The Saturday briefing
IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
I HAVE just finished watching Season 6 of Game Of Thrones and wondered how many gallons of fake blood were used during its production?
Anna Allen, Guildford, Surrey I CANNOT give a precise answer and it’s a little complicated as a good deal of the blood you see is computer graphics rather than real fake blood, but it was certainly thousands of gallons of the stuff, especially when you realise many of the gory scenes have to be filmed several times.
Some buckets of fake blood (which is mainly coloured sugar-water) are used for the squishy sound effects as well.
A general rule followed by some film-makers is that one person equals a gallon of blood, so mass battle scenes can have oceans of it.
Alexandre Aja, director of Piranha 3D, is on record as saying that 80,000 gallons of blood was used in its filming. I would not be surprised to hear that Game Of Thrones was not far behind. A few years ago, actress Emilia Clarke revealed that when taking a toilet break during filming of Game Of Thrones, the fake blood she was covered in led to her becoming stuck to the toilet seat.
WHY did both West Ham United and Arsenal football teams play in their away kits in the 1980 FA Cup final?
Matt Card, by email UNTIL the 1989-90 season, the rules stipulated that when the home kits of the two side were similar, both sides would wear their away kit.
Both West Ham and Arsenal at the time had mainly red shirts and white shorts. Nowadays when kits are similar, I believe they toss a coin to decide which can stick with their home kit. I BOUGHT a box of tamarind in a supermarket but when I got home I realised that there were no instructions as to how to use it in cooking. Please help. Jean Turner, Stanmore, Middlesex TAMARIND usually comes either as a compressed block or the pure tamarind pod.
If you have a compressed block, cut off a hunk and cover it with about an equal volume of boiling water. Leave for about 20 minutes then pass through a fine-grained sieve to separate the pulp from the fibres. Use the pulp as the recipe demands.
If you have the pods, you have to crack them open (soak in warm water if they don’t open easily), then scoop out the pulp and seeds. Soak these in boiling water until the pulp separates from the seeds, then pass the pulp through a sieve as above.
Most people then throw away the seeds but these may also be roasted and ground to produce a fine spicy powder to add to oriental dishes or even coffee. I FREQUENTLY watch ITV’s Judge Rinder and am confused as to what happens at the end of some cases when he states the size of the court’s award. Is the amount paid to the claimant out of some form of Government funds? Is the payout funded by ITV or is the money taken from the “loser”, which seems unlikely as they often have no funds?
The programme never makes it clear where the financial award comes from. Geoff Neville, Rushden,
Northamptonshire SINCE the “courtroom” is a TV studio and Judge Rinder isn’t really a judge (he’s a barrister) there’s no question of the judgment being legally binding but what is binding is the contract between the main participants and the production company.
They both agree to accept the findings of Judge Rinder and abide by them. The damages award is paid by the production company which also gives appearance fees to participants. Kitchen Originals red dotty kettle, £29. 0345 250 5502/oldrids.co.uk Making a cuppa will take no time at all thanks to this cute red and white stainless steel kettle. It holds three pints of water and comes with a one-year guarantee. A great choice for the traditional or modern kitchen. by WHY do our noses run more frequently in cold weather? Is there a scientific explanation? Chris Schuman, Reading AMAZINGLY, it’s not just because we catch more colds in winter (which is probably due to our spending longer in closed rooms with infectious people). The winter time dribbles are a result of our noses reacting to our inhaling cold air.
In order to protect our lungs, the nostrils produce more warming fluid. This is called “cold-induced rhinorrhea” and also goes by the name of “skier’s nose” after a report in 1991 found that 96 per cent of people at a ski resort suffered from it.
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