Books, and novelised the first series. The second, "More of The Good Life", was published in 1977, also by Penguin, and featured three episodes from series two and four episodes from series three.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: The series broadcast in Australia on ABC and in Canada on CBC. It was also seen in South Africa, Zimbabwe, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries as well as Belgium and the Netherlands.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: In the United States "The Good Life" was retitled "Good Neighbors" to avoid confusion with a short-lived American sitcom of the same name, and was shown by most PBS stations across the country starting in the early 1980s. By the late 1980s, it was rarely seen but returned to PBS stations after CBS/Fox Video released selected episodes on VHS in 1998.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: After the success of "The Good Life", the four cast members were given their own "vehicles" commissioned by the then Head of Comedy and producer of "The Good Life", John Howard Davies. Immediately after the series ended, Larbey & Esmonde created a new show for Richard Briers, co-starring Michael Gambon. "The Other One" was a seven-part sitcom that aired on BBC1 in the autumn of 1977, running concurrently with "The Good Life Christmas Special – Silly, but it's fun". A second series of 6 episodes aired in early 1979. Keith starred alongside Peter Bowles in "To the Manor Born", which began in September 1979. Eddington joined Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds in "Yes Minister" and its sequel "Yes Prime Minister". Kendal, who had become something of a sex symbol, went on to join Elspet Gray in "Solo", and Jane Asher in "The Mistress". Briers later starred alongside Penelope Wilton and Peter Egan in the popular sitcom "Ever Decreasing Circles" again written by Larbey & Esmonde, and notable for Briers' character being the polar opposite of Tom Good. In 1992, Kendal and Eddington reunited in the Channel Four adaptation of Mary Wesley's "The Camomile Lawn".


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: In 2003, the BBC broadcast the mockumentary "", describing Margo's life since the series had finished, although the original actors appear only in archive footage. In 2007, Briers and Kendal were reunited on ITV1 series "That's What I Call Television" in a mockup of the Goods' kitchen.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: "The Good Life" features in an episode of "The Young Ones" titled "Sick" where Vyvyan (played by Adrian Edmondson) rips apart the title page after the first ten seconds of the opening credits of this show while criticising it, saying, "It's so bloody nice! Felicity 'Treacle' Kendal and Richard 'Sugar-Flavoured Snot' Briers! What do they do now?! Chocolate bloody Button ads, that's what! They're nothing but a couple of reactionary stereotypes, confirming the myth that everyone in Britain is a lovable middle-class eccentric. And I hate them!"


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Giles Coren and Sue Perkins worked together on a six-episode series "Giles and Sue Live the Good Life", broadcast to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original series. In the series, they recreated an attempt by two city-dwellers to adjust to country life, in ways such as raising their own barnyard animals, creating their own Christmas decorations and knitting their own clothing.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: In late 2020, a podcast celebrating sitcoms of the 1970s – The Sitcom Archive Deep Dive Overdrive — was launched. The weekly show examines and celebrates every episode ever made of "The Good Life" made throughout its first series.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: Some have connected the increasing popularity of hobby farms to the success of TV shows like "The Good Life".


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: The complete series of "The Good Life" is available in the US (Region 1) under the title "Good Neighbors". Series 1–3 were released as a box set in 2005; Series 4 was released in 2006 and includes the Royal Command Performance.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: The first UK (Region 2) DVD release omits two episodes (the first episode from series 1 and one from series 3). All four complete series were rereleased in their entirety on 29 March 24 May 19 July and 20 September 2010; the complete boxset has also been rereleased.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: All four series have been released in their entirety in Australia (Region 4), albeit in NTSC format rather than the PAL format typical in Australia. The series 4 release (on two DVDs) also contains an interview with Briers as well as the Royal Command Performance episode.


title: The Good Life (1975 TV series)

text: A stage adaptation of the sitcom was due to premiere at the Theatre Royal, Bath, embarking on a UK tour in October 2021. It was written and directed by Jeremy Sams and starred Rufus Hound as Tom Good.


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: Mark Lewis Jones (born 31 August, 1964) is a Welsh actor, whose roles include that of a First Order Captain Moden Canady in "", a police inspector in BBC drama series "55 Degrees North", a whaler in the film "", soldier Tecton in "Troy" and Rob Morgan in the series "Stella". He is known for being the voice of Letho of Gulet the King Slayer in "" and "".


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: Mark Lewis Jones was born in Rhosllannerchrugog near Wrexham, Wales. He began acting as a teenager with the Clwyd Youth Theatre and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: His television roles include appearances in "This Life", "Holby City", "Spooks", "Murphy's Law", "Waking the Dead" and "Torchwood." Perhaps his most significant role for BBC television was as Detective Inspector Russell Bing in the police drama "55 Degrees North", in which he played an outspoken, opinionated and at times humorous police officer, in a complex and intricately crafted series.


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: He also played Detective Sergeant Ray Lloyd in police drama "Murder Prevention". His two most renowned appearances in Hollywood blockbusters were as Hogg the Whaler in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", and Tecton, a soldier in "Troy".


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: In 2001, he portrayed Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur and second husband of Igraine, in the American TV miniseries "The Mists of Avalon". He played Irfon in S4C's "Con Passionate", Josi in Sian James' "Calon Gaeth", and Bryan Jones in "Y Pris".


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: In 2009 he was a guest in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, broadcast on 11 June on BBC Two Wales.


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: Jones auditioned for "" (2015) but did not get the part. However, he was later offered the part of Captain Canady for the sequel, "". He appears prominently in the opening sequences and says he played the part with "a posh Welsh accent".


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: In 2016, Jones won a BAFTA Cymru award for Best Actor in The Passing / Yr Ymadawiad. He was nominated in the same category at the 2013 Awards for "Stella", 2017 Awards for "The Lighthouse", 2018 Awards for "Keeping Faith" and in 2021 for "Gangs of London".


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: In 2014, Jones took part in the Marathon des Sables, in the Sahara Desert, with fellow Welsh actor Richard Harrington. In April 2018 he ran the inaugural Wales Marathon held in Newport.


title: Mark Lewis Jones

text: Jones is an Ambassador for "Believe Organ Donor Support", "Marie Curie UK" and "Cerebral Palsy Cymru".


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: Jennifer Melfi is a fictional character on the HBO TV series "The Sopranos". She is the psychiatrist of Mafia boss Tony Soprano. She is portrayed by Lorraine Bracco.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: Melfi is an Italian-American, with her father's family hailing from Caserta. She is a graduate of Bard College and Tufts University School of Medicine and has an upscale lifestyle, living in a three-bedroom condominium in Essex Fells, New Jersey and shopping frequently at gourmet Italian shops (as revealed in "Meadowlands").


