1.

Name the veteran actress who partnered Vincent Simone in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing and was eliminated in the show from the Tower Ballroom but not before being commended on her flexibility by Bruno Tonioli.

2.

Who succeeded Vic Feather as General Secretary of the TUC?

3.

Who was the author of Inside the Third Reich published in 1970 after he had finished serving his sentence in Spandau prison?

4.

Which hip-hop act released their debut album Hot, Cool and Vicious in 1986?

5.

Who, or what, might leave an esker behind as a deposit?

6.

Name the West Indian batsman who, in 1948, became the only man to score a century in five consecutive test innings.

7.

Officially opened by King George V in the historic Crystal Palace on the 9^th of June 1920, which institution now has its headquarters in what had been the Bethlem Royal Hospital (otherwise known as Bedlam) in Lambeth Road, Southwark?

8.

What was the World War II nickname of Josip Vasioronovitch Dugashvilli?

Sp.

What was the name of the large bombastic beetle-like insect that was always wrong about everything while accompanying Milo in Norton Juster‘s classic children’s novel The Phantom Tollbooth?

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme by The Bards of Didsbury

1.

Which Lancashire town is the birthplace of both Robert Peel and the spinning jenny of James Hargreaves?

2.

Which 1969 film based on a play by Bill Naughton starred James Mason as the father of Susan George?

3.

There were two of these.  Their protagonists included Scottish king John Balliol in 1296 and Oliver Cromwell in 1650.  The latter of the two effectively ended King Charles II's chances of getting any significant help from Scotland.  What were they?

4.

Who was the Irish National leader who was forced to resign after the revelation of his affair with Mrs Kitty O’Shea?

5.

Which 1987 Hong Kong based thriller starred Chow Yun Fat and is widely credited as being the inspiration for Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs?

6.

Who was the 'Vert Galant', the founder of the House of Bourbon, who was permitted to succeed to the throne of France after he became a catholic and saying “Paris is worth a mass”?

7.

Felix Bloch and Edward Mill Purcell were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952 for 'Developments in Nuclear Magnetic Precision Measurements'.  What modern medical tool has been developed from their discovery?

8.

Which folk-influenced band topped the independent singles chart with their first two releases in 1985 and achieved their best position in the national album chart with Waiting For Bonaparte in 1988? 

Sp.

Which scientist is credited with producing the first artificial transformation of an element in 1919, bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles and getting hydrogen and oxygen?

ROUND 3 - Pairs by The Electric Pigs

1.

Aside from the lower earnings tax-free threshold, which is taxed at 0%, what are the four standard HMRC rates of income tax?

2.

Stamp Duty Land Tax, for example that payable on acquiring a property, has a nil rate band of 0 - £150,000.  What four standard HMRC rates of tax apply incrementally as the property price increases?

3.

In which Italian region is Naples, the Neapolitan Riviera and the historic sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum?

4.

In which region of Italy is the capital city of Rome?

5.

Which schmaltzy love song, written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, and recorded by over 20 artists, was first performed in the 1937 film High, Wide and Handsome?

6.

Which ragtime love song, written in 1911 by Seymour Brown and Nat Ayer, has featured in more than 5 major films including the 1942 musical For Me and My Gal?

7.

How do the locals refer to the A69 road that runs between Newcastle and Carlisle?

8.

How do the locals refer to the A500 that runs from M6 Junction 16 to M6 Junction 15, via Stoke on Trent?

Sp.

Name five of the seven teams in the Football League – i.e. Championship, League One and League Two – whose complete names end in the letter 'E'.

ROUND 4 - Pairs by The Albert

1.

What is the name of the sequel to Milton's Paradise Lost?

2.

Which novel was the sequel to Little Women?

3.

Which current English football league club was briefly nicknamed 'The Dolphins' in the 1970s?

4.

Which current English football league club used to be nicknamed 'The Biscuitmen'?

5.

For what is the health organisation BUPA an acronym?

6.

What does the acronym ACAS stand for?

7.

In which year was King Richard III born?

8.

In which year was King Henry VIII born?

Sp.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are two current British Formula One drivers this season. What is the name of the third British driver?

1.

In the world of science what can be classified as spiral, elliptical, lenticular, ring or irregular and can be barred or non-barred?

2.

Which cricketer took 376 test wickets at an average of only 20.94 but died in 1999 aged only 41?

