“Tenable”, the ITV quiz show that I first mentioned nearly a year ago in this piece, is back with a new series on weekday afternoons. It’s also back on “series record” on our multi-channel box. It is the most linear of quiz shows. Every episode has exactly the same number of correct answers: 10 answers in each of the 6 rounds, 60 answers in total. It’s one of the many things I like about it.

Having checked through the first week’s worth of episodes in this new series I offer here the 6 rounds from each day’s play, from Monday 3 September to Friday 7 September. After the list of 30 “Tenable” challenges there are some general observations from me, a note on how the teams fared, and then the answers (all 300 of them).

I have been meaning to do something like this for a while, having made notes on earlier episodes this year, but didn’t realize how long it would take or how many words it would involve. If you include numbers in your word count (Microsoft Word does, WordPress doesn’t) there are over 3,400 words in this piece (many of them in the lists of questions and answers, as you’d expect).

Questions

Monday 3 September 2018 [s3ep1, repeated late at night on Wednesday 8 July 2020]

[s3ep1] The Maybe Wabes

Round 1: The 10 “Friends” characters with the most appearance [Characters from US sitcom “Friends” with the most appearances, not including the 6 Friends themselves. Give the character names, not the actors playing the parts.]

Round 2: The first 10 elements in the Periodic Table with 1-letter symbols, alphabetically [Give the name of the element, not the symbol.]

Round 3: The first 10 UK Top 10 hits by Little Mix

Round 4: The first 10 single animal names in Beatrix Potter children’s books [There were 23 classic children’s tales, 14 include a single animal title. Please give the first 10 in the order they were published.]

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The 10 countries with the most UNESCO World Heritage sites {This includes natural, cultural and mixed sites, according to the UNESCO website.]

Final Round: James Bond: The 10 James Bond film titles which end in a vowel [This is from the list of 24 official Eon titles featuring the fictional spy James Bond.]

Tuesday 4 September 2018 [s3ep2, repeated late at night on Thursday 9 July 2020]

[s2ep2] The Dear-oh-Dears

Round 1: The 10 Euro-using EU countries that come first alphabetically

Round 2: The first 10 words in the “Grease” hit “You’re the one that I want” with 5 or more letters [The following words will not be accepted: “They’re” “You’re” and “‘cause”.]

Round 3: 10 vegetables in the New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Vegetable Soup [As listed on the company’s website, 10 root and other vegetables, and a pulse, but tomatoes are not included – tomato paste is listed instead.]

Round 4: The Top 10 leading Test run scorers for England [The 10 batsmen who have scored the most runs for the England Test Cricket Team up to 31 Jan 2018.]

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The first 10 Stephen King novels [The first 10 novels published by Stephen King according to his website, not including short story collections, novellas, non-fiction or works published as Richard Bachman.]

Final Round: The NATO Alphabet: Please list the 10 words in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet that contain the letter R

Wednesday 5 September 2018 [s3ep3, repeated on Sunday 18 October 2020]

Round 1: The UK’s 10 favourite curry dishes [According to information published in October 2017 by Kingfisher Beer for National Curry Week.]

Round 2: The 10 actors and actresses in a complete series of Blackadder [They all appeared in at least one episode of all 4 series of the show, not including specials.]

Round 3: 10 most abundant elements in the universe

Round 4: The 10 football clubs and children of David Beckham [The 6 clubs he played for in his professional career, including loan spells, and the first names of his 4 children.]

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The 10 officer ranks of the British Army [According to the Ranks page of MOD website, doesn’t include Officer Cadet or the honorary title of Field Marshal.]

Final Round: African Countries beginning with T, E or N

Thursday 6 September 2018 [s3ep4, repeated on Monday 29 March 2021]

Round 1: The 10 songs on the soundtrack album to “The Sound of Music” [This does not include instrumental numbers such as the Prelude, or the title song, just the 10 show tunes on the soundtrack.[

Round 2: The 10 countries in the Middle East with the shortest names [According to the CIA World Factbook online, this does not include any African or Island nations.]

Round 3: Top 10 Commercial Radio Stations [According to listening figures supplied by RAJAR, Radio Joint Audience Research.]

Round 4: The 10 most northerly Premier League Teams in 2017/18 season

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The 10 members of Liberty X and 5ive [The names of the band members at the time they had their first number one hits.]

Final Round: The 10 US States containing the letters U or X

Friday 7 September 2018 [s3ep5, repeated on Tuesday 30 March 2021]

Round 1: The 10 ingredients in Delia Smith’s kedgeree recipe

Round 2: The last 10 women to win the Wimbledon Tennis Singles Title [Up to the end of 2017.]

Round 3: The 10 rhyming words in Paul Simon’s song “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” [There are 5 first names and 5 words that precede them, which rhyme.]

