Round 1
1a Who is the screenwriter who adapted both Pride And Prejudice in 1995 and War And Peace in 2016 as serials for BBC TV?
Andrew Davies
1b Which electrical appliance manufacturing business was established on the outskirts of Malmesbury, Wiltshire in 1983 by its eponymous founder?
(Sir James) Dyson
2a From whose work did Thomas Hardy take the title for his novel "Far from the Madding Crowd"?
Thomas Gray (Elegy in a Country Churchyard)
2b What is the name of David Bowie's final album which got to No 1 in the charts the week after his death?
Blackstar
3a Which Pacific island nation formerly known as the Ellice Islands has its capital at Funafuti? Approximately 10% of its government income is derived from its internet top level domaine name.
Tuvalu
3b The name of what animal is given to a small, static engine used for pumping, winching or similar purposes?
Donkey engine
4a Which vehicle manufacturer noted for its sports cars makes a four door coupe called the Panamera?
Porsche
4b What name is given to the practice of a house buyer offering a reduced purchase price offer just before contacts are due to be exchanged, pressuring the vendor to accept or lose the sale?
Gazundering

Round 2
1a What items are plotted on a Hertzsprung Russell diagram?
Stars
1b Which British luxury car manufacturer makes a four door coupe called the Rapide S?
Aston Martin
2a Which Frenchman composed works including 'The Trojans" and 'The Damnation of Faust"?
Hector Berlioz
2b What is the name of the royal palace and monastery, a World Heritage Site, founded by King Philip the Second of Spain, 25 miles north-west of Madrid?
The Escorial
3a Which football club won its fifth UEFA Champions League/Champions Cup title at Wembley in 2013?
Bayern Munich
3b Novelist Virginia Woolf drowned in which Sussex river?
River Ouse
4a What is the name of the lower house of the Russian parliament?
Duma
4b The Lok Sabha is the lower house of which country's parliament?
India
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Round 3
1a Which novel by Charles Dickens includes characters named Murdstone, Steerforth and Peggotty?
David Copperfield
1b Which Swedish player became world chess champion in 2013 aged 22?
Magnus Carlsen
2a Which English writer drowned while crossing the Gulf of Spezia in his boat Don Juan (which had also been named Ariel), in 1822?
Shelley
2b In 2015 who was appointed Bishop of Stockport, the first woman to be ordained bishop in the Church of England?
LibbyLane
3a Styx, Nix and Hydra are three of the five known moons of which body in the Solar System?
Pluto
3b Whose death in 1963 was the first ever murder broadcast live on television in the world?
Lee Harvey Oswald
4a Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Gromit, was born and raised in which town or city?
Preston
4b The UK's first managed or smart motorway was inaugurated in 2006 on a section of which motorway in the West Midlands?
Preston

Round 4
1a Which English king was married to Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France aka Charles the Mad?
Henry V
1b Which Pacific island nation straddles both the equator and theInternational Date Line, the one official language is Gilbertese and its capital is Tarawa?
Kiribati (pron. Kiribas)
2a Amal Alamuddin married which man in Venice in 2014?
George Clooney
2b A deadly radioactive isotope of what element was used to assassinate Russian dissident Alexander Litvenenko in London?
Polonium (210)
3a Which US state capital shares its name with a tunnel underneath the Hudson River, and an American luxury automobile brand?
Lincoln
3b In 2013, which football club became the first to win the Europa League/UEFA Cup having won the UEFA Champions League/Champions Cup title the previous season?
Chelsea
4a Which Leeds Rhinos captain was runner up in BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2015, the first rugby league player to be in the top 3?
Kevin Sinfield
4b Sarah Burton who designed Kate Middleton's wedding dress was appointed creative director of which British fashion house in 2010?
Alexander MacQueen

