Test your arts knowledge with these questions from our critics
Shirley MacLaine is a firm believer in reincarnation. Which of the following does she not claim as one of her past lives?
An orphan raised by elephants
The Moorish peasant girl mistress of the Emperor Charlemagne
A Tahitian pearl diver who perished in a shark attack
Who was the first African American to win an Academy Award?
Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones
Paul Robeson for King Solomon’s Mines
Hattie McDaniel for Gone With the Wind
A UK No 1 by which artist namechecks author Vladimir Nabokov?
David Bowie
The Police
Cockney Rebel
Which whisky company uses a modified version of a Landseer painting as its logo?
Famous Grouse
Glenfiddich
Johnnie Walker
Who ordered her husband a pink carpet made of flamingo feathers with a border of peacock plumes for his 66th birthday?
Alma Mahler
Cosima Wagner
Anna Magdalena Bach
Christopher Plummer starred as Captain von Trapp in The Sound Of Music, but he hated working on the film. What was NOT his nickname for it?
The Sound Of Mucus
Edelweiss and Worse
S&M
Which TV series, later renamed, debuted in the UK in 1983 with the name Woodentop?
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Taggart
The Bill
Who requested “up to 800 singers”, four brass bands and a full orchestra including 50 violins for one of his works?
Tchaikovsky
Beethoven
Berlioz
Which of the following artists has not painted a label for Chateau Mouton Rothschild?
Matisse
Dalí
Chagall
Alexandra Palace, June 1946, and the BBC resumed television broadcasting, which had been suspended since September 1939, with the line: “Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?” But what had been the primary reason for its suspension?
Fears that the strength of the transmitting signal would lead bombers unerringly to north London
At least 50 specialist engineers were required to work on radar
Actors and presenters were seconded to propaganda and newsreel work, which could be shown more safely in cinemas
Helen Mirren was a teenage star at the National Youth Theatre in which part ?
Cleopatra
Lady Macbeth
Juliet
What is the name of the barber’s in Victoria Street, which was opened in Corrie in 2019?
Cheeky Blinders
Lock Stars
Trim Up North
Of whom was it said that he went to Oxford “like a high-pressure executive arriving to take over a dying business”?
Peter Brook
Hugh Grant
Kenneth Tynan
“All Grecian, Sir; Tudor details on a classic body.” Who said this of the Palace of Westminster?
Augustus Pugin
John Ruskin
Charles Barry
Who wrote: “And when you kissed Robert Mitchum / Gee, but I thought that you’d never catch him”?
Jonathan Richman
Lou Reed
Dory Previn
Who said “less is a bore”?
Charles Jencks
Robert Venturi
John Pawson
Who is “All good already, so moved on, it’s scary” as per her UK No 2 chart hit, released in late 2019?
Lady Gaga
Dua Lipa
Ariana Grande
The 60s outfit Three Dog Night are named for an indigenous Australian expression. To what does it refer?
A night so cold you need three dogs for warmth
A long night-time hunting trip
A party so loud only three dogs could drown it out
15 and above.
Excellent work. Who’s the critic here, us or you?
9 and above.
Pretty good stuff, you sturdy cultural footsoldier, you.
0 and above.
Some series cultural catching-up needed, we fear.
5 and above.
Some of the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. Better luck next time!
