The Christmas quiz 2025

How closely have you followed the news in 2025? And how’s your general knowledge?

Test yourself now – answers at the bottom.

Looking back on 2025

1. Which sitting Tory MP became the first to defect to Reform UK?

2. Who won this year’s Booker Prize?

3. Since May, Robert Prevost has been better known by what name?

4. Which French politician was appointed his country’s PM twice in two weeks this summer?

5. In which country was the world’s highest bridge inaugurated? And which country’s parliament approved the building of what will be the world’s longest suspension bridge?

6. An opposition leader from which country won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize?

7. Which US tech giant became the first $5trn company this year? What is the name of its CEO?

8. Who was elected mayor of New York in November? Who came second in that race?

9. Tilly Norwood made headlines this year. What had she done?

10. Which film scooped five Oscars, including best picture and best director, at this year’s Academy Awards?

11. “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” Who are the two “teachers” referred to in this announcement?

12. Which teenager’s victory in the World Darts Championship generated a level of excitement about the game not seen since Eric Bristow’s 1980s heyday?

13. Zack Polanski was elected leader of the Green Party in September. What was his main job before he went into politics?

On the high street

1. Which well-known store did Jack Cohen found in 1929?

2. This retailer, founded in the Netherlands in 1841 by August and Clemens Brenninkmeijer, had outlets on almost every British high street in the 1970s and 1980s. What was it called?

3. Which is London’s oldest surviving department store, founded in 1707?

4. Which tycoon privately published a volume called “A Hero from Zero”, in an effort to besmirch his business rival Mohamed Al Fayed, the then-owner of Harrods? Harrods was by then in Knightsbridge, but in which part of London did it start life, in 1834?

5. Which well-known global chain is named after a character in Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick”?

6. In which decade did the UK’s first self-service grocery store open (making it effectively the first supermarket)? For multiple bonus points, name the US chain, based in the southern states, that is considered to have been the world’s first supermarket.

7. Which defunct chain of department stores, which had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, started life as a cooperative for military officers?

8. The once-popular fashion retailer Oasis, which went into administration in 2020, was founded in the same year as the band of that name. What year was that?

9. Which ubiquitous supermarket chain disappeared from British high streets in 2005, after being taken over by Morrisons?

Sport and games

1. Name the four stations listed on the “Monopoly” board (standard London edition), and the six characters in the traditional 1949 edition of “Cluedo”.

2. Which bestselling board game was first produced by two Canadians in 1981?

3. Which are the four most valuable letter tiles in “Scrabble”?

4. Which team did Scotland defeat this year to win its first place in the football World Cup since 1990?

5. If I am trying to throw a rubber, rope or metal ring over a set of spikes, some distance away, what game am I playing?

6. Wimbledon is all about tennis now, but when the All England Club was set up, in 1868, to which game was it dedicated?

7. Which traditional game, a precursor to pinball, is played by launching small balls up a board, typically using a spring-loaded plunger?

8. In the Epsom Derby in 1981, this horse romped to victory a record 10 lengths ahead of the second-placed horse. What was its name?

9. Who preceded Alex Ferguson as manager of Manchester United, and who took over from Sir Alex 26 years later – and lasted just 10 months in the role?

10. With a capacity of 90,000, Wembley is the UK’s largest stadium. Which are the next three on the list?

Books and music

1. Who illustrated A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” books?

2. Battle of the Bands (1990s): rank the following hit singles by listener number on Spotify: “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve; “Wonderwall” by Oasis; “I Wanna Be Adored” by The Stone Roses; “There She Goes” by The La’s; “Song 2” by Blur.

3. From the same era, which musician co-founded both Suede and Elastica?

4. Name the novels containing these last lines:
a) “The old man was dreaming about the lions.”
b) “But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.”
c) “He reached the top of the bank in a single, powerful leap. Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom.”
d) “The mouse found a nut and the nut was good.”

