'And Then There Were None' Trivia Quiz

Answer: cyanide-laced gin

Ten people find themselves stranded on Soldier Island, having been hired or invited to be there by Mr and Mrs Owen. They notice a centrepiece on the dinner table, composed of ten small soldiers. They make a connection between these figurines and a familiar nursery rhyme (a copy of which guests had found in their bedrooms), as each figure can be seen to illustrate one of the ways in which the characters in the rhyme die. After dinner, the butler plays a gramophone recording which accuses each of the ten people of being responsible for the death of someone for which they were never punished. Shortly afterwards, Anthony Marston (played by Douglas Booth), who was accused of killing two children through careless driving, which he admitted with little show of remorse, dies from having a drink of gin which was found to have contained cyanide.

This reflects the first death in the nursery rhyme:
"Ten little Soldier boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine."

Answer: suspected barbiturate overdose

Ethel Rogers (played by Anna Maxwell Martin) was hired as the cook for the gathering. She was accused, along with her husband, of having murdered a former employer to get her money. She is found on the morning after the first death, having died in her sleep. While the cause of death is not clear, the doctor suspects an overdose of barbiturates, which caused her to die in a manner suggestive of the second verse:
"Nine little Soldier boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were eight."

Answer: head smashed in with a telescope

After the death of Mrs Rogers, it is noticed that the two soldier figures corresponding to the first two verses of the nursery rhyme have disappeared, and the survivors begin to see a worrying pattern. They start searching the island to locate Mr Owen, with no success. General MacArthur (played by Sam Neill), wracked with guilt over having killed a subordinate officer who was his wife's lover, goes to pieces. Shortly afterwards, he is found with his head smashed in by a telescope.

There is only a tenuous link between his death and the nursery rhyme: Soldier Island is located off the coast of Devon.
"Eight little Soldier boys travelling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there and then there were seven."

Answer: body split open with an axe

Thomas Rogers (played by Noah Taylor) was hired to act as the household's butler. He and his wife joined forces to smother the elderly Miss Brady with a pillow, although they don't seem to have gained much benefit from her money, as they are still in service to support themselves. His body is found split open by an axe, one of the more grisly moments of the series.

According to the rhyme,
"Seven little Soldier boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were six."

Answer: impaled with knitting needle

Emily Brent (played by Miranda Richardson) was accused of causing the death of a servant who had been fired because she was pregnant; the desperate girl was driven to suicide. Miss Brent admits that she fired the girl, but feels no responsibility for the consequence of her action. She is found impaled with a knitting needle which has her initials (EB) displayed in such a way as to suggest a bee.

This link to the rhyme is a bit more of a stretch than that in the book, where the killer used a hypodermic syringe stolen from the doctor's bag and released a bee to fly around the room.
"Six little Soldier boys playing with a hive;
A bumblebee stung one of them and then there were five."

Answer: gunshot to the head

Judge Wargrave (played by Charles Dance) was accused of having sentenced an innocent man named Edward Stanton to death for committing multiple murders, despite the fact that Stanton was innocent. He is found, dressed in judicial gown and wig, with a gunshot wound to the head. Dr. Armstrong declares him dead, and the next figurine is gone.

According to the nursery rhyme,
"Five little Soldier boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery and then there were four."

Answer: drowned

The next to disappear is Dr Armstrong (played by Toby Stephens), who disappears during the night, and temporarily becomes the prime suspect. He actually dies during the night, although his body is not discovered until the next morning when it washes ashore. The crime of which he was guilty was killing a patient by performing surgery while drunk, which could not be proved at the time.

Both by becoming a bit of a red herring and by drowning, he fulfilled the next destiny foreshadowed by the rhyme:
"Four little Soldier boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were three."

Answer: stabbed (and covered with a bear rug)

The policeman of the group (played by Burn Gorman) is guilty of having beaten to death a homosexual prisoner who was under his guard in a cell. (In the book, his crime was less violent - he committed perjury and sent an innocent man to jail for life.) As the three survivors are looking for Dr Armstrong, Blore is fatally stabbed by the murderer, who is wearing a bearskin rug which is left draped over the body.

And according to the rhyme,
"Three little Soldier boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were two."

Answer: shot in the body

Philip Lombard (played by Aidan Turner) was a mercenary involved in a number of risky (and sometimes rewarding) ventures, including one in which he killed 21 men in order to get some diamonds. He was lured to the island by a promise of money, and told to bring his gun with him. Although he and Vera seem to be the only ones on the island, he is convinced that there is someone else, and lets down his guard with her. She, on the other hand, is convinced that he must be the killer. This leads her to trick him into giving her his gun, so she can shoot him to protect herself.

This is another death with a somewhat shaky link, although the body was left in the sun:
"Two little Soldier boys sitting in the sun;
One got all frizzled up and then there was one."

Answer: hanged

Vera Claythorne (played by Maeve Dermody) was in love with Hugo Hamilton, and encouraged Hugo's nephew, for whom she was governess, to swim out too far from shore, so that he would drown and Hugo would become heir to the family estate. Although there was no evidence, Hugo was certain that she had done it, and rejected her, because he had been very fond of his nephew. Her guilt, combined with her knowledge of the futility of her crime and the shock of having just shot the man with whom she had formed a relationship on the island, makes her susceptible to suggestion when she returns to her room and finds a noose neatly in position; she places her head in the noose. She does not actually hang herself, however: the killer enters the room, explains what has been going on, and kicks the chair out from under her, leaving her to die.

And so the rhyme finishes:
"One little Soldier boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself and then there were none."

SPOLIER ALERT - Do not read this if you want to keep the identity of the murderer a mystery until you have a chance to watch the series (or read the book).

Edward Stanton was in fact guilty of the crimes for which Judge Wargrave had condemned him, so that accusation was a fabrication to make the judge appear to be in the same boat as the others. Knowing he had little time left to live, Wargrave decided to exact some vengeance on people who the law had not been able to bring to justice. And to make it appear as a totally mysterious crime, he faked his own death (and arranged for Dr Armstrong to declare him dead, ostensibly so he could covertly try to catch the murderer). This allowed him to continue killing the others, starting with his accomplice, leaving it to the end to shoot himself after eliminating the other nine. After hanging Vera, he shoots himself at the table (which has been set for two), and the gun drops into the place set for Mr. U. N. Owen (Unknown, get it?).