Have You a Thirst For Knowledge? Quiz

Answer: Wales

The magic of comedy was brought to our television screens by Tommy Cooper who was born in Caerphilly, South Wales on 9th March, 1922. His aunt Lucy bought him a magic set when he was eight years old and was determined to perfect the tricks. At sixteen years of age he got a job on board a boat as an apprentice shipwright.

Here he gave his first public performance but although the magic tricks went disastrously wrong he learnt he could amuse the audience. Whilst serving in the Middle East, he entertained the troops. One night during his act he had forgotten his pith helmet, a lightweight hat made from fruit rind that protects the wearer from the sun, so he had to improvise.

A local waiter serving drinks passed the stage and Tommy took the opportunity to swipe the waiter's fez he was wearing and carried on his act with much hilarity.

He kept the fez in his act which became his trademark.

Answer: Banana

Canaan Banana was Zimbabwe's first president after it gained independence in 1980 and held office until 1987. When he died on 19th November, 2003 he was denied hero status and wasn't buried at the country's National Hero's Shrine in the capital alongside other veteran politicians.

He spent two years in prison for sodomy and was buried at his rural home some 300 miles away. Robert Mugabe, who was Prime Minister at the time, took over from him.

Answer: Dirty wheelchair

An anagram is a word or phrase the letters of which can be rearranged into another word or phrase. The light entertainment programme 'Countdown' gave two contestants thirty seconds to construct the longest word they could from nine randomly drawn letters.

A numbers round was also included in the show and once again the contestants had to use random selected numbers to reach a selected score. Carol Vorderman was his co-host who showed the viewers how to obtain the selected score, often with ease.

Answer: Sir Cumference

Sir Galahad was the son of Lancelot and Elaine and was the most virtuous knight of the Round Table. He was destined to regain the Holy Grail. Sir Lancelot became infamous as he became the lover of Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. At the Battle of Camlann, King Arthur killed the dark knight, Mordred, but was fatally wounded doing so. Both are said to have fought each other at Tintagel on the Cornish coast of England where each slay each other. Sir Bedivere was the knight who took the dying King Arthur to the great black swan-like barge in which he was carried to Avalon to be healed.

Sir Harry Secombe was knighted in 1981 and jokingly referred to himself as Circumference in recognition of his rotund figure. His motto he chose for his coat of arms was 'Go On' a reference to him playing a goon.

Answer: Lulu

'Blue Peter' was a BBC1 television show for children which began on 16 October, 1958. It's first two presenters were a 21 year old former Miss Great Britain called Leila Williams and a former army officer turned actor called Christopher Trace whose claim to fame was as a stand-in for Charlton Heston in the film 'Ben Hur'.

In 1971, Lulu the young Sri-Lankan elephant from Chessington Zoo appeared on the show along with her zookeeper, Alec, during a live performance of the show. Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves were on set when elephant Lulu deposited a steaming load on the floor and her keeper Alec lost his footing and was dragged straight through the middle of it.

Although the show must go on, presenter John Noakes was heard to have said "Whoops, I've trodden right in it!" during uncontrolled laughter.

Answer: Two-Ton Ted from Teddington

Teddington is situated on the north bank of the River Thames in London. Alfred Hawthorne Hill (Benny Hill) was a comedian who took the song 'Ernie' to a Number One hit single in November 1971 with its humorous, if somewhat smutty lyrics. Here is a sniplet from the song.
'Now Ernie had a rival, evil-looking man,
Called Two-Ton Ted from Teddington and he drove the baker's van.
He tempted her with his treacle tarts and his wholemeal bread,
And when she seen the size of his hot meat pies it very near turned her head.
She nearly swooned at his macaroon and he said, "If you treat me right, You'll have hot rolls every morning and crumpets every night."
The Benny Hill Show ran on ITV (1969-1989) and his visual gags, slapstick sketches with excessive corny jokes were attributed to that of saucy seaside postcard creator, 'Donald McGill'.

Answer: July

Astronauts Neil Alden Armstrong, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins departed in Apollo 11 on course for the moon from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida on a clear, sunny, Wednesday on 16 July, 1969. Four days later commander Armstrong successfully touched down on the lunar surface in the moon's Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong spent the first few minutes taking photographs and collecting soil samples and Aldrin joined him some twenty minutes later.

They gathered rock samples for just over two hours.

The mission was completed on 24 July, 1969 when they successfully splashed down about 800 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii. When they got back home they received a hero's welcome. All three were said to be ecstatic, extremely happy and over the moon (awful pun).

Answer: Io

In Greek mythology, Hera suspected Zeus of having his eye on pretty Io, the daughter of Inachos so Zeus turned Io into a white heifer. This did not deceive Hera who asked Argus, a watchman with a hundred eyes, to watch over Io. The son of Zeus, Hermes, killed Argus and his hundred eyes were placed in the tail of the peacock.

Hera tormented Io with a gadfly and drove her through the world until she finally came to Egypt. She was changed back to human form by Zeus and bore him a child called Epaphos. One school of thought suggests that the Ionian islands, a group of Greek islands in the Ionian sea (Corfu, Zante and Paxos etc), were named after Io.

Answer: The Banana Splits

The Saturday morning TV show 'The Banana Splits' raced beach buggy cars, performed soft rock songs and told awful juvenile jokes - hence the show was aimed at children. It ran on BBC1 from 1968-70 but was repeated on numerous occasions. The theme tune introduced the four stars of the show: 'Four banana, three banana, two banana, one, All bananas playing in the bright warm sun. Flipping like a pancake, popping like a cork, Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snork. Renowned voiceover artists in America provided the voices of the four main characters. Fleegle was voiced by Paul Winchell who was the famous voice of Tigger in 'Winnie The Pooh' also bad-guy Dick Dastardly. Bingo's voice was that of Daws Butler who supplied the voice for Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and Peter Perfect of 'Wacky Races'. Allan Melvin voiced Drooper as well as Popeye's adversary, Bluto. Snork was voiced by Don Messick who was the voice of Scooby- Doo, Boo Boo Bear and Dick Dastardly's famous sniggering canine sidekick, Muttley.

Answer: A system of gentle exercise named after a German inventor

Joseph H. Pilates was a physical therapist who designed and developed a form of gentle exercise which has been adhered to by the likes of Madonna, Julia Roberts, Minnie Driver, Sharon Stone and Courtney Cox.

Answer: The Slaughtered Lamb

In the wild countryside of northern England, two American backpackers arrive at the 'Slaughtered Lamb' public house just before nightfall for refreshments as both are cold and hungry. The locals give them a frosty reception and after asking too many questions are told to leave but must not wander onto the moors but stick to the road.

Their advice is ignored at their peril where they are attacked like 'a lamb to the slaughter'.

Answer: Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859-1927) was an English humorous writer who is well known for his book 'Three Men in a Boat'(1889). He was born in Walsall in the West Midlands of England. His most famous quote from 'Three Men in a Boat' is "I like work: It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours." I had this quote on a seaside plaque for years not knowing who was the wag who concocted this, but now we know!

Answer: Copper

A hallmark is a mark of authenticity or excellence. In Britain the 'London Guide of Goldsmiths' uses a series of marked stamps to guarantee purity, date and manufacture on platinum, gold and silver. South Africa is the world's largest producer of platinum and being a precious metal it is far rarer than gold and demand is booming for platinum investors.

Answer: King Nebuchadnezzar

King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylonia and changed the names of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah to Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as he had difficulty in remembering their real names. Nebuchadnezzar built a giant golden statue which was greater than 90 feet high and ordered everyone to worship it. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego disobeyed him and continued to believe God was real and talked to him every day. Nebuchadnezzar heard of this and was angered, so their punishment was the fiery furnace.

When Nebuchadnezzar looked down into the furnace he saw four men walking around in the flames, one looking like an angel. He realized that their God had sent an angel to protect them so were ordered out of the furnace. Upon inspection of their clothing there was no smell of smoke nor even a singe mark on their clothing. Nebuchadnezzar gave Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego great jobs in the empire and warned if anyone was to speak evil of their God they will be slaughtered.

Answer: English

Gustav Holst was born in Cheltenham, England on 21 September, 1874 and died in London on 25 May, 1934. Gustav was conversant with both astrology and mythology so the former was included in his best known work 'The Planets Suite' which he composed between 1914-16 and was first performed in the autumn of 1918. Hope you enjoyed the quiz and learnt something new.