We had rather fewer entries this year, though lots of people donated for copies of the Quiz, which raised £250 for BREMF – so thank you to all who made donations, even if they never got round to sending in their answers. 3 entrants tied for first place, each scoring 58, so we’ve had to implement the double-blind random draw. This is a complicated system involving 3 identical brown envelopes, Scrabble tiles and, on this occasion, one of the sopranos from Brighton Consort. She had no idea what she was being asked to do, but blindly followed instructions to draw a Scrabble tile from a fourth envelope and open the envelope with the corresponding letter on it – thank you, Anne Bonwit.
Thanks also to BREMF Trustees Kate Rhodes and Simon Mathews, who have kindly donated the prizes this year.
So – the winner of the £30 Waitrose voucher is regular entrant Susan Chadwick of Guildford, and the winner of the £10 book token are regular entrants Joan MacGregor & Ian Denyer, of Brighton. Joan is a BREMF volunteer.
Unfortunately, that means that the 3rd entry with 58 gets glory but little more – sorry, but please try again. That accolade goes to regular entrants Alan & Dena Mynett of Hurstpierpoint. Alan was one of the original team who worked on BREMF when Deborah and Clare started the Festival, in particular working with Maurice Shipsey on the website and the ticketing system.
Also scoring amazingly high marks are three past winners:
Hilary Ougham of Brighton 57½
Chris and Kate Darwin of Hove 56½
Nick Boston and Kevin Edwards of Brighton 55½
Thanks to all who entered. The answers are below:
Maya Davis, BREMF Quizmaster
Part 1 – Mixed Bag: 1 mark per correct answer
1. Which blue bird was crossed out in 2023? (Twitter renamed as X)
2. Which date each year has been officially designated Pi Day? (14th March = 3.14 in American date notation)
3. What is the better-known name of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV? (Akhnaton)
4. Henry VIII of England was the second husband of which two of his wives? (Katherine of Aragon and Catherine Parr- though there is also the possibility that Catherine Parr had been married twice before she married Henry)
5. Which saint besides St Patrick is celebrated on 17th March, and of what is this saint the patron? (St Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of cats & cat lovers.)
6. According to Manet, which British beer is available in the bar at the Folies-Bergère? (Bass – in bottles – recognisable by the red triangle)
7. A huge fossil discovered in Kimmeridge in Dorset was featured in a programme presented by Sir David Attenborough. To what group of creatures did it belong? (Pliosaur)
8. Shyamala Gopalan is the parent of which prominent political figure? (Kamala Harris)
9. Rore, Willaert, Lassus and Byrd have all written settings of which Latin text by Savonarola? (Infelix Ego)
10. Born in Tanzania, Magawa retired in 2021 and died in 2022, after receiving which medal in recognition of his work in Cambodia? (The Dickin Medal/PDSA Medal – Magawa was a pouched rat trained to detect landmines).
11. In the Monty Python ‘Dead Parrot’ sketch, what (allegedly) is the breed of parrot sold to the complainant? (Norwegian Blue)
12. Under what name is Isabella Bomfree (or Baumfree) better known? (Sojourner Truth)
13. Which traditional pantomime character is the son of a widowed washerwoman? (Aladdin)
14. What is the European equivalent of 999? (112)
15. What origin do the Kurosawa film Ran and Jane Smiley’s novel A Thousand Acres have in common? (They are both reworkings of Shakespeare’s King Lear – itself a retelling of the biography of Leir in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain – so ref to either Shakespeare or Geoffrey of Monmouth is an acceptable answer.)
