title: Richard Rankin

text: Two years later Rankin was cast as lovelorn Army Captain Thomas Gillan, alongside Kevin Doyle and Oona Chaplin, in the WWI based mini-series "The Crimson Field" . The program aired on BBC One in April 2014, but only ran for one series. He joined the cast of BBC One's crime drama series "Silent Witness" in January 2015, starring as Detective Inspector Luke Nelson in series eighteen's two-part story "Falling Angels". The episode focused on a series of murders on the London Underground, the investigation of which brought up mysterious childhood memories of his father's murder. Rankin went on to guest star in two episodes of NBC's conspiracy thriller "American Odyssey" as corporate hit man Haney, though the series was cancelled after season one.


title: Richard Rankin

text: Writer Kay Mellor tailored the role of Sean McGary for Rankin, changing the character from a Northerner to a Scot, in 2015's third series of her anthology drama "The Syndicate". The series followed a group of colleagues who win the lottery, with Rankin portraying the gamekeeper of struggling English manor Hazelwood. That same year, BBC One's four part crime drama "From Darkness" saw Rankin portray Norrie Duncan, husband to Anne-Marie Duff's ex-Manchester cop Claire Church.


title: Richard Rankin

text: December 2015 brought the announcement that Rankin had been cast as adult Roger Wakefield in Starz's time-traveling drama series "Outlander," which is based upon Diana Gabaldon's best-selling book series. Appearing first in the 2016 season two finale and then again in several episodes of season three, Rankin's character is the love interest of Brianna Randall Fraser. He returned in seasons four and five, which premiered 4 November 2018 and 14 February 2020 respectively, with an expanded and recurring role in the series. Later in 2016, Rankin appeared as Detective Inspector Elliott Carne on the BBC's crime drama "Thirteen". The series centered on Ivy Moxam (Jodie Comer), a young girl kidnapped and held for thirteen years, as she attempted to reconnect with the life she once had.


title: Richard Rankin

text: Rankin had roles in two BBC productions in 2017. First was the dramatic miniseries "The Replacement", which revolved around Ellen (Morven Christie), who was dealing with maternity leave and the effects it was having on her career. Rankin played her psychiatrist husband in the three-part series. The second was a two-episode stint as Father Hrothweard in BBC Two's historical drama "The Last Kingdom", which was based upon Bernard Cornwell's series of novels entitled "The Saxon Stories".


title: Richard Rankin

text: Series twenty of ITV's long-running crime drama "Midsomer Murders", which premiered in the United States in 2018 prior to its release in the UK, featured Rankin in episode four as rugby star Danny Wickham. In 2019 Rankin starred in series two of BBC One's drama "Trust Me" as neurologist Dr. Alex Kiernan. The second series, which began filming in Glasgow, Scotland in September 2018, featured a complete recasting from series one, with Rankin joining Alfred Enoch, Ashley Jensen, and John Hannah in the medical thriller.


title: Richard Rankin

text: In July 2020, Rankin starred in an episode of the National Theatre of Scotland/BBC Scotland's "Scenes for Survival", a series of short theatrical productions that were filmed in quarantine, which was created in response to a worldwide outbreak of COVID-19. The episode, entitled "The Longest Summer", features Rankin as a man remembering his childhood summers and includes a title song written by Noisemaker and performed by Rankin. The song was later released as a single to raise funds for the Scenes for Survival Hardship Fund, which assists artists hardest hit by the pandemic.


title: Richard Rankin

text: Rankin starred in his first film role with 2011's short "Dead Ringer," directed by Carter Ferguson. Conceived, written, and filmed in a forty-eight hour period, the film won several awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Rankin, at the Glasgow 48 Hour Film Project. He would go on to star in an ultra low-budget horror film, "House of Him", which was released during the Glasgow Film Festival, in February 2014. The film had a budget of approximately £900 and starred many of his "Burnistoun" colleagues, including Kirsty Strain and Louise Stewart. The next year Rankin was cast in John Well's film "Burnt", alongside Bradley Cooper. Returning to short films in 2016, Rankin starred as Vance in Chloë Wicks' "The Wyrd", the story of a young couple in seventh century pagan England dealing with the introduction of Christianity. It was announced in 2021 that Rankin would star in the short film "Hello, Muscles," alongside "Game of Thrones" alumni Kate Dickie, as part of a campaign to raise awareness for young carers (caregivers).


title: Richard Rankin

text: In 2008, while still in school at Langside College, Rankin portrayed Bothwell in Liz Lochhead's play "Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off" at the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. The next year he was cast, opposite his brother Colin Harris, in the dark comedy "The Pillowman" for XLC Productions. The production, which originally ran in March 2009, was invited to return to the Citizen's Theatre for a second run in September of that year. 2010 saw Rankin star as Donny in Martin McDonagh's Irish paramilitary play "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" before joining the National Theatre of Scotland's production of Gregory Burke's military play "Black Watch." The play chronicled the experiences of members of Scotland's senior infantry regiment during the war in Iraq and was the first from National Theatre of Scotland to tour internationally, performing in locations such as Belfast, New York City, Washington D.C., and San Francisco.


title: Richard Rankin

text: Over the next two years Rankin would work with the Traverse Theatre, first in David Harrower's short play "Good With People", which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2012), and then in Irish playwright David Ireland's comedy "Most Favoured" (2013). In 2014 he would headline in Kieran Hurley's play "Bruises", part of the Royal Court Theatre's Unusual Unions series, as one of two brothers with diametrically opposing views meeting after a long absence. In late 2021 Rankin returned to the stage, at London's Almeida Theatre, in award winning director Yaël Farber's production of Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Macbeth". He was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award in the category of Best Supporting Performer in a Male Identifying Role for his turn as Ross in the production.


title: Richard Rankin

text: Rankin appeared as Jack in BBC Radio Scotland's four-part "Saddled" in early 2019, a comedy which revolved around the adventures of The Easy Rider Cycling Club's members.


title: Richard Rankin

text: Summer 2021 saw production Company The Big Light, in collaboration with musical theatre partner Noisemaker, produce an eight-part musical podcast entitled ""Atlantic: A Scottish Tale"". The series focused on the final settlers of the remote Scottish island St. Kilda, with Rankin featuring as Sloane Sinclaire.


title: Richard Rankin

text: In addition to his acting credits, Rankin is an avid photographer. In March 2019 he hosted a one-night solo photography exhibition, entitled "His Mind’s Eye", at the Littlefield Gallery NYC in Brooklyn, New York.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: William Jermaine Stewart (September 7, 1957 – March 17, 1997) was an American R&B singer, best known for his 1986 hit single "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off", which peaked at number five on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It also peaked within the top ten of the charts in Canada at number two, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. He is also well known for his 1987 song "Say It Again", which reached number 7 in the UK.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: William Jermaine Stewart was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Ethel and Eugene Stewart. In 1972, his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Stewart took his first steps toward a career in entertainment. Eventually, he gained recognition as a dancer on the locally produced television show "Soul Train". While working there he befriended two other "Soul Train" dancers, fellow Chicagoan Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel. After "Soul Train" relocated to Los Angeles, the three friends auditioned to become members of the group Shalamar, which was put together by "Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius and booking agent Dick Griffey. Watley and Daniel were selected for the group as backup/semi-lead vocalists, and Stewart lost out to Gary Mumford during his audition for lead vocalist. However, Stewart toured with the new group as a dancer for several years, and while in London for a show, he met Mikey Craig of Culture Club. Realizing that Stewart was a talented singer, Craig helped him in putting together a demo tape, and Stewart was given the opportunity to sing background vocals on Culture Club's song "Miss Me Blind". As a result of the combination of a strong demo and his ties with Culture Club, he landed a recording contract with Arista Records.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: Stewart saw some success with the single "The Word Is Out" from the album of the same name. The album peaked at number 90 on the US "Billboard" 200 albums chart, and number 30 on the US R&B Albums chart. Stewart's next album was 1986's "Frantic Romantic", which included the "Billboard" Hot 100 top ten song "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off". The song was a global hit, peaking within the top ten of the charts in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. A second single, "Jody", was released, the inspiration being his friend Jody Watley, which reached the US R&B top twenty. "Frantic Romantic" would be Stewart's most successful selling album, peaking at number 34 in the US.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: Stewart's third album was entitled "Say It Again", with production handled largely by André Cymone. Supported by international live dates with his band The Party, the title track "Say It Again" became Stewart's second US Top 40 "Billboard" hit, and also reached the US R&B Top 10. In the UK Singles Chart it reached number 7, which helped the album achieve its Top 40 status.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: The next three singles were all remixed by Phil Harding. "Get Lucky" (UK No. 13), "Don't Talk Dirty to Me" (UK No. 61), and "Is It Really Love?" found success in Europe, particularly in Germany, where "Don't Talk Dirty to Me" was one of the top five selling singles of 1988.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: "They all charted and did really well," recalled Harding of the remixed tracks. "There was barely a brief [from the record company], beyond, 'Do your thing guys.' And then it was us taking the assumption, that since the PWL sound is all over the radio, let's make it more PWL."


