Episode 12 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. We're hoping to see fireworks tonight rather than damp squibs

as we ignite the student mind with some pretty tough questions

about pretty much everything.

At stake is a place in the second round.

Queen's University Belfast traces its origins

to the early 19th century and an initiative

to provide higher education for Catholics and Presbyterians

as a counterpart to Trinity College, Dublin,

which was then an Anglican institution.

Alumni include the actor Stephen Rea,

the comedian Patrick Kielty,

the poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney

and the former Irish president Mary McAleese.

Queen's made it to the second round of the last series,

so tonight's four will no doubt be hoping to replicate

and improve upon that performance.

Representing around 24,000 students and with an average age of 24,

let's meet the Queen's Belfast team.

Hello, I'm Padraig Regan,

I'm from Belfast and I'm studying a PhD in poetry.

Hi, I'm Caitlin Newby, I'm from Los Angeles, California,

and I am also studying for a PhD in poetry.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Stuart Mathieson, I'm from Belfast

and I'm studying a PhD in modern history.

Hello, I'm Enda Doherty,

I'm from Strabane in County Tyrone and I study finance.

APPLAUSE

Playing them, the team from the University of Birmingham,

which was one of the first redbrick or civic universities.

It received its royal charter in 1900

and now has around 34,000 students.

Alumni include the comedy performers Victoria Wood and Chris Addison,

the broadcaster Chris Tarrant, the actress Tamsin Greig

and the enigma that is Ann Widdecombe.

Birmingham has made numerous appearances

in this competition in the past,

but the trophy has always eluded them.

With an average age of 29,

let's meet the four hoping to change that.

Hello, my name's Eliot Jan-Smith,

I'm from Derby and I'm studying chemistry.

Hello, my name's Fraser Sutherland, I come from Edinburgh

and I study history. And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm George Greenlees, I'm originally from Plymouth

and I'm studying medicine.

Hi, I'm Chris Rouse, I'm from Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire

and I study history and politics.

APPLAUSE

Well, the rules are the same as ever.

Starter questions are worth ten points.

They're solo efforts on the buzzer,

and bonuses are team efforts - you can collaborate.

They're worth 15.

Fingers on the buzzers. Here's your first starter for ten.

Formed in 1934, which political party

won its first parliamentary seat in a by-election of 1945,

only to lose it three months later in the general election?

It has had continuous...

Is it the UK Communist Party?

No, you lose five points.

It has had continuous representation in Parliament since 1967,

following the election of Winnie Ewing,

who later became party president.

The Scottish Nationalist Party.

Scottish National Party is correct, yes. The SNP.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on vandalism and the arts, Queen's.

After its toe was attacked by a hammer in 1991,

scientists were able to determine the precise origin

of the marble block used nearly 500 years earlier

to create which statue in Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia?

It's Michelangelo's David.

Correct.

Sculpted by Edvard Eriksen and first unveiled in 1913,

which statue has, over the years, twice lost its head,

had an arm sawn off and had paint thrown over it?

Perhaps... What's the...? Oliver Cromwell? Maybe.

Or what about the statue in Piccadilly Circus? Eros? Yeah.

Or is that...? I don't...

Cromwell? Eros? OK, we'll try...

Eros.

No, it's the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen.

And finally, a controversial work by which Indian-born British sculptor

was vandalised during its display in 2015

in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles?

Anish Kapoor.

Anish Kapoor?

Correct. APPLAUSE

We're going to take another starter question now.

Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Desmond and Eva...?

They're all storms of 2015/16.

That is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on Wikipedia, Birmingham.

Ahead of German and Dutch,

which language has the largest number

of Wikipedia articles after English?

It has around 8 million speakers, mainly in Northern Europe.

French? French.

French.

No, it's Swedish.

Secondly, the large number of articles on Swedish Wikipedia

is due to the use of an automated piece of software

that compiles data from various sources into articles.

What three-letter term denotes such an application?

No idea. DCM.

No, it's a bot.

Cebuano and Waray-Waray are languages

that use the same bot as Swedish to create articles.

