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106-581: Going Postal is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett , the 33rd book in his Discworld series, released in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters , a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in

212-452: A Boy , The Middle , Manifest , You, Me and the Apocalypse and The Blacklist . Other American imports included CBS military/action dramas, science-fiction and Arrowverse superhero shows and The Blacklist (seasons 4–8). Sky One started on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television Limited , and was Europe's first ever cable and satellite channel, originally broadcasting from

318-566: A carriage deal between BSkyB and Virgin Media was reached and BSkyB's channels were available on Virgin's cable service from 13 November of that year. The Sky basic channels were spread across each tier of Virgin's cable television service: Sky Three and Sky News were made available in the lowest M tier; Sky Sports News joined the M+ tier; Sky One and Sky Two were made available in the L tier; and Sky Arts 1 , Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 joined

424-483: A chapter of his book English Prose Style (1928) to discussing "Fantasy" as an aspect of literature, arguing it was unjustly considered suitable only for children: "The Western World does not seem to have conceived the necessity of Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups". In 1938, with the publication of The Sword in the Stone , T. H. White introduced one of the most notable works of comic fantasy . The first major contribution to

530-480: A fellow English professor with a similar array of interests, also helped to publicize the fantasy genre. Tove Jansson , author of The Moomins , was also a strong contributor to the popularity of fantasy literature in the field of children and adults. The tradition established by these predecessors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has continued to thrive and be adapted by new authors. The influence of J.R.R. Tolkien's fiction has—particularly over

636-617: A golem. Moist learns that the Post Office has not functioned for decades, and the building is full of undelivered mail, concealed under a layer of pigeon dung. Only two employees remain: the aged Junior Postman Tolliver Groat and his assistant Stanley Howler . Meanwhile, Vetinari is holding a meeting with the board executives of the Grand Trunk Company, a company that owns and operates a system of visual telegraph towers known as "clacks". He notes that since they have taken full control,

742-501: A joint venture between Sky and the European Broadcasting Union aimed at a pan-European audience (like Sky Channel had been up to that point for a time afterwards, some of Sky's previous pan-European programming continued to be broadcast before Eurosport's start-up, under the branding of Sky Europe ). A new raft of shows were created for the channel, including the daily talent show Sky Star Search ; game shows ( Sale of

848-570: A new animated series Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles was added to children's programmes, and daily dating game show Love at First Sight was presented by Helen Brumby and Bruno Brookes . Following the daily repeats of Star Trek and Lost in Space , Sky One picked up a number of science-fiction shows which became a crucial part of its evening line-up such as the UK premiere of Alien Nation , also added reruns of V ( 1983 miniseries , The Final Battle and

954-491: A number of home grown programmes (for example, dramas such as The Wanderer , Springhill , Dream Team and Space Island One ) while expanding its small number of Australian television series, notably include: Sky One focused in science-fiction and other series in the 2000s which did not have a lot of successes, including: Sky One also screened reality television shows such as: The channel received relative success with scientific shows such as: Sky One commissioned

1060-800: A restructuring with its EPG position taken by Sky Showcase and much of its content library moved to Sky Max . Sky One included some very popular original programmes —such as An Idiot Abroad , Brainiac: Science Abuse , The Russell Howard Hour , Battlestar Galactica —and many imported from North America, including 24 (seasons 3–9, and its spinoff Live Another Day ), The X-Files , Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Star Trek: Voyager , Bones (seasons 1–6, first half), Caprica , Fringe , Modern Family , Glee (seasons 3–6), House (seasons 5–8), Lie to Me , Lost (seasons 3–6), Prison Break (seasons 3–4), The Simpsons , Stargate ( SG-1 , Atlantis and Universe ), Touch , About

1166-506: A similar manner to some Victorian novels and, notably, to Jules Verne stories. The title refers to both the contents of the novel, as well as to the term ' going postal '. The book was on the shortlist for both the Nebula and Locus Awards for Best (Fantasy) Novel. It would also have been shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel , except that Pratchett withdrew it, as he felt stress over

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1272-491: A two-part Terry Pratchett's Hogfather series for Christmas 2006, this proved to be successful and so in 2008, Sky brought out an adaptation of The Colour of Magic and its second half The Light Fantastic . On 30 May 2010, Sky One also released Terry Pratchett's Going Postal , the 33rd book in the Discworld series. Sky One had also re-commissioned a number of earlier game shows including Blockbusters , which brought

1378-420: A while since its original launch and first went in the clear in around 1987). The start of 1995 saw Sky One begin 24-hour broadcasting and initially the overnight hours were filled by music videos. However by the end of the decade, overnight programming consisted of the same range of programmes broadcast at all other times of the day. On 1 October 1998, Sky One's digital feed launched with Sky Digital. Sky One

1484-425: Is literature set in an imaginary universe , often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic , the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults. Fantasy is considered a genre of speculative fiction and is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by

