title: Liechtenstein

text: The area that later became Liechtenstein remained under Frankish hegemony (Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties) until the Treaty of Verdun divided the Carolingian empire in AD 843, following the death of Charlemagne in 814. The territory of present-day Liechtenstein formed part of East Francia. It would later be reunified with Middle Francia under the Holy Roman Empire, around AD 1000. Until about 1100, the predominant language of the area was Romansch, but thereafter German began to gain ground in the territory. In 1300 another Alemannic population—the Walsers, who originated in Valais—entered the region and settled; the mountain village of Triesenberg today preserves features of the Walser dialect.


title: Liechtenstein

text: By 1200, dominions across the Alpine plateau were controlled by the Houses of Savoy, Zähringer, Habsburg, and Kyburg. Other regions were accorded the Imperial immediacy that granted the empire direct control over the mountain passes. When the Kyburg dynasty fell in 1264, the Habsburgs under King Rudolph I (Holy Roman Emperor in 1273) extended their territory to the eastern Alpine plateau that included the territory of Liechtenstein. This region was enfeoffed to the Counts of Hohenems until the sale to the Liechtenstein dynasty in 1699.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In 1396 Vaduz (the southern region of Liechtenstein) gained imperial immediacy, i.e. it became subject to the Holy Roman Emperor alone.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The family from which the principality takes its name originally came from Liechtenstein Castle in Lower Austria, which they had possessed from at least 1140 until the 13th century (and again from 1807 onwards). The Liechtensteins acquired land, predominantly in Moravia, Lower Austria, Silesia, and Styria. As these territories were all held in feudal tenure from more senior feudal lords, particularly various branches of the Habsburgs, the Liechtenstein dynasty was unable to meet a primary requirement to qualify for a seat in the Imperial diet (parliament), the . Even though several Liechtenstein princes served several Habsburg rulers as close advisers, without any territory held directly from the Imperial throne, they held little power in the Holy Roman Empire.


title: Liechtenstein

text: For this reason, the family sought to acquire lands that would be classed as (not sellable) or held without any intermediate feudal tenure, directly from the Holy Roman Emperor. During the early 17th century Karl I of Liechtenstein was made a (prince) by the Holy Roman Emperor Matthias after siding with him in a political battle. Hans-Adam I was allowed to purchase the minuscule ('Lordship') of Schellenberg and the county of Vaduz (in 1699 and 1712 respectively) from the Hohenems. Tiny Schellenberg and Vaduz had exactly the political status required: no feudal lord other than their comital sovereign and the suzerain Emperor.


title: Liechtenstein

text: On 23 January 1719, after the lands had been purchased, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, decreed that Vaduz and Schellenberg were united and elevated the newly formed territory to the dignity of ('principality') with the name "Liechtenstein" in honour of "[his] true servant, Anton Florian of Liechtenstein". On this date, Liechtenstein became a sovereign member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It is a testimony to the mere political expediency of the purchase that the Princes of Liechtenstein did not visit their new principality for almost 100 years.


title: Liechtenstein

text: By the early 19th century, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the Holy Roman Empire came under the effective control of France, following the crushing defeat at Austerlitz by Napoleon in 1805. In 1806 Emperor Francis II abdicated and dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, ending more than 960 years of feudal government. Napoleon reorganized much of the Empire into the Confederation of the Rhine. This political restructuring had broad consequences for Liechtenstein: the historical imperial, legal, and political institutions had been dissolved. The state ceased to owe an obligation to any feudal lord beyond its borders.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Modern publications generally attribute Liechtenstein's sovereignty to these events. Its prince ceased to owe an obligation to any suzerain. From 25 July 1806, when the Confederation of the Rhine was founded, the Prince of Liechtenstein was a member, in fact, a vassal, of its hegemon, styled "protector", the French Emperor Napoleon I, until the dissolution of the confederation on 19 October 1813.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Soon afterward, Liechtenstein joined the German Confederation (20 June 181523 August 1866), which was presided over by the Emperor of Austria.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In 1818, Prince Johann I granted the territory a limited constitution. In that same year Prince Aloys became the first member of the House of Liechtenstein to set foot in the principality that bore their name. The next visit would not occur until 1842.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Until the end of World War I, Liechtenstein was closely tied first to the Austrian Empire and later to Austria-Hungary; the ruling princes continued to derive much of their wealth from estates in the Habsburg territories, and spent much of their time at their two palaces in Vienna. Johann II appointed Carl von In der Maur, an Austrian aristocrat, to serve as the Governor of Liechtenstein. The economic devastation caused by the First World War forced the country to conclude a customs and monetary union with its other neighbour, Switzerland.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In 1929, 75-year-old Prince Franz I succeeded to the throne. He had just married Elisabeth von Gutmann, a wealthy woman from Vienna whose father was a Jewish businessman from Moravia. Although Liechtenstein had no official Nazi party, a Nazi sympathy movement arose within its National Union party. Local Liechtenstein Nazis identified Elisabeth as their Jewish "problem".


title: Liechtenstein

text: In March 1938, just after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Franz named as regent his 31-year-old grandnephew and heir-presumptive, Prince Franz Joseph. Franz died in July that year, and Franz Joseph succeeded to the throne. Franz Joseph II first moved to Liechtenstein in 1938, a few days after Austria's annexation.


title: Liechtenstein

text: During World War II, Liechtenstein remained officially neutral, looking to neighbouring Switzerland for assistance and guidance, while family treasures from dynastic lands and possessions in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia were taken to Liechtenstein for safekeeping. At the close of the conflict, Czechoslovakia and Poland, acting to seize what they considered German possessions, expropriated all of the Liechtenstein dynasty's properties in those three regions. The expropriations (subject to modern legal dispute at the International Court of Justice) included over of agricultural and forest land (most notably the UNESCO listed Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape), and several family castles and palaces.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In 2005 it was revealed that Jewish slave labourers from the Strasshof concentration camp, provided by the "SS", had worked on estates in Austria owned by Liechtenstein's Princely House.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Citizens of Liechtenstein were forbidden to enter Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. More recently the diplomatic conflict revolving around the controversial postwar Beneš decrees resulted in Liechtenstein not having international relations with the Czech Republic or Slovakia. Diplomatic relations were established between Liechtenstein and the Czech Republic on 13 July 2009, and with Slovakia on 9 December 2009.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein was in dire financial straits following the end of World War II. The Liechtenstein dynasty often resorted to selling family artistic treasures, including the portrait "Ginevra de' Benci" by Leonardo da Vinci, which was purchased by the National Gallery of Art of the United States in 1967 for 5 million ($ million in dollars), then a record price for a painting.


title: Liechtenstein

text: By the late 1970s, Liechtenstein used its low corporate tax rates to draw many companies and became one of the wealthiest countries in the world.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein is one of the few countries in Europe (along with Monaco and San Marino) not to have a tax treaty with the United States, and efforts toward one seem to have stalled.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein has a monarch as head of state, and an elected parliament that enacts the law. It is also a direct democracy, where voters can propose and enact constitutional amendments and legislation independently of the legislature. The Constitution of Liechtenstein was adopted in March 2003, replacing the 1921 constitution. The 1921 constitution had established Liechtenstein as a constitutional monarchy headed by the reigning prince of the Princely House of Liechtenstein; a parliamentary system had been established, although the reigning Prince retained substantial political authority.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The reigning Prince is the Head of State and represents Liechtenstein in its international relations (although Switzerland has taken responsibility for much of Liechtenstein's diplomatic relations). The Prince may veto laws adopted by parliament. The Prince may call referendums, propose new legislation, and dissolve parliament, although dissolution of parliament may be subject to a referendum.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Executive authority is vested in a collegiate government comprising the head of government (prime minister) and four government councillors (ministers). The head of government and the other ministers are appointed by the Prince upon the proposal of parliament and with its concurrence, and reflect the balance of parties in parliament. The constitution stipulates that at least two government members be chosen from each of the two regions. The members of the government are collectively and individually responsible to parliament; parliament may ask the Prince to remove an individual minister or the entire government.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Legislative authority is vested in the unicameral Landtag, made up of 25 members elected for maximum four-year terms according to a proportional representation formula. Fifteen members are elected from the Oberland (Upper Country or region) and ten from the Unterland (Lower Country or region). Parties must receive at least 8% of the national vote to win seats in parliament, i.e., enough for two seats in the 25-seat legislature. Parliament proposes and approves a government, which the Prince formally appoints. Parliament may also pass votes of no confidence in the entire government or individual members.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Parliament elects from among its members a "Landesausschuss" (National Committee) made up of the president of the parliament and four additional members. The National Committee is charged with performing functions of parliamentary supervision. Parliament can call for referendums on proposed legislation. Parliament shares the authority to propose new legislation with the Prince and with the number of citizens required for to initiate a referendum.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Judicial authority is vested in the Regional Court at Vaduz, the Princely High Court of Appeal at Vaduz, the Princely Supreme Court, the Administrative Court, and the State Court. The State Court rules on the conformity of laws with the constitution and has five members elected by parliament.