3.

In archaeology what name is given to a tool from a prepared stone core which can be further sharpened to create a scraper or burin?

4.

American Duane Chapman and his family are featured in which long running reality television series?

5.

Can you feel the love tonight? won the Best Original Song Academy Award in 1994.  From which film does the song come?

6.

Which 1967 mystery novel by Joan Lindsay was adapted to a successful 1975 film of the same name starring Rachel Roberts as Miss Appleyard?

7.

Which children’s television series of the early 70s starred child actors Peter Firth and Brinsley Forde (who have gone on to greater things) and Melvyn Hayes as the lead adult actor?

8.

“Nice to see you, to see you nice” but what did Bruce Forsythe invite his co-host to do each week at the start of his show in the early 70s?

Sp.

Which actor, born 1987, is the younger brother of actress Honeysuckle Weeks and played eponymous roles in the films The Little Vampire (2000) and The Thief Lord (2006)?

ROUND 6 - 'A 1960s Reminiscence Round' by Ethel Rodin

1.

Chaim Reuben Weintrop died on the 20th of October 1968, his last recording less than a year previously being a song used as a signature tune of a much loved TV programme.  How is he better known?

2.

Which playwright, who is still living, was imprisoned on the 12th of September 1961 with Bertrand Russell for inciting a breach of the peace?

3.

Britain had four world champion Formula One drivers in the 1960s.  Name three of them.

4.

For which 1966 film, based on a non-fiction book published in 1960, did John Barry receive two Oscars for best song and best score?

5.

In 1967 Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever was the first Beatles single not to achieve number one since 1963.  Which British solo singer who had two number ones in that year kept the Beatles at number two?

6.

Emboldened by the success of the publishers of Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1963 the Mayflower Press attempted, unsuccessfully, to publish a book by John Cleland, which had been circulating illegally for many years.  Which book?

7.

What did American oil tycoon Robert McCullough buy in April 1968, possibly mistakenly, for one million pounds?

8.

Two Conservative peers made use of the 1963 Peerage Act to renounce their peerages in order to contest the leadership of the Conservative party.  Both returned to the Lords later in their careers, one as Lord Chancellor.  Name them both.

Sp.

Which comedian, scriptwriter and sufferer from Graves' disease was named TV personality of the year in 1968?

ROUND 7 - Pairs by Compulsory Meat Raffle

1.

The Leader of the Scottish Labour Party declared that he would resign in the Autumn following his party's stunning collapse in the elections earlier this month.  Can you (unlike, apparently, most of Scotland, which might account for the aforementioned poor showing) name him?

2.

On the 18th of May, embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a deal with opposition groups announcing that he would resign within a month.  Which Arab country does he lead?

3.

In 1997, who became the first British football player to play for a winning team in the Champion's League (as opposed to the European Cup, which obviously plenty of Brits had won before)?

4.

Identify the first British football club to compete in the European Cup, the only British team involved in the inaugural 1955-6 competition.

5.

What did the early Christian theologian Origen, the Chinese historian Sima Qian, the founder of the Persian Qajar dynasty Mohammad Khan Qajar, and Boston Corbett who shot John Wilkes Booth, all have in common?

6.

In which decade did the last Chinese Imperial eunuch Sun Yaoting die?

7.

Which historical figure links Friedrich Schiller, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths, and the animated series Clone High?

8.

Bigmouth Strikes Again features higher-pitched vocals in the background that are actually Morrissey's own voice speeded up, but they were credited to a performer whose name is a pun on an area of Manchester.  Identify this area.

Sp,

We'll all be flocking to Baku to watch the Eurovision Song Contest in its host city next year.  But why (in relation to the Eurovision Song Contest) did Azerbaijan arrest and interrogate 43 of its own citizens in August 2009?

ROUND 8 - Hidden theme by Calluna Pussycats

1.

What was the family name of the household in the original series of Upstairs, Downstairs? 

2.

Who played Doctor Hannibal Lecktor in the 1986 film Manhunter?

3.

Who plays Rodney Blackstock in Emmerdale?

4.

Who won The X Factor in 2008?

5.

What 1994 film directed by Mike Nichols starred Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer?

6.

Who played the title role in the 2007 Robert Zemeckis performance capture film Beowulf?

7.