1590-503: Is flipped onto the space-warping sorting machine. Lipwig makes an outrageous wager with Gilt that he can deliver a message to Genua , 2000 miles from Ankh-Morpork, faster than the Grand Trunk can. "The Smoking Gnu", a group of clacks-crackers, sets up a plan to send 'the woodpecker' (a Discworld equivalent to a killer poke ) into the clacks system that will destroy the machinery, halting the message that Lipwig will race against. Lipwig talks

1696-426: Is too bland or simplistic creates the impression that the fantasy setting is simply a modern world in disguise, and presents examples of clear, effective fantasy writing in brief excerpts from Tolkien and Evangeline Walton . Michael Moorcock observed that many writers use archaic language for its sonority and to lend color to a lifeless story. Brian Peters writes that in various forms of fairytale fantasy , even

1802-468: The CSI franchise, which was at the peak of its popularity during this period. Other competitors in the pay TV field also latched on to this, with LivingTV nabbing the likes of Will & Grace , Ally McBeal , Joan of Arcadia , Charmed , and later the likes of Boston Legal and Grey's Anatomy , and Hallmark Channel , which acquired Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (whilst Sky One held

1908-501: The Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia , and The Hobbit . Stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature. Classical mythology is replete with fantastical stories and characters, the best known (and perhaps the most relevant to modern fantasy) being the works of Homer (Greek) and Virgil (Roman). The philosophy of Plato has had great influence on

2014-619: The Kalevala , they compiled existing folklore into an epic to match other nation's, and sometimes, as in The Poems of Ossian , they fabricated folklore that should have been there. These works, whether fairy tale, ballads, or folk epics, were a major source for later fantasy works. The Romantic interest in medievalism also resulted in a revival of interest in the literary fairy tale. The tradition begun with Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile and developed by Charles Perrault and

2120-452: The 2019 Netball World Cup . Sky One's programme lineup was relaunched at the start of 2004, with Sky television head Dawn Airey stating the channel had become too associated with The Simpsons , science fiction shows such as Star Trek: Enterprise , Andromeda and Stargate SG-1 (the latter of which continues to be shown extensively on Sky Max , Sky Mix and Sky Sci-Fi to this day) and raunchy factual entertainment shows such as

2226-453: The Age of Enlightenment . Many of Perrault's tales became fairy tale staples and were influential to later fantasy. When d'Aulnoy termed her works contes de fée (fairy tales), she invented the term that is now generally used for the genre, thus distinguishing such tales from those involving no marvels. This approach influenced later writers who took up the folk fairy tales in the same manner during

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2332-523: The Elizabethan era in England , fantasy literature became extraordinarily popular and fueled populist and anti-authoritarian sentiment during the 1590s . Topics that were written about included " fairylands in which the sexes traded places [and] men and immortals mingl[ing]". Romanticism , a movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, was a dramatic reaction to rationalism, challenging

2438-710: The Middle East has been influential in the West since it was translated from the Arabic into French in 1704 by Antoine Galland . Many imitations were written, especially in France. The Fornaldarsagas , Norse and Icelandic sagas , both of which are based on ancient oral tradition influenced the German Romantics, as well as William Morris , and J. R. R. Tolkien . The Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf has also had deep influence on

2544-538: The Nescafé UK Top 50 chart show, Sunday morning religious programme Hour of Power , hour-long weekend edition of celebrity news magazine Entertainment Tonight and telecasts of World Wrestling Federation rounded out Sky Channel's weekend schedule. Special event programming included late night live telecasts of boxing matches and various music concerts (such as Bon Jovi and Bros in August 1989). On 31 July 1989,

2650-468: The Orbital Test Satellite aimed at cable operators all over the continent. At first, the station struggled financially due to disappointing ratings in the countries in which it was officially available, which in turn led to insufficient advertising revenue and increasing difficulty in covering the high transmission costs. Initially, the channel's own programming and continuity was played out from

2756-529: The Romantic era . Several fantasies aimed at an adult readership were also published in 18th century France, including Voltaire 's " contes philosophique " The Princess of Babylon (1768) and The White Bull (1774). This era, however, was notably hostile to fantasy. Writers of the new types of fiction such as Defoe , Richardson , and Fielding were realistic in style, and many early realistic works were critical of fantastical elements in fiction. However, in

2862-594: The television series ) and Battlestar Galactica in 1991. After the 1992 airing of The Flash , Sky One also picked up Star Trek: The Next Generation which had previously aired on BBC2 began a long twice per day run of the franchise in a late afternoon and a late evening timeslot on Mondays to Fridays. A staple of Sky One prime time schedule in its early years were glossy American miniseries such as Roots , Shōgun , Masada , The Thorn Birds , North and South and Lonesome Dove , which aired mostly in two-hour installments each week Sundays to Tuesdays. As

2968-552: The "First Terrible Fate that Awaiteth Unwary Beginners in Fantasy", alluding to young writers attempting to write in Lord Dunsany's style. According to S. T. Joshi , "Dunsany's work had the effect of segregating fantasy—a mode whereby the author creates his own realm of pure imagination—from supernatural horror. From the foundations he established came the later work of E. R. Eddison , Mervyn Peake , and J. R. R. Tolkien. In Britain in

