Random Acts

Rather than write a proper piece this week, here's a selection of random facts that were cut from various other articles on this blog during the editing process (some of these were part of articles that got written, others I decided partway through were unusable). Enjoy!

• The GameCube release of The Simpsons: Hit & Run was based on an earlier build of the game compared to all other consoles.
• The Labour MP Howard Stoat once made an extremely detailed reference to Red Dwarf in a debate in the House of Commons despite the fact the show had been off air for nearly a decade at the time.
• Pyramids of Mars was the only Doctor Who story to be released on VHS in Norway and Finland.
• The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, won a competition to have his name appear in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Blood of the Zombies at the age of 45.
• The siren that sounds when the pit descends in the original run of Robot Wars originally wasn't actually heard in the studio and was dubbed on in post-production. After several incidents where roboteers were unaware the pit had opened and drove straight into it, they changed it so the siren actually did sound in the studio.
• Hergé was so pleased with the English translation of his Tintin album The Castafiore Emerald that he rang the translator in a state of delirium and suggested that people really would think it was originally written in English.
• The Irish politician Thomas Higgins died on the night of his election and was declared elected posthumously. For the purposes of official records he is listed as having been in office on 26 January 1906, and as serving 0 days in office. Three other MPs also died on the night of an election, but they were standing for re-election.
• This story on the panel show Would I Lie to You? lasted 30 minutes on the night of recording and had to be edited down to a quarter of its length for broadcast; the uncut version could have taken up the entire episode by itself. (The editing of the bizarre, rambling story told within causes at least one problem, with David Mitchell suddenly starting to talk about an aspect of the story Kevin Bridges never mentioned.)
• The Radio Times listings for the Doctor Who serial Time and the Rani took the form of pretend dictionary definitions for made-up words used in the story.
• Here is an oddly prescient Radio Times listing from 1992.
• Doctor Who's move to weekdays between 1982-84 was a trial run for the launch of EastEnders.
• The Fighting Fantasy gamebook Legend of Zagor (published 1993) was meant to be written by Ian Livingstone, but his lack of time meant it was written by Carl Sargent and released under Livingstone's name. Despite years of rumour (mostly because of how little it resembles anything else Livingstone has written), which sparked off a running joke in the fandom that Livingstone had killed Sargent and buried him in his back garden in order to take the credit for his work, Livingstone did not admit the truth about its authorship until 2014.
• Tintin in Tibet was originally published in China as Tintin in Chinese Tibet, until the Hergé Foundation protested and the original title was reinstated.
• The first English translation of Asterix the Gaul appeared in the boys' comic Valiant in 1963, and had the absolutely appalling retitle of Little Fred and Big Ed.
• Joe Thomas from The Inbetweeners was one of the students who built the Robot Wars series 1 grand finalist TRACIE, although he never appeared on screen.
• Such was Hergé's attention to detail, he created a blueprint for the executive jet he designed for the Tintin album Flight 714 to Sydney.
• The English-language translation of Flight 714 to Sydney originally just called it Flight 714, and it was not renamed until some years later.
• After the UK's 2005 general election, the Department for Trade and Industry was to be renamed the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry. This was hurriedly changed after it was pointed out that the new department's name would be abbrievated to PENIS.
• Wikipedia retitled its article "list of sitcoms considered the worst" to "list of sitcoms notable for negative reception", but did not do the same for "list of films considered the worst".