In 2009, who crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant? The Saturday quiz

The questions

1 What is the UK’s largest river, by volume of water discharge?
2 “Off” was the difference between which two hit 1979 albums?
3 Which TV quiz host has won more than $2.5m playing poker?
4 Last photographed in 2013, what is nicknamed the “Asian unicorn”?
5 Which huge Roman monument celebrates Italian unification?
6 In 2009, who infamously crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant?
7 William Hague and Chris Smith are now counterparts in what roles?
8 What apple pastry was named after a pair of French sisters?
What links:
9 The books (Christianity); recitation (Islam); instruction (Judaism)?
10 Breaking Away; American Flyers; The Flying Scotsman; The Program?
11 Cossutia; Cornelia; Pompeia; Calpurnia?
12 Banqueting House, Whitehall; Queen’s House, Greenwich; St Paul’s, Covent Garden?
13 Doublethink; memory hole; Newspeak; reality control; unperson?
14 He (yellow); Ne (red); Ar (lilac); Kr (bluish-white); Xe (blue)?
15 Egmont; Roman Carnival; 1812; Academic Festival; Hussite; In the South?

Flushed with success over the poker clue? Photograph: MRS/Getty Images

The answers

1 River Tay.
2 The Wall (Pink Floyd) and Off the Wall (Michael Jackson).
3 Victoria Coren Mitchell.
4 Saola.
5 Victor Emmanuel II National Monument.
6 Tiger Woods.
7 Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge universities.
8 Tarte Tatin.
9 Literal meanings of names of religious texts: the Bible; Qur’an; Torah.
10 Films about cycling.
11 Married Julius Caesar (first is disputed).
12 Designed by Inigo Jones.
13 Terms coined by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
14 Gases and colour produced in “neon” lighting: helium; neon; argon; krypton; xenon.
15 Overtures: Beethoven; Berlioz; Tchaikovsky; Brahms; Dvořák; Elgar.