3074-693: The British 1990s combat-based game show Gladiators , which was subsequently cancelled on 12 April 2009. They also showed the sketch show Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show . In 2010, Sky One focused on commissioning several quite long-running or well known comedy infused shows, starting with A League of Their Own , An Idiot Abroad and Little Crackers . In 2011, Sky One premiered supermarket sitcom Trollied , which had broadcast six series and over 50 episodes, becoming Sky One's longest running comedy series. Not all shows were well received, at least by its home country audience, including Parents which

3180-492: The Century , based on the 1980s American version, and The Price Is Right ); weekly documentary series Frank Bough's World ; daily late night talk show Jameson Tonight ; agony aunt advice show A Problem Shared ; and Sky by Day , Sky TV's variation on ITV's more popular This Morning , hosted by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn (who by then had moved to commercial radio) and former Magpie presenter Jenny Hanley , as

3286-605: The French précieuses was taken up by the German Romantic movement. The German author Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué created medieval-set stories such as Undine (1811) and Sintram and his Companions (1815), which would later inspire British writers such as George MacDonald and William Morris . E.T.A. Hoffmann 's tales, such as The Golden Pot (1814) and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816) were notable additions to

Going Postal - Misplaced Pages Continue

3392-569: The Gnu out of it, wanting to leave the semaphore towers standing. Instead, Lipwig and the Gnu, using Trunk documents in Adora Belle's possession, intercept the message and replace it with a fake message from the dead which reveals the crimes of Gilt and the Grand Trunk board of directors. This plan succeeds. Gilt is eventually arrested and finds himself in front of the Patrician, who offersd a similar choice to

3498-494: The LWT-produced Ibiza Uncovered . The channel was also struggling to acquire new American series, as FTA broadcasters had become familiar with Sky's tricks to buy the majority of US programming, with Channel 4 picking up the likes of The Sopranos and Without a Trace on an exclusive basis (although both programmes have since aired on Sky Atlantic ) and Five picking up the likes of The Shield and

3604-481: The Middle . Another early and long-running fixture was Married... with Children ran all through the 1990s, but in the early 2000s as the show suddenly disappeared from its regular schedule and has not been screened on any Sky channel since. Sky One was also the original home to the UK's first-run showings of ER and Friends for series 4–6 of both shows (Channel 4 had shown series 1–3 first), giving Sky One some of

3710-614: The Molinare facilities by then), but also included programmes produced in the Netherlands by John de Mol 's production company . On 8 June 1988, Murdoch announced his plans to expand Sky's four channels, thus creating the Sky Television Network . On 5 February 1989, the service (Sky Channel, Sky News , Sky Movies and Eurosport ) was launched as prime-time broadcasts to European cable operators ended and were replaced by Eurosport,

3816-592: The Molinare studios at Fouberts Place in the West End of London . On 27 June 1983, the shareholders of Satellite Television agreed a £5 million offer to give News International 65% of the company. With the successful launch of the Intelsat V satellite in October 1983 Rupert Murdoch was able to extend the broadcast hours and the number of countries able to receive the signal. On 16 January 1984, Satellite Television Limited

3922-521: The Southwest Wind an irascible but kindly character similar to J.R.R. Tolkien 's later Gandalf . The history of modern fantasy literature began with George MacDonald, author of such novels as The Princess and the Goblin (1868) and Phantastes (1868), the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel written for adults. MacDonald also wrote one of the first critical essays about

4028-677: The Vampire ), a collection of various fantasy tales set within a frame story is, according to Richard Francis Burton and Isabel Burton , "the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights , and which also inspired the Golden Ass of Apuleius , (2nd century A.D). Boccaccio 's Decamerone (c.1353) the Pentamerone (1634, 1636) and all that class of facetious fictitious literature." The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) from

4134-552: The Vampire Slayer and South Park , as well as some older programmes included Hill Street Blues , M*A*S*H , Quantum Leap and Lucille Ball 's various comedy series. It relies heavily on screenings for this network as they coming from Rupert Murdoch 's Fox Broadcasting Company with other shows like The X-Files , In Living Color , Cops , Millennium , King of the Hill , Futurama , Family Guy and Malcolm in

4240-584: The Wind , Boney , A Town Like Alice and Barrier Reef ), as well as the soap operas ( Return to Eden , Chances , E Street and Paradise Beach ) were aired. Some Australian children's programmes, such as Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and Zoo Family also aired on Sky One. In 1990 and early 1991 (prior to the launch of Sky Sports ), Sky One broadcast numerous live cricket telecasts during which it pre-empted its regularly scheduled programming. Following

4346-465: The XL tier. It was announced on 27 July 2021 that Sky One would be retired and that a new channel, Sky Showcase would replace its EPG slot on Sky. Another channel, Sky Max would launch on the same day. Most of Sky's original content and the drama output would move there, while most of the comedy output would move to Sky Comedy . Prodigal Son was the channel's last programme. At the time of closure, it

