96-514: Big School is a British sitcom, starring David Walliams , Catherine Tate , Steve Speirs , Frances de la Tour , Joanna Scanlan and Philip Glenister . It is set in a secondary school and follows the comedic relationships of the teachers. The first series began airing on BBC One on 16 August 2013, and was met with polarised reviews. The final episode of the first series aired on 20 September 2013. On 2 December 2013, BBC One controller Charlotte Moore announced that Big School had been renewed for
192-512: A Chinese boy called Brian Wong" who is "never, ever wrong". Ma, who also called out the story for its "casual racism", talked in May with representatives of HarperCollins , who agreed to remove the story in future editions of the book. The book was later republished in 2022, with a new story about Charlie the Chucker, who "delights in pelting people with snowballs". On 28 April 2022, Walliams' next book in
288-543: A DVD movie can be Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS , PCM , or MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2) format. In countries using the PAL system standard DVD-Video releases must contain at least one audio track using the PCM, MP2, or AC-3 format, and all standard PAL players must support all three of these formats. A similar standard exists in countries using the NTSC system, though with no requirement mandating
384-552: A DVD-Video disc in the VOB container format ( V ideo Ob ject). VOB is based on the MPEG program stream format, but with additional limitations and specifications in the private streams. The MPEG program stream has provisions for non-standard data (as AC-3 , DTS , LPCM or subtitles used in VOB files) in the form of so-called private streams. VOB files are a very strict subset of
480-616: A Laugh? TV and Disability on BBC Two , and the ITV2 series Top Dog Model . In 2013, Walliams appeared in two episodes of the comedy series Blandings as Rupert Baxter , an efficiency expert hired to serve as Lord Emsworth 's secretary. Also that year, and in 2014, Walliams starred as chemistry teacher Keith Church in the BBC One sitcom Big School , which he created and co-wrote. The series also starred Catherine Tate , Frances de la Tour and Philip Glenister . In March 2014 Walliams narrated
576-414: A beautiful woman. However, she is also getting attention from the arrogant and rude sports teacher Trevor Gunn ( Philip Glenister ). Other staff members include Ms Baron ( Frances de la Tour ) as the alcoholic 'no nonsense' headmistress, Mr Martin ( Daniel Rigby ), a music teacher with ambitions to be a singer-songwriter, Mr Barber ( Steve Speirs ), a geography teacher who is having a nervous breakdown and
672-447: A boy called Jack trying to rescue his Grandpa who suffers from Alzheimer's disease from a care home run by an evil matron. The book was adapted for BBC One , with the script written by Walliams and Kevin Cecil , and starring Tom Courtenay as Grandpa. This book, although set in the 1980s like Awful Auntie is, sees the return of Raj the newsagent. The same year that Grandpa's Great Escape
768-440: A computer. Extra features require additional storage space, which often means encoding the main title with lower than possible data rate to fit both the main title and the extras on one disc. Lower data rate may decrease visual and sound quality, which manifests itself in various compression artifacts . To maintain quality the main title and the extras may be released on several discs, or the extras may be omitted completely like in
864-554: A contract with the publisher HarperCollins . His books have been translated into 53 languages, and he has been described as "the fastest-growing children's author in the UK", with a literary style compared to that of Roald Dahl . Some of his books have been adapted into television films, which he has also appeared in, including Mr Stink (2012), Gangsta Granny (2013) and Billionaire Boy (2016). As of 2023, Walliams book sales stand at over 50 million copies sold worldwide. Walliams
960-497: A disc to be copied to hard disk unscrambled. Some DeCSS applications also remove Macrovision , region codes , and disabled user operations (UOPs). After DeCSS ripping software became available, companies developed techniques to introduce errors in DVD-Video discs that do not normally affect playback and navigation of a disc, but can cause problems in software that attempts to copy the entire disc. These approaches, which are not part of
1056-458: A huge choice of discs. Contrary to popular belief, this practice is not illegal and in some countries that strongly support free trade it is encouraged. A normal DVD player can only play region-coded discs designated for the player's own particular region. However, a code-free or region-free DVD player is capable of playing DVDs from any of the six regions around the world. The CSS license prohibits manufacturing of DVD players that are not set to
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#17328558573871152-423: A logical format for DVD-Video compliant recording on optical discs and is commonly used on DVD+R/RW media. DVD-Video may also include up to 32 subtitle or subpicture tracks. Subtitles are usually offered as a visual aid for deaf and hearing impaired viewers, for displaying translated dialogue into other languages, or for displaying karaoke lyrics. They are sometimes used to present additional information about
