A fact from John Fancy appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 10 October 2008, and was viewed approximately 8,227 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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Latest comment: 3 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion
The claim that John Fancy was the inspiration for Paul Brickhill's book "The Great Escape" is not mentioned in the obituary and is unsubstantiated. Kerichill (talk) 20:25, 23 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
It is however mentioned in the BBC article. Well actually it only mentions the film, but that was itself based on the book. If you were going to remove it from the article, it would have been a good idea to remove it from the article text as well as the infobox. David Underdown (talk) 08:25, 24 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
I met John Fancy once, I was introduced to him and we had lunch in a pub near where he lived in Devon. This wasn't long before he died. I wqs introduced by a bloke who did some work for him over a period - Julian Bowen. During a long afternoon of conversation it emetged that one of his most epic adventures was falling out of a plane (no parachute) which was limping back to a Linconlshire airfield. He survived (and was rescued) because at the time they were flying low over the Wash. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.17.120.149 (talk) 14:33, 8 February 2021 (UTC)Reply