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The Shetland Islands may be a part of Scotland and the UK, but rather than having Celtic, Saxon or Norman heritage like the vast majority of the UK's 61 million inhabitants, they have a Viking one. And every year, Shetlanders celebrate their Norse heritage in spectacular fashion. The Up Helly...

Either this Danish soldier was so excited at the prospect of meeting members of his country's Royal Family, or the hat he wore was too heavy. But he fell flat on his face at the arrival ceremony of a gala dinner hosted by the Danish monarch, Queen Margrethe II. The incident happened at...

Welcome to the "Tough Guy" contest: eight miles of mud, barbed wire, broken glass and fire. Thousands of competitors from around the world have bravely took on the gruelling assault course in Perton, Staffordshire. Some of them did it in fancy dress, in costumes such as Robocop and Superman...

Just 5 months before the 2010 World Cup, John Terry's role as England captain is in doubt after his affair with his best friend's girlfriend has been revealed. It has been revealed that Terry - who is also Chelsea captain - had an affair behind his wife's back with the girlfriend of his best...

John Constable's The Stour Valley and Dedham Village, painting either in 1814 or 1815, is a stunning and accurate depiction of the beautiful English countryside from the days before photography. But for almost 200 years, the exact spot which Constable painted in that picture has remained a...

The 1970s BBC comedy series "Fawlty Towers", starring John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, the snobbish owner of a Torquay hotel, may be truer to life than originally believed. According to visitors to the TripAdvisor website, Britain has Europe's dirtiest hotels. An incredible 8 of Europe's 10...

At first it looks as though Elf'n'Safety really gave gone over the top. An entire street completely wrapped in bubble wrap. But, thankfully, the stunt, carried out by car insurance comparison website Confused.com, was to highlight the dangers of driving in winter. The street was picked as it...

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has warned that Britain faces decades of warfare in faraway lands. In a major speech, Ainsworth backed the interventionist approach of Blair and Bush and said that British citizens could only be protected by 'projecting military power beyond our borders'...

Human beings (except Millwall fans and the inhabitants of Glasgow) are this planet's only highly intelligent species. But are there any other highly intelligent species elsewhere in the Universe? In 1950, the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, father of atomic power, asked: 'Where the hell...

To us, arsenic is just a deadly poison that is best to stay away from. But, in Victorian Britain, it was everywhere. British soldiers in India mixed it with black pepper to create the Tanjore pill, an anti-venom for snake bites; doctors prescribed it as a cure for conditions including...

Britain is the nation that once fearlessly took on, and defeated, the supposedly mighty Spanish Armada, Old Boney and Hermann Goring's Messerschmitts. But now it seems as though we are running scared of the humble toothpick. Retired deputy headteacher John Freeman had just enjoyed a meal at...

Live pigs are being blown up with explosives at Britain's equivalent of Area 51 to simulate the effects on terrorist attacks on civilian targets. The experiments are taking place at Porton Down in Wiltshire, the British government's secret military research laboratory. After the explosives...

There have been many great rivalries through the ages. Manchester United VS Liverpool; Oasis VS Blur; Blair VS Brown; Celtic VS Rangers; Kasparov VS Karpov; the RAF VS the Luftwaffe; Blondes VS Brunettes; BBC VS Sky. But none is greater than that of Britain VS France, a rivalry which has...

BBC orders auction house to remove "offensive" neo-classical goddess painting The British may still be somewhat prude, but perhaps not quite as prude as the BBC thinks we are. After all, this is not the Victorian era, when gentlemen gasped in shock (or pleasure) when a woman dared to bare her...

The BBC's Only Fools and Horses was the most successful British comedy series of all time. The series ran from 1981 to 2003 and starred David Jason as ambitious market trader Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (who had several catchphrases including "This time next year we'll be millionaires") who shared...

Prince William's hugely successful tour of Australia has caused the support for Australia to become a republic to drop by a whopping 14%. A minority of Australians - 44% - are in favour of becoming a republic and 27% are opposed to ditching the Queen as Head of State. And Aussies look like...

Britain has seven official languages: English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Scots, Ulster Scots and Cornish. All of them are closely related Celtic languages, except English and Scots, which are Germanic languages closely related to German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic...

Today is the last day of Prince Willam's tour of Down Under. Last week he was in New Zealand. Now he is in another British colony - Australia. If there are republicans in Australia, then they were hardly noticeable. William was treated like a rock star. During a speech at Government House...

Stoke City's Rory Delap may think he's very good at launching the ball far whilst taking a throw-in, but he's a lightweight compared to British PE teacher Danny Brooks. Danny can throw a ball 163.32 feet, the equivalent of five double-decker buses. But he uses an unusual technique to throw...

Residents of a northern English village have been left terrorised by a mysterious creature which has been blamed for mauling several deer to death and even leaving a resident's Alsatian dogs - hardly the type of mutts to get easily scared - quivering with fear. Residents of Buckshaw, which is...