American Reacts to Top 10 Fictional Brits Everyone Thinks Are Real!

Today we delve into the world of fiction and folklore! These are the top ten fictional Brits that have captured the imaginations of people around the world while fooling some into thinking they are actual people!
Original Video: • Top 10 Fictional Brits...
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#FictionalBrits #MythVsReality #PopCultureIcons

[@CravingBeer]

I was amazed to find out that Albert Einstein was a real person. I always thought he was a theoretical physicist.

[@andyonions7864]

He was a relative.

[@petersmithm9]

I was going to laugh but then I remembered the gravity of the situation.

[@WinstonSmith19847]

Well that's your theory.

[@nolajoy7759]

😅 ​@@WinstonSmith19847

[@TheGreatLordDufus]

I suppose you are uncertain if Heisenberg existed too

[@nicksykes4575]

JJ, you're looking at the modern Sherwood Forest, which is a tiny, tiny fraction of what it was in the 1200s. See if you can find a map of it in the day, when it covered hundreds of square miles.

[@tizzieblack3384]

Also people either stayed in their own villages or hamlets, or walked if they had no transport. NB the Canterbury Tales. Your own US history shows how far people were willing to travel.

[@RalphWigg1]

The nearest scholars have got to ratify the Robin Hood legend strongly suggests Robin's stomping ground to be in the forests surrounding Wakefield in Yorkshire.

[@scottneil1187]

​@@RalphWigg1We've always known where he's from. Loxley in South Yorkshire.

[@happinesstan]

@@RalphWigg1 I would imagine there were many people like Robin Hood, throughout the country.

[@RalphWigg1]

@@happinesstanThere were. The peasantry in those days, the 12th & 13th centuries, were so poor that the menfolk were forced to steal & poach to feed their families. Once discovered they would invariably escape to the relative safety of the huge swathes of forest that covered much of the land.

[@corringhamdepot4434]

Robert Newton used an exaggerated version of his natural West Country accent when he played Long John Silver. This then became the accepted accent for most pirates portrayed on screen.

[@JJLAReacts]

Oooooh, so that's where that comes from?! Amazing!

[@corringhamdepot4434]

@@JJLAReacts The West Country Accent was also featured in Hot Fuzz. As used by the eccentric gun collector.

[@BadMoonandStars]

Arr Jim Lad!

[@rosseveritt8250]

@JJLAReacts. King Arthur is pure fiction. It comes from the book Morte D’ Arthur. Said to be written to help motivate the Saxons against the Norman conquerors. I live a short journey from Tintagel, the fabled castle of Arthur. It was a trading settlement for Duke Richard of Kernow (Cornwall) and his ‘holiday home.’ His seat was at Dunheved Castle which is now Launceston. There are lots of videos about Tintagel and it’s importance as a trading settlement. Maybe worth a look. 😊

[@stewedfishproductions9554]

​@@BadMoonandStars I came here to say something similar... "Ah! Jim lad, you beat me to it" - 😂😂😂

[@nolajoy7759]

Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) is Australian and she (the character)is the 'housewife superstar' from Moonee Ponds in Victoria... not the UK! She once threw me a gladioli and it hit me in the face 😅

[@garyscholes9567]

No 'WatchMojo' vid would be complete without at least one howling inaccuracy :D . Does no-one fact-check these things?

[@continental_drift]

You were late to the show, weren't you?

[@brigidsingleton1596]

Was... Barry is now deceased.

[@nolajoy7759]

​@@brigidsingleton1596yes..should have said was 😢

[@Bumphuk]

@@garyscholes9567 I have a theory about this sort of thing, spelling mistakes and historical inaccuracies lead to more people commenting or reacting. "Engagements" are a big part of the whole popularity metric that gets videos and social media posts trending.

[@Shoomer1988]

I have a theory that Miss Marple was the world's most prolific serial killer. Every time she showed up somebody died.

[@bwilson5401]

How many innocent people were sent to the gallows because of that evil old hag.

[@Gismo-ih7gi]

OMG I've been saying this for years. Jessica fletcher has also killed hundreds but nobody noticed 😂

[@Shoomer1988]

@@Gismo-ih7gi Yep, and pinning the blame on someone else when they came to "investigate". Clever.

[@petersmithm9]

She had a week end cottage in Midsomer. Her neighbours were the Barnabys.

[@laserpanda94]

If I saw Jessica Fletcher checking in to a hotel I would be checking out immediately.