Both now appear in the top ten by number of Wikipedia articles.

In which country do those languages have regional status?

Papua New Guinea, maybe, or something like that?

BOTH: I don't know.

Papua New Guinea.

No, it's the Philippines.

Ten points for this. Oriental and German

are the two main British species

of which insect known to contaminate food?

They thrive in large, centrally heated buildings

such as hospitals and bakeries

and are characterised by whip-like antennae,

a broad, flattened body and leathery forewings.

Cockroaches.

Yes. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on an international award, Queen's.

Born in 1863, which professor at the University of Toronto

gave his name to the award known officially as

the international medal for outstanding discoveries in mathematics?

Is that the Fields Medal? Somebody Fields?

Fields? Any idea? No?

Fields.

It was Fields, yes. John Charles Fields.

In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani

became the first female winner of the Fields Medal.

The award cited her work on the geometry of which surfaces

named after a 19th-century German mathematician?

Is that maybe a Mobius strip? Could be.

The Mobius strip.

No, they're Riemann surfaces.

And finally, the Fields Medal is awarded every four years

to mathematicians under what age

on January the 1st of the year of the award?

40. 40.

40 is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE I'd be happy enough with 40.

Right, you get a set now of picture questions.

Your picture starter is a map of the Mediterranean.

For ten points, I want you to identify

the ancient port that's marked there.

Tyre.

Tyre is right. APPLAUSE

It was one of the chief cities

of the ancient Phoenician civilisation,

a confederation of maritime traders who founded port colonies

on the coast of the Mediterranean,

many of which survive as major cities today.

Your bonuses are maps showing three such cities.

I simply want the modern name of each. Firstly, for five...

It's not Palermo, is it? Palermo?

It's not Messina cos Messina's on the strait.

I want to say Syracuse. Syracuse.

Syracuse.

No, that's Palermo. Secondly...

Is that Cadiz? Yeah, Cadiz. Cadiz.

That is Cadiz. And finally...

Carthage. But it's not called that.

Carthage. It's not called Carthage.

And Carthage is Tunisia, isn't it?

I think it's Algiers. Is it Algiers?

Algiers.

Algiers is correct.

APPLAUSE Ten points for this. Coined by

the US political activist Michael Harrington

to denote former liberals who have grown disaffected

with government social welfare programmes,

what term describes a right-wing political ideology

that emphasises free-market capitalism and...

Is it libertarianism? No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..and an interventionist foreign policy?

Neo-conservatism.

That's correct, yes. APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on Chinese history, Queen's.

Regarded as a national hero in China,

Lin Zexu was an official who confiscated the stocks

of British merchants in events that led to the outbreak,

in 1839, of which conflict named after a commodity?

The Opium War?

The Opium War.

Correct.

In a memorial to Queen Victoria about the opium trade,

Lin mentioned the perceived British dependence on tea

and on what vegetable widely grown in Britain?

It gives its name to the triangle of cultivation in West Yorkshire

between Morley, Rothwell and Wakefield.

Rhubarb.

Rhubarb?

Rhubarb is right.

Lin was dismissed when China suffered reverses

in the war with Britain.

He was later recalled to service

and died in 1850 on the way to combat

which major rebellion?

Was there something called, like, the Boxer Rebellion?

That was later than that. Was it? Sorry, I don't know.

Was there one in Manchu or something? Um...

Come on.

Um, Manchu.

It was the Taiping Rebellion.

Ten points for this. Answer as soon as your name

is called.

Assuming that the speed of light is 300 million metres per second,

what, in metres, is the wavelength of an electromagnetic wave

with a frequency of 60 megahertz?

2m.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Queen's?

Five. Five is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the American poet Edna St Vincent Millay.

"Death devours all lovely things

"Lesbia with her sparrows shares the darkness

"Presently, every bed is narrow."

These words of Millay echo the poetry of which Roman poet

of the 1st century BC?

Um, I have no idea.

Horace?

Yeah, try it.

Horace. Horace?

Horace.

No, it's Catullus.

According to Millay, which ancient mathematician,

"Alone has looked on beauty bare"?

