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Programme 9, 2024

Kirsty Lang is in the chair as the Midlands take on the North of England in the game of lateral thinking and cryptic clues.

(9/12)
Earlier in the series when Stephen Maddock and Frankie Fanko of the Midlands played Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras of the North of England, the Midlands won emphatically. Can the North reverse the result today? Kirsty Lang provides the cryptic questions and the helpful hints too, if they need them.

The questions in today's quiz are:

Q1 Why would a breath-freshening confectionery item, the object of Adrian Mole's affections, and a Beethoven piano sonata, be likely to please the Prime Minister?

Q2 (from David Brain) Why might racing to the Isle of Man help you to get a pint that's been improved, a lascivious look that results in correspondence, or a visionary who writes quiz questions?

Q3 Music: Which entrapped family would particularly enjoy this sequence, and what might be their contribution?

Q4 (from Dr Anthony Edwards) If fifth place might make you think of a rifle, fourth place is a Victorian singer in search of something, third place gave us The Iron Heel and second place sounds like the voice of Radiohead, why would first place go to a sort of bookstand?

Q5 (from Charlie Wakely) Why could the progenitors of an unusually arch handbag and a poetic account of a seat of learning for women find common cause in a railway station bookshop?

Q6 (from Jill Butler) Music: How might these musicians add colour to the lives of Miss Sharp's school principal, a faithless naval officer and a man who set investigations in motion in the mid-19th century?

Q7 (from Keith Scholes) Why might a vainglorious poetic king of kings, the voice of Yoda, an obscenity trial, an Argentine midfielder and manager, and the leader of a musical occult meeting, lead you to the real and lyrical origins of some working men?

Q8 (from Peter Green) A Scot would know how a high-ranking mafioso and a high-ranking Ottoman leader might come together with a pseudonymous writer killed by a sniper in the First World War, to form the subject of a Peter Blake canvas. Do you?

Producer: Paul Bajoria

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Sat 11 May 2024 23:30

The 2024 League Table

With eight matches played in the 2024 series so far, this is how the teams are ranked going into today's contest.


1  Scotland     Played 3  Won 2  Drawn 0  Lost 1   Total points 59
2  Northern Ireland     P3  W2  D0  L1   Pts 56 
3  Wales      P3  W2  D0  L1  Pts 52
4  The Midlands     P2  W2  D0  L0   Pts 44  
5  South of England     P3  W0  D0  L3   Pts 50 
6  North of England     P2  W0  D0  L2   Pts 37

Last week's teaser question

At the end of the previous programme Kirsty asked if you can see the value in connecting Elsie from a Salford soap, a rapid head movement, a baby marsupial and a French flower?

Well done if you spotted that these are clues to nicknames of pre-decimal coins in the UK. Elsie is a Tanner, which used to mean an old sixpence. A rapid head movement would be a bob (a shilling). A baby marsupial is a Joey, which was a nickname for the old threepenny coin, probably dating back to the Victorian politician Joseph Hume. And a French flower is a florin, which was a two-shilling coin that bore a flower design in its original form.

This week's teaser question

What staple diet is common to toothpaste or powder, a sweet rooted plant of the bean family, one of the seven deadly sins and a dragon with the head of a rooster?

No need to write to us with your answer: store it up and see if you're right when Kirsty reveals the solution next time.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 5 May 2024 16:30
  • Sat 11 May 2024 23:30

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