ROUND 1 - Pairs

May include homonyms

1.

What name links lines on a musical stave which appear above or below the central five, and a race run in Doncaster each September?

2.

What name links a variety of potato with the wife of the younger Crane brother in the sitcom Frasier?

3.

What name is missing from this epitaph?

“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night / God said, 'Let --------- be!' and all was light.”

4.

What name is missing from this epitaph?

“But not for long: the Devil, howling 'Ho / Let --------- be!” restored the status quo.'

5.

Which Shakespearean title character utters the words:

“The Devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon”?

6.

In which Shakespeare play does one character abuse another with the word:

“Thou whoreson zed! Thou unnecessary letter!”?

7.

What short word links the castle in which Edmund Dantès is imprisoned and a 1968 film produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson?

8.

What firsts link Ian Paisley junior and Fiona Onasanya?

Sp.

What did the acronym QANTAS originally stand for?

Go to Round 1 questions with answers

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme

1.

What was Alfred Hitchcock’s first movie to be filmed in colour?

2.

Which 1973 hit single includes the lyric: “...and the man in the back said everyone attack”?

3.

Windy Miller was a character in which children’s TV show?

4.

Name the 1961 film in which Fred McMurray’s character invents Flubber.

5.

Yperite, first used by the German army in September 1917, is better known as what?

6.

In 2000, who replaced Kathleen Turner in the role of Mrs Robinson in The Graduate at the Gielgud Theatre?

7.

At which San Francisco venue did the Beatles perform their last public concert?

8.

Who wrote Charlotte’s Web?

Sp.

Vivien Leigh won Oscars for playing Blanche Dubois and which other character?

Go to Round 2 questions with answers

ROUND 3 - Music

1.

Who wrote a rondo for piano solo subtitled Rage Over a Lost Penny?

2.

Which Czech composer wrote the Glagolitic Mass and the opera The Makropoulos Affair?

3.

Ernst von Dohnanyi’s Variations on a Nursery Theme is a work for piano and orchestra based on which very well-known tune?

4.

Charles Ives’s Variations on ‘America’ is a work for organ (although more commonly played in an orchestrated version) based on which tune?  It was one of the USA’s unofficial national anthems until 1931 and is extremely well-known over here as well.

5.

Whose fifth symphony is subtitled A Soviet Artist’s Response to Justified Criticism after Stalin’s dislike of one of his operas had led to much adverse comment?

6.

Who wrote the Farewell Symphony in which, during the last movement, nearly all the musicians in turn snuff out candles (if using) and leave the stage, many after playing short solos?

7.

The two operas known colloquially as 'Cav and Pag' are nearly always performed as a double bill.  What are their full titles?

8.

Who wrote the comic opera Gianni Schicchi which contains one of the best-known arias in opera, O Mio Babbino Caro?

Sp.

In which opera do the characters Captain Vere, Squeak and Claggert appear?

Go to Round 3 questions with answers

ROUND 4 - Run ons

The last word of the first answer is the first (or the first part of the first, at least) of the second: for example, innocuous statue and Irish actor would Venus de Milo O’Shea. First names and last names of people are required unless otherwise specified. Definite and indefinite articles may be ignored. Some homonyms.

1.

Dutch actress who starred in the Emmanuelle series of films, and as Constance Chatterley in 1981;

Nickname given to Paul Flowers, sometime chairman of the Co-op Bank, after his conviction for drugs offenses in 2014.

2.

1967 film starring Paul Newman as a prisoner in a Florida chain gang who is beaten and eventually shot;

Former chairman of, amongst many other firms, Pizza Express, Channel 4 and the holding company which owned Patisserie Valerie at the time of its collapse.

3.

Ironically-named police series, set in Yorkshire;

Hugely successful first novel by Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966 and filmed the following year.

4.

Fur-loving Disney character played by Glenn Close

Title of a ghastly film version of John Wyndham’s novel about alien children.

5.

German, later American, composer of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny;

Second novel by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1930.

6.

Winner in 2004 of Oscars for best picture, best director (the director was also nominated for best actor), best actress and best supporting actor;

Much-recorded 1944 song, commonly played around Christmas time, whose lyrics were controversially re-written last year to address perceptions of allusion to date rape.

