A. Excellent question there from CaptCrummond. Michel Hollard was the French secret agent who ran the Reseau Agir and whose espionage and sabotage forced Germany to abandon plans to unleash 5,000
00:00 Mon 18th Jun 2001A. Good question from Potent. Thomas Carlyle, the essayist said in his 1837 book on the French Revolution: 'The song is a short one, and may perhaps serve to qualify our judgement of the sea-green
00:00 Wed 11th Apr 2001 A. Well you heard wrong. Papers about the Cabinet War Rooms are on the market, though. Q. Pardon me. What's all that about then A. This extraordinary collection of papers, detailing the
00:00 Wed 11th Apr 2001A. No. But Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, exiled heir to the Italian throne, hopes to return soon - after being banished for more than half a century. Q. Why was he banned A. When Italians voted
00:00 Mon 11th Jun 2001 A. Principally Thomas Jefferson - one of the great American heroes. He is regarded as a great inspiration in the States today. Bill Clinton's middle name is Jefferson and even Homer Simpson looks up
00:00 Mon 04th Jun 2001 A. Yes. All true. It seems that Kaiser Wilhelm II liked a bit of bondage and was blackmailed by a high-class prostitute. Q. This is the bad guy of the First World War A. Indeed. One biography
00:00 Mon 04th Jun 2001 Statue of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, EgyptA. You are probably thinking of Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1818 poem Ozymandias, which contains the splendid lines: And on the pedestal these words appear:
00:00 Mon 04th Jun 2001A. No. But they both have interesting origins to their names. Q. And I expect you want me to ask you what they are A. Yes please. Q. Oh all right then. What are the interesting origins A. I'm
00:00 Mon 28th May 2001A. If you discount football hooliganism and anarchists' May Day riots, the answer is 1838 at Bossenden Wood, near Faversham, Kent. Q. Go on. A. It all surrounded a self-styled Messiah called John
00:00 Mon 28th May 2001A. Legend says there was one called Popess Joan. History says it's just a legend. There are lots of versions of it. I expect you want to hear 'em Q. Too right. A. Here goes. In the 11th Century,
00:00 Mon 28th May 2001 A. They were workers incensed by the use of more machinery and fewer skilled tradesmen. So they set about breaking the machinery. The name has stuck to anyone who opposes new technology. Q. Why
00:00 Mon 21st May 2001 A. Aah, a topical question. It's 75 years since it ended. Put in a nutshell, it was a national strike by workers in Britain's major industries, lasting from 3 to 12 May, 1926. It began when the
00:00 Mon 21st May 2001 A. The unfortunate premier was Spencer Perceval, a Tory. Q. What happened A. Perceval was shot as he passed through the lobby of the House of Commons by John Bellingham on 11 May, 1812. He was
00:00 Mon 21st May 2001A. Gory question there from mehy0823. Answer: 26 May, 1868, at Newgate, London. The hangman's victim was Michael Barrett, the Fenian convicted of bombing Clerkenwell Prison, central London. Q.
00:00 Mon 14th May 2001 A. This is a sad story of religion, power and politics. I shall try to unravel it for the questioner, Tangle. First, two definitions. A Templar, sometimes called a Knight Templar, was a member of a
00:00 Mon 14th May 2001 A. Tricky one there from Tangle. There are many superstitions about shoes. Never put them on the table; never put them on the bed - both mean there will be a death in the family. Don't leave shoes
00:00 Mon 14th May 2001 A. I see what you're getting at. This has been Britain's wettest spring since records began and the phrase since records began is being bandied about a bit. Short answer: 1766 or thereabouts. Q.
00:00 Mon 07th May 2001 A. Not strictly true - but some bizarre Nazi flying ideas have just been revealed in a book. It's called Luftwaffe Secret Projects - Strategic Bombers 1935-1945.* Q. Such as A. There's a
00:00 Mon 07th May 2001 A. Put simply, a spat between the young Queen Victoria and her Prime Minister, Robert Peel, over the politics of her staff. Q. More please. A. From her accession in 1837 until 1839 Lord
00:00 Mon 07th May 2001A. This controversial question was posed by modge. jbeputnam thought thre war was often forgotten because it wasn't really relevant to most of the world. Catman says: 'The role of British troops as
00:00 Mon 30th Apr 2001
