How a puddle in Newcastle became a national talking point

Britain has been captivated by a live stream of people attempting to cross a puddle in Newcastle.

You heard that right. In what may be the best use of the live-streaming app Periscope we have seen to date, tens of thousands of people were gripped as pedestrians jumped, climbed or tiptoed over a comically large puddle.

Some climb on the embankment. Some use the lampost as leverage. Cyclists just whizz past. It is a truly captivating spectacle and has brought British office workers to a standstill.

Including at the Guardian...

And if you think they were the only ones, you’d be wrong: at its peak, almost 20,000 people were watching.

Inevitably, the puddle got so famous, someone brought a lilo and tweeted themselves sliding through the puddle:

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Later, there were surfboards and a bit of a crowd as the puddle’s fame spread. By Wednesday afternoon, someone had even listed a bottle of puddle water on eBay.

The masterminds of this ever-so British viral hit is marketing agency Drummond Central. Managing director Beth Hazon told the Guardian that she and her staff have watched people from a window in the top floor of their building in Jesmond Road, Newcastle navigate the puddle for weeks now.

On Wednesday morning, copywriter Steve Wilkes suggested they set up an iPhone and live stream it for the day.

“Every single day, we’ve been watching people try to get over this puddle - it’s been raining quite a lot,” she said.

“It got a lot of attention locally and then, mid-afternoon, it just exploded. We’ve used Periscope before, but it’s never been like this.

“All I can say is, god bless the internet.”

Amen to that.

Richard Rippon, the 43-year-old social media manager whose phone was being used to stream the internet sensation, said his phone battery almost spoiled the party when it got down to 6%, but now it’s on charge and has been blu-tacked to the window so it can stay online all night.

“I think everybody’s enjoying the various different techniques employed by people in getting over the puddle. A lot of people in the office had it up on the screens and it became more and more addictive so we just let it run and run. People have it up on their screens as if it’s a big sporting event. It’s brilliant, I feel great.”

Like all good things, the puddle live stream came to an end. Around 17,000 people were still watching when it ended at 5.15pm on Wednesday.