"Put Him in the Barrow" - 'The Ladykillers' Quiz

Answer: Umbrella

Mrs Wilberforce has a reputation with the local constabulary for reporting fanciful incidents. It is this trait that has made her such an attractive proposition for the gang of robbers; Professor Marcus already knows that the local police humour her and take little that she says to them seriously.

However, this trait also stands Mrs Wilberforce in good stead at the end of this humorous tale. As for the umbrella; Mrs Wilberforce is always forgetting about it and leaving it somewhere; "I'm always leaving it, I don't like it very much really, maybe that's the reason", she says to the Police Superintendent at her local station as she leaves.

Answer: Parrot

General Gordon is one of three birds owned by Mrs Wilberforce; two parrots and a Cockatoo. Unfortunately General Gordon, an Ecuadorian Amazon parrot, is unwell and requires medicine. This leads to a particularly humorous scene in which Harry Robinson, played by Peter sellers, tries to help but is severely pecked by the parrot which, by this time, has found a perch on top of a sideboard in Mrs Wilberforce's sitting room. Retired boxer, One-Round Lawson, played by Danny Green, attempts to retrieve the parrot from the top of the sideboard by standing on a chair which, unsurprisingly, collapses under him trapping his lower legs; slapstick comedy at its absolute best! For those of you interested, the second parrot, an African Grey, was named Admiral Beatty and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is named Milton.

Answer: Boccherini

Mrs Wilberforce's father had engaged a string quintet to play at her 21st birthday party; it brought back sad memories for Mrs Wilberforce as whilst the minuet from Boccherini's 'String Quintet in E' was played it was announced that the old Queen, Queen Victoria had died and that the news had brought an end to her party. Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini was born in Lucca, Italy on the 19th of February 1743 and died in Madrid, Spain on the 28th of May 1805. Boccherini was originally interred in Madrid but in 1927 the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini had his remains returned to his birthplace.

Answer: One-Round

One-Round Lawson was portrayed as a slow, dim-witted hard man with a soft side to his nature. As the story progresses he develops an affection for Mrs Wilberforce and begins to call her Mum. He eventually refuses to kill Mrs Wilberforce but then kills Harry Robinson after he mistakenly believes that Harry has murdered her. One-Round is eventually killed by Louis Harvey, played by Herbert Lom, and his body is dropped over a railway bridge into a wagon passing below.

Answer: Tissot

The luxury Swiss watch brand Tissot, were founded by father and son, Charles-Félicien Tissot and Charles-Émile Tissot at le Locle, Switzerland during 1853; being the first watchmaker to introduce a mass-produced pocket watch anywhere in the world. Since 1983, Tissot have been a part of the much larger Swatch Group but are still based at Le Locle near Neuchatel, providing employment for a tiny workforce of just two hundred and fifty highly skilled artisan watchmakers. Accurist are a London based watchmaker that became popular during the late 1960s when members of the British royal family and other celebrities of the period started to wear their products. Seiko is a major Japanese brand and Sekonda had their founding in the former USSR with their watch production now being sourced in the Far East.

Answer: King's Cross

After the van robbery has taken place and the stolen money is concealed inside the large travelling trunk it is taken by taxi to King's Cross Station. On arrival it is loaded onto a barrow by Harry Robinson who is disguised as a railway porter. The trunk is transported across the station and smuggled into an area containing incoming baggage; the police immediately make their way to the area where outgoing luggage was being held as they expect the stolen cash to be spirited away from London. Mrs Wilberforce, who has been asked to collect Professor Marcus' trunk, the one now containing the stolen money, arrives at King's Cross and signs for the trunk in the presence of two plain-clothed detectives.

She then has the trunk loaded back into a taxi for the journey back to her home. Unfortunately for the gang, the journey home doesn't go exactly to plan!

Answer: Mrs Lopsided

Mrs Wilberforce's house has suffered from the bombing during the Blitz and, as a result, is beginning to subside. During an early scene in which Professor Marcus has arrived to look at the rooms available for rent, he attempts to straighten a crooked picture hanging on the wall in Mrs Wilberforce's hallway; which promptly swings out of plumb as soon as he removes his hand.

The entire building is lopsided; "A lopsided grandma living in a lopsided house"; and it is for this reason that Mrs Wilberforce is given this nickname by Louis Harvey.

Answer: Cello

After the gang have removed the proceeds of the robbery from the strong-boxes in which it was contained, they place it inside One-Round's cello case. Unfortunately for the gang, as they are waiting in their car to make their getaway, One-Round closes the door to Mrs Wilberforce's house on its carrying strap. Rather than ask Mrs Wilberforce to open the door in order that he can release it, he decides to pull at the case which results in it flying open and the money spilling out onto the pavement; with this the door opens and we see Mrs Wilberforce standing there looking down at him, having finally realised that the musical group are not what they seemed!

Answer: Major Claude Courtenay

Blustering Major Claude Courtenay blanches as he draws the first short straw and realises that he must kill the sweet, harmless Mrs Wilberforce. Unable to bring himself to carry out this task he makes an attempt to escape with the money and clambers out of a window and up onto the roof. Once the remaining members of the gang have realised what has happened the vicious Louis Harvey pursues the Major up onto the roof ridge.

As the major tries to escape he falls, along with a heavy chimney pot and is killed.

When Professor Marcus asks what has happened to the major, he is told by Harry Robinson that "He come down... with the chimney pot". When Professor Marcus asks "With the chimney - is he hurt?" his killer Louis replies coldly, "I shouldn't think he felt a thing".

Answer: Railway signal

Immediately after Louis Harvey has fallen to his death from the ladder that he was using in his escape, Professor Marcus himself is hit on the head by a railway signal and falls to his death into an open topped railway wagon. Like all the other members of the gang, their bodies had been either thrown into, or had fallen into, open topped railway wagons.