ROUND 1 - Hidden theme - 'In the Beginning'

1.

Which comic actor’s films include Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry?  He is the founder of the company Happy Madison.

2.

Which son of the actor Richard Harris has co-starred as Lane Pryce in the series Mad Men and as Ulysses S Grant in the film Lincoln?

3.

Which animals were introduced to Queensland in 1935 to control the crop-destroying Dermolepida beetles but have themselves become major pests?

4.

Which politician who died in 1998 was a Professor of Greek at 25, a brigadier at 32, and reached cabinet rank as Health Minister 1960-3?  A distant third in the election that saw Edward Heath become leader he never held high office again.

5.

Actor John Ratzenberger voices which character, who has appeared in all three of the Toy Story films?

6.

Described as 'the mathematician’s Nobel Prize' which award was established by the Norwegian government, named after a Norwegian mathematician, and first awarded in 2003?

7.

Who in 1983 is the most recent French player to have won the Men’s singles championship at the French Open Tennis Championships?

8.

He died in 2008 and was listed by Forbes as the top-earning dead French celebrity of 2009.  An auction of his art collection alone raised 342 million Euros for an AIDS foundation. Who was he?

Sp.

What name is given to a champagne bottle that contains 8 times the standard volume?

1.

Which two dwarves in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves had names that did not end in 'y'?

2.

Which is the most populous city in the Southern Hemisphere?

3.

Which popular BBC drama series of the 1970s and 1980s was set in the fictional St Angela’s Hospital Battersea?

4.

So far four British Prime Ministers (all serving in the 20th century) have lived long enough to celebrate a 90th birthday. Name 3 of them.

5.

King Richard III was buried in a car park but at least it was English soil.  Who, however, is the most recent monarch not to be buried in England?

6.

An exclave is a portion of a state entirely surrounded by a foreign state. The Spanish exclaves Melilla and Ceuta are located on the coastline of which country?

7.

How are the stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka collectively known?

8.

Who is the US author of the 2002 novel The Little Friend?  Her long awaited third novel The Goldfinch is a current Top 10 seller.

ROUND 3 - Pairs

1.

November 22nd 1963 was a bad day for JFK.  It was also not good for two eminent authors who died on the same day. Name either.

2.

The youngest MP in the House of Commons is informally known as the 'Baby of the House'.  Which future leader of his party was Baby when elected at 23 in the 1983 general election?

3.

Chemical element atomic number 73 was named after a character from Greek mythology who was punished for crimes including cannibalism, human sacrifice and infanticide.  It is mainly used in capacitors for mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices.  The main mining areas are Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. What is it called?

4.

At which racecourse has the Hennessey Gold Cup steeplechase been run since 1960?  Established in 1957 it had previously been run at Cheltenham.

5.

At which racecourse has the Welsh Grand National been run since 1949?  Established in 1895 it had previously been run at Ely in Cardiff and, when that course closed in 1939, at Caerleon.

6.

Chemical element atomic number 84 was named after a European country.  Infamously used in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 its lethal dose is only 7 x 10 power of -12 gram. It was discovered in 1898.  What is it called?

7.

Since 1955 the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone has elected three MPs who were Baby of the House though as republicans none took up their seats. Name any one.

8.

November 22nd 1963 was a bad day for JFK.  News of the killing might well have spoiled the 50th birthday party of which future life peer and Order of Merit holder?

ROUND 4 - Paired with Round 2

1.

Who is UK author of the 2010 novel The Little Stranger?  Unlike her previous four novels there are no overtly lesbian themes or characters.

2.

By what name is the astronomical entity M31 (or NGC 224) better known?

3.

The Lake of the Woods occupying parts of Ontario and Manitoba also separates a small land area of which US state from the rest of the USA, thus making it an exclave entirely surrounded by Canada?

4.

Despite their Scottish connections and aspirations to the English throne neither the Old Pretender or the Young Pretender are buried in the UK.  In which city are their remains?

5.

So far only four US presidents have lived long enough to celebrate a 90th birthday.  Name two.

6.

The Channel 4 drama series No Angels (which ran from 2007 to 2008) was set in a hospital in which UK city?

7.

Which is the most northerly city (in the Northern Hemisphere) to have a population of greater than one million people?