7.

Magnificently-voiced American soprano who died in 2019 and who in 1998 unsuccessfully sued the publishers of Classic CD magazine for libel after it published the sentence, “In ringing tones the diva declared `Honey, I ain’t got no sideways`”;

American author to whom Dorothy Parker said “So, you’re the man who can’t spell `fuck’” because his publishers had persuaded him to change the word to 'fug' throughout his book.

8.

Novel by Alan Sillitoe, filmed in 1960 starring Albert Finney;

1931 trilogy of plays by Eugene O’Neill, based on the Oresteia.

Sp.

Nickname given to the patient and friend of surgeon Sir Frederick Treves, which was the title character of a 1982 film;

Film based on Cervantes’ best-known novel.

Go to Round 4 questions with answers

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which Manchester born singer delivered the lines, “Jesus was a black man / No Jesus was Batman / No, no, that was Bruce Wayne”?

2.

Which Margate-born singer appeared in a music video dressed as Henry VIII, delivering the line, “When I catch her I’m gonna kill her”?

3.

The Zika virus which has been prevalent throughout the world since 2007 takes its name from the Zika forest located in which African country?

4.

The MERS virus was first identified in which Middle Eastern country in 2012?

5.

What is the collective name of Lawrence Durrell’s four novels: Justine, Balthazar, Mount Olive and Clea?

6.

What is the collective name for Olivia Manning’s The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy?

7.

The dictators Hastings Banda (Malawi) and Bashir Al Assad (Syria) began their working careers in which occupation?

8.

The dictators Benito Mussolini (Italy) and Pol Pot (Kampuchea/Cambodia) began their working careers in which occupation?

Go to Round 5 questions with answers

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

1.

Which 1979 film stars Bob Hoskins as a gangster aspiring to become a legitimate businessman who has a plan to redevelop London’s docklands?

2.

Which 1971single became, in 2014, one of the official state anthems of West Virginia?

3.

Which town in Shropshire is known for containing one of the largest meres in England outside the Lake District? It is one of nine glacial meres in the district.

4.

Which author’s novels include Typee,  Omoo, Israel Potter and Billy Budd?

5.

Who was sacked from his second spell as Watford manager in November 2019 after less than three months in charge?

6.

Which Blue Peter presenter left the show in 1987, amid rumours that she had been sacked for becoming pregnant?  She had separated from her husband, TV director, Robin Bextor after landing the Blue Peter role in 1983.

7.

Which make and model of car was driven by both Brodie and Doyle in the TV show The Professionals?

8.

What is the name of the author and historian who was married to Harold Pinter from 1980 until his death in 2008?

Sp.

What cocktail consists of tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice?

Go to Round 6 questions with answers

ROUND 7 - Pot pourri

1.

Of the five largest tech companies in America, three have names which begin with the letter 'A'.  One is Apple.  What are the other two?

2.

Short Ride in a Fast Machine, an orchestral work by John Adams, was played at the Proms in 2004, 2014 and 2019.  It was due to have been played in 1997 and 2001, but was cancelled on both occasions.  What were the reasons for each of the cancellations?

3.

Which organisation has the motto 'Dictum meum pactum'?

4.

Whose short story The Nine Billion Names of God ends with the words “Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out”?

5.

By what name is the novel Im Westen Nichts Neues known in English, both book and film?

6.

What four words complete the poem by Ogden Nash: "Candy is dandy...”?

7.

How did Seamus Heaney translate 'Hwaet' the first word of Beowulf?  (Note to QM: 'hwaet' rhymes with cat)

8.

Where would you see the EURion constellation?

Sp.

Who memorably described his party’s manifesto for the 1983 general election as “the longest suicide note in history”?  The phrase for some reason has seen a resurgence in popularity of late.

Go to Round 7 questions with answers

ROUND 8 - Bingo Round

Pick your own subject

1.

CAR MARQUES

What animal appears on the logo of Italian car manufacturer Abarth?

2.

CELEBRITY RELATIONS

Which TV presenter is the cousin of designer Cath Kidston?

3.

FILM TRILOGIES

What name is given to the trilogy of films by Baz Luhrmann that consists of Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge?

4.

COMEDY

Which two members of the Monty Python team were educated at Oxford University?

5.

SPORT

What was the name of the French golfer who removed his shoes and socks to wade in the Barry Burn at Carnoustie looking for his ball at the last hole of the 1999 Open?

6.

POP MUSIC

What is the full name of the singer’s love interest in the Jona Lewie song Stop the Cavalry?

7.

DETECTIVE NOVELS

The novels and TV series Cadfael were set in which town?

8.

HISTORY

By what two word name is the period of relative stability in the Roman Empire from 27BC to 180AD known?

9.

SHOPPING IN THE NORTH

Which supermarket chain, sometimes referred to as the 'Waitrose of the North', has 28 stores across Lancashire, Cheshire and West Yorkshire, the nearest to Withington being those at Media City and Hale Barns?

10.

AIRLINES

Apart from British Airways and Air France, what was the only other airline to have its livery painted on a Concorde used in commercial flight?  It had BA colours on the starboard and this airline’s on the port when they codeshared between 1977 and 1980.  It flew to this airline’s hub via Bahrain.

Go to Round 8 questions with answers

ROUND 1 - Pairs

May include homonyms

1.

What name links lines on a musical stave which appear above or below the central five, and a race run in Doncaster each September?

Le(d)ger

2.

What name links a variety of potato with the wife of the younger Crane brother in the sitcom Frasier?

Maris

3.

What name is missing from this epitaph?

“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night / God said, 'Let --------- be!' and all was light.”

Newton

4.

What name is missing from this epitaph?

“But not for long: the Devil, howling 'Ho / Let --------- be!” restored the status quo.'

Einstein

5.

Which Shakespearean title character utters the words:

“The Devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon”?

6.

In which Shakespeare play does one character abuse another with the word:

“Thou whoreson zed! Thou unnecessary letter!”?

King Lear

7.

What short word links the castle in which Edmund Dantès is imprisoned and a 1968 film produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson?

8.

What firsts link Ian Paisley junior and Fiona Onasanya?

They were the subjects of recall petitions

(Paisley’s the first ever and Onasanya’s the first successful - accept just 'recall petitions')

Sp.

What did the acronym QANTAS originally stand for?

ROUND 2 - Hidden theme

1.

What was Alfred Hitchcock’s first movie to be filmed in colour?

Rope

2.

Which 1973 hit single includes the lyric: “...and the man in the back said everyone attack”?

3.

Windy Miller was a character in which children’s TV show?

Camberwick Green

4.

Name the 1961 film in which Fred McMurray’s character invents Flubber.

5.

Yperite, first used by the German army in September 1917, is better known as what?

Mustard gas

6.

In 2000, who replaced Kathleen Turner in the role of Mrs Robinson in The Graduate at the Gielgud Theatre?

Jerry Hall

7.

At which San Francisco venue did the Beatles perform their last public concert?

Candlestick Park

8.

Who wrote Charlotte’s Web?

E B White

Sp.

Vivien Leigh won Oscars for playing Blanche Dubois and which other character?

Scarlet O’Hara

Theme: Each answer contains a character, a room or a murder weapon featured in Cluedo

Go back to Round 2 questions without answers

ROUND 3 - Music

1.

Who wrote a rondo for piano solo subtitled Rage Over a Lost Penny?

Ludwig von Beethoven

2.

Which Czech composer wrote the Glagolitic Mass and the opera The Makropoulos Affair?

(Leos) Janacek

3.

Ernst von Dohnanyi’s Variations on a Nursery Theme is a work for piano and orchestra based on which very well-known tune?

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

4.

Charles Ives’s Variations on ‘America’ is a work for organ (although more commonly played in an orchestrated version) based on which tune?  It was one of the USA’s unofficial national anthems until 1931 and is extremely well-known over here as well.

My Country, ‘Tis of Thee

(accept also God Save the Queen; anyone answering “the national anthem of Lichtenstein” is to be docked 10 points for being a smartarse)

5.

