Episode 35 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, where a team of five quiz challengers

pit their wits against possibly the greatest quiz team in Britain.

They are the Eggheads.

Taking on the awesome might of our quiz Goliaths today

are Carry On Nursing. Now this team of colleagues

all work for the Royal College of Nursing in Cardiff.

Let's meet them.

Hi, I'm Bob. I'm 56 and I'm an advisor.

Hi, I'm Leon. I'm 38 and I'm a digital communications manager.

Hi, I'm Matt. I'm 34 and I'm a customer service project manager.

Hi, I'm Chris. I'm 29 and I'm an advisor.

Hi, I'm Simon. I'm 51 and I'm a membership manager.

Welcome to you, Carry On Nursing.

So is this some kind of homage to Kenneth Williams, Sid James...?

Well, we thought that might echo with a lot of the viewers,

but really we feel that the services we provide

enable our nurse members to carry on nursing and doing their jobs.

-None of you are nurses.

-We're not, no.

OK, you just work for the Royal College of Nursing

in varying capacities.

What about quizzing? D'you do any of that together, or individually?

Yes, some of us quiz fairly regularly as a team in a local pub.

-And how do you do?

-Well, either second or third, I would say.

We haven't quite won yet.

Let's play the game then, shall we? And try not to finish second.

Every day there's £1,000 up for grabs for all our challengers.

However, if they fail to defeat the Eggheads,

the prize money rolls over to the next show.

Carry On Nursing, the Eggheads have won the last four games.

That means £5,000 says you can't beat the Eggheads.

Well, let's see what comes up first, and the first head-to-head battle,

a chance to knock an Egghead out on Food & Drink.

Who'd like to play this one?

-I think we've agreed a strategy on that.

-Me?

-Simon, it's over to you.

-Thanks.

They passed the buck right down to you, Simon.

-You get to choose any Egghead you like.

-Erm, who d'you reckon?

-Judith?

-Take Judith?

-Yeah. I'll take on Judith, please.

-OK, Judith.

I'm hardly ever picked for that, being female.

Exactly, so I very rarely get to chat to you about food and drink.

-No.

-Do you enjoy...eating out, cooking?

-I enjoy food hugely!

And given that the home of cooking is France,

you spend quite a lot of time there.

Yeah, but the food's not very good where I live.

I hope nobody from there's listening.

The restaurants are rather disappointing.

OK, well, let's see how it goes.

It's going to be Simon and Judith playing our opening round,

and could I ask you, Simon, to go to the question room

to make sure you can't confer with your team mates.

OK, Simon. You get to choose, you're the challenger.

D'you want to go first or second?

I think I'll go first please, Dermot.

Here you go, then.

Which potato dish is usually made by grating raw potato,

shaping into rounds and then frying till crispy?

Ooh, I'm pretty sure it's not Dauphinoise.

Erm, and gratin also doesn't sound right.

Erm, I'm pretty sure it's Potato Rosti.

It is. That is the right answer.

Well done. And first question for you, Judith.

What type of foodstuff is the piquillo?

P-I-Q-U-I-L-L-O?

The piquillo, from Spain.

I think that's a pepper.

It is. It is a pepper. Can it be any colour? Is it green, red, yellow?

Well, I don't know. Red, probably, I don't know. Red? Anyway, from Spain.

Pepper will do! Pepper from Spain will do, that gets you the point.

OK, over to you, Simon.

"Pot sticker" is the name given to a type of which foodstuff?

Erm, I think I know what the answer is here,

but just working through it, it's not a spring roll

and I'm fairly confident that it's not Japanese curry.

I do recall "pot sticker dumpling,"

so I'm going to go for Chinese dumpling.

OK. It's the right answer. Yes, well remembered.

And Judith, Cacik, I'll spell it for you

because it's pronounced very differently from how it's spelt.

C-A-C-I-K

is the Turkish version of which dip?

Well, the spelling is slightly reminiscent of Tzatziki, so, erm...

I can't think of anything else, so I'm going to say Tzatziki.

Just as well I spelt it for you, it's the right answer, yes.

Tzatziki. Well done, and all square at two all.

So Simon, your third question.

Scombroid food poisoning,

S-C-O-M-B-R-O-I-D, it's all one word.

Scombroid food poisoning is caused by eating what type of food?

Ooh, erm, it's not something I've heard of,

so I'm...this is going to be a bit of a stab in the dark.

Erm, I think if it had been poultry I might have heard of it,

and likewise fish.