1248-475: A max bitrate of 8 Mbit/s per angle to compensate for additional seek time. This limit is not cumulative, so each additional angle can still have up to 8 Mbit/s of bitrate available. Professionally encoded videos average a bitrate of 4–5 Mbit/s with a maximum of 7–8 Mbit/s in high-action scenes. Encoding at less than the max bitrate (like this) is typically done to allow greater compatibility among players, and to help prevent buffer underruns in
1344-568: A music video for the Pet Shop Boys single " I'm with Stupid ", in which the two are apparently auditioning their version of the song's video for Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe , who are tied up and appear to be hostages. The pair are best known for Little Britain , which ran from 2003 to 2009 on the BBC in the UK and from 2008 onwards on HBO in the US. The programme first aired on BBC Three before moving to
1440-509: A player must only play discs that contain its region code. In theory, this allows the motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date and price) on a region-by-region basis, or ensure the success of "staggered" or delayed cinema releases from country to country. For example, the British movie 28 Days Later was released on DVD in Europe several months prior to
1536-416: A raw bitrate of 11.08 Mbit/s, with a 1.0 Mbit/s overhead, leaving a payload bitrate of 10.08 Mbit/s. Of this, up to 3.36 Mbit/s can be used for subtitles, a maximum of 10.08 Mbit/s can be split amongst audio and video, and a maximum of 9.80 Mbit/s can be used for video alone. In the case of multiple angles the data is stored interleaved, and so there is a bitrate penalty leading to
1632-767: A result of a moderately flexible programming interface, DVD players can be used to play games, such as the DVD re-release of Dragon's Lair , along with more sophisticated and advanced games such as Scene It? , all of which can be run on standard DVD players. Modern DVD recorders often support additional disc and file formats, including DVD+/-R/RW, CD-R/RW, MP3 , WMA , SVCD , JPEG , PNG , SVG , KAR and MPEG-4 ( DivX / Xvid ). Some also include USB ports or flash memory readers. Player prices range from as low as US$ 20 ( £ 10) to as high as US$ 2,700 (£1,350). DVD drives for computers usually come with one of two kinds of Regional Playback Control (RPC), either RPC-1 or RPC-2. This
1728-460: A second series, which concluded on 10 October 2014. In June 2015, it was officially announced that Big School would not be returning for a third series. The series follows Keith Church ( David Walliams ), a socially naive chemistry teacher at the fictional Greybridge Secondary School, near Watford , who falls for new French teacher Sarah Postern ( Catherine Tate ), who believes herself to be an inspirational teacher, in tune with youth culture and
1824-623: A segment of the Sport Relief telethon in 2012 , co-hosting the 22:00–22:40 slot with Miranda Hart when the show moved over to BBC Two while the BBC News at Ten was aired. Walliams also co-hosted the 2014 Sport Relief telethon. This time, he hosted the earlier slot between 19:00–22:00 with Gary Lineker and later Davina McCall . On 4 July 2006 Walliams swam the English Channel for Sport Relief. It took him 10 hours and 34 minutes to swim
1920-645: A short video for the charity, Electrical Safety First , featuring the character Charley from the Charley Says educational films of the 1970s. For Comic Relief 2015 , Walliams appeared as Lou Todd and Stephen Hawking in the Andy Pipkin role along with Catherine Tate as a nun. In 2015, coinciding with the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie 's birth, Walliams played the role of Tommy Beresford in Partners in Crime ,
2016-492: A single region by default. While the same license prohibits manufacturers from including prominent interfaces to change the region setting it does not clearly prevent them from including "hidden" menus that enable the player's region to be changed; as such, many high-end models in the U.S. include password-protected or otherwise hidden methods to enable multi-region playback. Conversely in the UK and Ireland many cheap DVD players are multi-region while more expensive systems, including
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#17328558573872112-590: A six-part BBC series. In September 2015, Walliams began filming for his BBC sketch show Walliams & Friend , which also starred Joanna Lumley and Morgana Robinson and premiered on Christmas Eve in 2015. The show returned for a full series in November 2016. Walliams hosted the final comedy show Thrills and Spills in December 2016. The final was held in Louisville , Kentucky . In December 2016, Walliams presented
2208-445: A song, "Fade In/Fade Out", in honour of Walliams' achievement; it can be found on their self-titled album , released on 9 October 2006. On 7 March 2008 Walliams, along with James Cracknell , swam the 12-mile (19 km) Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco , again for Sport Relief. He successfully completed the swim in just over 4½ hours. In March 2010 Walliams and a group of celebrities cycled an end-to-end journey through
2304-715: A suave and dangerous manipulator in Stephen Poliakoff 's Capturing Mary . He portrayed comedian Frankie Howerd in the BBC Four television film Rather You Than Me . In 2010, Walliams appeared with Paul Rudd and Steve Carell in the comedy Dinner for Schmucks . Walliams played the strange mole-like alien Gibbis in the sixth series of Doctor Who , in the episode " The God Complex ", broadcast on BBC One in 2011. In April 2012 Walliams appeared in an episode of ITV's Perspectives programme entitled "David Walliams: The Genius of Dahl". Also in 2012, he narrated Are You Having
