According to Peter Pan or something whenever you say you don't believe in fairies it kills a fairy or whatever. But also in It's A Wonderful Life every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings, so maybe that balances it all out? Regardless, hopefully there were a lot of bells around once cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths were rumbled as having faked photos with fairies. Who in their right mind would believe that photos of fairies were real, anyway, even back in 1917? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that's who. Creator of Sherlock Holmes and patron saint of rational thinkers all over these fine internets was an avowed spiritualist his whole life and, upon discovering pictures of the so-called Cottingley Fairies, who used them to illustrate an article on fairies he wrote. This got the clearly doctored photos out into the wider world, with many apparently as gullible as Doyle taking them at face value. It caused quite the stir, with Doyle believing they were clear and visible evidence of psychic phenomena. It wasn't until the eighties that Elsie and Frances came out and revealed they were faked using cardboard cut-outs. Like duh.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
