Episode 87 Eggheads

These people are amongst the greatest quiz players in Britain.

Together, they make up the Eggheads,

arguably, the most formidable quiz team in the country.

The question is, can they be beaten?

Welcome to Eggheads, the show where a team of five quiz challengers

attempt to beat possibly the greatest quiz team in Britain.

Their quiz pedigree is well known as they have won

the country's toughest quiz shows. They are the Eggheads.

Taking on our quiz champions today are Fiddlers' Five.

This team of friends and family have a shared connection

through their local pub, the Fiddlers' bar in Glasgow,

where team captain Michelle works and the others quiz.

Let's meet them.

Hi, my name's Michelle. I'm 36 and I'm a customer service advisor.

Hello, I'm David, I'm 48 and I'm a police officer.

Hello, my name is Stephen. I'm 54 and I am a production worker.

Hello. My name is Gemma.

I'm 30 years old and I'm an electronic engineer.

Hi, I'm Jo. I'm 42 and I'm self-employed.

Michelle and team, welcome to you.

A fantastic spread of professions that you have.

Tell us about the quiz in the pub.

We do various quizzes. We've done some over Christmas and new year.

We tend to do them whenever we can.

We raise money for charity through them.

Terrific. Good luck here. Take them on and beat them soundly.

Every day there is £1,000 worth of cash

up for grabs for our challengers, but if they don't beat the Eggheads,

the prize money rolls over to the next show.

Fiddlers' Five, the Eggheads won just the last game.

That means £2,000 says you can't beat them today.

The first head-to-head battle is on History.

Where's the historian here?

Who did we choose for History?

-Gemma. Do you fancy it?

-I'm going to have to.

It's not going any other way, is it?

-It's not Science which I was after.

-Go for it, Gemma.

-OK.

OK, before you go, pick an Egghead. Any one of them to take you on.

It's got to be Daphne.

I can't come to Eggheads and not play against Daphne.

OK, our own Miss Marple.

So, Gemma of Fiddlers' Five against Daphne of the Eggheads

and to ensure there is no conferring,

would you please take your positions in the Question Room?

-So, Gemma, you're an electronics engineer?

-That's right, Jeremy.

Does that mean computers or lots of stuff?

Lots of stuff.

I mainly specialised in firmware which is

-the reprogrammable stuff inside microchips.

-Firmware.

Is that stuff you can touch?

Absolutely not, no. That's programming microchips.

OK, you've left me behind within two sentences.

-You're going to move to Silicone Valley?

-That's the plan.

That's the plan.

I think the best place for an electronics engineer to go.

I'll ask each of you three multiple questions on History in turn.

Whoever answers the most is the winner. Gemma, do you want to go first or second?

I'd like to go first, please, Jeremy.

A piece of armour known as a gorget was worn to protect

which part of the body?

-Gorget.

-A piece of armour known as a gorget, spelt G-O-R-G-E-T

was worn to protect which part of the body?

Right, throat, ankle, shoulder.

Gorge, gorget. There's nothing jumping out at me.

Ankle and shoulder.

I'm thinking if it was ankle or shoulder,

it might be slightly more familiar to me and it's not, so

on that crude deduction, I'm going to go for throat, please, Jeremy.

It's a crude, but brilliant deduction because you're right.

Yes!

Any help with the logic there, Eggheads?

-Gorge.

-As in gorging on food?

No, gorge as in French for throat.

Daphne, what relation was Queen Victoria

to her predecessor William IV?

She was his niece.

She was indeed his niece. Well done. Back to you, Gemma.

Which king of England was the son of Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet,

Count of Anjou?

I think he was the first Plantagenet and it was Henry II

who was the daughter of Matilda who had been

fighting in the anarchy with her cousin Stephen of Blois.

I think. Henry II. In fact, I'm confident, Henry II.

I wish I could give you more than one point for that. Henry II it is.

Well done.

-I've no idea.

-You're secretly an Egghead.

OK, Daphne,

Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg was assassinated

alongside which historical figure to whom she was married?

Oh, yes, it must have been Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo.

Franz Ferdinand is the right answer.

Poor old Sophie doesn't get a mention, does she,

in the history books? OK, Gemma, third one.

See if you can keep the pressure on our Daphne.

Who was the third and final husband of the Italian noblewoman

Lucrezia Borgia?

Well, the name means absolutely nothing to me

so it's going to have to be a guess again.

