Fiona1986 wrote: ↑14 Sep 2023, 10:53
Only Connect from this Monday (If you haven't see the ep yet it's up to you if you want to read this for a little clue!)
"Quentin" was on the connecting wall, along with the first names of three other fictional uncles. The team got the group and the connection, though Quentin was put in as a guess as it was a male name, Victoria had to tell them who he was.
Yes, I was disappointed none of the team recognised that. Though I think it was the younger team so probably sadly reflective of a generational thing? I was pleased Victoria gave the Famous Five a mention.
Even without Quentin I think I'd have probably got the group quickly as I'd already done an 'Uncle....' group on here. Having prepared so many walls really helps with that show as I've definitely got into the mindset of the question setters by now.
Embarrassingly for me, I had noticed two or three of the other uncles and had said aloud that there must be an uncles group, but I hadn't read all 16 clues yet. Cue Ewan showing me up by saying UNCLE QUENTIN - a character he only knows about because of me...
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
I must admit I saw Fester and Vanya first, which got me looking for Uncles, before I spotted Quentin! Maybe it's something about where most people first look at the board and where Quentin was situated?
Logically I'd expect most people to read them left to right, top to bottom as if it were words on a page but I definitely don't do that. If I had, I'd have read Quentin earlier. My eyes just tend to jump around all over the place at random
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
Not a direct reference to a Blyton book, but yesterday (24 September)'s 'Antiques Roadshow' on BBC 1, at 8 pm and still available on catch-up, was filmed on Swanage seafront, next to the pier and to the site of the Grosvenor Hotel where Enid stayed with her daughters Gillian and Imogen - and Kenneth - for holidays in the mid-1940s, before and after her second marriage. The AR locale was in the grassy 'park' next to the hotel site, between the promenade (downhill) and the big Peveril Point car park (uphill), with the gardens on the site of the Hotel (demolished in the early 1980s?) on the left of the screen if you are looking S, away from the sea uphill; one segment, featuring a large picture made of beadwork, was filmed on the small ex-hotel beach next to the pier where the girls went swimming .
Another segment , with Fiona Bruce interviewing a woman geologist about Mary Anning the C19th Lyme Regis dinosaur-discoverer, was done at the rocky headland of Peveril Point down the cliff to the East of the pier and hotel site - a bit more tumbledown than it was when Enid would have walked there, as the wartime observation bunker (which I knew in the 1960s) has now gone. Apparently Enid first met the model for 'Bill Smugs/ Cunningham' when they were both guests at the Grosvenor Hotel and he asked to be put in her next book, so this would have been the genesis for the dynamics of the Adventure series family c. 1943!
This was Enid's main holiday locale until she moved her base to the Grand Hotel at the opposite, Northern side of the bay later in the 1940s. Apart from the hotel being pulled down, it is more or less unchanged since the early-mid 1960s when I first knew it so you can get a good idea of what it was like when Enid used it. A suitable site for a Blyton blue plaque?
The first mentioned someone putting on their 'Noddy hat', the second might not have been a reference, but the character referred to themselves as being part of the Famous Three.
I know Enid didn't write about a Famous Three, but I just had a feeling the reference was meant to mean the Famous Five, but there were only 3 of them in the sketch.
In tonight’s Christmas University Challenge this was a starter question.
Which author born in 1897 wrote over 700 stories, although nobody knows the exact number. She over produced stories of elves, brownies and sprites. It was answered correctly as Enid Blyton.
Here's a bit of an esoteric one, from Japan. The anime "Little Witch Academia" is set in a fictionalised version of Glastonbury in Somerset, the in-universe version of the town rejoicing in the name of 'Blytonbury'!
This is actually a Blyton reference — well, sort of — on the radio. Every weekday on Classic FM, Alexander Armstrong (of Pointless fame) has a quiz for listeners where he offers a cryptic clue with a one-word answer, and the five answers from Monday to Friday have some sort of connection between them all (bit like an aural version of Only Connect, really). On Friday, after the final clue is given, listeners who've figured out the connection between the five answers can contact the station for the chance to win a prize. I mention it here because Armstrong's name for the quiz is the "Famous Five"! Which isn't explicitly a Blyton reference, but the term "Famous Five" wouldn't have any real resonance if it wasn't for Enid (and I'm sure 99.9% of listeners know that), so...
Society Member
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
I'm still feeling awful with a terrible cough and cold that's lasted for weeks so far, so I've been catching up on two afternoon ITV quiz shows - Jeopardy (with Stephen Fry) and Riddiculous (which, as the double d suggests, has a lot of riddles and rebus puzzles in it). On one of the shows there was an easy question about which series of books by Enid Blyton features Julian, Dick, George, etc... Thankfully it was got very quickly.
