Don't Mention The War! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Marwood

John Marwood Cleese was born in the Somerset seaside town of Weston-super-Mare on the 27th of October 1939. During his period at Cambridge University, Cleese was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, a group that staged entertainment for the staff and students at the university and which has provided the impetus for the careers of many of Britain's most popular entertainment figures.

It was whilst at Cambridge that Cleese met his future 'Monty Python' writing partner, Graham Chapman. Fortunately for John, his grandfather had been embarrassed about the family's original surname which he changed prior to joining the British Army. Had he not done so, the young John would have been even less fond of being known as John Marwood Cheese!

Answer: True

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, usually referred to by the shorter term, Edinburgh Fringe, was first staged in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, the largest arts festival of its kind in the world. In 1963, a revue by the Cambridge Footlights, with contributions to its writing by what Cleese called 'A Clump of Plinths', proved so popular there that it embarked on a West End run under the title 'Cambridge Circus' which in turn led to the show touring New Zealand and being featured on the US television series, 'The Ed Sullivan Show' during October 1964.

It was whilst Cleese was living in the US, after having decided to stay on in that country after the US tour, that he met another future collaborator, the American animator Terry Gilliam as well as American actress Connie Booth who was to become his first wife and co-writer of one of British television's funniest and most well loved comedies.

Answer: The Frost Report

'The Frost Report', which ran for a total of twenty eight episodes during 1966 and 1967, was the show that also helped to launch the careers of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett and is most widely known for the famous sketch satire on the British class system in which the upper class Cleese looks down on the middle class Barker who, in turn, looks down on the working class Corbett... Who "knows his place"!

This sketch is a 'must-see' for any follower or fan of British television comedy.

Answer: Fawlty Towers

Not too much detail here... I'd hate to ruin the enjoyment of any players who have not yet seen anything of this wonderful show. Surprisingly, only twelve episodes of the fabulous 'Fawlty Towers' were ever recorded. The team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while they were filming some shorts for their show 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. Every member of the team, except Cleese, left the hotel for another due to the appalling level of service that they were receiving. Cleese decided to stay as he had become fascinated by the management team at the Gleneagles, ultimately basing his character, Basil Fawlty, on the manager and owner at the time, a Mr Douglas Sinclair. Series highlights from 'Fawlty Towers' include the 1975 Series One episodes 'Gourmet Night', 'The Hotel Inspectors' and 'The Germans', a line spoken by Basil Fawlty in the episode from which this quiz takes its name and the episodes 'Waldorf Salad' and 'Basil the Rat' from the second series screened during 1979. Cleese was supported by his long suffering staff members Polly the waitress, played by his real-life wife Connie Booth, and the hapless Spanish waiter Manuel, played wonderfully by the actor Andrew Sachs. I haven't mentioned Sybil Fawlty, played by the marvellous Prunella Scales, as she clearly ruled the roost! As for the Gleneagles Hotel, in February 2015 the building was the subject of a dispute between the local council, the company that owned it and a development company that wished to convert it to retirement homes.

Answer: Amnesty International

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 and was, by the mid-1970s, experiencing difficulty raising funds in order to continue with its work; enter John Cleese, Peter Luff, the assistant director of Amnesty International during the period 1974-78, and later, Martin Lewis, an entertainment executive who came up with the idea of staging a series of comedy performances in aid of the organisation and who founded what was to later become known as 'The Secret Policeman's Ball'.

The series began in Europe during 1976 with the first series of shows being staged at Her Majesty's Theatre in London's West End over the period 1-3 April of that year. Surprisingly, the shows did not make an appearance in the United States until March 2012 with the inaugural event taking place at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. 'The Secret Policeman's Ball' has not just raised many millions of pounds in funding for Amnesty International but has, perhaps more importantly, raised awareness around the world to the plight of those who have become known as prisoners of conscience and of the abuses of human rights committed by many of the world's regimes.

Answer: A Fish Called Wanda

It is said that Cleese was a co-director of this fabulous movie. The truth is that Cleese only put his name forward as a director to allay any fears that the film's backers had about Charles Crichton taking on directorial duties on his own; prior to 'A Fish Called Wanda', Crichton had not directed a film for around twenty years. Also starring Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline, 'A Fish Called Wanda' features Cleese in the role of top barrister Archie Leach and proved to be one of the most popular motion pictures of the 1980s. Written by both Cleese and Crichton, the film tells the story of the theft and of the ensuing search for the proceeds of a jewel heist by a motley collection of disparate characters who just happen to be the gang themselves.

