The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles, making up a total area of 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The United Kingdom had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom is London, whose wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively.
Sir John Vincent Hurt was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. He was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in the world". He possessed what was described as the "most distinctive voice in Britain". He received numerous awards including the BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award in 2012 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 for his services to drama.
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951–74).
Sir Simon Michael Schama is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University.
Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main building is in Art Deco style, with a facing of Portland stone over a steel frame. It is a Grade II* listed building and includes the BBC Radio Theatre, where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience.
Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom.
The culture of Scotland refers to the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with Scotland and the Scottish people. The Scottish flag is blue with a white saltire, and represents the cross of Saint Andrew.
Upper Holloway is an area in the London Borough of Islington, London, centred on the upper part of Holloway Road and Junction Road, forming part of North London.
Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon is a British art historian, art critic, author and broadcaster.
The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (HAUM) is an art museum in the German city of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony.
Omnibus is a British documentary series broadcast mainly on BBC One. The programme was the successor to the arts-based series Monitor. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards.
The Younger Memnon is an Ancient Egyptian statue, one of two colossal granite statues from the Ramesseum mortuary temple in Thebes, Upper Egypt. It depicts the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II wearing the Nemes head-dress with a cobra diadem on top. The damaged statue has since been separated from its upper torso and head. These sections can now be found in the British Museum. The remainder of the statue remains in Egypt. It is one of a pair that originally flanked the Ramesseum's doorway. The head of the other statue is still found at the temple.
British Isles – A Natural History is an eight-part documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and presented by Alan Titchmarsh. Originally broadcast in the UK on BBC One from September to November 2004, it took viewers on a journey from the formation of what is now the British Isles some 3 billion years ago to the present day, revealing how natural and human forces have shaped the landscape. Each of the 50-minute episodes was followed by a 10-minute short specific to each region of the British Isles. In 2007, the BBC made a companion series about British wildlife called The Nature of Britain, also presented by Titchmarsh.
The Nature of Britain is a nature documentary series made for British television by the BBC Natural History Unit. It was first broadcast on BBC1 in October and November 2007. The Nature of Britain was the second BBC natural history series presented by Alan Titchmarsh, following 2004's British Isles – A Natural History.
A History of the World in 100 Objects was a joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, consisting of a 100-part radio series written and presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. In 15-minute presentations broadcast on weekdays on Radio 4, MacGregor used objects of ancient art, industry, technology and arms, all of which are in the British Museum's collections, as an introduction to parts of human history. The series, four years in planning, began on 18 January 2010 and was broadcast over 20 weeks. A book to accompany the series, A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor, was published by Allen Lane on 28 October 2010. The entire series is also available for download along with an audio version of the book for purchase. The British Museum won the 2011 Art Fund Prize for its role in hosting the project.
The Sphinx of Taharqo is a granite gneiss statue of a sphinx with the face of Taharqo. He was a Nubian king, who was one of the 25th Egyptian Dynasty rulers of the Kingdom of Kush. It is now in the British Museum in London.
Augustus Lavinus Casely-Hayford is a British curator, cultural historian, broadcaster and lecturer with ancestral Ghanaian roots in the Casely-Hayford family.
Janina Sara Maria Ramirez, sometimes credited as Nina Ramirez, is a British art historian, cultural historian, and TV presenter. She specialises in interpreting symbols and examining works of art within their historical context.
Gregory Evans is a British television scriptwriter, playwright and radio dramatist. He has also written short stories, features and reviews for journals such as Harpers & Queen, Woman's Journal, The Observer and The Guardian online, and worked as a film critic for Harper's. He has published a book for young children, Owl in the House. His stage adaptation of H. E. Bates's novel Fair Stood the Wind for France was produced at the Royal Theatre (Northampton). His tragi-comedy Shirleymander, inspired by Andrew Hosken's book Nothing Like a Dame, was staged at the newly-opened Playground Theatre in West London in May and June 2018. It was directed by Anthony Biggs and starred Jessica Martin and Jack Klaff.
The Bronze Head from Ife, or Ife Head, is one of eighteen copper alloy sculptures that were unearthed in 1938 at Ife in Nigeria, the religious and royal centre of the Yoruba people. It is believed to represent a king. It was probably made in the 12th-13th century CE. The realism and sophisticated craftsmanship of the objects challenged the dismissive and patronising Western conceptions of African art. The naturalistic features of the Ife heads are unique and the stylistic similarities of these works "suggest that they were made by an individual artist or in a single workshop."
