Casting Call: Literary Characters Become TV Stars Quiz

Answer: Juliet

"Survivor" has been one of television's most enduring shows. First broadcast in 2000, it's lasted over thirty seasons. Twenty or so contestants, initially in teams, then as individuals, voted person(s) off per weekly show to be the last one standing. A purse of $1,000,000 was offered to the winner. Contestants had to have some sort of combination of a physical, social and strategic game, and lying and manipulation were commonplace. In one of life's most interesting social experiments, the show was an arm wrestle between the plotting and underhanded scheming, and the need to re-affirm an individual's moral code (which inevitably became compromised at some point).

Macbeth, "Othello"'s Iago, and Shakespeare's interpretation of Richard III are all flawed characters that would have been at home on the set of "Survivor", but Juliet, with no physical prowess, few social skills and a swag of innocence would not have stood a chance.

Answer: Murder She Wrote

"Murder She Wrote" was a multi-Emmy winning crime drama which ran between 1984-96. The premise was based on a character called Jessica Fletcher who lived in Cabot Cove in Maine (probably just down the road from an equally fictitious Crab Apple Cove where "M*A*S*H"'s Hawkeye Pierce's father lived). Ms Fletcher, an ageing childless widow who was once an English teacher, before becoming a successful mystery writer, would solve murder mysteries, that the local constabulary could not.

The parallels with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple were obvious, though there was no evidence to suggest Ms Fletcher was based on Miss Marple.

Answer: Lost - The Sequel

"Lost" was a critically acclaimed TV series that aired for six seasons between 2001-2010. The premise was a group of survivors, marooned on an unknown tropical island after a plane crash, needed to return home. The show introduced elements of mythology and the supernatural as well as the more conventional narrative.

William Golding's "Lord of the flies" (1954) told the story of a group of schoolboys who were in a plane crash on a desert island during a nuclear war. The story chronicles the group's descent into anarchy.

Parallels between the two shows abound with common themes: "Lost" had a motif with many symbolic appearances of black and white, reflecting the dichotomy within characters and situations, similar to the literature group's theme of evil battling with good; both groups showed conflict between practical science and abstract faith, displayed by the leadership struggles within the two groups.

Answer: Mary Shelley

"The Munsters" (1964) starred Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo as the parents of a family of benign monsters (Marilyn was the exception) who lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Mockingbird Heights in California. The running gag was that the family thought of themselves as quite ordinary despite their monster-like appearance.

As the TV series was made by Universal, the characters were based on the classic monsters of Universal Studios movies of the 30s and 40s. As such, copyrighted designs, including their quintessential representation of Frankenstein's monster for Herman were able to be used.

While Herman is instantly recognisable as Frankenstein's monster, he is recognisable as the Universal's movie version rather than the monster in Ms Shelley's 1818 novel, "Frankenstein".

Answer: A legal drama

The legal or courtroom drama is a popular genre for its portrayal of good versus evil. Good examples of the serious crime drama that deal with morals and the dark side of the law are the "Law and Order" franchise (commenced 1990) and "The Practice" (1997-2004). Some are comedies with lighter themes such as David E. Kelley's "Ally McBeal" (1997-2002) and "Boston Legal" (2004-2008). "The Good Wife" (2009-16) took the legal drama development a step further, showing the "other side" of a male dominated profession using a theme of a lawyer wife who stuck by her unfaithful husband whilst in public office.

Mitch McDeere ("The Firm" 1991), Darby Shaw ("The Pelican Brief" 1992), Reggie Love ("The Client" 1993) and Jake Brigance ("A Time to Kill" 1989) are all characters in the legal profession in novels by John Grisham.

Answer: Katniss Everdeen

"House of Cards" was an American political drama which commenced in 2013. It was based on a British version of the same name which was based on a novel by Michael Dodds. It was the story of Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a South Carolina congressman who was passed over for Secretary of State. A furious and manipulative Underwood with his equally scheming wife stopped at nothing to seek revenge and to install themselves in the White House. Mr Spacey's previous placement was playing Shakespeare's Richard III which the producers thought was great training. Robin Wright's role was compared with the role of Lady Macbeth.

Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1969) featured one of literature's most conniving villainesses in Nurse Ratched.

Agatha Trunchbull was the the tyrannical headmistress in Roald Dahl's "Matilda" (1988).

Katniss Everdeen played a strong independent young woman with sound values in the "Hunger Games" series of novels.

Answer: A spin-off of "Happy Days"

Possibly only Stephen King could make a homicidal car sound plausible. "Christine" (1983) is a 1958 Plymouth Fury that becomes a murderer.

The television shows depicted are a 50s sitcom, a contemporary crime drama, a medical drama, and a sci-fi series.

"Happy Days" was a successful sitcom that ran for 11 seasons between 1974 and 1984. It started ostensibly as a wistful nostalgic view of the 50s as viewed through the eyes of an innocent Richie Cunningham but later focused on an initially minor character, Fonzie. The show was the launch pads for Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) and Henry Winkler (Arthur Fonzerelli). The show had several spin-offs, including "Laverne & Shirley" and "Mork & Mindy".

Answer: Jack Torrance "The Shining"

"Modern Family" (commenced 2009) was based on three different family types (nuclear, step and same sex) living in suburban California. The patriarch was Jay Pritchett who had a new step-family of his own and the families of his two (older) children Mitchell and his husband Cam, and Claire and husband Phil and their collective respective children. The multi-award winning series was a response to the changing world where nuclear family had become less common.

Atticus Finch is arguably literature's most admired patriarch, with Mr Bennet not far behind. Carlisle Cullen whilst a supernatural father, nevertheless played a strong patriarch with a strong sense of values. The same cannot be said of Jack Torrance, from Stephen King's menacing "The Shining" (1977). Jack, a recovering alcoholic writer went mad as a caretaker in a isolated Colorado hotel, and tried to murder his wife and son.

Answer: William Blatty's Damien Karras

"NYPD Blue" was a 12 season police procedural series set in the fictional (1994-2005) 15th precinct of Manhattan. Denis Franz was the only actor who starred in the entire 261 episodes span of the series. Over the course of the show, he changed from an alcoholic, misogynist, homophobic detective to a empathetic and compassionate father who earned respect as a detective despite being dealt some cruel personal blows.

These were hard shoes to fill but Harry Bosch was a fictional LA cop who was well-respected. Mike Hammer was a hard-boiled cop who would have been able to hold is own in the tough NYPD crime world. John Rebus was an Edinburgh detective with a flawed personality but would have had the chutzpah to do the job. However Father Damien Karras from "The Exorcist" (1971) was a priest and a psychiatrist, and while he would have been mentally strong enough to be a NYC cop, he was not qualified.

Answer: Winston

"Big Brother" was a reality game show that originated in the Netherlands in 1997. Contestants live together in a single house and were under constant surveillance and isolated from the outside world. They were evicted one by one leaving the winner to earn a large cash prize.

Big Brother was a character in George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949). He was the never seen leader of a totalitarian state where every citizen was under constant surveillance by the authorities who constantly reminded the people with the ubiquitous slogan "Big Brother is watching you". Winston Smith was an editor responsible for historical revisionism within the Ministry of Truth. Wanting to find the true history behind the lies he was forced to write, he succumbed to the power held over him by Big Brother and the totalitarian state.

Napoleon, Squealer and Boxer were all characters in George Orwell's "Animal Farm" (1945).