[@user-ur7zs8uj5x]

Interestingly, Sherlock Holmes was based on a real person, namely Dr. Joseph Bell who was a professor of Edinburgh Medical School

[@wizzerdsuntzu]

"baded

[@insidiousbeatz48]

You mis calculated on your sherwoond forrest/ Nottingham calculation. Sherwood Forest in England covers an area of about four hundred and twenty acres. Back in the time of Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest was much larger, spanning several thousand acres. It was a vast woodland covering a significant portion of Nottinghamshire.

[@weejackrussell]

It went beyond Notts, into Derbyshire and parts of what is now South Yorkshire. Robin of Loxley came from Loxley which is in Sheffield in Yorkshire and according to some historians this fell within the Nottingham Forest area. People do not know whether Robin Hood existed or not but it is likely that the legend is based on some level of fact. Loxley is in Yorkshire and that's why the airport that was in Doncaster was called the Robin Hood Airport when it first opened.

[@RabidJohn]

...and Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, covering a massive area as far north as Barnsley, which is where Little John came from. I strongly suspect the Robin Hood tales might be a romanticised version of the harrying of the North. That huge forest would have been an ideal hideout for the dispossessed Anglo-Saxon refugees the Normans called 'outlaws'.

[@sianneish]

There's also a Loxley in Warwickshire

[@TheRealRedAce]

Which Robin Hood are we talking about? There seem to have been several who used that name, like the one who had a last stand on Hood Hill below Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire. In fact most mediaeval characters who wish to remain anonymous used the name Robin, eg the rebel Robin of Redesdale in the Wars of the Roses, who we know to have probably been Sir John Conyers.

[@mattm8870]

@@weejackrussell Nope Sherwood Forest is entirely in Nottingham. The thing is there are stories that put Robin Hood else where like in Barnsdale Forest near Doncaster. As the name it clearly from robber in a hood.

[@vonfluffinstuff5796]

In London you can visit 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes’s house. It’s a wonderful museum for this fictional character and it shows some of the letters that you were talking about. But let’s not forget the residence of the world’s greatest secret agent who lives in the post box directly outside 221B Baker Street….. Danger Mouse.

[@Medusa13579]

I bloody love Danger Mouse and Penfold !! ❤

[@annamae859]

The Sherlock Holmes museum is at the fictional address of 221b Baker Street wedged between nos. 237 & 241, Danger Mouse's secret hideout is 'near' 221b Baker Street, but is actually on the corner of Melcombe Street. Probably of more interest to JJ is the opposite end of Melcombe Street, just off Melcombe Place is Boston Place and Marylebone station where the opening scenes of A Hard Days Night were filmed,

[@Isleofskye]

I once visited "Rose" at 38 Baker Street around 40 years ago and paid my £10 and found out she was very real...as did her next "client"/"punter". I never went back but, now, "Melissa" around the corner was worth many return visits...

[@bruffmeister1]

Good Grief Penfold 😂

[@Medusa13579]

@@bruffmeister1 " Crumbs, you beat me to it"! 😊

[@shmupperfromhell]

Seriously who the fek ever thought Dame Edna was real ^^ My grandad did a great impression where he wore my grandmas skirt and blouse and danced and... wait

[@crocsmart5115]

Dame Edna introduced herself as just a housewife from Melbourne!!! Strewth cobber 🤦‍♂️

[@HankD13]

Sherwood Forest today is a tiny shadow of what it was, which was vast. Most of Britain was covered with dense forest, but longer - we turned it in ships!

[@wizzerdsuntzu]

I shall have to remember the underpants and pencils, when the war starts! Not to forget saying "Wibble"!

[@ThornyLittleFlower]

"Just look at how he has those pencils in his nose with such commitment!" Mr. Rowan Atkinson has received numerous prestigious accolades throughout his career, and this particular recognition stands out as one of the most significant and esteemed honors ever bestowed upon him.😂

[@SarahH-ns6ly]

Dame Edna: Not real, also not British! She was famously from the suburb of Moonee Ponds in Melbourne.

[@DEAN-kx2ms]

Sherwood Forest used to (in the time when king john was on the throne) cover an area from Leeds to Northampton which is around 140 miles

[@lynnhamps7052]

Hilariously, when my youngest son was two, Dame Edna came onto the telly and my son pointed and declared 'Nanny!'..lol...he wasn't far wrong!! 😁✌🇬🇧

[@space1999]

There are things drawn from the wars of the Roses, even the main names!! War of the roses was the lancasters vs the Yorks, game of thrones was lannisters vs starks! Also, the red wedding was based on a similar event in Scottish history...

