Pleasant J. Potter College

# Pleasant J. Potter College

## Abstract

Pleasant J. Potter College was an American private women's college that operated from 1889 to 1909 in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

## History

In early 1884, a group of businessmen in Bowling Green, Kentucky formed a committee to establish a girls' school for local and boarding students. Benjamin F. Cabell was elected president of the proposed school; he had taught at the Cedar Bluff College in Kentucky until that institution was destroyed by fire. Cabell began planning and fundraising for the new college.

The school committee purchased a 4-acre tract known as Vinegar Hill on the southern edge of Bowling Green in March 1889. Cabell and the committee sold subscriptions to the local community for $25 a share to fund a "state of the art" building. This scheme raised $17,000 but was short of the needed funds for the construction project. Local businessman and banker Pleasant J. Potter donated the last $5,000 ($ 169,556 in today's money) required for construction.

Pleasant J. Potter College was incorporated on February 9, 1889, with $21,160 set aside to construct its main building. It was named for Potter in recognition of his donation. Otis Wood of Louisiana was hired to construct the building; the construction workers were paid with shares in the building stock.

Pleasant J. Potter College for Young Ladies opened on September 9, 1889. Because the building was not completed until December, boarding students were housed in town. Its students consisted of female students of "high position". Cabell was the college's president.

Potter College operated on what was considered an out-of-date congregate system with a single building. This allowed the school's administrators to control the students, including locking them on their floors at night. In contrast to more modern colleges of the era that gave female students more freedom, the students at Potter College "chafed at a succession of rules, bells, and institutional constraints". Even its faculty petitioned to ease their duties as chaperons to the students.

In 1901, Cabell caught local boys helping five students exit the second floor via a ladder for a late-night date. Gunfire was exchanged between Cabell and the boys, but there were no injuries. The female students were expelled. Despite the college's attempt to reduce scandal, the incident made national news.

Cabell moved into a separate house next to the school building in 1907. However, his health declined, and the college suffered from financial difficulties as students went to other, more modern colleges. Cabell closed Potter College after the spring 1909 term, on May 20.

Western Kentucky State Normal School bought the buildings, properties, and adjacent 177 acres of Potter College in 1909 for $82,500. In February 1911, Western relocated to the former Potter campus. In the 1930s, the Potter College building was demolished. Potter College alumnae became affiliates of Western's alumni association in 1930.

## Campus

Potter College was located at the summit of Vinegar Hill (also called Copley Knob), 125 feet (38 m) above downtown Bowling Green. The four-story Italianate style college building was designed by Louisville architect Harry P. McDonald. The building featured two wings; a third wing was added in 1890. Its first floor included a chapel, classrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a library, and reception rooms. The second and third stories had a gymnasium, a music room, and 100 furnished bedrooms that housed two students each. The building had modern conveniences; it was heated by steam, illuminated by gas light, and its nine bathrooms had hot and cold running water. The college president and his wife also lived in the building until a nearby house was acquired in 1907.

## Academics

Potter College operated as a finishing school for upper-class girls but also provided a liberal arts education that prepared its students for work as artists, businesswomen, nurses, social reformers, teachers, and writers. Its students graduated with Bachelor of Arts, Mistress of English language, or a Certificate of Proficiency. The latter required "satisfactory completion" of coursework in elocution, English, French, German, Latin, math, music, and science.

Cabell developed a curriculum focused on English studies, mathematics, and science. Students studied a mix of classical and more recent writings, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Cicero, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Shakespeare, and Virgil. Science offerings include botany, chemistry, physics, and zoology. Other required courses included history, logic, and political economy. Over time, religious studies, elocution, political geography, and spelling were added to the college's curriculum. Students could also take electives, including art, languages, and music.

## Student life

Students at Potter College were required to attend chapel daily; on Sundays, they attended the local church selected by their parents.

One of the college's first clubs was the Young Women's Christian Association. Other clubs were organized around the students' state residence, such as Kentucky, Tennessee, or Texas. Two literary societies, Hypatian and Ossolian, were also established, as well as French, German, and Shakespeare Clubs.

Potter College had social sororities, including chapters of Beta Sigma Omicron (1902), Sigma Iota Chi (1909) Eta Upsilon Gamma (1908) and Phi Mu Gamma (1908). All four chapters went defunct in 1909 when the college closed. The sororities established rooms in the school building.

The students formed intramural athletic teams for basketball, bowling, and tennis. The students also published The Green and Gold on a quarterly basis.


1989–90 in Swiss football

# 1989–90 in Swiss football

## Abstract

The following is a summary of the 1989–90 season of competitive football in Switzerland.

## Nationalliga A

### Qualification phase

### Championship group

The first eight teams of the qualification phase competed in the Championship round. The teams took half of the points (rounded up to complete units) gained in the qualification as bonus with them.

## Nationalliga B

### Qualification phase

### Promotion/relegation round

### Relegation round NLB/1. Liga

The last six teams in each of the two qualification phase groups competed in two relegation groups against relegation to the 1. Liga 1991–92. The teams received ranking bonus points from their qualifying groups (7th place 6 pts; 8th place 5 pts; 9th place 4 pts; etc). There was to be one direct relegation in each group, plus a play-out against relegation between both second last placed teams.

### Relegation play-out

FC Montreux-Sports won 7–1 on aggregate and FC Zug were relegated to 1990–91 1. Liga.

## 1. Liga

### Group 1

### Group 2

### Group 3

### Group 4

### Promotion play-off

Urania Genève Sport win 2–0 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

Concordia/Folgore Lausanne win 2–0 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

SC Burgdorf win 4–1 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

SC Kriens win 3–2 on aggregate and continue to the finals.

SC Burgdorf win 6–3 on aggregate and are promoted to Nationalliga B.

Urania Genève Sport win 7–4 on aggregate and are promoted to Nationalliga B.

The play-off for the third promotion place was played on 16 June 1990 in Châtel-St-Denis.

Concordia/Folgore Lausanne win, but refused promotion, so SC Kriens are promoted to Nationalliga B.

The play-off for the 1. Liga championship was played on 16 June 1990 in Châtel-St-Denis.

Urania Genève Sport ' win and become 1. Liga champions. '

### Relegation play-out

FC Raron continue to the final.

FC Vaduz continue to the final.

FC Raron win 4–3 on aggregate and remain in the division. FC Vaduz are relegated to 2. Liga.

## Swiss Cup

### Early rounds

The routes of the finalists to the final, played on 4 June 1990 at the Wankdorf in Bern:

### Final

## Swiss Clubs in Europe

- Luzern as 1988–89 Nationalliga A champions: 1989–90 European Cup and entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

- Grasshopper Club as 1988–89 Swiss Cup winners: 1989–90 Cup Winners' Cup and entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

- Sion as league third placed team: 1989–90 UEFA Cup

- Wettingen as league fourth placed team: 1989–90 UEFA Cup and entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

- Bellinzona: entered 1989 Intertoto Cup

### Luzern

#### European Cup

##### First round

PSV Eindhoven won 5–0 on aggregate.

#### Intertoto Cup

##### Group 1

## Sources

- Switzerland 1989–90 at RSSSF

- Cup finals at Fussball-Schweiz

- Intertoto history at Pawel Mogielnicki's Page

{ { 1989–90 in Swiss football } }


Eternal September

# Eternal September

## Abstract

Eternal September or the September that never ended refers to a cultural phenomenon during a period beginning around late 1993 and early 1994, when Internet service providers began offering Usenet access to many new users. Prior to this, the only sudden changes in the volume of new users of Usenet occurred each September, when cohorts of university students would gain access to it for the first time. The periodic flood of new users overwhelmed the existing culture for online forums and the ability to enforce existing norms. AOL began their Usenet gateway service in March 1994, leading to a constant stream of new users. Hence, from the early Usenet hobbyist point of view, the influx of new users that began in September 1993 appeared to be endless.

## History

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Usenet and the Internet were generally the domain of dedicated computer professionals and hobbyists; new users joined slowly, in small numbers, and observed and learned the social conventions of online interaction without having much of an impact on the experienced users. The only exception to this was September of every year, when large numbers of first-year college students gained access to the Internet and Usenet through their universities. These large groups of new users who had not yet learned online etiquette created a nuisance for the experienced users, who came to dread September every year. Once ISPs like AOL made affordable Internet access widely available for home users, a continuous influx of new users began, making it feel like it was always "September" to the more experienced users.

The full phrase appears to have evolved over a series of months on two separate alt.folklore newsgroups where a number of threads exist lamenting what they saw as an increase in low-quality posts across various newsgroups. Several members of the newsgroups referenced aspects of the "September" issue, typically in a joking manner.

In a thread on January 8, 1994, Joel Furr cross-posted asking "Is it just me, or has Delphi unleashed a staggering amount of weirdos on the net?", which garnered a reply from Karl Reinsch "Of course it's perpetually September for Delphi users, isn't it?" The day before, Furr had also posted the same message to alt.folklore.urban, where David Fischer responded with a joke call-to-action where he referred to the increasing numbers of Delphi users as the "Never-Ending-September". Fischer also replied to a different thread on January 25, 1994, in alt.folklore.computers saying, "It's moot now. September 1993 will go down in net history as the September that never ended." This quote has been suggested to have been the first reference.