Round 5
1a What is the title of the poem by T S Eliot, of which the first line is "A cold coming we had of it. Just the worst time of the year"?
Journey of the Magi
1b Give a year in the life of St Francis of Assissi.
1181-1226
2a Which US state capital has fewer than 8,000 residents and is the smallest by population?
Montpelier
2b Whose posthumous 2015 album "If I can Dream" reached number 1 on the UK charts, and was released almost 40 years after his death?
Elvis Presley
3a Give a year in the life of Thomas Aquinas.
1225-1274
3b Death Of A Princess was a controversial drama-documentary made in 1980 by ITV about the execution for adultery of Princess Misha'al in which country?
Saudi Arabia
4a Victor Orban has been Prime Minister of which EU member country since 2010?
Hungary
4b Which Spanish city is the site of La Mezquita and was the capital of Muslim Spain for some five centuries from AD 756?
Cordoba

Round 6
1a Which Frenchman composed works including "The Pearl Fishers" and the "Arlesienne" suite?
Georges Bizet
1b What was the name of Peter Kay's spin-off from Phoenix Nights, about the misadventure of the club's two bouncers?
Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere
2a From whose work did Earnest Hemingway take the title for his book "For whom the bell tolls"?
(John) Donne
2b What is the title of the poem by Robert Browning, which includes the following lines, "The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in His heaven— All's right with the world"?
Pippa Passes
3a Which Japanese city gives its name to a 1997 international agreement for countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Kyoto
3b Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov was stabbed with an umbrella in London and died from what poison four days later?
Ricin
4a Which English king was married to Eleanor of Provence?
Henry III -
4b In 1980 which country was the first to elect a woman President?
Iceland (Vigdis Finnbogadotir)

Round 7
1a The piciforme order of birds that includes the wryneck and the sapsucker is known by what common English name?
Woodpecker
1b In 2002, the UK's first congestion charge was imposed on Saddler Street in which city?
Durham
2a At the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards, the team of the year was presented to the Great Britain Davis Cup team. In which country did it win the Davis Cup final?
Belgium
2b Which Indian player became world chess champion in 2007 and lost his title to Magnus Carlsen in 2013?
Viswanathan Anand
3a 1n mathematics, the sieve of Eratosthenes, is used to find what?
Prime Numbers
3b In which city are the headquarters of the UK Meteorological Office located?
Exeter
4a Paddy McGuinness hosts which Saturday night show on ITV in which a single man tries to win a date with one of 30 single women?
Take Me Out
4b The strigiforme order of birds is known by what common English name?
Owls

Round 8
1a Aardman Animations, makers of Wallace and Gromit, are based in which English city?
Bristol
1b Which word is defined as a fraudulent attempt to acquire sensitive information online, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, by pretending to be a trustworthy entity?
Phishing
2a When discovered in 2005, what was the most massive of the known minor planets and also the largest known object in the solar system not visited by a spacecraft?
Eris
2b A Dobson unit is used to measure what constituent part of the earth's atmosphere that is significant in global warming?
Ozone
3a Which novel by Charles Dickens includes characters named Pumblechook, Herbert Pocket and Joe Gargery?
Great Expectations
3b Jane Shilton, a business founded in London in 1933, is articularly associated which items of women's fashion?
Handbags
4a Who is the writer who is credited with adapting both Brideshead Revisited in 1981 and his own novel Paradise Postponed in 1986 as TV serials?
John Mortimore
4b Recep Erdogan has been successively Prime Minister and then President of which country since 2013?
Turkey

Spare Questions
1 John Cabot explored the east coast of North America under commission from which English monarch?
Henry VII
2 In computer terminology, what is a nibble?
Half a byte (4 bits or binary digits of information)
3 Who is the creator of and voice of many of the characters in the animated comedies Family Guy and American Dad?
Seth McFarlane
4 The play and film "Shadowlands" are based on the life of which author?
CS Lewis
5 What type of oil is used to make putty?
Linseed
6 The capital of Greenland, known as Gothaab in Danish, is also known by what name in the local language?
Nuuk
7 Nephrite is a variety of which semi-precious stone?
Jade