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: Stewart's fourth and final album under contract with Arista Records was "What Becomes a Legend Most". The album failed to make an impact in America while the lead single "Tren de Amor" just reached the top 100 in the UK. "Tren de Amor" was featured on the soundtrack to the movie "She Devil". In 1989, Stewart sang "Hot and Cold", co-written by Andy Summers, which was featured over the opening credits of the film "Weekend at Bernie's". "Hot and Cold" was released as a single on 7" as well as cassette, the single includes "Search for Love" which is the first appearance of this song written by Stewart and Roy Carter, it was later released as "Search" on the "Is It Really Love?" single.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: In 1991, Stewart teamed up with Chicago producer Jesse Saunders for his last recorded work, an album for Reprise Records, "Set Me Free". The title track "Set Me Free" was released as a single in the US, but sold poorly. The album remained unreleased as of 2021.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: Shortly before his death, Stewart returned to the studio to record a new album titled "Believe in Me". Although the album was not completed, the finished tracks were released on the 2005 compilation "", which was released under BFG Records (which is owned by Stewart's brother).


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: The 2007 song "Clothes Off!!" by Gym Class Heroes interpolated Stewart's signature song "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off". On October 18, 2010, Cherry Red Records re-issued his album "Frantic Romantic" on CD for the first time since 1986. It includes bonus tracks, most notable of which are the 12" mixes of "Jody" and "Dance Floor", making their CD debut.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: In 2011, the song "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" was used in a Cadbury advertisement in the UK called 'The Charity Shop'. This exposed the song to a new generation who downloaded the track, and returned it to the UK Singles Chart peaking at No. 29.


title: Jermaine Stewart

text: Stewart was openly gay. He died of AIDS-related liver cancer on March 17, 1997, at age 39 in the Chicago suburb of Homewood, Illinois. His burial site was left without a tombstone or even a grave marker for over 17 years. In 2014, his grave finally received a gravestone, paid for anonymously by a fan.


title: Sam Quek

text: Samantha Ann Quek, MBE (born 18 October 1988) is an English former field hockey player, and television personality. She played as a defender for both the England and Great Britain teams, wearing squad number 13, and won gold as part of the British team at the 2016 Summer Olympics.


title: Sam Quek

text: Quek has presented various television sports shows, including American football on the BBC, rugby union on Channel 5, field hockey on BT Sport, and football for Channel 4 and LFC TV. She has appeared as a contestant on shows including "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" in 2016 and "Celebrity Masterchef" in 2020, where she reached the final three.


title: Sam Quek

text: Quek was born on 18 October 1988 at Mill Road Hospital, Liverpool, to an English mother, Marilyn Quek (née Higgins), and Singaporean Chinese father, Albert Quek. She has a twin brother. The family moved from Coniston Street in Liverpool to the suburb of West Derby when she was about a month old, and to the Wirral Peninsula when she was five. She attended Hillside Primary School in Wirral for a year before moving to Birkenhead High School and going on to sixth form at Calday Grange Grammar School in West Kirby. She then studied at Leeds Metropolitan University, where she earned a BSc (Hons) in Sport & Exercise Science.


title: Sam Quek

text: Quek started playing hockey whilst at Birkenhead High School, and attended trials for the Wirral under-12 team. She was selected to play for Wirral County at the Merseyside Youth Games, and the team won the tournament. She was selected again the following year, when the team was victorious once more. She then joined a team called Mini Panthers, where she was coached by the team organiser Peter Cartmel, who had earlier selected her for the Wirral County team.


title: Sam Quek

text: Quek played as a defender and went on to represent both the England and Great Britain teams, wearing squad number 13. In 2005, Quek was part of the England team that won the Girl's (Under-18s) Four Nations Invitational Tournament by defeating Holland on penalties after a 1–1 draw in the final. She won gold as part of the Great Britain Team for the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival. She was also part of the team that were runners-up to Germany at the 2006 Women's EuroHockey Junior Championship. She won her first Great Britain international cap, aged 19 and whilst still at university, featuring in a goalless draw against Argentina 2007. She made her England debut the following year.


title: Sam Quek

text: She was not selected for the Great Britain squad for the London 2012 Olympic Games, but did play for England at the 2013 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship, at the 2014 Women's Hockey World Cup (where the England team finished eleventh of twelve, their worst-ever placing), and at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where the team won silver.


title: Sam Quek

text: In the absence of Kate Richardson-Walsh, Quek captained the England team during the 2014 Champions Trophy in Mendoza, Argentina. She played in every game of the tournament despite, unknown to Quek at the time, breaking two ribs on her right side in their opening game. Quek was also part of the England hockey team who won gold at the European Championships in August 2015 in London. She won Man of the Match in the final against the Netherlands, who were reigning world and Olympic champions at the time.


title: Sam Quek

text: In August 2016, Quek competed in the Rio Olympic Games. In the group stage, the team won all five of their matches, defeating Australia 2–1, India 3–0, Argentia 3–2, Japan 2–0 and the United States 2–1. A 3–1 quarter-final win over Spain and a 3–0 defeat of New Zealand saw Great Britain reach the final. The team defeated the Netherlands on penalties after a 3–3 draw, winning the first women's hockey gold medal in the Olympics for Great Britain. Quek won her 50th cap for Great Britain during the competition, taking her to more than 125 combined for both England and Great Britain.


title: Sam Quek

text: In September 2016, a group of Russian hackers calling themselves "Fancy Bears" hacked into the WADA database and revealed that Quek, along with many of her fellow Team GB members, had been granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for various medical prescriptions. Her TUE specifically related to the use of an inhaler in 2008, when she was a teenager. She responded to the leak, stating that not only had she operated within all sporting guidelines, but that she was primarily concerned that the nature of these hacks could stigmatise the future use of TUEs to the detriment of future athletes, describing TUEs as "potentially life-saving practices". The hacks have since been widely discredited by numerous industry professionals and worldwide media outlets.


title: Sam Quek

text: Quek was signed to Tranmere Rovers F.C. as a junior. She revealed in an interview with "The Guardian" that she had to make the choice at the age of 16 between pursuing a professional career in hockey or football, as splitting her time between the two sports was hindering her progress in both. She elected to pursue a career in hockey. On 23 March 2018, Quek was selected to play in an All-Stars team versus FA People's Cup challengers in a 12-hour fundraising match for Sport Relief. She was offered a trial with the Liverpool Ladies FA Women's Super League team by their manager Vicky Jepson, but had not taken the offer up as of April 2020.


title: Sam Quek

text: In May 2016, Quek appeared with her husband Tom Mairs on BBC One's game show "For What It's Worth", where they won the show's jackpot of £2,500. A few months later, in November, she took part in the sixteenth series of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" She made it to the final four before being voted out on the penultimate day and finishing in fourth place. In March 2017, Quek appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV sports panel game show "Play to the Whistle" and BBC's "A Question of Sport". She also took part in a celebrity edition of "The Chase", and appeared alongside Greg Rusedski in Series 11 of "Pointless Celebrities".


title: Sam Quek

text: Quek has been a presenter on sports shows, including for "The NFL Show", rugby union on Channel 5, field hockey on BT Sport, and football for Channel 4 and LFC TV. In 2017, she became a sports columnist for the "Metro" newspaper, and in 2018 wrote a piece for the BBC about the challenges that women face in the media's portrayal of female athletes on and off the field. She also became a weekly sport columnist for the "Daily Mirror" newspaper. In August 2019, she began hosting the BBC's flagship football phone-in programme, "606", with regular pundit Robbie Savage. In 2020, she competed in "Celebrity Masterchef", finishing as a losing finalist.


title: Sam Quek

text: In July 2021, it was confirmed that Quek would become a team captain on the long-running show "A Question of Sport". Her appointment was part of a change to the programme's line-up that saw Paddy McGuinness take over as host and Quek become the show's first permanent female captain alongside former rugby union player Ugo Monye.


title: Sam Quek

text: In July and August 2021, Quek was also co-anchor of BBC's Olympic Breakfast morning programme, covering the Tokyo Olympic Games alongside Dan Walker.


title: Sam Quek

text: In November 2021, just seven days after giving birth to her daughter, Quek recorded an episode of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and won £16,000 for her nominated charity, which made her the most successful contestant of the Celebrity Special edition, which also featured Harry Redknapp and Craig Charles.


title: Sam Quek

text: Quek is married to Tom Mairs, a property entrepreneur who appeared as the titular "Secret Millionaire" on the reality show of the same name in 2010. She is a supporter of Liverpool F.C. and counts their former striker Ian Rush as one of her sporting heroes. She is also a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs. She was awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Years Honours List for services to hockey.


title: Sam Quek

text: In May 2020, Quek was warned by the Advertising Standards Authority for a second time about promoting a business on Twitter without announcing that she was being paid by the company.


title: Sam Quek

text: In March 2021, Quek became a mother to a daughter, Molly Doris Mairs, after a 'traumatic' caesarean section. Quek filmed her appearance on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" just one week later.


title: Sam Quek

text: On 11 October 2021, Quek announced she was pregnant with her second child and gave birth in March 2022 to a son, Isaac Gregory Mairs.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Cummingtonite ( ) is a metamorphic amphibole with the chemical composition , magnesium iron silicate hydroxide.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Monoclinic cummingtonite is compositionally similar and polymorphic with orthorhombic anthophyllite, which is a much more common form of magnesium-rich amphibole, the latter being metastable.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Cummingtonite shares few compositional similarities with alkali amphiboles such as arfvedsonite, glaucophane-riebeckite. There is little solubility between these minerals due to different crystal habit and inability of substitution between alkali elements and ferro-magnesian elements within the amphibole structure.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Cummingtonite was named after the town of Cummington, Massachusetts, where it was discovered in 1824. It is also found in Sweden, South Africa, Scotland, and New Zealand.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Cummingtonite is a member of the cummingtonite-grunerite solid solution series which ranges from for magnesiocummingtonite to the iron rich grunerite endmember . Cummingtonite is used to describe minerals of this formula with between 30 and 70 per cent . Thus, cummingtonite is the series intermediate.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Manganese also substitutes for ) within cummingtonite amphibole, replacing B site atoms. These minerals are found in high-grade metamorphic banded iron formation and form a compositional series between (tirodite) and (dannemorite).


