50 Fun Facts About Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

In Roald Dahl's novel, what is Veruca Salt judged to be before she is thrown down the rubbish chute?

A bad nut is the squirrels' verdict, so they haul Veruca off to the garbage chute like any other reject. The 1971 film swapped the squirrels for geese and made her a bad egg.

What does Grandpa Joe do for the first time in twenty years when Charlie shows him the Golden Ticket?

He jumps out of bed with a whoop and dances round the room in his pyjamas. At ninety-six and a half, Grandpa Joe is the oldest of Charlie's grandparents.

Which facial hair does Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka wear with his top hat and plum-coloured tailcoat?

A black goatee, small and neatly pointed, is part of Mr Wonka's look on the page, along with bright twinkling eyes, green trousers and grey gloves. He greets his guests carrying a gold-topped cane.

In Roald Dahl's novel, what must anyone floating on Fizzy Lifting Drinks do to come back down?

Burp, because the gas that lifts the drinker has to come out again. Mr Wonka says one Oompa-Loompa who tried the drink outdoors was carried up and away for good.

What becomes of the chocolate palace Willy Wonka builds for Prince Pondicherry in Roald Dahl's novel?

It melts in the sun on a hot day, just as Mr Wonka warned, and the prince wakes from a nap swimming in a lake of chocolate. The palace had a hundred rooms.

What do Mr Salt's workers stop shelling so that they can unwrap Wonka bars for his daughter Veruca?

Peanuts are Mr Salt's business. He had his workers strip wrappers instead of shells, and on the evening of the fourth day one of them found a ticket.

What do the Oompa-Loompas urge children to do instead of watching TV after Mike Teavee is shrunk?

Read books, they sing: parents are told to hand their children stories in place of the television set, and promised that each child will thank them for it later.

Why did Willy Wonka really hide Golden Tickets inside his bars in Roald Dahl's novel?

To find an heir: Mr Wonka is growing old, has no family, and wants a child he can teach all his secrets while there is time. The whole tour was the test.

Where does Willy Wonka's glass elevator take Charlie Bucket's family in Roald Dahl's sequel novel?

Into orbit, where the elevator docks with a brand-new space hotel that turns out to be infested with shape-shifting aliens called Vermicious Knids.

Which fruit does Violet Beauregarde swell up to resemble after chewing Willy Wonka's unfinished gum?

A blueberry: her skin turns blue, she swells into a ball, and Oompa-Loompas roll her away to be juiced. Mr Wonka admits that twenty Oompa-Loompas who tested the gum went the same way.

Which vegetable goes into the soup that Charlie Bucket's family eats for supper every night?

Cabbage soup, with bread, margarine, potatoes and more cabbage, is all the Buckets can afford. Their one treat is a second helping on Sundays.

Mr Bucket, Charlie's father, spends his working day screwing the caps onto tubes of which product?

Toothpaste: he is the only Bucket with a job, and however fast he screws on the caps, the pay barely feeds seven people. Things get worse when the place closes down.

On which one day of the year does Charlie Bucket get a bar of chocolate in Roald Dahl's novel?

His birthday is the only day Charlie tastes chocolate, because the whole family saves up for one small bar. He makes it last more than a month, nibbling a tiny piece each day.

How many Golden Tickets does Willy Wonka hide in bars around the world in Roald Dahl's novel?

Five tickets could turn up in any shop in any country, tucked inside ordinary-looking bars. Roald Dahl's early drafts sent a bigger crowd of children round the factory before he cut the cast down.

A professor's Golden Ticket detector in Roald Dahl's novel is smashed after grabbing what from a duchess?

A gold filling in the duchess's tooth set the machine off, since it was built to sense gold through a wrapper. The crowd wrecked Professor Foulbody's invention on the spot.

Which Wonka bar does Charlie buy with the coin Grandpa Joe has been hiding, only to find no ticket?

Nutty Crunch Surprise is the bar, paid for with Grandpa Joe's secret hoard, and the two of them open it together. It holds nothing but chocolate.

