title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: When "Schitt's Creek" originally premiered in 2015, Levy and his portrayal of David garnered mostly positive reviews. David Berry of the "National Post" called the character's "carefully manicured snippiness" a highlight of the first season. "People Magazine's" Gillian Telling also had early praise, saying that David's facial expressions and one-liners made him possibly one of the show's best characters. Mike Hale of "The New York Times" was noticeably more negative, calling David "mostly shrill and unlikeable," while also suggesting that Dan Levy had inherited none of his father Eugene's talent. As the series progressed and gained a wider audience with its release on Netflix in 2017 and 2018, the character and his portrayer gained more critical acclaim. "Vox’s" Caroline Framke noted that while Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara are the show's most recognizable selling points, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy were the show's "backbone and beating heart". Richard Lawson stated that David's character arc was "well-rendered" and a "pleasure" to watch in a review for "Vanity Fair." Manuel Betancourt of "Paste Magazine" argued that David's quips are "one of the many reasons "Schitt's Creek" is one of the most quotable comedies of the moment."


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: The depiction of David's pansexuality and relationship with Patrick also earned praise from critics. When discussing the overall presentation of sexuality in "Schitt's Creek", "Them's" Michael Cuby stated that the lack of homophobia in David's story was "novel" and "comforting." Christine Linnell of "The Advocate" also noted that the non-judgmental tone of the show "is creating new ways for queer viewers to see themselves represented and supported". "TV Guide's" Pilot Viruet further stated the absence of homophobia has resulted in "one of the most caring, hilarious, and jubilant series on television" and allows David to engage in a relationship that is the "absolute highlight of the series". Other critics have echoed similar sentiments, with Devon Ivie of "Vulture" declaring Patrick and David, "one of the most delightful relationships in recent television history". Matt Brennan of "Paste Magazine" also argued that their relationship contributed to the overall "sweetening" of "Schitt's Creek" in season four, culminating with Patrick's serenading of David with "The Best". "The New York Times"' Margaret Lyons dubbed the moment one of 2018's "most romantic, adorable moments on TV". Stuart Heritage of "The Guardian" called the scene "one of the most moving things I've ever seen". Kevin Fallon of "The Daily Beast" described the sequence as, "the kind of honest romantic, pure expression of love that is never shown on TV between two men, not in that grand of a fashion".


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: David's character has been further noted as important for overall LGBTQ representation on television. In 2017, "Mic" named his story one of "the 23 most essential storylines for LGBTQ television history" because it showed that femme men are not "limited to homosexual experiences". David was also named to "TV Guide's" list of "the greatest LGBTQ TV characters of all time" and was called one of "15 unforgettable LGBTQ movie and TV characters" by "Redbook" in 2019. That same year, "Rolling Stone" acknowledged David's proclaimed sexuality as part of a shift in the open representation of bisexual and pansexual individuals on TV.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: For his work as David Rose, Dan Levy has received four consecutive nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Comedic Role at the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Canadian Screen Awards. He was also nominated for the MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Comedic Performance at the 2018 and 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards, winning the award in 2019. Levy's work was further recognized with the 2019 GLAAD Davidson/Valenti Award for making a "significant difference in promoting acceptance for the LGBTQ community". He has also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2020.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: As part of the ensemble cast, Levy has won two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Comedy in 2016 and 2019, with an additional nomination in 2017. Levy and the "Schitt’s Creek" cast were also honored with an ACTRA Award for Member's Choice Series Ensemble in 2019 after having been nominated for the same award in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, "Schitt’s Creek" also received its first Dorian Award, GLAAD Award, Primetime Emmy Award, and Critics’ Choice nominations – the latter of which was a first for any Canadian comedy. The cast subsequently won two Dorian Awards from these nominations, including the awards for TV Comedy of the Year and Unsung TV Show of the Year.


title: David Rose (Schitt's Creek)

text: Levy says the depiction of David's pansexuality has helped some viewers better understand "queer culture". In interviews, Levy and his father, co-creator Eugene Levy, noted that the letters received from viewers have included: queer individuals feeling more accepted by family members; parents feeling less concerned for their queer children; and others realizing their prior views were homophobic. This response, according to Levy, has become "one of the most meaningful elements of making the show".


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: Lianhua Qingwen (, LHQW) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulation used for the treatment of influenza. In the practice of TCM, LHQW is considered to have the effects of clearing excessive heat, removing toxins, improving lung ventilation, and discharging heat.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: Lianhua Qingwen was developed by Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical in 2003 as a treatment for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) following the outbreak of the disease in 2002 and was listed by the National Health Commission of China in 2004 as a treatment for influenza and other respiratory disease. Its formulation includes 13 herbs which is said to have been used for medical purposes as early as the Han dynasty.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: Lianhua Qingwen should be avoided for patients with G6PD deficiency, since its active ingredient, "Lonicera japonica", will lead to hemolysis to such patients.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: The official monograph of LHQW states that the adverse effects are "unclear". A January 2022 meta-analysis from China reports that it may cause GI discomfort, rashes and itches, dry mouth, and dizziness, but emphasizes that the effects are more common with "conventional treatment".


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) approved the use of Lianhua Qingwen for mild to moderate COVID-19 cases in January 2020, and promotes the use of the medicine abroad.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: In March 2022, during the Shanghai COVID-19 outbreak, the medication was distributed "en masse" to residents. Reports emerged indicating that this process consumed significant logistical capacity, drawing criticism about misuse of resources at a time when people were struggling with shortages of basic needs such as food and medication. An article on telemedicine and medical news platform Dr. Lilac pointed out that there was no scientific evidence available to indicate that LHQW was effective as prophylaxis to prevent infection, nor did there exist any official government recommendation for such usage; instead, taking the drug unnecessarily carried a risk of side effects. It argued that there was thus no reasonable basis for the mass distribution of the medication to healthy individuals to begin with, let alone doing so in a way that took up transportation capacity and resources that were urgently needed elsewhere.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: Lianhua Qingwen has also been promoted and distributed by the government in Hong Kong (HK). The pro-establishment DAB alliance was found to have distributed unregistered doses of LHQW, in breach of health regulations.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: In April 2022, the Financial Times reported that the leading COVID-19 health official in the PRC, the famous epidemiologist and pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan - who has also been the most prominent scientific promoter of Lianhua Qingwen - had undisclosed prior investments in large stakeholdings in corporations producing Lianhua Qingwen and other treatments under question. As the Financial Times report showed, these appeared to be serious conflicts of interest as the investments benefited from the PRC and HK governments' rapid approval and then widespread national & international promotion of Lianhua Qingwen and other suspect treatments for purportedly helping COVID-19 sufferers.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: A 2020 "randomized controlled trial" of LHQW involving Zhong was also found in April 2022 to have undisclosed funding from Yiling Pharmaceuticals, forcing an erratum. Retraction watch also notes that author Jia Zheng-hua is the son-in-law of Wu Yi-ling, the founder of the company in question.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: In the Philippines, its Food and Drug Administration approved Lianhua Qingwen on 7 August 2020 as a traditional herbal product that helps remove "heat-toxin invasion of the lungs, including symptoms such as fever, aversion to cold, muscle soreness, stuffy and runny nose". It is not registered as a COVID-19 medication, and a doctor's prescription is required for its use. A Filipino TCM physician interviewed by ABS-CBN clarified that although the medicine can be used for symptomatic treatment of flu-like symptoms in COVID-19 patients, it is not an antibiotic nor anti-viral, and cannot cure the disease itself. It cannot be taken as prophylaxis or as a health supplement.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: In Singapore, the Health Sciences Authority has issued an advisory to clarify that although it has been approved for sale as a Chinese proprietary medicine for the relief of cold and flu symptoms, Lianhua Qingwen is not approved to treat or alleviate symptoms of COVID-19. It warned that sellers who make claims that it can prevent, protect against or treat COVID-19 may face prosecution.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: Although the medicine has been allowed to be sold in Canada since 2012, Health Canada has cautioned against the use of the Chinese traditional medicine to prevent, treat, and cure COVID-19. In the United States, the FDA is advising consumers not to purchase or use Lianhua Qingwen, stating that it has not been approved or authorized by FDA and is being misleadingly represented as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.


title: Lianhua Qingwen

text: In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration has not given approval to Lianhua Qingwen, as it contains ephedra, a key ingredient used to make the drug methamphetamine. Despite the ban, Lianhua Qingwen has been sold illegally in Australia as a COVID-19 treatment.


title: Amphipoda

text: Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far described. They are mostly marine animals, but are found in almost all aquatic environments. Some 1,900 species live in fresh water, and the order also includes the terrestrial sandhoppers such as "Talitrus saltator".


title: Amphipoda

text: The name "Amphipoda" comes, via New Latin "", from the Greek roots 'on both/all sides' and 'foot'. This contrasts with the related Isopoda, which have a single kind of thoracic leg. Particularly among anglers, amphipods are known as "freshwater shrimp", "scuds", or "sideswimmers".


title: Amphipoda

text: The body of an amphipod is divided into 13 segments, which can be grouped into a head, a thorax and an abdomen.


title: Amphipoda

text: The head is fused to the thorax, and bears two pairs of antennae and one pair of sessile compound eyes. It also carries the mouthparts, but these are mostly concealed.


