title: The Fat Controller

text: In the television series, The Fat Controller is always the same man, with the same wife and grandchildren. He is in his mid 60s (as evident in a newspaper article in the Great Discovery), although his voice in the UK versions sometimes hints at old age. Very little of his history is revealed, although we do see more of his extended family, including his mother (Dowager Hatt), and his mischievous twin brother (Sir Lowham Hatt). In the first season, he and all the other human characters were made out of lead. From the second season onwards, they were made out of resin so they could move around more easily.


title: The Fat Controller

text: He is shown to be a qualified railway engine driver when he brings Percy to the yard for the first time. He is in charge of all the engines on Sodor and seemingly has a great deal of say over other vehicles. As a young man, he learnt to drive in Elizabeth the vintage Sentinel lorry, though in a few episodes, his driving skills are poorly developed, which were used as comedic gags for when the chance arises (often in Winston the Inspection Car). He has overseen the construction of a number of lines, railway services, and has been involved with the opening of several tourist attractions on Sodor.


title: The Fat Controller

text: British narrator Michael Angelis portrayed the character with a strong Yorkshire accent, with a low gruff voice a trait of which has been continued when Pierce Brosnan briefly took over the mantle, and also when individual voice artists were brought in to voice the characters, The Fat Controller being voiced by Keith Wickham in both the UK and US versions from 2015 onwards. Kerry Shale initially voiced him in the US prior to 2015, and gave the character a clear American accent and a deep, booming voice. In the American version, he has always been referred to by his actual name, Sir Topham Hatt, possibly because "fat" is a much more pejorative term in the US than in the UK.


title: The Fat Controller

text: The Fat Controller's name was revealed to be Bertram by Alicia Botti, the famous opera singer, in "Play Time", and by his mother Dowager Hatt in "Percy's Parcel", "Jitters and Japes", "Edward the Hero" and "Stop that Bus!".


title: The Fat Controller

text: In the television series, Sir Topham's suit has often been used for comic effect, being augmented with scarf and mittens in winter. The series plays on the outdated nature of this outfit, giving Sir Topham an entire wardrobe of old-fashioned and formal clothes for occasions when he is not "on duty". In the Series 8 episode "Halloween", he is shown wearing pyjamas and a nightcap, and in the Series 9 and 10 episodes "Flour Power" and "Sticky Toffee Thomas" he is briefly shown wearing a wizard costume. In yet another episode, he is shown wearing a kilt, a gift from a visiting Scottish Lord. In various CGI episodes, he dresses like Santa Claus.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Lady Jane Brown Hatt helps her husband run the railway, and is happiest when she sees new lines opened. She has had some special birthday parties. She likes the railway, but had a certain dislike of Annie and Clarabel, calling them beach huts. Later, she took a liking to them, after they got new coats of paint. Although her husband runs a railway, she likes a day out in their car or on a boat.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Dowager Hatt lives on Sodor and in her first appearance in a TV episode ("Gordon and the Gremlin"), her son held a party for her. On this occasion, her Dalmatian dog (soon to be named Gremlin) ran away after being frightened by Gordon's whistle, and ended up in Thomas' cab, where he greatly enjoyed a long ride to the docks. She says the railway is really useful, and the Fat Controller says she is always right.


title: The Fat Controller

text: She is the only household member to originate in the TV series, never having appeared in the "Railway Series" books.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Stephen Topham Hatt lives on the Island of Sodor, and regularly has outings and holidays with his grandparents and sister. Stephen loves trains, and was excited when he first met Toby the Tram Engine. Stephen also has a bit of knowledge about the Island, of which is the reason they discovered the Old Castle and the mine (in which Bertram was found).


title: The Fat Controller

text: In the "Railway Series", Stephen ultimately took the railway over and is the current Fat Controller. In the television series, he has always remained a child.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Bridget Amanda Hatt lives on Sodor, and regularly goes for outings and holidays with her grandparents and brother. On one occasion they went to Toby's old line, where she thought Toby was an electric tram and was reprimanded by her brother for offending him.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Her parents (mentioned only in the book "Sodor: Reading Between the Lines") are Charles and Amanda Hatt.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Sir Lowham Hatt is the jolly twin brother of Sir Topham Hatt, the son of Dowager Hatt, the great-uncle of Stephen and Bridget Hatt, and the brother-in-law of Lady Hatt.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Lowham is mischievous and enjoys playing with the children. He seems to know little or nothing about railways. He played hide-and-seek with the children and then went into a signal box and pulled the lever, switching Gordon to the branchline. He dresses exactly like Sir Topham but has a moustache. It is unknown how and why he got his knighthood.


title: The Fat Controller

text: Sir Topham Hatt has a butler who is featured in "The Railway Series" and the "Thomas & Friends" TV series. He has appeared in only three stories - "Thomas in Trouble/Breaks the Rules" in Season 1, "Lady Hatt's Birthday Party" in Season 5 and "Fergus Breaks the Rules / Thomas and the Search for Fergus" in Season 7.


title: The Fat Controller

text: "Day out with Thomas" events are a popular way of raising money for heritage railways. These events are an opportunity for children to meet characters from the books and television series (or at least, engines that have been "dressed up" to resemble them). These events are invariably presided over by a Fat Controller, played by a railway volunteer of appropriate age and build. The copyright holders are strict about how these volunteers should appear: the South Devon Railway's Fat Controller was forced to either quit or shave off his beard, and it is absolutely forbidden for a Fat Controller to be too thin. In the United States, on the other hand, he is instead portrayed as a costumed character (with the performer's face hidden).


title: White Lies (band)

text: White Lies are an English post-punk revival band from Ealing, London. Formerly known as Fear of Flying, the core band members are Harry McVeigh (lead vocals, guitar), Charles Cave (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Jack Lawrence-Brown (drums). The band performs live as a five-piece, when they are joined by Tommy Bowen and Rob Lee.


title: White Lies (band)

text: White Lies formed in October 2007, after writing songs that they felt didn't suit their original band. After delaying their first performance for five months to build up media hype, they earned a recording contract with Fiction Records days after their debut. The release of singles "Unfinished Business" and "Death" led to tours and festival appearances in the United Kingdom and North America, including a headline performance at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend and a place on the 2009 "NME" Awards Tour. At the beginning of 2009, White Lies featured in multiple "ones to watch" polls for the coming year, including the BBC's "Sound of 2009" poll and the BRITs Critics' Choice Award.


title: White Lies (band)

text: White Lies' debut album "To Lose My Life...", released in January 2009, was a number one hit on the UK Albums Chart. Their second album "Ritual" was recorded in 2010, and released on 17 January 2011. "Big TV", their third studio album was released on 12 August 2013, whilst their fourth, titled "Friends", was released 7 October 2016. Their fifth album, "Five", was released on 1 February 2019, and their latest, "As I Try Not to Fall Apart", was released on 18 February 2022.


title: White Lies (band)

text: Charles Cave and Jack Lawrence-Brown were both from Pitshanger Village in North Ealing, and first played together in a school show at North Ealing Primary School. Harry McVeigh (from Shepherd's Bush) joined them two years later, and they began playing under the name Fear of Flying at the age of fifteen. Cave described the band as a "weekend project", and one of many groups which they were involved in while at school. Fear of Flying completed one UK tour as a support act, as well as further slots with The Maccabees, Jamie T and Laura Marling. They released two double A-side vinyl singles on independent record label Young and Lost Club, "Routemaster/Round Three" on 7 August 2006 and "Three's a Crowd/Forget-Me-Nots" on 6 December 2006. Both vinyls were produced by former Blur and The Smiths collaborator, Stephen Street, whom they met through a friend at school. They went on to play the inaugural Underage Festival in Victoria Park, England on 10 August 2007.


title: White Lies (band)

text: Two weeks prior to the group starting university, they decided that they would take a second gap year, and perform new material which the band felt did not suit their current outfit. Cave stated that "I felt as though I couldn't write about anything personal, so I would make up semi-comical stories that weren't really important to anyone, not even me." Fear of Flying disbanded in October 2007 with a MySpace bulletin stating "Fear of Flying is DEAD ... White Lies is alive!", before introducing a darker sound and a new name that reflected their maturity. Cave stated that the band deleted their MySpace account "without any token farewell gigs". McVeigh said that the current musical climate had an effect on the split, stating that "Maybe a few years ago, we would have signed a deal and had a chance to make three albums [...]. In the current climate...we’d have been dropped". When asked about the name change in an interview with a radio station in San Francisco, Jack Brown said that "We just thought that we should perform these songs as a different band. We had songs that we felt weren't suitable for the band that we were in and we thought White Lies would be the perfect vehicle for the songs."


title: White Lies (band)

text: Playing under the new name, White Lies played their first gig at Hoxton Square's Bar & Kitchen on 28 February 2008, supporting Team Waterpolo and Semifinalists. The band admitted rehearsing for two months for the gig, as well as putting off their debut for five months to gather media hype. Following this, the band received numerous record label offers, eventually signing to Fiction Records a matter of days after their first performance. The band also signed publishing rights to Chrysalis Music Publishing. The band said they chose the name because "white lies are quite dark...that's how we see ourselves." Receiving airtime on BBC Radio 1, Zane Lowe named "Death" his "Hottest Record in the World" on 5 February 2008, despite the song having never been officially released. Radio 1 would go on to feature the band at Radio 1's Big Weekend in May 2008, where they headlined the BBC "Introducing" stage.


