Programme 10, 2017-18

Tom's closing question last week was:

Take Peggy Mitchell's sister to the Dance of the Seven Veils, going via the Italian Social Republic and a tragic Spanish motorcyclist.

Peggy Mitchell's sister in EastEnders (played by Anna Karen) is named Sal. The Dance of the Seven Veils, meanwhile, is a notorious feature of the opera Salomé, by Richard Strauss. That might lead you to conclude that the way from one to the other involves adding a letter at a time.

The Italian Social Republic was the Republic of Salo, established in Italy under Mussolini in 1943. Even if you've never heard of him you may now conclude that the motorcyclist is named Salom - in full Luis Salom, the Grand Prix rider tragically killed in an accident in 2016.

So the sequence is Sal-Salo-Salom-Salomé.

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

The Round Britain Quiz league table going into today's contest, after nine fixtures, stands as follows - if ranked according to the number of outright wins.

1 SOUTH OF ENGLAND Played 4 Won 2 Drawn 1 Lost 1 Total points 75

2 NORTH OF ENGLAND P3 W2 D0 L1 Pts 55

3 WALES P2 W2 D0 L0 Pts 40

4 SCOTLAND P3 W1 D1 L1 Pts 54

5 THE MIDLANDS P3 W1 D0 L2 Pts 53

6 NORTHERN IRELAND P3 W0 D0 L3 Pts 46

Q1 Where might you be preparing for battle if your arsenal featured spears, gunpowder, rocket and a bombe?

Q2 In what situation might a hawk, a monkey and a mole all be likely to get the blame?

Q3 Music - Why might you be listening to Marie Lloyd?

Q4 An athletics ceremony, held periodically, awards medals to seventy-nine winners, forty-seven runners-up, and an indeterminate number of third places. Fifty cans of beer are available as refreshment. By this logic, how many police officers are needed to keep order?

Q5 One answered to Nanki-Poo, another used music to introduce sexual politics after the watershed, while a third has traded in her Test Match bat for a pen. What unites them - and why might they feel at home among the pages of A.S. Byatt's 'Frederica Quartet'?

Q6 Music - How could the addition of the first to the second give you the third?

Q7 (from Richard Condon) Where would you be if you were discussing the management of: an alloy of tin, antimony and copper; a Romanian motor car; an ill-fated ocean liner; a fruit salad; and an island in a seat of learning?

Q8 (from Richard Spicer) How might a boatswain and a pilot claim kinship with the 'mute confederate' Carlo and the 'gentleman and scholar' Caesar?

Can you connect the Prime Minister's residence with Samuel Pepys and the island of Martha's Vineyard?

Warning: it's a tough one this week. There are no prizes, but you can check if your solution matches Tom's when he explains at the beginning of the next edition. Good luck!