The Christmas quiz: looking back on 2020

Test your knowledge on the year’s news and on popular quiz topics

Former Nasa astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan
Former Nasa astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
  1. Which actress played Nurse Ratched in the film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?
  2. Metropolis, made in Germany in 1927, is regarded as one of the most influential films of early cinema. Who directed it?
  3. Which two characters feature in all of the Skywalker Saga Star Wars films?
  4. This Hollywood screenwriter and director won four Oscars over two years for two films – A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve. Who was he?
  5. With what film did Jordan Peele make his directorial debut in 2017?
  6. For which 1965 film did Julie Christie win the best actress Oscar? And for which 1963 film did Omar Sharif win his only Oscar?
  7. Steve McQueen’s TV drama series Small Axe takes its title from a lyric in a song by which singer-songwriter?
  8. What musical instrument is indelibly associated with Carol Reed’s 1949 film The Third Man? And for a bonus point, who played it on the soundtrack?
  9. Name the characters played by Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman in the 1988 box office smash Die Hard; and the skyscraper in which they do battle.
  10. Ben Wheatley’s new film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca stars Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers. Who played her in the 1940 film?
  11. By what name are the following actors and musicians better known: a) Farrokh Bulsara b) Betty Perske c) Issur Danielovitch d) Michael J. Douglas e) Stevland Judkins f) Calvin Broadus Jr?
  12. Robert Downey Jr starred as Dr Dolittle in a widely panned new film based on Hugh Lofting’s books. Which two actors had played the doctor in the 1967 and 1998 adaptations?
  13. In which 1960s cartoon series did Penelope Pitstop appear, along with the likes of Dastardly and Muttley?

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