title: Cummingtonite

text: Calcium, sodium and potassium concentrations in cummingtonite are low. Cummingtonite tends toward more calcium substitution than related anthophyllite. Similarly, cummingtonite has lower ferric iron and aluminium than anthophyllite.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Amosite is a rare asbestiform variety of grunerite that was mined as asbestos only in the eastern part of the Transvaal Province of South Africa. The origin of the name is "Amosa", the acronym for the mining company "Asbestos Mines of South Africa".


title: Cummingtonite

text: Cummingtonite is commonly found in metamorphosed magnesium-rich rocks and occurs in amphibolites. Usually it coexists with hornblende or actinolite, magnesium clinochlore chlorite, talc, serpentine-antigorite minerals or metamorphic pyroxene. Magnesium-rich cummingtonite can also coexist with anthophyllite.


title: Cummingtonite

text: Cummingtonite has also been found in some felsic volcanic rocks such as dacites. Manganese rich species can be found in metamorphosed Mn-rich rock units. The grunerite end member is characteristic of the metamorphosed iron formations of the Lake Superior region and the Labrador Trough. With prograde metamorphism cummingtonite and grunerite morph to members of the olivine and pyroxene series.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine, sold under the brand names Valdoxan and Thymanax, among others, is an atypical antidepressant most commonly used to treat major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. One review found that it is as effective as other antidepressants with similar discontinuation rates overall but less discontinuations due to side effects. Another review also found it was similarly effective to many other antidepressants.


title: Agomelatine

text: Common side effects include weight gain, fatigue, liver problems, nausea, headaches, and anxiety. Due to potential liver problems ongoing blood tests are recommended. Its use is not recommended in people with dementia or over the age of 75. There is tentative evidence that it may have fewer side effects than some other antidepressants. It acts by blocking certain serotonin receptors and activating melatonin receptors.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine was approved for medical use in Europe in 2009 and Australia in 2010. Its use is not approved in the United States and efforts to get approval were ended in 2011. It was developed by the pharmaceutical company Servier.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine is used for the treatment of major depressive episodes in adults in Europe. Ten placebo controlled trials have been performed to investigate the short term efficacy of agomelatine in major depressive disorder. At the end of treatment, significant efficacy was demonstrated in six of the ten short-term double-blind placebo-controlled studies. Two were considered "failed" trials, as comparators of established efficacy failed to differentiate from placebo. Efficacy was also observed in more severely depressed patients in all positive placebo-controlled studies. The maintenance of antidepressant efficacy was demonstrated in a relapse prevention study. One meta-analysis found agomelatine to be as effective as standard antidepressants, with an effect size () of 0.24.


title: Agomelatine

text: In 2018, a systematic review and network meta-analysis comparing the efficacy and acceptability of 21 antidepressant drugs showed agomelatine to be one of the most effective and one of only two medications found to be more tolerable than placebo.


title: Agomelatine

text: A meta-analysis found that agomelatine is effective in treating severe depression. Its antidepressant effect is greater for more severe depression. In people with a greater baseline score (>30 on HAMD17 scale), the agomelatine-placebo difference was of 4.53 points. Controlled studies in humans have shown that agomelatine is at least as effective as the SSRI antidepressants paroxetine, sertraline, escitalopram, and fluoxetine in the treatment of major depression. A 2018 meta-study comparing 21 antidepressants found agomelatine was one of the more tolerable, yet effective antidepressants.


title: Agomelatine

text: However, the body of research on agomelatine has been substantially affected by publication bias, prompting analyses which take into account both published and unpublished studies. These have confirmed that agomelatine is approximately as effective as more commonly used antidepressants (e.g. SSRIs), but some qualified this as "marginally clinically relevant", being only slightly above placebo. According to a 2013 review, agomelatine did not seem to provide an advantage in efficacy over other antidepressants for the acute-phase treatment of major depression.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine has been found more effective than placebo in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder in a number of short-term double-blind placebo-controlled studies and in long term relapse prevention.


title: Agomelatine

text: It is not recommended in Europe for use in children and adolescents below 18 years of age due to a lack of data on safety and efficacy. However, a recent 12 week study first reported in September 2020, and published in 2022 showed greater efficacy vs. placebo for agomelatine 25 mg per day in youth age 7–17 years and an acceptable tolerability profile with similar efficacy to fluoxetine. Only limited data is available on use in elderly people ≥ 75 years old with major depressive episodes.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine is contraindicated in patients with kidney or liver impairment. According to information disclosed by Servier in 2012, guidelines for the follow-up of patients treated with Valdoxan have been modified in concert with the European Medicines Agency. As some patients may experience increased levels of liver enzymes in their blood during treatment with Valdoxan, doctors have to run laboratory tests to check that the liver is working properly at the initiation of the treatment and then periodically during treatment, and subsequently decide whether to pursue the treatment or not. No relevant modification in agomelatine pharmacokinetic parameters in patients with severe renal impairment has been observed. However, only limited clinical data on its use in depressed patients with severe or moderate renal impairment with major depressive episodes is available. Therefore, caution should be exercised when prescribing agomelatine to these patients.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine does not alter daytime vigilance and memory in healthy volunteers. In depressed patients, treatment with the drug increased slow wave sleep without modification of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep amount or REM latency. Agomelatine also induced an advance of the time of sleep onset and of minimum heart rate. From the first week of treatment, onset of sleep and the quality of sleep were significantly improved without daytime clumsiness as assessed by patients.


title: Agomelatine

text: No dosage tapering is needed on treatment discontinuation. Agomelatine has no abuse potential as measured in healthy volunteer studies.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine is a substrate of CYP1A2, CYP2C9 and CYP2C19. Inhibitors of these enzymes, e.g. the SSRI antidepressant fluvoxamine, reduce its clearance and can therefore lead to an increase in agomelatine exposure. There is also the potential for agomelatine to interact with alcohol to increase the risk of hepatotoxicity.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine is a melatonin receptor agonist (MT ("K" 0.1 nM) and MT ("K" = 0.12 nM)) and serotonin 5-HT ("K" = 631 nM) and 5-HT receptor ("K" = 660 nM) antagonist. Binding studies indicate that it has no effect on monoamine uptake and no affinity for adrenergic, histamine, cholinergic, dopamine, and benzodiazepine receptors, nor other serotonin receptors.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine resynchronizes circadian rhythms in animal models of delayed sleep phase syndrome. By antagonizing 5-HT, it disinhibits/increases noradrenaline and dopamine release specifically in the frontal cortex. Therefore, it is sometimes classified as a norepinephrine–dopamine disinhibitor. It has no influence on the extracellular levels of serotonin. Agomelatine has shown an antidepressant-like effect in animal models of depression (learned helplessness test, despair test, chronic mild stress) as well as in models with circadian rhythm desynchronisation and in models related to stress and anxiety. In humans, agomelatine has positive phase-shifting properties; it induces a phase advance of sleep, body temperature decline, and melatonin onset.


title: Agomelatine

text: Antagonism of 5-HT is putatively an antidepressant property agomelatine shares with several atypical antipsychotics, such as aripiprazole, which are themselves used as atypical antidepressants. 5-HT antagonists are currently being investigated for their usefulness in reducing cardiotoxicity of drugs as well as being effective in reducing headache. Hence this particular receptor antagonism of agomelatine is useful for its antidepressant effectiveness as well as reducing the drug's adverse effects.


title: Agomelatine

text: The chemical structure of agomelatine is very similar to that of melatonin. Where melatonin has an indole ring system, agomelatine has a naphthalene bioisostere instead.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine was discovered and developed by the European pharmaceutical company Servier Laboratories Ltd. Servier continued to develop the drug and conduct phase III trials in the European Union.


title: Agomelatine

text: In March 2005, Servier submitted agomelatine to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) under the trade names Valdoxan and Thymanax. On 27 July 2006, the Committee for Medical Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the EMA recommended a refusal of the marketing authorisation. The major concern was that efficacy had not been sufficiently shown, while there were no special concerns about side effects. In September 2007, Servier submitted a new marketing application to the EMA.


title: Agomelatine

text: In March 2006, Servier announced it had sold the rights to market agomelatine in the United States to Novartis. It was undergoing several phase III clinical trials in the US, and until October 2011 Novartis listed the drug as scheduled for submission to the FDA no earlier than 2012. However, the development for the US market was discontinued in October 2011, when the results from the last of those trials became available.


title: Agomelatine

text: It received approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for marketing in the European Union in February 2009 and approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for marketing in Australia in August 2010.


title: Agomelatine

text: Agomelatine has been investigated for its effects on sleep regulation due its actions as a melatonin receptor agonist. Studies report various improvements in general quality of sleep metrics, as well as benefits in circadian rhythm sleep disorders. However, research is very limited (e.g., case reports) and agomelatine is not approved for use in the treatment of sleep disorders.


title: Agomelatine

text: A 2019 Cochrane review suggested no recommendations of agomelatine in support of, or against, its use to treat individuals with seasonal affective disorder.


title: John McCook

text: John Thomas McCook (born June 20, 1944) is an American actor. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of the character Lance Prentiss on the television soap opera "The Young and the Restless" (from 1975 - 1980)"." Since March 1987, he has played the role of Eric Forrester on "The Bold and the Beautiful", winning the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 after four nominations.


