General Knowledge Quiz

[me123]

It is indeed.

Calthrop has the floor.

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks.

Two large peopled settlements in the UK, traditionally referred to: one as "The Faithful City", the other as "The Maiden City". Please identify the said two cities.

 

[theageofthetra]

Thanks.

Two large peopled settlements in the UK, traditionally referred to: one as "The Faithful City", the other as "The Maiden City". Please identify the said two cities.

The faithful city is Worcester for its role in the civil war and maiden city is Londonderry- something to do with its city walls protecting its residents I think.

 

[Calthrop]

This has to be a record ! You're absolutely right: Worcester with its great fidelity to the Royalist cause in the Civil War; Londonderry for never having fallen to besiegers, in any of the various sieges it has withstood in the course of the very long-drawn-out disagreements in that part of the world.

Please carry on -- Freedom for you of the city of your choice, is implicit.

 

[theageofthetra]

The Frost Report or TW3 are generally given credit as being the first British broadcasts to openly mock and ridicule politicians or imply corruption.

There was however an episode of a very popular British Radio series the decade before which is sadly not given the credit for actually being the first. What was the series and what event in particular was referred to?

 

[DaleCooper]

Was it The Goon Show? One episode was "The Jet Propelled Guided NAAFI" which was about government incompetence and financial profligacy.

 

[theageofthetra]

Was it The Goon Show? One episode was "The Jet Propelled Guided NAAFI" which was about government incompetence and financial profligacy.

Hmmm that wasn't the one I had in mind but a good call. This one directly accused politicians of getting something the public struggled to during a national crisis.

 

[Calthrop]

This is stuff about which I basically know nothing; so -- total random bow drawn at a venture -- did the series by any chance feature Deryck Guyler?

 

[DaleCooper]

I can think of only one event in the 1950s that might have led to a shortage of some commodity and that would be the Suez Crisis. Were the politicians getting more than their share of petrol? I don't know what radio show would have included that but I'll guess at another comedy "Take It from Here".

 

[theageofthetra]

I can think of only one event in the 1950s that might have led to a shortage of some commodity and that would be the Suez Crisis. Were the politicians getting more than their share of petrol? I don't know what radio show would have included that but I'll guess at another comedy "Take It from Here".

Correct event but wrong show.

 

[DaleCooper]

The only others I can think of from that period are:

Life with the Lyons
The Archers
Mrs Dale's Diary
The Clitheroe Kid
Workers' Playtime
Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh

Not much to choose from but I'll say "The Clitheroe Kid" just for the hell of it.

 

[Darren R]

The only radio comedies around the time of Suez that I can think of that haven't been named yet are "Educating Archie" - which really doesn't seem likely - and Hhhhancock's Half Hour. Galton and Simpson were known for doing a bit of stirring from time to time, so I'll go with "Hancock's Half Hour."

 

[theageofthetra]

The only radio comedies around the time of Suez that I can think of that haven't been named yet are "Educating Archie" - which really doesn't seem likely - and Hhhhancock's Half Hour. Galton and Simpson were known for doing a bit of stirring from time to time, so I'll go with "Hancock's Half Hour."

That's the one. In 'The stolen petrol' episode a direct accusation is made (I think by Kerr?) That politicians were never short of petrol coupons. This was at a time where political figures were treated with sycophantic reverance by BBC news. As you say G & S were a bunch of upstarts but rather like Round the Horne a decade later or Kenny Everett later still most of what they wrote went above the heads of the the Victorian BBC 'top floor'

Your Lad 'Imself

 

[Darren R]

Open Floor

 

[DaleCooper]

Try this for size:

Identify and thereby place (phonetically) in numerical order the following:

An Aldous Huxley novel
A bespectacled person
A Cambridgeshire village
A FTSE100 company
A lemur

 

[GusB]

I think I've got the order, but not sure of one of the clues

0 Huxley Novel - Eyeless in Gaza
1 Cambridgeshire Village - pass
2 Lemur - Ayeaye
3 FTSE company - 3i
4 Bespectacled person - Four eyes

 

[DaleCooper]

I think I've got the order, but not sure of one of the clues

0 Huxley Novel
1 Cambridgeshire Village
2 Lemur
3 FTSE company
4 Bespectacled person

You also need to identify them or as many as you can.

