2 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:41,649 You both quantity and quality, and with me are a pint and a half of best, Joe Lycett. 3 00:00:41,649 --> 00:00:49,579 Poonfuls of delicious, Brigid Christie. 4 00:00:49,579 --> 00:01:02,710 Yards of finest, James A. Caster. 5 00:01:02,710 --> 00:01:14,819 Alan Davies with Bell's Ones, as emphasised, quantities over qualities. 6 00:01:14,819 --> 00:01:15,819 Joe goes... 7 00:01:15,819 --> 00:01:16,819 Zero, un, deux. 8 00:01:16,819 --> 00:01:17,819 Brigid goes... 9 00:01:17,819 --> 00:01:18,819 Tre, quattro, cinque. 10 00:01:18,819 --> 00:01:19,819 James goes... 11 00:01:19,819 --> 00:01:20,819 Seis, siete, ocho. 12 00:01:21,819 --> 00:01:22,819 Alan goes... 13 00:01:22,819 --> 00:01:23,819 Nine. 14 00:01:23,819 --> 00:01:24,819 Nine. 15 00:01:24,819 --> 00:01:28,819 A high-quality airline, but we don't have the quantity of money required. 16 00:01:28,819 --> 00:01:37,519 What cost-saving measures could we take? 17 00:01:37,519 --> 00:01:40,519 How much are trains? 18 00:01:40,519 --> 00:01:43,519 We still wanted to go in the airline business. 19 00:01:43,519 --> 00:01:48,930 How much would it cost to put wings on a train? 20 00:01:48,930 --> 00:01:51,930 There are driverless trains. 21 00:01:51,930 --> 00:01:54,930 Perhaps don't have pilots or stewards. 22 00:01:54,930 --> 00:01:55,930 Gliders. 23 00:01:55,930 --> 00:01:56,930 Right, why? 24 00:01:56,930 --> 00:01:58,930 No fuel costs. 25 00:01:58,930 --> 00:02:01,930 Well, it is fuel that we want to save. 26 00:02:01,930 --> 00:02:04,930 We want to help the environment, we want to save money and so on. 27 00:02:04,930 --> 00:02:05,930 So here is an extraordinary thing. 28 00:02:05,930 --> 00:02:06,930 No passengers. 29 00:02:06,930 --> 00:02:07,930 Well, you want the passengers... 30 00:02:07,930 --> 00:02:08,930 Or luggage. 31 00:02:08,930 --> 00:02:11,930 You want the passengers to be as light as possible. 32 00:02:11,930 --> 00:02:14,930 Skinny people with no bags. 33 00:02:14,930 --> 00:02:17,930 Are you allowed to advertise that? 34 00:02:17,930 --> 00:02:18,930 Yes. 35 00:02:18,930 --> 00:02:22,930 In 2013, Samoa Air were the very first airline to charge passengers 36 00:02:22,930 --> 00:02:24,930 according to their own weight. 37 00:02:24,930 --> 00:02:25,930 They actually did it. 38 00:02:25,930 --> 00:02:28,930 They had to pay one, Samoa and Talas, roughly 29, 30p, 39 00:02:28,930 --> 00:02:31,930 for every kilo that they and their luggage weighed. 40 00:02:31,930 --> 00:02:32,930 Wow. 41 00:02:32,930 --> 00:02:34,930 But the actual plane, you can save money on the actual plane. 42 00:02:34,930 --> 00:02:36,930 I know it sounds very strange, 43 00:02:36,930 --> 00:02:40,930 but white planes are more efficient than dark planes. 44 00:02:40,930 --> 00:02:41,930 What? 45 00:02:41,930 --> 00:02:42,930 Yeah. 46 00:02:42,930 --> 00:02:45,930 Light planes are more efficient than dark planes. 47 00:02:45,930 --> 00:02:46,930 What? 48 00:02:46,930 --> 00:02:47,930 Yeah. 49 00:02:47,930 --> 00:02:50,930 Lighter paint is literally lighter. 50 00:02:50,930 --> 00:02:53,930 Dark paint on an aeroplane can add the equivalent weight 51 00:02:53,930 --> 00:02:55,930 of eight passengers. 52 00:02:55,930 --> 00:02:58,930 You look, James, as though you don't believe me. 53 00:02:58,930 --> 00:03:00,930 It does sound like a lie. 54 00:03:00,930 --> 00:03:05,370 Might dark paint be heavier, do you think? 55 00:03:05,370 --> 00:03:09,349 Because it's evil? 56 00:03:09,349 --> 00:03:11,349 Dark paint is heavier because it has more pigments. 57 00:03:11,349 --> 00:03:13,349 More pigments. More pigments. 58 00:03:13,349 --> 00:03:14,349 I was going to say pigment. 59 00:03:14,349 --> 00:03:16,349 No, I was going to say pigment. 60 00:03:16,349 --> 00:03:17,349 I was going to say... 61 00:03:17,349 --> 00:03:20,349 All right, children. All right. 62 00:03:20,349 --> 00:03:22,349 So if you look at a plane, you'll see most of them 63 00:03:22,349 --> 00:03:24,349 are of a lighter colour. 64 00:03:24,349 --> 00:03:25,349 Why paint it at all? 65 00:03:25,349 --> 00:03:27,349 So that is the other option, is that you could polish it. 66 00:03:27,349 --> 00:03:30,349 However, you do need to wash it more often to offset 67 00:03:30,349 --> 00:03:32,349 corrosion, if you've just polished it. 68 00:03:32,349 --> 00:03:35,349 And white paint would be cheaper, because actually 69 00:03:35,349 --> 00:03:38,349 the money you'd save on fuel, you'd spend on washing. 70 00:03:38,349 --> 00:03:39,349 So those are your choices. 71 00:03:39,349 --> 00:03:41,349 It sounds like a headache, really. 72 00:03:41,349 --> 00:03:43,349 I'm not going to open an air flight business. 73 00:03:43,349 --> 00:03:44,349 Are you not? 74 00:03:44,349 --> 00:03:45,349 Yeah. 75 00:03:45,349 --> 00:03:46,349 But it's amazing where you can save money. 76 00:03:46,349 --> 00:03:50,349 So in 2018, United Airlines switched to lighter paper 77 00:03:50,349 --> 00:03:52,349 for the in-flight magazine, all right? 78 00:03:52,349 --> 00:03:54,349 They saved one ounce per copy. 79 00:03:54,349 --> 00:03:56,349 Doesn't seem like very much at all. 80 00:03:56,349 --> 00:03:59,349 But it's £11 saved for a full flight. 81 00:03:59,349 --> 00:04:02,349 You multiply that by the whole fleet over a single year, 82 00:04:02,349 --> 00:04:05,349 you have saved 170,000 gallons of fuel 83 00:04:05,349 --> 00:04:10,349 worth $290,000, just a single ounce of paper 84 00:04:10,349 --> 00:04:12,349 on each individual in-flight magazine. 85 00:04:12,349 --> 00:04:15,349 The Airlines beverage cart, in our ways half 86 00:04:15,349 --> 00:04:17,350 what the old ones used away. 87 00:04:17,350 --> 00:04:19,350 They've stopped duty-free sales in many instances. 88 00:04:19,350 --> 00:04:22,350 Well, I've picked a few already you can get rid of. 89 00:04:22,350 --> 00:04:25,350 That little tiny tray that the other trays are in, 90 00:04:25,350 --> 00:04:26,350 why does that exist? 91 00:04:26,350 --> 00:04:29,350 I mean, all of the food can go, because it looks shit. 92 00:04:31,350 --> 00:04:33,350 I noticed on a flight I was on recently 93 00:04:33,350 --> 00:04:36,350 that they weren't showing Oceans 11, 94 00:04:36,350 --> 00:04:39,350 but they were showing Oceans 8, so that's three people. 95 00:04:39,350 --> 00:04:42,350 Three, that's three straight away. 96 00:04:42,350 --> 00:04:44,350 In the 1980s, there was a man called Robert Crandall. 97 00:04:44,350 --> 00:04:46,350 He was then head of American Airlines, 98 00:04:46,350 --> 00:04:49,350 and he removed just one olive from every single salad 99 00:04:49,350 --> 00:04:51,350 served to their customers. 100 00:04:51,350 --> 00:04:54,350 Nobody noticed, and they saved $40,000 a year. 101 00:04:54,350 --> 00:04:57,350 Yeah, but I bet he was fatter at the end of it. 102 00:04:58,350 --> 00:05:00,350 If he's popping an olive from everyone's plate 103 00:05:00,350 --> 00:05:02,350 in every plane, that's having some effect. 104 00:05:02,350 --> 00:05:05,350 I'm no scientist. No, clearly. 105 00:05:05,350 --> 00:05:08,350 You could say, no hats. 106 00:05:10,350 --> 00:05:13,350 No-one could really get annoyed if he said, no hats. 107 00:05:13,350 --> 00:05:15,350 There's a lot of screws in a plane as well. 108 00:05:15,350 --> 00:05:17,350 I reckon a couple of those. 109 00:05:18,350 --> 00:05:21,350 The Japanese airline called All Nippon Airways, 110 00:05:21,350 --> 00:05:25,350 in 2009 they asked passengers to visit the loo before boarding. 111 00:05:25,350 --> 00:05:28,350 They calculated that a full 767 could hold 112 00:05:28,350 --> 00:05:32,350 £240 of urine inside its passengers, 113 00:05:32,350 --> 00:05:34,350 and if everybody boarded with an empty bladder, 114 00:05:34,350 --> 00:05:36,350 they calculated they could reduce carbon emissions 115 00:05:36,350 --> 00:05:39,350 by five tonnes over the course of a month. 116 00:05:39,350 --> 00:05:42,350 Is that man doing a selfie while he's there? 117 00:05:42,350 --> 00:05:45,819 We should move on. 118 00:05:45,819 --> 00:05:47,819 How can you make money from fresh air? 119 00:05:49,819 --> 00:05:51,819 Catch it in the net. 120 00:05:51,819 --> 00:05:57,259 Separate it into its component parts and then sell those. 121 00:05:57,259 --> 00:06:00,259 You don't need to. You can just sell fresh air. 122 00:06:00,259 --> 00:06:03,259 So, in 2015, there was a man called Moses Lamb, 123 00:06:03,259 --> 00:06:06,259 who lived in Edmonton, Canada, and as a joke, 124 00:06:06,259 --> 00:06:08,259 he sold a bag, there he is, 125 00:06:08,259 --> 00:06:11,259 a bag of fresh Canadian air on eBay for 99 cents. 126 00:06:11,259 --> 00:06:14,259 It went, and when the bids for the second bag 127 00:06:14,259 --> 00:06:17,259 got to 168 Canadian dollars, 128 00:06:17,259 --> 00:06:20,259 he thought, hmm, might be onto something here. 129 00:06:20,259 --> 00:06:23,259 He gave up his job as a mortgage broker, 130 00:06:23,259 --> 00:06:26,259 and now he sells Canadian Rockies Air. 131 00:06:26,259 --> 00:06:28,259 That is what he does for a living. 132 00:06:28,259 --> 00:06:31,259 A single eight litre bottle costs 24 US dollars. 133 00:06:31,259 --> 00:06:36,259 His company, Vitality, has sold over 200,000 units, 134 00:06:36,259 --> 00:06:38,259 often to countries with very low air quality, 135 00:06:38,259 --> 00:06:40,259 so he sells them to China and India 136 00:06:40,259 --> 00:06:42,259 and South Korea and so on. 137 00:06:42,259 --> 00:06:44,259 And if Canadian air sounds pricey, 138 00:06:44,259 --> 00:06:46,259 you could have Swiss mountain air. 139 00:06:46,259 --> 00:06:48,259 That's only 17 pounds, roughly, a can. 140 00:06:48,259 --> 00:06:50,259 How can you prove that it's from there? 