Train troubles and funny voices – take the Thursday quiz (Bernard Cribbins special)

It is another themed edition this week, as the Thursday quiz pays its respects to the much-loved children’s entertainer Bernard Cribbins. Here are 15 general knowledge and vaguely topical questions loosely based on Cribbins’ brilliant work that delighted generations, including the quiz master and the quiz master’s children. There are no prizes. It is just for fun. Let us know how you got on in the comments. And you don’t really need to know anything much about Cribbins at all to join in. Rest well, Bernard, and thank you for everything.

The Thursday quiz, No 67 – Bernard Cribbins special edition

1. THE RAILWAY CHILDREN: Cribbins was Albert Perks in the much-loved film, but what hazard caused trains to be halted between Norwich and Stansted this week?

   1. A giant beaver

   2. A giant badger

   3. A giant tortoise

   4. A giant panda

2. CUP FEVER: In 1965 Cribbins appeared as a police officer in the film Cup Fever. But who scored the winning goal on Sunday in the Euro 2022 final to inspire cup fever for England?

   1. Alessia Russo

   2. Chloe Kelly

   3. Lucy Bronze

   4. Beth Mead

3. WHAT THE DICKENS? An adaptation of David Copperfield for TV was one of Cribbins' earliest appearances. But which of these is NOT a character from the novel David Copperfield?

   1. Betsey Trotwood

   2. Regis Creakle

   3. Wilkins Micawber

   4. Nelly Dean

4. RIGHT SAID FRED: In Cribbins' 1962 hit single Right Said Fred, what do Fred, Charlie and the narrator (not pictured) keep stopping to do while trying to move a piano?

   1. Have a cup of tea

   2. Have a cup of coffee

   3. Have a swig of beer

   4. Announce they are forming a European Super League™ and then have to make a swift and humiliating U-turn

5. GCSE SCIENCE CORNER BUT WITH THE WATER BABIES: Cribbins appeared in a 1978 film version of the extremely weird and wrong-headed book by Charles Kingsley. But how much does one litre of water weigh?

   1. 0.1 kilograms

   2. 1 kilogram

   3. 10 kilograms

   4. One ancient Sumerian cubit

6. PASSPORT TO CHINA: Cribbins played Pereira in this 1961 movie. But which of these Chinese cities is the furthest south?

   1. Shenzhen

   2. Shanghai

   3. Beijing

   4. Chengdu

7. DUNKIRK: One of the first bits of film work Cribbins did was as an uncredited 'thirsty sailor' in a 1958 film called Dunkirk. But what was the codename of the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940?

   1. Operation Juno

   2. Operation Dynamo

   3. Operation Swordfish

   4. Operation Ulysses

8. THE ADVENTURES OF PICASSO: Inexplicably, Bernard Cribbins played the voice of Gertrude Stein in a Swedish movie called The Adventures of Picasso in 1978. But when did Gertrude Stein die?

   1. 1936

   2. 1946

   3. 1956

   4. 1966

9. 1966 AND ALL THAT BUT WITH A TENUOUS LINK TO BERNARD CRIBBINS: That odd Picasso movie was made in Sweden. In 1958 the World Cup was in Sweden. But what currency does Sweden use these days?

   1. Korsmønter

   2. Euro

   3. Riksdaler

   4. Krona

10. HIGH & DRY: In 1987 Cribbins appeared as Ron Archer in a TV programme called High & Dry. But which Radiohead album featured their hit single High & Dry?

    1. The Bends

    2. Amnesiac

    3. Pablo Honey

    4. OK Computer

11. THE MOUSE ON THE MOON: Cribbins appeared in a 1963 movie called the Mouse on the Moon. But what type of creatures did an Israeli probe (not pictured) spill on the moon in 2019?

    1. Onychophora

    2. Pauropoda

    3. Tardigrades

    4. 30-50 feral hogs

12. WORZEL GUMMIDGE: Cribbins guested in a episode of Worzel Gummidge in 1981. But who wrote the Worzel Gummidge books on which the TV series was based?

