Sofa so good

Phillip Schofield has said that his career on the TV sofa is over. Who first sat on one? 

– BBC Breakfast, first broadcast on 17 January 1983, famously featured a red leather sofa which presenter Frank Bough told his audience was the ideal way to present a news programme. But the history of the TV sofa goes back a lot further. The Tonight Show, first broadcast on NBC in 1954, featured one from 1964 onwards – a surviving clip from that year shows presenter Johnny Carson standing in front of a blue cloth-upholstered sofa.

Death and taxes

How much does inheritance tax raise, and how many people pay it?

– In 2021/22 the tax raised £6.1bn. This is double what it raised a decade earlier. The analysis for how many people paid is a little behind, with the most recent figures available for 2019/20. In that financial year, 3.76% of deaths resulted in a tax burden. This is higher than a decade earlier, but not as high as the peak of 5.9% in 2006/07.

– In 2019/20 agricultural and business property relief was worth £2.8bn – i.e. that was the extra tax which would have been payable had the reliefs not existed. A further £1.6bn was avoided through legacies to qualifying charities and registered clubs.

– Female-owned estates paid more than did male-owned estates, to the tune of £240m. This is a reflection of wives more commonly outliving their husbands.

Ashes wins

Who has the better record in the Ashes?

– Since their inception, Australia have won 34 series and England 32. In spite of being inaugurated as a mock funeral of English cricket after England lost to Australia in a single test in the summer of 1882, England won all of the first 8 series. Australia won 8 series between 1989 and 2002.

– England lead in whitewashes, having 4 times won all the tests in a series. Australia have achieved this feat three times.

Bunking off

How bad is absenteeism from schools?

– In the current academic year to the week commencing 15 May the overall absence rate was 7.4%. This was made up of authorised absence (5.1%) and unauthorised (2.3%). The overall rate was 5.9% in primary schools and 9.1% in secondary schools. Some 22% of pupils were classified as persistently absent, having missed more than 10% of available sessions. About 17.5% of primary school pupils and 27.1% of secondary school pupils fell into this category.