10 surprising facts about Newcastle as No Such Thing as a Fish celebrates 10th anniversary at Tyne Theatre

Newcastle got its name from the medieval fortress which still stands today
-Credit: (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)


Talking budgies, a unicycling university lecturer, and what Northumberland's miners used as lights (no, not the Geordie lamp) are among some of the more unusual facts about Newcastle that No Such Thing as a Fish have dug up ahead of their live show in Newcastle.

The popular podcast, which started as a spin-off of TV show QI, is undertaking a world tour to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year. On Wednesday, September 18, the four fact finders; Anna Ptazynski, James Harkin, Andrew Hunter-Murray, and Dan Schreiber will roll in to Newcastle with a new and unique show tailored to their Tyne Theatre audience.

The format of "fish" as it has been shortened to by fans, is extremely simple - each host picks a favourite fact of the week and the other riff of that. Attracting around one million listeners worldwide per episode, over the last decade its 500+ shows have racked up more than half a billion listens.

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However, its success is as big a surprise to its creators as anyone else, Anna Ptazynski told ChronicleLive. She said: "At least two of us, James (Harkin) and I are behind the scenes factual researchers who were very reluctantly dragged in front of the microphone ten years ago to bring out this little podcast.

"But I completely love it and hope it's because there's an enduring appeal in delivering people interesting information that they didn't know, and I don't think that's ever going to age. If you talk to a nuclear physicist, or something like that, they're so deep into it that it's hard to pull back and see what is exciting and interesting to someone who doesn't have their huge wealth of knowledge.

"We come in as inexpert amateurs, and just take an interest in everything. And since the world and universe are infinite, there's always more to discover and I think that's what keeps it interesting and fresh."

No two live shows are the same, and Anna said Tyne Theatre audience could expect "two big hours of nerdery" at the Tyne Theatre on Wednesday. She said: "We focus a little bit on the local area and there's a tonne of great information about Newcastle.

"It's a great place to play, but we pretty much love all live shows because wherever we go. We love our fans.

"We're the luckiest live performers in the world. The only heckles we get are people who are experts in some weird area of factual knowledge who will interrupt us to correct or slightly tweak a fact."

Newcastle is a particularly special tour date for Anna, who revealed she is a Newcastle United fan. She said: "When I was a kid, my mum's family were all from Manchester and big Man United fans, and I was just trying to be different from my brothers and my mum.

"A family friend took me to a Newcastle match and it was in the Kevin Keegan absolute massive glory days, and I thought this is the team for me. I've been with them ever since through the rough and the smooth."

However, being on tour means she won't have much time to stop and enjoy the city, as she and fellow presenter James Harkin are heading back to London to continue researching the next series of QI. Nevertheless, she has dug up 10 facts about Newcastle - one of which Chronicle readers over the last three years will be very familiar with!

L-R: Andrew Hunter-Murray, Anna Ptazysnki, Dan Schreiber and James Harkin of the No Such Thing as a Fish podcast.
L-R: Andrew Hunter-Murray, Anna Ptazysnki, Dan Schreiber and James Harkin of the No Such Thing as a Fish podcast. -Credit:Supplied

No Such Thing as a Fish's 10 facts about Newcastle

  • The 'New Castle' after which Newcastle was named was built in 1080, just five years after the first use of the word 'castle' in English.

  • The earliest English railways were known as ‘Newcastle roads’.

  • In the 1700s the rest of Britain took the p*** out of Newcastle, literally. It was the country’s biggest producer of urine for the dyeing industry.

  • Miners in 18th-century Northumberland took putrid fish skins down the mines to use as lights because they glow in the dark.

  • The world's first dog show happened in Newcastle in 1859. The winners were judged by Mr Jobling and Mr Brailsford, and were dogs belonging to both those men.

  • In the mid-19th century, ‘Newcastle hospitality’ referred the practice of not letting someone leave the room until they fell dead-drunk under the table.

  • In the 1950s, the Guinness World Record for ‘world’s most outstanding talking bird’ went to Sparkie Williams, a Geordie budgie with a repertoire of 583 words. A record of him acting the part of a gangster, ‘Sparkie the Fiddle’, sold 20,000 copies.

  • In 2007, Newcastle University professor Sam Shuster spent a year unicycling around the city and recording people’s responses. He found that 95% of women expressed encouragement or concern, while 75% of men attempted jokes, mostly about missing wheels or handlebars.

  • In 2021, a fan approached boxer Chris Eubank in Newcastle, asking him to sign his microwave because it was all he had with him. The microwave sold on eBay for £66,000.

  • The idea that ‘carrying coals to Newcastle’ is pointless is still factually accurate: the world’s largest coal exporting port is Newcastle, Australia.