141 00:06:50,259 --> 00:06:52,259 Well, you just have to believe, Bridget. 142 00:06:52,259 --> 00:06:55,259 You can buy some good old British air, if you prefer. 143 00:06:55,259 --> 00:06:57,259 You don't want to buy air from abroad. 144 00:06:57,259 --> 00:07:00,259 You can buy air from Yorkshire, from Wiltshire, from Wales. 145 00:07:00,259 --> 00:07:02,259 There's a company called Ether. 146 00:07:02,259 --> 00:07:04,259 The company's founder, Leo Dewatze, 147 00:07:04,259 --> 00:07:06,259 has coined the term air farming. 148 00:07:06,259 --> 00:07:08,259 There he is. 149 00:07:08,259 --> 00:07:12,339 It's completely pure air. 150 00:07:12,339 --> 00:07:14,339 It is actually collected in Somerset 151 00:07:14,339 --> 00:07:15,339 or wherever he happens to be. 152 00:07:15,339 --> 00:07:17,339 It's just scooped up and sealed. 153 00:07:17,339 --> 00:07:20,339 It's just a lot of money for a jar, isn't it, really? 154 00:07:20,339 --> 00:07:21,339 Yeah. 155 00:07:21,339 --> 00:07:25,339 Now, because we like to really go the full extra mile for you, 156 00:07:25,339 --> 00:07:28,339 all our elves have been all over the world 157 00:07:28,339 --> 00:07:31,339 collecting for you special fresh air. 158 00:07:31,339 --> 00:07:33,339 They haven't been opened. 159 00:07:33,339 --> 00:07:35,339 So, Joe, would you want to open yours, darling, 160 00:07:35,339 --> 00:07:37,339 and see where you think that comes from? 161 00:07:38,339 --> 00:07:40,339 Wigan. 162 00:07:40,339 --> 00:07:49,350 James on the right there, collecting from Slovenia. 163 00:07:49,350 --> 00:07:51,350 James? 164 00:07:51,350 --> 00:07:59,329 What are you getting? 165 00:07:59,329 --> 00:08:01,329 A jar. 166 00:08:01,329 --> 00:08:04,329 Heavy notes of jar. 167 00:08:04,329 --> 00:08:06,329 It's come the furthest, actually, though. 168 00:08:06,329 --> 00:08:07,329 Really? 169 00:08:07,329 --> 00:08:08,329 Brazil. 170 00:08:08,329 --> 00:08:10,329 It's come from Tasmania. 171 00:08:10,329 --> 00:08:14,329 That is Anna leaping there to collect air from Tasmania. 172 00:08:14,329 --> 00:08:17,329 Smells less fresh than the studio does. 173 00:08:17,329 --> 00:08:20,329 I'm actually going to capture some studio air, 174 00:08:20,329 --> 00:08:23,329 and this will be available on eBay when the show goes out. 175 00:08:23,329 --> 00:08:24,329 QI Air. 176 00:08:24,329 --> 00:08:26,329 Mine is unmistakably Scottish Highlands. 177 00:08:26,329 --> 00:08:27,329 What have you got, Bridget? 178 00:08:27,329 --> 00:08:28,329 Sorry, are we all... 179 00:08:28,329 --> 00:08:31,329 We're seriously... 180 00:08:31,329 --> 00:08:34,059 I'm very good at smells. 181 00:08:34,059 --> 00:08:35,059 OK. 182 00:08:35,059 --> 00:08:38,059 When I was pregnant, my husband was out, 183 00:08:38,059 --> 00:08:40,059 and when he came back in, I said, 184 00:08:40,059 --> 00:08:44,059 have you been eating nice and spicy-flavoured knickknacks? 185 00:08:44,059 --> 00:08:46,059 And he said, no, 186 00:08:46,059 --> 00:08:49,059 but there was a bag in the room that I was in. 187 00:08:50,059 --> 00:08:51,059 Oh! 188 00:08:51,059 --> 00:08:52,059 What? 189 00:08:52,059 --> 00:08:53,059 That doesn't smell good. 190 00:08:53,059 --> 00:08:54,059 That smells very greasy to me. 191 00:08:54,059 --> 00:08:55,059 OK. 192 00:08:55,059 --> 00:08:56,059 Yours comes from the Canary Islands. 193 00:08:56,059 --> 00:08:58,059 That's Mike collecting it in. 194 00:08:58,059 --> 00:08:59,059 These are genuine pictures. 195 00:08:59,059 --> 00:09:01,059 Right, Alan, yours. 196 00:09:04,059 --> 00:09:05,059 Ooh! 197 00:09:05,059 --> 00:09:06,059 What? 198 00:09:06,059 --> 00:09:10,779 Someone pumped in there. 199 00:09:10,779 --> 00:09:12,779 This comes from Hudson Bay, 200 00:09:12,779 --> 00:09:14,779 but we didn't have the money to go all the way to Hudson Bay, 201 00:09:14,779 --> 00:09:17,779 so it's a pub in West Ham. 202 00:09:18,779 --> 00:09:19,779 It's the Hudson Bay. 203 00:09:19,779 --> 00:09:30,049 Which country do you think has the best air quality in the world? 204 00:09:30,049 --> 00:09:32,049 Britain. 205 00:09:32,049 --> 00:09:34,049 Oh, that's so sweet and loyal and so wrong. 206 00:09:34,049 --> 00:09:35,049 So unbelievably wrong. 207 00:09:35,049 --> 00:09:37,049 It's going to be Iceland. 208 00:09:37,049 --> 00:09:39,049 It's going to be Scandi, isn't it, for sure? 209 00:09:39,049 --> 00:09:40,049 Finland. 210 00:09:40,049 --> 00:09:41,049 Finland, it is absolutely right. 211 00:09:41,049 --> 00:09:42,049 It is Finland, indeed. 212 00:09:42,049 --> 00:09:44,049 Followed by, of course, the usual suspects, 213 00:09:44,049 --> 00:09:46,049 all the Scandis, Iceland, Sweden, 214 00:09:46,049 --> 00:09:48,049 and then Estonia and Norway. 215 00:09:48,049 --> 00:09:50,049 UK's 25th after Singapore. 216 00:09:50,049 --> 00:09:51,049 Oh, yeah. 217 00:09:51,049 --> 00:09:53,049 And just one place ahead of Oman. 218 00:09:53,049 --> 00:09:55,049 Sweden were really high, 219 00:09:55,049 --> 00:09:57,049 and they still have really good air, 220 00:09:57,049 --> 00:09:59,049 but they've dropped down the list 221 00:09:59,049 --> 00:10:02,049 because in these countries that have lots of snow, 222 00:10:02,049 --> 00:10:04,049 they have tire spikes 223 00:10:04,049 --> 00:10:06,049 so that they're not all sliding around, 224 00:10:06,049 --> 00:10:08,049 and they're digging up the tarmac, 225 00:10:08,049 --> 00:10:11,049 which is causing some toxic air, 226 00:10:11,049 --> 00:10:12,049 and they have to sort it out. 227 00:10:12,049 --> 00:10:15,049 Can't even stop yourself slipping on the road. 228 00:10:15,049 --> 00:10:16,049 Unbelievable. 229 00:10:16,049 --> 00:10:18,049 Worst quality air in the world? 230 00:10:18,049 --> 00:10:19,049 Anybody have a guess? 231 00:10:19,049 --> 00:10:22,049 I went to Delhi, and the air was black. 232 00:10:22,049 --> 00:10:24,049 Yeah, it's Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. 233 00:10:24,049 --> 00:10:26,049 Nicknamed the Manchester of India. 234 00:10:28,049 --> 00:10:30,049 Worst place for pollution in London? 235 00:10:30,049 --> 00:10:31,049 The North Circular. 236 00:10:31,049 --> 00:10:33,049 It's actually the underground. 237 00:10:33,049 --> 00:10:34,049 Yeah, is it? 238 00:10:34,049 --> 00:10:37,049 They did a study at the University College London in 2001. 239 00:10:37,049 --> 00:10:40,049 They found the air quality in carriages 240 00:10:40,049 --> 00:10:43,049 was 73 times worse than at street level. 241 00:10:43,049 --> 00:10:46,049 So if you take one single 20-minute journey 242 00:10:46,049 --> 00:10:47,049 on the Northern Line, 243 00:10:47,049 --> 00:10:49,049 you might as well have had a fag. 244 00:10:49,049 --> 00:10:51,049 It's the iron oxide particles 245 00:10:51,049 --> 00:10:54,049 caused by the grinding of the wheels and the rails 246 00:10:54,049 --> 00:10:55,049 as the trains break. 247 00:10:55,049 --> 00:10:57,049 So it is about the most dangerous place, 248 00:10:57,049 --> 00:10:59,049 in fact, to breathe in the whole of London. 249 00:10:59,049 --> 00:11:01,049 It's upset everybody in the room. 250 00:11:02,049 --> 00:11:05,049 Half these people came on the Northern Line. 251 00:11:05,049 --> 00:11:08,049 Well, we're lucky if they get through the evening. 252 00:11:08,049 --> 00:11:09,049 So here's an extraordinary thing. 253 00:11:09,049 --> 00:11:10,049 Speaking of air in jars, 254 00:11:10,049 --> 00:11:12,049 there's a place called the Henry Ford Museum. 255 00:11:12,049 --> 00:11:13,049 It's in Michigan. 256 00:11:13,049 --> 00:11:15,049 It has a test tube which purports to contain 257 00:11:15,049 --> 00:11:17,049 Thomas Edison's last breath. 258 00:11:17,049 --> 00:11:18,049 There he is. 259 00:11:18,049 --> 00:11:19,049 The label reads, 260 00:11:19,049 --> 00:11:21,049 Thomas Edison was Henry Ford's hero, 261 00:11:21,049 --> 00:11:23,049 as well as his friend. 262 00:11:23,049 --> 00:11:25,049 During Edison's final illness, 263 00:11:25,049 --> 00:11:27,049 this test tube was close to his bedside. 264 00:11:27,049 --> 00:11:30,049 Upon his death, it was sealed with paraffin wax. 265 00:11:30,049 --> 00:11:33,049 Edison's son Charles later sent his father's last breath 266 00:11:33,049 --> 00:11:36,049 to Henry Ford, knowing their close relationship. 267 00:11:36,049 --> 00:11:38,049 I mean, that's a weird thing to do, isn't it? 268 00:11:38,049 --> 00:11:40,049 It is a very, very... Hang on, mate. 269 00:11:40,049 --> 00:11:42,049 Is this the last one? 270 00:11:42,049 --> 00:11:43,049 Thank you. 271 00:11:43,049 --> 00:11:44,049 Also, if you just go... 272 00:11:44,049 --> 00:11:46,049 OK, I'm going to get the last one. 273 00:11:46,049 --> 00:11:48,049 Oh, he's still breathing. 274 00:11:49,049 --> 00:11:51,049 You didn't want that when you were dying, 275 00:11:51,049 --> 00:11:53,049 would you, somebody just trying to... No. 276 00:11:53,049 --> 00:11:55,049 Last thing you see is a test tube in your face 277 00:11:55,049 --> 00:11:57,049 and the eager eyes of a relative. 278 00:11:57,049 --> 00:11:58,049 Yeah. 279 00:12:00,049 --> 00:12:01,049 No, thank you. 280 00:12:01,049 --> 00:12:03,049 No, I'm with you on that one, James. 281 00:12:03,049 --> 00:12:04,049 Quite right. 282 00:12:04,049 --> 00:12:06,049 Now, why might it be a bad idea 283 00:12:06,049 --> 00:12:09,049 to remove all the dead wood from the Houses of Parliament? 284 00:12:12,049 --> 00:12:14,049 So many answers, so little time. 285 00:12:15,049 --> 00:12:17,049 Is it something to do with the gunpowder? 