title: Liechtenstein

text: On 1 July 1984, Liechtenstein became the last country in Europe to grant women the right to vote. The referendum on women's suffrage, in which only men were allowed to participate, passed with 51.3% in favour.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In a national referendum in March 2003, nearly two-thirds of the electorate voted in support of Hans-Adam II's proposed new constitution. The proposed constitution was criticised by many, including the Council of Europe, as expanding the powers of the monarchy (continuing the power to veto any law, and allowing the Prince to dismiss the government or any minister). The Prince threatened that if the constitution failed, he would, among other things, convert some royal property for commercial use and move to Austria. The princely family and the Prince enjoy tremendous public support inside the nation, and the resolution passed with about 64% in favour. A proposal to revoke the Prince's veto powers was rejected by 76% of voters in a 2012 referendum.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The municipalities of Liechtenstein are divided between the two electoral districts of Unterland and Oberland. The country's political division is historical; the Unterland depends on Schellenberg, the Oberland on the county of Vaduz.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The northern communities of Eschen, Gamprin, Mauren, Ruggell and Schellenberg belong to Unterland; the municipalities of Balzers, Planken, Schaan, Triesen, Triesenberg and Vaduz belong to the much larger Oberland. The autonomy of the Liechtenstein communities is in the upper range compared to the other Central European states along with Switzerland. Despite their small size, the municipalities have complex forms in terms of their territorial extent: in addition to a main part, seven municipalities also include one or more exclaves. Citizens' cooperatives, which exist in about half of Liechtenstein's municipalities, own forests and pastures for collective use, as well as parceled areas that are left for private use.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In 2013, Liechtenstein won for the first time a SolarSuperState Prize in the Solar category recognizing the achieved level of the usage of photovoltaics per population within the state territory. The SolarSuperState Association justified this prize with the cumulative installed photovoltaic power of some 290 Watt per capita at the end of 2012. This placed Liechtenstein second in the world after Germany. Also in 2014, the SolarSuperState Association awarded the second place SolarSuperState Prize in the Solar category to Liechtenstein. In the years 2015 and 2016, Liechtenstein was honoured with the first place SolarSuperState Prize in the Solar category because it had the world's biggest cumulative installed photovoltaic power output per capita.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In the absence of political or military power, Liechtenstein has sought to preserve its sovereignty over the past 200 years through membership in legal communities. International cooperation and European integration are therefore constants of Liechtenstein's foreign policy, aimed at continuing to safeguard the country's sovereignty as recognized under international law. Decisive for the domestic legitimacy and sustainability of this foreign policy were and are strong direct-democratic and citizen-oriented decision-making mechanisms, which are anchored in Liechtenstein in the Constitution of 1921.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Important historical stages in Liechtenstein's integration and cooperation policy were its accession to the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, to the German Confederation in 1815, the conclusion of bilateral customs and currency agreements with the Danube Monarchy in 1852, and finally the Customs Treaty with Switzerland in 1923, which was followed by a whole series of other important bilateral treaties.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Post-war economic reconstruction was followed by accession to the Statute of the International Court of Justice in 1950, Liechtenstein signed the CSCE Helsinki Final Act (today's OSCE) together with 34 other states in 1975, Liechtenstein joined the Council of Europe in 1978, and Liechtenstein was admitted to the United Nations (UN) on September 18, 1990. In 1991, Liechtenstein joined the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) as a full member, and since 1995 Liechtenstein has been a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2008, Liechtenstein joined the Schengen/Dublin Agreement together with Switzerland. From an economic and integration policy perspective, relations within the framework of the EEA and the EU occupy a special position in Liechtenstein's foreign policy. The Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein also participates in the annual meetings of the heads of state of the German-speaking countries (consisting of EU and non-EU members).


title: Liechtenstein

text: Relations with Switzerland are particularly extensive because of the close cooperation in many areas; Switzerland performs tasks in some places that would be difficult for the Principality to handle on its own because of its small size. Since 2000, Switzerland has appointed an ambassador to Liechtenstein, but he resides in Bern. Liechtenstein's consular representation has been mostly handled by Switzerland since the Customs Treaty with Switzerland of 1923.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein maintains direct diplomatic missions in Vienna, Bern, Berlin, Brussels, Strasbourg, and Washington, D.C., as well as Permanent Missions in New York and Geneva to the United Nations. Currently, diplomatic missions from 78 countries are accredited to Liechtenstein, but mostly reside in Bern. The Embassy in Brussels coordinates contacts with the European Union, Belgium, and also the Holy See.


title: Liechtenstein

text: For a long time, diplomatic relations with Germany were maintained through a non-resident ambassador; that is, a contact person who was not permanently resident in Germany. Since 2002, however, Liechtenstein has had a permanent ambassador in Berlin, while the German embassy in Switzerland is also responsible for the Principality. Liechtenstein's Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers the contacts to be extremely fruitful and important for the country's development, especially on the economic level.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Conflicts over the handling of banking and tax data have repeatedly strained relations with Germany. On September 2, 2009, Liechtenstein and Germany signed an agreement on cooperation and the exchange of information in tax matters. The text of the agreement followed the OECD model agreement and provides for an exchange of information on tax matters upon request as of the 2010 tax year. In addition, Liechtenstein regards the Germany as an important partner in safeguarding its interests in European integration. At the cultural level, project sponsorship plays a particularly important role. For example, the Hilti Foundation financed the exhibition "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" in Berlin, and the state donated 20,000 euros following the fire at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein is situated in the Upper Rhine valley of the European Alps and is bordered to the east by the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, to the south by the canton of Grisons (Switzerland) and to the west by the canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland). The Rhine forms the entire western border of Liechtenstein. Measured south to north the country is about long. Its highest point, the Grauspitz, is . Despite its Alpine location, prevailing southerly winds make the climate comparatively mild. In winter, the mountain slopes are well suited to winter sports.


title: Liechtenstein

text: New surveys using more accurate measurements of the country's borders in 2006 have set its area at , with borders of . Liechtenstein's borders are longer than previously thought.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein is one of the world's two doubly landlocked countries – countries wholly surrounded by other landlocked countries (the other is Uzbekistan). Liechtenstein is the sixth-smallest independent nation in the world by area.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The principality of Liechtenstein is divided into 11 communes called "Gemeinden" (singular "Gemeinde"). The "Gemeinden" mostly consist of only a single town or village. Five of them (Eschen, Gamprin, Mauren, Ruggell, and Schellenberg) fall within the electoral district "Unterland" (the lower county), and the remainder (Balzers, Planken, Schaan, Triesen, Triesenberg, and Vaduz) within "Oberland" (the upper county).


title: Liechtenstein

text: Despite its alpine location, the prevailing southerly winds temper Liechtenstein's climate. Its climate is continental, with cloudy and cold winters, with frequent rain and snowfall. Summers are cool to slightly warm, cloudy, and humid.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The country's climate is relatively mild despite its mountainous location. It is strongly influenced by the action of foehn (warm and dry fall wind), so the vegetation period is prolonged in spring and autumn and temperatures around 15 °C due to the strong foehn are not uncommon even in winter. The mountain ranges of Switzerland and the Vorarlberg upstream protect from the cold polar and Atlantic air, creating a typical alpine inland protective layer. The principality has orchards with leafy meadows and a long tradition of viticulture. Liechtenstein's small land area hardly plays a role in climatic differences, but the vertical division into different altitudes is of great importance, so that significant climatic differences arise.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In winter the temperature rarely drops below minus 15 degrees Celsius, while in summer the average temperatures range between 20 and 28 degrees Celsius. Annual precipitation measurements amount to an average of about 900 to 1200 millimeters, in the direct alpine region, however, precipitation is often up to 1900 millimeters. The average duration of sunshine is about 1600 hours per year.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The Rhine is the longest and largest body of water in Liechtenstein. With a length of approximately 27 kilometers, it represents the natural border with Switzerland and is of great importance for Liechtenstein's water supply. Furthermore, the Rhine is an important recreational area for the population. At 10 kilometers, the Samina is the second longest river in the Principality. The troubled river begins at Triesenberg and flows into the Ill in Austria (near Feldkirch).


title: Liechtenstein

text: The only naturally formed lake in Liechtenstein is the Gampriner Seelein, which was not formed until 1927 by a flooding of the Rhine with enormous erosion. In addition, there are other artificially created lakes, which are mainly used to generate electricity. One of them is the Steg Reservoir, the largest lake in Liechtenstein.


title: Liechtenstein

text: About half of Liechtenstein's territory is mountainous. Liechtenstein lies entirely in the Rhaetikon and is thus – depending on the classification of the Alps – assigned either to the Eastern Alps (two-part division of the Alps) or to the Central Alps (three-part division of the Alps).


title: Liechtenstein

text: The highest point of Liechtenstein is the Vordere Grauspitz (Vordergrauspitz) with an altitude of 2599 m above sea level, while the lowest point is the Ruggeller Riet with an altitude of 430 m above sea level.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In total, there are 32 mountains in Liechtenstein with an altitude of at least 2000 meters. The Falknishorn, at 2452 meters above sea level, is the fifth highest mountain in Liechtenstein and represents the southernmost point of the country. The Liechtenstein-Graubünden-Vorarlberg border triangle is the Naafkopf (2570 m above sea level).


