50 Fun Facts About British TV & Film

Which film about a football-mad Hounslow Sikh girl was the first Western film aired on North Korean TV?

Bend It Like Beckham aired on North Korean state TV on Boxing Day 2010, billed by Britain's ambassador as the first Western-made film ever shown there. Keira Knightley's breakout role was Jess's teammate Jules.

Which rock star set up HandMade Films to fund Monty Python's Life of Brian after EMI pulled out days before shooting?

George Harrison put up the £3 million budget because he 'wanted to see the movie', a gesture Terry Jones called the world's most expensive cinema ticket. His business partner Denis O'Brien arranged the financing through their new company.

Which North Yorkshire cheese's flagging sales were revived by the devotion of Aardman's inventor Wallace?

Wensleydale production had slumped between the mid-1980s and early 1990s before Wallace's constant references to it revived the cheese's popularity. It was first made by French Cistercian monks who settled in the dale.

Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End form a trilogy named after which ice cream?

The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy takes its name from a passing Cornetto reference in each film, beginning with Ed's hangover cone in Shaun of the Dead. Wright has said he used Cornettos as a hangover cure himself.

Which Raymond Briggs animation, shown on Channel 4 every Christmas since 1982, had its song sung by choirboy Peter Auty?

The Snowman's 'Walking in the Air' was sung by St Paul's Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty, not by Aled Jones, whose cover became the hit single in 1985. Channel 4 viewers voted it among the top three greatest Christmas moments in 2004.

Which sitcom about Shepherd's Bush rag-and-bone men was remade in America as Sanford and Son?

Steptoe and Son grew out of a 1962 Comedy Playhouse episode by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and was also remade in Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa. Albert and Harold traded from 26a Oil Drum Lane.

Who is the only person with Oscars for both acting, in Howards End, and screenwriting, for Sense and Sensibility?

Emma Thompson spent five years adapting Sense and Sensibility and then played Elinor Dashwood at 35, sixteen years older than the character. Her Best Actress win for Howards End had come three years earlier.

Which 1971 film did Stanley Kubrick himself withdraw from British cinemas, unseen there until after his death in 1999?

A Clockwork Orange was withdrawn in 1973 at Kubrick's request after it was blamed for copycat violence, and only returned to UK cinemas, video and DVD after he died. Novelist Anthony Burgess had mixed feelings about the adaptation.

Which Beatle narrated the first two series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends when it launched on ITV in 1984?

Ringo Starr was hired by producer Britt Allcroft because she found his voice 'perfect' for narration, and said his Beatles fame had 'nothing to do with' the choice. Later narrators included Pierce Brosnan and Alec Baldwin.

Which 1997 comedy about six jobless Sheffield men turned strippers was Britain's top-grossing film until Titanic?

The Full Monty was shot entirely around Sheffield in April 1996 and held the UK box-office record until Titanic outsold it. Four of its six redundant men are former steelworkers, led by Gaz, who needs money to keep seeing his son.

Which 1996 Danny Boyle film of an Irvine Welsh novel follows Edinburgh heroin addict Mark Renton?

Trainspotting gave Kelly Macdonald her film debut and Ewan McGregor his breakout as Renton, and was followed by the sequel T2 Trainspotting in 2017. Renton shares his Leith life with Sick Boy, Spud and the psychopathic Begbie.

Which 1981 Best Picture winner follows runners Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams to the 1924 Paris Olympics?

Chariots of Fire won four Oscars, including Best Original Score for Vangelis's electronic theme, and takes its title from a line in William Blake's poem sung as the hymn 'Jerusalem'. Liddell ran for God, Abrahams to overcome prejudice.

Which 2000 film follows a Durham miner's son who swaps boxing for ballet during the 1984 strike?

Billy Elliot stars 13-year-old Jamie Bell as the 11-year-old Billy, with Julie Walters as the ballet teacher and Gary Lewis as the father who objects to male dancers. A stage musical followed, reaching Broadway in 2008.