8.

Two of Santa’s eight reindeer have names that end in 'n'.  Name them

ROUND 5 - Picture Round

1.

Who is this violinist who at 16 was BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004?  She won the Classic Brit Award for best female artist in 2012 and 2013.

2.

Who is this pianist who at 11 won the piano section of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004?  In 2011 he was the youngest ever soloist at the opening night of the Proms.

3.

Who painted this scene of his bedroom in 1889?  It is not recorded whether he painted the bedroom as well.

4.

Who painted this homage to Vincent’s painting in 1992 updating the furniture and colours to give it a contemporary feel?

5.

Which event of 1919 with Manchester connections is marked by this cairn in a Galway bog?

6.

Which former cabinet minister is memorialised at this monument?

7.

Who is the musician father of these four young men?

8.

A troubled teen with her mother Debbie but who is her famous father?

ROUND 6 - Australiana

1.

By what name was the Australian Helen Porter Mitchell better known?

2.

Which Australian’s first three volumes of autobiography are entitled Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England and May Week was In June?

3.

Which Australian Prime Minister disappeared in December 1967 whilst swimming near his home?  His body was never found, leading to many bizarre conspiracy theories, including that he had been kidnapped by a Chinese submarine.

4.

Which Australian Prime Minister resigned in 1966 having been PM for over 18 years?  He allegedly had a window installed above the urinal in the VIP toilet at Melbourne Cricket Ground so he would not miss any of the action if taken short. 

5.

Which two animals appear on the Australian Coat of Arms?

6.

Which Australian animal has the scientific name Phascolarctos cinereus?

7.

In which Australian city would you find Flinders Street Railway station, the Eureka Tower (the tallest skyscraper in the Southern Hemisphere), and districts called Kensington and Carlton?

8.

In which Australian city would you find the Story Bridge, districts called Paddington and Balmoral, Mount Coot-tha, and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary?

ROUNDS 7 & 8 - Pick Your Own Subject

1.

River

Which river separates the men of Kent from the Kentish men?

2.

Deep

Which is the deepest of the Lake District bodies of water?

3.

Mountain

At 8,625 feet Mount Catherine, also known as Gebel Katherina, is the highest mountain in which troubled African country?

4.

High

Who played socialite Tracy Samantha Lord in the 1956 film High Society?  It was her last ever film role.

5.

Euro football

Name the Swiss football club founded in 1879 that is the oldest club on continental Europe.  Their most famous night was a 2-0 home win against Chelsea in the UEFA cup in 2000 that knocked Chelsea out of the competition.  They also played and lost to Swansea City in this year's Europa League.

6.

World football

Iceland came within a play-off of becoming the country with the smallest population to have qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals, which ultimately they lost.  Which country in the Americas with a population of 1.3 million still holds that record?

7.

Ireland

Which Irish county is home to Lisdoonvarna, famous for music and the annual matchmaking festival, and the Burren, a large karst landscape where you can find a remarkable three quarters of the country’s wildflower species?

8.

Tower

In which city is the 170 meter Spinnaker Tower, the tallest accessible structure in the UK outside London?

9.

Disease

The King’s Evil and scrofula are old terms for the skin and lymph gland inflammations caused by which infectious disease?

10.

Drugs

Which pharmaceutical company is credited with the discovery of two of the world’s best selling drugs, aspirin and heroin?  It is headquartered in Leverkusen.                

11.

Death

Which progressively paralysing neurological disease caused the deaths of actor David Niven, football manager Don Revie, murderer Donald Nielson, and tennis player and administrator Brad Drewitt?

12.

Dury

Which song by Ian Dury, written as a protest against International Year of the Disabled, which Dury thought patronising, did the BBC ban in 1981.  However, it was played at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games having been recognised as a powerful appeal for understanding to 'people in normal land'?

13.

Classical music in film

The minuet from Luigi Boccherini’s String Quintet in E, Opus 11 No 5, plays an important role in the plot of which black comedy film of 1955?

14.

Classical music in literature

Leos Janacek’s 1926 orchestral work Sinfonietta (JW 6/18) plays an important role in the plot of which trilogy of novels by Japanese author Haruki Murakami?

