Beekeepers v Oscar Men Only Connect

Good evening, and I'm afraid there's bad news for quizzers everywhere.

The International Olympic Committee has just ruled that quizzing is

not a sport. Officially not a sport.

So, that's a shame.

On the plus side, it means we can now take all the drugs we like!

Sadly receiving the news too late,

and thus quizzing sober tonight, are -

on my right, Ian Wallace, a bee enthusiast,

who at six months old weighed 2st,

and was named the heaviest baby in Tyneside.

Josh Spero, a classics graduate who inadvertently ate a

floral decoration at a parliamentary dinner.

And their captain, Mark Wallace,

a political journalist who got into an altercation with global megastar

Seal over an egg and cress sandwich.

United by a taste for honey, they are the Beekeepers.

Now, you won your opening matches,

but just dropped a game against the Cosmopolitans.

Has that dented confidence?

Not in the slightest. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

So we're here, we're back, and we're hoping to get ahead this time.

Or it kills you later.

-Sometimes.

-Well, let's hope nothing kills you tonight,

least of all your opponents, who are -

on my left, Howard Freedman,

a taxi driver who met his girlfriend on the picket line during

the Wapping dispute. Adrian Knott, a keen ukulele player,

who gave his sister a mounted dead tarantula as a wedding present.

And their captain, Michael Slowey,

a business studies graduate who witnessed several armed robberies as

a child, most of them at his local post office.

United by a soft spot for statuettes, they are the Oscar Men.

Now, you lost your last game against the Smiths,

has that dented your confidence? How are you feeling?

No, not at all, we're surprisingly relaxed.

So, both teams have now a second, and last, chance

to make the quarterfinals,

and we will determine it by playing our usual quiz.

You won the toss over there, so you'll be going first.

Please choose an Egyptian hieroglyph.

-Lion, please.

-Lion. OK.

What is the connection between these clues?

Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

The eighth wonder of the world?

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

That's Donkey Kong. Kong.

-Kong.

-Is the answer.

You didn't need to see the last one.

The other clues are all Kong.

Yes, you recognised the computer game, did you, Donkey Kong?

-Yes.

-Have you played that obsessively as a younger person?

As a five-year-old, yeah, I was up and down those ladders all the time.

And the eighth wonder of course, King Kong, from the film.

What's Miranda - Queen, what's that referring to?

Her friend calls her, in the TV series, her friend calls her

Queen Kong, because she's very tall and ungainly.

That's right, in the sitcom Miranda,

Miranda Hart's character is referred to as Queen Kong by her

boarding school chums. Well done.

Oscar Men, what would you like?

Can we have Horned Viper, please?

I don't see why not. These are going to be picture clues.

What connects them? Here's the first.

Tyrannosaurus Rex, but it's in 8-bit graphics.

Next, please.

OK, broken robot...

THEY WHISPER

Yeah. Next, please.

I think this might be to do with

Douglas Adams. A whale flying, and

Marvin the Android was a...

OK. Shall we go for Douglas Adams?

Erm, can we go for Douglas Adams linking them all?

Or, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, specifically?

Yes, I don't think it really is...

I quite like that inventive answer,

but that's not what it is.

I'm going to show the fourth clue to the

Beekeepers for a possible bonus point.

These are the symbols displayed by

particular websites when they break.

-So, failure online.

-That's what it is.

They are error messages,

pictorial error messages.

-Which websites?

-We've got Google Chrome is the first one.

Josh was playing that on the train on the way here,

when his internet connection broke.

There's a little game, when it goes down you press the space bar,

and the dinosaur races, and you have to jump over cacti.

So when you claimed that your obsessive Donkey Kong playing was

when you were five years old, you were fudging the truth?

-I didn't say I'd stopped!

-Just through other media.

The third one is the fail whale

on Twitter.

That's absolutely right.

The final one would be YouTube.

That's it, well done for the bonus.

And you may choose a question. Which is it?

-Two Reeds, please.

-Two Reeds, OK.

What is the connection between these clues?

Here's the first.

Next, please.

Are these two different things?

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

THEY WHISPER

-Some sort of publishers...

-Shall we go for another?

-Yes.

-Next, please.

Fictional publishers.

Fictional publishers.

They are not

all fictional publishers.

So, Oscar Men, you have the chance

of a bonus point.

These are all the companies in different versions of The Office,

-throughout the world.

-That is what it is.

It's versions of The Office.

And if they were all publishers, there'd be all fictional publishers.

But actually in the first one, it becomes an insurance firm

in the German version of The Office. It's insurance.

Les Papiers Jennings, which version is that, do you think?