286 00:12:17,049 --> 00:12:19,049 Yes, I did the gunpowder plot. 287 00:12:19,049 --> 00:12:20,049 I'm with Bridget. 288 00:12:20,049 --> 00:12:21,049 No. 289 00:12:21,049 --> 00:12:23,049 No, it's nothing to do with that. 290 00:12:24,049 --> 00:12:26,049 Is it later than the gunpowder plot? 291 00:12:26,049 --> 00:12:27,049 Later. 292 00:12:27,049 --> 00:12:29,049 Well, we are talking about 1834. 293 00:12:29,049 --> 00:12:31,049 Up until 1826, the Palace of Westminster 294 00:12:31,049 --> 00:12:35,049 kept all its financial records on something called tally sticks. 295 00:12:35,049 --> 00:12:37,049 So you had a stick and you split it in two 296 00:12:37,049 --> 00:12:39,049 when you issued a debt 297 00:12:39,049 --> 00:12:41,049 and when the payment was made, 298 00:12:41,049 --> 00:12:44,049 the two sticks were tied back together again. 299 00:12:44,049 --> 00:12:46,049 But eventually, of course, paper records superseded 300 00:12:46,049 --> 00:12:48,049 the need for these, 301 00:12:48,049 --> 00:12:50,049 and now they've got a lot of old wood, 302 00:12:50,049 --> 00:12:52,049 so they decided to get rid of it. 303 00:12:52,049 --> 00:12:54,049 The obvious idea was to burn it. 304 00:12:54,049 --> 00:12:56,049 So on the 16th of October, 1834, 305 00:12:56,049 --> 00:12:58,049 the clerk of the works, 306 00:12:58,049 --> 00:13:01,049 who's in various records called Mr Wibbly or Mr Woobbly, 307 00:13:01,049 --> 00:13:03,049 he ordered two cartloads of these tally sticks 308 00:13:03,049 --> 00:13:04,049 to be burned. 309 00:13:04,049 --> 00:13:05,049 Mr Wibbly Wobbly? 310 00:13:05,049 --> 00:13:07,049 Mr Wibbly Wobbly, yes. 311 00:13:07,049 --> 00:13:09,049 Mr Wibbly Wobbly, get rid of the sticks. 312 00:13:10,049 --> 00:13:12,049 No, no, no, Mr Wibbly Wobbly. 313 00:13:13,049 --> 00:13:15,049 Get rid of the sticks you want. 314 00:13:17,049 --> 00:13:19,049 It was just like that. 315 00:13:19,049 --> 00:13:21,049 It's like Christopher Butterslip. 316 00:13:21,049 --> 00:13:23,049 Yes, I've got a character act called Christopher Butterslip. 317 00:13:23,049 --> 00:13:25,049 He drops everything, doesn't he, Christopher Butterslip? 318 00:13:25,049 --> 00:13:27,049 Yes, he's got very slippery fingers. 319 00:13:29,049 --> 00:13:31,049 His catchphrase is, 320 00:13:31,049 --> 00:13:33,049 whoopsie blops. 321 00:13:33,049 --> 00:13:35,049 What's his job, Christopher Butterslip? 322 00:13:35,049 --> 00:13:37,049 Oh, he's a...he's an auctioneer. 323 00:13:37,049 --> 00:13:39,049 That's fantastic. 324 00:13:39,049 --> 00:13:41,049 This ming bars. 325 00:13:41,049 --> 00:13:43,049 Mr Wibbly Wobbly decided to burn 326 00:13:43,049 --> 00:13:45,049 two cartloads of these tally sticks 327 00:13:45,049 --> 00:13:47,049 in the basement staves at the Palace of Westminster, 328 00:13:47,049 --> 00:13:49,049 and the resulting fire burnt down 329 00:13:49,049 --> 00:13:51,049 both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. 330 00:13:51,049 --> 00:13:53,049 What? 331 00:13:53,049 --> 00:13:55,049 What an idiot, Mr Wibbly Wobbly. 332 00:13:55,049 --> 00:13:57,049 Didn't feel good about it. 333 00:13:57,049 --> 00:13:59,049 He should have known. 334 00:13:59,049 --> 00:14:02,740 What have I done? 335 00:14:02,740 --> 00:14:04,740 Where did you entrust this job to? 336 00:14:04,740 --> 00:14:06,740 Now, don't get angry. 337 00:14:07,740 --> 00:14:09,740 It better not have been Mr Wibbly Wobbly. 338 00:14:11,740 --> 00:14:13,740 So the chimneys had not been properly maintained. 339 00:14:13,740 --> 00:14:15,740 In those, they were still talking about children 340 00:14:15,740 --> 00:14:18,740 going up chimneys, and they had cut footholds into them. 341 00:14:18,740 --> 00:14:20,740 There was a lot of residue, 342 00:14:20,740 --> 00:14:23,740 and the copper linings of the chimneys actually caught fire, 343 00:14:23,740 --> 00:14:26,740 and it spread eventually to the entire wooden interior of Parliament, 344 00:14:26,740 --> 00:14:28,740 and there was no fire brigade at the time. 345 00:14:28,740 --> 00:14:30,740 So everything was run by the insurance company. 346 00:14:30,740 --> 00:14:32,740 It took five hours for the fire boat 347 00:14:32,740 --> 00:14:34,740 to get to the House of Parliament, 348 00:14:34,740 --> 00:14:36,740 because the tide was wrong. 349 00:14:36,740 --> 00:14:40,740 It was the largest fire since 1666. 350 00:14:40,740 --> 00:14:42,740 Turner painted several canvases of the disaster, 351 00:14:42,740 --> 00:14:44,740 and Constable Two sketched it 352 00:14:44,740 --> 00:14:48,740 sitting in a handsome cab on Westminster Bridge. 353 00:14:48,740 --> 00:14:50,740 Did you have to rebuild the whole shebang? 354 00:14:50,740 --> 00:14:52,740 Yes, that's when we get the designs that we have today, 355 00:14:52,740 --> 00:14:54,740 Charles Barry and Pugin. 356 00:14:54,740 --> 00:14:56,740 Big Ben and everything. 357 00:14:56,740 --> 00:14:58,740 Big Ben and everything, yeah. 358 00:14:58,740 --> 00:15:00,740 Well, apart from Westminster Hall, 359 00:15:00,740 --> 00:15:02,740 Westminster Hall was saved, 360 00:15:02,740 --> 00:15:04,740 it was only saved because the wind changed. 361 00:15:04,740 --> 00:15:06,740 I know. 362 00:15:06,740 --> 00:15:08,740 So here's a supplementary question. 363 00:15:08,740 --> 00:15:10,740 How did the fire, the one at the House of Parliament, 364 00:15:10,740 --> 00:15:14,740 affect the length and breadth of Trafalgar Square? 365 00:15:14,740 --> 00:15:16,740 Oh. 366 00:15:16,740 --> 00:15:18,740 It hadn't been built yet. 367 00:15:18,740 --> 00:15:20,740 That's a good answer. 368 00:15:20,740 --> 00:15:22,740 Even if that's wrong, that's a good answer. 369 00:15:22,740 --> 00:15:24,740 I like it. 370 00:15:24,740 --> 00:15:26,740 So, apart from the tally sticks 371 00:15:26,740 --> 00:15:28,740 and all the stuff in Parliament that was destroyed, 372 00:15:28,740 --> 00:15:30,740 the very object which defined 373 00:15:30,740 --> 00:15:32,740 the imperial standards of measurement were lost. 374 00:15:32,740 --> 00:15:34,740 So it meant that you had no way 375 00:15:34,740 --> 00:15:36,740 of ultimately deciding 376 00:15:36,740 --> 00:15:38,740 the length of something, yes? 377 00:15:38,740 --> 00:15:40,740 There's a bronze plaque of all the 378 00:15:40,740 --> 00:15:42,740 weights and measures in Trafalgar Square. 379 00:15:42,740 --> 00:15:44,740 You get an extra point. 380 00:15:44,740 --> 00:15:46,740 There is indeed such a plaque that you can see today. 381 00:15:46,740 --> 00:15:53,289 The mathematician and astronomer called Sir George 382 00:15:53,289 --> 00:15:55,289 Airy, he was charged 383 00:15:55,289 --> 00:15:57,289 with creating these new objects. 384 00:15:57,289 --> 00:15:59,289 They wanted to make sure that this could never happen 385 00:15:59,289 --> 00:16:01,289 again, so the standards were 386 00:16:01,289 --> 00:16:03,289 triplicated. So today you can find them 387 00:16:03,289 --> 00:16:05,289 in the Great Hall of the Guild Hall 388 00:16:05,289 --> 00:16:07,289 by the gate of the Royal Observatory in 389 00:16:07,289 --> 00:16:09,289 Greenwich, and as you quite rightly said, 390 00:16:09,289 --> 00:16:11,289 embedded in the granite at Trafalgar Square. 391 00:16:11,289 --> 00:16:13,289 So if you are facing the National Portrait Gallery, 392 00:16:13,289 --> 00:16:15,289 there's a sort of cafe and a bench, and actually 393 00:16:15,289 --> 00:16:17,289 it's slightly hidden, and most people probably don't even 394 00:16:17,289 --> 00:16:19,289 notice that it is there. 395 00:16:19,289 --> 00:16:21,289 My child found it and said, what's that? 396 00:16:21,289 --> 00:16:23,289 And I went, I don't know. 397 00:16:23,289 --> 00:16:25,289 Shut up. 398 00:16:25,289 --> 00:16:27,289 You absolute nerd. 399 00:16:27,289 --> 00:16:29,289 Trafalgar Square was being built 400 00:16:29,289 --> 00:16:31,289 at the time, so it opened in 1844, 401 00:16:31,289 --> 00:16:33,289 so it was being built at the time. 402 00:16:33,289 --> 00:16:35,289 Now, what is the heaviest reading material 403 00:16:35,289 --> 00:16:37,289 in the universe? 404 00:16:37,289 --> 00:16:39,289 Oh, 405 00:16:39,289 --> 00:16:41,289 something by Dan Brown. 406 00:16:41,289 --> 00:16:43,289 Is it slate? 407 00:16:43,289 --> 00:16:45,289 Is it slate? 408 00:16:45,289 --> 00:16:47,289 Yeah, because people used to write on slate, didn't they, in school, 409 00:16:47,289 --> 00:16:49,289 and say it's very heavy. 410 00:16:49,289 --> 00:16:51,289 But this is an actual book, it's a book available online. 411 00:16:51,289 --> 00:16:53,289 It is called Googleplex 412 00:16:53,289 --> 00:16:55,289 Written Out. 413 00:16:55,289 --> 00:16:57,289 It is exactly as it sounds. 414 00:16:57,289 --> 00:16:59,289 It is one of the largest numbers ever named, 415 00:16:59,289 --> 00:17:01,289 and it is available in print. 416 00:17:01,289 --> 00:17:03,289 Well, it is theoretically 417 00:17:03,289 --> 00:17:05,289 available in print. 418 00:17:05,289 --> 00:17:07,289 So, let's just go through what the numbers are. 419 00:17:07,289 --> 00:17:09,289 So, a Google is one 420 00:17:09,289 --> 00:17:11,289 followed by a hundred zeros, 421 00:17:11,289 --> 00:17:13,289 and it looks like 422 00:17:13,289 --> 00:17:15,289 this, okay? 423 00:17:15,289 --> 00:17:17,289 A Googleplex is one followed by 424 00:17:17,289 --> 00:17:19,289 a Google of zeros, 425 00:17:19,289 --> 00:17:21,289 and it is impossible to write 426 00:17:21,289 --> 00:17:23,289 down a Googleplex because there are fewer 427 00:17:23,289 --> 00:17:25,289 particles in the universe 428 00:17:25,289 --> 00:17:27,289 than actually there are zeros in a Googleplex. 