The Saturday briefing
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...
Q
When the Harry Potter films were shown in non-Englishspeaking countries, were they dubbed and did the same actor voice the films? Was it the same with Daniel Craig’s James Bond? Sarefa Firth, Horbury,West
Yorkshire
a
The Harry Potter books have been translated into more than 70 languages, with fans globally wanting to see his adventures on screen. Children’s films are more likely to be dubbed as younger viewers can’t keep up with subtitles.
In India, it was translated into Hindi, which is spoken by half the country’s population.A girl,Ami Trivedi, voiced the boy wizard for the first film, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, in 2001. Her brother, Karan, took over as Harry for the rest of the series.
In France, Philippe Peythieu voiced evil LordVoldemort – a change from his voiceover work as the French Homer Simpson.
Some voice actors have stayed with the character throughout. Kelyan Blanc voiced Harry in all the French versions but Manon Azem stepped down as the French voice of Hermione Granger in 2015, as she felt her voice had become too serious.
DietmarWunder has voiced Daniel Craig’s Bond in the German films since 2006. Each one takes him a month to match
Bond’s lips.
There are multilingual stars who dub their own films. Antonio Banderas voiced the title role in the animation Puss In Boots in English, Italian,
Latin American,
Spanish, Castilian Spanish and Catalan. Jodie Foster has dubbed her roles in French, and Sandra Bullock, whose mother was an opera singer in Nuremberg, has voiced her own German versions. Q
Chester-le-Street has a monument commemorating people who lost their lives in a flood in the 1700s. What happened? Judith Hunter, Houghton-leSpring, Tyne and Wear
a
In November 1771, the North East was hit by violent floods, with the banks of the Tyne, Tees andWear bursting.The Great Flood destroyed most bridges on the Tyne, including Newcastle’s 500-year-old Tyne bridge. In all, 25 died, hundreds of animals drowned, ships were wrecked and houses swept away following incessant rainfall over 24 hours.
The village of Bywell, 15 miles west of Newcastle, was entirely underwater and eight died, with records grimly stating:
“Dead bodies and coffins were torn out of churchyards and the living and the dead promiscuously clashed”.About nine bodies were washed ashore from theWear.
Chester-le-Street, on the River Wear in County Durham, did not escape the torrent. The collieries at North Biddick, Chater’s Haugh and Low Lambton filled with water and 30 horses died.Wealthy families “were now reduced to the most abject misery and want”.
But there were tales of survival, including a baby found floating on the Tyne in a wooden cradle.
Q
In the depths of British winter, on December 21, how many miles further away from the sun are we than on the summer solstice? Hazel Jane, Redcar, North
Yorkshire
a
On average, the Earth orbits the sun at a distance of 93 million miles. But the Earth’s orbit is slightly elliptical, like a stretched circle, with one end closer to the sun than the other.
We are closer to the sun, called the perihelion, about two weeks after the December solstice, at a distance of around 91.4 million miles.We are furthest away, the aphelion, two weeks after the summer solstice, when we’re
94.5 million miles. So we are now about three million miles closer to the sun than at the start of summer but the northern hemisphere is tilting furthest away from it. Because it is not our distance from the sun that causes our seasons – they are dictated by the tilt of the Earth’s axis, which is 23.5 degrees.
On the winter solstice, the North Pole tilts 23.5 degrees away from the sun, giving the northern hemisphere the shortest day.The South Pole points toward it, giving the southern hemisphere its longest day. It’s switched for the summer solstice, when we will be inclined towards it.
Stonehenge is oriented toward the winter solstice sunset, and Neolithic tomb Newgrange, in Ireland, aligns with its sunrise to “capture” the shortest day’s rays.
PLEASE SEND US YOUR INTRIGUING QUESTIONS ON ANY SUBJECT:
● By email: put “questions” in the subject line and send to kay.harrison@reachplc.com
● By post: to Any Questions, Daily Express, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AP
● Unfortunately we cannot reply individually, but we will feature the best questions on this page.
If you can’t remember the words to a favourite verse or song from yesteryear, send us a snippet and we’ll do our best to find all the wonderful words.