FACTORALY - E109 LIONS

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Lions. The kings of the Jungle and the Savannah. Lions have been symbols of strength and power since time immemorial. This episode goes deep into the Lions' den and pulls out the thorns of truth and facts that will surprise and delight you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, Bruce. Hi, Simon. How are you then? I'm fabulous. Thank you very much. How are you? I am all right, Tarr. Are you? Yes, I am. Well, that's all right then.

Good. And hello, everyone listening to us. We hope you are equally well. Hi there. Why are people listening to us, Bruce? Who are we? What do we have to say? We're very important people who are worth listening to.

No, we are not worthy. We are nerds who like talking. So part one is we do a podcast called factorily. Factorily, I've heard of that. Yeah. Which is about half an hour's worth of nonsense about a various different subject every time. And we talk about stuff that. We either hope it sounds boring, but we make it interesting, or sounds interesting and we keep it interesting.

Yes. What we don't want is to accidentally make anything sound boring. No, that would be wrong. That would be very sad, isn't it? And the second thing is we like talking. Well, it's just as what we do, because we're both voiceover. Artists, actors, entertainers, voiceovers, whatever you like to call us. We use our voices.

We do. Because frankly, we've got faces for radio. We've actually got very similar faces for radio these days as my beard gets a little greyer. You're getting grey. I've gone. We've passed that moment. So tell me about a subject, Simon. Tell you about a subject.

Any particular subject would you like me to tell you about? Yes. You know when you're at school? Yes. And you do something wrong. And they make you write out a sentence several times. Sure. What do they call that?

They call that lines. Is that what we're talking about today? Almost. We're not doing lines. We're doing lions. Lyons. Pretty close. Roaring lions.

Yes, those things. What's your definition of a lion? How would you describe a lions as someone who's never seen one? It's a big cat with a rough. Yeah. Yep, yeah, that works. So they are big cats. They are.

The king of the jungle. Yes, now this used to confuse me because I hadn't realized there were two varieties of lion. I thought lions were all from Africa and they sort of live on the savannah in the open plains etc etc why on earth are they the king of the jungle it's not really a jungley area is it actually do you know what I'd never thought of that

yes you're all right it's always perturbed to me however there are two types of lion there's an African lion which is the one I think most of us think of us think of which there are around 20,000 out in the wild is that all not terribly many but even fewer at only 800 of them in the world is the Asiatic lion and the Asiatic lion lives in parts of India

and therefore that one could potentially be the king of the jungle because India is a little bit more jungly than Africa I guess I guess But yes I've never been too happy with King of the Jungle I prefer king of the Savannah or King of the Plains or something like that Yeah that makes sense There's not an awful lot of difference between those two essentially the African lion has a bigger mane and a smaller tuft on the end of their tail.

Oh, okay. Yes. Yes, the tuft on the end of the tail is, as they whip their tail, as they're sort of looking a bit menacing. That's it, yeah. How many did you say you reckon there were? So around, well, only around 800 Asiatic lions in the world, around 20,000 African lions in the wild, obviously, not in captivity. Well, yes, you say in the wild, because I reckon they're around about 7,000 lions just in America. Really? Yes. That's quite a few.

So in private collections, owned privately, in zoos, there are between 5,000 and 7,000 lions in the US. That's quite a lot of lions, isn't it? It is quite a lot. Oh, okay. Well, that's sort of a quarter of the world's population of lions are living in the United States then. I know. How very odd. Yeah.

but they're sort of a part of a family of big cats aren't they there's all sorts of big cats yes they are aren't they i've i've been a cat owner in the past and um they really are quite similar i mean other than the fact that lions are huge and would kill you um they're quite similar they have similar um characteristics you sort of watch a lion you know flopping around on its back with its legs in the air and playing with its siblings or its parents or whatever they they're They are quite similar. Obviously, you wouldn't necessarily want to keep one of them in your house. Yes.