Erm, I haven't heard of food poisoning caused by rice,

and given that I haven't heard of this term either,

I'm going to go for rice.

OK, rice for scombroid food poisoning.

It's not, it's one you discounted, fish.

Scombroid food poisoning from fish.

And, well, a chance for Judith here.

Judith, Fleurie is a wine appellation

and Cru in which larger wine region?

I think that's Beaujolais.

Well, you should know.

It's the right answer, yeah. Beaujolais.

Fell very nicely there for Judith after our discussion

about the time she spends in France,

which means Simon just squeezed out, just edged out.

Very tight round. Means you won't be in the final round.

Would you both please come back and join your teams?

Well, after that exchange,

Carry On Nursing have lost one brain from the final round.

The Eggheads are all there,

and our second head-to-head today is Music.

Who'd like to play this? Can't be you, Simon.

-Any of your four team mates.

-Is it going to be me?

-It's going to be you.

-Yeah.

-It'll be me. I'm going to go for it.

All right, Matt, and choose an Egghead. Anyone apart from Judith.

Erm, ohh, erm, Daphne, please. Yeah.

All right, Matt and Daphne, into the question room, both of you, please.

Well, Matt, Simon got very close.

Let's see if you can go the whole way into the final round.

-Do you want to go first or second?

-Er, I'll go first, please.

Best of luck, Matt. First question.

In 1965, Unit 4+2 had a UK number one single

with Concrete And what?

Oh, this is a bit of a tough one.

I don't remember it on my '60s compilation album.

Glad to know you've got one, though!

I think I've got one somewhere, yeah.

Erm, so, having not heard of it,

I'm going to go with... I'm not going to say Glass,

so I'll go with Clay.

-Concrete And Clay?

-Yeah.

-Kind of fits together.

It's the right answer. Well done.

I bet somewhere, somehow, you've remembered that.

OK, your first question, Daphne.

"All I want is a room somewhere, Far away from the cold night air,"

is a line from a song in which musical? Look at you, grinning!

She's grinning, Matt, because I think, as you probably know,

she loves musicals.

-Ohh!

-My Fair Lady.

My Fair Lady is correct, yes.

That's the way they fall. Let's hope you get some

that are right up your street as well, Matt.

Maybe this is it. The '80s band the Thompson Twins

were named after characters in a comic strip about who?

I love the '80s, absolutely love the music.

I think Wham! was my favourite band,

and Duran Duran, which I'm going to see live when they tour,

so I'm looking forward to that. Erm, the Thompson Twins. Gosh.

I'm sure they used to have really big hair in the '80s,

and Tintin had quite a big quiff, so maybe it could be Tintin.

Erm, I'm going to go with... I don't think it is Tintin,

I don't think it's Charlie Brown,

so I'm just going to go with Rupert Bear.

OK, Rupert Bear. All that talk about Tintin

and then you said you didn't think it was.

You should have heard the groan from your team mates.

-It was Tintin!

-Oh no!

-It is Tintin.

Thompson Twins, Eggheads, are characters in Tintin,

aren't they, with bowler hats?

Well, every country's got different names for them.

They're always a play on the local language,

so in the case of the English ones,

there's subtle differences between them,

but one difference is one is Thompson with a P

and the other one is Thomson without a P.

They're not actually twins at all.

And what are they in French?

I can't remember. It's quite different.

Might be a question for another round of Eggheads.

OK, Daphne, a chance for the lead.

The video for which Fatboy Slim single featured director Spike Jonze

as part of the fictional Torrance Community Dance Group,

performing a routine outside a movie theatre in Westwood, California?

Erm, what would fit?

Right Here, Right Now?

-No?

-OK.

No, it's not.

-Praise You?

-It's Praise You, yeah.

-Yeah, that was the other one.

D'you remember that one? Yeah. OK, well, no damage done then, Matt.

You're still well in it, it's all square. Everything to play for.

What nickname did Billie Holiday

give the tenor saxophonist Lester Young?

Oh, gosh. Erm...

Oh, I have actually drawn a complete blank,

but I think...

d'you know, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking Prez,

so I'm going to go with that one, I'm going to go with Prez.

Prez.

It's the right answer, yes!

-Wow!

-If only we'd heard Tintin from you in the previous question,

-you'd be in the final round.

-Oh, no way!

Well, don't worry about it, you might still be there

if Daphne doesn't get this.

Which French composer wrote the opera Samson et Dalila,

first performed in 1877?

Saint-Saens...

..is the right answer! Daphne very rarely fails twice.

So, for the first time in the game, we go to Sudden Death, Matt.

