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  1. Long reads
17 December 2009

The NS Quiz: Television/Arts/Media

By Olav Bjortomt

Television

Click here for the answers

1 Which of these epithets was not used to describe Peter Capaldi’s spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It?
a Pol Potty Mouth
b Gorbals Goebbels
c A thin, white Mugabe
d Aberdeen Adolf

2 In February, complaints were made to the BBC because Cerrie Burnell, a new continuity presenter on CBeebies’ Discover and Do and The Bedtime Hour, lacked what?
a A complete head of hair
b The lower half of her right arm
c Eyebrows
d Dignity

3 In August, it was revealed that the average TV viewer watches how many adverts a day?
a 29 b 36 c 43 d 51

4 David Peace’s Red Riding quartet of novels was adapted into a TV trilogy by Channel 4. Which book in the series was missed out due to production costs?
a 1974 b 1977 c 1980 d 1983

5 Which show featured the characters David Sowerbutts, the midwife Joy Aston and the clown Mr Jelly?
a Hope Springs
b Whitechapel
c Life of Riley
d Psychoville

Arts

Click here for the answers

1 Whose exhibition of new oil paintings at the Wallace Collection was called “deadly dull”, “amateurish” and “not worth looking at”?
a David Hockney
b Damien Hirst
c Tracey Emin
d Lucian Freud

2 The US military authorised full co-operation with the makers of which film, with one senior figure saying: “If we were going to fight aliens that’s how we would do it”?
a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
b Monsters v Aliens
c Star Trek
d GI Joe: the Rise of Cobra

3 An editor from Conservative Party HQ altered the dates on which painter’s Wikipedia entry to substantiate a claim David Cameron made about how old the artist was when he died?
a Tintoretto
b Giotto
c Titian
d Veronese

4 What word completes this lyric from Lady Gaga’s hit “Poker Face”: “I won’t tell you that I love you/Kiss or hug you/Cause I’m bluffin’ with my . . .”?
a McGuffin
b Stuffin’
c Lovin’
d Muffin

5 Which orchestra did BBC Music Magazine report may be the oldest in Britain, “having had fully contracted players as early as 1851”?
a Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
b Royal Scottish National Orchestra
c The Hallé
d Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra

Media

Click here for the answers

1 What price did the former KGB operative Alexander Lebedev pay for the Evening Standard?
a £10 b £1 c 10p d 1p

2 Which former Conservative MP was appointed the new chairman of ITV in November?
a Archie Norman
b George Weston
c Richard Olver
d Ian Lang

3 In the 2009 MacTaggart Lecture, James Murdoch used which adjective to describe the scope of the BBC’s “activities and ambitions”?
a Refreshing
b Unfair
c Chilling
d Bloated

4 What did the retiring newsreader Peter Sissons claim should be a condition of the job?
a Nice hair
b Political neutrality
c Front-line reporting experience
d A cheerful demeanour

5 Which website was the first to break the news of Michael Jackson’s death on 25 June?
a Newsarama
b The Huffington Post
c Perez Hilton
d TMZ

 

ANSWERS – Television:

1d Aberdeen Adolf
2b Lower half of
her right arm
3c 43
4b 1977
5d Psychoville

 

ANSWERS – Arts:

1b Damien Hirst
2a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
3c Titian
4d Muffin
5a Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

 

ANSWERS – Media:

1b £1
2a Archie Norman
3c Chilling
4c Front-line reporting experience
5d TMZ.com

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