429 00:17:27,289 --> 00:17:29,289 However, somebody wanted to write out 430 00:17:29,289 --> 00:17:31,289 Googleplex. 431 00:17:31,289 --> 00:17:33,289 A man called Wolfgang Nietzsche, 432 00:17:33,289 --> 00:17:35,289 and this is just one 433 00:17:35,289 --> 00:17:37,289 volume that is available to you. 434 00:17:37,289 --> 00:17:39,289 It has an ISBN, 435 00:17:39,289 --> 00:17:41,289 you know, proper international standard 436 00:17:41,289 --> 00:17:43,289 book number, but obviously no 437 00:17:43,289 --> 00:17:45,289 ISBN has been assigned to the individual 438 00:17:45,289 --> 00:17:47,289 volumes since the total number of volumes 439 00:17:47,289 --> 00:17:49,289 would exceed the number of available 440 00:17:49,289 --> 00:17:51,289 ISBNs. 441 00:17:51,289 --> 00:17:53,289 It is 442 00:17:53,289 --> 00:17:55,289 literally just zeros. 443 00:17:55,289 --> 00:17:57,289 It's just, 444 00:17:57,289 --> 00:17:59,289 Sandy, I'm really sorry, 445 00:17:59,289 --> 00:18:01,289 but the last time 446 00:18:01,289 --> 00:18:03,289 I was on this show, 447 00:18:03,289 --> 00:18:05,289 do you remember that I said I had something 448 00:18:05,289 --> 00:18:07,289 called tryophobia where 449 00:18:07,289 --> 00:18:09,289 I can't look at holes, 450 00:18:09,289 --> 00:18:11,289 can you? I can't look at holes. Oh, this is a disaster for you. 451 00:18:15,289 --> 00:18:19,660 I feel really 452 00:18:19,660 --> 00:18:21,660 got this condition right, and it makes me 453 00:18:21,660 --> 00:18:23,660 feel like fainting and getting sick and gives me 454 00:18:23,660 --> 00:18:25,660 a headache. You can't look at 455 00:18:25,660 --> 00:18:27,660 lots of circles that are close together. 456 00:18:27,660 --> 00:18:29,660 OK, so I feel 457 00:18:29,660 --> 00:18:31,660 really bad. The person who named it was 458 00:18:31,660 --> 00:18:33,660 a man called Edward Kasner. Perhaps we have a 459 00:18:33,660 --> 00:18:35,660 picture of him. There he is! 460 00:18:35,660 --> 00:18:37,660 There's hardly any zeros in that. 461 00:18:37,660 --> 00:18:39,660 Oh, it's horrible, yeah. It's OK. 462 00:18:39,660 --> 00:18:41,660 Here's the thing, if you were to start to count 463 00:18:41,660 --> 00:18:43,660 to a Googleplex at two digits 464 00:18:43,660 --> 00:18:45,660 per second, the universe would 465 00:18:45,660 --> 00:18:47,660 end before you could finish. 466 00:18:47,660 --> 00:18:49,660 The EastEnders would 467 00:18:49,660 --> 00:18:51,660 carry on. 468 00:18:51,660 --> 00:18:53,660 If you 469 00:18:53,660 --> 00:18:55,660 wanted to count to a billion, it would take you 470 00:18:55,660 --> 00:18:57,660 15 years, 308 days, nine hours, 471 00:18:57,660 --> 00:18:59,660 41 minutes and 50 seconds. 472 00:18:59,660 --> 00:19:01,660 Isn't that fantastic? In the world 473 00:19:01,660 --> 00:19:03,660 of authors, how do you think that 474 00:19:03,660 --> 00:19:05,660 guy is regarded? 475 00:19:05,660 --> 00:19:07,660 Do you want to see it? 476 00:19:07,660 --> 00:19:09,660 When they're all getting together and all the 477 00:19:09,660 --> 00:19:11,660 authors are meeting up, 478 00:19:11,660 --> 00:19:13,660 some of them are discussing their new ideas 479 00:19:13,660 --> 00:19:15,660 and he comes along and 480 00:19:15,660 --> 00:19:17,660 tries to talk to them as an equal. 481 00:19:17,660 --> 00:19:19,660 I'm working 482 00:19:19,660 --> 00:19:21,660 on a new book as well. Yeah, I bet you are. 483 00:19:22,660 --> 00:19:24,660 So that's the heaviest reading material 484 00:19:24,660 --> 00:19:26,660 in the world. According to the Guinness Book of Records, 485 00:19:26,660 --> 00:19:28,660 the smallest book in the world 486 00:19:28,660 --> 00:19:30,660 is called Teeny Ted from Turnip Town. 487 00:19:30,660 --> 00:19:32,660 It is by two brothers, Malcolm 488 00:19:32,660 --> 00:19:34,660 Douglas Chaplin and his brother 489 00:19:34,660 --> 00:19:36,660 Robert Chaplin and it is 490 00:19:36,660 --> 00:19:38,660 a 30-page book carved on a 491 00:19:38,660 --> 00:19:40,660 pure crystalline silicon page. 492 00:19:40,660 --> 00:19:42,660 It measures just 70 micrometers 493 00:19:42,660 --> 00:19:44,660 by 100 micrometers as it was 494 00:19:44,660 --> 00:19:46,660 etched using an ion beam at 495 00:19:46,660 --> 00:19:48,660 University in Canada. So basically it fits on 496 00:19:48,660 --> 00:19:50,660 the width of a single human hair. 497 00:19:50,660 --> 00:19:52,660 I know. And what it says on there, 498 00:19:52,660 --> 00:19:54,660 if you read it, it says Teeny Ted from 499 00:19:54,660 --> 00:19:56,660 Turnip Town, a success story 500 00:19:56,660 --> 00:19:58,660 by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, B.A. 501 00:19:58,660 --> 00:20:00,660 That's how you make all the magazines 502 00:20:00,660 --> 00:20:02,660 weigh less. Yes. 503 00:20:02,660 --> 00:20:04,660 Anyway, you need a 504 00:20:04,660 --> 00:20:06,660 scanning electron microscope in order to 505 00:20:06,660 --> 00:20:08,660 be able to read this. There is a large print copy 506 00:20:08,660 --> 00:20:10,660 but if you wanted a small one, it cost you about 507 00:20:10,660 --> 00:20:12,660 £10,000. 508 00:20:12,660 --> 00:20:14,660 I expect you could keep that if 509 00:20:14,660 --> 00:20:16,660 you're really keen. Yes, please. 510 00:20:16,660 --> 00:20:18,660 Oh, can I have it? 511 00:20:19,660 --> 00:20:21,660 I'll read all the zeros. 512 00:20:21,660 --> 00:20:23,660 Yeah, I'd love to do that. Read it while eating 513 00:20:23,660 --> 00:20:25,660 a bowl of Cheerios, Bridget. 514 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:35,920 Would you not play Twister? 515 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:37,920 They're far apart. Oh, Twister's OK. 516 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:39,920 Circles have to be close together 517 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:41,920 and exactly the same size. So you could eat 518 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:43,920 a crumpet. 519 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:45,920 I don't like crumpets. 520 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:47,920 I start to get the headache 521 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:49,920 and then I think it's OK, it's really tasty 522 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:51,920 and they're not all the same size. 523 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:53,920 I always think something might have gone 524 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:55,920 in those holes. I mean, if you were that 525 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:57,920 size, that's irresistible, isn't it? 526 00:20:57,920 --> 00:20:59,920 That's what you're looking at me for. 527 00:21:06,180 --> 00:21:08,180 Would any part of you fit into a hole 528 00:21:08,180 --> 00:21:10,180 of a crumpet, do you think? 529 00:21:12,180 --> 00:21:14,180 I think it's too personal, we're going to move on. 530 00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:17,180 Right, new question. 531 00:21:17,180 --> 00:21:19,180 Which is my favourite quality 532 00:21:19,180 --> 00:21:21,180 street? Are we going to guess 533 00:21:21,180 --> 00:21:23,180 and all the clack songs will go? Green Triangle. 534 00:21:23,180 --> 00:21:34,259 The whole one. 535 00:21:34,259 --> 00:21:36,259 The toffee penny is my guess. 536 00:21:36,259 --> 00:21:40,539 The blue one that no-one eats. 537 00:21:40,539 --> 00:21:42,539 I reckon this is a trick. It's not 538 00:21:42,539 --> 00:21:44,539 chocolates at all. It's not chocolate at all, is it? 539 00:21:44,539 --> 00:21:46,539 It isn't chocolate. It's a play by J. M. 540 00:21:46,539 --> 00:21:48,539 Barrie called Quality Street. 541 00:21:48,539 --> 00:21:50,539 It's a four-act comedy and it was a huge 542 00:21:50,539 --> 00:21:52,539 hit in London. It opened in 543 00:21:52,539 --> 00:21:54,539 1901. It played for 495 544 00:21:54,539 --> 00:21:56,539 performances. It's still done today. 545 00:21:56,539 --> 00:21:58,539 It concerns Phoebe. She's in her early 30s. 546 00:21:58,539 --> 00:22:00,539 She's still unmarried and her former 547 00:22:00,539 --> 00:22:02,539 love, the Captain Brown, returns from 548 00:22:02,539 --> 00:22:04,539 the Napoleonic Wars and she's very 549 00:22:04,539 --> 00:22:06,539 worried that he won't love her anymore. So she 550 00:22:06,539 --> 00:22:08,539 disguises herself as a younger girl 551 00:22:08,539 --> 00:22:10,539 in order to impress him. So the theme 552 00:22:10,539 --> 00:22:12,539 of staying young, J. M. 553 00:22:12,539 --> 00:22:14,539 Barrie uses it again later on in 554 00:22:14,539 --> 00:22:16,539 Peter Pan. The actress who 555 00:22:16,539 --> 00:22:18,539 very first starred in this was called Maud 556 00:22:18,539 --> 00:22:20,539 Adams. She was the first person to play the 557 00:22:20,539 --> 00:22:22,539 lead role in Quality Street and she went on 558 00:22:22,539 --> 00:22:24,539 to be the first Peter Pan on Broadway. In fact, I think 559 00:22:24,539 --> 00:22:26,539 she played Peter Pan more than 1500 times. 560 00:22:26,539 --> 00:22:28,539 She was a superstar in her day. 561 00:22:28,539 --> 00:22:30,539 One of the very first actors to earn 562 00:22:30,539 --> 00:22:32,539 more than a million dollars a year, 563 00:22:32,539 --> 00:22:34,539 which at the time, it's an astonishing amount 564 00:22:34,539 --> 00:22:36,539 of money. And she was also an inventor. 