title: John McCook

text: McCook was discovered by Jack Warner while performing in a production of "West Side Story". He signed to Universal Studios before spending two years in the US Army.


title: John McCook

text: McCook portrayed the character of Lance Prentiss on "The Young and the Restless" from October 1975 to February 1980, leaving when the show moved to the hour format. Since March 1987, he has played the role of Eric Forrester on "The Bold and the Beautiful". Currently, McCook and Katherine Kelly Lang (Brooke Logan) are the show's two longest-serving actors, and both debuted in the first episode. McCook is only seven years older than Ronn Moss, who formerly played his son on the show.


title: John McCook

text: He has performed in musical theatre, and has appeared as a guest on dozens of primetime series. "B&B" co-star Winsor Harmon once starred with McCook on an episode of "Acapulco H.E.A.T." filmed in Mexico. Harmon told "Soap Opera Digest" about their guest stint on "H.E.A.T.": "I hung out with John McCook the whole time and I kept watching all these people from other countries asking for his autograph. I'm thinking to myself, 'Who the hell is this guy?' So one night, we were drinking Coronas and I asked him why he had so many fans and he explained how "B&B" was so popular around the world. I had no idea. The more he talked about it, the more I was thinking, 'I want to be on that show.'... The first time I drove into the parking lot, there was John, just pointing at me and laughing. He asked what I was doing here and I told him that I was Thorne. That's when he told me that he was going to be playing my dad. That was just too wild."


title: John McCook

text: In 2001, 2012, and 2018, McCook received a Daytime Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Lead Actor category for his portrayal of Eric Forrester. In 2022, McCook won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the same role.


title: John McCook

text: John McCook has been married since 1980 to former actress Laurette Spang, with whom he has three children, Jake Thomas (born 1981), Rebecca Jeanne (born 1983), and Molly (born July 30, 1990) who is also an actress.


title: John McCook

text: He was married twice previously, including to dancer/actress Juliet Prowse (1972–1979), by whom he had one son, Seth, born in August 1972.


title: Leadership approval opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election

text: At various dates in the run up to the next United Kingdom general election, various organisations have carried out opinion polling to gauge the opinions that voters hold towards political leaders. The polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules. The date range for opinion polls is from the 2019 United Kingdom general election, held on 12 December, to the present day.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Rishi Sunak, leader of the Conservative Party since 24 October 2022 and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 25 October 2022.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition since April 2020.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats since August 2020.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, co-leaders of the Green Party of England and Wales since October 2021.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party and first minister of Scotland since November 2014. These polls asked the opinions of "British" voters, not specifically "Scottish" voters.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Liz Truss, leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 6 September 2022 and until 25 October 2022.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Boris Johnson, leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 24 July 2019 to 6 September 2022.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley, co-leaders of the Green Party from 4 September 2018 to 31 July 2021.


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK, formerly named Brexit Party, until 6 March 2021


text: The following polls asked about voters' opinions on Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the Labour Party until 4 April 2020.


text: Some opinion pollsters ask voters which party leader they would prefer as prime minister: Liz Truss (Conservative Party) or Keir Starmer (Labour Party). The questions differ slightly from pollster to pollster:


text: Some pollsters ask voters which potential Prime Minister/Chancellor of the Exchequer pairing they would prefer: Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt for the Conservative Party or Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves for the Labour Party. Previous iterations contained Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, and Keir Starmer and Anneliese Dodds. Each pollster uses the following wording for this question:


text: Some pollsters conduct surveys to compare figures who are not both party leaders. These could include a comparison of leading politicians within the same party (to gauge support for future leadership contests), or compare the current leader of one party to an alternative leader of a second. The politicians listed below include:


text: The following polls have asked people which leader they think would better handle the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: "Wildest Dreams" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her fifth studio album, "1989" (2014). Swift wrote the song with its producers Max Martin and Shellback. "Wildest Dreams" is a synth-pop and dream pop power ballad with an atmospheric production equipped with string instruments and Swift's heartbeat as its beat. The lyrics describe Swift's plea for her lover to remember her despite the inevitable end of their relationship. The song was released to radio stations as the album's fifth single on August 31, 2015, by Big Machine and Republic Records.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Contemporary critics received "Wildest Dreams" with moderate reviews; some praised Swift's vocals and the production, while others negatively compared it to the work of Lana Del Rey. Retrospectively, critics have positively viewed the song as one of Swift's strongest songs in her catalog. The single peaked within the top five on record charts of Australia, Canada, Poland and South Africa. In the United States, it was "1989" fifth consecutive top-ten hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100, reaching number five, and peaked atop "Billboard" airplay-focused charts including Mainstream Top 40 and Adult Top 40. It was certified four times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and had sold over two million copies in the United States by November 2017.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: The song's music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, is set in Africa during the classical Hollywood era of the 1950s. It depicts Swift as a brunette actress who falls in love with her co-star on set, and later realizes their inevitable end upon completion of their film project. The video was well received in terms of production and styling, but attracted criticism for glorifying colonialism, a claim that Kahn dismissed. Swift donated all proceeds from the video to the African Parks Foundation of America.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: On September 17, 2021, Swift released the re-recording of "Wildest Dreams" dubbed as "Taylor's Version", as part of the re-recording of her first six studio albums following the dispute over their masters. The re-recorded song garnered more streams in its opening day on Spotify than the original song did on any given day on the streaming platform. It later debuted and peaked at number 37 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Taylor Swift wrote "Wildest Dreams" with its producers, Max Martin and Shellback, who produced the bulk of Swift's fifth studio album "1989". Paul Duffus from "PopMatters" characterized the song as a dream pop power ballad. "NME" Hannah Mylrae described it as synth-pop, the genre that is in line with its parent album's production. "Refinery29" writer Rebecca Farley noted elements of soft rock. The song was recorded by Michael Ilbert and MXM Studios in Stockholm, and by Sam Holland at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Critics noted that "Wildest Dreams" incorporates a sultry, dramatic atmosphere, which they compared to the music by singer Lana Del Rey, particularly her album "Born to Die" (2012). According to the album's liner notes, Swift's heartbeat serves as the song's beat. The track is instrumented by pulsing synthesizers and lush string instruments. The track's string arranger, Mattias Bylund, recorded and arranged the track at his home studio in Tuve, Sweden. The verses are accompanied by underlying Mellotron keyboard tones, and the chorus is supported by lush staccato strings, with Bylund taking inspiration from Coldplay for the chorus's chords. Alexis Petridis from "The Guardian" compared the song's drums to those of "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: The lyrics are about Swift's plea for her lover to remember her, despite the inevitable end of their relationship. Singing with breathy vocals in a falsetto register, Swift falls in love with a man who is "bad, but...does it so well". She observes in the first verse, "I can see the end as it begins," knowing that her love interest is not suitable for her. Swift warns him that he will be the victim of haunting memories once the relationship ends. For "Slant Magazine" Annie Galvin, Swift's luscious breathy vocals in a falsetto register are atypical of her usual singing style.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: "Wildest Dreams" first charted at number 76 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 as an album cut from "1989" in November 2014. Swift announced on August 5, 2015, that "Wildest Dreams" would be the fifth single from "1989", following four Hot 100 top-10 and pop songs airplay number-one singles: "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Style" and "Bad Blood". The song was slightly remixed and was released to US hot adult contemporary radio on August 31, 2015, by Big Machine and Republic Records. The following day, it impacted US contemporary hit radio. The single was further supported by a remix by R3hab, released for digital download on October 15, 2015. "Wildest Dreams" was released to Italian radio on October 30, 2015, by Universal Music Group.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Following its release as an official single, "Wildest Dreams" re-entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 15 on the chart dated September 19, 2015. It reached number ten on the chart dated October 10, 2015, becoming "1989" fifth consecutive top-ten hit. The single peaked at number five on the chart dated November 7, 2015, when it reached number one on "Billboard" pop airplay-focused charts: Mainstream Top 40 and Adult Top 40. With this achievement, "1989" became the album with the most Adult Top 40 number-one songs (five), tying with Katy Perry's 2010 album "Teenage Dream". On "Billboard's" Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, the single became Swift's first number one, supported by the R3hab remix. Swift became the first female artist to score five Dance/Mix top-10 hits in a calendar year, with "1989" four previous singles all reaching the top 10. "Wildest Dreams" was certified four times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and had sold two million digital copies in the United States by November 2017.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: "Wildest Dreams" peaked within the top five on record charts of Australia (three), Poland (three), Canada (four), and South Africa (five). The single was certified double platinum in Australia, platinum in Canada, and gold in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Contemporary critics received "Wildest Dreams" with positive reviews. "Sputnikmusic" called the song an "impassioned piece" and wrote, "all it really proves is that Swift is capable of taking the contemporary influences around her and molding them into something impressively original." "The Arizona Republic" writer Ed Masley described the song as an alluring track. Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" praised the wit of the lyrics: "there's something hugely cheering about the way Swift turns the [Lana Del Rey-style] persona of the pathetic female appendage snivelling over her bad-boy boyfriend on its head." In a review by "The New York Times", Jon Caramanica noted that this song contained the "most pronounced vocal tweak" on the album and how "at the bridge, she skips up an octave, sputtering out bleats of ecstasy, before retreating back under the covers".


