67-509: Harry's Game is a British television drama mini-series made by Yorkshire Television for ITV in 1982, closely based on the 1975 novel Harry's Game by Gerald Seymour , a former journalist. Apart from brief scenes, it is set in and around Belfast during the Troubles . Its lead actors were Ray Lonnen , Derek Thompson and Benjamin Whitrow . The series was well-received, and added to
134-491: A Through Till Three strand on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights introduced a few months later. 24-hour broadcasting resumed on 29 May 1988. In 1982, after the split up of Trident Television, Bass (brewing and Leisure group) acquired a 20.93% share in Yorkshire TV. In July 1987, Bass sold the stake since it no longer fitted in with its operations. The managing director of YTV said: "We are very sorry to lose Bass as
201-545: A dormant company . ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television , and sometimes abbreviated to YTV or Yorkshire, has its origins in the 1967 franchise round. That round stipulated that the influential pan-North region, the licence which was owned by Granada Television and ABC, both based in Manchester, had to be split up. Consequently, it was decided that Granada would keep the North West franchise and
268-451: A bid for Yorkshire Television, it would also form an alliance with Anglia Television who would take over Tyne Tees Television . By 7 January 1994 the merger talks between Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television had collapsed because it had proven impossible to reach an agreement on a suitable structure for the new company. A few days earlier Anglia had withdrawn from the proposed alliance, making an LWT takeover of YTV impossible. The company faced
335-405: A consequence, Yorkshire Television Limited ceased to trade on 1 January 2007. Yorkshire Television Ltd still legally exists, but its licence is now owned and operated by ITV plc under the licence name of ITV Broadcasting Limited (along with all the other ITV plc-owned franchises). Yorkshire Television Ltd is, along with most other regional companies owned by ITV plc, listed with Companies House as
402-531: A far greater extent. Following the takeover, 292 jobs were axed at the two broadcasters; 174 at Leeds, and 115 at Newcastle, with a further three from airtime sales in London. Various programmes which had previously been shown at a regional pace were suddenly jolted forward to the furthest ahead point among YTV and Tyne Tees. YTV had to lose over 200 episodes of The Young Doctors to reach the Tyne Tees stage of
469-536: A large revenue shortfall in 1993 of around £15 million, after financial irregularities in its advertising sales, where airtime was oversold, was uncovered by Laser Sales who took over responsibly of its advertising sales. Generally the bids submitted by both YTV and (then-independent) Tyne Tees were considered financially questionable, and the Independent Television Commission , predecessor to Ofcom, warned it came close to rejecting
536-618: A mature audience the particular qualities and strengths of one of the most populous and most important areas outside London." The station began broadcasting on 29 July 1968 from new studios at Kirkstall Road in Leeds. Although they were purpose-built for colour production and equipped with £2.2 million of equipment, the majority of initial broadcasts were in monochrome until the ITV network formally launched its colour output on 15 November 1969. After an opening ceremony led by The Duchess of Kent ,
603-405: A merger. The decision to form an association was purely down to the costs of the increased levy on the companies' advertising revenue by the government, and the cost of colour TV. The ITA stated there was no reason why the companies should not have talks about sensible economies that could be made, but would examine all details before any association were to be implemented. In January 1970, a warning
670-596: A new franchise created for Yorkshire. On 28 February 1967, national and regional newspapers carried numerous advertisements from the Independent Television Authority , each requesting applicants for various new ITV contracts, one of which was Programme Contractor for Yorkshire Area (Contract D) – All Week . Ten formal bids were received by the closing date; another less-serious bid, Diddy TV , headed by comedian Ken Dodd withdrew their application. Telefusion Yorkshire Limited , created by
737-445: A new ident, entitled "Liquid Gold", featuring a pool of liquified gold, with the chevron rising up from it, and rotating into the sky, where the station name joins it. This ident features a fully orchestrated version of the theme tune and reportedly cost £40,000 to make. This was occasionally supplemented by a large rotating chevron over a gradient-ed blue background, used over continuity. On 1 September 1989, Yorkshire Television adopted
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#1732780196609804-425: A shareholder; they have been very supportive to Yorkshire Television." By the end of the year, YTV profits had increased to £13.94 million, and it had become one of the largest suppliers of programmes to Channel 4. In October 1987, the production unit had received a co-production pact with Telecom Entertainment in order to co-produce and develop projects, that involved international stars and British crew, around
871-485: A surprise to us, but we don't think there had been a row or anything like that". Clive Leach became managing director. In preparation of the new ITV franchises, the company started to cut costs which resulted in 91 voluntary redundancies; this had a minor effect with slightly fewer programmes being produced. Following rule changes in 1992, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees resumed their alliance under the name Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television (YTTT) plc. The two stations were integrated to
938-524: Is also home to Shiver Productions . The licence for Yorkshire is now held by ITV Broadcasting Limited, part of ITV plc . The studios were built on 5 acres (20,000 m ) of slum clearance land on Kirkstall Road , purchased from the former Leeds Corporation . Construction commenced in early 1967. A mild winter aided building work and by mid-1968 studios one and two were equipped for transmission (studios three and four being completed by early 1969). During construction, pre-launch shows were produced at
1005-571: Is credited as being the UK 's first breakfast television programme, six years before the launch of the BBC's Breakfast Time . The programme ran concurrently with a similar Tyne Tees programme, Good Morning North for North East viewers. Both series ended after nine weeks on 27 May 1977. From its inception YTV had a turbulent relationship with the broadcasting unions (a common theme within ITV). Many employees at
1072-470: Is interrogated but set free. Harry tips off his superiors that the killer was at the club and that Theresa, a girl at whose family home Billy stayed the night while on the run, knows his name. Theresa is arrested, but caught between the police interrogator Rennie and her fear of the IRA if she talks, she hangs herself in prison without revealing Downes' identity. When Josephine realises that Harry must have passed on
1139-500: Is now managed, along with its southern counterpart, by Technicolor Network Services ) and a number of independent producers. The production facilities are marketed as The Leeds Studios and sister companies ProVision, Film Lab North and The Finishing School occupy adjacent buildings, although the operation continues to be widely referred to as the Yorkshire Television studios or YTV. In March 2009, ITV plc announced that
1206-502: The ABC studios at Didsbury , Manchester while a former trouser-press factory next to the Leeds facility was used as an administration centre. The studio was officially opened by The Duchess of Kent on 29 July 1968. It was the first purpose-built colour television production centre in Europe and cost over £4 million to build and equip. Equipment was installed by EMI Electronics and
1273-552: The Belmont transmitter. Two consortia applied for the franchise, Telefusion Yorkshire Ltd and Yorkshire Independent Television , the former having large financial backing (supported by the Blackpool-based Telefusion television rental chain) and the latter having the better plans but fewer resources. On 1 January 2007, the company transferred its programme production business to ITV Studios Limited . As
1340-777: The Blackpool -based TV rental chain Telefusion and led by Grampian TV Managing Director G E Ward Thomas , was selected as the winning bid. It was chosen on the condition that it 'merged' with another applicant Yorkshire Independent Television . The latter, backed by a consortium of Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd , other local newspaper groups such as the Huddersfield Examiner and the Scarborough Evening News , several Yorkshire-based Co-operative societies, trade unions and local universities ,
1407-624: The Haiti dictator Baby Doc Duvalier . In Drama , Yorkshire Television had many critical successes, including: In 1969, YTV launched its first soap opera Castle Haven which was cancelled after only a year. When the restrictions on daytime broadcasting were relaxed, and on 16 October 1972 it launched an afternoon drama/soap opera called Emmerdale Farm , (which is still being broadcast as Emmerdale ). In comedy (and in sitcom), Yorkshire TV produced many popular shows, including: Ballybrack Too Many Requests If you report this error to
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#17327801966091474-517: The Republic of Ireland has been released under five other names in other countries. The British government cabinet minister Henry Danby is killed by an IRA gunman, Billy Downes, in front of his wife and children outside his home in London . Downes then escapes to Belfast . Army officer Harry Brown is sent undercover into Belfast's Catholic community to track down the assassin. Brown is chosen for
