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Here's another round of fun questions devoted to '70s - '90s matters. Just for fun!
1) Which comedy film, released in 1980, starred Cannon & Ball, Roy Kinnear and Suzanne Danielle, and was based upon an earlier Ealing comedy starring Stanley Holloway?
2) Which much maligned British Leyland car nevertheless succeeded in coming 3rd in the 1974 Monte Carlo Rally?
3) Which heavy rock star created disgust in 1985 when he said that he (quote) 'didn't give a toss about the Ethiopian famine'?
4) In between leaving The Undertones and going solo, Feargal Sharkey was in a short-lived music trio that also featured Vince Clarke from Yazoo, and had a chart entry with a song called 'It Never Happens To Me'. What was the name of the band?
5) Two famous British comedians died in 1992; one of them was Benny Hill, who was the other one? (N.B. this year also saw the death of Michael Robbins from 'On The Buses', but I'm not including him as he was never a comedian in his own right).
6) Who was the champion darts player nicknamed 'The Crafty Cockney'?
7) What vitamin supplement, advertised on TV c.1980, included in the advert a line of hopscotching children, an old man wolf-whistling a fat-bottomed woman playing bowls, and an ante-natal class where two pregnant ladies bump their bellies into each other?
8) Who served as Heritage Minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, was forced to resign his position twice, and is now a presenter on Classic FM?
9) In 1985, the actress Samantha Novak was tragically found dead floating in the River Avon near Bristol. Who is her famous mother?
10) Which comedians had the following catchphrases:
'Rock on, Tommy'
'It's the way I tell 'em'
'I Was There!'
11) What 1970s comic featured a plethora of children's TV charcters including Mary, Mungo & Midge, The Herbs, The Pogles, and Bizzie Lizzie?
12) Staying with comics, which boy's comic from the early 1950s was re-launched in 1982, but subsequently withdrawn as some of the content of the new version was said to be too scarey for youngsters?
13) What came out of East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, that developed an adoring cult following and was nicknamed 'The Plastic Bomber'?
14) Which champion snooker player founded a nationwide chain of snooker clubs after his retirement from the professional game?
15) Which folk-rock band has released albums whose titles include 'Too Old to Rock n'Roll but Too Young to Die', 'Stormwatch' and 'The Broadsword and The Beast', and whose lead singer has adopted Scotland as his home country and now has a salmon farm there?
16) In 1983, Welsh band The Alarm released a hit song '68 Guns', which was criticised by certain sections of the government and the media. Why was this?
17) Who was the last leader of the Soviet Union? (N.B. careful with this one- it's not as easy as it sounds!)
18) In 1999, Kevin Keegan resigned as England manager following England's 1-0 defeat to Germany in a World Cup qualifying round. Why did he take such drastic action just because of this?
19) What medical advance was launched in 1986 that made having some surgical operations much less of a performance?
20) What quiz game, originally launched in 1982, went on to become popular with yuppies?
ANSWERS
1) The Boys In Blue
2) The Austin Allegro
3) Lemmy from Motorhead
4) The Assembly
5) Frankie Howerd
6) Eric Bristow
7) Crooke's 1-a Day Multivitamins
8) David Mellor
9) Shirley Bassey
10) Bobby Ball from Cannon & Ball
Frank Carson
Max Boyce
11) 'Pippin'
12) 'The Eagle'
13) The Trabant car
14) Willie Thorne
15) Jethro Tull
16) Because the song was seen to be a tribute to the Free Wales Army and other Welsh Nationalist paramilitaries
17) Boris Yeltsin (Mikhail Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day 1991, but the USSR was not wound up until the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve that year, meaning that Yeltsin was in power for the last week of it's existence- told you it was a tricky one!)
18) Because it was the last professional game to be played in the old Wembley Stadium before it was demolished, and Keegan wanted it to go out with an England win
19) Keyhole surgery
20) 'Trivial Persuit'
1) Which comedy film, released in 1980, starred Cannon & Ball, Roy Kinnear and Suzanne Danielle, and was based upon an earlier Ealing comedy starring Stanley Holloway?
2) Which much maligned British Leyland car nevertheless succeeded in coming 3rd in the 1974 Monte Carlo Rally?
3) Which heavy rock star created disgust in 1985 when he said that he (quote) 'didn't give a toss about the Ethiopian famine'?
4) In between leaving The Undertones and going solo, Feargal Sharkey was in a short-lived music trio that also featured Vince Clarke from Yazoo, and had a chart entry with a song called 'It Never Happens To Me'. What was the name of the band?
5) Two famous British comedians died in 1992; one of them was Benny Hill, who was the other one? (N.B. this year also saw the death of Michael Robbins from 'On The Buses', but I'm not including him as he was never a comedian in his own right).
6) Who was the champion darts player nicknamed 'The Crafty Cockney'?
7) What vitamin supplement, advertised on TV c.1980, included in the advert a line of hopscotching children, an old man wolf-whistling a fat-bottomed woman playing bowls, and an ante-natal class where two pregnant ladies bump their bellies into each other?
8) Who served as Heritage Minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, was forced to resign his position twice, and is now a presenter on Classic FM?
9) In 1985, the actress Samantha Novak was tragically found dead floating in the River Avon near Bristol. Who is her famous mother?
10) Which comedians had the following catchphrases:
'Rock on, Tommy'
'It's the way I tell 'em'
'I Was There!'
11) What 1970s comic featured a plethora of children's TV charcters including Mary, Mungo & Midge, The Herbs, The Pogles, and Bizzie Lizzie?
12) Staying with comics, which boy's comic from the early 1950s was re-launched in 1982, but subsequently withdrawn as some of the content of the new version was said to be too scarey for youngsters?
13) What came out of East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, that developed an adoring cult following and was nicknamed 'The Plastic Bomber'?
14) Which champion snooker player founded a nationwide chain of snooker clubs after his retirement from the professional game?
15) Which folk-rock band has released albums whose titles include 'Too Old to Rock n'Roll but Too Young to Die', 'Stormwatch' and 'The Broadsword and The Beast', and whose lead singer has adopted Scotland as his home country and now has a salmon farm there?
16) In 1983, Welsh band The Alarm released a hit song '68 Guns', which was criticised by certain sections of the government and the media. Why was this?
17) Who was the last leader of the Soviet Union? (N.B. careful with this one- it's not as easy as it sounds!)
18) In 1999, Kevin Keegan resigned as England manager following England's 1-0 defeat to Germany in a World Cup qualifying round. Why did he take such drastic action just because of this?
19) What medical advance was launched in 1986 that made having some surgical operations much less of a performance?
20) What quiz game, originally launched in 1982, went on to become popular with yuppies?
ANSWERS
1) The Boys In Blue
2) The Austin Allegro
3) Lemmy from Motorhead
4) The Assembly
5) Frankie Howerd
6) Eric Bristow
7) Crooke's 1-a Day Multivitamins
8) David Mellor
9) Shirley Bassey
10) Bobby Ball from Cannon & Ball
Frank Carson
Max Boyce
11) 'Pippin'
12) 'The Eagle'
13) The Trabant car
14) Willie Thorne
15) Jethro Tull
16) Because the song was seen to be a tribute to the Free Wales Army and other Welsh Nationalist paramilitaries
17) Boris Yeltsin (Mikhail Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day 1991, but the USSR was not wound up until the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve that year, meaning that Yeltsin was in power for the last week of it's existence- told you it was a tricky one!)
18) Because it was the last professional game to be played in the old Wembley Stadium before it was demolished, and Keegan wanted it to go out with an England win
19) Keyhole surgery
20) 'Trivial Persuit'
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