Fascinating Facts and Trivia

Amazing Roy Castle tapping and other records.
For more than 20 years, Roy Castle (UK) hosted BBC TV’s Record Breakers, introducing the British viewing public to a host of officially amazing individuals. And along the way, he became quite a record breaker himself…

Roy was the very definition of an all-round entertainer, his talents including acting, singing, trumpet playing… and tap dancing. He’d trained as a dancer from a young age, and on 14 January 1973, just a year into his tenure on Record Breakers, he’d set a record for the fastest tap dance: an astonishing 1,440 taps per minute, or 24 taps per second.

For such an accomplished hoofer, it was only a question of time before Roy embarked on another tap-dancing record attempt. In 1977, he joined 500 other participants(girls) to perform the then largest tap dance at the BBC TV Centre.

Eight years later, Roy donned his tap shoes once more, for an even more ambitious goal: to perform 1 million taps in the fastest time possible, for charity. The record attempt was staged at the Guinness World of Records Exhibition in Piccadilly, in the heart of London, UK. Needless to say, achieving such a massive total takes time – 23 hr 44 min, to be precise. The marathon feat necessitated regular breaks every 20 minutes or so, and the presence of a doctor and osteopath. Roy retained his characteristic good humour throughout, though, taking the opportunity to celebrate each new total of 100,000 taps by blowing himself a trumpet fanfare.

And in 1990, he took his record breaking to another level, setting a new record for the Longest time spent wing walking (3 hours 23 minutes, on a Boeing Stearman biplane, flying from London to Paris). One record this doesn't mention that I remember is that he parascended under every bridge in London which for someone who hated heights was quite a feat.

If you have a vinyl record of anything with Kylie Minogue from her Stock, Aitken and Waterman days and you have a record player AND you slow her down to 33 /13rpm amazingly she will sound like SAW's former teaboy/engineer and 80's heart-throb Rick Astley.

Get a packet of Skittles, get a small plate, arrange the colourful sweets in a circle in any colour formation, and then pour into the middle of the plate some warm water then watch carefully what happens. You will discover just why their slogan was/is "Taste the rainbow!"

Hot water will turn into ice faster than cold water.

On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

The tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body.

Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

A giraffe can clean its own ears with its 21-inch tongue.

A group of pugs is called a grumble.

Britain's Favourite Crisps was run by Channel 5 last year(as were most of these silly favourite surveys) and the No.1 crisps were...Walker's Crisps range. I can remember when Golden Wonder were the top dog but that was when cheese and onion was in a green bag and salt and vinegar was in a blue bag-Walker's turned this around so C&O are in blue, and S&V in green which can be confusing for those of us that remember the traditional colours. Most popular flavour-Cheese and Onion followed by Salt and Vinegar.

During the Great Fire of London in 1666 Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist wrote that he wasn't worried about the fire that "a woman might piss on it and put it out!" He also famously buried a parmesan cheese in the garden because at that time it was a very valuable commodity.

Last month was the 40th anniversary(and this makes me feel really old) of Masquerade in 1979 written by Kit Williams, an obscure artist who had created and illustrated a beautiful children's book. This book told the story of Jack Hare who is entrusted with a gold and jewelled rabbit given to him by the Sun to give to the Moon. However, this was more than just a kids' storybook, it was the start of a worldwide phenomenon which led to a massive treasure hunt. One night Kit and a witness, the broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne(original host of University Challenge) buried a real gold and jewel-encrusted hare somewhere in the country. The idea was for people to try to work out the clues hidden in the pictures of the book and if they worked that out, it would then give them the coordinates and the clue to find the treasure. It was over three years until one day two mathematicians reckoned they had solved the riddle but unfortunately didn't know the coordinates to find it. Out of the blue a man called Ken Thomas claimed to have found the hare but it later transpired that it was an old girlfriend of Kit's who had mentioned that Kit had loved the place it was buried when he was a younger man. Anyway it eventually was sold to a private buyer and Williams faded into obscurity and the hare was never seen in public again.

Fast forward to 2009 and a radio appearance by Kit Williams speaking about the book and the hare was heard by the man who had bought it at auction, living in the Middle East and he agreed to reunite Kit with the hare at a special exhibition and it was filmed for transmission by BBC FOUR. He was overjoyed to be reunited with the hare and spoke of how his life had turned upside down. Now 40 years on, fans still celebrate it by having a special barbecue and other events at the sight it was found at AMPTHILL(the letters in the book would spell out the name and how to find the jewelled hare by looking at St Catherine's Cross at the Equinox. whose shadow would point to the site.

Did you know that Anna Karen was deliberately made up to look like a grotesque frumpy housewife(bad teeth, awful glasses and the dress sense of a clothes horse) Olive married to Michael Robbins's character Arthur in the classic 70's television series(and three dire films) 'On the Buses' In reality she was actually a very glamorous and sexy model and started life as a stripper! She also appeared in Eastenders in a recurring role as Peggy Mitchell's sister Aunt Sal.

The girl in Carry On Camping that helps to cause chaos with Barbara Windsor would later go on to appear as the character 'Mumsy' in the Richard O'Brien era of 'The Crystal Maze' in the 1990's - her name was Sandra Caron - in later series she would also appear as 'Auntie' who was looking after Richard(Ricky Dicky) as Mumsy had supposedly run off with her boyfriend Ralph(eluded to several times by Richard but never seen) Mumsy/Auntie would give out the questions to the contestants whenever they were in the Medieval Zone.

Julia Gale is probably not a name you've heard of but you've definitely seen her in pop videos like See You - Depeché Mode, Poison Arrow-ABC and Every Loser Wins-Nick Berry. She is the sister of the former head of the Scouts and actor/ former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan(Duncan was his acting/stage name) Peter appeared in a scene in 'Flash Gordon' where he puts his arm into a log and is attacked by this alien-animal-like thing.

I am sure we all remember that brilliant LEGO advert which starts off with a mouse outside his hole "You see, I was standing outside my mouse-hole the other day..." and the voice over of that great entertainer/clown Tommy Cooper...except that it wasn't him doing the voice. He had turned it down but let a brilliant mimic called Roger Kitter do it. Kitter had been on many shows including radio's The Impressionists and on televison his early appearances on impressions sketch show 'Who Do You Do?' Enjoy.