Steve Wright’s Further Factoids
Steve Wright
After the phenomenal success of Steve Wright’s Book of Factoids, Steve returns with Further Factoids, bringing together the weirdest and most extraordinary factoids from BBC Radio 2’s Steve Wright in the Afternoon.Steve Wright, one of nation's favourite DJs, is a man with a brain the size of a small planet. Unfortunately for him, this brain appears to be filled with trivia that would make Magnus Magnuson green with envy. Fortunately for us, he has decided to let his brain gush out into another hilarious, fascinating and informative compendium of strange and bizarre facts from around the world.For example, did you know that:• Worcestershire sauce is basically anchovy ketchup?• They add liquid detergent to our favourite bevvy in beer commercials to make it foam more?• Austria was the first country ever to use postcards?• A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit Little Ant and Dec inside?Bringing together more of the strangest and most hilarious factoids from Steve's show, he provides explanations, commentary and anecdotes to enhance this entertaining collection of hundreds of fun facts.
STEVE
WRIGHT’S
F U R T H E R
FACTOIDS
Steve Wright
with Jessica Rickson
Table of Contents
Celebrity section 1 (#uf96061e1-4ad7-52e1-b96f-daa07696c61e)
Eccentrics section (#u79a5c0d5-3eba-532a-9c96-7e20b45e9dcc)
Celebrity section 2 (#u5c14618d-d511-5d23-90bc-d5ae7c5d3497)
Heroes & villains section (#u64ffee14-d99b-5ec9-aab9-7d66a82bc73e)
Celebrity section 3 (#u532af11c-7f0f-50ae-8bf6-8354f643c6f8)
Unusual afflictions (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 4 (#litres_trial_promo)
Tv hosts (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 5 (#litres_trial_promo)
Luvvies section (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Green section Eco-friendly factiods from Enviro Man (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Newsreaders (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
The Beatles section (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Ultimate Factoids From The Show (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Celebrity section 1 (#u88d839cb-6194-50f3-a2fd-c5eddb82a25c)
Socialite, party animal and ex jail bird Paris Hilton wears a size 11 shoe. Many top designers don’t make their shoes in an 11, so they have them custom made just for her.
Meanwhile, top chef Gordon F Ramsay takes a size 15 shoe!
Grease is the Wordjudge David Gest is an avid collector of Hollywood memorabilia and his collection of items belonging to ex-wife Liza Minnelli’s mother, Judy Garland, is said to be the largest in the world.
Comedian Jimmy Carr has a pink orchid named after him.
Footballer Wayne Rooney proposed to his childhood sweetheart Coleen McLoughlin on the forecourt of a BP garage when she was 17 with a £25,000 diamond engagement ring. And he was also lucky enough to get Tiger Tokens, a free Coca-Cola glass and a fold-down deckchair.
During the World Cup 2006, Coleen McLoughlin made a 900-mile round trip from Germany to Liverpool–for a haircut.
Singer Pete Doherty achieved 11 grade As at GCSE–5 of which were A-star.
Early in his career, movie star Hugh Grant was often credited as “Hughie Grant”.
Madonna and fellow singer Gwen Stefani are distant cousins. No Doubt about that.
The word “factoid” was given
7 points on the TV show
Countdown in 2006.
Did you know that “dilogy” is a term used in Hollywood to describe an original movie and its sequel? Three linked movies are a trilogy. Two movies–such as Bridget Jones’ Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason–are a dilogy. But “dilogy” is such a naff word that it’s never used publicly.
Mile for mile, the Isle of Wight is the most haunted island in the world. Don’t tell Derek Acorah or Living TV, they’ll be all over it.
Can this next factoid really be true? You decide…The French word for paperclip is “trombone”.
Victoria Beckham’s mum Jackie Adams STILL keeps every single press cutting which mentions her daughter…She must be living in a warehouse by now then, in LA of course.
Truro beekeeper Richard Harrison did not know why he kept being stung–until an expert said the bees hated his new shower gel. And they didn’t like his hair either. And those hideous shirts have to go. And another thing…silly socks.