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Craig Manning of "AbsolutePunk" dismissed the song as "a bit disposable". Jem Aswad of "Billboard" was somewhat disappointed with the production, which they found to be similar to the music of Lana Del Rey, saying: "it's hard to tell if the song is homage or parody." Annie Galvin from "Slant Magazine" similarly regarded the song as a "misguided" imitation of Del Rey, but praised Swift's vocals that complement the narrative lyrics. "Slate" writer Forrest Wickman praised the production, but found the song lacking Swift's traditionally vivid songwriting. Sharing a similar sentiment, Mikael Wood of the "Los Angeles Times" dismissed the song as generic. Shane Kimberline from "musicOMH" considered "Wildest Dreams" the album's weakest song, feeling that Swift's falsetto was the "sonic equivalent of watching your sister wear heavy makeup and talk with a posh accent".


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Retrospectively, Rob Sheffield of "Rolling Stone" wrote that the song "sounds stronger and stronger over the years". "NME" critic Hannah Mylrae called the song a "synth-pop beauty", and Nate Jones from "Vulture" considered "Wildest Dreams" one of Swift's ten strongest songs in her catalog, describing its "invigorating double-time bridge" as the best on "1989". The song was one of the award-winning songs at the 2016 BMI Awards, where Swift was honored as the Songwriter of the Year. It was also awarded at the 2017 ASCAP Awards for the songwriters, Swift, Martin and Shellback. In a 2021 list ranking the best song bridges of the 21st-century, "Billboard" placed "Wildest Dreams" at number 66.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: The accompanying music video was directed by Joseph Kahn, who had previously assumed the role for the music videos for the singles "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" from "1989". The music video was filmed primarily in the Serengeti plain in Tanzania, with additional shots filmed in Los Angeles and New Zealand. The video premiered on television during the pre-show of the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards on August 31, 2015. Scott Eastwood appeared in the video as Swift's love interest. In the video, Swift plays a fictional actress named Marjorie Finn which is a reference to her grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, and Eastwood plays a fictional actor named Robert Kingsley, combining Swift's grandfather's name Robert and her father's middle name Kingsley. Swift came up with the concept after reading "The Secret Conversations" (2013), a memoir book of actress Ava Gardner who co-wrote it with journalist Peter Evans. Her premise for the video was that, since social media did not exist in the 1950s, it would be impossible for actors to not fall in love if they were isolated together in Africa.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: According to Kahn, the video is based on classic Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as classic films such as "The African Queen" (1951), "Out of Africa" (1985) and "The English Patient" (1996). Set in Africa during the classical Hollywood era of the 1950s, the video follows the story of Marjorie Finn (Swift), a brunette actress shooting a romantic adventure film, "Wildest Dreams" (a reference to the 1985 film "Out of Africa"), with co-star Robert Kingsley (Eastwood). The video is interspersed with shots of African wildlife and natural scenery, including a cascading waterfall and Swift lounging with a lion. Finn and Kingsley fall in love, but after a fight on set, the romance ends. At the premiere of "Wildest Dreams" in the United States, Finn sees her co-star, Kingsley, with his wife. Finn is visibly upset but tries to act nonchalant. As they both watch the film, Finn flees the premiere and gets into a waiting limousine. The video ends with a shot of the limousine's side-mirror showing Kingsley running into the street and watching as the car drives away. Swift donated all of the proceeds from the video to wild animal conservation efforts through the African Parks Foundation of America.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Media outlets praised the video's production. "Slate" Forrest Whickman found that the video was "a lot more engaging" and that "it does a good job matching the song's theme of lingering on with someone 'even if it's just pretend'." Mike Wass of "Idolator" called the video "a much stronger effort" than Swift's previous videos and likened it to romance films "Out of Africa", "The English Patient" and "The Notebook" (2004). While saying "it all hangs together rather nicely", he highlighted the scenery, which "raises this above your average video". "Rolling Stone" writer Brittany Spanos felt that the video's visuals emulated "retro Hollywood glamour". The video was nominated for Best Fresh Video at the 2016 MTV Italian Music Awards.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: The video attracted criticism, with allegations of glorifying colonialism due to featuring a mainly white cast in Africa. Writing for NPR, Viviane Rutabingwa and James Kassaga Arinaitwe criticized the video for "present[ing] a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa" and ignoring the brutality of colonialism. They wrote, "We don't totally blame Taylor Swift, but the people behind the video should have done a little more research. They should have wondered how Africans would react. This nostalgia that privileged white people have for colonial Africa is awkwardly confusing to say the least and offensive to say the most." Lauren Duca of "HuffPost" similarly criticized the video for bringing back "white colonialism", alleging Swift of eschewing the nuances of cultural appropriation for an outright offensive move. Lauretta Charlton of "Vulture" defended the video, feeling that the accusations were overblown and recommending the audience to "take a deep breath, exhale, and direct our rage toward something that matters". In response to the allegations, Kahn asserted that the video's emphasis was "a love story", and that featuring a black cast would be historically inaccurate for the 1950s settings.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Swift performed a stripped-down rendition of "Wildest Dreams" on an electric guitar as part of the "Taylor Swift Experience" exhibition at the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live on September 30, 2015. She included the song on the set list of The 1989 World Tour (2015), where she performed "Wildest Dreams" as part of a mashup with "Enchanted", a song from her third studio album, "Speak Now" (2010). Swift also performed "Wildest Dreams" three times on her Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), as part of the "surprise songs" that were outside of the recurring set list for the whole tour. The performances were at the first show at Santa Clara, California, the second show in Tokyo, Japan, and the second show in Philadelphia, when a stage device malfunctioned.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Rock singer Ryan Adams covered "Wildest Dreams" for his track-by-track cover album of Swift's "1989", released in September 2015. Adams switches and adjusts pronouns in some places, for example "Standing in a nice dress" becomes "Standing in your nice dress." His version is an alt-country song featuring acoustic instruments and a melancholic production. "The Atlantic" critic Spencer Kornharber found the cover "undeniably lovely."


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: A re-recorded version of "Wildest Dreams", titled "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)", was released by Swift on September 17, 2021, via Republic Records. It was a surprise release, and a part of the re-recorded music from Swift following the dispute over the ownership of the masters of her older discography. "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" charted within the top 10 in Malaysia and Singapore, the top 20 in Ireland, and the top 40 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Following the dispute with Big Machine Records in 2019 over the rights to the masters of her first six albums, including "1989", Swift announced her goal to re-record each of these albums. The first snippet of "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" was featured in the trailer for the 2021 animated film "Spirit Untamed", released on March 12, 2021. A longer one minute and fifty-nine second clip was uploaded to DreamWorks' official YouTube channel on May 17, 2021.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: On September 15, 2021, following a viral TikTok trend involving the 2014 recording of the song that was gaining traction on the platform, "Wildest Dreams" received 735,000 plays on Spotify, a new single-day peak for the song on the streaming service. On September 16, it reached a new peak at 750,000 plays. On September 17, Swift posted on her TikTok account a snippet of the re-recorded song's bridge as part of the aforementioned trend, captioned "if you guys want to use my version of wildest dreams for the slow zoom trend, here she is!", followed by "felt cute might drop the whole song later", hinting at the song's forthcoming release. The song was subsequently made available to streaming platforms approximately an hour after the TikTok post. Regarding her next upcoming record being "Red (Taylor's Version)" (2021), Swift said via her social media accounts that she saw "Wildest Dreams" trending on TikTok and thought fans should have her version of the song.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" received positive reviews, most observing Swift's improved and refined vocal delivery. Althea Legaspi of "Rolling Stone" described the track as a dreamy synth-pop song with its romantic sentiment "Taylor-made for a dramatic effect that feels like a movie moment". The staff of "Consequence" deemed the song their "song of the week" and commented, "She's taken great care to capture the sound of the original, right down to a riff in the second chorus", further stating that the song displays her improved vocals. Euphoria Magazine's Kenzie Bright opined that Swift's matured voice pairs with the crisper, shiner and bolder instrumentals of the track. Robin Murray of "Clash" noted that the song contains only "subtle stylist shifts" from the original version but was impressed by the vocal delivery. "Stereogum"s Tom Breihan described the song as a muted version of the original.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: Within less than four hours, "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" amassed over two million streams on Spotify, handily surpassing the original version's biggest single-day streaming tally on the platform. In the United States, it debuted at number 37 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 with 8.7 million on-demand streams and 13,400 downloads sold in the week ending September 23, 2021. It became her record-extending 138th entry on the Hot 100, and her 81st entry into the top-40, which tied her with Elvis Presley for the third-most top-40 entries of all time, behind Drake (143) and Lil Wayne (87). The song further landed at numbers 3 and 37 on the US "Billboard" Digital Song Sales and Streaming Songs charts, respectively. "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" peaked within the top 40 in Australia (28) and New Zealand (30). It surpassed the original version's peak chart positions in Hungary (29 versus 35), the United Kingdom (25 versus 40), and Ireland (15 versus 39). In Germany and Sweden, where the chart performance of the original and the re-recording are combined together, "Wildest Dreams" peaked at numbers 51 and 53, respectively.


title: Wildest Dreams (Taylor Swift song)

text: An instrumental, mainly orchestral, rendition of "Wildest Dreams" was featured on the soundtrack of Netflix period series "Bridgerton" (2020). "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" was used in the trailers of 2021 animated adventure film, "Spirit Untamed", and in an episode in the second season of the 2022 teen drama series, "".


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: The 1994–95 FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the third season of the Premier League, the top division of professional football in England.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Just before the start of the season, the English transfer record was broken when Blackburn Rovers paid £5 million for 21-year-old Norwich City striker Chris Sutton. But that record was broken again in January when Manchester United paid £6 million for Newcastle United's Andy Cole, in a deal which also saw £1 million-rated Keith Gillespie move to Newcastle. Other significant transfers before and during the 1994–95 season included: Vinny Samways (Tottenham to Everton, £2 million), David Rocastle (Manchester City to Chelsea, £1.25 million), Jürgen Klinsmann (Monaco to Tottenham Hotspur, £2 million), John Scales (Wimbledon to Liverpool, £3 million) and Paul Kitson (Derby County to Newcastle United, £2.2 million).