2400-501: A successful effort has been made to write a decoder by reverse engineering , resulting in DeCSS . This has led to long-running legal battles and the arrest of some of those involved in creating or distributing the DeCSS code, through the use of the controversial U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), on the grounds that such software could also be used to facilitate unauthorized copying of
2496-447: A television set with a decoder. DVD-Video may contain chapters for easy navigation, and continuation of a partially watched film. If space permits, it is also possible to include several versions of certain scenes, called "angles". Today, the multi-angle feature is mostly used for internationalization. For example, it can be used to supply different language versions of images containing written text when subtitles would not do (e. g.,
2592-506: A trained orangutan who serves as his butler, but there is just one thing he really needs: a friend. The book included a 'billion pound note' that was used to enter a competition to win a day as a billionaire in London. This was the first of his books to be illustrated by Tony Ross. Walliams' fourth book, Gangsta Granny was released in October 2011 and again illustrated by Tony Ross . It tells
2688-448: A work, but CSS does restrict the playback software that may be used. CSS has caused major problems for the inclusion of DVD players in any open source operating systems, since open source player implementations are not officially given access to the decryption keys or license to the patents involved in CSS. Proprietary software players were also difficult to find on some platforms. However,
2784-444: A worldwide perspective regional coding may be seen as a failure. A huge percentage of players outside of North America can be easily modified (and are even sold pre-modified by e-commerce websites) to ignore the regional codes on a disc. This, coupled with the fact that almost all televisions in Europe and Australasia are capable of displaying NTSC video (at the very least, in black and white), means that consumers in these regions have
2880-629: Is 99 and the maximum titles allowed per DVD is 99. Almost all DVD-Video discs use the UDF bridge format, which is a combination of the DVD MicroUDF (a subset of UDF 1.02) and ISO 9660 file systems. The UDF bridge format provides backwards compatibility for operating systems that support only ISO 9660. Most DVD players read the UDF filesystem from a DVD-Video disc and ignore the ISO9660 filesystem. A DVD volume for
2976-633: Is asked for advice on how to succeed with women by Mr Church. The show was written by David Walliams (who had previously produced Little Britain ), along with Dawson Bros. , and directed by Tony Dow . Many scenes for the series were shot at Bishopshalt School , Hillingdon , West London . The pupils gave up their school holidays to come to the school and be extras. Other inside shots were filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire . The titles were scrapped in Series 2 and were replaced by simple text at
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3072-430: Is compatible with the DVD standard. Some hardware players will also play DVD-ROMs or CD-ROMs containing "raw" MPEG video files; these are "unauthored" and lack the file and header structure that defines DVD-Video. Standard DVD-Video files contain extra information (such as the number of video tracks, chapters and links to extra features) that DVD players use to navigate the disc. The maximum chapters allowed per title
3168-427: Is employed as a caretaker in the second series and Mr Hubble ( James Greene ), the elderly and unwell head of science. The pupils at the school are portrayed as being mainly interested in social networking, texting and partying and as being bored by the attempts of Mr Church and Miss Postern to engage with them. The most prominent of them in the first series is a streetwise pupil called Manyou, played by Joivan Wade , who
3264-847: Is not publicly available and every subscriber must sign a non-disclosure agreement . Certain information in the DVD Book is proprietary and confidential. To record digital video, DVD-Video uses either H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 compression at up to 9.8 Mbit/s (9,800 kbit/s ) or MPEG-1 Part 2 compression at up to 1.856 Mbit/s (1,856 kbit/s). DVD-Video supports video with a bit depth of 8 bits per color, encoded as YCbCr with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling . The following formats are allowed for H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 video: The following formats are allowed for MPEG-1 video: The MPEG-1 Part 2 format does not support interlaced video. The H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 format supports both interlaced and progressive-scan content, and can handle different frame rates from
3360-411: Is rare on a DVD. The official allowed formats for the audio tracks on a DVD-Video are: DVDs can contain more than one channel of audio to go together with the video content, supporting a maximum of eight simultaneous audio tracks per video. This is most commonly used for different audio formats—DTS 5.1, AC-3 2.0 etc.—as well as for commentary and audio tracks in different languages. DVD-Video discs have
3456-517: Is reserved, and region 8, which is used exclusively for passenger transport such as airlines and cruise ships. A virtual machine implemented by the DVD player runs bytecode contained on the DVD. This is used to control playback and display special effects on the menus. The instruction set is called the Virtual Machine (VM) DVD command set. There are 16 general parameter registers (GPRM) to hold temporary values and 24 system parameters (SPRM). As
