No Such Thing As A Fish - No Such Thing As Aunt Bessie In A Red Citroën Picasso

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Amy Gledhill joins Dan, James and Andy to discuss gambling, flirting, and pudding.Visit nosuchthingasafish.com for news about live shows, merchandise and more episodes. Join Club Fish for ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content at apple.co/nosuchthingasafish or nosuchthingasafish.com/patreon

Hi everyone, welcome to this week's episode of No Such Thing as a Fish, where we were joined by one of my favorite guests we've ever had. I mean, I love them all. And even though this one's from Yorkshire, I thought she was brilliant. Fighting talk. Yes, it's the brilliant Amy Gledhill. You don't want to miss this episode. You're already listening to it, so don't worry.

But it was so much fun to record. Amy is absolutely terrific. It's just really, really fun. We hope you like it. The main things she wanted to let us know about were two podcasts that she make. One is called Single Ladies in Your Area, which is her and Harriet Kemsley, and the other is Northern News, which actually, James and I have both been on. It's her and Ian Smith.

And it's so funny. It's so funny. It's just a brilliant show. It's so good. She didn't really say that we should mention this, but we should say also next year she's going to be on The Last One Laughing, is it called? Which everyone loved this year. The second season is coming out.

She's going to be one of the stars of that. So she's absolutely brilliant comedian. you're going to love this show. You're going to love the 50 minute version, which is right here. But if you'd like to hear even more Amy, then there is a chance to do that. And that is by joining our Patreon at the Plenty More Fish Tier, because in that place, not only will you get longer episodes of fish, you will also get videos of our Superduper Mailbox show, Drop us a Line.

That's right. If you want more fish, if you want ad-free fish, you want bonus content, clubfish is the place to join. You can join it by going to go. to Patreon.com slash No Such Thing as a Fish. We've been having an absolute blast making lots of new stuff for that. Go there and check it out.

It's so much fun. But in the meantime, enjoy this show. And honestly, there is a moment in this show where I've known Dan for 20 years and he told me an anecdote about his life that I cannot believe. You'll know it when you hear it. On with the podcast.

On with the show. Hello and welcome to another episode of No Such Thing as a Fish, a weekly podcast coming to you from the QI offices in Hoburn. My name is Dan Shriver. I am sitting here with Andrew Hunter Murray, James Harkin, and Amy Gledhill. And once again, we have gathered round the microphones with our four favorite facts from the last seven days. And in a particular order, here we go. Starting with fact number one, and that is Amy.

Okay. In North Carolina, it's illegal to play bingo for six hours straight. I'm sorry if that's sad news for any of you. Did you learn this the hard way? I've just got out of prison this morning It was rough Once you're into Bingo You can't just stop If you're mid game and it hits the six hour point

Are you meant to just duck out? Yeah, yeah Yeah I don't as a game of Bingo It's a long time since I played Bingo Is it? I played at university a few times Is it, it can't be multiple games

Surely right? It can't just be one game Depends on the delivery You know The caller can go as slow as he or she likes Yeah, right You know I found that there is actually

a bingo caller of the year competition. Oh. Yeah. And each region, I think it's split into six regions. Each region you get 10 finalists and then they literally compete like in a live event. Wow. In it, it says to be a winner, you need to be a bit of a showman or woman, a performer. You need to enjoy the attention and want to make people smile.

But you also need to know when to be authoritative as well. An extra talent such as singing or comedy doesn't hurt either. Who's doing a song? Big bingo! If you were down to one number and your heart's racing and then someone's like, make them laugh, make them laugh. Come on! Do we know if the callers in the call of the year, are they allowed to come up with different calls?

Like legs 11, they can do something else. That's so interesting. Because I found in other countries sometimes they have different calls when they do bingo. Right. I found that in Russia, they have drumsticks instead of legs 11. And for 40 they say Alibaba because he had 40 thieves. And when they say 43, now when I was younger, the bingo collar would say, down on your knees, 43.

I'm not really sure what that meant. But in Russia, apparently they say, Stalingrad, 43. Due to the World War II battle where two million people were killed. So that's a bit grim, isn't it? Wow. Yeah. I love the calls. because I've never played bingo.

You've never played bingo. What? No, I've never in my life played bingo. Have I got a nice out for you? Now that I know all the calls, I'd love it. Number six, Tom Mix. Do you know who Tom Mixes? No.

How is Tom Mix made it into bingo calling? He was never in it when I used to do. I've never heard of Tom Mix. He's massive. He was like American cowboy actor. He inspired John Wayne and all these other people. He's on the cover of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Back. Yeah, he's one of the cutouts.

Tom Mix. You could have like Stevie Nix. Little Mix. Little Mix. Little Knicks. Otto Dix, I was going to say. Who's Otto Dix? Otto Dix? Good question. Wow. Yeah, a lot of the, you find when you look at the calls, a lot of them date back to the 1920s and 30s. It's not a game that has moved with the times.

There are occasional attempts to update what they call bingo lingo. Oh, yeah. There was a report five years ago, completely drummed up by a bingo company. like that woke millennials were abandoning the traditional calls and they were being updated instead. So 38? Avocado on a plate.

No. 49. Time to buy a house? No, it doesn't work. Cheese and wine. Alcohol free wine, I was going to say. Oh. Amazon Prime.

