One Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jack Nicholson

Randle McMurphy is a prisoner in an ordinary jail who is moved to an institution for mentally ill people. Once there he becomes the leader of some patients and has a number of clashes with Head Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher, who runs the ward he is in. The movie was very successful financially and critically and was nominated for nine Academy Awards. It won five of them, becoming only the second movie after the1934 'It Happened One Night' to win what is known as the 'big five' Awards. As well as Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher winning the Best Actor and Best Actress Awards, Milos Forman won the Best Director category while the movie's producers, Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, won the Best Picture Award and Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben won the Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material category.

As the last Award suggests, the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' was based on a 1962 book by Ken Kesey with the same title. The book is narrated by another ward inmate, Chief Bromden, and the title is from the last line of a nursery rhyme he learned from his grandmother. At the start of the book Ken Kesey explains that some episodes in it are inspired by things he witnessed while working in a mental health facility. The book was first adapted into a 1963 play of the same name by Dale Wasserman before being adapted again for the 1975 movie.

Answer: Chess

Tim Rice, who had worked with composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber on several musicals, had the initial idea for a musical that used a chess match to illustrate the then Cold War rivalry between the USA and the Soviet Union. The music for 'Chess' was composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, who were members of the group ABBA, while the lyrics were written by Bjorn and Tim Rice. It was first released as an album in the autumn of 1984 and this album was a critical and financial success, reaching number one in the Swedish album charts, the top ten in the UK, West German and South African charts and the top fifty in the US, Australia and France.

The musical was subsequently staged in London, where it received mainly good reviews and ran from 1986 to 1989. It then appeared on Broadway in a substantially altered form for a couple of months in 1988 and in the decades since then has also been staged in a number of other countries in Europe and in Australia, often with details changed to reflect the changing times.

Although the venues, interactions between the characters and the outcomes of the matches have varied, the basic plot is of a chess match in two separate parts between a world-class player from the USA and one from the Soviet Union. The original musical set the first part in Merano in Italy and the second part in Bangkok in Thailand. Murray Head played the role of the American for the original album and musical and sang the verses of the song 'One Night In Bangkok'. The song was released as a single in 1984 and was a success in many countries, reaching number one in the South African, Australian and some European singles charts, number three in the US and Canadian singles charts, and number twelve in the UK. The song has also been recorded by a few European groups, such as the Vinylshakerz from Germany in 2005.

Answer: One Foot in the Grave

The first episode of 'One Foot In the Grave' was shown on 4th January, 1990, and the last on 20th November, 2000. In between these dates a total of six series of the programme and seven one-off specials were shown. The programme was created and written by David Renwick, directed by three different directors and made by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Richard Wilson played the main character, Victor Meldrew, while Annette Crosby played his long-suffering but loving wife, Margaret. Victor was forced into early retirement when his job was taken over by a machine and not only grows angry about aspects of modern life but negative and bizarre things sometimes happen to him. The programme was designated as a sitcom but some episodes have a darker side and Victor is eventually killed by a hit-and-run driver.

'One Foot In the Grave' was popular with audiences and was nominated for and won a number of awards. It was nominated seven times for a BAFTA for Best Comedy (Programme or Series) and won the award in 1992. The series also won the British Comedy Award for Best Sitcom in 1992, 1995 and 2001 and Richard Wilson won an award for Best Light Entertainment Performance in both 1992 and 1994.

The title 'One Big Blue Sky' is invented but both 'One Tree Hill' and 'One on One' were American television programmes. The former ran for nine seasons, which were first shown between September 2003 and April 2012, and was initially about the relationship between two teenage half-brothers. 'One on One' was about a single man whose teenage daughter came to live with him and its five seasons were first shown between September 2001 and May 2006.

Answer: Fine

When they first formed in 1960 the Chiffons consisted of three female singers named Judy Craig, Patricia Bennett and Barbara Lee who all went to the same high school in New York. In 1962 Sylvia Peterson joined the group at the suggestion of songwriter Ronnie Mack. Their first single, 'He's so Fine' was released in 1963 and reached number one in the US singles chart and number sixteen in the UK chart and sold over one million copies. Their first album, also named 'He's so Fine' (1963), soon followed and was itself followed by a second single and album, both called 'One Fine Day' (1963). This single climbed to number five in the US singles chart and also appeared in the UK, French and New Zealand singles charts.

The group continued recording and two songs released in 1966, 'Sweet Talkin' Guy' and 'My Boyfriend's Back', were the most successful ones but from around 1970 onwards the group members gradually took other full-time jobs. With some personnel changes, the group still performed at weekends though and a few compilation albums were released over the decades, for example 'Sweet Talkin' Girls' in 2006.