That means we take away the options you've been looking at.

If you do need to guess, it's going to be an awful lot harder.

You just have to conjure options up yourself. Here you go.

"It turned colder, that's where it ends."

"So I told her we'd still be friends,"

are lines from which song in the musical Grease?

I've seen Grease onstage quite recently.

I've seen it probably a million times,

ever since I saw it when I was about four years old.

I actually love Grease 2 as well.

Now that really is something. I mean, Grease 2!

It's brilliant!

It's got Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer in it!

What's not to love?

Erm...

Summer Lovin'.

OK, Summer Lovin'.

We're not going to accept it, I'm sorry. It's called Summer Nights.

-Oh, no!

-Summer Nights.

-After all that!

It is Summer Nights, not Summer Lovin',

so unlucky there, Matt.

And your question, Daphne.

The US rap and hip-hop artist and producer Brian Burton

shares his stage name with which British TV cartoon series?

Gosh, I can't think.

Oh, Danger Mouse?

You're like a cat toying with a mouse.

It's the right answer! Yes, Danger Mouse.

Got it from somewhere there, Daphne!

So unerring are you.

Oh, well bad luck, Matt.

I'm sorry about that, but you know, Summer Nights not Summer Lovin'.

I'm never ever going to forget that!

Well, go back and console yourself with a viewing of Grease 2!

You won't be in the final round.

Would you both please come back and join your teams?

What an extraordinary head-to-head that was.

Matt caught out on one of his favourite areas.

I can see that, cos that's the first line in the song.

-It is.

-But then it goes, "Those summer nights,"

which is the name of the song.

Then Daphne's extraordinary knowledge of rap and hip-hop!

Goodness me! Oh, yeah.

OK, well, as it stands,

Carry On Nursing have lost two brains from the final round.

The Eggheads are all still there,

and we go to our third head-to-head today. And Science comes up.

So, who'd like to play this?

It's Bob, Leon or Chris.

-What d'you reckon?

-I think it's going to have to be Chris, is it?

-I'll go for this one, then.

-All right, Chris.

Two women have played here from the Eggheads, so one of the boys.

-CJ, d'you reckon?

-CJ.

-CJ.

-CJ.

OK, Chris and CJ contesting Science.

Into the question room both of you, please.

Chris, I don't think you could get much closer to getting through

and not doing so than Matt,

so one great effort, I'm sure, will get you there.

D'you want to go first or second?

I will go first, I think, Dermot.

All right then, Chris. First question on Science is this.

The American computer entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg first developed

the social network Facebook while studying at which university?

Well, luckily I would know this from seeing the actual film,

so hopefully I'll be able to get this right.

I believe he was studying at Harvard University.

Harvard is correct, yes. Harvard there for Mark Zuckerberg.

First question for you, CJ. In the human body,

which bone links the elbow joint to the shoulder joint?

Well, all three of those bones are in the arm,

but the radius and the ulna are in the forearm,

so the shoulder to the elbow is the humerus.

-Humerus, the funnybone!

-Yeah.

-It's the right answer, yes.

Well done, CJ. OK, and back to you, Chris.

The volume of a pyramid is calculated by multiplying

the area of the base by the height and then dividing by what?

Right, OK.

I do like my maths, I'm trying to work this out in my head,

imagining a pyramid and trying to work out the area around it.

I'm going to go, cos, I'm going to say cos it's got three sides, three.

-Three?

-Yes.

It's correct, yes.

Well done.

CJ, to which family of birds does the puffin belong?

Ooh!

Don't know, but I suppose physically,

it looks a bit more like an auk than the other two.

I don't think it's penguin, I hope.

I really don't know this

but I'll just go on pretty much what it looks like and I'll try an auk.

OK, a puffin looks like an auk.

It's the right answer as well. Even better.

OK, it's all square,

and third question each.

Chris, what type of creature is a cinnabar?

C-I-N-N-A-B-A-R.

Right, erm...I'm trying to discount one of them, really.

OK, I'm going to be honest,

it's not going to be an educated guess either, really.

I'm going to take a bit of a stab in the dark here.

I'm going to try for beetle.

OK, going for beetle on a cinnabar.

-It's not a beetle. D'you know, CJ?

-It's a moth.

It's a moth. OK, well...

CJ, travertine, T-R-A-V-E-R-T-I-N-E,

travertine is a form of which rock?

I've not heard of travertine. Apologies to it.

Sounds hard to me, travertine.

Don't know why, but it just sounds hard to me,

so I'm going to discount limestone.