Born in Alexandria around 300 BC,

he's best known for a treatise on geometry.

Is that Aristotle? Euclid. Is it? Yes.

Euclid.

It is Euclid.

"I was following in the footsteps

"of Edna St Vincent Millay unhappily in my own horrible sneakers.

"She made poetry seem so easy, that we could all do it.

"But, of course, we couldn't."

Which US poet, screenwriter and New Yorker columnist said that?

Um, name a poet and...

Come on. Brenda Shaughnessy.

Nominate Regan.

Brenda Shaughnessy. No.

It was Dorothy Parker. Ten points for this.

Meaning "senior male personal servant",

what word is found in both the title of the senior officer

of the royal household of the United Kingdom

and in a hereditary title held by one of the great...

Equerry.

No, you lose five points

and I'm going to offer it to you now, Queen's.

..one of the great officers of state?

The latter is responsible for royal affairs

in the Palace of Westminster.

Valet. No, that's a servant.

It's chamberlain. Lord Chamberlain and Lord Great Chamberlain.

Ten points for this.

In the religion of which ancient civilisation

were souls in the underworld

judged by weighing the heart of the deceased...?

Ancient Egypt. Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses this time are on trees and shrubs.

With around 500 species, which genus of the myrtle family

is native to Australia

where it's often known as the stringybark or gumtree?

Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus.

Correct.

The Leptospermum genus of myrtles has what two-word common name

thought to have come about because Australian settlers

made a herbal infusion from its leaves?

Redbush.

Redbush.

No, it's tea tree.

And finally, in Scotland, products containing bog myrtle

are sold as a repellent for Culicoides impunctatus.

(Midges.) How is this biting insect more commonly known?

Midges. The Highland midge is right, yes.

APPLAUSE Right, we're going to take

a music round now.

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of popular music.

For ten points, I want the name of the album

on which it originally appeared.

# But the film is a saddening bore... #

Ziggy Stardust.

No. You can hear a little more, Queen's.

# For she's lived it ten times or more

# She could spit in the eyes of fools

# As they ask her to focus on

# Sailors fighting in the dance hall... #

Hunky Dory. Hunky Dory is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, for your music bonuses,

we follow on from David Bowie's Life On Mars

with three more of his songs.

For five points in each case, I simply want you to name the album

on which each of the songs first appeared. Firstly...

# Do you remember a guy that's been

# In such an early song

# I've heard a rumour from Ground Control

# Oh, no, don't say it's true

# They got a message from the Action Man

# I'm happy Hope you're happy, too... #

Ashes To Ashes. Ashes To Ashes.

No, it's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).

Ashes To Ashes was the track. Secondly...

# Don't you wonder sometimes

# 'Bout sound and vision

# Blue, blue, electric blue That's the colour of my room... #

The Man Who Fell To Earth.

No, it's Low, that album.

That was Sound And Vision, of course. And finally...

# Look out your window I can see his light

# If we can sparkle... #

Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

That's correct, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust

And The Spiders From Mars. Right, ten points for this.

"The greatest artist of linear design that Europe has ever had."

These words of Bernard Berenson refer to which Florentine artist

born around 1445?

His works include drawings for Dante's Divine Comedy.

Botticelli. Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on the French film director Luc Besson.

From the 1980s, Besson was a leading figure

in which French film movement named by the critic Raphael Bassan?

Its three-word name includes an English word

that gives the idea of style over substance.

Erm...

Was it not the Nouvelle...?

It wasn't the Nouvelle Vague? Could be.

La Nouvelle Vague. The New Veuve?

No, it's the Cinema du Look.

Secondly, Milla Jovovich played the title role

in Besson's 1999 film The Messenger.

Which historical figure is its subject?

Joan of Arc, I think. Joan of Arc.

Correct.

Starring Scarlett Johansson, which 2014 film by Besson

took the highest overseas box office receipts

of any French film for 20 years?

HE WHISPERS

Was that Luc Besson? That was earlier than 2014.

I think it was the one with the... Lucy? Lucy, is it? I think so.

Lucy?