Going Postal - Misplaced Pages Continue

4452-516: The absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these may overlap. Historically, most works of fantasy were in written form , but since the 1960s, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films , television programs , graphic novels , video games , music and art. Many fantasy novels originally written for children and adolescents also attract an adult audience. Examples include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ,

4558-529: The aftermath of World War I, a notably large number of fantasy books aimed at an adult readership were published, including Living Alone (1919) by Stella Benson , A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) by David Lindsay , Lady into Fox (1922) by David Garnett , Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) by Hope Mirrlees , and Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner . E. R. Eddison was another influential writer who wrote during this era. He drew inspiration from Northern sagas, as Morris did, but his prose style

4664-455: The amount of HD content they show, and hoped that by the end of 2008, two-thirds of all prime time shows, and 90% of their own original commissions, would be in HD. A new logo was introduced along with the rebrand on 31 August 2008. On 1 October 2010, Sky1 HD launched on Virgin Media channel 122, with Sky2 moving to channel 123 and Sky3 moving to channel 180 on 22 September 2010, to make way for

4770-539: The award would mar his enjoyment of the Worldcon . This was the first time Pratchett had been shortlisted for either award. The story takes place in Ankh-Morpork , a powerful city-state on Discworld. The protagonist of the story is Moist von Lipwig , a skilled con artist who was to be hanged for his crimes, but saved at the last moment by the cunning and manipulative Patrician Havelock Vetinari , who has Moist's death on

4876-506: The building within weeks of each other in unusual circumstances. He also discovers that the mail inside the building has taken on a life of its own, and is nearly suffocated in a "letterslide". Moist introduces postage stamps to Ankh-Morpork, hires golems to deliver the mail, and finds himself competing against the Grand Trunk Clacks line. He meets and falls in love with the chain-smoking golem-rights activist Adora Belle Dearheart , and

4982-432: The canon of German fantasy. Ludwig Tieck 's collection Phantasus (1812–1817) contained several short fairy tales, including "The Elves". In France, the main writers of Romantic-era fantasy were Charles Nodier with Smarra (1821) and Trilby (1822) and Théophile Gautier who penned such stories as "Omphale" (1834) and " One of Cleopatra's Nights " (1838) as well as the novel Spirite (1866). Fantasy literature

5088-528: The channel became a subscription service. From 1995, subscribers to the Sky Sports channel would see not only a taped delay showing of these pay-per-view events, but Sky also offered a live showing starting a midnight UK time on the evening the event took place. Sky One continued to air WWF/WWE shows on Friday night and Saturday/Sunday morning that were produced for syndicated television in the United States from

5194-706: The channel was renamed Sky One and closed in most European countries, broadcasting only to the British Isles. During September of that year, Sky One began to air more recent programming as an early success being Moonlighting (which the BBC had previously screened but not repeated), ALF and Wiseguy , also aired the British television premiere of a new drama series 21 Jump Street . Back-to-back soaps ( Rich Man, Poor Man and Falcon Crest ) as well as action shows ( Riptide and Hunter ) were also added to its prime time schedule. A number of Australian dramas ( Against

5300-411: The continent. Other writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs and Abraham Merritt , further developed the style. Several classic children's fantasies such as Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), L. Frank Baum 's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as well as the work of E. Nesbit and Frank R. Stockton were also published around this time. C. S. Lewis noted that in

5406-481: The development of fantasy with their writing of horror stories. Wilde also wrote a large number of children's fantasies, collected in The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891). H. Rider Haggard developed the conventions of the lost world subgenre with his novel King Solomon's Mines (1885), which presented a fantastical Africa to a European audience still unfamiliar with

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5512-568: The dispute in April 2007. At the beginning of March 2008, the two companies were reported to have resumed discussions over the dispute. Virgin chief executive Neil Berkett was reported as saying they had "continued interest in securing Sky basics back on our platform". The resumed talks had followed shortly after both Virgin and BSkyB had launched appeals against a recent Competition Appeal Tribunal ruling on BSkyB's 17.9% stake in ITV plc . On 4 November 2008,

5618-446: The earlier part of the 20th century, fantasy was more accepted in juvenile literature, and therefore a writer interested in fantasy often wrote for that audience, despite using concepts and themes that could form a work aimed at adults. At this time, the terminology for the genre was not settled. Many fantasies in this era were termed fairy tales, including Max Beerbohm 's " The Happy Hypocrite " (1896) and MacDonald's Phantastes . It

5724-735: The early 1990s until the late 2010s. Sky Sports aired Monday Night Raw and later SmackDown alongside all pay-per-view events and required an additional subscription to be able to view the Sports package, this led to the WWF/WWE content on Sky One being available to more viewers in the UK than the shows that aired only on Sky Sports. While WWF/WWE pay-per-view events aired on Sky Sports, other shows include Superstars , Wrestling Challenge , All American Wrestling , Action Zone , Mania , LiveWire , Shotgun and Metal which aired on Saturday or Sunday exclusively on Sky One with repeats throughout

