Mr Elton's Much Admir'd Work Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rik Mayall

In the early 1980s, a group of young comedy performers were making waves at The Comedy Store in London. Some were recruited by the fledgling Channel 4 into a project that eventually became "The Comic Strip Presents...", which was first broadcast on the channel's opening night in November 1982.

In response, the BBC brought the group in to develop other projects, the first of which was a subversive sitcom that came to be "The Young Ones". Rik Mayall began working on writing the scripts alongside his then girlfriend, Lise Meyer, and a stand-up comedian called Ben Elton. Elton had attended the University of Manchester at the same time as Mayall (graduating two years later), and in 1981 had been hired to take over from Alexi Sayle as compere of The Comedy Store.

The success of "The Young Ones" led to the BBC approach Elton to undertake further projects - in 1985, the year after the end of "The Young Ones", Elton was sole writer on the comedy-drama series "Happy Families", while he also wrote "Filthy, Rich and Catflap", featuring Mayall, Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer, all of whom had been in "The Young Ones".

The same year saw the start of his collaboration with Richard Curtis as co-writers of "Blackadder".

Answer: Kenneth Connor

Although Ben Elton is primarily known for his writing and his stand-up comedy, he has made occasional appearances as a performer. One of his most notable performances came in "Bambi", the famous episode of "The Young Ones" in which the four students from Scumbag College appear on "University Challenge", with Elton appearing as a member of the opposition team from Footlights College.

In "Sense and Senility", he plays a nameless bomb-carrying anarchist who interrupts the Prince Regent's trip to the theatre, where he has been watching a play starring the actors Enoch Mossop (played by Kenneth Connor) and David Keanrick (played by Hugh Paddick).

The majority of Elton's acting appearances have been relatively minor, with one of his only starring roles as an actor being the lead in the TV adaptation of his novel "Stark" in 1993.

Answer: The Man from UNCLE

Although Ben Elton had appeared on television with his stand-up act for a number of years, until 1990 he had not headlined his own series, with his most high profile television appearances being as the regular host of the Channel 4 comedy series "Saturday Live" (later to become "Friday Night Live" between 1985 and 1988.

In 1989, the BBC approached Elton, who had given the corporation a number of notable successes up to that point, having co-written "The Young Ones" and three series of "Blackadder", with a view to his getting his own stand-up show. "Ben Elton: The Man from Auntie" was first broadcast in February 1990, taking its name from the BBC's traditional nickname, 'Auntie Beeb'.

The series primarily focused on Elton's own stand-up routines, which were interspersed with pre-filmed sketch inserts. "The Man from Auntie" ran for two series, with the second broadcast in 1994.

Answer: Ronnie Corbett

"Ben Elton: The Man from Auntie" had ended in 1994, after which Ben Elton had not had his own TV series for another four years, when the BBC then commissioned another stand-up series from him. Unlike "The Man from Auntie", "The Ben Elton Show" was more of a traditional offering, featuring not just Elton's stand-up material and filmed inserts, but weekly musical guests.

A regular segment in the show featured Ronnie Corbett, one half of the legendary comedy partnership The Two Ronnies (alongside comedy actor Ronnie Barker) delivering one of his trademark rambling monologues from a large armchair, which had been a feature of "The Two Ronnies" throughout its run.

Despite Elton's reputation as a senior figure in the so-called 'alternative comedy' scene, he had long been a fan of more traditional comedy performers, and had developed a friendships with both Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, which led to his asking Corbett to appear on "The Ben Elton Show".

Answer: The Phantom of the Opera

Andrew Lloyd Webber had first mooted the idea of a follow-up to "The Phantom of the Opera" in 1990, on which he initially began collaborating with author Frederick Forsyth. However, this collaboration soon ended, as Lloyd Webber felt that the ideas they were coming up with would not translate into a stage musical.

The composer returned to the concept of a follow-up in 2006, eventually turning to Ben Elton for help in 2007. Elton, who had written the libretto of Lloyd Webber's 2000 musical "The Beautiful Game", crafted a story treatment for the planned show based more around the original characters from "The Phantom of the Opera" than had appeared during the 1990 writing process. Satisfied with the work Elton had done, Lloyd Webber took the writer's treatment, and used it to craft the libretto alongside lyricist Glenn Slater. "Love Never Dies" eventually opened in London's West End in February 2010, running for eighteen months until August 2011.

Answer: Rod Stewart

Queen had been contemplating the idea of a musical based on their songs since the mid-1990s, with the original intention being to craft a biographical story about Freddie Mercury around them. In 2000, Brian May and Roger Taylor, the two remaining active members of the group, approached Ben Elton with a view to his working on the project.

He suggested a different slant, and instead crafted an original story set in a dystopian future looking to capture the spirit of Queen's music. "We Will Rock You", despite being a critical failure, was a massive commercial success, eventually running for more than 4,500 performances over 12 years. On the back of the success of "We Will Rock You", in 2003 Elton wrote "Tonight's the Night", a musical based around the songs of Rod Stewart, in which the lead character makes a Faustian pact with the Devil.

In addition to writing the show, Elton also directed the original West End production, which ran from October 2003 to October 2004.

Answer: Hugh Laurie

In 1999, Ben Elton published his sixth novel, "Inconceivable", which told the story of a couple's efforts to have a baby, using the format of their journal entries. The following year, Elton adapted the novel into a film, "Maybe Baby", which starred Hugh Laurie as Sam and Joely Richardson as Lucy.

The film takes the conceit of being written as journal entries as a plot device, with Sam using Lucy's diary as part of the basis of a film script he is writing based on their attempts to conceive. In addition to writing the screenplay, the film was also Elton's directoral debut, with uncredited help in some scenes from Hugh Laurie.

The film ended as a critical and commerical failure, despite having a high profile cast of Elton's contemporaries, including Rowan Atkinson, Emma Thompson and Dawn French.

Answer: Kenneth Branagh

Ben Elton's first collaboration with Kenneth Branagh came in 1993, when Elton made one of his few forays into acting, playing Verges in Branagh's film version of "Much Ado about Nothing". In 2016, Elton wrote the first series of his sitcom "Upstart Crow" for the BBC, a fictionalised account of the life of William Shakespeare. Following this, Branagh approached Elton with a view to collaborating on a film about the Bard, which eventually became "All is True".

The film's title comes from an alternative title of Shakespeare's play "Henry VIII", and is a drama set in the last years of Shakespeare's life, with Branagh himself playing the lead role in addition to directing, alongside Judi Dench and Ian McKellen.

In return for Elton working with him on "All is True", Branagh appeared in "A Crow Christmas Carol", the 2018 Christmas episode of "Upstart Crow".

Answer: Popcorn

"Popcorn" was the fourth novel published by Ben Elton, released in 1996, for which he received the 1996 Gold Dagger Award from the Crime Writers' Association. The same year, Elton adapted "Popcorn" for the stage, with the play premiering at the Nottingham Playhouse in September 1996.

In March 1997, a production opened in London's West End, which ran until September 1998, and won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

Answer: Upstart Crow

In 2019, following the end of the third series of "Upstart Crow" on the BBC, Ben Elton announced that he was adapting the show for the stage, with a plan for it to open in London's West End in 2020. The show, which featured a number of the sitcom's stars, including David Mitchell as Will Shakespeare, featured as its premise the Bard's need for a hit to maintain his position as England's foremost writer, while at the same time still grieving over the death of his son Hamnet. "The Upstart Crow" opened at the beginning of February 2020, with the intention that it remain open until the end of April.

However, the show was forced to close in mid-March as a result of government restrictions put in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.