 

[Calthrop]

I'd say that the Cambridgeshire village is Eye, near Peterborough -- thus, "one eye" in the order as shown -- not that this will give me the floor !

 

[DaleCooper]

I'd say that the Cambridgeshire village is Eye, near Peterborough -- thus, "one eye" in the order as shown -- not that this will give me the floor !

Eye is correct.

I think I've got the order, but not sure of one of the clues

0 Huxley Novel - Eyeless in Gaza
1 Cambridgeshire Village - pass
2 Lemur - Ayeaye
3 FTSE company - 3i
4 Bespectacled person - Four eyes

Well done, four out of five is good enough for me, your turn...

A tip: If you edit a post it doesn't appear as a new post on the forum list so I didn't look at this thread until Calthrop posted, it's better to post a new reply if you want it to be seen.

 

[GusB]

A tip: If you edit a post it doesn't appear as a new post on the forum list so I didn't look at this thread until Calthrop posted, it's better to post a new reply if you want it to be seen.

Must improve on my Cambridgeshire geography!

I'll let Calthrop take the floor for the next one as I don't have a question handy.

 

[Calthrop]

Most generous of you, sir.

General-knowledge question, with a railway element: there was a novelist and poet (her stuff was published and much-read, but reckoned by the cognoscenti as thoroughly awful – wildly over-written and over-dramatic) whose writing career flourished a century and a bit more, ago. She was the wife of the station-master at Larne, Northern Ireland. Please name the lady.

 

[johnnychips]

Amanda McKitrick Ross?

 

[Calthrop]

johnnychips, that will do grand -- your floor.

To be really fussily precise, her authorial pseudonym was Amanda McKittrick Ros (one "s"). Her real name was Anna Margaret Ross (name of stationmaster husband, taken when they married), nee McKittrick. Some malarkey, I gather, about latching on to married name of Ross, so as to chop off the final letter to imply a connection with the north of Ireland's ancient and noble Ros family...

 

[johnnychips]

Sounds a bit of a dodgy family to me. Anyway I haven't posted on this quiz for ages, so I don't know if this will be hard or easy:

Who links Will, Arthur, John, Will, Alan and David?

 

[DaleCooper]

Robin Hood?

 

[johnnychips]

Yes - they were the Merry Men whose first names we knew, rather than just their surnames. Namely:

Little John
Will Scarlett
Arthur a Bland
David of Doncaster
Will Stutely
Alan-a-Dale

Your floor Dale...

 

[DaleCooper]

Yes - they were the Merry Men whose first names we knew, rather than just their surnames. Namely:

Little John
Will Scarlett
Arthur a Bland
David of Doncaster
Will Stutely
Alan-a-Dale

Your floor Dale...

I wasn't expecting that, I only recognised Will and Alan.

Next question:

Geographically what is a Marilyn?

 

[TheEdge]

Any hill or mountain in the UK over 150m tall.

3 year geography degree was worth it.

 

[DaleCooper]

Any hill or mountain in the UK over 150m tall.

3 year geography degree was worth it.

Living in Norfolk you had an unfair advantage.

More precisely their prominence* is at least 150 metres, your turn...

*for non-geographers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence

 

[krus_aragon]

Living in Norfolk you had an unfair advantage.

More precisely their prominence* is at least 150 metres, your turn...

*for non-geographers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence

Similarly, despite Anglesey not being mountainous at all (certainly compared with Snowdonia on the other side of the Menai Straits), it's tallest hills are all named as mountains ("mynydd"): Mynydd Bodafon, Mynydd Llwydiarth, Mynydd y Garn, Mynydd Tŵr (Holyhead Mountain), Mynydd Parys (Parys Mountain).

You see, Snowdonia's mountains look a lot smaller far off, so they must be the same size as this mountain right here on the island! :P