The A to Z of Entertainment
Classroom challenges and warmer activities are a great way for a teacher to get their class engaged in a topic. One of the most popular of these activities is known in English as Scattergories or Bus Stop. You might have played this one yourself - it’s popular in several countries and is alternately known as Tutti Frutti, Jeu du Baccalauréat, or Stadt Land Fluss. The basic idea in a traditional game of Scattergories is to name unique objects within certain categories that all start with a certain letter. For example, given the categories City, Country, Food, Drink, and the letter ‘A,’ your students could answer Amsterdam, Argentina, Apple, Aperol. A new letter, and potentially new categories, are then chosen for later rounds.
A variation on this is to stick to a single category and work your way through the entire alphabet. For example, given the category of ‘Animals,’ your students could answer Aardvark, Barracuda, Chinchilla, and so on. This is similar to another popular vocabulary teaching game, I went to the shops, where each student adds an item to a fictional shopping list starting with each letter of the alphabet (‘I went to the shops, and I bought an Apple, a Banana, Cereal, etc.’)
If you’re trying to complete the whole alphabet, there are some very difficult letters to work with, such as Q and X, but you can make this a competitive team game where students simply try to find answers for the most letters, within a time limit.
So now for a full example! I’ve chosen the fairly broad topic of entertainment, which includes film, television, music, literature, and games. But in order to make this more of a challenge, I’m going to go through the alphabet and find a character whose entire name is just one letter, or near enough! Some of these are a bit of a stretch… Do you think I was successful? Could you do better? Let us know in the comments.
A
is for A from Pretty Little Liars, a popular teen mystery thriller about a clique of high school girls. It started out in 2006 as a series of book by Sara Shepard and soon spawned a TV adaptation that ran from 2010 to 2017. The main antagonist of the series is an anonymous stalker and blackmailer known only as ‘A’ who manipulates the main characters of the series.
B
is for Bea from The Beano, the UK’s longest running comic which has been published since 1938. The character of Bea was introduced 60 years later, in 1998, as the newborn little sister of the comic’s main character, Dennis the Menace, the archetypal badly behaved schoolboy that struck a chord with generations of British kids. After spending some time worried that having a little sister would ruin his reputation as a menace, Dennis was relieved to discover that Bea was just as much of a troublemaker as her brother.
C
is for C from Spectre, the 24th James Bond film released in 2015. Played by Andrew Scott, C becomes the head of the Joint Security Service formed by merging MI5 and MI6. On the surface, he appears as nothing more than a pompous bureaucrat, but there may be more to him than meets the eye. C is in fact the codename of the real life chief of MI6, which until Spectre had been replaced by M in the James Bond films.
D
is for D from Pet Shop of Horrors, a Japanese horror manga that ran from 1995 to 1998 with an anime adaptation in 1999. The series centres around a strange pet shop in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, run by the mysterious Count D, who may or may not be related to another famous Count whose name began with a D. His strange animals are sold with an infernal contract, the breaking of which results in dire and disturbing consequences.
E
is for E from The Incredibles. Though known professionally by her single initial, Edna Mode is the fashion designer responsible for designing superhero costumes in the Pixar animated classic from 2004. Her character was inspired by Hollywood costume designer Edith Head, and she was voiced by Incredibles director Brad Bird.
F
is for F from Gravity Falls, a Disney mystery comedy series that aired from 2012 to 2016, and set in the town of the same name, home to a surprising amount of weird and supernatural phenomena. In the series, the main characters discover several mysterious journals written by an unknown author who refers to his partner and lab assistant only as ‘F.’ An old computer belonging to F is also found. Fans of the series eventually came to realise that this person was in fact a regular supporting character.
G
is for G from House of the Dead, a long running series of zombie themed arcade games published by Sega that started in 1996. Known only by his pseudonym, the enigmatic Agent G is a recurring protagonist of the series who works for an American government agency and is tasked with shutting down a series of zombie outbreaks around the world. Needless to say, this involves shooting a lot of zombies.
H
is for H from Steps, the ‘90s British pop group who achieved two number-one singles (Heartbeat/Tragedy and Stomp), two number-one albums and 14 consecutive top 5 singles in the UK. They are probably best known for their cover of the Bee Gees’ ‘Tragedy,’ and the country-pop song ‘5, 6, 7, 8,’ capitalising on the line dancing trend of the mid-’90s. H, whose real name is Ian Watkins, earned his nickname as a child due to his Hyperactive behaviour, and decided to use the moniker as his stage name.
I
is for Lord I from Marvel's Adventure Into Fear, a horror comic book published from 1970 to 1975. These comics reprinted classic science fiction, fantasy, and monster stories from the late 1950s and early ‘60s, largely written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. Lord I, who possesses the powers of telepathy and immortality, was the leader of a race of mutants from Arcturus IV, a ruined alien planet whose residents had become mutated due to radiation from nuclear war. He is also a gigantic eye.
J
is for J from Men in Black, the classic 1997 science fiction comedy about a secret organisation in charge of monitoring extra-terrestrial life on Earth. Played by Will Smith, Agent J is a former NYPD undercover officer who is recruited by the MIB for his unique problem solving skills. Originally known as James Darrell Edwards, he agrees to have his identity and civilian life erased, and is assigned the codename J.
K
is for K, also from Men in Black (see above), the experienced MIB veteran who has been with the organisation since the 1960s. He is the one who recruits Agent J and later becomes his partner and mentor. He is played with deadpan stoicism by Tommy Lee Jones in the film series.
L
is for L from Death Note, Japanese manga that ran from 2003 to 2006 with an anime adaptation in 2006. One of the most popular and well received anime series of recent years, Death Note is a supernatural thriller about a high school student who finds a mysterious notebook that will kill anyone whose name is written in it. The character of L is a brilliant young detective who is hired to catch the killer using the death note - his advantage being that no one knows his true name.
M
is for M from the James Bond series of books and films. This is our second James Bond entry, as spies and secret agents love their single letter codenames. M is the head of MI6 in Ian Fleming’s novels and the films based on them. They character has been played by several actors, including Bernard Lee and Ralph Fiennes, but it is Judi Dench who really made the character her own. She played M from 1995-2021, starting with GoldenEye and ending with Skyfall, straddling the Bond tenures of Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.
N
is for N from the video games Pokémon: Black & White. Released in 2010, these were part of the fifth generation of Pokémon games that started with Pokémon: Red & Blue in 1996. N is one of the major villains of the game, being the leader of Team Plasma, a villainous organisation that purports to be a Pokémon welfare group, but in fact has ambitions to take over the region.
O
is for O from Ōban Star-Racers, a 2006 Amine-style animated series produced by
France and Japan. In the science fiction series, competitors are invited every 10,000 years to compete in the Great Race of Ōban, and the story follows the different racers, their teams, and vehicles, including the mysterious O, a silent, alien creature who is physically one of the largest competitors and a skilled racer.
P
is for Pea from Popeye, the long running comic strip and cartoon character who probably at this point needs no introduction. Pea is in fact more accurately known as Swee'Pea, and is a foundling child left on Popeye’s doorstep as a baby. Popeye and Olive Oyl decide to raise him as their own son. He is later christened with the full name ‘Scooner Seawell Georgia Washenting Christiffer Columbia Daniel Boom,’ a name that riff on misspellings of several American folk heroes and historical figures.
Q
is for Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation, an extradimensional being who possesses immeasurable power over time, space, and the laws of physics, and is capable of altering reality to his whim. He uses these powers mostly to annoy and play practical jokes on Captain Picard and the crew of the starship Enterprise.
R
is for R from James Bond. That’s right, we’re back to Bond for another codename! R, played by John Cleese, first appears as the original Q’s assistant (the James Bond Q, not the Star Trek Q) in 1999’s The World is Not Enough, although by his second appearance in Die Another Day, he has been promoted to Q himself, adopting the codename for MI6’s Quartermaster, who provides agents with the gadgets they require in the field.
S
is for S, the stage name of Jenn Champion, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who first came to fame as a member of the Seattle-based indie rock band Carissa's Weird that performed together from 1995 to 2003. Known for their hypnotic rhythms, hushed volumes and stylistic attitude, Carissa’s Weird radiated intensity and ambition across the Seattle scene of the late 1990s.
T
is for Mr T, the actor and television personality known for his Mandinka hairstyle, gold chain jewellery, and for playing B. A. Baracus in the 1980s TV series The A-Team and boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III. His catchphrase, “I pity the fool,” became a trademark in and of itself, used in slogans and titles throughout the actor’s career.
U
is for Yu from Stargate SG-1. In Stargate, the titular stargates allow instantaneous travel across the universe, and the series follows a special operations team tasked with defending the Earth against alien threats. The series draws upon Egyptian, Greek, Norse and other mythologies, implying that alien civilisations inspired those stories on Earth. Yu, the Jade Emperor, is a Goa’uld, one of a race of parasitic beings that take over a humanoid host and rule star systems with varying levels of autocracy. He is inspired by the legends of China’s earliest, semi-mythological Emperors.
V
is for V from V for Vendetta, a British graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd and its 2005 film adaptation. Set in a dystopian near-future of the United Kingdom, the story follows V, an anarchist and revolutionary inspired by Guy Fawkes (who was involved in the 17th Century Gunpowder Plot to destroy Parliament). V rebels against the neo-Fascist police state through an elaborate and theatrical campaign. V for Vendetta is the source of the famous Guy Fawkes mask in popular culture, which has now become common shorthand for a protest against tyranny.
W
is for W. or ‘Dubya’ in Oliver Stone’s 2008 film W, a biopic based on the life of US President George W. Bush, commonly known by his middle initial to differentiate him from his similarly named father, who was also president. The film chronicles the early life and political career of Bush, played by Josh Brolin, culminating in his infamous invasion of Iraq in 2003. W is director Stone’s third in a trilogy about US Presidents (the others being JFK and Nixon).
X
is for Professor X in Marvel Comics’ X-Men, a team of mutant superheroes created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby that first appeared in 1963. The X-Men possess superhuman abilities and fight for peace and acceptance in a world where distrust and outright bigotry towards mutants is commonplace. Professor X, whose full name is Charles Xavier, is the founder and leader of the X-Men, whose members he recruits and trains from a young age at his private academy, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. He possesses powerful telepathic abilities to perceive and influence the thoughts of others, including projecting mental illusions. The character was played by veteran actor Patrick Stewart in the modern film series, starting in 2000.
Y
is for Wybie from Coraline, the 2009 stop-motion film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s dark fantasy novel. interestingly, he only appears in the film adaptation, replacing Coraline’s inner monologue so she spends less time talking to herself. Wybie is an anxious child, the grandson of the landlady of the apartment building that Coraline and her family move into at the start of the story. Though nervous, like Coraline he nevertheless feels the pull of adventure, and help his new friend overcome the challenges they face.
Z
is for Lord Zedd from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the American series based on the Japanese Super Sentai franchise. The series was one of the most iconic and popular of the 1990s, and centres around a team of teenagers with attitude who are recruited to defend the Earth from invasion, after being granted superhuman abilities and access to an arsenal of weapons. Lord Zedd was a major villain of the series, the leader of a race of evil space aliens who has been corrupted by the Zeo Crystal.