15.

Transport

The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal, Germany is home to which rare form of public transport, first opened in 1901?

16.

Engines

Which engine powers the Airbuses 330, 340, 350 and 380?

17.

USA woman on top

Why was Marin Alsopp in the news on Saturday evening of September 10th 2013?

18.

French woman on top

Why was Criquette Head in the news on Sunday afternoon of October 6th 2013, 34 years after a similar event?

19.

Texting

Who can be contacted by texting 61812?

20.

Sexting

The term 'sexting' referring to the sending of erotic or pornographic text or imagery first appeared in print in 2005 in the magazine of which Sunday newspaper?

Spares

1.

Which detective made his first TV appearance in the episode The Dead of Jericho?

2.

Which National Hunt jockey has recently passed the 4000 winners mark?

3.

Which was the last work of Anton Chekhov that opened in 1904?

4.

What was the name of the world’s first nuclear power station to produce electricity on an industrial scale?

5.

What nationality were Lordi, the winning act of the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest?

6.

Which Ian Dury song contains the lyric:

"Van Gogh did some eyeball pleasers
He must have been a pencil squeezer
He didn’t do the Mona Lisa
That was an Italian geezer"?

ROUND 1 - Hidden theme - 'In the Beginning'

1.

Which comic actor’s films include Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry?  He is the founder of the company Happy Madison.

Adam Sandler

2.

Which son of the actor Richard Harris has co-starred as Lane Pryce in the series Mad Men and as Ulysses S Grant in the film Lincoln?

Jared Harris

3.

Which animals were introduced to Queensland in 1935 to control the crop-destroying Dermolepida beetles but have themselves become major pests?

Cane toad

4.

Which politician who died in 1998 was a Professor of Greek at 25, a brigadier at 32, and reached cabinet rank as Health Minister 1960-3?  A distant third in the election that saw Edward Heath become leader he never held high office again.

Enoch Powell

5.

Actor John Ratzenberger voices which character, who has appeared in all three of the Toy Story films?

Hamm

6.

Described as 'the mathematician’s Nobel Prize' which award was established by the Norwegian government, named after a Norwegian mathematician, and first awarded in 2003?

Abel Prize

7.

Who in 1983 is the most recent French player to have won the Men’s singles championship at the French Open Tennis Championships?

Yannick Noah

8.

He died in 2008 and was listed by Forbes as the top-earning dead French celebrity of 2009.  An auction of his art collection alone raised 342 million Euros for an AIDS foundation. Who was he?

Yves Saint Laurent

Sp.

What name is given to a champagne bottle that contains 8 times the standard volume?

Methuselah

1.

Which two dwarves in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves had names that did not end in 'y'?

Doc and Bashful

2.

Which is the most populous city in the Southern Hemisphere?

Sao Paulo

3.

Which popular BBC drama series of the 1970s and 1980s was set in the fictional St Angela’s Hospital Battersea?

Angels

4.

So far four British Prime Ministers (all serving in the 20th century) have lived long enough to celebrate a 90th birthday. Name 3 of them.

(three from)

Churchill,

Macmillan,

Douglas-Home,

Callaghan

5.

King Richard III was buried in a car park but at least it was English soil.  Who, however, is the most recent monarch not to be buried in England?

George I (First)

6.

An exclave is a portion of a state entirely surrounded by a foreign state. The Spanish exclaves Melilla and Ceuta are located on the coastline of which country?

Morocco

7.

How are the stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka collectively known?

Orion’s Belt

8.

Who is the US author of the 2002 novel The Little Friend?  Her long awaited third novel The Goldfinch is a current Top 10 seller.

Donna Tartt

ROUND 3 - Pairs

1.

November 22nd 1963 was a bad day for JFK.  It was also not good for two eminent authors who died on the same day. Name either.

(either)

C S Lewis

(or)

Aldous Huxley

2.

The youngest MP in the House of Commons is informally known as the 'Baby of the House'.  Which future leader of his party was Baby when elected at 23 in the 1983 general election?

Charles Kennedy

3.

Chemical element atomic number 73 was named after a character from Greek mythology who was punished for crimes including cannibalism, human sacrifice and infanticide.  It is mainly used in capacitors for mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices.  The main mining areas are Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. What is it called?

