From Baldrick to trainspotting composers: the Observer's culture quiz

Test your arts knowledge with these questions from our critics Who or what is Roderick Jaynes? The name that Edward Norton uses when he checks into hotels The former basketball player turned actor who played both the Predator in Predator and Harry in Harry and the Hendersons The pseudonym that the Coen brothers use when they edit their films In which country were the oldest known oil paintings made? India Belgium Afghanistan “Do you ask a car crash for another take? Do you ask a volcano for another take? Do you ask the storm for another take?” Which actor said this about directors who asked him to repeat his performance? Klaus Kinski Mickey Rourke Jared Leto Which soon-to-be star had a tiny role in the 1951 Ealing Comedy The Lavender Hill Mob? Judi Dench Grace Kelly Audrey Hepburn In pre-streaming days, many millions would gather around a beloved TV series for its final bow, and in 1993 84.4 million Americans settled to watch Diane’s return to Cheers, making it the second most watched series finale in US history. But what was No 1 in last-ever episodes, with 105.9 million viewers? Dallas (May 1991) Friends (May 2004) M*A*S*H (February 1983) Whose first symphony, premiered in 1931, was called the Afro-American Symphony? Leonard Bernstein’s Aaron Copland’s William Grant Still’s Children sing and dance as a virtual choir to Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, an uplifting and doubtless heartwarming minute-long advert that has been warming our cockles since mid-May and which only a grumpy walnut of a cynic would decry as over-twee and 58 seconds overlong. It is dedicated by the sponsor to “everyone in the UK having fun despite the challenging times”. But who is this selfless advertiser? Nationwide Tesco Virgin Media The paint tube was invented in 1841. What did artists use to carry paint before it? Pigs’ bladders Clam shells Leather wallets Who once said of their band’s greatest hit, released in 1981: “It’s the best song I’ve ever written. It’s a proper song like the kind that Earth, Wind and Fire or Abba would write”? Phil Oakey of the Human League, about Don’t You Want Me Baby Marc Almond of Soft Cell, about Tainted Love Midge Ure of Ultravox, about Vienna Before which production did actors toss a coin to see who would play the two leading roles? Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein Robert Icke’s Mary Stuart David Leveaux’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Which composer was an avid trainspotter with a penchant for chatting to train drivers? Dvořák Elgar Schoenberg Everyone’s favourite Baldrick is, of course, Blackadder’s dung-gatherer, as portrayed by Tony Robinson, although the 9th-century Duke of Friuli and (of course) Baldric of Dol, the 11th-century abbot of Bourgueil, must run him close: and there is too a Tower of London raven with this name. But what is, or was, a baldric? A shoulder belt employed to carry a weapon An archaic term for a “mood of bitter boredom at a pointless task”, apparently first popularised by troops sent by Aethelwulf to guard Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in the three years preceding the first Viking invasion A basic wooden flute Which of these architects was shot by a vengeful husband at Madison Square Garden? Frank Lloyd Wright Stanford White Adolf Loos Which dramatist did Bernard Shaw dub “the Tussaud Laureate”? John Webster Dion Boucicault George Farquhar George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison: name the fifth member of the Traveling Wilburys. Mick Fleetwood Robbie Robertson Jeff Lynne In Cameron Crowe’s 2000 movie Almost Famous, the singer of fictitious group Stillwater famously declares “I’m a golden god!” Which real life rock star actually said it? Robert Plant Iggy Pop Axl Rose Finneas O’Connell is the producer for which multiple-Grammy-award-winning pop singer? Clairo Billie Eilish Halsey Who designed Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral? Frederick Gibberd Basil Spence Giles Gilbert Scott 17 and above. Amazing stuff! We now declare you Admiral of the Arts. 14 and above. Excellent work, Captain Culture. Keep fighting the good fight. 9 and above. Solid stuff! You know (some of) your onions. 0 and above. Well. Look at it this way: the only way is up. See you next week? 4 and above. Not too bad... but not too good either. Maybe next week will be your week? Continue reading...
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