What way I'm going to guess this time...

I'm going to go for the first one, Giovanni Sforza. It's a good name.

Sadly, it is incorrect. Can any Eggheads tell us this?

-Alfonso d'Este.

-Yes, how do you know that?

-You don't have to know it.

-I think...

Was he one of the husbands that she poisoned?

What was the poisoning story? Did she poison all of them?

No, I think she's had a very bad press.

I see. So her reputation has been mangled?

Yes, it was other people and not her at all.

The answer is Alfonso d'Este.

He may or may not have been a victim

of naughty Borgia.

Daphne, you take the round if you get this right.

The word martinet for a strict disciplinarian is

derived from an officer in the army of which French leader?

Oh, I knew he was a Frenchman. It's not Charles de Gaulle.

Louis XIV.

-You don't think so, Eggheads?

-Is it Napoleon?

Barry and Chris are certain it's Napoleon, but Daphne, you are right.

-Oh, thank you.

-It is actually Louis XIV

that the word martinet comes from, his army anyway. Gemma, sorry,

you've been knocked out and you played very strongly.

Beaten by our Egghead and so not in the final.

Would you please rejoin your teams?

As it stands, the challengers have lost one brain from the final round.

The Eggheads have lost no brains.

We play on and our next subject is Music.

Who would like Music?

-I'll go for it.

-Yeah.

-I'll take it, Jeremy, please.

-David, against which Egghead?

-Judith, please.

So it's David from Fiddlers' Five against Judith from the Eggheads.

To ensure no conferring, please take your positions.

-So, David, you've had a varied career?

-I have, yes.

A police officer for 23 years, all of it in Glasgow, but I'm now working

in the city centre, which has its own challenges, but a very nice city.

Before that, a shipyard worker.

I was. I worked in the Yarrow shipyard which builds naval warships.

Gosh! How incredible.

So is the job that you did back then still in existence?

Yes, a steelworker building the actual frame of the ship is still

very much on the go.

OK, I'll ask you three questions, multiple choice, on Music,

and you can choose to have the first or second set.

I think I'll go first, please, Jeremy.

Here we go. Good luck.

Elton John had a UK No 1 single in 1990 with a double A-side

of Sacrifice and which other song?

Right, um...

I've only heard of two of these - Passengers and Healing Hands.

I would go by the year of 1990, I'll go for Passengers.

It's a tough question. It's not, it's Healing Hands.

Wow! I can't even...

Can you hum that or remember it or anything?

Judith, you know Elton John, what does that sound like?

-Absolutely no idea.

-No idea at all?

-No. And I couldn't sing it anyhow.

-OK. Shall we move on?

-Oh, let's.

'In lama land there's a one-man band and he'll toot his flute for you'

is a line from which song by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen?

I think it might be Come Fly With Me.

That's the right answer. Well done.

Over to you, David. The highest string on a standard violin

is normally tuned to what note?

Right. A complete guess with this one, Jeremy,

I would go for...

G.

-G is your answer. It is actually E.

-OK.

-OK, Judith. Did you play the violin, Judith?

-For about five minutes.

-And it was so long ago I can't remember.

-Here's your question.

In 2005, Madonna had a UK No 1 single with Hung Up,

which sampled the instrumental riff from which Abba song?

Well, this will be a guess. Um...

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is the right answer. With two points to nil,

there's no way back for you, David. That means Judith is in the final.

Please, both of you, come back and rejoin your team mates.

So the challengers have now lost two brains from the final round,

the Eggheads have lost no brains.

The next subject is Arts & Books.

I was thinking of staying till the end

but I'll give it a try if you want.

-Just go for it.

-I think you should just go for it.

-OK, yep, I'll try this one.

-OK, good stuff. Against which Egghead?

-Er...

-Can't be Judith or Daphne. Got to be a bloke.

Chris.

-OK.

-HE LAUGHS

OK, so Stephen from Fiddlers' Five against Chris from the Eggheads.

So there's no conferring, please go to the Question Room.

-Stephen, you make whiskey, I understand?

-Yeah.

-And you're involved in sampling it?

-Well, we can buy it.

There's a shop in the place where I work. You can buy at a cheaper price.

-And have you been sampling it before the show?

-No, unfortunately not.

Did you bring any for Chris?

-No, but I'll probably drop some off for him.

-If you win you can.

