QUIZOF THE YEAR
1
‘He thought he was Peter Pan. Nobody is.’ That was Alex Ferguson’s verdict on which mercurial former 2 Manchester United player?
How did three portraits of a British artist by an Irish painter raise 3 €105m and break a record?
Heartbeat Of Home, the new show from the Riverdance team, became a huge hit in what Asian country following its world pre4 miere in Dublin?
gardaí What for in drink Love/Hate did Tommy after ask he was 5 arrested for a tiger kidnapping?
Love/Hate’s Nidge – otherwise known as Tom Vaughan-Lawlor – won rave reviews here and at the Edinburgh Festival playing both
6 characters in which play?
Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers teamed up with which French electropop duo in crash helmets to
7 make the summer’s hit record?
Actress Saoirse Ronan announced French artist Laure Prouvost as the winner of the 2013 Turner Prize for art at a ceremony in which Irish city? 8
Which chronically hit-and-miss US director won five-star reviews for his 45th film, Blue Jasmine? 9
The acclaimed stage version of which novel by Michael Morpurgo is due to run for a month at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin next year?
10
The title of which wellreceived BBC Midlands Western starring Cillian Murphy refers to the razor blades gangsters used to sew into the peaks of their tweed caps?
FLOPS
1
What TV sitcom by Ben Elton, about a health-and-safety jobsworth, was universally panned by critics? 2
Which masked crime-fighter, whose companion wore a stuffed crow on his head, bombed at the box office?
3 Which senior British politician invited Robbie ridicule Williams by and choosing the hymn A-ha, Jerusalem 4 on Desert Island Discs?
Which film featured the stars of The Wedding Crashers in a 5 comedy that everyone hated?
Ryan Gosling appeared in two new films this year. Which one 6 threatened to derail his acting career?
Which Italian duo said ‘arrivederci, Irlanda’ after we failed to 7 qualify for the soccer World Cup?
Who was disastrously cast as 8 Princess Diana in an ill-fated biopic?
Who did Benedict Cumberbatch impersonate as an ‘arrogant control 9 freak’ in a badly received movie?
A movie adaption of Stephanie Meyer’s The Host couldn’t repeat the success of Twilight. Saoirse Ronan starred opposite the son of which acting royalty couple?
10
After Earth was a rare misstep in Will Smith’s otherwise stellar career. What is the name of his costar, who also calls Will ‘Dad’?
SCANDALS
1
Why did the discovery of work by Picasso, Matisse and Chagall in a Munich flat revive memories of World 2 War II?
Whose sexpot behaviour, on and off stage, must have given her father 3 an achy (and maybe breaky) heart?
Which US singing legend was charged in France this month with 4 ‘provoking hatred’ against Croats?
Who was the maid in Downton Abbey whose rape led to complaints the lordly screenwriter had
5 gone too far?
Which popular song by Robin Thicke was accused of being a little too similar to a melody by Marvin Gaye?
the Which star of Philomena, distinguished revealed actress,
that, to alleviate boredom while filming, she embroiders four-letter words into cushions?
7
Which thespian Dame, in full costume and make-up as Queen Elizabeth II, yelled at drummers outside a theatre: ‘Do you realise what you’re doing? You’re f ****** up our performance. We can’t hear ourselves speak. Please stop’?
8
Which pair of pop stars performed a sexy duet as Barack Obama and Marilyn Monroe in a mocked-up Oval Office at the American Music Awards?
9
Which ballet company was rocked by an acid attack on its artistic director, who was said to have denied good roles to the man
who attacked him?
10
The video of which British singer’s autumn release began with the sight of her lying on an operating table?
REVIVALS
1
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was joined on the London stage by which Irish comedian in a revival of The Cripple Of Inishmaan?
2
Superman returned to the screen this year, played this time by an Englishman from Jersey. Who is the actor – and what is the movie’s title?
3
Pink Floyd’s The Wall came to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium courtesy of which of the band’s original members? 4
Which European museum reopened after a 10-year, €375m makeover, showing only a 10th of its 5 treasures?
Who startled the music world in January with Where Are We Now?, his first single in 10 years? 6
Which charming man became an instant classic with his autobiography? 7
lective Which drew septuagenarian mixed responses col- by announcing that their reunion at
London’s O2 next year was inspired
by 8 a desire to pay off a mortgage?
What is the name of the James Plunkett play running at the Abbey that commemorates the 1913 Lockout?
9
Which legendary songwriter published a musical companion to his autobiography, entitled Anyone Who Had A Heart?
10
In the revival of Dallas on TV3, which actors play John Ross Ewing III and Christopher Ewing?
DOUBLEACTS
1
Fergal Smith became an instant star when he teamed up with a
top RTÉ presenter to co-host a segment of which national TV institution? 2
Former Westlifer and now King of the Jungle Kian Egan got a surprise visit from his wife on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. What is her name? 3
In which TV sitcom did Gandalf and Claudius join forces to play an elderly gay couple? 4
In which film – the last of the director’s career – did two A-list heterosexuals play a kitsch piano player and his boyfriend? And for a bonus point, can you name them?
5
Name the couple, on and off screen, who present TV3’s The
6 Holiday Show.
Which unlikely pair – experimental Icelandic singer and national-treasure British TV zoologist – formed a mutual appreciation society? 7
Jennifer Gibney is the real-life wife of her co-star in which bawdy 8 TV sitcom?
Which British married couple – 007 meets The Mummy – costarred on the Broadway stage in a revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal? 9
Singer Ellie Goulding was alleged to have had a fling with the Irish member of which boyband? 10
Name the actors who play Celine and Jesse in the trilogy that culminated in Before Midnight.
NEWSTARS
1
Which former spin-doctor got a 2 job as a different kind of doctor?
Charleville’s Keith Hanley became the second winner of which reality TV show, in which he was coached by British pop star
3 Jamelia?
Which 28-year-old Kiwi hit the jackpot in October with an 832page novel set in the New Zealand
4 goldfields in 1866?
You’ve seen him on ads for 3 Mobile and now he’s the new host of RTÉ 2’s Republic Of Telly. Name
5 this comedian.
Which rock star is the first to be the subject of a theological course at Rutgers University, New Jersey 6 (the clue is in the locality)?
Who plays the brothers separated at birth in the TV sitcom Damo And Ivor? 7
After his success in What Richard Did, which young actor spent most of this year filming a starring role in the next Transformers movie?
8
A cat called Cleo became the most famous feline in the coun-
try when she made her acting debut. What happened to her on television? 9
Which prison officer won this year’s series of The X Factor? 10
Andrea Begley, winner of The Voice UK, is the niece of which legendary Irish country and western singer?
1
TRENDS
What craze reached its height when David Cameron, Barack Obama and Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt indulged in it at Nelson Mandela’s memorial
2 service?
Which Gaeltacht school went viral with videos of chart hits translated into Irish and sung by a
3 teacher and his students?
The Wars of the Roses were fashionable – as the inspiration for the BBC’s The White Queen and which bloody US drama series
4 filmed in Northern Ireland?
Our love affair with live music continues, with one Irish venue named the fourth busiest arena in
5 the world. Which one?
British TV developed a sudden obsession with the early years of department store retailing in The Paradise and which other series about a showman shop owner?
6
Which actor, waving goodbye to a role he has played on TV for decades, confided that to walk with a fussy gait, he clenched a 1p coin 7 in the crack of his bottom?
The love affair with catwalk shows seems to be waning as Britain’s And Ireland’s Next Top Model was cancelled by Sky. Which former Miss Ireland was one of its star turns this year?
8
Public spats on Twitter became commonplace. Which Irish singer was Miley Cyrus
fighting with on Twitter?
9
Which Norwegian band had the highest-rated YouTube video of the year with 291million views for The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)?
10
The Janoskians are one of the most popular prank acts on social media. Their name is an anagram of what?
FAREWELL
1
land, Who history, celebrated war, the ‘hedges, pursuit bog- of peace, a small place made large by imagining, a world both Irish and
2 Classical, local and European’?
Which late British actor’s finest TV performance saw him tending a small holding in Surbiton and out3 raging his neighbour Margo?
Name the songwriter and Pogues guitarist who lost his fight 4 against cancer in October.
Despite its title, which West End show based on the lives on a Nineties 5 girl group failed to run forever?
Which British film director, who died in January, was best known for making violent vigilante movies and telling people
6 to ‘calm down’?
Which acclaimed TV drama’s final series featured an episode named after a Shelley poem, and was hailed as the greatest hour of television 7 ever broadcast?
Which TV Mafia boss was whacked by the Grim Reaper in June? 8
Which legendary wildlife filmmaker, famous for Amuigh Faoin Spéir, died in January? 9
Which RTÉ sports presenter lost his battle with motor neurone disease in July? 10
Nominated for eight Academy Awards and the recipient of an honorary Oscar, Peter O’Toole died last weekend. Who directed him to worldwide fame in
Lawrence Of Arabia?