anorak alerts

Anorak Alert No.65: On Monday's Only Connect (around 5:22) Victoria Coren Mitchell a little uncertainly credited the made up game Numberwang to Armstrong and Miller.  Embarrassingly it was Mitchell and Webb (Mitchell as in David Mitchell her husband).  While we're here try Eleanor Morton's parody Every Only Connect Team Intro.

Anorak Alert No.64: The SIDS DITCH sign hasn't got an apostrophe ... ok picky picky.

Anorak Alert No.63: Surprisingly Peter III Emperor of Russia only ruled for the first half of 1762.  In series 1 episode 5 of The Great the royal foodie speaks of something involving loganberries.  The fruit was first crossbred in 1881 by James Harvey Logan .. picky eh?

Anorak Alert No.62: We like Tim Hartford the undercover economist and Radio 4's More or Less but last night in Skint he reckoned the world wide web is a British invention.  Well Tim Berners-Lee is British but he made the first pass at the web in Switzerland whilst working for CERN a European organisation.

Anorak Alert No.61: Early in When Harry Met Sally Billy Crystal is spitting grape pips out the passenger window, cut to medium shot of the car passing with the passenger window shut, back to BC spitting pips out the passenger window ... alright picky picky eh.

Anorak Alert No.60: In the very excellent drama Eric and Ernie repeated last week on BBC 4 when Eric is clearly doing a Jimmy Schnozzle Durante impression complete with a paper cup the subtitles say it's Groucho Marx ...

Anorak Alert No.59: During taxi driver Daniel's brilliant dash to the airport he overtakes a green Mini twice ... alright picky picky eh.

Anorak Alert No.58: If the second signal is inverted it's not really exactly the same Professor Fry ... alright picky picky eh:)

Anorak Alert No.57: On Desert Island Discs Lauren Laverne maintains the urban myth that The Hollies were part of 1960s Merseybeat despite being from Manchester.

Anorak Alert No.49:  Someone on the radio described LS Lowry's Going To The Match as nostalgic with flat caps ... he had obviously not seen the painting which has sold for £7.8 million.

Anorak Alert No.48:  On Radio 4Ex today cuddly Michael Palin recalling his return from Around the World in 80 Days after some hesitancy concluded that the container lorry that met him at Felixstowe docks took him to Ipswich railway station ... it didn't.

Anorak Alert No.47:  In the first episode of Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics when the "expert" finally identifies the French moped as a Derny stock film is shown not of Dernys but big motors pacing cycle track racing .  Once upon a time Andy Tiernan came back from a German auction with such a 2500c moto ... the Brooks saddle is British.

Anorak Alert No.46:  Dodgy David Dickinson's Real Deal dealer Alison Chapman when offered a portable wind up gramophone said that 78 records were made of wax and the stereo comes out here.

Anorak Alert No.45:  Perhaps this is being overly picky as the entertaining Laura Kampf is speaking German but the sub-titles call a slug a snail.

Anorak Alert No.44:  Some people don't know the difference between meter which measures something and metre the metric unit of length ... we didn't use to know either:)

Anorak Alert No.43:  Flog It visiting seaside town Morecambe has presenter Paul Martin saying comedians Morecambe and Wise saw military service during WWII.  Well not really, Ernie was in the merchant navy and Eric was a Bevin Boy.

Anorak Alert No.42:  The graphic in this GCN YouTube on cycle speedway has the riders going round the wrong way, like roller derby, NASCAR and most grass track it's turn left.

Anorak Alert No.41:  Journalists are often vague about where Suffolk is.  They get it confused with Sussex and Norfolk.  Today BBC Suffolk news includes a dancing Leicester University graduate and on the red button a Manningtree boy who knows a lot about Harry Potter.

Anorak Alert No.40:  On ITV3 the episode Maigret on Home Ground with Michael Gambon as the French policeman has him bribing a small boy with green grenadine and fizzy water... we don't think so.