Who directed the film version of William Goldman novel Magic starring Anthony Hopkins in 1978?

8.

What is the common name for the freshwater fish Esox Lucius?

Sp,

Who presented Tomorrow’s World from 1965 to 1977?

1.

Which novel by Sinclair Lewis is about an idealistic young physician caught between the demands of professionalism and humanity?

2.

What was Pilot's less successful follow-up to their 1975 number one hit January and their only subsequent chart entry?        

3.

Which English artist produced mosaic panels for the Palace of Westminster in 1870 in addition to his customary paintings of scenes from Ancient Greece and Rome?  He was the first head of the Slade School of Art and succeeded John Everett Millais as president of the Royal Academy. 

1.

Name the veteran actress who partnered Vincent Simone in last year’s Strictly Come Dancing and was eliminated in the show from the Tower Ballroom but not before being commended on her flexibility by Bruno Tonioli.

Felicity Kendall

2.

Who succeeded Vic Feather as General Secretary of the TUC?

Len Murray

3.

Who was the author of Inside the Third Reich published in 1970 after he had finished serving his sentence in Spandau prison?

Albert Speer

4.

Which hip-hop act released their debut album Hot, Cool and Vicious in 1986?

Salt 'n Pepa

5.

Who, or what, might leave an esker behind as a deposit?

(Note to QM: The 100% correct answer is an 'Ice Sheet' but that does not fit with the theme.  Accept 'Ice sheet' but be sure to interject the word 'Glacier' without being obvious)

6.

Name the West Indian batsman who, in 1948, became the only man to score a century in five consecutive test innings.

Everton Weekes

7.

Officially opened by King George V in the historic Crystal Palace on the 9^th of June 1920, which institution now has its headquarters in what had been the Bethlem Royal Hospital (otherwise known as Bedlam) in Lambeth Road, Southwark?

Imperial War Museum

8.

What was the World War II nickname of Josip Vasioronovitch Dugashvilli?

Uncle Joe

Sp.

What was the name of the large bombastic beetle-like insect that was always wrong about everything while accompanying Milo in Norton Juster‘s classic children’s novel The Phantom Tollbooth?

The Humbug

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme by The Bards of Didsbury

1.

Which Lancashire town is the birthplace of both Robert Peel and the spinning jenny of James Hargreaves?

Oswaldtwistle

2.

Which 1969 film based on a play by Bill Naughton starred James Mason as the father of Susan George?

Spring & Port Wine

3.

There were two of these.  Their protagonists included Scottish king John Balliol in 1296 and Oliver Cromwell in 1650.  The latter of the two effectively ended King Charles II's chances of getting any significant help from Scotland.  What were they?

Battles of Dunbar

4.

Who was the Irish National leader who was forced to resign after the revelation of his affair with Mrs Kitty O’Shea?

Charles (Stewart) Parnell

5.

Which 1987 Hong Kong based thriller starred Chow Yun Fat and is widely credited as being the inspiration for Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs?

City On Fire

6.

Who was the 'Vert Galant', the founder of the House of Bourbon, who was permitted to succeed to the throne of France after he became a catholic and saying “Paris is worth a mass”?

Henry IV

(Henry of Navarre)

7.

Felix Bloch and Edward Mill Purcell were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952 for 'Developments in Nuclear Magnetic Precision Measurements'.  What modern medical tool has been developed from their discovery?

Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

(CMR scanning)

8.

Which folk-influenced band topped the independent singles chart with their first two releases in 1985 and achieved their best position in the national album chart with Waiting For Bonaparte in 1988? 

The Men They Couldn't Hang

Sp.

Which scientist is credited with producing the first artificial transformation of an element in 1919, bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles and getting hydrogen and oxygen?

Ernest Rutherford

ROUND 3 - Pairs by The Electric Pigs

1.

Aside from the lower earnings tax-free threshold, which is taxed at 0%, what are the four standard HMRC rates of income tax?

10%, 20%, 40%, 50%

2.

Stamp Duty Land Tax, for example that payable on acquiring a property, has a nil rate band of 0 - £150,000.  What four standard HMRC rates of tax apply incrementally as the property price increases?

1%, 3%, 4%, 5%

3.

In which Italian region is Naples, the Neapolitan Riviera and the historic sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum?

Campania

4.

In which region of Italy is the capital city of Rome?

