"Now, pay attention 007" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Duke of Wellington

In 1961, the "Portrait of the Duke of Wellington" by Francisco Goya, painted between 1812 and 1814, came up for auction. Thanks to a special grant from the UK Treasury, the painting was purchased for the National Gallery in London. However, 19 days after it was put on display, the painting was stolen by Kempton Bunton, as a protest against the use of public money to fund its purchase and the lack of free television licences for elderly people. The painting was eventually returned four years later in 1965 via the left luggage office at Birmingham New Street railway station.

The theft of the painting became a major cause célèbre in the UK at the time, and was referenced in the first "James Bond" film, when Bond sees the painting displayed in Dr No's apartment, suggesting that it was the film's villain who had it stolen. The painting used in the film was a copy produced by production designer Ken Adam, who obtained a slide from the National Gallery, which he used to produce the prop over the course of a weekend. Ironically, the copy was subsequently stolen and was never returned.

Answer: Bob Hope

"Call Me Bwana" was a comedy film produced in 1963 by Eon Productions as part of their contract with United Artists, which specified that Eon was to make two films per year for UA, one "James Bond" film and one other. Producer Harry Saltzman suggested that the company's first non-"Bond" film feature Bob Hope, instead of an idea that was pitched to him that he produce a film featuring a British rock group called The Beatles, as he had worked with Hope before. "Call Me Bwana" was released in the summer of 1963, but received a plug through the appearance of the film poster in "From Russia With Love".

The film sees Kerim Bey, the head of MI6's Turkish station, take the decision to eliminate the Bulgarian assassin, Krilencu, in an effort to prevent Krilencu killing him. Kerim and Bond set a sting to force the Bulgarian to escape from his hideaway, which he does via a trapdoor that opens through the mouth of Anita Ekberg on the film poster, allowing Kerim Bey to shoot him as he emerges. The scene is taken from the original novel, with the exception that in the book it is a poster for the film "Niagara" featuring Marilyn Monroe.

Answer: Penfold

Penfold Golf is a sports equipment company, founded in 1927 by Albert Penfold, and specialising in golfing products. Penfold was a designer who revolutionised the game with his development, initially for Dunlop, of a golf ball made of pure white gutta-percha, as opposed to the hard to see grey gutta used at the time. He subsequently produced a ball, made to specifications of the Royal & Ancient, which travelled farther than any ball then in production, despite the apparent restrictions placed on ball design by the R&A. Penfold's own company began producing golf balls to his designs, which came to carry as part of the branding the four card suits - hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades.

In "Goldfinger", Bond plays the eponymous villain in a round of match-play golf, wagering a gold bar from a Nazi hoard against £5,000. Playing "strict rules of golf", although Goldfinger apparently beats Bond, Bond has instead switched Goldfinger's Slazenger #1 ball for a Slazenger #7, meaning, because he has played the wrong ball, Goldfinger forfeits the match. The use of Penfold Hearts balls caused sales of the brand to rocket after the film's release.

Answer: Vulcan

The Avro Vulcan was a heavy bomber designed to meet the RAF's post-war specification B.35/46 for a large, jet-powered bomber aircraft. The Vulcan was one of three aircraft produced by different manufacturers, all of which entered service, although the Vulcan, being the most technologically advanced, was the one with the highest risk. Upon its entry into service in 1956, the Vulcan was primarily used as a nuclear bomber, serving as part of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent. It continued in this role until the late 1960s when, following the entry into service of the Polaris submarine launched missile, the Vulcan was switched to a conventional bombing role. The Vulcan was eventually retired by the RAF in 1984.

In "Thunderball", an RAF Vulcan, armed with a pair of MOS Type atomic bombs, is hijacked by SPECTRE during a training flight and landed in the sea off the coast of the Bahamas. For the film, a pair of RAF Vulcans were used, one for the flying sequences and another for sequences of the aircraft before it takes-off, while a full sized replica was constructed and sunk for use in the sequences underwater. To prevent future film crews using this, the replica was blown up after shooting was completed; the remains now form a popular diving site near Nassau.

Answer: Jupiter

The screenplay for "You Only Live Twice" was written by author Roald Dahl, who devised the entire space hijacking element of the plot himself, as it did not appear in the original novel. At the time, the United States had just completed Project Gemini, its second manned spaceflight programme. As a result, Dahl took inspiration from the recent American and Soviet missions that had both led to the first spacewalks, combined with the story of an American bomber that disappeared around the same time. The American spacecraft, which were named as Jupiter 16 and Jupiter 17 in the film, were represented by authentic external reproductions of the two-man Gemini spacecraft, which at the time was well-known thanks to the success of the Gemini programme, which had seen a new mission launched approximately every two months.

In "You Only Live Twice", Jupiter 16 is seen at the start of the film being captured by SPECTRE's Bird One spacecraft, with the loss of one of the crew. The potential hijacking of Jupiter 17 is seen as the act that will lead to the United States and Soviet Union (which also has a spacecraft captured) going to war. It is only through Bond's intervention that sees SPECTRE defeated and war averted.

