The Trigger for a top joke
QUESTION Is Trigger’s Rodney/Dave ongoing joke the longest in sitcom?
ONLY Fools And Horses was a John Sullivan–penned sitcom that followed the lives of the wheeler- dealing Trotter brothers, Del Boy and Rodney.
The show was broadcast on BBC1 from 1981 to 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials aired until 2003, a total of 64 episodes and 16 specials in a 22-year run.
One of the most prominent supporting characters was lugubrious road-sweeper Trigger (played by Roger Lloyd Pack), so called because he looked like a horse. Throughout the series, Trigger called Rodney ‘Dave’ with no explanation other than that’s what he thinks his name is.
In one episode, when discussing Del Boy and Raquel’s unborn child with Mike the barman, Trigger suggests if it is a boy, they will ‘name it Rodney, after Dave’.
Given Only Fools And Horses’ epic run, there aren’t many sitcoms that could compete for the title for show with the longest running joke.
However, a good candidate would be the Rob Grant and Doug Naylor sci-fi series Red Dwarf (12 series, 69 episodes). It was first aired on BBC2 between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009.
The show features a series of running gags, notably Dave Lister’s untidiness, the sarcastic pronouncements of the spaceship’s computer Holly and Rimmer’s ridiculously elaborate salute.
The U.S. animation The Simpsons is another candidate. Each episode begins with the couch gag, a visual joke in the credits that has been running continuously for 621 of 622 episodes over 29 series beginning in 1989.
It first appeared in the second episode, Bart The Genius. When the family sits on the couch, Bart is squeezed off and pops up into the air. During the shot of the TV set after the couch shot, Bart is seen falling back in front of the TV.
While the couch gag changes most weeks, this is not always the case. The most-used couch gag is the circus line, first used in Lisa’s First Word.
This had the Simpson family forming a chorus line with a group of dancers. The living room background makes way to reveal unicyclists and elephants in a large production number.
This has been used eight times to date; it is useful to make up time if an episode is in danger of being too short!
Another series that had long-running gags was The Vicar Of Dibley (20 episodes from 1994 to 2007). Alice’s abject failure to get the joke told at the end of each episode by the Rev Geraldine Granger was priceless, as were Jim’s pronouncements of: ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, yes.’
Len Wilson, Nottingham.
QUESTION What is the oldest man-made satellite still in orbit?
VANGUARD 1 is the oldest satellite still orbiting the Earth.
It was designed to test the launch capabilities of a three- stage launch vehicle and the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit.
It was also used to obtain geodetic measurements through orbit analysis.
Vanguard 1 was launched on March 17, 1958, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the fourth artificial Earth orbital satellite launched ( after Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 and Explorer 1) and the first to use solar cell power.
It might be considered the oldest operational satellite, in that its solar panels are still functioning, yet it is no longer performing any duties.
The oldest still operational satellite is a low- budget amateur radio satellite AMSAT-OSCAR 7.
Launched on November 15, 1974, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, OSCAR 7 has operational HF/VHF/UHF trans- ponders, which allows communication over distances of up to 9,000 km with simple ground station equipment.
While its batteries are dead, the solar cells are functioning, so it can be contacted during sunlit times.
AMSAT-OSCAR 7’s survival is something of a miracle. The satellite had been reliably used by the amateur radio community worldwide from just after launch until June 1981 when its batteries are thought to have short-circuited.
In July 2002, a UK amateur radio enthusiast (callsign: G4CUO) picked up familiar signals from the Oscar-7 satellite.
The restoration of service is thought to have been the result of it becoming an open circuit (perhaps caused by thermal extremes), permitting the solar panels to provide power to the on-board repeaters.
Simon Dann, Nuneaton, Warks.
QUESTION How far would the white cliffs of Dover have to erode not to be white?
THE earlier answer reminded me of an incident in 1969 when I was working for a company that manufactured turbine generator plant for power stations.
I was at that time contracted to work on the overhaul of a turbine at Bowater’s Northfleet paper mill.
I needed some chalk to mark off some bolts I was tightening, so I asked one of Bowater’s men who were working with us where I might get some. I remember well the smile on his face as he said to follow him and he would show me.
We walked through the mill and down some steps into a basement that was used for storage. He pointed to the wall and said: ‘Help yourself!’
I found this puzzling until on closer inspection I realised that, under years of accumulated grime, the walls were pure chalk hewn out to form the basement.
I knocked a large chunk off and we went back to work. I had that piece of chalk in my tool box for quite a while and I had a little smile to myself any time I used it, thinking of the surprising way I came about it.
I don’t think art and stationery shops would have done much trade in chalk in that area. John Gregson, Hexham.
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