Nobody has asked (yet):
"What was Round Britain Quiz? And Loose Ends?"
Round Britain Quiz was (is?) an incredibly dry verbal puzzle game on BBC Radio 4. Two teams of elderly, eccentric brainboxes and academic types representing different areas of the country (The North, The South, The Midlands, Wales etc) would play against each other for points, which were totted up throughout the series in some sort of league.
Whichever team was playing, it always had the same ancient old Dame in it, whose name I forget but I'm pretty sure there was an Irene in it somewhere. The questions were put by a slightly angry sounding man, and were all of the same format:
"Why would a philandering Dutchman, a magic Barry and a motorised hat be offended by Lord Haw Haw's moon-based aquarium?"
The puzzle required them to figure out what each element of the question actually referred to (eg 'a motorised hat' would, somehow, be a character in a Dickens novel), what linked them and why, therefore,
they would be offended by Lord Haw Haw's aquarium.
The listener would be treated to 6 hours of "hmmms" and "oh, of course!" and general mutterings between the 2 or 3 team members as they figured it out (with the occassional "think more along gyaenacological lines" from the question master, who could barely conceal his impatience at times) and at least one of the team would find an excuse to trundle off into anecdote land: "Didn't dear old Munty Edwards have a fiddle with a Dutchman once?"
Loose Ends is a luvvie-fest interview thing presented by Ned Sherrin, who you might have seen writing musical comedies in the 60s, such as "Knock it Off, Charlie!" and "Call me a Percy." |