Where does a starving Charlie Bucket spot the money that pays for his winning Wonka bar?

In the snow, half buried, on his walk home from school. Charlie checks that nobody is looking for it, buys one bar and wolfs it down, then buys the second bar that holds the ticket.

Who shoos away the adults trying to buy Charlie Bucket's Golden Ticket moments after he unwraps it?

The shopkeeper pushes the crowd back, tells Charlie not to let anyone have the ticket and sends him running home. He says he has a feeling the boy needed a break like this.

How soon after Charlie Bucket finds his Golden Ticket does Willy Wonka's factory tour take place?

The next day: the ticket invites its holder to the factory gates on the first of February at ten o'clock sharp, and Charlie has found his just in time.

Why did Willy Wonka sack every worker and lock his factory gates years before the Golden Ticket hunt?

Spies stole his recipes: rival sweet makers planted them among his staff, then sold copies of his inventions. When the chimneys smoked again, nobody was seen going in or coming out.

Where does Willy Wonka keep the biggest and most important rooms of his factory in Roald Dahl's novel?

Deep underground, because there is not enough space above the surface for rooms that size. The corridors slope downhill as the visitors hurry after him.

What does Willy Wonka insist is the only proper way to mix chocolate in Roald Dahl's novel?

By waterfall: the falls in the Chocolate Room churn the river below, and Mr Wonka boasts that no other factory in the world mixes its chocolate that way.

Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that Mr Wonka's secret workers stand no taller than which part of a man?

His knee is as high as they reach, Grandpa Joe says, going by the small shadows people have glimpsed behind the factory windows. Charlie insists nobody could be that small.

Which food, almost impossible to find in Loompaland, tempts the Oompa-Loompas to work for Willy Wonka?

Cacao beans, the seeds chocolate is made from, are the one food the Oompa-Loompas crave. Mr Wonka promised the whole tribe as many as they could eat if they came to live in his factory.

What did the Oompa-Loompas have to live on in Loompaland before Willy Wonka invited them to his factory?

Caterpillars were all they had, and revolting ones at that, while they lived in fear of the terrible beasts that roamed nearby. Hunger made Mr Wonka's offer easy to accept.

What carries Augustus Gloop away after he tumbles into the chocolate river in Roald Dahl's novel?

A glass pipe sucks him up, and he sticks fast inside until the chocolate building up beneath him shoots him onward like a rocket. An Oompa-Loompa is sent to help his parents find him.

In chapter 18 of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, what has Mr Wonka hollowed out to make his pink boat?

A boiled sweet of enormous size, a hard candy scooped hollow, makes the boat, and a crew of Oompa-Loompas rows it down the chocolate river. Veruca at once demands one of her own.

Where does Willy Wonka's pink boat stop after racing through a pitch-black tunnel in Roald Dahl's novel?

The Inventing Room is where Mr Wonka's secret new sweets simmer, and he says not even an Oompa-Loompa has been allowed inside. He warns the children not to touch or taste a thing.

What does Willy Wonka warn Violet Beauregarde to expect if she chews an Everlasting Gobstopper?

Broken teeth, because the sweet is made to be sucked for ever without getting any smaller. Mr Wonka invented it for children who have very little money to spend.

What did it take to trim the beard of the Oompa-Loompa who tested Willy Wonka's Hair Toffee?

A lawnmower was the only thing that could keep up, because the beard grew faster than anyone could cut it. Mr Wonka admits the mixture is not right yet, but promises an end to bald heads.

What is the first course Violet Beauregarde tastes when she chews Willy Wonka's three-course-dinner gum?

Tomato soup comes first, then roast beef with a baked potato, and Violet can feel each course going down. The trouble starts with the dessert, which Mr Wonka has not got right yet.

Where does Violet Beauregarde park her chewing gum so she can taste the grass in the Chocolate Room?

Behind her ear it goes while she eats. Violet boasts that she has been chewing the same piece for three months, a world record.

What must every visitor put on before entering the Television-Chocolate Room in Willy Wonka's factory?