3552-563: Is the son of Peter Williams (1936–2007), a London Transport engineer, and Kathleen Williams (née Ellis), a laboratory technician who worked at Sutton Grammar School . Walliams grew up in Banstead , Surrey , specifically in the residential area of Nork , with his mother, father and sister Julie. He was educated at Collingwood Boys' School in Wallington , and Reigate Grammar School in Surrey, where he
3648-638: Is used to enforce the publisher's restrictions on what regions of the world the DVD can be played. (See Regional lockout and DVD region codes .) While open-source software DVD players allow everything, commercial ones (both standalone models and software players) come further encumbered with restrictions forbidding the viewer from skipping (or in some cases fast-forwarding) certain content such as copyright warnings or advertisements. (See User operation prohibition .) When DVD drives first became commercially available in 1997, they often came with special encoder/decoder cards, which were designed to pass through either
3744-519: Is usually adaptive. DVD-Video was first available in Japan on November 1, 1996 (with major releases beginning December 20, 1996), followed by a release on March 26, 1997, in the United States—to line up with the 69th Academy Awards that same day. The DVD-Video specification was created by DVD Forum and can be obtained from DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation for a fee of $ 5,000. The specification
3840-618: The MPEG program stream standard. While all VOB files are MPEG program streams, not all MPEG program streams comply with the definition for a VOB file. DVD recorders can use DVD-VR or DVD+VR format instead of DVD-Video. DVD-VR format store multiplexed audiovisual content in VRO containers. VRO file is an equivalent to a collection of DVD-Video VOB files. Fragmented VRO files are not widely supported by hardware or software players and video editing software. DVD+VR standard defines
3936-475: The Royal Variety Performance and a Christmas special episode of Blankety Blank , both shows for ITV. In 2017, Walliams guest presented five episodes of The Nightly Show for ITV. In 2017, Walliams, along with Rochelle Humes , were both confirmed as Voice Trumpets, joining the existing cast of Daniel Rigby , Antonia Thomas , Jim Broadbent , Fearne Cotton and Jane Horrocks In series 2 of
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4032-671: The Queen 's spell book in Snow White , and the scrolling text in the openings of the Star Wars films). Multiple angles have found a niche in markets such as yoga , erotica , animation (e. g. for storyboards ), and live performances. A significant selling point of DVD-Video is that the storage capacity allows for a wide variety of extra, or bonus, features in addition to the feature film. These extra features can include Extra features often provide entertainment or add depth and understanding to
4128-425: The " Superbit " line of DVDs. DVD-Video has four complementary systems designed to restrict the DVD user in various ways: Macrovision , Content Scramble System (CSS), region codes , and disabled user operations (UOPs). There are also anti-ripping techniques intended to foil ripping software . Many DVD-Video titles use Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption, which is intended to discourage people from copying
4224-466: The 2015 Red House Children's Book Awards . Walliams' seventh children's book, Awful Auntie , was released on 25 September 2014. This was the story of a girl named Stella whose Auntie has moved into her house with her owl, Wagner. It is the first (and currently only) of Walliams' books to not include Raj the newsagent, due to the book being set in the 1930s before Raj was born. In September 2015 he released Grandpa's Great Escape . The story follows
4320-528: The 22-mile (35 km) stretch of sea, equivalent to 700 lengths of an Olympic-size swimming pool . This was wrongly reported as one of the top 50 recorded times for an unaided Channel crossing; in reality Walliams placed 167th at the time of crossing in only the CSA listings, excluding the CSPF listings. He raised over £1 million in donations. Under the supervision of his trainer, he trained for nine months to prepare for
4416-419: The BBC drama series Partners in Crime , and wrote and starred in the sketch comedy series Walliams & Friend . Walliams has won the award for Best TV Judge for his work on Britain's Got Talent at the 2015 , 2018 , 2019 and 2020 National Television Awards . In 2022, he was a judge on the tenth season of Australia's Got Talent . Walliams began writing children's novels in 2008 after securing
4512-560: The BBC website. He took part in 19 episodes of "classic" TV panel shows. From 5 to 12 September 2011 Walliams swam the length of the River Thames (140 miles [230 km]) and raised more than £2 million for Sport Relief. Once he had got out of the river Walliams said "I think a bath is the only water I will be seeing for a while." The swim resulted in him getting giardiasis and injuring an intervertebral disc . In late 2013, Walliams had emergency back surgery to alleviate issues caused by
4608-560: The DVD-Video format has the following structure of directories and files: IFO files store control and playback information – e. g. information about chapters, subtitles and audio tracks. They do not store any video or audio data or subtitles. BUP files are only backups of the IFO files. Data structures recorded on a DVD-compliant disc are components of one of the four data groups called domains: Video, audio, subtitle and navigation streams are multiplexed and stored on