title: Amphipoda

text: The thorax and abdomen are usually quite distinct and bear different kinds of legs; they are typically laterally compressed, and there is no carapace. The thorax bears eight pairs of uniramous appendages, the first of which are used as accessory mouthparts; the next four pairs are directed forwards, and the last three pairs are directed backwards. Gills are present on the thoracic segments, and there is an open circulatory system with a heart, using haemocyanin to carry oxygen in the haemolymph to the tissues. The uptake and excretion of salts is controlled by special glands on the antennae.


title: Amphipoda

text: The abdomen is divided into two parts: the pleosome which bears swimming legs; and the urosome, which comprises a telson and three pairs of uropods which do not form a tail fan as they do in animals such as true shrimp.


title: Amphipoda

text: Amphipods are typically less than long, but the largest recorded living amphipods were long, and were photographed at a depth of in the Pacific Ocean. Samples retrieved from the stomach of a black-footed albatross had a reconstructed length of ; it was assigned to the same species, "Alicella gigantea". A study of the Kermadec Trench observed more specimens of "A. gigantea", the largest of which was estimated at 34.9 cm long, and collected some for examination, the largest of which was measured at 27.8 cm long. The smallest known amphipods are less than long. The size of amphipods is limited by the availability of dissolved oxygen, such that the amphipods in Lake Titicaca at an altitude of can only grow up to , compared to lengths of in Lake Baikal at .


title: Amphipoda

text: Some amphipods exhibit sexual dimorphism. In dimorphic species, males are usually larger than females, although this is reversed in the genus Crangonyx.


title: Amphipoda

text: Amphipods engage in amplexus, a precopulatory guarding behavior in which males will grasp a female with their gnathopods (enlarged appendages used for feeding) and carry the female held against their ventral surface. Amplexus can last from two to over fifteen days, depending on water temperature, and ends when the female molts, at which point her eggs are ready for fertilisation.


title: Amphipoda

text: Mature females bear a "marsupium", or brood pouch, which holds her eggs while they are fertilised, and until the young are ready to hatch. As a female ages, she produces more eggs in each brood. Mortality is around 25–50% for the eggs. There are no larval stages; the eggs hatch directly into a juvenile form, and sexual maturity is generally reached after 6 moults. Some species have been known to eat their own exuviae after moulting


title: Amphipoda

text: Over 9,950 species of amphipods are currently recognised. Traditionally they were placed in the four suborders Gammaridea (which contained the majority of taxa, including all the freshwater and terrestrial species), Caprellidea, Hyperiidea, and Ingolfiellidea (the last with only 40 species).


title: Amphipoda

text: The classification of the Amphipoda is however being rearranged to better reflect their phylogeny, the relationships within the suborder Gammaridea having suffered from the most confusion. A new classification has been developed in the works of Lowry & Myers, where a new large suborder Senticaudata was split off from the Gammaridea in 2013. That taxon, which also encompasses the previous Caprellidea, now comprises over half of the known amphipod species. The more recent work of Copilaş-Ciocianu et al. in 2019 (based on COI, H3, 18S and 28S molecular data) still supports the main suborders Amphilochidea, Hyperiidea and Senticaudata, but suggests some reshuffling. The classification given below, from the rank of suborder down to superfamily, however still represents the traditional division as given in Martin & Davis (2001), except that superfamilies are recognised here within the Gammaridea.


title: Amphipoda

text: Amphipods are thought to have originated in the Lower Carboniferous. Despite the group's age, however, the fossil record of the order Amphipoda is meagre, comprising specimens of one species from the Lower Cretaceous (Hauterivian) Weald Clay (United Kingdom) and 12 species dating back only as far as the Upper Eocene, where they have been found in Baltic amber.


title: Amphipoda

text: Amphipods are found in almost all aquatic environments, from fresh water to water with twice the salinity of sea water and even in the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the ocean. They are almost always an important component of aquatic ecosystems, often acting as mesograzers. Most species in the suborder Gammaridea are epibenthic, although they are often collected in plankton samples. Members of the Hyperiidea are all planktonic and marine. Many are symbionts of gelatinous animals, including salps, medusae, siphonophores, colonial radiolarians and ctenophores, and most hyperiids are associated with gelatinous animals during some part of their life cycle. Some 1,900 species, or 20% of the total amphipod diversity, live in fresh water or other non-marine waters. Notably rich endemic amphipod faunas are found in the ancient Lake Baikal and waters of the Caspian Sea basin.


title: Amphipoda

text: The landhoppers of the family Talitridae (which also includes semi-terrestrial and marine animals) are terrestrial, living in damp environments such as leaf litter. Landhoppers have a wide distribution in areas that were formerly part of Gondwana, but have colonised parts of Europe and North America in recent times.


title: Amphipoda

text: Around 750 species in 160 genera and 30 families are troglobitic, and are found in almost all suitable habitats, but with their centres of diversity in the Mediterranean Basin, southeastern North America and the Caribbean.


title: Amphipoda

text: In populations found in Benthic ecosystems, amphipods play an essential role in controlling brown algae growth. The mesograzer behaviour of amphipods greatly contributes to the suppression of brown algal dominance in the absence of amphipod predators. Amphipods display a strong preference for brown algae in Benthic ecosystems, but due to removal of mesograzers by predators such as fish, brown algae is able to dominate these communities over green and red algae species.


title: Amphipoda

text: Compared to other crustacean groups, such as the Isopoda, Rhizocephala or Copepoda, relatively few amphipods are parasitic on other animals. The most notable example of parasitic amphipods are the whale lice (family Cyamidae). Unlike other amphipods, these are dorso-ventrally flattened, and have large, strong claws, with which they attach themselves to baleen whales. They are the only parasitic crustaceans which cannot swim during any part of their life cycle.


title: Amphipoda

text: Most amphipods are detritivores or scavengers, with some being grazers of algae, omnivores or predators of small insects and crustaceans. Food is grasped with the front two pairs of legs, which are armed with large claws. More immobile species of amphipods eat higher quantities of less nutritious food rather than actively seeking more nutritious food. This is a type of compensatory feeding. This behaviour may have evolved to minimise predation risk when searching for other foods. "Ampithoe longimana", for example, is more sedentary than other species and have been observed to remain on host plants longer. In fact, when presented with both high- and low-nutrition food options, the sedentary species "Ampithoe longimana" does not distinguish between the two options. Other amphipod species, such as "Gammarus mucronatus" and "Elasmopus levis", which have superior predator avoidance and are more mobile, are better able to pursue different food sources. In species without the compensatory feeding ability, survivorship, fertility, and growth can be strongly negatively affected in the absence of high-quality food. Compensatory feeding may also explain the year-round presence of "A. longimana" in certain waters. Because algal presence changes throughout the year in certain communities, the evolution of flexible feeding techniques such as compensatory feeding may have been beneficial to survival.


title: Amphipoda

text: "Ampithoe longimana" has been observed to avoid certain compounds when foraging for food. In response to this avoidance, species of seaweed such as "Dictyopteris membranacea" or "Dictyopteris hoytii" have evolved to produce C sulfur compounds and C-9 oxo-acids in their bodies as defense mechanisms that specifically deter amphipods instead of deterrence to consumption by other predators.


title: Amphipoda

text: The incidence of cannibalism and intraguild predation is relatively high in some species, although adults may decrease cannibalistic behaviour directed at juveniles when they are likely to encounter their own offspring. In addition to age, the sex seems to affect cannibalistic behaviour as males cannibalised newly moulted females less than males.


title: Amphipoda

text: They have, rarely, been identified as feeding on humans; in Melbourne in 2017 a boy who stood in the sea for about half an hour had severe bleeding from wounds on his legs that did not coagulate easily. This was found to have been caused by "sea fleas" identified as "lysianassid amphipods", possibly in a feeding group. Their bites are not venomous and do not cause lasting damage.


title: Non-monogamy

text: Non-monogamy (or nonmonogamy) is an umbrella term for every practice or philosophy of non-dyadic intimate relationship that does not strictly hew to the standards of monogamy, particularly that of having only one person with whom to exchange sex, love, and/or affection. In that sense, "nonmonogamy" may be accurately applied to extramarital sex, group marriage, or polyamory. It is not synonymous with infidelity, since all parties are consenting to the relationship structure, partners are often committed to each other as well as to their other partners and cheating is still considered problematic behavior with many non-monogamous relationships.


title: Non-monogamy

text: More specifically, "nonmonogamy" indicates forms of interpersonal relationship, intentionally undertaken, in which demands for exclusivity (of sexual interaction or emotional connection, for example) are attenuated or eliminated, and individuals may form multiple and simultaneous sexual and/or romantic bonds. This stands in contrast to monogamy, yet may arise from the same psychology. According to Jessica Fern, a psychologist and the author of "Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy", as of September 2020, about 4% of Americans, nearly 16 million people, are "practising a non-monogamous style of relationship" while the a 2016 study said that over 21% of Americans engaged in consensual non-monogamy at "some point in their lifetime." In January 2020, a YouGov poll found that about one-third of US adults believe that "their ideal relationship is non-monogamous to some degree."


title: Non-monogamy

text: Many terms for non-monogamous practices are vague, being based on criteria such as "relationship" or "love" that are themselves subjectively defined. There are forms of non-monogamy whose practitioners set themselves apart by qualifiers, such as ""ethically" non-monogamous" which intends a distancing from the deceit or subterfuge they perceive in common cheating and adultery. This usage creates distinctions beyond the definitions of the words. For example, though some relations might literally be both polygamous and polyamorous, "polygamy" usually signifies a codified form of multiple marriage, based on established religious teachings such as Plural marriage, a form of polygyny associated with the Latter Day Saint movement in the 19th-century and with present-day splinter groups from that faith, as well as evangelical sects that advocate Christian Plural Marriage.


