Literature, Cinema and British Humour Practice Test

Answers and explanations appear when you take the test above.

1. Which novelist wrote Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility?
2. Charles Dickens (1812–70) created which two famous characters?
3. Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was the first British author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In which year did he win it?
4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a Scottish doctor who created which fictional character?
5. Roald Dahl (1916–90), author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was born in which country to Norwegian parents?
6. Which novel by J R R Tolkien was voted the best-loved novel in a public poll in 2003?
7. Agatha Christie is famous for detective fiction. Which of her works is the world's longest-running play?
8. Robert Burns (1759–96), known as 'The Bard', wrote in Scots dialect. Which famous song is attributed to him?
9. Which Welsh poet (1914–53) wrote Under Milk Wood and the poem 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night'?
10. Films were first shown publicly in the United Kingdom in which year?
11. Nick Park, the British animator, has won four Oscars. For which animated series is he best known?
12. Which TWO film franchises are identified in the handbook as the highest-grossing UK film series?
13. Which TWO of the following received the Nobel Prize in Literature according to the handbook?
14. True or false: the Man Booker Prize has been awarded annually since 1968 and is open to authors from Commonwealth, Irish and Zimbabwean nations writing in English.
15. Is Ealing Studios considered the oldest continuously working film studio in the world?
16. Which 1960s/70s comedy group pioneered a new style of surreal and intellectual humour?
17. True or false: British humour is often described as being self-deprecating (poking fun at oneself).
18. The adjective 'Pythonesque' was added to the English language to describe what?