Reaction’s Christmas Quiz – by Adam Boulton

This quiz contains 52 Questions, one for each week of 2024. Some answers are Goggleable but what’s the point? Test what you remember from the year gone by. Answers are at the end.

BEFORE

1. In December 2023, who was the last senior minister to walk out of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet?

2. On what date did Rishi Sunak call a general election?

3. What was the weather like outside Downing Street when Sunak made the announcement?

4. What was the title of the Conservative party Manifesto?

5. Where was the Reform UK manifesto, called a contract, launched?

6. What was the title of Labour’s manifesto?

SPORT

7. Who scored the first goal in the FA Cup final?

8. Which runner and rider won the Grand National?

9. Who is BBC Sports Personality of the Year?

10. Who won the Women’s Open Tennis at Wimbledon?

11. How many Gold medals did Team GB get in Paris 2024?

12. Georgia, the daughter of which UK political editor, won a bronze?

13. Which nation won the Women’s Six Nations Rugby?

PRIZES

14. Who won the Turner Prize?

15. What book, and which author, won the Booker Prize?

16. Who won the Nobel Peace Prize?

17. What was the highest-grossing film at the UK box office?

18. What was Spotify’s most streamed album?

19. What was Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year?

20. How many points did the UK entrant Olly Alexander get in the Eurovision Song Contest’s public vote?

21. Who won I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here this December?

22. Which couple won Strictly Come Dancing?

23. Which non-Labour MP was elected with the largest number of votes?

AFTER

24. How many seats did Labour win in the general election?

25. What is the full name of Peter Kyle’s Department?

26. Who is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster?

27. What’s the title of Boris Johnson’s Memoir?

28. Who said he’d “got Moggsxit done”?

29. What is the name of the Rees-Moggs’s nanny?

30. Name three of the five Reform UK MPs

31. Both joint leaders of the Greens became MPs. Name one.

32. Which former deputy prime minister of the UK died this year?

ABROAD

33. How many Prime Ministers has France had this year?

34. Who is the current Prime Minister of France?

35. Which was the largest country by population to hold an election this year?

36. Who was elected prime minister of Japan after October’s Election?

USA

37. What is the current age of Joe Biden?

38. What age will Donald Trump be at the end of his second term?

39. Who was Kamala Harris’s running mate?

40. Where was the Democratic National Convention held?

41. How many of the 50 states did Trump “carry”?

42. How many votes did he get in the 538-member electoral college?

43. How much are the golden “President Trump’s Official Victory Sneakers”?

44. President elect Trump launched men and women’s fragrances with the same three-word name, what is it?

45. Name the US Ambassador nominated for the UK.

46. In which election year will Barron Trump be eligible to run for the US presidency?

CULTURE

47. Who painted the first official portrait of King Charles III, with a fiery red background?

48. In the final series of Succession, patriarch Logan Roy told his children: “I love you but you are not …”. Not what?

49. Two female stars from Succession took live theatre roles in London’s West End. Sarah Snook (Shiv Roy) starred in which stage version of a 19^th Century classic?

50. J. Smith-Cameron (Gerri Kellman) starred in which 20^th Century drama?

51. Who is taking over from Zoë Ball on the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show?

52. The dramatisation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals was a TV hit. What did she describe as “a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.”

(This quiz was compiled with Dr Tom Roberts, co-author of Bonjour, Mademoiselle! April Ashley and the Pursuit of a Lovely Life, published this year.)

1. Robert Jenrick

2. Wednesday 22 May

3. The PM was caught in a rain shower.

4. Clear plan, bold action, secure future

5. Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

6. Change

7. Alejandro Garnacho of Manchester United.

8. Paul Townend on I am Maximus.

9. Keely Hodgkinson

10. Barbora Krejčiková

11. 14

12. Andy Bell of Channel 5 News

13. England

14. Jasleen Kaur

15. Orbital by Samantha Harvey

16. Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organisation created by survivors of the two US atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, recognised for its work to rid the world of nuclear weapons

17. Inside Out 2

18. Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets’ Society: The Anthology

19. “Brain rot” (actually two words)

20. 0, nul points in the public vote, which makes up half of the overall score

21. Danny Jones of pop group McFly

22. Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell

23. Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland & Lonsdale in Cumbria with 21,472 votes

24. 411

25. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

26. Pat McFadden MP

27. Unleashed

28. Dan Norris, new Labour MP for NE Somerset & Hanham

29. Veronica Crook

30. Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, Rupert Lowe, James McMurdock

31. Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay

32. John Prescott

33. 4. Elizabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier (& see 34)

34. François Bayrou

35. India

36. Shigeru Ishiba

37. 82

38. 82

39. Tim Walz

40. Chicago

41. 31

42. 312

43. $499

44. Fight, Fight, Fight

45. Warren Stephens

46. 2044

47. Jonathan Yeo

48. “serious people”

49. The Picture of Dorian Gray

50. Juno and the Paycock

51. Scott Mills

52. “The male”