title: Liechtenstein

text: In addition to the peaks of the Alpine chain, which belong to the Limestone Alps, two inselbergs, Fläscherberg (1135 meters above sea level) in the south and Eschnerberg (698 m) in the north, rise from the Rhine Valley and belong to the Helvetic cover or flysch zone of the Alps. Eschnerberg represents an important settlement area in the Liechtenstein Unterland.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Despite its limited natural resources, Liechtenstein is one of the few countries in the world with more registered companies than citizens; it has developed a prosperous, highly industrialized free-enterprise economy and boasts a financial service sector as well as a living standard that compares favourably with those of the urban areas of Liechtenstein's much larger European neighbours.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein participates in a customs union with Switzerland and employs the Swiss franc as the national currency. The country imports about 85% of its energy. Liechtenstein has been a member of the European Economic Area (an organization serving as a bridge between the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Union) since May 1995.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The government is working to harmonize its economic policies with those of an integrated Europe. In 2008, the unemployment rate stood at 1.5%. Liechtenstein has only one hospital, the Liechtensteinisches Landesspital in Vaduz. As of 2014 the CIA World Factbook estimated the gross domestic product (GDP) on a purchasing power parity basis to be $4.978 billion. As of 2009 the estimate per capita was $139,100, the highest listed for the world.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Industries include electronics, textiles, precision instruments, metal manufacturing, power tools, anchor bolts, calculators, pharmaceuticals and food products. Its most recognizable international company and largest employer is Hilti, a manufacturer of direct fastening systems and other high-end power tools. Many cultivated fields and small farms are found both in the Oberland and Unterland. Liechtenstein produces wheat, barley, corn, potatoes, dairy products, livestock and wine.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The government of Liechtenstein taxes personal income, business income and principal (wealth). The basic rate of personal income tax is 1.2%. When combined with the additional income tax imposed by the communes, the combined income tax rate is 17.82%. An additional income tax of 4.3% is levied on all employees under the country's social security programme. This rate is higher for the self-employed, up to a maximum of 11%, making the maximum income tax rate about 29% in total. The basic tax rate on wealth is 0.06% per annum, and the combined total rate is 0.89%. The tax rate on corporate profits is 12.5%.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein's gift and estate taxes vary depending on the relationship the recipient has to the giver and the amount of the inheritance. The tax ranges between 0.5% and 0.75% for spouses and children and 18% to 27% for non-related recipients. The estate tax is progressive.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein has previously received significant revenues from "Stiftungen" ("foundations"), financial entities created to hide the true owner of nonresident foreigners' financial holdings. The foundation is registered in the name of a Liechtensteiner, often a lawyer. This set of laws used to make Liechtenstein a popular tax haven for extremely wealthy individuals and businesses attempting to avoid or evade taxes in their home countries. In recent years, Liechtenstein has displayed stronger determination to prosecute international money launderers and worked to promote an image as a legitimate finance centre. In February 2008, the country's LGT Bank was implicated in a tax-fraud scandal in Germany, which strained the ruling family's relationship with the German government. Crown Prince Alois has accused the German government of trafficking in stolen goods, referring to its $7.3 million purchase of private banking information offered by a former employee of LGT Group. The United States Senate's subcommittee on tax haven banks said that the LGT bank, owned by the princely family, and on whose board they serve, "is a willing partner, and an aider and abettor to clients trying to evade taxes, dodge creditors or defy court orders".


title: Liechtenstein

text: The 2008 Liechtenstein tax affair is a series of tax investigations in numerous countries whose governments suspect that some of their citizens have evaded tax obligations by using banks and trusts in Liechtenstein; the affair broke open with the biggest complex of investigations ever initiated for tax evasion in Germany. It was also seen as an attempt to put pressure on Liechtenstein, then one of the remaining uncooperative tax havens—along with Andorra and Monaco—as identified by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2007. On 27 May 2009 the OECD removed Liechtenstein from the blacklist of uncooperative countries.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In August 2009, the British government department HM Revenue & Customs agreed with Liechtenstein to start exchanging information. It is believed that up to 5,000 British investors have roughly £3 billion deposited in accounts and trusts in the country.


title: Liechtenstein

text: In October 2015, the European Union and Liechtenstein signed a tax agreement to ensure the automatic exchange of financial information in case of tax disputes. The collection of data started in 2016. It is another step to bring the principality in line with other European countries regarding its taxation of private individuals and corporate assets.


title: Liechtenstein

text: With a population of 39,315 as of 31 December 2021, Liechtenstein is Europe's fourth-smallest country; Vatican City, San Marino, and Monaco have fewer residents. Its population is primarily Alemannic-speaking, although one third is foreign-born, primarily German speakers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, along with other Swiss, Italians, and Turks. Foreign-born people make up two-thirds of the country's workforce.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtensteiners have an average life expectancy at birth of 82.0 years, subdividing as male: 79.8 years, female: 84.8 years (2018 est.). The infant mortality rate is 4.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to 2018 estimates.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The official language is German, spoken by 92% of the population as their main language in 2020. 73% of Liechtenstein's population speak an Alemannic dialect of German at home that is highly divergent from Standard German but closely related to dialects spoken in neighbouring regions such as Switzerland and Vorarlberg, Austria. In Triesenberg, a Walser German dialect promoted by the municipality is spoken. Swiss Standard German is also understood and spoken by most Liechtensteiners.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein offers protection to adherents of all religions, and considers the "religious interests of the people" a priority of the government. In Liechtenstein's schools, although exceptions are allowed, religious education in Catholicism or Protestantism (either Lutheran or Calvinist, or both) is legally required. Tax exemption is granted by the government to religious organizations. According to the Pew Research Center, social conflict caused by religious hostilities is low in Liechtenstein, and so is government restriction on the practice of religion.


title: Liechtenstein

text: According to the 2010 census, 85.8% of the total population is Christian, of whom 75.9% adhere to the Catholic faith, constituted in the Catholic Archdiocese of Vaduz, while 9.6% are either Protestant, mainly organized in the Evangelical Church in Liechtenstein (a United church, Lutheran & Reformed) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Liechtenstein, or Orthodox, mainly organized in the Christian-Orthodox Church. The largest minority religion is Islam (5.4% of the total population).


title: Liechtenstein

text: The literacy rate of Liechtenstein is 100%. In 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment report, coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranked Liechtenstein's education as the 10th-best in the world. In 2012, Liechtenstein had the highest PISA scores of any European country.


title: Liechtenstein

text: A railway connects Austria and Switzerland through Liechtenstein. The country's railways are administered by the Austrian Federal Railways as part of the route between Feldkirch, Austria, and Buchs, Switzerland. Liechtenstein is nominally within the Austrian Verkehrsverbund Vorarlberg tariff region.


title: Liechtenstein

text: There are four railway stations in Liechtenstein, namely Schaan-Vaduz, Forst Hilti, Nendeln and Schaanwald, served by an irregularly stopping train service between Feldkirch and Buchs provided by Austrian Federal Railways. While EuroCity and other long-distance international trains also travel along the route, they do not normally stop at the stations within the borders of Liechtenstein.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein Bus is a subsidiary of the Swiss Postbus system, but separately run, and connects to the Swiss bus network at Buchs and at Sargans. Buses also run to the Austrian town of Feldkirch.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein is one of only a few countries without an airport. The nearest large airport is Zurich Airport near Zürich, Switzerland ( by road). The nearest small airport is St. Gallen Airport (). Friedrichshafen Airport also provides access to Liechtenstein, as it is away. Balzers Heliport is available for chartered helicopter flights.


title: Liechtenstein

text: As a result of its small size, Liechtenstein has been strongly affected by external cultural influences, most notably those originating in the southern regions of German-speaking Europe, including Austria, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Switzerland, and specifically Tirol and Vorarlberg. The Historical Society of the Principality of Liechtenstein plays a role in preserving the culture and history of the country.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The largest museum is the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, an international museum of modern and contemporary art with an important international art collection. The building by the Swiss architects Morger, Degelo, and Kerez is a landmark in Vaduz. It was completed in November 2000 and forms a "black box" of tinted concrete and black basalt stone. The museum collection is also the national art collection of Liechtenstein.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The other important museum is the Liechtenstein National Museum ("Liechtensteinisches Landesmuseum") showing permanent exhibitions on the cultural and natural history of Liechtenstein as well as special exhibitions. There is also a stamp museum, ski museum, and a 500-year-old Rural Lifestyle Museum.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The Liechtenstein State Library is the library that has legal deposit for all books published in the country.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The most famous historical sites are Vaduz Castle, Gutenberg Castle, the Red House, and the ruins of Schellenberg.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The Private Art Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, one of the world's leading private art collections, is shown at the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.


title: Liechtenstein

text: On the country's national holiday, all subjects are invited to the castle of the head of state. A significant portion of the population attends the national celebration at the castle where speeches are made and complimentary beer is served.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Music and theatre are important parts of the culture. There are numerous music organizations such as the Liechtenstein Musical Company, the annual Guitar Days, and the International Josef Gabriel Rheinberger Society, which play in two main theatres.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The primary internet service provider and mobile network operator of Liechtenstein is Telecom Liechtenstein, located in Schaan.


title: Liechtenstein

text: There are two conventional television channels in the country. The private channel 1FLTV was created in 2008 with a goal of joining the European Broadcasting Union, which it has not accomplished yet. The "Landeskanal" () is operated by the government's Unit for Information and Communication and carries government proceedings, public affairs programming, and cultural events. Both are seen on local cable providers, along with channels from the other German-speaking countries. The only free television is ORF from Austria, available via terrestrial overspill of its signal from Vorarlberg.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Radio Liechtenstein (), which was established in 2004 along with the public-service broadcaster "" (LRF) that operates it, is the country's only domestic radio station based in Triesen. Radio Liechtenstein and several programs of the Swiss SRF are broadcast from the Sender Erbi () overlooking Vaduz. Liechtenstein also has two major newspapers: "Liechtensteiner Volksblatt" and "Liechtensteiner Vaterland".


title: Liechtenstein

text: Amateur radio is a hobby of some nationals and visitors. However, unlike virtually every other sovereign nation, Liechtenstein does not have its own ITU prefix. Conventionally, amateurs are issued call signs with the Swiss prefix "HB", followed by "0" or "L".