-Yeah.

Good luck in this round.

Arts & Books, three questions, multiple choice,

and you can decide to go first or second.

I think I'll take the plunge and go first, please.

Here we go. To get some more of your players in the final.

First question, which creature is mentioned in the first verse

of the popular poem attributed to Clement C Moore that starts,

"'Twas the night before Christmas"?

Hm. I don't really know that poem so well, that story.

Partridge is a Christmas type of bird, I suppose, but...

I really think I'm going to go for mouse.

-I think Gemma is happy with that.

-Yes!

-Yeah, mouse it is. Well done.

-Yay!

Chris, your question.

In which year was Dan Brown's novel Angels And Demons first published?

Well, 1990's too early.

And I don't think in 2000 he'd got the Da Vinci Code out,

let alone Angels And Demons.

So it's got to be 2010.

It's not.

2010 is wrong. It's 2000.

OK. Stephen, your question.

The villainous moneylender Daniel Quilp is a character in which

Charles Dickens novel?

Fortunately, this is one of my favourite authors

and I've read this book.

It's The Old Curiosity Shop.

Nice one. The Old Curiosity Shop it is.

Good. Well, you are now ahead of the Egghead and, Chris,

if you don't get this right, you're not in the final round

and it's looking a little bit better for our Fiddlers.

The Menaced Assassin is a 1920s work by which painter?

Sounds a bit doom-laden.

Don't think it's Rene Magritte, who was a Belgian surrealist.

He had men with apples for heads

and locomotives appearing out of fireplaces and that sort of thing.

I think it's a bit early for Dali. Is it Picasso or is it Dali?

Picasso did his own thing, Dali was weird,

so we'll go with Salvador Dali.

I thought you were heading there. Barry, you know.

-I think it's Rene Magritte.

-It is Rene Magritte.

-Is it?

So, Chris, you're not in the final.

Well done, Stephen.

The corner's been turned here on the challengers' team.

Stephen, you'll be in the final. Well done.

Do come back and rejoin your team-mates.

As it stands, the challengers have lost two brains from the final round

whilst the Eggheads have lost one brain.

The last subject, before our final, is Sport.

Do you have a plan on Sport?

Do you want me to do it, and keep you to the end, Jo?

If you want, I don't mind.

We feel confident you'll win this.

I'll guess my way through it! I'll take this one.

Michelle against... Who do you want to play?

It's got to be Barry or Pat.

Erm, I think Barry.

OK, Michelle from Fiddlers' Five against Barry from the Eggheads,

and just to make sure there's no conferring, please go to the Question Rooms now.

So, Michelle, was there a bit of a sport crisis there for a second on your team?

There was, yes. This isn't the subject I'd have chosen.

Had you a player who would've done Sport, but had competed already?

-David... Definitely, David.

-I sensed that.

-Barry, how are you on your Sport?

-Getting better.

I'm watching a lot more now than I used to do.

-Was football your weak point, I can't remember?

-Er, I was never strong on football.

-OK.

-Let's put it that way.

Let's see how you do. I'll ask each of you three questions on Sport.

Michelle, you can choose to go first or second.

I'll go first, please, Jeremy.

Here we go, good luck. In which city was the cyclist Chris Hoy born in 1976?

Er, well, I knew he was Scottish.

I think he was born in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is the right answer, Michelle, well done.

In August 2010, which footballer scored a hat-trick

to take Tottenham into the group stages of the Champions League?

I watched this match and I think it was Jermain Defoe.

Were you wearing your glasses when you watched it?

-That means it wasn't.

-It was Peter Crouch.

Jermain Defoe's the wrong answer.

Michelle, the tennis player, Betty Stove,

who was beaten by Virginia Wade in the 1977 Wimbledon Ladies' Singles final

was born in which country?

Erm, this one will be a guess.

Betty Stove...

I think I'm going for...

..Netherlands.

-What made you choose Netherlands?

-I don't know...

I think her surname sounds from the Netherlands.

-She sounds a bit Dutch?

-Yeah.

She has got an umlaut on the "O", I don't know if that helps.

You're right, Michelle, it's the Netherlands.

Barry...

After all we said about Sport.

If you get this one wrong, you're not in the final round.

Which snooker player won four consecutive World Championships

between 1973 and 1976?

It certainly wasn't Eddie Charlton

because he never won a snooker championship at all.

