No. 250.

Lucy Porter was a researcher on Catchphrase. Her job was to ask the contestants for funny anecdotes that the host could prompt and then joke about it in the beginning of the show.

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

No. 249.

Stewart Lee sent a song he wrote to Fry and Laurie because he and Richard Herring weren't too impressed by the quality of the music featured on the show.

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

No. 248.

Lucy Porter was a researcher for Richard and Judy.

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

No. 247.

To amuse each other between takes, the cast of The Thick of It would perform impersonations of Darth Vader saying mundane things.

(Source: Chain Reaction interview with Chris Addison.)

No. 238.

The motorbike riden by Henry Winkler in Happy Days is the same one used by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
(Source: Twitter - somebody asked Winkler if the fact was true.)

No. 237.

Robert Powell met his wife, Babs of dance troupe Pan's People, in the BBC bar. He saw them come in, but didn't have the courage to ask her out, so he took the whole group out for a drink instead.

(Source: Tales From Television Centre.)

No. 236.

Once there was no show set to go out at 11pm, so a few comedy people, including Johnny Speight, Marty Feldmen, and Spike Milligan were asked in the BBC bar whether they would talk about their writing process. They said they would and suddenly the slot was filled.

(Source: Tales of Television Centre.)

No. 235.

One BBC director was trying to shoot a final scene before the television centre studioes closed at 10pm and came down from the gallery to instruct them from the floor. He ran downstairs, got into the room, and shouted 'will you fucking stop messing around?' It was only then he realised he was in the Newsnight set.

(Source: Tales of Television Centre.)

No. 234.

One of the directors in a BBC meeting said that the presenter on the Film programme appeared to have worn a wig and that he wouldn't stand for it. Barry Norman had in fact simply been having a bad hair day.

(Source: Tales of Television Centre.)

No. 233.

The BBC were so used to Michael Bentine destroying, and staging raids on, BBC television centre as the climax to each series of his television show that five men were able to steal £16,000 and be let out the back gate by the current commisioner who greeted them with  'Good to see you again Mr Bentine'.

(Source: Tale of Television Centre.)

No. 232.

The BBC once broke the world record for largest troupe of tap dancers. They staged a routine with five hundred and one performers in the circular quad in television centre.

(Source: Tales of Television Centre.)

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. 199.

There is a Mad Men range of Barbies.

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

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. 179.

Jerry Springer was once Mayor of Cincinnati.

(Source: Documentary commemorating twenty years of The Simpsons. Verified via Wikipedia.)

No. 174.

Simon Cowell didn't want anyone to know it was his 52nd birthday, so Cheryl Cole hired a plane to fly around his house, trailing a banner behind it congratulating him on the occasion.

(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 166.

When offered to appear in adverts for McDonalds, Steve Coogan repeatedly pushed up the possible fee to see how much they would offer, despite not actually wanting the job. The highest figure they were willing to pay was two million pounds. Only then did he turn it down.
(Source: The Graham Norton Show.)

No. 162.

Charlie Brooker once fell asleep at the wheel during a driving lesson.

(Source: Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.) 

No. 156.

Jonathan Ross got so bored interviewing Barbara Windsor that he couldn't think of another question, so played for time by pretending to pop out his contact lenses. When she started looking for it, he realised he had to get it out for real.

(Source: Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.)