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein football teams play in the Swiss football leagues. The Liechtenstein Football Cup allows access for one Liechtenstein team each year to the UEFA Europa Conference League; FC Vaduz, a team playing in the Swiss Challenge League, the second division in Swiss football, is the most successful team in the Cup, and scored their greatest success in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1996 when they drew with and defeated the Latvian team FC Universitate Riga by 1–1 and 4–2, to go on to a lucrative fixture against Paris Saint-Germain F.C., which they lost 0–3 and 0–4.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The Liechtenstein national football team is regarded as an easy target for any team drawn against them; this was the basis for a book about Liechtenstein's unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup by British author Charlie Connelly. In one surprising week during autumn 2004, however, the team managed a 2–2 draw with Portugal, who only a few months earlier had been the losing finalists in the European Championships. Four days later, the Liechtenstein team traveled to Luxembourg, where they defeated the home team 4–0 in a 2006 World Cup qualifying match. In the qualification stage of the European Championship 2008, Liechtenstein beat Latvia 1–0, which prompted the Latvian coach's resignation. They went on to beat Iceland 3–0 on 17 October 2007, which is considered one of the most dramatic losses of the Icelandic national football team. On 7 September 2010, they came within seconds of a 1–1 draw against Scotland in Glasgow, having led 1–0 earlier in the second half, but Liechtenstein lost 2–1 thanks to a goal by Stephen McManus in the 97th minute. On 3 June 2011, Liechtenstein defeated Lithuania 2–0. On 15 November 2014, Liechtenstein defeated Moldova 0–1 with Franz Burgmeier's late free kick goal in Chișinău.


title: Liechtenstein

text: As an alpine country, the main sporting opportunity for Liechtensteiners to excel is in winter sports such as downhill skiing: the country's single ski area is Malbun. Hanni Wenzel won two gold medals and one silver medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics (she won bronze in 1976), her brother Andreas won one silver medal in 1980 and one bronze medal in 1984 in the giant slalom event, and her daughter Tina Weirather won a bronze medal in 2018 in the Super-G. With ten medals overall (all in alpine skiing), Liechtenstein has won more Olympic medals per capita than any other nation. It is the smallest nation to win a medal in any Olympics, Winter or Summer, and currently the only nation to win a medal in the Winter Games but not in the Summer Games. Other notable skiers from Liechtenstein are Marco Büchel, Willi Frommelt, Paul Frommelt and Ursula Konzett.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Another discipline unusually popular with Liechtensteiners is motorsport – American-born German-Colombian Rikky von Opel raced under the flag of Liechtenstein in Formula One in 1973 and 1974, and Manfred Schurti competed in 9 editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a Porsche factory driver with a best finish of 4th overall in 1976. The nation is currently represented internationally by Fabienne Wohlwend in Ferrari Challenge and Formula 3, as well as Matthias Kaiser who competes in prototype endurance racing.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Other sports Liechtenstein athletes have had success in include tennis, with Stephanie Vogt and Kathinka von Deichmann both having varying degrees of success on the women's tour, as well as swimming – both Julia Hassler and Christoph Meier represented the country at the 2016 Summer Olympics with the former the nations' flag bearer.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein competes in the Switzerland U16 Cup Tournament, which offers young players an opportunity to play against top football clubs.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The Liechtenstein National Police is responsible for keeping order within the country. It consists of 87 field officers and 38 civilian staff, totaling 125 employees. All officers are equipped with small arms. The country has one of the world's lowest crime rates. Liechtenstein's prison holds few, if any, inmates, and those with sentences over two years are transferred to Austrian jurisdiction. The Liechtenstein National Police maintains a trilateral treaty with Austria and Switzerland that enables close cross-border cooperation among the police forces of the three countries.


title: Liechtenstein

text: Liechtenstein follows a policy of neutrality and is one of the few countries in the world that maintain no military although its police force maintains a paramilitary force, the Princely Liechtenstein Security Corps within the organisation that would act as its de facto army if an invasion of Liechtenstein ever occurred. The Princely Liechtenstein Security Corps provides heavy backup for the National Police as well as Honor Guards at the Royal Palace and official functions. However, Liechtenstein can reinstate its military if deemed necessary, although this is very unlikely.


title: Liechtenstein

text: The army was abolished for financial reasons soon after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, in which Liechtenstein fielded an army of 80 men, although they were not involved in any fighting. No casualties were incurred; in fact, the unit numbered 81 upon return due to an Austrian military liaison who accompanied the army back home. The demise of the German Confederation in that war freed Liechtenstein from its international obligation to maintain an army, and parliament seized this opportunity and refused to provide funding for one. The Prince objected, as such a move would leave the country defenceless, but relented on 12 February 1868 and disbanded the force. The last soldier to serve under the colours of Liechtenstein died in 1939 at age 95.


title: David Tennant

text: David John Tennant ("né" McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show "Doctor Who", reprising in the role from 2022 to 2023 as the fourteenth incarnation. Other notable roles include Giacomo Casanova in the BBC comedy-drama serial "Casanova" (2005), Barty Crouch Jr. in the fantasy film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005), Peter Vincent in the horror remake "Fright Night" (2011), DI Alec Hardy in the ITV crime drama series "Broadchurch" (2013–2017), Kilgrave in the Netflix superhero series "Jessica Jones" (2015–2019), Crowley in the Amazon Prime fantasy series "Good Omens" (2019–present), and Phileas Fogg in "Around the World in 80 Days" (2021).


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant has worked on stage, including a portrayal of the title character in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of "Hamlet", later filmed for television. He has also worked as a voice actor in "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!" (2011), "Ferdinand" (2017), "Final Space" (2018–2021), "" (2019–present), the "How to Train Your Dragon" films (2010–2019), and as Scrooge McDuck in "DuckTales" (2017–2021). In 2015, he received the National Television Award for Special Recognition.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant was born David John McDonald in Bathgate, West Lothian on 18 April 1971, the son of Helen (née McLeod; 1940–2007) and Alexander "Sandy" McDonald (1937–2016), a minister who served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He grew up with his brother Blair and sister Karen in Ralston, Renfrewshire, where his father was the local minister. Two of his maternal great-grandparents, William and Agnes Blair, were Northern Irish Protestants from County Londonderry who were among the signatories of the Ulster Covenant in 1912. William was also a member of the Orange Order. Tennant's maternal grandfather, footballer Archie McLeod, met William and Agnes' daughter Nellie while playing for Derry City FC. McLeod was descended from tenant farmers from the Isle of Mull.


title: David Tennant

text: At the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was a fan of "Doctor Who", but they encouraged him to aim for more conventional work. He later said that he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing an acting career. He watched almost every "Doctor Who" episode for years and once spoke to Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker at a book-signing event in Glasgow. He was educated at Ralston Primary School and Paisley Grammar School and acted in various school productions. His talent was noticed by actress Edith MacArthur, who told his parents that she believed he would become a successful theatre actor after she saw him perform when he was 10 years old.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant attended Saturday classes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which was then known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. At age 16, he passed an audition for the Academy, becoming one of their youngest students and studying there between the ages of 17 and 20. After discovering that there was another David McDonald already represented by the actor's union Equity, he took his stage name from Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant. He later had to legally change his surname to meet the American Screen Actors Guild's rules.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant made his professional acting debut while still in secondary school. When he was 16, he acted in an anti-smoking film made by the Glasgow Health Board which aired on television and was also screened in schools. The following year, he played a role in an episode of "Dramarama". Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama school was in a staging of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" co-starring Ashley Jensen; one of a few plays in which he performed as part of the agitprop . He also made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom "Rab C Nesbitt" as a transgender barmaid called Davina. In the 1990s, he appeared in several plays at the Dundee Repertory Theatre.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant was awarded his first major TV role as Campbell Bain in the BBC Scotland drama series "Takin' Over the Asylum" (1994), after impressing director David Blair during filming of another drama – "Strathblair" (1992). As Tennant recalled from the audition, "they needed someone who could believably act 19 and bonkers". During filming of "Takin' Over the Asylum" he met comic actress and writer Arabella Weir. When he moved to London shortly afterwards, he lodged with Weir for five years and became godfather to her youngest child. He has subsequently appeared with Weir in many productions: as a guest in her spoof television series "Posh Nosh", in the "Doctor Who" audio drama "Exile" (during which Weir played an alternative version of the Doctor), and as panellists on the "West Wing Ultimate Quiz" on More4 (Weir later guest-starred on "Doctor Who" itself after Tennant left the series). One of his earliest big-screen roles was in "Jude" (1996), in which he shared a scene with Christopher Eccleston, playing a drunken undergraduate who challenges Eccleston's Jude to prove his intellect.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first Shakespearean role for the RSC was in "As You Like It" (1996); having auditioned for the role of Orlando, the romantic lead, he was instead cast as the jester Touchstone, which he played in his natural Scottish accent. He subsequently specialised in comic roles, playing Antipholus of Syracuse in "The Comedy of Errors" and Captain Jack Absolute in "The Rivals", although he also played the role of Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet". He also starred in the 2003 London production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant contributed to several audio dramatisations of Shakespeare for the Arkangel Shakespeare series (1998). His roles include a reprisal of his Antipholus of Syracuse in "The Comedy of Errors", as well as Launcelot Gobbo in "The Merchant of Venice", Edgar in "King Lear", and Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet", all of which he performs in his natural accent. In 1995, Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw". In television, he appeared in the first episode of Reeves and Mortimer's revamped "Randall and Hopkirk" in 2000, playing an eccentric artist. During the Christmas season of 2002, he starred in a series of television advertisements for Boots the Chemists. In 2003 Tennant appeared in the film "Bright Young Things." He was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his performance in Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero. The UK première was staged at the Donmar Warehouse, in previews on April 4, opening April 10 and closing on May 4, 2002. The cast also included Charlotte Randle (Dawn), with Dominic Rowan (Bill), and Gary McDonald (William), and was again directed by Mark Brokaw. This production transferred to the New Ambassadors Theatre from June 26 (opening July 1) to August 10, 2002. He began to appear on television more prominently in 2004 and 2005, when he appeared in a dramatisation of "He Knew He Was Right" (2004), "Blackpool" (2004), "Casanova" (2005), and "The Quatermass Experiment" (2005). Later that same year, he appeared as Barty Crouch Jr. in the film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".