565 00:22:36,539 --> 00:22:38,539 She assisted with the development of colour photography 566 00:22:38,539 --> 00:22:40,539 because she wanted to be able to capture things 567 00:22:40,539 --> 00:22:42,539 properly that she'd done on stage and capture them on 568 00:22:42,539 --> 00:22:44,539 film. She's amazing. Probably a 569 00:22:44,539 --> 00:22:46,539 lesbian. 570 00:22:46,539 --> 00:22:48,539 What? Yes. 571 00:22:48,539 --> 00:22:50,539 Buried next... 572 00:22:50,539 --> 00:22:52,539 Oh, by the pan pipe. Yeah, you can. 573 00:22:54,539 --> 00:22:56,539 She's buried next to her secretary who was 574 00:22:56,539 --> 00:22:58,539 her secretary for more than 40 years, Louise Boynton. 575 00:22:58,539 --> 00:23:00,539 I mean, it may just be that the secretary was 576 00:23:00,539 --> 00:23:02,539 busy and booked a double plot. I don't know. 577 00:23:02,539 --> 00:23:04,539 How is Wendy Darling 578 00:23:04,539 --> 00:23:06,539 related to 579 00:23:06,539 --> 00:23:08,539 Long John Silver? 580 00:23:08,539 --> 00:23:10,539 Fictional characters. 581 00:23:10,539 --> 00:23:12,539 There's an actual sort of connection. 582 00:23:12,539 --> 00:23:14,539 Oh, this is annoying, this is. 583 00:23:14,539 --> 00:23:16,539 Is it why, darling? Because I've been told 584 00:23:16,539 --> 00:23:18,539 a fact about Wendy. Go on, then. 585 00:23:18,539 --> 00:23:20,539 And I've forgotten it. 586 00:23:20,539 --> 00:23:22,539 I know it's going to be that. 587 00:23:22,539 --> 00:23:24,539 Very frustrating. The character 588 00:23:24,539 --> 00:23:26,539 Wendy is based on a real girl 589 00:23:26,539 --> 00:23:28,539 who was unable to say friend. 590 00:23:28,539 --> 00:23:30,539 So she used to refer to 591 00:23:30,539 --> 00:23:32,539 Jane Barry as her Wendy 592 00:23:32,539 --> 00:23:34,539 because friendy, 593 00:23:34,539 --> 00:23:36,539 Wendy, she used to say Wendy. 594 00:23:36,539 --> 00:23:38,539 So it's called Margaret Henley. 595 00:23:38,539 --> 00:23:40,539 So we have Wendy and we have Margaret Henley, the 596 00:23:40,539 --> 00:23:42,539 original that Wendy was based on. 597 00:23:42,539 --> 00:23:44,539 And that is her father, 598 00:23:44,539 --> 00:23:46,539 William Ernest Henley, right next to her, 599 00:23:46,539 --> 00:23:48,539 best known for writing the poem Invictus. 600 00:23:48,539 --> 00:23:50,539 And Henley lost his leg 601 00:23:50,539 --> 00:23:52,539 to TB when he was aged 12. 602 00:23:52,539 --> 00:23:54,539 He was also friends with Robert Louis 603 00:23:54,539 --> 00:23:56,539 Stevenson, who is the next person in the picture, 604 00:23:56,539 --> 00:23:58,539 who immortalised him in Treasure Island by 605 00:23:58,539 --> 00:24:00,539 bringing him into Long John Silver. 606 00:24:00,539 --> 00:24:02,539 So in a way, Wendy 607 00:24:02,539 --> 00:24:04,539 from Peter Pan was the daughter 608 00:24:04,539 --> 00:24:06,539 of Long John Silver. That's a really 609 00:24:06,539 --> 00:24:08,539 sweet connection, isn't it? I love that. 610 00:24:08,539 --> 00:24:10,539 There are four streets in the UK called 611 00:24:10,539 --> 00:24:12,539 Quality Street. There's one in Merstam, 612 00:24:12,539 --> 00:24:14,539 so named when the two original 613 00:24:14,539 --> 00:24:16,539 stars of the West End production of 614 00:24:16,539 --> 00:24:18,539 Quality Street moved there. And all the other three 615 00:24:18,539 --> 00:24:20,539 are in Scotland. And as far as we've been able to 616 00:24:20,539 --> 00:24:22,539 work out, there are no shops on any 617 00:24:22,539 --> 00:24:24,539 street called Quality Street which sell 618 00:24:24,539 --> 00:24:26,539 Quality Street chocolate. 619 00:24:26,539 --> 00:24:28,539 But the chocolate selection is named after the play. 620 00:24:28,539 --> 00:24:30,539 John and Violet McIntosh 621 00:24:30,539 --> 00:24:32,539 invented this new style of toffee 622 00:24:32,539 --> 00:24:34,539 in 1936, used the characters 623 00:24:34,539 --> 00:24:36,539 from the play on the packaging. 624 00:24:36,539 --> 00:24:38,539 It's an arrogant advert, isn't it? 625 00:24:38,539 --> 00:24:40,539 I am John McIntosh. 626 00:24:40,539 --> 00:24:42,539 The Toffee King! 627 00:24:42,539 --> 00:24:44,539 You should do a character 628 00:24:44,539 --> 00:24:46,539 of a toffee king. Yeah, I should. 629 00:24:46,539 --> 00:24:48,539 Exactly like that. A little toffee hammer. 630 00:24:48,539 --> 00:24:50,539 Can you still get that? 631 00:24:50,539 --> 00:24:52,539 If you can get a book 632 00:24:52,539 --> 00:24:54,539 with all zeros in it, you can get a toffee hammer. 633 00:24:54,539 --> 00:24:56,539 I want more sweets. 634 00:24:56,539 --> 00:24:58,539 I want a fudge hammer. 635 00:24:58,539 --> 00:25:00,539 Why would you have a fudge hammer? That would just make a big dent. 636 00:25:00,539 --> 00:25:02,539 Quite satisfying 637 00:25:02,539 --> 00:25:04,539 to hit some fudge with a hammer. 638 00:25:04,539 --> 00:25:06,539 Maybe more satisfying than the toffee. 639 00:25:08,539 --> 00:25:10,539 Which did a survey in 2018 640 00:25:10,539 --> 00:25:12,539 and they found that chocolate selections always 641 00:25:12,539 --> 00:25:14,539 have fewer of the ones that people 642 00:25:14,539 --> 00:25:16,539 actually like. So they asked about 643 00:25:16,539 --> 00:25:18,539 a thousand people to name their favourite. 644 00:25:18,539 --> 00:25:20,539 The two most popular Quality Street chocolates are the purple ones 645 00:25:20,539 --> 00:25:22,539 and the green triangles. 646 00:25:22,539 --> 00:25:24,539 And these should appear by preference 647 00:25:24,539 --> 00:25:26,539 eleven times in the box and they actually appear 648 00:25:26,539 --> 00:25:28,539 just five to six times. 649 00:25:28,539 --> 00:25:30,539 And it's the same with Heroes, Whispers, Twirls. 650 00:25:30,539 --> 00:25:32,539 No wonder this country is the way it is. 651 00:25:34,539 --> 00:25:36,539 The most uninspiring country in the world. 652 00:25:36,539 --> 00:25:38,539 Just the green one, please. 653 00:25:38,539 --> 00:25:40,539 The green triangle 654 00:25:40,539 --> 00:25:42,539 that doesn't really taste of anything. 655 00:25:42,539 --> 00:25:44,539 Do you not have favourites? 656 00:25:44,539 --> 00:25:46,539 I'll hit the toffee finger, I'll hit the caramel. 657 00:25:46,539 --> 00:25:48,539 Those ones are delicious. They're the same. 658 00:25:48,539 --> 00:25:50,539 They are not the same. That's racist. 659 00:25:54,140 --> 00:25:58,250 The toffee one's a lot firmer. 660 00:25:58,250 --> 00:26:00,250 The caramel one's nice and soft. 661 00:26:00,250 --> 00:26:02,250 Give that to an old man with dentures asking if they're the same. 662 00:26:05,849 --> 00:26:07,849 I just didn't expect when I 663 00:26:07,849 --> 00:26:09,849 started on this show that I would watch 664 00:26:09,849 --> 00:26:11,849 James School Bridget a racist. 665 00:26:13,849 --> 00:26:15,849 Absolutely appalling what you just said about toffee fingers 666 00:26:15,849 --> 00:26:17,849 and caramel cups. 667 00:26:17,849 --> 00:26:19,849 I like that everybody's got a 668 00:26:19,849 --> 00:26:21,849 line that they draw somewhere. 669 00:26:23,849 --> 00:26:25,849 Right, here we go. Which is quicker, a jiffy 670 00:26:25,849 --> 00:26:27,849 or two shakes? 671 00:26:27,849 --> 00:26:29,849 Two shakes of a winkle's tail, 672 00:26:29,849 --> 00:26:31,849 isn't it? Lam. 673 00:26:31,849 --> 00:26:35,900 Lam. 674 00:26:35,900 --> 00:26:37,900 Brian used to say a winkle. A winkle. 675 00:26:37,900 --> 00:26:39,900 Alan, I'd like to hear some other things 676 00:26:39,900 --> 00:26:45,769 your nan said. 677 00:26:45,769 --> 00:26:47,769 A jiffy or two shakes? A jiffy. 678 00:26:47,769 --> 00:26:49,769 Well, it depends on the type of jiffy. 679 00:26:49,769 --> 00:26:51,769 A really quick one. 680 00:26:53,769 --> 00:26:55,769 It's got to be two shakes. 681 00:26:55,769 --> 00:26:57,769 Well, they're both genuine units of time, so a 682 00:26:57,769 --> 00:26:59,769 shake is the time it takes for one step 683 00:26:59,769 --> 00:27:01,769 in a nuclear chain reaction. It's about 684 00:27:01,769 --> 00:27:03,769 ten billionths of a second. I forgot to mention 685 00:27:03,769 --> 00:27:05,769 my grandma's a nuclear physicist. 686 00:27:07,769 --> 00:27:09,769 So a nuclear chain reaction typically takes 687 00:27:09,769 --> 00:27:11,769 50 to 100 shakes. 688 00:27:11,769 --> 00:27:13,769 What? God, I'm going to get 689 00:27:13,769 --> 00:27:15,769 this really wrong. 690 00:27:15,769 --> 00:27:17,769 Go on then. Go on then, we'll enjoy it. 691 00:27:17,769 --> 00:27:19,769 There comes some more racism, 692 00:27:19,769 --> 00:27:27,430 I imagine. 693 00:27:27,430 --> 00:27:29,430 I think a jiffy is something to do with 694 00:27:29,430 --> 00:27:31,430 light or... 695 00:27:31,430 --> 00:27:33,430 Well, there are different kinds 696 00:27:33,430 --> 00:27:35,430 of jiffies. Oh! 697 00:27:35,430 --> 00:27:37,430 I'm afraid. So a shake 698 00:27:37,430 --> 00:27:39,430 is to do with nuclear reaction, and 699 00:27:39,430 --> 00:27:41,430 like lots of the terminology 700 00:27:41,430 --> 00:27:43,430 derives from the Manhattan Project, which was during 701 00:27:43,430 --> 00:27:45,430 the Second World War, and comes with the expression 702 00:27:45,430 --> 00:27:47,430 two shakes of a lamb's tail. We don't actually know 703 00:27:47,430 --> 00:27:49,430 why people say two shakes of a lamb's tail. 704 00:27:49,430 --> 00:27:51,430 It's a bit like, I don't know, faster than you can say 705 00:27:51,430 --> 00:27:53,430 Jack Robinson. 706 00:27:53,430 --> 00:27:55,430 So different kinds of jiffies. In electronics, 707 00:27:55,430 --> 00:27:57,430 a jiffy is the period of an alternating 708 00:27:57,430 --> 00:27:59,430 current power cycle. So typically, that would be 709 00:27:59,430 --> 00:28:01,430 a sixtieth or a fiftieth of a second. 