According to British Law, while it’s an offence to drop litter on the pavement, unbelievably it’s not an offence to throw it over someone’s garden wall.Well, that explains a lot. I’m going to have to talk to those dustmen.
An average record shop needs to sell at least two copies of a CD per year to make it worth stocking, according to Wired magazine.
Movie star Nicole Kidman is scared of butterflies. “I jump out of planes, I could be covered in cockroaches, I do all sorts of things, but I just don’t like the feel of butterflies’ bodies,” she says.
Baboons are so clever that they can tell the difference between English and French. Zookeepers at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent are having to learn French to communicate with the baboons, which had been transferred from a Paris zoo…Whatever next–their own reality TV show?
One in 10 Scandinavians is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.
The London borough of Westminster has an average of 20 pieces of chewing gum for every square metre of pavement.
And did you know that chewing gum can only be removed with
Bosses at Madame Tussauds spent £10,000 separating the models of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston when they split up. It was the first time the museum had two people’s waxworks joined together. It’s a peculiar thing but the last time I went to Madame Tussauds the manager said, “Could you keep moving, Mr Wright, we’re stocktaking.”
At the time of writing, Her Majesty The Queen has never operated a computer. This she told Bill Gates as she awarded him an honorary knighthood.
One in four people in the UK still don’t know 192, the old number for directory enquiries, has in fact been abolished.
Eccentrics section (#u88d839cb-6194-50f3-a2fd-c5eddb82a25c)
A Welshman has had a slice of ham and pineapple pizza tattooed on the back of his head. It took three hours to complete and features three types of ham, chunks of pineapple and strands of cheese dripping down his neck.
A Chinese man recently marriedhimselftoexpress his “dissatisfaction with reality”. The 39 year old, from Zhuhai city, married a life-sized foam cut-out of himself wearing a woman’s bridal dress.
A sci-fi fan has spent 30 years and £30,000 building his own flying saucer. The builder put the machine together in his garage in Michigan in the USA, using aviation books.
A graffiti artist recreated the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in a run-down building in Iowa. The man and his family spent their life savings, and his parents have taken out a second mortgage, to pay for the project.
An eccentric known as The Mole Man was banned from his home after digging a 60-foot network of tunnels beneath it. The 75 year old spent 40 years burrowing under his 20-room house, removing 100 cubic metres of earth with a spade and pulleys.
A Turkish student hoping to get into the record books gave the wrong answers to every question in a university entrance exam. The chap, from Ankara, deliberately answered all 180 questions wrong as a form of protest against the national university entrance examinations.
Two motorists who model themselves on the Blues Brothers were allowed to wear shades on their driving licence photos. Tribute singers Jake and Elwood talked DVLA bosses into bending the rules.
A British millionaire bought an entire Bulgarian coastal resort with a view to naming it after himself. He paid £3 million for the town and said locals are “quite excited” about it being renamed Alexander.
A 59-year-old man who wanted to prove he was still as strong as a horse pulled a carriage 430 miles across Hungary. He started at Zahony on the country’s eastern border, and dragged the 66-stone carriage to Szombathely on the western border in 22 days.
A teenager in India became famous for his ability to take in milk through his nose and to squirt it out of his eyes. He sucks milk up his nostrils and squirts it up to 12 feet through his tear ducts, and the feat has earned him a place in theLimca Book of Records, India’s version of theGuinness Book of World Records.
A German man took legal action against the Easter Bunny for grievous bodily harm. The party pooper, from Berlin, filed a complaint with prosecutors, accusing the bunny of causing addiction to chocolate which leads to heart attacks, obesity and strokes.
A Belgian student sold the foreheads of himself and his friends to pay for his 20th birthday party He put up their foreheads as advertising space as he had no money to buy food or drink for the bash. The online auction was won by a marketing firm in Waregem, which footed the bill for all party-goers to have the firm’s logo painted on their foreheads for the night.
We British still buy the most compact discs in the world–an average of 3.2 per year, compared to 2.8 in the USA and 2.1 in France. Although as downloading becomes more prevalent these figures will no doubt go down. Factoids will keep you posted.