Which 1969 caper ends with Michael Caine's gang and their gold teetering in a coach over an Alpine cliff?

The Italian Job's never-resolved cliffhanger leaves the crew balancing the coach as the gold slides towards the drop, after a heist through Turin in red, white and blue Mini Coopers. Caine's 'blow the bloody doors off' became a cult line.

Which 1968 musical about a flying car was adapted from a children's novel by James Bond creator Ian Fleming?

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang began as the bedtime stories Ian Fleming told his small son, written up as a novel after his 1961 heart attack. Bond producer Albert Broccoli filmed it with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl.

Which double act's 1976 hardware-shop sketch turns on a customer apparently asking for 'fork handles'?

The Two Ronnies' 'Four Candles' was inspired by a real mix-up in a Hayes hardware shop, whose owners sent it in as possible material. Ronnie Corbett played the increasingly frustrated shopkeeper, Ronnie Barker the customer.

Which sitcom's grumpy early retiree Victor Meldrew, played by Richard Wilson, exclaimed 'I don't believe it!'?

One Foot in the Grave's Richard Wilson disliked saying 'I don't believe it!' and only performs the line for charity events, for a small fee. Creator David Renwick had considered Les Dawson for Meldrew after Wilson first turned it down.

Which Broadchurch star became the first woman to play the Doctor in Doctor Who, succeeding Peter Capaldi in 2017?

Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor was announced on 16 July 2017 and she formally took over in the Christmas special 'Twice Upon a Time'. She had already worked with incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall on Broadchurch.

In which 1949 Ealing comedy does Alec Guinness play all eight members of the doomed D'Ascoyne family?

Kind Hearts and Coronets has Dennis Price's Louis Mazzini murdering his way up the line of succession to a dukedom, with Guinness playing every D'Ascoyne in his path. Time magazine listed it among the 100 best films since 1923.

In which 1955 Ealing comedy does a robbery gang posing as a string quintet lodge with elderly Mrs Wilberforce?

The Ladykillers' Professor Marcus, played by Alec Guinness with Alastair Sim in mind, plans a security-van raid from the old lady's subsiding house over a King's Cross railway tunnel. Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom are in his gang.

Which 1949 thriller, the BFI's greatest British film, has Orson Welles's Harry Lime flee through Vienna's sewers?

The Third Man topped the British Film Institute's 1999 poll of the greatest British films, shot among the ruins of Allied-occupied Vienna. Joseph Cotten's pulp novelist arrives to find his friend Lime apparently dead.

Which 1945 David Lean romance set in a station refreshment room runs on Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto?

Brief Encounter was shot largely at Carnforth station in Lancashire, then a junction on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and grew from Noël Coward's one-act play Still Life. Time Out's 2017 poll ranked it 12th-best British film.

Which 1973 folk horror sends Sergeant Howie to Summerisle, where Christopher Lee's laird leads the pagan islanders?

The Wicker Man's Edward Woodward plays a devout Christian policeman hunting a missing girl, Rowan Morrison, among islanders who have abandoned Christianity for Celtic paganism. Robin Hardy cut about 20 minutes for its release.

Which 1987 comedy sends two unemployed actors to a rich uncle's Lake District cottage for a miserable holiday?

Withnail and I is loosely based on writer-director Bruce Robinson's own late-1960s life, with Richard Griffiths as the wealthy, eccentric Uncle Monty. Richard E. Grant has said he was 'violently sick' after every drink he took for the role.

Which 1964 epic about the 1879 defence of Rorke's Drift gave Michael Caine his first major film role?

Zulu stars Stanley Baker and introduced Caine in a role that brought him international fame; it premiered on the battle's 85th anniversary, 22 January 1964. A 2017 Time Out poll ranked it the 93rd-best British film.

Which 1957 David Lean POW epic has its British captives whistle the 'Colonel Bogey March' into camp?