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: At the start of the series, Tony Soprano, a local mobster, was referred to Melfi, a psychiatrist, after having a panic attack. He tells her he is a waste management consultant, but Melfi knows he is a mob boss. Throughout season 1, during the power struggle between Tony and Uncle Junior over who will be boss, Junior informs Mikey "Grab Bag" Palmice that Tony is seeing a psychiatrist. This makes Junior, Mikey, and all other members of Junior's crew who were informed extremely angry and paranoid, for they fear Melfi could be potentially used as a witness to testify in court against the activities of the DiMeo Crime Family.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: In the season 1 penultimate episode "Isabella", two hit men are sent by Junior and Mikey Palmice in an attempt to assassinate Tony for supposedly giving information to Melfi. The hit fails. One assailant is inadvertently killed by the other while trying to shoot Tony in his driver's seat from the passenger side after Tony grabs the first assassin's gun. Tony throws the other hit man off onto the road, not killing, but injuring him. Tony laughs ecstatically but has taken his eyes off the road long enough to crash his SUV into a parked car, knocking him unconscious.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: Tony later informs Melfi that his enemies are aware of their therapy sessions, and she must go into hiding to avoid getting killed until everything blows over. To save his own life and Melfi's, Junior's top lieutenants Mikey Palmice and Chucky Signore are killed, the latter by Tony himself. Junior is only saved by being arrested by the FBI on racketeering charges. In the season 2 premiere episode "Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office...", Melfi is shown doing business and living in a small roadside motel in Wayne, New Jersey, telling her patients her office is being remodeled. After the last troublesome member of Junior's crew, Philly "Spoons" Parisi, is murdered, Tony informs Melfi that "it's over" and that she can go back to her normal life.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: In the season 3 episode "Employee of the Month", Melfi is walking alone through the parking garage to her car when she is attacked by a man. He grabs her from behind and after she attempts to escape and cries out for help, proceeds to drag her to the stairway of her building, where he violently rapes her. He leaves her lying helpless in the stairway, crying. At the hospital, she is visited by her ex-husband, Richard, who is relieved to find she is alright. Although her rapist is arrested, he is subsequently released because of the chain of custody is lost by the police.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: This infuriates Melfi, in shock that he was released. She comments to her psychiatrist and colleague Elliot Kupferberg, "I could have that asshole squashed like a bug," meaning that she could easily have her rapist killed by telling Tony that she was raped. She also inadvertently reveals to Kupferberg that the patient she is treating is Tony Soprano. More shock comes when Melfi is in the fast-food restaurant where the rapist works. She sees his smiling picture on the wall as Employee of the Month (hence the episode title).


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: Melfi herself feels a crazed desire for revenge and knows that a word to Tony Soprano would obtain it, but, like her ex-husband, she will obey the social contract. Later, Dr. Melfi has a dream. She buys a soda from a vending machine; when she reaches into the machine to get it, her hand is trapped inside. A Rottweiler appears and terrifies her. Then the rapist advances toward her. The dog turns and mauls the rapist, who cries in agony. With Kupferberg, she understands the meaning: the dog is Tony Soprano taking revenge on her behalf.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: She tells Tony and others she has been in a car accident. When he sees her, Tony is shocked and concerned by her injuries. He tells her he is now ready to see a behaviorist. She says, "No," and starts crying. He goes to her, lays his hands gently on her, and asks what is the matter. She composes herself and asks him to return to his seat. He goes back, but asks, "What? You wanna say something?" After a tense pause, she says, "No."


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: Melfi sees Dr. Kupferberg on a regular basis. In "The Second Coming", he tells her that a recent study has shown that talk therapy may only help a sociopath become more sociopathic. Elliot has commented that treating Tony Soprano gives her a "vicarious thrill". Melfi tells Elliott she used to find Tony attractive at first, but no longer. She does not mention that shortly before this session, she had an erotic dream about herself and Tony.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: Melfi attends a dinner party with Elliot and other colleagues, but the conversation turns to the recent study claiming sociopaths take advantage of talk therapy. Kupferberg angers and shocks her by revealing to all present that Tony Soprano is her patient. However, she reads the study at home and is convinced of its findings. At his next session Tony is relaxed, while her responses become sarcastic and aggressive. When she says she intends to cease treating him, he is taken aback and hurt: "We're making progress! It's been seven years!" She says, "You don't give a shit about commitments, about what I do." She waits for him to go, then closes the door on him.


title: Jennifer Melfi

text: David Chase modeled the character of Jennifer Melfi after his own psychiatrist. Bracco played the wife of a mobster in "Goodfellas" (1990) and she was originally asked to play the role of Carmela Soprano. She took the role of Jennifer Melfi instead because she wanted to try something different and felt that the part of the highly educated Dr. Melfi would be more of a challenge for her.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Jack Philip Barsky (born Albrecht Dittrich, 18 May 1949) is a German-American author, IT specialist and former sleeper agent of the KGB who spied on the United States from 1978 to 1988. Exposed after the Cold War, Barsky became a resource for U.S. counterintelligence agencies and was allowed to remain in the United States. His autobiography, "Deep Undercover", was published in 2017, and he frequently speaks on his experiences and as an expert on espionage.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Dittrich was born in Reichenbach, Upper Lusatia, East Germany, only a few weeks after the partition of Germany, and grew up in Jena. His father, a schoolteacher, was an adamant Marxist–Leninist. He also has a brother, Günther, who is three years younger. When Dittrich was 14, he was sent away to boarding school. Shortly after that, his parents divorced. He earned a degree in chemistry at the University of Jena.


title: Jack Barsky

text: In 1969, Dittrich was a senior at the University of Jena when he was approached by someone from the East German Secret Police who asked if he was interested in a job at Carl Zeiss Jena. This turned out to be a ruse, however, and he was offered a job with the KGB. The next year, he was studying for a doctorate in chemistry and working as an assistant professor when he was sent to East Berlin for several weeks of training with the KGB. He was told that the Soviet Union only had use for spies who were willing participants, and thus he was free to turn down the offer, but that he had only 24 hours to decide. Intrigued, he decided to join.


title: Jack Barsky

text: In February 1973, Dittrich announced to his family and friends that he was becoming a diplomat and leaving university to move to East Berlin. The KGB taught him Morse code, cryptography and techniques to avoid surveillance, as well as English. He was sent to Moscow in 1975, where his English was evaluated by an American woman who had married a Russian. He underwent two further years of training in the Soviet Union.


title: Jack Barsky

text: In 1978, Dittrich was sent to the United States as a sleeper agent. His alias, Jack Philip Barsky, was taken from a child who had died in 1955 at the age of 10, whose name KGB agents had found at a Jewish cemetery in Maryland. He was also given a back story that his mother had been German to explain the occasional accented word. He told his family that he was on a five-year mission to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a top-secret facility that was home to the Soviet space program; he wrote dozens of letters to his family in advance that were mailed periodically from Baikonur.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Dittrich arrived in Chicago on 8 October 1978, flying in by way of Mexico, using a Canadian passport with the name William Dyson. The KGB provided him with Barsky's birth certificate and $6,000 in cash. His mission was to get a U.S. passport, insert himself into American society, to make contacts with foreign policy think tanks and "get close" to President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in order to influence policy.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Dittrich rented an apartment in New York City and assumed the identity of Jack Barsky. His instructions had been to use the birth certificate to get a passport, but the bureaucracy proved more difficult than the KGB had anticipated. He established his identity first by obtaining a membership card at the American Museum of Natural History, followed by a library card, a driver's license and finally a Social Security card. He worked as a bicycle messenger and began attending Baruch College, studying computer programming.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky discovered that the people who trained him did not have an authentic understanding of Americans, and he struggled at first with his assignment. While his instructions were to infiltrate political circles and get close to Brzezinski, he was not given specific instructions on how he was supposed to accomplish that. He also learned that while his English was excellent, he was very pushy and argumentative when dealing with people. He was shocked when he was confronted with this fact by a fed-up friend. He realized that he was essentially too East German to fit in.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky received weekly radio transmissions from the Soviets and at night spent hours decrypting messages. Photos and documents hidden in small canisters were delivered to the KGB via dead drops around New York. His assignments included tracking Nikolai Khokhlov, a Soviet defector living in California and a KGB spy gone rogue in Canada, and even writing an assessment of the American public's perception of the Soviet–Afghan War. Every two years, he went back to East Germany for three weeks of vacation and debriefing, always returning to the U.S. using fake passports. In 1984, he began working for MetLife and was able to provide the Soviets with programming code that helped their computer scientists keep up with the West.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky noted that the Soviets in the 1980s were trying to recruit right-wing radicals as sources. He created profiles on potential right-wing recruits. However, Barsky never learned of the outcome of this effort as separate agents were responsible for the attempted recruitment. Barsky also stated, "Many a right-wing radical had given information to the Soviets under a 'false flag', thinking they were working with a Western ally, such as Israel, when in fact their contact was a KGB operative."


