The 10 best celebrity facts to come out of Would I Lie to You
Which star was listed as a missing person by Interpol? And who broke into their ex-boyfriend’s house through the dog flap in order to steal his pants?
1. Danny Dyer once wore a zebra mask around a zoo so that he wouldn’t be recognised
People were driving him mad, his child was “getting the hump”, so he bought a mask at the zoo shop. The zoo itself didn’t actually have any zebras, just “a couple of rabbits and a moody giraffe”.
2. Bob Mortimer burnt his house down with a box of fireworks
Around the age of seven, Mortimer set a box of fireworks alight, which he threw into the kitchen where it scorched the floor. But he didn’t notice that he’d dropped one in the living room, and the whole house burned down.
3. Mel Giedroyc snogged one of the other panellists on the show. It was Dermot O’Leary
In the late 1990s, the pair kissed at the “end of term” party for her daytime series, Light Lunch .
4. Katherine Parkinson used a Womble as an example of a mammal in her GCSE biology exam
Parkinson gave three examples: bear, whale and Womble. She was awarded an A grade.
5. Miranda Hart had a trial for QPR football team
In their early 20s, the comedian and a friend turned up at the trial, having “mucked about” with a football at university and fancied themselves to be pretty good. They were unsuccessful.
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6. For three weeks, Henning Wehn was listed as a missing person by Interpol
In the mid-1990s, Wehn met a man on a train in Spain and was invited to join him in Morocco. He sent a postcard to a friend at home, joking that he had joined the Foreign Legion, who showed it to Wehn’s parents for a laugh. They were horrified and rang the German consulate to report him missing.
7. Kirsty Young named her chickens after her favourite newsreaders
At the time, her five hens were called Anna Ford, Jan Leeming, Selina Scott, Viv Lumsden and Mary Marquis. She also had Moira Stuart, but that chicken died.
8. Jo Brand broke into her ex-boyfriend’s house through the dog flap in order to steal his pants
Around the age of 18, Jo saw her millionaire boyfriend snogging a blonde woman at a party, and decided to exact revenge by wriggling through his dog flap and throwing all his pants away.
9. Claudia Winkleman took her pet tortoise Yoshi to the vet because she thought he was depressed
Yoshi seemed a bit “stationary” when he’d once been “scampery”. The vet said he was fine, and suggested she organise tortoise play dates to lift his mood.
10. Terry Wogan set fire to his colleagues’ scripts while they were live on air
On Irish radio, at around the age of 21, Wogan would regularly sneak into the studios behind them and set fire to their news scripts from the bottom.
Would I Lie to You? is on 8.30pm Wednesday BBC1