5830-499: The epic Mabinogion . One influential retelling of this was the fantasy work of Evangeline Walton . The Irish Ulster Cycle and Fenian Cycle have also been plentifully mined for fantasy. Its greatest influence was, however, indirect. Celtic folklore and mythology provided a major source for the Arthurian cycle of chivalric romance : the Matter of Britain . Although the subject matter

5936-509: The fantasy genre, "The Fantastic Imagination", in his book A Dish of Orts (1893). MacDonald was a major influence on both Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, an admirer of the Middle Ages and a poet who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the 19th century, including The Well at the World's End (1896). Morris

6042-608: The fantasy genre. In the Christian Platonic tradition, the reality of other worlds, and an overarching structure of great metaphysical and moral importance, has lent substance to the fantasy worlds of modern works. With Empedocles ( c.  490  – c.  430 BC ), elements are often used in fantasy works as personifications of the forces of nature. India has a long tradition of fantastical stories and characters, dating back to Vedic mythology . The Panchatantra ( Fables of Bidpai ), which some scholars believe

6148-407: The fantasy genre; although it was unknown for centuries and so not developed in medieval legend and romance, several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner 's Grendel . Celtic folklore and legend has been an inspiration for many fantasy works. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, owing to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work,

6254-511: The first literary results of this trend was the Gothic novel , a genre that began in Britain with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole . That work is considered the predecessor to both modern fantasy and modern horror fiction . Another noted Gothic novel which also contains a large amount of Arabian Nights -influenced fantasy elements is Vathek (1786) by William Thomas Beckford . In

6360-540: The format was beginning to fade in the United States, the miniseries were reduced to two nights in late 1992 and then rescheduled to Tuesdays and Wednesdays in early 1994 under its new title called Midweek Drama , before being dropped altogether shortly after that and reappearing only as special event programming. In 1993, Sky One finally replaced its long-running Sunday night drama 21 Jump Street with exclusive premiere of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . The Sunday night timeslot

6466-713: The genre after World War II was Mervyn Peake 's Titus Groan (1946), the book that launched the Gormenghast series . J. R. R. Tolkien played a large role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths , particularly Beowulf , as well as William Morris's romances and E. R. Eddison 's 1922 novel, The Worm Ouroboros . Tolkien's close friend C. S. Lewis , author of The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–56) and

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6572-435: The genre of high fantasy —prompted a reaction. In China, the idea of fantasy literature as a distinct genre first became prevalent in the early 21st century. China has long had pre-genre stories with fantastical elements, including zhiguai , ghost stories, and miracle tales, among others. It is not uncommon for fantasy novels to be ranked on The New York Times Best Seller list , and some have been at number one on

6678-488: The highest ratings for any satellite channel. In 2000, 2.8 million viewers watched an episode of Friends , the highest-rated show on this network. However, when Channel 4 launched their own digital sister service E4 they outbid Sky One for exclusive first-run rights to both shows. However, Sky One still held the repeat rights for the early series of both shows for several years. Since 2011, Friends has been shown on Comedy Central . From 1989, Sky Channel (later Sky One)

6784-532: The later part of the Romantic period, folklorists collected folktales, epic poems, and ballads, and released them in printed form. The Brothers Grimm were inspired by the movement of German Romanticism in their 1812 collection Grimm's Fairy Tales , and they in turn inspired other collectors. Frequently their motivation stemmed not merely from Romanticism, but from Romantic nationalism , in that many were inspired to save their own country's folklore. Sometimes, as in

6890-431: The list, including most recently, Brandon Sanderson in 2014, Neil Gaiman in 2013, Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin in 2011, and Terry Goodkind in 2006. Symbolism often plays a significant role in fantasy literature, often through the use of archetypal figures inspired by earlier texts or folklore . Some argue that fantasy literature and its archetypes fulfill a function for individuals and society and

6996-546: The merger with British Satellite Broadcasting 's Galaxy on 2 November 1990, Sky One also picked up new sitcoms ( Parker Lewis Can't Lose , Growing Pains , Murphy Brown , In Living Color , Wings and Designing Women ), dramas ( China Beach , Hill Street Blues and the soap operas, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful ), reruns of classic sitcoms ( Bewitched and The Addams Family ),

7102-550: The messages are continually updated for current societies. Ursula K. Le Guin , in her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", presented the idea that language is the most crucial element of high fantasy , because it creates a sense of place. She analyzed the misuse of a formal, "olden-day" style, saying that it was a dangerous trap for fantasy writers because it was ridiculous when done wrong. She warns writers away from trying to base their style on that of masters such as Lord Dunsany and E. R. Eddison , emphasizing that language that

7208-459: The modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons, and other romantic tropes. At the time of the Renaissance romance continued to be popular, and the trend was to more fantastic fiction. The English Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471) was written in prose, and

