It is well known that Freddy's trademark red and black sweater was a nod to Deniss the Menace, and that his face was modelled on Niki Lauda. What is less well known is that his floppy brown hat is THE same one worn by Orinoco in The Wombles hit Manhattan.

Next: Tomsk

Seasonal Fancies were the attempted follow up to Werther's Originals. They came in four flavours - summer fruits, autumn gold, winter peppermint, and spring onion. Sales foundered when it was discovered during a live broadcast of Saturday Superstore that they had extreme laxitive effects.

Next: Mike Reed.

That's a bit clever for this late at night!

Next : sicky burps

Follow ups, and you'll drive around watching a bloke deliver parcels.

Next: Why the Germans own our logistics infrastructure.

"I've seen all Good People" was a song from the second album by Supergroup "Yes" - a band who's stage shows evolved into such extravaganzas that the M5 had to be constructed especially to get their tour equipment from the West Midlands to the West Country.

Next: KK Downing and Glen Tipton - are they inseperable?

Rod, I do enjoy your contributions to Sparky's thread.

Camels' toes have a very distinctive shape and may readily be spotted on the beach.

Next: Wickedweasel bikinis

I need help with that luddite. Wasn't wickedweasel one of the characters in the tufty club?

Placing weasels in Bikini's was deemed unseemly and wicked by the British Temperance league in 1929 - but what do they know they dont drink!

Next: Ray Mears

Ray Mears was born a girl, and undertook a sex change in his late teens in order to take advantage of his excellent bushcraft skills. Requring a new name, he simply chose an anagram of his birth name - Mary A rse.

Next: Anagrams

Sorry, I didn't realise it had been done Sparky!

^

Keith Harris and Orville burst on to the showbiz scene in 1979. Harris had formerly been part of a travelling troupe of trapeze artists but after plummetting for nearly three feet to an extremely nasty fall at a street festival in Aberystwyth, which shattered his pelvis and fused several vertebrae causing, partial paralysis to his face, he was told he would never perform again.
Whilst making some recovery in hospital he fell in love with a beautiful young nurse called Gwendolyn Jones, who at first only pitied Harris but finally agreed to being courted by him.
For their first date Keith had withdrawn all the money he had saved
from the trapeze so they could both stay at the grandest hotel in Cardiff.
Part of the planned night also included a visit to the theatre to see a new
comedy act, The Krankies. The Krankies were of course a hit with all the audience including Keith and Gwen. It was now that Keith had his idea for his own comedy double act.
Harris persuaded Gwendolyn to sell her family home, the money from which, along with her savings they used to take a trip to Brazil where they were married and soon surgeons had agreed to the radical surgery needed to give Gwen the appearance of the nappied green duck.

"Aberystwyth"

Is a word/place name which I have always had trouble with remembering how to spel...but I think this resourceful young pupil's memory-aid is as helpful as it can get.....


A pupil describing in an essay his holiday in Aberystwyth, astonished and delighted his teacher by spelling the town's name correctly every time he used it.

The next day the teacher asked him to the front of the class and said

"Show the class how well you can spell. Write 'Aberystwyth' on the blackboard."

"Please, miss, I can't any more," he pleaded, "I've eaten all my rock."

Next "Teacher's Pet"

All inhabitants of Reykjavik either have surnames ending in "sson" (males) or "dottir" (females), except for David Arbuthnot. Taken prisoner during the Cod War, he fell in love with one of the female prison camp guards. The feeling was reciprocated and upon his release, on cessation of hostilities, Mr Arbuthnot married his Icelandic sweetheart and the happy couple took up residence in the icy island's capital city. The have one son, Einar Arbuthnotsson.

Next, Dentures.

Although Isaac Newton was undoubtably a genius, fascinated by ellipses, curves and parabellum, when once publicly asked to opine on the tropics by his friend and beneficiary, the astronomer Edmund Halley. Unable to answer Newton excused himself, citing fear of catching the plague as reason for his immediate return home. Halley, embarrassed for his friend would not mention there had not been a case of plague recorded in England for ten years.

Next: Comets

These tradional spinning toys, fashioned of reindeer bone, skin and sinew are generally only curios these days; the Laplanders' children preferring to play with their laptops.

Next: Antlers

Adam ant was the very first ant in the garden of Eden. Adam the first human coined the phrase Ant in your fig leaf when Eve caught him during an embarrassing moment.

Next: The garden of Eden

Michelin, the French vulcanised rubber manufaturer, invented the Pneumatic tyre in 1903, just in time for the Paris - Bordeaux motor race. At the start line only one car, the famous "Chitty Bang Bang", driven by Count Louis Zobrowski, was shod with this new-fangled invention. To the astonishment of all present this speedy leviathan shot ahead of the opposition and had established a 73 mile lead at the end of the first day. Unfortunately for the Count, the stony, rutted roads found out the weakness of this new design and he suffered a puncture on the outskirts of Perpignan. Unable to find a garage with an air line (which hadn't been invented yet) and discovering that his engineer / butler had not packed a spare tyre (which would have been difficult, as the only four prototype tyres supplied by Michelin were already on his rims), the Count foolishly tried to continue racing on a flat, resulting in a big crash near Biarritz which wrote off this magnificent motor. Disillusioned, the Count never raced again. The wreck of his auto, however, was rescued and rebuilt by an eccentric inventor who lived in a windmill. Renamed "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", the car went on to be a star of film and stage.

Next: Dick Van Dyke