5. Which of C.S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” novels contains this line? “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”

6. Which novelists dreamed up the following dystopias?
a) Oceania
b) the Republic of Gilead
c) Panem
d) Ilium.

7. Which 20th-century English composer and conductor also wrote numerous film scores, including for the “St Trinian’s” series and “The Bridge on the River Kwai”?

8. Joseph Canteloube is best known for orchestrating the folk songs of which French region?

Showbiz

1. Classic British sitcoms:
a) Which comic character worked at Sunshine Desserts?
b) What was the name of the department store that provided the setting for “Are You Being Served”?
c) For which early 1980s television series did the cartoonist Gerald Scarfe illustrate the title sequence?
d) In which part of London was “The Good Life” set?

2. How many characters did Peter Sellers play in “Dr. Strangelove”?

3. “I could have been a contender!” is Marlon Brando’s famous line from “On the Waterfront”. How does it go on?

4. In which 1983 film did Tom Cruise get his first lead role?

5. Which fictional character links John Malkovich, Andrew Scott, Alain Delon and Dennis Hopper?

6. In 1989, Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas played a warring couple in “The War of the Roses”. Who played the Roses in this year’s screen adaptation?

7. “The Worldwide Privacy Tour”, about the “Prince of Canada” and his wife, was a 2023 episode from which long-running TV show?

8. What is the name of the AI in “2001: A Space Odyssey”?

9. Michelle Pfeiffer’s first lead role was in the critically panned sequel to a mega-hit movie. What was it? And for a bonus point, name her British co-star in the 1982 flop.

10. What is the occupation of the main character in the critically acclaimed Japanese film “Perfect Days” (2003)?

11. Which star of Hollywood’s golden age played Jonathan Kent, Superman’s adoptive father, in the 1978 film?

12. Name the classic films in which these villains appeared:
a) Clarence Beeks
b) Hans Gruber
c) Nurse Ratched
d) Major Strasser
e) Agent Smith
f) Keyser Söze.

Extra points if you can name the actors who played them.

13. Which 2009 box-office smash has been described as “the blockbuster movie that history forgot”, owing to what The New York Times called its “surprising lack of cultural impact”?

14. Who holds the record for the most Oscars (26) awarded to a single person?

15. Which 1950s epic was the only movie to have won 11 Oscars until “Titanic” matched that sweep in 1998?

Military matters

1. Who founded the SAS, and what do these letters stand for?

2. In which country was Operation Market Garden mostly fought, in September 1944?

3. The SOE agent Nancy Wake was the most wanted woman in France during the Second World War. What nickname did the Gestapo give her, owing to her ability to wriggle out of tight corners?

4. In which battle in the Great Sioux War did General Custer have his last stand?

5. In which modern-day country did the Battle of Austerlitz take place in 1805?

6. In what year did Henry V lead his troops to victory at Agincourt?

7. Where were the battles of Pork Chop Hill and Heartbreak Ridge fought?

8. The soldiers of the Household Division who stand outside Buckingham Palace come from the five regiments of the Foot Guards. Name those regiments.

9. Which military leader and strategist, who died in 496BC, is credited as the author of “The Art of War”?

10. Who was in command of the British Expeditionary Force in France for most of the First World War? Which US general commanded the two million soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe? And which French military leader served as supreme commander of Allied armies in the last few months of the War?

Obituaries

1. Which British novelist became best known for her “Old Filth” trilogy?

2. This classically trained actor made his big-screen debut in the spy spoof “Top Secret”. Name him.

3. “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” was a novel by which Nobel Laureate?

4. Which old Etonian and former SAS soldier led the ill-fated “Wonga Coup”?

5. Which rock wildman was banned from performing in Texas for urinating on the Alamo memorial while wearing a dress?

6. “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” was the famous line delivered by US astronaut Jim Lovell on which Moon mission?

7. Which BBC TV producer popularised sticky-back plastic, and pioneered the time-saving catchphrase “Here’s one I made earlier”?

