Ten a Penny Trivia Quiz

Answer: Diana Dors

Originally regarded as post-war Britain's answer to the blonde, Hollywood sex goddesses like Monroe and Harlow, she made a series of fairly forgettable films. Then came "Yield to the Night" (known as "Blonde Sinner" in the U.S.) and her role of a killer waiting to be executed.

Her private life was turbulent and at one stage she went bankrupt. As she aged and put on weight, she took on more character parts, especially on television.

Answer: Humphrey Bogart

Bogart's mother, Maud Humphrey, was a commercial illustrator who trained in New York and France. She later became the artistic director of "The Delineator", a fashion magazine. Her drawing of baby Humphrey was used in the Mellin Baby Food advertisement. His father was a heart and lung surgeon.

Answer: Roger Bannister

Bannister broke the four minute barrier in 3.59 seconds. The biggest achievement in this was not the physical barrier (athletes had been close before) but the psychological one. Brasher and Chataway were the race pacemakers. Just over a month later, the Australian runner, John Landy, beat the record in 3.57 seconds, but it was rounded up to 3.58 seconds under the prevalent rules of the time.

Answer: The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

The film, although popular with audiences, was full of inaccuracies. The actual inn was called the Inn of the Eight Happinesses. She had received a basic education and worked as a housemaid. The School of China Inland Mission refused her entrance on the grounds of her lack of education. Determined to go to China, she paid for her own passage there and applied herself to helping an older missionary establish the inn. She rescued 94 orphans in total and then returned to England. Soon after, she re-applied to go back but was barred by the Chinese Communists, so settled in Taiwan.

Additional movie facts: the film was shot in North Wales and the children came from the Chinese Community in Liverpool.

Answer: Faked his own death from drowning

Stonehouse was the Labour M.P. for the Walsall North constituency. In 1974, after a checkered career in politics, he discovered that the Department for Trade and Industry was investigating his business affairs, particularly his use of 'creative' accounting with the books.

This led him to consider a more permanent way of resolving the situation and also enable him to abandon his wife and children to set up a new home with his secretary. He'd meticulously planned his disappearance and arranged a new identity. Leaving his clothes on a beach in Miami, he re-emerged under his new identity in Australia. Ironically, he was arrested a month later by some police officers who thought he was Lord Lucan! He was deported back to England and eventually sent to prison.

Answer: Jorn Utzon

"The construction of the beautiful freestanding, sculptural tripartite Opera House was one of the longest contractual sagas of the century. Sadly, architect Jorn Utzon became the scapegoat of a scandalous political affair and in 1966 withdrew from his project. Sitting on Bennelong Point, virtually in the Harbour and overlooked by the great Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House is completely exposed, as three-dimensional as the orange segments its forms are based on. It is all roofs with an imposing base. These were made possible by Ove Arup. Originally the winner of an international open competition in 1957, it was a scheme that broke most of the rules. It was finally completed in August 1973 by other hands under the direction of Peter Hall."

- Dennis Sharp. Twentieth Century Architecture: A Visual History. (found on Wikipedia)

Eventually, Utzon has been credited as the original designer.

Answer: True

At the time of the recording (1972), the band did not exist. Originally written by John and Gill Carter, it was released by record producer Larry Page under his Penny Farthing label. Carter did all the vocals and guitar himself and it went to number two on the German charts.

When it also became a hit in Holland, Scandinavia, South Africa and Australia, Carter refused to tour. So the band was formed with John Knowles as the frontman.

Answer: Go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive

When I researched this, I could not believe the courage of a woman of her time (or anytime for that matter) doing what she did. She went over in a barrel lined with an old mattress in order to make some money for her old age.

This is how she described her experience to the press:

"If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat... I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall."

Sadly, her barrel and manager disappeared together afterwards, along with the money. She did, however, find the barrel later in Chicago.

Answer: Rescued hundreds of Czech Jewish children

He rescued over 660 children from the Nazis in 1938 and 1939 by recruiting families in England who were willing to take them in. He forged papers, raised money and then got the children over in eight trainloads from Prague to London's Liverpool St. station. Only the outbreak of war stopped his operation; otherwise the trains would have continued.

Incredibly, he kept all of this a secret. It was only in 1988, when his wife discovered an old briefcase stuffed with the information, that the truth came out. Dubbed "England's Schindler", this determined, self-effacing man finally was recognised for what he did.

He later became "Sir" Nicolas Winton and he celebrated his 100th birthday in 2009.

Answer: Cancer

One of the leading charities in research and support for cancer sufferers in the UK, Tenovus was the pioneer of the drug Tamoxifen which revolutionised the treatment of breast cancer in women.