Round 4: The 10 largest cities in Canada by population [Every city has a population greater than 100,000, the tri-cities are not included.]

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The nation’s 10 favourite Charles Dickens characters [According to some poll to commemorate an anniversary of his birth.]

Final Round: The 10 least-used letters in the English language [According to Oxforddictionaries.com, based on words in the Concise Oxford Dictionary.]

General observations

Final Rounds (Jackpot Rounds)

The Jackpot Rounds are the ones that that interest me most. No matter how well teams perform in the earlier rounds, they have to name all 10 items in this round to win the money.

Three of the first four Jackpot Rounds this week involved lists that I have previously written about on this Blog, lists that come up regularly in the world of quizzes and trivia: James Bond movies, the NATO Phonetic Alphabet and US States. Any team that familiarized themselves with these lists would have won some money. They only needed to know the items on the list, there was nothing that required deeper knowledge (like knowing which actor played Bond, or the location of the US States).

The other two Jackpot Rounds gave the teams a fighting chance. An edition of the show in an earlier series taught us that there are 10 African countries that begin with M or N (7 of the former, 3 of the latter), so the 10 African countries beginning with T, E or N would incorporate 7 beginning with T or E and the 3 beginning with N.

The question about the 10 least used letters in the English language was the toughest. Knowledge of the letter values in Scrabble is a good starting point, but the 10 items in this list are not exactly the same as the 10 highest-scoring letters in Scrabble (which are all worth 4 points or more). The lists differ by just one letter, but most of us would need a few goes to guess which of the highest-scoring letters is missing, and what it’s been replaced with.

Questions that brought a smile to my face

These two lyric-based questions were right up my street:

• The first 10 words in the “Grease” hit “You’re the one that I want” with 5 or more letters
• The 10 rhyming words in Paul Simon’s song “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”

There was something similar in a previous series, a Jackpot Round question about the Gloria Gaynor hit “I will survive” (“name the first 10 words in the song, with 5 or more letters”). I got 9 out of 10 for “You’re the one that I want” (I’ve never attempted to commit the lyrics to memory) but all 10, in about 5 seconds, for the Paul Simon song.

I remember walking home from school when “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” was in the charts. A school-friend and I tried to think of 50 different names and rhymes and got fairly close, as I recall. “Knock it on the head, Ned”, “Give her the old elbow, Joe”, that sort of thing.

Questions where I had a chance of getting all 10

In addition to 4 of the 5 jackpot rounds, and the “50 Ways to Leave your Lover” question, I was able to get all 10 answers to some of the questions regarding sport, chemical elements and countries, in some cases without having thought of them as lists. Knowledge of the 6 teams that David Beckham has played professional football for, and the names of his 4 children, has been acquired without any deliberate work on my part. I have actively gone through lists of Test Match bowlers and batsmen, and most of the 10 leading run-scorers for England were active in my lifetime. The last 10 women’s Wimbledon champions was a challenge I set in this piece back in the summer.

I have spent enough time on the Periodic Table to know which elements have single-letter symbols, so could name the first 10 of them easily enough.

I was able to work out the 10 Middle East countries with the shortest names (6 letters or fewer) without having thought of them in those terms before.

Questions where I didn’t have a chance of getting near 10

As in previous series, I was unable to get anywhere near 10 correct answers for some of the questions related to pop music. When watching with either or both of the children I have been known to exclaim many times, not entirely seriously, “That’s impossible, even for me, and I’m the Pop Master”. I couldn’t even get 5 answers (the lowest amount you need to add money to the jackpot) in last week’s examples: The first 10 Little Mix top 10 singles; members of the bands Liberty X and 5ive;

Similarly, the literature questions were a challenge. Even now, after watching the show and transcribing the lists, I am unable to name more than 5 of the Beatrix Potter books or 5 of the first 10 Stephen King books to be published.

How the teams fared

Here’s a list of how each team performed in their jackpot rounds: how many team members made it to the final round, how much they were playing for and whether they won the prize fund.

Note: where a team did not get all 10 answers in the final round, the answers that caught them out are listed here as well.

Monday 3 September 2018

All 5 of the Maybe Wabe’s made it to the final and won 32k by naming the 10 James Bond films that end in a vowel.

Tuesday 4 September 2018

3 of the Dear-oh-Dears made it to the final, playing for 16k, and named 7 of the 10 words in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet that contain an R, so they didn’t win the jackpot. [The 3 remaining answers: November, Oscar, Victor.]

Wednesday 5 September 2018

All 5 of the Cat Rescuers made it to the final, playing for 12k, and got 8 of the 10 African nations that begin with T, E or N, so they didn’t win the jackpot. [The 2 remaining answers: Equatorial Guinea, Niger.]

Thursday 6 September 2018

All 5 of the “Sisters are doing it for their blokes” made it to the final and won 12k by knowing all 10 US States that contain the letters U or X. (It looked like they’d done their homework and revised their US States: smart move.)

Friday 7 September 2018

All 5 of the Common People made it to the final, playing for 42k, and managed to get 9 of the 10 least used letters in the English language, so they didn’t win the jackpot. [The 1 remaining answer: B.]

Questions and Answers

Monday 3 September 2018 [s3ep1, repeated late at night on Wednesday 8 July 2020]

[s3ep1] The Maybe Wabes

Round 1: The 10 “Friends” characters with the most appearance [Characters from US sitcom “Friends” with the most appearances, not including the 6 Friends themselves. Give the character names, not the actors playing the parts.]

Gunther / Jack Geller / Judy Geller / Janice / Carol Willick / Mike Hannigan / Emily Waltham / Susan Bunch / Estelle Leonard / Dr Richard Burke

Round 2: The first 10 elements in the Periodic Table with 1-letter symbols, alphabetically [Give the name of the element, not the symbol.]

Boron / Carbon / Fluorine / Hydrogen / Iodine / Nitrogen / Oxygen / Phosphorus / Potassium / Sulfur

Round 3: The first 10 UK Top 10 hits by Little Mix

Cannonball / Wings / DNA / Move / Word Up / Salute / Black Magic / Secret Love Song / Shout out to my Ex / Touch

Round 4: The first 10 single animal names in Beatrix Potter children’s books [There were 23 classic children’s tales, 14 include a single animal title. Please give the first 10 in the order they were published.]

Peter Rabbit / Squirrel Nutkin / Benjamin Bunny / Mrs Tiggywinkle / Jeremy Fisher / Miss Moppet / Tom Kitten / Jemima Puddle-Duck / Mrs Tittlemouse / Timmy Tiptoes

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The 10 countries with the most UNESCO World Heritage sites {This includes natural, cultural and mixed sites, according to the UNESCO website.]

Italy / China / Spain / France / Germany / India / Mexico / UK / Russia / USA

Final Round: James Bond: The 10 James Bond film titles which end in a vowel [This is from the list of 24 official Eon titles featuring the fictional spy James Bond.]

Dr No / From Russia with Love / You only live twice / On her majesty’s secret service / Live and let die / The spy who loved me / Goldeneye / Casino Royale / Quantum of Solace / Spectre

Tuesday 4 September 2018 [s3ep2, repeated late at night on Thursday 9 July 2020]

[s2ep2] The Dear-oh-Dears

Round 1: 10 Euro-using EU countries that come first alphabetically

Austria / Belgium / Cyprus / Estonia / Finland / France / Germany / Greece / Ireland / Italy

Round 2: The first 10 words in the “Grease” hit “You’re the one that I want” with 5 or more letters [The following words will not be accepted: “They’re” “You’re” and “‘cause”.]

Chills / Multiplyin’ / Losin’ / Control / Power / Supplyin’ / Electrifiying / Shape / Heart

Round 3: 10 vegetables in the New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Vegetable Soup [As listed on the company’s website, 10 root and other vegetables, and a pulse, but tomatoes are not included – tomato paste is listed instead.]

Cabbage / Carrots / Celery / Onions / Parsnips / Potatoes / Swede / Sweetcorn / Red Split Lentils / Turnip

Round 4: The Top 10 leading Test run scorers for England [The 10 batsmen who have scored the most runs for the England Test Cricket Team up to 31 Jan 2018.]

Alastair Cook / Graham Gooch / Alec Stewart / David Gower / Kevin Pietersen / Geoffrey Boycott / Mike Atherton / Ian Bell / Colin Cowdrey / Wally Hammond

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The first 10 Stephen King novels [The first 10 novels published by Stephen King according to his website, not including short story collections, novellas, non-fiction or works published as Richard Bachman.]

Carrie / Salem’s Lot / The Shining / The Stand / The Dead Zone / Firestarter / Cujo / The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger / Pet Sematary / Christine

Final Round: The NATO Alphabet: Please list the 10 words in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet that contain the letter R

Bravo / Charlie / Foxtrot / November / Oscar / Romeo / Sierra / Uniform / Victor / X-Ray

Wednesday 5 September 2018 [s3ep3, repeated on Sunday 18 October 2020]

Round 1: The UK’s 10 favourite curry dishes [According to information published in October 2017 by Kingfisher Beer for National Curry Week.]

Korma / Tikka Masala / Madras / Jalfrezi / Vindaloo / Balti / Bhuna / Dopiaza / Saag / Rogan Josh

Round 2: The 10 actors and actresses in a complete series of Blackadder [They all appeared in at least one episode of all 4 series of the show, not including specials.]