That's correct.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

Name any two of the four British monarchs since 1715

who were succeeded by someone other than their son or daughter.

Er, William IV and, um...

I'm sorry, no, if you buzz, you must answer straight away.

Otherwise, you're stopping others having a go.

William IV and Edward VIII. Correct, yes. The others were

George II and George IV. APPLAUSE

So, you get a set of bonuses, then, Birmingham, on astronomy.

Which non-zodiac constellation includes the red giant Betelgeuse?

Is it Sirius? I'm not sure.

It's Orion, I think. That's a star, though, isn't it?

A non-zodiac? No, Orion's a constellation.

Is it Orion? I think it is Orion.

Orion. Orion is right.

Which constellation of the southern sky

holds a luminous blue variable star about 7,500 light years away,

which became the second-brightest star in the sky

during an outburst in 1843?

The Southern Cross - that's the big one, isn't it?

The only other one I know is the Table.

I don't think it's the Table.

Do you know any Southern Hemisphere constellations? No idea.

The Southern Cross. No, it's Carina.

Finally, which constellation holds a large nearby spiral galaxy

roughly 2 million light years away?

The Southern Cross?

Spiral galaxy?

Come on, let's have it, please. Cassiopeia.

Cassiopeia. That's northern, isn't it? Is it?

The Southern Cross.

No, it's Andromeda.

Ten points for this. In the 20th century,

the Chinese People's Volunteer Army

played a major part in which conflict,

suffering several hundred thousand casualties?

The force intervened on the side of the KPA against...

The Korean War. Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on an economist, Birmingham.

Get them, you'll take the lead.

Which 20th-century Austro-American economist

gives his name to a column on business and innovation

in The Economist newspaper?

Friedman, I think. Friedman? Friedman or Hayek. I don't know.

Friedman.

No, it's Schumpeter.

In a work of 1942, what two-word paradoxical term

did Schumpeter coin to describe the process of industrial mutation

that incessantly revolutionises the economic structure from within?

I don't know.

Boom and bust.

No, it's creative destruction.

Of which economist, who died in 1946, did Schumpeter say,

"He was childless and his philosophy of life

"was essentially a short-run philosophy"?

John Maynard Keynes.

Correct.

Going to take another picture round. For your picture starter,

you'll see a painting.

Ten points if you can identify the artist.

Monet.

It is Monet.

APPLAUSE Well done.

That was one of Monet's many paintings

of the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil,

where he lived in the 1870s and which became, during this time,

a creative hub for the developing Impressionism movement.

Your picture bonuses are three more Impressionist views

of Argenteuil from that period.

I want the name of the artist in each case, please. Firstly...

Seurat? I'm thinking...

I'm thinking possibly Renoir, but I'm not sure.

It does look a bit like a Renoir. It doesn't look like a Seurat to me.

Renoir?

No, that's Manet. Secondly...

Stick with Renoir, maybe? Or Seurat?

No, I don't think it looks like a Seurat.

Not Cezanne, is it?

No, Cezanne was a Post-Impressionist.

Yeah, why don't you go for Renoir?

Renoir.

No, it's Sisley. And finally...

Erm...

Is that Pissarro?

Nominate Sutherland.

Pissarro?

No, that is Renoir. Bad luck. LAUGHTER

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

The term presbyopia refers to the progressive deterioration

of near vision with age.

Which word, with the same prefix,

refers to the progressive deterioration of hearing with age?

Presbycusis.

Presbycusis is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on airports, Birmingham.

One of the few world airports

named after a fictional or legendary figure,

Robin Hood Airport has a logo

that bears the names of which two locations?

Sheffield and...

No, no, it's... Is it Doncaster?

No, it's Nottingham.

It's South Yorkshire, isn't it, Robin Hood Airport?

Yeah, Robin Hood is...

Sorry, Nottingham is East Midlands.

That's East Mids, yeah.

Sheffield and... Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

It's Sheffield and Doncaster, so I can't accept that.

Named after the hero of a national epic,

Manas is the main international airport

of which mountainous Central Asian country?

Bhutan? Nepal? Bhutan is...

