What a strange year 2023 has been. Here's an extract from the Have I Got News For You: The Quiz Of 2023 book to test how much you have been paying attention.

The premise of this round is quite complicated, so pay attention. Below are twenty statements linked to 2023, but are they true or false?

1. For Valentine's Day 2023, Build- A- Bear Workshop launched a range of adult- only bears, complete with wine bottles, stilettos and sexy lingerie.

2. In May, a teacher in Kentucky, USA was suspended after allowing a student to dress up as a KKK grand wizard as part of a history project.

3. At a Q&A session ahead of the final season of Succession, producers revealed that Brian Cox had originally been their third choice for the role of Logan Roy, landing it only after Robert Redford and Michael Douglas had turned them down.

4. After being cleared of fault over a 2016 ski crash on 30 March, actress Gwyneth Paltrow was awarded just $1.

5. In a blog post on 6 April, street artist Banksy revealed that he had appeared on a UK game show under his real name but would never reveal which one or when it was.

6. In August, Edinburgh Zoo admitted that a koala bear escaped in 2015 and was on the loose for seven months before being captured on a farm sixteen miles away.

7. In January, an original Mr Blobby costume listed on eBay for ￡39 received a winning bid of ￡62,000 following a fierce bidding war.

8. In May, Plymouth City Council cut down a large number of trees to stop people having public sex in the area.

9. Blackpool council imposed a five-day ban on stag and hen dos in June following several cases of intoxicated donkey riding.

10. In April, police in Glasgow stopped a vehicle and discovered cocaine, heroin and a stowaway lamb sitting on the back seat.

11. In August, a branch of DFS in Wolverhampton issued a lifetime ban to a man who had been sleeping in the store every night for seven months.

12. In March, an Australian company announced that it had created a meatball made from the lab-grown flesh of a woolly mammoth.

13. The ISS had to receive advice from a plumber via video link in July after all four of the station's toilets stopped working.

14. Sotheby's withdrew an auction for a guitar that belonged to Jimi Hendrix in August after an inspection revealed a small bag of cocaine which had been sealed
inside since 1970.

15. In May, the owner of an Australian bouncy castle firm was jailed for eleven years following a series of arson attacks on rivals.

16. In April, a Spanish woman broke the world record for living alone in a cave after spending five hundred days seventy metres below the earth's surface.

17. The BBC received nine complaints about an episode of Gardeners' World in February because Monty Don had grown a beard over the winter.

18. Madame Tussauds caved to pressure in April and removed waxworks of Osama bin Laden and Myra Hindley.

19. In April, Secret Service agents apprehended a toddler who had crawled through the security fence that surrounds the White House.

20. During a rerun of The Crystal Maze on Challenge TV in August, eagle- eyed viewers spotted that a contestant had cheated by storing homemade gold tickets inside his jumpsuit in order to win the grand prize.

Scroll down for the answers

True

1. For Valentine's Day 2023, Build- A- Bear Workshop launched a range of adult-only bears, complete with wine bottles, stilettos and sexy lingerie.

2. In May, a teacher in Kentucky, USA was suspended after allowing a student to dress up as a KKK grand wizard as part of a history project.

4. After being cleared of fault over a 2016 ski crash on 30 March, actress Gwyneth Paltrow was awarded just $1.

7. In January, an original Mr Blobby costume listed on eBay for ￡39 received a winning bid of ￡62,000 following a fierce bidding war.

8. In May, Plymouth City Council cut down a large number of trees to stop people having public sex in the area.

10. In April, police in Glasgow stopped a vehicle and discovered cocaine, heroin, and a stowaway lamb sitting on the back seat.

12. In March, an Australian company announced that it had created a meatball made from the lab-grown flesh of a woolly mammoth.

15. In May, the owner of an Australian bouncy castle firm was jailed for eleven years following a series of arson attacks on rivals.

16. In April, a Spanish woman broke the world record for living alone in a cave after spending five hundred days seventy metres below the earth's surface.

19. In April, Secret Service agents apprehended a toddler who had crawled through the security fence that surrounds the White House.

False

3. Robert Redford and Michael Douglas didn't turn down the role of Logan Roy.

5. Banksy didn't claim to have appeared on a British game show.

6. A koala bear didn't escape from Edinburgh Zoo in 2015.

9. Blackpool council didn't impose a five-day ban on stag and hen dos due to intoxicated donkey riding.

11. DFS didn't issue a lifetime ban to a man who'd been sleeping rough in their stores.

13. The ISS didn't have to receive advice from a plumber via video link in order to fix the station's toilets.

14 No bags of cocaine were discovered inside any of Jimi Hendrix's guitars.

17. The BBC didn't receive any complaints over Monty Don growing a beard. He remained as clean-shaven as ever.

18. Madame Tussauds didn't remove waxworks of Osama bin Laden and Myra Hindley, because they didn't exist in the first place.

20. Crystal Maze viewers didn't spot a cheating contestant on a rerun of an old episode.