[@gabbymcclymont3563]

Joan Hicks was the best Miss Marple ever. Hercule was based on a doctor Christie worked with during WW1.

[@Medusa13579]

Agatha Christie based the character of Miss. Marple on Joan Hickson

[@annicecooper8105]

She was the quintessential Miss Marple. She looked and acted exactly like Agatha described her.

[@keithalanbaker535]

A survey was carried out recently and 23% of British teenagers when asked thought that Winston Churchill was a fictional character

[@NuWhoSucks]

Robert Newton was amazing as Long John Silver, he was born for the role.

[@AnneDowson-vp8lg]

Some scholars do believe there is some truth in the Arthur legend. Arthur, meaning 'bear' was a nickname. The current most plausible candidate is 5th century chieftain named Owein Dantgwyn. (Owein of the white teeth), Prince of Powys, Wales. His father was called Einion Yrthr (Uther). They were descended from a tribe who moved from Scotland , and are connected to the Edinburgh area. The hill overlooking Edinburgh is called Arthur's Seat. Owein was overthrown and killed by his own nephew, Maelgwm. (Mordred?). Camelot may have been Iconium (modern day Wroxeter). But Colchester was known as Camulodunum in Roman times. Some of the tales of Arthur may have been written by French men, but don't forget that many Britons escaped to Armorica in Gaul when the Saxons invaded, which is why it became known as Brittany (Little Britain). It's a fascinating topic. I was going to say something about Robin Hood, but I think I've gone on long enough. These are real legends, not made up by an author like Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin. (Not the Beatles producer).

[@DekkardBryon]

The French Connection (ha ha) came a lot later and has nothing to do with the original Arthurian tales. BTW: gog to google translate abd choose English to Welsh, then in the English box type 'Bear' to see what it's translated to.

[@jamesdignanmusic2765]

@@DekkardBryon No surprising - it's Arctos in ancient Greek and will have spread across the continent in evolved forms.

[@jamesdignanmusic2765]

Don't forget the city and old county of Carmarthen ("Merthin's Castle") and the suggested link between the names Merthin and Merlin.

[@DekkardBryon]

@@jamesdignanmusic2765 In google translate, enter Of the Bear and see the result.

[@wessexdruid7598]

Game of Thrones was based on the Wars of the Roses. But written by an American.

[@eddisstreet]

I certainly believe the Knights that say Ni are real

[@shkeen57]

Kit Harrington's ancestors were Robert Catesbury and John Harrington were part of The Gunpowder Plot.

[@danowen79]

Dame Edna isn’t a Brit. 😂 Great research, Watch Mojo

[@bwilson5401]

But she made her name here.I think she started out on the Frost show.She was supposed to be an Aussie housewife with British pretentions.

[@danowen79]

@@bwilson5401 Still not a fictional Brit. She’s a fictional Australian.

[@neuralwarp]

​@@bwilson5401 No she was already famous in Australia.

[@kimwilson3863]

Just to let you know Direwolves did exist. Latin name; Aenocyon Dirus. Alive during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene epoch. 🤔

[@nickk6518]

The character of Long John Silver was, as the narrator suggests, based on a real person - the English writer and poet, William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), who is probably most famous now for his poem 'Invictus,' which Nelson Mandela cited as inspiration whilst he was in prison in South Africa. Henley was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 12 and whilst under the care of Jospeh Lister at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was visited by Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he became a long-time friend. As a consequence of the tuberculosis, Henley's lower left leg was amputated and he was given a wooden leg. Thus was Stevenson inspired to create the one-legged character of Long John Silver. Henley was also well-acquainted with H.G. Wells and J.M. Barrie and the character of Wendy in Peter Pan is based on Henley's daughter, Margaret Henley, who had a speech impediment such that when she tried to address J.M. Barrie, it sounded like 'Wendy' rather than Barrie. Henley lived the last 18 months of his life in Woking, which was where H. G. Wells had prviously lived for 18 months. When Henley died in 1903 at Woking a special train came down from London with mourners including J. M. Barrie and H. G. Wells. The service took place at Brookwood Cemetery and Henley was subsequently cremated at the Woking Crematorium (where, years later, the Dorset author Thomas Hardy was also cremated). The narrator was not entirely accurate as far as Spinal Tap was concerned, as Christopher Guest is British-American and is better known (now) as Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest, who holds a hereditary peerage in the House of Lords. His father was Peter Haden-Guest, a British United Nations diplomat, who later became the 4th Baron Haden-Guest. Christopher Haden Guest has been married to Jamie Lee Curtis for over 40 years and is therefore otherwise known as Lady Haden-Guest!