7314-641: The most influential writers of fantasy and horror in the 20th century. Despite MacDonald's future influence, and Morris' popularity at the time, it was not until around the start of the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach a large audience, with authors such as Lord Dunsany (1878–1957) who, following Morris's example, wrote fantasy novels, but also in the short story form. He was particularly noted for his vivid and evocative style. His style greatly influenced many writers, not always happily; Ursula K. Le Guin , in her essay on style in fantasy "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", wryly referred to Lord Dunsany as

7420-500: The new service. On 1 March 2007 at midnight, Sky's basic channels – which included Sky One, Sky Two , Sky Three , Sky News , Sky Sports News , Sky Travel and Sky Travel Extra – were removed from the Virgin Media cable television services after a dispute from BSkyB . This was due to the expiry of their previous carriage agreement and the companies' inability to reach a new deal. Virgin issued legal proceedings against Sky over

7526-781: The oldest recorded form of many well-known (and some more obscure) European fairy tales. This was the beginning of a tradition that would both influence the fantasy genre and be incorporated in it, as many works of fairytale fantasy appear to this day. In a work on alchemy in the 16th century, Paracelsus (1493–1541) identified four types of beings with the four elements of alchemy: gnomes (earth elementals); undines (water); sylphs (air); and salamanders (fire). Most of these beings are found in folklore as well as alchemy, and their names are often used interchangeably with similar beings from folklore. Literary fairy tales, such as those written by Charles Perrault (1628–1703) and Madame d'Aulnoy (c.1650 – 1705), became very popular early in

7632-435: The one Moist faced in the beginning of the book: run the mint or exit the room. Gilt, however, chooses to walk through the door to his death. Sky One produced a two-part television film, Terry Pratchett's Going Postal , which aired on 30–31 May 2010. Based on a plot idea in this novel, after Terry Pratchett 's death some websites remember him via a special HTML header line. Fantasy novel Fantasy literature

7738-492: The popular espionage drama 24 after finding success on BBC Two for its first two seasons. Other new shows acquired by Sky One for 2004 included Las Vegas and as part of the WB deal, Tarzan and Jane , the unproduced Fearless and Skin . The success of the channel led to the launch of a sister service Sky 2 on 1 September 1996, broadcasts more first-run programmes between 7:00 pm and 6:00 am only. The spin-off channel

7844-450: The previous announcers. In 2011, two new part-time announcers were hired. During the day, pre-recorded announcements air, promoting shows from all the different Sky channels. Sky commissioned many homegrown programmes since it first started broadcasting back in 1984, but it was not until 1989 when content went beyond music and children's shows. During the early years in commissioned some new game shows including: The channel commissioned

7950-474: The priority of reason and promoting the importance of imagination and spirituality. Its success in rehabilitating imagination was of fundamental importance to the evolution of fantasy, and its interest in medieval romances provided many motifs to modern fantasy. The Romantics invoked the medieval romance as a model for the works they wanted to produce, in contrast to the realism of the Enlightenment. One of

8056-401: The quality of service had gone down considerably. Despite unnerving most of the board, Vetinari fails to make headway, especially with its chairman, Reacher Gilt . It is rumored that Reacher Gilt plans to usurp Vetinari as Patrician. As Moist attempts to revitalise the postal service, he discovers that over the few months before taking the job, a number of his predecessors have predeceased in

8162-513: The rights to the original Law & Order ). Newly appointed controller of Sky One, Sara Ramsden, struck a deal with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution to acquire five new US dramas: mainly the medical drama Nip/Tuck (which Sky acquired the first-run pay TV rights to after Channel 4 had already bought the FTA rights) and the CBS police procedural drama Cold Case . The channel also poached

8268-458: The same servers for all Sky channels, many of which were not broadcast in widescreen. On 25 August 2012, Stuart Murphy , director of Sky entertainment channels, announced that a one-hour timeshift of Sky One and Sky Atlantic will due to start in the autumn, with the former launching on 12 November of that year. For New Year's Day 2014 (1 January), Sky One was temporarily renamed Sky Onesie aiming "to encourage viewers to snuggle up in front of

8374-445: The scaffold faked. In his office, Vetinari presents Moist with two options: he may accept a job offer to become Postmaster of the city's rundown Postal Service or he may choose to walk out of the door and never hear from Vetinari again. As exiting through the door in question would lead to a fatal drop, Moist decides to accept the job. After a thwarted attempt at escape, Moist is brought to the Post Office by his parole officer Mr Pump,

8480-446: The schedule along with dramas ( The Streets of San Francisco , Trapper John, M.D. , Emergency! , The Love Boat , Fantasy Island , Voyagers! and Eight Is Enough ) were included. Sky Channel also aired classic movies, made-for-TV movies and miniseries (beginning with Spearfield's Daughter on its first night). Dolly Parton 's recent variety show Dolly , popular Australian science and technology show Beyond 2000 ,

