Time to exercise the old myelinated axons again and see how many of these chirpy little cherubs register a charge in the hippocampus. They all became more familiar in a slightly (or emphatically) more grown-up version of their presented forms. As usual, a little musical clue accompanies each one just to confuse the basal ganglia ...

Happy hunting!

Number 1.

Clue 1.

Well done, ferval. Sting's "Desert Rose" was the clue to he who famously made the desert rise once himself - TE Lawrence (of Arabia).

Number 2.

Clue 2.

Correct, MM. The current wannabe elected PM, Edward Milliband. I cropped the photo to exclude his brother David, but then that's what he'd do too, isn't it?

Number 3.

Clue 3.

Yes, MM! An elephant gun was indeed instrumental in taking this big king down also - Juan Carlos of Spain who recently abdicated when, amongst other scandals, he was found to have been out shooting elephants while still honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund.

Number 4.

Clue 4.

Correct, Trike! The First Lady Of Song was the rather weak (I admit) clue to the present First Lady in the USA, Mrs Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama.

Number 5.

Clue 5.

Well done, ID. Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, especially when portrayed by Helen Mirren in "The Queen" (2006), for many a huge improvement on the real gal.

Number 6.

Clue 6.

Yes indeed, ID, and who is going to do the driving now, poor lad? Michael Schumacher as a junior go-karter and in more recent times, though sadly not too recently.

Number 7.

Clue 7.

Yes, ferval. The man for whom the whole concept of top hats and tails was seemingly "fashioned", the actor and dancer Fred Astaire.

Number 8.

Clue 8.

Right, ID. The once three times champion heavyweight talker of the world, Muhammad Ali, pictured on the left as a young Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky.

Number 9.

Clue 9.


Clue 9A.

Brilliant, Vizzer, have lashings of ginger beer on the house! The author who created Toytown's most famous inhabitant (Q: Why does Noddy have a little blue hat with a bell on top? A: Because he's a twat!) and the writer whose various claims to fame include the most titles ever blacklisted by public libraries in the world - Enid Blyton.


Number 10.

Clue 10.

Correct, Trike. The late and much missed Paul Newman, co-star with Redford in "The Sting" (see music clue) and renowned less for his dress sense as with Mr Astaire above than for his dressing.

Number 11.

Clue 11.

Well done, Trike. As Lena Lovitch found, sometimes being number two isn't so shoddy after all! Buzz Aldrin as a cadet and as he looks these days.

Number 12.

Clue 12.

Correct, ferval. Who indeed could love this Virgin man (especially if a regular commuter on the InterCity West Coast Franchise)? It is of course Richard Branson.


Number 13.

Clue 13.

Well spotted, Trike. The Thin White "Duke" alluded to in the clue being one of the many personas of David "Bowie" Jones esq, though not too many now remember the one involving sticky out ears and bad haircut.

Number 14.

Clue 14.

Yes indeed, Priscilla. Mister Goldenballs himself, the man for whom a vanity mirror is, well, a mirror. The boy whose mother taught him how to spell modesty and reckoned "job done". Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, pictured on the left when the Ronaldo Museum (built by the self-effacing young footballer recently) didn't run to too much more than photo signed in crayon, a half chewed Pintarola and a dead frog but which now has all these things and some really shiny stuff as well.

Number 15.

Clue 15.

Well done, Trike - the man who talks to God daily (and tells him where he's going wrong), the champion of oppressed tax evaders the world over, the person of whom Nelson Mandela once remarked "Who?" (boy did he live to regret that one!), Mr Paul David Hewson aka Bobo or something!

Number 16.

Clue 16.

Yes, ferval. The clown whose tears were alas all too real - Robin Williams.

Number 17.

Clue 17.

Correct, ferval. The clue "You're not funny anymore" was probably a trifle harsh - Benny Hill was a product of his unfortunate age when it came to what passed for humour in the UK, though he still managed some half-decent sketches in his shows too and was a very clever songwriter in his own way.

Number 18.

Clue 18.

Well done, MM. A young William "Captain Kirk" Shatner on Clock Tower Beach in Montreal in the 1930s in command of his vessel and, on the right, slightly later models of both.

Number 19.

Clue 19.

Yes indeed, Vizzer. Terrance Simien's "Les Barres de la Prison" was the clue for one of the world's most famous prisoners in recent years, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar/Burma.

Number 20.

Clue 20.

Correct, MM. The rather surprisingly mellow and well-crafted theme from Tomb Raider was probably too obvious a clue for the surprisingly mellow and well-crafted Angelina Jolie.

OK, I'll stick my head above the parapet; Number 11, Buzz Aldrin?

No 4 - I think I recognise the performance, Satchmo and Ella Fitzgerald. Unlikely to be the much-lamented Mr Armstrong, but perhaps it is the equally-lamented Miss F (not our Miss F of course)

6 is Michael Schumacher?

No. 20 is Lara Croft .... I mean Angelina Jolie (pre lip job).

No 16 - is that Robin Williams?

No 1 - T. E. Lawrence?
No 7 - Fred Astaire?

No 12 - at first I considered Sir Bachelor Boy.............. But no. Richard Branson?

Is Number 19 Aung San Suu Kyi?

