ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

Who was the first actress to win two best actress Oscars, which she won for The Great Ziegfeld in 1936 and The Good Earth in 1937?

2.

Which popular actress of the silent film era became the first recipient of the Oscar for best actress in 1928 which she, unusually, received jointly for her roles in three films, Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel?

3.

Ariane Daniele Forster, better known as Ari Up, who died in October of last year, was a member of which influential all-girl reggae/punk band which she joined when she was just 14 years old in 1977?

4.

Legendary punk frontwoman Mariane Joan Elliott, who died earlier this year, went by which stage name?

5.

Which young spy, star of a series of popular books which are now being made into films, was created by Anthony Horowitz?

6.

Which girl sleuth, star of many mystery books for children, was created by Edward Stratemeyer though the books have, over the years, been ghost written by a number of different authors all using the pen-name Carolyn Keene?

7.

Which musical, based on Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, features the songs If My Friends Could See Me Now and The Rhythm Of Life?

8.

Which Stephen Sondheim musical features the songs All I Need Is The Girl and Everything’s Coming Up Roses?

1.

Which member of the moviemaking Coppola family was heard shouting “killing me won't bring back your goddamn honey!” in 2006's poorly-conceived remake of The Wicker Man?

2.

Which curly vegetable is mashed with potatoes to produce the Irish dish colcannon?

3.

Which Norwegian defender helped Blackburn to the Premiership title and Manchester United to the Treble?

4.

Which substance did mad king of France, Charles the Silly, and the Cervantes 'graduate', both believe themselves to be made of?

5.

Which Shakespeare play features Owain Glendower as a character?

6.

In comics, what is the alter-ego of Psylocke's brother Brian Braddock?

7.

Which chromosomal disorder, whose sufferers, although mentally subnormal, display high verbal abilities, is sometimes colloquially referred to as 'pixieism'?

8.

Which 1997 police drama, the work of Walk the Line director James Mangold, starred Sylvester Stallone as a partially-deaf detective?

1.

In Greek mythology, what type of animal was Laelaps, who was said to always catch its prey?

2.

In Norse mythology, what type of animal was Ratatosk, who was said to run up and down the World Tree delivering hateful messages?

3.

Which TV series features characters with the surnames McCormick, Marsh and Broflovski?

4.

Which TV series features characters with the surnames Cooper, Hofstadter and Wolowitz?

5.

Named after a female character in Greek Mythology, what is the name of a unit of measurement for beauty?

6.

Which quality of a celebrity’s life can be measured using the unit known as a Wil Wheaton?

7.

Which man was described by Lenin as the ‘Golden Boy’ of the Bolshevik party?

8.

Which man was head prosecutor in Stalin’s show trials as well as a state prosecutor in the Nuremburg trials?

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

The most autobiographical of Dickens' novels; Tolstoy, Chesterton and Freud agreed that this was his finest.  What was it?

2.

Which man, credited with the industrialisation of pottery manufacture in the eighteenth century, is buried in Stoke-on-Trent?

3.

What was the name of Dryden's allegorical satire about the Monmouth Rebellion?

4.

The founder of modern American community-organising, this Chicagoite's doctrines were a major influence for Barack Obama.  Who was he?

5.

Who was the ship's captain in Moby Dick?

6.

In which famous novel did Allan Quatermain and his comrades seek the lost brother of Sir Henry Curtis in the middle of Africa?

7.

Whereabouts in Virginia did the first and second battles of Bull Run occur?

8.

Which unit always measures six standard 0.75cl bottles of wine, as opposed to the Jeroboam which can measure either four or six depending on the region where it is bottled.

Sp.

Which name from the Old Testament was frequently used in the past to refer to reckless coachmen?

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Who is the only Oscar-winning child of two Oscar-winning parents?

2.

Which Oscar-winning director won his academy award for a film in which he directed his father to a best supporting actor award and went on to direct his own daughter in his final film, The Dead, two years after she had won an Oscar for best supporting actress?

3.

Which long-running radio sitcom set in a social services department, based on a Guardian cartoon strip of the same name and starring Sally Philips as the title character, has recently returned to Radio 4 for its seventh series?

4.

Which Radio 4 sitcom set on a tiny charter airline and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephanie Cole, Roger Allom and John Finnemore and also written by John Finnemore, returned to Radio 4 for its third series in July of this year?

5.

Which actor and disco star, born Harris Glenn Milstead in 1945, began an acting career as part of John Water's Dreamlanders ensemble, appearing in such cult classics as Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos?

6.

Divine made her only appearance on Top of the Pops in July 1984, which led to a barrage of complaints from viewers, for a show-stopping performance of which song, later covered by the Scottish indiepop band The Vaselines on their 1987 album Son Of A Gun?

7.