Tantalum

4.

At which racecourse has the Hennessey Gold Cup steeplechase been run since 1960?  Established in 1957 it had previously been run at Cheltenham.

Newbury

5.

At which racecourse has the Welsh Grand National been run since 1949?  Established in 1895 it had previously been run at Ely in Cardiff and, when that course closed in 1939, at Caerleon.

Chepstow

6.

Chemical element atomic number 84 was named after a European country.  Infamously used in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 its lethal dose is only 7 x 10 power of -12 gram. It was discovered in 1898.  What is it called?

Polonium

7.

Since 1955 the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone has elected three MPs who were Baby of the House though as republicans none took up their seats. Name any one.

(one of)

Philip Clarke,

Bobby Sands,

Owen Carron

(Philip Clarke and Bobby Sands were also convicted serving prisoners which  was also a bar to taking up the seat)

8.

November 22nd 1963 was a bad day for JFK.  News of the killing might well have spoiled the 50th birthday party of which future life peer and Order of Merit holder?

Benjamin Britten

ROUND 4 - Paired with Round 2

1.

Who is UK author of the 2010 novel The Little Stranger?  Unlike her previous four novels there are no overtly lesbian themes or characters.

Sarah Waters

2.

By what name is the astronomical entity M31 (or NGC 224) better known?

Andromeda galaxy

3.

The Lake of the Woods occupying parts of Ontario and Manitoba also separates a small land area of which US state from the rest of the USA, thus making it an exclave entirely surrounded by Canada?

Minnesota

4.

Despite their Scottish connections and aspirations to the English throne neither the Old Pretender or the Young Pretender are buried in the UK.  In which city are their remains?

Vatican City

(accept Rome)

5.

So far only four US presidents have lived long enough to celebrate a 90th birthday.  Name two.

(two from)

John Adams,

Herbert Hoover,

Ronald Reagan,

Gerald Ford

6.

The Channel 4 drama series No Angels (which ran from 2007 to 2008) was set in a hospital in which UK city?

Leeds

7.

Which is the most northerly city (in the Northern Hemisphere) to have a population of greater than one million people?

St Petersburg

8.

Two of Santa’s eight reindeer have names that end in 'n'.  Name them

Blitzen and Vixen

ROUND 5 - Picture Round

1.

Who is this violinist who at 16 was BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004?  She won the Classic Brit Award for best female artist in 2012 and 2013.

Nicola Benedetti

2.

Who is this pianist who at 11 won the piano section of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004?  In 2011 he was the youngest ever soloist at the opening night of the Proms.

Benjamin Grosvenor

3.

Who painted this scene of his bedroom in 1889?  It is not recorded whether he painted the bedroom as well.

Vincent van Gogh

4.

Who painted this homage to Vincent’s painting in 1992 updating the furniture and colours to give it a contemporary feel?

Roy Lichtenstein

5.

Which event of 1919 with Manchester connections is marked by this cairn in a Galway bog?

The transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown

6.

Which former cabinet minister is memorialised at this monument?

William Huskisson

(he was run over by the Rocket near this spot)

7.

Who is the musician father of these four young men?

Bryan Ferry

8.

A troubled teen with her mother Debbie but who is her famous father?

Michael Jackson

ROUND 6 - Australiana

1.

By what name was the Australian Helen Porter Mitchell better known?

Dame Nellie Melba

2.

Which Australian’s first three volumes of autobiography are entitled Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England and May Week was In June?

Clive James

3.

Which Australian Prime Minister disappeared in December 1967 whilst swimming near his home?  His body was never found, leading to many bizarre conspiracy theories, including that he had been kidnapped by a Chinese submarine.

Harold Holt

4.

Which Australian Prime Minister resigned in 1966 having been PM for over 18 years?  He allegedly had a window installed above the urinal in the VIP toilet at Melbourne Cricket Ground so he would not miss any of the action if taken short. 

Sir Robert Menzies

5.

Which two animals appear on the Australian Coat of Arms?

(Red) Kangaroo and Emu

6.

Which Australian animal has the scientific name Phascolarctos cinereus?

Koala

7.