title: David Tennant

text: "Doctor Who" returned to British screens in March 2005, with Christopher Eccleston playing the role of the Ninth Doctor in the first series. Tennant replaced him as of the second series, making his first, brief appearance as the Tenth Doctor in the episode "The Parting of the Ways" (2005) at the end of the regeneration scene, and also appeared in a special shown as part of the 2005 Children in Need appeal, broadcast on 18 November 2005. He began filming the new series of "Doctor Who" in late July 2005. His first full-length outing as the Doctor was a 60-minute special, "The Christmas Invasion", first broadcast on Christmas Day 2005. Tennant had been formally offered the role of the Doctor during rehearsals for "The Quatermass Experiment". Although the casting was not officially announced until later in April, both castmates and crew became aware of the speculation surrounding Tennant; in the live broadcast Jason Flemyng (Quatermass) changed his first line to Tennant's Dr. Briscoe from "Good to have you back, Gordon" to "Good to have you back, "Doctor"" as a deliberate reference.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant has expressed enthusiasm about fulfilling his childhood dream. He remarked in a radio interview: "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor? I've even got my own TARDIS!" In 2006, readers of "Doctor Who Magazine" voted Tennant "Best Doctor" over perennial favourite Tom Baker. Writer Russell T Davies made the decision not to use Tennant's own Scottish accent for the character as he did not want the Doctor's accent "touring the regions", using Estuary English instead. Tennant has gone on record as saying that, contrary to tabloids reports, he was not upset at not being able to play the role in his own accent and in fact had never wanted to. However, he was pleased to be able to use his own accent in one episode, when the Doctor briefly masquerades as "Dr. James McCrimmon" of Edinburgh in "Tooth and Claw" – a nod to the Second Doctor's companion Jamie McCrimmon.


title: David Tennant

text: He previously had a small role in the BBC's animated "Doctor Who" webcast "Scream of the Shalka". Not originally cast in the production, Tennant was recording a radio play in a neighbouring studio, and when he discovered what was being recorded next door convinced the director to give him a small role. This personal enthusiasm for the series had also been expressed by his participation in several audio plays based on the "Doctor Who" television series which had been produced by Big Finish Productions, although he did not play the Doctor in any of these productions. His first such role was in the Seventh Doctor audio "Colditz", where he played a Nazi lieutenant guard at Colditz Castle. In 2004 Tennant played a lead role in the Big Finish audio play series "Dalek Empire III" as Galanar, a young man who is given an assignment to discover the secrets of the Daleks. In 2005, he starred in "" for Big Finish, recreating his role of Brimmicombe-Wood from a "Doctor Who Unbound" play, "Sympathy for the Devil". In both audio productions, he worked alongside Nicholas Courtney, who reprised the character of Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. He also played an unnamed Time Lord in another Doctor Who Unbound play "Exile". "UNIT: The Wasting", was recorded between Tennant getting the role of the Doctor and it being announced. He played the title role in Big Finish's adaptation of Bryan Talbot's "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright" (2005). In 2006, he recorded abridged audio books of "The Stone Rose" by Jacqueline Rayner, "The Feast of the Drowned" by Stephen Cole and "The Resurrection Casket" by Justin Richards, for BBC Worldwide.


title: David Tennant

text: He made his directorial debut on the "Doctor Who Confidential" episode that accompanies Steven Moffat's episode "Blink", entitled "Do You Remember The First Time?", which aired on 9 June 2007. In 2007, Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in a "Doctor Who" special for Children in Need, written by Steven Moffat and entitled "Time Crash". He later performed alongside Davison's daughter, Georgia Moffett (as "Jenny") in the 2008 episode "The Doctor's Daughter". Georgia Moffett later became David Tennant's wife.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant featured as the Doctor in an animated version of "Doctor Who" for "Totally Doctor Who", "The Infinite Quest", which aired on CBBC. He also starred as the Doctor in another animated six-part "Doctor Who" series, "Dreamland". Tennant guest starred as the Doctor in a two-part story in "Doctor Who" spin-off "The Sarah Jane Adventures", broadcast in October 2009. He continued to play the Tenth Doctor into the revived programme's fourth series in 2008. However, on 29 October 2008, he announced that he would be stepping down from the role after three full series. He played the Doctor in four special episodes in 2009, before his final episode aired on 1 January 2010, where he was replaced by the Eleventh Doctor, portrayed by Matt Smith.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant and Billie Piper returned to "Doctor Who" for the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor" broadcast on 23 November 2013, with then-stars Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman and guest star John Hurt. The same month, he also appeared in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" directed by Peter Davison.


title: David Tennant

text: In October 2015, Big Finish Productions announced that Tennant would return to the role of the Tenth Doctor alongside Catherine Tate as his former companion Donna Noble in three new stories from Big Finish. The stories feature current and previous Doctor Who actors, including Strax actor Dan Starkey, former Davros actor Terry Molloy, and many veterans of Big Finish, including Niky Wardley, who portrayed Eighth Doctor companion Tamsin. The three stories were released in May 2016.


title: David Tennant

text: In November 2017, three new audio dramas were released by Big Finish Productions with Tennant once again starring as the Tenth Doctor, alongside Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. Tennant also returned to the role on 13 July 2018, as part of the live Muppets show "The Muppets Take the O2" in London (in which the Tenth Doctor appeared onstage as part of a live "Pigs in Space" sketch).


title: David Tennant

text: In May 2022, in relation to the show's 60th anniversary, it was announced that Tennant would once again return to the show, alongside Tate, who would reprise her role as Donna Noble. Previously thought to be returning as the Tenth Doctor, in October 2022, the ending of the special episode "The Power of the Doctor" revealed that Tennant would return as the Fourteenth Doctor, a role previously thought to be played by Ncuti Gatwa, who would follow on as the Fifteenth Doctor instead. The three 60th anniversary special episodes will air in November 2023.


title: David Tennant

text: While playing the Doctor, Tennant was also in the early December 2005 ITV drama "Secret Smile". His performance as Jimmy Porter in "Look Back in Anger" at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, was recorded by the National Video Archive of Performance for the Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre Collection. He revived this performance for the anniversary of the Royal Court Theatre in a rehearsed reading. In January 2006, he took a one-day break from shooting "Doctor Who" to play Richard Hoggart in a dramatisation of the 1960 "Lady Chatterley's Lover" obscenity trial, "The Chatterley Affair". The play was written by Andrew Davies and directed by "Doctor Who"s James Hawes for the digital television channel BBC Four. Hoggart's son, Simon, praised Tennant's performance in "The Guardian" newspaper.


title: David Tennant

text: On 25 February 2007, Tennant starred in "Recovery", a 90-minute BBC One drama written by Tony Marchant. He played Alan, a self-made building site manager who attempted to rebuild his life after suffering a debilitating brain injury. His costar in the drama was friend Sarah Parish, with whom he had previously appeared in "Blackpool" and an episode of "Doctor Who". She joked that "we're like George and Mildred – in 20 years' time we'll probably be doing a ropey old sitcom in a terraced house in Preston". Later that same year he starred in "Learners", a BBC comedy drama written by and starring Jessica Hynes (another "Doctor Who" costar, in the episodes "Human Nature", "The Family of Blood" and "The End of Time"), in which he played a Christian driving instructor who became the object of a student's affection. "Learners" was broadcast on BBC One on 11 November 2007. Tennant had a cameo appearance as the Doctor in the 2007 finale episode of the BBC/HBO comedy series "Extras" with Ricky Gervais. In November 2008, Tennant played Sir Arthur Eddington in the BBC and HBO biographical film "Einstein and Eddington", which was filmed in Cambridge and Hungary. Tennant was the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on "Top Gear" in December 2007, where he claimed to have unsuccessfully auditioned for a role on "Taggart" 26 times. Tennant is the voice behind the 2007 advertising campaign for catalogue retailer Argos, and appeared in adverts for The Proclaimers' 2007 album and learndirect in June 2008. Tennant also lent his voice to adverts for Tesco Mobile, Nintendo Wii, and American Express.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant featured in an episode of Trick or Treat on Channel 4 in May 2008. The episode showed Tennant apparently predicting future events correctly by using automatic writing. In "TV & Satellite Week" (26 April – 2 May issue), the host of the show, Derren Brown, is quoted as saying: "One of the appeals of "Doctor Who" for David is time travel, so I wanted to give him that experience. He was open and up for it, and I got a good reaction. He's a real screamer!". Tennant also returned for the final episode of the series with the rest of the participants from the other episodes in the series to take part in one final experiment. Tennant appeared in the 2008 episode "Holofile 703: Us and Phlegm" of the radio series "Nebulous" (a parody of "Doctor Who") in the role of Doctor Beep, using his Lothian accent. Also in 2008, he voiced the character of Hamish the Hunter in the 2008 English language DVD re-release of the 2006 animated Norwegian film, "Free Jimmy", alongside Woody Harrelson. The English-language version of the film has dialogue written by Simon Pegg, who also starred in it as a main voice actor.


title: David Tennant

text: In early 2009, Tennant narrated the digital planetarium space dome film "We Are Astronomers" commissioned by the UK's National Space Centre. On 13 March 2009, he presented Red Nose Day 2009 with Davina McCall. He joined Franz Ferdinand onstage to play the guitar on their song "No You Girls" on a special Comic Relief edition of "Top of the Pops". In summer 2009, Tennant filmed "". The film was released in December 2009. From October 2009, he hosted the "Masterpiece Contemporary" programming strand on the American Public Broadcasting Service. In December 2009, he filmed the lead in an NBC pilot, "Rex Is Not Your Lawyer", playing Rex, a Chicago lawyer who starts to coach clients to represent themselves when he starts suffering panic attacks. The pilot was not picked up and the project was shelved. In November 2009, he co-hosted the Absolute Radio Breakfast Show with Christian O'Connell for three consecutive days. He returned to cohost the show for one day in October 2010. On 7 March 2010, he also appeared as George in a one-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of "Of Mice and Men" in the "Classic Serial" strand. In October 2010 he starred as Dave, a man struggling to raise five children after the death of his partner, in the British drama "Single Father". For this role he was nominated as Best Actor at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards 2010.


title: David Tennant

text: Despite much of his work being television work, Tennant has described theatre work as his "default way of being". He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), to play Hamlet with Patrick Stewart and Berowne in "Love's Labours Lost" in 2008. From August to November 2008 he appeared at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as Hamlet, playing that role in repertory with Berowne that October and November. "Hamlet" transferred to the Novello Theatre in London's West End in December 2008, but Tennant suffered a prolapsed disc during previews and was unable to perform from 8 December 2008 until 2 January 2009, during which time the role was played by his understudy Edward Bennett. He returned to his role in the production on 3 January 2009, and appeared until the run ended on 10 January. Tennant's performance of Hamlet was critically acclaimed. In 2009, he worked on a TV film version of the RSC's 2008 "Hamlet" for BBC Two. On 12 April 2011, a photograph of Tennant as Hamlet featured on a stamp issued by the Royal Mail to mark the RSC's fiftieth anniversary.


title: David Tennant

text: In 2011, he starred in "United", about the Manchester United "Busby Babes" team and the 1958 Munich air disaster, playing coach and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy. In September 2011, he appeared in a guest role in one episode of the comedy series "This is Jinsy", and also started filming "True Love", a semi-improvised BBC One drama series, on location in Margate, Kent; the series aired in June 2012. Later in September 2011, it was announced that Tennant would voice a character in the movie adaptation of "Postman Pat" named "You Know You're the One" with a planned 3D theatrical release for spring 2013. In October 2011, Tennant started shooting the semi-improvised comedy film, "" in Coventry. He played dual roles: the main character, put-upon teacher Mr. Peterson, and his "golden boy" twin brother and rival.


title: David Tennant

text: In April 2012, Tennant played lead in a one-off drama "The Minor Character" for Sky Arts. Between April and June, he filmed "Spies of Warsaw" for BBC Four, in the lead role of Jean-François Mercier. This drama series shot in Poland is an adaptation of Alan Furst's novel "The Spies of Warsaw". Tennant auditioned for the role of Hannibal Lecter in NBC's "Hannibal"; he was narrowly beaten for the part by Mads Mikkelsen. On 9 June 2012, he started filming the 3-part political drama series "The Politician's Husband" for BBC Two, playing an ambitious cabinet minister who takes drastic action when his wife's career starts to outshine his. Tennant also presented the new comedy quiz show "Comedy World Cup", in 2012 which ran on Saturday nights for seven episodes.


title: David Tennant

text: In January 2012, Tennant was appointed to the Royal Shakespeare Company board, to be on the selection committee interviewing and choosing the new artistic director. It was announced on 23 January 2013 that Tennant would return to the RSC for the company's 2013 winter season, playing the title role in "Richard II" at Stratford-upon-Avon (from 10 October to 16 November) and transferring to the Barbican Centre in London (from 9 December to 25 January 2014). Tennant repeated his performance as Richard II in the RSC's 'King and Country' cycle in 2016, starting at the Barbican Theatre in London before transferring to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant starred in the ITV detective series "Broadchurch" as DI Alec Hardy between 2013 and 2017. The first series was filmed in Clevedon, North Somerset, and Bridport, Dorset, between August and November 2012, and aired in March 2013. Tennant filmed the second series of "Broadchurch" during mid-2014, and the third between May and October 2016. Between January and May 2014, Tennant also filmed the US remake of "Broadchurch", re-titled "Gracepoint."


title: David Tennant

text: Between late January and March 2013, Tennant filmed "The Escape Artist" for BBC One in which he played a talented junior barrister who had yet to lose a case. The three-part series aired on BBC One in October and November 2013. Tennant starred opposite Rosamund Pike and Billy Connolly in "What We Did on Our Holiday", a semi-improvised comedy film; shooting took place from 17 June to 30 July 2013 in Scotland. The film was released in September 2014.


title: David Tennant

text: In 2012 he appeared in a multi-million-pound campaign for Virgin Media, starring in three adverts. One advert was voluntarily withdrawn after a complaint lodged by BBC Worldwide, which believed that the advert broke the corporation's guidelines by featuring references to "Doctor Who" that appeared to be a commercial endorsement of the service. He is the narrator on Xbox One video game "Kinect Sports Rivals", released in 2014.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant also portrayed the villainous Kilgrave in "Jessica Jones", a television series from Marvel and Netflix. All 13 episodes were released on 20 November 2015.


title: David Tennant

text: On 9 February 2015, Tennant appeared on the Radio 4 panel show "Just a Minute", becoming the show's most successful debut contestant. He also voiced the Propaganda Minister in the 2015 Square Enix video game "Just Cause 3". In autumn 2015, Tennant's name was announced for Scottish feature film "I Feel Fine", a thriller set in Glasgow in the 1980s. However, , the film has been postponed indefinitely.


title: David Tennant

text: In February 2016, he began filming "Mad to Be Normal" (previously titled "Metanoia"), a biopic of the renowned Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing, produced by Gizmo Films.


title: David Tennant

text: In 2017, Tennant appeared in writer/director Daisy Aitkens' first feature film, "You, Me and Him". The film is co-produced by Tennant's wife, Georgia, and had originally been due to co-star his father-in-law, Peter Davison; however, Davison withdrew from the film in October 2016 due to a scheduling clash. Between March and June 2017 Tennant appeared in Patrick Marber's "Don Juan in Soho" at the Wyndham's Theatre. Also in 2017, he became the voice of Scrooge McDuck for Disney XD's "DuckTales" reboot, replacing the character's longtime voice actor Alan Young, who died in May 2016.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant played psychopathic villain Cale Erendreich in the thriller film "Bad Samaritan" (2018), written by Brandon Boyce and directed by Dean Devlin. Tennant also plays Crowley in the miniseries "Good Omens", which was released in full on Amazon Prime Video on 31 May 2019 and was released on BBC Two on 15 January 2020.


title: David Tennant

text: In February 2019, Tennant launched his own podcast, titled "David Tennant Does a Podcast With..." The podcast's episodes feature Olivia Colman, Whoopi Goldberg, Jodie Whittaker, Ian McKellen, Jon Hamm, Gordon Brown, Jennifer Garner, Catherine Tate, Krysten Ritter, James Corden, Samantha Bee, Tina Fey, and Michael Sheen.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant stars as a doctor suspected of murdering his family in "Deadwater Fell", a Scottish true crime miniseries, which premiered in January 2020 on Channel 4. He also received his first credit as an executive producer for the series.


title: David Tennant

text: In September 2020, he portrayed Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen in "Des", a three-part miniseries on ITV. For his performance, he won the International Emmy Award for Best Actor.


title: David Tennant

text: In 2020 and 2021 he starred in the TV series "Staged", with Michael Sheen. Joel Golby of "the Guardian" described it: "David Tennant and Michael Sheen squabbled over Zoom as exaggerated, frustrated, hyper-thespian versions of themselves, in an actors-playing-actors miniseries with the exact same energy of a late-night Comic Relief sketch; 15-minute episodes where you got to see familiar actors with their off-duty haircuts saying words that seemed real. It was good, and it was smart, and it played perfectly with the boundaries of the format it was in."


title: David Tennant

text: In September 2022, Tennant starred as Reverend Harry Watling in BBC1's "Inside Man", which was written by Steven Moffat. The series premiered on 26 September 2022 to mixed reviews from viewers and critics alike.


title: David Tennant

text: In December 2022, Tennant starred as Alexander Litvinenko in the ITV1 dramatisation "Litvinenko". The drama was based on the 10-year fight of Marina Litvinenko and the London police force as they work to prove the guilt and release the names of those responsible for the 2006 poisoning of Litvinenko.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant was named "Coolest Man on TV" of 2007 in a "Radio Times" survey. He won the National Television Awards award for Most Popular Actor in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010. He was voted 16th Sexiest Man in the World by a 2008 "Cosmopolitan" survey.


title: David Tennant

text: In 2008, Tennant was voted "Greenest Star on the Planet" in an online vote held by Playhouse Disney as part of the Playing for the Planet Awards.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant was ranked the 24th most influential person in the British media on 9 July 2007, according to "MediaGuardian". He appeared in the paper's annual media rankings in 2006. In December 2008, he was named as one of the most influential people in show business by British theatre and entertainment magazine "The Stage", making him the fifth actor to achieve a ranking in the top 20 (in a list typically dominated by producers and directors). He was voted the third best dressed man in Britain in GQ reader's poll for 2013. Tennant's popularity has led to impersonations of him on various social networking sites, leading the BBC to issue a statement making it clear that Tennant does not use any of these sites and any account or message purporting to be from him is fake. In the expansion "" for the game "EverQuest", a character was introduced called Tavid Dennant, named after David Tennant. The character when interacted with makes a number of references to "Doctor Who".