I think Cliff Thornburn only won once.

My answer must be Ray Reardon.

Ray Reardon is the right answer.

OK, Michelle, keep the advantage now.

The rugby union player Harry Ellis, who was forced to retire in 2010, through injury,

played in which position for Leicester and England?

Again, it's going to be a guess.

Erm, but I think I'll go for fullback.

Fullback is wrong, I'm afraid, it's scrum-half.

You have two points, Barry has one.

If you get this right, Barry, we go to Sudden Death.

Bing Crosby was a part-owner of which Major League Baseball team?

That's an interesting question.

The sport you'd normally associate with Bing Crosby is golf.

So, which one of these would it be?

I know he spent a lot of his time in California

which would tend to suggest the Los Angeles Dodgers

but for some reason, I'm not sure that's right.

I'm going for the St Louis Cardinals.

I always get confused by the Louis and the Lewis

because it's Louis Armstrong but it's St Louis Missouri.

I guess we say the "St Lewis Cardinals" but it doesn't matter,

-it's wrong. Pittsburgh Pirates is the right answer.

-Ah!

So, Michelle, well done.

Your team's turning the corner and you're in the final round.

Barry, you're knocked out. The Eggheads are depleted now. Do both of you rejoin us for the final.

This is what we've been playing towards. It is time for the final round

which, as always, is General Knowledge.

Those of you who lost your head-to-heads

won't take part in this round.

So, David and Gemma from the Fiddlers' Five

and Chris and Barry from the Eggheads would you please leave the studio.

Michelle, Stephen and Jo, you are playing to win £2,000.

Daphne, Pat and Judith, you are playing for the Eggheads' reputation.

As usual, I will ask each team three questions in turn.

This time the questions are all General Knowledge. You are allowed to confer.

So, Michelle, Stephen and Jo, the big question is...

Are your three brains better than the Eggheads' three?

-You don't have to answer that.

-LAUGHTER

No points in that question. Fiddlers' Five, do you want to go first or second?

-Shall we go first as everybody else has done that?

-Yeah.

-We'll go first, thanks.

All the very best, here we go.

Sasquatch is another name for which mythical creature?

-It's obviously...

-Big Foot?

The Yeti.

OK, then. We'll go for Big Foot.

Big Foot is right, well done.

Over to you, Eggheads.

What term is used to refer to an uncastrated male horse?

-An uncastrated...

-A gelding's been gelded.

-Yes.

-A stallion.

-Stallion.

-A steer is a cow.

-Yes.

-A stallion is an intact horse.

-A gelding is a castrated horse.

-Yes.

Can I have the question again.

What term is used to refer to an uncastrated male horse.

-That's a stallion.

-Stallion is your answer... It's correct. Well done.

Over to you.

Fruhling is the German word for which season?

-Fruhling...

-Can you spell it?

F-R-U-H-L-I-N-G. Fruhling.

It doesn't even put my mind to any

-word that I could think of, you know.

-No.

-Sounds like...

-Frau...

-Is it possibly spring?

-Yeah.

I know it might be bizarre, frauling, is that not a "miss".

-Frau is a woman.

-Ah-ha.

-We'll go for spring?

-I've just got a feeling about spring.

-I think so.

-We'll go for spring.

-Spring is correct.

-Oh!

Anyone do German here?

Fruh is the German for early.

-Right.

-So fruhstuck is breakfast and fruhling is early in the year.

And summer is sommer and what's autumn?

-Erm...

-Autumn... The German for autumn - we've got them stumped!

Maybe that'll come up next. Here we go.

Lisa Kudrow, best known for her role as Phoebe in Friends,

played a waitress called Ursula Buffay in which sitcom?

-I have no idea.

-I've got no idea.

Taxi seems too far back.

It's a previous generation to Friends and Frasier.

I don't know much about Mad About You.

Could she have popped up in Frasier?

-As a waitress?

-It ran for 11 or 12 series,

there's an enormous number of episodes.

So on a straight statistical basis, perhaps...

It rings a bell, Phoebe Buffay.

-I don't think I've ever seen Mad About You.

-No.

I haven't watched much Taxi, I have watched Frasier,

so, perhaps, I've seen her there.

-I'm not very convinced though.

-No.

I've no idea. I haven't a clue.

-Shall we go for Frasier?

-Yeah.

-We're going for Frasier.

-Frasier is wrong.