title: Non-monogamy

text: "Polyamory" is based on the preferences of the participants rather than social custom or established precedent. There is no one 'right' way to engage in non-monogamy (although there are widely agreed on 'wrong' ways). Because of this, the terms for the various kinds of relationships can be vague and sometimes interchangeable. but there are some distinctions that are worth defining. For example, swingers may intentionally avoid emotional and social connection to those—other than their primary partner—with whom they have sex, so may or may not be polyamorous but are non-monogamous.


title: Non-monogamy

text: Some useful terms are "Metamour or Meta", the common term for a person with whom a partner is shared, "V-Structure", one person is equally involved with two partners, and "Triads / Quads". The latter is when three or four participants make up the primary partnership.


title: Non-monogamy

text: Forms of non-monogamy are varied. They include a "casual relationship", sometimes called friends with benefits, which is a primarily physical relationship between two people with low expectations of commitment or emotional labor, and an "open relationship" (incl. open marriage), referring to one or both members of a committed (or married) couple have the express freedom to become sexually active with others, Other forms include sexual activities involving more than two participants at the same time, referring to "group sex" "orgies", and "threesomes", a primarily sexual arrangement involving three people. There's also "relationship anarchy" where participants are not bound by set rules in relationships other than whatever is explicitly agreed upon by the people involved, and "swinging", which refers to similar to an organized social activity, often involving some form of group sex and sometimes simply trading partners with other swingers. There's also concepts such as Polyfidelity, where participants have multiple partners but restrict sexual activity to within a certain group, and a situation where there is a main romantic relationship with all other relationships being second to it, known as primary/secondary. One of the most well-known forms is "polygamy", where one person is married to multiple partners. This has two primary sub-forms: "polyandry" where a woman has multiple husbands, group or conjoint marriage, and "polygyny", referring to a man has multiple wives. The latter is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent, especially in West Africa and in North America, it is practiced by some Mormon sects, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church).


title: Non-monogamy

text: Although its sometimes confused with it, there is "polyamory", referring to when participants have multiple romantic partners It comes in various forms, such as "hierarchical polyamory", where there is a primary romantic relationship with all other relationships being secondary to it, "kitchen table polyamory" which refers to people are expected to know one another and be comfortable in each others' company, and "parallel polyamory", with relationships between people who are kept separately, all may be aware of each other, but are not expected to be friends. There is also "group marriage", where several people form a single familial unit and each person considered to be married to all other members. "Line families" are a form of group marriage intended to outlive its original members by ongoing addition of new spouses and "poly families", which is similar to group marriage, but some members may not consider themselves married to all other members.


title: Non-monogamy

text: Michael Shernoff cites two studies in his report on same-sex couples considering non-monogamy. Morin (1999) stated that a couple has a very good chance of adjusting to non-exclusivity if at least some of the following conditions exist. This includes both partners wanting their relationship to remain primary, the couple having an established reservoir of good will, and a minimum of lingering resentments from past hurts and betrayals. Other conditions


title: Non-monogamy

text: include the partners in agreement on the question of monogamy/non-monogamy and the partners feeling similarly powerful and autonomous. Additionally, Green and Mitchell (2002) stated that direct discussion of the following issues can provide the basis for honest and important conversations, including openness versus secrecy, volition and equality versus coercion and inequality. Other issues include clarity and specificity of agreements versus confusion/vagueness, honoring keeping agreements versus violating them, and how each partner views non-monogamy. According to Shernoff, if the matter is discussed with a third party, such as a therapist, the task of the therapist is to "engage couples in conversations that let them decide for themselves whether sexual exclusivity or non-exclusivity is functional or dysfunctional for the relationship."


title: Non-monogamy

text: The concepts of "monogamy" and "marriage" have been strongly intertwined for centuries, and in English-language dictionaries one is often used to define the other, as when "monogamy" is "being married to one person at a time." A common antonym is polygamy, meaning to have more than one spouse at one time. As a result, monogamy is deeply entrenched within many religions, and in social regulations and law, and exceptions are condemned as incursions on both morality and public health.


title: Non-monogamy

text: To some, the term "non-monogamy" semantically implies that monogamy is the norm, with other forms of relational intimacy being deviant and therefore somehow unhealthy or immoral. This concern over sexually transmitted diseases is despite the common practice of regular testing and sharing of recent test results prior to engaging in sexual activity.


title: Non-monogamy

text: It is often assumed that people who participate in non-monogamous sexual relationships have a higher rate of STIs. Despite reporting a higher number of sexual partners, research suggests that the risk of transmitting STIs is no higher than they are among the monogamous population. This is because the non-monogamous community is more likely to be regularly tested and more open about their results. The stigma of receiving a positive result is diminished, resulting in better treatment options and fewer people who are unwittingly transmitting the disease because they were not told by the person who gave it to them.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. (GWM) is a Chinese privately owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Baoding, Hebei. Founded in 1984, it is currently the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in China, with 1.281 million sales in 2021.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: The company produces and sells vehicles under its own branding, such as GWM, Haval, WEY, TANK, POER, ORA. It also produces electric vehicles under some of the previously listed brandings, including dedicated EV brands such as ORA.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Named after the Great Wall of China, the company is China's largest producer of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up trucks. In 2021, it was the third largest Chinese plug-in electric vehicle manufacturer in the Chinese market, with 4% of market share, selling under brand names such as Ora and Haval.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Established in 1984, Great Wall began with low volume production trucks such as the CC130. They later made the CC513, using the chassis from the Beijing BJ212. In 1993, they started producing a series of different passenger vehicles, starting with a sedan called the CC1020, with styling heavily resembling the Nissan Cedric Y30. This was followed by the CC1020S with styling based on the Toyota Crown (S130) along with a station wagon version, the CC6470. Other early Great Wall models includes a BJ212-based crew cab pickup (also called CC1020S), a BJ212-based station wagon, the CC6490, a small sedan known as the Hawk CC6470 and a clone of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spur. In 1994, the Chinese government halted the production because Great Wall didn't have the right permit for car productions.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In 1996, Great Wall focused on only trucks, not producing another sedan car until 2010. The company has been a very successful producer of pick-ups first reaching top position in the Chinese pick-up market in 1998.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Making an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange on 15 December 2003, Great Wall was the first private Chinese auto manufacturer to become a public company. On Sept. 27, 2011, the company announced it had sold 304 million domestic A shares, and began listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange the next day.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Sales in 2010 were measured at less than 400,000 (near 2% market share) with exports a small portion of that figure at little more than 50,000, no increase from 2009 figures. That same year saw the Great Wall Haval H series as the second most-purchased SUV in China although this figure may technically include two discrete models, the Great Wall Haval H3 and the Great Wall Haval H5.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Manufacturing for 2011 resulted in 486,800 units, and output this year was the tenth largest of any vehicle maker in China. In 2012, it was reported that the company only allows workers one day off per week and new hires undergo months-long, military-style training.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Great Wall started selling in Europe in 2006, offering small vans. A lot of 500 SUVs were shipped to Italy in 2006 as well. Great Wall products were first available in the Australian market in 2009, and the company was, as of 2010, the only Chinese car manufacturer to sell in the EU. European sales continue, with the 2011 opening of a factory in Bulgaria that assembles three different models from knock-down kits.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In July 2018, GWM and German manufacturer BMW announced a partnership to produce electric Mini vehicles in China.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In January 2020, GWM agreed buy the Talegaon plant owned by General Motors India as part of the company's aim to manufacture and sell cars in India.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In February 2020, GWM reached a deal with General Motors to purchase the General Motors Thailand plant in Rayong province.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Great Wall products are available in many places across the globe, with many third-party factories producing models from knock-down kits, such as those located in Bulgaria, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Ukraine, and Vietnam.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In Europe, GWM is present in Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Serbia. The Great Wall marque was also available in Western European markets such as Italy and the United Kingdom with a range of commercial vehicles being sold, but the company stopped supplying new vehicles to these markets with the dealer network being used for warranty work. In 2021, GWM opened a new European base in Munich in order to launch the Ora Good Cat EV in France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom (with the car to be rebranded as the Ora Funky Cat in many of these markets).