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 10 March 2008, White Lies were announced as one of four bands taking part in the first ever "NME" New Noise Tour (now the "NME" Radar Tour). The tour visited eleven cities in the UK throughout May 2008. The band were first featured in the magazine in the issue dated 22 March 2008, appearing in the "Everyone's Talking About..." section of their "Radar" article. Live Editor Hamish MacBain described tracks "Death" and "XX" (later titled "Unfinished Business") - the only two songs available on the band's MySpace - as "...not to afraid of a little sincerity, not afraid of a little scale". The band released their debut single one month later, a 7-inch vinyl of "Unfinished Business" on 28 April 2008. The limited pressing was released by Chess Club Records, an independent record label co-founded by drummer Jack Brown. To mark the release, the band supported dEUS in London's Scala on 16 April 2008, as well as a performance at the 2008 Camden Crawl.


title: White Lies (band)

text: They made their television debut on "Later... with Jools Holland" on 30 May 2008, playing "Unfinished Business" and "Death". This marked their final public performance prior to recording their debut album, scheduling sessions in ICP Studios in Belgium and Kore Studios in West London. The album was provisionally titled "To Lose My Life or Lose My Love", with a scheduled release date was set for January 2009. The title came from a line in the album's title track, "To Lose My Life". During the summer of 2008, the band played numerous UK and overseas music festivals, including major festivals Oxegen, T in the Park, and the Reading and Leeds Festivals. Beginning in September 2008, the band played their first headline tour, performing thirteen dates in the United Kingdom. The tour marked the release of "Death" on 22 September 2008, with a further six dates played in the United States in October 2008. The tour included an appearance at the CMJ Music Festival in New York on 23–24 October, alongside Jay Reatard, Amazing Baby and Violens. Following this, the band returned to support Glasvegas on their fifteen date UK tour in November and December 2008. NME.com exclusively announced their debut album would be released on 12 January 2009, with shortened title "To Lose My Life...". The band preceded the album with the single release of "To Lose My Life" one week earlier. The full-length video for "To Lose My Life" premiered exclusively on the band's MySpace on 21 November 2008.


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 11 November 2008, "NME" announced that White Lies would be taking part in the 2009 ShockWaves NME Awards Tour, alongside Friendly Fires, Florence and the Machine and headliners Glasvegas. The annual tour, taking place in early 2009, visited seventeen cities in the UK. On 7 February 2009, it was announced in "NME" that the entire tour had sold out.<ref name="NME 7/2/09"></ref> On the Manchester tour date, the band dueted with Florence Welch to play "Unfinished Business". The band would later also be announced for Xfm's Winter Wonderland festival in London, as well as one of four bands playing "NME"'s Big Gig on 26 February 2009.


title: White Lies (band)

text: At the beginning of 2009, the band were featured in numerous polls as "ones to watch" for the coming year. The BBC placed them second in their "Sound of 2009" poll, as well as coming third in the 2009 BRITs Critics' Choice Award, behind Florence and the Machine and Little Boots. To mark the album release, "From the Stars" appeared as iTunes's "Single of the Week" on 30 December 2008, two weeks prior to the album's release. In addition, the band played a Live Lounge session for Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 1 show on 14 January 2009, playing "To Lose My Life" as well as a cover of Kanye West's "Love Lockdown". The cover was included as a b-side to "Farewell to the Fairground", released on 23 March 2009.


title: White Lies (band)

text: Upon the release of "To Lose My Life", White Lies became the first British act in 2009 to achieve a number one album, and the first album to debut at number one. After charting high in the midweek sales, the album beat off competition from Lady Gaga, The Script and Kings of Leon. In support of the release, the band played on Channel 4's "Shockwaves Album Chart Show," "Last Call with Carson Daly" and the "Late Show with David Letterman", the latter being the band's first performance on US television. Following supporting Snow Patrol on their tour of both Ireland and the United Kingdom, the band embarked on their own headline world tour, playing sold out dates across Europe, North America, Japan and the United Kingdom. While in North America, the band co-headlined the "NME Presents" tour with Friendly Fires. The bands were supported by The Soft Pack, with White Lies headlining seven of the fifteen dates, including their first appearance at the South by Southwest festival. During the tour, the band were forced to play a shortened, six song set at New York's Bowery Ballroom, due to McVeigh having throat problems. During summer 2009, the band played a number of major UK and overseas music festivals, including Rock Werchter, Benicàssim, Coachella, Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, Lollapalooza, Oxegen, Radio 1's Big Weekend, Reading and Leeds, Roskilde and T in the Park. "Death" was re-released on 29 June 2009. To mark the release, live performances from a selection of the band's festival appearances were broadcast online through the band's web player, titled "The Summer of Death".


title: White Lies (band)

text: In September 2009, White Lies performed as a support act for Coldplay, including a date at Wembley Stadium, where the band performed in front of a half full stadium. The band played as the first support act and was greatly received.


title: White Lies (band)

text: In an interview with the BBC's "Newsbeat" programme, McVeigh stated that due to the nature of the band's songwriting techniques clashing with their difficult touring schedules, there will be no new White Lies material until 2010. Despite this, McVeigh has mentioned that the ambitious recording of "Nothing to Give" and "The Price of Love" (from "To Lose My Life...") act as a taster of the different sound to come on their sophomore release. In September 2009, the band released "Taxidermy" as a digital download through iTunes for the first time. A live favourite amongst fans, the track had previously only been released on the (now deleted) vinyl release of "To Lose My Life". During the same month, the band supported Kings of Leon's tour of the United States, and Coldplay's tour of the United Kingdom. As well as this, the band played their own headline tour across Europe during October—November 2009, including some of their biggest shows to date in the UK. A number of the tour dates were later cancelled, due to McVeigh falling ill during their concert in Munich, Germany. Having fully recovered in time for the beginning of their UK dates, the tour continued as normal, with cancelled dates being rescheduled for February 2010.


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 13 February 2010, White Lies became the first high-profile artist to perform at the FAC251 music venue in Manchester. The band played there again on 14 February, with tickets for the second show made available exclusively through the band's website. The performances were the band's only scheduled headline performances of 2010. Both concerts sold out in a matter of minutes, with 38,000 people applying for the 400 tickets available. As well as this, the band showed their mutual love of Muse at a number of European stadium shows between June and September 2010, and played the 2010 V Festival in the United Kingdom.


title: White Lies (band)

text: In November 2010, White Lies confirmed that their second album, "Ritual", had been completed and would be released on 17 January 2011. Produced by Alan Moulder, the album's first single "Bigger than Us" was released on 3 January 2011. An eleven date tour of the United Kingdom was also announced for February 2011.


title: White Lies (band)

text: In an interview with NME in January 2013, bassist Charles Cave revealed that the band's third album was intended to be released in late summer, with one of the tracks promoting the record being called "Getting Even".


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 4 June 2013 it was revealed that the album, which was produced by Ed Buller and recorded earlier that year, would be titled "Big TV". Also, the track list for the album was published and "Getting Even" was released as a free download. The first official single from the album, "There Goes Our Love Again", was released on 5 August 2013, with the album being released in the UK and Europe a week later, on 12 August 2013 through Fiction Records. It was released on 20 August 2013 in the US (through Harvest Records), and in Canada (Universal Music).


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 23/25 July 2013, White Lies played 3 intimate shows at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen in London, celebrating the 5 year anniversary of the band's first ever gig at the same venue. They played tracks from "Big TV" and some of their earlier songs in front of 300 fans each night. During their Summer/Fall 2013 tour, the band was scheduled to play more than thirty concerts in Europe and North America. In August 2013 they made their Main Stage debut at Reading and Leeds Festivals.


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 6 November 2013, the band released a limited edition EP to celebrate their tour, called "Small TV". The five-track EP released on Fiction Records was limited to 1000 copies and features covers from Lana Del Rey and Prince in addition to new versions of their own tracks.


title: White Lies (band)

text: The band released its fourth album, "Friends", on 7 October 2016, after first being reported on in 2015. In December 2015 the band signed to Infectious Music.


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 17 September 2018, the band announced that their new album "Five" would be released on 1 February 2019 by PIAS Recordings. "Time to Give", the first single from the album, was released on the same day.


title: White Lies (band)

text: On 27 September 2021, the band announced that their sixth album "As I Try Not to Fall Apart" would be released on 18 February 2022 by PIAS Recordings.


title: White Lies (band)

text: As Fear of Flying, Banquet Records described the band's second single as "Quite danceable indie". "The Guardian"'s official website named them an indie-pop band, stating "they made promising, if unremarkable, Franz Ferdinand-styled pop with cheeky chappy lyrics". In an interview with BBC London, they cited Talking Heads as a major influence. White Lies' darker sound has been primarily compared to Joy Division, Interpol and Editors, as well as Arcade Fire, The Killers, Echo & the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears and The Teardrop Explodes. McVeigh's singing voice has been compared to that of Ian Curtis and Julian Cope. When asked about the comparisons in an interview with ITN Music, McVeigh stated that "We weren't alive during that period of music...we've never really been that into Joy Division, especially not the Editors...or even Interpol really", adding "I don't think our music sounds a whole lot like those comparisons, I think we're a lot more euphoric and uplifting". As White Lies, the band have reiterated the influence of Talking Heads, both musically and in songwriting. As well as this, the band have stated that The Secret Machines are one of their main influences. In a commentary on a "Track by Track" interview on Spotify, one band member said that the band was influenced by The Cars, specifically how their guitar riffs on "Be Your Man" from the "Big TV" album was influenced by The Cars song "Just What I Needed".


title: Jack Torrance

text: John Daniel Edward "Jack" Torrance is the main antagonist in Stephen King's horror novel "The Shining" (1977). He was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the novel's 1980 film adaptation, by Steven Weber in the 1997 miniseries, by Brian Mulligan in the 2016 opera and by Henry Thomas in the 2019 film adaptation of "Doctor Sleep". The American Film Institute rated the character (as played by Nicholson) the 25th-greatest film villain of all time. In 2008, Jack Torrance was selected by "Empire" magazine as one of the 100 greatest movie characters. "Premiere" magazine also ranked Torrance on their list of their 100 greatest movie characters of all time.


title: Jack Torrance

text: Jack grew up in Berlin, New Hampshire, where his father Mark Torrance worked in the Regional Community Hospital. He also has three older siblings: Brett, Becky, and Mike. He is a writer, former teacher, and debate team coach whose alcoholism and volatile temper costs him his teaching position at Stovington Preparatory School, when he assaults George Hatfield, a student and former member of the debate team, whom he catches vandalizing his car. Later, his drinking nearly ends his marriage to his wife, Wendy, after he breaks his son Danny's arm in a blind rage. He finally decides to quit drinking after a drunk driving accident in which he and a friend run over an abandoned bicycle in the road and realize they could've killed a child. He accepts a position maintaining the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado for the winter, hoping this will salvage his family, re-establish his career, and give him the time and privacy to finish a promising play. He moves to the hotel with Wendy and Danny, who is telepathic and sensitive to supernatural forces. Danny receives guidance from an imaginary friend he calls "Tony." Danny is also comforted by meeting the hotel's kindly cook, Dick Hallorann, who shares Danny's telepathic abilities.


title: Jack Torrance

text: It is later revealed that Jack's father, also an alcoholic, was abusive towards his family. A flashback scene in the novel shows his drunk father brutally bashing Jack's mother with a cane.


title: Jack Torrance

text: The Hotel is haunted by the ghosts of those who died violently within it and is itself host to a being of unknown origin, who wishes to coerce Jack into killing Danny. Apparently, the Hotel believes if it can harness the boy's "shining", then it can gather enough power to "break free" of the building in which it has somehow become trapped. Jack has encounters with ghosts of previous staff of the hotel, who insist he has always been working there and he must kill his family. Jack eventually succumbs to these supernatural forces, starts drinking again, and grows to hate his own wife and child.


title: Jack Torrance

text: Jack cuts off all radio communications and sabotages the hotel snowmobile, their only means of transportation. He then tries to kill Wendy, who knocks him out and locks him in a food storage room. Jack is later helped out of the storage room by the ghost of the previous caretaker, who murdered his own family before committing suicide.


title: Jack Torrance

text: Jack then brutally attacks Wendy with a roque mallet he found, although she escapes. He is interrupted by the arrival of Hallorann, whom he almost beats to death.


title: Jack Torrance

text: Jack finds and confronts Danny, and is about to kill him when his son reaches through the hotel's power and brings out his father's true self. Jack tells Danny to run and remember how much he loves him, before the hotel's power takes over again and forces Jack to bash in his own face with the mallet. Jack had forgotten to dump the boiler, which grows too hot and causes the hotel to explode. Jack is killed, but Danny, Wendy and Hallorann get out just in time.


title: Jack Torrance

text: In the sequel novel "Doctor Sleep" (2013), Danny (now going by Dan) learns that Jack is also the biological father of Lucy Stone, a woman whose daughter Abra has manifested “shining” abilities even stronger than Dan's. Shortly before he was fired from his teaching position, and unbeknownst to Wendy, Jack had a brief sexual encounter with a student teacher Sandy Reynolds at a party that led to Lucy's conception. Dan is thus Lucy's half-brother and Abra's half-uncle. This book gives Jack's middle name as Edward rather than Daniel.


title: Jack Torrance

text: In the climax of the novel, Jack's ghost intervenes to help Dan's friend Billy Freeman, and Lucy and Abra Stone defeat the main antagonists, Rose the Hat and the True Knot, at the site where the Overlook once stood. After the battle, Jack and Dan make peace with each other before he, Billy, and Abra left the location.


title: Jack Torrance

text: Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) is portrayed in a less sympathetic manner in the 1980 film. The film's first major deviation from the source material occurs when Jack attacks Hallorann. Instead of merely injuring him with the mallet, Jack kills Hallorann by planting an axe in his chest. Jack hears Danny scream as he kills Hallorann, and chases his son to a hedge maze outside the hotel, while in the novel, topiary animals come to life and threaten Danny. In the film, Danny walks backwards in his own footprints to mislead Jack, then jumps to a side path and slips out of the maze. Wendy and Danny escape the hotel in Hallorann's Snowcat, while Jack gets lost trying to pick up Danny's tracks, sits down to rest, and freezes to death. The film ends featuring an old photograph of a ball at the hotel from July 4, 1921, that shows a man who strongly resembled Jack at the event.


title: Jack Torrance

text: In the 2019 film adaptation of "Doctor Sleep", Torrance's likeness (Henry Thomas) is taken by The Bartender at the Overlook for an interaction with the adult Danny (Ewan McGregor), which is expanded in the director's cut to include a following scene in the bathroom. Thomas also portrays Torrance in flashback sequences.


title: Jack Torrance

text: Author Stephen King was unhappy with director Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of the novel, particularly Nicholson's portrayal of Jack Torrance:


title: Jack Torrance

text: King then decided to create a miniseries based on his vision of the novel, with Jack Torrance as a more sympathetic character. Torrance in the miniseries is similar to the character in the novel, but the ending is changed. In the book, Jack redeems himself, and the boiler explodes due to the hotel's negligence. In the miniseries, Jack sacrifices himself by causing the boiler to explode in order to destroy the hotel.


title: Jack Torrance

text: The miniseries ends with a scene not in the book: Danny graduates from high school, while his spectral father looks on.


title: Jack Torrance

text: An opera based on Stephen King's 1977 novel originated with Eric Simonson, who directed the premiere production of the opera, and Minnesota Opera Artistic Director Dale Johnson. Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell planned to design their opera to adhere to King's novel, unlike the 1980 film adaptation. Jack and the other characters were portrayed similarly like in the novel, and it was approved of by King.


title: Jack Torrance

text: A new play directed by Ivo van Hove and written by Simon Stephens, based on the 1977 book, is coming to the West End in 2023, and Ben Stiller is reportedly in talks to play Jack Torrance in a stage adaptation.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: Congenital syphilis is syphilis present "in utero" and at birth, and occurs when a child is born to a mother with syphilis. Untreated early syphilis infections results in a high risk of poor pregnancy outcomes, including saddle nose, lower extremity abnormalities, miscarriages, premature births, stillbirths, or death in newborns. Some infants with congenital syphilis have symptoms at birth, but many develop symptoms later. Symptoms may include rash, fever, an enlarged liver and spleen, and skeletal abnormalities. Newborns will typically not develop a primary syphilitic chancre but may present with signs of secondary syphilis (i.e. generalized body rash). Often these babies will develop syphilitic rhinitis ("snuffles"), the mucus from which is laden with the "T. pallidum" bacterium, and therefore highly infectious. If a baby with congenital syphilis is not treated early, damage to the bones, teeth, eyes, ears, and brain can occur.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: This is a subset of cases of congenital syphilis. Newborns may be asymptomatic and are only identified on routine prenatal screening. If not identified and treated, these newborns develop poor feeding and runny nose. By definition, early congenital syphilis occurs in children between 0 and 2 years old. After, they can develop late congenital syphilis.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: Late congenital syphilis is a subset of cases of congenital syphilis. By definition, it occurs in children at or greater than 2 years of age who acquired the infection trans-placentally.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: A frequently-found group of symptoms is Hutchinson's triad, which consists of Hutchinson's teeth (notched incisors), keratitis and deafness and occurs in 63% of cases.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: Serological testing is carried out on the mother and the infant. If the neonatal IgG antibody titres are significantly higher than the mother's, then congenital syphilis can be confirmed. Specific IgM in the infant is another method of confirmation.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: If a pregnant mother is identified as being infected with syphilis, treatment can effectively prevent congenital syphilis from developing in the fetus, especially if she is treated before the sixteenth week of pregnancy. The fetus is at greatest risk of contracting syphilis when the mother is in the early stages of infection, but the disease can be passed at any point during pregnancy, even during delivery (if the child had not already contracted it). A woman in the secondary stage of syphilis decreases her fetus's risk of developing congenital syphilis by 98% if she receives treatment before the last month of pregnancy. An affected child can be treated using antibiotics much like an adult; however, any developmental symptoms are likely to be permanent.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: Kassowitz's law is an empirical observation used in context of congenital syphilis stating that the greater the duration between the infection of the mother and conception, the better the outcome for the infant. Features of a better outcome include less chance of stillbirth and of developing congenital syphilis.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends treating symptomatic or babies born to an infected mother with unknown treatment status with procaine penicillin G, 50,000 U/kg dose IM a day in a single dose for 10 days. Treatment for these babies can vary on a case-by-case basis. Treatment cannot reverse any deformities, brain, or permanent tissue damage that has already occurred.


title: Congenital syphilis

text: A Cochrane review found that antibiotics may be effective for serological cure but in general the evidence around the effectiveness of antibiotics for congenital syphilis is uncertain due to the poor methodological quality of the small number of trials that have been conducted.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Anna Maria Magnani (; 7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian actress. She was known for her explosive acting and earthy, realistic portrayals of characters.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Born in Rome, she worked her way through Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art by singing at night clubs. During her career, her only child was stricken by polio when he was 18 months old and remained disabled. She was referred to as "La Lupa", the "perennial toast of Rome" and a "living she-wolf symbol" of the cinema. "Time" described her personality as "fiery", and drama critic Harold Clurman said her acting was "volcanic". In the realm of Italian cinema, she was "passionate, fearless, and exciting," an actress whom film historian Barry Monush calls "the volcanic earth mother of all Italian cinema." Director Roberto Rossellini called her "the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse". Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote "The Rose Tattoo" (1955) specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received an Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Italian ever - and first non English speaking woman - to win an Oscar.


title: Anna Magnani

text: After meeting director Goffredo Alessandrini, she received her first screen role in "The Blind Woman of Sorrento" ("La cieca di Sorrento", 1934) and later achieved international attention in Rossellini's "Rome, Open City" (1945), which is seen as launching the Italian neorealism movement in cinema. As an actress, she became recognized for her dynamic and forceful portrayals of "earthy lower-class women" in such films as "L'Amore" (1948), "Bellissima" (1951), "The Rose Tattoo" (1955), "The Fugitive Kind" (1960) and "Mamma Roma" (1962). As early as 1950, "Life" had already stated that Magnani was "one of the most impressive actresses since Garbo".


title: Anna Magnani

text: Magnani's parentage and birthplace are uncertain. Some sources suggest she was born in Rome, others suggest Egypt. Her mother was Marina Magnani. Film director, Franco Zeffirelli, who claimed to know Magnani well, states in his autobiography that she was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to an Italian-Jewish mother and Egyptian father, and that "only later did she become Roman when her grandmother brought her over and raised her in one of the Roman slum districts." Magnani herself stated that her mother was married in Egypt, but returned to Rome before giving birth to her at Porta Pia, and did not know how the rumour of her Egyptian birth got started. She was enrolled in a French convent school in Rome, where she learned to speak French and play the piano. She also developed a passion for acting from watching the nuns stage their Christmas plays. This period of formal education lasted until the age of 14.


title: Anna Magnani

text: She was a "plain, frail child with a forlornness of spirit". Her grandparents compensated by pampering her with food and clothes. Yet while growing up, she is said to have felt more at ease around "more earthly" companions, often befriending the "toughest kid on the block". This trait carried over into her adult life when she proclaimed, "I hate respectability. Give me the life of the streets, of common people."


title: Anna Magnani

text: At age 17, she went on to study at the Eleonora Duse Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome for two years. To support herself, Magnani sang in nightclubs and cabarets; leading to her being dubbed "the Italian Édith Piaf". However, her actor friend Micky Knox writes that she "never studied acting formally" and started her career in Italian music halls singing traditional Roman folk songs. "She was instinctive" he writes. "She had the ability to call up emotions at will, to move an audience, to convince them that life on the stage was as real and natural as life in their own kitchen." Film critic David Thomson wrote that Magnani was considered an "outstanding theatre actress" in productions of "Anna Christie" and "The Petrified Forest".


title: Anna Magnani

text: In 1933, Magnani was acting in experimental plays in Rome when she was discovered by Italian filmmaker Goffredo Alessandrini. The couple married the same year.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Nunzio Malasomma directed her in her first major film role in "The Blind Woman of Sorrento" ("La Cieca di Sorrento", 1934).Goffredo Alessandrini directed her in "Cavalry" ("Cavalleria", 1936).


title: Anna Magnani

text: For director Vittorio De Sica, Magnani starred in "Teresa Venerdì" (1941). De Sica called this Magnani's "first true film". In it, she plays Loletta Prima, the girlfriend of De Sica’s character, Pietro Vignali. De Sica described Magnani's laugh as "loud, overwhelming, and tragic".


title: Anna Magnani

text: Magnani gained international renown as Pina in Roberto Rossellini's neorealist "Rome, Open City" ("Roma, città aperta", 1945). In a film about Italy's final days under German occupation during World War II, Magnani's character dies fighting to protect her husband, an underground fighter against the Nazis.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Other collaborations with Rossellini include "L'Amore" (1948), a two-part film which includes "The Miracle" and "The Human Voice" ("Il miracolo", and "Una voce umana"). In the former, Magnani, playing a peasant outcast who believes the baby she is carrying is Christ, plumbs both the sorrow and the righteousness of being alone in the world. The latter film, based on Jean Cocteau's play about a woman desperately trying to salvage a relationship over the telephone. Magnani's powerful moments of silence segue into cries of despair.


title: Anna Magnani

text: After "The Miracle", Rossellini promised to direct Magnani in a film he was preparing, which he told her would be "the crowning vehicle of her career". However, when the screenplay was completed, he instead gave the role for "Stromboli" to Ingrid Bergman, later Rossellini's lover. This permanently ended Magnani's personal and professional association with Rossellini.


title: Anna Magnani

text: As a result, Magnani took on the starring role of "Volcano" (1950), which was said to have been produced to invite a comparison. Both films were shot in similar locales of Aeolian Islands, only 40 kilometres apart; both actresses played independent-minded roles in a neorealist fashion; and both films were shot simultaneously. "Life" wrote "in an atmosphere crackling with rivalry... Reporters were accredited, like war correspondents, to one or the other of the embattled camps...Partisanship infected the Via Veneto (boulevard in Rome), where Magnaniacs and Bergmaniacs clashed frequently." However, Magnani still considered Rossellini the "greatest director she ever acted for".


title: Anna Magnani

text: In Luchino Visconti's "Bellissima" (1951), she plays Maddalena, a blustery, obstinate stage mother who drags her daughter to Cinecittà for the 'Prettiest Girl in Rome' contest, with dreams that her plain daughter will be a star. Her emotions in the film went from those of rage and humiliation to maternal love.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Magnani then went on to star as Camille (stage name: Columbine) in Jean Renoir's film "The Golden Coach" ("Le Carrosse d'or", 1952). She played a woman torn with desire for three men - a soldier, a bullfighter, and a viceroy. Renoir called her "the greatest actress I have ever worked with".


title: Anna Magnani

text: She played the widowed mother of a teenaged daughter in Daniel Mann's 1955 film, "The Rose Tattoo", based on the play by Tennessee Williams. It co-starred Burt Lancaster, and was Magnani's first English-speaking role in a mainstream Hollywood movie, winning her the Academy Award for Best Actress. Lancaster, who played the role of a "lusty truck driver", said, "if she had not found acting as an outlet for her enormous vitality, she would have become a great criminal".


title: Anna Magnani

text: Film historian John DiLeo has written that Magnani's acting in the film "displays why she is inarguably one of the half dozen greatest screen actresses of all time", and added:"Whenever Magnani laughs or cries (which is often), it's as if you've never seen anyone laugh or cry before: has laughter ever been so burstingly joyful or tears so shatteringly sad?


title: Anna Magnani

text: Tennessee Williams wrote the screenplay and based the character of Serafina on Magnani as Williams was a great admirer of her acting abilities, and he even stipulated that the movie "must star what "Time" described as "the most explosive emotional actress of her generation, Anna Magnani." In his "Memoirs", Williams described why he insisted on Magnani playing this role:"Anna Magnani was magnificent as Serafina in the movie version of "Tattoo"...She was as unconventional a woman as I have known in or out of my professional world, and if you understand me at all, you must know that in this statement I am making my personal estimate of her honesty, which I feel was complete. She never exhibited any lack of self-assurance, any timidity in her relations with that society outside of whose conventions she quite publicly existed...[s]he looked absolutely straight into the eyes of whomever she confronted and during that golden time in which we were dear friends, I never heard a false word from her mouth."


title: Anna Magnani

text: It was originally staged on Broadway with Maureen Stapleton, as Magnani's English was too limited at the time for her to star. Magnani won other Best Actress awards for her role, including the BAFTA Film Award, Golden Globes Award, National Board of Review, USA, and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.


title: Anna Magnani

text: When her name was announced as the Oscar winner, an American journalist called her in Rome to tell her the news; his challenge was convincing her he wasn't joking.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Magnani worked with Tennessee Williams again for the 1960 film "The Fugitive Kind" (originally titled "Orpheus Descending") directed by Sidney Lumet, in which she played Lady Torrance and starred with Marlon Brando. The original screenplay "Orpheus Descending" was another play inspired by Magnani, although she similarly did not feature in the Broadway play. In the film, she played a woman "hardened by life's cruelties and a grief that will not fade." It also co-starred a young Joanne Woodward in one of her early roles. In an article he wrote for "Life", Williams discussed why he chose Magnani for the part:"Anna and I had both cherished the dream that her appearance in the part I created for her in "The Fugitive Kind" would be her greatest triumph to date...She is simply a rare being who seems to have about her a little lightning-shot cloud all her own...In a crowded room, she can sit perfectly motionless and silent and still you feel the atmospheric tension of her presence, its quiver and hum in the air like a live wire exposed, and a mood of Anna's is like the presence of royalty."


title: Anna Magnani

text: "The Wild, Wild Women" (Nella Citta' L'Inferno, 1958) paired Magnani, as an unrepentant streetwalker, with Giulietta Masina in a women-in-prison film.


title: Anna Magnani

text: In Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Mamma Roma "(1962), Magnani is both the mother and the whore, playing an irrepressible prostitute determined to give her teenaged son a respectable middle-class life. "Mamma Roma", while one of Magnani's critically acclaimed films, was not released in the United States until 1995, deemed too controversial 33 years earlier. By now, she was frustrated at being typecast in the roles of poor women. Magnani in 1963 commented, "I’m bored stiff with these everlasting parts as a hysterical, loud, working-class woman".


title: Anna Magnani

text: In one of her last film roles, "The Secret of Santa Vittoria" (1969), she co-starred with Anthony Quinn, and they played husband and wife in what "Life" called "perhaps the most memorable fight since Jimmy Cagney smashed Mae Clarke in the face with a half a grapefruit." Magnani and Quinn did feud in private outside view of the cameras, however, and their animosity spilled over into their scenes:"By the time the movie makers were ready to shoot the fight scene, the stars were ready, too. Magnani not only went for Quinn with the pasta and with a rolling pin, but [also] with her foot; she kicked so hard she broke a bone in her right foot. She also bit him in the neck. 'That's not in the script', Quinn protested. Magnani snarled, 'I'm supposed to win this fight, remember?"


title: Anna Magnani

text: She later played herself (within a dramatic context) in Federico Fellini's "Roma" (1972). Towards the end of her career, Magnani was quoted as having said, "The day has gone when I deluded myself that making movies was art. Movies today are made up of…intellectuals who always make out that they’re teaching something".


title: Anna Magnani

text: According to film critic Robin Wood, Magnani's "persona as a great actress is built, not on transformation, but on emotional authenticity... [she] doesn't portray characters but expresses 'genuine' emotions." Her style does not display the more obvious attributes of the female star, with neither her face or physical makeup being considered "beautiful", wrote Wood. However, she possesses a "remarkably expressive face," and for American audiences, at least, she represents "what Hollywood had consistently failed to produce: 'reality'". She was the atypical star, the "nonglamorous human being", as her genuine style of acting became a "rejection of glamour".


title: Anna Magnani

text: Her most distinguished work in Hollywood is in "Wild Is the Wind", according to Wood. Directed by George Cukor, "the American cinema's greatest director of actresses," he was able to draw out the "individual essence" of Magnani's "sensitive and inward performance."


title: Anna Magnani

text: During Benito Mussolini's rule, Magnani was known to make rude jokes about the Italian Fascist Party.


title: Anna Magnani

text: She married Goffredo Alessandrini, her first film director, in 1935, two years after he discovered her on stage. After they married, she retired from full-time acting to "devote herself exclusively to her husband", although she continued to play smaller film parts. They separated in 1942.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Magnani had a love affair with actor Massimo Serato, by whom she had her only child, a son named Luca, who was born on 29 October 1942 in Rome, after her separation from Alessandrini. At the age of 18 months, Luca contracted polio and subsequently lost the use of his legs due to paralysis. As a result, Magnani spent most of her early earnings for specialists and hospitals. After once seeing a legless war veteran drag himself along the sidewalk, she said, "I realize now that it's worse when they grow up", and resolved to earn enough to "shield him forever from want".


title: Anna Magnani

text: In 1945, she fell in love with director Roberto Rossellini while working on "Roma, Città Aperta" aka "Rome, Open City" (1945). "I thought at last I had found the ideal man... [He] had lost a son of his own and I felt we understood each other. Above all, we had the same artistic conceptions." Rossellini had become violent, volatile and possessive, and they argued constantly about films or out of jealousy. "In fits of rage they threw crockery at each other." As artists, however, they complemented each other well while working on neorealist films. The two finally split apart when Rossellini fell in love with and married Ingrid Bergman.


title: Anna Magnani

text: Magnani was mystically inclined and consulted astrologers, as well as believing in numerology. She also claimed to be clairvoyant. She ate and drank very little and could subsist for long periods on nothing more than black coffee and cigarettes. However, these habits often affected her sleep: "My nights are appalling," she said. "I wake up in a state of nerves and it takes me hours to get back in touch with reality." Perhaps her strangest quirk was her love of defleaing street kittens with her thumbnails.


title: Anna Magnani

text: On 26 September 1973, Magnani died at the age of 65 in Rome from pancreatic cancer. Huge crowds gathered for the funeral. She was provisionally laid to rest in the family mausoleum of Roberto Rossellini; but then subsequently interred in the Cimitero Comunale of San Felice Circeo in southern Lazio.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Jeremy Joan Peña (born September 22, 1997) is a Dominican-American professional baseball shortstop for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). He attended the University of Maine and played college baseball for the Black Bears. The Astros selected Peña in the third round of the 2018 MLB draft, and he made his MLB debut in 2022.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: In 2022, Peña became the first rookie shortstop to win a Gold Glove Award and the first to hit a home run in the World Series. During the Astros' 2022 championship run, Peña was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of both the American League Championship Series (ALCS) and World Series (WS), becoming the first American League (AL) player to earn both awards in the same year. He was the youngest position player to win the World Series MVP award.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Jeremy Peña was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, before he and his family moved to Providence, Rhode Island, when he was nine years old. His father, Gerónimo, was an infielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Indians from 1990 to 1996. Jeremy attended Classical High School in Providence, playing baseball and running track and cross country. In 2014, his junior year, he batted .352. As a senior in 2015, he hit .390 with two home runs. Following his senior year, he was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the 39th round of the 2015 MLB draft, but he did not sign, Instead, he enrolled with the University of Maine where he played college baseball.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: As a freshman at Maine in 2016, Peña started and played in 55 games, batting .283 with one home run, 15 RBIs, and 11 stolen bases, earning a spot on the America East Conference All-Rookie Team. That summer, he played in the New England Collegiate Baseball League with the Plymouth Pilgrims. In 2017, Peña's sophomore year, he started 54 games and hit .319 with six home runs and 32 RBIs. Following the season, he played in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Chatham Anglers, earning All-Star honors. In 2018, as a junior, he once again started 54 games, hitting .308/.393/.469 with five home runs, 28 RBIs, and ten stolen bases, earning American East Second-Team honors.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: The Houston Astros selected Peña in the third round of the 2018 MLB draft. Peña signed with Houston and made his professional debut with the Tri-City ValleyCats of the Class A Short Season New York-Penn League, batting .250 with one home run and ten RBIs over 36 games, earning All-Star honors. In 2019, Peña began the year with the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Class A Midwest League, with whom he was named an All-Star, before being promoted to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League in June. Over 109 games between the two teams, he slashed .303/.385/.440 with seven home runs, 54 RBIs, and 20 stolen bases. After the season, he played in the Arizona Fall League with the Peoria Javelinas.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Peña did not play a minor league game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 21, 2021, it was announced that Peña would undergo surgery on his left wrist, causing him to miss part of the season. He was activated off the injured list in late August, and was assigned to the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Triple-A West. Over 30 games, he slashed .287/.346/.598 with ten home runs and 19 RBIs.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Upon conclusion of the 2021–22 Dominican Professional Baseball League season, Peña was awarded a second consecutive Gold Glove at shortstop. In 30 games, he produced a .970 fielding percentage, 5.7 range factor, nine double plays turned along with five errors.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: On November 19, 2021, the Astros selected Peña's contract and added him to their 40-man roster. Following the departure of incumbent shortstop Carlos Correa via free agency, Peña was named starting shortstop during 2022 spring training. He made his major league debut on Opening Day versus the Los Angeles Angels. On April 8, 2022, Peña hit his first major league home run while his parents were being interviewed during the broadcast. On April 24, he hit his first career walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning versus the Toronto Blue Jays, helping lead the Astros to an 8–7 win. On May 17, Peña hit the third of five Astros home runs in the second inning versus starter Nathan Eovaldi of the Boston Red Sox, tying the major league record for home runs hit by a team in one inning as the Astros rolled to a 13–4 victory.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: On June 13, 2022, Peña sustained a left thumb injury versus the Texas Rangers and was placed on the 10-day injured list. The Astros activated him on June 26. On July 3, Peña produced his both first career four-hit and multi-homer game, as well as his second career walk-off home run, sealing a 4–2 win over the Angels.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Over the 2022 regular season, Peña batted .253./289/.426 with 132 hits, 22 home runs, 63 RBIs, 72 runs scored, 11 stolen bases, 22 walks, 135 strikeouts, and had the lowest walk/strikeout ratio in the majors (0.16). He tied Correa for the franchise rookie record for most home runs by a shortstop. Peña also ranked second in home runs, fourth in hits, and fifth in runs scored and RBIs among major league rookies. He had the fastest sprint speed on the Astros, at 29.4 feet per second.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: On defense, he ranked second in the American League (AL) in Defensive Wins Above Replacement (2.4, dWAR), third in the AL in errors committed (19), and third among AL shortstops in total zone runs (8).


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Peña played 134 games defensively at shortstop, and started 132 of them. He made 19 errors but finished 15 defensive runs better than the “average” shortstop.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Making his postseason debut in the American League Division Series (ALDS), Peña singled to precede a Yordan Álvarez game-winning home run in both of the first two games. The third game—which featured a postsesason-record 17 scoreless innings—was decided by Peña's home run in the top of the 18th inning off Penn Murfee. His first career home run on the postseason stage, it thus concluded the longest shutout game in postseason history, 1–0, and clinched an ALDS sweep for Houston. Peña was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the American League Championship Series (ALCS), hitting .353 with two home runs in the Astros' four-game sweep of the New York Yankees. In Game 5 of the World Series, he homered off Noah Syndergaard to become the first rookie shortstop to hit a home run in World Series play. The Astros won the World Series in six games, and Peña became the third rookie ever to be named the World Series MVP. He also become the first American League (AL) player–and ninth overall–to win both LCS and WS MVP honors in the same year.


title: Jeremy Peña

text: Although he finished fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year (ROY) rankings, Peña was awarded the AL 2022 Gold Glove Award for his play at shortstop. He became the first Astros rookie to win a Gold Glove, and the first rookie ever to win a Gold Glove at shortstop in MLB history. The Houston chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) named Peña the Astros' Rookie of the Year.


title: Academy (English school)

text: An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. Most academies are secondary schools, though slightly more than 25% of primary schools (4,363 as of December 2017) are academies.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Academies are self-governing non-profit charitable trusts and may receive additional support from personal or corporate sponsors, either financially or in kind. Academies are inspected and follow the same rules on admissions, special educational needs and exclusions as other state schools and students sit the same national exams. They have more autonomy with the National Curriculum, but do have to ensure that their curriculum is broad and balanced, and that it includes the core subjects of English, maths and science. They must also teach relationships and sex education, and religious education. They are free to choose their specialisms.


title: Academy (English school)

text: An academy trust that operates more than one academy is known as a multi-academy trust, although sometimes the terms academy group or academy federation are used instead. An academy chain is a group of trusts working together under a shared management structure.


title: Academy (English school)

text: An academy is an independent state school governed by the Academy Agreement it makes with the Department for Education, and at that point it severs connections with the local education authority. The current advisory text is the "Academy and free school: master funding agreement" dated March 2018. The governors of the academy are obliged to publish an annual report and accounts, that are open to scrutiny and inspections.


title: Academy (English school)

text: All academies are expected to follow a broad and balanced curriculum but many have a particular focus on, or formal specialism in, one or more areas such as science; arts; business and enterprise; computing; engineering; mathematics; modern foreign languages; performing arts; sport; or technology. Although academies are required to follow some aspects of the National Curriculum, they are otherwise free to innovate; however, as they participate in the same Key Stage 3 and GCSE exams as other English schools, they teach a curriculum very similar other schools, with only small variations.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Like other state schools, academies are required to adhere to the National Admissions Code, although newly established academies with a faith designation are subject to the 50% Rule requiring them to allocate at least half of their places without reference to faith. In terms of their governance, academies are established as companies limited by guarantee with a Board of Directors that acts as a Trust. The Academy Trust has exempt charity status, regulated by the Department for Education. The trustees are legally, but not financially, accountable for the operation of the academy. The Trust serves as the legal entity of which the school is part. The trustees oversee the running of the school, sometimes delegating responsibility to a local governing body which they appoint. The day-to-day management of the school is, as in most schools, conducted by the head teacher and their senior management team. In Sponsored Academies, the sponsor is able to influence the process of establishing the school, including its curriculum, ethos, specialism and building (if a new one is built). The sponsor also has the power to appoint governors to the academy's governing body.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The Labour Government under Tony Blair established academies through the Learning and Skills Act 2000, which amended the section of the Education Act 1996 relating to City Technology Colleges. They were first announced as part of the Fresh Start programme in a speech by David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and Skills, in 2000. He said that their aim was "to improve pupil performance and break the cycle of low expectations." As of 2018 many academies are struggling financially and running deficits.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The chief architect of the policy was Andrew Adonis (now Lord Adonis, formerly Secretary of State at the Department for Transport) in his capacity as education advisor to the Prime Minister in the late 1990s.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Academies were known as City Academies for the first few years, but the term was changed to Academies by an amendment in the Education Act 2002. The term Sponsored Academies was applied retroactively to this type of academy, to distinguish it from other types of academy that were enabled later.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Sponsored Academies originally needed a "private" sponsor who could be an individual (such as Sir David Garrard, who sponsors Business Academy Bexley), organisations such as the United Learning Trust, mission-driven businesses such as The Co-operative Group or outsourcing for-profit businesses such as Amey plc). These sponsors were expected to bring "the best of private-sector best practice and innovative management" to academies, "often in marked contrast to the lack of leadership experienced by the failing schools that academies have replaced" (known as predecessor schools). They were originally required to contribute 10% of the academy's capital costs (up to a maximum of £2m). The remainder of the capital and running costs were met by the state in the usual way for UK state schools through grants funded by the local authority.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The Government later removed the requirement for financial investment by a private sponsor in a move to encourage successful existing schools and charities to become sponsors.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Sponsored Academies typically replaced one or more existing schools, but some were newly established. They were intended to address the problem of entrenched failure within English schools with low academic achievement, or schools situated in communities with low academic aspirations. Often these schools had been placed in "special measures" after an Ofsted inspection, as has been the case for schools in the Co-op Academies Trust (one of the larger business-supported trusts). They were expected to be creative and innovative because of their financial and academic freedoms, in order to deal with the long-term issues they were intended to solve.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Originally all Sponsored Academies had to have a curriculum specialism within the English Specialist Schools Programme (SSP). However, this requirement was removed in 2010. By May 2010 there were 203 Sponsored Academies in England.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The Academies Act 2010 sought to increase the number of academies. It enabled all maintained schools to convert to academy status, known as Converter Academies and enabled new academies to be created via the Free School Programme.


title: Academy (English school)

text: At the same time the new Conservative-led Coalition Government announced that they would redirect funding for school Specialisms [i.e. Technology College Status] into mainstream funding. This meant that Secondary Schools would no longer directly receive ring-fenced funds of £130K from Government for each of their specialisms. One way to regain some direct control over their finances and retain specialist funding was to become a Converter Academy and receive all of their funding direct from Government, with the possibility of buying in services at a cheaper rate. This, along with some schools wanting more independence from local authority control, meant that many state secondary schools in England converted to academy status in subsequent years.


title: Academy (English school)

text: By April 2011, the number of academies had increased to 629, and by August 2011, reached 1,070. By July 2012 this number reached 1,957, double that of the previous year. and, at 1 November 2013, it stood at 3,444.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The Education Funding Agency monitors financial management and governance of academies. In March 2016 the Perry Beeches The Academy Trust, a multi-academy trust, was found to have deleted financial records for £2.5 million of free school meal funding, and that the chief executive was being paid by sub-contractors as well as by the trust. Its schools are likely to be taken over by a new trust. In August 2016, the former principal and founder of Kings Science Academy, the former finance director, and a former teacher who was the founder's sister were found guilty of defrauding public funds of £150,000.


title: Academy (English school)

text: In October 2017, the Wakefield City Academies Trust collapsed, and "The Observer" reported that "Wakefield City Academies Trust now stands accused of 'asset stripping" after it transferred millions of pounds of the schools' savings to its own accounts before collapsing. On 8 September it released a statement announcing it would divest itself of its 21 schools as it could not undertake the 'rapid improvement our academies need' ".


title: Academy (English school)

text: In March 2022, a report by parliament's Public Accounts Committee found that academy trusts paying a staff member more than £100,000 had increased from 1,875 to 2,245 in 2020-2021 from the previous financial year. A promised review of high pay by the Department for Education had not been published. The committee concluded that lack of financial transparency undermined parents' capacity to hold school leaders and the funding agencies to account.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The governors of a school are persuaded to consider academy status, perhaps in response to an approach by a multi-academy trust (MAT). They have two choices: remain with their current local authority, or join a multi-academy trust; converting to be a stand-alone trust ceased to be an option prior to 2018. If they were only given a 'satisfactory' (now referred to as 'requir[ing] improvement') Ofsted rating, they don't have the power to make the decision. The governors assess the MATs available and willing to take them on. Ethos and values, geographical mix of schools and practicality, how individual schools have succeeded in retaining their identity, value for money, and the trust's capacity to support the development of schools and staff are all factors that are compared. The governors then select a partner trust.


title: Academy (English school)

text: They then register interest with the DfE and inform the Regional Schools Commission. Governors open consultation with parents and staff, and with this information make a decision as to whether to proceed. Assuming they do, the Regional Schools Commissioner approves the decision to join the selected trust and the Secretary of State issues an academy order. The school staff to are transferred to the MAT in accordance with TUPE regulations, and land and commercial assets are transferred from the local authority. The school can change its mind until documents are sent to the Secretary of State in order to be signed; this is usually around three weeks before the agreed conversion date.


title: Academy (English school)

text: There are legal costs involved, and £25,000 is given to a converting academy to cover these costs. The local authority must grant a 125-year lease to the academy trust for the land. School land and playing fields are protected under Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. The school pays a proportion of its central funding to the MAT for shared services but can in theory take better measures to ensure best value.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Whilst still in the fairly early stage of development, supporters pointed to emerging data showing "striking" improvements in GCSE results for academies compared to their predecessors, with early results showing that "GCSE results are improving twice as fast in academies as in state schools".


title: Academy (English school)

text: In an article in "The Observer", that regarded many of the Government's claims for academies with scepticism, journalist Geraldine Bedell conceded that:


title: Academy (English school)

text: The article singles out the cited academy, Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, as "apparently the most popular [school] in Britain – at least with politicians" and "the top school in the country for value-added results".


title: Academy (English school)

text: Academies have continued to be controversial, and their existence has frequently been opposed and challenged by some politicians, commentators, teachers, teachers' unions, and parents. Even after several years of operation and with a number of academies open and reporting successes, the programme continues to come under attack for creating schools that are said to be, among other things, a waste of money, selective, damaging to the schools and communities around them, forced on parents who do not want them, and a move towards privatisation of education "by the back door".


title: Academy (English school)

text: The introduction of academy schools was opposed, notably by teachers' trade unions and some high-profile members within the Labour Party, such as former party leader Lord Kinnock. Neil Kinnock criticised the academies scheme saying that they were a "distortion of choice" and risked creating a "seller's market" with "schools selecting parents and children instead of parents selecting schools".


title: Academy (English school)

text: The House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee reported in March 2005 that it would have been wiser to limit the programme to 30 or 50 academies in order to evaluate the results before expanding the programme, and that "the rapid expansion of the Academy policy comes at the expense of rigorous evaluation". The Select Committee was concerned that the promising results achieved by some academies may be due to increased exclusions of harder-to-teach pupils. They noted that two Middlesbrough academies had expelled 61 pupils, compared to just 15 from all other secondary schools in the borough.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The programme of creating academies has also been heavily criticised by some for handing schools to private sector entrepreneurs who in many cases have no experience of the education sector: such as the Evangelical Christian car dealer, Sir Peter Vardy, who has been accused of promoting the teaching of creationism alongside macroevolution in his Emmanuel Schools Foundation academies. This is also linked to the wider debate in the education sector as to the benefits or otherwise of the growing role of religion in the school system being promoted by the New Labour government in general, and Tony Blair in particular, with many academies (one estimate puts it at "more than half") being sponsored either by religious groups or organisations/individuals with a religious affiliation.


title: Academy (English school)

text: A parliamentary report in 2015, entitled "Free Schools and Academies", recommends that "In the meantime the Government should stop exaggerating the success of academies and be cautious about firm conclusions except where the evidence merits it. Academisation is not always successful nor is it the only proven alternative for a struggling school". In 2016 a major study by the Education Policy Institute found no significant differences in performance between academies and local council run schools.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The original City Academy programme was attacked for its expense: it cost on average £25m to build an academy under this scheme, much of which was taken up by the costs of new buildings. Critics contend that this is significantly more than it costs to build a new local authority school. Some operators are paying senior staff six-figure salaries, partly funded by central government.


title: Academy (English school)

text: In December 2012, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons questioned Henry Stewart, of the Local Schools Network, and Rachel Wolf, of the New Schools Network, on accountability and funding of academies and free schools. The Committee was review a report by the Auditor General, "Managing the Expansion of the Academies Programme" (HC 682), which had identified that in 2011-12 £96,000,000 had been diverted from supporting under-performing Local Authority schools to the academies programme, followed by a further £400,000,000 in the financial year 2012-13. The Committee also questioned Chris Wormald, then Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, who admitted that the Government had deliberately chosen to remove money originally allocated to support under-performing schools. Chris Wormald stated, "The Government took a very conscious decision that its major school improvement programme was the academies programme."


title: Academy (English school)

text: In December 2018, the Sutton Trust published a report on the effectiveness of MATs in improving the performance of disadvantaged children, with its authors noting that "Our five-year analysis of sponsor academies' provision for disadvantaged pupils shows that while a few chains are demonstrating transformational results for these pupils, more are struggling."


title: Academy (English school)

text: The Conservative Party has supported the academy proposal from its inception but wants the scheme to go further. This accord was reflected in a remark made by Conservative spokesman David Willetts in 2006:


title: Academy (English school)

text: In 2004, the Liberal Democrats were reported as being "split" on the issue and so decided that academies should not be mentioned in the party's education policy. The position of Phil Willis, the education spokesman at the time, was summarised as:


title: Academy (English school)

text: In 2005, Willis' successor, Ed Davey, argued that academies were creating a "two-tier education system" and called for the academy programme to be halted until "a proper analysis can be done". At the subsequent election, Academies were supported by all three main political parties, with a further cross-party initiative to extend the programme into primary schools currently being considered.


title: Academy (English school)

text: In 2010 the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats coalition government announced plans to expand the academy programme with the Academies Act 2010. In May 2010 the then Education secretary Michael Gove wrote to all state schools in England inviting them to opt out of Local Authority control and convert to Academy status. Gove also stated that some academies could be created in time for the new Academic year in September 2010. By 23 July 2010, 153 schools in England had applied for academy status, lower than the prediction that more than 1,000 would do so. In spite of the expanding Academy programme, in August 2010 Gove announced that 75 existing academy rebuild projects were likely to be scaled back. Nevertheless, by September 2012, the majority of state secondary schools in England had become Academies. Monthly updated information on existing academies and free schools, and applications in process, is published by the Department for Education.


title: Academy (English school)

text: The city academy programme was originally based on the programme of City Technology Colleges (CTCs) created by the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, which were also business-sponsored. From 2003, the Government encouraged CTCs to convert to academies; did so (for example, Djanogly CTC is now Djanogly City Academy) was a 2003 conversion.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Academies differ from CTCs in several ways; most notably, academies cannot select more than 10% of pupils by ability , whereas CTCs can. Academies have been compared to US charter schools, which are publicly funded schools largely independent of state and federal control.


title: Academy (English school)

text: A number of private and charitable organisations run groups of academies, known as Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). These major operators include ARK Schools, Academies Enterprise Trust, E-ACT (formerly Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust), Emmanuel Schools Foundation, Harris Federation, Oasis Trust, Ormiston Academies Trust, Tauheedul Education Trust and United Learning Trust.


title: Academy (English school)

text: In 2019 there were 5,539 primary academies in England, of which 514 were forced away from local authority control after being failed by Ofsted. The Department for Education (DfE) paid out at least £18.4m to the academy trusts taking on these schools. The parents, governors and local authorities had no say in how this money was spent or how the assets were used.


title: Academy (English school)

text: Since 2013–14, more than 300 primary academies have been rebrokered (receiving government setup money again) or moved between trusts. In 2017–8, seven trusts running primary schools closed leaving all their schools in search of another sponsor. This leads to uncertainty and expense as the new trust will rebrand and parents must pay for new school uniform. New rules, staff and systems are set in place.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: Tony Hawk's Underground is a skateboarding video game and the fifth entry in the "Tony Hawk's" series after "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4". It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2003 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. In 2004, it was published for Microsoft Windows in Australia and New Zealand as a budget release.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: "Underground" is built upon the skateboarding formula of previous "Tony Hawk's" games: the player explores levels and completes goals while performing tricks. The game features a new focus on customization; the player, instead of selecting a professional skater, creates a custom character. "Underground" adds the ability for players to dismount their boards and explore on foot. The plot follows the player character and their friend Eric Sparrow as the two become professionals and grow apart.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The game was developed with a theme of individuality which was manifested in the extensive character customization options, the presence of a narrative, and the product's characterization as an adventure game. Real world professional skateboarders contributed their experiences to the plot. Upon release, the game was a major critical and commercial success, with reviewers praising its wide appeal, soundtrack, customization, multiplayer, and storyline. The graphics and the controls for driving vehicles and walking were less well received. "Underground"s PlayStation 2 version had sold 2.11 million copies in the United States by December 2007. A sequel, "Tony Hawk's Underground 2", followed in 2004.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: Like its predecessors in the "Tony Hawk's" series, "Underground" is centered on skateboarding in a series of levels. The player performs tricks via combinations of analog stick and button inputs. For example, the player initiates an ollie (a jump trick) by holding and releasing the jump button. During an ollie, the player may change the position of the analog stick and press one of two buttons to perform either a flip trick (such as an impossible or kickflip) or a grab trick (such as a benihana or nosegrab). The player can grind on certain edges and rails; different tricks may be performed during a grind based on the position of the analog stick. On quarter pipes, the player may execute lip tricks. While skating on flat surfaces, the player may manual in multiple ways via button combinations. Miscellaneous tricks include acid drops and wall-rides.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: While a grind, lip, or manual trick is underway, a balance meter appears: unless the player prevents this meter from falling to the left or right, the character will bail and need a few seconds to recover. Bailing can also be caused by falling without one's board facing downward. Completing tricks in succession without bailing is called a combo. Comboing raises the player's score and fills up the Special Meter; when it is full, the player is granted access to more elaborate tricks worth more points, such as the McTwist and 540 Flip. "Underground" introduces the ability to dismount one's skateboard, which allows the player to explore levels more carefully and reach new areas. Each level features at least one vehicle, usually a car, that the player can drive.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The levels are based on regions of the United States and other countries. In each level, certain tasks that advance the game's narrative must be completed before the player can move on. These tasks include score attacks, races, item collection, and reaching one of many gaps found in a level. Each level houses one professional skateboarder, who provides a sidequest that unlocks a trick for the Special Meter. On account of the levels' large sizes and the integration of goals into the story, "Underground" has been described as an adventure game. Characters can level up their stats—which include jump height and speed—by completing optional goals in a level; this adds an element of role-playing gameplay. Other gameplay modes include multiplayer minigames—one, a combat mode called "Firefight", can be played online in the PlayStation 2 version of the game—and a "free skate" mode that lets the player explore levels with no goals or story.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: "Underground" features extensive customization. The player creates a custom character for the story mode, and may not play as a pre-made professional skater outside a few contexts: a special scene late in the game, minigames, and the free skate mode. A level editor allows the player to create skate parks with a large array of objects, ranging from traditional skate park elements like halfpipes, ramps, funboxes, and grind rails to more outlandish pieces like buildings and sections of elevated freeways. The player can change their park's time of day and environmental theme. Tricks, skateboards, and level goals may be customized as well.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The game features many real world professional skateboarders including: Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Paul Rodriguez, Chad Muska, Mike Vallely, and Stacy Peralta. "Underground" also features cameo appearances by Iron Man, a parody of C.H.U.D. called T.H.U.D., and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: While the console versions of the game are fully three-dimensional, the Game Boy Advance version is rendered in an isometric style that incorporates both 2D sprites and 3D models. This version is a more traditional "Tony Hawk's" game, with little attention given to the story or customization. The mobile version is similarly restricted.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The protagonist and their friend, Eric Sparrow, live in suburban New Jersey and dream of becoming famous skateboarders. The protagonist manages to impress professional skater Chad Muska, visiting town for a demo, who gives them a new skateboard and informs them that a good way to start a skating career is to gain a sponsorship from a local skate shop. The protagonist seeks out Stacy Peralta, who agrees to sponsor them on the condition the player does something to set themselves apart from the other local skaters, so the protagonist travels to Manhattan, New York with Eric, who is on the run from drug dealers after setting their car on fire as vengeance for stealing from the skate shop.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: There, the pair shoot a skating video that impresses Stacy, who loans them a van and suggests they enter the Tampa AM, an amateur division skate contest held annually at the Skate Park of Tampa in Florida. Upon arrival, Eric is arrested for insulting a police officer, and the protagonist does favors for the local police department to secure his bail. However, when they arrive for the contest, it is revealed that Eric had only completed his own application form and not the protagonist's, forcing a dejected protagonist to try and impress competitors in the pro contest in order to gain admission. After impressing Tony Hawk, the protagonist wins the Best Trick event at Tampa AM and is offered deals by major skateboard sponsors, much to Eric's dismay. The protagonist then heads to San Diego, California to meet Todd, the manager of the team, and completes several photo shoots for a magazine. Following a wild celebration party, it is revealed that Eric has been picked up by the same sponsor.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The team then flies out to Hawaii to film a video, with the protagonist aiming for local spots that skaters have not filmed at before. Finding a tall hotel, the protagonist climbs to the roof and recruits Eric to film a trick video atop it. The police arrive to arrest them for trespassing, but the protagonist uses the opportunity to perform a McTwist over the helicopter and onto the awning of the adjacent Royal Hawaiian Hotel, allowing them and an awestruck Eric to evade the police. The team then travels to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After doing errands for locals and finishing their part of the team video, the protagonist attends the video premiere at the Slam City Jam. Eric steals the idea and edits the protagonist's part out of the video, allowing only Eric to become a professional. After angrily confronting Eric, the protagonist enters Eric's pro contest and wins, becoming a pro as well.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: After designing their own pro skateboard, the protagonist and Eric embark on a team trip to Moscow, Russia, where they reconcile. Eric gets drunk and joyrides in a Russian military tank. The protagonist hops in and attempts to stop the tank, but being unfamiliar with the controls, fails to stop it from crashing. Eric jumps out and runs away, leaving the protagonist, trapped inside, to be arrested by the Russian military. Eric then lies and claims the protagonist stole the tank, stating that he in fact tried to stop them. Unwilling to pay the $700,000 worth of damages, Todd kicks the protagonist off the team, much to Eric's delight. The American Embassy bails out the protagonist, leaving them to do favors for locals in order to return home to New Jersey.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: Eric, who now owns his own skate company, reveals that he had been planning to betray the protagonist after having long abandoned the idea of "soul skating" (skating for enjoyment rather than riches); after unsuccessfully trying to exempt them from the Tampa AM, Eric stole the helicopter footage in jealousy before finally getting the protagonist kicked off the skate team by lying back in Moscow. Determined to fight back, the protagonist teams up with Peralta and several professionals to create a soul skating video, creating a new trick in the process. Due to the success of the video, Eric challenges the protagonist to one last skate-off, with the unedited helicopter tape at stake. The protagonist wins the skate-off.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: If the story has been completed more than once, an alternate ending occurs, where the protagonist knocks Eric unconscious, taking the tape back instead of holding the skate-off.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions of "Underground" were developed by Neversoft, while the Game Boy Advance version was developed by Vicarious Visions the mobile version by Jamdat, and the Windows version was created by Beenox. Activision, which had acquired Neversoft in 1999, published all versions of the game.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: "Underground" was created with a theme of individuality: it stars an amateur skater in a true story mode, whereas each previous "Tony Hawk's" game had starred professional skaters and had lacked a plot. One reason for only allowing the player to use a custom character was that certain criminal acts completed in the plot would not reflect well on real-world skaters. Previous games in the series had included character-creation features as well, but Neversoft expanded customization in "Underground" by implementing face-scanning for the PlayStation 2 version: if the player emailed a photograph of their face to "faces@thugonline.com", the company would digitize it for use in the game. Regarding the customization options, especially the park editor, producer Stacey Drellishak stated that Neversoft was "trying to create the most customizable game ever". The developers used storytelling and exploration to distance their product from the plotless, task-based format of previous "Tony Hawk's" games, which led Neversoft president Joel Jewett to describe "Underground" as an adventure game.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: Levels in the console versions of "Underground" were significantly larger than those of earlier "Tony Hawk's" games. Neversoft expanded each level until it ceased to run correctly, then shrunk it slightly. Most of the levels were modelled closely after real-world locations; the designers traveled to locales representative of each city in the game and took photographs and videos as reference. The New Jersey level was a replication of a neighborhood where team artist Henry Ji had grown up as a young skater. Neversoft wanted the player to become familiar with the basic game mechanics quickly and to notice "Underground"s differences from previous "Tony Hawk's" titles immediately. To accomplish this, they introduced the ability to travel on foot, and the ability to climb along ledges in the first few missions of the game. While Neversoft wanted to keep "Underground" realistic and relatable for the most part, they added driving side-missions as an enjoyable diversion and to push the boundaries of freedom in skateboarding games. However, these missions were intended not to take away from the main experience of skateboarding.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: "Pro Skater 4", "Underground"s predecessor in the "Tony Hawk's" series, had received criticism for its difficulty: Neversoft had not realized that each game in the series was drawing new fans who were unaccustomed to the demanding tasks. As a result, Neversoft added four difficulty settings to "Underground"s story mode, ranging from "Too Easy" to "Sick". Neversoft wanted players to develop skills for higher difficulty settings on Too Easy while still progressing through the story. The company had included extremely difficult missions in each previous "Tony Hawk's" game; the methods used to create these missions were the inspiration for "Underground"s Sick mode. Development of the basic gameplay mechanics and structure began quickly but by the end of August 2003, only two months before the game's American release, work was still in progress.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: While the game's cutscenes are animated with 3D graphics, the team recorded live-action videos to introduce the real-world skateboarding teams, so that players could better understand each team before selecting one to join. Neversoft interviewed professional skaters about their experiences of becoming known in the skateboarding world, then compiled elements of these stories into the game's script. Every skater who appears in the plot helped to craft their own scenes and voiced their own character.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The game was promoted with a playable demo at Microsoft's "GameRiot" event held at Lollapalooza in July 2003. Activision stirred up enthusiasm for "Underground" with the "Tony Hawk's Face Off Mobile Tour", a series of promotional events across 29 cities in October. Attendees could play the game early and compete in it for tickets to Boom Boom Huck Jam 2003, which Tony Hawk himself attended. Activision, which sponsored the October Gravity Games extreme sports competition, promoted the game at the event and used its rendering engine to model tricks performed by the real-world skaters. The console and Game Boy Advance versions were released on October 28 in the United States, November 14 in Europe, and May 2004 in Japan. The mobile version was released worldwide in January 2004.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: "Tony Hawk's Underground" received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic. GameZone's Michael Knutson wrote that "Underground" is "one of the best skating games around" and that players of every skill level would enjoy it. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell concurred: "As a 'pick-up-and-play' sort of game, "THUG" is endlessly rewarding once you get your head round the basics, and it's the best entry point for the series to date".


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The story was well received. Joe Rybicki of "Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine" celebrated that "for the first time I can remember, an extreme-sports game actually has a real story [with] honest-to-goodness characters". IGN's Douglas Perry called it "a kick, albeit relatively lightweight in nature". He especially praised the pervasive sense of humor in the narrative and in the portrayal of real-world skaters. Knutson called the story "unique" and stated: "I really like that Neversoft had the guts to try something this radical and ditch the formula that they know works so well". Ben Silverman of Game Revolution described the game's plot as a "silly" cross between those of the 1980s films "North Shore" and "Gleaming the Cube", but he praised it for giving context to the level goals and keeping distance between the skill unlocks. Bramwell called it "hackneyed". Rybicki found that the plot hurt the game's replay value and caused missions to be overly simplistic. By contrast, "Game Informer"s Justin Leeper thought that "it serves to make some of the less-entertaining goals tolerable, because there's a reason for doing them".


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The game's aesthetics were generally well received. Bramwell called the graphics "unchanged and increasingly antiquated" and criticized the presence of "sharp, angular character models, eerily unrealistic lighting and odd little moments when the player is trying to turn round and ends up banging into a curb". Knutson, meanwhile, was positive regarding the graphics, art, and animation: he called them "nearly flawless" and praised the realism they brought to the inherently fantastical skateboarding genre. Williams said that ""THUG"s cityscapes are incredibly well designed" and singled out the GameCube version of "Underground" as exceptionally well rendered. Rybicki called the levels "big and beautiful". Knutson commended the soundtrack's large size and the sound effects' realism. Perry appreciated the "hilariously hurtful" injury sounds and the extensive song list. By contrast, IGN's Craig Harris praised the graphics of the Game Boy Advance version but was more mixed on the soundtrack.


title: Tony Hawk's Underground

text: The alternate gameplay modes were received very well. Knutson lauded the game's high degree of customization; he summarized that "everything is expounded a hundred fold: from create-a-skater to create-a-park mode, it is simply amazing". He singled out the level editor as one of the deepest he had ever seen. GameSpy's Bryn Williams identified the level editor as an "extremely well-designed" feature that contributed to the overall "brilliance" of the full product. Leeper said that each customization mode is "intuitive and user-friendly", and both he and Rybicki especially enjoyed the trick-creation feature. Reviewers for "Famitsu" magazine praised the story mode, whose open world format they compared to the "Grand Theft Auto" series. Knutson and Perry enjoyed the multiplayer, particularly the online Firefight mode. Williams thought similarly and stated that "the most notable disappointment" of the game was the lack of online play for non-PlayStation 2 owners. Harris found the board customization of the Game Boy Advance version to be poorly implemented, though in-depth. Despite his praise for the customization modes, Leeper admitted that his greatest enjoyment still came from "seeking out great lines and beating my scores".