But, yeah, they're undoubtedly related to each other. Interesting. They do do unusual things, though, don't they? I mean, I read about what lions do that's slightly unusual. So different to other cats, when they roar, they roar together as a group. Oh, do they? And even the cubs join in. So when I go on my morning walk with my dog in Regents Park, I will occasionally

hear the lions roaring from the zoo and there's this kind of like it doesn't really sound like a roar it sounds like something is doing heavy breathing yes no I think the

classic idea of a roaring lion I don't think that's sort of their main vocalisation is it they grunt and they they sort of growl a bit but yes they they sort of more growl the big kind of roar

that we're used to hearing is not usual no although you know obviously that makes me easier to hear what what makes them harder to hear is a is a storm okay and what lions have done is lions have worked out that actually if you hunt during a storm because of the rain and the wind um pray find it harder to hear them oh really so lions are what they call storm hunters oh so they actually hunt during storms that's brilliant that's when they can be asked because they're very lazy.

Yeah, this is sort of one of the other things that reminds me of a house cat, really, is the fact that they can hunt, you know, they can chase after prey, you know, they'll take down a zebra or a fielder beast or one of those deary things that I can't remember the name of. Gazelle. Gazelle, you know, things like that. But only if they really have to, you know, if they don't have to, then they jolly well won't. Lions actually scavenge quite a lot. Oh, yes, of course they do.

So they'll sort of let other creatures take down an animal, you know, something a bit faster and nippier and more athletic. And then the lion will sort of swagger in with its size and its weight and its heft and just sort of bully the other creatures off the site and take their prey. So if they don't have to hunt, they won't. They can go a reasonable amount of time without eating. So they'll really only go at it when it's really necessary. Well, the male lions sleep up to about 20 hours a day. Do they really? Yeah.

And even the females who actually do the hunting. Yeah. I mean, the males don't really do much hunting. So it's the females who do the hunting. And they sleep sort of 15 to 18 hours a day. Gosh, that's not a bad life, is it? Well, I don't know. If you like sleeping.

Sleep, hunt, eat, repeat. Yes, exactly. When males go out hunting, they do. tend to do it alone. It's just one intimidating lion with a great big main going after its prey. Yes. When the females hunt, they sort of tend to go in groups and they're quite strategic. You know, you'll have a sort of a couple around the outskirts trying to corral their prey. Yes.

And then one or two will sort of go in for the kill, you know, in the centre. They're like stalks around and average. Yeah, exactly. They're quite cooperative. Whereas if it's just a male lion, he'll just go at it on his own. Bring down the wildebeest or whatever. Indeed, yeah, using their pores. They don't sort of, you know, I have this image of a lion chasing after or whatever it is. Yes. And fighting it.

Yes. In a sort of, oh, you know, the cartoon Madagascar. Yes, exactly. In that kind of manner. Alex. That's right. Yes, Alex biting Marty in the rear end. But that's not how they do it.

They sort of run after the prey. They jump and they essentially just sort of grip onto the prey's rear end with their massive, massive paws, which is, you know. very big and weighty and have very sharp claws. Yeah. They bring it to the ground and they pretty much suffocate the thing to death. They'll sort of put their pore on the creature's neck. Yeah. Until it dies.

Yeah. So yes, they don't sort of rip your throat out with their teeth or anything like that. Their teeth are strong. They can crush bone and you suddenly wouldn't want to voluntarily put your arm in one. But, you know, that's not their main weapon. Although what farmers in Africa have started doing, which is quite interesting, is painting eyes on the, the on the arses of their cattle. Really?

Yeah. Because the lions like to creep up to things from behind. Yes. And if they think it's facing towards them, they won't do that. Brilliant. I love that. So it's a very good way of stopping your cow from being eaten by a lion. So what does a lion drink?

I would automatically say water. Unless you know something different. Well, given that they live in the Kalahari. Okay. I mean, you know, taps are fairly few and far between, as are things like ponds and rivers and drinking holes and stuff like that. So where you don't have that, you have to kind of rely on the vegetation. Sure, yeah.

So they can get water from plants and fruits. And one of the things they go for is the Tsama melon. Okay. Which is, I think it's called spotted water in the Kalaharan. So it's a melon that grows in the calahari that's full of water. So it's like all melons are. Yes. So they drink those.

They eat a melon and have their drink that way. Brilliant. I can't think of anything less lionie. I know. Can I have a slice of melon, please? Yes. Forget the keepers chucking steak at me. I just like a melon.

