Would You Like To "B" On TV? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bagpuss

"Bagpuss" is widely regarded as a classic piece of British children's TV from the 1970s, so you may be surprised to hear that only 13 episodes were ever made, although they were repeated frequently over the next ten years or so, being discovered by a new generation of children each time.

In each episode, a girl named Emily brings Bagpuss (a pink-and-white stuffed cat) a broken toy or other item. Once she has gone, the cat comes to life through the miracle of stop-motion animation, along with various other toys such as a woodpecker (Professor Yaffle), a toad (Gabriel), a ragdoll (Madeleine) and various mice. They then tell a little story inspired by the item, which is "fixed" by the end of the episode.

In 1999, "Bagpuss" was voted the UK's favourite children's TV programme.

Answer: Ballykissangel

"Ballykissangel" was a popular BBC TV series set in a fictional small Irish town, which ran for six series between 1996 and 2001. The main plot device over the first three series was the developing relationship between the young Roman Catholic priest, Father Peter Clifford (Stephen Tompkinson), and the landlady of the local pub, Assumpta Fitzgerald (Dervla Kirwan). Just when things were about to get interesting, with the priest declaring his love for the landlady, the scriptwriters got cold feet and brutally killed her off, electrocuted by a faulty fuse-box in her own pub.

Although the series continued for a further three series, without the two most interesting characters it was never quite the same again. RIP, Assumpta.

Answer: Band of Brothers

"Band of Brothers" was a 2001 American mini-series that followed a company from the US Army's 101st Airborne Division from the D-Day landings until the end of the war in Europe. Although a work of fiction, it was closely based on actual events as described in the book of the same name by Stephen E. Ambrose.

The series was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, and the look and style of the series was closely inspired by Spielberg's 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan", in which Hanks starred. "Band of Brothers" starred Damien Lewis as 1st Lieutenant (eventually Major) Dick Winters. It was a popular and critical success and won many awards.

Answer: Blake's 7

"Blake's 7" was a British science-fiction series which ran for four seasons between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who had previously been a writer for "Doctor Who" and had created the famous Daleks.

Nation's new show followed the adventures of a band of rebels led by the titular Roj Blake, and their struggles against the tyrannous Federation in a stolen ship named the "Liberator". Although Blake was an idealistic freedom-fighter, the rest of his crew were mostly thieves, crooks and smugglers who followed Blake for selfish rather than idealistic reasons. Like much British science-fiction of the time, its embarrassingly cheap special effects were offset by clever scripts, subtle characterisation and generally good acting.

Answer: Brideshead Revisited

"Brideshead Revisited" was a 1981 11-part television serial based on Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel. It follows the main character, Charles Ryder (played by Jeremy Irons), from his student days at Oxford until the Second World War, and his relationships with members of the aristocratic Marchmain family. These include the dissipated younger son, Sebastian (Anthony Andrews) and eldest daughter Julia (Diana Quick). The Marchmain's family home, Brideshead Castle, was famously portrayed by Castle Howard in North Yorkshire.

The show is generally regarded as one of the finest of all television adaptations (many people believing it to be an improvement on the original novel), and regularly features in "Top 10" lists of British TV shows.

Answer: Blue Heelers

"Blue Heelers" was a popular Australian police drama that ran for 13 years, from 1994 to 2006. It was set in the fictional town of Mount Thomas in Victoria and focussed on the day-to-day working and personal lives of the police officers and other local inhabitants. Like many similar shows, it had an ensemble cast which changed throughout its run as characters came and went, although John Wood (as police officer Tom Croydon) and Julie Nihill (as landlady Chris Riley) appeared in all 13 seasons.

At its peak the show was among the most popular and critically acclaimed shows on Australian television and won many awards.

Answer: Babylon 5

"Babylon 5" was an American science-fiction series which ran for five series between 1993 and 1999. It spanned the years 2257-62 and was set on the titular space-station. The idea behind the series was that the "Babylon 5" was a sort of United Nations in space, populated by representatives of various alien nations, as well as the humans who had constructed and ran it.

The series was unusual for its time in that each of the five seasons, while consisting of 22 individual episodes, also had an overarching story arc that linked them all together. It had a large cast of regular and recurring characters, including Bruce Boxleitner as John Sheridan and Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova.

Answer: Baywatch

"Baywatch" was an American drama series about a team of Californian lifeguards which ran for 11 seasons between 1989 and 2001 (the final two seasons relocating to Hawaii). Its cast of bronzed, attractive young lifeguards included David Hasselhoff as Mitch Buchannon, and Pamela Anderson, who made a big impression among adolescent males as C. J. Parker.

The show was famously cancelled after only one season by its original network, NBC, but the creative staff, along with Hasselhoff, successfully lobbied for its continuation as a syndicated show. This certainly paid off, as the show soon became enormously popular with audiences worldwide, despite being critically mauled on a regular basis.

Answer: Bonanza

"Bonanza" was an American Western TV show, broadcast on NBC between 1959 and 1973, making it the second-longest-running TV Western after "Gunsmoke" (1955-75). The leading characters in "Bonanza" were the Cartwright family, who lived on the Ponderosa Ranch in Nevada. Lorne Greene played the father, Ben Cartwright, with his three sons played by Pernell Roberts (Adam), Dan Blocker (Hoss) and Michael Landon (Little Joe). Each of these was Ben's son by a different wife, although all three ladies were sadly deceased by the time the show began.

By the time the show ended at the end of its 14th season, only Ben and Little Joe were left, Pernell Roberts having left the show at the end of season six, and Dan Blocker having sadly died between seasons 13 and 14.

Answer: Boys from the Blackstuff

In 1980, Alan Bleasdale's one-off play "The Black Stuff", about a group of tarmac-layers from Liverpool, was broadcast as part of BBC1's "Play for Today" series. Bleasdale followed this up with a five-part series "Boys from the Blackstuff", broadcast in 1982, which follows the lives of the main characters from the original play.

They are now unemployed, and the series takes a bleakly humorous look at the effect unemployment has on their lives. This is typified by the character of Yosser Hughes (Bernard Hill), who finds it hard to maintain his male pride without the job that defines his life.

His plaintive cry of "Gizza job" resonated with many people who found themselves in the same situation.