麻豆社

Last week Tom asked: Why might you imagine Zoella and Thatcher Joe to have some connection with Graham McPherson?

We're deep in popular culture territory here. Zoella and Thatcher Joe are the online pseudonyms of the sister-and-brother YouTube stars Zoe and Joe Sugg. Collectively they might be described as the Suggs, and this might lead you to think they had some connection to Suggs, the singer in the band听Madness whose real name is Graham McPherson. In fact he got his nickname as a schoolboy, long before Joe and Zoe were born, by randomly choosing the name of an obscure jazz musician. And of course, he isn't related to them in any way.

The rankings in this year's series,听as we enter today's contest, are as follows:

1 Wales听听 Played听4听 Won 2听 Drawn 0听 Lost 2听 Total points 76

2 South of England听听 Played 3听 Won 2听 Drawn 0听 Lost听1听 Pts 59

3听Midlands听听 Played 3听 Won 2听 Drawn 0听 Lost 1听 Pts 54

4听North of England听听 Played 3听 Won 2听 Drawn 0听 Lost 1听 Pts 51

5 Northern Ireland听听 Played 3听 Won 1听 Drawn 0听 Lost 2听 Pts 54

6听Scotland听听 Played 4听 Won 1听 Drawn 0听 Lost 3听 Pts 66

Q1 (from David Walsh)听 What links Caroline and Oliver, Matthew and Marilla, and two sisters favoured by a local government officer?

Q2 (from John McEwan)听 How might the far north of Scotland, a pear-shaped Caribbean island and a city in California be linked, musically, to New Jersey?

Q3听(Music)听 Which of these performers should we trust?

Q4听 An eight-time winner of the London Marathon, the Master of the Queen's Music and a Fast comedian: when they're a bit bigger, they might all play for Shrewsbury Town. Why?

Q5听 Start with a fish that can听be cut-throat. What have you got to lose to get, in turn, a dodgy trader and a short pharaoh, and end up risking being over-familiar to a French person?

Q6听(Music - from Graham Roberts)听 What connects this music with one half of a drunken cockney double act, a musical Lord, a legendarily large-handed Russian, and the King听of Swing?

Q7听 The Beatles take a financial route - Bob Dylan a very assured one - the Rolling Stones proceed on their way having been banished - and Dire Straits' route is communicative. What fuel does Rod Stewart provide?听

Q8 (from Norman Foster)听 Why could the Oscar-nominated Ms Hawkins provide a beginning for a sequence involving a Birmingham tree, a frivolous sporting position, a noble scientist, and a Hudson hero?

听

This week's teaser comes from RBQ listener Robert Means.

In a sequence that consists of J.R.R, Tolkien, The Postman, P.T. Barnum and a German car maker - what kind of gift would come next?

Don't write to us - there are no prizes! - but you can see if your answer matches ours when we reveal the solution next time.