The name Lego, as in the children’s toy, comes from two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”. It also means “I put together” in Latin.
The average UK employee spends 14 working days a year on personal e-mails, phone calls and web browsing.
Britain’s smallest church, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, holds just one service a year. It measures 4m by 3.6m and has one pew. Tom Cruise did consider it for a wedding venue. And Ronnie Corbett’s a regular.
Only 36% of the world’s newspapers are tabloid.
The word “trivia” comes from the Latin “tri + via”, meaning three streets. In ancient Rome an information booth was situated where three streets met. And Romans of course invented the light switch, nuclear weapons, hair, throats, books, heating, Italy, carburettors, curling tongs, the London Underground, Geiger Counters, Venus, Specsavers, Troy Tempest from Stingray, feet, Ken Livingstone and hot springs. And baldness, Richard Madeley’s chest hair, BBC4, the steam iron and the pony.
Blockbusterslegend Bob Holness used to present a game show calledTake A Letter. Bet it was P please, Bob.
Britain came 37th in a list of best countries in which to live, judged on things like climate, culture, economy and freedom. Top country was France. I demand a recount.
Tom and Jerry made their debut as Jasper and Jinks in the 1940 film Puss Gets The Boot.
Half the people surveyed by the Samaritans said they’re more stressed than five years ago, with money overtaking work as the top stress factor.
As well as protecting the heart and reducing the risk of cancer, a glass of red wine also helps slow the ageing process. Give me a couple more then.
The best music video ever was Duran Duran’s “Rio”, beating Michael and Janet Jackson’s hit “Scream”. That’s according to Simon Le Bon, though.
A three-toed sloth spends 80 per cent of its time asleep. Wake up, Sloth! You’ve only got three toes, Friend!
The record for eating 38 hard-boiled eggs is 1 minute 15 seconds.
TheMahabharatais the longest poem in the world, with more than 74,000 verses and needing 18 large volumes to print it.
Scientists have located a sort of bottleneck of nerves in the brain which explains why we find it hard to do two things at once. Well, us blokes do anyway.
Celebrity section 2 (#u88d839cb-6194-50f3-a2fd-c5eddb82a25c)
Actress Billie Piper’s parents changed her given name from Lianne three weeks after registering her birth, after they decided they liked the name Billie more.
The Queenstar Dame Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov. Her father was of Russian origin.
X Factor starandBritain’s Got Talentjudge Simon Cowell says that the first time he gave a criticism was at age four when he looked at his mother’s white fuzzy pillbox hat and remarked, “Mum, you look like a poodle.”
Doctor Whostar David Tennant has auditioned for Scottish police dramaTaggart16 times–but has never been given a part.
As a toddler, movie actress Penelope Cruz would re-enact TV commercials for her family’s amusement.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s middle name is Wilhelm.
Comic Relief Does Fame Academywinner Tara Palmer-Tomkinson is a trained concert pianist, and practises for 90 minutes every day. There must be a piano in Harvey Nicks, then.
According to reports, movie star and singer Jennifer Lopez can’t be expected to stoop and tie her shoe lace, so she employs an official “shoe fastener” instead.
Courtney Cox is the only member of the TV show Friends cast not to receive an Emmy nomination for her work on the show.
Celebrity Big Brotherwinner Chantelle originally applied to be in Big Brother 6. However, after some encouragement from PR guru Max Clifford, the show’s producers put her in theCelebrity Big Brotherhouse instead.
Women say an average 20,000 words a day compared to men’s 7,000.I don’t want to talk about it.
Ozzy Osbourne, in a job that would come back to haunt him in later life, was once a labourer in a slaughterhouse.
The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.
The actress Jill Halfpenny began her TV acting career on Byker Grove. She was Jill Farthing back then.
If each of the UK’s ten million office workers used one less staple a day, 120 tonnes of steel would be saved every year.
Australia’s victory over England in The Ashes in 2006 was the first whitewash since 1921. The Wizards of Oz.
A woman who won £688,260 with a £2 accumulator flutter on the horses picked the winners with birth dates.