In which Australian city would you find Flinders Street Railway station, the Eureka Tower (the tallest skyscraper in the Southern Hemisphere), and districts called Kensington and Carlton?

Melbourne

8.

In which Australian city would you find the Story Bridge, districts called Paddington and Balmoral, Mount Coot-tha, and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary?

Brisbane

ROUNDS 7 & 8 - Pick Your Own Subject

1.

River

Which river separates the men of Kent from the Kentish men?

Medway

2.

Deep

Which is the deepest of the Lake District bodies of water?

Wast Water

3.

Mountain

At 8,625 feet Mount Catherine, also known as Gebel Katherina, is the highest mountain in which troubled African country?

Egypt

4.

High

Who played socialite Tracy Samantha Lord in the 1956 film High Society?  It was her last ever film role.

Grace Kelly

5.

Euro football

Name the Swiss football club founded in 1879 that is the oldest club on continental Europe.  Their most famous night was a 2-0 home win against Chelsea in the UEFA cup in 2000 that knocked Chelsea out of the competition.  They also played and lost to Swansea City in this year's Europa League.

6.

World football

Iceland came within a play-off of becoming the country with the smallest population to have qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals, which ultimately they lost.  Which country in the Americas with a population of 1.3 million still holds that record?

Trinidad and Tobago

7.

Ireland

Which Irish county is home to Lisdoonvarna, famous for music and the annual matchmaking festival, and the Burren, a large karst landscape where you can find a remarkable three quarters of the country’s wildflower species?

Clare

8.

Tower

In which city is the 170 meter Spinnaker Tower, the tallest accessible structure in the UK outside London?

Portsmouth

9.

Disease

The King’s Evil and scrofula are old terms for the skin and lymph gland inflammations caused by which infectious disease?

Tuberculosis

10.

Drugs

Which pharmaceutical company is credited with the discovery of two of the world’s best selling drugs, aspirin and heroin?  It is headquartered in Leverkusen.                

Bayer

11.

Death

Which progressively paralysing neurological disease caused the deaths of actor David Niven, football manager Don Revie, murderer Donald Nielson, and tennis player and administrator Brad Drewitt?

Motor Neurone Disease

(also accept amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease)

12.

Dury

Which song by Ian Dury, written as a protest against International Year of the Disabled, which Dury thought patronising, did the BBC ban in 1981.  However, it was played at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games having been recognised as a powerful appeal for understanding to 'people in normal land'?

13.

Classical music in film

The minuet from Luigi Boccherini’s String Quintet in E, Opus 11 No 5, plays an important role in the plot of which black comedy film of 1955?

14.

Classical music in literature

Leos Janacek’s 1926 orchestral work Sinfonietta (JW 6/18) plays an important role in the plot of which trilogy of novels by Japanese author Haruki Murakami?

15.

Transport

The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal, Germany is home to which rare form of public transport, first opened in 1901?

Suspended monorail

16.

Engines

Which engine powers the Airbuses 330, 340, 350 and 380?

Rolls Royce Trent

17.

USA woman on top

Why was Marin Alsopp in the news on Saturday evening of September 10th 2013?

She conducted at the Last Night of the Proms

18.

French woman on top

Why was Criquette Head in the news on Sunday afternoon of October 6th 2013, 34 years after a similar event?

She was the winning trainer of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

19.

Texting

Who can be contacted by texting 61812?

Classic FM

20.

Sexting

The term 'sexting' referring to the sending of erotic or pornographic text or imagery first appeared in print in 2005 in the magazine of which Sunday newspaper?

The Sunday Telegraph

Spares

1.

Which detective made his first TV appearance in the episode The Dead of Jericho?

Inspector Morse

2.

Which National Hunt jockey has recently passed the 4000 winners mark?

Tony McCoy

3.

Which was the last work of Anton Chekhov that opened in 1904?

The Cherry Orchard

4.

What was the name of the world’s first nuclear power station to produce electricity on an industrial scale?

5.

What nationality were Lordi, the winning act of the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest?

Finnish

6.

Which Ian Dury song contains the lyric:

"Van Gogh did some eyeball pleasers
He must have been a pencil squeezer
He didn’t do the Mona Lisa
That was an Italian geezer"?

There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards