Fascinating Facts and Trivia

The word "whiskey" means "water of life" in Gaelic.

The exclamation mark ! was originally called the 'point of admiration'

(08-11-2018 14:40 )rpj316 Wrote:  The word "whiskey" means "water of life" in Gaelic.

Well, it certainly makes a few Irishmen I know a bit 'lively' ...

Probably not helped by all that diddly, diddly dee music to be sure.

In 2012 a study conducted by students at the University of Washington found that 2000 calories of junk food cost £2.29p,while 2000 calories of health food cost £23.17p.

No wonder I eat some much junk!

Did you know that when you watch a quiz show on television and they say "see you next week" or "tomorrow" if it's a daily thing that in fact that is not true. Most game/quiz show series are recorded months in advance, but many hosts like the late Bob Holness would record (Blockbusters )3 shows a day. Something like A Question Of Sport(which I had the chance to take part in a dummy run of with my Dad when they moved down from Manchester to BBC Television Centre for a bit in the 80's) was recorded on a Sunday afternoon and TWO episodes were recorded within 2 hours of each other. The then host the late David Coleman would tell the audience that you could make money out of your friends by predicting who would win(when you knew all along having been to the recording) The audience would then be moved out and then later a new audience would be brought in for the second recording and it takes nearly 2 hrs to record-what you see is the condensed/edited 28 min version. Some times you will see outtakes in a special show but these are normally edited out for the televised version. So next time a host says "see you next week" what he/she means is "I'm going to record that show in a few hours time"

Many Christmas episodes of shows are recorded well in advance from May - September in order that the stars don't have to work on Christmas Day. University Challenge is recorded from January - March which also includes the professionals version AND any Christmas specials.

Rachel Riley was recording episodes of Countdown the other day for broadcast Jan/Feb; including her 10th anniversary show.

I believe they film four shows a day for a number of days, building up a few weeks worth of shows, then come back film some more when running low? But don't quote me on this for certain...

I think the late Richard Whiteley the original presenter of Countdown recorded 5 shows. Incidentally you know when they show the audience applauding in A Question Of Sport-when my Dad and I were on it(I was James Hunt you know) back in the late 80's they would film the audience applauding FIRST and then edit it into the recording later. The camera would track along the front row and the floor manager would raise his hands to get them to clap. Television eh-you never know what goes on(unless you are part of it)

The first person in Britain to be convicted of speeding is believed to be Walter Arnold, of East Peckham, Kent, who on January 28th 1896, was fined 1s plus costs for driving at 8mph.

The football net was invented by Liverpool civil engineer John Alexander Brodie in 1891.

Some curious Pub names of past and present include The Case Is Altered, in Blo Norton, Norfolk and Faitling and Firkin in Hornchurch, Essex.

There are 25 species of Bumble Bee.

Transport for London's Lost Property Office has been open since 1933 and regularly has around 200,000 items found on taxi's, trains, buses and trams, among the most unusual items left have been a 14ft boat, breast implants, human skulls, a vesectomy kit and 2 urns.