From EastEnders, the name Walford is a mix of Walthamstow and Stratford.
Council bosses in Swindon, Wiltshire, have responded to huge public demand by publishing a picture postcard of a roundabout near the town. The so-called Magic Roundabout already has t-shirts and keyrings dedicated to it.
The top best-selling book of all time is the Bible, which has been printed in more than 2,000 languages and has sold over six billion copies.Not been mentioned in Richard and Judy’s Book Club yet, though.
The chance of a woman having twins has doubled since World War Two.
According to the World Health Organisation, there are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day. Way too much information!
The children’s television show Tiswas stood for Today is Saturday, Wear a Smile.
“Cabbaged” and “fabaceae” are the longest words that can be played on a musical instrument.
And fickleheaded and fiddledeedee are the longest words consisting only of letters in the first half of the alphabet.
Movie star Kate Winslet and “olde tyme” comedian Norman Wisdom have something in common–they’ve both appeared in the TV show Casualty.
The New Zealand basketball team are known as The Tall Blacks.
The first female to circumnavigate (sounds painful) the globe was Krystyna Choynowska-Liskievicz. That’s easy for you to say.
TV star Oprah Winfrey’s parents wanted to use the biblical name Orpah, but the midwife couldn’t spell so it became Oprah.
A survey of the quietest tow in Britain found Torquay is 100 times less noisy than Newcastle upon Tyne.
We produce enough waste in two hours to fill London’s Albert Hall.But why should we want to do that? Wouldn’t it get in Eric Clapton’s way?
Eighty-two per cent of speeding offences are committed by a man. And he should stop it immediately.
Liverpool player Peter Crouch wore a shirt with 12 on the back and 21 on the front in England’s football friendly with Uruguay.
Because Peter is wacky.
Dramatic changes in our climate mean we could lose the four seasons. And they were a damn good group. “Big Girls Don’t Cry”…
Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the USA. Apart from eating.
The final episode ofM*A*S*Hattracted a record TV audience of more than 109 million.
The Test cricketer of the 20th century, according to a panel of 100 cricketers and experts, was Sir Donald Bradman.
The hit “Wooden Heart” is adapted from the German folk song “Muss I Denn”.We’ll have to ask Elvis about that. Thangu vey much.
CONFIRMED–THE EGG CAME FIRST SHOCKER.
Heroes & villains section (#u88d839cb-6194-50f3-a2fd-c5eddb82a25c)
Disgraced President Richard Nixon was so worried about his grades at Law School that he broke into his Dean’s office to find his results. He discovered he was top of the class.
Winston Churchill’s family motto was “Fiel Pero Desdichado”, meaning “Faithful But Unfortunate”.
Notorious villain Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed on his wedding night because he was too drunk to notice his nose was bleeding.
Some Argentine fans are so in awe of “Hand of God” football villain Diego Maradona they worship him as a god, with their own “Maradonian” religion. This involves following “ten commandments”–one of which is to call your son Diego.
Russian dictator Joseph Stalin’s face was left badly scarred by smallpox, which he suffered from as a child. He later had photographs retouched to make his pockmarks less noticeable.
Muhammad Ali learned to box after his bike was stolen while he and a friend were at the Columbia Auditorium. The then young Cassius Clay found a policeman in a gym and told him he was going to “whup” whoever stole his bike. The policeman told him, “You better learn to box first.” So he did, and the rest is history.
A recent survey voted Jack the Ripper the worst Briton of the last 1,000 years.
Serial killer Charles Manson recorded an album calledLiein an effort to spread his beliefs.
Rowing hero Steve Redgrave won an Olympic Gold medal by a margin of just 0.38 seconds.
Although known during his life, and in history, as a tyrant, before his death Ivan the Terrible was actually re-christened as the monk Jonah and buried in his monk’s habit.
Mother Theresa was born Agnes Bojaxhiu. After taking her first vows as a nun, she chose the name Theresa after the patron saint of missionaries.
Adolf Hitler left school with no qualifications.
Gangster Al Capone was the only real person to appear as a character in The Adventures of Tintin series of comic books.
Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, was named after American actors Clark Gable and Kent Taylor.
The name of James Bond villain Blofeld was inspired by the English cricket commentator Henry Blofeld’s father, with whom Bond creator Ian Fleming went to school. Look out, he’s got a dangerous cat, but he’s out for a duck.
Meanwhile, James Bond himself was named after an American ornithologist, a Caribbean bird expert who was the author of the definitive guide book Birds of the West Indies.
The flashing lights on the originalDoctor WhoDaleks were indicator lights from an old Morris 1100.
The person who does the housework at home walks an average of 7,000 miles in their lifetime doing the vacuuming.
Sucking blowing blowing sucking blowing blowing sucking sucking blowing sucking…
Ikea gave all its 9,000 staff a bicycle as its contribution to tackling global warming. Bet they were worried when they got letters telling them to get on their bikes.
“Rugged” is a two-syllable word that can be made one syllable by adding letters to it to make the word “shrugged”.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Why…?
Harry Randall is Cockney rhyming slang for candle. Fair enough, but who’s Harry Randall?
Renoir had to paint with the brush tied to his fingers because of rheumatism.
Drinking three cups of coffee a day can cut the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Louis XIII(that’s 13th in real money)appointed a Royal Anagrammist (bloke that does anagrams)for a salary of £1,200 a year.
Pensioners now prefer surfing the net to traditional old people’s pastimes of gardening, DIY and walking.And eating boiled sweets.
The “Mona Lisa” has no eyebrows–it was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off. She’s also got a tat of a spider on her neck if you look closely, and her tongue is pierced, which accounts for the painful smile.
Postmen and women walk further than secretaries in their work, a global study found.
The average number of sexual partners a man has during his life is 14.56. Must have been interrupted during the 15th…
Sack races were banned at a community’s annual festival because the cost of insuring against injury became too high. Out went the three-legged race and egg-and-spoon at the “fun day” in Hartlepool.Eggs can break easily when dropped, that’s a fact.
Psychologists at Aberdeen University reckon the best way to woo a woman is to chat up her mate.
Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.Hmm, I think I’ll make him 6 foot 2.
Fulham’s Moritz Volz scored the 15,000th goal in Premiership history in the last game of last year. 15,000 Volz…
According to a poll in theBritish Medical Journal, the most significant health breakthrough of all time was not antibiotics, vaccines or anaesthetic but…sanitation.
Scientists have found the brain has a kind of screensaver that automatically kicks in when we’re idle, allowing our mind to wander or daydream.
Celebrity section 3 (#u88d839cb-6194-50f3-a2fd-c5eddb82a25c)
A half-eaten banana signed by GMTV presenter Kate Garraway fetched £1,650 on an auction website.
Before becoming a professional dancer, Strictly Come Dancingstar Brendan Cole worked as a builder.
Dragons’ Den star and multi-millionaire Duncan Bannatyne began his business career as an ice-cream man, after buying an ice-cream van for 450 quid.
Comedian Russell Brand has been arrested 11 times, once for stripping off at an anti-globalisation protest.
Desperate Housewivesstar Eva Longoria is the only one among her parents’ children to have dark skin, dark eyes and dark hair. Her three sisters all have fair hair, blue eyes and pale skin. Eva thought for a long time that she was adopted because she looked so different.
In the mid 90s, a photo of fellow Desperate Houswife Teri Hatcher, wrapped in nothing but a red Superman cape, became the most downloaded image on America Online.
Jennifer Aniston, Kate Moss and Kelly Osbourne all have heart tattoos, whilst Sienna Miller, Britney Spears, Victoria Beckham and Lindsay Lohan all have stars.
Boratstar Sacha Baron Cohen went to the same school as Matt Lucas ofLittle Britain, and funnyman David Baddiel.
All emperor penguins with film careers haveHappy Feet.
Beatrix Potter left the National Trust 4,000 acres in the Lake District to be preserved for the nation.
Judge John Deed (not a real judge) actor Martin Shaw, once worked for a chemical company before being accepted at drama school.
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