We are the UK podcast No Such Thing As A Fish. Ask Us Anything!

When is Anna joining twitter?

When her fax machine breaks.

How does your team interaction and fact-sharing work PRIOR to the show recording? You all seem to have facts based on each others' facts, and yet you do also seem genuinely surprised by the facts! Yet, if you have those facts based on facts, you must at least know something about the other people's facts?

Also, Corvent Garden makes me smile EVERY TIME.

Before every show, we'll send around our headline facts - the ones you hear at the top of the show. We'll go over them, make sure they're true (especially if they're Dan's) and see if they're interesting enough. When we have four headline facts we really like, we go away and do our own secret homework on them, and don't tell each other what we've found out. So once we've started, we are genuinely surprised, because we've normally got four completely different sets of information!

Hey guys!

I've been listening since the beginning so I'm thrilled the podcast is doing so well. Congrats on the 100th episode!

My question: We know Dan has an affinity for Yeti facts, do the rest of you have similar obsessions?

Andy is obsessed with leeches, and animals parachuting (dogs, cows, sheep, pigeons, you name it). If he could find a leech-parachute he'd die a happy man. Anna loves etymology. James goes all over the place but at the moment he is obsessed with the tiny island of Nauru.

Dan: Did you know that Fox Sports thought Saskatchewan was named for the Sasquatch? http://regina.ctvnews.ca/fox-sports-announcer-at-centre-of-saskatchewan-sasquatch-story-weighs-in-1.2772212

THAT IS FANTASTIC!!!!

Love the podcast! Been listening since the beginning. Any plans to have Stephen Fry make a guest appearance before he departs QI?

Hey, thanks so much! We'd love to have Stephen on - maybe one day if he can fit us in to his mind-bogglingly full diary...(Our diary, on the other hand, has three tumbleweeds and an IOU from Anna to Dan.)

Do you have a favourite episode of the podcast?

I love the one where Anna said the Town crier had to beat off a load of other guys to win.

We think that might be our favourite too. That was an absolute riot. The title, for anyone who wants to hear it, is 'No Such Thing As A Sentient Iceberg...'

Many facts from No Such Things As A Fish end up on r/TIL. How often do you find information on reddit which you use for the show? I do recall someone mentioning loving Reddit just a few episodes ago/

We love Reddit. James uses Reddit sometimes, the rest of can't because James has had blocked from the site.

Have you had to censor things before and if so what was the worst thing?

Yes, most of Anna's swearing and most of James's juvenile, genital-based jokes. And there was that AMAZING joke of Anna's about Ukrainian trousers that she mentioned in every single podcast of the first 50 and the others always cut it out in the edit. It got in eventually. In. Their. Faces.

What is the story of you starting the podcast? Why did you decide to start it?

We were sitting around in the office and realised we were having lots of conversations about facts that couldn't go on the TV show for whatever reason, but which were otherwise going to waste. (Specifically, when James turned to Dan and said, 'Did you know that there are 600 guys in the world with two penises?') So we thought we'd just try making a podcast of our favourite facts and see if anyone wanted to listen to it. We also uploaded the first file by mistake - it wasn't actually meant to be public, but then it got a few hundred listens so we just left it there...

Wait, Stephen Fry couldn't figure out a way to mention that there are 600 men with two penises?

Ha!

Hey guys, what are some interesting facts you can tell us about each other?

Everyone in Dan's family has the middle name Craig. Including his mother.

Andy's grandmother was a wing walker.

Anna pretended to be a boy until she was 12 and called herself Edward.

James loves the band Steps. And knows every single one of their dance routines.

what is your favourite least well known fact about Ireland?

Oh, this is my favourite, although I don't know how well-known it is in Ireland. So, ROI: the fact that Ireland has a bellybutton. The 'Hill of Uisneach' is the mythological navel of Ireland. Northern Ireland: Lake Loughareema is an Irish lake near a seaside town called Ballycastle. It's known as 'The Vanishing Lake': it often disappears entirely. Also that 'Dublin' literally means 'Blackpool' (as in Black Pool), but I suspect that's really well-known...

Will you be at the Edinburgh Fringe again this year? I saw you last year and it was by far my favourite show of the festival

Also, how do you keep track of all of your facts?

Nothing planned yet, although we are very susceptible to flattery so the more comments we get like that, the more likely it becomes. We will be doing a live show in Edinburgh on 25 March though - details here: https://twitter.com/QIpodcast/status/697825303687778304 - if you fancy that one.