title: Jack Barsky

text: On Barsky's first trip back to East Germany in 1980, he was allowed to marry his girlfriend, an accepted practice as the KGB believed a married spy with a spouse back home would be less likely to defect. He married again in the United States in 1986 after a woman he was dating, who was an illegal immigrant from Guyana, needed help to get a green card. He initially married her as a favor, but after she got pregnant, he then tried to make the marriage work. For several years, he led a double life, with a wife and son in East Germany and a wife and daughter in the United States. His two families did not know about each other. He later reflected that he kept his two identities separate in his mind. He told "Der Spiegel" in 2015, "I did a good job of separating the two. Barsky had nothing to do with Dittrich and Dittrich wasn't responsible for Barsky."


title: Jack Barsky

text: In December 1988, while Barsky was living in Queens, the KGB apparently believed his cover had been compromised. He was alerted on his way to work when he saw a small splash of red paint on the subway platform. The red paint was a predefined signal of the highest emergency, ordering him to immediately report to the Soviet Embassy in Canada to return to East Germany. Concerned about the welfare of his infant daughter, Barsky decided he could not return. He ignored it for several months, until another KGB agent met him in the subway and quietly told him he needed to follow orders or he would wind up dead. He falsely told his handlers he had contracted HIV and needed to stay in the United States for treatment, relying on the KGB's fear of HIV/AIDS being spread in the Soviet Union. He promised them he would never defect. They either accepted his lie or were unable to extract him.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Meanwhile, the KGB reportedly told his German wife, who knew he was a spy, that he was dead. She reported him missing and then filed for divorce. His mother, who last saw him in 1986, truly believed he had gone missing in the Soviet Union. For years, she desperately searched for him, contacting the German embassies in Moscow and even writing to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1996, investigators with the German Foreign Office determined that the story he had told his mother was a lie. The project in Baikonur that he had claimed to be working on for many years had ended in 1978. His mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and died without knowing the truth.


title: Jack Barsky

text: In 1989, the Berlin Wall began coming down, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later. In 1992, a KGB defector to Great Britain named Vasili Mitrokhin provided information to MI6 about Soviet spy operations around the world, including the name "Barsky" in the United States.


title: Jack Barsky

text: The FBI located Barsky in 1994 and observed him for three years, bugging his house and even buying the home next to his in Pennsylvania. An FBI agent moved into the house next door and monitored Barsky's every movement to determine whether or not he was still an active agent in a sleeper cell. The FBI contacted the elderly parents of the real Jack Barsky, who had died as a child in 1955, out of fear they would happen to discover their dead son's identity had been stolen and would alert local authorities. Although upset, the Barskys agreed not to disclose the information.


title: Jack Barsky

text: The FBI investigation quickly escalated when one day in 1997, during a fight with his soon-to-be ex-wife being recorded by the FBI, Barsky confessed that he was actually a spy. Shortly after that, Barsky was pulled over by the police on his way home from work and taken into FBI custody. During interrogation, Barsky quickly confessed his real identity and that he had stopped spying in 1988. He shared his knowledge of KGB espionage training and the "modus operandi" of Russian sleeper agents. The FBI determined that he was no longer an active spy and found him to be a valuable source of information about spy techniques. He was never charged with any crime.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Since his uncovering, Barsky has revealed the truth about his life and activities to his families, both in the United States and in Germany. He aided the FBI and the NSA, and in 2014 became a U.S. citizen. Barsky continued to work in IT, and was the chief information officer for energy systems, and in 2011 joined the New York Independent System Operator as a Director of Software Technologies in upstate New York. He did not tell his employer about his past when he was hired, and he was fired in 2015 after he shared his story on "60 Minutes". It is unknown if the FBI helped him get the job at the grid, which has a very strict background check.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky released a book in 2017 about his experiences, "Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America".


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky has appeared on CNN as an expert on espionage, commenting on Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak's interactions with Donald Trump's associates.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky also appeared on the YouTube Channel of Insider Inc. judging the realism of depiction of spies in movies


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky married three times. First, as Albrecht Dittrich, he married Gerlinde, with whom he had a son, Matthias Dittrich, born in 1981. While living as Jack Barsky, he married Penelope, an immigrant from Guyana, when she became pregnant in 1986. They had a daughter, Chelsea, born 1987, followed by a son, Jessie. When his daughter (who now goes by Chelsea Dittrich) was 21, she began the search to find and meet her half-brother's family in Germany. He became a Christian after meeting his third wife, Shawna, a devout Christian from Jamaica. For many years, she thought the story he had confided in her about once being a spy was a fantasy. He now has a good relationship with his eldest son, Matthias, and through him has a granddaughter, Marlena.


title: Jack Barsky

text: Barsky lived in Schaghticoke, New York until 2016. He now resides near Atlanta, Georgia, with Shawna, and their daughter, Trinity, born in 2010. The FBI agent who lived next door and interrogated him after his detainment became a close friend and godfather to Trinity.


title: David Ige

text: David Yutaka Ige (; born January 15, 1957) is an American politician and engineer who served as the eighth governor of Hawaii from 2014 to 2022. A Democrat, he served in the Hawaii State Senate from 1995 to 2014 and the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1985 to 1995.


title: David Ige

text: In the 2014 gubernatorial election, he defeated incumbent Governor Neil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary, and won the general election over Republican nominee Duke Aiona. Ige was reelected in 2018, defeating Republican nominee Andria Tupola.


title: David Ige

text: Ige was born and raised in Pearl City, Hawaii, the fifth of six sons of Tokio and Tsurue Ige, who are of Japanese Okinawan descent. During World War II, Tokio served in the 100th Battalion/442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. After the war, Tokio Ige worked as an ironworker on construction projects while Tsurue Ige worked as a nurse and dental hygienist. Tokio Ige died in 2005 at age 86. Tsurue, now retired, resides in Pearl City.


title: David Ige

text: David Ige attended public schools in Pearl City—Pearl City Elementary School, Highlands Intermediate School, and Pearl City High School—and participated in community sports, playing in the Pearl City Little League for eight years. At the newly built Pearl City High School, Ige excelled in many activities. In his junior year he was elected student body vice president, and he served as senior class president the next year. His campaign for student body president stressed diversity and an end to bullying. Ige also led his varsity tennis team to a championship and was honored as the "Scholar-Athlete of the Year." He graduated fifth in his class of more than 500 students in 1975.


title: David Ige

text: Ige was accepted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. At UH he served as student body secretary and an officer of several honor societies as well as treasurer and vice-president of his fraternity, Phi Delta Sigma.


title: David Ige

text: Ige met his wife, Dawn, at the University of Hawaii. They have three children: Lauren, Amy, and Matthew.


title: David Ige

text: After college, while working for GTE Hawaiian Tel, Ige took graduate courses at UH and earned a Master of Business Administration degree in "decisions sciences". In 1986 "Hawaii Business Magazine" named him one of the university's Top 10 MBA students.


title: David Ige

text: Before being elected governor of Hawaii, Ige served as project manager with Robert A. Ige and Associates, Inc., Vice President of engineering at NetEnterprise, and senior principal engineer at Pihana Pacific, which established the first world-class data center and carrier-neutral Internet exchange in Hawaii and the Pacific. Before that, he worked as an engineer for GTE Hawaiian Tel for more than 18 years.


title: David Ige

text: Ige was originally appointed to the Hawaii House of Representatives on December 2, 1985, by Governor George Ariyoshi after Representative Arnold Morgado resigned to run for a seat on the Honolulu City Council. He served in the Hawaii State Senate from 1995 to 2015. During his legislative career, Ige served as chair of nine different committees. He focused much of his career as a legislator on information and telecommunications policy, and co-authoried the Hawaii Telecommunications and Information Industries Act that established the state information network and created the Hawaii Information Network Corporation. Ige was at the center of Hawaii's efforts to diversify its economy. He was responsible for establishing seed capital and venture capital programs, software development initiatives, and technology transfer programs. Ige was a member of the inaugural 1997 class of the Pacific Century Fellows.


title: David Ige

text: Ige was reelected to the Hawaii State Senate in 2012, defeating Republican challenger and former U.S. Naval Air crewman, Army Captain, and small business executive Mike Greco. Greco was the first challenger Ige faced in a general election in over a decade.


title: David Ige

text: Ige ran against incumbent Neil Abercrombie in the Democratic primary for the 2014 gubernatorial election, after Abercrombie upset the supporters of late US senator Daniel Inouye by ignoring his wish to be replaced by Colleen Hanabusa. Though outspent in the race, Ige defeated Abercrombie, 66% to 31%. Ige's victory made him the first candidate to ever defeat an incumbent governor of Hawaii in a primary election.


title: David Ige

text: Ige faced Republican Duke Aiona and Independent Mufi Hannemann in the general election. He won by 12 percentage points.


title: David Ige

text: Ige was sworn in as the eighth governor of Hawaii on December 1, 2014, with Lieutenant Governor Shan Tsutsui, in the Hawaii State Capitol Rotunda. Ige is the first person of Okinawan descent to be elected governor of a U.S. state.


title: David Ige

text: Governor Ige's inauguration theme of "honoring the past and charting a new tomorrow" was on display throughout the ceremony, which paid tribute to his father who served in the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the U.S. Army during World War II alongside the late U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye.


title: David Ige

text: In October 2015, Ige declared a state of emergency due to the escalating scale of the homelessness problem; in 2015, Hawaii had the highest rate of homeless persons per capita in the United States. In June 2017, following President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, Ige signed two bills that respectively committed the state to meeting regardless its greenhouse gas emission targets under the Paris Agreement and established a carbon reduction and soil health task force.


title: David Ige

text: After an incoming missile alert was erroneously sent to all smartphones in the state and broadcast over local television and radio on January 13, 2018, Ige apologized for the mistake, which he attributed to human error during a shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. He pledged to reevaluate the state's emergency procedures to prevent a recurrence of the false alert, which caused widespread panic and confusion in the state.


title: David Ige

text: On February 22, 2019, President Trump appointed Ige to the bipartisan Council of Governors, on which Ige served as co-chair.


title: Spanish moss

text: Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America, the Southern United States, and West Indies. It has been naturalized in Queensland (Australia). It is known as "grandpa's beard" in French Polynesia.


title: Spanish moss

text: Most known in the United States, it commonly is found on the southern live oak ("Quercus virginiana") and bald cypress ("Taxodium distichum") in the lowlands, swamps, and marshes of the mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, from the coast of southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to southern Arkansas and Texas.


title: Spanish moss

text: The specific name of the plant, "usneoides", means "resembling "Usnea"", a lichen. While it superficially resembles its namesake, it is neither a lichen such as "Usnea" nor a moss, and it is not native to Spain.


title: Spanish moss

text: It is a flowering plant (angiosperm) in the family Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) that grows hanging from tree branches in full sun through partial shade. Formerly, it was placed in the genera "Anoplophytum", "Caraguata", and "Renealmia". The northern limit of its natural range is Northampton County, Virginia, with colonial-era reports of it in southern Maryland where no populations are now known to exist. Its primary range is in the southeastern United States (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) through Argentina, where the climate is warm enough and a relatively high average humidity occurs.


title: Spanish moss

text: It has been introduced to locations around the world with similar conditions, including Hawaii and Australia.


title: Spanish moss

text: Spanish moss consists of one or more slender stems, bearing alternate thin, curved or curly, and heavily scaled leaves long and broad, that grow vegetatively in a chain-like fashion (pendant), forming hanging structures of up to .


title: Spanish moss

text: The plant has no roots, and its brown, green, yellow, or grey flowers are tiny and inconspicuous. It propagates both by seed and vegetatively by fragments that are carried on the wind and stick to tree limbs or that are carried to other locations by birds as nesting material.


title: Spanish moss

text: Spanish moss is not parasitic, it is an epiphyte that absorbs nutrients and water through its own leaves from the air and rain falling upon it. While its presence rarely kills the trees on which it grows, it occasionally becomes so thick that, by shading the leaves of the tree, it slows the growth rate of the tree. It can use the water-conserving strategy of crassulacean acid metabolism for photosynthesis.


title: Spanish moss

text: In the southern U.S., the plant seems to show preferences for southern live oak ("Quercus virginiana") and bald cypress ("Taxodium distichum") because of their high rates of foliar mineral leaching (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus) that provides an abundant supply of nutrients to the epiphytic plant. It also can colonize other tree species such as sweetgum ("Liquidambar styraciflua"), crepe-myrtles ("Lagerstroemia" spp.), other oaks, and even pines.


title: Spanish moss

text: Spanish moss shelters a number of creatures, including rat snakes and three species of bats. One species of jumping spider, "Pelegrina tillandsiae", has been found only on Spanish moss. Although widely presumed to infest Spanish moss, in one study of the ecology of the plant, chiggers were not present among thousands of other arthropods identified on the plant.


title: Spanish moss

text: Spanish moss often is associated with Southern Gothic imagery and Deep South culture, due to its propensity for growing in subtropical humid southern locales such as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, east and south Texas, and extreme southern Virginia.


title: Spanish moss

text: One anecdote about the origin of Spanish moss is called "The Meanest Man Who Ever Lived", in which the man's white hair grew very long and got caught on trees.


title: Spanish moss

text: Spanish moss was introduced to Hawaii in the nineteenth century. It became a popular ornamental and lei plant. In Hawaii, it was named "ʻumiʻumi-o-Dole" after the beard of Sanford B. Dole, the first president of the Provisional Government of Hawaii. It also is known as hinahina, ("silvery") borrowing the name of the native heliotrope used in lei until shoreline development made access difficult. It has become a substitute for the native hinahina in lei used for pageantry. In the early 21st Century the plant was heavily marketed as "Pele's hair"/"lauoho-o-Pele," which actually refers to a type of filamentous volcanic glass.)


title: Spanish moss

text: Spanish moss has been used for various purposes, including building insulation, mulch, packing material, mattress stuffing, and fiber. In the early 1900s it was used commercially in the padding of car seats. More than 10,000 tons of processed Spanish-moss was produced in 1939. Today, it is collected in smaller quantities for use in arts and crafts, as bedding for flower gardens, and as an ingredient in bousillage, a traditional wall covering material. In some parts of Latin America and Louisiana, it is used in Nativity scenes.