La Francaise?

It's actually Canada, French-Canadian version,

it's set in a paper company in Montreal.

Dunder Mifflin...

-That's the US version.

-That's the American one,

that's set in Pennsylvania. And Wernham Hogg, of course,

the British one, in a paper company in Slough.

So you get the bonus there, for versions of The Office.

And which question would you like?

-Twisted Flax, please.

-The Twisted Flax.

Well, it's a music question.

We'll be hearing your lovely clues.

What connects them? Here's the first.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

I know the piece of music. I don't know what it is, though.

Next, please.

# You could have done something... #

This is a theme tune, isn't it?

-Does this ring a bell to you?

-Not really, no.

Will we just get one more? Next, please.

# Spring is here, sky is blue... #

-THEY WHISPER

-Yeah, OK.

Next one, please.

# If I am dancing, pull up the floor

# If I am whistling...

Three seconds...

-Shall we say weddings?

-Yeah, weddings, involving weddings.

That is not the answer, I'm afraid.

So Beekeepers, you have a bonus chance now.

These are different types of ecclesiastical location,

or different types of church.

They are places of worship, yes.

Now, we did hear Get Me To The Church On Time,

which is about a wedding,

and Chapel of Love, which I suppose could be a wedding chapel.

What about the first two pieces?

The second was Winchester Cathedral,

who it was by escapes me.

-The New Vaudeville Band.

-Ah, yes.

-And the first one?

-No idea.

-Not sure.

Tchaikovsky's A l'eglise,

or To The Church, in French.

So not all about weddings, but more

generally, places of worship.

Lots of bonuses changing hands this evening.

What about your own question?

-Water, please.

-OK.

What is the connection between these clues?

Here's the first.

Next, please.

THEY WHISPER

These are letters that have been deleted from alphabets,

and the date and country which did so, and when.

Very well done,

coming in after two clues.

You get three points. Let's have a look at all the clues,

what can you tell me about them?

So...

Did Ataturk not like the letter Q?

Well, he didn't like the letter Q,

but also, he passed the alphabet law.

So they Romanised the alphabet generally, but they dropped the Q,

that disappeared, and K was preferred.

Those letters from the Cyrillic

alphabet in the second clue,

that's to do with a general

simplifying of the language,

in a Communist style. They took a few out that were a bit alike,

because we don't need them all.

Azerbaijan decided it could dispense

with the entire Cyrillic alphabet in

1991, and what about that fourth clue?

Does that ring any bells with you?

The Academie Francaise, in its perpetual revision of the

French language, decided 26 years ago, I think,

that they were going to get rid of some letters,

and they only just got rid of the silent I in "oignon".

That's right. To the absolute fury

of the National Front.

FRENCH ACCENT: "What? But the I is

"absolutely key to our identity!"

That was dropped,

and there were all sorts of complaints,

so you might have remembered that news story.

All removed letters, very well done.

Oscar Men, there is one remaining question, the Eye of Horus,

so it's swivelling itself towards you.

What is the connection between these clues?

Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

Next one, please.

They've been named after gods, or...

Norse gods, or something, I don't know.

Next, please.

Norse gods or Roman gods?

We believe they may all be named after Norse gods.

They are not all named after

Norse gods, I'm afraid,

so I'm going to show the fourth clue

to the Beekeepers for a possible

-bonus point.

-These things that the name has been voted on

-in a popular vote.

-I'll take that.

Things that have been voted on.

They've been the subject of polls on the internet, not all of them

actually adopted as names.

The newly-discovered moons of Pluto,

do you know what Star Trek fans voted for?

Moony McMoonface?

Spock.

No, it was Vulcan and Romulus.

But they were called Styx and Kerberos instead.

The apple-flavoured Mountain Dew drink,

that wasn't an official thing by Mountain Dew, it was a third party.

They had this poll, and people voted for things like Diabetes.

And the humpbacked whale,

now that WAS given the name that people voted for on the internet,

which was Mr Splashy Pants.

I think that's one of the places where your Norse gods rather

fall down, Mr Splashy Pants. And what about that fourth one?

-Boaty McBoatface.

-Boaty McBoatface won the poll,

but the people were denied, cruelly.

Boaty McBoatface won the poll,

but the vessel was named after Sir David Attenborough,

the great naturalist, instead.

Well remembered. That means, at the end of Round One,

the Oscar Men have one point, the Beekeepers have eight.

Onwards to Round Two, the sequences round.

Beekeepers, you'll be going first again,

so please choose a hieroglyph.

-Lion, please.

-Lion.

OK, I'd like to know what would come fourth in this sequence.

Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

THEY WHISPER

So, Clinton, Bush, Obama - "Yes, we can".

"Yes, we can, (44)".

Is an acceptable answer.

Very well done, and why?

These are the slogans associated with Presidents,

followed by the President's number in brackets.

That's absolutely right.

Not the only slogans,

but various slogans are

associated with presidential campaigns, and these are some

of them. Who are the presidents?

Bush, Clinton,

Bush, and Obama.

That's absolutely right. So, "yes, we can",

or some other slogan associated with

President Obama, the 44th President,

I wanted to hear.

Oscar Men, what would you like?

-Two Reeds, please.

-The Two Reeds, OK.

These are going to be picture clues,

what sort of thing would you expect to see in the fourth picture?

Here's the first.

Val Kilmer...

It could be Batmans.

Next, please.

OK, right. Let's work this out.

It was George Clooney, then it was Michael Keaton...

-No.

-Oh, is it Christian Bale?

Then, it's got to be... What do you call him? Ben Affleck.

-Ben Affleck.

-Is the right answer for

three points, very well done.

Tell me who you're looking at, and what the sequence is.

A rather chubby Val Kilmer, he was in Batman Returns,

and then there's George Clooney, was in Batman and Robin.

Christian Bale was The Dark Knight.

Then we've now got the Batman v Superman version, Ben Affleck.

That's pretty much it.

Batman Forever was Val Kilmer's film,

but they are successive Batmen.

And the most recent in 2016,

Ben Affleck from Batman v Superman - Dawn Of Justice.

Very well done, and back to you Beekeepers for a choice.

Horned Viper, please.

The Horned Viper. OK, what would come fourth in this sequence?

Here's the first.

-1946... We need to go for another.

-I'll get it.

Next, please.

-These are cars.

-Oh, yeah, cars.

-So it's vintage... I don't know the date.

-Do you want another?

-It's

-1900. Shall we get another?

-Yeah.

Next, please.

I think it's 1900-1915...

It's a classic.

-Is it classic?

-Yes.

THEY WHISPER

1900-1915 - Classic.

Not the answer I'm afraid,

although an interesting guess,

and I'll come back to you.

Oscar Men, do you want to have a go

-for a bonus?

-1914 and below, and we're going to go with veteran.

Before 1914, veteran

is the right answer.

What is the sequence?

These are all classified of old cars, reg of all the cars,

so having a classic car is what you have now.

But these were all how you would classify the cars in these various

periods of age.

That's right. They are

classifications of classic cars.

I think the problem with your answer

is that they are all sort of classic.

And also 1915 is the beginning of

the vintage period, so we need

to hear 1914 and before and veteran.

Or Edwardian, some people say.

Which I think is rather nicer.

Edwardian. Rather charming.

So, well done for the bonus,

and what would you like

for your own question?

-Twisted Flax, please.

-The Twisted Flax.

What would come fourth in this sequence?

Here's the first.

Right, 129.

Next one, please.

So, 134...

-Got an idea?

-Not yet, no.

OK, shall we move on?

-Yeah.

-OK, can we have the next one, please?

THEY WHISPER

Three seconds.

OK, 156 in black.

-And why would that be?

-It's just a nice number and it's a nice colour.

Unfortunately,

it's not the right answer.

-Beekeepers.

-147 in black.

Is the right answer.

-And why?

-Because these are the

scores you get in a perfect game in snooker when you get 147...

That's the colour you've just potted to get to that score.

That is exactly right.

The colour represents the

snooker ball you've just potted to get that score on your way to

a perfect break. Now, here's where

you were unlucky, Oscar Men,

with your guess of 156 in black.

Had you said 155 in black,

I would have given it to you.

Do you know why?

Yeah, because a foul...

If your opponent fouls, you can get extra points...

That's right, if your opponent fouls

before your perfect break,

you would get 155.

I would have given you that, but you were one wrong in your otherwise

-beautiful guess.

-Thank you.

You get the bonus then, Beekeepers.

And which question would you like?

-Water, please.

-Water.

OK. What would come fourth in this sequence?

Here is the first.

-Are these constituencies?

-Next, please.

THEY WHISPER

Yeah, but which election? I'm not sure it was last year.

Next, please.

-Sunderland South.

-Sunderland South, yeah.

Sunderland South.

I will accept,

but before the answer comes up,

we've got something slightly longer on the screen.

Do you know what it is?

Come, come.

You're a political journalist.

Is it something...?

-Is it South with four

-Hs? No.

It's Houghton and Sunderland South.

That is the full name of the constituency,

known as Sunderland South, as was its previous name.