Nepal, maybe? I think it could be Bhutan.

It's not a country, though, is it?

Do you think Bhutan? I think Nepal. OK.

Nepal.

No, it's Kyrgyzstan.

Described as a white elephant project,

the airport of Ciudad Real to the south of Madrid

closed in 2012 after only three years of operation,

and was named, perhaps aptly, after which fictional character?

Don Quixote. Don Quixote?

Correct.

Ten points for this. Which decade saw

the publication of James Clerk Maxwell's treatise

on electricity and magnetism?

The same decade also saw the establishment

of the Universal Postal Union in Berne,

Bell's invention of the telephone

and Edison's invention of the phonograph.

The 1890s.

Anyone like to buzz from Birmingham?

1870s. 1870s is correct.

APPLAUSE

Birmingham, these bonuses are on English adjectives

from French past participles.

In each case, give the word from the definition.

All three end with an E acute.

Firstly, from a verb meaning "to push to excess",

a five-letter word meaning peculiar, eccentric

or beyond the bounds of what is considered correct and proper.

Outre. Is it outre? Outre. Outre? Outre.

Outre.

Outre is right. From a verb meaning "take care of",

a six-letter word that means well-groomed

or dressed with great care and attention to detail.

Well-groomed?

Come on, let's have it, please.

Dresse. LAUGHTER

Dresse? No, it's soigne!

And finally, a five-letter word

meaning indifferent to pleasure or enjoyment,

especially due to overfamiliarity.

Blase.

Blase is right.

Three minutes to go. Ten points. Its name derived from

the Cornish for court on a height

rather than from the name of a reptile,

which peninsula forms the southernmost...?

The Lizard. The Lizard is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Tolkien's The Hobbit, Birmingham.

In chapter one, entitled An Unexpected Party,

Bilbo Baggins is visited by Gandalf and later by 13 dwarves.

Who is the dwarves' leader?

Thorin Oakenshield. Correct.

At the end of chapter two, Roast Mutton,

the party find three notable edged weapons in the troll hoard.

Orcrist and Sting are two of these. What's the third?

Nominate Rouse.

Is it Glamdring?

It is indeed.

In chapter three, A Short Rest,

Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves stay for a fortnight at which location,

also known as The Last Homely House East Of The Sea?

Nominate Rouse. Is it Rivendell?

It is Rivendell.

I don't think we'll enquire too closely

into what you get up to at night. LAUGHTER

Right, ten points for this.

Following Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1790s,

which state was admitted to the Union in 1803?

Its first two capitals were Chillicothe and Zanesville,

while the current capital is named after an explorer

born in Italy in 1451.

Ohio. Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on the sciences.

Firstly, the blood of which animal

contains a compound known as LAL, or L-A-L,

which immediately binds and clots

around fungi, viruses and bacterial endotoxins?

It could be leech, but I don't know.

THEY WHISPER

Leech.

No, it's the horseshoe crab.

In mathematics, what animal-related term

denotes a surface with three dips

described by Z = X cubed - 3 XY squared?

Something to do with a camel? I don't know.

A camel?

No, it's a monkey saddle.

And finally, what is the scientific name

of the stirrup-shaped ossicle in the middle ear?

Stepes or stapes.

Do you know? Stapes.

Stapes.

Correct. Ten points for this. Often cited as an example

of metafiction,

that is, a novel that makes the reader aware of its status

as a fictional artefact,

which novel by John Fowles begins in Lyme Bay in Dorset?

The French Lieutenant's Woman. That's correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on South America.

GONG And that's the gong.

Queen's University Belfast have 105.

Birmingham University have 165.

Well, I'm afraid, Queen's,

we're going to have to say goodbye to you.

You'll have to take your giant broccoli home with you.

LAUGHTER Thank you very much for joining us.

Birmingham, 165 is a pretty convincing win

and we shall look forward to seeing you in round two.

Thank you for joining us.

I hope you can join us for another first-round match next time,

but until then, it's goodbye from Queen's University Belfast.

ALL: Bye.

It's goodbye from Birmingham University.

ALL: Goodbye. And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE