- Hello, I'm Jack Whitehall and this is a quiz game
that I like to call Fact or Fiction.
Where we are going to test Michael Whitehall's knowledge
of his favorite decade, the 1940s.
When you were born.
- I was born in 1940, yes. - Yeah.
- I make no secret of that.
- No.
(film whirring)
- Start the clock.
- Okay.
- That's not actually the clock for the game,
it's just an old clock.
- No, and it's a stopped clock anyway. (laughs)
- First question, you know, just to warm you up.
Fact or fiction? My birthday is July the seventh,
which makes me a Cancer zodiac sign.
- Fact.
- Okay, good. So you've got a gauge of how the game works.
- It's not really fact or fiction, it's true or false.
Fact or fiction suggests that it's some sort of a book-
- It could have been true or false,
but I've said fact or fiction, so...
- Right. Just to give it a fancy name really.
- Yes. Your first actual question.. Fact or fiction?
The origins of your birthplace,
the modern name of Exeter is a development of the old
English name Escanceaster.
- It's correct.
- That's not the game.
- What?
- It's not "correct."
- Well it's-it's a fact.
- Yes.
(chime)
- Yeah, it's a fact. Is that correct?
- Yes, can you stop using synonyms
for how you do the answers?
- Yes. - Correct, it's a fact.
Because of the war, sometimes carrots were used
instead of sugar to sweeten dishes.
- Because the rationing on sugar was so terrible.
So I would say, fact.
- It is indeed a fact.
(chime)
- Yeah, thank you.
- Following the end of World War II in 1945,
Heathrow Airport opened in 1949 as London's main airport.
Fact or fiction?
- No, that was bullocks.
- So simple it's "fact" or "fiction."
- Right.
- Not "fact" or "no, that was bullocks."
- Fiction, then.
- Fiction.
- Yeah. Is that correct?
- It is fact or fiction.
- Yes, but are you now going to tell me whether my answer
- Yes!
was correct.
- Yes. It was fiction.
- [Mum] Jack, I think you need to just relax a bit because
he's getting quite aggravat-
- We can't have a drinks break in the quiz.
- Well, I think he- jus- just-
- What is this? It's a very heavy glass.
- [Mum] It's a tonic water. Nice large tonic water.
- This has gin in it, fact or fiction?
(laughs)
- [Mum] Fiction.
- Fact, I'd say.
- Yeah, definitely fact.
- Right? Should we keep on with this now?
- I'm keeping it snappy.
- Master of Facts.
- We've been going for...no minutes.
- I've told you that clock is broken.
- It's not broken. It's right twice a day.
(heavy sigh)
- The most memorable joyous event of the decade was the 1947
royal wedding of the Queen, then Princess, Elizabeth,
to Prince Philip of Greece.
- I mean, everybody knows that Prince Philip
and our current Queen got married in 1947.
Who is- who's setting these questions?
- I am.
- I mean, you would have to be a complete imbecile.
- It's just one word. You just say "fact"
rather than attacking me
- Oh, okay. Fact, then.
- about the quality of my questions.
- Let's have some more difficult questions, shall we?
- During the war in the 1940s,
jazz split into two contrasting musical orientations:
modern jazz, known initially as bebop
or traditional jazz 'Revivalism.'
- As a jazz lover, I can say without a shadow of a doubt
that that is factual.
Because I adored what became modern jazz,
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, et cetera, et cetera.
- Who is he?
- What, you've never heard of Miles Davis?
- Never heard of et cetera, et cetera.
(heavy sigh)
- Fact or fiction? In the late '40s, men would visit
Savile Row for a Henry Poole style suit?
- That's not correct.
- That is not correct, fiction.
Savile Row in the '40's was known
for their Edwardian style suits.
- Yes, exactly, but Henry Poole was a very good tailor.
- Did you know him?
- I did know him. I have bought suits from him,
but the problem with a Henry Poole suit
is they're fucking expensive.
Working for Netflix isn't going to make you enough money
to have a Henry Poole suit, I can tell you.
- Hm.
The film "The Third Man" was released in 1948-
- Yeah, good film.
- That's not-
- Yeah.
- Okay, "The Third Man" was released in 1948
and won best film at the Academy Awards
and the British Film Academy Awards.
- It had a amazing theme tune that went like this
(hums tune)
and it was done on the zither.
Very popular commercial film.
- We're so far away from the answer that you gave,
- But-
- I've forgotten whether you said "fact" or "fiction."
- Uh, it's fiction, not the film,
the film, I think, was based loosely on fact.
- Fact or fiction? In the '40s a pound was
worth 20 shillings and each shilling
was worth a dozen pennies.
- Yes. Yeah.
- Not "Yes. Yeah."
- Yes, of course. That's not really a question.
- What do you say?
- I'd say, um, fact.
- Yes.
Okay, last question. Let's see whether you can grasp-
- All right, very easy, these questions.
- Fact or fiction? The former
Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave his Iron Curtain
speech in 1947?
- No, it was a great speech, the Iron Curtain speech.
- No, it- it was fact or fiction?
- 1947 is exactly-
- No.
- Wrong.
(laughs)
- Fiction, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, completely.
- Join us next time when I'll be testing him
on his knowledge of the naughties, which I think
will not be quite as good.
Some Spice Girls questions coming your way.
(pop music)
Zig-a-zig ah.
Thanks for joining us on this episode of
Fiction or-
- Correct.
- No.
- What?
(big band music)