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In the Americas, GWM first landed in Paraguay, and now it is present in Belize, Ecuador, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, and Guatemala.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Great Wall was launched in Australia in 2009 by an independent distributor. In May 2016, GWM set up a factory-backed distribution operation, coinciding with the launch of the Haval brand on the Australian market. As of October 2021, Australia is GWM's largest export market. According to official VFACTS reporting from Australia's Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), GWM Haval sold a total of 18,384 units in the 2021 calendar year, placing GWM Haval 14th overall on the Australian market, ahead of Honda.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: On 18 August 2021, the company announced the start of operations in Brazil with the acquisition of a former Mercedes-Benz plant in the city Iracemápolis, São Paulo. The annual production capacity would reach 100,000 vehicles, and would create nearly 2,000 local jobs. The production would cover both Brazil domestic market and the rest of South America. On 27 January 2022, details and launch of factory was presented. According news, GWM will offer 10 models in Brazil, most of then hybrid electric SUVs and pick-ups, with an planned investment of R$10 billion.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Together with the Bulgarian company Litex Motors, Great Wall has a production base in Bahovitsa, near the town of Lovech, Bulgaria, that became operational in February 2012. As of 2012, the factory had the capacity to assemble 2,000 cars per year from knock-down kits. Initially only making the Voleex C10, the factory later added production of an SUV and a pick-up, the Hover 6 and the Steed 5.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: As of January 2015, the company had a production output of about 5,000 vehicles per year (the Hover H6 and the Steed 5 models) and was planning to reach up to 8,000 vehicles within a year or two. By mid-2016, the company had a total of 14 dealerships in 12 Bulgarian cities, three of them in the capital Sofia.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Because of the joint venture with BMW AG, an office was opened in 2021, where EDAG was, Max-Diamond-Straße 7, in front of BMW Forschung und Ingenieurzentrum and Polizei Building in Munich. After presenting the ORA car at IAA in 2021, the objective of CEO Qiao Xianghua was to hire up to 300 Employees at Design and Engineering Sector for working services to BMW R&D, sales and management in complete vehicle integration, vehicle component development, development and integration of electronic power system platforms, smart driving and Internet of Vehicles. Edag had built another Engineering Building at Frankfurter Ring 77, where a Renault dealer second hand vehicles parking lot was, and left the building empty for GWM rent it.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In 2020, Great Wall announced its plans to acquire the General Motors India manufacturing facility in Talegaon, Maharashtra, with an intent to launch sales in 2021.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In June 2020 it committed to a phased investment of $1 billion but no date was confirmed for the start of production, despite the expectation for confirmation of the investment approval by the Indian government by the end of 2020.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: But later in July 2022, the company officially announced its exit from India, and fired all its employees.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In an official statement, the company said: "We would like to thank all the members of Indian team for their contribution, We would continue to study the Indian market and look for opportunity in the future".


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Great Wall Motor Sales Malaysia was set up in 2022 in Menara Binjai, Kuala Lumpur, with the company having a warehouse in the Klang Valley and a plan with Go Auto Group for localized CKD assembly of their models. GWM is expected to launch the Ora Good Cat EV in Malaysia, alongside a couple if hybrid-powered Havals, the Haval Jolion and the Haval H6, with the Poer P12 and Poer P11 double-cab pick-up trucks coming under the main GWM brand.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In September 2015, GWM broke ground on a new plant located in the Tula Region, Russia. The plant is slated to have a total production capacity of 150,000 units per year if the project is successful enough to warrant a second phase of expansion. Initially scheduled to open in 2017, the facility is touted as an "all-process vehicle plant", which may indicate it is on a larger scale than other overseas assembly shops.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: GWM made its debut in South Africa in March 2007. They currently have a national dealer network of more than 66 dealerships.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: As of 2013, GWM had plans to invest $340 million (฿11,191.44 million) for a new factory in Thailand, but this expansion effort was shelved in early 2014. On February 17, 2020, General Motors announced it will withdraw from the Thai market and sell its Rayong plant to GWM by the end of the year. On 30 September 2020, GWM signed a share sales and purchase agreement with General Motors to acquire GM's production facilities in Rayong, with a plan to begin production in the first quarter of 2021 with automobile production capacity of 80,000 units annually.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: While R&D activities commenced in 1998, in 2010 the company began construction of a technical center in Baoding, Hebei province. Part of an effort to increase R&D investment, the center may become fully operational in 2013 as Great Wall states it will obtain "world-leading R&D... and technical ability" by that year.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Currently, component design may rely heavily on foreign technical assistance, and some hard-to-source parts may be provisioned from overseas; the company states it has cooperative agreements with companies such as Autoliv, Delphi Automotive, BorgWarner, Robert Bosch GmbH, the German company Brose, Ricardo plc, TRW Automotive, and Valeo in regards to specific parts such as engines, transmissions, door locks, and airbags, etc. As of 2009, some models used Mitsubishi engines and Siemens electronic systems—both sourced in China.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In January 2016, GWM has announced the creation of a R&D center in Yokohama, Japan as part of a strategy to enter the Japanese auto market.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In June 2016, GWM has announced the creation of a R&D center in Bangalore, India as part of a strategy to enter the Indian auto market.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: While its entire model line initially carried the same badge, the company planned around 2010 to begin differentiating its SUV, passenger car, and pick-up truck offerings naming them Haval, Voleex and Wingle respectively.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Haval became independent around 2013, with Great Wall recognizing this on their website stating in March 2013, "[The] Haval brand became independent officially, bringing GWM into an era of dual brand of Haval and Great Wall." Around 2016, Voleex was dropped, and by 2020, it was reported that the firm would not be selling Great Wall branded passenger cars at all anymore (at least in certain international markets) as all their SUVs would carry the Haval name, whilst their pick-ups, including the replacement for the Great Wall Steed (known as the Model P/Poer/Cannon/Ute), was branded under the GWM marque.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Additionally, Great Wall has spawned three speciality brands — WEY in 2017 for luxury vehicles, ORA in 2018 for Electric Vehicles, and TANK in 2021 for luxury off-roaders.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: As the core brand of Great Wall, GWM originally produced many types of vehicles, but has since evolved to focus on pick-up trucks. GWM has a sub-brand called POER (pronounced as power), which stands for powerful, off-road, enjoyable and reliable, with models such as the GWM POER P11 and GWM POER P12 on sale in selected markets across the world.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: ORA is positioned as GWM's new generation electric car and brand. The marque was officially launched with its first model ORA iQ on August 20, 2018.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Tank is Great Wall's luxury off-road marque. Originally meant to be a sub-brand under WEY, TANK became independent when Great Wall launched the TANK 300 due to the significantly different styling and brand proposition.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Launched in 2017 and named after GWM founder Jack Wey, WEY is Great Wall's luxury marque, focusing on crossovers and SUVs.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: The company made appearances at the Dakar Rally previously. In 2010, it first entered the race as car number 389, with a modified model based on Haval H3, and ranked 33rd. The next year it finished 22nd as car number 373. Its best rankings were achieved in the 2012 and 2013 editions, when the team finished sixth. At the 2014 edition, the team had been competing with the new Haval H8 model, and finished in eighth. Since 2015, the company decided to quit Dakar Rally, but kept participating in other domestic rally races.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Italian automaker Fiat has claimed that a Great Wall A-segment car, the Peri ("Jing Ling" in China), is a copy of its popular second generation Fiat Panda. A 2008 Turin court ruling substantiated the claim stating that the Great Wall Peri, “doesn't look like a different car but is a [Fiat] Panda with a different front end.” A copyright infringement case in Shijiazhuang, China, however, was rejected, with the court claiming that "consumers would not be confused between the two" as they are "clearly different, particularly the front and rear parts of the vehicles".


title: Great Wall Motor

text: Other Great Wall models were also inspired by products of foreign automakers. The Great Wall Florid looks like a Toyota ist, the Great Wall Sailor/SA220 resembles Nissan Frontier, the Great Wall Coolbear is essentially a carbon copy of the first-generation Scion xB, and the original Great Wall Hover model looks like the Isuzu Axiom.


title: Great Wall Motor

text: In 2012, almost 25,000 Chery and Great Wall cars were recalled by Ateco Automotives in Australia after discoveries of asbestos in the engine and exhaust gaskets. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission who monitored the recall, stated that the newly imported stock of both brands were not affected by the recall. There was an investigation on GWM vehicles in 2014 in Italy to check for the presence of asbestos.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor, and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus, and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, most notably through his collaboration on "The Goon Show" scripts. He became a TV star in his own right in the early 1960s when he appeared with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes was born on 4 May 1923 in Oldham, Lancashire; his mother died three weeks later, leaving him and his two-year-old brother Vernon motherless. Their father was a labourer in a cotton mill and a former army sergeant. When Sykes was two, his father remarried and he gained a half-brother named John. Sykes was educated at Ward Street Central School in Oldham. He joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, qualifying as a wireless operator with the rank of leading aircraftman.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes's entertainment career began during the Second World War while serving in a Special Liaison Unit, when he met and worked with then flight lieutenant Bill Fraser. Sykes also collaborated with fellow RAF servicemen Denis Norden and Ron Rich in the production of troop entertainment shows. Whilst preparing for one of these shows in 1945, Sykes, accompanied by Norden and Rich, went to a nearby prison camp in search of stage lighting; the camp turned out to be the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which had recently been liberated by the Allies. Sykes, Norden, and Rich organised a food collection amongst their comrades to feed the starving camp inmates.