Lazio

5.

Which schmaltzy love song, written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, and recorded by over 20 artists, was first performed in the 1937 film High, Wide and Handsome?

The Folks Who Live On The Hill

6.

Which ragtime love song, written in 1911 by Seymour Brown and Nat Ayer, has featured in more than 5 major films including the 1942 musical For Me and My Gal?

Oh, You Beautiful Doll

7.

How do the locals refer to the A69 road that runs between Newcastle and Carlisle?

'The Roman Road'

8.

How do the locals refer to the A500 that runs from M6 Junction 16 to M6 Junction 15, via Stoke on Trent?

'The D Road'

(as it looks like a 'D' on the map)

Sp.

Name five of the seven teams in the Football League – i.e. Championship, League One and League Two – whose complete names end in the letter 'E'.

(five from)

Rochdale, Port Vale, Plymouth Argyle, Dagenham and Redbridge, Crystal Palace, Morecambe and Stevenage

(N.B. Note that the latter dropped ‘Borough’ from their name in the summer of 2010)

ROUND 4 - Pairs by The Albert

1.

What is the name of the sequel to Milton's Paradise Lost?

Paradise Regained

2.

Which novel was the sequel to Little Women?

Good Wives

3.

Which current English football league club was briefly nicknamed 'The Dolphins' in the 1970s?

Brighton and Hove Albion

4.

Which current English football league club used to be nicknamed 'The Biscuitmen'?

Reading 

5.

For what is the health organisation BUPA an acronym?

British United Provident Association

6.

What does the acronym ACAS stand for?

Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service

7.

In which year was King Richard III born?

1452

(allow 2 years either way 1450-1454)

8.

In which year was King Henry VIII born?

1491

(allow 2 years either way 1489-1493)

Sp.

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are two current British Formula One drivers this season. What is the name of the third British driver?

Paul Di Resta

1.

In the world of science what can be classified as spiral, elliptical, lenticular, ring or irregular and can be barred or non-barred?

A galaxy

2.

Which cricketer took 376 test wickets at an average of only 20.94 but died in 1999 aged only 41?

Malcolm Marshall

3.

In archaeology what name is given to a tool from a prepared stone core which can be further sharpened to create a scraper or burin?

Flake

4.

American Duane Chapman and his family are featured in which long running reality television series?

Dog the Bounty Hunter

5.

Can you feel the love tonight? won the Best Original Song Academy Award in 1994.  From which film does the song come?

The Lion King

6.

Which 1967 mystery novel by Joan Lindsay was adapted to a successful 1975 film of the same name starring Rachel Roberts as Miss Appleyard?

Picnic at Hanging Rock.

7.

Which children’s television series of the early 70s starred child actors Peter Firth and Brinsley Forde (who have gone on to greater things) and Melvyn Hayes as the lead adult actor?

Here Come the Double Deckers

(accept the Double Deckers)

8.

“Nice to see you, to see you nice” but what did Bruce Forsythe invite his co-host to do each week at the start of his show in the early 70s?

“Give us a twirl!”

Sp.

Which actor, born 1987, is the younger brother of actress Honeysuckle Weeks and played eponymous roles in the films The Little Vampire (2000) and The Thief Lord (2006)?

Rollo Weeks

ROUND 6 - 'A 1960s Reminiscence Round' by Ethel Rodin

1.

Chaim Reuben Weintrop died on the 20th of October 1968, his last recording less than a year previously being a song used as a signature tune of a much loved TV programme.  How is he better known?

Bud Flanagan

2.

Which playwright, who is still living, was imprisoned on the 12th of September 1961 with Bertrand Russell for inciting a breach of the peace?

Arnold Wesker

3.

Britain had four world champion Formula One drivers in the 1960s.  Name three of them.

(three from)

Graham Hill, John Surtees, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart.

4.

For which 1966 film, based on a non-fiction book published in 1960, did John Barry receive two Oscars for best song and best score?

Born Free

5.

In 1967 Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever was the first Beatles single not to achieve number one since 1963.  Which British solo singer who had two number ones in that year kept the Beatles at number two?

Engelbert Humperdinck

(Release Me)

6.

Emboldened by the success of the publishers of Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1963 the Mayflower Press attempted, unsuccessfully, to publish a book by John Cleland, which had been circulating illegally for many years.  Which book?

