Now we keep being told that Christmas is likely to be a bit different this year and so a Christmas Cracker firm has come up with something completely different which is intended to make a party go with a bang.

Well for some at least as rather than the usual fayre of novelty toys, these crackers all contain items of a more adult nature aimed at the more avant garde among us.

Five different varieties of crackers are on offer but at £36 per box, the cost is a little higher than the usual cracker offering.

But if you decide to go for these crackers you really do need to be careful just who you are inviting over for your Christmas lunch.

After all you really don’t want to find an unidentified rechargeable motorised item shooting across the table to land in Grandma’s lap or for little Jimmy to complain that the “whistle” that came out of his cracker is useless as it doesn’t make a sound!

But whatever else it certainly represents a clean (or should that be dirty?), break from the standard often useless items, of magnifying glasses or mini playing cards.

It’s unclear whether the crackers also include a paper hat, a motto and/or perhaps a somewhat questionable joke.

In the second hour of today’s show, Margaret Mills took us back to Tudor times with news of a national lottery during the first Elizabethan era.

It seems that the Essex parish of Chignal St James was well to the fore when it came to throwing their collective hats into the ring, as you can hear again here if you missed it first time: –

Hope to see you again next week,
Scott