Cancelled shows, opening goals and easy paydays – take the Thursday quiz

Liz Truss is laughing all the way to the bank – but how much is her payoff for 49 days’ work going to be? Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

In uncertain times the Thursday quiz arrives like clockwork with a reassuring hefty clunk. There are 15 questions on topical news, general knowledge and obscure things that interest the quiz master for some reason. You can earn bonus points in the comments if you spot references to Doctor Who, but beware, boorishness can lead to point deductions. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but let us know how you get on!

The Thursday quiz, No 118

1. 

   POPCORN DOUBLE FEATURE: Which harrowing work once described as a "one-way ticket to post-traumatic stress disorder" has been reclassified on re-release by the British Board of Film Classification as a PG rather than a U?

   1. The Wicker Man

   2. Threads

   3. Watership Down

   4. Rentaghost

2. 

   MUSIC SCENE: Which band have cancelled shows in Indonesia and Taiwan after their gig in Malaysia was cut short when the singer criticised the country's anti-LGBT legislation?

   1. The National

   2. The 1975

   3. Arctic Monkeys

   4. Sparks

3. 

   RIDDLER!: Berlin was gripped by reports of an escaped lioness (different lioness in picture) stalking the suburbs last week, but she was never caught. What did authorities decide the sighting had been?

   1. A young deer

   2. A large domesticated cat

   3. A wild boar

   4. 30-50 feral hogs

4. 

   KICKER CONSPIRACY: The Fifa Women's World Cup has begun. Who (not pictured) scored the first goal of the tournament?

   1. Hannah Wilkinson (New Zealand)

   2. Ada Hegerberg (Norway)

   3. Steph Catley (Australia)

   4. Katie McCabe (Ireland)

5. 

   THE LEFTWING ECONOMIC ESTABLISHMENT WITH LIZ TRUSS: In further evidence of how the woke blob was out to get her, Liz Truss received a payoff of how much for her 49 days as prime minister?

   1. £1.86

   2. £1,860

   3. £18,600

   4. £186,000

6. 

   THE MAN WHOSE HEAD EXPANDED: Also trousering huge sums at the quiz master's personal expense is King Charles III. By how much did the Guardian report that the public funding of the monarchy was expected to increase?

   1. 4.5%

   2. 14.5%

   3. 45%

   4. 450%

7. 

   F-OLDIN MONEY: It is the anniversary of the royal charter that founded the Bank of England to "promote the public good and benefit of our people". When?

   1. 1394

   2. 1494

   3. 1594

   4. 1694

8. 

   IT'S A CURSE: India carried out its first successful nuclear weapons test in 1974 at the Pokhran test range in Rajasthan. At that point, how many other countries had declared in public that they possessed a nuclear bomb?

   1. Three

   2. Four

   3. Five

   4. Six

9. 

   IDIOT JOY SHOWLAND: Which of these is a famous band that formed in Liverpool in 1978?

   1. Alpha and the Centuries

   2. Beta and the Hammerman

   3. Delta and the Bannerman

   4. Echo and the Bunnymen

10. 

    HIT THE NORTH formerly NORTH OR SOUTH WITH THE POKÉMON MEOWTH: The deadly fires sweeping across Greece have been in the headlines. But which of these Greek islands is furthest north?

    1. Kefalonia

    2. Zakinthos

    3. Crete

    4. Rhodes

11. 

    TELEPHONE THING: Which is the latest social media network to introduce a text-only feature, attempting to take advantage of the chaos at Twitter/X/whatever-it-is-called-this-week?

    1. TikTok

    2. Snapchat

    3. Telegram

    4. MySpace

12. 

    STEAK PLACE: This is Willow, official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. Like many, she was shocked by Channel 4's The British Miracle Meat programme this week. Which food presenter (not pictured) fronted it?

    1. Jamie Oliver

    2. Nigella Lawson

    3. Gregg Wallace

    4. Monica Galetti

13. 

    EAT Y'SELF FITTER: Who won the 2023 men's Tour de France?

    1. Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia)

    2. Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark)

    3. Eric Stahlman (Germany)

    4. Felix Gall (Austria)

14. 

    NEIGHBOURHOOD OF INFINITY: Which Scottish island (not pictured) is set to be the location of Britain's latest spaceport?

    1. Mull

    2. Glimps Holm

    3. North Uist

    4. Clom

15. 

    IT'S THE NEW THING: Queen guitarist Brian May is releasing a new book about what …?

    1. The history of Victorian magic lanterns

    2. Badgers

    3. An asteroid

    4. Kate Bush

Solutions

1:C - It contains "mild violence, threat, brief bloody images and bad language", which didn't stop the quiz master being shown it on a big screen at junior school for some reason., 2:B - The band were banned from playing in Malaysia after the lead singer, Matty Healy, said: “I don’t see the fucking point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with". Healy then kissed bass player, Ross MacDonald. Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and punishable by 20 years in prison., 3:C - That is the England Lioness Ella Toone in the picture, by the way., 4:A - Co-hosts New Zealand beat Norway in the opening match, with Hannah Wilkinson netting the only goal., 5:C - Truss received £18,600 as former prime minister, equating to £381 for each of the 49 days she was in office. The chaos at the heart of government last year cost the British taxpayer more than £3m in severance fees because of the huge turnover of ministers and advisers over the course of three prime ministerships., 6:C - Details of the increase, which comes against the backdrop of a cost of living crisis, were contained in a review of royal funding published by the Treasury last Thursday. It revealed that the royal family’s grant was due to increase from £86m to £125m., 7:D - According to its own history, "the Bank of England began as a private bank that would act as a banker to the government. It was primarily founded to fund the war effort against France. The king and queen of the time, William and Mary, were two of the original stockholders.", 8:C - The only five nations to have declared in public the possession of nuclear weapons were the five permanent members of the UN security council: the US, the Soviet Union, the UK, France and China. Israel is believed to have developed the weapons prior to India but has never declared possession in public. Subsequently, Pakistan has developed a nuclear weapons programme and North Korea is believed to also possess warheads. Cheers, J Robert. Nice one., 9:D - The original lineup consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer. , 10:A - Kefalonia and Zakinthos are both in the Ionian islands on Greece's west coast, and it is Kefalonia that is the more northerly., 11:A - The video-sharing platform TikTok announced on Monday that it would now allow users to create “text-based content”, in a move it characterised as “expanding the boundaries of content creation for everyone on TikTok” and “giving the written creativity we’ve seen in comments, captions and videos a dedicated space to shine", and definitely not "maybe everyone from Twitter will move over to here"., 12:C - We won't spoil it for you. Go and seek it out., 13:B - After 21 stages, Vingegaard won by 7 minutes and 29 seconds over Pogačar., 14:C - The proposed spaceport at Scolpaig Farm, on the north-west coast of the island in the Outer Hebrides, will host up to 10 launches a year, firing small sub-orbital rockets out over the Atlantic., 15:C - A new book on the world’s first complete atlas of an asteroid is set to be released by the University of Arizona planetary science expert Dante Lauretta and the more unlikely figure of Queen’s lead guitarist and genuine astrophysicist Brian May.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun – let us know how you got on in the comments!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and you aren’t so important.