Fanny Hill

7.

What did American oil tycoon Robert McCullough buy in April 1968, possibly mistakenly, for one million pounds?

London Bridge

(it is said he thought he was buying Tower Bridge)

8.

Two Conservative peers made use of the 1963 Peerage Act to renounce their peerages in order to contest the leadership of the Conservative party.  Both returned to the Lords later in their careers, one as Lord Chancellor.  Name them both.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home (Lord Home),

Quintin Hogg (Lord Hailsham)

Sp.

Which comedian, scriptwriter and sufferer from Graves' disease was named TV personality of the year in 1968?

Marty Feldman

(the disease caused his bulging eyes)

ROUND 7 - Pairs by Compulsory Meat Raffle

1.

The Leader of the Scottish Labour Party declared that he would resign in the Autumn following his party's stunning collapse in the elections earlier this month.  Can you (unlike, apparently, most of Scotland, which might account for the aforementioned poor showing) name him?

Iain Gray

2.

On the 18th of May, embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a deal with opposition groups announcing that he would resign within a month.  Which Arab country does he lead?

Yemen

3.

In 1997, who became the first British football player to play for a winning team in the Champion's League (as opposed to the European Cup, which obviously plenty of Brits had won before)?

Paul Lambert

(then of Borussia Dortmund)

4.

Identify the first British football club to compete in the European Cup, the only British team involved in the inaugural 1955-6 competition.

Hibernian

5.

What did the early Christian theologian Origen, the Chinese historian Sima Qian, the founder of the Persian Qajar dynasty Mohammad Khan Qajar, and Boston Corbett who shot John Wilkes Booth, all have in common?

They were all eunuchs

(it is acceptable to answer what they did not have in common; hence 'testicles' or a suitable equivalent is acceptable)

6.

In which decade did the last Chinese Imperial eunuch Sun Yaoting die?

The 1990s

(in 1996, to be precise)

7.

Which historical figure links Friedrich Schiller, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths, and the animated series Clone High?

Joan of Arc

(Schiller's play The Maid of Orleans, two songs called Joan of Arc, the line “Now I know how Joan of Arc felt”; one of the main characters is a clone of Joan of Arc)

8.

Bigmouth Strikes Again features higher-pitched vocals in the background that are actually Morrissey's own voice speeded up, but they were credited to a performer whose name is a pun on an area of Manchester.  Identify this area.

Ancoats

(Ann Coates)

Sp.

We'll all be flocking to Baku to watch the Eurovision Song Contest in its host city next year.  But why (in relation to the Eurovision Song Contest) did Azerbaijan arrest and interrogate 43 of its own citizens in August 2009?

They voted for Armenia

(this was deemed an unpatriotic act)

ROUND 8 - Hidden theme by Calluna Pussycats

1.

What was the family name of the household in the original series of Upstairs, Downstairs? 

Bellamy

2.

Who played Doctor Hannibal Lecktor in the 1986 film Manhunter?

Brian Cox

3.

Who plays Rodney Blackstock in Emmerdale?

Patrick Mower

4.

Who won The X Factor in 2008?

Alexandra Burke

5.

What 1994 film directed by Mike Nichols starred Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer?

Wolf

6.

Who played the title role in the 2007 Robert Zemeckis performance capture film Beowulf?

Ray Winstone

7.

Who directed the film version of William Goldman novel Magic starring Anthony Hopkins in 1978?

Richard Attenborough

8.

What is the common name for the freshwater fish Esox Lucius?

Pike

Sp.

Who presented Tomorrow’s World from 1965 to 1977?

Raymond Baxter

Theme: Each answer contains the name of a TV Science Presenter:

David Bellamy, Brian Cox, Patrick Moore, James Burke, Heinz Wolff, Robert Winston, David Attenborough & Magnus Pyke

1.

Which novel by Sinclair Lewis is about an idealistic young physician caught between the demands of professionalism and humanity?

Arrowsmith

2.

What was Pilot's less successful follow-up to their 1975 number one hit January and their only subsequent chart entry?        

Call Me Round

3.

Which English artist produced mosaic panels for the Palace of Westminster in 1870 in addition to his customary paintings of scenes from Ancient Greece and Rome?  He was the first head of the Slade School of Art and succeeded John Everett Millais as president of the Royal Academy. 

Edward Poynter