Erm...

Granite's got a lot of different compositions in it,

so I'll try granite.

Granite, cos it's hard.

That would lead you there, but it's not.

Not as hard as granite, it is limestone,

which is great news for you, Chris.

You're still playing, playing though in Sudden Death.

And your Sudden Death question.

The high temperatures at the core of the sun

convert hydrogen into which chemical element?

Right. I'm, I wouldn't know where to look at, to be honest.

I'm not sure at all. Hydrogen to which chemical...?

No, I'm not too sure. I'll just have to pass, I'm afraid.

Are you sure? I mean, if you say it again, I will accept a pass.

But give me a chemical element.

I've just got things like oxygen in my...oxygen, but...

-Oxygen?

-Oxygen I'll go for.

-It's better than a pass,

It's not the right answer. But you never know.

The number of times they've been landed.

People think they're ridiculous and they're the answer. Not oxygen.

-Do you know, CJ?

-Helium.

Helium is what we were looking for there.

And CJ, you're knowing all Chris's!

Well, if you know this, you are through to the final round.

In terms of television,

for what does the letter C stand in the abbreviation CRT?

Obviously not modern-day televisions then,

assuming it stands for cathode ray tubes, so I'll try cathode.

Well, Chris, you'd know all about this. Yours is still going strong.

Yeah. Cathode ray tube, yeah.

It is cathode,

identified there as well by CJ as in older television sets.

Cathode ray tube puts you through to the final round.

Well done, CJ and bad luck, Chris.

Would you both please come back and join your teams?

I mean, you're quizzing really well here, Carry On Nursing!

It's just not going your way!

Three brains missing now from the final round

and the Eggheads are all still there.

Surely one must go in our last head-to-head before the final round!

This is Politics.

Who'd like to play this? Ooh, didn't like that!

-Leon or Bob, one of you two.

-There's no doubt about this one.

It's going to be Leon. But who would you like to play?

Er, I think I'll go for Chris, please.

OK, it's going to be Leon and Chris, then, playing Politics.

Into the question room, please.

Well, Leon, I've got high hopes for you.

D'you want to go first or second?

I think I'd like to go first please, Dermot.

OK, Politics, and your first question then, Leon. Good luck.

The 1919 Housing Act aimed to provide homes fit for whom?

I think, given the date being 1919, just after the end

of the First World War, I think I recollect it was

a programme of David Lloyd George, so I'm going to go for heroes.

Yep, "Homes fit for heroes!"

Your first question, Chris.

Which political figure took a road trip across America

with Marcel and Louis Theroux,

during which he knocked down a roadrunner bird?

Ohh!

David Cameron, of course, wouldn't do anything quite so vulgar.

Nick Clegg's getting on a bit, so it wouldn't be Nick Clegg,

so it sounds like something Ed Miliband might get up to.

-Ed Miliband.

-OK, Ed Miliband. Nick Clegg getting on a bit?

I mean, they're more or less the same age, all of them.

It is Nick Clegg, not Ed Miliband. Had passed me by.

-Had any of you Eggheads heard about it?

-No.

-Vaguely.

Was it for a TV programme, with Louis Theroux involved,

or were they friends?

Yeah, I think it was something on TV. It just rings a vague bell.

You think, all that effort that Wile E. Coyote went to over the years,

and along comes Nick Clegg, does the job just like that!

Without the Acme dynamite

Wile E. Coyote was trying to use all the time.

OK, well that's a great start, Leon.

You're one up and go two up if you get a correct answer here.

Which Lighthouse Family song was adopted by the Labour Party

for the 2001 General Election campaign?

Erm, the only song that I can remember Labour doing

was Things Can Only Get Better, which sadly isn't on there.

I'm going to take a stab here.

I don't think any political party would choose Raincloud.

High, probably, possibly doesn't have the right connotations.

-I'm going to go for Lifted.

-D'you know what?

That is probably a discussion that took place

at Labour High Command in 2001.

And you got the right answer there, just by working it out.

And yes, it was Things Can Only Get Better, the '97 campaign,

that triumphant campaign.

Presumably they were looking for something similar

in the next General Election campaign.

Chris, what popular name was given to the Progressive Party,

a splinter group from the Republicans,

led by Theodore Roosevelt?

Yeah, well Theodore Roosevelt's nickname was Bull Moose,

so it was the Bull Moose Party.

Right, well you know that easy enough. There we go.

You still may not have saved yourself.

Leon, this for a place in the final round.