[@LastEuropaKiss]

Christopher Guest from Spinal Tap, though born in New York, is actually Lord Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest, so a British Lord.

[@nicksykes4575]

Couple of fun facts, the Inn at the beginning of Treasure Island, "The Admiral Benbow" is real and still open to customers. There's another Admiral Benbow pub in my home town, where I used to drink, It's the birthplace of the real Admiral John Benbow, and is as far away from the sea as you can get in the UK! Kit Harrington (John Snow), was in a production about the Gun Powder Plot, of 1605. I think he played the man best remembered for the plot, Guy Fawkes,. One of the ringleaders was actually an ancestor of his called John Harrington.

[@PHDarren]

06:20 that Miss Marple (Joan Hickson) was Agatha Christies own choice to play Miss Marple, but she did after Christies had died.

[@pinkpolly88]

Shouldn't laugh at people thinking fictional characters are real - some people build their whole lives around thinking god and Jesus are real...

[@TukikoTroy]

Not mention a multi-billion pound business.

[@theprophet9429]

Many atheists concede Jesus was probably real, it’s just a question of him being who he claimed to be - that’s the tough part to buy.

[@carolinemcnulty6169]

So, you're claiming Doctor Who and the Daleks ad the Cybermen aren't real either?

[@TukikoTroy]

@@carolinemcnulty6169 Where did anyone say that?

[@pinkpolly88]

@@carolinemcnulty6169 - now you're just being ridiculous. Of course they are.

[@nolongerlistless]

The Wars (plural) of the Roses - they continued on and off down the generations!

[@rebeccablackburn9487]

They only lasted for about 100 years and weren't refered to as "the wars of the roses" until the 1800s. The time they were actually happening they were called "the cousins war" because so many people involved were related.

[@wiliammound7942]

Never realised that so many people could be so gullible

[@Tiamat951]

The tales of Robin Hood are attributed to several men of the period. The Legend of King Arthur is believed to have been adapted by King William the Bloody, AKA William the Bastard, AKA William the Conquer, to give legitimacy to his claim on the British throne as he claimed to be a descendent of Arthur. (Its origin is speculated about, but unknown.) Many of these tales have been changed and adapted through the years, making it hard to find their true origins.

[@JacknVictor]

It doesn't help that there's a plaque up on "his" Baker street apartment flat, erected in honour of Sherlock Holmes, which is normally only put in place as a marker for real famous people on properties they lived in or were born in or attended at some point in their history.

[@stewedfishproductions9554]

The same as the Robin Hood statues for promoting Nottingham tourism... Just saying. 😅😅😅

[@JacknVictor]

@@stewedfishproductions9554 at least there was (sort of) a Robin Hood, as, although most of the tales about him were made up, they were based on , possibly, an amalgamation of, the exploits of actual real people, combined over the years in to the one person, Robin. So it does have a tiny bit of truth hidden in their somewhere. It's basically olden days entertainment, their equivalent of watching a Movie in a cinema, they would probably sit around of a night, round a campfire in the village and listen to collective tales, and their would be a hero and a villain, the stories would come from a few sources, so e if them first hand knowledge of real people, buts would get added here and there, and over a few hundred years after many retellings these stories to those villages, would be seen as factual, whether they were or weren't. Then we get to the modern era, and those stories get disneyfied and rumoured as fact because it brings in the tourists etc as a kid growing up learning about robin hood in junior school, I don't remember being told specifically that he was real, but I do know we weren't told that he was fictional either. But yeah, being on the top deck if a bus going down baker street and seeing that sign up made me laugh! I will say, that in smaller writing it does state he was fictional and that this was the flat be would of lived in bad he been real, but again in such small writing compared to the rest of it stating he lived there between xx date and xx date. Again all to get tourists in.

[@chriscoles8092]

There's one for Danger Mouse on a pillarbox in London

[@marktubeie07]

Now there is a 'JJLA' t-shirt idea right there - _'Paul McCartney is a psychic medium'_

[@zeeox]

Sherwood Forest isn't a singular point on a map you know... it's an area (clue's in the title!). It used to cover a quarter of the entire county of Nottinghamshire, and would therefore, of old, have actually technically started (or finished!) WITHIN the boundaries of the modern day city limits of Nottingham itself. That 7.5 hour walk is to the more recently defined - and far smaller - Sherwood Forest Country Park & National Nature Reserve, which, admittedly, does contain the wonderfully ancient Major Oak!