title: Spanish moss

text: In the desert regions of southwestern United States, sometimes dried Spanish moss is used in the manufacture of evaporative coolers, colloquially known as "swamp coolers" (and in some areas as "desert coolers"), which are used to cool homes and offices much less expensively than air conditioners. The cooling technology uses a pump that squirts water onto a pad made of Spanish moss plants; a fan then pulls air through the pad, and into the building. Evaporation of the water on the pads serves to reduce air temperature, cooling the building.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Thomas James Laughlin (born February 13, 1971), is an American professional wrestler and promoter better known by the ring name Tommy Dreamer. He is signed to Impact Wrestling and is the owner and promoter of the House of Hardcore (HOH) promotion.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer is best known for his tenures with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the 1990s and early 2000s and with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (previously the World Wrestling Federation (WWF)), primarily from 2001 to 2010. During this time, he held numerous championships including, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship (which he held twice, being the only man to capture the title in both the original ECW and WWE's ECW brand). He has also held the ECW World Tag Team Championship and WWF/E Hardcore Championship. Dubbed the "heart and soul" of ECW, Dreamer regularly featured in prominent storylines for the promotion as well as holding a number of back office roles.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer has also appeared for notable promotions such as Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor (ROH), and AAA. After departing from WWE in 2010, Dreamer joined Impact Wrestling (then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling) and was a part of an ECW-inspired stable known as EV 2.0. In 2012, Dreamer started his own wrestling promotion called House of Hardcore, named in honor of ECW's former wrestling school of the same name. Since then, Dreamer has made sporadic appearances with WWE in 2012, 2015, and 2016, as well as wrestling on the independent circuit.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Laughlin was trained in professional wrestling by Johnny Rodz. His first notable foray into the business came when he worked in International World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW) under the name T.D. Madison. While there, he and his storyline brother, G.Q., held the IWCCW Tag Team Championship three times in 1991. He changed his name to Tommy Dreamer, reportedly after taking his given first name, and adding "Dreamer" in tribute to Dusty Rhodes, in 1992 while working in the New England based Century Wrestling Alliance (CWA). While in the CWA, he became its first Heavyweight Champion by defeating "Mr. USA" Tony Atlas in a tournament final held in Wallingford, Connecticut, on November 5, 1992. He held the title for over four months before losing it to The Iron Sheik in Burlington, Vermont. On August 17, 1993, Tommy Dreamer wrestled a dark match at a WWF Superstars taping in White Plains, NY, losing to The Brooklyn Brawler.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer joined Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in October 1993 at NWA Bloodfest. His first major gimmick in the company had him wrestling in matches in garish green suspenders and acting as something of a "pretty boy" – at least in relation to the rest of the ECW roster. This gimmick got him soundly booed by crowds, even when he became the first person in wrestling history to kick out of the pin that follows the "Superfly Splash" of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka at The Night the Line Was Crossed.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: After Michael Fay was arrested in Singapore and sentenced to a caning, ECW head booker Paul Heyman decided to capitalize on the publicity by holding a Singapore Cane match between Dreamer and the Sandman – with the loser having to take ten lashes. After losing the match, Dreamer took his lashes, then asked the Sandman for another, causing the crowd to feel sympathy for him as he took the extra and another. This was a launching point to an angle that ended up blurring the divide between faces and heels in wrestling, as well as start a new way of working the fans, especially the "smarks" – fans with some amount of inside information. In a later match, Dreamer kayfabe accidentally blinded the Sandman, first by knocking a lit cigarette into his eye, then hitting in the other with a Singapore cane. Immediately after, Dreamer seemed to break kayfabe and started aiding the Sandman. He professed that he "didn't mean to do it" and that it was "an accident" as other wrestlers – face and heel – swarmed out to help. The feud continued with Sandman planning to announce his retirement at an ECW show, only to attack Dreamer and reveal he was never actually blind. The feud ended when Dreamer defeated the Sandman in a No DQ/No-Holds-Barred match.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Though the blind Sandman angle was his first "major" feud in ECW, his later, years-long feud against Raven that started in January 1995 is arguably his most memorable. The two were portrayed as childhood friends who had been competing in different ways their entire lives. Raven's entrance into ECW had him accompanied by Beulah McGillicutty, an overweight girl from their kayfabe childhood who had a crush on Dreamer and was now a Penthouse Pet. Dreamer and Raven (and Raven's Nest) feuded for two years, with Dreamer never getting a win over Raven until Raven's last match in ECW, and a Loser Leaves Town match at Wrestlepalooza 1997. During the course of the feud, Beulah had left Raven and was Tommy's valet.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Throughout 1996, during the feud with Raven, Dreamer was also involved in an additional feud with "Prime Time" Brian Lee, who was brought in as Raven's bodyguard. The two had several encounters that ended with Dreamer being chokeslammed through tables. During other fights the pair brawled outdoors onto the street and into traffic. The feud culminated in a scaffold match at High Incident in October 1996, where Dreamer sent Lee off the scaffolding through several tables in the ring below. On February 24, 1997, Dreamer appeared on WWF Monday Night Raw defeating D-Von Dudley during ECW's invasion in WWF.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: After Raven went to World Championship Wrestling, Dreamer began a feud with the World Wrestling Federation's Jerry "The King" Lawler. The feud was largely symbolic, with Dreamer representing Extreme Championship Wrestling's "new school" style of wrestling as a concept and Lawler (with James E. Cornette) representing the World Wrestling Federation and United States Wrestling Association's more "old school" way of doing things.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: In 1998, Dreamer had a short feud with The Dudley Boyz (Buh Buh Ray and D-Von), during which they "broke" Beulah's neck. In August 1999 at the Last Show at the Madhouse, on their last night in the company, they cited this incident to get Dreamer to accept a challenge for the ECW Tag Team Championship they had won earlier in the night. He did accept, and got the title, but was paired with the unexpected partner Raven, who slid into the ring at the last second and made the pin. The team only lasted a short time before it dissolved, with Raven taking the title and choosing Mike Awesome as his new partner. He also, begrudgingly, became World Heavyweight Champion in 2000 by beating Tazz at CyberSlam, only to lose it to Justin Credible just 30 minutes later.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: When speaking of his title reigns on "The Rise and Fall of ECW" documentary produced by WWE Home Video, Dreamer is quoted as saying:


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer stayed with ECW until it folded in 2001, defeating C. W. Anderson in an "I Quit" match at Guilty as Charged – the final pay-per-view – and teaming with Danny Doring in a win over Julio Dinero and EZ Money in the final independent ECW show.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: After ECW closed its doors, Dreamer spent time in various independent leagues throughout the country, such as Jersey All Pro Wrestling and Combat Zone Wrestling before he signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He was introduced to WWF audiences on the July 9, 2001 episode of "Raw" as a member of the WCW/ECW Alliance during the Invasion angle. When the angle ended in November, Dreamer was sent to the WWF's "farm territory" Heartland Wrestling Association.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: He was brought back to the main roster of the now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment in March and placed on the Raw brand. There, he turned face and was given a gimmick that saw him proclaim that he was "Just a Regular Guy", for which he was featured in vignettes and backstage segments showing him in normal situations that were then augmented by "disgusting" antics such as brushing his teeth and his dogs teeth with the same brush and eating food from the floor. However, this angle was short-lived. He soon reverted to his "Innovator of Violence" gimmick in the summer and amassed fourteen reigns as Hardcore Champion. During this time, he was the final person to hold it before it became unified with the Intercontinental Championship in a match with Rob Van Dam at Madison Square Garden. After losing the Hardcore Championship, Dreamer renewed his feud with Raven, defeating him in a Loser Leaves "Raw" match on June 24 to send him to "Raw<nowiki>'</nowiki>s" sister show, "Heat". Dreamer (with a variety of partners) would feud in the fall with Lance Storm and William Regal as he sought revenge for his jaw being broken. Dreamer would make his Royal Rumble debut in 2003, bringing weapons with him and breaking Bill DeMott's hand during the match.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: As 2003 and 2004 went on, Dreamer was used less and less on WWE television, and they began allowing him to take independent bookings and work as color commentator for their developmental territories, Ohio Valley Wrestling, Deep South Wrestling and on occasion Heat. When his performers contract expired, he took a succession of office jobs inside World Wrestling Entertainment, including being the number two person in Talent Relations.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: In 2005, Dreamer was a major part of the ECW One Night Stand reunion show pay-per-view held under the World Wrestling Entertainment banner. He, along with a number of former ECW stars, took part in promotional hype for the event on episodes of "Raw" and, with The Sandman, he wrestled the Dudley Boyz in the main event. For the 2006 event, he was placed into an angle that had him and Terry Funk – who had been his "mentor" in the early days of the original ECW – at odds with then-heels, Mick Foley and Edge over the meanings of "extreme". The angle ended with a six-person-intergender-tag team match at the pay-per-view where Dreamer, Funk, and Beulah McGillicutty lost to Edge, Foley, and Lita.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: When the ECW brand officially launched on the Sci Fi channel, Dreamer and the Sandman were put into one of the brands first feuds, an "old school versus new school" feud, against Test and Mike Knox. In November and December he engaged in a short feud with Daivari and The Great Khali, but Khali was sent to the Raw brand before it could come to a conclusion. Not long after Khali left ECW, The New Breed stable was established, consisting of wrestlers new to ECW: Elijah Burke, Marcus Cor Von, Matt Striker and Kevin Thorn. In response, a stable of ECW Originals was created, and the teams continued to clash in singles and tag matches, trading wins on the weekly ECW show throughout the spring of 2007, while both sides tried to get CM Punk to side with them. The Originals won a standard-rules four-on-four match at WrestleMania 23, which would be Dreamer's first and only match ever on the maincard of a WrestleMania. The Originals lost an extreme-rules rematch on the following episode of "ECW". The feud continued until a number of roster moves left both sides nearly barren, with it ending at One Night Stand when Dreamer, Sandman and Punk beating Burke, Cor Von and Striker in a Tables match.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: In late 2007, Dreamer took part in the ECW brand's elimination chase to name a number one contender to the ECW Championship. During the series of matches, also involving Stevie Richards, Elijah Burke, and Kevin Thorn he added a bandana, worn on his head, to his ring gear. He received the original one from a young boy with a brain tumor, and from then on began wearing one as a sign of solidarity and strength to anyone going through that struggle. Dreamer emerged victorious in the final match against Burke, only to be surprised by ECW's general manager Armando Estrada forcing him to face Big Daddy V, who promptly beat him for the number one contendership.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: In early 2008, Dreamer would have one of his career highlights. Despite not being featured on television leading up to the Royal Rumble, Dreamer would receive a loud ovation and chants from his hometown MSG crowd even with Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker in the match. In February, Dreamer was paired with ECW brand enhancement talent Colin Delaney as a sort of mentor after Delaney was consistently and easily defeated on the weekly ECW television show. They challenged The Miz and John Morrison for the WWE Tag Team Championship after they defeated them in a non-title match, but they lost the title match in an Extreme rules match in March. At WrestleMania XXIV, he participated in a pre-show 24-man battle royal to earn an opportunity for the ECW Championship in the event, a match that was won by Kane. Dreamer qualified for the five-way Singapore cane match at One Night Stand to determine a number one contender for the championship; Big Show would win the match.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Following Mark Henry's ECW Championship win at Night of Champions, Dreamer was named his first challenger. At The Great American Bash, Dreamer was defeated by Henry for the championship after Colin Delaney turned on him and cost him the match. On the following ECW, Dreamer defeated Delaney and again on August 12, 2008, in an Extreme Rules Grudge Match which would be Delaney's final match in the WWE. Dreamer then turned his attention to Jack Swagger, who made disparaging remarks about Dreamer and ECW. They first faced off in an amateur wrestling match, which Dreamer was disqualified from for using his DDT on Swagger. Then Swagger defeated Dreamer in an Extreme rules match, ending the feud.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On the January 13, 2009 episode of "ECW", Dreamer announced that if he failed to win the ECW Championship by June 6, when his WWE contract was to expire, he would no longer wrestle for ECW. The storyline saw Dreamer start a losing streak that ended when he defeated Paul Burchill on the February 24 episode of "ECW". On the April 28 episode of "ECW", Dreamer received a match for the ECW Championship against then-champion Christian, which went to a no-contest when Jack Swagger interfered. On the May 21 episode of "Superstars" Dreamer had another title match with Christian which once again went to a no contest when Swagger interfered, believing he ruined Dreamer's last title chance. Dreamer was granted a one-day extension on his contract, allowing him one last chance at the ECW Championship, challenging the champion Christian and Jack Swagger in a triple threat match at Extreme Rules, where Dreamer pinned Jack Swagger in a hardcore triple threat match, capturing his second ECW Championship almost a decade after he claimed the title in the original ECW, being the only man to hold the belt in the original ECW and in the ECW brand of WWE.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: After successfully defending the title against Christian on the June 15 episode of "Raw", Dreamer successfully defended the title in a Championship Scramble match at The Bash, before eventually losing the title back to Christian at Night of Champions. On the July 28 episode of "ECW", Dreamer announced he would exercise his rematch clause against Christian the following week. The two faced off in an Extreme Rules match, in which Christian retained the championship.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: After his championship pursuit had ceased, Dreamer began teaming up with Christian, Yoshi Tatsu and Goldust on various occasions to take on William Regal and his allies Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson, exchanging victories and losses. On the December 29 episode of "ECW", Dreamer wrestled Zack Ryder and lost. If Dreamer was to lose the match then he would be (kayfabe) forced to retire from in-ring competition. After the match, Dreamer made a farewell speech in which he thanked the fans before exiting the ring with his two daughters. A few days later on January 4, 2010, Dreamer was officially released by WWE, ending an eight-year tenure with the company.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On June 13, 2010, at Slammiversary VIII Dreamer made his debut for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, appearing in the crowd and thus distracting Brother Ray and costing him his match against Jesse Neal. On the June 24 episode of "Impact!" Dreamer appeared in the crowd of the Impact! Zone, beside fellow ECW alumni Raven and Stevie Richards. The following week the three were joined by Rhino. On the July 15 episode of "Impact!", Dreamer, Raven, Richards, Rhino, Brother Devon, Pat Kenney and Al Snow, led by Mick Foley, aligned themselves with the TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam by attacking Abyss and the rest of the TNA locker room. The following week, TNA president Dixie Carter agreed to give the ECW alumni their own reunion pay–per–view event, Hardcore Justice: The Last Stand, as a celebration of hardcore wrestling and a final farewell to the company, while also placing Dreamer in charge of the show. Dreamer made his TNA in–ring debut on the July 29 episode of "Impact!", losing to Abyss in a No Disqualification match. After the match Raven re–ignited his old feud with Dreamer by turning on him, laying him out with a DDT on a chair and licking his face. The following week Raven explained his turn by saying that he hadn't forgotten how Dreamer had "stolen" his girlfriend Beulah McGillicutty back in 1996; also on that show Dreamer teamed with Van Dam to beat Abyss and Raven. On August 8 at Hardcore Justice, Dreamer was defeated by Raven in a "Final Showdown" (Final Singles match) match refereed by Mick Foley and featuring appearances by Beulah McGillicutty, "Lupus", "The Blue Meanie" and Hollywood Nova.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On the following episode of "Impact!", the ECW alumni, known collectively as Extreme, Version 2.0 (EV 2.0), were assaulted by A.J. Styles, Kazarian, Robert Roode, James Storm, Douglas Williams and Matt Morgan of Ric Flair's stable, who thought they didn't deserve to be in TNA. The following week TNA president Dixie Carter gave each member of EV 2.0 TNA contracts in order for them to settle their score with . At No Surrender Dreamer lost an "I Quit" match to A.J. Styles due to Styles putting a fork into his eye. Dreamer admitted EV 2.0's defeat on the following episode of "Impact!" and tried to reach a truce with , but was beaten down. The following week he returned with Raven, Stevie Richards, Sabu and Rhino and announced that Dixie Carter had given the five of them a Lethal Lockdown match against at Bound for Glory. At Bound for Glory Dreamer, Raven, Rhino, Richards and Sabu defeated members Styles, Kazarian, Morgan, Roode and Storm in a Lethal Lockdown match, when Dreamer pinned Styles. After weeks of dissension between Rob Van Dam and the rest of EV 2.0, caused by Van Dam's belief that there was a traitor within the group, Dreamer challenged him to a match. At Turning Point Van Dam defeated Dreamer and afterwards made peace with him. On the following episode of "Impact!", Rhino turned heel by attacking Van Dam and Dreamer, revealing himself as the traitor Van Dam had been looking for. The following week Dreamer defeated Rhino in a Street Fight, but he suffered an injured wrist during the match. After spending some time off television, Dreamer returned on the February 24 episode of "Impact!", becoming entangled in the feud between former tag team partners Bully Ray and Brother Devon. On March 13 at Victory Road, Dreamer defeated Ray in a Falls Count Anywhere match, following interference from Devon.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On the May 5 episode of "Impact!", Dreamer was forced attack A.J. Styles and to join Immortal in order to save his job in TNA. Dreamer was later confronted on his choice by A.J. Styles, which led to a match at Sacrifice, where Dreamer was victorious following interference from Bully Ray. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Dreamer officially turned heel, citing the first time he attacked Styles was due to being forced by Ray, before willingly attacking Styles because he wanted to and proceeding to berate the crowd by calling them "pieces of crap" for not sympathizing with his job situation. This is also the first time that Dreamer has wrestled as a heel since being a member of the Alliance during his WWF/E career. On the May 26 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Styles and Christopher Daniels defeated Dreamer and Ray in a no disqualification street fight. On June 6 Dreamer confirmed that TNA's house show in Memphis, Tennessee on June 11 would be his final appearance for the promotion. In his final TNA match, Dreamer teamed with Bully Ray in a losing effort against A.J. Styles and Brother Devon. After the match Bully would berate Dreamer, causing Dreamer to turn on him and make up with Styles and Devon.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer appeared at the inaugural event of Evolve on January 17, 2010, in a non-wrestling role, getting involved in a match which led to him brawling with Jimmy Jacobs. Later that month, on January 23, Dreamer debuted for Dragon Gate USA, saving Jacobs and Lacey from a beating at the hands of Jon Moxley. On March 27, Dreamer made his pay-per-view debut for Dragon Gate USA in Phoenix, Arizona, where he lost a hardcore match to Moxley, which was taped for the Mercury Rising pay-per-view.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On April 2, Universal Championship Wrestling added Dreamer to their roster. He defeated fellow former ECW Champion Shane Douglas to become the promotion's Universal Heavyweight Champion on February 20.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On April 25, Dreamer made his debut for Philadelphia-based Chikara, challenging Eddie Kingston to a match at the Anniversary show on May 23. Kingston won the match via disqualification when Ares and Claudio Castagnoli of the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (BDK) attacked him. Dreamer assisted Kingston in taking care of BDK and then made a challenge for a tag team match on July 25 at The Arena in Philadelphia. Earlier that same day, Kingston inducted Dreamer into the Hardcore Hall of Fame. BDK ended up defeating Dreamer and Kingston, when Castagnoli pinned Dreamer.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer returned to Chikara on November 13, 2011, at the promotion's first ever internet pay-per-view, High Noon, accompanying Eddie Kingston to his Chikara Grand Championship match. On July 28, 2012, Dreamer wrestled for Family Wrestling Entertainment in which he defeated Brian Kendrick, Carlito and champion Jay Lethal in a four-way Elimination match to become the new FWE Heavyweight Champion. On September 14, 2012, Dreamer returned to Chikara, when he, Jerry Lynn and Too Cold Scorpio entered the 2012 King of Trios as "The Extreme Trio", defeating Team WWF (1–2–3 Kid, Aldo Montoya and Tatanka) in their first round match. The following day, The Extreme Trio was eliminated from the tournament by Team ROH (Mike Bennett, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). On October 4, 2012, he retained the FWE Heavyweight Championship against Rhino in the first PPV of the company.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On November 25, 2012, Dreamer returned to Japan to take part in an independent event produced by The Big Guns. During the event, Dreamer and Makoto defeated Akira and Syuri in a mixed tag team hardcore match. The following day, Dreamer made his debut for Wrestling New Classic (WNC), the follow-up promotion to Smash, entering the WNC Championship tournament and defeating Yusuke Kodama in his first round match. Two days later, Dreamer was defeated in his semi-final match by Akira.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On February 16, 2013, Dreamer tried to capture the FWE Heavyweight Championship in a TLC match against Carlito and Matt Hardy, but he was defeated. On June 21, 2013, he was defeated by Rob Van Dam at FWE Welcome to the Rumble in an Extreme Rules match. However, the same night, he won the FWE Rumble.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Tommy Dreamer worked with Ring of Honor during 2017 coming to the aid of Bully Ray who had been attacked by former allies The Briscoe Brothers. Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray teamed against The Briscoe Brothers in a losing effort at ROH Final Battle 2017. He made his debut in Lucha Underground in Aztec Warfare IV, Episode 1 of Lucha Underground's fourth season on June 13, 2018, at number 7, and was pinned and eliminated by Pentagón Dark.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: In 2012, Dreamer opened his own wrestling promotion and wrestling school, House of Hardcore, which is the name of the former ECW wrestling school. The promotion made its debut on October 6, 2012, at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY. In the main event of the first show, Dreamer lost the FWE Heavyweight Championship to Carlito in a three-way match, which also included Mike Knox. On June 22, 2013, Dreamer defeated Lance Storm in the main event at House of Hardcore 2.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On November 9, 2013, Dreamer participated in the main event of House of Hardcore 3. Dreamer and Terry Funk defeated Sean Waltman and Lance Storm. The match was promoted as the last time of Funk and Dreamer as tag team. After the match, Dreamer was assaulted by TNA wrestlers Team 3D, Bully Ray (formerly Buh Buh Ray Dudley) and Devon (formerly D-Von). Ray challenged Dreamer to a match at TNA One Night Only – Old School.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On June 6, 2014, Dreamer was scheduled to face Team 3D along with Abyss. However, Bully Ray was pulled out of the event, so the main event was Devon and Dreamer vs Rhino and Abyss. Dreamer and Devon won the match. At House of Hardcore VII, Dreamer wrestled against Bobby Roode for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, but he was defeated. Dreamer now owns his House of Hardcore promotion. He has made various touring tours across the United States and over the years at his owner's level he is still fighting and defeating his opponents in hardcore matches. On December 2, 2017, House of Hardcore 36 Abyss defeated Dreamer. On January 27, 2018, House of Hardcore 37 Team of Tommy Dreamer and Billy Gunn has beat the team of Joey Mercury and Nick Aldis. On March 23, 2018, the 38 episode of House of Hardcore Tommy Dreamer beat Joey Mercury in one very brutal street fight match; the day after this match, Dreamer was a contender for NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Nick Aldis, but he failed to win the title.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On January 17, 2013, Dreamer made an appearance "Impact Wrestling" as one of Bully Ray's groomsmen during his wedding to Brooke Hogan. He was assaulted by Aces & Eights after they crashed the ceremony. Dreamer returned to TNA in late 2013. He faced Ethan Carter III at two house shows and on December 29, 2013, at TNA Hardcore Justice 3, Dreamer was defeated by Ethan Carter III in a Tables match. The next day, Dreamer was defeated by Bully Ray at TNA #OldSchool in a Falls Count Anywhere match that happened due to Bully Ray attacking Dreamer and Terry Funk at House of Hardcore III.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: At Lockdown in January 2014, Dreamer returned to the company as a road agent. on the July 17 episode of Impact, Dreamer and Bully Ray faced Ethan Carter III and Rhyno in a losing effort. on the July 24 episode of Impact, Dreamer and Team 3D faced Ethan Carter III, Rhino and Rockstar Spud in a 6-man New York City street fight in a losing effort after a run in by Snitsky and Rycklon. On August 7 taping of Impact Wrestling, Dreamer, Team 3D and Al Snow defeated Team Dixie (Ethan Carter III, Rhyno, Rycklon Stephens, and Snitsky) in a hardcore tag team war. Shortly afterwards, Bully Ray powerbombed Dixie Carter through a table.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On August 27 episode of Impact Wrestling, Dreamer was defeated by TNA World Heavyweight Champion Lashley in a non-title New York City street fight. The day before Bound For Glory Dreamer would induct Team 3D into the TNA Hall of Fame and at Bound for Glory, Dreamer teamed up with Abyss to face Team 3D in a losing effort. On the October 29 episode of Impact Wrestling, Dreamer helped Devon brawl with Bram and Magnus. On the November 5 episode of Impact, Dreamer and Devon defeated Bram and Magnus in a hardcore tag team match. On the November 19, 2014 episode of Impact, Dreamer faced Bram in a hardcore match but lost. on the February 20 episode of Impact, Dreamer faced Eric Young in a Hardcore match but lost the match. At Bound for Glory, Dreamer competed in the 12-man Bound for Gold Gauntlet match which was won by Tyrus. Bound for Glory turned out to be Dreamer's final appearance with the company. Dreamer was reportedly fired due to an argument with fellow producers after cancelling the India Tour.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On the December 17, 2012 episode of "Raw", Dreamer made a one-off appearance teaming with The Miz and Alberto Del Rio in a winning effort against 3MB in six-man tag team match. Later, he was attacked backstage by The Shield.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On the November 30, 2015 episode of "Raw", Dreamer returned, teaming with The Dudley Boyz in a six-man tag match against The Wyatt Family which ended in a no contest. The following week on "Raw", Dreamer and The Dudley Boyz would be joined with Rhyno, forming Team Extreme, competing in a 16-man elimination Fatal 4-Way tag team match, where Dreamer would pin Erick Rowan to eliminate The Wyatt Family before Team Extreme would be eliminated by The League of Nations. Later, Dreamer lost to Braun Strowman. At , Team Extreme were defeated by The Wyatt Family in an 8-man elimination tag team tables match. The following night on "Raw", Team Extreme would challenge The Wyatt Family to a rematch, this time in an 8-man Extreme Rules match, in a losing effort. Dreamer continued to make live event appearances for the WWE in 2016, while becoming a regular guest on the WWE Network exclusive series, The Edge and Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness, alongside the show's hosts, Edge and Christian. In November 2016, Dreamer began filming an ECW show for the WWE Network alongside Paul Heyman, Tazz and Bubba Ray Dudley.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer returned to Impact Wrestling on the April 12 episode of "Impact" when he helped Eddie Edwards and Moose from an attack from Ohio Versus Everything and challenged them to a House of Hardcore Match at Redemption, in which he lost. On the June 14, 2018 episode of "Impact", Edwards brutally hit Dreamer with a kendo stick because of their loss at Redemption. Edwards and Dreamer would later start an intense feud which ended when Edwards beat Dreamer in a street fight in a match at Slammiversary. At Bound for Glory, Dreamer saved Edwards from an attack from Killer Kross and Moose. This led to a tag team match which the team was victorious.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On January 23, 2019, it was revealed that Dreamer would now be working as member of the creative team for Impact Wrestling. He had already been serving as a producer for some time. At Slammiversary, Dreamer unsuccessful challenged Moose in an Old School Rules match for the unsanctioned TNA World Heavyweight Championship. At Victory Road, he was defeated by Brian Myers. On the October 27 episode of "Impact", Swoggle helped Dreamer in defeating Brian Myers in a hardcore match by hitting Myers with a low blow. At No Surrender on February 13, 2021, his 50th birthday, Dreamer unsuccessfully challenged Rich Swann for the Impact World Championship.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On September 17, 2021, Impact officials announced that Dreamer had been suspended indefinitely due to the comments he made on an episode of "Dark Side of the Ring", which saw Dreamer defend Ric Flair concerning the allegation that Flair made multiple unwanted sexual advances towards a flight attendant on a flight from England to the U.S. in 2002. He left Impact in November 2021. In December, Dreamer returned backstage.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer joined Major League Wrestling in 2018 as a wrestler and in a backstage role as an agent for matches. His first match for the promotion would be at MLW War Games in September 2018. Dreamer would be on the winning team in the War Games match as himself, John Hennigan, Shane Strickland, Barrington Hughes and Kotto Brazil defeated Abyss, Jimmy Havoc, Sami Callihan and his team The Death Machines. In his match at the next set of television tapings, he would be defeated by Brody King. He then entered a feud with Brian Pillman Jr. over his lack of respect for veterans such as Kevin Sullivan and himself. He beat Pillman in their first encounter, but three weeks later, Pillman would pin Dreamer in a tag team match on the December 21, 2018 episode of "MLW Fusion". On the January 11, 2019, episode of "Fusion", Pillman defeated Dreamer in a Singapore Cane match.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer participated in All Elite Wrestling (AEW)'s Casino Battle Royale at their inaugural pay-per-view event Double or Nothing on May 25, 2019. He failed to win as he was eliminated by Jimmy Havoc. At their following PPV All Out, Dreamer worked backstage as a producer during the event.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer appeared along with fellow ECW wrestler New Jack in the "Mel Schwartz, Bounty Hunter" episode of the TV series "Early Edition" as a biker. In October 2011, Dreamer started his own YouTube series, titled "The Tommy Dreamer TV". The show is produced by Brooke Platzner with graphics and music by Jason Platzner. He is a playable character in various video games including "ECW Anarchy Rulz", "ECW Hardcore Revolution", "WWE Raw 2", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008", "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009" and "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010" .


