QM, please tell the teams at the start: 

• Rounds 1 & 5 have themes which will be declared at the start of the rounds – in both cases the themes are broad and merely give another way into the general knowledge content

• Rounds 2, 3, 6, and 7 are unthemed, but paired across rounds (2 with 6, and 3 with 7)

• Round 4 is unthemed but contains paired questions where there may be an above average ‘ponder and confer’ element

• Round 8 is a Picture round

• There is nothing hidden – and, apart from Round 4, we have aimed to make the questions snappy

• Hope you enjoy it!

ROUND 1 – US Presidents

Every answer contains the surname of a US President

1.

What is William Hague’s middle name?

Jefferson  (Thomas Jefferson 1801-09)

2.

Which 1995 movie starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood (who was also the film’s Director) tells the story of a photographer and a housewife?

The Bridges of Madison County (James Madison 1809-17)

3.

Which panellist of the 1950s TV panel show What’s My Line was also popularly known at the time as “the rudest man in Britain”?

Gilbert Harding (Warren Harding 1921-23)

4.

Who is currently Secretary of State for Trade & Industry?

Alan Johnson (Andrew Johnson 1865-69 & Lyndon Johnson 1963-69)

5.

What famous art deco building on the A40 in Perivale, London houses a branch of Tesco?

The Hoover Building (Herbert Hoover 1929-33)

6.

Which Manchester city centre street is home to the restaurant, Simply Heathcote’s, as well as the Manchester Reform Synagogue?

Jackson’s Row (Andrew Jackson 1829-37)

7.

What is the name of the hill in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park that was formed from an extinct volcano?

Arthur’s Seat (Chester Arthur 1881-85)

8.

What famous product is made just 2 miles from the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland?

Bushmill’s Whiskey (George Bush 1989-93 & George Bush 2001-present)

ROUND 2 - Unthemed

1.

Sweden and Finland are largely separated by which stretch of water?

Gulf of Bothnia

2.

“Here I stand with head in hand/turn my back to the wall” – what are the next 2 lines?

“Now she’s gone I can’t go on/feeling two foot tall” (Beatles: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away)

3.

Which is the largest town with the post code HS1?

Stornoway

4.

What was the most popular name given to newborn boys in the UK in 2004?

Jack

5.

Which 1971 movie is described as follows by Halliwell’s Film Guide:

“A repulsive film in which intellectuals have found areas of social and political meaning; the average judgment is likely to remain that it is pretentious and nasty rubbish for sick minds who do not mind jazzed-up images and incoherent sound”?

A Clockwork Orange

6.

What is the Japanese for “single number”?

Sudoku

7.

Which film, currently on general release, stars Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz?

The Constant Gardener

8.

In which local town is the Millgate shopping centre?

Bury

ROUND 3 - Unthemed

1.

What unusual happening occurs in the opening sentence of George Orwell’s 1984?

The clocks are striking thirteen

2.

In the recent TV adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House what part was played by the actor Phil Davis?

Smallweed

3.

Which actor plays the Doctor in the new series of Doctor Who?

David Tennant

4.

What word links a Shakespeare play and Ricky Gervais’s comedy writing partner?

Merchant (The Merchant of Venice and Stephen Merchant)

5.

Off which section of British coast would you find the islands of Skokholm and Skomer?

Pembrokeshire

6.

At the Pope’s death in 2005 what phrase was chanted by the crowds in St Peter’s Square to demand his immediate canonisation?

“Santo subito”

7.

What’s the name of the current Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster?

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor

8.

Who wrote the play on which the 1967 film Barefoot in the Park was based?

Neil Simon

 ROUND 4 – Unthemed

1.

When travelling by train from King’s Cross to Leeds (by the normal and most direct route) you pass through 2 Cathedral cities.  Which are they?

Peterborough & Wakefield

2.

When travelling by train from Paddington to Hereford (by the normal and most direct route) you pass through 2 Cathedral cities.  Which are they?

Oxford & Worcester

3.

Name Jane Austen’s 6 completed novels.

Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Emma, and Mansfield Park

4.

The titles of 6 Dickens novels contain the full name of a person (i.e. forename and surname next to each other).  What are these names?

David Copperfield, Barnaby Rudge, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Edwin Drood

5.

Who is the only British politician since WWII to have served in all 3 great offices of state (i.e. Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary) before becoming Prime Minister?

James Callaghan

6.

Who was the only British Prime Minister since WWII to serve in the cabinet after being PM?

Sir Alec Douglas Home

7.

Name the 4 English football league clubs with the highest capacity stadia.