[@05Rudey]

My biggest shock was that the Spinal Tap members are American pretending to be British, they had done the most convincing British accents, similar to that of the English rock bands of the 70's and 80's (that all seem to come from Birmingham) that I have ever heard.

[@MikePhillips-pl6ov]

Their brilliantly done accents are London/East London/Estuary English. That's my area, and they convinced me when I first saw the film! Whilst a lot of great 1970s hard rock and metal bands did come out of Birmingham and the Midlands (Half of Led Zeppelin, plus Black Sabbath, Slade, Judas Priest), Spinal Tap are based on a number of 1980s metal bands. Those bands were from all over but primarily Iron Maiden (London) and Yorkshire (Def Leppard, Saxon) I can't remember exactly, but I seem to recall reading that some of the Spinal Tap crew went on tour with Saxon to get some ideas. There's at least a couple of things in the film they got from seeing Saxon, but of course a lot of the other things were based on real things/incidents that really happened to other bands (and exaggerated for the film!) These were some of the best English/London accents I've ever heard done in a movie by US actors.

[@bernadetteshields3726]

This makes me realise how gullible people really are 😂

[@martinwoollett8468]

that's obvious, they believe in gods and vote for trump. That takes some double think.

[@docksider]

Some Arthurian stories are in the Mabinogion - a collection of early medieval Welsh stories.

[@GuitarsAreHard]

Robin Hood: I grew up in Mansfield / Forest Town, just a few miles from the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre. In medieval times, Sherwood Forest covered a large part of the east midlands, so would have been just outside of Nottingham, and all around it. We've subsequently chopped loads of the trees down because people forget that there was basically a 'wooden age' when wood was the main material of civilization - from fires to ships to houses. Loads of it is now open farming land, which it wasn't back then. By the way, the 'castle' of Nottingham is now a 17th century French style villa, which really disappoints tourists, especially just after the two RH films were released. Last time I visited the 'castle' I bumped into the actor Brian Glover, who played Andrews, the prison governor in Aliens 3. Small world. 🙂 (He died 26+ years ago...)

[@sailingayoyo]

I expect Sherwood Forest was bigger back then.

[@Isleofskye]

Massively so.

[@user-px3sw2up4p]

Dear JJ in the 12th century Sherwood Forest was immense so would have been a lot nearer Nottingham than it is today.

[@trollied]

Sherwood itself is only a few miles from Nottingham city centre. The forest used to extend all the way there, but has obviously been destroyed over the years due to building roads, houses etc.

[@sianneish]

It was mainly down to Henry VIII wanting a more superior navy than the French and Spanish. But house building etc probably did play a part too. Plus a lot of the forests would have joined with each other as well.

[@scalymember]

Sherwood Forest and other forests are generally taken to have been much larger, such forests being felled in Tudor times. Henry VIII wanted a new navy...a quick check says Sherwood extended to Worksop nr Sheffield.

[@alpinenewtplaysgames4509]

Re Eleanor Rigby, try Googling your own name, you'll find loads. I had two fictional characters, a historical author, a musician from the 70's, a pro wrestler, and a murderer. Plus a lot of other people as unnoteworthy as me. So it's not surprising you can make up a name that already exists.

[@afterthemouse]

Robert Newton is the reason we belive ALL pirates speak with a west country accent... his native Bristol accent was used for the film and entered the zeitgeist...

[@Shoomer1988]

But all Bristolians speak like pirates.

[@judiharris8796]

Here in England, we really, really want King Arthur to be real!

[@docksider]

Which is strange because Arthur - if he was real - would have been Celtic - who fought against the AngloSaxons.

[@martinwoollett8468]

@@docksider yea so

[@chrisshelley3027]

Not that I've ever heard of.

[@deano2506]

Speak for yourself. I've never encountered anyone who voiced such a desire.

[@Medusa13579]

​@@martinwoollett8468Well, he would have fought against the English 😊

[@eZTarg8mk2]

It's been strongly suggested that Robin Hood was sort of a marketing character for the merchants guilds of that period, particularly textile sales. The characters often have descriptors related to their clothing, and his stories came about around the time the feudal system was fading out and a wealthier middle class was appearing and establishing itself. You could say he was representing that class struggle, moving away from serfdom to financial independence

[@timidwolf]

Many of the Sherlock Holmes short stories were originally published in a magazine, not actual books, some likely found it hard to separate fact from fiction.