What is the name of the fictional town in Maine in which Angela Lansbury’s crime-solving mystery writer Jessica Fletcher lives in the long-running TV series Murder, She Wrote?

8.

What is the name of the singing teapot voiced by Angela Lansbury in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast?

1.

Which world leader released his autobiography in 1995, talking about, amongst other things, his close relationship with friends Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu?

2.

In which US state capital did E D Nixon, Jo Ann Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr. lead a controversial campaign for racial equality in 1955?

3.

Which American author’s novels include Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell?

4.

Which man was the brother of one of Henry VIII’s wives and the husband of another?

5.

Which TV series started its run in 1986 and centred on an East Anglian antiques dealer?

6.

If you were in Bikini Bottom with SpongeBob SquarePants, where are you most likely to go if you wanted some fast food?

7.

Which of the twelve apostles’ feastdays is celebrated on August 24 in western christianity?

8.

Which actress, who recently featured in a round in the TV series Pointless, can also be seen portraying Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham on our screens?

Sp.

What type of animal is a cottonmouth?

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Whose What the Tortoise Said to Achilles, an amusing article discussing problems related to the foundations of logic that was published in philosophy journal Mind in 1895, has thankfully never been adapted into an interminable film starring Johnny Depp?

2.

Which French philosopher's The Logic of Sense, an exploration of meaning and meaninglessness, is partly a commentary on Carroll's works?

3.

Which American-born Bavarian scientist and government official designed the English Garden in Munich and invented the coffee percolator?

4.

Which German noble once pulled himself and his horse out of a swamp by his own hair?

5.

Who were Spain's first 'royal' football club?

6.

Which Spanish club beat Arsenal to the 1995 Cup Winners' Cup after a spectacular last-minute-of-extra-time goal from Nayim?

7.

Which prominent political figure made desperate headlines this week after it was revealed that, shockingly, he 'doesn't even clean his own car'?

8.

Which former world leader has recently been surrounded by speculation (mostly in Israel) that he has been having an affair with a prominent Israeli businesswoman?

ROUND 8 - Film pairs

1.

Which Python played the following roles: King of Swamp Castle, the boring prophet and a catholic father (in Monty Python's Holy Grail, Life of Brian and Meaning of Life respectively)?

2.

Which Python played the following roles: Sir Bedevere, Simon the Holy man and a catholic mother (in Monty Python's Holy Grail, Life of Brian and Meaning of Life respectively)?

3.

In one of Tom Hanks probably less well known screen outings, which actress plays multiple roles as Tom finds himself diagnosed with a terminal disease and volunteers as a human sacrifice for the titular geological formation?

4.

Peter Sellers famously took on 3 roles in (the masterpiece) Dr Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).  Had he not felt the workload too heavy (and sprained an ankle), which fourth role in the film was also written for him?

5.

Oscar winner in 2009, which Argentine film centres on a retired criminal court employee returning to an old case as he tries to write his first novel?

6.

Although he won an Oscar for his role in No Country for Old Men, in which film (Oscar winner for best foreign language film in 2004) did Javier Bardem play a quadriplegic seeking to end his life?

7.

Which planet was the destination of the ill-fated mission of the Discovery in the novel 2001 - A Space Odyssey? (no bonus, but kudos if you can say why the change was made for the movie)

8.

Multiple minor changes were made in translating The Shawshank Redemption from novella to screen.  Which famous actress' name graces the title of the original novella (edited away for the movie name)?

Spares

Which Englishman is credited with inventing the turbojet engine?

ROUND 1 - Pairs

1.

Who was the first actress to win two best actress Oscars, which she won for The Great Ziegfeld in 1936 and The Good Earth in 1937?

Louise Rainer

2.

Which popular actress of the silent film era became the first recipient of the Oscar for best actress in 1928 which she, unusually, received jointly for her roles in three films, Sunrise, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel?

Janet Gaynor

3.

Ariane Daniele Forster, better known as Ari Up, who died in October of last year, was a member of which influential all-girl reggae/punk band which she joined when she was just 14 years old in 1977?

The Slits

4.

Legendary punk frontwoman Mariane Joan Elliott, who died earlier this year, went by which stage name?

Polly Styrene

5.

Which young spy, star of a series of popular books which are now being made into films, was created by Anthony Horowitz?

Alex Rider

6.

Which girl sleuth, star of many mystery books for children, was created by Edward Stratemeyer though the books have, over the years, been ghost written by a number of different authors all using the pen-name Carolyn Keene?

Nancy Drew

7.

Which musical, based on Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, features the songs If My Friends Could See Me Now and The Rhythm Of Life?

Sweet Charity

8.

Which Stephen Sondheim musical features the songs All I Need Is The Girl and Everything’s Coming Up Roses?

Gypsy

1.