1541-577: The West Yorkshire Police in their search for the murderer known as the Yorkshire Ripper were periodically transmitted during the strike). However the dispute was more intense at YTV as the company's management were seen as instrumental in fighting the unions, especially the managing director Sir Paul Fox and Trident chairman G E Ward Thomas . In the 1980 franchise round several YTV staff submitted their own application for
1608-601: The Yorkshire franchise under the name of 'Television Yorkshire'. Backed by Donald Baverstock and MP Jonathan Aiken who believed they would provide a better service. Yorkshire retained the franchise with the addition of number of relay transmitters on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, covering Todmorden and Walsden, which were transferred from the Granada region. On 9 August 1986, Yorkshire Television became
1675-422: The first ITV generic look , featuring the large ITV logo; an additional ident, with a static chevron on the same background, was also used. On 7 January 1991, the ident was revised to allow the chevron to appear full screen instead of being a segment of the 'V' which the company used until 21 October 1994. The whole package was used by Yorkshire Television, and an adapted version, where the whole chevron appeared in
1742-481: The second generic look , based on the theme of hearts, which was used for the entirety of the branding period before network programming. However, for local programming, Yorkshire created their own ident featuring a background of spinning chevrons, with pictures of the region featuring inside a central box. On 28 October 2002, the brand was dropped in favour of a national ITV1 identity , in which local regional identities were dropped except before local programming, when
1809-405: The "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" tune, which was now noticeably higher in pitch. The Channel 3 look was dropped on 19 January 1998, following Granada 's acquisition of Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television on 26 June 1997, with the look returning to a spinning chevron against a misty blue background, light blue during the day and dark blue in the evenings. On 8 November 1999, Yorkshire Television adopted
1876-529: The Leeds Studios were to be largely closed in an effort to save costs following a reported loss of £2.7 billion for 2008. However, seven months later ITV changed its mind, choosing instead to close the nearby studios dedicated to the production of Emmerdale and transferring production of this programme to Kirkstall Road which would be upgraded for HDTV production. For almost 35 years, Yorkshire Television's on-screen identity always revolved around
1943-485: The Marconi Corporation. The studios contained seven 2" Quadruplex VTR machines, six telecines and twelve cameras . The cameras were a mixture of Marconi MkVII's (studios 1, 2 and 3) and EMI 2001 models (studio 4). The regional news show Calendar was produced at the centre for many years but in 1989 was moved to a dedicated newsroom and broadcast facility based in a converted ice rink next to
2010-467: The Tyne Tees region on 2 September 1996, where all on-screen branding was replaced by giant numeral '3', and the Tyne Tees brand became secondary to 'Channel 3 North East', however the look was only partially implemented in the Yorkshire region a month after Tyne Tees's revamp. The entirety of Yorkshire's Channel 3 look included an ident which was later introduced on 21 October 1996 at the same year, where
2077-425: The V segment before moving into centre screen, was used before regional programming. Upon YTV dropping the generic look on 22 October 1994, a new ident was introduced, featuring a textured background with a central strip containing images of the region itself, with the chevron placed in the centre of said strip. The most noticeable thing about this ident set was the smooth nature of the chevron's appearance and, like
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2144-524: The YTV bid on financial quality grounds. The losses suffered by the company prompted the return of founder Ward Thomas as chairman, and Clive Leach was forced to resign. The rescue mission led by Ward Thomas saw profits recover by 1996, thanks to the cost-cutting measures implemented in the intervening years. Bruce Gyngell , the former chairman of breakfast station TV-am , became YTTT's managing director on 15 May 1995. On 2 September 1996, Bruce Gyngell made
2211-569: The Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network . Until 1974, this was primarily the historic county of Yorkshire (with the exception of the northern areas of North Yorkshire which are served by Tyne Tees ) and parts of neighbouring counties served by the Emley Moor transmitter. Following a reorganisation in 1974 the transmission area was extended to include Lincolnshire , northwestern Norfolk and parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire , served by