[@markalexander3659]

I read somewhere that like 40% of Americans think Sherlock Holmes was a real person

[@nolajoy7759]

WatchMojo: Dame Edna is British Dane Edna: Hellooo possums!!

[@jaynekirk4162]

The forest once covered most of Nottinghamshire, there’s still an area called The Forest on the city edge. The landscape has changed unrecognisably in the last 1000 years. Could you tell then that I got a bit annoyed that my childhood hero was dismissed by a man looking at a map who didn’t even know where the place he was making the judgement about was?

[@user-ur7zs8uj5x]

You have never read Agatha Christie? Remedy that today. She will give you a lifetime of pleasure.

[@klaxoncow]

Yeah, the train one. We know what you mean. ("Murder on the Orient Express", to be precise, and prove that, yes, we really do know what you meant.)

[@ianharrison3662]

Except Poirot was played by Albert Finney in the film, rather than David Suchet in the TV Series

[@ericg5791]

There was a real life Sheriff of Nottingham known for being rather villainous. Robert Newton died just a few short years after his famous role,and if that's Bobby Driscoll, playing Jim Hawkins,he met a tragic end in the 1960's

[@wormthatturned8737]

I was teaching German Engineers in Bremen about 12 years ago and the subject got onto British comedies at break. I could not convince them that our then Mayor of London Boris Johnson was not a comedy character like Dame Edna! They point blank refused to believe me. They must have got a shock when he became Prime Minister!

[@planekrazy1795]

A big coincidence with Spinal Tap is The Comic Strip Presents made Bad News a year ealier and is on a very similar story line. The two were made in complete ignorance of each other.

[@robcrossgrove7927]

"Nottingham boasts statues to Robin Hood". Well, one, as far as I can remember.

[@chrisnoonan9486]

Most depictions of the knights of the round table show them in full armour, There was a TV series in the UK which had costumes that were more realistic to the historical era that he actually might have been from (LEATHER AND FUR). I think it was called Arthur king of the Britons?

[@Japonicastar]

I read somewhere that as Arthur would have been alive around when the Romans left Britain and therefore more likely to have worn a toga than full metal armour that hadn’t been invented yet! 😊

[@markalexander3659]

I'll never get how so many characters we get from FAMOUS NOVELS are thought to be real. Long John Silver, Sherlock Holmes etc. Like, the novels we get them from are EXTREMELY well known.

[@frank9446]

The Sherlock Holmes phenomenon is intriguing because there's a museum in London located at the exact address where he was believed to have lived. This museum, situated in an apartment on Baker Street, is filled with memorabilia associated with Holmes. Even the Baker Street tube station features Sherlock Holmes silhouettes on its tiles, further reinforcing the perception that Holmes was a real historical figure. What's particularly curious is that the Baker Street museum is predominantly visited by foreign tourists, including many Americans, who also share the belief that Holmes was a genuine person. Quite a curious situation, isn't it?

[@bertusvanhal8855]

The story’s of Sherlock Holmes was first published in the news papers because Sir Arther Conan Doyle thought they sell better as many people knows them, So he placed the story’s in the newspaper, so a lot of people thought that he worked with the police, and later combine the story’s and then sell his books. Sir Conan Doyle said that he had someone who looked at Sherlock who was his inspiration.

[@dinger40]

David Suchet starred as Poirot in the ITV series Agatha Christie's Poirot from 1989 until June 2013 and did everyone of the Poirot stories 70 episodes

[@kelst75]

Sherlock's address was never real. But he was such a legendary character they created it and dedicated to him, thats some pretty powerful fiction.

[@timglennon6814]

Any Brit who thought that these characters were real, then they need to go and see a shrink. 😆

[@tonyscupham-bilton7523]

The legendary Robin Hood stole from the rich, but never gave to the poor - he kept it. Rigby is a popular name around Liverpool, so McCartney would be familiar with it before he wrote the song. Spinal Tap are not all played by Americans (technically) - one of them is Christopher Guest, the 5th Baron Haden-Guest, though he has an American mother and was born in New York (thus his claim to an American passport).

[@themoderntemplar1567]

The old story that keeps recurring is that Arthur was a Roman centurion who went native after the Romans hastily left these shores that joined his remaining troops with the Britons to fight the Angles and Saxons.

[@JBW27]

Barry Humphries was a comedy legend. Not getting to see him playing Dame Edna or Sir Les live is genuinely one of the great disappointments in my life, up there with Lemmy passing just before I was due to see him.

