Q. Which classical pieces are most widely beloved? . A. It’s Ralph Vaughan Williams for the win. After more than 156,000 votes, Classic FM compiled their 2021 Hall of Fame Top 300 list of the year’s favourite classical pieces. Still reigning at Number One? Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’, for the

Q. What do Louis Armstrong, Kermit The Frog, Janet Jackson, and Thomas Edison have in common? . A. All four of these creators are behind recordings that have been selected to be painstakingly preserved by the Library of Congress. Every year, the United States’ Library of Congress National Recording Preservation

Q. Which books are people most likely to pretend they’ve read? . A. In a Telegraph study of 2,000 Brits, 62% of respondents admitted to telling others that they had read classic books they hadn’t so much as skimmed. 42% confessed to hunting down the film or TV version of

Q. Between pandemic lockdowns and self-seeding streaming channels, movie grosses have been much in the news. Which movies have the top grosses of all time? . A. Before revealing the results from IMDb Pro’s Box Office Mojo, let’s see how many of these top grossing movies we can identify from

Q. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! What are your go-to Christmas carols or songs?  Which holiday songs are most broadly favoured? . A. Classic FM has just wrapped up their 2021 Nation’s Favourite Carol poll and the winner, once again, is: O Holy Night. Classic FM’s 2021 Favourite Carol

Q. What’s your happy song? What’s that song you put on when you want to hype yourself up, to take yourself from a mildly good mood to flat out glee? And what is it about that song that inspires happiness? . A. First: is your happy song on any of

Q. Artist eyes see beauty in the things we discard. What are some examples of artists celebrating the well-worn, the battered, and the broken? . A. .   In Ceramics Artist Naoko Fukumaru 2021 Website Statement ‘Kintsugi, the art of golden joinery, is a five-hundred-year-old Japanese method of restoring damaged

Q. For his 1942 painting Nighthawks, artist Edward Hopper used both his wife, Jo – a frequent muse – and himself as models. As Jo wrote in a letter to Edward’s sister, Marion: ‘Ed has just finished a very fine picture—a lunch counter at night with 3 figures. Night Hawks

Q. What do people think are the best made TV shows of the 21st Century? What do you think? . A. Cue the debate. Which of the following TV shows are on your favourites list? This month, BBC Culture polled 206 TV experts – industry insiders, critics, analysts, academics, journalists

Q. Did (do?!) any companies start the day with an official company song? . A. Imagine.. It’s your first week of work and there is lots to do: meet those people, sign those forms, get your work space in order. And there’s something else. On Friday, you will be expected