The Unbelievable Truth

Frankie Boyle, Sara Pascoe, Miles Jupp and Holly Walsh talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Glasgow, religion, spying, and puppets.

The Truths

Holly Walsh - Puppets

- In the original newspaper serial of Pinocchio upon which the Disney film was based, the title character kills Jiminy Cricket with a hammer. Pinocchio also gets Geppetto falsely imprisoned after accusing him of abuse, has his feet burned off, and is lynched by angry villages. Found by Frankie.

- The Sooty Show was censored when an episode showed Sooty and Sweep snorting out of medicine bottles. The Independent Television Commissioned censored the episode after viewers complained about a scene in which the puppets smelled aromatherapy oils from bottles and started behaving oddly as if intoxicated. Found by Frankie.

- The Muppets appeared in a TV show entitled Sex And Violence. It was one of two pilots which aired in 1975, with the early episodes of The Muppet Show having an adult feel and a risqué edge to the material, but this was subsequently dropped. Successfully smuggled.

- In 2015, Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog announced they were getting a divorce. They are believed to have married in 1984. Successfully smuggled.

- The Count from Sesame Stree's favourite number is 34,969, as revealed in an interview with Tim Harford on BBC Radio 4's More Or Less. When asked for an explanation The Count replied: "It's a square root thing." Successfully smuggled.

Miles Jupp - Spying

- In the 1960s, people in the CIA watched episodes of Mission: Impossible for ideas. Found by Holly.

- The CIA use their own board games to train their officers. They are also looking into using virtual reality games for a more immersive experience. Found by Holly.

- Bob Holness was considered and got the part of being the second actor to play James Bond. He voiced the role in a South African radio adaptation of Moonraker in 1956. The first actor to play Bond was Barry Nelson in a 1954 US TV adaptation of Casino Royale. Found by Frankie.

- When Adrian Chiles went for an interview at MI5, his mum thought he was going for a job at MFI. Successfully smuggled.

- In 2013, the Turkish police once arrested a kestrel and charged with being an Israeli spy. Successfully smuggled.

Sara Pascoe - Religion

- There is a church devoted to Diego Maradona. The Iglesia Maradoniana was founded in Argentina in 1998 and had 500,000 members even before Maradona's death. Followers see parallels between Maradona's humble beginnings and achievements and the life of Christ. Baptisms involve a recreation of the hand of God goal, they have their own Christmas on 30th October (Maradona's birthday), and they have rewritten the Lord's Prayer. Found by Holly.

- The Temple of the True Inner Light is a religious organisation in Manhattan that believes that psychoactive substances are the true flesh of God, and that all religions are based on the psychedelic experience. Found by Frankie.

- Charles Manson quit training to be a Scientologist because it got too crazy for him. In 1961, after undergoing 150 hours of the training process known as "auditing", Manson begged to be put into solitary confinement in order to escape his auditor. Found by Holly.

- Quakers invented the sanitary towel. Brothers Thomas and William Southall invented and sold the first sanitary towels in the 1880s from their chemist shop in Birmingham. Successfully smuggled.

- Mime artists were excommunicated in the 5th century. Successfully smuggled.

Frankie Boyle - Glasgow

- The man who originally sang I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside killed himself after being booed off stage in Glasgow. Music hall singer Mark Sheridan, who was the first person to record the song in 1909, killed himself after being booed of the stage at the Coliseum Theatre. He was performing a show he wrote and composed himself called Gay Paree, the opening night getting a mixed reception from the audience. The following afternoon, his body was found in Kelvingrove Park, having been shot in the head, and it was assumed to be suicide. Found by Miles.

- Chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow after someone complained that their curry was dry. It was created in 1971, when a bus driver complained his chicken curry was dry. The chef was eating tomato soup at the time, so he put some into the curry with some spices, and the driver loved it. Found by Miles.

- In 2013, a report revealed that the property in Elmbridge, Surrey (population 136,000) was valued to be worth more than all the property in Glasgow. It was valued at £31billion, while all the property in Glasgow (population 1.75 million) as a combined value of £29billion. The same report showed that ten London boroughs were worth more than all the homes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined. Found by Miles.

- Saint Mungo, patron saint of Glasgow, died of shock after getting into a bath. Successfully smuggled.

- Glasgow is twinned with Nuremberg. It is also twinned with Bethlehem, Lahore, Marseille, Havana and Turin. Successfully smuggled.

Scores

- Holly Walsh and Miles Jupp: 3 points
- Frankie Boyle: 2 points
- Sara Pascoe: -6 points