8586-707: The scheduled programming had finished. This became a popular part of the brand and would often have exclusive first play on new releases that week. A later expansion of the music brand would be Sky One's Morning Glory show which would feature music videos in the early morning before the scheduled programming would start, which also featured various themes as well as caller requests. Sky One occasionally screened feature films which were shown with advertisement breaks , as well as several premium movie channels including Sky Cinema and its sister services. The channel became known for its first-run American imports such as: Seinfeld , Rescue 911 , Unsolved Mysteries , Buffy

8692-461: The series back once again between 30 October 2000 and 23 March 2001 was produced by Grundy (now owns the format) and presented by Liza Tarbuck , but did not capture the same degree of popularity as the Holness incarnation. The most recent game show was from Mark Burnett 's Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old? , based on a United States format. On 30 January 2008, Sky One announced plans to bring back

8798-717: The show aired a mix of entertainment, gossip and fashion. The "New Sky Channel", as it was dubbed in on-air promotion prior to its 5 February 1989 launch, continued to broadcast its signature children's programmes ( The DJ Kat Show and Fun Factory ), and also expanded its daytime programming with six back-to-back soaps ( The Sullivans , Another World , General Hospital , As the World Turns , Loving and The Young Doctors ) while reducing music programming to only one or two hours per day. Classic sitcoms ( The Lucy Show and Family Affair ) and more recent comedies ( Three's Company and Family Ties ) as well as put on

8904-408: The television show Malcolm in the Middle , unlike most American broadcasts, since the film was originally filmed on Panavision widescreen film but cropped to full-screen by most broadcasters. This airing of the show preserves the film's appearance without stretching or upscaling, although some scenes were compromised for widescreen and had to be upscaled). Sky stated that they intended to increase

9010-449: The television wearing onesies , in a bid to recover from the previous night's celebrations ". In 2017, Sky One began broadcasting some sports coverage. This included a partial simulcast of Soccer Saturday , highlights of, and occasional live coverage of, Formula One motor racing and the occasional live football match. The summer of 2019 saw Sky One show highlights of the 2019 Cricket World Cup and live coverage of England's matches in

9116-406: The time. The show featured regular competitions, phone-ins with guests and other features. This later evolved into a late night broadcast called Hit Mix Long Play which would broadcast simultaneously on both Sky One and Sky Two playing music videos from various genres; the show also featured themed topics such as "Step by Step" which would feature music videos with stairs in the song or video when

9222-546: The two begin a relationship by the end of the book. Dearheart is the daughter of the Clacks founder Robert Dearheart, though the company was taken away from her father and the other founders by tricky financial manoeuvring. She still has useful contacts amongst the clacks operators. Reacher Gilt sets a banshee assassin (Mr Gryle) on the Postmaster, but only manages to burn down much of the Post Office building. The banshee dies when he

9328-529: The villain's language might be inappropriate if vulgar. Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast ). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television , it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, it became Sky One and broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Ireland as British Sky Broadcasting 's flagship channel. It existed until 1 September 2021, when it closed down as part of

9434-582: The work dominates the Arthurian literature. Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works. At the time, it and the Spanish Amadis de Gaula (1508), which was also written in prose, spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well-received. It later produced such masterpieces of Renaissance poetry as Ludovico Ariosto 's Orlando furioso and Torquato Tasso 's Gerusalemme Liberata . Ariosto's tale in particular

9540-436: Was a source text for many fantasies of adventure. During the Renaissance , Giovanni Francesco Straparola wrote and published The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550–1555), a collection of stories of which many are literary fairy tales . Giambattista Basile wrote and published the Pentamerone , which was the first collection of stories to contain solely what would later be known as fairy tales. The two works include

9646-519: Was available via digital satellite on Sky , digital cable on Virgin Media , IPTV on TalkTalk TV and online via Sky Go and Now . In the Republic of Ireland, the channel was available via Sky Ireland , Virgin Media Ireland and Eir Vision . Bruce Hammal was the station's continuity announcer from 1984 to 1997. Absolute Radio DJ Claire Sturgess has been a "voice" of Sky One since 1998, and

9752-582: Was broadcast in 2012 and was not popular, leading Sky not to commission it for a second series. Moone Boy , a series written by and starring Chris O'Dowd , first screened in 2012, became an instant hit internationally. It lasted three series, and ended in 2015. In 2017, Sky One stopped showing factual content and moved to showing more comedy and drama programmes as well as selected sports coverage. In 1994, Sky One started their own music show called The Coca Cola Hit Mix (also known as The Hit Mix ) hosted by Terry Christian , featuring music news and guests at

9858-497: Was composed around the 3rd century BC. It is based on older oral traditions, including "animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine". It was influential in Europe and the Middle East . It used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles of political science . Talking animals endowed with human qualities have now become a staple of modern fantasy. The Baital Pachisi ( Vikram and

9964-505: Was heavily reworked by the authors, these romances developed marvels until they became independent of the original folklore and fictional, an important stage in the development of fantasy. Romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that reworked legends , fairy tales , and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes, but by c.  1600 they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel Don Quixote . Still,