[@nolajoy7759]

Saw her / him live.. she picked out my dad in the audience as a "new Australian"..kept waving her scarf at him saying he liked "colour and movement"..😅😅😅

[@TheDidymusBrush]

There's a house where Sherlock Holmes would have lived with a blue plaque outside it marking it as his home. The house is now a museum. I once visited it. Pre Cumberbatch. They have a guest book. I signed it with my dead name but the surname is the same. American tourist behind me steps up to sign it, and spots my name. "OH MY GOD!", she exclaims. "ARE YOU RELATED?" I freeze for a moment. And before I know what I'm doing, I spot the look of excitement in her eyes and immediately don't want to let her down. "Yeah," I say in my thick Northern accent. "'E's me grandad." I then get stuck in minute or so of conversation where I just fumble a lie about not being connected to the owners of the museum, but I come down every now and then to check everything runs smoothly. Family interest, that sort of thing. I realise I've spun the yarn as far as I can so tell her I'd better go upstairs and see the next exhibit. Nice talking and all that. As I walk away and head up the stairs, her camera happy husband finally catches up to her. I see her tapping him on the arm like a giddy toddler, and hear the words: "Honey, you'll never guess who that was!" I begin to consider how quickly I should vacate the premises. 😉

[@dorothysimpson2804]

There is actually a grave for Robin Hood at Kirklees Priory, it is caged so no one can disturb it. Robert Louis Stephenson actually mixed with pirates in the Taverns of London, two of his characters in Treasure Island were real people, Ben Gunn and Israel Hands, Hands worked under Blackbeard.

[@vinceely2906]

The only person who thinks Sherlock Holmes is real is Alan Partridge. Who incidentally is a real person

[@MsPeabody1231]

North Norfolk Digital is real!

[@surfaceten510n]

Lord Christopher Guest is British /American married to Jamie Lee Curtis.

[@fayesouthall6604]

Top bloke too. Husband met him at an airport and he was friendly.

[@buidseach]

Robin Hood was based on a number of characters including The Earl of Huntingdon and his son Robert who died young, He fell out wuth the Sherrif of Nottingham after coming back from the Crusades and supporting King Richard whilst The Sherrif supported his brother Prince John.

[@Stoggler]

The Earl of Huntingdon connection with Robin Hood was an invention a few centuries after Robin was supposed to have lived.

[@Faluzeer]

These days Sherwood Forest is tiny, supposedly it was much larger. That could help to explain the travel time from central Nottingham.

[@davegoodwin1950]

Parts of France were actually ruled by England for a good while so maybe that's why Arthur appears in french stories also

[@RalphWigg1]

No, it's a testament to people's stupidity!

[@Isleofskye]

What is the connection between Sherlock Holmes and Skiing?

[@TIDYJOKER]

I'm from Coventry, Nottingham isn't quiet in the centre of England. It's just outside Coventry, in Meridan

[@DJTheTrainmanWalker]

There are 3 or 4 'candidates' for >parts< of the Robin Hood legend, but the legend as a whol:e concatenates different tales of different people from different times over a period of about 600 years. With added embellishments at every step.

[@ianharrison3662]

Eleanor Rigby's grave is in St Peter's Church in Woolton, in South Liverpool - co-incidentally the place where John Lennon met Paul McCartney during a Church Fete where John's skiffle band, The Quarrymen were performing. So perhaps that lay in Paul's subconscious all that time. She does actually have a statue in Liverpool not far from the Cavern, created by English 50's rock star and actor Tommy Steele

[@rossshepherd9836]

Another thing I hate is that people think that Sherlock Holmes was written by an Englishman. I understand because Sherlock was so related to London, but Arthur Conan Doyle was very much a Scotsman.

[@auldfouter8661]

He had Irish connections too.

[@stewedfishproductions9554]

And so was Robert Louis Stevenson - so two Scottish writers of two of the fictional people mentioned ! Just saying LOL 😂😂😂

[@Escapee5931]

If it upsets you that much, you should get "Conan Doyle was Scottish" tattooed on your forehead to spread the word more efficiently.

[@auldfouter8661]

@@stewedfishproductions9554 Nonsense , Robert Louis Stevenson's Stevenson ancestors were from Fenwick , just like mine. Fenwick is in Ayrshire ,BTW RLS's mother was a Balfour which family has its roots going back centuries in Fife. Whit ye on aboot?

[@chrisshelley3027]

​@@auldfouter8661he must be related to half of the US then.

[@RogersRamblings]

When I was about six years old my grandparents took me to see "Treasure Island". Long John Silver (played by Robert Newton) absolutely terrified me. 🤣

[@jerry2357]

There was a historical Robin Hode from (IIRC) Pontefract in Yorkshire, but it's not really known if he is linked to the Robin Hood of the stories.

