Are you a PopMaster or a Mastermind?
They host two of Britain’s best-loved quizzes, and here they set Mail readers two fiendish festive challenges ...
FOR over 20 years, I have pitted two music buffs against each other in a daily battle for PopMaster trivia supremacy on my Radio 2 show.
The contestants are offered a choice of bonus questions (worth six points to a normal question’s three) to try to inch them to the top score of 39 per round.
Here, exclusively for the Daily Mail, I have compiled 40 brain-tickling questions to test you and your family’s music knowledge.
Will you be a champion of the charts or a null points no-hoper?
ROUND 1
BONUS QUESTIONS: ‘Happy New Year’ 1. Who were Smokie living next door to in 1976? 2. Which early 80s song by The Gap Band was often danced by a line of people rowing on the floor? 3. Bonus question The 1980 ABBA song Happy New Year appeared on which of their albums? 4. With which single did Adele make her UK Chart debut, peaking at Number 2? 5. Shoop Shoop Song by Cher, I’m Too Sexy by Right Said Fred and (Everything I Do) I Do It For You by Bryan Adams were all UK Number 1 hits in which year? 6. Bonus question Which rock band released the single New Year’s Day in January 1983? 7. Which 1960s producer was the subject of the film Telstar? 8. Which Blondie song did One Direction cover for Comic Relief in 2013? 9. Bonus question Dina Carroll’s hit The Perfect Year, released in 1996, was originally written for which musical? 10. What was the name of the Bee Gees’s younger brother who had hits in the late 70s with An Everlasting Love and I Just Wanna Be Your Everything?
ROUND 2
BONUS QUESTIONS: ‘Real names’ 1. Which pop superstar welcomed guests Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen on stage with him when he headlined Glastonbury 2022? 2. What type of face did Lady
Gaga have in her 2009 UK Number 1 hit? 3. Bonus question Which singing superstar was born Thomas Woodward on June 7, 1940? 4. Which EastEnders actress had a UK Chart hit with Anyone Can Fall In Love, a reworking of the soap’s theme tune? 5. Red Red Wine by UB40, Too Shy by Kajagoogoo and Baby Jane by Rod Stewart were all UK Number 1 hits in which year? 6. Bonus question Singer/songwriter Declan McManus is better known by what name? 7. Which Canadian rock band had a hit with the new wave song Echo Beach, which was later covered by Toyah? 8. Which Georgian singer released her debut album Call Off The Search in 2003? 9. Bonus question Singer/songwriter and record producer Peter Gene Hernandez is known professionally by what name? 10. Play That Funky Music was a worldwide hit in 1976 for which American group?
ROUND 3
BONUS QUESTIONS: ‘I’m with the band’ 1. Who had Top Ten hits in the Sixties with Catch The Wind, Mellow Yellow and Hurdy Gurdy Man? 2. What was the name of Men Without Hats’ only UK Chart hit, which made the Top Ten in 1983? 3. Bonus question Which band was formed of Mickey, Davy, Peter and Mike? 4. Which song was originally a hit for Shalamar in 1982, for 911 in 1996 and for Liberty X in 2005? 5. I’ve Got A Feeling by Black Eyed Peas, The Fear by Lily Allen and Fight For This Love by Cheryl were all Number 1 hits in which year? 6. Bonus question Lindsay, Edele, Keavy and Sinead came together to form which 90s Irish vocal group? 7. According to Scott McKenzie, what should you have worn if you were going to San Francisco in 1967? 8. Which group has released albums including Parachutes, A Rush Of Blood To The Head and Music Of The Spheres? 9. Bonus question Andy, Roger, John, Simon and Nick are members of which group, with a pop career spanning four decades? 10. In 1991, Pet Shop Boys reached the Top 5 with a medley of two songs previously recorded by U2 and Andy Williams respectively. What are the two songs?
ROUND 4
BONUS QUESTIONS: Eurovision 1. Which Simple Minds song featured as the title track for the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club? 2. What was the title of Elbow’s 2008 album that included the singles Grounds For Divorce and One Day Like This?
Bonus Question
3 Which Eurovision winner had her first UK Top 40 hit for 15 years with an unlikely collaboration with The Smiths in 1984? 4. Which singer released duets with artists including Elton John, Aretha Franklin and Mary J Blige? 5. Yellow Submarine, Green Green Grass Of Home and Good Vibrations were all UK Number 1 hits in which year? 6. Bonus question 2014 Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst represented which country with Rise Like A Phoenix? 7. What were the first names of American vocal/instrumental duo The Carpenters? 8. In 2011, Emeli Sandé had a UK Number 1 hit single, Read All About It, with which ‘academic’ English rapper? 9. Bonus question Which Canadian singer triumphed at Eurovision 1988 when she represented Switzerland? 10. Which singer/songwriter wrote the hits I Feel For You, Nothing Compares 2 U and Manic Monday?
WE ARE a nation of quizzers. But you might be surprised to learn that the earliest known appearance of the word ‘quiz’ is remarkably recent, used in 1782 to describe an odd-looking person. If the Romans or Aboriginal peoples quizzed, they didn’t leave any records.
The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that over the course of the 19th century, the meaning of the word changed to describe peculiar objects (like a yo-yo) and only became a word meaning a test of knowledge in 1867.
Since then, this humble parlour game has become primetime TV — not least on Monday nights when the Holy Trinity of BBC2 quizzes (Only Connect, University Challenge — and Mastermind, which I present) pull in well over six million viewers.
When I was a child, I loved watching University Challenge and Mastermind. Bamber Gascoigne and Magnus Magnusson were weekly guests in our home; figures to admire, serving up information as well as entertainment. That’s very much the aim of my tenure as Mastermind host today.
Specialist subject areas have evolved since the show launched in 1972, and that keeps Mastermind relevant. Why not have a contender who’s an expert on the songs of Madonna, or the sitcom The Office, alongside someone who’s the font of all knowledge on Shakespeare’s Henry V?
I love that mix on the show, something for everyone, and it’s why Mastermind has endured for so long.
As for you, dear reader, this quiz that I’ve compiled is about everything 2022. So wind back the mental cogs over the past 12 months and get your thinking caps on! Good luck . . . 1) How many days did Liz Truss serve as Prime Minister? 2) Which opera company lost its public funding and was told the money would only return if it moved to Manchester?
3) The World Cup final in Qatar was decided by a penalty shoot-out which saw Argentina lift the trophy (inset right). Which country failed to score any of its penalties in the tournament, crashing out in the last 16?
4) After November’s mid-term elections, the Democrats kept control of the U.S. Senate from the Republicans. How many senators does each party have? 5) Which poet was the subject of Super Infinite, a biography by author Katherine Rundell who won the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction writing? 6) In Ukraine, Russia has bombed energy infrastructure in several cities using so-called ‘killer drones’ supplied by which country? 7) The artist Veronica Ryan won this year’s prestigious Turner Prize. Name one of the three Caribbean fruits she made into giant bronze and marble sculptures, on display in East London?
8) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8. Who is now looking after her corgis?
9) Which rapper declared his candidacy for the 2024 U.S. Presidential election? 10) It’s widely believed the billionaire Elon Musk overpaid when he purchased Twitter. Roughly how much did he part with (to the nearest $10 billion)? 11) The environmental award started by Prince William, The Earthshot Prize, gives five winners how much money each to develop ideas to save the planet? 12) Which actor almost lost out on the lead role in the then highest grossing film of all time, because he didn’t want to do a screen test with co-star Kate Winslet?
13) Which part of a camel’s anatomy did the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock have to eat on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here?
14) Which artist represented Great Britain at this year’s Venice Biennale Art Exhibition? 15) Which Agatha Christie play will open on Broadway in 2023 after running in the West End for 70 years? 16) Who played John Major in the fifth season of The Crown? 17) Members of the Royal College of Nursing have taken strike action for the first time in the union’s history. How old is the RCN, to the nearest decade? 18) According to the House of Commons Register of Members’ Financial Interests, roughly how much money has Boris Johnson made from four speeches in the two months since he left No 10?
19) Last year’s COP26 climate conference was held in Glasgow. In which Middle Eastern resort was this year’s COP27 held?
20) Which 1973 landmark legal case, which relied on the constitutional right to liberty, was overruled by America’s Supreme Court in June? 21) We celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June, marking her 70 years on the throne, the longest duration by a
British monarch. But which historical figure tops this with a 72-year reign? 22) Which UK village sweltered in 40.3C heat in July, the highest temperature on record? 23) What is the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year, as voted for by the public — which ironically few people seem to have heard of? 24) Unlike the England men’s football team, the England women’s team won a major trophy this year. Who scored the winning goal in the European Championship? 25) The population of the planet exceeded what landmark figure in November? 26) What is the dramatic name given to the weather phenomenon that has caused record-breaking low temperatures across much of the United States this December? 27) In April, which former Wimbledon men’s singles champion was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for hiding assets to avoid paying debts?
28) Who became England’s youngest ever men’s Test cricketer, making his debut on the tour of Pakistan?
29) In September, after ten days of official mourning, the Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan revealed how many people — to the nearest 50,000 — queued to see Queen Elizabeth II lying in state at Westminster Hall? 30) Who was the first black woman to be depicted on a U.S. coin? 31) Who was the civil servant who led the investigation into the Partygate allegations at No 10? 32) Which virus did the World Health Organisation decide should be renamed Mpox, to mitigate a rise in racist and stigmatising language associated with it? 33) This year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally apologised to Sacheen Littlefeather (inset below), a native American, who was booed in 1973, when she took to the stage to decline an Oscar on whose behalf? 34) Where exactly in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home did FBI agents find a cache of top secret documents that had been illegally removed from the White House? 35) Ncuti Gatwa was announced as the first black actor to play Dr Who. How many incarnations had there been before him? 36) Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe became the most expensive American artwork when it sold in New York for how much (to the nearest $10 million)? 37) Who became Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in September, after Cressida Dick’s resignation?
38) Which French food was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List?
39) What was the name of the explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the wreck of which was discovered beneath the Weddell Sea in the Antarctic in March? 40) The quiz show Mastermind celebrated a significant birthday this year. How old is it?