And what is the sequence?

This is in reverse order the constituencies which declared

respectively fourth, third, second and first

at the last general election?

In the 2015 general election,

it is in reverse order

the first four to declare.

And Sunderland South often is.

I mean, in the last six elections,

they were the first to declare,

that is why people might remember them.

Well done.

They also remember them if they

come from that area or have lived in

that area, or have any kind of

knowledge, I don't mean it's

just because of that election,

but I mean people might guess

the answer for that reason.

Don't write in. Oscar Men,

one question remains.

The Eye of Horus. Once again, that's left on the shelf.

What would come fourth in this sequence?

Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

-This is musicals by Ben Elton.

-Oh, right.

Next, please.

Right, so...

No, I don't think so.

-This is definitely...

-What's the one he did with Lloyd Webber?

-That's The Beautiful Game.

-Oh, right.

Next, please.

Tonight's The Night.

THEY WHISPER

Three seconds.

OK, we are going to go with Tommy.

Not the answer, I'm afraid.

Beekeepers, do you know?

-Billy Elliot?

-That's not it either.

What do you think the sequence is?

Not really sure. Something about musicals.

What do you think the sequence is?

We thought it was Ben Elton musicals

but we didn't know what his newest one was.

It is Ben Elton musicals,

and the next one is Love Never Dies.

Yes. They are musicals in the CV of the wonderful Ben Elton.

There's an urban myth about

The Beautiful Game,

have you ever heard it? About how

Ben Elton came to write it?

-No.

-No.

-The urban myth has it that

Andrew Lloyd Webber when looking for

someone to write the book for his

musical about football wanted to

approach the comedian David Baddiel, who is a writer,

who knows a lot about football,

and slightly muddled up

David Baddiel and Ben Elton

in his head because some people

think they look alike.

I'm sure it's not true.

But I've heard that said.

Anyway, Ben Elton wrote it. It was a

massive success and he went on to

write these others.

Tonight's The Night,

what music does that feature?

I don't know.

-It doesn't ring a bell.

-Oh, come on.

# Tonight's the night. #

It's a Rod Stewart musical but it's

actually not above the life of

Rod Stewart. It's about a Detroit

car worker, that particular story.

But a jukebox musical with his music in it.

All Ben Elton musicals,

but you didn't get the last one.

At the end of Round Two, then,

the Oscar Men have five points,

the Beekeepers have 14.

Let's get these teams up against the wall, the Connecting Wall.

And, Oscar Men, you'll be going first this time.

So, please choose - Lion or Water?

-Water wall, please.

-OK.

Two and a half minutes to solve the water wall, starting now.

That's a website.

Cockermouth in the Kendal...

These are places in Cumbria.

BUZZ

-Kendal, Barrow. Keswick...

-Yeah.

-Cockermouth.

BUZZ

Kendal, Barrow, Keswick, Aspatria.

BUZZ

-No, not Chuckle.

-Not Chuckle, sorry.

BUZZ

-What are we missing out?

-Miss out Aspatria.

OK.

-BUZZ

-No, this isn't...

Brothers...

Marx brothers, Coen brothers, Chuckle brothers...

And Wright brothers.

-BUZZ

-Everly brothers.

Marx, Chuckle, Coen.

-OK. So...

-Guffaw, Chortle...

-Titter...

-Must be Cachinnate.

-Yeah.

Three lives now.

OK, so, Cockermouth and Kendal,

Barrow and...

We've had Keswick, haven't we? Have we tried...?

-Wheelchair, wheelspin, Wheelwright, wheelbarrow.

-OK, so...

-Wheelspin.

-No, no.

Wheelspin, Wheelwright, wheelchair, Barrow.

You solved the wall.

Very well done. So, that's four points immediately.

And what about the connections?

The top group - Marx, Chuckle, Coen, Everly?

-All brothers.

-That is it.

They are all well-known groups of brothers.

And the green group - Chortle, Guffaw, I suppose that's Cachinnate,

-and Titter.

-They're all laughs. Types of laugh.

They are ways to talk about laughter.

And what about the next group, starting Chair?

All preceded by the word wheel.

Wheelchair, wheelspin, wheelbarrow, Wheelwright.

That is correct. And what about this next one, starting Keswick?

These are all towns in Cumbria.

They are all places in Cumbria.

That is four points for the groups, four more for the connections,

another two for getting it all right.

Has that cheered you up after the earlier rounds?

-It has indeed.

-A little bit.

-Raised our spirits a bit.

Excellent stuff. Let's bring in their opponents now and give them a

new Connecting Wall, see what they can do about solving it.