title: Eric Sykes

text: When the war ended, Sykes decided to try his luck in London, arriving in the middle of the coldest winter in living memory (1946–47). He rented lodgings, expecting to find work quickly, but by the end of the first week he was cold, hungry, and penniless. The turning point in his life and career came on the Friday night of his first week in London: he had a chance meeting in the street with Bill Fraser, who was by now featuring in a comedy at the Playhouse Theatre. Fraser took the impoverished Sykes to the theatre, offered him food and drink, then asked if Sykes would like to write for him. Sykes began providing scripts for both Fraser and Frankie Howerd and soon found himself in demand as a comedy writer. Forming a partnership with Sid Colin, he worked on the BBC radio ventriloquism show "Educating Archie", which began in 1950, and also "Variety Bandbox". Working on "Educating Archie" led to him meeting Hattie Jacques for the first time.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes had begun to write for television as early as 1948, but from the early 1950s Sykes began to make an ultimately successful transition from radio to TV, writing a number of series episodes and one-off shows for the BBC. His credits in this period include "The Howerd Crowd" (1952), "Frankie Howerd's Korean Party", "Nuts in May", and "The Frankie Howerd Show", as well as "The Big Man" (1954) starring Fred Emney and Edwin Styles. Sykes also made his first screen appearance at this time in the army film comedy "Orders Are Orders" (1954), which also featured Sid James, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Bill Fraser, and Donald Pleasence.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes's small office above a grocer's shop at 130 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, was shared from around 1953 by Spike Milligan. (Sykes and Milligan later jointly formed Associated London Scripts (ALS) with Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, a writers' agency which lasted for well over a decade until being effectively dissolved in 1967). Late in 1954, Sykes began collaborating with Spike Milligan on scripts for "The Goon Show", easing Milligan's workload. Their first collaborative script was for a "Goon Show" special called "Archie in Goonland", a crossover between "The Goon Show" and "Educating Archie". The special was broadcast in June 1954 and featured the regular Goon Show cast (Harry Secombe was then appearing in both) plus Peter Brough, his dummy Archie Andrews and Hattie Jacques. It was not a success, however, and neither recording nor the script has survived. Sykes and Milligan are credited as the co-writers of all but the first six of the 26 episodes in Series 5 (1954–55) and three episodes of Series 6 (1955–56); Sykes also wrote a 15-minute Goon Show Christmas special, "The Missing Christmas Parcel", broadcast during the Children's Hour on 8 December 1955.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1955, Sykes wrote and performed in a BBC Christmas spectacular, a spoof pantomime called "Pantomania", which featured many well-known BBC personalities of the era; it was directed by Ernest Maxin, who went on to produce some of the most famous comedy routines for Morecambe & Wise. That same year Sykes signed a contract as scriptwriter and variety show presenter for the newly formed independent television company ATV, while continuing to write and perform for the BBC.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1956, Sykes performed, wrote scripts, and acted as script editor for the pioneering Rediffusion TV comedy "The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d", the first attempt to translate the humour of the Goons to television. It starred Peter Sellers, with Sykes, Kenneth Connor, and Valentine Dyall. During this year he also made his second film appearance, playing a minor role in the Max Bygraves film "Charley Moon", which also featured Bill Fraser, Peter Jones, Dennis Price, and (as a child) Jane Asher. During 1956–57, Sykes also wrote for and performed in "The Tony Hancock Show", where he again worked with Hattie Jacques.


title: Eric Sykes

text: His next venture for the BBC was a one-hour special, "Sykes Directs a Dress Rehearsal", playing a harassed director in a fictional TV studio rehearsal room, just before going live to air. Later that year he wrote and appeared in another all-star spectacular called "Opening Night" which celebrated the opening of the 1956 National Radio Show at Earl's Court. In 1957, he created "Closing Night", which closed the 1957 show.


title: Eric Sykes

text: By this time Sykes had developed hearing problems; he subsequently lost most of his hearing, but learned to lip-read and watch other performers say their lines to get his cues. In 1957, he wrote and appeared in an edition of "Val Parnell's Saturday Spectacular", the first of two shows in this series that he wrote for Peter Sellers. The first went out under the title of "Eric Sykes Presents Peter Sellers", and the second, in 1958, was called "The Peter Sellers Show".


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1959, Sykes wrote and directed the one-off BBC special "Gala Opening", with a cast that included 'Professor' Stanley Unwin and Hattie Jacques, and played a small supporting role in the Tommy Steele film "Tommy the Toreador".


title: Eric Sykes

text: At the turn of the decade Eric Sykes and his old friend and colleague Hattie Jacques co-starred in a new 30-minute BBC TV sitcom, "Sykes and a...", which Sykes created in collaboration with writer Johnny Speight, who had worked with him earlier in the 1950s on the two Tony Hancock series for ITV. The original concept for the new series had Eric living in suburbia with his wife, with simple plots centring on everyday problems, but Sykes soon realised that by changing the house-mate from wife to sister it offered more scope for storylines and allowed either or both to become romantically entangled with other people.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In the revised concept, Sykes played a version of his established stage persona, a bumbling, work-shy, accident-prone bachelor called Eric Sykes, who lives at 24 Sebastopol Terrace, East Acton, with his unmarried twin sister Harriet, played by Jacques. The other regular cast members were Deryck Guyler as local constable Wilfred "Corky" Turnbull and Richard Wattis as their snobbish, busybody neighbour Charles Brown. Wattis left the show after series 3 and his departure was explained by having Mr Brown migrating to Australia. Other guests included Hugh Lloyd, John Bluthal, Leo McKern, and Arthur Mullard.


title: Eric Sykes

text: The first series (five episodes, all written by Johnny Speight) premiered on 29 January 1960 and were an immediate hit, establishing 'Eric and Hat' as one of Britain's most popular and enduring comedy partnerships. The second series of six episodes (written from storylines suggested by Speight) were mostly written by Sykes, although he co-wrote one episode each with John Antrobus and Spike Milligan. All subsequent episodes were written solely by Sykes.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Nine short seasons of "Sykes and a..." were produced between 1960 and 1965, ranging between six and nine episodes each, plus a short 1962 special in the BBC's annual "Christmas Night with the Stars" programme, are lost. Twenty-five of the original fifty-nine episodes have survived in the BBC archives. It was during this series that Sykes introduced one of his best known creations, the wordless slapstick routine "The Plank", which originally appeared in Episode 2, Series 7 of "Sykes and a...", first broadcast on 3 March 1964 under that title.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In December 1961, Sykes co-starred with Warren Mitchell in "Clicquot et Fils", a one-off, 30-minute comedy written by Associated London Scripts colleagues Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. This was the premiere episode of a new BBC series "Comedy Playhouse", which became an important proving ground for many successful TV comedy series.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1962, Sykes played his first starring film role, being a travelling salesman in the comedy "Village of Daughters", set in an Italian village, but featuring a mostly British cast including John Le Mesurier (who was at that time married to Hattie Jacques), and Roger Delgado. This was followed by a supporting role in the MGM British comedy, "Kill or Cure", starring Terry-Thomas with a cast of British comedy stalwarts including one of the first film appearances by Ronnie Barker. Both films were made by the same writer-director team behind the popular Margaret Rutherford "Miss Marple" film, "Murder She Said".


title: Eric Sykes

text: During 1965, Sykes made what proved to be the final series of "Sykes and a..." and appearing in three major films. He had a small role in "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", joining an all-star cast of British and American TV and film luminaries. The spy spoof "The Liquidator" was directed by Jack Cardiff and starred Rod Taylor with Sykes in a secondary role. His third film of that year was the Boulting brothers' "Rotten to the Core" starring Anton Rodgers (who replaced Peter Sellers) with Sykes. Sykes had a minor film role in another spy comedy "The Spy with a Cold Nose" (1966), written by Galton and Simpson.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1967, Sykes expanded one of his routines into a 45-minute wordless colour short, "The Plank" which features, among others, Sykes, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy Edwards, Graham Stark, Hattie Jacques, and future "Goodies" star Bill Oddie. (The film was later remade for Thames Television in 1978.) Also in 1967, Sykes and his old friend Jimmy Edwards started touring with the theatrical farce "Big Bad Mouse" which, while keeping more or less to a script, gave them rein to ad lib and address the audience. They would return to the production on and off until 1975, touring the UK twice and also taking the show abroad, including to Australia.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Returning to television, Sykes and Jacques appeared in the 1967 special "Sykes Versus ITV" with Tommy Cooper and Ronnie Brody. In 1968, he had a supporting role in an Anglo-American film co-production, the Edward Dmytryk western "Shalako", starring Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1969, Sykes co-starred with Spike Milligan in the ill-fated television sitcom "Curry and Chips", a satire on racial prejudice created and written by Johnny Speight and made for London Weekend Television. Milligan, who had grown up in British India, played Kevin O'Grady, a half-Pakistani half-Irish man who comes to work in a British factory and ends up boarding with his ineffectual foreman Arthur Blenkinsop (Sykes), who has to regularly defend Kevin against his racist workmates. The supporting cast included pop singer turned actor Kenny Lynch, Geoffrey Hughes, Norman Rossington, Sam Kydd, Jerrold Wells, and Fanny Carby as Arthur and Kevin's landlady. The series provoked a storm of complaints about its liberal use of racist epithets and bad language (although Sykes refused to swear, as he did throughout his career). It was cancelled on the instruction of the Independent Broadcasting Authority after a series of six episodes.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes also made another minor film appearance in 1969 in the comedy "Monte Carlo or Bust!", which was also titled as "Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies".


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1970, Sykes returned to BBC television with a guest appearance in an episode of "Till Death Us Do Part". This was followed in 1971 by a six-episode series, "Sykes and a Big, Big Show", for the BBC and a special, "Sykes: With the Lid Off", for Thames Television.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1972, seven years after the cancellation of "Sykes and a...", the BBC revived the series under the title "Sykes". 68 colour episodes of "Sykes" were made between 1972 and 1979; forty-three of the shows were re-workings of scripts from the 1960s series, which had been recorded in monochrome. These included a remake of the 1960s episode "Sykes and a Stranger", guest-starring Peter Sellers as the stranger, Tommy Grando, in what was to be Sellers's final TV part. During the 1970s, Sykes and Jimmy Edwards took part in a performance of "Big Bad Mouse" entertaining Rhodesian troops for Ian Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1973, Sykes had a small role as a police sergeant in the Douglas Hickox thriller "Theatre of Blood".