2278-507: The Yorkshire name appeared below the ITV1 logo only. These regional idents however were dropped by 2006. Yorkshire Television was a major producer within the ITV network and produced programming in all genres. The presenter Alan Whicker became a shareholder in the company at its inception and made many programmes for the station, most notably interviews with the Cat's Eye inventor Percy Shaw and
2345-527: The channel's reputation for producing quality TV drama. The drama is noted for its closing music, " Theme from Harry's Game ", by the Irish musical group Clannad . The music was used in trailers and later commercially released, reaching the top five of Irish and British singles charts, bringing the band its first major international exposure. The drama, filmed in West Yorkshire , Northern Ireland and
2412-409: The chevron spun against a light blue background with numeral '3's covering the background. Another ident featured the chevron with the '3' numeral embossed on the side, which would zoom into view, before revealing a spinning numeral 3, which in turn had YTV chevron on the middle of the 3 and when zoomed into, the chevron re-appeared spinning against the background. The look also heralded the return of
2479-603: The cityscape were in Holywood , County Down and close to the military/MI5 barracks. Scenes were also filmed in South County Dublin including in Ballybrack . Clannad 's closing music became an international breakthrough. Incidental music was sampled or created by Mike Moran . The series screened on the ITV network as three 52-to-54 minute episodes over consecutive nights from 25 to 27 October 1982, and
2546-445: The company was making profits of over £689,000. After a series of temporary masts at Emley Moor, the current 275 metre reinforced concrete tower — topped by a 55-metre steel lattice mast — began transmitting in 1971, resuming full area coverage for the YTV region. In June 1969, talks began between Yorkshire and Anglia about achieving a cost-cutting exercise by sharing equipment and facilities. Neither company planned joint productions or
2613-456: The controversial move of re-branding Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television under the unified brand "Channel 3" While Yorkshire used a scaled-back version of this branding (still using the Yorkshire chevron logo and being verbally known as "Channel 3 Yorkshire"), Tyne Tees was re-branded as "Channel 3 North East". It dropped the familiar TTTV logo, and relegated the Tyne Tees name to secondary branding. On 26 June 1997, Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc
2680-502: The end of "Kate". A black screen appeared before that evening's News at Ten was broadcast. The dispute was involving ACTT union members who had refused to work overtime due to pay rates. YTV was forced off the air by more industrial action over the whole of Christmas , 1978. This partially coincided with a two-day national shutdown of both BBC channels by strikes in December of that year, meaning that for those two days viewers in
2747-426: The enterprise. The two stations remained separately run and were required to demerge by late 1981 as a condition of the re-awarding of their ITV contracts from January 1982. Trident's majority shareholdings were sold although they retained ownership of studios and equipment which were leased to the respective companies. On 28 March 1977, Yorkshire launched a breakfast television experiment. Good Morning Calendar
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2814-496: The first ITV company and the first British terrestrial television station to offer 24-hour broadcasting. This was achieved by simulcasting the satellite station Music Box for a three-month trial, as permitted by the IBA. The all-night simulcasts continued until Friday 2 January 1987 – shortly before Music Box ceased operations as a broadcaster. Thereafter, Yorkshire ran a teletext-based Jobfinder service for one hour after closedown with
2881-412: The gunmen and forces a passing driver to chase their car as Downes escapes. Harry follows Downes to his own home, which is under surveillance by the army. Harry shoots Downes in the street in front of his wife before being shot himself by the soldiers watching the house, believing Harry to be a member of the IRA. Injured and bleeding in the street, Harry is confronted by Downes's wife, who then shoots him in
2948-399: The head using Harry's own revolver. The series closes with a narrator reading a part of a poem written by the daughter of real-life IRA victim William J. Staunton , a 46-year-old magistrate shot dead in 1973: "Don't cry, Mummy said. They're not real, but Daddy was, and he's not here. Don't be bitter, Mummy said. They've hurt themselves much more. They can walk and run, Daddy can't." Most of
3015-481: The ident throughout this period were idents promoting the station's coverage, with the slogan " Serving Six Million Viewers" . One version, in 1983 featured a giant chevron logo, made up out of smaller chevrons, and another in 1986 featured the view zooming in from space, to the Yorkshire TV region, which then flipped over, becoming the chevron. This last version was computer-animated, with 3D-style lettering and chevron. On 5 January 1987, Yorkshire Television introduced
3082-532: The information about Theresa, she tells him to leave while he can, but he refuses, saying Danby's killer cannot be allowed to get away with the murder. At a restaurant in Belfast, a waiter overhears two senior army officers discussing Harry's presence in the city, and passes this information on to the IRA. The local IRA leaders start checking all new arrivals, including Harry. The IRA start to hunt Harry down. With two other gunmen, Downes ambushes Harry, who shoots
3149-587: The main studios. Productions in the 2000s included Countdown (which has since moved to The Manchester Studios and now Media City in Salford), the revived Bullseye , Mastermind (while asbestos was removed from The Manchester Studios in 2006), My Parents Are Aliens , Channel 4 gameshow Win My Wage and a children's comedy-drama for Cartoon Network called My Spy Family . The site is now home to continuity for ITV's northern transmission areas (although this
3216-599: The mission because he is an Ulsterman who has previously done similar work in Oman . Given the cover identity of merchant seaman Harry McEvoy, he finds lodgings in the Falls Road area and secures a job in a scrapyard. He dates a Catholic, Josephine Laverty, and unknowingly encounters Downes in a local club, which is raided by the British Army. A British soldier recognises Harry but ignores him and arrests Downes, who
3283-410: The more industrial centres of Hull , Grimsby , Scunthorpe and Lincoln and it was felt the region would be better served from Leeds rather than from Norwich . In August 1970 following a reverse takeover Yorkshire Television was effectively merged with its neighbour Tyne Tees Television , when the two were brought under the control of Trident Television Limited, a company formed to deal with
3350-575: The new company were recruited from the Manchester and Birmingham studios of the former ABC Weekend Television and the London station Rediffusion ; the upheaval of enforced job changes on these employees combined with a relatively new management of a new ITV station and huge investment by shareholders provided fertile ground for the unions. In 1971, technicians broadcast a handwritten note that read "'Yorkshire Television have threatened to sack us. We are going on strike. Goodnight." six minutes before
3417-412: The previous look, did not feature the " On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" jingle, instead favouring a smooth orchestral jingle. The background was later changed from a cream to a light blue, and variations on the theme for special occasions and yearly themes were also introduced. Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television adopted a new branding package, based on the concept of Channel 3. The new look was fully implemented in
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#17327801966093484-564: The problem of effective ownership of the Bilsdale transmitter and the allocation of airtime . It is often contended that the other point of the trident was intended to be Anglia Television , but they were prevented from joining by the Independent Broadcasting Authority . However, it appears that the third 'point' was to be Trident's non-television interests and that Anglia were never considered as partners in
3551-411: The region had no television at all (except for those viewers who were able to pick up neighbouring ITV regions such as Granada, ATV or Tyne Tees regions). Many of ITV's Christmas programmes were eventually shown in the Yorkshire region in early 1979, after the dispute had ended. In the ITV strike of 1979, the station, like the rest of the network, was off the air for over two months (although appeals by
3618-441: The serial. Similarly Tyne Tees had to lose over 50 episodes of Blockbusters and two episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H . Other programmes were also affected. On 6 December 1993, the North West franchise holder Granada Television launched a hostile takeover for LWT , worth £600 million. LWT tried to outstep the takeover bid by holding talks with Yorkshire Television and Scottish Television. Reports suggested if LWT made
3685-475: The station's first programme was live coverage of the Test cricket match between England and Australia at Headingley . Other programmes broadcast on YTV's opening day included the first edition of its regional news programme Calendar , the station's first networked production – the 'Playhouse' drama Daddy Kiss it Better – and a light entertainment special, First Night , hosted by Bob Monkhouse . The station
3752-519: The time filming was spent in Leeds , in Yorkshire, England, on now-demolished housing of Meanwood and at Leeds Studios . This stood in for Northern Ireland. The rest of footage, filmed in Ireland, include shots of the Falls Road , broader views as where Harry is frisked on entry to Belfast city centre (there was a permanent checkpoint for pedestrians there for many years) and the final scenes overlooking
