No. 231.

The English novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, is the great-great-great-grandfather of Al Murray.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 230.

Barry Cryer had a number one single in Finland with a cover of Purple People Eater, quite possibly because the original hadn't been released there for contractual reasons.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 229.

When Richard Herring was hired to collate the West London phone directory, he changed Stewart Lee's name to Stewart Wee.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 228.

One of Richard Herring's jobs when he moved to London was for a company that made lighthouse parts.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 227.

Shappi Khorsandi was proposed to on Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 226.

Shappi Khorsandi wanted to call her first book English People Smell of Milk. Her publishers got her to change it to A Beginner's Guide to Acting English.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 225.

Richard Herring once expanded a stand up routine about yoghurt into an hour's show.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 224.

Until special laws were passed, the pistols used in the shooting events at the 2012 Games were illegal in Britain.

(Source: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/07/fact-or-fiction-twentytwelve-or-2012.)

No. 223.

Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981, it is illegal in Britain to use a machine gun to kill a hedgehog.

(Source: Qikipedia Twitter feed.)

No. 212.

Comedian Dave Gorman has both a Paul Daniels trick, and a character in Neighbours, named after him.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 211.

Susan Calman is such a fan of Prime Suspect that she has edited footage so that she could produce a recording in which it appears she is having a conversation with Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 210.

Sweden has it's own Twitter account, @sweden. Random citizens get to "curate" it for a week each.

(Source: http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/12/16/sweden-lets-citizens-take-over-its-official-twitter-account-this-is-either-genius-or-insanity/)

No. 209.

To publicise a student revue they were in at the Edinburgh Fringe, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, and Emma Kennedy posed as a church group, handing out leaflets insisting their show be banned. They were successful - in that nobody came.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 208.

Matthew Crosby was so nervous when Ross Noble walked in to watch his first Edinburgh stand up show that he brought him onstage. Noble obliged and did fifteen minutes of material.

(Source: Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast.)

No. 207.

Zach Braff's pet fish is called Cornelius Goodyear.

(Source: Twitter.)

No. 206.

Linda Robson was crossing the road with a bag of her dog's excrement to put in a skip when a mugger cyclist drove by and took it.

(Source: Do The Right Thing podcast from www.comedy.co.uk)

No. 205.

The ghosts in Pacman are called Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.

(Source: QIkipedia Twitter feed. Verified by Wikipedia.)

No. 204.

Bill Murray only signed up to Garfield because he mistakenly thought writer Etan Cohen was one of the Cohen brothers.

(Source: http://www.totalfilm.com/news/bill-murray-admits-garfield-goof)

No. 203.

Pepsi was originally released as 'Brad's Drink'. This is presumably a reference to its creator, Caleb Bradham.

(Source: QIkipedia Twitter feed. Verified by Wikipedia.)

No. 202.

Gromit, of Wallace and Gromit fame, was designed to be a talking cat. Nick Park changed him to a mute dog when it became apparent that this would be easier to animate.

(Source: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-07-10/nick-park---wallace-needed-an-assistant-so-i-drew-a-cat-called-gromit)

No. 201.

Daniel Radcliffe, upon being presented with a picture of Elijah Wood to sign at a Japanese premiere, wrote 'I am not Elijah Wood. Love Daniel Radcliffe.'

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 200.

During his stint in What the Butler Saw, Ewan McGregor was in a scene in which he had to hide his genitals with a police helmet. Once he almost didn't cover it and shocked a bunch of elderly women in the front row. He enjoyed the reaction so much that he never completely covered up again.

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 199.

There is a Mad Men range of Barbies.

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 198.

Disney, besides from feature films and cartoons, also produced educational films on subjects ranging from war bonds to how children can protect themselves from the sexual advances of adults.

(Source: The Disney Studio Story by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley.)

No. 197.

In 1931 Disney short, The Moose Hunt, Pluto is referred to by name for the first time. The cartoon is also notably for being the only time he speaks, or achieves flight by flapping his ears.
(Source: The Disney Studio Story by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley.)

No. 196.

Rhod Gilbert has a tattoo of a flaming battenberg on a cushion. He got it because his producers suggested he get one whilst he was working as a tattoo artist so he devised the most pointless he could think of. His girlfriend hates it on the grounds that she dislikes marzipan.

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 195.

Danny DeVito once asked every passenger on a plane whether he could smoke a cigar because the pilot would only allow him if he had everyone's permission.

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 194.

Danny DeVito did his own German, Italian, Spanish and Russian dubs for The Lorax. He even did the Spanish one twice, so there was a version for Latin America.

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 198.

Rob Brydon once threw a frisbee at his eldest son, but had forgetten to tell him to catch it. Tragedy inevitably ensued.

(Source: Would I Lie To You.)

No. 193.

Helena Bonham Carter is related to Florence Nightingale.

(Source: Wikipedia. Verified by http://www.buriton.org.uk/bhb/infosheet05.htm.)

No. 192.

Helena Bonham Carter pays her psychotherapist mother to deliver her verdict on the psychological motivations of her characters in scripts.

(Source: Wikipedia.)

No. 191.

Whilst filming Sleepless in Seattle, the crew discovered a neat little coffee shop called Starbucks. Director Nora Ephron liked it so much that she immediately bought stocks in it.

(Source: http://entertainment.time.com/2012/06/27/nora-ephron-a-life-of-voice-and-detail/)