British Comedians Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tracey Ullmann

Tracey Ullmann was born in a small town in Berkshire, England in 1959. She enrolled in the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in 1971 and started her career dancing in several musicals. In 1980 she started working for television, and in 1983 she recorded a music album. Shortly afterwards she moved to Hollywood, and there she was offered her own show: "The Tracey Ullmann Show" (1987-1990). She won a Golden Globe for this show.
Furthermore she acted in several movies, including "Small Time Crooks" (2000) for which she also won a Golden Globe.
As an enthusiast knitter, she published a manual on knitting too.
"The Tracey Ullmann Show" also introduced us to the animation series "The Simpsons" by Matt Groening, who would also design other animated series.
Drew Carey was an actor born in the USA. The actress Carol Burnett was also born in the USA. Catherine Tate (born 1969) was British, but started her career at the end of the 1980s.

Answer: Jasper Carrott

Robert Davis was born in Birmingham in 1945. In 1962, when he started performing, he adopted the stage name Jasper Carrott.
Carrott created various shows that were named after his stage name: "An Audience with Jasper Carrott" (1979), "Carrott's Commercial Breakdown" (1989-1996) or "The One Jasper Carrott" (2012).
In "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" (1981) Carrott recited "Australian Motor Insurance Claims" - a number of ridiculous claims that were reputed as genuine.
The single "Funky Moped" (with "Magic Roundabout" on the B-side) was listed number 5 in the UK Singles Chart.
Steve Marsh and Dan Wright were involved in the comedy act Electric Forecast.
The Scaffolder was born as Arnie Kidden.
David Roper was the piano player on the comedy band "Four Poofs and a Piano".

Answer: Fez

Tommy Cooper was born in Caerphilly (Wales) in 1921. He was fascinated by magic tricks, and when he served in the army he performed some tricks before his comrades in arms. One night in Cairo Tommy forgot his helmet (needed for one of the tricks) and instead, borrowed a fez from a waiter.

This added so much comic effect Tommy would ever after appear in a red fez. As he noticed the audience laughed at a missed magic trick, he would elaborate a show including mostly jumbled-up magic tricks. Tommy Cooper was a member of the Magic Circle, an association for magicians/illusionists.

The wrong answers all were attributes of other members of the Magic Circle: the glove puppet Sooty belonged to Harry Corbett; David Nixon made music on the Mellotron (an analogue synthesizer); and Robert Harbin invented the Zig Zag Girl illusion.

Answer: Carry On

The "Carry On" movie series started in 1958 with "Carry On Sergeant". In 1992 a 31st instalment was made ("Carry On Columbus").
These movies are not focused on the same characters (as for instance the "James Bond" franchise) or a more or less continuous development (for instance the "Star Wars" series), but many of the cast and crew worked again and again to make similar comedies: a group of newbies in a certain profession, making silly mistakes.
Joan Sims was born in Essex in 1930. She started her movie career in comedies as "Will Any Gentleman" (1953) and "Trouble in Store" (1953). Her first "Carry On" movie was "Carry On Nurse" (1958) and she ended her "Carry On" career with "Carry On Emmanuelle" (1978), appearing in 24 out of the 31 movies.
The other options were long-running series about the same character, but not necessarily comedies. "James Bond" featured a womanizing spy, "Zatoichi" focused on a samurai blinded by a sword blow and then taking up the job of masseur, and "It's Tough Being a Man" (original title "Otoko wa Tsurai Yo") had as protagonist a shy Japanese bachelor.

Answer: Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge in 1952. He started writing sketches for the BBC radio and television (including some for "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and a few episodes of "Doctor Who").
In 1978 Adams created the radio programme "The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", which he then wrote down as a "trilogy" of five novels between 1979 and 1992. This sci-fi comedy featured characters such as Zaphod Beeblebrox, the President of the Galaxy sporting two heads and three arms.
Adams' spoof at mystery novels introduced the character of Dirk Gently, a "holistic" detective trying to solve improbable mysteries by the psychic interconnectedness of all things. During his lifetime, Adams published two "Dirk Gently" novels, while a third (unfinished) was published posthumously.
Ray Bradbury gave us the character Guy Montag in "Fahrenheit 451".
Stephen King created many memorable characters, including Roland Deschain in the "Dark Tower" series.
Asimov's "Robot" series starred R. Daneel Olivaw, an android with very human appearance.

Answer: Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry was born in 1957 in a suburb of London. After a tumultuous youth, he graduated from Cambridge in English literature. He started writing sketches and theatre plays in 1981. Later on he starred on television, together with his friend Hugh Laurie in "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" and "Jeeves and Wooster", adaptations of PG Wodehouse plays.
Fry also acted in series as "Blackadder II" or "Alas Smith and Jones". But his most noteworthy appearance on TV (other than "A Bit of Fry and Laurie") was presentation of the quirky quiz show "QI".
Stephen Fry's first book was published in 1991. In 1997 his first autobiography appeared, about his youth years and the start of his career. The title "Moab Is My Washpot" refers to the Bible verse in which the Israelis claim they have vanquished the nation of Moab so thoroughly they can clean their feet on them.
David Niven's first autobiography was "The Moon's a Balloon". Michelle Obama wrote "Becoming" about her youth. Dolly Parton's first autobiography was "My Life in Lyrics".