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1977, Sykes wrote and starred in another television special, "Eric Sykes Shows a Few of Our Favourite Things". He also wrote the script for the 1977 Yorkshire Television adaptation of "Charley's Aunt" and appeared in the role of Brassett.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes wrote and appeared in two Thames Television specials broadcast during 1980 – "The Likes of Sykes" and "Rhubarb Rhubarb". The latter special, a remake of his 1969 short film "Rhubarb" which Sykes also directed, featured many of his old friends including Jimmy Edwards, Bob Todd, Charlie Drake, Bill Fraser, Roy Kinnear, Beryl Reid, and Norman Rossington. It was his last screen appearance with Hattie Jacques. The film employed an idea drawn from the British showbiz tradition in which extras used the word "rhubarb" to simulate low-level background dialogue, which had also been a running joke in "The Goon Show". In 1981, Sykes wrote, directed, and starred in the offbeat comedy "If You Go Down in the Woods Today" for Thames, with a cast including Roy Kinnear, Fulton Mackay, and George Sewell.


title: Eric Sykes

text: During 1982, Sykes played the Chief Constable in the slapstick police comedy film "The Boys in Blue", which starred the comedy duo Cannon and Ball, with Jon Pertwee. For Thames TV that year, he also appeared in and wrote "The Eric Sykes 1990 Show" with Tommy Cooper and Dandy Nichols and "It's Your Move", a wordless slapstick comedy depicting the travails of a couple (Richard Briers and Sylvia Syms) moving into a new home, who hire an accident-prone firm of house removers, headed by Sykes. It featured an all-star cast including Tommy Cooper, Bernard Cribbins, Jimmy Edwards, Irene Handl, Bob Todd, and Andrew Sachs. Sykes produced one further silent movie for Thames in 1988, "Mr. H. Is Late", set at a funeral. In 1984, Sykes played the Genie in the children's film "Gabrielle and the Doodleman", which also featured Windsor Davies (who would also appear with Sykes in the BBC's "Gormenghast" in 2000), Bob Todd, Lynsey de Paul, and Gareth Hunt.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1985, he played the Mad Hatter in the Anglia Television serial adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland", joining an all-star cast that included Michael Bentine, Leslie Crowther, and Leonard Rossiter, and he also had an uncredited role (as an arcade attendant) in the Julien Temple film musical "Absolute Beginners" (1986) which stars Patsy Kensit. In 1986, Sykes played Horace Harker in "The Six Napoleons", an episode of the Granada TV adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories starring Jeremy Brett.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes toured Australia with the play "Run for Your Wife" (1987–88) with a cast that included Jack Smethurst, David McCallum, and Katy Manning. In 1989, in his first series since the "Sykes" series ended in 1979, Sykes starred as the golf club secretary in the ITV situation comedy "The Nineteenth Hole", written by Johnny Speight. It was not a success and ran for only one season, being dropped by ITV for being unfunny, racist, and sexist.


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 1994, Sykes appeared in both episodes of "Paul Merton's Palladium Story", a documentary series celebrating the history of the London Palladium. From March 1997, Sykes, together with Tim Whitnall, Toyah Willcox and Mark Heenehan, provided narration for the BBC pre-school TV series "Teletubbies". It is his voice that announces "Teletubbies!" during the title sequence and on the show's theme song, "Teletubbies say "Eh-oh!"", which became a number one single in December 1997. he also voiced The Scary Lion in The Lion and Bear Magical Event. In 1998, Sykes appeared in one episode of "Dinnerladies" as the father of Stan (Duncan Preston).


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 2000, Sykes appeared as Mollocks, the servant of Dr Prunesquallor, in the BBC's mini-series adaptation of Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast", which was the last production to feature both Milligan and Sykes (although they did not appear together on screen). In 2001, he had one of his few serious screen roles, playing a servant in the blockbuster supernatural thriller film "The Others", starring Nicole Kidman. In 2005, he played Frank Bryce in "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire".


title: Eric Sykes

text: In 2007, he appeared in "Last of the Summer Wine" and in "New Tricks", as well as taking a small role in an episode of the sitcom "My Family". That year he also had a small part in the film "Son of Rambow". In October 2010 Sykes appeared in "Hallowe'en Party", an episode in the twelfth series of "Agatha Christie's Poirot".


title: Eric Sykes

text: His autobiography, "If I Don't Write It, Nobody Else Will", was published in 2005, by Harper Perennial. He also wrote novels, including "UFOs are Coming Wednesday" (1995, Virgin Publishing), "Smelling of Roses" (1997, Virgin Publishing), "The Great Crime of Grapplewick" (1984, MacMillan London Ltd). These three have been published as "The Eric Sykes Compendium" by Virgin Publications in 1997: .


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes became partially deaf as an adult. His hearing started to deteriorate in the Second World War, and he had an operation in 1952 followed by another two years later. Recovering from the second procedure he discovered he was profoundly deaf. His spectacles contained no lenses but were a bone-conducting hearing aid. Disciform macular degeneration, brought about by age and possibly smoking, left Sykes partially sighted, and he was registered as blind. He was a patron of the Macular Disease Society. He stopped smoking cigarettes in November 1966, but continued to smoke cigars until 1998. He underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1997, and experienced a stroke in 2002.


title: Eric Sykes

text: He married Edith Eleanore Milbrandt on 14 February 1952, and they had three daughters and a son. In the year Sykes died they marked their 60th wedding anniversary.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1986 and promoted to Commander (CBE) in the 2005 New Year Honours for services to drama, following a petition by Members of Parliament (MPs). Sykes was an honorary president of the Goon Show Preservation Society.


title: Eric Sykes

text: Sykes died on the morning of 4 July 2012, aged 89, at his home in Esher, Surrey, after a short illness. His family was with him when he died. He has a memorial plaque in St Paul's Church in Covent Garden.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The Bolshoi Theatre () is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and opera performances. Before the October Revolution it was a part of the Imperial Theatres of the Russian Empire along with Maly Theatre ("Small Theatre") in Moscow and a few theatres in Saint Petersburg (Hermitage Theatre, Bolshoi (Kamenny) Theatre, later Mariinsky Theatre and others).


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are among the oldest and best known ballet and opera companies in the world. It is by far the world's biggest ballet company, with more than 200 dancers. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, a leading school of ballet. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow and Russia (its iconic neoclassical façade is depicted on the Russian 100-ruble banknote). On 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi re-opened after an extensive six-year renovation. The official cost of the renovation is 21 billion rubles ($688 million). However, other Russian authorities and other people connected to it claimed much more public money was spent. The renovation included restoring acoustics to the original quality (which had been lost during the Soviet Era), as well as restoring the original Imperial decor of the Bolshoi.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The company was founded on , when Catherine II granted Prince Peter Urusov a licence to organise theatrical performances, balls and other forms of entertainment. Urusov set up the theatre in collaboration with English tightrope walker Michael Maddox. Initially, it held performances in a private home, but it acquired the Petrovka Theatre and on 30 December 1780, it began producing plays and operas, thus establishing what would become the Bolshoi Theatre. Fire destroyed the Petrovka Theatre on 8 October 1805, and the New Arbat Imperial Theatre replaced it on 13 April 1808, however it also succumbed to fire during the French invasion of Moscow in 1812.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The first instance of the theatre was built between 1821 and 1824, designed and supervised to completion by architect Joseph Bové based upon an initial competition-winning design created by Petersburg-based Russian architect Andrei Mikhailov that was deemed too costly to complete. The new building opened on 18 January 1825 as the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre with a performance of Fernando Sor's ballet, "Cendrillon". Initially, it presented only Russian works, but foreign composers entered the repertoire around 1840.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: In 1843 a large-scale reconstruction of the theatre took place using a design by A. Nikitin, but a fire in 1853 caused extensive damage and so a further reconstruction was carried out, by Alberto Cavos, son of the opera composer Catterino Cavos.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: On 7 December 1919 the house was renamed the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre. Only a few days later, however, on 12 December, there was an unsuccessful attempt to shut the institution entirely. Beethoven Hall opened on 18 February 1921. Ivan Rerberg directed further reconstruction of the theatre between 1921 and 1923. A bomb damaged the structure during World War II, but this was repaired.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: A new stage for the Bolshoi Theatre, called the New Stage, went into service on 29 November 2002, constructed to the left of the theatre's historic main stage. Together with auxiliary buildings — a restored 17th-century building, two rehearsal halls, and artists' recreation rooms — it forms a single theatre complex, the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. The new building is on a natural hill which it shared, until recently, blocks of old houses with communal apartments.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: From July 2005 to October 2011 the theatre was closed for restoration. The building, whose architecture combines three different styles, was damaged and a quick renovation seemed to be necessary.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: Repairs were initially estimated at 15 billion rubles ($610 million) but engineers found that more than 75% of the structure was unstable, and as a result the cost estimate jumped to 25.5 billion rubles (app. $850 million). At the completion of the work, however, it was announced that only 21 billion rubles ($688 mil) had been spent. According to The Moscow Times, the true cost may have been double that, and Der Spiegel quotes a figure of $1.1 billion. The rebuilding and renovation was funded entirely by the federal government.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: During the long period of reconstruction, the company continued to mount productions, with performances held on the New Stage and on the stage of the Great Kremlin Palace.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The renovation included an improvement in acoustics, to attempt to replicate the sound believed to have existed in pre-Soviet times, and the restoration of the original Imperial decor. Finally, on 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi Theatre re-opened with a concert featuring international artists and the ballet and opera companies. The first staged opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila, followed soon after.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The Bolshoi is a repertory theatre, meaning that it draws from a list of productions, any one of which may be performed on a given evening. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there have been a few attempts to reduce the theatre's traditional dependence on large state subsidies. The Bolshoi has been associated from its beginnings with ballet. Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" premiered at the theatre on 4 March 1877. The chief ballet conductor from 1923 to 1963 was Yuri Fayer.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: After the death of Joseph Stalin, the company toured internationally and became an important source of cultural prestige, as well as foreign currency earnings. As a result, the "Bolshoi Ballet" became a well-known name in the West.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: However, the Bolshoi suffered from losses through a series of defections of its dancers. The first occurrence was on 23 August 1979, with Alexander Godunov; followed by Leonid Kozlov and Valentina Kozlova on 16 September 1979; and other cases in the following years. Bolshoi continues to tour regularly with opera and ballet productions in the post-Soviet era.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: Until the mid-1990s, most foreign operas were sung in Russian, but Italian and other languages have been heard more frequently on the Bolshoi stage in recent years.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: Music director and chief conductor Vassily Sinaisky quit abruptly at the start of December 2013, after a 41-month tenure, citing the need to avoid conflict. General director Vladimir Urin accepted his resignation, and selected Tugan Sokhiev as replacement. Sokhiev's four-year contract, settled on 20 January 2014, and became effective immediately.