[@roberttaylor2058]

We were taught about King Arthur in school as if it was history as well as a story called BeddGelert. A common tale around Europe about a life-saving dog mistakenly killed by it's owner. Wales has a village called BeddGelert that has a memorial for the fictional canine. The area is visited by hundreds daily, mostly believing the story

[@kirstygunn9149]

Quite a lot of what is now Nottingham City has tunnels underneath it leading from several buildings through the main city in to Nottingham Castle .Most have been bricked up, but if you get the chance to visit, then you can get tours and get to see them .i used to go LARPing in the basement of ye olde salutation inn in Nottingham and it is the entrance to one of the many tunnels that used to take you directly to the castle . It's quite spacious, and it's really cool to larp in and visit.

[@trevormillar1576]

What about Harry Flash man. Anti-hero of George Macdonsld Fraser's "Flashman" novels? When Fraser visited an American library he was staggered to find his books on the "nonfiction " shelves! The librarians refused to believe that Flash man was a fictional character.

[@robcrossgrove7927]

The Train one. You're thinking of Murder on the Orient Express.

[@buidseach]

And if you watch the true story of Anvil, you would swear it was the real Spinal Tap lol.

[@AlanEvans789]

Saw Spinal Tap play live at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium.

[@dw1809]

Hundreds of years ago sherwood Forest was huge and Nottingham was a collection of villages built around the castle. Not uncommon for many British modern day city’s. On how they developed but one common factor most all have is excess to a river. And nottingham is built on the Trent a beautiful English river.

[@jimreid4367]

I can't say to my knowledge of ever confusing a fictional character as real , but i'm starting to believe that the 2006 movie Idiocracy might be really after watching US elections over the last 25 years 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@butchershoppequartet8690]

Or any of the protests by libs in the UK or US - pro Hamas, stop oil, trans activism etc

[@laurencepenfold]

Sherlock Holmes stories were published in a weekly journal and written in the style of Watson recording events he witnessed rather than a traditional story narrative. It would have been much easier to believe the fiction than these days when they are television entertainments featuring well known actors and the stories embellished so much. In fact the opposite applies - sometimes real people portrayed in television dramas are assumed to be fictional.

[@trevormillar1576]

You missed out another fictional Brit: TARZAN!

[@toptiergaming5869]

I live in the area of Nottingham or 'notts' as we call it and sherwood used to be bigger like a lot bigger and sherwood was just on the border of the town (city today) only 3 miles away

Spinal Tap is also not the original heavy rock mockumentary. Bad News by the Comic Strip came out before it. But it is great.

[@lomax343]

4:25 - Sherwood forest was rather bigger in King John's time. It's borders would've been somewhat closer to Nottingham. That's using the word Forest in it's modern sense - ie a lot of tress growing wild. Back then, it's meaning was different. A Forest was somewhere where only the king (or those to whom he granted the privilege) was allowed to hunt - or do much of anything else. Even gathering firewood was technically illegal. This is why Robin Hood killing the King's deer is a trope in the stories. There didn't actually have to be trees at all in a "Forest." John was notorious for declaring vast tracts of land as Forest, often with no notice to the people living there. It was one of the reasons the Barons rose up against him. As for Robin Hood - the earliest reference to him (as Robyn Hode) is in the poem Piers Plowman by William Langland, written somewhere around 1375-80. Since this reference is a throw-away remark, it's likely that Langland expected his readers to know who Robyn Hode was, meaning that the legend was much older. And was there a real person who inspired the later legends? I like to think so.

[@aarjaycee3601]

Edna Everage is not, repeat NOT, British Barry Humphries and his creation Dame Edna are AUSTRALIANS. Edna has never been described as British either by her creator Mr Humphries nor by the character herself. Part of the whole reason for Edna's existence was as a vehicle for Barry Humphries to poke fun at the "Pommes" the British Also, who the hell is SHEERLOCK Holmes that narrator needs a talking to 😂

[@harry9392]

In medieval times, Sherwood forest covered the whole of the English midlands , it was right up to about 2 mile from Nottingham

[@bobbybigboyyes]

Camelot is either in Wales or Glastonbury, England. 'Le Morte D' Artur' or 'The Once and Future King' by T.H.White.

[@hypsyzygy506]

There are many real people we would have preferred to have been fictional.

[@neuralwarp]

Edna Everage was Australian. What a lazy compilation.