4704-399: The DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and an MPEG-2 decoder (e.g., a DVD player, or a computer DVD drive with a software DVD player). Commercial DVD movies are encoded using a combination of MPEG-2 compressed video and audio of varying formats (often multi-channel formats as described below). Typically, the data rate for DVD movies ranges from 3 to 9.5 Mbit/s , and the bit rate
4800-553: The UK, raising over £1 million for Sport Relief. Walliams suffered a serious fall when tackling the Kirkstone Pass , a thousand-foot climb in the Lake District but was able to complete the ride. In March 2011 Walliams undertook 24 Hour Panel People , in which he took part in back-to-back recordings of various panel show formats over the course of 24 hours to raise money for Comic Relief . The recordings were streamed live on
4896-649: The United States by HBO, Little Britain USA , aired in 2008. The characters from Little Britain played by Walliams and Lucas appeared in a 2010 UK television advertising campaign for the Nationwide Building Society . In January 2005 Walliams and Lucas were named the most powerful people in TV comedy by Radio Times . Their later series was Come Fly with Me , a six-part series airing on BBC One. The first episode
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#17328558573874992-473: The beginning of a disc). However, grey market players ignore UOPs and some DVD "re-authoring" software packages allow the user to produce a copy without these restrictions. The legality of these activities varies by jurisdiction and is the subject of debate. (See fair use .) Each DVD-Video disc contains one or more region codes, denoting the area(s) of the world in which distribution and playback are intended. The commercial DVD player specification dictates that
5088-466: The case of dirty or scratched discs. In October 2001, aiming to improve picture quality over standard editions, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment offered " Superbit "—a premium line of DVD-Video titles having average bitrates closer to 6 Mbit/s. Audio quality was also improved by the mandatory inclusion of both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround audio tracks. Multiple languages, angles, and extra audio tracks were eliminated to free up more space for
5184-579: The centre of the screen. Overnight ratings are not official and do not include views on BBC iPlayer, BBC HD or recorded catch-up services. They are just a note of the number of viewers on the BBC channel at the time of airing, and therefore are not an accurate representation. Official accurate figures are released 10 days after original transmission by BARB . The series was met with mixed feedback. Dan Owen of MSN described it as "An amusing and pleasant way to spend 30 minutes", and The Guardian said of Walliams: "This performance, and his writing, gives
5280-609: The content can be encoded on the disc itself at one of several alternative frame rates, and use flags that identify scanning type, field order and field repeating pattern. Such flags can be added in video stream by the H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 encoder. A DVD player uses these flags to convert progressive content into interlaced video in real time during playback, producing a signal suitable for interlaced TV sets. These flags also allow reproducing progressive content at their original, non-interlaced format when used with compatible DVD players and progressive-scan television sets. The audio data on
5376-505: The data on the discs. The Videolan team, however, went on to make the libdvdcss library. Unlike DeCSS, libdvdcss can access a CSS-encrypted DVD without the need of a cracked key, thus enabling playback of such discs on opensource players without legal restraints (although DVD rippers using this library may still be subject to restrictions). The DMCA currently affects only the United States , however many other countries are signatories to
5472-438: The disc to specify whether or not the user may perform any operation, such as selecting a menu, skipping chapters, forwarding or rewinding – essentially any function on the remote control. This is known as User Operation Prohibitions, or Prohibited User Operations (UOPs or PUOs). Most DVD players respect these commands (e. g., by preventing skipping or fast-forwarding through a copyright message or an advertisement at
5568-463: The disc. Usually, users need to install software provided on the DVD or downloaded from the Internet such as MPlayer , TotalMedia Theatre , PowerDVD , VLC or WinDVD to be able to view the disc in a computer system. CSS does not make it difficult (any more) to copy the digital content now that a decoder ( DeCSS ) has been released, nor is it possible to distinguish between legal and illegal copies of
5664-541: The film's release in North American movie theaters. Regional coding kept the European DVD unplayable for most North American consumers, thereby ensuring that ticket sales would be relatively unaffected. In practice, many DVD players allow playback of any disc, or can be modified to do so. Entirely independent of encryption, region coding pertains to regional lockout , which originated in the video game industry. From
