Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A Hollywood star who chose to stay behind the camera

Robert Redford is best known as an actor, but his 1980 directorial debut Ordinary People won him the Academy Award for Best Director. The film, a quiet family drama about grief and guilt, also took Best Picture and a pair of acting awards. Redford went on to found the Sundance Institute, which helped turn independent filmmaking into a serious force in American cinema.

The painting that lets you peek behind the curtain

Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing (1767) is one of the most recognisable images of the Rococo style, all pastel light, lush foliage and playful mischief. The painting shows a young woman on a swing, her skirt flying, while a hidden admirer watches from the bushes below. It captures the era's taste for wit, flirtation and elegant, decorative pleasure.

Everest and the long road to the top

Mount Everest, on the border of Nepal and Tibet, is the highest mountain above sea level at roughly 8,849 metres. Its height was first calculated in the mid-19th century by surveyors working for the British administration in India, who named it after George Everest, a former Surveyor General. Climbing it remains a serious undertaking, requiring weeks of acclimatisation before any summit attempt.

Rock 'n' roll and a cultural earthquake

Elvis Presley's blend of country, blues and rhythm and blues helped define rock 'n' roll in the mid-1950s. His early recordings for Sun Records in Memphis, and later hits for RCA, made him a lightning rod for debates about youth culture and race in America. Few performers have had such a lasting effect on popular music.

A coat with a practical past

The parka takes its name from the Nenets language of northern Russia and Siberia, where similar fur-lined garments were developed for extreme cold. Traditionally made from animal skin with the fur facing inward, the design was later adapted by military forces and eventually by fashion. Today it is a staple of winter wardrobes far from the Arctic.