The song 'One Fine Day' was written by the then married couple Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who were inspired to compose it by the similar title of an aria in Puccini's 1904 opera 'Madam Butterfly'. The Chiffons were the first to record the song and it was produced for them by The Tokens. A later recording of the song by Carole King reached number twelve in the US singles chart in 1980 and was also included on her 1980 album, 'Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King'. The song has also been recorded by many other artists, including the Carpenters on their 1973 album 'Now and Then' and Bette Midler on her 2014 album 'It's The Girls!'.

Answer: One Finger Death Punch

Canadians Jon and David Flook designed 'One Finger Death Punch' and it was published by Single Dollar Games, first for the Xbox 360 in 2013, then for Microsoft Windows in 2014 and for Android and iOS in 2015. In this single-player game the player's character fights opponents with different weapons and can choose between two main modes: a story/campaign mode which involves working through a series of levels and a survival mode in which the player's character simply fights a stream of opponents until the character is killed. There is also a secret survival mode where the player also has to keep moving a cat which keeps blocking the view. Whilst possibly not a very well-known game, 'One Finger Death Punch' was well-enough received to merit a sequel entitled 'One Finger Death Punch II', which was released in 2019 for the PlayStation 4.

'One Night Stand' is a role-playing game set the morning after a one-night sexual encounter between two people. It was developed by Lucy Blundell and first released in 2016 as an free Internet game then Kinmoko produced a number of other versions in 2019 . 'One Chance' was developed and published by Dean Moynihan and first released in 2010 for Adobe Flash and Internet browsers. This game gives the player six days to find an antidote for a cell-killing gas and save the world. 'One Piece: Treasure Cruise' is a role-playing game in which the player can control a crew of up to six and is part of the 'One Piece' series of games, which was originally based on a Japanese manga. It was published by Bandai Namco Games for Android and iOS in 2014 in Japan and in 2015 for the rest of the world.

Answer: Des O'Connor

Des O'Connor (1932-2020) began his show business career in the 1950s by appearing in variety shows in theatres and continued to appear on stage at intervals for several decades. For instance he and the comedian Jimmy Tarbuck toured parts of England and Wales in 2016 and 2017 and Des also toured in his one-man show in 2017. He made many guest appearances in television shows and hosted a number of successful programmes himself, beginning in 1963 with the 'Des O'Connor Show', a variety show which ran until 1971. Among later series was a chat show ' Des O'Connor Tonight', which he hosted between 1977 and 2002, and 'Today with Des and Mel' which he co-hosted between 2002 and 2006. He also hosted the game shows 'Take Your Pick' between 1992 and 1998 and 'Countdown' in 2007 and 2008.

Although this may not have been his main career, Des O'Connor was moderately successful as a singer for some decades. His first album was the 1968 'I Pretend', which reached number eight in the UK album chart, and he continued releasing albums at intervals, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, until 2008 when his last album 'Inspired' was released. His first single was released in 1957 and his last one in 1988 and a number of these recordings reached the UK singles charts including 'One, Two, Three O'Leary', a song about a girl the singer once knew, which went to number four in 1968. Other singles to reach the top ten were 'Careless Hands' in 1966, 'I Pretend' in 1968 and 'The Skye Boat Song', a duet with Roger Whittaker, in 1986.

Of the alternative answers, Des Lynam was a sports presenter and commentator on live television for many years until retiring from this in 2004 but has also hosted a few other programmes, such as 'Countdown' from 2006 to 2007. Terry Wogan is deceased but presented radio shows and hosted a number of television programmes for some fifty years, and recorded one traditional song, 'The Floral Dance', which became a hit in 1978. David Hamilton began his career in television in 1960 as a reporter but then appeared in and presented a large number of television shows over the years and he has been a DJ on national and local radio stations since 1962.

Answer: One Touch of Venus

The stage musical 'One Touch of Venus' was based on the 1885 novella 'The Tinted Venus' by Thomas Anstey Guthrie and a movie version of the book had already been released in 1921. The 1943 stage musical was written by the lyricist Ogden Nash and the composer Kurt Weill and a book of the musical was written by Ogden Nash and Sidney Joseph Perelman. Mary Martin played the part of Venus in the Broadway production, which ran from October 1943 to February 1945. In turn the musical 'One Touch of Venus' helped to inspire a 1948 movie musical and a 1955 television movie, both with the same title. The stage musical itself has been produced several times in different countries over the years, for instance at the Barbican Centre in London in 1992.