710 00:28:01,430 --> 00:28:03,430 And in physics, it is the time it takes 711 00:28:03,430 --> 00:28:05,430 for light to travel one Fermi, 712 00:28:05,430 --> 00:28:07,430 which you knew, presumably. 713 00:28:07,430 --> 00:28:09,430 Yes, I did. It's approximately the width of a proton. 714 00:28:09,430 --> 00:28:11,430 So you were absolutely heading in the right 715 00:28:11,430 --> 00:28:13,430 direction. Now, what letter 716 00:28:13,430 --> 00:28:15,430 did the Romans use to write the number 717 00:28:15,430 --> 00:28:17,430 1000? 718 00:28:17,430 --> 00:28:19,430 Oh, hang on. Q. 719 00:28:19,430 --> 00:28:21,430 No? Anybody know in the audience? 720 00:28:21,430 --> 00:28:23,430 N. 721 00:28:23,430 --> 00:28:26,809 Oh! 722 00:28:26,809 --> 00:28:28,809 Haha, you idiots. 723 00:28:28,809 --> 00:28:33,109 It used to mean a thousand until the Middle Ages. 724 00:28:33,109 --> 00:28:35,109 Not used by the Romans at all. 725 00:28:35,109 --> 00:28:37,109 The Middle Age is called 726 00:28:37,109 --> 00:28:39,109 at the time. 727 00:28:39,109 --> 00:28:41,109 No, it's just only now. 728 00:28:41,109 --> 00:28:45,700 Why did the Romans not use it for a thousand? 729 00:28:45,700 --> 00:28:47,700 What was the reason, do you think? 730 00:28:47,700 --> 00:28:49,700 They couldn't count that far. They didn't need to. 731 00:28:49,700 --> 00:28:51,700 They hardly used that many large numbers. 732 00:28:51,700 --> 00:28:53,700 When they did, they used an I 733 00:28:53,700 --> 00:28:55,700 in brackets. 734 00:28:55,700 --> 00:28:57,700 There was a monument erected in the Roman Forum 735 00:28:57,700 --> 00:28:59,700 to commemorate a victory in the first 736 00:28:59,700 --> 00:29:01,700 Punic Wars, and on the column, 737 00:29:01,700 --> 00:29:03,700 you can see an I in lots of brackets, 738 00:29:03,700 --> 00:29:05,700 and it is repeated at least 739 00:29:05,700 --> 00:29:07,700 22 times. There may be more, 740 00:29:07,700 --> 00:29:09,700 but it represented the 741 00:29:09,700 --> 00:29:11,700 2,200,000 bronze 742 00:29:11,700 --> 00:29:13,700 coin that they looted in the Carthaginian 743 00:29:13,700 --> 00:29:15,700 Wars, which obviously they wanted to celebrate. 744 00:29:15,700 --> 00:29:17,700 Later on, to write a thousand in Roman 745 00:29:17,700 --> 00:29:19,700 numerals, they used an X inside a circle. 746 00:29:19,700 --> 00:29:21,700 And later still, they used the 747 00:29:21,700 --> 00:29:23,700 Greek letter phi. 748 00:29:23,700 --> 00:29:25,700 Now, like an I in brackets, that's an emoji for a 749 00:29:25,700 --> 00:29:29,559 butt. Is it? 750 00:29:29,559 --> 00:29:31,559 Yeah, you'd be a bracket, line, 751 00:29:31,559 --> 00:29:33,559 bracket. Why would you send that? 752 00:29:33,559 --> 00:29:35,559 Spice up some 753 00:29:35,559 --> 00:29:37,559 dying relationship. 754 00:29:37,559 --> 00:29:39,559 I've just done it on a picture here so I can 755 00:29:39,559 --> 00:29:41,559 see. Yeah. It doesn't 756 00:29:41,559 --> 00:29:43,559 look like a bottom to me. 757 00:29:43,559 --> 00:29:45,559 Then eventually they had the 8 on its 758 00:29:45,559 --> 00:29:47,559 side, which has evolved into our symbol 759 00:29:47,559 --> 00:29:49,559 for infinity. And finally, 760 00:29:49,559 --> 00:29:51,559 the M was adopted in the Middle Ages, probably from 761 00:29:51,559 --> 00:29:53,559 the Latin mile for a thousand. 762 00:29:53,559 --> 00:29:55,559 So, we learn at school 763 00:29:55,559 --> 00:29:57,559 to write the number 9 as 764 00:29:57,559 --> 00:29:59,559 Ix. 765 00:29:59,559 --> 00:30:01,559 The audience get that one as a point for the audience for that one. 766 00:30:01,559 --> 00:30:03,559 But also, that rule comes from the Middle Ages, I'm afraid. 767 00:30:03,559 --> 00:30:05,559 So, the Romans used a mixture 768 00:30:05,559 --> 00:30:07,559 of contractions. So, they might put 769 00:30:07,559 --> 00:30:09,559 one X like this, but they might also put V 770 00:30:09,559 --> 00:30:11,559 and four I's like that. 771 00:30:11,559 --> 00:30:13,559 And you still see it on clock faces and watches. 772 00:30:13,559 --> 00:30:15,559 And actually, I think it's rather beautiful. 773 00:30:15,559 --> 00:30:17,559 Can you see there, the four I's for the number 4? 774 00:30:17,559 --> 00:30:19,559 And I think it's rather beautiful because 775 00:30:19,559 --> 00:30:21,559 if you use the four I's like that, 776 00:30:21,559 --> 00:30:23,559 so the first four numbers, 777 00:30:23,559 --> 00:30:25,559 1, 2, 3, 4, all have those 778 00:30:25,559 --> 00:30:27,559 beautiful I's in them, and the next 779 00:30:27,559 --> 00:30:29,559 four are the only ones with V's in it, and the next 780 00:30:29,559 --> 00:30:31,559 four are the only ones with X's in it. So, actually, to look at it, 781 00:30:31,559 --> 00:30:33,559 it's rather beautiful. 782 00:30:33,559 --> 00:30:35,559 Big Ben actually breaks this convention. 783 00:30:35,559 --> 00:30:37,559 The four is I and V. 784 00:30:37,559 --> 00:30:39,559 But anyway, the Romans tended to do maths 785 00:30:39,559 --> 00:30:41,559 on an abacus rather than actually 786 00:30:41,559 --> 00:30:43,559 write it down. But, 787 00:30:43,559 --> 00:30:45,559 let's have a go at doing maths with Roman numerals. 788 00:30:45,559 --> 00:30:47,559 It's actually easier than you think. We should have 789 00:30:47,559 --> 00:30:49,559 some boards there with some Roman 790 00:30:49,559 --> 00:30:51,559 numerals. Do we need this? 791 00:30:51,559 --> 00:30:53,559 No, darling. Can you write 792 00:30:53,559 --> 00:30:55,559 out for me in Roman 793 00:30:55,559 --> 00:30:57,559 numerals? First of all, 16 794 00:30:57,559 --> 00:30:59,559 and then below it, 795 00:30:59,559 --> 00:31:01,559 the number 8, please. 796 00:31:01,559 --> 00:31:03,559 Correct. 797 00:31:03,559 --> 00:31:05,559 8, come on, bridge. 798 00:31:05,559 --> 00:31:07,559 Yes. 16. 799 00:31:09,559 --> 00:31:14,599 So, what I'm looking for is 800 00:31:14,599 --> 00:31:16,599 I'm looking for 16, which is XV1. 801 00:31:16,599 --> 00:31:18,599 I'll just do it with these 802 00:31:18,599 --> 00:31:20,599 people. OK. 803 00:31:20,599 --> 00:31:22,599 If I showed that to anyone, 804 00:31:22,599 --> 00:31:24,599 I'd say, what's that? They'd go 805 00:31:24,599 --> 00:31:26,599 16 because it says 806 00:31:26,599 --> 00:31:28,599 16. They'll say, that says 16 807 00:31:28,599 --> 00:31:30,599 and I'm not a Roman. 808 00:31:30,599 --> 00:31:32,599 Good luck finding some Romans to read 809 00:31:32,599 --> 00:31:34,599 that for you. OK. 810 00:31:34,599 --> 00:31:36,599 So, I want you to add those two things 811 00:31:36,599 --> 00:31:38,599 together. So, we've got 812 00:31:38,599 --> 00:31:40,599 XV1 and V111. 813 00:31:40,599 --> 00:31:42,599 So, here's what you do. There's a really simple 814 00:31:42,599 --> 00:31:44,599 way of doing it. First, put all 815 00:31:44,599 --> 00:31:46,599 of the letters from the two 816 00:31:46,599 --> 00:31:48,599 numbers together in a single row. 817 00:31:48,599 --> 00:31:50,599 Like that. Yeah. Now, what I want 818 00:31:50,599 --> 00:31:52,599 you to do is I want you to put them in 819 00:31:52,599 --> 00:31:54,599 numerical order, largest on the 820 00:31:54,599 --> 00:31:56,599 left. So, it's going to go X 821 00:31:56,599 --> 00:31:58,599 and V and V 822 00:31:58,599 --> 00:32:00,599 and then I want you to simplify it. 823 00:32:00,599 --> 00:32:02,599 So, V and V together makes 824 00:32:02,599 --> 00:32:04,599 what in Roman? Ten. 825 00:32:04,599 --> 00:32:06,599 Remove those and put an X. 826 00:32:06,599 --> 00:32:08,599 Stick the X there and there you have 827 00:32:08,599 --> 00:32:10,599 the answer. It is 24. 828 00:32:10,599 --> 00:32:12,599 It's actually really simple. 829 00:32:12,599 --> 00:32:14,599 Previously on 24. 830 00:32:14,599 --> 00:32:19,480 Isn't that brilliant? 831 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:21,480 See, now I feel a bit guilty that we were 832 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,480 silly because I would have learnt something there. 833 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,480 I let him astray 834 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:27,480 to be fair. Did you? 835 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,480 Pow! 836 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:31,480 I'm afraid extra points 837 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,480 to both bridges. 838 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:35,480 Pow! 839 00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,480 How old are you, darling? 840 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,480 53. 841 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:45,220 Numerals at the end of BBC programmes 842 00:32:45,220 --> 00:32:47,220 in 1976. Why do you think they did that? 843 00:32:47,220 --> 00:32:49,220 There's one right there. Why did they do that? 844 00:32:49,220 --> 00:32:51,220 Inform, entertain, educate. 845 00:32:51,220 --> 00:32:53,220 One theory is 846 00:32:53,220 --> 00:32:55,220 it was to confuse the viewer so you wouldn't 847 00:32:55,220 --> 00:32:59,299 know you were watching a repeat. 848 00:32:59,299 --> 00:33:01,299 Another theory is that it comes from the film industry. 849 00:33:01,299 --> 00:33:03,299 So physical film can degrade over time 850 00:33:03,299 --> 00:33:05,299 and it makes it difficult to read 851 00:33:05,299 --> 00:33:07,299 numeric values and Roman numals 852 00:33:07,299 --> 00:33:09,299 are easier to read when film degrades. 