10070-412: Was inspired by the medieval sagas, and his writing was deliberately archaic in the style of the chivalric romances . Morris's work represented an important milestone in the history of fantasy, as while other writers wrote of foreign lands or of dream worlds , Morris was the first to set his stories in an entirely invented world . Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde also contributed to

10176-449: Was modeled more on Tudor and Elizabethan English, and his stories were filled with vigorous characters in glorious adventures. Eddison's most famous work is The Worm Ouroboros (1922), a long heroic fantasy set on an imaginary version of the planet Mercury. Literary critics of the era began to take an interest in "fantasy" as a genre of writing, and also to argue that it was a genre worthy of serious consideration. Herbert Read devoted

10282-422: Was not a success as it was closed on 31 August 1997, which was replaced by the UK's version of National Geographic from the following day, and Sky One reverts back to its original name. On 9 December 2002, the channel was relaunched as Sky One Mix. On 21 September 2004, the channel was renamed Sky Mix. On 31 October 2005, Sky Mix was renamed Sky Two with the launch of a second sister channel Sky Three . Sky Two

10388-421: Was not until 1923 that the term "fantasist" was used to describe a writer (in this case, Oscar Wilde) who wrote fantasy fiction. The name "fantasy" was not developed until later; as late as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937), the term "fairy tale" was still being used. An important factor in the development of the fantasy genre was the arrival of magazines devoted to fantasy fiction. The first such publication

10494-533: Was one of the four last remaining channels on the analogue platform when it was switched off at midnight on 27 September 2001. In 2000, a dedicated feed of Sky One for Ireland was launched for most of this Irish feed's existence, the only difference between it and the United Kingdom feed has been differing commercials and programme promotions. In June 2003, the channel started broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen . However, all television commercials were broadcast in 4:3 until 21 November 2005, because they were played off

10600-548: Was popular in Victorian times , with the works of writers such as Mary Shelley , William Morris, George MacDonald, and Charles Dodgson reaching wider audiences. Hans Christian Andersen took a new approach to fairy tales by creating original stories told in a serious fashion. From this origin, John Ruskin wrote The King of the Golden River (1851), a fairy tale that included complex levels of characterization and created in

10706-666: Was renamed Sky Channel and finally became available in the UK to Swindon Cable 's 10,000 subscribers. It began incorporating a large number of American imports in its schedules and also increased the quantity of home-grown productions, including a number of new music shows with Gary Davies , Tony Blackburn , Linda de Mol , Pat Sharp , David "Kid" Jensen , and Anthea Turner presenting programmes such as Euro Top 40 , and UK Top 50 Chart . New children's programmes like Fun Factory and The DJ Kat Show , many of which came not only from Sky's own studios in London (Sky having already abandoned

10812-662: Was renamed Sky Replay on 27 August 2020, and Sky Three was renamed Pick on 28 February 2011. On 3 October 2023, it was announced that Pick will rebrand as Sky Mix on 18 October of that year. To coincide with the launch of Sky HD , Sky One HD began broadcasting on 22 May 2006. The channel is a simulcast of Sky One and screens high-definition versions of some of the channel's programming, which include Lost , Bones , 24 , WWE SmackDown , Fringe , Prison Break , House , and most recently new episodes of The Simpsons . Programmes that are not available in HD are "upscaled" (although Sky One showed its widescreen version of

10918-489: Was the German magazine Der Orchideengarten which ran from 1919 to 1921. In 1923, the first English-language fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales , was created. Many other similar magazines eventually followed. and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction H. P. Lovecraft was deeply influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and to a somewhat lesser extent, by Lord Dunsany; with his Cthulhu Mythos stories, he became one of

11024-525: Was the home of World Wrestling Federation in the UK. Certain special events such as Royal Rumble , UK Rampage and This Tuesday in Texas aired on Sky One, whilst a live broadcast of WrestleMania VI and others include SummerSlam and Survivor Series , shown on taped delay a number of days after the events were recorded, aired on Sky Movies . Sky moved all the special events to Sky Movies in 1991, before they transferred to Sky Sports on 1 September 1992 when

11130-416: Was the sole announcer from 2001 until 2005. As one of Sky One's four announcers, her voice-overs are pre-recorded once a week and played out by an automated system. Live continuity announcements air each evening. In 2009, they were voiced by announcers Dave Kelly, Faye Bamford and Philippa Collins. In 2010, three new continuity announcers were hired, Katie Morton, Katie Hudson and Paul Daniels, replacing all

11236-442: Was ultimately given to new episodes of the hit teen soap Beverly Hills, 90210 which was later paired off with its spin-off Melrose Place . After many years in the clear on 1 September of that year, Sky One was encrypted as part of the new Sky Multichannels subscription package, and could no longer be viewed outside Britain and Ireland without exporting a box, or receiving it over cable (although it had already been encrypted for

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