8. The role of the villainous General Zod in “Superman II” marked the comeback of which British star of the 1960s?

9. Which actress was propelled to stardom after being entered into a contest to find “the most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia”?

10. “As Tears Go By” was the first of which singer’s four top 10 hits in 1964/65?

Name the child actor

Who are these budding stars? Award yourself extra points if you can also name the films.

Answers

Looking back on 2025
1. Danny Kruger
2. David Szalay
3. Pope Leo XIV
4. Sébastien Lecornu
5. China; Italy (connecting mainland to Sicily)
6. Venezuela (María Corina Machado)
7. Nvidia; Jensen Huang
8. Zohran Mamdani; Andrew Cuomo
9. Unveiled as the first fully AI actress
10. “Anora”
11. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
12. Luke Littler
13. Hypnotherapist

On the high street
1. Tesco
2. C&A
3. Fortnum & Mason
4. Tiny Rowland; Stepney (East End also accepted)
5. Starbucks
6. 1940s (1948); Piggly Wiggly
7. Army & Navy Stores
8. 1991
9. Safeway

Sport and games
1. Fenchurch Street; Marylebone; King’s Cross; Liverpool Street. Prof Plum; Mrs White; Mrs Peacock; Miss Scarlett; Reverend Green; Col Mustard
2. “Trivial Pursuit”
3. Q, Z (10); J, X (eight)
4. Denmark
5. Quoits
6. Croquet
7. Bagatelle
8. Shergar
9. Ron Atkinson; David Moyes
10. Twickenham, Old Trafford, Principality

Books and music
1. E.H. Shepard
2. “Wonderwall” (2.5bn); “Bitter Sweet Symphony” (1.4bn); “Song 2” (1.16bn); "There She Goes” (482m); “I Wanna Be Adored” (185m)
3. Justine Frischmann
4. a) “The Old Man and the Sea”
b) “Huckleberry Finn”
c) “Watership Down”
d) “The Gruffalo”
5. “The Last Battle”
6. a) George Orwell
b) Margaret Atwood
c) Suzanne Collins
d) Kurt Vonnegut
7. Malcolm Arnold
8. The Auvergne

Showbiz
1. a) Reggie Perrin
b) Grace Brothers
c) “Yes Minister”
d) Surbiton
2. Three
3. “I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”
4. “Risky Business”
5. Tom Ripley
6. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman
7. “South Park”
8. HAL 9000
9. “Grease 2”; Maxwell Caulfield
10. Toilet cleaner
11. Glenn Ford
12. a) “Trading Places” (Paul Gleason)
b) “Die Hard” (Alan Rickman)
c) “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (Louise Fletcher)
d) “Casablanca” (Conrad Veidt)
e) “The Matrix” franchise (Hugo Weaving)
f) “The Usual Suspects” (Kevin Spacey)
13. “Avatar”
14. Walt Disney
15. “Ben-Hur”

Military matters
1. David Stirling; Special Air Service
2. The Netherlands
3. White Mouse
4. Battle of the Little Bighorn
5. Czech Republic
6. 1415
7. North Korea
8. Irish Guards; Coldstream Guards; Welsh Guards; Scots Guards; Grenadier Guards
9. Sun Tzu
10. Douglas Haig; John J. Pershing; Ferdinand Foch

Obituaries
1. Jane Gardam
2. Val Kilmer
3. Mario Vargas Llosa
4. Simon Mann
5. Ozzy Osbourne
6. Apollo 13
7. Biddy Baxter
8. Terence Stamp
9. Claudia Cardinale
10. Marianne Faithfull

Name the child actor
1. Drew Barrymore (“E.T.”)
2. Haley Joel Osment (“The Sixth Sense”)
3. Tatum O’Neal (“Paper Moon”)
4. Joaquin Phoenix (“Parenthood”)
5. Kirsten Dunst (“Interview with the Vampire”)