Possibly the first use of the "Eternal September" phrase was a newsgroup post by John William Chambless in February 1994. He posted a rant including some excerpts of low-quality articles he found in one of his newsgroups that day, but titled the post "The Eternal September".

## Legacy

A tongue-in-cheek program called sdate outputs the current date, formatted using the Eternal September calendar (September X, 1993, where X is an unbounded counter for days since that epoch). This is not the identically named sdate, one of the sixty commands that comes with the First Edition of Unix, that is used to set the system clock. Named with similar humour is one of the free public Usenet servers, Eternal-September.org.


Luisangel Acuña

# Luisangel Acuña

## Abstract

Luisangel José Acuña (born March 12, 2002) is a Venezuelan professional baseball infielder for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2024.

## Career

### Texas Rangers

Acuña grew up in La Sabana, Venezuela. Acuña had agreed in principle to sign with the Atlanta Braves in 2017, but due to the Braves international signing scandal, Atlanta was stripped of its ability to pay his signing bonus and he returned to the open market. On July 2, 2018, Acuña signed with the Texas Rangers for a $425,000 signing bonus.

Acuña made his professional debut with the DSL Rangers of the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League in 2019, hitting.342/.438/.455 with two home runs, 29 runs batted in (RBI), and 17 stolen bases, and was named to the DSL All-Star team. He did not play in any games in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acuña spent the 2021 season with the Down East Wood Ducks of the Low-A East. Over 111 games he hit.266/.345/.404 with 12 home runs, 74 RBI, and 44 stolen bases. Acuña was named the Rangers 2021 minor league Defender of the Year. Acuña opened the 2022 season with the Hickory Crawdads of the High-A South Atlantic League, hitting.317/.417/.483 with eight home runs, 29 RBI, and 28 stolen bases over 54 games. He was promoted to the Frisco RoughRiders of the Double-A Texas League on August 2 and finished the season after hitting.224/.302/.349 with three home runs, 18 RBI, and 13 stolen bases for Frisco. Acuña played for the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League following the 2022 season, and was named to the Fall League All-Star team.

On November 15, 2022, the Rangers added Acuña to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Acuña was optioned back to Frisco to begin the 2023 season.

### New York Mets

On July 30, 2023, the Rangers traded Acuña to the New York Mets in exchange for Max Scherzer and cash considerations. In 37 games, he batted.243/.317/.304 with two home runs, 12 RBI, and 15 stolen bases. Acuña began the 2024 season with the Triple–A Syracuse Mets.

In 2024, Acuña played second base, shortstop and center field, and led Syracuse in stolen bases. In 131 games for Triple–A Syracuse, he batted.258/.299/.355 with 7 home runs and 50 RBI. On September 14, 2024, Acuña was promoted to the major leagues for the first time and made his Major League debut the same day against the Philadelphia Phillies. He then got his first Major League hit, a single to center field off of pitcher Taijuan Walker in the 4th inning.

## Personal life

Acuña comes from a baseball family. His brother, Ronald Acuña Jr., is an MLB outfielder. His father, Ronald Sr., played in minor league baseball for three organizations, and, in 2022, his younger brother Bryan was signed by the Minnesota Twins.


Geni.com

# Geni.com

## Abstract

Geni is an American commercial genealogy and social networking website, founded in 2006, and owned by MyHeritage, an Israeli private company, since November 2012. As of 2024, MyHeritage has kept its genealogical website separate from Geni's website, though you can still match Geni profiles to trees on MyHeritage and to other family tree sites and digitized records.

The New York Times groups it with FamilyLink.com and Ancestry.com, "a vast and growing trove of digitized records". As of March 23, 2023, around 177,017,009 profiles had been created on Geni.

## Features

At the website users enter names and email addresses of their parents, siblings, and other relatives, as well as profiles with various fields of biographical information about themselves and their relatives. From there users may graphically manipulate sections of their connections network to create a complete personal family tree.

The service uses the contact information to invite additional members to join, and builds a social network database from the information collectively entered by members. For now users may only see information belonging to themselves, their connected "family group", and to people in their immediate network who have given them permission.

### Discussion forums and projects

Each family tree features a family discussion forum where messages can be posted and responses made. It can be used as such a digest for family news. There are also public discussions, profile specific discussions, and project discussions.

Projects are special interest groups organized around historical topics (e.g. "World War One - Casualties"), immigration patterns (e.g. "Norwegian American"), occupations (e.g. "Librarians"), place-names (e.g. "Christ Church, Oxford University"), or any other subject of general interest that will foster social discussion among members, as well as providing a portal to which biographical profiles may be linked.

### Importing and exporting

From 2008 until December 2010, Geni had a built-in feature that allowed users to import their family history using the GEDCOM file format. This facility was disabled for eight years because Geni found it was duplicating thousands of existing profiles, often with poor information quality as compared to the existing profiles.

In February 2019 a new GEDCOM file import feature became available that allows the import of profiles which didn’t exist before on Geni. Only a few generations of a tree are imported at a time, continuing only on branches where there are no matches to existing profiles on Geni.

Data from public records and family trees can also be imported from 13 supported web sites using an independently developed semi-automatic tool called SmartCopy, which is based on web scraping. Families are imported one at a time; the user can manually edit or verify the information before importing, and also choose between adding the information to existing profiles or creating new profiles. SmartCopy includes a consistency check feature that warns when data may be unreasonable. The user must ask for full access to the tool. SmartCopy is a third-party open source web browser extension that has been available since 2015.

### DNA information

Lists can be compiled of profiles that are expected to have the same haplogroup as a specific profile, since they are related on a strict male line or female line.

Genealogical DNA test results (autosomal tests, YDNA tests and MtDNA tests) can be imported from various test sites. The haplogroup of the test person is indicated and propagated in the family tree to all profiles that are expected to share it. Lists of tested people matching the DNA are presented.

### Automated consistency checking

A serious problem with online family trees is the inappropriate propagation of information from one ancestor or family line to another. This can happen if users make incorrect identifications between ancestors and others in the tree already. This can lead to strange results such as people born after their mothers have died or when their supposed parents were still small children. In 2019 Geni introduced automated consistency checking which alerts users to 28 types of such problems.

## Reception

By 2008, Geni was the chief website operating on the "one great family" collaborative model (now commonly known as "collaborative genealogy"), seen as the next step for genealogy in the digital era. Geni's model has been described as a new collaborative, resource-sharing alternative to the "corporate for-profit model" of genealogy research.

Scientists and academics have used Geni for genetic, anthropological, and sociological research. Due to its size and geographic spread, Geni has been cited as a "key social media website" by researchers. Educators have used Geni's visual and social media attributes as a way to get students interested in family history. Author A. J. Jacobs used Geni extensively for his 2017 book It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree and partnered with the company to host his 2015 "Global Family Reunion."

In 2017, a multinational team of scientists led by Yaniv Erlich used 86 million publicly available profiles from Geni, of which 13 million were connected into a single family tree, to study the structure of historical populations over the past 600 years, mostly from Western Europe and the United States. Their findings, published in Science, were used to analyze the genetics of longevity and familial dispersion.

Much like Wikipedia and other wikis, Geni was criticized in early years over users not citing sources, leading the site's staff and power users to push the community to use more documentation. As Geni profiles and projects have become more documented, Geni has been cited in academic journals, though some critics remain concerned about the accuracy of collaborative trees as a whole.


HaNoar HaTzioni

# HaNoar HaTzioni

## Abstract

Hanoar Hatzioni (Hebrew: הנוער הציוני, lit. The Zionist Youth), fully "Histadrut Halutzit Olamit Hanoar Hatzioni", or "HH" for short, is a youth movement established in 1926, with its head offices now in Israel. Its three main pillars are Chalutzism ("pioneering spirit", from the Hebrew word chalutz, "pioneer"), Pluralism, and Zionism. The movement sees Judaism as the source of national, social and moral values that preserve the integrity and continuity of the Jewish people.

The main objective of the HaNoar Hatzioni is Hagshama Atzmit (personal materialization), which among other things means to have a full Jewish life in Israel. For its purposes the movement uses the scout method.

## History of Hanoar

During the years following the First World War, two ideological currents ran throughout European youth, Jews included: fascist nationalism and revolutionary Marxism. A small group of enlightened Jewish youths criticised the extremist positions and slogans and concluded that they would not endure reality. At the same time, they sensed the danger caused by the separation and division of people into two opposing camps, fighting each other. They then considered an obligation to create a youth movement.

The year was 1926 when the idea crystallized with the establishment of Hanoar Hatzioni. Already at its beginnings, the movement appeared on the scene as an educational movement extracting its principles at the foundations of Judaism, Zionism and pioneering.

### History of Hanoar in Britain

In 1956, Hanoar Hatzioni was established in Britain. During this time, there was little on offer to Jewish youth. Hanoar Hatzioni offered an alternative to the highly political or religiously affiliated Zionist youth movements, and the non-political youth clubs.

