Author: Purple Brolly

Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-89) was born in Surrey and became a highly revered, indeed legendary, Shakespearean actor and director, and had some success in Hollywood and on television. In 1984, after a long and illustrious career, he accepted the accolade of The Society of West End Theatre changing the name of their annual awards to the ‘Laurence Olivier Awards’. Today this is generally referred to simply as the Olivier Awards.

The Society is now the Society of London Theatre and any show at one of its member theatres which has a run of at least thirty performances is eligible for nomination for an award. The categories include most of the different types of show put on in London theatres, including opera, musical, dance and play. There are also awards for the Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director, as well as behind-the-scenes contributions in Set Design, Lighting, Choreography, Costume and Sound.

In 2011 there was a revamping of the Awards night towards a higher media profile and the recent venues of either the Royal Albert Hall or the Royal Opera House reflect this. Olivier himself received the Society’s Special Award in 1979, before the event was re-named in his honour.

(Image of statue of Olivier outside the National Theatre: Robert Wallace at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In the 1970s, pubs were seeing their businesses decline due to people staying in to watch television every night. The pub quiz night was one way in which enterprising pub landlords and pub chains sought to bring back customers. The informal general knowledge game was thus put on a more organised, commercial footing.

The partnership of Burns & Porter first distributed pub quizzes in 1976 and soon had thousands of people playing each week. They were so successful that even the television companies commissioned them to supply questions and contestants for their TV quiz shows! The competitive spirit being what it is, there also sprang up several leagues and annual championships.

Quiz nights take place on any night except Friday and Saturday. There is a small entry fee per person. Teams are made up with either a fixed or a maximum number and they give themselves an amusing name, e.g. ‘No Brians’. The prizes are usually cash or drinks and there is a break between each round to allow for buying drinks at the bar. Papers are passed to another team for marking. Nowadays, there has to be a fair-play rule banning the use of mobile phones, as this could easily spoil the fun.

(Image: Julia Hiltscher at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)