Which member of the moviemaking Coppola family was heard shouting “killing me won't bring back your goddamn honey!” in 2006's poorly-conceived remake of The Wicker Man?

Nicolas Cage

2.

Which curly vegetable is mashed with potatoes to produce the Irish dish colcannon?

Kale

3.

Which Norwegian defender helped Blackburn to the Premiership title and Manchester United to the Treble?

Henning Berg

4.

Which substance did mad king of France, Charles the Silly, and the Cervantes 'graduate', both believe themselves to be made of?

Glass

5.

Which Shakespeare play features Owain Glendower as a character?

Henry IV, Part 1

6.

In comics, what is the alter-ego of Psylocke's brother Brian Braddock?

Captain Britain

7.

Which chromosomal disorder, whose sufferers, although mentally subnormal, display high verbal abilities, is sometimes colloquially referred to as 'pixieism'?

William's Syndrome

8.

Which 1997 police drama, the work of Walk the Line director James Mangold, starred Sylvester Stallone as a partially-deaf detective?

Cop Land

Theme: Each answer contains the name of a 20th-century composer:

John Cage, John Cale, Alban Berg, Philip Glass, Arvo Part, Benjamin Britten, John Williams (or Ralph Vaughan Williams if you prefer), Aaron Copland

1.

In Greek mythology, what type of animal was Laelaps, who was said to always catch its prey?

Dog

2.

In Norse mythology, what type of animal was Ratatosk, who was said to run up and down the World Tree delivering hateful messages?

Squirrel

3.

Which TV series features characters with the surnames McCormick, Marsh and Broflovski?

South Park

4.

Which TV series features characters with the surnames Cooper, Hofstadter and Wolowitz?

The Big Bang Theory

5.

Named after a female character in Greek Mythology, what is the name of a unit of measurement for beauty?

Helen

(one Helen is enough beauty to launch a thousand ships)

6.

Which quality of a celebrity’s life can be measured using the unit known as a Wil Wheaton?

Number of Twitter followers

7.

Which man was described by Lenin as the ‘Golden Boy’ of the Bolshevik party?

Nikolai Bukharin

8.

Which man was head prosecutor in Stalin’s show trials as well as a state prosecutor in the Nuremburg trials?

Andrey Vyshinsky

ROUND 4 - Hidden theme

1.

The most autobiographical of Dickens' novels; Tolstoy, Chesterton and Freud agreed that this was his finest.  What was it?

David Copperfield

2.

Which man, credited with the industrialisation of pottery manufacture in the eighteenth century, is buried in Stoke-on-Trent?

Josiah Wedgwood

3.

What was the name of Dryden's allegorical satire about the Monmouth Rebellion?

Absalom and Achitophel

4.

The founder of modern American community-organising, this Chicagoite's doctrines were a major influence for Barack Obama.  Who was he?

Saul Alinsky

5.

Who was the ship's captain in Moby Dick?

Ahab

6.

In which famous novel did Allan Quatermain and his comrades seek the lost brother of Sir Henry Curtis in the middle of Africa?

King Solomon's Mines

7.

Whereabouts in Virginia did the first and second battles of Bull Run occur?

Manassas

8.

Which unit always measures six standard 0.75cl bottles of wine, as opposed to the Jeroboam which can measure either four or six depending on the region where it is bottled.

Rehoboam

Sp.

Which name from the Old Testament was frequently used in the past to refer to reckless coachmen?

Jehu

(as in 'to drive like Jehu')

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Who is the only Oscar-winning child of two Oscar-winning parents?

Liza Minnelli

(her mother, Judy Garland won best supporting actress for A Star is Born; her father, Victor Minnelli won best director for Gigi; and Liza Minnelli won best actress for her role in Cabaret)

2.

Which Oscar-winning director won his academy award for a film in which he directed his father to a best supporting actor award and went on to direct his own daughter in his final film, The Dead, two years after she had won an Oscar for best supporting actress?

John Huston

(John Huston won best director for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in which his father, Walter Huston, won  best supporting actor; John Huston’s daughter, Angelica Huston, won best supporting actress for Prizzi’s Honor)

3.

Which long-running radio sitcom set in a social services department, based on a Guardian cartoon strip of the same name and starring Sally Philips as the title character, has recently returned to Radio 4 for its seventh series?

Clare In The Community

4.

Which Radio 4 sitcom set on a tiny charter airline and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephanie Cole, Roger Allom and John Finnemore and also written by John Finnemore, returned to Radio 4 for its third series in July of this year?

Cabin Pressure

5.

Which actor and disco star, born Harris Glenn Milstead in 1945, began an acting career as part of John Water's Dreamlanders ensemble, appearing in such cult classics as Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos?

Divine

6.

Divine made her only appearance on Top of the Pops in July 1984, which led to a barrage of complaints from viewers, for a show-stopping performance of which song, later covered by the Scottish indiepop band The Vaselines on their 1987 album Son Of A Gun?