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer appeared on an episode of the TruTV television show "Impractical Jokers", as one of the show's main members, Brian "Q" Quinn, had to wrestle him as part of his punishment for losing the most contests on that episode. He had another cameo on the show, in a challenge where he had to take Q's pants off, before a stranger untangles his earphones.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: In 2013, he portrayed Officer Carpoza in the horror film "Army of the Damned". Dreamer also has a cameo, alongside fellow wrestlers Diamond Dallas Page, Jake Roberts and Roddy Piper, in the comedy film "The Bet".


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: In 2017, he starred as Detective Marx in the drama-thriller 'The Abduction of Jennifer Grayson', where he was credited as "Tom Dreamer".


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: Dreamer is also a co-host for the Sirius XM program "Busted Open" a wrestling based radio show. Other host's include Dave LaGreca, Bubba/Bully Ray Dudley, Mark Henry, and Ryan McKinnell. Busted Open is found on Sirius XM Channel "Fight Nation" Monday through Saturday.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On October 12, 2002, at the Lake Isle Country Club in Eastchester, New York, Laughlin married Trisa Hayes, known as ECW wrestler/manager Beulah McGillicutty, with whom he later had twin girls by her, Brianna Laughlin and Kimberly Laughlin.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: On a November 2011 "Art of Wrestling" podcast, Dreamer told host Colt Cabana his family is "connected" to the New York mafia.


title: Tommy Dreamer

text: After one of his first matches in Brooklyn, which dozens of his local relatives attended, he was attacked from behind and beaten down by Bill DeMott, wrestling at the time under the name Sweet William. Unaware of wrestling's scripted nature, several of his relatives at ringside got angry. His grandfather jumped over the railing and tried to fight off security guards. His aunt told DeMott as he passed that she would "put a hit" on him. The misunderstanding was peacefully resolved.


title: Alan Ford (actor)

text: Alan Ford (born 23 February 1938) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in Guy Ritchie gangster movies "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", and from appearing as separate characters in eight different episodes of "The Bill".


title: Alan Ford (actor)

text: Ford was born on 23 February 1938 in Camberwell, South London, the eldest son of a seamstress and a taxi driver, and grew up in Elephant and Castle. He left school at the age of 15 and took on various jobs, ending with two years of national service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.


title: Alan Ford (actor)

text: François Truffaut cast Ford as one of the firemen in his "Fahrenheit 451". Next, Ford secured a place at East 15 Acting School. For three years he studied drama in all its forms: Shakespeare, Chekhov, restoration, "commedia dell'arte", pantomime, music, dance, fencing, Stanislavski and improvisation. One of his tutors there at that time was the then unknown Mike Leigh.


title: Alan Ford (actor)

text: Ford has appeared on stage at the National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, the Theatre Royal Stratford East and many repertory theatres.


title: Alan Ford (actor)

text: Ford appeared in "" and, much earlier, as Roosta in the original radio version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", along with a small speaking role in "The Long Good Friday".


title: Alan Ford (actor)

text: Ford played Clifford Harding in G.F. Newman's "Law & Order" in 1978, then had a brief role in the film "An American Werewolf in London", where he plays the taxi driver who says the line, ""It puts you in mind of the days of the old demon barber of Fleet Street, doesn't it?"" in response to the recent wave of murders around London. He has also proven himself a comic actor. He was involved in the Armando Iannucci production "Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge", playing a boxing promoter called Terry Norton; and he worked again with Iannucci playing the 'East End Thug' in "The Armando Iannucci Shows". He later appeared as a priest in every episode of "Snuff Box". In 2015, he played former Thotch band manager 'Big' Basil Steel in "Brian Pern: 45 Years of Prog & Roll".