Manchester United, Newcastle United, Manchester City, and Sunderland

8.

Name the 3 Scottish football league clubs with the highest capacity stadia.

Celtic, Queen’s Park (Hampden Park), and Rangers

ROUND 5 – “Around the World in 8 Questions”

Each answer contains the name of a city of the world (but not of the UK).  The cities are sequenced as if you are travelling from Britain eastwards around the globe.

1.

Which “Station of the Stars” finally closed in 1992?

Radio Luxemburg

2.

Who wrote Annie Get Your Gun and White Christmas?

Irving Berlin

3.

What is described as: “The mental condition sometimes experienced by hostages in which positive feelings develop towards their captors.”?

The Stockholm syndrome

4.

What is the collective title for Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea?

The Alexandria Quartet

5.

Which novel by Frederick Forsyth was made into a film in 1974 starring Jon Voight?

The Odessa File

6.

What word is used to describe the practice of forcing unwilling conscripts to sea - often through the use of drugs or drink?

Shanghaiing

7.

Who was British Prime Minister in 1834 and again between 1835 and 1841?

Viscount Melbourne

8.

For which film did Tom Hanks win his first Oscar?

Philadelphia

ROUND 6 - Unthemed

1.

Greenland and Iceland are separated by which stretch of water?

The Denmark Strait

2.

“I heard the news today, oh boy/Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire/and though the holes were rather small/they had to count them all” – what is the next line of 13 words?

“Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall” (Beatles: A Day in the Life)

3.

Which is the largest town with the post code GY1?

St Peter Port

4.

What was the most popular name given to newborn girls in the UK in 2004?

Emily

5.

Which 1959 movie is described as follows by Halliwell’s Film Guide:

“A milestone of film comedy which keeps its central situation alive with fresh and constant invention; its wit, combined with a sense of danger, has rarely been duplicated and never equalled.”?

Some Like It Hot

6.

What is Korean for “the art of foot on fist”?

Tae Kwon Do

7.

Which film, currently on general release, stars Emma Thompson and Colin Firth?

Nanny McPhee

8.

In which NW city is the Fishergate shopping centre?

Preston

ROUND 7 - Unthemed

1.

The final chapter of which novel starts with the words: “Reader I married him.”?

Jane Eyre

2.

In the recent TV adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House who played the part of Lady Dedlock?

Gillian Anderson

3.

Give the full names of the 2 actors that share the same surname, who have played the Doctor in Doctor Who.

Tom Baker and Colin Baker

4.

What word connects the title of a novel by Thomas Hardy and a former England Soccer Manager?

Greenwood (Under the Greenwood Tree & Ron Greenwood)

5.

What legacy of World War II would you find on the tiny island of Lamb Holm in the Orkneys?

A Chapel build by Italian POWs (from a nissen hut)

6.

In the wake of the 7/7 attacks what word was coined by Government agencies in 2005 to describe suspect individuals with no known links to terrorist or criminal activities?

Cleanskins

7.

What was the name of the current Pope before he became Pope Benedict XVI?

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

8.

Which 1957 war film starring William Holden, was based on a novel by Pierre Boulle?

Bridge on the River Kwai

ROUND 8 – “Déjà vu”

Identify these characters?

(each has appeared somewhere in the previous 7 rounds)

1.

2.

Sir Alec Douglas Home (R4 Q6)

Alan Johnson (R1 Q4)

3.

4.

Gilbert Harding (R1 Q3)

Irving Berlin (R5 Q2)

5.

6.

Stephen Merchant (R3 Q4)

Gillian Anderson (R7 Q2)

7.

8.

Colin Baker (R7 Q3)

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (R7 Q7)

SPARES

1.

Of the 25 EU countries, 7 share a land border with just one other EU country (excluding bridges and tunnels).  UK, Ireland, Sweden and Finland are 4.  Name the other 3.

Portugal, Denmark, and Estonia

2.

Of all the English counties Warwickshire borders the most – i.e. 8.  West Midlands, Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Oxfordshire and Staffordshire are 5 of these.  Name the other 3.

Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, and Gloucestershire

3.

What was denounced as a fake in the bulletin of the British Museum in 1953?

Piltdown Man

4.

Which forgery was published on October 24 1924, five days before a General election?

The Zinoviev letter

5.

Which London underground line is signified by the colour brown?

Bakerloo

6.

Which London underground line is signified by the colour grey?

Jubilee

7.

Which part of your body would be affected if you suffered from lordosis?

The spine (it’s an inwards curvature of the spine)

8.

What is the Latin name for chicken pox?

Varicella