Answer: Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers was born in a Portsmouth suburb in 1925. After the second World War, he met with Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan, members of the Goons.
His movie career started with "Penny Points to Paradise" (1951) and starred opposite Alec Guinness in "The Ladykillers" (1959).
"Lolita" (1962) had, as main actor, James Mason as Dr. Humbert Humbert, seduced by the under-age Dolores "Lolita" Haze. Peter Sellers played Clare Quilty, the eccentric playwright who kidnapped Lolita. In the first scene (chronologically the last) Humbert killed Quilty while playing a game of ping pong.
In "Dr. Strangelove", Peter Sellers played the parts of the German Dr. Strangelove (advisor to the US President), the American President Merkin Muffley and the British RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. These three collaborate to stop the insane General Jack Ripper from bombing several targets in the USSR with hydrogen bombs. Slim Pickens played the role of Major King Kong, the pilot on one of the bombing planes. Major Kong was last seen riding the bomb after release over a Soviet missile base.
In "Being There", Sellers excelled as the naïve gardener, Chance, who stumbled into a family close to the US President. While Chance knew nothing about the modern world except what he has seen on TV, he soon rose to one of the most important advisors to the President (role by Jack Warden) and was even his reputed successor.
The role for which Peter Sellers will probably best be remembered, is the incompetent French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, whom he portrayed in five movies.

Answer: Clive Swift

Clive Swift was born in Liverpool in 1936. He started his acting career in 1961 with one episode in the TV series "Theatre Night" and as a courtroom official in the movie "Johnny Nobody".
Swift appeared in Hitchcock's movie "Frenzy" in 1972 and in "Excalibur" in 1981. As for TV work, he was one of the leading actors in "The Barchester Chronicles" (1982).
Swift is best known as Richard Bucket in the comedy "Keeping Up Appearances" (1990-1995). Richard was always subdued by Hyacinth's presence and her schemes to move up the social ladder. In one episode he retired from his office, and was clearly not amused at the thought of spending every day in the company of his wife.
The red herrings were also actors in "Keeping Up Appearances": Geoffrey Hughes played the unkempt Onslow, Hyacinth's brother-in-law (married to Daisy). David Griffin played Emmett, the divorced brother of Hyacinth's neighbour Elizabeth. And Jeremy Gittins played the vicar, on whom Hyacinth's sister Rose had a crush.

Answer: Graham Chapman

The comedy troupe Monty Python had, as members, the British comedians John Cleese (born 1939), Graham Chapman (born 1941), Terry Jones (born 1942), Eric Idle (born 1943), Michael Palin (born 1943) and Terry Gilliam (born 1940), the only Python born in the USA). The six comedians had all already done some radio and TV shows in the early 1960s, when they came together in 1969 to start the completely different TV series "Monty Python's Flying Circus": a number of sketches that were much more surreal than all comedy on TV at that time. Apart from the TV series that was broadcast five years, Monty Python also made several movies, of which "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) and "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979) were the most successful.
Alas, Chapman died in 1989, only 48 years old. The other Pythons did at first decide not to attend the funeral because they felt it would draw the attention from the memory of the deceased. But then John Cleese was asked to give the eulogy, in which he paraphrased the well-known "Dead Parrot" sketch (written by Cleese and Chapman).
Here's the start of the famous eulogy:
"Graham Chapman, co-author of the 'Parrot Sketch,' is no more.
He has ceased to be, bereft of life. He rests in peace. He has kicked the bucket, hopped the twig, bit the dust, snuffed it, breathed his last, and gone to meet the Great Head of Light Entertainment in the sky, and I guess that we're all thinking how sad it is that a man of such talent, such capability and kindness, of such intelligence should now be so suddenly spirited away at the age of only forty-eight, before he'd achieved many of the things of which he was capable, and before he'd had enough fun."

Answer: Jennifer Saunders

Jennifer Saunders (born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire in 1958) started her career with Dawn French as stand-up comedians at the Comic Strip. French and Saunders then appeared together on TV in "Girls on Top" (1985-1986) and "French and Saunders"(1987-2007).
Saunders is perhaps best known for her part as Edina (Edie) Monsoon in "Absolutely Fabulous" (1992-2012). Edie Monsoon was a fashion designer fascinated by the 1960s.
In 2001 a French pastiche movie of "Absolutely Fabulous" was made, in which all the main roles were played by French actors and actresses. Only Saunders appeared in a cameo as a guest watching the fashion defile.
Joanna Lumley, June Whitfield and Julia Sawalha played the other main roles in the British TV series "Absolutely Fabulous". Joanna played Edie's roommate Patsy, June played Edie's mother and Julia played Edie's daughter Saffron.