title: Bolshoi Theatre

text: The Bolshoi Theatre is attracts large numbers of tourists. As a result, prices can be much higher than in other Russian theatres.


title: Geographical distribution of French speakers

text: French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the language of European diplomacy and international relations.


text: According to the 2022 report of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), 409 million people speak French. The OIF states that despite a decline in the number of learners of French in Europe, the overall number of speakers is rising, largely because of its presence in African countries: of the 212 million who use French daily, 54.7% are living in Africa. The OIF figures have been contested as being inflated due to the methodology used and its overly broad definition of the word francophone. According to the authors of a 2017 book on the world distribution of the French language, a credible estimate of the number of "francophones réels" (real francophones), that is, individuals who speak French on a daily basis either as their mother tongue or as a second language, would be around 130 million.


text: The following figures are from a 2022 report of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). No distinctions are made between native speakers of French and those who learnt it as a foreign language, between different levels of mastery or how often the language is used in daily life. For African countries where French is the main language of education, the number of French speakers is derived from the average number of schooling years.


text: In Algeria, 69.1% of the population over 15 in Alger, Constantine, Oran and Annaba can read and write French. According to a survey conducted in 2012, fewer than four in 10 Algerians identified with a Francophone identity. Conversely, speaking French was seen as essential by seven in 10, though a third of the population felt that the use of French is declining. In urban areas, the ability to speak fluent French is considered almost mandatory to find employment, especially in specialized white collar fields. French is the first foreign language in Algeria, and is introduced at the primary level. In higher education, French is the language of instruction in scientific and technical fields.


text: Francophone Algerians can be divided into three broad categories: 'real Francophones', who speak French as part of their daily lives and mostly come from a privileged background; 'casual Francophones', who use the language in certain contexts, alternating it with Arabic, and 'passive Francophones', who can understand French but do not speak it.


text: French television channels are widely watched in Algeria, and Algerian newspaper print their television schedules. Algeria also has a sizeable French-language press. A 2014 report published by the National Assembly of France describes it as the most important French-speaking country after France. Nevertheless, Algeria is not a member of the Francophonie. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 76% of Algerians in 2014.


text: French is not official, but The World Factbook cites it as the lingua franca of the country. The French language, restricted to an urban elite during the colonial period, began to expand as part of the mass education efforts launched after 1962. Its controversial status as a legacy of colonialism led to the increasing Arabisation of the school system in the 1970s and 1980s. The usage of French in the country reached its lowest point during the Algerian Civil War in the 1990s, when armed Islamist groups targeted teachers of French. The language has rebounded in public life since the end of the war, culminating in the efforts to reintroduce French in primary schools in 2006, which were initially hampered by a lack of sufficiently qualified teachers. Referring to the continued usage of French in Algeria in the post-colonial period, the writer Kateb Yacine described the French language as the 'spoils of war' ("butin de guerre") of Algerians.


text: Local French-language media include El Watan, Le Soir d'Algérie, Liberté, Le Matin and Tout sur l'Algérie. According to a 2010 study by IMMAR Research & Consultancy, Francophone newspapers had a readership of 4,459,000 in the country, or 28% of the total, and a majority among readers with a high school or university education.


text: The first French-medium school was established in Egypt in 1836, and the importance of French expanded throughout the second half of the 19th century, until it became the most common foreign language in the country. At the time, it was also a lingua franca for the communities of foreign origin, especially in Cairo.


text: During the period of the British colonization of Egypt French was actually the medium of communication among foreigners and between foreigners and Egyptians; the mixed French-Egyptian civil courts operated in French, and government notices from the Egyptian Sultan, taxi stand information, timetables of trains, and other legal documents were issued in French. This was partly because of some Egyptians had French education and partly because of cultural influence from France. Despite efforts from British legal personnel, English was never adopted as a language of the Egyptian civil courts during the period of British influence.


text: French began to lose ground in Egyptian society in the 1920s for a number of political and social reasons; from the 1930s onwards English became the main foreign language, but French was still being learnt by 8 million Egyptians in 2013. There are two French-speaking universities in the country, the Université Française d'Égypte and the Université Senghor.


text: French is spoken by elderly people in the educated class who are over 40 years old. These people are more eloquent in this language because French was the main language used in education many years back before English prevailed and became the most preferred language of teaching. French is, however, starting to gain more prevalence as many young people are now attending French schools compared to before. As a result of this, the number of young people speaking French has risen to match those speaking English.


text: French was demoted from its status as an official language of Mauritania in 1991. Even so, it is taught from the second grade onward for up to six hours a week. French is also a language of instruction in high school for scientific subjects. In higher education, 2,300 students were enrolled in French courses in 2012. French remains, alongside Arabic, the language of work and education, although there were attempts to introduce English as a first foreign language. On social media, 59% of Mauritanian Facebook users used French on the website in 2014.


text: The 2004 census of Morocco found that 39.5% of the population aged 10 and older could read and write French. Spoken mainly in cities among the upper middle class, French is the medium of instruction of two-thirds of courses in higher education, including science and technology, health, economics and management, although the adoption of English for this role was being considered by the Minister of Education. In the private sector, French is treated as more than simply a foreign language. French is introduced in primary school, where it is studied for up to 7 hours a week. It is also used as the language of education in many private schools. Moroccans are the largest group of foreign students in France, ahead of the Chinese and Algerians.


text: 50.3% of the population over 15 in Tanger, Fès, Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech can read and write French. According to a survey conducted in 2012, just a third of urban Moroccans identify with a Francophone identity, and slightly more wish for French to become more commonly used. French is nevertheless deemed essential, both in the professional and private spheres, by three-quarters of respondents. French-language media are losing ground to Arabic media, including in television, radio or the press: of 618 Moroccan publications in 2004, 448 were in Arabic and 164 in French. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 75% of Moroccans in 2014.


text: Local French-language media include Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb, TelQuel, Aujourd'hui le Maroc, La Vie éco.


text: French is a working language in many sectors in Tunisia, including healthcare, commerce or communication. In coastal areas and the more developed neighbourhoods of the capital, it is also a common language of communication for all social groups, either in its standardised form or hybridised with Arabic. In the inland regions and the south it remains a foreign language. French is introduced from the third grade at 8 hours per week. In high school French is the language of instruction for mathematics, science and computing. Teachers are not always sufficiently trained for this usage, however.


text: Nearly three-quarters of the population of Tunis, Sousse and Sfax consider French as essential in their professional or personal lives. However, only half of the population feels Francophone, and only a third feels solidarity with other Francophone countries. 70.8% of the population over 15 in the aforementioned Tunisians cities can read and write French. Arabic increasingly dominates the Tunisian media landscape, especially on television: the audience share of local French-language channels reached 25% in the early 1990s, but hardly reached 3% by the 2010s. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 91% of Tunisians in 2014.


text: Local French-language media include La Presse de Tunisie, L'Economiste Maghrébin, Tunivisions, Le Temps.


text: According to the High Council of the International Organization of the Francophonie, in 2010, 96.2 million French speakers were living in various countries in Africa. French has been imported to most of these countries through colonization, and it is not a mother tongue to most residents. African standards of French differ from European ones. Some linguists discuss a "second French language" or even an "African French language".


text: According to Paul Wald, "The notion of ownership of an imported language begins when – despite its identification as a foreign and/or vernacular language – its use does not imply a relationship with the foreigner." French can thus be considered the result of functional and vernacular ownerships, satisfying the needs of a society with new sociocultural and socioeconomic realities. French has begun developing into almost independent varieties, with creation of different types of slang by speakers with a sufficient knowledge of French. Examples include the Ivorian jargon "Nouchi" in Abidjan and the Cameroonian "Camfranglais", which is a mixture of French and English with elements of indigenous languages.


text: French is the sole official language of Benin. According to a 2014 survey, 57.3% of residents of Cotonou over the age of 15 could read and write French. Knowledge of French is considered important for employment, bureaucracy, education but also in everyday life. 34% of the population was Francophone in 2002, up from 23% in 1992. There are strong regional differences, with the ability to speak French being more common in the south of the country. The Atlantique and Littoral departments have a French-speaking majority. French speakers are more commonly men than women, owing to a disparity in access to education.


text: French is the sole official language of Burkina Faso. In Ouagadougou, 49.4% of the population aged 15 and older can read and write French. At the national level French was the first language for 1.66% of the population in 2006 (up from 0.75% in 1996), reaching 9.54% in the capital, where it is the second most spoken language, behind Dioula.