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: The title was won by Blackburn Rovers, whose last title success was in 1914, and also was Blackburn's first major trophy in 67 years (the last being 1927–28 FA Cup).


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Kenny Dalglish's side secured the championship on the last day of the season despite losing 2–1 at his former club Liverpool, as Manchester United could only manage a 1–1 draw at West Ham.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: This meant that Blackburn Rovers qualified for the European Cup for the first time in their history, while Manchester United finished second earning a UEFA Cup place. A single point separated the two sides, who for more than half of the season enjoyed a wide gap in terms of point between themselves and the rest of the league, despite the likes of Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Newcastle United briefly topping the league during the first three months of the season.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Also qualifying for the UEFA Cup were Nottingham Forest (who finished third in their first season back in the Premier League), Liverpool (who finished fourth and won their fifth League Cup in the club's first full season following the appointment of Roy Evans) and fifth placed Leeds United.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: The number of teams in the league for the following year would be reduced to 20. This was to be achieved by increasing the number of teams facing relegation to four, and reducing the number of teams being promoted from Division 1 to two.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: In January 1995, Manchester United's 28-year-old French striker Eric Cantona (then holder of the PFA Players' Player of the Year award) assaulted a Crystal Palace fan who racially abused him in his team's 1–1 draw at Selhurst Park. Cantona was banned from football for eight months, fined £20,000 and sentenced to 14 days in prison. The prison sentence was later reduced to 120 hours community service on appeal.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Chelsea midfielder Dennis Wise was convicted of criminal damage and assault, relating to a fight with a taxi driver in London. He was given a three-month prison sentence but the conviction and prison sentence were quickly overturned on appeal.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson admitted in November 1994 that he was an alcoholic and was also addicted to cocaine and gambling. He underwent a three-month drug rehabilitation programme before being allowed to resume his playing career.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Crystal Palace striker Chris Armstrong failed a drugs test in February 1995 but admitted that he had done wrong and returned to action after just four weeks undergoing rehabilitation. Armstrong was Palace's leading goalscorer in 1994–95, helping them reach the semi finals of both domestic cup competitions, but was unable to prevent them from being relegated back to the First Division just one season after winning promotion.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Arsenal manager George Graham was sacked in February 1995 after nearly nine years in charge, when it was revealed that he had accepted an illegal payment of £425,000 from Norwegian agent Rune Hauge relating to the purchases of Norwegian and Danish players Pål Lydersen and John Jensen three years earlier. Graham was later banned from football for one year by the FA.


title: 1994–95 FA Premier League

text: Twenty-two teams competed in the league – the top nineteen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the First Division. The promoted teams were Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest (both teams returning to the top flight after a season's absence) and Leicester City (returning after a top flight absence of seven years). This was also Leicester City's first season in the Premier League. They replaced Sheffield United, Oldham Athletic and Swindon Town, ending their top flight spells of four, three and one year respectively. This was the final season with 22 teams as all seasons after this one have 20 teams.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: Mykolaiv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Mykolaivshchyna (, ) is an oblast (province) of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Mykolaiv. At the most recent estimate, the population of the oblast stood at .


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army invaded the province from Kherson Oblast, attacking as far northwest as Voznesensk. However, at Voznesensk, the Russian forces were repulsed, and the attempt to take Mykolaiv also ended in failure. From April 2022, almost all of the province was under Ukrainian control, apart from the extreme south-east and the Kinburn peninsula. When Russia annexed Kherson Oblast in September 2022, it incorporated the occupied areas of Mykolaiv Oblast. A Ukrainian military official announced a Russian withdrawal from Mykolaiv Oblast on 10 November 2022.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: On 4-5 July 2022 during an international Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2022) in Lugano, Switzerland pledged to support the rebuilding of Mykolaiv region.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: The Mykolaiv Oblast is located in the southern half of Ukraine. Its area (24,600 km²) comprises about 4.07% of the total area of Ukraine.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: The Mykolaiv Oblast borders upon the Odesa Oblast in the west-southwest, the Kirovohrad Oblast in the north, the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in the northeast, and the Kherson Oblast on the southeast.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: To the south, the oblast is also bordered by the Black Sea. To Mykolaiv Oblast belong Kinburn Peninsula, Berezan Island in Black Sea, Pervomaisky Island in Dnieper Estuary.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: In regards to relief, Mykolaiv Oblast is a plain that gently slopes in southern direction. Bigger portion of the territory lays within Black Sea Lowland. To the north there are spurs of Podolian and Dnieper uplands. Among major valuable deposits and minerals there are nickel, uranium ores, granite, gneiss, quartzites.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: In the territory of the region are eighty-five rivers that belong to basin of the Black Sea. Among main rivers there are the Southern Bug (Boh) which splits the oblast into eastern and western parts, Inhulets, and Berezan.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: The following historic-cultural sites were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine or Seven Natural Wonders of Ukraine.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: The estimated population was 1.2 million people in 2005. The greater part of the oblast's population resided in urban type settlements (66%), with the remainder residing in agricultural areas. Also, almost 60% of the urban population resided in Mykolayiv, the industrial, cultural and administrative center of Mykolayiv Oblast.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: As of 2021, the total population of the oblast was estimated at 1,108,394 inhabitants, with 761,278 (68.7%) residing in urban areas and the remaining 347,116 (31.3%) living in rural areas. The city of Mykolayiv, home to 476,101 residents, constituted 62.5% of the urban population of Mykolayiv Oblast.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: The oblast's population density is one of the lowest in Ukraine – . Mykolaiv Oblast contains 2.7% of the population of Ukraine, by percentage share ranking 19th among Ukrainian oblasts and territories.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: The oblast has a multi-ethnic composition; people of more than 100 ethnicities (national groups) live in the oblast. The most common language in the oblast is Ukrainian; the second most common language is Russian. In the city of Mykolaiv the most common language is Russian.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: Mykolaiv Oblast formed in September 1937. it is subdivided into various areas, mostly raions. The subdivisions changed in 2020.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: Before July 2020, Mykolaiv Oblast was subdivided into 24 regions: 19 "raion"s (administrative districts) and 5 city municipalities ("mis'krada" or "misto"), officially known as "territories governed by city councils" which are directly subordinate to the oblast government.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: Note: Asterisks (*) Though the administrative center of the rayon is housed in the city/town that it is named after, cities do not answer to the rayon authorities only towns do; instead they are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of rayon statistics.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: The local administration of the oblast is controlled by the Mykolaiv Oblast Rada. The governor of the oblast is the Mykolaiv Oblast Rada speaker, appointed by the President of Ukraine.


title: Mykolaiv Oblast

text: During the 1991 referendum, 89.45% of votes in Mykolaiv Oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. A survey conducted in December 2014 by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology found 2.1% of the oblast's population supported their region joining Russia, 95.5% did not support the idea, and the rest were undecided or did not respond.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: Before the filming of the season began, it was announced that A.J. Cook had been let go from the series, reportedly due to budget cuts on the show relating to the launch of the "Criminal Minds" spinoff. Thanks to letters and petitions by fans, Cook was allowed to return for two episodes to wrap up her character's storyline. She later returned as a special guest star in two subsequent episodes of this season. Paget Brewster was a regular for eighteen episodes and was let go from the series as well. Rachel Nichols appeared as a guest star for two episodes and was then promoted as a regular, but her contract wasn't picked up after the season finale.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: The opening sequence was changed as of this season: more sound and visual effects were added; the theme song itself was amplified, and an electric guitar part added.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: In the season premiere "The Longest Night", Tim Curry reprised his role as one of the series' most notorious criminals, Billy Flynn, also known as "The Prince of Darkness". Robert Davi reprised his role as Detective Adam Kurzbard, who led the investigation of the murders. In the episode "J.J.", Chris Marquette guest-starred as James Barrett, a man who abducted and attempted to murder Kate Joyce. In the episode "Remembrance of Things Past", Daniel J. Travanti guest-starred as Lee Mullens, a serial killer who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. In the episode "Compromising Positions", Craig Sheffer guest-starred as James Thomas, an impotent serial killer who murders married couples.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: In the episode "Safe Haven", Sterling Beaumon guest-starred as Jeremy Sayers, a juvenile delinquent and family annihilator who has been hated by his mother ever since he was born. Mare Winningham guest-starred as Nancy Riverton, a mother who allows Jeremy to stay in their home for the night. In the episode "Devil's Night", Leonard Roberts guest-starred as Kaman Scott, a disfigured serial killer who burns his victims alive during Devil's Night, the notorious pre-Halloween celebration. In the episode "Middle Man", Steve Talley, Michael Grant Terry, and Jake Thomas guest-starred as Michael Kosina, Christopher Salters, and Scott Kagan, aka "The Johnson County Brotherhood", a trio of serial rapists and killers who abduct exotic dancers. Melissa Claire Egan guest starred as Tara Dice, an exotic dancer who is questioned by Prentiss and Reid.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: In the episode "Reflection of Desire", Robert Knepper guest-starred as Rhett Walden, also known as "The Hill Ripper", a schizophrenic abductor who idolizes the movie "Reflection of Desire", a film his deceased mother starred in. Sally Kirkland guest-starred as May Walden, a famous actress from Hollywood's Golden Age who, because of her pregnancy, made only one motion picture, and her career was ruined afterwards. Whitney Able guest-starred as Penny Hanley, a woman Walden abducts after Kelly Landis' murder. In the episode "Into the Woods", Gattlin Griffith guest-starred as Robert Brooks, a young boy who is abducted and raped by Shane Wyland. Emily Alyn Lind guest-starred as Anna Brooks, Robert's younger sister who is also abducted by Wyland.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: In the episode "What Happens at Home", Kenneth Mitchell guest-starred as Drew Jacobs, a serial killer who murders several women, including his own wife. Madison Leisle guest starred as Jacobs' daughter, Heather. In the episode "25 to Life", Kyle Secor guest-starred as Donald Sanderson, a man who was framed and imprisoned for the murder of his family, and Philip Casnoff guest-starred as James Stanworth, the man responsible for framing Sanderson and murdering his family. Angus Macfadyen guest-starred as Sean McCallister, Emily Prentiss' former boss at Interpol who is murdered by one of the series most notorious criminals, Ian Doyle, played by Timothy V. Murphy. In the episode "The Thirteenth Step", Jonathan Tucker and Adrianne Palicki guest-starred as Raymond Donovan and Sydney Manning, two young lovers who go on a killing spree.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: In the episode "Today I Do", Rebecca Field guest-starred as Jane Gould, a stalker and abductor who acts as a caretaker so she can be appreciated. Rachel Miner guest-starred as Molly Grandin, a woman who Gould abducts and holds captive in her house. In the episode "Coda", Lew Temple guest-starred as Bill Thomas, a man who abducts the parents of Sammy Sparks, a boy who has autism. Mimi Kennedy guest-starred as Sammy's social worker Mrs. Rogers. In the episode "Lauren", Patrick Fischler guest-starred as Jack Fahey, an Irish mobster and an associate of Ian Doyle. In the episode "With Friends Like These", Bug Hall guest-starred as Ben Foster, a schizophrenic spree killer who, after burning down a church, begins hallucinating three people who died there.


