Episode 67 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 pit their wits against

possibly the greatest quiz team in Britain. They are the Eggheads.

Taking on the might of our quiz Goliaths today are:

This team of friends

all meet up two or three times a month at a club in Rochdale,

where they share their passion for, you guessed it, jazz music.

Let's meet them.

Hi, I'm Tony. I'm 72 and a retired accountant.

Hi, I'm Reg. I'm 70 and I'm a retired project manager.

Hi, I'm Malcolm. I'm 67 and a retired research scientist.

Hi, I'm Marian. I'm 57 and a retired teacher.

Hi, I'm Terry. I'm 71. I'm a trombone player and we don't retire.

-So, Tony and team, welcome to you.

-Thank you.

Do you just listen to jazz or play it or what?

-Terry, he's an expert on the trombone.

-Terry in the beret.

Bit eccentric in the beret, yes.

-Is Terry The Beret? Is that right?

-Terry The Beret, precisely.

-Well done.

-He does the trombone but you all just enjoy it?

Terry plays in one of the bands who come to play for us.

We have bands two and three Sunday evenings a month

from all over the country and from abroad.

And what is it about jazz?

Cos those of us who don't quite understand jazz

think it sounds a bit random.

Random? Well, every jazz musician plays in a different way.

They play with their team mates, if you like, like on Eggheads.

And the blend comes up superbly.

Would it be improvised, Terry The Beret?

Most of it, yes, believe it or not.

Depends which band you play with and what the trumpeter does.

I play in harmony with the clarinet if I can.

The trumpeter plays something, I can repeat the phrase,

or do something, grunt a bit at the bottom, depends on what's going on.

That's the way it works.

Eggheads, you ready to take on some jazzy people? All right.

Everyday there is £1,000 up for grabs for our challengers.

However, if they fail to defeat the Eggheads

the prize money rolls over to the next show.

So, Jazz On A Sunday, the Eggheads have won just the last game,

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

-Shall we start?

-Yes.

First head-to-head battle is on the subject of Film & Television.

Who would like this?

I have drawn the short straw. Nobody else wanted Film & Television,

and being the martyr to the cause, I will take Film & Television.

So you've done a bit of strategising?

Before you go, Tony, tell us which Egghead you'd like to take on.

You've got all five of them here.

-I will take on...Barry.

-Let's hope I strike the right note then!

I can't add anything to that, it was too perfect.

Tony from Jazz On A Sunday versus Barry from the Eggheads on Film & TV.

Just to ensure there's no conferring, would you please take your positions in the Question Room?

-Good luck to you, Tony.

-Thank you.

-And good luck, Barry, as well.

Three multiple choice questions on Film & Television in turn.

As you know, whoever answers the most questions correctly

goes through to the final and the other person is knocked out.

Tony, would you like the first or second set?

I can't go third so I'll go first.

Here's your first question.

Who was the first female presenter of the TV series Antiques Roadshow?

It certainly wasn't Esther Rantzen.

And I'm pretty sure it wasn't Valerie Singleton,

so I think it will be Angela Rippon.

Angela Rippon is quite right, Tony. Well done, you're off the blocks.

Barry, your question on Film & TV.

The television network ESPN mainly broadcasts what type of programmes?

Not a channel I've watched. ESPN?

The initials don't seem to make anything to me.

I don't think it's comedy. So that leaves home shopping or sport.

I think it's sport.

Sport is the right answer, Barry. Well done.

Tony, in 1978,

Ralph Bakshi released an animated film version of which book?

Can't imagine it being War And Peace.

The Lord of the Rings have always had their own people to do it.

I will reckon it will be Don Quixote.

No, it's Lord Of The Rings, funnily enough.

It was prior to the lot who did it recently as a movie.

1978.

So the answer's Lord Of The Rings.

Barry, see if you can take the lead. Here's your question.

In the TV comedy series, where in London did the Goodies live?

This is going back a few years. Just let me dredge my memory.

I seem to think they lived in Cricklewood.

I think they had a song about Cricklewood as well.

Yes, you're right. Cricklewood is correct.

Tony, here's your question.

If you don't get this right, we're in trouble.