All the above productions are updated versions of the myth of Pygmalion, who sculpted a female statue which he fell in love with and which the goddess Venus brought to life for him. Plot details in the later books and musicals differ somewhat from each other but the statue is always of the goddess Venus. A man, whose name and trade vary, brings Venus to life himself and she is grateful and wants a relationship with him. He is starting to feel attracted to her when the other gods call her away and the statue again becomes inanimate but he then meets a girl who looks just like Venus.

Answer: Hundred

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' tells the story of several generations of the Buendia family and of the village named Macondo which the patriarch Jose Arcadio Buendia founds. At first an isolated village, Macondo gradually makes contact with other nearby villages and so the wider outside world then civil wars take place and adversely affect the village. Later striking workers from a banana plantation are killed by the army and five years of rain follow, causing a flood which further damages Macondo. The novel describes how the family grows over the generations then, as time goes on, gradually dies out again. The last remaining Buendia, Aureliano, decodes an old book of prophecies which show that the rise and decline of the family and the village were predetermined and that a windstorm will completely eradicate both. The book ends with the windstorm arising as he reads the last words of the prophecy.

The much-acclaimed book 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' was published in 1967 and is deemed to be part of the magic realism genre, in which mundane and magical events are intertwined. Its author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014), was born in Colombia, where the book is set, and he also wrote other novels, such as the 1985 'Love in the Time of the Cholera', novellas and short stories as well as non-fiction books. He lived in countries other than Colombia for a number of years, wrote 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' whilst living in Mexico and it was published in Argentina. The book has been translated into over forty languages and has sold over fifty million copies and Marquez was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1972 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

Answer: One and One is One

The group Medicine Head was formed in 1968 by John Fiddler and Peter Hope-Evans, who had met at school. They first performed in local venues and were noticed by DJ John Peel, who signed them to his Dandelion Records label. They made three albums for this label between 1970 and 1972 then moved to Polydor Records, for whom they recorded a further three albums. They were a moderate, rather than a major, success but toured regularly, mainly as a supporting act, and the two main band members were often augmented by a number of other musicians such as Clive Edwards and Keith Relf.

Although their albums did not appear in any album charts, some of the singles the band released were more successful in the singles charts, especially the love song 'One and One is One', which also appeared on their 1973 album of the same name. In 1971 their single '(And The) Pictures in the Sky' went to number twenty-two in the UK singles chart, while in 1973 'One and One is One' and 'Rising Sun' reached numbers three and eleven respectively. Medicine Head's fourth single 'Slip and Slide' reached number twenty-two in 1974 and also appeared on the 1974 album 'Thru a Five'. Medicine Head effectively ceased to exist in 1977, although John occasionally used the name later, and both John and Peter continued working in the music industry. Both joined other bands and John also performed solo while Peter also appeared as a backing musician on other artists' recordings.

Answer: West Side Story

The plot of 'West Side Story' was based on that of William Shakespeare's play 'Romeo and Juliet', in which Romeo and Juliet are members of two different families in Verona who fall in love. Their families are violently opposed to each other so the lovers keep their relationship secret but the play ends with them both killing themselves, partly due to a misunderstanding. In 'West Side Story' the opposing sides are teenage gangs of different ethnicities in 1950s New York and Tony is an ex-member of one gang but still a friend of its leader while Maria is the sister of the other gang's leader. Tony and Maria sing 'One hand, One Heart' during a pretend wedding but they plan to run away together and really get married. However, violent conflicts take place between the gangs and Tony is drawn into these and is killed but, unlike Juliet, Maria is still alive at the end of the musical.

Jerome Robbins first thought of the musical 'West Side Story' and it was written by lyricist Stephen Sondheim and composer Leonard Bernstein while the book was written by Arthur Laurents. It was first a stage musical, for instance appearing on Broadway between September 1957 and June 1959 and in London's West End between December 1958 and June 1961. The original Broadway production was nominated for five of the 1958 Tony Awards and Jerome Robbins and Oliver Smith won the Best Choreography and Best Scenic Design categories respectively. As well as Broadway revivals and touring productions in the USA, the musical has been staged in a number of other countries over the decades, including Australia and Germany. The first album of songs from the musical was recorded by the original 1957 Broadway cast and many other artists have recorded their versions.

A very successful movie version of 'West Side Story', written by Ernest Lehman and directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, was released in 1961 and was nominated for many awards including eleven 1962 Academy Awards, of which it won ten, including Best Picture. The soundtrack from the movie won a Grammy award and stayed at number one in the Billboard album chart for 54 weeks. In 1921 a second movie adaptation, written by Tony Kushner and directed by Steven Spielberg, was released. This too was a critical success, again being nominated for several awards including seven 2022 Academy Awards and the nominee Ariana DeBose won the Best Supporting Actress Award.