Are you hiring?

But seriously, how excited are you for Sandi Toksvig taking over after this season? Is having a different host going to affect anything behind the scenes as far as topic choices and so on? Will it change the humor of the show (as far as the tone/type of humor; I already think Sandi Toksvig's hilarious so I'm not worried, just curious)?

Hey! We are really looking forward to filming Sandi's first series. We don't think it'll change the topics - ideally interestingness is basically equal across the board, so the change of host won't change the kind of stuff we're doing/finding out. Although there might be one or two more Danish questions just at the start...

Two-parter here: 1) How did Anna manage to discover the wondrous story of Bebe Rebozo and Bob Abplanalp while somehow missing out on their too-perfect first names? 2) Has Andrew considered the medium of the 2D puzzle-platform game for their capers and misadventures? It's a little more au courant than the serial film short, and the levels sort of design themselves.

1) Anna claims she's very unobservant and was hypnotized by the amazing surnames, particularly Abplanalp. (Andy had to search for him and had no idea how to Google that surname. Took about half an hour). 2) Amazing, amazing idea. If this happens, you're getting a cut.

Hello Elves! I love your show, and I hope you can forgive a double question.

1) Are there any facts that you were heartbroken to discover weren’t actually true?

2) Any chance of you guys being on Only Connect again? Best cross-over ever. Batman vs Superman will be a feeble imitation.

1) Yes! Anna got really excited when she found that the blanket was named after a Mr Blanket. It turns out to be highly untrue. But we DID find out that shrapnel was named after someone called Henry Shrapnel. Swings and roundabouts.
2) I think there's a five- or ten-series moratorium once you've been on! We would go back in a heartbeat. It was so much fun. Guys, if you're reading this, we are ready to get the train to Cardiff tomorrow. Or today. Just let us know.

What are your favourite jokes?

Mine is: Why does Ariel wear seashells? Because she can't fit into D shells.

Anna's is...

Q: Why shouldn't you wear trousers from the Ukraine? A: Chernobyl fallout

It's taken me so long to get used to your faces.

I looked up a picture of you guys not so long ago and besides Anna (for obvious reasons) I couldn't begin to figure out who was who! Is there any chance of you doing a video Podcast some time in the future, perhaps using some visual aides?

I'll try to make it to a show sometime soon! Thanks to all of you for being such a great source of entertainment and knowledge.

The one you thought was Anna was actually James, and vice versa.

We're thrilled to entertain and inform - otherwise our lives would be completely purposeless.

And as to a video podcast, watch this space. Seriously. We just need to figure out which way to hold a video camera and then we'd definitely be up for doing something like that.

Hello! I am coming to see you guys in Leeds tomorrow.

My question is simply: Lion or Water wall?

Water lion? No, wait, Andy is telling me 'Lion, always lion!' He's a Leo. Apparently he believes in all that nonsense.

Water lion? No, wait, Andy is telling me 'Lion, always lion!' He's a Leo. Apparently he believes in all that nonsense.

Have you considered doing a live show, where us distant internet folks could also participate?

1. There are at least 3 episodes (e.g. E60 - , E61 - ) where the phrasing resembles "OK Google" (or not) and initiates "Google Now" commands on my phone.
2. You have been nicknamed the "Yeti Penis Podcast", a lot of love at this reddit thread.
3. I miss the Oxford dictionary opening.

Episodes are usually the exact length of my commute to work, makes driving to work fun.

Sincerely,

Everard Digby

Dear Everard Very exciting of you to be contacting us from the distant past and hope you've heard the episode of ours where you were the main talking point.

Yeti penis podcast was actually a working title. We will be suing that Reddit thread for somehow finding out about and plagiarising that idea.

The Oxford dictionary opening was actually a bit of a cock-up, which is why we subtly dropped it. It was actually the 'Oxford Encyclopaedia of Underwater Life'. You heard it here first: we are not to be trusted.

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that your show has helped me a great deal through depression over the past couple of years, so thank you so much. I'm from Russia, and Russia's been an ugly place to live in lately, but your show has been cheering me up every week since I first discovered it.

Anyway, here's my last question: how long are you guys planning to do the podcast?

Hey, thanks for that - that means a lot to us.

Hopefully we go on forever!

Would you rather fight one Mongolian death worm sized yeti or 4 yeti sized Mongolian death worms?