title: Criminal Minds (season 6)

text: In the episode "Hanley Waters", Kelli Williams guest-starred as Shelly Chamberlain, a spree killer who is unable to come to terms with the death of her son, who died in a car crash. In the episode "Out of the Light", Jeffrey Meek guest-starred as Robert Bremmer, a serial killer who raped his stepdaughter, Rose, and began abducting, raping, and murdering women who resemble Rose. In the season finale "Supply and Demand", Angela Sarafyan guest-starred as Lucy, the leader of a human trafficking ring who poses as one of the victims. Amy Price-Francis guest-starred as Supervisory Special Agent Andi Swann, the Unit Chief of the Domestic Trafficking Task Force and Sarah Foret guest-starred as Renee Matlin, an FBI undercover agent who is held captive within the ring.


title: Matt Shakman

text: Matt Shakman is an American film, television, and theatre director, and former child actor. He produced and directed "WandaVision" and has directed episodes of "The Great", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Fargo" and "Game of Thrones". He is the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, California.


title: Matt Shakman

text: Shakman was born and raised in Ventura, California. His Jewish father and Catholic mother maintained a "relatively secular household", their interfaith marriage being a source of conflict with Shakman's Jewish paternal grandmother. After acting as a child, starting with commercials and landing a series regular role on "Just the Ten of Us", he stepped away to attend The Thacher School in Ojai.


title: Matt Shakman

text: Shakman went on to attend Yale University where he graduated with an art history and theater double major. It was at Yale where Shakman became interested in theatre, going on to direct a number of stage productions.


title: Matt Shakman

text: After university, Shakman lived in New York City for several years before permanently moving to Los Angeles. He married Maggie Malone in 2012. In 2016, they had a daughter named Maisie.


title: Matt Shakman

text: As a child actor, Shakman played Graham "J.R." Lubbock, Jr. in the "Growing Pains" spin-off series "Just the Ten of Us" (1988–1990). His other television acting credits include "The Facts of Life", "Highway to Heaven", "Diff'rent Strokes", "Night Court", "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" and "Webster". He also appeared in the films "A Night at the Magic Castle" (1988), and "Meet the Hollowheads" (1989).


title: Matt Shakman

text: Shakman is the founder and Artistic Director of the Black Dahlia Theatre (BDT) in Los Angeles, which was named one of "a dozen young American companies you need to know" by "American Theatre Magazine".


title: Matt Shakman

text: Since 2002, Shakman has mostly been directing for television. Among his credits include "Succession", "Mad Men", "Six Feet Under", "The Boys", "The Great", "House M.D.", "Fargo", and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (also executive producer).


title: Matt Shakman

text: Shakman directed the episodes "The Spoils of War" and "Eastwatch" for the seventh season of the HBO series "Game of Thrones" in 2017. In August of the same year, Shakman was appointed as the new artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.


title: Matt Shakman

text: In 2017, TriStar Pictures announced that Shakman would direct its upcoming "live-action/hybrid" film adaptation of "The Phantom Tollbooth".


title: Matt Shakman

text: In 2021, Shakman directed and executive produced the Marvel Studios miniseries "WandaVision" for Disney+. Later that year, it was revealed that Shakman would direct a film in the "Star Trek" franchise. In late August 2022, Shakman was in early talks to direct the Marvel Studios film "Fantastic Four", set to release in 2025, replacing Jon Watts who exited the project to take a break from superhero films. On August 26, 2022, Shakman exited the "Star Trek" film, citing "scheduling issues".


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: By 1274, when Walter retired from royal service and made his final revisions to the college statutes, the community was consolidated at its present site in the south east corner of the city of Oxford, and a rapid programme of building commenced. The hall and the chapel and the rest of the front quad were complete before the end of the 13th century. Mob Quad, one of Merton's quadrangles, was constructed between 1288 and 1378, and is claimed to be the oldest quadrangle in Oxford, while Merton College Library, located in Mob Quad and dating from 1373, is the oldest continuously functioning library for university academics and students in the world.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Like many of Oxford's colleges, Merton admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after over seven centuries as an institution for men only. Merton's current warden, Irene Tracey, was appointed in 2019 and is Merton's second female warden.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Alumni and academics past and present include five Nobel laureates, the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959, and Liz Truss, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in September and October 2022. Merton is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford and held funds totalling £298 million as of July 2020. Merton has a strong reputation for academic success, having regularly ranked first in the Norrington Table.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton College was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton, Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester. It has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford, a claim which is disputed between Merton College, Balliol College and University College. One argument for Merton's claim is that it was the first college to be provided with "statutes", a constitution governing the college set out at its founding. Merton's statutes date back to 1264, whereas neither Balliol nor University College had statutes until the 1280s.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton has an unbroken line of wardens dating back to 1264. Of these, many had great influence over the development of the college. Henry Savile was one notable leader who led the college to flourish in the early 17th century by extending its buildings and recruiting new fellows.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: In 1333, masters from Merton were among those who left Oxford in an attempt to found a new university at Stamford. The leader of the rebels was reported to be one William de Barnby, a Yorkshireman who had been fellow and bursar of Merton College.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: St Alban Hall was an independent academic hall owned by the convent of Littlemore until it was purchased by Merton College in 1548 following the dissolution of the convent. It continued as a separate institution until it was finally annexed by the college in 1881, on the resignation of its last Principal, William Charles Salter.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: During the English Civil War, Merton was the only Oxford college to side with Parliament. This was due to an earlier dispute between the Warden, Nathaniel Brent, and the Visitor of Merton and Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. Brent had been Vicar-General to Laud, who had held a visitation of Merton College in 1638, and insisted on many radical reforms: his letters to Brent were couched in haughty and decisive language.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Brent, a parliamentarian, moved to London at the start of the Civil War: the college's buildings were commandeered by the Royalists and used to house much of Charles I's court when Oxford was the Royalists' capital. This included the King's French wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, who was housed in or near what is now the Queen's Room, the room above the arch between Front and Fellows' Quads. A portrait of Charles I hangs near the Queen's Room as a reminder of the role it played in his court.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Brent gave evidence against Laud in his trial in 1644. After Laud was executed on 10 January 1645, John Greaves, one of the subwardens of Merton and Savilian Professor of Astronomy, drew up a petition for Brent's removal from office; Brent was deposed by Charles I on 27 January 1646 and replaced by William Harvey.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Thomas Fairfax captured Oxford for the Parliamentarians after its third siege in 1646 and Brent returned from London. However, in 1647, a parliamentary commission (visitation) was set up by Parliament "for the correction of offences, abuses, and disorders" in the University of Oxford. Nathaniel Brent was the president of the visitors. Greaves was accused of sequestrating the college's plate and funds for King Charles I. Despite a deposition from his brother Thomas, Greaves had lost both his Merton fellowship and his Savilian chair by 9 November 1648.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The "House of Scholars of Merton" originally had properties in Surrey (in present-day Old Malden) as well as in Oxford, but it was not until the mid-1260s that Walter de Merton acquired the core of the present site in Oxford, along the south side of what was then St John's Street (now Merton Street). The college was consolidated on this site by 1274, when Walter made his final revisions to the college statutes.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The initial acquisition included the parish church of St John (which was superseded by the chapel) and three houses to the east of the church which now form the north range of Front Quad. Walter also obtained permission from the king to extend from these properties south to the old city wall to form an approximately square site. The college continued to acquire other properties as they became available on both sides of Merton Street. At one time, the college owned all the land from the site that is now Christ Church to the south-eastern corner of the city. The land to the east eventually became the current Fellows' garden, while the western end was leased by Warden Richard Rawlins in 1515 for the foundation of Corpus Christi (at an annual rent of just over £4).


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: By the late 1280s, the old church of St John the Baptist had fallen into "a ruinous condition", and the college accounts show that work on a new church began in about 1290. The present choir, with its enormous east window, was complete by 1294. The window is an important example (because it is so well dated) of how the strict geometrical conventions of the Early English Period of architecture were beginning to be relaxed at the end of the 13th century. The south transept was built in the 14th century, the north transept in the early years of the 15th. The great tower was complete by 1450. The chapel replaced the parish church of St. John and continued to serve as the parish church as well as the chapel until 1891. It is for this reason that it is generally referred to as Merton Church in older documents, and that there is a north door into the street as well as doors into the college. This dual role also probably explains the enormous scale of the chapel, which in its original design was to have a nave and two aisles extending to the west.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: A new choral foundation was established in 2007, providing for a choir of sixteen undergraduate and graduate choral scholars singing from October 2008. The choir was formerly directed by Peter Phillips, director of the Tallis Scholars, and is now directed by Benjamin Nicholas, a former director of music at Tewkesbury Abbey. In 2013, the installation of a new organ, designed and built by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, was completed. The chapel is known for its acoustics.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: A spire from the chapel has resided in Pavilion Garden VI of the University of Virginia since 1928, when "it was given to the University to honor Jefferson's educational ideals."


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The hall is the oldest surviving college building, originally completed before 1277, but apart from the fine medieval ironwork on the door, almost no trace of the ancient structure has survived the successive reconstruction efforts; first by James Wyatt in the 1790s and then again by Gilbert Scott in 1874, whose work included the “handsome oak roof”. The hall is still used daily for meals in term time. It is not usually open to visitors.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Front quad itself is probably the earliest collegiate quadrangle, but its informal, almost haphazard, pattern cannot be said to have influenced designers elsewhere. A reminder of its original domestic nature can be seen in the north east corner where one of the flagstones is marked "Well". The quad is formed of what would have been the back gardens of the three original houses that Walter acquired in the 1260s.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Visitors to Merton are often told that Mob Quad is the oldest quadrangle of any Oxford or Cambridge college and set the pattern for future collegiate architecture. It was built in three phases: 1288–1291, 1304–1311, and finally completed with the Library in 1373–1378. But Merton's own Front Quad was probably enclosed earlier, albeit with a less unified design. Other colleges can point to similarly old and unaltered quadrangles, for example Old Court at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, built c.1353–1377.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The grandest quadrangle in Merton is the Fellows' Quadrangle, immediately south of the hall. The quad was the culmination of the work undertaken by Henry Savile at the beginning of the 17th century. The foundation stone was laid shortly after breakfast on 13 September 1608 (as recorded in the college Register), and work was complete by September 1610 (although the battlements were added later). The southern gateway is surmounted by a tower of the four Orders, probably inspired by Italian examples that Warden Savile would have seen on his European travels. The main contractors were from Yorkshire (as was Savile); John Ackroyd and John Bentley of Halifax supervised the stonework, and Thomas Holt the timber. This group were also later employed to work on the Bodleian Library and Wadham College.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Most of the other buildings are Victorian or later and include: St. Alban's Quad (or "Stubbins"), designed by Basil Champneys, built on the site of the medieval St Alban Hall (elements of the older façade are incorporated into the part that faces onto Merton Street); the Grove building, built in 1864 by William Butterfield but "chastened" in the 1930s by T.H. Hughes; the buildings beyond the Fellows' Garden called "Rose Lane"; several buildings north of Merton Street, including a real tennis court, and the Old Warden's Lodgings (designed by Champneys in 1903); and a new quadrangle in Holywell Street, some distance away from the college.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: TS Eliot Lecture Theatre is a new lecture theatre named after T. S. Eliot, a former member of the college, opened in 2010. It has a bust of the writer by Jacob Epstein, presented by Frank Brenchley, a former member and Fellow of the college. Brenchley presented his collection of Eliot first editions and ephemera to the college, which is believed to be the second largest collection of such material worldwide. The foyer is illuminated by a lighting display representing three constellations that were visible on the night of 14 September 1264, the day the college was founded.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The garden fills the southeastern corner of the old walled city of Oxford. The walls may be seen from Christ Church Meadows and Merton Field (now used by Magdalen College School, Oxford as a playing field for cricket, rugby, and football). The gardens are notable for a mulberry tree planted in the early 17th century, an armillary sundial, an extensive lawn, a Herma statue, and the old Fellows' Summer House (now used as a music room and rehearsal space).


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton admits both undergraduate and graduate students. It admitted its first female students in 1980 and was the second former male college to elect a female head of house (in 1994). Merton has traditionally had single-sex accommodation for first-year undergraduates, with female students going into the Rose Lane buildings and most male students going into three houses on Merton Street. This policy was abandoned in 2007, with all accommodation now mixed by gender and course.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Undergraduate admission to the college, like other Oxford colleges, is based solely on academic potential. In 2010, it was (incorrectly) reported that Merton had not admitted a black student in the previous five years. A university spokeswoman commented that black students were more likely to apply for particularly oversubscribed subjects. The university also reported that Merton had admitted at least one black undergraduate since 2005.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Since the introduction of an official Norrington Table published by the university in 2004, Merton occupied one of the top three positions every year (often coming in 1st), until 2012 when it dropped to 14th. In 2014, it regained the first position, preserving its status as one of the most academically successful colleges of the last twenty years. In 2021, Merton was ranked Oxford's top college in the Norrington Table, with a score of 82.9.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: At the 'Time Ceremony', students dressed in formal academic dress walk backwards around the Fellows' Quad drinking port. Traditionally participants also held candles, but this practice has been abandoned in recent years. Many students have now adopted the habit of linking arms and twirling around at each corner of the quad. The alleged purpose of this tradition is to maintain the integrity of the space–time continuum during the transition from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, which occurs in the early hours of the last Sunday in October. However, the ceremony (invented by two undergraduates in 1971) mostly serves as a spoof of other Oxford ceremonies, and historically as a celebration of the end of the experimental period of British Standard Time from 1968 to 1971 when the UK stayed one hour ahead of GMT all year round. There are three toasts associated with the ceremony. The first is "to a good old time!"; the second, a joint toast to the sundial and the nearby mulberry tree ("morus nigra"), ""o tempora, o more""; and the third, "long live the counter-revolution!".


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton is the only college in Oxford to hold a triennial winter ball, instead of the more common Commemoration ball. The most recent of these was held on 30 November 2019.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton has a number of drinking and dining societies, along the lines of other colleges. These include the all-male Myrmidons, the female-equivalent Myrmaids and L'Ancien Régime.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton is host to a number of subject-specific societies, the most notable being the Halsbury Society (Law) and the Chalcenterics (Classics). Other academic societies include the Neave Society, which aims to discuss and debate political issues, and the Bodley Club, founded in 1894 as a forum for undergraduate papers on literature but now a speaker society.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The Bodley Club is a speaker society at Merton College, Oxford. Founded in 1894 as a forum in which undergraduates delivered academic papers on literature, the club has changed form over the years, and was reformed in the 1980s as a speaker society. All members of the college, and usually members of the university as a whole, are invited to their events.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The club began on 19 May 1894 (though it was not christened 'The Bodley Club' until June). The initial constitution contained a rule (Rule 7) which stated that 'a written paper is preferred, but any member may speak on any literary subject instead or may propose that any literary work be read at the meeting.' It was not long before this provision was required, as the minute-book reveals in its entry for 19 October 1894: 'Owing to unpardonable slackness on the part of members, the four months of vacation proved insufficient to collect coherent ideas on any particular subject...However an agreeable and instructive evening was passed in reading Tennyson's 'Maud'.' From early years the club has maintained a troubled existence, and the Secretary noted on 1 November 1900 a motion of censure 'against a person or persons unknown who were responsible for the undoubted blackness which is creeping over the Bodley Club.' Nevertheless, the club has continued in one form or another to the present day.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Among the notable papers delivered to the Bodley Club are those by Frederic Harrison, Harold Henry Joachim, Henry Hamilton Fyfe (brother of the Secretary, William), Northrop Frye, Alister Clavering Hardy, and Ronald Knox. Several of the club's first members went on to become significant figures, including Herbert George Flaxman Spurrell and William Hamilton Fyfe.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Merton has a long-standing sporting relationship with Mansfield College, with the colleges fielding amalgamated sports teams for many major sports. In rowing, Merton College Boat Club has been Head of the River in Summer Eights once; its men's 1st VIII held the headship in 1951. Merton's women have done better in recent years, gaining the headship in Torpids in 2003 and rowing over to defend the title in 2004.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: The college preprandial grace is amongst the longest in Oxford, and is always recited before formal dinners in Hall, usually by the senior postmaster present. The first two lines of the Latin text are based on verses 15 and 16 of Psalm 145.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: In contrast, Merton's post-prandial grace is brief: "Benedictus benedicat" ("Let him who has been blessed, give blessing"). The latter grace is spoken by the senior Fellow present at the end of dinner on High Table.


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: At the University of Cambridge, a slightly different version of the Latin text of these verses is painted around Old Hall in Queens' College, Cambridge, and is "commonly in use at other Cambridge colleges".


title: Merton College, Oxford

text: Among the earliest people that have been claimed as Merton fellows are William of Ockham and Duns Scotus, outstanding academic figures from the early 14th century (however, these claims are disputed). Other early fellows include the Oxford Calculators, a group of 14th-century thinkers associated with Merton who took a logico-mathematical approach to philosophical problems. Theologian and philosopher John Wycliffe was another early fellow of the college.