Oh, of course. Seven. And don't pay any attention to the rhyme here. It won't help you. The number of David Beckham when he played for Man United. That's it. Oh, so Beckham. David Beckham number seven.

Yeah, it works. That is good. It's not bad, yeah. It's better than the rhyme they came up with. Okay. Go on. Seven, flexitarian. Flexitarian.

What's that? Someone who is vegetarian but has a bit of meat sometimes. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Okay. Classic number seven. I'm just going back to North Carolina about why it's illegal to play six hours straight.

Basically, all gambling was illegal in North Carolina. But then there was this thing about charities wanted to do bingo. So they had to make it legal so the charities could do it. But they didn't want to encourage people to open bingo holes where people gamble all the time. So they put in these really tight restrictions. So as well as only being able to play for five hours at a time, you're not allowed two games of bingo within a 48-hour period of each other to be held in the same building. And also no alcohol allowed.

Which kind of defeats the point, I think, really. I didn't think it was a boozy thing. I think of it as being the tea time. No. Well, they have like, these days, they have like Bingo Nights Out that you can go on, which are really boozy. So do you play Bingo? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I was so cynical about it until about five years ago. I was like, who's going to Bingo? What a stupid night out? Who cares if you've got a number on a thing and you dabbing, you dabber on it? And then I went, and it was the most exhilarating thing I ever. done. Really?

It's absolutely incredible. Like I'm getting goosebumps thinking about bingo. It's because it's hard. It's like it's hard to do, which I didn't expect. Is it? Look, I know you're all very intelligent. Bingo is hard. I think that's all the numbers.

I know. Yeah. I know the first hundred. I do know the first hundred. And you only need to 90, so you're going to be fine. Oh, really? It only goes up to 90. Didn't know that?

Great. But it's fast and it's quick. And they take. No prisoners. If you go, oh, sorry, what was,

they've moved on. Really? Not get about it. Much like at Starlingrad, no prisoners taken there. No prisoners. So the kind of you were playing

that was so exciting. Yeah. Was it? I don't, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to be mean or anything. Go on. Was it?

Classic bingo, which I would think of as like Blue Rince bingo. Yeah. I'm saying like, like, Village Hall. Yeah.

Like, you might have been one of the younger clientele. I love the way that you're trying to to get on. Was it in the north, Thaisley? Was it in the north? Was it elderly ladies in the north? It was elderly ladies in the north.

We all had chips and gravy. There was lots of cups of teas rattling on the table. And then it is silence like I have never heard before when they go, eyes down for a full house. And everyone pin drops out. You can hear people's heartbeats. It's so exciting.

A heart is stopped over there. Can we get to table 16? What was that? 60? 60. No, wait. Oh God, you've missed a call. My way. Oh, no.

I could see how, like, you could just be in it and come out and six hours have gone. And suddenly you and 17 grannies are being incarcerated. Yeah. Because I know there are nights now that are things like, well, a friend of mine was the first ever host of Rebel Bingo. Really? And there's bonkers bingo. There's bingo. And they're sort of big, they're like club nights combined with bingo.

They're full night. They're full of them. But they don't sound more full on than. No, I actually think your blue rins bingo is, like, it's a genuinely exhilarating night out. We should go on a, like, a group outing. I don't think we'd be accepted because we would make noise and they wouldn't like it. Oh, right. We just want to chat to each other if we do when we're out.

And if you make the single sound. You'd be leaning over. Interesting thing about the number. 37. I can tell you, as the math graduate, Tom Mix was actually on the front of Sergeant Happens. So like the modern bingo renaissance, let's say, I think came from meca bingo, right? So anyone in the towns of the UK will probably have had a meca bingo, I probably still do. And this was invented by Eric Morley.

He also invented Strictly Come Dancing, same guy, because he ran a load of dance halls. And so he wanted to get dance halls to be big, so he did strictly. And also when dance holes became less popular, he brought bingo in there. And in 1951, he hosted and was in charge of the first Miss World contest as well, Eric Morley. Legs 11. No fat ladies. The winner was Kiki Hackinson from Sweden. She was crowned wearing her bikini.

And the whole event was condemned. by friend of the podcast, Pope Pius the 12th. Oh. Who said that the whole thing was completely sinful and surely allowed. And then he basically said the bikini itself was sinful. Wow. Well, you know. Yeah.

Was he wrong with outside? But come, so come dancing, the TV show strictly come dancing, dancing with the stars. His family are basically still earning off the back of that. Morley's family. And rather excitingly, he was born in Hoburn. We are within minutes walk of the birthplace. Is there a blue plaque? I don't know.

There better be. I doubt it. Mecca Bingo got in a bit of trouble, actually. Around 1997. Can you guess why? In 1997. That won't help you. Is it something to do with Muslim people praying?

It is. Is it really? It's basically there were some protests by Muslims. saying, we don't really think this name is on. Our religion doesn't really go in for gambling. Actually, now I think about it, I think they have a good point there. Yeah, it was in Luton. And I think maybe they'd opened up in Luton.

Mecca Bingo, I mean. And so I think there's quite a big Muslim population there. And so there were lots of prizes. There were bricks through the windows, I'm afraid. It all got a bit tense for a while. But it is the holiest city in Islam. Yes, yeah. But it's also the catchphrase,

and what it just meant was like, this is a mecca for shopping. or this is, and the idea was this is a mecca for dancing. It just means this is somewhere you go when you want to dance. But obviously, where does that word come from? I suspect it comes from the fact it's the holiest city. And they said, right, we'll change our name. And then they didn't.