-Oh!

-It's Mad About You.

-Oh!

You just, sort of, jumped there.

There we are, how about that?

Let's just think about this, you could win on this question.

Your third question.

Fiddler's Five, Mourning Cloak is the American name for which butterfly?

Mourning is spelt, M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G, OK?

Mourning Cloak is the American name for which butterfly?

Can you spell that again, please?

Mourning Cloak.

And mourning is M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G, and cloak is C-L-O-A-K.

-Yeah. Mourning is...

-Like it's in mourning -

it's not going to be the Cabbage White,

-because that's white.

-Yeah.

-Mourning's normally black.

-Camberwell Beauty...

-I've really no idea.

Red Admiral's black and red. And white, in that as well.

-Mm-hm.

-Camberwell Beauty... I don't really know.

The colour, I think...

-I'd have ruled out Cabbage White.

-Yeah, because of mourning.

-Um, the Red Admiral's got black, red and white in it.

-Mm-hm.

So I don't know whether that puts that out.

Will we go for Camberwell Beauty then?

I don't know. The Cabbage White's out,

so it's between the Red Admiral or Camberwell Beauty.

-It's... I don't know.

-Mourning Cloak.

Red Admiral. Would an admiral not wear a cloak?

-Yes, I would go it.

-Would an admiral not wear black, though?

-And it's black as well.

-And black. Yeah?

-It is a guess, so...

We'll try Red Admiral.

-Red Admiral is your answer. Are they right?

-No.

It's Camberwell Beauty.

It is Camberwell Beauty.

It's easy for me because I could see the answer.

I thought Camberwell Beauty needed a different name in the States

because Camberwell wouldn't mean much there.

-Is that logical?

-And it's purple, I think, isn't it?

But Cabbage White would have been logical, too,

because white is a mourning of colour. I mean a colour of mourning.

-Is the mourning of colour?

-Colour of mourning.

All right. You let them off the hook there.

These chances come few and far between. Let's see.

If you get this wrong, Eggheads, they have won.

The term "genial" can be used in relation to which part of the body?

The term "genial" can be used in relation to which part of the body?

That is G-E-N-I-A-L, genial.

-I'm sure Daphne knows.

-That's the chin.

That's chin, Jeremy.

Chin is the right answer.

So...

level after three questions.

The multiple choice has gone now.

We're on Sudden Death, OK? It can all end very quickly.

It's a bit harder because I don't give you alternatives.

Here's your question. You ready?

Tammany Hall was the name given to a driving force

in politics in which American city?

Tammany Hall - T-A-M-M-A-N-Y,

Tammany Hall was the name given to a driving force in politics

in which American city?

You're going to have to help us.

I've really no idea.

Washington? Just because...

Near the Capitol.

Tammany Hall. I take it it's a person?

-Is it a person?

-Could be.

-It could be anywhere.

-Could be. I'm thinking Philadelphia.

-I had that in my head, too.

-That coast, up the east coast, there.

-If you both thought it, just go for that.

-Philadelphia.

Not Philadelphia, no. It was in New York.

That was none of our answers anyway, so...

It's a pro-Democrat society, whose name

and location were pretty synonymous.

Now, your question, to win it. In terms of military hardware,

specifically remotely-piloted aircraft,

for what does the letter U stand in the abbreviation UAV?

-Unmanned?

-I think it's unmanned aerial vehicle.

Is it unmanned, or unoccupied?

-No, it's unmanned.

-Unmanned, OK.

We're going for unmanned.

Your answer is unmanned.

If you've got it right, then you've taken the contest.

UAV is unmanned aerial vehicle.

Congratulations, Eggheads, you've won.

Oh, well.

-Did well three against three, so...

-Yep.

And it could have... It was the... What was the question - the genial?

-The butterfly. The butterfly!

-Yeah, the butterfly.

-Yeah.

We'll have to have a look at that Camberwell Beauty and see what's...

Or maybe it's best not to.

It's very nice to meet you. Great to see you all

-and thanks for playing.

-Thank you.

-Commiserations to you.

So the Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them,

and they still reign supreme over Quizland.

I'm afraid that means you won't be going home with the £2,000,

so the money rolls over to our next show.

Eggheads, many congratulations. Who will beat you?

Join us next time to see if a new team of challengers

have the brains to defeat the Eggheads. £3,000 says they don't.

Till then, goodbye.

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