5760-575: The film. Games, bloopers , and galleries provide entertainment. Deleted scenes and alternative endings allow the audience to view additional content which was not included in a theatrical release. Directors cuts allow the audience to see how the director envisioned the main title without the constraints which are placed on a theatrical release. Other extras that can be included on DVDs are motion menus, still pictures, up to 32 selectable subtitles, seamless branching for multiple storylines, up to 9 camera angles, and DVD-ROM / data files that can be accessed on
5856-416: The integrated video on the computer motherboard or the video card . The cards were necessary since most computers did not have sufficient processing power to handle the decoding on the discs. As CPU speeds and video card memory drastically increased in the late 1990s, in addition to software alternatives such as PowerDVD becoming readily available, the decoder cards quickly became obsolete; however, before
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#17328558573875952-663: The late 1990s, playing minor roles in sketches such as The Club , Walliams and Lucas played grotesque caricatures of various rock musicians in the series Rock Profile and in the spoof documentary series Sir Bernard's Stately Homes . They were also stars of the Paramount Comedy Channel show Mash and Peas , and it was in this guise that they appeared in the Fat Les video. Walliams and Lucas also had small roles in Plunkett and Maclaine as prisoners. The duo appeared together in
6048-476: The main title and thereby to ensure the highest data rate possible. In January 2007 the Superbit line was discontinued. Some DVD hardware or software players may play discs whose MPEG files do not conform to the above standards; commonly this is used to support discs authored with formats such as VCD and SVCD . While VCD and CVD video is supported by the DVD standard, neither SVCD video nor VCD, CVD, or SVCD audio
6144-480: The majority of home cinema systems, are preset to play only region 2 discs. In China, DVDs for television series are usually released in MPEG-1 video, with MP2 audio. By forgoing Dolby standards, manufacturers cut costs considerably; encoding in lower bit-rates also allows a TV series to be squeezed onto fewer discs. There is no region coding in such cases. There are also two additional region codes, region 7, which
6240-577: The more mainstream BBC One . Among the characters Walliams played were Emily Howard , a deluded " transvestite "; Ray McCooney , an insane Scottish hotel owner; and Sebastian Love , an aide de camp to the Prime Minister (portrayed by Anthony Head ) on whom Love has a huge crush. A successful live stage show of the series, Little Britain Live , was produced in 2006. A number of seasonal and charity specials followed, up to 2009. A spin-off series produced in
6336-457: The official DVD-Video specification, include Sony ARccOS Protection , Macrovision RipGuard , X-protect, ProtectDisc SecureBurn, Anaho, Fortium, and others. All of these methods have been circumvented (as might have been expected, since all standard DVD players naturally circumvent them to play and navigate the discs normally). Riplock is a feature that reduces drive noise during playback but inadvertently reduces ripping speed. DVD-Video allows
6432-431: The ones mentioned above by using pulldown . This is most commonly used to encode 23.976 frame/s content for playback at 29.97 frame/s. Pulldown can be implemented directly while the disc is mastered, by actually encoding the data on the disc at 29.97 frames/s; however, this practice is uncommon for most commercial film releases, which provide content optimized for display on progressive-scan television sets. Alternatively,
6528-531: The reboot of classic British children's television series Teletubbies . In October 2019, Walliams became the new National Television Awards (NTAs) host for 2020, taking over after Dermot O'Leary 's ten year presenting stint. Walliams and Matt Lucas first met at the National Youth Theatre . At their first meeting, Lucas did an impression of Jimmy Savile and Walliams an impression of Frankie Howerd . They would not meet again for another year. In
6624-748: The short story collections, this time titled The World's Worst Pets was published. However, this book was illustrated by Adam Stower, Walliams' new illustrator, whereas all the other books in the series were illustrated by Tony Ross . The next and latest book of the series, The World's Worst Monsters was published on 6 July 2023. On 26 August 2008 Walliams made his stage debut at the Gate Theatre in Dublin opposite Michael Gambon in Harold Pinter 's No Man's Land , in front of an audience that included Pinter himself. The production transferred to London later in
6720-429: The show good jokes and heart." There was negative feedback to the opening of the series, with The Daily Telegraph stating: "A bit tired, perhaps, the school thing, but surely a straightforward setting for a sitcom" before concluding "Let's just put it this way: amusing it was not. Mission aborted." MSN UK said, "Like most BBC comedies aiming to please mass audiences, there were plenty of moments that didn't work, but
6816-547: The similar WIPO Treaty . In some countries it is not illegal to use de-scrambling software to bypass the DVD restrictions. A number of software programs have since appeared on the Web to view DVDs on a number of different platforms. Other measures such as anti-ripping, as well as U.S. and non-U.S. copyright law, may be used to prevent making unauthorized copies of DVDs. CSS decrypting software, or ripping software, such as DVD Decrypter , AnyDVD , MacTheRipper , and DVD Shrink allows
