Detectives, sea monsters and stupid dangerous stunts – take the Thursday quiz

A new year! 2022! A chance for a new beginning! A chance to put it all behind you! Everything is renewed! But not here at the Thursday quiz, where it is the same old gubbins as ever, or as one excited commentator put it last week: “Sheesh Martin, the Sparks shoehorn? Again?” Ahead of you lie 15 topical and general knowledge questions, sprinkled with a generous helping of Ron from Sparks, a hidden Doctor Who reference, the wonderful Kate Bush and all your favourites. It is just for fun and there are no prizes, but let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 37

1.WHO AM I? I am a hugely successful singer with many hits to my name over a long period of time, and in 2021 I sold more calendars than any other singer

Cliff Richard

Elvis Presley

Kylie Minogue

Shakin' Stevens

2.LITERATURE: What was the name of the fictional detective created by PD James that first appeared in her 1962 novel Cover Her Face?

Andrew Dalgliesh

Aaron Dalgliesh

Adam Dalgliesh

Kenny Dalglish

3.ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON: Speaking of fictional detectives, which of the four Arthur Conan Doyle novels featuring Sherlock Holmes was published first?

The Hand of Fear

A Study in Scarlet

The Sign of the Four

The Hound of the Baskervilles

4.ON THIS DAY: What changed in the US on 6 January 1973, and would stay that way until 27 April 1975?

Nasa suspended space flights due to a fuel shortage

The clocks – the country experimented with permanent daylight savings time

The location of the US Supreme Court, which had to relocate due to building works

The organisation of soccer – as the North American Soccer League (NASL) rebranded to Soccerbowl to better compete with the NFL

5.GCSE SCIENCE CORNER: Biology this week, and we are talking about mitosis, the process in which a eukaryotic cell nucleus splits. What phase in mitosis involves the pulling of the chromosomes and their copies to different ends of the cell before the split?

Telosphase

Prophase

Metaphase

Anaphase

6.HAPPY BIRTHDAY: It is the brilliant Nicola Coughlan's birthday on Sunday. Happy birthday, Nicola! But which Derry Girl is she?

Clare Devlin

Erin Quinn

Orla McCool

Michelle Mallon

7.TRUE OF FALSE: The Russ Abbott song Atmosphere charted higher than the Joy Division song Atmosphere in the UK singles chart?

True

False

8.REINFORCEMENTS: That's a 1974 song by Sparks where they could use a strong rear guard. But that's not important right now. Hadrian's Wall is apparently celebrating its 1,900th anniversary this year, but according to the English Heritage website, how far does it stretch?

73 miles

93 miles

113 miles

133 miles

9.FLAGS OF JOY: This is the flag of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Where is it?

French Polynesia

Guadeloupe

Papua New Guinea

Fiji

10.YEAH YEAH INDUSTRIAL ESTATE: That's a song by The Fall. But where is Thwaite Mills, an industrial museum of a fully restored working water-powered mill from the 1820s?

Middlesbrough

Durham

Carlisle

Leeds

11.BLOWING THINGS UP, BUT AT SEA: What was the Caspian Sea Monster?

The nickname of the largest submarine ever built by the Soviet Union

A Soviet underwater missile defence system, that was intended to launch nuclear missiles at Western Europe from the bottom of the Caspian sea

An experimental Soviet aircraft that flew above water at an altitude of 5-10 metres

It was a very large experimental Soviet oil-drilling rig which capsized and sank in the Caspian Sea in the 1960s

12.THE PLAY'S THE THING: Who wrote The Dumb Waiter, first performed in 1959, and seen here being performed by Toby Jones and Jason Watkins in 2004??

Mike Leigh

Harold Pinter

Joe Orton

Alan Bennett

13.CHEERS MY DEARS: The Cité du Vin museum is the hilariously literal name of one of France's finest museums. But where is it located?

Bordeaux, in the Bordeaux region

Dijon, in the Burgundy region

Tours, in the Loire Valley region

Reims, in the Champagne region

14.MUSIC: Obviously when Adele released her album last year it swept all before it. But which of these women had the UK No 1 album directly preceding Adele's 30 topping the chart?

Billie Eilish

Olivia Rodrigo

Taylor Swift

Kate Bush

15.STUPID CHALLENGES: There was controversy after an Amazon Alexa device suggested to a 10 year old child to do which stupid stunt when asked for 'a challenge'?

Stick a penny into an electric socket

Crack an egg over someone's head

Eat a spoonful of ground cinnamon

Burn a load of carbon firing yourself quite near to space in a rocket for no readily apparent reason

• If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and his new year resolution was to ignore all his work emails.