Whose fifth symphony is subtitled A Soviet Artist’s Response to Justified Criticism after Stalin’s dislike of one of his operas had led to much adverse comment?

Shostakovich

6.

Who wrote the Farewell Symphony in which, during the last movement, nearly all the musicians in turn snuff out candles (if using) and leave the stage, many after playing short solos?

Haydn

7.

The two operas known colloquially as 'Cav and Pag' are nearly always performed as a double bill.  What are their full titles?

Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci

8.

Who wrote the comic opera Gianni Schicchi which contains one of the best-known arias in opera, O Mio Babbino Caro?

Puccini

Sp.

In which opera do the characters Captain Vere, Squeak and Claggert appear?

Billy Budd

Go back to Round 3 questions without answers

ROUND 4 - Run ons

The last word of the first answer is the first (or the first part of the first, at least) of the second: for example, innocuous statue and Irish actor would Venus de Milo O’Shea. First names and last names of people are required unless otherwise specified. Definite and indefinite articles may be ignored. Some homonyms.

1.

Dutch actress who starred in the Emmanuelle series of films, and as Constance Chatterley in 1981;

Nickname given to Paul Flowers, sometime chairman of the Co-op Bank, after his conviction for drugs offenses in 2014.

2.

1967 film starring Paul Newman as a prisoner in a Florida chain gang who is beaten and eventually shot;

Former chairman of, amongst many other firms, Pizza Express, Channel 4 and the holding company which owned Patisserie Valerie at the time of its collapse.

3.

Ironically-named police series, set in Yorkshire;

Hugely successful first novel by Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966 and filmed the following year.

Happy Valley / Valley of the Dolls

4.

Fur-loving Disney character played by Glenn Close

Title of a ghastly film version of John Wyndham’s novel about alien children.

Cruella de Vil / Village of the Damned

5.

German, later American, composer of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny;

Second novel by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1930.

6.

Winner in 2004 of Oscars for best picture, best director (the director was also nominated for best actor), best actress and best supporting actor;

Much-recorded 1944 song, commonly played around Christmas time, whose lyrics were controversially re-written last year to address perceptions of allusion to date rape.

7.

Magnificently-voiced American soprano who died in 2019 and who in 1998 unsuccessfully sued the publishers of Classic CD magazine for libel after it published the sentence, “In ringing tones the diva declared `Honey, I ain’t got no sideways`”;

American author to whom Dorothy Parker said “So, you’re the man who can’t spell `fuck’” because his publishers had persuaded him to change the word to 'fug' throughout his book.

8.

Novel by Alan Sillitoe, filmed in 1960 starring Albert Finney;

1931 trilogy of plays by Eugene O’Neill, based on the Oresteia.

Saturday Night and Sunday Mourning / Morning Becomes Electra

Sp.

Nickname given to the patient and friend of surgeon Sir Frederick Treves, which was the title character of a 1982 film;

Film based on Cervantes’ best-known novel.

Go back to Round 4 questions without answers

ROUND 5 - Pairs

1.

Which Manchester born singer delivered the lines, “Jesus was a black man / No Jesus was Batman / No, no, that was Bruce Wayne”?

Shaun Ryder

2.

Which Margate-born singer appeared in a music video dressed as Henry VIII, delivering the line, “When I catch her I’m gonna kill her”?

Buster Bloodvessel

3.

The Zika virus which has been prevalent throughout the world since 2007 takes its name from the Zika forest located in which African country?

Uganda

4.

The MERS virus was first identified in which Middle Eastern country in 2012?

Saudi Arabia

5.

What is the collective name of Lawrence Durrell’s four novels: Justine, Balthazar, Mount Olive and Clea?

The Alexandrian Quartet

6.

What is the collective name for Olivia Manning’s The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy?

Fortunes of War

7.

The dictators Hastings Banda (Malawi) and Bashir Al Assad (Syria) began their working careers in which occupation?

Doctors of medicine

8.

The dictators Benito Mussolini (Italy) and Pol Pot (Kampuchea/Cambodia) began their working careers in which occupation?