6912-530: The story of Ben who is bored every time he is made to stay at his grandma's house as all she wants to do is to play board games and eat cabbage soup. Ben learns that she was once an international jewel thief and all her life she has wanted to steal the crown jewels. Ben is determined that they do it together. It won a Red House Children's Book Award and was adapted to be a 70-minute film for BBC One and shown on 26 December 2013. In September 2012 Walliams released his fifth children's book, Ratburger , telling
7008-537: The story of a young girl named Zoe whose life is a misery as she has an evil stepmother. It was made into a one-off drama for Sky One . Ratburger was followed in September 2013 by Walliams' sixth book, Demon Dentist , relating the tale of a young boy named Alfie with no family except his dad whose world goes upside-down when a new dentist arrives in town. The book won the top prize in the Younger Readers category at
7104-454: The swim. DVD-Video DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVDs . DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in Asia , North America , Europe , and Australia in the 2000s until it was supplanted by the high-definition Blu-ray Disc; both receive competition as delivery methods by streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ . Discs using
7200-597: The swim. The training had to coincide with Walliams and Lucas's Little Britain Live tour , so he daily had to train for several hours before performing on stage in the evening. Walliams first swam from Lee-on-the-Solent near Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight in around two hours and also completed an eight-hour swim off the coast of Croatia before embarking on the cross-Channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had never seriously taken part in any sport. The Bluetones ' lead singer Mark Morriss wrote
7296-442: The themes of Little Britain from Walliams' own life on an emotional level, such as the camp humour of cross-dressing and effeminacy . The story recounts a neglected 12-year-old boy called Dennis' search for a female role model, his friendship with the popular girl in school, and the ways in which relationships develop along gender lines. The story has a strong resonance with Anne Fine's 1989 book Bill's New Frock . This book
7392-492: The use of or support for the MP2 format. DTS audio is optional for all players, as DTS was not part of the initial draft standard and was added later; thus, many early players are unable to play DTS audio tracks. Only PCM and DTS support 96 kHz sampling rate. Because PCM, being uncompressed, requires a lot of bandwidth and DTS is not universally supported by players, AC-3 is the most common digital audio format for DVDs, and 96 kHz
7488-487: The video being played. Subtitles are stored as bitmap images and therefore can contain any arbitrary text or simple image. They are restricted to a 16-color palette, but are usually implemented with a limit of 4 colors. 16 levels of transparency are also supported to allow blending, but this is also not always implemented. The subtitle tracks are contained within the VOB file of the DVD. DVD-Video may also contain closed captioning material which can only be viewed on
7584-401: The video is the lifejacket instruction. Since then the video has been reworked with a mixture of the previous version; however, Walliams still appears in the new version. Walliams hosted a classical music podcast for children called David Walliams' Marvellous Musical Podcast . The show was produced by Classic FM and won a gold prize at the 2020 British Podcast Awards . Walliams co-hosted
7680-459: The writing avoided being outright terrible. A family show like this (even one inexplicably broadcast post-watershed) simply can't please everyone all the time". The series opened to 4.2m viewers. The second instalment scored 3.63m (17.4%) for BBC One, making it the most watched programme of prime time outside of the soaps and news for the night. The first series of Big School was released on DVD on 23 September 2013. The second and final series
7776-524: The year. In 2013, he played the part of Bottom in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Noël Coward Theatre opposite Sheridan Smith as Titania. In July 2014, Walliams appeared on stage with Monty Python during their live show Monty Python Live (Mostly) held at the O 2 Arena , London. He was the special guest in their "Blackmail" sketch. In addition to his writing credits for his sketch shows and adaptions of his novels, he
7872-477: Was a contemporary of writer Robert Shearman . From 1989 to 1992, he studied at the University of Bristol , where he resided at Manor Hall and graduated with Bachelor of Arts (Drama). During university holidays in 1990, Walliams performed with the National Youth Theatre , where he met future comedy partner and friend Matt Lucas . He changed his stage name to David Walliams when he joined college Equity , as there
7968-750: Was a judge on the ITV1 talent show Britain's Got Talent with Amanda Holden , Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell . In 2015, 2018 and 2019, he was recognised at the National Television Awards as Best Judge for his involvement in the series. In 2022, it was announced that Walliams would be joining Seven Network 's Australia's Got Talent as a judge for the show's tenth season alongside fellow Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon , and Australian actors Kate Ritchie and Shane Jacobson . In November 2022, after controversy erupted regarding leaked disparaging comments made by Walliams to contestants, it
8064-404: Was a judge on the television talent show competition Britain's Got Talent on ITV . He is also a writer of children's books, having sold more than 37 million copies worldwide. Walliams played the role of Greville White in the 2007 television drama film Capturing Mary . From 2013 to 2014, he wrote and starred in the BBC One sitcom Big School . In 2015, he starred as Tommy Beresford in
8160-460: Was adapted into a film for Christmas 2014. In November 2009 came Mr Stink , again illustrated by Quentin Blake, about a 12-year-old girl who meets a tramp and helps look after him. She keeps him hidden from her family. The book consists of 26 illustrated chapters full of jokes. It is aimed at teenagers and children over 9. It was the last of Walliams books to be illustrated by Quentin Blake. The book
8256-602: Was already a member named David Williams. Walliams performed in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play Phantasmagoria , written by Mark Gatiss in 1999. In 2005, Walliams, Simon Pegg , Lucy Davis and Lauren Laverne starred in the video for Charlotte Hatherley 's single "Bastardo". Later in the year, Walliams presented a documentary on James Bond , entitled David Walliams: My Life with James Bond . In 2007, he returned to non-comedy television, garnering positive reviews for his portrayal of
8352-625: Was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to charity and the arts. His charity work includes swimming the English Channel , Strait of Gibraltar and River Thames , raising millions of pounds for the BBC charity Sport Relief . Walliams was born at St Teresa's Maternity Hospital in Wimbledon , in the London Borough of Merton , in 1971. He
8448-527: Was awarded the Children's Award in the inaugural People's Book Prize in 2010, and was made into a 60-minute film, which premiered on BBC One on 23 December 2012. On 28 October 2010 Walliams published his third book Billionaire Boy , illustrated by Tony Ross , telling the story of Joe Spud, the richest 12-year-old in the country. Joe's father is a famous inventor, and his wealth means that Joe has everything he could ever want: his own bowling alley, cinema and
8544-791: Was published in November 2018. In 2020, the book Code Name Bananas, which was set in World War I I-era Britain was published, and was being announced on Walliams' Instagram. Walliams' next children's novel, Spaceboy , was published in September 2022. On 5 April 2023, the children's novel Robodog was published. The story is about Robodog, the newest recruit at the police dog school, as he sets out to save his city from some evil criminals trying to destroy it. Illustrated in colour by Tony Ross, Walliams' three The World's Worst Children short story collections, centered around 'five beastly boys and five gruesome girls', were published in May 2016, May 2017 and May 2018, respectively. The World's Worst Teachers
8640-488: Was published on 27 June. In July 2020, tweets by author and activist Jack Monroe described Walliams' books as "like Little Britain for kids", with "horrific racism and classism and bodyshaming in a veneer of privileged deniability". HarperCollins issued a response, stating "David Walliams's books have a diverse readership which is reflected in their content". Also in July 2020, Williams' next book, The World's Worst Parents
8736-408: Was published, Walliams backed children's fairytales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF , together with Roger Moore , Stephen Fry , Ewan McGregor , Joan Collins , Joanna Lumley , Michael Caine , Charlotte Rampling and Paul McKenna . The Midnight Gang was published in November 2016. Bad Dad was published in November 2017. Walliams sold £16.57 million worth of books in 2017. The Ice Monster
8832-453: Was published, and the book followed the same structure as all of the previous short story collection books. In September 2021 it was announced that one of the stories in The World's Worst Children would be removed after podcaster Georgie Ma made a complaint, saying Walliams' book was "normalising jokes on minorities from a young age." The story criticised by Ma earlier in the year is "about
8928-487: Was released on DVD on 13 October 2014. David Walliams David Edward Williams (born 20 August 1971), known professionally as David Walliams ( / ˈ w æ l j ə m z / ), is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly With Me (2010–2011). From 2012 to 2022, Walliams
9024-506: Was reported that Walliams had decided "to bow out after a ten-year run", and that he wished to leave the show "on a high after a wonderful time". He was replaced by Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli . In early 2008 Walliams signed a contract with HarperCollins to publish two children's books. The debut novel, The Boy in the Dress , illustrated by Quentin Blake , was released worldwide on 1 November 2008. It explores several of
9120-475: Was set to co-write an animated film titled Shadows with filmmaker Edgar Wright for DreamWorks Animation . It was never made however, due to the staff changes at DreamWorks animation which left the film in limbo. In 2018, Walliams also starred in the British Airways Safety video, which was conducted in conjunction with Comic Relief for the airlines in house charity. Walliams most notable occasion in
9216-499: Was the third most-watched programme of Christmas Day 2010, and the most watched comedy of the year. The duo have not worked or made any public appearances together since early 2011 (although they each make separate cameo appearances in Michael Winterbottom 's 2013 film The Look of Love ). Little Britain returned to BBC Radio 4 on 31 October 2019, for a one-off special entitled Little Brexit . From 2012 to 2022, Walliams
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