Mmmm, Mmmm, Wood Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eric Morecambe

Victoria Wood played Eric Morecambe's mother in the drama 'Eric and Ernie' which was made for the BBC. Victoria was a wonderful stand up comedienne who filled the Albert Hall with her one woman show, and also a very talented writer who wrote numerous sketches for her television show.

Her writing included drama's such as 'Housewife 49' in which she took the title role, and 'That Day We Sang' about the reunion of the Manchester children's choir who made the famous recording of 'Nymphs and Shepherds'.

Her song writing ability and skill at the piano were also well known, a particular favourite being 'Let's Do It'. Sadly she died of cancer in 2016 at the age of only 62.

Answer: Painting

When Ronnie was a child he won a competition on BBC's children's television show called 'Sketch Club'. In the 1960s he followed his two brothers and trained at Ealing Art College, an establishment which was also attended by Freddy Mercury of Queen and Pete Townsend of The Who during the sixties. Ronnie Wood's paintings often depict popular cultural icons, including the Rolling Stones in performance. Andrew Lloyd Webber commissioned several from him and they hang at Drury Lane Theatre. Ronnie designed the cover for Eric Clapton's box set 'Crossroads'.

A whole programme of the influential television programme 'The South Bank Show' was devoted to his work.

Answer: Cheers

Nicholas Colasanto played the coach who was a bar tender at Cheers. This gentle and slightly confused character had been Sam Malone's coach when he was a baseball star before the first series began. He played this character for three series and when he died it was a problem to replace him. Woody Harrelson was brought in to play Woody Boyd a sweet and simple country boy.

The viewers took him to their hearts and he was nominated five times for the Emmy award and a win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

He appeared in over three hundred episodes of the programme.

Answer: The Promenade Concerts

The Promenade Concerts (or the Proms as they are usually called) is an eight week season of music played in the Albert Hall in London. Starting before the availability of radio, the original aim was to make music available to people who could not afford to buy expensive tickets, and to introduce new works to the public. 2018 was the 124th proms season, and the BBC have been running it for the past 90 years. For almost fifty years Henry Wood conducted the promenade concerts, introducing many new works to the British public, and after his death the event was renamed the Henry Wood promenade concerts in his honour.

The 'Last Night' is a national institution with lots of audience participation, flag waving, funny hats and streamers and loud singing of Edward Elgar's 'Land of Hope and Glory'.

Answer: She drowned

Natalie started her career as a child. She appeared in movies from the age of four and when she was eight she had a co-starring role in the 1947 Christmas movie 'Miracle on 34th Street'. As a teenager she appeared in the iconic movie 'Rebel Without a Cause' and then after several minor roles appeared in 'Splendour in the Grass'. Having successfully made the transition from child to adult actor she appeared in many movies and in 1961 she was cast as Maria in 'West Side Story', arguably one of the best musicals of all time, and in 1962 she starred in another musical 'Gypsy'.

Answer: 'I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day'

Soon after the release of Electric Light Orchestra's first album Roy Wood was having differences with the co founder Jeff Lynn. As things got worse they found it impossible to work together and Roy left taking several other members of the band with him.

As a song writer he contributed many songs to both bands and 'I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day' was one of them. It was a big hit for Wizzard at Christmas 1973. They were an expensive band to finance partly because they were a large band with nine members, and partly because Bill Hunt regularly smashed up the pianos at the venues where they were performing.

They also spent a lot of time in the recording studio and this was expensive. It became impossible to pay the band members and one by one they left to go to more lucrative work.

Answer: History

Michael first worked for BBC Manchester as a reporter but in 1979 he was able to make a series about his real interest which is history. This first series was called 'In Search of the Dark Ages' and was aired on BBC2. He quickly became popular especially with the female viewers on account of his good looks, deep voice and tight jeans, and was referred to as 'the thinking woman's crumpet'. Since then he has made many television series about various historical subjects including 'In Search of the Trojan War' and 'In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great'.

Answer: Frodo Baggins

Elijah Wood was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and was the second of three children. His mother got him into modelling at a young age but once he secured a small part in 'Back to the Future II', when he was eight roles began to be offered to him and by the time he was nine he was an established child actor and won several young actors awards.

Some of the most notable movies he worked on included 'Paradise', 'Radio Flyer' and 'Forever Young'. In the 'Lord of the Rings' he was given top billing along with such famous actors as Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom and Cate Blanchett.

Answer: 28th

Born as Thomas Woodrow Wilson in 1856 in Virginia to a slave holding family, he became a statesman and an academic. Wilson served as president of Princeton University and Governor of New Jersey before winning the presidential election and becoming President of the United States in 1912.

He led the United States during World War I, establishing an activist foreign policy. He was one of the three key leaders at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where he championed a new League of Nations, but unfortunately he was unable to win Senate approval for U.S. participation in the League.

Answer: Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie was a leading American folk singer and song writer. He recorded an album of songs about the dustbowl period, and this has bee listed by Mojo Magazine as one of the top 100 records that changed the world. Indeed it is true that his songs have influenced decades of listeners and continue to influence today both politically and musically.

His best known song is 'This Land is Your Land', but he wrote many other successful songs. Most of the top folk artists of that time acknowledge him as an influence on their work including Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen.

He was associated with the communist party for most of his life but does not appear to have been a member. He often used to play with the slogan on his guitar 'This machine kills Fascists'.