It would be a shame to give too much away about this fabulous film if you haven't seen it but if you have seen and enjoyed it the great Ealing comedy 'The Ladykillers' then you'll love 'A Fish Called Wanda'; a film which finds itself firmly in the tradition of the great British farce...It's the poor old lady walking her dogs that I always feel sorry for!

Answer: Bristol City F.C.

In both his autobiography 'So, Anyway...:' and during an interview on the BBC 'Breakfast' magazine programme, Cleese admitted that as a child he had good hand-eye co-ordination and so was naturally drawn to football and cricket, ball sports at both of which he excelled. Cleese is still a follower of both Bristol City F.C. and Somerset Cricket Club and attends matches whenever he can. Bristol City F.C. is based in Bristol, one of the largest cities in the west of England, the club being founded in 1897.

The 'Robins', as the club are known due to the small songbird's appearance on the club's badge and because of the colour of their home strips, play their home games at the Ashton Gate stadium located in the south-western area of the city. Somerset County Cricket Club, one of England's eighteen first-class cricket teams, was founded in 1875 and is located at the County Ground, their home ground, in Taunton.

Answer: Upper Class Twit of the Year

This sketch was screened in both the television programme and in the motion picture 'And Now For Something Completely Different', with Cleese playing a different character in each. This sketch is a personal favourite and Cleese is magnificent as Nigel Incubator-Jones in the television version as well as narrating the sketch. 'Upper Class Twit of the Year' is a satirical sketch about a sporting event, the 127th Upper Class Twit of the Year, similar in many respects to the UK's Grand National, the fences being replaced with obstacles that place members of the British upper social class and aristocrats, in situations that they are ill-equipped for and find impossible to cope with.

Other events in the competition include 'Walking in a Straight Line' and 'Shooting Themselves' with Gervase Brook-Hampster, played by Michael Palin, being ultimately victorious as the first competitor succeeding in completing the course and killing himself!

Answer: To help towards alimony payments to his ex-wife

Cleese's marriage to his third wife in 1991 and his acrimonious divorce in 2008 from the American psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger, forced Cleese to embark upon a live tour that was performed under the title 'The Alimony Tour'. Cleese needed to recover some of the near twenty million dollar settlement that his former wife had been awarded. Dubbed by Cleese himself as 'The Alimony Tour' and bitterly subtitled 'Feeding the Beast', the tour, which featured writing contributions by his youngest daughter Camilla, began with a four night series of dates at the Cambridge Corn Exchange with a further twelve dates at cities around the United Kingdom.

The understandably bitter Cleese estimated that Eichelberger 'earned' a total of three thousand, six hundred and fifty US Dollars for each day of their union. Cleese has been quoted as saying that "the irony of the situation is such that, if we both died today, her (Eichelberger's) children would receive more than my own". John Cleese married his first wife, the American actress Connie Booth in 1968, the couple producing their only daughter Cynthia, who was born in 1971.

The couple were divorced shortly before they began working together on the second series of 'Fawlty Towers' in 1979. His second wife was the actress Barbara Trentham with whom he had the second of his two daughters, Camilla, who was born in 1984. The couple separated in 1990 and remained friends until her death in August 2013 from complications with leukaemia. In August 2012 Cleese married his fourth wife, the former model and designer, Jennifer Wade.

Answer: Havarti

"Have you got any Limburger?"
"No"
"Figures. Predictable really I suppose. It was an act of the purest optimism to have posed the question in the first place. Tell me, have you in fact got any cheese here at all?"
"No Sir, not a scrap. I was deliberately wasting your time sir" says Mr Wensleydale immediately before Cleese draws a gun and shoots him!

In the original sketch a total of forty-three cheeses are mentioned. In addition, Greek Feta and Stinking Bishop are mentioned in other live and recorded versions of the sketch. When this sketch was tabled by Cleese for consideration to the other members of the team, it was only Michael Palin that found it funny and it was he that played the cheese shop proprietor, Mr Wensleydale.