A Heavenly Common Bond Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gil Grissom

William Petersen played Gilbert Grissom from the show's beginning in 2000 and also played the role in the first series of the spin-off, 'CSI:Vegas' in 2021. Grissom was a forensic entomologist and the supervisor in charge of the police team investigation of the evidence left behind at crime scenes.

The other three names listed are also characters from the show.

Answer: Hale Irwin

Hale Irwin won the US Open in 1974, 1979 and 1990 with the last win making him the oldest winner (at the time) at the age of forty-five. His next best win came in the 1983 Open Championship, held at Royal Birkdale, when he finished one of the two runners-up to champion Tom Watson.

Of the other options, John Daly won the PGA Championship in 1991 and the Open in 1995. Tiger Woods won all of the Majors several times and Rory McIlroy has also won them all and may well add more.

Answer: Sean Bean

Sean Bean played the villain in Pierce Brosnan's first outing as James Bond. Trevelyan was a former colleague in MI6 who faked his own death and defected to the Soviet Union, leading a criminal organisation called Janus. 'GoldenEye' is just one of the films in which Bean's character doesn't survive.

The others also played Bond villains. Savalas played Blofeld in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' in 1969 while Lee portrayed Scaramanga in 'The Man With the Golden Gun' (1974). Christoph Waltz appeared in 'Sceptre', with Daniel Craig as Bond, also playing Blofeld.

Answer: Conrad

The first book was such a success that the author now has a series of novels under the umbrella title of 'Conrad the Cat Detective'. The stories have appeared regularly since 2022 and the formula seems to be popular enough that they will continue.

The books are described as 'cosy' and 'gentle', in the same genre as Richard Osman's 'Thursday Murder Club', despite being focused on murders. Conrad works with a retired police detective named Lulu Lewis to solve the crimes.

Answer: Schmitt trigger

The Schmitt trigger reduces noise interference when converting analogue signals to digital. It was invented by Otto Schmitt, an American scientist, and uses upper and lower thresholds to create a zone between them where noise is ignored.

The other options also bear the names of their inventors.

Answer: Billie Joe Armstrong

Green Day formed in California in 1987 with Billy Joe Armstrong as the lead guitarist and singer, Mike Dirnt on bass and Tré Cool on drums, although he joined a little later, in 1990. The band had major successes with 'Basket Case' (1994), 'When I Come Around' (1995) and 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' (1997) among their biggest hits.

Billy Corgan sang for Smashing Pumpkins, Steve Perry was with Journey and Adam Horowitz sang for the Beastie Boys.

Answer: Bernard Lovell

Sir Bernard Lovell was a radio astronomer and was particularly interested in studying cosmic rays. He established the Jodrell Bank Observatory in 1945 and it is still operating in the 2020s with several radio telescopes installed there. The main telescope is named for him. Lovell stepped down as director in 1980 and lived until the age of ninety-eight, dying in 2012.

Both Tombaugh and Hubble were American. Patrick Moore was a well known amateur astronomer, who presented numerous television programmes on the topic of astronomy.

Answer: Collins

Officially called William Collins, Sons & Co., the publishing house was established in Glasgow in 1819. Starting with the publication of educational and religious works, the company expanded into fiction and published many of Agatha Christie's crime novels. The merger with Harper & Row led to the creation of HarperCollins.

The incorrect answers were, or are, publishing companies.

Answer: Duke

The university is Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, named for James Buchanan Duke who provided the money to establish it. The actor mentioned is John Wayne, commonly nicknamed Duke, while a duke is a high ranking member of the nobility. In the UK, a duke ranks just below the monarch and most sons of the reigning monarch hold hereditary dukedoms.

Answer: Astronauts

The names in the answers are all shared with astronauts in the USA's Apollo programme.

1. Virgil GRISSOM, better known as Gus, was part of the Mercury and Gemini programmes, as well as Apollo. He went into space twice, but lost his life when a fire broke out in the Command Module he, Roger Chaffee and Ed White were testing prior to the first Apollo mission.

2. James IRWIN was the eighth person to walk on the Moon, having been the Lunar Module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission.

3. Alan BEAN flew in Apollo 12, in 1969, the second of the moon landings. He became the fourth man on the moon. He was accompanied by Pete CONRAD, (Clue 4) the third man to explore the moon's surface,

5. Harrison SCHMITT was a member of the Apollo 17 crew, the final completed mission of the Apollo programme. He became the first scientist to walk on the moon and the first astronaut without a previous aviation career.

6. Probably the most instantly recognisable name in the quiz, Neil ARMSTRONG became the first man to set foot on the moon when Apollo 11 became the first spacecraft to land humans on another celestial body. He was accompanied by Buzz Aldrin while Michael COLLINS (clue 8) remained on board the Command Module which would bring all three men back to Earth.

7. Jim LOVELL was one of the three men in Apollo 8, the first spacecraft to orbit the moon in 1968. He never managed to set foot on the moon as he was also the Commander of Apollo 13, the mission that had to be aborted, although the three astronauts were brought safely back to Earth.

9. The tenth man to walk on the moon was Charles DUKE, the man who piloted the Lunar Module for Apollo 16 in 1972. He still remains the youngest man to walk on the moon at the time of writing this quiz in 2026. His companions were John Young and Ken Mattingly.