The Only Way Is Essex Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ian Holm

The district of Goodmayes in north-east London was still part of the county of Essex when the actor Ian Holm was born there in 1931. In addition to 'Chariots of Fire' and the various Tolkien films he has appeared in, his film credits include 'The Aviator', 'The Fifth Element' and 'A Life Less Ordinary'; while he has also appeared in numerous TV programmes (notably 'The Borrowers') and stage productions. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Shakespeare's tragic hero, King Lear and was knighted in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to drama.

Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Christopher Lee and Bernard Hill appeared in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy as Gandalf, Saruman and King Theoden respectively.

Answer: Louise Lombard

Louise Lombard was born in the London Borough of Redbridge in 1970 - an area that had been part of the traditional county of Essex until 1963. She played Evangeline Elliott in 'House of Elliott' - a drama series about two sisters and their fashion design business in 1920's London - from 1991 to 1994. After these early successes she took a break from acting in order to study at the University of Cambridge and then forged a successful career on US television, becoming known particularly for her long-running recurring role in 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' as well as appearances in popular shows such as 'The Mentalist'. 'Stargate Universe' and 'NCIS: Los Angeles'.

The incorrect options are all actresses who appeared in 'CSI': Lauren Lee Smith played Riley Adams, Liz Vassey portrayed Wendy Simms and Elizabeth Shue joined in season 12 as Julie Finlay.

Answer: Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver, from Clavering, Essex, first came to prominence in 'The Naked Chef' in 1999. The show featured a different scenario for each episode such as 'Jamie cooks for his sister's hen night' and 'Jamie cooks takeaway and takes his friends to the dog races' (which didn't involve any actual nudity) and proved popular. Oliver went on to launch his own chains of restaurants and appear in many other TV cookery programmes, including several aimed at improving nutrition and healthy eating in both Britain and the US such as 'Jamie's School Dinners' and 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution'. These efforts at changing people's eating habits gained Oliver the title of "Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005" (courtesy of Channel 4 News) as well as a fair amount of criticism and controversy - especially in the US.

Gordon Ramsay is best known in the UK and US for 'Hell's Kitchen' and '(Ramsay's) Kitchen Nightmares'. Heston Blumenthal and Ainsley Harriott have both presented a range of cookery programmes in the UK (but Blumenthal also owns a restaurant that achieved the coveted three Michelin stars).

Answer: Harry Judd

Harry Judd was born in Chelmsford, Essex in 1985 and joined the manufactured boy band McFly in 2003 after answering an advert for band members. McFly recorded numerous UK number one singles and albums and have also joined forces with fellow boy band Busted to perform as McBusted. The two bands had a close relationship as Busted had helped to launch McFly by including them as a support act on their 2004 UK tour. Outside of music, Judd is best-known for his winning performance on 'Strictly Come Dancing' in 2011 along with professional dancer Aliona Vilani. Over 13 million people watched him score a perfect 40 for both his quickstep and Argentine tango and lift the glitterball trophy.

The incorrect options are the other three members of McFly.

Answer: Rupert Grint

Rupert Grint (born in Harlow, Essex in 1988) portrayed Ron Weasley, Harry Potter's best friend, in the eight films of the 'Harry Potter' series, released between 2001 and 2011. In J.K. Rowling's novels, the whole Weasley family have distinctive fiery red hair and the films remained true to that. However, Grint's red hair clearly didn't guarantee him the job as most of the actors playing the rest of the family simply dyed their hair for their roles.

'Harry Potter' was Grint's first professional acting job, with his previous experience being listed as nativity plays and local theatre and school productions (including playing both a fish and a donkey...). In this respect, his background was similar to his co-star Emma Watson (who played Hermione Granger), although Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) both had previous television or film roles on their CVs. Since the end of the series Grint has gone on to appear in several other films and on Broadway.

Answer: Sally Gunnell

Sally Gunnell was born in Chigwell, Essex in 1966 and went on to become one of Britain's most successful athletes. By 1994 she held the 'grand slam' of major 400m hurdles titles available to a British athlete - having won gold at the 1992 Olympic Games, 1993 World Championships, 1994 European Championships and 1994 Commonwealth Games - as well as the world record, which she took at the Stuttgart World Championships in 1993 with a run of 52.74 seconds.

American athlete Kevin Young was the men's 400m hurdles Olympic champion in 1992, while London-born Kriss Akabusi took bronze. Jamaican-born (but American) Sandra Farmer-Patrick took silver behind Gunnell in both Barcelona and Stuttgart.

Answer: Alan Davies

Alan Davies (of Loughton and Chingford in Essex) is best known as the mop-haired, duffle coat-wearing, magician's assistant Jonathan Creek in the TV show of the same name. Davies first played the role in 1997, with each episode featuring Creek managing to puzzle out what initially appear to be unsolvable mysteries and murders. He also appears in every episode of the panel game show 'QI' alongside the host, Stephen Fry, and is renowned for managing to give the obvious yet wrong answers that the rest of the panellists strive to avoid.

The incorrect options are all British comedians and regular guest panellists on 'QI' - none of them however were born in Essex.

Answer: Alison Moyet

The distinctively deep-voiced Alison Moyet (contralto is the lowest female voice range) and Vince Clarke (who is also known as a member of Erasure and Depeche Mode) were the two members of Yazoo - a synthpop or technopop band. Yazoo originally lasted for only two years, but did manage a number one album and a few top ten singles in the UK charts. Moyet went on to record several top ten solo albums including 'Alf' - which was named after Moyet herself (Alf being an old nickname) - and 'Essex' - which was named after the county of her birth in 1961.

The incorrect options were all members of pop duos - Cher was a member of Sonny and Cher with her then husband, Sonny Bono; Karen Carpenter and her brother Richard made up The Carpenters; and Annie Lennox appeared in the Eurythmics with Dave Stewart.

Answer: Russell Brand

Russell Brand was born in the town of Grays, Essex in 1975. His two year marriage to Katy Perry (whose real name is Katheryn Hudson) ended in 2012. The couple had started dating after meeting at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 - Brand was the host while Perry was nominated for the Best Female Video award (she lost to Taylor Swift). Brand is a controversial figure due to incidents such as drug use; his prank calls to 'Fawlty Towers' star Andrew Sachs - christened "Sachsgate" by the British press - and subsequent resignation from the BBC; and his use of often inappropriate material in his performances.

The actor Russell Crowe (star of various hit films including 'Gladiator') was born in New Zealand; Russell Grant is a British astrologer; and Russell Tovey is actually an actor born in Essex - but he is not generally known as a comedian and has never been married to Katy Perry.

Answer: Maggie Smith

Dame Maggie Smith (born in 1934 in Ilford, Essex) has appeared on film, television and the stage and is one of Britain's most honoured actresses - having been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990 and won two Academy Awards (Best Actress in 1969 for 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' and Best Supporting Actress in 1978 for 'California Suite'). Despite an acting career spanning over 65 years (she first appeared on stage in the same year that Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne) she is now perhaps best known for playing the transfiguration teacher Professor McGonagall in the series of films based on J. K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' novels and the feisty matriarch of the Crawley family in the TV show 'Downton Abbey'.

The incorrect options are all British actresses who appeared in the 'Harry Potter' series. Imelda Staunton played Dolores Umbridge, Julie Christie appeared in one film as Madam Rosmerta and Julie Walters played Molly Weasley.