Dark glasses, because the room is so bright it could blind them. The Oompa-Loompas working the giant camera inside are dressed in what look like space suits.

Where does Mr Teavee put his son Mike after television shrinks the boy to about an inch tall?

In his pocket goes Mike, squealing with rage because his father has just vowed to throw the television set out of the window. Mr Teavee stuffs a handkerchief on top to keep him in.

How does Mike Teavee look when he finally walks out of Willy Wonka's factory in Roald Dahl's novel?

Tall and wire-thin: the Oompa-Loompas stretched him too far while trying to undo his shrinking, leaving him about ten feet high. Mr Wonka stays perfectly cheerful about it.

Which button does Willy Wonka press to send the glass elevator crashing through the factory roof?

Up and Out is a button Mr Wonka admits he has never dared press before, because of the hole it would leave in the roof. The elevator then hangs in the air high above the town.

Besides a factory tour, what does every Golden Ticket promise its finder in Roald Dahl's novel?

Sweets for life is the promise, and Mr Wonka keeps it even for the children who misbehave. Trucks piled high with chocolate are waiting outside for every one of them at the end.

What do Willy Wonka's square sweets with painted faces do when the door opens, proving the label on it right?

Turn to look round is exactly what they do, every little face swivelling toward the door. The label promises square sweets that look round, and Mr Wonka never said they were round in shape.

What can Willy Wonka's glass elevator do that sets it apart from an ordinary lift in Roald Dahl's novel?

Travel sideways as well as up and down: its walls are covered in buttons, one for every room in the factory. Mike Teavee chooses the one marked Television Chocolate.

In chapter 18, what does Willy Wonka dip into the chocolate river for a starving Charlie and Grandpa Joe?

A mug of warm melted chocolate goes to each of them, because Mr Wonka can see how badly they need feeding. Moments later the boat plunges into a pitch-black tunnel.

In which country did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory go on sale first, before reaching British shops?

America got the story first: Alfred A. Knopf published it in New York in 1964, with drawings by Joseph Schindelman. British readers had to wait for the George Allen & Unwin edition.

Which artist, long linked with Roald Dahl, drew new pictures for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1995?

Quentin Blake drew the 1995 edition, more than thirty years after the story first appeared. He illustrated 18 of Roald Dahl's books in all, out of more than 300 in his career.

Roald Dahl began but never finished a third Charlie Bucket story, named after which famous building?

The White House gave the unfinished book its working title, because the second story ends with the President inviting the whole family to visit. Dahl is thought to have written only one chapter.

A lost chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, first published in 2014, features a mountain made of what?

Vanilla fudge made the mountain, and two boys who rode its wagons were carried off to the Pounding and Cutting Room. In that early draft Charlie toured the factory with his mother.

Who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 musical film of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Gene Wilder took the part in a film retitled Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl disliked how far it pushed Charlie into the background and disowned it.

The Golden Ticket, first staged in St. Louis in 2010, retells Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as what?

An opera, with Charlie sung by a boy treble and Willy Wonka by a baritone. Composer Peter Ash and librettist Donald Sturrock wrote completely original music instead of borrowing the film songs.

Which film director staged the West End musical of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Drury Lane in 2013?

Sam Mendes directed the show at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it ran for more than three and a half years and broke London's record for weekly ticket sales.

Which Monty Python member narrated the 2002 audiobook of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Eric Idle recorded it for Harper Children's Audio, following Roald Dahl himself, who had read a shortened version of the story for Caedmon Records in 1975.

Which children's author put Charlie and the Chocolate Factory among her ten books every child should read?

J. K. Rowling chose it in 2006 for a Royal Society of Literature list. Tim Burton, who filmed the story in 2005, said he had been a fan of the book since childhood.

Which firm's test chocolates, sent to Roald Dahl's boarding school, planted the idea for Wonka's factory?

Cadbury sent test packages to the pupils of Repton School in Derbyshire in exchange for their opinions. Decades later, Dahl turned the memory into a book.