Black is Back Trivia Quiz

Answer: Black Beauty

'Black Beauty' was written during the author's final years - she died, following a long illness, five months after its publication, making this her first and only novel. It is written as the autobiography of an old horse reflecting on the most significant events of his life. Some of these are wonderful memories, some are tragic, but it all ends happily, with Beauty living out his final years in retirement, being lovingly cared for.

'Black Beauty' has been used as the source for a number of movies, at least one television series, and even a stage play - 'Black Beauty Live' was performed at Epsom Racecourse (in Surrey, UK) in 2011.

Answer: Batman

His original name was 'The Bat-Man', because Bob Kane's concept included bat-like wings - the change to a cape was due to the suggestion of collaborator Bill Finger. The character has also been referred to as 'The Caped Crusader' and 'The Dark Knight', among other monickers. Batman was the crimefighting persona of Bruce Wayne, a wealthy man who had seen his parents killed when he was a small child, and dedicated his life to pursuing criminals. Unlike most superheroes, Batman had no superpowers, he was just superbly fit and highly trained in martial arts; his keen intelligence and the wide range of his knowledge also gave him an edge over his foes.

Batman has appeared in a range of comics, as well as a number of popular movies and a 1960s television series that played up the 'comic' angle - fight scenes had flashes of such words as 'Kapow!' flashed across the screen, and the villains were fantastically exaggerated for their humorous potential.

Answer: Meet Joe Black

Brad Pitt plays the part of Joe Black, a young man who dies and has his body taken over by Death, who wants to find out more about what life is like for humans. He chooses as his guide Bill Parrish (played by Anthony Hopkins), whose daughter Susan (Claire Forlani) has met Joe just before he died. During the course of the movie, Death falls in love with Susan, but comes to realize that love can mean making sacrifices for one's beloved. He takes Bill, as was always going to happen, but leaves Susan to continue her life, and sends back the revivified Joe Black so that the two young people can be together.

The 1934 original, starring Fredric March, Evelyn Venable and Guy Standing, was based on an Italian play, 'La Morte in Vacanza'. It was a huge success both with critics and at the box office.

Answer: Black Books

'Black Books' is set in the bookshop run by Bernard Black, with his assistant Manny (played by Bill Bailey; no, not that Bill Bailey!). Watching the show, one wonders how the shop can possibly keep afloat - Black prefers to spend his time in the back room, smoking and drinking while reading through his stock.

He treats the shop as his private library, and seems deeply resentful of the intrusion of customers to disturb his peace. Whenever possible, Manny deals with the invaders.

Answer: Daniel Radcliffe

'The Woman in Black' is based on a novel written by Susan Hill, which had previously been adapted for the big screen in a 1983 movie of the same name. The two movies, however, use the source material quite differently. In this one, Daniel Radcliffe plays a grieving widower who comes to a small village to sort out the estate of Alice Drablow, which includes Eel Marsh House (what a lovely name), where he stays while performing his task.

He sees the ghost of a woman whose child died, and who is now reputed to cause the death of a child when she is seen. Of course, the locals blame Kipps for the subsequent deaths, and try to make him leave.

More paranormal phenomena ensue - but that's enough of the plot, we don't want to spoil the movie if you haven't seen it.

Answer: Sherlock Holmes

I won't bore you with information about the immortal Sherlock Holmes - life is too short. In this story, Holmes solves the gruesome murder of Peter Carey, popularly called Black Peter, who was impaled with a harpoon. Black Peter seems to have been quite an unpleasant character, and nobody mourns his death very much, but the murderer must be found. Holmes uses an unusual method to find the culprit - he places an advertisement asking for harpooners interested in signing up for a voyage to apply, and unerringly selects the murderer from the applicants. Read the story for full details!

Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple were created by Agatha Christie. Poirot first appeared in the novel 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' (1920), while Marple was first seen in the short story 'The Tuesday Night Club' (1926). C. August Dupin was the detective in Edgar Allan Poe's story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', first published in 1841. He is said to be the inspiration for the creation of both the characters Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

Answer: Irish-American

The family at the heart of this series was based on a real family who moved from Ireland to Canada in the middle of the 19th century, and were involved in a long-running feud with the Biddulph family that culminated in the massacre of five members of the Donnellys in 1880. The Donnelly family in the TV series, however, make their own conflicts as they try to break into the organised crime scene, they are not the victims of conflict imported from the old country. Calling them the Black Donnellys suggests that they are Black Irish - an ambiguous term used to refer to people of Irish descent who have black or very dark hair, as opposed to the more common brown or red hair.

'The Black Donnellys' only aired seven of the thirteen episodes that had been taped before cancellation. The entire series is available on DVD, and can be watched on cable stations.

Answer: Elizabeth Short

The gruesome nature of Elizabeth Short's death in January of 1947, and the fact that her death remained unsolved 60 years later, has led to a number of books, movies and television shows exploring the known facts and speculating on the possible answers to the many questions that surround her death.

'The Black Dahlia' was the first novel of what is usually termed his 'L.A. Quartet', which includes 'The Big Nowhere', 'L.A. Confidential', and 'White Jazz'. The novel involves a character who closely resembles Elizabeth Short, and proposes an answer to the question of who killed the Black Dahlia which is totally unlike any of the real-life suspects.

The other options are the names of three of the five women traditionally thought to have been killed by Jack the Ripper.

Answer: Black Coffee

The plot of this spy/murder mystery is fairly simple - the famous physicist Sir Claud Amory has been murdered, and a top-secret formula has been stolen. Poirot and Hastings are part of the house party, and must determine who was responsible for these deeds. It's a mystery, so I'm not letting on whodunnit.

This play has been turned into a novel in 1998 by Charles Osborne, having also been turned into a 1931 film. There was also a 1932 French film titled 'Le Coffret de Laque', the first of Christie's works to be adapted in a foreign language.

Answer: Gill-man

The gill-man had been leading a peaceful existence in a lagoon deep in the Amazon rainforest, when his privacy was invaded by a bunch of scientists following up a strange fossil that seemed to come from a 'missing link' in the evolutionary chain - a creature that resembles a human, but with gills that allow it to breathe underwater. The gill-man fell in love with the beautiful Kay, the only woman on the expedition, and attempted to carry her off to his lair while simultaneously trying to kill the other members of the expedition. In the last scene he was shot, and appeared to have died, but he returned to the screen in 'Revenge of the Creature' (1955) and 'The Creature Walks Among Us' (1956).

The monster was apparently originally based on a real myth of a race that was half-man and half-fish, to be found in the Amazon jungle. Over the course of the trilogy, the gill-man is shown to have immense strength, as well as a tough and fast-healing skin that makes him far less susceptible to the bullets people keep using against him than one might expect. It is this that allows us to see him apparently dying at the end of each film, only to discover at the start of the next one that he has survived.