Right. Yeah, really? And 30 years later, it's fine. And it's still going. Wow. Eric Morley, he was part of the British sort of raising of bingo. But in America, there was an entirely different person called Edwin S. Lowe, who made it massive there.

And he saw it as a game that was being played in carnivals. And he thought, this is an amazing idea. And it wasn't originally called bingo in America. In fact, it had an even more British name that you could imagine. It was called Beano. Beano was the original name of bingo. Bino is like an American word for a party, isn't it? Yes.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Good old bean feast.

You don't get enough for them these days. Can I tell you a couple of quick sort of calls that are specifically military? Because a lot of it dates back to A lot of it dates back to the early 20th century or even the late 19th century And the army had allowed bingo Partly because they wanted to allow

Not total gambling But a kind of formal It was a really popular game And it is gambling And really it's just everyone puts a bit of money in And the winner gets it all So it's not like a massive It's not quite

It's not like I don't know slot machines or whatever Yeah so does the house ever win Does a game end with no one's win it? No House never wins But loads of the rhyming calls traditionally date back to 19th century military used because it had been allowed in the army in the first place. So 51.

Where's my gun? Oh, very nice. The Highland Division. Of course. So catchy, isn't it? There's also, was she worth it? Seven and six? I don't know why that's seven and six.

The price of a Lady of the Night or? It was the price of a marriage certificate. Oh, that's what? Sorry. Yeah, I mean, similar. Similar being James, but it's slightly different. That says a lot about my relationship, doesn't it? Ah, a sex worker.

A wife. Oh, that's it. What a condory, though, if they were the same price, if you were sent off again. Why did they put the marriage certificate office next to the brothel? How did you know that, Amy? Just straight out there. That was the price, seven and six was the price of a marriage.

Sometimes bingo knowledge is just in my bones. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really impressed. All right, well, last one. Pompey Hort 24. Oh, dear. That's Portsmouth.

It's Portsmouth sailors on leave. Oh, no, sorry, that's where I met my wife. Wife. Yeah. Okay, it is time for fact number two, and that is Andy. My fact is that in 2010, it was reported that Pizza Express was training its staff how to flirt subtly with customers so they felt more relaxed. Is it more relaxing?

I wouldn't, it depends on the flirting, doesn't it? Yeah. It's just someone being friendly and attentive. But is that flirting? Not really, no. This was reported basically as a, as just a thing that Pizza Express were trying. I think it was in their Richmond branch, and they'd hired an actor to train the staff to just, you know, be a bit extra friendly, I suppose. He said, there's a difference between flirting with someone and coming onto them.

We're not asking them to do that. That would be mad. It was slow down service, among other things. you know. But if you're a guy and a really gorgeous Italian girl comes to your table it's great to meet somebody like that. And says, doble, sir? No, it's just the way I'm sat.

Yeah, and it's even better to hear her talk with passion and authenticity about the ingredients on the menu. That's the flirtation we're talking about. Again, I just think that falls under normal waitressing. Also, I don't know if Mr. James knew how many of the Pizza Express staff are actually Italian because it's certainly around my local

it's not required. No. Maybe people like flirting with you. Maybe that's just a natural thing, Andy. Oh, they're not flirt? No, they're not. No? Absolutely not.

No, no. So they didn't take it beyond this first and only Pizza Express? They reported that they were considering rolling it out and there the trail goes cold. Right. Yeah. It would be very tricky for the staff

to hear one day like, oh, the job role has changed ever so slightly. You're still serving the pizza. You're still taking their orders. You do need to sort of really sort of sexually excite the customers now. Excuse me? Yeah, it's like you do the doubles, you know, you make sure they've had their starters.

And then you just sort of look at their lips a lot. And you're like, no, well, obviously, not going to do that. If someone looks at my lips when I was in Pizza Express, I would assume I had an olive on there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Flirting is actively not encouraged in quite a lot of industries. They actively say, don't flirt. I saw a headline talking about New York taxi drivers. This was genuinely the headline.

I think it was in the independent. New York taxi drivers to be banned from flirting with or ejaculating on passengers. I think flirting can go too far at times. I mean, he's facing the wrong way, or she. You'll never guess who I ejaculates you all last week. Dan, what is this headline? It was just New York officials. It said that they need to ban.

And because flirting would be happening and people were complaining. And they had people writing in saying, I'm sorry, I feel uncomfortable in the back of the cab when I'm being flirted with and or ejaculated on. Oh, stop. Wow. But for it to be banned, it must be happening at a frequency that's enough for it to need banning. I actually think there were already laws against to ejaculate. Sorry. That's bad already.

There's a sauna in Leeds where there's a sign in the sauna. That says, do not piss. And it says piss. It doesn't say you're in it. Just do not piss on the coals. And you're like, well, how often is it happening that they needed a sign? You'd be mad to put that up and no one has ever pissed on the cold. Absolutely.

Because in a way, I'd be like, well, I'd never thought of that. I wonder if it steams more than water. So question, is it worse to piss on the coals and put, as in, is that going into your paws, you know? I don't know. No, it'll all. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. Because it's water, it'll...

Exactly. What's the problem? Are you the person that pissed? I'm not... I'm not... I'm not... I'm just saying. It also contains urea.

Right. urine. And that's not going to be... There's going to be an ammonia in the air. There'll be ammonia in the air, definitely. No one's denying that. There will be a tang in the air. Just don't know if breathing in vaporized pisses is...

I know it's not nice. I know it's not nice, but I just don't know if it's... It depends how much, doesn't it? Quantity is all. That's the wrong. Your honour. It's like, and I just don't know if it's any worse, Your Honour.

I just pissed on the calls. I don't think it affects anything. Did you see this personally? Yeah, exactly this personally. And then I was sat in the sort of like, pull your pants back up. Okay.

Whoops. Oh no. Oh, no. Good Lord. Yeah. Piss on the cold. It sounds like a saying. Like I wouldn't piss on his cold.

You know? Yes. So flirting. Yeah. Amy, you make a show about love dating romance. Yes, yeah. Called Northern News. No, called Single Ladies in your area.

Single ladies. Okay, I just wanted to ask, if you have encountered this. Because you've been on dating apps and stuff. Oh, yeah, big time. Have you encountered people flirting with you who you suspect of using artificial intelligence? I've never considered that. Because this is a thing that's been coming up in the news

more and more this year. People are basically coming up with responses to questions by putting it into chat GPT or whatever and then saying, and then people are going on dates with them and finding, oh, you're not interesting or funny at all because everything they've done is basically been mediated through. And sometimes you'll get two people using chat GPT talking to each other. And there's basically two robots talking to each other using the medium of humans. Wow. It's, I know. But you haven't found that. No, I don't, I don't think so. And if they are using chat GPT and

That's been punched up. I would hate to see what they started with. Because if they need chat GPT to get to what you've been up to this week end, question mark kiss, then AI is not taking over. Fine. The person who one of the founders of Bumble, who's Whitney Wolf heard, reckons that soon we'll be able to have sort of AI versions of ourselves that have basically all of my lines or things that I would be likely to say

will be in this AI version and then you might have your AI version and our two AIs can meet and see if they get on and if our little robots meet and get on then we will get on in real life Yeah I mean it kind of makes sense It makes sense Is that a world you want to live in?

It's pretty odd isn't it? I'm out of that world now I have zero opinion on it really I suppose the experience of being on the apps is so boring and annoying And you know lots of people chat to you for a bit And then they just disappear without anything Like I can imagine any shortcut to not doing that anymore would be seen as a good thing.

Yeah. Well, I tried it. I tried chat GPT generated flirting. Oh yeah. On whom? On my wife. Oh, okay. Okay.

But I just asked chatypity, can you come up with something flirtatious for me to say to my wife? Yep. Line one, your laugh is my favorite song and your arms are my favorite place to be. Oh, yeah. She just said, okay. Okay. And then I thought, this is going well. I'll follow it up.

You still give me butterflies. I must have done something amazing to deserve you. And she said, what's going on? It's just like what? Very much. Have you crashed the car? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I said, I would love to answer this,

but you have no more free chats left. Please upgrade to Pro to continue. That sealed the deal. She said you got me here. Upstairs now. Wow, we. That's amazing. No, grim.

Can I tell you some historical flirting flirting techniques from Lancashire where I'm from? Oh, okay. There was a thing called promenading or promenading where a load of boys and girls would stand on opposite sides of a road to each other and they wouldn't say anything, they'd just try and make eye contact with each other and sort of like smile and stuff like that.

And then everyone would go home, and if the girl fancied the boy, she would leave a cake outside his house, and then that would mean they were dating. So you would know. Feels like that could create confusion. What if you had eye contact with two people and you have found one cake outside your house? Yeah.

Maybe the cake has their name on it. That's a good idea. Is this in your day or is this? Still my day, Dan. Still my day. Got the seven and six ready. Oh no, this is early 20th century. So a little bit before my day.

Just on the cusp. And then there's a guy called Spanking Roger, who's one of my favorite. people in history. Oh, yeah. And he got together with his partner through a thing that used to happen on the moors just outside Manchester. And they would have a naked race of all the young lads in the town. And then the girls would sort of stand there watching and sort of eye up the form of

everyone there. And then a bit later, they'd all go down the pub and they'd go, oh, yeah, like the luck of you. Oh, my God. Did he was called Spanking? Spanking Roger, yeah, because he was also a boxer. No, I can. Some per the question No he would beat people up

Like beat people in the ring Come on He'd give you a spanking Right right right right Wow Like a live naked attraction Yeah Before it happened

But moving But moving Those on naked attractions You don't know how well They can move They're just standing there, aren't they? That's a good point actually That's a really good point

Tell me Amy why do humans flirt Why do we not just come up to each of and say, I want to have sex with you and then have children that way. Oh, I don't know. It'd be much easier if we were allowed to do that, wouldn't it? God. I honestly think that would be fantastic.

Imagine we can all just be honest and be like, you're physically attractive. I think we should push our meat sacks together. Like, I think that would just be so much easier. But I don't know. There's a New York taxi driver listening to this right now. Preach. I guess there must be some sort of evolutionary thing.

Is it, to see if you're like a good match? Kind of, yeah. So the problem is that humans used to spend a lot of time in very small groups. And if you decide that you want to get together with someone and they were buff you, you can't just move to London and then sort of move to a new place and get a new life or anything. You're stuck in that place. So the only way to do it is to give very sort of small signals that you can deny if someone says, you know.

So it's deniability, basically. Wow. That's clever. Because there is this thing of lots of people don't know when they're being flirted with. And I'm afraid, Amy, women are especially bad at it. Is this just your personal opinion? You're like, I flirt all the time and no one gives me anything bad. Genetically, they're just not good at it.

Actually, it's women and men. So women sort of sometimes underperceive when they're being flirted with and men overperceive it. So it will often be like male, students when asked, they're likelyer than women to misinterpret friendly gestures as sexual interest. And many mistake, but many people do mistake sexual cues as amicable signals. But often, if you're a straight man, the nervous woman smiling at you is not flirting with you. She's nervous and you're thinking, oh, she's flirting with me.

And women underestimate her. And there is a theory that this leads to the idea of the friend zone, which is not a real, or it's the idea that the friend zone is not a real thing. It's the people are just drastically misinterpreting each. other's cues and men are saying, oh, I've been friend zoned. And actually, that's not what has happened. It's just that she's just not that into you, to point a phrase. And so, yeah, yeah, it's tricky. And I think a lot of women, I think you are really having to be friendly if you're, like, feeling unsafe. So, you know, like, if you're, like, on a train and a scary

man's, it's next to you, and he might think he's flirting and you kind of can't say, please don't talk to me. I hate this. So you have to go like, oh, really. Um, Oh, that's nice. And he'll be like, she's into it. But you're thinking, don't harm me, don't kill me, don't find out where I live. But I guess you're giving off kind of friendly-ish signals as a kind of safety device. And I guess guys will be like, she loves this. There is only one way around this.

And that is boys on one side of the road, girls on the other side of the road. There's subtle wink. Lots of cakes. I think any flirting with cakes is fantastic. Can I tell you something very quickly that I found that. that links in, I guess, sexy stuff and pizza emporiums. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow.

Okay. So there was an article that said, Pizza Hut respond to furious whole customer who claims ketchup bottle label sounds like Swinger's App. So I was like, well, what the hell are they calling their ketchup in Pizza Hut? Do you want to guess? What they name it? Squirty.

Yeah. So they call it shake, squeeze and squirt. And he was like, that is... To sexual. Yeah. Is it? That's great directions. I think if it's on a ketchup bottle, I think it's not too sexual.

Yeah. Context is all. Yeah. Yeah. There's a penis tattoo. If you just tap it on the top, it'll come out much quicker. Turn it upside down and bang the bottom really hard. It doesn't work.

Stick a knife in it. Okay. for fact number three, and that is my fact. My fact this week is that in 1931, Laurel and Hardy simultaneously filmed up to five versions of every movie that they made, each time speaking in a different language, despite the fact that they only knew English. Lovely. This is a fascinating bit of Hollywood, which often doesn't get mentioned, which is when it was the silent era, when you were sending movies over to Europe or any other country, it was very easy. You replace the card with the words on it, right? And so people had these massive fan bases all over the world.

Laurel and Hardy in particular had a big, big fan base in Spain and Italy and other countries in Europe. And then when it became the talky movies, suddenly they were not understanding it. And they didn't have the technology to do subtitles at the time. So what used to happen was, and this was an idea of Hal Roach, who was this amazing movie mogul. He said, we're going to film every single scene of everything you film from now in up to five different languages. And they had to learn phonetically how to say all of the dialogue. There was half an hour of rehearsals for each scene where they had to learn the phrases. They had speech coaches of the language there with them telling them to do it.

You know what I thought when I read this is there's no way they did it very well. Right? Because as someone who's learning a language right now, you can know exactly how to say something, but you try and say it until a native speaker, it doesn't quite sound right? Yeah. So that's definitely true. And I think the interesting thing was, I read a report about it. which said Spanish audiences took special satisfaction in seeing Laurel Orhardy squirming under the burden

of a difficult Castilian phrase. And so it's sort of almost funnier, seeing, knowing that they're having to do it and knowing they can't do it very well. Everyone else was a perfect speaker. So they surrounded them in the different versions. So all the other actors were perfect. I presume, or maybe they subbed in the actors and like said, right, get the Spanish cast in now. And they'll do it with them. So yeah, that might have been it. A lot of these movies are now lost because they weren't the main thing that people were keeping for posterity, right? Like the English-speaking versions were. But it's exactly that. They loved it. Laurel O'Hardy could just mumble a sentence and they're like, that doesn't matter, it's comedy.

It's fine. We just want to see them falling over with a piano. I bet they knew how to say, oh, no, piano in so many different languages. The first thing about piano is it's the same in almost every language. Yeah, perfect. But yeah, I was thinking about double acts because Amy, you're part of a double act, were. I still am. Still am. The delightful sausage.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a catchy name that we never thought we would be a double act. We just needed to run a comedy night together. And we was like, what should we call it? And Chris had literally just had breakfast and he said, that was a delightful sausage. And we were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that'll do that. Ten years later, we're like, we should have thought about that name just like a bit more.

It's a brilliant name. That's a great name. Do you think? It's an amazing. I mean, the word sausage is the funniest word. We recently learned as part of no such thing as a fish that the word sausage has been in our titles more than any other word out there, outside of like with and or and so on.

It's our number one word. Oh my God. You're on to something. Wow. Because you could have gone something and something. Yeah. And that's like Laurel and Hardy is the classic one. And you know,

Canada Ball, Hail and Pace, all of that. All those things like the Mighty Boosh, where it's not clear that it's a double act. Yes. I reckon the Mighty Boosh is similar to your name because that's named after his hair,

wasn't it? No, what's it? Mighty Boosh. Yeah. Oh my God. Oh, wow. Has one of you got a... He's flirting.

Are he flirting? I feel unsafe. But yeah, Chris does have a huge boot. Hey, there's another technique, by the way, that I've seen a double act using comedy where they don't speak the language. Rick Mail and Adrian Edmondson, they often used to speak backwards in their scenes. So, Guest House Paradiso, their movie, they would speak backwards a line, because the comedy stunt that they were doing

was so dangerous that it only worked if you played it in reverse. So rather than throwing spiky nails into the nose of Rick Mail, you would take them out with him going and then you would get the line played forward and the scene played forward. And Amy, do you know what the word sausage is backwards?

Jesus. Jesus? Sausage. Oh my God. Well, son of, yeah. Oh my God. Wow. Dan, I've seen guesthouse parodies about five times.

I didn't know that. I didn't know that. It's in the bonus. VHS. There we go. Documentary. No one watches the bonuses like you, Dan. It's such a good film.

It's great. Laurel and Hardy? Have you seen any of their stuff, Amy? Yeah, I have seen stuff, but I wouldn't say I'm, you know. Is it ridiculous to explain who they are to an audience? I think so. young people. Yeah.

Comedy double act. Stan Laurel was tall and thin and lugubrious looking and Ollie Hardy was, and British and Ollie Hardy was sort of a big, big fellow with a mustache and Laurel was always doing silly things and Ollie Hardy was always annoyed with him and they were mega famous. They were sort of globally famous. If you name any other silent movies like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, they're in absolutely that sort of echelon. And I started looking into their lives.

So Oliver Hardy had a very interesting early life. So his real name was Norvel. But his father, Oliver Hardy's dad, fought in the American Civil War. Really? What is the timeline of that? Isn't that nuts? Was it like a hilarious sort of battle that he was in?

20,000 people were killed in that custard pie fight. Yeah, no, his father was a sergeant in the Confederate Army. That's the 1860s. And then Oliver Hardy was born in 1892. So, like, it all worked. Like, he fought in the Civil War as a very young man. And then 30 years later, he had Oliver. But, like, yeah, it's extraordinary.

Ollie's grandfather was a slave owner. Right. Oh, my God. Sort of the generations you have to go to get back to that period. It's so few. Yeah, yeah, you know. He's famous, while we're just mentioning their sort of classic traits, for looking at the camera with a really frustrated face.

Like that was... Like the Miranda. Like the Miranda. Look, flea-bag. Flea-Bagg. Yeah. And there's a story that goes that in order to get the best performance out of him, Stan Laurel, who was really kind of the mastermind behind the two of them, he was the real thinker, he knew

comedy inside out. He was a James Harkin of that group. Yeah, exactly. Bossy. Bossy. Bossy. The kind of guys will piss on some coals, you know. He's, uh...

So he used to get Hardy to do those frustrated looks into the camera at the end. end of the day because he knew that at the end of the day, Hardy wanted to get out of there and get on the golf course. He was like, I want to play golf and he would keep him a bit. He was the James Harkin. Yeah, exactly. And so those frustrated looks were growingly real because he was like, I'm meant to be out of here. I found some nice things about Stan that I really liked. Did you know that he, so he was doing hydroponic gardening. That was one of his loves. Oh, really? And he won't crossbread a potato and an onion but couldn't get anyone to sample the results.

That was tragic. Was this after he was famous? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I think it sounds incredible. Like if you're making a hot pot, you only have to put one thing in. Yes.

Ultimate Time Saver. He was from the Lake District. Didn't know that? From Oswater. Oh. Oh, I read Olveston. Oh. Is that something?

Yeah. They're very close by. They both begin with you. Yeah. Well, it's now home to what's described as the world's Only Laurel and Hardy Museum. Is it really? Weird, there's only one?

That is weird. It's not weird. It's completely normal. There's only one museum dedicated entirely to Laurel and Hardy. Okay, maybe there should be two. Two tops. I opened up a Laurel and Hardy cafe and ice cream bar in Kosovo back in 2003. What?

What? So I was going to say when we were describing who. So I think I'm going to say, lie. What are you going to say, Henry? I'm going with. I think it's true. I think it's like a double bluff. I think it's true.

Dan, what the hell? Well, I was saying it wasn't my own money that was involved, but I was living in Kosovo when I was 18. Who wouldn't back that with Big Capital? The dragons are all, they're all in. They're fighting to get you. And where are you doing this? Kosovo.

Deborah Medes out of the chair, shaking your hand. Yes, I'll take it, yes. I'm in. I'm all in. There was a guy out there who I became friends with through my grandmother and he was like, you like comedy. I was like, yeah. He was like, I'm opening a cafe and I want it to be themed and we spoke about it and we landed on the restaurant would be the Hardy restaurant and you would have the ice cream bar which was Stan. And so it was all, it was all, you know, the images of them were up on the walls and you could buy statues, but they were massive in Kosovo.

Buy statues, of course. I'm not hungry. I had a big lunch. I'll just have a statue of Oliver Hardy, please. Not in the shop. You didn't buy statues of the shop. That'd be crazy. Yeah, yeah. We're just outside. There'll be a go. The next shot. The next shot. Because Norman Wisdom was big in Albania. I think you guys might know. They loved him there. Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel, huge in that bit of the world as well. Is it still trading? I don't know. I haven't been back for some. I imagine it.

Can't come out of business. There's our franchises in every city in the Balkans. Okay, it's time for our final fact of the show, and that is James. Okay, my fact this week is that the character of Aunt Bessie was invented in 1994 to stop people mistaking Yorkshire puddings for nuclear weapons. Quick question? Who's Aunt Bessie? I can't believe that you don't know who Aunt Bessie is. Educate the boy.

Aunt Bessie is a maternal figure who makes Yorkshire puddings. She's like the patron saint of Hull. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I can't believe she's not widely known. I've never heard of Aunt Bessie. But she's not real, right? She's not real.

She was invented in 1994 to stop people mistaking Yorkshire puddings from nuclear weapons. Right. So up until that point, would you go to Sunday lunch and go, whoa, everyone out! Everyone out! Well, it's worse because when they were trying the nuclear food. clear tests. Often they just threw a big Yorkshire pudding into it. A lot of Hawaiian islands were destroyed by massive Yorkshire puddings being dropped on them. So basically, this company that makes Yorkshire puddings was originally called Triton. They're based in Hull and they did market

research and found that people associated the name Triton with the UK's nuclear deterrent, which is Trident. And only 4% of people associated the word with Yorkshire pudding. So they decided to come up with a new brand, and that new brand was Aunt Bessie. And they are the biggest makers of Yorkshire pudding, probably in the world, but definitely in Britain. They make millions of them. There can't be anywhere outside Britain that makes more Yorkshire puddings than Britain. You know, sometimes you just find out, oh, it happens that they're massive in Bolivia.

Kosovo, there's this huge factory. It's themed around Harold Lloyd, but it's... Instead of custard pies, we use Yorkshire puddings in the restaurant. Should we say what are Yorkshire Predig is? For international listeners. Okay. For those of you, not in Yorkshire or Bolivia, it is, it's batter. So that's flour and water and eggs.

And you get some hot oil and you make it really, really hot, and then you put the batter into it and it puffs up into a delicious, crispy thing that you eat with meat and gravy. You can have them as desserts as well, you know? Oh, yeah? Yeah, you can put ice cream in. Have you done that? Yeah, it's really cool.

It's actually the best day ever. We went for a roast dinner. In London, actually. It wasn't even in the north. We had a Sunday lunch with huge Yorkshire puddings. And then on the menu, you can get Yorkshire pudding with three scoops of ice cream in. It's just like a waffle. It's like a waffle.

It's like a pancake, isn't it really? Feels decadent to that sort of, you know. Because is that still made with beef dripping? Are you adding ice cream to beef dripping? I presume so, yes. I've got to say that is a step too northern for me. Have you been to the factory that makes them? I've driven past it a million times, but I've never been in.

How interesting. I hear this is an interesting question for you. People who work there, some of them have reported that as they drive past, even if they work in a different industry, they feel the call of the factory to work there. What are you talking about? Okay, so the factories, Yorkshire pudding guru, as he's known, David Barr. That's how he ended up working there. He used to work in fish.

He was always in the fish industry, and he used to pass it every day, and he's like, I feel I need to be in there. And he applied three times for the job. What's that movie where they sort of make the spaceship out of mashed potatoes? Close and counters to the... This is like the Yorkshire version of that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

No, he felt the calling, and he went for three interviews, and he failed the first two, and he said, finally he got the job when they just asked him why he wanted to join the company. And he went, I just love Yorkshire puddings. And they're like, you're in. And he's now literally the top of the heap. He is the man.

He's the guru, is his title there. It's like Willie Wonka of Yorkshire Puddin. Yeah, exactly. That's a good film. I mean, it's pretty crazy, isn't it? Like the amount that they produce. Every day, they use more than half a million eggs in order to make.

This is in the Christmas season where it really ramps, up and they have to bring in more staff who've all felt the calling. It's a pretty incredible process. Like a wonder if they do do tours. Like visitors can go because I would genuinely be interested in going. I'm sure your career has allowed you now. Do you think?

Do you think I've got the key to the factory? You've got the poll. What's the point of getting all these awards and all these amazing podcasts if you can't then get into the Yorkshire Pudding Pass. Yeah, part of the whole second greatest comedy double act. Of course you're getting in. Oh my God. Yeah.

I'm sorry, Hale and Pace. Are there from Hull? Gareth Hale is from Hull. Is it amazing? What if he's been to the factory? Of course he has. He's got a key. He's got a key.

He can go in any time you like. He's probably shagged Aunt Bessie. Wow. Can I ask you something about Hull? Yes, please. So Hull got listed as part of Lonely Planet's 500 travel experiences in the UK, unmissable experiences and hidden gems. 5.00.

You made one entry. in the 500. You were listed 483. And it was a public toilet. No. Yeah. What's the experience to have? It was Victoria Peer's public toilet.

Have you been? Yeah. Is it good? No. But is it historical? Is it beautiful? Yeah. It's kind of beautiful.

The outside. But if you actually use the toilet itself, harrowing. But I'm like you're pissing in a sauna. I don't think it is. If I have genuinely, I had a choice, would 100% go for the sauna goals? At least then you're in a sauna. Yeah.

That's nice. It's actually a good way of getting rid of human excrement, isn't it? In a way. A sauna? Yeah, like it means you don't have to have drains or anything because it just evaporates. You breathe it all in. You breathe in that piss. That's what I'm saying.

Well, what I'm thinking is maybe... But it's number one's only. It's number one's only. We're going to have to update that sign. That sign. Imagine the disdain of the person writing Oh shit Don't make me write or ejaculate

You taxi drivers Which one of you taxi drivers Is being in his corner Oh my god I'm Hold Patty Patti Batti Bucty You've ever had one?

No I never have What's a Patti Bucy? What? You don't know what Patti Bucy is I'm from Lancashire All I know about Hollets, the wrong end of the M-62. If you end up there, you've gone seriously wrong. Yeah, you've really gone wrong there. So a patty is potato.

It's like mashed potato with lovely herbs in deep fried to make it sort of like a, it's almost like a potato fritter. But then you have it in a breadcake or a bread bun or however you want to say that. And you pack vinegar onto it till it's dripping and it's fantastic. That's so nice. It's a really traditional whole dish. It's traditionally made by the maidens of hull by hand.

Did they roll it on their thighs? Like the Cuban cigars? Just wipe the oil off on your thighs. It's very hard to tell sometimes if you're in Hull or Havana. But if you smell the vinegar, that's when you know. You know your flirting's gone well when you can smell the vinegar. On the whole maiden.

But there was this whole group of women And they were called Patty Slappers No Patty Slappers. That was a job I just wonder Is that known in Hull? I didn't know that

But I've just got a new idea For a show Wow! That's incredible You've got the Lemsip factory? We've got the LEMSIP factory Isn't that cool? I didn't know.

I owe Hull a great deal. I owe Hull a great deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rackett is the firm wind up. Yeah. That's very cool. Actually, there's quite a fun thing, which was this team called the Drunk Animal Creative Studio, set up these things of

alternative blue plaques to commemorate the locals that had done interesting things. Have you seen those? I think I've, yeah, I think I've heard of it, but I don't know, I don't know if I've seen any. So like an example would be, on this spot, last Monday, Tom Piper got lucky. That was one. Here was one. Ronnie Pickering, 2015, became an internet sensation near here for his red citron Picasso. Is he from Hall? Ronnie Pickering?

Yeah, he's from Hall. Yeah. That's amazing. You know Ronnie Pickering, but you don't know, Aunt Bessie. This is wild. If I'm Bessie maybe threaten someone from a car, maybe I would have heard of her. I'm Aunt fucking Bessie. Who? Me. Bessie! Oh, God. Oh, that's so cool.

Yeah, they're really fun. I love that. That's lovely. There's a really cool hero as well called Carl Busby. Have you heard of him from hole. He decided in 1998 he was going to walk the world, right? So he started in Chile, and the idea was to end up back in hole. So it was going to take him 10 years. So he should have been back in 2010. He's still walking. Did he not realize that the Atlantic Ocean is in between those two places? Yeah. Yeah. It's a bit of problem. He's walking on. There must be a land bridge here. He had so many problems. He's expected to end it in September of next year. He's still walking. Do we know where he is?

He was just walking through Turkey, and I think he's just crossed the border now. That's good. That's not going to get. I mean, it's been really hard because you had to have, you know, three-month visas were a problem when you were walking Russia. You know, like that was an issue. I'll tell you what, if he's coming up from Turkey, you know where he's about to go past. Where? Kosovo.

Carl, you know where to go. Kroh, and you'll get yourself a free statue. Stan. Not Olli. Okay, that's it. That is all of our facts. Thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to get in contact with any of us about the things that we've said over the course of this podcast, we can all be found on our social media accounts. I'm on Instagram on at Schreiberland, James. My Instagram is no such thing as James Harkin.

Andy. I'm on Instagram at Andrew Hunter. And Amy. I am at that, Amy Gledhill on Instagram. Yeah, and also, if you want to hear any of Amy's podcasts, Amy, where do they go? Well, I think there would be a good Venn diagram overlap with Northern News podcast, as James and Andrew have both done that, but have been brilliant guests on it. And we find new stories from the north, silly, funny ones, and we have a laugh about them. And then if you're interested in the flirting, what we've talked about, I also do single ladies in your area. And that is about being single and how hard that is actually. But it's fun and it's lighthearted.

Nice. And Dan, maybe you can come on that one, because if we've had this. to on Northern News, you could be a guest on single ladies. Okay. I am a single lady, so that makes sense. But yeah, so definitely go listen to those. And if you want to write into us as a group about any of the things that we've said on this podcast, you can do that by writing to podcast at QI.com.

All the emails make their way to Andy. He loves to cherry pick the best of them. And they head towards our extra bonus show that is sitting in our special members club, Clubfish. It's called Drop Us a Line. So send them there. We'll read them out and discuss them. If you haven't joined Clubfish, head to No Such Thing as a Fish.com.

All of the details are there. It'll send you to Patreon. Check it out. Be part of the club. Otherwise, do just come back here next week because we're going to be back with another episode. We'll see you then. Goodbye.