Christmas quiz: As the decade draws to a close, have you been paying attention?

Chris Maume
Saturday 19 December 2009 20:00 EST
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1. On which television programme have we been able to hear the voice of Marcus Bentley for the past 10 years?

2. In 2002, Adolf Hitler was knocked off the top spot as the most-hated person – as voted by visitors to Madame Tussauds – by Osama bin Laden. And at number three, Saddam Hussein (below) replaced which English singer?

3. In 2001 in London, a German fruit merchant spent £42,608.25 on what?

4. What did the Austrian actor Daniel Hoevels inadvertently do in late 2008?

5. What links Argleton, west Lancashire; Goblu, Michigan; and Beatosu, Michigan?

6. In 1989 he was the world's most expensive artist. Last year he was 394th on the Artprice auction turnover list. Who?

7. They have been identified with First World War pilots, Australian sheep shearers and swimmers and surfers (above) in the 1960s and 1970s. If you hadn't heard of them before, you will have done in 2006, when they were the subject of a bitter trademark battle. What are they?

8. On 23 April 2005, "Me at the Zoo", lasting 19 seconds, was the first what?

9. The Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl Contest held in 2005 was the Chinese version of which British television programme?

10. In 2005, it became a worldwide phenomenon. It means 'single number'. What is it?

11. In December 2005, Chris Flanagan and Henry Kane; and Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles were the first to do what in Britain?

12. In March 2006, what did the American software expert Jack Dorsey post?

13. In November 2006, a TV interview that was as yet unscreened and was eventually pulled, was described by The Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz as "the most appalling, shameless, exploitative thing I have heard of in the history of television, maybe the history of recorded civilisation". Who was the interviewee?

14. In 69AD, the Roman emperor Otho (below) chose a method of suicide that so impressed his soldiers that some of them threw themselves on his funeral pyre. In 2003, the Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter Elliott Smith chose the same method of despatch. What was it?

15. What was Sue Tilley's occupation when she was painted by Lucian Freud, as revealed in 2008 (above)?

16. "You're a bitch! You're a traitor to your sex! How could you do this to another woman?" Who said it to whom, and what was she doing while she was saying it?

17. In the 2008 US presidential election, what did Samuel J Wurzelbacher become better known as?

18. "Blow the House Down" by Robert Baer, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer and "Falling Man" by Don DeLillo. What's the link?

19. Alan Titchmarsh is rewriting the Kama Sutra; the population of the village of Denshaw, near Manchester, is infested with tapeworms; Robbie Williams made a living before Take That by eating domestic pets in pubs. What's the link?

20. What began in La Gloria?

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