The Unbelievable Truth

David Mitchell is joined by Sindhu Vee, Lloyd Langford, Zoe Lyons, and Henning Wehn are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as vegetarians, bananas, squid, and Eurovision.

The Truths

Henning Wehn - Eurovision

- Singers cannot use live animals on stage during their performances. Found by Zoe.

- The Norwegians employed a professor of linguistics to smooth out unpleasant Scandinavian sounds from their Eurovision entries. After a run of three single-digit scores in the contest, state broadcaster NRK contracted an Anglo-French professor for help. It worked, with their 1982 song Adieu gained 40 more points than the previous entry. Found by Zoe.

- In 1983, the UK was represented in Eurovision by Cary Grant - or rather Carrie Grant to spell it correctly. Grant was part of the act Sweet Dreams, who came sixth with the song I'm Never Giving Up. Found by Lloyd.

- In 1980, the Norwegian song was one that moaned on and on about a hydroelectric plant. Successfully smuggled.

- In Azerbaijan, in 2009, voting for Armenia was enough for you to get pulled in by the police. 43 people were interrogated for voting this way as it was considered a matter of national security. The two countries have been disputing over the Nagorno-Karabakh region since the 1990s. Successfully smuggled.

Sindhu Vee - Vegetarians

- The first person to perform as Ronald McDonald was a vegetarian. Geoff Giuliano played him in the 1950s, and has been vegetarian since 1970. Found by Zoe.

- Britain's first vegetarian church, formed in 1809, opened in building called Beefstake Chapel and was led by Rev. William Cowherd. Found by Henning.

- Frankenstein's monster is vegetarian, as was his creator Mary Shelley and her husband Percy. Found by Henning.

- Benjamin Franklin introduced tofu to the USA in 1770. Found by Lloyd.

- Adolf Hitler would cover his eyes during films that featured animal cruelty until someone told him the scene was over. Successfully smuggled.

Zoe Lyons - Squid

- The male deep sea O. Ingens squid has a penis the length of its body when it is erect. Found by Lloyd.

- Some squid ink can make you high because it contains dopamine. Found by Sindhu.

- The Flying Karamazov Brothers juggling troupe juggled a fish, a squid and two live kittens in one part of their act. Found by Sindhu.

- The cock-eyed squid's left eye is twice as big as the right eye. The left eye looks up for pray silhouetted across the sky, while the right looks for bioluminescent pray below. Successfully smuggled.

- The odd bobtailed squid shoot out light-producing snot to blind or confuse attackers. Successfully smuggled.

Lloyd Langford - Bananas

- There were 473 bananas in the world's largest bunch of bananas. Found by Sindhu.

- Bobby Leach, the second person ever to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, breaking just about every bone in his body doing so, died when he slipped on a banana peel when he was doing a publicity tour of New Zealand. Found by Sindhu.

- Bananas have more trade regulations than AK47s. There are at least three binding global agreements covering the sale of bananas, but there are no global regulations on the arms trade. Found by Sindhu.

- More than half the rubbish on the summit of Ben Nevis is discarded banana skins. In 2009, a thousand skins were removed. Banana skins can take up to two years to decompose. Found by Zoe.

- Bananas are considered unlucky on fishing boats. One theory for this is that in the 1700s boats containing bananas had to sail very swiftly to deliver their cargo in time, thus stopping the crew from catching enough fish to feed themselves. Another theory is bananas release a gas as they ripen which causes other food to spoil quicker. Successfully smuggled.

Scores

- Zoe Lyons: 2 points
- Lloyd Langford: 0 points
- Henning Wehn: -1 point
- Sindhu Vee: -3 points