Thank you. Yes. Just a couple of slices of honeydew, please. That's great. Yeah. Huh. I looked into how old lions are, not individually their age, but, you know, how long have they been around? Longer than I thought, an ancestor of the African lion appeared somewhere between 2 and 5 million years ago.

A bit bigger, a bit chunkier, but most distinctly a lion. And these things, you know, were purely based in East Africa. And then over time they, you know, sort of migrated across backwards. back when there was a large landmass and not so many oceans in between. They migrated to Asia and Europe and even North America. So we used to have wild lions in those places. A couple of million years ago, they eventually became extinct. And we sort of ended up with the ones in Africa and the ones in India.

And that was pretty much it, nothing else in between. But yeah, I hadn't quite realised they'd been. around for that long. And they weren't sort of saber-tooth like the, like the tigers. No, they were a distinct species separate from tigers or... Well, you do get them sort of mating that. You get ligons and things. Oh, you get ligars, don't you?

Yes. A ligar, I think, specifically has to be a male lion mating with a female tiger. Yes. I don't know what it is if it's the other way around. I think it's a tigon. Is it? Yes. That's great.

Wonderful word. but when lions generally when they have cubs they're born with spots oh yes you're right they are aren't they so I mean the idea is that it's camouflage so a lion cub can go and hide in the savannah and because it's spotted it's not spotted yes

so where does the word lion come from the word lion has quite a boring etymology it's in one form or another it's always meant lion so it's a middle English word lion derived from the old French Leon yes which comes from the Latin word Leo okay

the Latin word came from the ancient Greek word Leon and you know that's it it's always sounded roughly like lion and it's always meant lion because the reason I ask is because I've seen lions as part of a statue of things I've seen lions

as a sphinx for example Okay, yes. So because of Leo being like the fifth sign of the zodiac, it's like July and August, which was when, sort of the time of year when the Nile flooded. All right. So the idea of the Nile giving life to the land and therefore growing crops. So lions were kind of part of this sort of fertility thing in Egyptian folklore. Right. Which is why they've got such a thing about cat-shaped gods and sphinxes.

Cats and lions, yeah. Well, I had never realised that before. But then you sort of go on past them to the Romans, who seemed to enjoy throwing Christians to the lions. Oh, yes, they did, didn't they? I wasn't sure if this was true. Having seen the latest Gladiator, I'm thinking, well, surely they didn't throw them to the crocodiles

or the sharks or whatever it was that they had in the arena in Gladiator too, which just was so bizarre. Do you mean to say that Gladiator isn't a reliable historical source, It's not an entirely accurate documentary. Oh. I'm sorry about that. Disappointing. So I looked into it, and yes, the Romans did throw Christians to the Lions.

Right. It was considered a very bad way to die. If you were extremely evil in the eyes of Roman law, that was one of the worst ways to kill you. Right. They could crucify you and everything like that. But, you know, throwing you to the lions was like the really bad thing. Unless, of course, you had taken a thorn out of the poor of a lion, and your name was Androcles. Yes, of course.

So that was a fable about a slave who finds a lion that is poorly and has a thorn in its poor. And he's terrified, but he wants to help the lion. So he takes the thorn out of the lion's poor, and they become friends. And then they meet in the arena. and the slave is saved because he's actually made friends with the lion because he's taken the thorn out of his paw. Excellent.

And this was turned into another play by George Bernard Shaw as well, which is more of an allegory. Right. But yeah, the Androcles and the lion thing is quite good fun. Brilliant. There's another fable, a Chinese fable about a lion getting captured in a net. This lion had previously attempted to chase and kill a mouse

and the mouse had escaped. Yeah. And then the mouse sees this lion captured in a net and says, I'll help you by chewing through the ropes on your net. And the lion's very jubious saying, how can something as small and weak as you help me, the king of the beasts? But this mouse chews through the net and the lion is saved and the mouse and the lion are friends.

There we go. So you don't have to be big to be useful. Indeed. Yes. That's a good one. I like that one. The more I think about it, the more lions appear in, fables and stories you know you have um thinking of the romans throwing christians to the lions

you have um daniel surviving the lion's den in the lion's den yes of course and see our episode on sweets the bees making oh out of strength out of strength comes sweetness that's it yes yeah which was the emblem for um taiton lyles golden syrup yeah that's it yeah and then of course you've got the lion of judah haven't you you have Yes. So there's a lot of biblical, biblical and sort of olden days lions around. I guess they're reasonably iconic creatures, aren't they? They sort of symbolise strength and, you know, they're used quite a lot in various empires.

You know, there are so many places dotted around London and other parts of this country where you have statues of lions on things to sort of represent strength and courage and bravery and so on. Yes. lions are pretty cool I have actually walked with lions oh I knew this I've seen a photo of this so there are a lot of these places where they take the teeth out of the lion's mouths and they sedate them and stuff and then you can walk with them but these ones weren't like that at all these were proper proper lines that had been brought up with people since they were cubs and we all went walking with lions and

they and they would put like meat up in the trees and the lions would climb trees because lions can they can yes and pick up up their treats from trees. Brilliant. But yeah, walking with lines is quite something. Yes, I bet. I think my closest experience of a line is sort of driving through Woban Safari Park or something like that.

Oh, yes. They do seem to spend quite a lot of time lazing around in trees, don't they? They do like a bit of a climb. They always have raised platforms and things to either sit upon or take shade under or whatever. Yeah. I once walked past the zoo and there's one just laying there in a tree. look very cool just like a cat

well yes wouldn't want to call the fire brigade to get a lion out of the tree though would you no I guess not but but then in the olden days when there were circuses that had animals in them there were lion tamers yes of course they were yeah classically in a red sort of tailcoat yeah with a top hat and a whip and a chair yes and they would show their control over these huge beasts by I mean one of the things that they did occasionally was put their head into the

mouth of a lion. Yeah, people don't really do that anymore, do they? They don't. I mean, there are several reasons why it often didn't end well, but also the use of animals like that in circuses is frowned upon these days. A friend, friend wine showed up at another friend's wedding dressed as a lion tamer. Okay. He had like the red coat on and the hat and the chair in the whip. Right. And that's how he showed up to this chap's wedding. How on your usual yeah hello adrian i mean unless the rest of the wedding was circus themed in which case that's fairly standard but yeah adrian was often doing things like that there's something that can kill a lion is there what's that then yes it's really surprising um can you stick your neck out

here a giraffe yeah why how a giraffe's kick can decalph can decalph's kick can decal Acapitate a lion. No way. Yeah. What? Yeah. So most animals, the lion will sneak up on from behind. Yeah.

But they'll generally leave giraffes alone if they can. Because if you get behind a giraffe and it gives you a damn good kick, it can take your head off. Wow. Well, that makes the cartoon Madagascar even more impressive. But those two are friends. Yes. Actually, thinking back to this, I once wrote a commercial for Allenson's Bread. Right.

Right. And I based the script of this commercial on an old Stanley Holloway monologue called Albert and the Lion. Oh, I remember Albert and the Lion. So Albert and the Lion was the inspiration for Bread with Nout taken out. Now, that's interesting. I was about to show complete and utter shock and surprise and say, you didn't write Allensons with Nout taken out, did you? And just as I was processing that, I thought, yeah, I think I knew that actually. It's still impressive So yeah So the lion and Albert

Which is all about a visit to the zoo Where a lion eats a small boy I'll tell you what We have show notes Oh yes we do And I do warn you that they are Very very bad places to go If you have anything else to do with your time

But they are places where you'll find Lots more information about lions And about more of the things That we're going to be talking about in this podcast So go there And where can people find those show notes Bruce um I write them down in a small book so Nip round to Bruce's place borrow the book yes exactly just eat one at a time um it's actually on our blog so if

you go to factorily.com factorily.com yep and you go to the blog and you'll find our show notes on all of our over a hundred episodes so if if you're laid up in hospital or something like that this is a really good place to go to find out useless information and stuff you'll be so much better off for it oh absolutely lions are fairly athletic creatures as well aren't they you mean when they're not laying around being completely when they're not laying around they look kind of muscular and sexy and cool yeah they do which is probably why they're used as an icon by so many sports teams oh yeah so you so you've got like the the Detroit lions in America And then you've got, now we've, I think we've done this before, haven't we?

If we're going where I think you're going, yes, I think we have. But we can do it again. Okay. So we can talk about Tom Smith's 1910 South African rugby team. Not where I thought you were going, but okay. Okay. So when the Scots went to South Africa, they were wearing dark blue jerseys with white shorts like the saltire. Sure.

Scottish. But they also had a single, what's called a lion rampant on the, crest yes okay that's a lion standing up on its back legs with its front legs going raw exactly and in 1924 they went back to South Africa and they still kept the blue jerseys but they also had the lion on the shirt and that tour in 1924 was called the Lions tour because of the lion on the shirt and then that eventually went to the the four-quartered badge with the with the four represented unions of England

Scotland and Larlene and Wales and one of those obviously has the three... The three lions on your shirt. Lions. Yes, except. Except what, Simon? Well, they're not really lions, are they? Well, when they're lying down, they're actually called leopards.

When they're up and rampant, when they're sort of on their back legs, they're lions. Yeah. But when they're laying down, they're called leopards. Isn't that interesting? So it's actually technically three leopards on your shirt. And I think actually I seem to remember having seen imagery of coats of arms from quite a long way back. And these three iconic lions do look a little bit spotty, as if to suggest that they were actually intended to be three leopards rather than lions. Interesting.

But three leopards on your shirt doesn't work as well as three lions, does it? No, it doesn't sound quite as catchy, does it? No. Three leopards on a shirt. No. And lions are just more, they seem more regal, don't they? You know, because they are nicknamed the king of the jungle. the King of Beasts, they do sort of have a slightly royal association to them, don't they?

Yeah. So the three lions are quite well known in the UK. Yeah. What other well-known lions can you think of? There was one particular famous lion I had a little poke around, and that is the MGM lion. Oh, yes, Leo. All 11 of them. So tell me about Leo the MGM lion.

Well, Leo the MGM lion, the plural. Yes. This started out in 1916, you know, way back in the early days of black and white and silent movies and so on. And you picture that iconic lion poking its head through that circular hole with MGM written around it and roaring away. Yes. The first one didn't roar. It just sort of looked left and right a bit. Oh, okay.

And that was it, because it was in the days of silent movies. There was no point in it going raw, yes. But yes, so this lion was only used for the duration of its life. And when it sadly passed away, they got in another lion and then another lion and then another lion, rather than just keeping the same old recording. So there was a whole lineage of these lions, each of which sort of fulfilled that role for a handful of years. And there have been 11 of them in total. And they had some truly interesting names.

The first lion was called Slats. Slats. Slats, as in wooden slats. No idea why. Where do they get him from? He was born in Dublin Zoo. Okay. And then after Slats came Jackie.

Jackie also appeared in over 100 films from Tarzan to, you know, various other things. As a star, yeah, exactly. So you could be watching this film, which has the roaring lion in the, opening credits and then they're actually in the film as well and this this one jackie uh this was the first one to be nicknamed leo it was specifically nicknamed leo the lucky lion because jacky the lion during its lifetime managed to survive several accidents including two train wrecks a sinking ship an earthquake an explosion on set and an airplane crash oh wow an airplane crash as well yeah they were sort of transporting the lion in a cage from one filming location to another one the plane

The lion survived. Didn't say about the people. Because they used to tour the lion, didn't they? When they were like opening a new film, they would go around with a lion in a cage. Was that the actual lion that they took? That was one of the lions. I don't remember which one, because there have been so many. They all sort of blur into one after a while.

But yeah, they certainly did do that. And then after Jackie, you had lions called Numa, Tully, coffee, Tanna, George, and then the only one that was actually officially called Leo. and Leo the Lion is the one that we still have in movies today so they started just you know reusing the same lion eventually because they've tried sort of like replacing it with a CGI lion and things like that haven't they did yes they tried a CGI line I didn't like that at all I thought that not ridiculous but yeah that's that's probably one of the the most notable lions I can

think of that has starred through its various incarnations in in thousands of movies Because they used the roar of that original lion. Well, it wasn't a roar, was it? I think it was the lion was actually yawning. Right. And they dubbed the roar onto it. That's right, yeah. So this was Jackie.

Jackie was the first one to roar. And yeah, as you say, they sort of took lots and lots of attempts at recording a roar from Jackie. And he would never do it on cue. So they just, you know, videoed him yawning and then recorded him roaring later on and put the one over the other. Stitched it together. Exactly, yeah. Oh, wow.

Because I heard that, I mean, sound used to be fairly rough when it was first invented and then gradually it sort of got better and better until we got to the era of sort of stereo in films and things like that. And then they realized that that lion roar was in mono. Right. And it was a bit dull, a bit quiet

and a bit muffled. Yeah. So the sound guy took it upon himself. to try and find a better roar. Okay. And the roar that we hear now is actually a tiger. Oh! That's interesting.

Now that is interesting. Right at the start, when we said that lions don't really roar that much, they sort of growl and grunt and breathe heavily, I was instantly thinking of the roaring lion in the opening to the MGM sequence. And now you've said that out loud. You can totally tell. That is not the sound of a lion. No, it's the sound of a roaring tiger, which does make much more of a roar.

Yes. Oh, I feel like I've been cheated, Bruce. So what are the famous lions can you think of? Well, another one I had a look at was my first childhood understanding of a lion turned out to be completely and utterly inaccurate. It was four guys that hung around in Trafalgar Square. Okay. Oh, yes. The lions at the bottom of Nelson's column. The lions at the bottom of there, yes.

And I remember as a kid, naturally assuming that they were life size. I thought that's how big a lion was. I thought they were monsters. And then the first time I went to a zoo and saw a real lion, I was really disappointed. Yeah, that's a bit pathetic. But the lions at the bottom of Nelson's column weren't an original part of the feature. They were actually added later as an afterthought. And the way the artist sculpted these lions, he actually got the body of a deceased lion from London Zoo

that had passed from natural causes. And he said, do you mind if I take that? And I'd take it back to my studio and study it and draw it and so on. And because it had sort of shuffled off this mortal coil, the artist was able to pose it, you know, however he wanted to pose it. And he sat the thing in a very, very sphinx-like position. So if you look at the lions at Trafalgar Square, that's not how a lion sits. It's too square.

It's too symmetrical. Too perfect, exactly, yeah. But those actually weren't the original Four Lions. They went through quite a few different permutations, quite a few different artists submitted ideas as to how they should look. The original lions were actually going to be life-sized, and the Four Lions were going to be different. They were going to represent different characteristics.

Ah. Because the Victorians did that a lot, didn't I? They did, yes. Ingenuity and engineering. Absolutely, yeah. Statues on bridges representing the four humanities or the different arts or science. principles or whatever.

But the chap who created these, this is a fellow called Thomas Milnes and he produced these four models in Sandstone representing peace, war, vigilance and determination. And if you can picture a lion sitting in such a pose that represents any of those things,

it's quite impressive. You know, one of them looks very, very angry and aggressive. One of them is just sitting there licking his paw in a very peaceful, docile manner. Yes. Eventually, the authorities said, no, we don't like those. We just want four big, fat, massive, uniform lions. What a shame.

Isn't it a shame? But, so those sandstone ones were sold off to someone else to a gentleman called Sir Titus Salt, who was a... I've heard of him. He was a manufacturing and land owner up in Yorkshire. And he had built a village for his workers in the same way that Cabri built Bonville and places like that. This place was called Saltaire near Shipley.

That's why I've heard of it, yes. That's why. Near Shipley in West Yorkshire. And so he bought these lions that they didn't want to use for Trafalgar Square anymore. And he plopped them up on pillars to the school, the community school that he had built for his workers' village for their kids to learn. And they're still there. So if you go to Saltair in West Yorkshire, you go to the old mill school, you will find these four stone. lions that were originally set to be at the base of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square.

Wonderful. Isn't that great? That's really brilliant. I mentioned Jesus. Oh yes, she did, yes, in passing. Because there was a children's book, which you may have heard of called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Of course. Aslan the Lion. Aslan the Lion is an allegory for Jesus. who gives up his life to save his friends. And then comes back to life. So Aslan was a very interesting character for children to learn from. I think children have learned from lions in all sorts of other.

I mean, in the modern world, there was a TV series called Daktari back in the 60s, I think. And there was Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion. He was there. In that, who was a lion who was there to defend all of the African, wildlife right and then another another african lion uh very famous um elsa elsa do you do you have you're probably too young to remember born free born free yeah that one yes yes that um so george adamson and his wife joy were living in in africa and george was sort of attacked by a lioness oh right so he he shot her and killed her but then he realized afterwards that that she had three

cubs. So she was just defending her kids. So she was only defending her kids. So George and Joy Adamson adopted these three lion cubs and raised it to survive in the Serengeti. Oh. And Joy Adamson wrote a book about it called Born Free. Oh, I see. And that was made into a film with Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. With a wonderful, Joy and George. Wonderful theme tune. Yes. Matt Monroe. Matt Monroe, yes, very good. I think I vaguely remember watching it as a kid. I don't remember anything about it, but yeah, good soundtrack.

And I think actually it won an Oscar for Best Music. Yeah. You can't say the words born free without thinking of that tune. Can you as well as possible? Without going for those two notes. Exactly. Speaking of lions representing royalty, you know, we talked about the lions on the shirt, the Royal Crest and so on.

I think we've mentioned this before but it's one of my favourite facts and I'll mention it till the cows come home. The Red Lion. Oh, the pubs? The pubs. So there are more pubs called the Red Lion in the UK than any other name.

It's the most popular pub name in the UK. And there are over 600 Red Lion pubs in the UK. And there has been some debaters to the origin of this, but the most likely explanation and therefore, in my mind, complete and utter fact.

Don't forget the apocry on factorily is always fact. It counts. James the sixth of Scotland, who became James I first of England in 1603. A horrible person. Yes, indeed. We've touched on him on a couple of other subjects. Witches. Go and have a listen to witches. Yeah.

And you'll find out all about him. Indeed. Not a great guy. No. But he, in 1603, he became the King of England. He was still a little bit hacked off by virtue of the fact that the English had beheaded his mother, Mary Queen of Scots. And when he became king, he really wanted to stamp his Scottish authority on England. He really wanted us to know that he was here and that we were being ruled by a Scottish king. So he passed a law that his coat of arms should be represented on every public building.

Every public building. Every public building. So town halls, official offices, taverns, etc. should in some way or other show his coat of arms. His coat of arms being the red lion rampant on a gold background. So taverns left right and centre in the early 1600s, for fear of incurring his wrath, they put red lions on their signage.

And at a time when a pub's name was, you know, not an awful lot of people could read and write, so a lot of pub signs were pictorial. So loads and loads of pubs suddenly changed their name, to the Red Lion, purely because they were showing a Red Lion outside in accordance with the law laid down by James Ihurst. That's why we have so many pubs called the Red Lion. How about that? Love that fact.

Another place where you could get a drink, and this is a slight sidebar, if you like, was at a Lion's Corner House. Okay. Oh, a tea house? Yes, Lyons tea shops. Yes, of course. So Lions were, at one point they were the... largest food company in Europe. No. Yeah.

Wow. The first of the tea shops opened in 1894. Right. And it's at 213 Piccadilly. It's still a cafe. It's called Ponties now. Is it? And if you go in, you can look at the original stucco ceiling of the Lyons tea shop. Oh, I'm going to have to

visit there. Yeah. They had 250 tea shops, mostly on corners in London's high streets. And the food and the drink prices were the same. every shop regardless of where it was so if it was out in the sticks it was the same prices it was in right in the middle of London right and Lyons blend tea was only available through these tea shops and and the people who served in these tea

shops were waitresses who they're called nippies nippies they originally called gladyses but eventually they decide to call them nippies and nippies had a very smart uniform that they would wear a starch cap with a big l in the centre and a black alpaca dress with a double row of pearl buttons they were really quite smart and one interesting fact about the about the nippies well there's two actually one is he employed seven and a half thousand in 1939 nippies in lion's corner houses good great and how do you handle the payroll for seven and a half thousand people in 1939 with difficulty obviously you have a computer no you don't and one of the first it's effectively a computer was created for lion's

corner house as a payroll computer i don't even know what to say wow the nippies were fantastic they hired them for their personalities right okay so they had to they had to be nice to people yeah And they were very popular, the Nippies. Picture Post in 1939 reported there were a total of about 8 to 900 Nippy marriages every year. And Lyons claimed that the marriage rate among Nippies was higher than any other class of working girl. And the job was, of course, excellent training for a housewife. Oh, my goodness. Huh.

So if you see these shops with J. Lyons and Company Limited on the front of them, It's like gold lettering on a white background. Yes, I can picture it, yeah. They were a bit special. They were established in 1885 by people mostly not called lions. So there were four entrepreneurs. There's Isidore and Montague Gleckstein, Barnett Salmon and Joseph Lyons. Some wonderful names.

And they started off being supplies of catering to the Newcastle exhibition in 1887. Right, before branching out into actually having their own premises. Yeah, into 250 shops. Gosh. They're amazing. There's one on Coventry Street, which served 5,000 covers and employed 400 staff. Man. There were hairdressing salons.

There was a load of telephone booths. There was even a food delivery service. And at some point, Coventry Street was open 24 hours a day. Really? It's really special. Wow. Well, well done, lions. not bad for lions

are there any records that lions have achieved over the years there are a few not terribly many because animals have a tendency to not try for world records very much but there are a couple as soon as you go online and type in world records lions you get a lot of sporting references oh Detroit especially I guess Or the English football and rugby team, yeah, exactly.

It's with the lionesses being, you know, all over the news quite recently as well. You sort of get a lot of that, so I ignored all of that. The longest continuous swim ever recorded for a lion. You forget making swim. Yes, you do, yeah. It doesn't seem right, does it? Generally speaking, in the wild and on any given day, a lion usually can swim up to a couple of hundred metres.

if it really has to. Yes. But there was a team of nature students in Uganda in 2024 who observed a couple of lions who were brothers. And they didn't sort of set them up to do anything, but they were just following them around and videoing them. And these two lions, who they named Tebu and Jacob, they saw these guys going for a swim, not for leisure to actually get somewhere. and they recorded that they swam 1.5 kilometres. Wow. So far further than lions had ever been previously recorded swimming.

Goodness me. So they have, whether they, the lions themselves know it or not, they have got the world record for the longest swim by a lion. Another one, we seem to have had quite a lot of these recently, but the largest collection of lion-related paraphernalia. Stuffed lions. Stuff, lions, cuddly toys, action figures. It's a fellow in Austria called Reinhard Stockle.

He has a collection of 1,761 lion-related items. Key rings and all sorts. All sorts. Key rings, toys, t-shirts, hats. Just stuff, cuddly toys and so on. And then the last one I found which, nothing really to do with lions at all, but I thought I'd throw it in. The fastest completion of the Super Nintendo video game version of the

Lion King. Okay. How fast does somebody do that? 13 minutes and 54 seconds. That's a waste of 30 quid, isn't it? Isn't it? You can only assume that they sped up to that. That wasn't just a one-off.

Okay. But yes, in 1994, Nintendo released a video game version of the movie The Lion King, and this particular chap in 2016 managed to complete that game on difficult mode in 13 minutes and 54 seconds. Goodness me. Those are my records. Very good. Well, Lions was an interesting subject, wasn't it?

Yes. I wasn't expecting it to be quite as all-encompassing and like surrounding everyday life. Absolutely. I don't think I'd realize that lions factor quite as much in the public consciousness as they evidently do. Yeah. Hooray for Lions. Well done, lions. So if you were a lion, would you subscribe to this podcast?

I can't speak on behalf of all lions, but I personally would, yes. You would. And you do that by going to your podcast player. Indeed. And just pressing subscribe. So that every Thursday morning I would get a notification telling me it's time for another episode. Exactly. Would you tell the rest of your pride that you were listening to it?

Of course. I would go and spread the word by not quite roaring, but growling at all of my fellow lions. Go and listen to factorily. And, of course, you would look up into the sky and give us as many stars as you could see. In the constellation Leo? Yes. Are there five in Leo? I think there's probably more.

So as many stars as there are in the constellation Leo, that's how many stars we'd like you to give us. That's how many you should give us. So go and do your research first, then give us that many gold stars as a rating. Thank you very much. Yes, yes, please do. Grant. So thank you so much for coming along. listening to us talking about lions.

We hope you've enjoyed yourself. Please come again next time for another fun-filled factual episode of Fact Rory. Brilliant. We both went there. Wonderful. Goodbye.

O'Vois.