The State Hermitage in St Petersburg is home to a vast range of paintings

by artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Dyck,

originally from a collection

belonging to which British Prime Minister?

Mmm, I don't know this

and I can't think of any direct connection between any of them

and St Petersburg.

I'm going to have to look at the date, I think.

So, they're all relatively early, those artists,

so I'm going to go for Walpole on that basis.

You know how to work these questions.

You have won a place in the final round.

Well done, Leon. Said I had high hopes, you see.

I wasn't disappointed, you didn't let me down.

Would you both please come back and join your teams?

So, this is what we've been playing towards.

It's time for the final round,

which, as always, is General Knowledge.

But I'm afraid those of you who lost your head-to-heads

won't be allowed to take part.

So, Matt, Chris and Simon from Carry On Nursing,

and Chris from the Eggheads, would you leave the studio, please?

So, Bob and Leon, you're playing to win Carry On Nursing £5,000.

Judith, Kevin, CJ and Daphne, you're playing for something

which money cannot buy, quite literally. The Eggheads' reputation.

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

This time, the questions are all General Knowledge,

and you are allowed to confer.

So Bob and Leon, the question is,

are your two brains better than the Eggheads' four?

And Bob and Leon, would you like to go first or second?

We'd like to go second please, Dermot.

Deciding to put the Eggheads in,

and your first question is this, then, Eggheads.

Which instrumental piece of music became famous

after it was used in the 1972 film Deliverance?

ALL: Duelling Banjos.

-Duelling Banjos.

-OK, and what were the other two in?

They're all famous pieces from other films?

Cavatina was in The Deer Hunter and The Entertainer was in The Sting.

Yeah, thank you for that. Duelling Banjos, though, for Deliverance.

The right answer. Carry On Nursing, then, your first question.

What name is given to a comma placed before the word "and" in a list?

There was a lot of debate about this recently,

the use of this comma.

I'm pretty certain it's an Oxford comma.

Yeah, that's the only one that resonates to me, really.

Dermot, we're going to say it's an Oxford comma.

An Oxford comma.

It's correct, yes. Well done.

Eggheads. What type of vehicle is the US military's M1 Abrams?

-Abrams is a tank.

-Yeah, it's a tank.

Yeah, tank? That's a tank.

M1 Abrams tank is correct, Eggheads.

So back to Carry On Nursing.

The 1937 photograph by Max Dupain entitled "Sunbaker",

depicting a male lying on his stomach on a beach

has become an iconic image of which country?

1937,

and the name sounds European.

I mean, I'm thinking somebody that painted under Franco's Spain.

In '37, yes. Yeah, you're right, cos first of all I thought Australia.

It could be Australia...

Well, I like the idea, yeah. '37.

That wasn't in the middle of the Civil War, was it?

Yeah, it would have been. Erm...

-I'm going to discount Thailand, I think.

-Yeah.

It's between Australia and Spain.

I think my guess would be Spain.

I'll go with that, yeah. OK, we're going to say Spain.

OK, Spain for "Sunbaker". A male lying on his stomach on a beach.

-Spain?

-ALL: Australia.

It's Australia, the other one you were tossing up with.

I thought you were going to discount it when you did the Civil War there.

Unlikely to be trying to promote tourism at that time.

But, erm, nothing there.

So, actually, a chance for the Eggheads to win it.

You put them in first, they've already got two,

so this would clinch the round if they get it.

Georgics, G-E-O-R-G-I-C-S,

is a work by which Roman poet?

-Happy with Virgil?

-Yeah.

That is one of the works by Virgil.

Virgil, Georgics...

is the right answer. Eggheads, you've won.

Just the kind of thing you lot know, that, isn't it? Works by Virgil.

Bad luck, Carry On Nursing.

Gambling there, putting the Eggheads in first,

but got that middle one wrong

so I don't get to put another question to you.

Thank you very much for playing the Eggheads today. I mean, goodness me,

those head-to-heads all really just turned on one question

and particularly, remember, Matt there, with his Summer Nights!

Oh, dear. We'll all go round for a viewing of Grease 2

and we'll learn just what a great film it is.

I still beg to differ, Matt, but it's a debate we'll have afterwards,

and of course, Leon there with his great win against Chris.

But the Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them,

and they still reign supreme over Quizland. I'm afraid you won't be

going home with the £5,000.

That means the money rolls over to the next show.

So Eggheads, congratulations. Who will beat you?

Do join us next time to see

if a new team of challengers have the brains to defeat the Eggheads.

£6,000 says they don't. Until then, goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd