For the original Ashes to Ashes video David Bowie learnt to tightrope – unfortunately his record company wouldn’t pay the insurance for him to perform over the river Thames and the idea was dropped.

The word turnip is derived from the Finnish word Tournet which means “hungry”.

Sausages was played by Dr F.G. Wilkins in the 2002 World Scrabble Championships. The G was a blank tile played by his opponent and Dr Wilkins recorded the lowest possible score for a word on 2 triple word tiles.

The Number 8 was a Mandarin Sci-Fi film, and even though the number 8 is lucky in China the film made the biggest cinema loss of all time.

There are over 12 billion pairs of false eyelashes produced worldwide every year. Enough for 2 pairs per person.

Bungee jumping is part of the school curriculum in many parts of Alaska.

Peter Roget (the inventor of the thesaurus) was the first person to be fitted with a catheter in 1868. He suggested the name to its inventor, Dr Sornborger, based on an ancient Greek procedure.

The modern energy saving light bulb contains more mercury than most thermometers.

A standard BMX bicycle is covered by over 270 patents, which is more than the space shuttle.

J Robert Oppenheimer banned paper clips from his laboratories. He believed they could be used to sabotage an atomic bomb.