Answer: Chevron

A chevron is an inverted v-shape used as a so-called 'ordinary' in heraldry. An ordinary is a simple geometric figure that are the most common heraldic features, and which are used as elements on the shield of a coat-of-arms. In Bond's case, his family coat-of-arms, as described originally in the novel "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", is the real arms of Sir Thomas Bond, a 17th-century baronet employed as the comptroller of Queen Henrietta Maria's household.

In "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", Bond is investigating his family history with the College of Arms in London as a cover to infiltrate the organisation headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who is seeking to prove a claim to an ancient French title. As part of the cover, Bond is presented with a representation of his own coat of arms, described as as "argent, on a chevron sable three bezants". This means that the shield is white (or silver in heraldic terms), with a black chevron (sable meaning black), on top of which are three bezants (gold roundels).

Answer: Tropicana

The Tropicana is one of the major hotel and casino complexes located on the Strip in Las Vegas. The hotel was originally planned in 1955 when Ben Jaffe, an executive at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, bought 40 acres of land in central Las Vegas to build a new hotel and casino with a general Cuban ambience. The construction ran behind schedule and over-budget, with the Tropicana eventually opening in April 1957. Although the Tropicana faired less well against its competition over the course of its history, it outlasted many of its contemporaries.

Having smuggled a consignment of diamonds into the United States under the alias Peter Franks, Bond is subsequently double-crossed and left for dead in a coffin that is sent into the crematorium at the Slumber Funeral Home, only being saved when it is realised that the diamonds he has provided are fake. Having extricated himself from the coffin, Bond proceeds to use some of the $50,000 cash (also fake) he has been paid, and books himself into the Tropicana, which he has heard is "quite comfortable".

Answer: Italy

Since the formation of the Italian Republic in 1946, Italy's intelligence agencies have undergone a number of reforms in an effort to transfer them more effectively from military to civilian control. In 1973, at the time "Live and Let Die" was released, Italy's sole intelligence agency was the Servizio informazioni difesa (SID), which was an agency controlled by the armed forces, and was responsible for both domestic and foreign intelligence and security. It was in 1977 that the domestic security and foreign intelligence roles were split into two agencies, with foreign intelligence remaining the purview of the defence ministry, while in 2007 new agencies fully under the control of the civilian government were founded.

At the start of "Live and Let Die", Bond has just completed an assignment in collaboration with SID, and has returned home to recuperate, when he is visited by 'M', who is looking to brief him on a new assignment, as well as congratulate him on the success of his last assignment, which has also pleased his Italian counterparts, with the only issue being the absence of an SID officer, Miss Caruso. Unknown to 'M', Miss Caruso, wearing just her underwear, is hiding in Bond's wardrobe. Miss Caruso was the first 'Bond girl' of the Roger Moore era, and was played by Madeline Smith.

Answer: Macau

Macau is a port city located on the Western part of the Pearl River Delta in southeastern China. In 1557, the city was leased to Portugal under a trading arrangement with the Ming Dynasty. In 1887, it was fully transferred to Portuguese sovereignty in perpetuity, and was run as a Portuguese colony. In 1986, talks began between Portugal and China over the potential transfer of sovereignty of Macau; this followed the talks between China and the United Kingdom over the latter's transfer of Hong Kong back to Chinese control. Macau was eventually transferred back to China on 20 December 1999. Owing to the large number of hotels and casinos within its borders, Macau is known as the 'Las Vegas of the east'.

"The Man With The Golden Gun" establishes that Scaramanga, the eponymous villain of the piece, procures the custom 4.2mm calibre bullets for his unique weapon, made of 23-carat gold, from a Portuguese gunsmith named Lazar based in Macau. Having gained Lazar's cooperation, Bond sees that the most recently produced consignment is transferred using one of Macau's casinos.

Answer: HMS Ranger

The Royal Navy gained responsibility for the UK's independent nuclear deterrent in 1969, when the first of four ballistic missile submarines of the Resolution-class was commissioned. These submarines were based on the UK's first wholly domestically produced class of nuclear submarine, with the addition of a compartment for the carriage of 16 Polaris ballistic missiles. The submarines each carried the name of a World War I vintage battleship or battlecruiser beginning with the letter 'R' - Resolution, Repulse, Renown and Revenge. Plans for a fifth submarine, possibly to be named Ramillies, were cancelled in 1965. However, up to 1977, when "The Spy Who Loved Me" was released, there had been no major warship named HMS Ranger.

At the start of the film, HMS Ranger is en route to its patrol area when it disappears. When it becomes clear that another ballistic missile submarine, the Soviet boat Potemkin, has also disappeared, MI6 and the KGB join forces in an effort to find out what has happened. HMS Ranger is eventually destroyed thanks to Bond's efforts to prevent a nuclear war being provoked.