During the 1960s, Hanoar Hatzioni in Britain focused its activities in those parts which had very little to offer Jewish youth. Hanoar Hatzioni successfully ran weekly meetings all around the country, residential events such as camps that are continued to this day, and trips to Israel.

## The Hanoar Hatzioni Vision

Hanoar has two underlying beliefs: (a) educating the Chanich (participant); and (b) a Jewish-Zionist worldview. Through this it strives to grow the future of the Jewish people with a belief in the centrality of the State of Israel.

### Judaism

Since the times of the Second Temple, Judaism was very heavily engaged in argument and debate – this is what led to the writing of the Talmud. This has continued and Hanoar Hatzioni both accepts and encourages the existence of different streams of thought, philosophical conceptions and ways of practice, within the framework of the modern Jewish spectrum.

Also Hanoar Hatzioni accepts anyone who defines themselves as Jewish, beyond Orthodox Halacha requirements. It strives to create Chanichim with a strong identity of who participants are and what it means to be Jewish.

### Zionism

Their belief is that Zionism can and will bring together the dispersed nation in its historical homeland and that only in Israel can there be a full, normative and Jewish experience for an entire society.

The movement also recognises that there are many different conceptions of Zionism and values them all. However it also recognises the need to rank these different interpretations, with Israel being at the centre. Therefore, Aliyah is the highest expression of Judaism and Zionism and something all graduates (bogrim, singular boger/et) need to place before themselves as part of their self-realisation.

### Hagshama

This is one of the central pillars of Hanoar Hatzioni and something that all participants must go through in their time in the movement. In the modern world this means finding the meeting point between personal interests and the needs of the nation. In Jewish history, before the creation of the State it was Kibbutzim that fulfilled these ideals – bringing justice and equality to the front as individuals would work together for the greater good of the collective. Hanoar Hatzioni hope that the renewed evaluation of the Kibbutz ideals will once again see these institutions at the front of society.

### Dugma Ishit

The Madrich is the foundation of its educational programme and the personal example of our Madrichim and Bogrim awards the ethical basis for its work. As a result of this, HHUK directs the majority of its efforts towards content and ideals, with its heritage, Chanichim and Bogrim, representing a serious and responsible movement committed to Jewish-Zionist informal education.

## Values

Hanoar Hatzioni has 36 values at its conceptual core, they are as follows:

- Sanctity of Life

- Dignity

- Liberty

- Freedom

- Solidarity

- Mutual Support

- Tolerance

- Justice

- Peace

- Truth

- Responsibility

- Equality

- Honesty

- Integrity

- Ethics

- Benevolence

- Pluralism

- Self-realization

- Pioneering

- Fellowship

- Personal Example

- Moratorium

- Continuity

- The Right to Doubt

- Dialogue

- Creativity

- Self-management

- Activism

- Learning

- Intellectual Curiosity

- Leadership

- Modesty/Humility

- Brotherhood

- Independent/Critical Thinking

- Coherence/Consistency

- Self-expression

## Worldwide movement

Hanoar Hatzioni is currently located in 17 countries across four different continents, making for a truly global youth movement. Hanoar Hatzioni is active in England, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

Participants and movement leaders (madrichim, singular madrich/a; literally guides) from all the different countries have opportunities to meet each other and interact on a variety of events, be it during Israel Tour, Gap Year, other trips to Israel as well as an annual international "Seminar for Madrichim and Bogrim" (SBM) which in 2010 was hosted in London, 2011 in Antwerp, 2012 in Budapest and 2013 in Athens.

### Britain

Hanoar Hatzioni in Britain is a youth movement that works with leaders and participants wherever they may be. A range of activities are provided for at youth centres in Southend, King Solomon High School, Kulanu (Kenton), Rowley Lane and Shenley., the Zone in Leeds and the Hub in Manchester

In addition to regular activities, Hanoar Hatzioni UK offers an annual summer camp, Israel Tour and Gap Year Programmes. During the summer camps the participants are exposed to some of the most creative and spontaneous leaders around, they even have time to show off their vocal skills in their camp album.

Hanoar Hatzioni offers its members a membership scheme which means that they are kept up to date with activities as well as a discount on events that they want to attend It is a scheme that gives both the children and leaders something.

Many members have gone on to do great things both for their communities back at home, as well as those in Israel. Spencer Gelding, formally the Mazkir (National Director) of Hanoar Hatzioni in Britain, has given his time to many charitable causes.

## Settlements of Hanoar Hatzioni

- Usha

- HaSolelim

- Kfar Glickson

- Tel Yitzhak

- Nitzanim

- Ein HaShlosha

- Sde David

- Petahya

- Yad Natan

- Timorim

- Nir Yisrael

- Shoresh

- Givat Yeshayahu

- Talmei Yaffe

- Mavki'im

- Kfar Shmuel

- Shilat

- Beit Nehemia

- Beit Yehoshua

- Reihan

- Mei Ami

- Alonei Abba

- Neot Golan

- She'ar Yashuv

- Dishon

- Amnun

- Sde Eliezer

- Massua


# List of people who survived assassination attempts

## Abstract

This is a list of survivors of assassination attempts who were not heads of state, listed chronologically.

For survivors who were heads of state, see List of heads of state and government who survived assassination attempts. For successful assassination attempts, see List of assassinations.


Judith A. Boss

# Judith A. Boss

## Abstract

Judith A. Boss is an ethicist and author of several college textbooks with McGraw-Hill Education, including THiNK, Ethics for Life, and Analyzing Moral Issues. She is also author of a romantic/suspense novel set in Antarctica titled Deception Island (Wild Rose Press, 2015) as well as a YA suspense novel titled Fall from Grace (Wild Rose Press, 2018).

## Biography

Judith Boss (née Wager) was born in the village of Honeoye Falls, south of Rochester, New York in the heart of wine country. She attended elementary school in Irondequoit, where her family moved when she was two.

When not in school, she enjoyed wandering the woods and fields around her home and picking beans for 25¢ a basket for Mr. King, who owned the truck farm behind her house. She also loved hiking and camping and was active in the Girl Scouts throughout high school.

An avid writer, when Judy was 11 years old she wrote and illustrated her first “novel," a story about her beloved parakeet “Sparky." My Little Sparky was followed by several other short novels and a book of poems.

Following graduation from high school, Judy attended the University of Rochester for a few years before dropping out and emigrating to Australia. Both of Judy’s daughters were born in Australia. She also finished her B.A. in philosophy and anthropology at the University of Western Australia.

From Australia, the family moved to Nova Scotia, Canada for graduate school. After graduate school, Judy worked for eight years as a writer/researcher for the Nova Scotia Museum. In 1979, Judy and her two daughters moved to Newport, Rhode Island where she continued to work as a writer. She also worked as a lecturer for several years at the University of Rhode Island before going back to full-time writing.

Judy currently lives in rural Rhode Island with her family. An avid traveler, she has traveled with students from the University of Rhode Island and Brown Medical School to work with underserved, indigenous people in Guatemala and Mexico. Her favorite travel destination, however, is Antarctica.

## Education

Boss earned a PhD in Social Ethics in 1990 from Boston University, a MSc in Human Development from the University of Rhode Island in 1991, and BA in Philosophy from the University of Western Australia in 1969. She was on the faculty of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rhode Island from 1988 to 1995 and worked as Assistant Director of Curriculum Affairs at Brown University School of Medicine until 2004, when she "retired" to return to full-time writing. Boss is the author of ten books, including Deception Island a suspense novel, three short stories, and numerous articles in academic journals including The Journal of Moral Education, Public Affairs Quarterly, The Journal of Medical Ethics, Academic Medicine, Educational Theory, Free Inquiry, and The Journal of Experiential Education.


The Diane Linkletter Story

# The Diane Linkletter Story

## Abstract

The Diane Linkletter Story is a 1970 16mm short film by American filmmaker John Waters starring Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, and David Lochary.

## Overview

This improvised film is based on the 1969 suicide of TV personality Art Linkletter 's daughter, Diane. In the film, Mr. and Mrs. Linkletter fret about their daughter's recent behavior, which includes taking drugs and dating a lowlife named Jim. Eventually, the parents confront Diane, which results in her suicide under the influence of LSD. Waters claims that the film is "accidental" – he and his friends improvised a story while testing a new synch-sound camera (later used on Multiple Maniacs). The film had a very limited release in the early 1970s, mainly in art houses as short feature before Pink Flamingos, and gained a wider audience when it showed up on a 1990 videotape entitled A Divine Double Feature, paired with a live recording of the off-Broadway play The Neon Woman, which also starred Divine.

## Cast

- Divine as Diane Linkletter

- David Lochary as Art Linkletter

- Mary Vivian Pearce as Lois Foerster Linkletter

## Background

John Waters stated in a 2015 interview with the British Film Institute that the short is the worst of his works, but that The Diane Linkletter Story was ad-libbed and was really just a test of the camera the day it was filmed.


