Round Britain Quiz

[mcgillianaire]

BBC Radio 4 is fast becoming my station of choice. Tonight I discovered a delightful panel game programme that first went-to-air in 1947 and is the oldest quiz still broadcast on British radio! The show comprises a tournament featuring teams from various regions around the UK taking part in a series of head-to-head battles. In each half-hour programme, two teams face four multi-part cryptic questions worth up to six points, depending on how much help the host provides during each question. The parts of the question generally have a common theme running throughout them and as the show's home page points out, a degree of lateral thinking is often necessary to score full marks. One question for each team has a music or sound component, and another is submitted by listeners. The host also shares a teaser question at the end of every show that is answered at the beginning of the subsequent week's episode. Here are all the questions from this week's episode featuring teams from Northern Ireland and the Midlands:

LAST WEEK'S TEASER:
Can you think of an English word which has two precisely opposite meanings – one suggesting solidarity, the other schism?

QUESTION 1:
Who were Thrysis, Lycidas, and Adonais – and who mourned them?

QUESTION 2:
What essential element distinguishes Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili from a Polish shipyard worker, and why?

QUESTION 3:
What’s the bond between this song, a classic comedy set on the English Riviera, and an educational institiution founded for the betterment of society?

QUESTION 4:
Why should you be careful in case these (sound) clips, and LNER Class A4 4468, get you a zero score?

QUESTION 5:
Where might you find two blind beggars, the Prior of Lindisfarne, a high feline’s arch-enemy, and an infant beetle, be manipulated to fight small fires? And who’s missing?

QUESTION 6:
For a Frenchman, why are these things linked with a kiss? Jewels, pebbles, cabbages, knees, owls, toys and lice?

QUESTION 7:
Name thes six people: a troubled model and author; an opera librettist and judge of talent; a soccer boss and fantastic director.

QUESTION 8:
Think of a particular prime number. If you moved from Monte Carlo to Las Vegas you’d find it had increased by one. Multiplying it by three, on the other hand, might bring to mind a war hero, and could make you nervous on the cricket square. What’s the original number?

THIS WEEK'S TEASER:
What fell on whose head in Woolsthorpe in 1665, and what was the name of his dog?