It’s Sunday, week 3 of Lockdown 2.0, so there’s no Fagan’s theme quiz. Here’s the penultimate quiz before this lockdown ends and Lockdown III: The Confusing Tiers starts.
This week, we’ve been mostly having our roof repaired.
It’s the usual 20 questions for the quiz.
And, it’s a quiz of two halves.
There may be “sound-a-likes” or embedded words.
The use of electronic devices to divine the answers, with the exception of hearing aids and pacemakers, is forbidden.
1. Which American actor played the somewhat camp Batman in the 1960s TV series and movie and was also considered for the part of James Bond in the film Diamonds Are Forever?
2. What is a brown deposit resembling soil, formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter in the wet acidic conditions of bogs and fens, and often cut out and dried for use as fuel and in gardening?
3. Which game uses custom asymmetrical throwing dice, shaped like an animal, where each turn involves one player throwing two dice – each of which has a dot on one side – to gain or lose points based on the way they land?
4. Well over double its nearest competitor in monetary terms, China is the larget exporter in the world of what commodity?
5. What is a pink to blood-red coloured gemstone, the most valuable variety of the corundum mineral species, which also includes sapphire?
6. Formed in 1965, which North London borough is the largest by population and was formed from parts of the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire?
7. What is a potentially fatal medical condition that occurs when sepsis, which is organ injury or damage in response to infection, leads to dangerously low blood pressure?
8. Who is the retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who was a National Security Council staff member during the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s and formulated the plan to divert proceeds from arms sales to support the Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua?
9. Released in 1979, which song by popular beat combo Elvis Costello & The Attractions reached number 2 in the UK charts, was their most successful single and lyrically is a comment on The Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1970s?
10. Born in 1923 who was the musician who is regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singer-songwriter of the 20th century, having recorded 35 singles that reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked number one?
11. What name is given to the annual travelling funfair held at the Forest Recreation Ground in Nottingham during the first week of October?
12. Usually made of silver or pewter, what is the name of the drinkware that consists of a large, roughly cylindrical, drinking cup with a single handle?
13. What term is used for a person who is left-handed, usually in a sporting context such as a player who throws with the left hand or a boxer who leads with the right hand using the left hand for the most powerful blows?
14. What is the title of the 1996 American disaster adventure film that focuses on a group of storm chasers trying to deploy a tornado research device during a severe outbreak in Oklahoma?
15. What is the name of the “Paranoid Android” from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, who is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a “brain the size of a planet” which he is seldom, if ever, given the chance to use?
16. Which 1950 American film starring Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star, received a record 14 Academy Award nominations and won 6 of them?
17. What is a type of tool used to grip and lift objects instead of holding them directly with hands?
18. In the TV drama Shoestring, what informal title is given to Trevor Eve’s character Eddie Shoestring when he is hired by the fictional Radio West as an investigator?
19. What expression is widely used figuratively to convey the covering up of something that is embarrassing or distasteful with something of innocuous appearance, a metaphorical reference to a passage in the Biblical Book of Genesis?
20. Who is the TV and radio sports commentator known for his animated enthusiasm, authoritative voice and comical blunders during live races?