Your definition of historical is different to everyone else's then. For something to be historical it must have actually happened. JR was a fictional TV character and his attempted murder was not a real event. Anyway the question was about assassinations, not attempted assassinations.

Geoff Hurst for example.

If you knew that little about "Dallas" and nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald it would be particularly stupid to link them together with any degree of certainty.

The assassination of JFK is probably the most famous and controversial such killing of the last century and learning doesn't stop at school (or at least it shouldn't). Of all the political assassins in recent history Oswald is probably the most well known (even if you don't think he did it).

Geoff Hurst wasn't a famous cricketer. Denis Compton, however, was and he did play professional football too. So it could happen in the days when the seasons didn't overlap much.

The actual answer is Roger Milla. Not very similar sounding really.

Ian Botham.

That idiot Brian Dowling.

Gets asked name a type of bean and the wanna be celeb says Lesbian or Les Bean.

Just unfunny whatsoever. He could have said Baked bean, Runner Bean, Ming Bean or Haricot Bean or even Coffee Bean and the celebs just laugh thinking its funny when it isnt.

Im sure celebs act thick on purpose just for a laugh.

IaN Botham played for Scunthorpe and I believe Gary Linekar was a good enough cricketer that he had to make a choice between football and cricket as a professional career

I think it's a stupid answer when they say "It was before my time"
I was born in 1963, and I know about things that happened hundreds of years ago. Millions of years ago when things like dinosaurs are concerned !

The only thing it's excusable for is pop culture questions. That's mostly transient stuff so there's no reason why someone born in the 1980s would have much knowledge about what happened before then. An equally valid (or invalid) excuse I might use would be "it's after my time", i.e. pop culture I'm too old to be interested in.

I agree but then don't volunteer to go on to a quiz show. I don't mean that a person should know everything about everything but you should be able to make "educated" guesses for subjects that aren't your specialities. An example is a given a few of posts up by bobcar - don't know who the lead singer of Coldplay is but have heard of Harry Styles and know he's a singer, guess him.

Some of the contestants you see are clearly no good at general knowledge quizzing, on any of the subjects they are given to answer, and shouldn't be on there.

Idiot should have said Africa

I disagree a little - even when I was a kid growing up in the 80s, I was still aware of films, TV and music from before that time, either because of my parents showing them to me or from seeking them out myself. I think it's partly about whether you have a curious mind or not. So many of the people I've seen who have been cast on quiz shows lately appear to have very narrow fields of knowledge and are unaware of much outside their own 'time.'

That wouldn't be a problem for me - I've never heard of him. So I couldn't give the correct answer under any circumstances.



Thanks, it was Ian Botham I was thinking of.

But that isn't a country either, is it?

I once worked with someone who genuinely believed Africa was a county and started to get quite irate when it was pointed out to her that it isn't.

She must have been a right moron everybody knows its not a county

Ha ha, touche.

If you are interested in the culture of another era you will watch, read and listen to it. If not it's unlikely you will force yourself to do so out of curiousity. I have zero interest in current pop music, superhero blockbuster films, etc so if I was on Pointless and had to answer questions about current pop culture I would be equally clueless.

But surely if you are going to onto something like Pointless, you would read up on topics that you are not sure on?

For example I would read up on movies over the past couple of years and make sure I have a few chemical element answers.

There was an edition of Pointless where the subject was 'famous people from Ireland' or something along those lines

The clues were things like 'creator of Live Aid', 'lead singer of U2' 'revolutionary leader played on film by Liam Neeson'

One of the contestants said it wasn't a good subject for her as she had never been to Ireland 😀

Yes he was.

One first class appearance bagging a pair doesn't really qualify him as a famous cricketer does it?

No, being famous and a cricketer does though.

Don't think you're right about bagging a pair, although he didn't score. However, I will check for you. 0* I think.

Edit: yes, 0* and 0, but he did take a catch off Jim Laker's bowling too.