Latest questions: 9 November 2021

These questions were inspired by those set for use in Knockout Qualifying Weeks 6, 7 and 8 of the 2012–13 season in Stockport Quiz League, by Heaton Moor RUFC (Questions 1 to 18), the Tiviot (19 to 25) and the Tame Valley (26 to 36).

In which comedy drama television series, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2011 to 2016, did comedian Jack Whitehall make his acting debut as Jonathan Pembersley – known as 'JP' – one of six students at a fictional university in Manchester?		Fresh Meat
In Hollywood's Golden Age, the "gooey" Louella Parsons and the "crass" Hedda Hopper were bitter rivals in what occupation?		Gossip columnists
Which country claims to have Europe's oldest monarchy (dating from AD 710)?		Denmark
Who wrote four crime novels using the pen name Dan Kavanagh, before going on to win the MAN Booker Prize in 2011?		Julian Barnes
Where would you be most likely to find Michael Parkinson, John Conteh, James Coburn, Kenny Lynch, Clement Freud and Christopher Lee, along with three other people, all in the same photograph?		On the cover of the 1974 album Band on the Run, by Wings
In which English county is Holme Fen – a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest that includes Holme Posts, which at 9 feet below sea level is believed to be the lowest point of land in Great Britain?		Cambridgeshire
Which 2007 film was (quote) "inspired by the music and the many lives of Bob Dylan" (unquote) – different facets of whose personality were played by Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw?		I'm Not There
In medicine: ageusia (ae–gee–oozia), hypogeusia, hypergeusia and phantogeusia are disorders affecting which of the five senses?		Taste
In which year did King Harald Hardrada of Norway, and his English ally Tostig Godwinson (brother of Harold II of England) defeat Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, at the Battle of Fulford?		1066 (five days before Stamford Bridge)
Aldous Huxley took the title of his novel Brave New World from a line in which play by Shakespeare?		The Tempest
Which self–styled "jobbing actor" provided the voice of Fred, the Homepride flour grader (in television adverts), for almost twenty years from 1964?		John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier also narrated which cartoon series of just thirteen episodes, first broadcast in BBC One's Watch With Mother slot in the mid–1970s – the title character being a boy who lives with his Aunt Flo, and other featured characters including PC Copper, Frank the Postman and Farmer Barleymow?		Bod
Which British aircraft manufacturer, based in Hayes, Middlesex and Heaton Chapel, Stockport, produced the Delta 2 – the first jet aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight?		Fairey
Launched in 2007, and named up to version 9 (in 2018) after sweet treats or desserts, what is Google's operating system for mobile devices (i.e. phones and laptops)?		Android
BBC Television's less successful follow–up to That Was the Week That Was, first broadcast in 1964 and 65, was similarly produced by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost. Complete the title: Not So Much a Programme ...		More a Way of Life
What is the official 'journal of record' of the UK Government, in which certain statutory notices – including those specific to England and/or Wales – are required to be published?		The London Gazette
What is the Greek word for 'union', used by various Greek communities outside Greece to campaign for incorporation into the Greek state – particularly EOKA in Cyprus in the 1950s?		Enosis
Which genus of flowering plants gives its name to their pinkish–purple colour, and also to a mineral, sometimes known as bloodstone, that's a variety of jasper or chalcedony (KAL–sid–oh–nee)?		Heliotrope(s)
Who wrote the poem The Rolling English Road, which begins with the lines "Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, / The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road"?		G. K. Chesterton
With which instrument are the jazz musicians Kenny Burrell and Pat Metheny most closely associated?		Guitar
Which British comedy actor had two Top Ten hits in 1962 – both produced by George Martin?		Bernard Cribbins
Which family of seabirds includes species known as the roseate and the Sandwich?		Terns
Which play by Noel Coward, which was filmed in 1944, tells the story of the Gibbons family, living in a London suburb during the inter–war years, and takes its title from John of Gaunt's famous speech in Shakespeare's Richard II? The film starred Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, Stanley Holloway and John Mills.		This Happy Breed
Which song was a UK Top Ten hit for the Platters in 1955 and for Freddie Mercury in 1987, and reputedly inspired the name of a British–American rock band formed in March 1978?		The Great Pretender
Which 1993 bio–pic, based on the memoir of the same title by Tobias Wolff (known as Toby), starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Toby, Ellen Barkin as his mother, and Robert De Niro as his abusive stepfather?		This Boy's Life
Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs is the full name of which character from children's literature?		The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz
In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which character says he will "put a girdle round about the Earth in forty minutes"?		Puck (Robin Goodfellow)
According to Cornelius Ryan in his book The Longest Day: who said to an aide, in April 1944, "The first twenty–four hours of the invasion will be decisive ... for the Allies, as well as Germany, it will be the longest day"?		Erwin Rommel
Which French poet, whose most famous work is Le vase brisé (The Broken Vase), was the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature?		René François Armand (Sully) Prudhomme
Which London Underground station gives its name to a spoof game on BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue?		Mornington Crescent
According to a character in Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan, what kind of man knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?		A cynic
At the London Olympics in 1908, a City of London Police team (captained by H. Duke) won the first of Great Britain's two gold medals in which sport? The other came in 1920, which was the last time that this sport was included in the Olympics.		Tug of War
Which Spanish fashion designer, of Basque origin, became known as an enfant terrible of the French fashion world after founding his own fashion house in Paris in 1966? He referred to his first collection as "twelve unwearable dresses in contemporary materials".		Paco Rabanne
'Colporteur' is another name for someone who sells what type of everyday objects?		Books
Which horse set a record time (of 2 minutes and 31.33 seconds) for the Epsom Derby, in 2010?		Workforce
Which American weapons manufacturer produced the Model 29 handgun, shooting .44 Special [Magnum] cartridges – famously referred to by Clint Eastwood in the 1971 film Dirty Harry as "the most powerful handgun in the world"?		Smith & Wesson

© Haydn Thompson 2021