You will be getting the Lion wall, that's what remains.

You have two and a half minutes to solve it, starting now.

So, children's game...

Children's TV shows - Flumps, Magic Roundabout, Paddington,

Noggin the Nog.

Engie Benjy and various others.

What else have we got? Melancholy, Psyche,...

Grecian Urn, Nightingale, odes on.

Yeah.

Ode on Melancholy?

Michelangelo's David?

Melancholy.

-BUZZ

-OK. Right, let's keep...

There's various different...

What's Engie Benjy? It must be another children's TV show.

-Paddington Bear... Is there another bear?

-Not that I can see.

-BUZZ

-What else have we got? Bondi Beach.

Waybuloo is presumably an Australian place as well.

-Anywhere else in there?

-Paddington is...

So, Bondi Beach, Woolloomooloo, Paddington...

Is Waybuloo an Australian...?

-BUZZ

-No.

-Nightingale, I think.

-OK.

-BUZZ

-OK. What else do we have in here?

So, The Rocks.

On The Rocks?

BUZZ

-BUZZ

-It's definitely Ode.

-Autumn?

-Yes, on Autumn.

BUZZ

OK, do you want to take over?

Grecian Urn and...

BUZZ

BUZZ

-BUZZ

-OK, erm...

The machine. What is the machine going to be?

-Florence...

-Oh, Florence and...

The Magic Roundabout and Florence.

Oh, so Florence and the Machine, Florence and the Magic Roundabout,

Florence Nightingale and Florence...

Florence!

-OK.

-Three lives now.

Right, so, Australia. So, we've got children's...

Children's stuff, so we've got Noggin the Nog, Engie Benjy...

-Paddington and Waybuloo...

-The Flumps.

-The Flumps. And then... Paddington?

-Go on, sure.

-BUZZ

-No, right, OK.

Do you want Waybuloo or Woolloomooloo?

Waybuloo.

That's it. You've solved the wall.

Very well done. Now, what about the connections?

Autumn, Melancholy, Grecian Urn, Psyche.

Are they all odes to...?

These are odes.

I need something more specific.

Keats' odes?

They are Keats' odes, yes.

Autumn is the most famous one.

That is the old season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

And what about the green group, starting The Machine?

-Florence.

-Florence.

That's right. Yes. That's all sorts of different kinds of connections.

There a band, Florence And The Machine,

a character in the Magic Roundabout, Florence Nightingale, the nurse,

of course, and Michelangelo's David is in Florence.

The next one, the Flumps, Waybuloo, Noggin the Nog, Engie Benjy.

Classic children's television shows.

Children's TV shows.

And the last one, starting Woolloomooloo?

Places in Australia.

Again, you need to be more specific.

Sydney. They're in Sydney.

-Places in Sydney?

-They are places in Sydney.

So that is four more points for the connections and the bonus

for getting it all right, so the maximum of ten.

Very well done. Let's have a look at the scores.

The Oscar Men have 15 points, the Beekeepers have 24.

Time now for the missing vowels round.

This will decide our place in the quarterfinals.

So, fingers on buzzers, teams,

I can tell you that the first group all avoid the sun.

-Beekeepers?

-Vampires.

Correct.

-Beekeepers?

-Gremlins.

Correct.

Beekeepers?

No, too long. Oscar Men, do you know?

No? It's from Lord Of The Rings - the Nazgul. Next clue.

-Beekeepers?

-Liverpudlians.

Correct. Next category -

Shakespeare plays with a word changed to its opposite.

-Oscar Men?

-Much Ado About Everything.

Well done.

-Oscar Men?

-Twelfth Day.

Yes, it is.

-Beekeepers?

-The Summer's Tale.

Yes, it is.

-Beekeepers?

-The Merry Husbands Of Windsor.

Correct. Next category, they can all be abbreviated to two letters.

-Oscar Men?

-Headquarters.

HQ, correct.

-Beekeepers?

-Province of Quebec.

PQ.

-Oscar Men?

-Intelligence quotient.

IQ.

BELL RINGS

That last one was equalization, or EQ,

but the bell has gone for the end of the quiz.

And looking at the final scores, I can tell you that the winners,

with 29 points, and through to the quarterfinals, are the Beekeepers.

Very well done to you. Well quizzed,

and finishing in second place with 19, it's the Oscar Men.

So, and afraid, we are saying goodbye to you.

I'm sorry. You've been lovely to have around.

-Thank you.

-Have a very good trip back.

Thank you very much for watching.

And if you were offended, or even if you weren't offended,

please do feel free to complain.

It's a wonderful way to learn how to use the internet.

Goodbye.