853 00:33:09,299 --> 00:33:11,299 But I prefer the idea that 854 00:33:11,299 --> 00:33:13,299 it's fooling us all that we haven't seen 855 00:33:13,299 --> 00:33:15,299 Dad's Army before. 856 00:33:15,299 --> 00:33:17,299 Now, what is the biggest thing you could buy 857 00:33:17,299 --> 00:33:19,299 with a quid? 858 00:33:19,299 --> 00:33:28,630 Is it a whale? 859 00:33:28,630 --> 00:33:30,630 Pound sterling. 860 00:33:30,630 --> 00:33:32,630 Visualise the shelves in Poundland. 861 00:33:34,630 --> 00:33:36,630 Don't remember any whales there. 862 00:33:36,630 --> 00:33:38,630 You can get an ironing board. 863 00:33:40,630 --> 00:33:42,630 Football club? 864 00:33:42,630 --> 00:33:44,630 Not Aston Villa. 865 00:33:44,630 --> 00:33:46,630 Chelsea Football Club. 866 00:33:46,630 --> 00:33:48,630 Ken Bates bought it for a pound in 1982. 867 00:33:48,630 --> 00:33:50,630 He later Bates sold the club to 868 00:33:50,630 --> 00:33:52,630 Roman Abronović in 2003 for 869 00:33:52,630 --> 00:33:54,630 £140 million. Today it's estimated 870 00:33:54,630 --> 00:33:56,630 to be worth £1.5 billion. 871 00:33:56,630 --> 00:33:58,630 Other companies that have been bought for a pound. 872 00:33:58,630 --> 00:34:00,630 British Home Stores, Bearings Bank, 873 00:34:00,630 --> 00:34:02,630 Reader's Digest, 874 00:34:02,630 --> 00:34:04,630 Homebase. It doesn't have to be a pound. 875 00:34:04,630 --> 00:34:06,630 When Rover was sold to BMW, 876 00:34:06,630 --> 00:34:08,630 it was £10. But you have to have something. 877 00:34:08,630 --> 00:34:10,630 It's a legal necessity in a contract. 878 00:34:10,630 --> 00:34:12,630 It's got a consideration. 879 00:34:12,630 --> 00:34:14,630 Something has to be paid. It used to be known as the 880 00:34:14,630 --> 00:34:16,630 peppercorn, like peppercorn rent. 881 00:34:16,630 --> 00:34:18,630 Bath University still pays an actual peppercorn 882 00:34:18,630 --> 00:34:20,630 to the city as ground rent. 883 00:34:20,630 --> 00:34:22,630 What? Yeah. 884 00:34:22,630 --> 00:34:24,630 How does that work? Have you woken up? 885 00:34:24,630 --> 00:34:26,630 What happened? 886 00:34:26,630 --> 00:34:28,630 When you have a legal contract, 887 00:34:28,630 --> 00:34:30,630 if I'm going to sell you this card, 888 00:34:30,630 --> 00:34:32,630 you must give me something for it. 889 00:34:32,630 --> 00:34:34,630 All right, there you are. 890 00:34:34,630 --> 00:34:36,630 Actually, it's quite nice. 891 00:34:36,630 --> 00:34:38,630 No, they're the old answers. 892 00:34:42,630 --> 00:34:44,630 Are they physically doing it still? 893 00:34:44,630 --> 00:34:46,630 Are the University actually going to... 894 00:34:46,630 --> 00:34:48,630 To the city and giving them a peppercorn? 895 00:34:48,630 --> 00:34:50,630 It's become a sort of ritual. 896 00:34:50,630 --> 00:34:52,630 Do you think the peppercorns get used? 897 00:34:52,630 --> 00:34:54,630 I like that the city might be building up to a whole mill. 898 00:34:54,630 --> 00:34:56,630 The new 12-sided 899 00:34:56,630 --> 00:34:58,630 pound coin. It's got a number of features 900 00:34:58,630 --> 00:35:00,630 that make it more difficult to counterfeit. 901 00:35:00,630 --> 00:35:02,630 What exactly might be? 902 00:35:02,630 --> 00:35:04,630 Is it a weight thing? 903 00:35:04,630 --> 00:35:06,630 No, it's a kind of hologram. 904 00:35:06,630 --> 00:35:08,630 If you look, this is just below 905 00:35:08,630 --> 00:35:10,630 the Queen's head. 906 00:35:10,630 --> 00:35:12,630 Depending on the light, it either says 907 00:35:12,630 --> 00:35:14,630 one or a pound symbol. 908 00:35:14,630 --> 00:35:16,630 If you flip the coin, 909 00:35:16,630 --> 00:35:18,630 it's a good noise from everybody. 910 00:35:18,630 --> 00:35:20,630 Ooh! 911 00:35:20,630 --> 00:35:22,630 That's all the forges. 912 00:35:22,630 --> 00:35:24,630 Coach Zola forges in. 913 00:35:24,630 --> 00:35:26,630 Ooh! 914 00:35:26,630 --> 00:35:28,630 According to the Royal Mint, 915 00:35:28,630 --> 00:35:30,630 it's a hidden security feature, but obviously we don't know 916 00:35:30,630 --> 00:35:32,630 what it is. 917 00:35:32,630 --> 00:35:34,630 The reverse of the new pound coin was designed as part of a competition. 918 00:35:34,630 --> 00:35:36,630 There were thousands of entries. 919 00:35:36,630 --> 00:35:38,630 People suggested... A child made it. 920 00:35:38,630 --> 00:35:40,630 It was a child. 15-year-old David Pearce from Walsall. 921 00:35:40,630 --> 00:35:42,630 People suggested teacups and 922 00:35:42,630 --> 00:35:44,630 I don't know, rain clouds and the London Eye 923 00:35:44,630 --> 00:35:46,630 and Rolling Stones' tongue and lips and all that kind of thing. 924 00:35:46,630 --> 00:35:48,630 Cock and ball. 925 00:35:50,630 --> 00:35:52,630 The missed opportunity. 926 00:35:52,630 --> 00:35:54,630 He got his design on 927 00:35:54,630 --> 00:35:56,630 one and a half billion coins 928 00:35:56,630 --> 00:35:58,630 and won £10,000. 929 00:35:58,630 --> 00:36:00,630 And actually, if you look very closely at the coins, 930 00:36:00,630 --> 00:36:02,630 you can see DP, there it is, 931 00:36:02,630 --> 00:36:04,630 at the bottom of the design. 932 00:36:04,630 --> 00:36:06,630 He actually got his initials on the coin. 933 00:36:06,630 --> 00:36:08,630 I like this. His response after winning 934 00:36:08,630 --> 00:36:10,630 the competition was, honestly, I'm not too fussed about it all. 935 00:36:10,630 --> 00:36:12,630 My friends are more excited than me. 936 00:36:12,630 --> 00:36:14,630 It's just something I did once, you know. 937 00:36:16,630 --> 00:36:18,630 That's false modesty. 938 00:36:18,630 --> 00:36:20,630 It is, right. 939 00:36:20,630 --> 00:36:22,630 Now it's time to pound our guests into submission 940 00:36:22,630 --> 00:36:24,630 with the coin toss that we call general ignorance. 941 00:36:24,630 --> 00:36:26,630 So, ladies, what are skid marks made from? 942 00:36:26,630 --> 00:36:28,630 Zero. 943 00:36:28,630 --> 00:36:34,860 Pooh. 944 00:36:34,860 --> 00:36:36,860 Good to get it out of the way, isn't it? 945 00:36:36,860 --> 00:36:47,659 Tyres. Rubber. 946 00:36:47,659 --> 00:36:49,659 Talking about skid marks on the road, 947 00:36:49,659 --> 00:36:51,659 it's actually caused by the bitumen heating up 948 00:36:51,659 --> 00:36:53,659 rather than any tyre rubber being laid down. 949 00:36:53,659 --> 00:36:55,659 Oh! Yeah. 950 00:36:55,659 --> 00:36:57,659 So, as the car's brakes stop the wheels from turning, 951 00:36:57,659 --> 00:36:59,659 the friction between the tyres and the surface 952 00:36:59,659 --> 00:37:01,659 results in high temperatures 953 00:37:01,659 --> 00:37:03,659 that cause the tyre to melt along with the bitumen 954 00:37:03,659 --> 00:37:05,659 and the bitumen oils in the asphalt. 955 00:37:05,659 --> 00:37:07,659 They rise to the surface and once the surface 956 00:37:07,659 --> 00:37:09,659 cools down, the skid marks 957 00:37:09,659 --> 00:37:11,659 will just fade away. 958 00:37:11,659 --> 00:37:13,659 So the technical term for a skid mark is 959 00:37:13,659 --> 00:37:15,659 a bituminous material smear. 960 00:37:15,659 --> 00:37:17,659 That's fine. I've always wondered, 961 00:37:17,659 --> 00:37:19,659 how is it possible for that skid mark 962 00:37:19,659 --> 00:37:21,659 to be produced by that vehicle? 963 00:37:21,659 --> 00:37:23,659 It'd be quite a swerve. 964 00:37:23,659 --> 00:37:25,659 That's Mr Wibble's car. 965 00:37:30,699 --> 00:37:32,699 Anybody know where the word skid comes from? 966 00:37:34,699 --> 00:37:36,699 Scandinavia. 967 00:37:36,699 --> 00:37:38,699 The Scandinavian word skid, 968 00:37:38,699 --> 00:37:40,699 which means a stick of wood, 969 00:37:40,699 --> 00:37:42,699 so it referred to the piece of wood 970 00:37:42,699 --> 00:37:44,699 that used to be laid down to help move logs. 971 00:37:44,699 --> 00:37:46,699 They used to use skids to move things downhill. 972 00:37:46,699 --> 00:37:48,699 People who lived on Skid Row were originally the loggers. 973 00:37:48,699 --> 00:37:50,699 People who hit the skids 974 00:37:50,699 --> 00:37:52,699 started going downhill. 975 00:37:52,699 --> 00:37:54,699 The Open University offers a course called 976 00:37:54,699 --> 00:37:56,699 Analyzing Skid Marks. 977 00:37:56,699 --> 00:37:58,699 Apparently an important skill 978 00:37:58,699 --> 00:38:00,699 in motor crash forensics. 979 00:38:00,699 --> 00:38:02,699 I do that every Monday, Sunday. 980 00:38:02,699 --> 00:38:04,699 Monday's wash day. 981 00:38:04,699 --> 00:38:06,699 I see, OK. 982 00:38:06,699 --> 00:38:08,699 You can get different types of skid marks. 983 00:38:08,699 --> 00:38:16,550 With blood or without. 984 00:38:16,550 --> 00:38:18,550 A citation in the OED for skid marks 985 00:38:18,550 --> 00:38:20,550 referring to stained underwear. 986 00:38:20,550 --> 00:38:22,550 It's Barry Humphries in one of his Barry McKenzie 987 00:38:22,550 --> 00:38:24,550 private eye cartoons published in 1968. 988 00:38:24,550 --> 00:38:26,550 I've got a poster of him on my wall. 989 00:38:26,550 --> 00:38:28,550 You've got a wall? 990 00:38:28,550 --> 00:38:30,550 Yeah, I've got a wall. 991 00:38:30,550 --> 00:38:32,550 I'm doing pretty well these days. 992 00:38:32,550 --> 00:38:34,550 Saving up for some more walls. 993 00:38:36,550 --> 00:38:38,550 How high is it? 994 00:38:38,550 --> 00:38:40,550 It's a pretty long wall, actually. 995 00:38:40,550 --> 00:38:42,550 Put a corner in it. 996 00:38:42,550 --> 00:38:44,550 Trump's trying to buy it off me. 997 00:38:44,550 --> 00:38:48,889 He ain't going to get it. 998 00:38:48,889 --> 00:38:50,889 Anyway, moving on. 999 00:38:50,889 --> 00:38:52,889 How many trees are there in this picture? 