title: David Tennant

text: In December 2005, "The Stage" placed Tennant at No. 6 in its "Top Ten" list of the most influential British television artists of the year, citing his roles in "Blackpool", "Casanova", "Secret Smile", and "Doctor Who". In January 2006, readers of the British gay and lesbian newspaper "The Pink Paper" voted him the "Sexiest Man in the Universe". In October 2006, he was named "Scotland's most stylish male" in the Scottish Style Awards.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant is a supporter of the Labour Party and appeared in a party political broadcast for them in 2005. He declared his support for then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2010, and labelled David Cameron a "terrifying prospect". In April 2010, he lent his voice to a Labour election broadcast. In 2012, he introduced Labour Party leader Ed Miliband onstage at the Labour Party Conference. In 2015, he also lent his voice to a Labour Party General Election broadcast.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant remained neutral on the issue of Scottish independence in the run-up to the 2014 referendum, stating that it was not his business as he no longer lived in Scotland. However, in the wake of Brexit, which he called "depressing", he stated in 2017 that he would support an independent Scotland in the event of a second referendum.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant rarely discusses his private life in interviews, citing his belief that "relationships are hard enough with the people you're having them with, let alone talking about them in public". He has said that he believes religion "must have" shaped his character, and revealed that he is an occasional churchgoer.


title: David Tennant

text: Tennant is married to actress Georgia Moffett, making him the son-in-law of actress Sandra Dickinson and Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison. The couple met in 2008 during the filming of the "Doctor Who" episode "The Doctor's Daughter", in which she played the genetically engineered daughter of Tennant's Tenth Doctor. They married on 30 December 2011, and live in the Chiswick district of London. They have five children, including Ty Tennant, Moffett's child from a previous relationship whom Tennant adopted. Ty has acted in the film "Tolkien" and the 2019 television adaptation of "War of the Worlds". The couple's daughter Olive was born on 29 March 2011. At the age of two, Olive had a cameo as John Barrowman's daughter in "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot". Later, at 10 years old, she made her film debut in Kenneth Branagh's "Belfast". On 2 May 2013, Tennant and Moffett had a son named Wilfred. On 9 November 2015, Tennant announced that they had recently had a daughter named Doris. On 13 October 2019, they had another daughter named Birdie.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: What We Do in the Shadows is an American mockumentary comedy horror television series created by Jemaine Clement that premiered March 27, 2019, on FX. The second television series in the franchise based on the 2014 New Zealand film of the same name written by Clement and Taika Waititi, the series follows four vampire roommates in Staten Island, and stars Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, and Mark Proksch.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The series' second season premiered on April 15, 2020, and the third season premiered on September 2, 2021. In August 2021, the series was renewed for a fourth season, ahead of the third season premiere. The fourth season premiered on July 12, 2022. In June 2022, the series was renewed for a fifth and sixth season, ahead of the fourth season premiere. It has been critically acclaimed (particularly for its cast and writing) and nominated for 17 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020 and 2022.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: Set primarily in Staten Island, New York City, New York, "What We Do in the Shadows" follows the lives of three traditional vampires, Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja; Colin Robinson, an energy vampire; and Guillermo, Nandor's familiar. The series revolves around the vampires interacting with the modern world and other supernatural beings.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: On January 22, 2018, it was announced that FX had given the production a pilot order. The pilot was written by Jemaine Clement and directed by Taika Waititi, both of whom are also executive producers alongside Scott Rudin, Paul Simms, Garrett Basch, and Eli Bush. On May 3, 2018, it was announced that FX had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes, which premiered on March 27, 2019.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: According to Clement: "We stay pretty basic '70s/'80s vampire rules, with a little bit of '30s. They can turn into bats. They can't go in the sunlight; they don't sparkle in the sun, they die. They have to be invited in; in a lot of literature vampires have to be invited into private buildings, but this is a documentary so it's the real rules which means they have to be invited into any building." Clement has also stated that the part of Laszlo was written specifically for Berry. The main influences on the series are "Fright Night", "Martin", "The Lost Boys", "Nosferatu", "Interview with the Vampire", "Vampire's Kiss", and "Bram Stoker's Dracula". The character Nadja was named after the 1994 film of the same name.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The song used in the opening credits is "You're Dead" by Norma Tanega (1966), which was used during the opening credits sequence in the original film.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The second season premiered on April 15, 2020. On May 22, 2020, FX renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on September 2, 2021. On August 13, 2021, FX renewed the series for a fourth season, ahead of the third season premiere. Upon the fourth season's renewal, it was reported that Rudin would no longer be an executive producer, beginning with the third season, due to allegations of abusive behavior. On June 6, 2022, FX renewed the series for a fifth and sixth season, ahead of the fourth season premiere.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: Principal photography for the first season took place from October 22 to December 18, 2018, in Toronto, Ontario. Filming for the third season began on February 8, 2021, and finished on May 3, 2021.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The writer/producer Paul Simms said that series does not use CGI effects: "There's no fully digital characters or anything like that. One of the movies we really talked about a lot when we were conceiving the show was Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" where he went back to really doing as many effects as possible in camera and figuring out ways to do that. One of my favorite supernatural moments is completely in camera. It's where Beanie Feldstein's character is walking along in the park and Nadja appears walking next to her. That was all just done completely the old fashioned way where Natasia was hiding behind a tree and the camera was tracking along and at the right moment, she walked out from behind a tree. I think there's something about that old fashioned way that makes things more interesting than when you can tell it's digital and rubbery and fake looking".


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: Among the cinematographers D.J. Stipsen and Christian Sprenger's influences for the series was the work of Michael Ballhaus and production designer Thomas E. Sanders on the Coppola-directed "Bram Stoker's Dracula": "We referenced that film for the general sumptuousness of the vampires' mansion, which was our main set. Our take, however, was that the Staten Island vampires have let their place go. The former glory is evident but now exists in a worn, faded and distressed state. Production designer Kate Bunch and I had a lot of conversations about striking the right balance between sumptuousness and neglect. There are strong reds, but also yellow that has faded to the point of being a warm brown."


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: On October 31, 2018, a series of teaser trailers for the series were released. On January 10, 2019, another teaser trailer was released. On February 4, 2019, the official trailer for the series was released.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: On October 7, 2018, the series held a panel at the annual New York Comic Con moderated by "Rolling Stone"s Alan Sepinwall and featuring co-creators Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, along with fellow executive producer Paul Simms. Before the panel began, the first episode of the series was screened for the audience. The world premiere for the series was screened during the 2019 South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas as a part of the festival's "Episodic Premieres" series.


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The first season received acclaim from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 94%, based on 71 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Delightfully absurd and ridiculously fun, "What We Do in the Shadows" expands on the film's vampiric lore and finds fresh perspective in its charming, off-kilter cast to create a mockumentary series worth sinking your teeth into." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The second season also received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season has an approval rating of 98%, based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bat! "What We Do In the Shadows" loses no steam in a smashing second season that savvily expands its supernatural horizons while doubling down on the fast flying fun." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The third season also received universal acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season has an approval rating of 100%, based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Carried on the wings of its cast's incredible chemistry and the strongest writing of the series so far, "What We Do in the Shadows" third season is scary good." On Metacritic, the third season has an average score of 96 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)

text: The fourth season also received universal acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season has an approval rating of 100%, based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Aside from turning this demonic household into Three Vampires and a Baby, "What We Do in the Shadows" doubles down on what it does best without drastically changing the formula – and remains fang-tastic all the same." On Metacritic, the fourth season has an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". However, some critics complained of the reductive treatment of Nandor's wife, Marwa, in season 4. "Comic Book Resources" complained of the show "stripping a woman of her identity – physically and mentally – for laughs" and "The Mary Sue" stated that ""What We Do in the Shadows" missed hard with its treatment of Marwa."


title: Ridley Scott

text: Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades throughout his career, including the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2018. In 2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the British film industry. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2007, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.


title: Ridley Scott

text: An alumnus of the Royal College of Art in London, Scott began his career in television as a designer and director before moving into advertising, where he honed his filmmaking skills by making mini-films for television commercials. He made his debut as a film director with "The Duellists" (1977) and gained wider recognition with his next film, "Alien" (1979). Three years later he would direct "Blade Runner", which Scott calls his "most complete and personal film". Though his films range widely in setting and period, they frequently showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, spanning 2nd-century Rome in "Gladiator" (2000), 12th-century Jerusalem in "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005), Medieval England in "Robin Hood" (2010), Ancient Egypt in "" (2014), 1970s Harlem in "American Gangster" (2007), contemporary Mogadishu in "Black Hawk Down" (2001), or the futuristic cityscapes of "Blade Runner" and different planets in "Alien", "Prometheus" (2012), "The Martian" (2015) and "" (2017). Several of his films are also known for their strong female characters, such as "Thelma & Louise" (1991).