Suspending Disbelief

# Suspending Disbelief

## Abstract

Suspending Disbelief is the eighth album by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb, released in September 1993 by Elektra Records.

## Production

Suspending Disbelief was recorded in February and March 1993 at The Site and Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, Russian Hill Recording in San Francisco, and Johnny Yuma Recording in Los Angeles. The album was mixed at Record One in Los Angeles.

## Critical reception

In his review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann wrote that Suspending Belief contains Webb's "most straightforward, plainspoken writing yet" and that the songwriter "seems better able to perform his music now than at any time in the past." Ruhlmann continued:

Suspending Disbelief doesn't, like other Webb albums, sound like a series of unrelated songs sung by an adequate vocalist but waiting for better singers to get at them. It sounds like a unified statement by an artist in his own right. At 46, that artist clearly has been around the block a few times, and he's no longer interested in waxing poetic about cakes left out in the rain or space travel; these songs are decidedly down to earth. If the reminiscences leading to the conclusion that he's "Too Young to Die" stake his claim to currency, he actually spends most of the album looking back maturely and somewhat sadly, when he isn't taking others to task for their bad behavior.... The music never overwhelms the songs. And Webb, whose voice has deepened and coarsened from the wheezy Oklahoma tenor he exhibited 20 years earlier, has gained in confidence and control as a singer, enabling him to put across his material better than he ever did before.

The AllMusic website gave the album four out of five stars. Glen Campbell would record four tracks on this album for his final album, Adios.

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Jimmy Webb, except where noted

## Personnel


# Society of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Hainaut

## Abstract

The Society of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Hainaut (French: Société des sciences, des arts et des lettres du Hainaut) was a learned society for Belgian intellectuals in the 1830s. It was established to advance intellectual pursuits within the province of Hainaut.

## History

The Society of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Hainaut was founded on 14 March 1833 in Mons, Hainaut Province in Belgium.

In 1840, the first volume of the society's journal Mémoires et publications de la Société des sciences, des arts et des lettres du Hainaut was released. By 1842–1843, it was published in Mons by Belgian printer Emmanuel Hoyois.

In the early 1840s, the society's leadership included Nicolas Defuisseaux as president, Camille Wins and Camille Joseph Castiaux as vice presidents, Adolphe Mathieu as General Secretary, and Augustin Lacroix as Librarian and Archivist. On April 17, 1843, the society's tenth anniversary was celebrated with a public session that attracted members, foreign scholars, and a large, select audience.

In 1877, the publication of the society was featured in the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In 1878, the Library of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, And Letters held the memoirs published throughout the 1870s.

As early as January 1878, the society was a Foreign Correspondent of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.


2024 World Series of Darts Finals

# 2024 World Series of Darts Finals

## Abstract

The 2024 Jack's World Series of Darts Finals was the tenth staging of the World Series of Darts Finals tournament, organised by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament took place at AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands, from 13 to 15 September 2024. It featured a field of 32 players for the first time.

Luke Littler won the title for the first time in his career on his debut, after beating Michael Smith 11–4 in the final. Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion, but lost to Luke Littler in the semi-finals 4–11.

## Prize money

The prize money has increased compared to the previous edition:

## Qualification

The top eight players from the seven World Series events will be seeded for this tournament.

Those events were:

- 2024 Bahrain Darts Masters

- 2024 Dutch Darts Masters

- 2024 US Darts Masters

- 2024 Nordic Darts Masters

- 2024 Poland Darts Masters

- 2024 Australian Darts Masters

- 2024 New Zealand Darts Masters

Additional players were invited by the PDC, with eight players qualifying from a qualifying event for tour card holders on 23 August.


Julie White

# Julie White

## Abstract

Julie K. White (born June 4, 1961) is an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Little Dog Laughed in 2007. She has also received three other Tony Award nominations for her performances in Airline Highway in 2013, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus in 2019 and POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022. She played Sam Witwicky's mother in Transformers film series (2007-2011).

She is also known for her television roles, including Nadine Swoboda in Chuck Lorre created ABC sitcom Grace Under Fire (1993-1997) as well as Ms. Preecher in American Horror Story (2023-2024). Other notable appearances on television include guest roles on Six Feet Under (2001-2002), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2003-2007), Desperate Housewives (2006), Nurse Jackie (2014) and The Good Wife (2015). She has also appeared in such films as Michael Clayton (2007), Lincoln (2012) and A Very Murray Christmas (2015).

## Personal life

White was born in the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California, the daughter of Sue Jane (née Terry), a therapist, and Edwin White, a dentist. White and her family moved to Austin, Texas, to take up ranching when she was three years old. She started acting in local plays and became a semi-professional at 16. While she was playing the lead role in the musical The Baker's Wife, the show's authors encouraged her to take her talent to New York City.

After graduating from high school, she attended Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University) and then attended Fordham University as an English major, although she did not graduate. White married Carl Pandel in 1984; they divorced in 1990.

## Career

White has been a prolific stage actress, getting her start in regional theatre. Some of her regional theater credits include On the Verge at the Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1985–1986, Largo desolato at the Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, 1990–1991, Marvin's Room at Seattle Repertory Theatre in January 1992, Absurd Person Singular in 1993 at the Long Wharf Theatre, Money and Friends by David Williamson at the UCLA James A. Doolittle Theatre, Hollywood, California, presented by the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson in January to March 1993.

White made her Off-Broadway debut in Lucky Stiff in 1988 at Playwrights Horizons. She appeared in Just Say No (1988) and in the Off-Broadway WPA Theatre production of Early One Evening At the Rainbow Bar and Grille (1989) by Bruce Graham. She appeared in The Stick Wife by Darrah Cloud produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club at Stage II in 1991.

She appeared in Michael John LaChiusa's Over Texas, presented as part of the Ensemble Studio Theater's Marathon in 1991.

She appeared at the Off-Broadway Second Stage production of the Theresa Rebeck play Spike Heels with Kevin Bacon and Tony Goldwyn in 1992. Frank Rich wrote: "Julie White makes a far more vivid impression. Rail-thin but with a broad face and features, this actress has an off-center style and piquant wit that make her a natural for high comedy of this or any other period." White appeared in a one-woman show, Theresa Rebeck's Bad Dates, written especially for her. The play premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in June 2003.

On Broadway, White appeared in Wendy Wasserstein 's Pulitzer Prize -winning play, The Heidi Chronicles, as a replacement. She also appeared in the made-for-television movie of The Heidi Chronicles, which aired in 1995.

In 2006, she appeared Off-Broadway in The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane, playing Diane, a screen agent, who, as one critic put it, is "a Mephistopheles in Manolos". The show transferred to Broadway in October 2006 with a new cast, including former Grace Under Fire costar Tom Everett Scott. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance.

White played Nadine, the quirky neighbor on Grace Under Fire. White joined the show when it launched in 1993 and appeared in the first four seasons. However, she did not appear in the show's final season. Her departure was attributed to conflict with the show's star, Brett Butler.

White has subsequently made several guest appearances on HBO 's Six Feet Under as Mitzi Dalton-Huntley and on NBC 's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Dr. Anne Morella. White also appeared on Desperate Housewives as Amanda in the Season Two finale but chose to turn down a recurring role when she was offered the role in The Little Dog Laughed. She plays Judy Witwicky, mother of the main human character Sam Witwicky, in Transformers and its sequels, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. White appeared in the ABC sitcom Cavemen in 2007.

In 2008, White received a Drama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Actress in a Play for her role in the play From Up Here.

In 2009, she appeared in the HBO original movie Taking Chance starring Kevin Bacon. She also lent her voice to the 2009 animated film Monsters vs. Aliens.

White has served several times as a guest judge on the reality TV series Iron Chef America. White stepped into the role of Masha, originated by Sigourney Weaver, in Christopher Durang's play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, on Broadway, from July 28 to August 25, 2013, at the Golden Theatre.

In 2013, White was a series regular on Amazon's Alpha House, a political comedy series written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau. White plays Maddie Biggs, the wife of North Carolina Senator Gil John Biggs, played by John Goodman. White will also appear in the show's second season, which is filming over the summer of 2014.

In 2014 she joined the cast of the Showtime television drama Nurse Jackie for its sixth season.

She appeared on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of the Lisa D'Amour play Airline Highway in April 2015 to June 2015. White was nominated for the 2015 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play and the 2015 Tony Award, Featured Actress in a Play. Later in 2015, she played Kate opposite Matthew Broderick and Annaleigh Ashford in Sylvia at the Cort Theatre.

In July 2017, White took over the role of Nora in A Doll's House, Part 2 at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway, succeeding Laurie Metcalf.

In 2018, White was cast in a recurring role in the third season of Netflix 's Designated Survivor as Lorraine Zimmer.

In 2019, White joined the cast of Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. An unexpected injury had forced Andrea Martin, the original star, to not be able to continue the show. Kristine Nielsen took over Martin's role, and White took over Nielsen's role, with only a few extra days for rehearsal. Both women were rewarded with Tony Award nominations for Featured Actress in a Play for their performances.

In 2022, White was cast in the role of Helen Smallwood on the CBS sitcom How We Roll.

## Filmography

### Film

Sources:

### Television

Source:


Martin Hewitt (police officer)

# Martin Hewitt (police officer)

## Abstract

Martin James Hewitt CBE QPM (born 23 March 1966) is a senior British police officer, who has served as Chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council from May 2019 to March 2023. On 15 September 2024, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper appointed him as the UK's first Border Security Commander.

## Early life and education

Hewitt was born on 23 March 1966 in London, England. He was educated at the Salesian College, Battersea, an all-boys Catholic grammar school in London. He would later attend the University of Leicester, completing a postgraduate diploma in criminal justice studies in 2000.

Hewitt's first career was in the military, serving in the British Army for seven years. Having attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 11 April 1987. He was promoted to lieutenant on 11 April 1989. He was transferred to the reserve of officers on 31 January 1993, thereby ending his active service.

## Police career

Hewitt moved to the police, joining Kent Police in 1993 and transferring to the Metropolitan Police in 2005. He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 2014. He was the Metropolitan Police's Assistant Commissioner (Professionalism) until April 2016, when he became Assistant Commissioner (Territorial Policing). That role was renamed Assistant Commissioner Frontline Policing in 2018, and he held it until the end of that year.

He had been deputy chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) since 2015. He took up his role as chair of the NPCC in April 2019, succeeding Sara Thornton, and with Mark Simmons succeeding him as Assistant Commissioner Frontline Policing. He has also led national-level police responses to kidnap and adult sexual offences. His first interview, in January 2020, as head of the NPCC lays out his approach. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he spoke as part of the government's team for daily briefings.

Hewitt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to policing.

## Personal life

Hewitt is divorced, with three children.

## Honours


Julie Harris

# Julie Harris

## Abstract

Julia Ann Harris (December 2, 1925 – August 24, 2013) was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary roles, she earned numerous accolades including the record five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play, three Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, and a BAFTA Award. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, the Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2005.

After making her Broadway debut in 1945 Harris went on to win five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for her roles in I Am a Camera (1952), The Lark (1956), Forty Carats (1969), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973), and The Belle of Amherst (1977). Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Marathon '33 (1964), Skyscraper (1966), The au Pair Man (1974), Lucifer's Child (1991), and The Gin Game (1997).

She starred in the 1950 play The Member of the Wedding, a role she reprised in the 1952 film of the same name, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other notable film roles include East of Eden (1955), I Am a Camera (1955), The Haunting (1963), and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). Harris received three Primetime Emmy Awards for her roles in Little Moon of Alban (1969), Victoria Regina (1962), and Not for Ourselves Alone (1999). She won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for The Belle of Amherst (1978)

## Early life and education

Julia Ann Harris was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, the daughter of Elsie L. (née Smith), a nurse, and William Pickett Harris, an investment banker and authority on zoology. She had an older brother, William, and a younger brother, Richard. She graduated from Grosse Pointe Country Day School, which later merged with two others to form the University Liggett School. In New York City, she attended The Hewitt School. As a teenager, she also trained at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp in Colorado with Charlotte Perry, a mentor who encouraged Harris to apply to the Yale School of Drama, which she soon attended for a year. In 2007, Yale bestowed an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree upon Harris. As a founding member of Lee Strasberg 's Actors Studio, Harris studied method acting, which emphasized psychology and emotions, and although it was strongly associated with male actors, she was able to successfully employ its techniques.

## Career

### 1945–1959: Early roles

In 1952, Harris won her first Best Actress Tony Award for originating the role of insouciant Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood 's Goodbye to Berlin (later adapted as the Broadway musical Cabaret (1966) and as the 1972 film, with Liza Minnelli as Sally). Harris repeated her stage role in the film version of I Am a Camera (1955). Harris's screen debut was in 1952, repeating her Broadway success as the lonely teenaged girl Frankie in Carson McCullers 's The Member of the Wedding, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Director Elia Kazan cast her in East of Eden (1955) opposite James Dean in his first major screen role.

Harris was nominated for 11 Primetime Emmy Awards for her television work, winning three. She starred as Nora Helmer opposite Christopher Plummer in A Doll's House (1959), a 90-minute television adaptation of Henrik Ibsen 's play. She made more appearances in leading roles on the Hallmark Hall of Fame than any other actress, also appearing in two different adaptations of the play Little Moon of Alban, her performance in the 1958 TV movie of the same name earning her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

### 1960–1989: Breakthrough and acclaim

She played the ethereal Eleanor Lance in The Haunting (1963), director Robert Wise 's screen adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson. Another cast member recalled Harris refusing to socialize with the other actors while not on set, later explaining that she had done so as a method of emphasizing the alienation from the other characters experienced by her character in the film. Other notable films Harris appeared in during the 1960s include Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), Harper (with Paul Newman) (1966), and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). Another noteworthy film appearance was the World War II drama The Hiding Place (1975).

Her second Emmy win came for her role as Queen Victoria in the 1961 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Laurence Housman 's Victoria Regina. She received further Emmy nominations for a range of roles including Anastasia (1967), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1976)—where she reprised her Tony-winning role as Mary Todd Lincoln from the 1973 play of the same name—and The Woman He Loved (1988). She won her third Emmy award in 2000 for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her voice role of Susan B. Anthony in Not for Ourselves Alone.

Of particular note is her Tony-winning performance in The Belle of Amherst, a one-woman play (written by William Luce and directed by Charles Nelson Reilly) based on the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson. She received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for the audio recording of the play. She first performed the play in 1976 and subsequently appeared in other solo shows, including Luce's Brontë. Harris holds the Tonys record as the person with most wins (5) and nominations (9) in the Lead Actress in a Play category. Other Broadway credits include The Playboy of the Western World, Macbeth, The Member of the Wedding, A Shot in the Dark, Skyscraper, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Forty Carats, The Glass Menagerie, A Doll's House, The Gin Game, and a North American tour in 1992 of Lettice and Lovage in the lead part originated by Maggie Smith on Broadway.

In 1980, Harris guest starred in the series Knots Landing as country singer Lilimae Clements, the eccentric and protective mother of Valene Ewing (Joan Van Ark); she returned to the series as a regular character from 1981 to 1987. The role earned Harris a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and two Soap Opera Digest Award nominations. In 1983, Harris became a company member of The Mirror Theater Ltd 's Mirror Repertory Company. She became a mentor to the company, having urged Founding Artistic Director Sabra Jones to create the company from 1976 forward, when Jones married John Strasberg. Harris and Jones met at a performance of The Belle of Amherst, a revival of which The Mirror Theater Ltd recently performed in their summer home in Vermont.

### 1990–2009: Established actress

Harris made two recordings of narrations of E. B. White 's children's book Stuart Little for the Pathways of Sound record label: the last six chapters for a single LP record in 1965, and the entire book for a two-record set in 1979. She also recorded narrations of many children's books for Caedmon Records. Harris also did extensive voiceover work for documentary maker Ken Burns: the voices of Emily Warren Roebling in Brooklyn Bridge (1981), Ann Lee in The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984), and most notably Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut for Burns' 1990 series The Civil War.

In the summer of 2008, she appeared on stage again in Chatham, Massachusetts, as "Nanny" in a Monomoy Theater production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Harris continued to work until 2009, well into her eighties, narrating five historical documentaries by Christopher Seufert and Mooncusser Films, as well as being active as a director on the board of the independent Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT). In 2007, when the company built a new, additional theater, also in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Ms Harris declined to have the building named for her. However, she consented to their naming "a piece of it after me"; WHAT named their stage the "Julie Harris Stage".

## Personal life

Harris lived in West Chatham, Cape Cod, for many years until her death. Three times divorced, she had one son, Peter Gurian. A breast cancer survivor, she suffered a severe fall requiring surgery in 1999, a stroke in 2001, and a second stroke in 2010.

Harris died on August 24, 2013, of congestive heart failure at her home in West Chatham, Massachusetts. Harris was cremated after her death.

## Legacy and honors

On December 5, 2005, Harris was named a Kennedy Center Honoree. At a White House ceremony, President George W. Bush remarked: "It's hard to imagine the American stage without the face, the voice, and the limitless talent of Julie Harris. She has found happiness in her life's work, and we thank her for sharing that happiness with the whole world."

Ben Brantley, theater critic for The New York Times, considered her "the actress who towered most luminously... rather like a Statue of Liberty for Broadway." Alec Baldwin, who played Harris's son on Knots Landing, praised her in a tribute in the Huffington Post: "Her voice was like rainfall. Her eyes connected directly to and channeled the depths of her powerful and tender heart. Her talent, a gift from God."

Harris ties with Angela Lansbury with five Tony Award wins (Audra McDonald has since passed them both, with six wins). However, she holds the record (alongside Chita Rivera) for the most individual Tony Award nominations, with 10 (Audra McDonald has also since received her 10th nomination). In 1966, Harris won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.

On August 28, 2013, Broadway theaters dimmed their lights for one minute in honor of Harris.

On December 3, 2013, Joan Van Ark announced at a Broadway memorial service the creation of the Julie Harris Scholarship, which provides annual support to an actor studying at the Yale School of Drama. Alec Baldwin made the first contribution. In 2021, Yale Drama became tuition-free and was rebranded the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.

## Acting credits


Derek Branning

# Derek Branning

## Abstract

Derek Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Terence Beesley in 1996 and then Jamie Foreman from 2011 to 2012. Derek is the eldest child of Jim Branning (John Bardon) and Reenie Branning (Joy Graham). He first appears in episode 1282, which was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 29 April 1996, for his sister April Branning 's (Debbie Arnold) wedding and departed on 2 May. The character returned as a regular in the episode broadcast on 24 November 2011, played by Foreman. In October 2012, it was announced that Foreman would be leaving EastEnders in December 2012 as part of a Christmas storyline. On 20 December 2012, it is revealed that Derek was the person who Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) had an affair with (see " Who's Been Sleeping with Kat? "). The character died of a heart attack in the episode broadcast on 25 December 2012.

Derek is originally portrayed as racist and is not pleased when his sister Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson) married Alan Jackson (Howard Antony). Upon his return, Derek was described as a "charmer" and "proper East-End". Derek has been described as "dodgy" and a "psycho". Foreman confirmed that viewers could expect "danger" and "destruction" from his character as his time progresses on the show. The BBC describe Derek as "old school". Derek served as the show's main antagonist of 2012.

## Storylines

### 1996–2007

Derek first appears when he attends his sister April Branning 's (Debbie Arnold) wedding to her Greek fiancé Nikos (Yorgos Glastras). Derek and his father Jim Branning (John Bardon) goad Derek's sister Carol Jackson 's black boyfriend Alan Jackson (Howard Antony) due to their racist attitudes, and try to start fights with him. He lives with his parents and does his best to split Alan and Carol up. He does not succeed, and Carol and Alan marry the same day after April is jilted. Derek and his father walk out of the wedding in protest and Derek continues to goad Carol and Alan after the ceremony. Alan retaliates by humiliating him about still living at home at the age of 36. Derek subsequently attacks Alan, but is stopped by David Wicks (Michael French), who then beats him up as revenge for Derek beating him up when they were teenagers. A shamed Derek departs. In 1999, Jim mentions to Carol that Derek is going through a messy divorce. In 2007, Derek's brother Max Branning (Jake Wood) reveals that Derek is in prison, and is therefore unable to attend Bradley Branning 's (Charlie Clements) wedding to Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner). While Derek is incarcerated, he befriends a fellow prisoner named Carl White (Daniel Coonan).

### 2011–2012

In January 2011, Derek is mentioned during an argument between Max and Carol after Max discovers Carol's relationship with Connor Stanley (Arinzé Kene). Max recites Carol's past relationships, including getting pregnant by David when she was 14, and he says Derek sorted David out by beating him up and saving Carol from a broken heart. Derek returns in November (played by Foreman) along with Max, who has been staying with him in Leyton. They visit Max's ex-wife Tanya Jessop (Jo Joyner), (who mutually despises Derek) where Derek recognises her mother Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell) and sister Rainie Cross (Tanya Franks), to whom he is attracted. He reminds her of when they had sex at Max and Tanya's wedding. Derek then recognises David's mother Pat Evans (Pam St Clement) and forces his way into her home, and she is fearful of him. He reveals he was in prison for 10 years for armed robbery. Carol enters and is not happy to see him. However, Derek says he has changed and wants his family's support, though Carol is unwilling to give it. Derek and Max then prepare to leave for Manchester, but they are stopped by his niece, Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa), saying that Tanya has cancer and needs help. Max goes to Tanya and Derek tells Carol and his brother Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) that the Brannings have to stick together. Derek starts a sexual relationship with Rainie after she is kicked out of Tanya's home. She then sees a large scar on his back. Derek then bumps into Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd), who he bullied in their youth. Michael fears Derek and after Derek agrees to help Michael's girlfriend Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), Michael tells her to keep away from him. Janine then asks Derek to help her get squatters out of her flat, which he does successfully.

When Derek finds out that Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) has had Jack's car crushed, he confronts Phil, saying that he has made an enemy of him as well. After the local B&B is destroyed in an explosion, Derek convinces his nephew Liam Butcher (James Forde) to retrieve some valuable copper pipes from the building, leaving his great-grandmother, Pat, infuriated. Shortly after, Derek receives a visit from his probation officer and it is clear that Pat is responsible. Furious, Derek visits her and angrily threatens her, resulting in her collapsing on the kitchen floor shortly after. Pat is then diagnosed with incurable cancer, and when Derek visits her, he teases her about dying, causing a row with Tanya, who suffers a panic attack. Tanya tells Derek to leave. David returns to see Pat, and when Derek sees him, he says they have unfinished business. Derek punches David, who retaliates by punching Derek in the face. Carol takes David's side and drags Derek off David. Carol and Derek later argue, and Carol asks Derek to leave Walford as everyone is sad about Pat's death but he is causing trouble with David. Derek storms off in a temper, and later tells David that the fight is not over. When David hints that he is re-kindling his relationship with Carol, Derek furiously tells him that once Pat's funeral has taken place, he is going to come after him. David tries to reason with Derek, but Derek repeats his threat. When Derek finds Michael in his home planting stolen goods, Michael blames David for the scheme. During Pat's funeral, Derek discovers David and Carol have reunited and are planning to run away together. He confronts Carol and attacks her before forcing Michael to tell David that he has kidnapped Carol. When David shows up looking for Carol, he is confronted by Derek, Max and Jack, and Derek plans to kill David with a knife before getting Jack to help him dispose of the body. However, Jack and Max manage to stop Derek and David flees. Derek then begs Carol for forgiveness for attacking her and explains to Max that he went too far with David.

When Phil is arrested for murder and his son Ben (Joshua Pascoe) is kicked out of his home, Derek befriends Ben to steal his keys to Phil's garage. There, he looks through Phil's accounts, and later visits Phil in prison, where he offers to be a partner in Phil's businesses, as they would make a formidable partnership, Phil has no choice but to accept. When Derek asks Michael's half-brothers, Anthony (Matt Lapinskas) and Tyler (Tony Discipline) for £4000 that they owe him for selling some of his goods, they are unable to pay. Still not having the money to pay, Derek orders them to retrieve copper wire from train tracks but the police are called by Michael which leads to Derek's arrest. He is released without charge and confronts Anthony and Tyler, saying that somebody called the police and because he is still on probation, he is being watched closer and can no longer continue with his dodgy deals. Janine eventually pays off the debt, but Derek gives Michael a beating as well. Derek continues with his criminal behaviour, getting Max to sell a stolen car for him, and getting Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) to help him with a tax scam, selling alcohol in The Queen Victoria public house that they will claim is being bought for sale in Europe. Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) and Alfie then attempt to intercept the alcohol deliveries to cut Derek out of the scam. Derek urges Jack to fight dirty to get custody of his daughter Amy Mitchell from her mother Roxy, lying to him that he has a daughter, Chrissy. Derek asks one of his contacts, Andy (Chris Reilly), to scare Roxy into giving Jack custody of Amy, and when Andy tells Derek that Roxy has taken his alcohol, Derek asks Andy to deliver Roxy a message, implied to be that he wants her dead, to make sure Amy stays with the Brannings. Andy knows the Mitchells and does not want to get on the wrong side of them, so pays Roxy the cash that Derek paid him. Derek is then led to believe that Roxy is missing, and Jack is furious at Derek, and especially when he discovers Chrissy does not exist.

When Phil is released from prison, he promptly tells Derek that he no longer needs him to run his businesses. Phil also warns Alfie not to store any more of Derek's goods at The Queen Victoria public house. At a poker game, Phil resoundingly wins against Derek, but Derek claims it is impossible to win all the time, you just have to pick the right battles. Derek arranges with Alfie and Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) to steal a large amount of alcohol. However he is unknowingly scammed by Alfie and Billy, and suspects Phil of conning him. Derek realises that Roxy has fallen in love with Alfie, so deliberately sends Alfie off on a job and makes it look to Roxy that he killed Alfie. When Alfie returns safe, Roxy tries to punch Derek for the humiliation he caused her but is restrained by Alfie.

Carol's daughter Bianca (Patsy Palmer) is arrested for stealing, and goes to prison in Suffolk. Carol promptly relocates to Suffolk with Bianca's children, However, she allows Derek to move in while they are gone temporarily, and Derek shares the house with Bianca's stepdaughter Whitney (Shona McGarty) and her boyfriend, Tyler. Derek confronts a young woman who appears to be following him, accusing her of being the police. It is in fact his estranged daughter, Alice Branning (Jasmyn Banks), who runs away frightened. After she leaves, Derek finds her phone and uses this to track her down, asking her to hear him out. He apologises for abandoning her as an infant and not watching her grow up. Alice admits that she should not have bothered tracking him down, but Derek asks her to meet with him the next week so he can introduce her to his family, telling her he is a good man who has done bad things. Derek organises a party for Alice so she can meet the family, but just before the party is about to start, Derek is questioned by the police about some stolen alcohol. They do not find the alcohol, and when Derek returns to see Alice, she is already leaving. Derek is angry to discover that Tanya spoke to Alice and scared her away. However, Alice decides to visit, but leaves after revealing that Tanya has spoken to her, in turn Derek states that Tanya is demented and nasty. Derek later threatens to kill Tanya if she says anything else to Alice. Cora shows Alice a favourable letter Derek wrote, so Alice decides to get to know him. He promises to live a crime-free life, but Alice leaves when she discovers he has been dealing in forged banknotes. Derek then decides to pretend that he has changed. When Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater) calls Derek's probation officer, saying he is in possession of illegal alcohol, Derek takes revenge by taking money from the tills in Lucy's absent father Ian Beale 's (Adam Woodyatt) businesses. Derek's son Joey Branning (David Witts) arrives, hitting Derek. Joey tries to get Alice away from Derek but fails, even after goading Derek into becoming extremely angry. Eventually, Joey cons Derek out of money, which he pays to Lucy. Derek dislikes Alice's relationship with Anthony. The two men play poker, and Anthony bets his business, losing it to Derek. Derek then forces Anthony to leave Walford, leaving Alice upset and angry. She decides to move out but changes her mind when Derek promises not to interfere in her life again. Derek then becomes business partners with Tyler. Derek gives Alice a mobile phone, he is later unhappy when she gets a make-over, and upsets her so much that she goes leaves, where outside she is mugged. Derek blames Tanya for giving her the makeover. He inadvertently reveals to Tanya's friend Sharon Rickman 's (Letitia Dean) son Dennis (Harry Hickles) the truth about how his father died, so Tanya tells Derek to stay away from her family. Max agrees, so Derek threatens to tell Tanya Max's secret. Alice then tells Derek that it was the 'phone that caused the mugging and forces him to apologise to Tanya. Derek then guilt-trips Max into making him his best man for his upcoming second wedding to Tanya. Max later tells Derek that Jack is his best man which Derek pretends to take well but is actually hurt. A letter is sent to Carol from David but Derek hides it from her when she returns.

Derek continues to remind Max about his secret, telling him that "they" want more money, and saying he will help as long as he throws Joey out, who is living with Max and his family. Derek discovers that Joey is in a relationship with Lauren, his cousin. Lauren decides she and Joey have to leave Walford, and steal Derek's car. She crashes it into a shop and Derek rescues her and Joey from the building before it explodes. Derek convinces Joey to take the blame to spare Lauren going to jail as she was drunk. Derek then blackmails Joey, telling him to either break up with Lauren or live with Derek and be a doting son, or he will tell the police the truth. Joey decides he hates Derek more than he loves Lauren so ends the relationship. Derek also blackmails Tanya, saying he will tell Max she knew about Joey and Lauren's relationship if she does not convince Joey to stay in Walford. Derek continues to alienate Max and Jack by appointing himself as the new best man for the wedding, and further upsets Jack and his girlfriend Sharon when he discovers Sharon's addiction to painkillers. Derek is beaten up by men involved with Max's secret, and Max gives him money for his honeymoon to pay them off, but Derek does not give it to them. Derek blackmails Tanya again, this time into making Joey leave Walford. At Max's stag party, it is revealed that Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) has been having an affair with Derek. Kat goes home with him and they talk about what has just happened. Derek tells her he loves her. Kat finds a message on his phone that she left for him telling him to leave her alone. Derek says he will play it to her husband Alfie but instead he plays a message in which Kat says she wants to see Derek while Alfie is asleep. Alfie punches Derek, warning him never to return to The Queen Victoria, and hands him his wedding ring.

Derek is confronted by Max who tells him that after Christmas Day, he wants nothing to do with him. Derek arrives at the Branning house for Christmas dinner as head of the family, bringing Kat with him. He is constantly undermined by Max and is shown dislike from many of those present. Kat learns that Derek played Alfie a different message, and then discovers that Derek has deleted all the messages, so she slaps him. As an act of revenge on Max, Derek calls the person involved in Max's secret, and she arrives moments before Max and Tanya are due to remarry. She introduces herself as Kirsty Branning (Kierston Wareing), Max's wife, whom he married while staying with Derek in 2011. It is revealed that Derek never handed Kirsty Max's divorce papers or the money that Max was giving to her, but allowed Max to think they were divorced, and did not tell Max about Kirsty's pregnancy, instead telling Kirsty that Max wanted the child aborted, which she did. A massive argument ensues and Derek shouts at Max and Jack, saying he has never liked Max and he was the person who locked him in a coffin as a child (Max had believed it was Jim). Derek is forced out of the house by Max, Jack and Joey, while Kat watches on. Before making one last threat, he suddenly suffers a heart attack on the street and dies.

## Creation and development

### Casting, introduction and departure

On 26 August 2011, the BBC announced that it would be extending the already-established Branning clan by reintroducing the character of Derek Branning into EastEnders. Jamie Foreman was cast in the role, being the second actor to play Derek; Terence Beesley played the character originally for three episodes in 1996. Of his casting, Foreman said, "I am hugely excited to be joining such an iconic show. EastEnders is full of fantastic actors so it is a role I couldn't refuse. The Brannings are such a great family to be joining and I am extremely interested to see how Derek is going to fit in." Derek comes to Walford and "seizes the opportunity to rule the roost among his family again", his ambition is to become "King of the Square". Derek's return was broadcast on 24 November 2011.

Foreman said he fit in well with the cast and the EastEnders set. "It's brilliant. I've walked onto the show with all these guys who are so fantastic. I've just slid in like I've been there all my life. It's been fantastic fun. And it's a character who you can do anything you want with – I love those! It's very easy work." Asked whether if he will watch his first, he replied: "They've got me in the last scene of the day at work today, so I don't know if I'm going to get home in time for it! But all the family are there watching it, so that'll be lovely."

Foreman also said it was great to have a role in EastEnders. He said: "If I did a movie and it got 8 million viewers, it'd be a box office smash. This show gets it four nights a week and once on Sunday, there you go. Its pedigree speaks for itself and it's been going for a lot of years now, and it's going to go on for a lot of years. I'd be very proud to have that on my CV." Asked what viewers can expect from Derek, he replied: "He's a habitual criminal. He's just come back from prison recently from doing a rather lumpy sentence of ten years for armed robbery." He added: "He hasn't changed, he's always been the same." Tony Stewart of the Daily Mirror said that Foreman was perfect for the role of Derek. "Of course it's all about pedigree, isn't it? And when the soap bosses picked up the phone to Thugs Are Us, they couldn't have picked a better actor than Jamie Foreman to play the biggest, baddest Branning bruvver, Derek. Well, assuming Ray Winstone was washing his hair." In March 2012, Foreman's contract with EastEnders was extended until October 2012. In October 2012, it was announced that Foreman would be leaving EastEnders and will leave in December 2012 in a Christmas storyline.

### Characterisation

"Derek is old school, proper East End. After years behind bars he's looking for a place to make his mark. Look out Walford, he's arrived. He's a charmer and is on the lookout for a woman who’ll understand him. But he can also out-alpha almost any man in Albert Square. Oh, and Derek never fights fair..."

—The BBC on Derek (2011)

Derek has been described as the "biggest, baddest Branning brother" by executive producer Bryan Kirkwood. Daniel Kilkelly of media entertainment website Digital Spy wrote that upon his introduction, viewers would be left wondering if he is still dangerous and destructive. He was called "villainous" by Inside Soap. Derek's profile on the BBC's EastEnders website says, "Derek's the eldest Branning brother—and he's proper East End. When he was young, he had his own gang and they terrorised anyone who crossed their path. He ended up in prison and almost didn't make it out alive. He realises he now has his work cut out to regain his status as top dog, but he's willing to wait – although not for too long! Is Walford the place he can make his mark?" The website went on to say Derek's wish was to become head of the Branning family and find a woman who would understand him. Derek can "out-alpha almost any man in Albert Square" and he does not fight fair. Discussing Derek's background and personality, Foreman told TV Choice "There's always this little undercurrent of, 'This guy isn't who we want around for long', if you see what I mean. Derek's just come back from a 10-year prison sentence for armed robbery. He's a very complicated character, who could either be perceived as a bully or as someone who cares for his family very much." The actor went on to say people do not quite know where they are with Derek. He became the head of the family when he was 14, because his father was always in the betting shop. Derek helped bring in money and made sure his siblings attended school. Foreman explained Derek sees himself as the father figure and said it is hard for him to shake that off, even though his siblings have grown up. Foreman said "There's a nice conflict there."

In an interview with Daybreak, Foreman said he wanted viewers to like Derek. He also revealed he had played similar roles to Derek before, but said playing a "hardman" in EastEnders meant he could not leave his character behind when he finished work. Foreman said: "When you do a show like this you want to hit the floor running and make him warm and make the audience take to him as quickly as possible, so you keep him a little bit more close to yourself. Not necessarily all the nasty things he does, but all his mannerisms and they way he moves and things." During an interview, Foreman said his character is so nasty and horrible that he "makes him cringe." Foreman also revealed that Derek does not think of himself as bad, saying "I try to explain this to everybody, he thinks he's the good guy, it's everybody else who thinks he's bad." Foreman added Derek would bring plenty of trouble to Albert Square. Foreman confirmed that viewers could expect "danger" and "destruction" from his character as his time progresses on the show. Foreman explained that Derek Branning is going to be the type of character that's going to really set things alight in the Square. Foreman said that when he was asked to play the part, they told him that he was dangerous, destructive and sexy. He commented: "Well, I haven't seen much of the sexy, but I've seen lots of the dangerous and lots of the destructive! So I think you're going to enjoy him. I think he's one of those characters you're going to love to hate. You never know what he's going to do next. And I'm just waiting for little old ladies to come and beat me with their handbags!"

I didn't feel any pressure at all, because it was just such an interesting character. And I had a lot of input into it as well, before I went into the show. Because it's such an immediate show in people's living rooms, I thought it was really important to hit the floor running with it. And I have some great actors around me – the family that I've gone into, I'm wall-to-wall with good actors. And Pam St Clement gave me the best entrance I could have asked for, with her reaction to me. I was very lucky. But they say it with a smile on their faces, and I think they're enjoying the character, so I'm doing my job.

Foreman said he is "delighted" by viewers' reaction to his character. Foreman also added that member of the public approach him in the street to "comment on Derek's antics". Speaking to The One Show, Foreman said that he gets some wonderful reactions and that he gets told every day that he's nasty and horrible and just wants to walk around saying, 'Thank you, thank you'! But they say it with a smile on their faces, and he thinks they're enjoying the character, so he's doing his job.

### Storyline development

Scott Maslen teased of an upcoming storyline where Derek hires a hitman to terrorise Roxy, who is the mother of Jack's daughter. Speaking to Inside Soap, Maslen said that Jack is sickened by Derek's plans. He added that Jack may have used "underhand tactics in the past to try and get custody of Amy" but Derek is taking things too far and Jack will never forgive himself if anything bad happened to Roxy. Maslen elaborated saying that Jack first discovers Derek's plan when he visits the Mitchell's household and finds that Roxy hasn't returned home. He says that Jack is furious with Derek and adds: "Jack feels sick to his stomach at the thought something terrible could have happened to Roxy. He storms straight round to confront his brother – he just wants confirmation from Derek that Roxy is alive and well."

Jake Wood revealed that there is a "long-running" storyline upcoming for Derek and his brother Max. Speaking to Inside Soap, Wood said that the truth is to be revealed in the coming months. He said that it's incredibly exciting and everything will be explained. Wood added that himself and Foreman are "on it" and have a good idea what Max and Derek are up to. Foreman later promised an "interesting new direction" for Derek. He explained that he wants to keep challenging himself by exploring Derek's personality from different sides. Foreman commented: "We hit the ground running to bring Derek to the Square and Pam St Clement was phenomenal. In one scene, she established my character more easily than I could have done in four episodes. To see Pat, who's never been frightened of anyone, running scared of this man showed everything about my character in a moment." As stated by Jake Wood, Foreman has plans for Derek which Foreman said it will be a real challenge for him as an actor. He added that it would be easy to play a typical gangster who "growls at everyone", but he cares about showing the true side of these types of characters. Foreman also said that he is enjoying EastEnders as he has never been so recognised before.

### Rejuvenation

In April 2012, it was announced that viewers would see a "softer side" to Derek. Foreman told a writer from Soaplife that it was time to learn more about Derek's history, as the audience had familiarised with the character. He will be played as a "different kind of Derek" and have a "fascinating" backstory. In addition the actor stated that "you're about to see a bit more of the missing years – I'm finding out things about my character I didn't know existed". While he wanted to remain secretive about the plans for Derek, Foreman revealed that Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) would have involvement in the storyline. Derek asks Alfie to carry out a deed for him because he already has the "sensitivity and is the perfect foil" for his plans. Later that month the serial announced their plans to introduce Derek's daughter, Alice Branning (Jasmyn Banks). Alice has never met her father and wants answers; she was brought up by her mother and her brother Joey. As they had always told her that Derek no good, she decides to see for herself. EastEnders ' executive producer Lorraine Newman said that Alice would "help us glimpse a softer side to Derek". As they’re both from the Branning family, she also felt there was a "huge amount" of history to build their relationship upon. A writer from Inside Soap reported that Alice is really keen to forge a relationship with her father. An EastEnders representative told them that Derek often talks of the "importance of family"; which will make their attempts at forming a "proper relationship" interesting.

Derek's sister, Carol announces that she and her family are moving away. Derek is reluctant to see them leave and hatches a plan to prevent their departure. Foreman told Allison Jones from Inside Soap that Derek has a "patriarchal attitude" where "everyone matters" because family is most important to him. Derek wants "to put his life in order" and look out for Bianca's (Patsy Palmer) interests while she is in prison. Carol stands by her decision; so he conjures up a "frantic scheme" and attempts to influence Ray Dixon (Chucky Venn) into keeping them around. Foreman said that the plan ends in failure and "Derek has to let them go after all". Just as he loses one family unit, the serial introduce Alice. Derek is preoccupied with the family matter and Alice begins to follow him. Foreman explained that his character initially has "no idea" who she is. When Alice follows him into the pub, Derek decides to confront her. He told Allison Slade from TVTimes that Derek "has so many irons in the fire and he thinks she might be undercover police". To begin with he is wary of Alice, but is soon "delighted" to have his daughter around. The actor added that the Derek and Alice share a good chemistry.

## Reception

For his portrayal of Derek, Foreman earned a nomination for Best Newcomer at the 2012 British Soap Awards. While the character received a nomination for Best Villain from the All About Soap Awards. BT 's Tim Guest described Derek as "dodgy" and branded him a "psycho." The Guardian ' s Stuart Heritage called Derek Max's "malevolently pudding-faced newcomer brother." Tony Stewart of the Daily Mirror described Derek's arrival: "What a busy time bad boy Derek Branning has of it. He terrorises Roxy, sleeps with Rainie and then turfs out some squatters for Janine. "Some men are born rotten," Fat Pat declares. "Derek's one of the worst." Stewart later called Derek a "vicious and sadistic thug" and despite criticising some of the character's storylines, described Foreman's performance in the role as "superb." He also said "wearing a heavy overcoat and a 1920s-style newsboy flat cap, Derek looks as though he could easily be one of Al Capone's hoodlum". He also added that Derek may be the "most vicious villain in Soapland". Kate White from Inside Soap named Derek as the best new soap opera character of 2011. She added that the "brutish Derek stormed into Albert Square and scared the bejesus out of everyone". The Guardian ' s Sarah Dempster said that Derek played by Foreman has the "face of a dyspeptic pug and the charm of an abandoned Threshers." She added: "Within seconds of his arrival the bastard was crashing through the Square like a herniated tank, spraying wide-boy aphorisms everywhere, insulting Pat's earrings, calling Michael Moon's handshake "a bit mincey" and banging on about his time "inside" and ow fings ain't wot they used to be wot wiv the lack of "respect" and the current proliferation of Liffooanians."

Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror states that Jamie Foreman is the "best thing to happen to EastEnders in years." She compared Derek and David Wicks, saying that Derek looks exactly like a "shorter, fatter, cartoon version of David drawn by someone with a cruel sense of humour." Jim Shelley, also from the Daily Mirror, called Derek the "long-lost villainous brother" and a "rough diamond". He also said that Derek is the "sort of bloke who has a lock-up full of 'moody' merchandise". He also added that Derek is nothing like Dirty Den, Johnny Allen, Steve Owen, Jack, Max or "Whispering David Essex ". He continues to write: "Derek is thoroughly unpleasant: a pig’s head in Brylcreem. He looks so much like one of the Krays he’s practically walking round with a cardboard cut out of Mad Frankie Fraser." Shelley also nicknamed him "Derek the Menace." Jake Wood said that Foreman is "fantastic" to work with and that his character has had a "huge impact" on the show. Foreman stated that Derek is worse than any gangster he has ever known.

Upon the announcement that Derek was to show a "softer side", a writer from Soaplife said that Derek was certainly not a "baddie we love to hate" and more of a "baddie we hate". They questioned whether Derek could even pull off a soft side and predicted that the transition would be like watching "a speeding car screeching and skidding into a U-turn". Carena Crawford from All About Soap said that Derek needed to ditch his "ridiculous" flat cap, which made him look more like Del Boy than David Beckham. Crawford opined that while Derek was turning the Brannings into the Kray twins; she would advise him steer clear of Phil. The latter has outlived many gangsters and Derek was not "even half as menacing as some of them were". The writer also predicted that their feud would generate weeks of "fuming facial expressions and gurning glances as they vie to become ruler of Walford". David Brown from Radio Times said that Derek "connives like an East End Jabba the Hutt " in his scheme to prevent Carol from leaving. Another writer for the Daily Mirror said: "Call Dirty Derek Branning an over-protective father, or just a psychopath, but Lucy isn't safe when he wants revenge because she spiked his precious daughter Alice's drinks last week."