Rowan Atkinson / Tony Robinson / Tim Mcinnerny / Hugh Laurie / Stephen Fry / Miranda Richardson / Patsy Byrne / Elspet Gray / Brian Blessed / Helen Atkinson Wood

Round 3: 10 most abundant elements in the universe

Hydrogen / Helium / Oxygen / Carbon / Neon / Iron / Nitrogen / Silicon / Magnesium / Sulfur

Round 4: The 10 football clubs and children of David Beckham [The 6 clubs he played for in his professional career, including loan spells, and the first names of his 4 children.]

Manchester United / Preston North End / Real Madrid / Paris Saint-Germain / LA Galaxy / AC Milan / Brooklyn / Romeo / Cruz / Harper Seven

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The 10 officer ranks of the British Army [According to the Ranks page of MOD website, doesn’t include Officer Cadet or the honorary title of Field Marshal.]

Second Lieutenant / Lieutenant / Captain / Major / Lieutenant Colonel / Colonel / Brigadier / Major General / Lieutenant General / General

Final Round: African Countries beginning with T, E or N

Tanzania / Togo / Tunisia / Egypt / Equatorial Guinea / Eritrea / Ethiopia / Namibia / Niger / Nigeria

Thursday 6 September 2018 [s3ep4, repeated on Monday 29 March 2021]

Round 1: The 10 songs on the soundtrack album to “The Sound of Music” [This does not include instrumental numbers such as the Prelude, or the title song, just the 10 show tunes on the soundtrack.]

Maria / I Have Confidence / Sixteen Going on Seventeen / My Favourite Things / Climb Every Mountain / The Lonely Goatherd / Do-Re-Mi / Something Good / Edelweiss / So Long, Farewell

The 10 countries in the Middle East with the shortest names [According to the CIA World Factbook online, does not include any African or Island nations.]

Iran / Iraq / Oman / Qatar / Syria / Yemen / Israel / Jordan / Kuwait / Turkey

Round 3: Top 10 Commercial Radio Stations [According to listening figures supplied by RAJAR, Radio Joint Audience Research.]

Classic FM / Kiss / Magic Network / talkSPORT / Absolute Radio / Capital London / Heart London / LBC 97.3 / Planet Rock / Smooth Radio North West

Round 4: The 10 most northerly Premier League Teams in 2017/18 season

Burnley / Everton / Huddersfield Town / Leicester City / Liverpool / Manchester City / Manchester United / Newcastle United / Stoke City / West Bromwich Albion

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The 10 members of Liberty X and 5ive [The names of the band members at the time they had their first number one hits.]

Michelle Heaton / Jessica Taylor / Kelli Young / Kevin Simm / Tony Lundon / Scott Robinson / Ritchie Neville / Sean Conlon / J Brown / Abz Love

Final Round: The 10 US States containing the letters U or X

Connecticut / Kentucky / Louisiana / Massachusetts / Missouri / South Carolina / South Dakota / Utah / New Mexico / Texas

Friday 7 September 2018 [s3ep5, repeated on Tuesday 30 March 2021]

Round 1: The 10 ingredients in Delia Smith’s kedgeree recipe

Smoked Haddock / Onion / White Basmati Rice / Butter / Curry Powder / Hard-Boiled Eggs / Parsley / Lemon Juice / Salt / Pepper

Round 2: The last 10 women to win the Wimbledon Tennis Singles Title [Up to the end of 2017.]

Garbine Muguruza / Serena Williams / Petra Kvitova / Marion Bartoli / Venus Williams / Amelie Mauresmo / Maria Sharapova / Lindsay Davenport / Jana Novotna / Martina Hingis

Round 3: The 10 rhyming words in Paul Simon’s song “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” [There are 5 first names and 5 words that precede them, which rhyme.]

Back / Jack / Plan / Stan / Coy / Roy / Bus / Gus / Key / Lee

Round 4: The 10 largest cities in Canada by population [Every city has a population greater than 100,000, the tri-cities are not included.]

Toronto / Montreal / Vancouver / Calgary / Ottawa-Gatineau / Edmonton / Quebec / Winnipeg / Hamilton / London

Round 5 (The Captain’s Round): The nation’s 10 favourite Charles Dickens characters [According to some poll to commemorate an anniversary of his birth.]

Ebenezer Scrooge / Miss Havisham / Sydney Carton / The Artful Dodger / Fagin / Joe Gargery / Pip / Nancy / Abel Magwitch/ Betsey Trotwood

Final Round: The 10 least-used letters in the English language [According to Oxforddictionaries.com, based on words in the Concise Oxford Dictionary.]

Q / J / Z / X / V / K / W / Y / F / B