Ken Loach's film The Wind That Shakes The Barley

was set during which civil war?

Well, from the barley side of it I reckon it won't be Russian,

it won't be Spanish, but will be Irish.

Irish is correct, well done.

Barry, you get the round if you get this one right.

Which actress starred in the 2010 films The Bounty Hunter

and The Switch?

I haven't watched either of these films.

The Bounty Hunter and The Switch.

I'm not sure on this but I'll have a go for Jennifer Aniston.

That's interesting. What was your logic there?

-None whatsoever.

-JEREMY LAUGHS

She's waiting still for the breakthrough film, Jennifer Aniston.

But you've got it right. So you've taken the round, Barry. Well done.

Sorry, Tony. He did three out of three.

Always hard to beat in that situation.

Martyr to the cause.

And you're only just beginning, as The Carpenters once sang.

Please both of you come back and rejoin your teams.

As it stands, the challengers have lost one brain from the Final Round.

The Eggheads have lost no brains so far.

The next subject is Science.

What does the plan say here?

-For Science?

-Malcolm.

-Malcolm?

-Yep.

I trained as a scientist a long time ago. So it falls to me.

I'll take Judith, please.

-Sounds exciting.

-I'm sure it will be.

Malcolm from Jazz On A Sunday versus Judith from the Eggheads.

To ensure there's no conferring please go to the Question Room.

OK, three questions on Science in turn,

whoever answers the most goes through to the final.

And Malcolm, would you like to go first or second?

I'll go first, please.

OK, good luck to you.

What type of lamp first demonstrated by Humphrey Davy

is used in searchlights?

Ooh. I can only conceive that that must be the arc lamp.

Arc lamp is your answer? And it is right, well done.

Here's your question, Judith. What is the typical colour of the mineral alabaster?

Well, 18th century novels are all about ladies' alabaster skin,

and they were white rather than green and red! So white.

White is the correct answer. Well done.

Malcolm, which scientist and inventor

studied and suggested the name for the Gulf Stream?

I have to admit I don't know this one.

Pasteur seems unlikely as his interest was in infections.

Newton was into gravity and quite a few other things of that nature,

so it would be just possible.

But I think Franklin's the most likely answer.

So I'll go with Benjamin Franklin.

Remorseless application of logic and you've got it right.

It is Benjamin Franklin.

Judith, your question.

Sus scrofa is the Latin name for which creature?

Sus scrofa?

Sus scrofa. S-U-S then S-C-R-O-F-A.

Um, what does scrofa mean?

I think "scrofulous" may have come from it.

That's the only thing I've got to hang on to,

so I'm going to say wild boar.

-It is a scrofulous beast.

-Scrofulous means something?

Sort of warty and hairy and things.

Boar-like? Wild boar is correct.

Oh, gosh. I wonder if that's the derivation.

Good use of the scrofulous.

Malcolm, your question.

What is the UK's largest butterfly species?

Again, we're in territory with which I'm not very familiar.

I have a feeling that the Purple Hairstreak is a small butterfly.

I'm really not at all sure about the other two.

I will go for the Chequered Skipper.

You just went the wrong way. Swallowtail is the answer.

Judith, your question. You get the round if you get this right.

Viking 1 which sent the first photographs from the surface of Mars

in 1976, took approximately how long to reach the planet from Earth?

Oh, dear. I don't know. Um...

Three years.

-Three years is incorrect.

-One year?

You can't have two goes at it.

One year is the right answer. So you're level after three questions.

She let you off the hook there, Malcolm.

We go to Sudden Death.

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

Molecules of the gas acetylene comprise two atoms of hydrogen

and two of which other element?

Carbon.

Carbon is correct. C2H2.

Acetylene.

Here we go, Judith, to hang on.

In the acronym BASIC, referring to the name of a computer language,

for what does the letter S stand?

Oh, gosh. I can never do those.

I don't know what the B, A and I, C stand for either.

What does it mean?

I can't even begin. I've no idea.

Guess, pass, what?

-Pass.

-Pass?

I can't think.

The word is "symbolic", so Judith you've been knocked out.

Malcolm, you've taken the round on Science.

