麻豆社

Tom asked: If I were inviting Manuel and his Music of the Mountains, Cathy Gale, a professional Bake-Off judge and the author of The Joy of Sex, what kind of event might I be arranging?

Manuel and his Music of the Mountains was one of the stage names of the West Yorkshire-born easy-listening bandleader Geoff Love, 1917-91.

Cathy Gale was the character played by Honor Blackman in The Avengers from 1962-64.

The 'professional' Bake-Off judge, on Channel 4's Bake-Off: The Professionals, is the pastry chef and chocolatiere Cherish Finden.

The bestselling manual The Joy of Sex and its sequels were the work of Dr Alex Comfort, 1920-2000.

All of which suggests I'd be planning a wedding. Love, honour, cherish and comfort are four of the things people pledge to do in various versions of the wedding vows.

There'll be another teaser question at the end of today's programme.

Q1 (from Hugh Betterton)聽 Why could an English magician, a football team with the motto 'Power in Motion' and something developed by a Serbian-American inventor really shake up the start of the week?

Q2聽 Explain what you would need, in each case, to turn a Canadian First Nation into a belief system, a small waterway, a fishy basket, and a disagreeable toady?

Q3聽 Listen to these musical pieces and see if you can join the dots - then explain why we couldn't play you Mike Oldfield's Amarok?

Q4聽 (from Chris Skilton)聽 Why might the following be said to start with a spoiler? A first for the Last Night; the pen behind Dorothea Brooke; the photographer of Mars, Venus and Mercury; the ocean depths; and a symbol of the Republic?

Q5聽 An Argentinian golfer, a Japanese author, a character from The Goon Show, a British comedian whose transport was funky, and McMillan with or without wife, may all have put on some weight recently. Why?

Q6聽 Listen to the following musical pieces and tell me what, in all three cases, is going to happen next?

Q7 (from Richard Morris)聽 Why might you associate an embarrassed television chef with an epiphany for a mole, a signal for parliamentarians to vote, shade on a Muscovite sea and greetings from afar?

Q8 (from David Hall)聽 What would a dandy, King Alfred, a nymph who fell in love with Narcissus, and part of a bicycle, be doing in the corner of your village church? And why might they help you to hear the sounds of a brook?

Where might you have found all of these in the 1970s: the environmental adventures of a spiritual guru, a precipitous little vehicle, Josephine's feline band, and a possible miniature version of a satirical magazine?

There are no prizes, so don't write in: but you can see if your answer matches ours at the beginning of the next edition.