The Bridge on the River Kwai was the highest-grossing film of 1957, adapted from Pierre Boulle's novel, and the whistled march became its signature. One real Kwai POW said nobody whistled it in Thailand: 'We hadn't much breath left.'

Which flared-nostril comic starred in 26 of the 31 Carry On films and was a Just a Minute panellist for 20 years?

Kenneth Williams kept diaries throughout his life that won acclaim after his death in 1988, and joined Just a Minute from its second series in 1968. He sometimes described himself as Welsh, citing his parents' surnames and origins.

Which 1983 Bill Forsyth film sends a Houston oilman to buy a Highland village, with Burt Lancaster as his boss?

Local Hero's Felix Happer, an amateur astronomer, picks Mac MacIntyre for his Scottish-sounding surname and tells him to watch the skies over Ferness for anything unusual. Lancaster's $2 million fee was almost a third of the budget.

Which Cardiff-set BBC spin-off with John Barrowman's Captain Jack is named with an anagram of its parent show?

Torchwood was first used as a decoy title on Doctor Who's 2005 series tapes so they would not be intercepted, and the anagram became the name of the adult-oriented spin-off. Captain Jack Harkness leads its Cardiff team.

Which Torquay hotelier, who treated the visiting Python team with disdain, inspired John Cleese's Basil Fawlty?

Donald Sinclair co-owned the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, where his stuffy, snobbish and eccentric treatment of the Python cast gave Cleese his idea. Cleese's hotel-owner character in the 2001 film Rat Race was also called Donald Sinclair.

Which 1979 BBC serial has Alec Guinness's George Smiley hunt a Soviet mole at the top of 'the Circus'?

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy won Guinness a BAFTA and was followed by Smiley's People in 1982; Smiley has been forced into retirement after Operation Testify, a failed mission in Czechoslovakia. John le Carré's 1974 novel was its source.

Which Only Fools and Horses road sweeper claims his 20-year-old broom has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles?

Trigger's broom has become another name for the Ship of Theseus paradox, and Del Boy says the nickname comes from his resemblance to a horse. He is a Nag's Head regular who appeared in the very first episode and throughout the show's run.

Which 1983 comedy-drama sent seven British builders, including Jimmy Nail's Oz, to a Düsseldorf building site?

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was created by Franc Roddam from a Stockton bricklayer's idea and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Tim Healy, Kevin Whately and Timothy Spall were among the seven.

Which 1997 Chris Morris spoof duped MP David Amess into asking Parliament about a fictional drug called Cake?

Brass Eye's 'Drugs' episode had Morris pose as a campaigner from 'Free The United Kingdom From Drugs', and the Home Office then called Cake a real hallucinogen. Cake supposedly came from Czechoslovakia, which no longer existed.

Which ITV quiz's 2001 'coughing major' scandal, Charles Ingram's disputed top-prize win, became the 2020 drama Quiz?

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? saw Ingram answer 'googol' for £1 million, before producers matched his hesitations to coughs from waiting contestant Tecwen Whittock. Matthew Macfadyen played him in James Graham's Quiz.

Which letters-and-numbers game was the first programme broadcast on Channel 4 when it launched in November 1982?

Countdown opened Channel 4 on 2 November 1982 with Richard Whiteley's line 'As the countdown to a brand new channel ends, a brand new Countdown begins', and has since passed 90 series. It started life as Calendar Countdown.

Which quiz, fronted by Magnus Magnusson from 1972, was inspired by its creator's wartime Gestapo interrogation?

Mastermind creator Bill Wright drew on his experience of Gestapo interrogation during the Second World War, and Magnus Magnusson presented it on BBC1 from 1972 to 1997. Scottish artist Denis Mann has made every trophy.

Which detective series' theme by Barrington Pheloung sometimes spelled the killer's name in dots and dashes?