1000 00:38:52,889 --> 00:38:54,889 Here we go. 1001 00:38:54,889 --> 00:38:56,889 It's going to be one. 1002 00:38:56,889 --> 00:38:58,889 What did you say? 1003 00:38:58,889 --> 00:39:05,210 Zero. 1004 00:39:05,210 --> 00:39:07,210 Absolutely right. 1005 00:39:07,210 --> 00:39:09,210 There is one tree. 1006 00:39:09,210 --> 00:39:11,210 You are entirely correct. 1007 00:39:11,210 --> 00:39:16,949 This show is a scam. 1008 00:39:16,949 --> 00:39:18,949 It's called the Quaking Giant or Pando. 1009 00:39:18,949 --> 00:39:20,949 It looks like an enormous 1010 00:39:20,949 --> 00:39:22,949 grave of quaking aspens. 1011 00:39:22,949 --> 00:39:24,949 It's actually a single organism. 1012 00:39:24,949 --> 00:39:26,949 It may be up to a million years old. 1013 00:39:26,949 --> 00:39:28,949 It is one of the great wonders of the United States. 1014 00:39:28,949 --> 00:39:30,949 It lies in Utah. 1015 00:39:30,949 --> 00:39:32,949 It's actually a male organism. 1016 00:39:32,949 --> 00:39:34,949 It produces asexually. 1017 00:39:34,949 --> 00:39:36,949 It's reproducing new stems underneath from the roots. 1018 00:39:36,949 --> 00:39:38,949 Each of the 47,000 1019 00:39:38,949 --> 00:39:40,949 or so stems that are there 1020 00:39:40,949 --> 00:39:42,949 are genetically identical. 1021 00:39:42,949 --> 00:39:44,949 Unfortunately, it hasn't been growing 1022 00:39:44,949 --> 00:39:46,949 for 40 years. 1023 00:39:46,949 --> 00:39:48,949 It's possibly thought to be dying. 1024 00:39:48,949 --> 00:39:50,949 It's possibly the largest organism on earth by weight. 1025 00:39:50,949 --> 00:39:52,949 Is it not protected? 1026 00:39:52,949 --> 00:39:54,949 It is, and they're doing their best to try and save it. 1027 00:39:54,949 --> 00:39:56,949 But you get grazing animals that eat the new shoots. 1028 00:39:56,949 --> 00:39:58,949 When old trees die, new ones are not replacing them, 1029 00:39:58,949 --> 00:40:00,949 which is what used to happen. 1030 00:40:00,949 --> 00:40:02,949 But the roots are thought to be at least 80,000 years old. 1031 00:40:02,949 --> 00:40:04,949 Some people have suggested it could be a million years old. 1032 00:40:04,949 --> 00:40:06,949 I think it's the most 1033 00:40:06,949 --> 00:40:08,949 beautiful thing and very worth visiting 1034 00:40:08,949 --> 00:40:10,949 while it's still there. 1035 00:40:10,949 --> 00:40:12,949 Who wrote the Haydn Quartets? 1036 00:40:12,949 --> 00:40:14,949 Oh, no. 1037 00:40:14,949 --> 00:40:16,949 No? 1038 00:40:16,949 --> 00:40:18,949 Haydn. 1039 00:40:18,949 --> 00:40:23,030 Are you saying that? 1040 00:40:23,030 --> 00:40:25,030 Did you say Haydn? 1041 00:40:25,030 --> 00:40:27,030 Yeah, I did. 1042 00:40:27,030 --> 00:40:29,030 He said it with a sneery tone because he's foreign. 1043 00:40:29,030 --> 00:40:34,679 No, it was dedicated to Haydn written by Mozart. 1044 00:40:34,679 --> 00:40:36,679 Oh, I was going to say Ed Sheeran. 1045 00:40:40,679 --> 00:40:42,679 So Haydn was kind of a mentor for Mozart. 1046 00:40:42,679 --> 00:40:44,679 Haydn didn't actually invent the quartet, 1047 00:40:44,679 --> 00:40:46,679 but when he was about 18, he was asked 1048 00:40:46,679 --> 00:40:48,679 by a man called Baron Furnberg to come up with something 1049 00:40:48,679 --> 00:40:50,679 that four amateurs could play at home. 1050 00:40:50,679 --> 00:40:52,679 That's how string quartets began. 1051 00:40:52,679 --> 00:40:54,679 Anybody know why Haydn's symphony, number 45, 1052 00:40:54,679 --> 00:40:56,679 is called the Farewell Symphony? 1053 00:40:56,679 --> 00:40:58,679 He wrote it at a bus stop. 1054 00:40:58,679 --> 00:41:00,679 I wanted to be there! 1055 00:41:02,679 --> 00:41:04,679 There's a Hungarian prince called Niklas I, 1056 00:41:04,679 --> 00:41:06,679 and he had gone to his summer palace 1057 00:41:06,679 --> 00:41:08,679 and he'd brought the orchestra, but he had stayed 1058 00:41:08,679 --> 00:41:10,679 way longer than anybody thought was sensible. 1059 00:41:10,679 --> 00:41:12,679 So they asked Haydn if he could drop 1060 00:41:12,679 --> 00:41:14,679 not such a subtle hint. 1061 00:41:14,679 --> 00:41:16,679 At the end of the final adagio, each musician 1062 00:41:16,679 --> 00:41:18,679 in turn gets up, snuffs out a candle 1063 00:41:18,679 --> 00:41:20,679 on his music stand and leaves the room 1064 00:41:20,679 --> 00:41:22,679 until all that is left is the two violins 1065 00:41:22,679 --> 00:41:24,679 and apparently the prince got the message 1066 00:41:24,679 --> 00:41:26,679 and they went home the next morning. 1067 00:41:26,679 --> 00:41:28,679 That's very cool. 1068 00:41:28,679 --> 00:41:30,679 What type of tool is used to make jigsaw puzzles? 1069 00:41:30,679 --> 00:41:32,679 A jigsaw. 1070 00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:38,280 Get it over with. 1071 00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:40,280 So today, jigsaws are actually made 1072 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,280 with lasers or rolling presses, but when 1073 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:44,280 jigsaw puzzles were first introduced, 1074 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:46,280 they were basically made with a... Fudge hammer. 1075 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:50,280 A jigsaw. 1076 00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:52,280 No, not made with a jigsaw at all. 1077 00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:54,280 They've never been made with a jigsaw. 1078 00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:56,280 The jigsaw was not invented until the 1850s 1079 00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:58,280 and the first puzzle we would recognise 1080 00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:00,280 as a jigsaw was 1762. 1081 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,280 But even then it was made with a fretsaw. 1082 00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,280 Why was it called a jigsaw? 1083 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:06,280 The term first came from a London engraver 1084 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:08,280 called John Spillsbury. 1085 00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:10,280 They were actually called dissected puzzles 1086 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,280 to begin with. He made a map on wood 1087 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:14,280 countries and it was to give children the opportunity 1088 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:16,280 to learn all the different countries. 1089 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:18,280 My favourite thing, I love this fact, 1090 00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:20,280 a jigsaw puzzle 1091 00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,280 manufacturer typically uses the same 1092 00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:24,280 cutting pattern for lots of different 1093 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,280 puzzles. So if you buy two puzzles of the 1094 00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:28,280 same size from the same manufacturer 1095 00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:30,280 with two different pictures, you can mix 1096 00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:32,280 and match and still make 1097 00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:34,280 a puzzle. And there's an art professor 1098 00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:36,280 called Mel Andringa who uses 1099 00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:38,280 this to make extraordinary puzzle 1100 00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:40,280 montages. Have a look at this picture. 1101 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:42,280 Oh, wow. 1102 00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:44,280 That's great. 1103 00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:46,280 I'd frame that. 1104 00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:48,280 I'd frame it and put it on my wall. 1105 00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,280 I think it's fantastic. The jigsaw puzzle was 1106 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:52,280 invented before the jigsaw, which 1107 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,280 brings us to the puzzling matter of 1108 00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:56,280 the scores. In last place, 1109 00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,280 my goodness, it's very good. 1110 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,280 With minus 42, it's Alan. 1111 00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:07,019 Minus 14, 1112 00:43:07,019 --> 00:43:11,159 it's Joe. 1113 00:43:11,159 --> 00:43:13,159 Climbing up to third place 1114 00:43:13,159 --> 00:43:15,159 with minus 13, Bridget. 1115 00:43:15,159 --> 00:43:21,480 In second place with minus 12, 1116 00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:42,519 it's James, Joe, Bridget, and Alan. 1117 00:43:42,519 --> 00:43:44,519 I leave you with this quality quotation 1118 00:43:44,519 --> 00:43:46,519 from the American columnist and author 1119 00:43:46,519 --> 00:43:48,519 Alice Kahn. For a list of all the 1120 00:43:48,519 --> 00:43:50,519 ways technology has failed to improve 1121 00:43:50,519 --> 00:43:52,519 the quality of life, please 1122 00:43:52,519 --> 00:43:54,519 press three. Goodbye.