Q 01/05

Which household chore, performed by Alison Porter, reportedly made audiences gasp at Look Back in Anger in 1956?

A) Washing dishes

B) Ironing

C) Darning socks

D) Scrubbing floors

Answer · why

B) Ironing

Ironing fills much of Alison's time in Act 1, and the board became an emblem of the play. In Act 3 her rival Helena stands at the same board in her pl...

Q 02/05

Which actor, already a Hollywood name, played Jimmy Porter in the 1959 film version of Look Back in Anger?

A) Richard Burton

B) Albert Finney

C) Peter O'Toole

D) Laurence Harvey

Answer · why

A) Richard Burton

Richard Burton took the part for far less than his usual Hollywood fee. The actor who had created Jimmy on stage was passed over for the bigger name.

Q 03/05

Which Manchester band topped the UK singles chart in 1996 with a song titled Don't Look Back in Anger?

A) Blur

B) Pulp

C) Oasis

D) The Verve

Answer · why

C) Oasis

Oasis scored their second UK number one with it. It was also the band's first single sung by its chief songwriter instead of his brother, the usual fr...

Q 04/05

Which label for a generation of 1950s British writers grew out of the publicity for John Osborne's 1956 play?

A) The Movement

B) The Bloomsbury Group

C) The Lost Generation

D) Angry Young Men

Answer · why

D) Angry Young Men

Angry Young Men came from a phrase the theatre's press officer used about the author. He privately disliked the play and feared it would be impossible...

Q 05/05

Which Oscar-winning actress directed Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in Look Back in Anger in 1989?

A) Maggie Smith

B) Judi Dench

C) Vanessa Redgrave

D) Helen Mirren

Answer · why

B) Judi Dench

Judi Dench staged the play for Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company that summer. She then turned the same production into a television film shown in ...