The big TV & radio quiz of 2021
Line of Duty finally unmasked H, millions of us sobbed into our tea as we watched Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice waltz to victory on Strictly Come Dancing and Peter Jackson unveiled a startlingly immersive documentary about The Beatles. If you watched all three, you're in with a decent shot at a high score in our end-of-year quiz. Time to flex your memory. The answers are at the bottom.
Drama-rama
In which acclaimed 2021 dramas were these the chief protagonist?
1. Detective Marianne Sheehan
2. Drink-driver Mark Cobden
3. Professional thief Assane Diop
4. Poldark star Aidan Turner kept his shirt on but grew an impressive beard to play which artist in an Amazon drama this spring?
Which US dramas were set in or around the following establishments?
5. Californian wellness retreat Tranquillum House
6. The English department at Pembroke University
7. A tropical spa resort on the Hawaiian island of Maui
8. Which autumn hit was credited with fuelling a 76 per cent rise in people learning Korean on the online platform Duolingo?
Can you identify these 2021 TV dramas from their casts?
9. Rose Leslie, Martin Compston, Shaun Evans
10. Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Richard E Grant
11. Stephen Graham, Colin Farrell, Tom Courtenay
12. Which popular BBC drama marked its 10th series in May with a retrospective documentary called Special Delivery?
These three recent books were adapted into TV dramas this year. Can you name them?
13. A 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning alt-history about 19th-century slaves bidding for freedom
14. A 2018 non-fiction investigation of America’s struggle with opioid addiction
15. A 2014 novel about Jewish resistance to neo-Nazis in early Sixties East London
Comic Relief
16. During Friends: The Reunion, which of the Central Perk six called “Bull----!” when castmates Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer denied an off-screen romance?
17. What was the title of Kiwi comic Rose Matafeo’s well-received BBC sitcom about a one-night stand with a Hollywood actor?
18. In Disney+ mystery spoof Only Murders in the Building, which real-life comedian plays the host of a true-crime podcast called “All is Not OK in Oklahoma”?
19. Which acting Dame played poisonous mothers in both Ted Lasso and Succession this year?
20. In January, ITV aired a 30th anniversary celebration of which near-silent comedy character?
Reality Bites
21. During this year’s Halloween special, who registered the earliest perfect 40-point score in Strictly Come Dancing history?
Which prime-time TV contests were won by these people in 2021?
22. Paralympic athlete Kadeena Cox
23. Comedian Morgana Robinson
24. A heavily pregnant woman dressed as a sausage
25. Who won three Star Baker prizes and three technical challenges but still didn’t reach the Bake Off final? And for a bonus point, which musical instrument do they play?
Factual accuracy
26. Clive Myrie and Anne Robinson took over as hosts of which two long-running quizzes this year?
27. Which has the longer running time: director Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film trilogy or his Beatles docuseries Get Back?
28. Which Netflix phenomenon got a second series this autumn, despite its protagonist serving a 22-year prison sentence?
29. What do Cockney actor Danny Dyer and Devonian comedian Josh Widdicombe have in common, genealogically speaking?
30. Where did a Cotswolds farmhand called Kaleb Cooper shoot to cult fame this summer?
Scandals & slip-ups
31. Why did the BBC receive a record 109,741 complaints about its programming on Friday 9 April?
32. Mistaking him for Phillip Schofield, for what did veteran Australian comedian Barry Humphries congratulate This Morning host Dermot O’Leary?
33. By bizarre coincidence, there were dramas called Losing Alice and Finding Alice this year. Which one starred Keeley Hawes?
34. Why was the finale of five-night crime drama Viewpoint suddenly pulled from ITV’s schedules in April?
35. Journalist Guto Harri quit GB News this summer after he was suspended for doing what?
Quote Me on That
36. Who said of whom in March: “I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report”?
37. Which chef swore mere minutes into his stint as guest announcer on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, despite ITV investing in a bleep machine?
38. What was the two-letter catchphrase of the housemates in Channel 4’s Aids crisis drama It’s a Sin?
39. A Tipping Point contestant went viral this autumn after mistaking Greek poet Homer for Homer Simpson and guessing what was the food of the gods?
40. Who did Bake Off winner Giuseppe Dell’Anno mistakenly call “Neil”?
Radio Days
41. Which poetry-writing ploughman died peacefully in October following a game of cribbage in The Bull?
42. Who hung up his headphones this summer after 14 years at Radio 1, including six years hosting the breakfast show?
43. Tom Ilube, the first black chair of the Rugby Football Union, “agonised” over picking which controversial song on Desert Island Discs this autumn?
44. Cult heroine Jackie Weaver, of Handforth parish council meeting fame, launched her own knowingly named podcast this year. What was it called?
45. Which notoriously provocative US radio shock jock, who boasted that he was the most dangerous man in America”, died in February?
Scene Stealers
In which TV shows did these memorable supporting characters appear this year?
46. A junior police constable from the Midlands named Ryan Pilkington
47. Marie-Andrée Leclerc, a medical secretary from Quebec, now on the hippy trail in Thailand
48. Roscoe Babatunde, who flees his Nigerian parents to live in 1980s London
49. A nosy neighbour called Agatha Harkness with a pet rabbit named Señor Scratchy
50. Charmingly eccentric aesthete and socialite Lord Merlin
Ready for the answers?
DRAMA-RAMA
1. Mare of Easttown 2. Time 3. Lupin 4. Leonardo da Vinci 5. Nine Perfect Strangers 6. The Chair 7. The White Lotus 8. Squid Game 9. Vigil 10. Loki 11. The North Water 12. Call the Midwife 13. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 14. Dopesick by Beth Macy 15. Ridley Road by Jo Bloom
COMIC RELIEF
16. Matt LeBlanc 17. Starstruck 18. Tina Fey 19. Harriet Walter 20. Mr Bean
REALITY BITES
21. Rose Ayling-Ellis 22. Celebrity MasterChef 23. Taskmaster 24. Joss Stone on The Masked Singer 25. Jürgen Krauss. He plays the trombone
FACTUAL ACCURACY
26. Mastermind and Countdown 27. The Hobbit films – but only by six minutes 28. Tiger King 29. Both discovered they were descended from royalty on Who Do You Think You Are? 30. On Amazon docuseries Clarkson’s Farm
SCANDALS & SLIP-UPS
31. Because the Corporation cleared its schedules for coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh's death 32. His bravery in coming out as gay 33. Finding Alice 34. Multiple allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation were made against its star Noel Clarke 35. Taking the knee in support of England footballers
QUOTE ME ON THAT
36. GMB’s Piers Morgan on Meghan Markle after her Oprah Winfrey interview 37. Gordon Ramsay 38. La 39. Doughnuts 40. Presenter Noel Fielding
RADIO DAYS
41. Bert Fry 42. Nick “Grimmy” Grimshaw 43. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 44. Jackie Weaver Has the Authority 45. Rush Limbaugh
SCENE STEALERS
46. Line of Duty 47. The Serpent 48. It’s a Sin 49. WandaVision 50. The Pursuit of Love
How did you do? Let us know in the comments