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing, which he received for "Thelma & Louise", "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down". "Gladiator" won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and he received a nomination in the same category for "The Martian". In 1995, both Scott and his brother Tony received a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. In a 2004 BBC poll, Scott was ranked 10 on the list of most influential people in British culture.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott was born on 30 November 1937 in South Shields, County Durham to Elizabeth () and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. His grand-uncle Dixon Scott was a pioneer of the cinema chain and opened many cinemas around Tyneside. One of his cinemas, Tyneside Cinema, is still operating in Newcastle and is the last remaining newsreel cinema in the UK. Born two years before World War II began, Scott was brought up in a military family. His father, an officer in the Royal Engineers, was absent for most of his early life. His elder brother, Frank, joined the Merchant Navy when he was still young and the pair had little contact. During this time the family moved around; they lived in Cumberland as well as other areas in England, in addition to Wales and Germany. Scott's younger brother, Tony, also became a film director. After the war the Scott family moved back to County Durham and eventually settled on Teesside.


title: Ridley Scott

text: His interest in science fiction began by reading the novels of H. G. Wells as a child. He was also influenced by science-fiction films such as "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and "Them!" He said these films "kind of got [him] going a little" but his attention was not fully caught until he saw Stanley Kubrick's "", about which he said, "Once I saw that, I knew what I could do." He went to Grangefield Grammar School in Stockton on Tees and obtained a diploma in design at West Hartlepool College of Art. The industrial landscape in West Hartlepool would later inspire visuals in "Blade Runner", with Scott stating, "There were steelworks adjacent to West Hartlepool, so every day I'd be going through them, and thinking they're kind of magnificent, beautiful, winter or summer, and the darker and more ominous it got, the more interesting it got."


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London, contributing to the college magazine "ARK" and helping to establish the college film department. For his final show, he made a black and white short film, "Boy and Bicycle", starring both his younger brother and his father (the film was later released on the "Extras" section of "The Duellists" DVD). In February 1963, Scott was named in the title credits as "Designer" for the BBC television programme "Tonight". After graduation in 1963, he secured a job as a trainee set designer with the BBC, leading to work on the popular television police series "Z-Cars" and science fiction series "Out of the Unknown". He was originally assigned to design the second "Doctor Who" serial, "The Daleks", which would have entailed realising the serial's eponymous alien creatures. However, shortly before he was due to start work, a schedule conflict meant he was replaced by Raymond Cusick. In 1965, he began directing episodes of television series for the BBC, only one of which, an episode of "Adam Adamant Lives!", is available commercially.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 1968, Ridley and Tony Scott founded Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), a film and commercial production company. Working alongside Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson and cinematographer Hugh Johnson, Ridley Scott made many commercials at RSA during the 1970s, including a 1973 Hovis bread advertisement, "Bike Round" (underscored by the slow movement of Dvořák's "New World" symphony rearranged for brass), filmed in Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, Dorset. A nostalgia themed television advert that captured the public imagination, it was voted the UK's favourite commercial in a 2006 poll. In the 1970s the Chanel No. 5 brand needed revitalisation having run the risk of being labelled as mass market and passé. Directed by Scott in the 1970s and 1980s, Chanel television commercials were inventive mini-films with production values of surreal fantasy and seduction, which "played on the same visual imagery, with the same silhouette of the bottle."


title: Ridley Scott

text: Five members of the Scott family are directors, and all have worked for RSA. His brother Tony was a successful film director whose career spanned more than two decades; his sons Jake and Luke are both acclaimed directors of commercials, as is his daughter, Jordan Scott. Jake and Jordan both work from Los Angeles; Luke is based in London. In 1995, Shepperton Studios was purchased by a consortium headed by Ridley and Tony Scott, which extensively renovated the studios while also expanding and improving its grounds.


title: Ridley Scott

text: "The Duellists" (1977) marked Ridley Scott's first feature film as director. Shot in Europe, it was nominated for the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and won an award for Best Debut Film. "The Duellists" had limited commercial impact internationally. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it follows two French Hussar officers, D'Hubert and Feraud (Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel) whose quarrel over an initially minor incident turns into a bitter extended feud spanning fifteen years, interwoven with the larger conflict that provides its backdrop. The film has been acclaimed for providing a historically authentic portrayal of Napoleonic uniforms and military conduct. The 2013 release of the film on Blu-ray coincided with the publication of an essay on the film in a collection of scholarly essays on Scott.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott had originally planned next to adapt a version of "Tristan and Iseult", but after seeing "Star Wars", he became convinced of the potential of large scale, effects-driven films. He accepted the job of directing "Alien", the 1979 horror/science-fiction film that would win him international success. Scott made the decision to switch Ellen Ripley from the standard male action hero to a heroine. Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), who appeared in the first four "Alien" films, would become a cinematic icon. The final scene of John Hurt's character has been named by a number of publications as one of the most memorable in cinematic history. Filmed at Shepperton Studios in England, "Alien" was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1979, earning over $104 million worldwide. Scott was involved in the 2003 restoration and re-release of the original film. In promotional interviews at the time, Scott indicated he had been in discussions to make a fifth film in the "Alien" franchise. However, in a 2006 interview, Scott remarked that he had been unhappy about "Alien: The Director's Cut", feeling that the original was "pretty flawless" and that the additions were merely a marketing tool. Scott later returned to "Alien"-related projects when he directed "Prometheus" and "" three decades after the original film's release.


title: Ridley Scott

text: After a year working on the film adaptation of "Dune", and following the sudden death of his brother Frank, Scott signed to direct the film version of Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Re-titled "Blade Runner" and starring Harrison Ford, the film was a commercial disappointment in cinemas in 1982, but is now regarded as a classic. In 1991, Scott's notes were used by Warner Bros. to create a rushed director's cut which removed the main character's voiceover and made a number of other small changes, including to the ending. Later Scott personally supervised a digital restoration of "Blade Runner" and approved what was called "The Final Cut". This version was released in Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto cinemas on 5 October 2007, and as an elaborate DVD release in December 2007.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Today, "Blade Runner" is ranked by many critics as one of the most important and influential science fiction films ever made, partly thanks to its much imitated portraits of a future cityscape. It is often discussed along with William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer" as initiating the cyberpunk genre. Stephen Minger, stem cell biologist at King's College London, states, "It was so far ahead of its time and the whole premise of the story – what is it to be human and who are we, where we come from? It's the age-old questions." Scott has described "Blade Runner" as his "most complete and personal film".


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 1985, Scott directed "Legend", a fantasy film produced by Arnon Milchan. Scott decided to create a "once upon a time" tale set in a world of princesses, unicorns and goblins, filming almost entirely inside the studio. Scott cast Tom Cruise as the film's hero, Jack; Mia Sara as Princess Lili; and Tim Curry as the Satan-horned Lord of Darkness. Scott had a forest set built on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, with trees 60 feet high and trunks 30 feet in diameter. In the final stages of filming, the forest set was destroyed by fire; Jerry Goldsmith's original score was used for European release, but replaced in North America with a score by Tangerine Dream. Rob Bottin provided the film's Academy Award-nominated make-up effects, most notably Curry's red-coloured Satan figure. Despite a major commercial failure on release, the film has gone on to become a cult classic. The 2002 Director's Cut restored Goldsmith's original score.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott made "Someone to Watch Over Me", a romantic thriller starring Tom Berenger and Mimi Rogers in 1987, and "Black Rain" (1989), a police drama starring Michael Douglas and Andy García, shot partially in Japan. Both achieved mild success at the box office. "Black Rain" was the first of Scott's six collaborations with the composer Hans Zimmer.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 1984, Scott directed a big-budget ($900,000) television commercial, "1984", to launch Apple Computer's Macintosh computer. Scott filmed the advertisement in England for about $370,000; which was given a showcase airing in the US on 22 January 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII, alongside screenings in cinemas. Some consider this advertisement a "watershed event" in advertising and a "masterpiece". "Advertising Age" placed it top of its list of the 50 greatest commercials.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Set in a dystopian future modelled after George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Scott's advertisement used its heroine (portrayed by English athlete Anya Major) to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by her white tank top adorned with a picture of the Apple Macintosh computer) as a means of saving humanity from "conformity" (Big Brother), an allusion to IBM, at that time the dominant force in computing.


title: Ridley Scott

text: The road film "Thelma & Louise" (1991) starring Geena Davis as Thelma, Susan Sarandon as Louise, in addition to the breakthrough role for Brad Pitt as J.D, proved to be one of Scott's biggest critical successes, helping revive the director's reputation and receiving his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. His next project, independently funded historical epic "", was a box office failure. The film recounts the expeditions to the Americas by Christopher Columbus (French star Gérard Depardieu). Scott did not release another film for four years.


title: Ridley Scott

text: In 1995, Ridley and his brother Tony formed a production company, Scott Free Productions, in Los Angeles. All Ridley's subsequent feature films, starting with "White Squall" (starring Jeff Bridges) and "G.I. Jane" (starring Demi Moore), have been produced under the Scott Free banner. In 1995 the two brothers purchased a controlling interest in the British film studio Shepperton Studios. In 2001, Shepperton merged with Pinewood Studios to become The Pinewood Studios Group, which is headquartered in Buckinghamshire, England.


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott's historical drama "Gladiator" (2000) proved to be one of his biggest critical and commercial successes. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for the film's star Russell Crowe, and saw Scott nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Scott worked with British visual effects company The Mill for the film's computer-generated imagery, and the film was dedicated to Oliver Reed who died during filming – The Mill created a digital body double for Reed's remaining scenes. Some have credited "Gladiator " with reviving the nearly defunct "sword and sandal" historical genre. The film was named the fifth best action film of all time in the ABC special "".


title: Ridley Scott

text: Scott directed "Hannibal" (2001) starring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. The film was commercially successful despite receiving mixed reviews. Scott's next film, "Black Hawk Down" (2001), featuring Tom Hardy in his film debut, was based on a group of stranded US soldiers fighting for their lives in Somalia; Scott was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director. In 2003, Scott directed a smaller scale project, "Matchstick Men", adapted from the novel by Eric Garcia and starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman. It received mostly positive reviews but performed moderately at the box office.