    1. Barbara Euphan Todd

    2. Enid Blyton

    3. Judith Kerr

    4. Mary Wright Sewell

13. WITH A LITTLE UNDERSTANDING: This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz, thinking about how she never got to appear in Australian soap opera Neighbours. Neither did Bernard Cribbins. But which of these famous movie stars did?

    1. Heath Ledger

    2. Hugh Jackman

    3. Eric Bana

    4. Russell Crowe

14. BERTIE THE BAT: Cribbins narrated Bertie the Bat in the 1990s. But how many species of bats (not pictured) are there in the world, according to the Bat Conservation Trust?

    1. 13

    2. 130

    3. 1,300

    4. 13,000

15. FAREWELL NICHELLE: The Thursday quiz could not omit a mention of the legendary Nichelle Nichols, whom we lost this week. But what was the first name of her trailblazing Star Trek character – only revealed on-screen in the 2009 movie Star Trek when Zoe Saldaña was playing Lt Uhura?

    1. Penda

    2. Samara

    3. Nyota

    4. Romana

Solutions

1:C - Greater Anglia rail tweeted that trains between Norwich and Stansted airport were stopped for more than an hour due to a 'giant tortoise'. A Greater Anglia customer adviser called Georgie later wrote that the tortoise was injured and had been taken to a specialist team for treatment. 'We have been informed that he will make a full recovery,' the adviser updated., 2:B - 'Oh my God, look at them – it’s amazing,' she said about the fans in Wembley after the match. 'Thank you to every single person who came out to support us. This is unreal. This is what dreams are made of. As a young girl watching women’s football and now this, wow, it’s unbelievable.', 3:D - The other three are all from David Copperfield. Nelly Dean is the narrator from the world's most miserable novel, Wuthering Heights., 4:A - Of course it was a cup of tea. If they had been swigging beer the whole enterprise would have ended in a disaster., 5:B - One litre of water weighs one kilogram under standard conditions. That is one of the reasons that metric is better than imperial, because all of the measurements work together. Ancient Sumerian cubits, of course, are used to measure everything around the quiz master's house, even if the Sumerians themselves never used them to measure weight., 6:A - The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south. It has a population of more than 17 million., 7:B - 338,000 troops were rescued from Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940., 8:B - Stein died in Paris at the age of 72 in 1946., 9:D - One krona is subdivided into 100 öre, although the country stopped producing öre coins over a decade ago and eveything tends to be rounded to the nearest krona. The picture features Brazil scoring against Sweden in the 1958 final, and is a bit of a giveaway that this question has been shoe-horned in from a previous version of the quiz that was not dedicated to Cribbins., 10:A - High & Dry was on the second single to be released from the album in 1995, coupled with Planet Telex, and it reached No 17 in the UK singles chart., 11:C - The Israeli Beresheet probe was meant to be the first private lander to touch down on the moon, but crashed along with its payload including some of the hardiest animals ever to survive on earth – Tardigrades. Some scientists believe that they might still be there, watching human affairs keenly and closely., 12:A - Todd wrote 10 novels about the disturbing scarecrow who comes to life between 1936 and 1963., 13:D - Crowe played Kenny Larkin in four episodes in 1987. Heath Ledger appeared in Home & Away. Jackman was apparently offered a role in Neighbours but turned it down. Eric Bana is just making up the numbers here, to be honest., 14:C - Bats are one of the most widely distributed groups of mammals, and new bat species are constantly discovered, the trust says. In its Bats of the World factsheet, a guide to everything the Thursday quiz knows about bats, it puts the number of species at approximately 1,300. , 15:C - Penda and Samara had previously been given as names for Lt Uhura in games and books, but it was a mention of the name in the 2009 movie that made Nyota properly canonical. Well, at least in that alternative movie timeline. Nyota means 'star' in Swahili.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun. Let us know how you got on in the comments

• If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and you don’t want half a ton of rubble landing on your dome.