You Think You’re A Man

7.

What is the name of the fictional town in Maine in which Angela Lansbury’s crime-solving mystery writer Jessica Fletcher lives in the long-running TV series Murder, She Wrote?

Cabbott Cove

8.

What is the name of the singing teapot voiced by Angela Lansbury in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast?

Mrs Potts

1.

Which world leader released his autobiography in 1995, talking about, amongst other things, his close relationship with friends Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu?

Nelson Mandela

2.

In which US state capital did E D Nixon, Jo Ann Robinson and Martin Luther King Jr. lead a controversial campaign for racial equality in 1955?

Montgomery

3.

Which American author’s novels include Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell?

Tom Clancy

4.

Which man was the brother of one of Henry VIII’s wives and the husband of another?

Thomas Seymour

5.

Which TV series started its run in 1986 and centred on an East Anglian antiques dealer?

Lovejoy

6.

If you were in Bikini Bottom with SpongeBob SquarePants, where are you most likely to go if you wanted some fast food?

The Krusty Krab

7.

Which of the twelve apostles’ feastdays is celebrated on August 24 in western christianity?

Saint Bartholomew

8.

Which actress, who recently featured in a round in the TV series Pointless, can also be seen portraying Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham on our screens?

Maggie Smith

Sp.

What type of animal is a cottonmouth?

Snake

ROUND 7 - Pairs

1.

Whose What the Tortoise Said to Achilles, an amusing article discussing problems related to the foundations of logic that was published in philosophy journal Mind in 1895, has thankfully never been adapted into an interminable film starring Johnny Depp?

Lewis Carroll

2.

Which French philosopher's The Logic of Sense, an exploration of meaning and meaninglessness, is partly a commentary on Carroll's works?

Gilles Deleuze

3.

Which American-born Bavarian scientist and government official designed the English Garden in Munich and invented the coffee percolator?

Benjamin Thompson or Count Rumford

(accept either)

4.

Which German noble once pulled himself and his horse out of a swamp by his own hair?

Baron Munchausen

5.

Who were Spain's first 'royal' football club?

Real Betis

('Real' indicates royal patronage)

6.

Which Spanish club beat Arsenal to the 1995 Cup Winners' Cup after a spectacular last-minute-of-extra-time goal from Nayim?

Real Zaragoza

(Interesting fact: there is a street in an Aragonese village that is named after this goal)

7.

Which prominent political figure made desperate headlines this week after it was revealed that, shockingly, he 'doesn't even clean his own car'?

Ed Miliband

8.

Which former world leader has recently been surrounded by speculation (mostly in Israel) that he has been having an affair with a prominent Israeli businesswoman?

Tony Blair

ROUND 8 - Film pairs

1.

Which Python played the following roles: King of Swamp Castle, the boring prophet and a catholic father (in Monty Python's Holy Grail, Life of Brian and Meaning of Life respectively)?

Michael Palin

2.

Which Python played the following roles: Sir Bedevere, Simon the Holy man and a catholic mother (in Monty Python's Holy Grail, Life of Brian and Meaning of Life respectively)?

Terry Jones

3.

In one of Tom Hanks probably less well known screen outings, which actress plays multiple roles as Tom finds himself diagnosed with a terminal disease and volunteers as a human sacrifice for the titular geological formation?

Meg Ryan

(in Joe vs. the Volcano)

4.

Peter Sellers famously took on 3 roles in (the masterpiece) Dr Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).  Had he not felt the workload too heavy (and sprained an ankle), which fourth role in the film was also written for him?

Major TJ 'King' Kong

(pilot of the B52 central to the plot)

5.

Oscar winner in 2009, which Argentine film centres on a retired criminal court employee returning to an old case as he tries to write his first novel?

El Secreto de Sus Ojos

(The Secret in Their Eyes)

6.

Although he won an Oscar for his role in No Country for Old Men, in which film (Oscar winner for best foreign language film in 2004) did Javier Bardem play a quadriplegic seeking to end his life?

Mar Adentro

(The Sea Inside)

7.

Which planet was the destination of the ill-fated mission of the Discovery in the novel 2001 - A Space Odyssey? (no bonus, but kudos if you can say why the change was made for the movie)

Saturn

(changed to Jupiter in the film because Stanley Kubrick couldn't get a satisfactory depiction of Saturn's rings with special effects of the time)

8.

Multiple minor changes were made in translating The Shawshank Redemption from novella to screen.  Which famous actress' name graces the title of the original novella (edited away for the movie name)?

Rita Hayworth

(one of Andy's poster girls - the original novella in the Different Seasons anthology being Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption)

Spares

Which Englishman is credited with inventing the turbojet engine?

Frank Whittle