That's great for your team. You will be in the final.

And Judith won't be. Please both of you rejoin your teams.

-Judith, BASIC, not your thing?

-Not my thing.

Anyone know what those letters stand for?

Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

Right. OK. The challengers have lost one brain,

the Eggheads have also lost a brain, we have ourselves a contest, here.

The next subject is Sport.

Jazz and sport, do they go together?

-It's mine, ain't it?

-Yeah.

-Do you want to do it or shall I do it?

-Music might come next.

-Go on then, yeah.

I'll take that, Jeremy.

Reg, OK, against which Egghead?

Who are we going for?

Chris.

Chris on Sport. Let's see that face like thunder.

I'm frightened already!

OK, so it is Reg from Jazz On A Sunday versus

Chris from the Eggheads on Sport.

All that said, I have won a few.

You have, yeah. A couple of years ago, there was... Yeah.

To ensure there's no conferring would you please take your positions?

Reg, three questions, multiple choice,

you can choose the first or the second set.

They worked for Malcolm, Jeremy, so I'll go first, please.

Here we go with your first question.

In 2004, Sepp Blatter caused upset

when he suggested that female footballers should wear what

in order to make the game more popular?

I think we can eliminate high heels.

It might be very interesting

but I'm not sure how these ladies would kick a ball with high heels.

Knowing Blatter and his reputation I'll go right,

I'll go with tighter shorts.

It's unbelievable but it is the right answer.

He did say they should wear tighter shorts.

He's still doing the job seven years later so...

Your question, Chris.

In which decade did Ann Packer win a gold medal in the Olympic 800 metres event?

Ann Packer?

She's way back so it's got to be the 1960s.

The '60s is your answer.

It is the correct answer. Well done.

OK, back to you, Reg.

Which Formula One driver had his only win of the 2011 season at the final race in Brazil?

Er... Right.

How good's your memory, Reg? I don't think it was Schumacher.

Was it Rosberg or was it Webber?

Australian, Red Bull, had a great season, didn't they, with Vettel?

I'll go right again, I'll go for Webber again.

You play this game brilliantly. You're quite right.

Mark Webber it is.

You got two out of two,

let's see if Chris can catch up.

Who was the first West Indian cricketer to score 100 first class centuries?

It wasn't Brian Lara, he was too late.

Viv Richards is slightly later than Garfield Sobers

so I'll go down the middle, Garfield Sobers.

Anyone on the Eggheads know?

-Richards?

-They're a bit uncertain here but Barry's got it.

It's Viv Richards.

-Oh, I thought he was later than Gary Sobers.

-No, no.

I don't know if he was or not. Was he later than him?

Richards is a pure heavyweight batsman

whereas Sobers was a tremendous all-rounder.

Perhaps Richards was a bit more focussed.

OK. You're in the lead, Reg. This is looking good now.

Get this one right and there is no way back for Chris the Egghead.

The Australian rules football clubs Essendon and Collingwood are based in which state?

The honest answer, Jeremy, is I don't know.

So it's going to be a bit of a... Try and deduce it.

Queensland, that's up the east coast, isn't it?

I don't think it's Queensland.

New South Wales or Victoria.

I'm going to go down the middle. New South Wales.

I had to say there was a small groan on my left because the answer is?

-Victoria.

-Your team mates know it's Victoria, Reg.

So Chris has a way back in. He's got to get this right though.

The RPRA is an organisation concerned with which sport?

We used to carry a lot of pigeons in crates along the railways

for pigeon racing.

I don't recall those initials ever having anything to do with that.

Pool... We've got the rules of pool posted on the wall

of the public bar in the pub. I don't think that had RPRA either.

So the Basque game of pelota or jai alai,

I think we'll go with pelota.

What is pelota? How would you describe it?

It's guys with a shopping basket tied to their wrist

flinging a ball against the wall.

OK, that sounds good. It's not the right answer.

-It is the Royal Pigeon Racing Association.

-Is it?

-The RPRA.

Maybe they didn't exist when your trains were running.

Probably didn't, no. It was all local clubs anyway.

OK, you've been knocked out, I'm afraid, on Sport,

which isn't going to improve your mood.

-Reg, well done, you're through to the Final Round!

-Yes.

Jazz On A Sunday are playing well. Very good news for the challengers.

Let's see if you can really break through here. Well done.

Come back to us and we will play the next round.

The jazz team are playing well. The music is good on this side of the studio.

The challengers have lost one brain, the Eggheads have lost two.

So they're going to be at a disadvantage in the final.

Our last subject before the final is Arts & Books.

Who would like this?

-Oh, dear.

-Terry or Marian?

-I'll go, I'll go.

-OK, Terry. Who would you like, before you go?

-Who would you like to play?

-I'll play Kevin.

All right, so it's going to be Terry from Jazz On A Sunday versus

Kevin from the Eggheads on Arts & Books.

To ensure there's no conferring, please take your positions in the Question Room.

I'm going to ask each of you three questions on Arts & Books in turn

and Terry, you can choose the first or the second set of questions.

I'll take the first, please.

Here we go, Terry, best of luck.

In the Harry Potter books what is a Quaffle in the game of Quidditch?

Quaffle? I don't think it's the ball.

I don't think it's a goal. Quaffle. Could be a goal.

Broomstick. I'll go down the middle and say broomstick.

It's tricky if you haven't read Harry Potter

and I must admit I haven't really done that myself.

What about you, Kevin, have you read Harry Potter?

No, I've seen all the films but I haven't actually read the books.

-My thought was it's a ball.

-It is a ball.

I'm sorry, Terry, it's a ball not a broomstick.

Kevin. Oliver Barrett and Jennifer Cavalleri

are the central characters in which romantic novel?

They're the lead characters in Love Story.

That is right, they are.

What is described as the loveliest of trees in A E Housman's poem A Shropshire Lad?

I have read it. Whether I can...

I think the willow.

It's not. Anyone here?

-Cherry.

-A cherry.

-Anyone going to give me the phrase?

-Sweet cherry, loveliest of trees?

Nice.

Who wrote the short story Bernice Bobs Her Hair?

I've heard the title, yes. Which of them wrote that?

Bernice Bobs Her Hair...

I've got a faint idea it might be Fitzgerald.

Scott Fitzgerald, I'll go for.

Your faint ideas are often accurate and in this case it was.

It is Scott Fitzgerald. Well done, Kevin. Terry, I'm sorry.

You've been cast aside there.

I'm afraid to say you won't be in the final,

I always feel bad saying that.

-Maybe your team will still win.

-Yes, I'm sure. I'm sorry, team,

but trombone players don't know everything, I'm afraid.

You're the one that plays the music, that's the key thing.

Kevin, Terry, please come back to us here and we will play the Final Round.

This is what we've been playing towards, the Final Round,

which is General Knowledge. But I'm afraid those of you who lost your head-to-heads

won't be allowed to take part in this round.

So, Tony and Terry from Jazz On A Sunday

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

Reg, Malcolm and Marian,

you are playing to win Jazz On A Sunday £2,000.

Barry, Pat and Kevin you're playing for something that money can't buy,

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.

Jazz On A Sunday, the question is are your three brains better than the Eggheads' three?

Don't answer that, you don't need to answer that.

No points in that question.

-Would you like to go first or second?

-What do you think?

-Shall we go first?

-I think we should go first.

-We're going to go first.

All the best to you. Here we go. £2,000 in the balance.

On maps of the London Underground, what colour is the District Line?

-Green. Green.

-Is it?

-Yeah, I think it's green.

District Line is green.

I thought it was...

It's not red. That's the Central Line.

-Which one's black?

-I think the District Line is definitely green.

-The Northern Line is black.

-Yeah.

-I think the Central Line is red.

-So that only leaves us green.

-It's green.

-Let's go for green, then.

I think the District Line is green.

The District Line is definitely green.

Speaking as somebody who has the misfortune to live on it.

Well done.

Thank you for that question, Jeremy.

Eggheads, fallen arches is a condition affecting which parts of the body?

THEY MUTTER

-Feet.

-Feet. It affects the feet.

I had it when I was a young chap

and spent years doing exercises for my feet.

Feet is the right answer. Did they get better?

I stopped doing them and forgot all about it.

And then one day, as an adult, walking along the beach, I noticed

I didn't have fallen arches anymore. I've no idea what happened.

I always think when you get questions of a medical nature

it's unfair because you lot have got so much wrong with you!

LAUGHTER

OK, challengers, your question.

The father of which actor became Lord Chancellor in 1987?

Wow!

Havers.

There was an old Havers who was one of the legal people in Parliament.

-Think Havers?

-So I presume it's Havers.

-Can you repeat the question, please?

-Sure.

The father of which actor became Lord Chancellor in 1987?

There was a Lord Havers,

was the Lord Chancellor or one of the legal people in the Government.

-And it was '87, wasn't it?

-Was it '87?

-Which of them is the oldest?

Well...

Jude Law is not that old, is he?

There was definitely a Lord Havers in the Government

at some point round about then.

Well, we haven't...

We're going to go for Nigel Havers.

Nigel Havers is the right answer. Is it Michael?

-Is that who it was, Michael Havers?

-Yes.

-Under Mrs Thatcher? Yeah.

Well done. Two points to you, team.

See how they do with this one.

Fresno is a city and county in which US state?

California? Yeah?

It's a city in eastern California.

You been there, any of you?

No. Louis Theroux went there on a documentary once.

It looked quite a tough place.

California is the right answer.

They've got two and you've got two.

Get this one right and you do just put them under pressure.

They're good at handling pressure but they're not that good!

CHUCKLING

The Silk Road Project which encourages

international collaboration among artists was founded by which classical musician?

Vanessa-Mae is probably too young.

She's probably no more than 30 even now.

Yo-Yo Ma is older than that but I'm not aware of any political...

It sounds like a Barenboim type of thing to me.

He's kind of getting on for our age. Been around long enough.

And has had involvement with political type activities.

But it is Silk Road, isn't it?

Which might indicate somebody Far Eastern.

It's going to be one of those two. Pretty sure it's not Vanessa-Mae.

-Down the middle?

-I've said my bit.

-Down the middle?

I'd go for Barenboim.

-All right.

-Let's go for it.

-We'll go for Daniel Barenboim.

OK. Eggheads, do you know?

-Yo-Yo Ma.

-Yo-Yo Ma is the answer.

You almost veered off Barenboim and then not quite. Silk Road is where?

It's from China to the West.

Central Asia, essentially from China through to the Middle East.

Marian, you had the right idea there.

If the Eggheads get this right, the contest is over.

What was once described by magistrates as the principle cause

of all the vice and debauchery committed among the inferior sort of people?

-I've heard this.

-Gin.

-It rings a bell with me as poverty.

-Oh, really? OK.

I don't know but it could be gin.

It's not likely to be tobacco.

I'm very excited about gin because there was the massive consumption

-of gin by the lower classes.

-They did.

In the 18th century it was considered as an epidemic.

Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for a tuppence.

So, well, we don't know.

If we're voting, I'd vote for gin.

No confidence.

-You're the deciding one, then.

-I have a slight preference for gin.

It was an absolute plague on the nation.

They got very excited about it, didn't they?

Want to go for that? We're undecided here, we're split.

But we're going to go with gin.

As in "gin lay in mother's ruin," all that sort of thing.

If you've got this wrong we go to Sudden Death.

If you got it right, the contest is over.

-Do you think they got it right?

-Yeah.

-I think you got it right.

The answer is gin. Congratulations, Eggheads, you have won!

You were veering around there. You were getting a bit of poverty.

I thought we might end up with smoking.

-I'd heard a similar quote that had said poverty.

-Yeah.

It might not have been as early as that quote.

-Gin is... What is it? Mother's...

-Mother's ruin.

-Mother's ruin.

Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for a tuppence.

-Well, I hope it was fun to play.

-Yes!

-And it's been very nice to see you.

-Pretty intimidating.

-Don't think we've disgraced ourselves, anyway.

-You reduced them to three. It's a great result.

Commiserations to you.

The Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them and they reign supreme over quiz land once again.

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, well done, back on track. I wonder who's going to 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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