School teaching

Go back to Round 5 questions without answers

ROUND 6 - Hidden theme

1.

Which 1979 film stars Bob Hoskins as a gangster aspiring to become a legitimate businessman who has a plan to redevelop London’s docklands?

The Long Good Friday

2.

Which 1971single became, in 2014, one of the official state anthems of West Virginia?

(accept Take Me Home or Country Roads but explain that the full name is needed for the theme)

3.

Which town in Shropshire is known for containing one of the largest meres in England outside the Lake District? It is one of nine glacial meres in the district.

4.

Which author’s novels include Typee,  Omoo, Israel Potter and Billy Budd?

Herman Melville

5.

Who was sacked from his second spell as Watford manager in November 2019 after less than three months in charge?

Quique Flores

6.

Which Blue Peter presenter left the show in 1987, amid rumours that she had been sacked for becoming pregnant?  She had separated from her husband, TV director, Robin Bextor after landing the Blue Peter role in 1983.

Janet Ellis

7.

Which make and model of car was driven by both Brodie and Doyle in the TV show The Professionals?

Ford Capri

8.

What is the name of the author and historian who was married to Harold Pinter from 1980 until his death in 2008?

Lady Antonia Fraser

Sp.

What cocktail consists of tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice?

Margarita

Theme: Each answer contains the name of an island

Go back to Round 6 questions without answers

ROUND 7 - Pot pourri

1.

Of the five largest tech companies in America, three have names which begin with the letter 'A'.  One is Apple.  What are the other two?

Amazon;

Alphabet

2.

Short Ride in a Fast Machine, an orchestral work by John Adams, was played at the Proms in 2004, 2014 and 2019.  It was due to have been played in 1997 and 2001, but was cancelled on both occasions.  What were the reasons for each of the cancellations?

Death of Diana, Princess of Wales;

the 11th September terrorist attacks

3.

Which organisation has the motto 'Dictum meum pactum'?

4.

Whose short story The Nine Billion Names of God ends with the words “Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out”?

5.

By what name is the novel Im Westen Nichts Neues known in English, both book and film?

6.

What four words complete the poem by Ogden Nash: "Candy is dandy...”?

7.

How did Seamus Heaney translate 'Hwaet' the first word of Beowulf?  (Note to QM: 'hwaet' rhymes with cat)

8.

Where would you see the EURion constellation?

Sp.

Who memorably described his party’s manifesto for the 1983 general election as “the longest suicide note in history”?  The phrase for some reason has seen a resurgence in popularity of late.

Go back to Round 7 questions without answers

ROUND 8 - Bingo Round

Pick your subject

1.

CAR MARQUES

What animal appears on the logo of Italian car manufacturer Abarth?

Scorpion

2.

CELEBRITY RELATIONS

Which TV presenter is the cousin of designer Cath Kidston?

Kirstie Allsop

3.

FILM TRILOGIES

What name is given to the trilogy of films by Baz Luhrmann that consists of Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge?

The Red Curtain Trilogy

4.

COMEDY

Which two members of the Monty Python team were educated at Oxford University?

5.

SPORT

What was the name of the French golfer who removed his shoes and socks to wade in the Barry Burn at Carnoustie looking for his ball at the last hole of the 1999 Open?

Jean Van de Velde

6.

POP MUSIC

What is the full name of the singer’s love interest in the Jona Lewie song Stop the Cavalry?

7.

DETECTIVE NOVELS

The novels and TV series Cadfael were set in which town?

8.

HISTORY

By what two word name is the period of relative stability in the Roman Empire from 27BC to 180AD known?

9.

SHOPPING IN THE NORTH

Which supermarket chain, sometimes referred to as the 'Waitrose of the North', has 28 stores across Lancashire, Cheshire and West Yorkshire, the nearest to Withington being those at Media City and Hale Barns?

10.

AIRLINES

Apart from British Airways and Air France, what was the only other airline to have its livery painted on a Concorde used in commercial flight?  It had BA colours on the starboard and this airline’s on the port when they codeshared between 1977 and 1980.  It flew to this airline’s hub via Bahrain.

Go back to Round 8 questions without answers