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July 3

Variety Club of Great Britain awards

The Variety Club of Great Britain (the link directs, not especially helpfully, to an article about the overarching international charity) used to hold an annual luncheon where a range of awards were handed out - here is the 1964 list, for instance. The organisation was apparently set up in Britain in 1948 - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/6526653/Variety-Club-of-Great-Britain-celebrates-diamond-jubilee.html - but, at some point, the awards ceremony seems to have ceased. Here is a picture of a 1980 award. Does anyone know any more about the history of these awards? More particularly, does anyone have a list of the winners? The obits for Val Doonican say that he won the award for BBC TV Personality - one of the Variety Club awards - three times, but I can't find any independent verification of that. At the time - presumably up to the 1980s - the awards were quite widely reported in the UK, but they have now been superseded by the Brits, BAFTA, soap awards, etc., etc. Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:04, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The latest one I can find is 2010 - this is the IMDb entry for Channel 5's broadcast of it. Searching for "variety club showbiz awards 2011" (and subsequent years) doesn't come up with anything useful, but neither have I been able to find any official mention of their discontinuance. Tevildo (talk) 15:15, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What an interesting question. I haven't found the answer, but I have found the website for the Royal Variety Charity, and I wonder if they will be able to point you in the right direction if you email them? --TammyMoet (talk) 15:32, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Do we know if the Royal Variety Charity is the same as Variety, the Children's Charity? I suspect they are separate organisations. Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:41, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, they're different. The Royal Variety Charity used to be called the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, according to this Rojomoke (talk) 19:49, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify, the "Showbiz Awards" were awarded by the children's charity (under their former name, "The Variety Club of Great Britain"). The artiste's charity is best known for the Royal Variety Performance. The children's charity is the one to contact regarding the awards. Tevildo (talk) 21:19, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect that the answers to my questions might only be found by emailing one of these people. As Tevildo says, the awards were most recently called the Variety Club Showbiz Awards. According to their 2011 annual report, "2012 has started with a huge change in the branding of the charity and we have changed the name from Variety Club to Variety the Children’s Charity. A plan has been developed to reposition the charity in a way that plays to its strengths, improve the branding by removing the word Club from the title and updating the corporate identity...." It also says: "A vigorous drive for cost effectiveness led us to review a number of events which have become a traditional part of our fundraising year but which were no longer delivering revenue at the level previously enjoyed. These less viable functions are being dropped in 2012..." So, that probably gives an end date for the awards themselves. Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:42, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What is this music?

Dear Wikipedians,

A BBC4 series on forensic history uses a piece of music as a 'theme'. I assume it is not an original composition as the credits show no composer. It is most obvious from 0:42 to 1:26 on link. Can anyone tell me what it is, and where I can find a longer version? Many thanks. 92.25.175.235 (talk) 22:04, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

While I can't help you, you could try posting your question on the BBC message board, specifically this thread http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbpointsofview/NF1951566?thread=8324930 You'll have to sign up (it's free) and you'll be able to ask BBC viewers, some who watched the program.

Many thanks, have stuck a post up and hopefully will get some joy. 78.148.123.140 (talk) 16:24, 5 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

--TrogWoolley (talk) 19:53, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately you've to be in the UK to play that video. I hope someone in the UK can help you. You could also ask the BBC to stop doing shit like this. Contact Basemetal here 22:39, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Not true, Basemetal. I just watched the first couple of minutes and I'm in New Zealand. The music does sound familiar, not I can't place it, sorry. Grutness...wha? 01:35, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Lucky duck. Their system detects your IP address, and if it's outside the UK, you're out of luck. Such is my fate. I have heard that the New Zealanders are more English than the English, but that's an absurd basis on which to run a file sharing system. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 03:57, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

More likely not luck. BBC's iPlayer geolocation is fairly effective and more likely to block someone who should have access then the reverse. I expect Grutness is either with an ISP who offers Global Mode which isn't disappearing until September [1] and it was enabled by default, or someone in charge of the internet connection enabled it. Or alternatively someone in charge of their internet connection or browser set it up to get round the iPlayer geoblock. In any case, you're right the vast majority of people outside the UK are not going to be able to watch the video. Nil Einne (talk) 04:40, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried a music identification service such as Shazam? It's quite good, but 50 seconds is sometimes not sufficient time for it to work. Matt Deres (talk) 12:58, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

According to Shazam it's "Run to Safety" by Andrew Britton, Andrew Skeet and David Goldsmith. Peter James (talk) 22:20, 8 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There's currently a brouhaha about Europe possibly severely tightening its "freedom of panorama" rules. Might that IP-based type of restriction also work to prevent Europe from seeing pics that we can see? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:33, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's more likely that the BBC don't want people to see their programmes in countries which they may later sell them to for large amounts of money.

Also, British people have already paid to see them by stumping up their TV Licence fee. Alansplodge (talk) 19:25, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]