Inspector Morse's theme is built on a motif spelling 'MORSE' in Morse code, and Pheloung admitted he sometimes encoded the killer's name in the music, or another character's as a red herring. He later scored Lewis and Endeavour.

Which 2012 Bond film, the first in the series to pass $1 billion worldwide, won Adele an Oscar for its title song?

Skyfall took over $1.1 billion, the fourteenth film ever to pass the billion mark and the highest-grossing Bond, and Adele wrote its theme with her regular collaborator Paul Epworth. It won two of its five Academy Award nominations.

Which actor took over as Dumbledore in the 2004 Harry Potter film after Richard Harris's death in 2002?

Michael Gambon played Dumbledore from 2004 to 2011, and like Harris before him had also played the French detective Maigret on television. Harris had taken the Maigret role four years before Gambon.

Which 1984 ITV puppet satire dressed Margaret Thatcher in a man's suit and painted John Major entirely grey?

Spitting Image's Thatcher was a cigar-chomping cross-dresser who used the urinals and was addressed by her Cabinet as 'Sir', while the grey Major was shown eating peas with wife Norma. Peter Fluck and Roger Law made the caricatures.

Which sitcom pitting Jim Hacker against Sir Humphrey Appleby was Margaret Thatcher's favourite TV programme?

Yes Minister put Paul Eddington's Hacker in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs, thwarted at every turn by Nigel Hawthorne's Permanent Secretary. Almost every episode ended with the title spoken as an answer.

Which 1966 Ken Loach play about homelessness was seen by a quarter of Britain and helped spur the charity Crisis?

Cathy Come Home drew 12 million viewers to its first broadcast in the BBC's Wednesday Play strand, and the public reaction led to the founding of Crisis in 1967. Broadcast magazine named it the UK's most influential TV programme in 2005.

Which product was plugged in the first advert ever shown on British television, on ITV's opening night in 1955?

Gibbs SR toothpaste's advert aired on Associated-Rediffusion in London at 8.12pm on 22 September 1955 with a voiceover by Alex Macintosh. The brand survives as Mentadent SR, one of three Unilever toothpastes still sold worldwide.

Which 1996 BBC serial tracking four Newcastle mates from 1964 to 1995 launched Daniel Craig and Christopher Eccleston?

Our Friends in the North, written by Peter Flannery, was the breakthrough for Gina McKee and Mark Strong too, and tracks 31 years of political and social change as seen from Tyneside. Radio 4 revived it in 2022 with a new tenth episode.

Which 1950s BBC comedy, written by Galton and Simpson, gave its star the address 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam?

Hancock's Half Hour ran on radio from 1954 and on television until 1961, with Tony Hancock as a down-at-heel version of himself, Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock. One episode spoofed Look Back in Anger as 'Look Back in Hunger'.

Which 1986 Dennis Potter serial confines pulp writer Philip Marlow to hospital with a crippling skin and joint disease?

The Singing Detective's Marlow escapes his psoriatic arthropathy into a noir fantasy as a crooning sleuth, and Potter, who had the same disease, wrote with a pen tied to his fist as Marlow does in the last episode.

Which Blackadder regular, Prince George and Lieutenant George, became TV's most-watched leading man as Gregory House?

Hugh Laurie was listed in the 2011 Guinness World Records as television's most-watched leading man and won two Golden Globes for House. He joined Blackadder's main cast for its third series.

Which helmeted Top Gear test driver, created as a joke on racing drivers' anonymity, was exposed as Ben Collins in 2010?

The Stig was devised by Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman for the 2002 relaunch, the running joke being that nobody knew who or what was inside the suit. The original black Stig, Perry McCarthy, was unmasked in 2003.

Which quiz, begun on ITV in 1962 with Bamber Gascoigne, opens each round with 'your starter for ten'?

University Challenge ran for 913 episodes on ITV until 1987 before its BBC revival, and its catchphrase inspired David Nicholls's novel Starter for Ten and the 2006 James McAvoy film. It was recorded in Manchester until 2013.