text: Until 2014, French was one of two official languages of Burundi, the other being Kirundi., Only Kirundi is spoken by the vast majority of the population, therefore holding the status of national language as determined by article 5 of the Constitution.


text: French is one of two official languages of Cameroon, the other being English. French is the main language in eight of the ten regions of the country, with English being dominant in the remaining two. French is the mother tongue of a vast proportion of young Cameroonians living in urban centers. In Cameroon, 63.7% of the population aged 15 and older in Douala and 60.5% in Yaoundé can read and write French; an additional 13–15% can speak French without being able to write it. To some extent, the language situation in Cameroon between French and English could be described fairly accurately as an exact inversion of the linguistic situation existing in Canada between English and French : Being spoken by 80% of the educated population (unlike English which is much less spoken), French predominates largely especially in government and information, even in English-speaking regions, which has led to the current uprising of the English-speaking minority living at the Nigerian border, which complains that English language is disappearing progressively under the pressure of the more numerous French speakers and that the linguistic rights of the English speakers are not respected, endangering their specific culture.


text: French is one of two official languages of Chad, together with Arabic. One resident of N'Djamena out of two feels solidarity towards other French-speaking country and wishes for the use of French to expand. French is seen as important in work and education. French shares a place with Arabic as the language of administration and education, as well as in the press; French is dominant on radio and television. French is also spoken as part of daily life.


text: French is one of two official languages of Comoros, Arabic being the second. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 100% of Comorians in 2014.


text: French is the sole official language of Republic of Congo. 68.7% of the population of Brazzaville aged 15 and older can read and write French. French is the main language in the media, used by 63% of radio and television broadcasters. French is also the dominant language in the state administrations.


text: French is the sole official language of Democratic Republic of Congo. About half of Kinshasa residents feel solidarity towards Francophone countries, and French is seen as important for education and relations with the government. It is also seen as important to be successful in life, along with English. French is the main language of education after third grade.


text: French is one of two official languages of Djibouti, the other being Arabic. On social media, French was used on Facebook by 82% of Djiboutians in 2014.


text: French is the sole official language of Gabon. According to a 1999 survey, French was the first language for 26.3% of Libreville residents between the age of 15 and 25. 71.9% of the capital's residents over 15 years of age could read and write French. Three quarters of the population of the capital identifies as Francophone and considers French as essential. All local publications are in French.


text: French is the sole official language of Guinea. In Conakry, 42.1% of the population aged 15 and older can read and write French.


text: French is the sole official language of the Ivory Coast. In Abidjan, largest city of the country, 57.6% of the inhabitants over 15 can read and write French, and another 11% can speak it but not write it. The French language is seen as essential by a large majority, especially for dealing with the government and in education. Two thirds of respondents report feeling Francophone. French plays an important role in all areas of public and private life across the whole country. French is increasingly seen as an Ivorian language, and a local variety distinct from standard French has emerged ().


text: In Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, French is seen as important for work, education and administrative matters, but not in everyday life, where Malagasy dominates. Less than half feel solidarity with other Francophone countries or consider knowledge of French as essential. Education in primary schools is bilingual in Malagasy and French. The latter is used as medium of education for mathematics and scientific subjects. French is the language of instruction in secondary and tertiary education. It is also the main language of government, alongside Malagasy.


text: In Bamako, 47.7% of the population over 15 can read and write French. Only 5 out of 10 people in the capital feel solidarity towards Francophone countries. French, however, is seen as essential for work, studies and administrative procedures. French is advancing as a second language, rising from 11.9% in 1987 to 24.4% in 2009, but declining as a native language from 0.11% of the population in 1987 to 0.09% in 1998, losing some ground to Bambara. French is more widely spoken in the Sahel region in the north of the country than in the south.


text: French is the sole official language of Niger. In Niamey, the capital, French is seen as essential for work, studies and administrative procedures. Two-thirds of residents believe that the use of French is becoming more common in the country.


text: French became the administrative language of Rwanda in 1916. The Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994 and the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front were followed by a period of linguistic upheaval, with the return of refugees from Anglophone countries setting the stage for the officialisation of English in 1996 and the gradual usurpation of French as the language of education, culminating in the decision in October 2008 to make English the main language of education at higher levels, effectively relegating French to the status of third language. Nevertheless, a survey of students in Kigali found that French was known by a majority of them.


text: French is the sole official language of Senegal. French was commonly spoken by 9.4% of Senegalese in 2002, mainly as a second language, with just 0.6% speaking it natively. Wolof is by far the most spoken language in the country, including the capital, while French remains a second language, becoming the main language only in non-Wolof areas. French is the main language of institutions, however. Only half of Dakar residents identify with a Francophone status or feel solidarity with French-speaking countries, but the French language is seen as essential for everyday affairs and education.


text: French was the language of literacy for 37.2% of the population in 2013, followed by Arabic at 11.1%. French is the main language of education in all regions of Senegal except for Kaffrine, where Arabic remains dominant, with significant Arabic-educated minorities in Kaolack (15.9% to 33.0% for French), Louga (15.8% to 22.7%) and Diourbel (15.0% to 17.2%). This phenomenon is explained by the impact of Quranic schools or Daara in those regions.


text: French is the sole official language of Togo. According to the 2010 census, 53% of the population over the age of 15 can read and write French.


text: French language is spoken in the overseas departments of French Guiana and the French Antilles, including Guadeloupe, Martinique, and the islands formerly attached to Guadeloupe. There are over a million people living in these departments and collectivities.


text: French Creoles are also spoken on the islands of Dominica, St. Lucia, and to a more limited extent, Grenada.


text: French is one of two official languages of Haiti, together with Haitian Creole, which is French-based. French is the language of culture and business in Haiti, and also the main language of institutions. French is used most by the elite and the middle class. Attempts to increase the legitimacy of Creole as an official language and in the media, on radio and television in particular, led to a relative decline in the share of French usage. Most teachers of French suffer from a low level of skills in the language, with nearly 85% achieving a level between A2 and B1 in the Test de connaissance du français (TCF) in 2009.


text: French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, which are the two official languages of the Canadian federation. About 6,827,860 Canadians speak French as their first language, or around 20% of the country, with 2,065,300 constituting secondary speakers. Bilingualism with French has been declining in English Canada in recent years.


text: Provincially, French is the sole official language of the Province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people, or almost 80.1 percent (2006 Census) of the province. About 95 percent of the people of Quebec speak French as either a first or second language. English and French are the official languages of New Brunswick, where bilingualism is constitutionally and statutorily enacted. In 2016, approximately 32 per cent of New Brunswick claims French as their mother tongue. More than three-quarters of francophones in New Brunswick resides in the eastern portion of the province. English and French are also constitutionally recognized as the official languages of Manitoba's legislative and judicial branches. In 2016, more than 43,000 Manitobans (3.4 per cent of the province's population) claims French as their mother tongue. Franco-Manitobans are primarily concentrated in southern Manitoba, along corridors that follows the Seine and the Red River of the North; with 80 per cent of Franco-Manitobans residing in Eastman or the Winnipeg Capital Region.


text: French is also an official language of all three territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon), along with English and, in Northwest Territories and Nunavut, multiple Aboriginal languages. Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, comprising just under 4 per cent of the population.


text: French is also an official language of Ontario's legislature and judiciary, with access to a French judiciary being viewed as quasi-constitutional right in that province. French language rights are also statutorily enacted to certain regions of Ontario, under the "French Language Services Act". More than 600,000 francophones reside in Ontario (approximately 4.7 per cent of the population), constituting the largest French-speaking community in Canada outside Quebec. Over 40 per cent of Franco-Ontarians reside in Eastern Ontario, with more than half of that population living in communities close to the Ontario-Quebec border. Central and northeastern Ontario also holds significant populations of Franco-Ontarians, with francophones making up over 22 per cent of northeastern Ontario's population.


text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most-spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all languages of Chinese are similarly combined. French remains the second most-spoken language in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.


text: Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French. Cajun French has the largest number of speakers, mostly living in Acadiana. According to the 2000 United States Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if Louisiana Creole is excluded. In October 2018, Louisiana became the first U.S. state to join the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. New England French, essentially a variant of Canadian French, is spoken in parts of New England.


text: Missouri French, Muskrat French and Métis French were historically spoken by descendants of habitants, voyageurs and coureurs des bois in various parts of New France, but are now endangered languages.


text: The anti-Portuguese factor of Brazilian nationalism in the 19th century led to an increased use of the French language to the detriment of Portuguese, as France was seen at the time as a model of civilization and progress. The learning of French has historically been important and strong among the Lusophone high societies, and for a great span of time, it was also the main foreign language among the middle class of both Portugal and Brazil, but now trails English, in both, and more recently, Spanish, in the latter.


text: In Myanmar, French is gaining popularity amongst university students and the tourism sector, as the country slowly opens up. French is taught in secondary school, as with other foreign languages aside from English, which is taught from primary school. Two universities in the country have French-language departments, for a total of 350 students.


text: In China the language was also spoken by the elite in the Shanghai French Concession and other concessions in Guangzhou (Shamian Island), Hankou, Tianjin, Kwang-Chou-Wan and in the French zone of influence over the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan, and Guangdong. French is seen as important for doing business in Africa in particular, and 6,000 students attended French courses in 2013. 29,000 study French in one of the Alliance française establishments, and 20,000 more study it in private language schools or academies, while 35,000 Chinese people are studying in France.