Russell Davies

BBC Radio 4 Brain of Britain Ultimate Quiz Book


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Inca city, on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru?

      21. Which spice is derived from the plant whose Latin name is Crocus sativus?

      22. According to the prison warder Mr Mackay in the classic TV comedy series Porridge, ‘In this prison there are only two rules. One is, you do not write on the walls.’ What is the other?

      23. Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea are four novels written by Lawrence Durrell in the 1950s, which are known by what collective title?

      24. Ultra-violet radiation in sunlight helps convert ergosterol, a substance present in the skin, into a form of which vitamin?

      25. Which of the American ‘Ivy League’ universities has its campus in the city of New Haven, Connecticut?

      26. What name is given to the gold-coloured alloy of copper, zinc and sometimes tin, which is used to decorate furniture and ornaments?

      27. By what name do we know the undesirable condition known medically as Pityriasis capitis?

      28. Can you name the music-hall star born Matilda Alice Victoria Wood in 1870, who first appeared as Bella Delmere before taking the stage name by which she is best known?

      29. Having formulated a law for the polarisation of light, which is named after him, the 19th century Scottish physicist David Brewster also invented a scientific instrument that became popular as a child’s toy. What was it?

      30. The 1930s children’s books Peter Duck and Pigeon Post are sequels, featuring the same characters, to which highly successful novel?

      31. In chemistry, what name is given to different forms of the same substance which may have different properties – such as carbon in the forms of diamond and graphite?

      32. Which much-recorded country song, composed by Kris Kristofferson, has a refrain which begins with the words ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose’?

      33. Which highly respected broadcaster, born in 1933, came to prominence as one of the regulars on television’s Late Night Line-Up in the 1960s, and later presented the ethical investigative series Heart of the Matter for many years?

      34. In which Hindu text, part of the Mahabharata, does Lord Krishna instruct Prince Arjuna on the importance of absolute devotion?

      35. The novel sequence entitled Gargantua and Pantagruel, famously long and rambling and bawdy, is the work of which French Renaissance medic and satirist?

      36. Which Scottish Premier League football club plays its home games at Tynecastle?

      37. In the animal kingdom, the family Leporidae consists of which common British mammals?

      38. What word is used in physics to describe an ionised gas produced at extremely high temperatures and, in biology, to the liquid component of the blood?

      39. A psychopathic killer named Michael Myers is the central villain of a celebrated horror movie of 1978, and its series of sequels. Can you name that original movie?

      40. Famously celebrated in music, Fingal’s Cave is a rock formation to be found on which uninhabited Hebridean island?

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      1. Which building, one of the holiest places of Islam, stands on the top of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem and is traditionally the site of the prophet Mohammad’s ascent to heaven?

      2. What kind of strutting dance, especially popular at the height of the Ragtime era in early-20th century America, was named after the prize that was traditionally awarded to the best dancers?

      3. The volt is an SI unit measuring the electrical energy converted by the electric charge moving between two points in a circuit. Although it’s commonly referred to as the ‘voltage’, what two-word term is properly given to this quantity?

      4. Which French mathematician and philosopher proved, in the late 1640s, that air pressure decreased with altitude, by taking a barometer to the summit of the Puy de Dôme in the Auvergne?

      5. Edmund, son of Ethelred the Unready, who briefly succeeded his father as king in 1016, is usually known by a nickname reflecting his courage. What was the nickname?

      6. Stars and Stripes Forever, directed by Henry Koster and starring Clifton Webb, is a ‘biopic’ of which American composer?

      7. What is the highest mountain in the world outside Asia?

      8. The origin of which snack is generally attributed to the aristocrat John Montague, who is said to have eaten food in this form in order to avoid having to leave the gaming table?

      9. Which daily newspaper began life in 1754 as the Leeds Intelligencer?

      10. The English poet William Langland, who lived from about 1330 to 1400, is known for one long alliterative poem which exists in several different versions. What is it called?

      11. Which British no.1 rock album of the 1970s features the cover image of an inflatable pig flying above Battersea power station?

      12. Which inventor, born in the USA and later a naturalised Briton, developed the first fully-automatic machine gun, manufactured by Vickers and adopted by the British Army?

      13. Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and the plays of Shakespeare were all edited in expurgated form by which Somerset-born physician and writer?

      14. In the name of the actor and former American football player O. J. Simpson, who was acquitted of murder in 1995, what do the initials O. J. stand for?

      15. The Sargasso Sea, surrounded by and effectively created by the enclosing effects of the Gulf Stream, the Canary Current and the Equatorial Current, takes its name from the abundance of Sargassum in its waters. What is Sargassum?

      16. Who was in overall command of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588?

      17. Whose music, though originally popular in the composer’s lifetime, gained a resurgence in 1973 when his piece ‘The Entertainer’ was featured in the film The Sting?

      18. What are the Aventine, the Caelian, the Capitoline, the Esquiline, the Quirinal, the Viminal and the Palatine?

      19. The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations on the Segregation of the Queen is the full title of a scholarly work written by which fictional character, created in 1887?

      20. What kind of soup has a name that means ‘pepper-water’ in the Tamil language?

      21. The game called Noughts and Crosses in British English is more commonly known in the US by what three-word alliterative name?

      22. The Minerals and Land Pavilion, the