Once Upon a Time in... Scotland! Quiz

Answer: Balmoral Castle

Albert (Bertie) ascends to the throne when David decides to abdicate in favour of a life with Wallis Simpson. The problem for Bertie is that he has a terrible stammer which may prevent him from presenting himself as a formidable force for his people with the threat of war on the doorstep.

He seeks out the help of a speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help him work through his condition. Most of the action in the film takes place in London and its surrounds with the occasional diversion to alternate sites such as Balmoral.

However, the Gothic styled Tudor mansion seen in this film is not Balmoral but Knebworth House located in Hertfordshire, a short drive north of London. We are made aware that it is Balmoral during a scene at Buckingham Palace where David embarrasses Albert by triggering a stuttering episode and then smugly walks away stating "I'll see you at Balmoral on the weekend". If it looks familiar to you it is with good reason.

The house was used for the 1956 film "Anastasia", Ken Russell's "Lair of the White Worm" (1988), which stars a young Hugh Grant and Gene Wilder's "Haunted Honeymoon" (1986).

The front of the property was, most famously, used as the exterior of "Wayne Manor" in Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989).

Answer: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Wilder weaves two stories into this film (originally there were four but two were removed due to studio pressure) which lends an uneven quality to this film. One line has a Russian ballerina seeking to have Holmes' baby, which Sherlock deflects by intimating that Watson is his lover.

The second, and the main thrust of this movie, has a Belgian woman begging Holmes to find her missing husband. The journey takes our intrepid detective to a castle at Loch Ness where he runs into some midgets, a group of monks and, what he thinks is, the Loch Ness monster. Turns out that the monster is a disguised mini-submersible that Mycroft (Holmes' older and smarter brother) is developing in conjunction with the Royal Navy.

The midgets are the sub's operators, the monks are really German sailors and Sherlock's client is a top German spy who wants to steal the submarine.

The mysterious Scottish castle seen in the film is, in real life, Urquhart Castle, which is situated on Loch Ness on the lake's western shore, a short drive from Inverness.

It also features in the 1996 film "Loch Ness" which starred Ted Danson. All of the above film options were "Sherlock Holmes" based stories; "The Speckled Band" (1931), "The Seven Per Cent Solution" (1976) and "A Study in Terror" (1965).

Answer: False

Rasputin is resurrected in the mountains of Moldova and immediately unleashes his hellhound Sammael. What does take place in Scotland though is the opening of the film, set in 1944. It is here that Rasputin gives assistance to the Nazis in building a dimensional portal with the purpose of setting free Ogdru Jahad, who lies imprisoned in the deeper regions of space.

This would give the Nazi army an advantage and turn the tide against the Allies. Their plan is foiled by the Allies who attack and destroy the portal.

In the process Rasputin is sucked into the other dimension and an infant demon (Hellboy) is spat out. In this instance Scotland is merely a setting and most of the film was shot in the Czech Republic.

Answer: Ring of Bright Water

Bill Travers plays a Londoner, Graham Merrill, who takes an interest in and then buys for himself an otter. When the otter gets restless and destroys their apartment Graham decides a change of scenery is warranted and moves to a small cottage by the sea in Scotland.

This soon becomes a journey of discovery for Graham who learns more about himself, finds romance, discovers tragedy and a team of baby otters. Most of the film was shot around the village of Ellenabeich on the wild and beautiful Seil Island overlooking Insh Island and the Firth of Lorne.

Answer: M

The British Secret Service agents have a weakness for sex (apparently) and some evil force is using this as a means to killing them. MI6 is desperate to find a solution and turns to their retired master spy, Sir James Bond. In probably one of the most ridiculous movies David Niven (as Sir James) ever put his name to, he refuses the offer of his former boss to return to work. M's miffed response is to launch a mortar attack on Bond's mansion, Mereworth Castle, in Kent.

The castle is destroyed but, in the process, M is killed. We next see Bond arriving at Killin Castle to return the ashes to M's grieving widow.

The castle has been overrun by SMERSH agents and the grieving widow turns out to be an imposter. In real life there is no Killin Castle and the building used for the shots is in fact Killeen Castle in County Meath, Ireland.

However, the car chase that follows Bond's escape from the castle was filmed in Killin, a village at the western head of Loch Tay.

Answer: When Eight Bells Toll

The sleepy port town of Torbay is playing host to pirates who are sinking cargo ships and then relieving them of gold worth millions of pounds. The locals are unusually hostile to the investigation team and, in typical MacLean fashion, red herrings abound.

The action moves quickly, people turn out to be not whom they seem to be and there is an obligatory twist towards the end. The island of Mull is the main location for the film with scenes shot at Tobermory (on which the fictional town of Torbay is styled), Grass Point on the south side of Loch Don and Duart Castle, which is used as the residence of Lord Kirkside and his teenage daughter. Prior to the film going into production Sean Connery had announced that he was stepping down as James Bond and this film's producer, Elliott Kastner, sought to take advantage of this by setting Calvert up as the new (and grittier) Bond.

However, Connery returned to make "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971), Kastner's film failed at the box office and Phillip Calvert disappeared as a future film option.

Answer: Eye of the Needle

The information Harry Faber (Sutherland) has gleaned details the target of the Allies' plans in the operation. Fearing a radio message may get intercepted Harry makes his way from England to Germany via Scotland. He is left stranded on Storm Island, which is occupied by Lucy (Kate Nelligan), her crippled husband, her son and a local shepherd named Tom, by some severe weather.

A romantic relationship develops between Harry and Lucy until Lucy discovers the truth behind Harry. Now she is all that stands between the man known as the Needle and the information getting through to the Germans.

The town of Oban in Scotland is used as one of the main filming locations, in particular, the port where Harry steals a boat to ferry him to Storm Island. Most of this area has since been re-developed to create a ferry terminal and it would be difficult to recognise it today.

Answer: Highlander

Connor (Christopher Lambert) discovers that he is one of the immortals and now almost every other immortal is after his head. He is taken under the wing of a nobleman named Ramirez (Sean Connery - yes, you read right, a Scotsman playing a Spanish Egyptian and a Frenchman, Lambert, playing a Scotsman) who improves Connor's sword skills and warns him not to fall to the Kurgan. Should the Kurgan claim the ultimate prize and remain as the sole immortal mankind would be plunged into a dark age.

The story flits between the present day (New York) and Connor's early days, which are set in the stunning Highlands of 16th century Scotland.

The clan battles are played out in the wild beauty of Glencoe, which was also showcased in both "Braveheart" (1995) and "Skyfall" (2012), while the village Connor is banished to is filmed around Eilean Donan Castle in Dornie. Lovingly restored in the early 1900s this castle has also appeared in films such as "Bonnie Prince Charles" (1948), Errol Flynn's "The Master of Ballantrae" (1953) and the 1999 James Bond film "The World is Not Enough".

Answer: Skyfall

Legend has it that James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, was so taken by the performance of Scotsman Sean Connery in the first "Bond" film, "Dr No" (1962) that he created a back-story for his hero that made Bond a Scotsman whose father hailed from the Glencoe Highlands.

This appeared in Fleming's penultimate novel "You Only Live Twice", published in 1964. In "Skyfall" (2012) the final confrontation between Bond and Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) takes place in Glencoe in Bond's childhood home and the nearby chapel.

This, however, is not the first time that Bond has been linked with Scotland in films. In 1999's "The World is Not Enough" Eilean Donan Castle is used as the imposing headquarters for the Scottish division of MI6 and Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde sits on the eastern shores of Gare Loch in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977). "From Russia With Love" (1963) was not randomly thrown in as an answer option either as, whilst Scotland is not mentioned in the film, the locations of Argyll and Bute were used for the final helicopter and boat chase scenes.

Answer: An organisation of spies

In one of Hitchcock's signature devices, Hannay (Robert Donat) is an innocent man accused of a crime and forced on the run. All Hannay has to go on are the phrase "39 Steps", which means nothing to him, and a map of Killin (Scotland) with a farmstead named Alt-na-Shellach circled.

The steps turn out to be a spy ring, the farmstead is the residence of its leader and soon Hannay finds himself pursued by both the bad guys and the police. Pamela's (Madeleine Carroll) indignant aloofness is the perfect foil for Hannay's sarcasm as they trade barbs in difficult circumstances.

The chase is conducted through the valleys of Glencoe and, despite the black and white footage, the capture of the scenery is spectacular. There is a coincidental link with the locations used here with the "James Bond" franchise.

The locality of Killin was shown as the place of the residence of Bond's boss, M, in "Casino Royale" (1967) and Glencoe is revealed as the site of Bond's childhood home in "Skyfall" (2012).