No 8, Muhammad Ali?

No. 2, who so desperately wants to be elected, would I think be a naive and rather gauche young Ed Miliband.

No 17 - Thankfully, Fred Scuttled off some time ago - and not chasing naughty nurses.

Meles meles wrote:

No. 18 - I wonder if that starman might not be Patrick Moore ... already sporting a bit of a paunch.

I was just thinking that as well, Meles.

Try number 10 as Robert Redford.

Paul Newman

Well there's a thing. I was searching David Bowie pictures on the off chance that number 18 might be him, and lo and behold I found number 13.

Number 13, David Bowie, the Thin White Duke.

Not Francois Hollande, no.

No 5 is Helen Mirren.

No 14 Marc Bolan?

Not the Electric Warrior, no.

no 9 Indira Ghandi - was her life just  a bowl of All bran as the song suggests - sad face, so perhaps.

Clue 3 gives an eclectic mix of pointers. The song is called Elephant Gun by the New Mexico band Beirut. It includes the lyrics 'let the seasons begin' and 'take the big king down'. But which clue to choose? I'll ignore them all for the moment and just guess at Nicholas Parsons simply because Number 3 looks a bit like him.

Indira and Nicholas aren't correct.

Vizzer, I wouldn't ignore those clues you filtered from the noise!

Nope, not Mr Springer. You were doing great with the elephant gun reference earlier - stick with it.

Ah ha! In that case, no. 3 with "Elephant Gun" and the line "take the big king down" ... would that be El Rey, or rather ex king, Juan Carlos of Spain? (before a lifetime of big-game hunting including numerous pachyderms as well as his younger brother).

PS : All credit to Viz for identifying the music clues.

No. 18 - the starman ... you say it's not Patrick Moore and it certainly isn't Brian Cox. It doesn't look like Carl Sagan ... so how about a young Colin Pillinger?

Not Pillinger, no.

A clue might be that everyone on the beach was probably speaking French (though not our little starman, and not in France, even though it was his local beach).

William Shatner, aka Star Trek's Capt Kirk, grew up in Montréal, Canada ... is 18 him?

Well done Meles for getting John Charles of the Chocolate Sandwich. The clues for that seem so obvious now.

Keeping with the 'sweet' theme - then here's another guess. This time for Number 15. The song in the clue is Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths. The lyrics reference 'sweetness' and also 'Joan of Arc'. Is No.15 Alan Sugar?

Not Mr Sugar. Another bigmouth.

How about Tony Blair? Number 15 looks a bit like him.

Not Blair. I'll see can I find a slightly more revealing clue for that one (there are so many bigmouths).

EDIT: Found a marginally more apt clue for 15 (mind you, the lyrics could still apply to Blair, but that can't be avoided).

nordmann wrote:

Not Blair. I'll see can I find a slightly more revealing clue for that one (there are so many bigmouths).

EDIT: Found a marginally more apt clue for 15 (mind you, the lyrics could still apply to Blair, but that can't be avoided).

I've no idea what that song is, but I'll guess David Icke

Not Icke, though someone with arguably the same problems - just worse.

He's not the remaining Brit in fact - of the four left the Brit is joined by one Irish, one Portuguese and one from the USA.

So 14 must be Ronaldo

Number 15, the song is "Fake It" by Seether. Still none the wiser.

Gerry Adams? - he can manage a useful seethe.... not sure if he fakes it though.

Not Adams, no. But didn't I already say that number 15 wasn't a Brit? (Ducks head hurriedly and runs like hell to nearest Orange Order Lodge)

The quiz has gone all quiet.

Have a guess at Michelle Obama for Number 4.

Well done Trike - which leaves us with just



and

And both driving me nuts. Clues for nutters pleeaassee.

Oh yes, I'm dumfoonert too. The boy, did he have a different musical clue at one point? Something about smashing some woman's face?

An extra musical clue for the lady now supplied, and indeed a new video clue for the boy (even "the boy" is actually a good clue in its own right for this lad).

Nothing about woman-bashing is relevant in either case.

Number 15, the new clue is about U-boats, would it be U 2 ?, ergo Bono?

Great! Now we've only this lassie ...

"Lady writer on the TV", I'll try Agatha Christie, though with no real confidence.

This lady's writings have been adapted for TV many times, though it's not Mrs Christie. The clue to her by far most popular TV adaptation lies in the first musical clue.

For Number 7 I'll guess at Enid Blyton although I can't link the Small Faces Happy Days Toytown to her.

You've never had big ears so, Vizzer! I bet David Bowie would have got that connection immediately

On a personal note - the local public library here in Oslo some years ago was offloading some English language books no longer deemed suitable for young Norwegians. They were left out on the street outside the building with a trust bucket system if you wanted to take them (roughly 10p per volume). I am now the proud owner of 15 Famous Five hardback first editions from the late 1940s to 1960 or thereabouts, with all the gloriously politically incorrect content I remember from my childhood completely intact, unabridged, uncorrected, unsanitised, and as brain-rottingly corruptive as I recall! Now I'm off to have some ginger ale and bread dripping with Robertson's jam!

Well done everybody! The quiz is dead - long live the quiz!