WTF: Weekly trivia file

• 'I was called Worzel at school because I had lots of blonde hair.' Tim Vine

• Jack Whitehall appears in alongside David Suchet in the BBC's new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Decline And Fall. But it's not the first time they have worked together as the comic was once Suchet's runner. 'That was one of my first jobs actually; get him tea and coffee,' he admits.

• Meanwhile, he has revealed the oddest gift he ever got from a 'fan': a knitted naked doll of himself with oversized genitalia. A self-proclaimed witch had the likeness sent to him at a theatre he was appearing at. 'It's odd to arrive in your dressing room and find that staring back at you,' Whitehall told the Radio Times. 'But it was proportionally complimentary.'

• Hugh Dennis says he's big in Zimbabwe… because they still run My Hero there.

• Back in October, British-based Canadian comic John Hastings was playing the Los Angeles Comedy Store where Dennis Rodman heckled him from the audience. Needless to say it was a bizarre encounter, with the former basketball ace rambling about how he appreciated all the comedians dealing with him, and Hastings delivering the putdown: 'At least I wasn't put in a Porta Potty by Macho Man Randy Savage in 99'. It was captured on audio and now Hastings has had the exchange made into an animation. This is how it went down:

• Red Dwarf fans with deep pockets can get themselves their very own version of Starbug. The model is an exact replica of the one that was used for the crash scene in the Twentica episode of Red Dwarf XI. The 85cm model used in filming had been 3D-printed by specialists Voxeljet from the main production model, and now they have created another, which has been signed by the cast and put up for auction for Comic Relief. Bidding – here – currently stands at £3,500. And you can see how the Starbug was made here.

• Seann Walsh has got himself a nose stud

• A pint of Normal, please! Henry Normal is getting his own beer. The comedy writer and producer's namesake brew, a golden mild ale, will be in pubs in his native Nottingham during the city's poetry festival next month. The co-founder of the Baby Cow production company, who has now returned to his poetry roots, visited Castle Rock Brewery to help start the process this week.

• Sharon Horgan features on the new Charlatans album after frontman Tim Burgess said her Channel 4 comedy Catastrophe inspired much of his new album, Different Days. She provides backing vocals on the title track – which also has Johnny Marr on guitar.

• Moby is such a fan of Father Ted that he once showed up at a Q&A in New York, attended by about 40 people, to ask 'all these nerdy questions' about the sitcom, Ardal O'Hanlon has recalled on Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled. The musician even invited the comic to perform My Lovely Horse as his warm-up in front of 80,000 people at Slane Castle in 2001. O'Hanlon agreed, but said that he wouldn't miss the Ireland vs. Netherlands football match. So Moby sent a helicopter to Dublin for him. Although the comic remembers swooping in over the castle by air, he was that on stage 'the energy [was] so weird that I went blind and I went deaf momentarily and I have no memory of the actual experience'.

• Russell Howard's audience in Aberdeen sang him 'Happy Birthday' as he took to the stage last night, as he turned 37.

Tweets of the week

My girlfriend and I met when she saw my name in the small print of a contract.

She thought I was a catch.

— Darren Walsh (@DarrenWalshPuns) March 19, 2017

You can say what you want about Hitler but you have to remember, he shot Hitler.

— Lisa (@lisagravesart) March 21, 2017

Spotted at Temple tube station this morning. I think they speak for all of us. pic.twitter.com/cx36jxGNuA

— Kerry Jean Lister 💋 (@kerryjeanlister) March 23, 2017

Published: 24 Mar 2017