16. Jon Arbuckle is the human companion of which fictional cat? (Garfield)
17. What is the new name of the London overground line which runs between Liverpool Street and Enfield Town? (Weaver Line)
18. Which Dad’s Army actor previously had a West End hit with his play The Ghost Train? (Arnold Ridley, who played Private Godfrey)
19. Who was the original owner of the false teeth which fetched £18,000 at an auction in Cheltenham in February 2024? (Sir Winston Churchill)
20. Where in the human body would you find otoliths? (In the ear)
Part 2 – Below are clues to the titles of 10 films or film franchises. Identify them. (1 mark per question)
1. Conflict engulfing BAFTA, Oscar and Golden Globe leading performers. (Star Wars)
2. A North London architect. (Goldfinger)
3. A truncated Italian child? (Bambi)
4. Gastronomically liquid end for a teal or mallard. (Duck Soup)
5. Total universal multilocational simultaneity. (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
6. Heard at BREMF, BBC Radio 1, supermarkets, Covent Garden Plaza, Bayreuth, on hold or even Salzburg. (The Sound of Music)
7. Magician’s female assistant is never seen again. (The Lady Vanishes)
8. An optimist’s verdict on present circumstances. (It’s a Wonderful Life)
9. A London Rail Terminal – possibly repeated? (Paddington – and sequels)
10. Why your dinner-party curry menu should include Madras or Vindaloo. (Some Like it Hot)
Part 3 -The Connections Round
3 marks per question – 1 for correctly identifying the connection and 2 for explaining all the elements.
1. River horse; Routemaster; succession of workmen; two incompatible plants. (Flanders & Swann songs: The Hippopotamus; A Transport of Delight; The Gasman Cometh; Misalliance)
2. Darius 1 of Persia; Catherine Higham; Elvira Condomine; Sir Roderick Murgatroyd (All characters who appear as ghosts – Aeschylus Persians; Kitty in Ghosts TV series; first wife of Charles Condomine in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit; Gilbert & Sullivan Ruddigore)
3. Cynomus; anguis fragilis; thylacine; panurus biarmicus – until recently. (All are creatures whose common names are misleading: Prairie dog – not a dog, but a type of ground squirrel; Slow worm – a legless lizard, so neither a worm nor, despite the scientific name, a snake; also called Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf – neither of these, but a marsupial with dog-like characteristics, now probably extinct; Bearded Reedling – until recently called Bearded Tit – not a member of the tit family.)
4. Abounding in flowers; snowy; sounds like a principal Iberian haunt of pirates; possibly mistaken for a previous Soviet republic. (US states: Florida; Nevada; Maine; Georgia).
5. Alan Wheatley (1950s); Alan Rickman; Melville Cooper (1938); Tony Robinson. (All have played Sheriff of Nottingham in films based on Robin Hood: BBC TV The Adventures of Robin Hood; film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves; Adventures of Robin Hood – film starring Errol Flynn; children’s TV series Maid Marian & her Merry Men)
6. Man; Rib; Port; Win. (Add -chester for the name of a Roman town or site in England: Manchester – originally a Roman legionary camp referred to by the Romans as Mancunium or Mammucium; Ribchester fort in Kent; Portchester Castle on site of a Roman Fort near Portsmouth; Winchester)
7. A Greek dog with an amazing memory; a custodian; one of these can answer questions about female beauty; musically a-alterating. (Newspaper names: Argus – Odysseus’ dog in Homer’s Odyssey, who recognised him when he returned home, though the newspaper name is taken from the hundred-eyed giant Argus; Guardian; Mirror – ref to the Queen’s mirror in Snow White; Times – ref to Bob Dylan song The times they are a-changing).
8. The BFG in inconsiderate mood; e.g. Cinderella’s suitor ever after – by tradition; being serious is a paramount consideration; an admirer of a Lake District aristocrat? (Works by Oscar Wilde: The Selfish Giant; The Happy Prince; The Importance of Being Earnest; Lady Windermere’s Fan)
9. Smart, shrewd or malignant in France; previously a king’s illegitimate son; a fictional frog; Ivar the Boneless or Rollo of Normandy. (Sea areas used in UK shipping forecast: Malin; Fitzroy [generic surname used by some of the illegitimate sons of Tudor and Stuart monarchs]; [Mr Jeremy] Fisher – see Beatrix Potter; Viking)
10. Olympic ski jumper Michael Edwards; an unfortunate Antarctic explorer; AV 8B; a spare time interest. (All nominally linked with raptors: better known as ‘Eddie the Eagle’; Robert Falcon Scott; Harrier Jump Jet; hobby).