3819-532: The use of the station logo: the chevron. This yellow symbol was seen on nearly all of Yorkshire Television's idents and presentation. The first symbol used was a black and white chevron, formed by slit-scan techniques and accompanied by an orchestral version of the tune " On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at ", a famous Yorkshire folk song. This music was later to become the station's jingle. This ident continued until Yorkshire Television officially commenced their colour broadcasts on 15 November 1969. The new colour ident featured
3886-418: The world and it involved co-productions and projects that came from the deal included the rights to four M. M. Kaye novels for her Death In book series, as well as The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank , for CBS and ITV. In March 1988, Paul Fox left the company to join the BBC, after spending 15 years as Yorkshire managing director. A month later, Paul Mckess resigned. A member of staff said "It comes as
3953-426: The yellow chevron on a black background with the still caption card "Yorkshire Television Colour Production", along with a simplified version of "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at". This ident was modified in 1981, so that the caption "Colour Production" was changed to "In Colour", and in 1982 the colour caption was removed altogether. The new version of the jingle was at a lower pitch than was previously composed. Supplementing
4020-611: Was acquired by Granada Group plc (now ITV plc ). Granada's first move was to scrap the Channel 3 branding, from 9 March 1998. However, dual branding with the "ITV" name was introduced a year later. In 1998, transmission operations and presentation for all of Granada's stations in the North of England moved to Yorkshire, with the creation of the Northern Transmission Centre. This highly automated server based system
4087-490: Was allocated instead to Tyne Tees Television due to the transmitter's penetration into Teesside and County Durham . This seriously reduced YTV's monopoly commercial broadcast area. Partially to address this issue, in 1974 the Independent Broadcasting Authority reallocated the Belmont Transmitter , then served by Anglia Television , to YTV. Although the area served by Belmont was largely rural, it did cover
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#17327801966094154-466: Was deemed by the Authority to have the better talent but suffered a lack of funding, whereas Telefusion had the backing of a cash-rich parent. The new venture initially chose the name Yorkshire Television Network but decided to drop the word 'Network' before going on air. A few days after winning, the chairman Sir Richard Graham said: "We see ourselves as having a particular responsibility to convey to
4221-566: Was given that regionalism would be abandoned and a forced merger with Anglia Television would happen unless the chancellor reduced the levy applied on advertising revenues, which was also not helped by the high cost with colour television and the introduction of UHF , which the government agreed to a few months later. With the introduction of UHF broadcasting, YTV had failed to gain the Bilsdale transmitter in North Yorkshire , which
4288-517: Was hit hard financially when the transmitter mast at Emley Moor collapsed in March 1969 under a heavy build-up of ice. This left the major part of the region uncovered by Yorkshire Television plus BBC2 who broadcast from the same mast. A temporary mast was quickly erected and television to the West Riding of Yorkshire resumed, albeit with reduced coverage. From this, the company grew and by May 1970
4355-527: Was later edited into a single 130-minute programme titled Harry's Game – The Movie . Rennie appears in Seymour's other books The Journeyman Tailor and Field of Blood (and screen adaptation The Informant ). ITV Yorkshire ITV Yorkshire , previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV , is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for
4422-400: Was rebranded as ITV1 Yorkshire. The ITV1 Yorkshire branding continued to appear before some regional programming until November 2006, when a rebrand saw the sole local ident discontinued. The famous chevron logo continued to appear after programmes made by ITV Yorkshire until 31 October 2004. Today, networked programming made at the Leeds studios by ITV is credited to ITV Studios . ITV Yorkshire
4489-625: Was the source to Border, Tyne Tees and Granada as well as the Yorkshire regional output. Continuity from Leeds ended in October 2002, after a unified presentation department for ITV1 in England was set up by London News Network . The transmission operation continues at the Kirkstall Road studios, under the ownership of Technicolor SA . Since 2004, the centre has also provided playout for ITV Central . On 28 October 2002, Yorkshire Television
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