Dan will have a seriously awesome dream about this question tonight, and will get back to you tomorrow.

Any "too hot for the podcast" facts you'd like to share today?

Loads. But they're unfortunately also too hot for Reddit.

Hi all! How do you choose which fact you want to present on the podcast? Do you go in thinking "I'm going to talk about dolphins" and then search for a dolphin fact, or is it more along the lines of "hey here's this cool thing I found, this'll be great for the show"?

Here's how we do it. No pre-planned subjects. Just whatever we bump into over the course of the week. We then all send facts to each other by email. We say yes to Anna, James and Andy's fact. Then ask Dan to find another fact because his is usually dubious/about yetis/wrong. Then we all research each other's fact, but don't tell each other what we've found. So the chat is fresh.

Do you have a large US following?

Not sure. Are you from the US? If so, you may be our first American fan. Spread the word!

Are Anna and Dan in a relationship? Don't know why but I feel like I can hear that 'Couples tension' between them.

No. But frankly, it's only a matter of time.

I have never been so insulted by that suggestion.

Standards, people. I have standards.

I'm not sure which one you is talking right now... I couldn't even hazard a guess..

True. For a start, none of us have any standards.

Every Friday, me and my girlfriend make pizza whilst listening to the show, it is genuinely the highlight of my week. Thank you all very much.

Are any of you reading anything at the moment that you'd recommend?

Check out the Sawbones podcast on medical history if you haven't yet, it's damn good.

Hey, thanks so much! That means a lot. We love making it. At the moment I (Andy) am flicking through the incredibly entertaining Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics by William Donaldson. So good. I also completely love the art book 'The Art Of Looking Sideways'. And we'll check out the Sawbones podcast!

You sometimes seem to have great difficulty in pronouncing words from various different languages (like a couple of weeks ago, with the Dutch city "Schipluiden", the brightest place in the world). Do you ever ask someone how to pronounce words in different languages, or is it just fun to just try and hope for the best?

Whenever James mispronounces something he claims it was 'for comic effect'. The rest of us are much too disorganised and last minute to have time to check pronunciation before we start recording so we just have to take a punt, hope for the best and wait for the justifiably angry emails to roll in from around the world.

As you have in the past will you be having special guests in any future podcasts?

Yup. We literally just recorded a podcast with Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor.

If you've got any suggestions send them to @qipodcast

Hi elves (can I call you elves?), which episode of the podcast is your favorite and why?

Probably Sentient Iceberg (Episode 82). Just such a fun night, an amazing crowd, and Dan absolutely lost it about stick insects. The perfect formula.

what is a regular day for a QI elf? (when not recording the podcast)

Quite a lot of staring contests interspersed with the odd game of wink murder. We feed the QI goldfish constantly; it now resembles an orange blue whale.

But in seriousness, this newfangled thing called 'Googling' also takes up a fair bit of our time. And magazines and books and occasional-though-reluctant interaction with each other.

Oh and we drink shedloads of tea. Andy's is always a decaf, in case you're ever called upon to make it for him.

Will your tour ever come to Newcastle?

Also what fact has had so much potential but when looking further was actually quite lackluster?

Hey! We aren't planning a Newcastle trip at the moment but maybe on a future tour. We'd love to come and play, obviously! Re. facts that turn out to be damp squibs... can't think of any. But I've (Andy) always struggled to find grapes interesting.

Your conversations always seem like you're having a great time (other than perhaps some of the more egregious pun offenses). How did your team come together?

We all work in an office together for a British TV programme called QI. The show is all about facts so we spend a lot of time swapping them, and we just thought it seemed like an obvious way of telling people about the facts!

Have you considered doing any international events?

Yes. We'd LOVE to. Someone get us an invite to Comic Con in San Diego please

Do you enjoy your facts being used add the primary source of entries on r/til even though they rarely credit your show ?

If that's true, we're deeply honoured.

Have any of the other 3 sat through one of Dan's stand up routines?

Yes. And we loved it. Dan is so funny and charming. And really great. And clever. And is typing this.

Dan mentioned previously that this is the closest he'd get to being in a rock band. If you were to form a rock band who would take what role?

Actually, Dan used to be a rock band. They were terrible. Here's how bad they were, their name was "The Art of Loving".

Have you ever discovered facts that were too adult, creepy or straight-up unsettling for the podcast? And if so, please do share.

Also, if you guys could do a live show in Sheffield, I would really appreciate it.

We tend to run anything we want to! If something is really interesting then we'll tend to run it. And we'll work on the Sheffield thing - I think the closest we're getting is Leeds, tomorrow night...

Everyone except Dan, what were your first impressions when you met Dan?

James: Claims to have no memory. Says it was ten years ago and he can't be expected to remember non-facts from that long ago. Andy: Had a huge fact-crush on him. Anna: Is still not sure who Dan is. Which one of the three boys is he again?

Which other podcasts do you guys listen to?

Dan: The Cryptid Factor and anything by Kevin Smith and his gang.

Andy: Welcome to Nightvale

Anna: Radio Lab

James: Bantam's Banter and Adam Buxton's podcast.

We also love anything by Helen Zaltzman.

Are there any plans to have you guys on the QI panel? I love the podcast and I've listened to every episode. Keep up the good work!

Dreadfully kind of you to say so, much obliged. We'll appear on the QI panel when all the genuinely funny and interesting people mysteriously disappear from the face of the earth.

No Such Thing as a Fish and Good Job Brain are my two favorite podcasts. They are based around being fans of pub trivia.

Do you all ever do pub trivia as a team? Or is everything a little too obscure to be helpful?

It's true. We love pub quizzes. But we're not especially good at them. For a start, they NEVER ask, 'Which part of his anatomy did President Garfield eat everything through for the last month of his life?'

What made you want to do the vinyl and has it been well received?

That was Dan - following a drunken conversation with an awesome rock label called Alcopop. So glad we did it. Also, it meant we could go on tour with an album.

Oh that's cool, yeah I'm a fan of a lot of the music Alcopop put out, I've seen the owners Jurassic Park themed band, so it seems like a good fit for you.

Yeah they do. They are releasing a Jurassic Park album. Dan has a cameo on it.

What is something that is socially accepted but weird if you think about it?

Dan.

What is your favourite or most bizzare fact about alcohol?

I (Anna) always find it unbelievable that the London Beer Flood actually happened (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood). It's completely insane. Imagine being there and seeing that.

Andy likes the fact that if you keep drinking through drunkenness, you eventually sober up. (query truth)

Is there actually such thing as a fish?

Only on a menu. They're all so different that humans are closer to fish, biologically speaking, than fish are to each other...

When are you touring the US? .. also I love y'all's podcast it scratches my QI itch in between episodes!

We'd love to tour the US day. Get the word out and see if they'll have us!

Did you expect to reach 100 episodes when you started the podcast? Are you now expecting to get to 1000?

We didn't really think we'd reach 10. A thousand is a LONG way off (what would that be, 20 years of podcasting?) but I think we're up for continuing until the microphones are forcibly taken off us.

Hey Guys,

I have listened for a long time, how did you get the jobs as QI elves?

And what is your favorite fact?

Andy got John Lloyd drunk in the pub one night and talked himself into the job that way. Dan sent John a few extremely long emails detailing the medical consequences of putting off peeing when your bladder's full. He was hired to make him stop talking about it.

James kept posting research on the external QI forums. Anna got lost on the way home one day and stumbled into the QI office by accident. She's still looking for the way out.

My favourite fact, which changes from one second to the next, is that In 1464 the mayor of Jaen in Spain donated 10,000 eggs to his citizens so they could have a huge food fight.

Hi Everyone.

At the recent Canterbury tour show, someone interrupted the show to correct you.

Does this happen often? have there been any heckles from the live shows that haven't made it in that were funny?

Thanks for talking to us afterwards you guys were really friendly. Has Andy stopped talking about the Casio watch yet?

We are very lucky to have an audience who are generally much better-educated than we are so we love the heckles! Lots of them are really good but sometimes the microphones don't pick them up so we have to cut them. They're great though. And Andy will NEVER stop talking about the Casio.

What's your favourite panel show (besides QI)?

We like a lot of them. Have I Got News For You is amazing and on the radio I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and the News Quiz are fantastic. (Dan wants us to mention QI's sister show the Museum Of Curiosity, but I'm not going to.)

Who would be your dream guest to have on the podcast?

Dan: Brian Blessed

Anna: Rick from Rick and Morty

Andy: David Sedaris

James: a Nematode Worm

I loved the podcast but have been living and working in Antarctica for 14 months so haven't heard a few episodes. How Much missed out on in that time?

Oh hardly anything. But what have WE missed in Antarctica, more to the point? How awesome to have been there. Maybe you should do an AMA.

I did an AMA! its at https://redd.it/3kxxn3

You missed a load of darkness, snow and Ice. of also -56C is something to remember

You have an incredibly cool job. That'll be my evening reading! (I'm a slow reader)

Every now and then, you mention information from Reddit. How does this site figure into your fact-finding?

James reads it, but because James is a very fast reader, the rest of us tend to look elsewhere! So we all find things from different places.

Do you ever watch something on TV and think "shit, I was going to use that in our recording tomorrow"?

And this is a bit random but my housemate did it last week and it has really been annoying me: has anyone ever done a study about why people, earning good money, buy 18 rolls of single-ply toilet paper? Or do some people just not care about their bumholes that much?

Yes. We tend to use it anyway and then put it out that whatever TV show it was stole the fact from us. That David Attenborough has been plagiarising us left, right and centre.

And I'm with your housemate on the toilet roll front, 100%. I don't know why people don't just gather leaves from local parks and use those.

Firstly I want to say thank you for making my mornings easier when going to work. Secondly, do you plan to do any events around Cambridge? I'd love to go to an event but the locations are awkward for me. PS: Anna you aren't missing out on Twitter, stay true!

Damn we just played Cambridge a few weeks ago! Not sure when we'll be there/around there again just yet.

A group of kittens is called a litter. Cats also poo in litter. Why do we call it that? It's like calling human children toilets.

Wait. That's not how we're supposed to refer to human children? I need to have sharp words with my parents.

What's your favorite book/movie/song? If you cannot think of a particular song or a particular book, then a band/singer or an author is fine as well.

Dan: Bowie - books about him, songs by him, movie starring him

Anna: Vanity Fair and Wolf Hall (books)

Andy: Cold Comfort Farm (book)

James: Steps (band)

Is there a fact that keeps getting submitted over and over by listeners that just isn't true or interesting enough to study further?

I don't think so. We really love receiving facts from listeners - it's so cool that everyone keeps sending them over. A very few of them turn out not to be true but you could easily say the same of Schreiber's facts...

How do you (individually) keep track of the facts you stumble upon while researching?

That's basically why we created the podcast. It's essentially a fact-storage device - when we find interesting stuff, we say it into a microphone and store it as a sound recording. We actually feel a bit guilty that we've made so many other people listen to it; it's like asking people to read through your filing cabinet!

Any facts about Corby, in Northants? Other than that there is a crater on the moon named after it, and that a man ate a lot of porridge once.

There is a crater on Mars called Corby.

I've recently started a big research project at school, and I'm really struggling to stay on topic. Do you guys have any tips?

Staying on topic is pretty tricky for us because we love jumping from one fact to another, so we are really lucky that we don't have to. But sometimes (Andy here) if I'm finding a topic for research dull, and I'm feeling really tempted to go off and find out about something else, the answer is sort of to push through the boredom. It can take a while, but the QI philosophy is that if you look in enough detail at something as apparently boring as a leaf - the molecular structure, how they suck up sunlight, their structure, how people used to use leaves, what the word 'leaf' even means - you'll break through and find lots of interestingness in things that previously seemed dull. Hopefully you'll hopefully never find anything boring again.

I was in Franco Manca's before Christmas and saw someone I recognised come in to collect some take away pizzas. But I couldn't remember where from; was it an old friend or a celebrity.... no it was Andrew Hunter Murray from off of that QI podcast.

Do any of you get recognised in public from the podcast or your occasional TV appearances?

It happens sometimes. But even odder is being recognised by voice alone. Sometimes people listen to you on the phone and then say "Are you...on a podcast?" Which is very flattering.

Also, I remember picking up those pizzas! Great times.

any plans to play liverpool any time soon? You can bring Stephen and Alan along if they must.

We think they'd crush us on penalties.

Elves, I love the podcast and received the album for Christmas. Thanks for all those great back episodes that came with it.

I'm wondering if there was ever a satisfactory answer to The Great Millipede Debate?

Hey. Thanks so much, glad you liked it! As far as the GMD goes, we got footage from a millipede expert showing a millipede on a branch which did walk a few steps backwards to re-adjust. So it was Andrew who had to buy James a pint. (NB at the time of writing Andrew has yet to do this).

Has any of you ever felt like leaving the show? What about having a fifth regular host?

Anna tries to leave every week.

When you were first naming the podcast, what were some of the names you all came up with?

We had a very long list, which we've now lost. Pretty sure 'Such Thing As A Yeti', 'Factosaurus Rex' and 'Serial' featured.

We actually went through weeks of brainstorming but seem to have forgotten every single idea we came up with.

What did ya'll study in school?

Andy studied English. Anna studied History. James studied Maths and Physics. Dan did not go to university. He barely finished high school.

Any chance you might do a show in Germany someday? We don't have QI here, but we have all those sausage-based idioms, it'll be lovely.

We would love to, like the sausage craves the onions.

Would you ever release a video version of your podcast? Maybe upload to YouTube?

Yeah, we'd love to! Working on it.

Have you all come to realise that no matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery?

Anna's new favourite joke. Many thanks.

How do you decide which towns and cities to tour?

We looked up which places listen to the podcast most in our stats and tried to find venues in or near them.

Though Dan wanted to do a tour of all the spots in Britain where there have been Bigfoot sightings.

Has a fan of the show ever recognized any of you on the street?

James quite likes the show and he occasionally recognises the rest of us. Aside from that....we thought someone wanted our autographs recently but it turned out to be QI's lawyer who needed us to sign our employee contracts.

If quantum particles only exist when being observed, and electrons and neutrons are made up of quantum particles, and atoms are made up of electrons and neutrons, and cells are made up of atoms, and together these cells make up my body. Who the fuck is watching me now in order for me to exist? I'm sat in my bedroom alone having an existential crisis!

We are watching you.

Even when you sleep.

Which one was your favorite fact of the show?

Anna: James Garfield ate everything through his anus for the last 6 months of his life (although her actual favourite is that the word 'hundred' used to mean 'a hundred and twenty' but she realises no one else cares about that one) Dan: The music on the anti-piracy ad - as in "You wouldn't steal a car etc" - at the start of DVDs, was pirated. James: Anything to do with stupid record breaking - someone kicked himself in the head 127 times in a minute, someone else broke a record for furthest travelled while on fire being dragged by a horse. That kind of thing. Andy: Dogs were parachuted onto the beaches during the Normandy landings. Andy's obsessed with parachuting animals. It's a problem.

Has Andrew ever confused the two elder statesmen of British comedy that he works for, and tried to either make a topical satirical joke to John Lloyd or impress Ian Hislop with a fact about parachuting dogs? PS who out of messrs Lloyd or Hislop would win a game of Scrabble?

Andy here. It happens all the time. It's actually getting a bit out of control. PS I don't know who would win but I think you have just invented a new TV format.

Dan, what are your thoughts on Stephen Fry leaving QI? Will it be anywhere near the same?

It's very sad. We'll miss him. He made a fantastic speech at our goodbye party for him, last week. But we're also incredibly excited about Sandi.

What is this podcast? Just interested. As in, is it comedy or.....? If it sounds cool ill listen to it

We're four of the researchers behind the BBC TV show QI - a comedy panel show of interestingness. Each week, the 4 of us researchers get around a microphone and talk about the most interesting, bizarre, amazing facts we've discovered that week. And we try to be funny about it. Probably mostly without success. Officially it's comedy-cum-factual. Hey give it a try: https://soundcloud.com/nosuchthingasafish

Will you be doing a show in or around the Newcastle area? I'd really really love to see you all live

We're not planning to at the moment but we'd love to in future. If you sign up to our mailing list on qi.com/fishmail, we'll notify you first about any future tours!

I'm a big fan of Nikola Tesla. What's your favourite Tesla fact?

Oh man, me too! (Andy here). I think I like the fact that he invented an early version of the loudspeaker, and then didn't bother to patent it. He's unbelievable.

Is asking how old you all are too intrusive? I just wonder sometimes

Dan believes the Middle Ages never actually happened, so technically he won't be born for another 200 years. Andy was born 45. Anna can't remember. We don't know about James but we think he was here first.

What are your favourite sources of facts?

Dan: Fortean Times

Anna: British Newspaper Archive

Andy: Any cereal packet

James: His RSS feed

If you could have anybody who has passed away to be a guest on your show who would it be?

Andy: Lord Byron

Dan: David Bowie

Anna: Johnson AND Boswell

James: Everard Digby

When you guys aren't being elves, what other stuff do you get involved in?

Dan does stand-up comedy. Andy does Jane-Austen-themed improvised comedy. Anna goes to the pub. James gambles heavily on the 3.30 at Chepstow.