Episode 105 Eggheads

These people are among 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.

And, taking part on the might of our quiz Goliaths today

are the High Flyers.

This team of friends all work

for the Higher Education Funding Council in Bristol

and, throughout the year, have various work quizzes

chaired by team captain Mark. Let's meet them.

Hi, my name's Mark, I'm 37 and I'm a statistician.

Hi, I'm Richard, I'm 31, I'm a civil servant.

Hello, my name's Vanessa. I'm 41 and I'm an HR consultant.

Hi, I'm Shawn, I'm 43 and I'm a website manager.

Hi, I'm Jess, I'm 31 and I'm a senior policy adviser.

-So, Mark and team, welcome to you.

-ALL: Hello.

And it's university funding stuff that you do, basically?

Yeah, that's right.

The Government give us around £5 billion a year and we distribute

that to universities and other higher education institutions.

-But you quiz as well?

-We do quiz as well.

Normally, I set the quizzes. I'm normally in your position.

And this lot have to deal with the questions.

But it's the other way round today, I suppose.

Does setting the quizzes make you cleverer?

Because I ask these questions all the time.

They still know more than me and it drives me crazy!

I know a lot of random facts, the problem is

I don't know a broad range of facts, that's the gist of it.

That might help in this game. We wish you well.

Every day, there is £1,000 in cash up for grabs for our challengers.

However, if they fail to defeat the Eggheads,

the prize-money rolls over to the next show.

So, High Flyers, the Eggheads have won the last nine games,

which means £10,000 says you can't beat them today.

-Shall we give it a go?

-ALL: Yes!

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

Who would like this?

-I think we're looking at Richard, aren't we?

-Yeah, I'll take this one.

OK, Richard, Film & TV against any of those faces smiling at you winningly.

Chris or Judith?

I'd say Chris.

-Chris.

-Let's take Chris.

Richard from the High Flyers versus one of our own high-flyers here, Chris.

To ensure there is no conferring,

would you please take your positions in the question room.

Film & TV, Richard. They seemed to pick you immediately for that.

I think there was either Sport or Film & TV,

they are the only two subjects I have minimal modern knowledge of

and no knowledge of the other subjects, so...

Chris, favourite film you've seen?

As a piece of theatre, to sit down for four hours and enjoy,

-I like Lawrence Of Arabia.

-What about TV, Chris?

Oh... I don't actually watch a lot of TV, Jeremy.

-Richard, this sounds promising.

-Yeah. Hopefully.

-Film & Television.

-Fingers crossed.

-You can choose the first or second set of questions.

-Can I go first, please?

Here we go with your first question. What is the name of the character played by Hugh Grant

in the 1999 film Notting Hill?

OK. I've seen the film. Mark Darcy is from Bridget Jones.

So it's either Daniel Cleaver or William Thacker.

And I'm going to go for Daniel Cleaver.

-Let me check with your team-mates.

-No!

-William Thacker.

-We think it's William Thacker.

-It is Thacker.

Chris, your question.

Which literary character has been played on film

by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp?

Er, yeah, Gene Wilder in the original

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

and Johnny Depp in the remake, so it's Willy Wonka.

Willy Wonka is the right answer. Back to you, Richard.

Who was the female presenter

of the British version of the game show Total Wipeout?

Um...

Not sure on this one, either.

Um, Suzi Perry, she tends to present car programmes, I think,

and motorbikes.

Zoe Salmon, I think, is Blue Peter, possibly. Um...

I'm not sure. I'm going to go for Suzi Perry.

-Any Eggheads know this?

-Amanda Byram.

Amanda Byram is the answer, Richard. Sorry.

Gosh, Chris, you could get the round if you get this one right.

Gilly Coman

and then Melanie Hill played Aveline Boswell in which TV sitcom?

-It was Carla Lane's thing set in Liverpool. It's Bread.

-Is right.

Chris, you've got it.

Bread is the answer, so no way back for you Richard. I'm sorry.

-Oh, well.

-A difficult start for our High Flyers.

Please come back to us and rejoin your teams.

OK, Mark, that was a slightly shaky start, if you don't mind me saying so.

-Any thoughts on tactics?

-We have got a tactic.

-Is it going to be deployed later?

-It's going to be deployed...

-The tactic was to lose the first round(!)

-OK, it's working. All right.

As it stands, the High Flyers have lost a brain from the final round.

The Eggheads have not lost any brains,

so they are sitting there rather over-confidently.

The next subject is Music, so have another go.

Who wants this?

I think we've had this discussion. We knew it was going to be

-the nightmare round for her.

-I'm the sacrificial lamb.

-OK, Vanessa.

-Against anyone but Chris.

-What about Tremendous Knowledge?

-Tremendous knowledge Dave?

-Dave.

-Yeah, Dave.

OK, we'll go for Tremendous Knowledge Dave.

Vanessa from the High Flyers against Dave from the Eggheads.

Please take your positions in the question room.

Vanessa, you think you are the sacrificial lamb here?

-None of us wanted Music.

-Is that right?

What, because of the classical-opera dimension, or...?

-Just not our forte, I think.

-It is a very wide category, Dave, isn't it?

It is a broad category. Anything could come up, anything could happen.

Good luck with this. First or second set of questions?

I'll go first, please.

Here we go, Vanessa, all the best.

The U2 number-one singles Vertigo

and Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

come from the 2004 album How To...what?

Oh, none of them sound familiar, I'm afraid.

Um...quite a political band. I'm tempted to go for the atomic bomb.

Yeah, I'll go for Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is the right answer.

Well done, Vanessa.

Dave, which creature lived in a windmill according to

a children's song that features the line

"going clip-clippety-clop on the stair, oh, yeah"?

It's Old Amsterdam, isn't it? I think it's

# I saw a mouse, there. # Yeah, mouse.

Well done. Not a frog, not an ant. Mouse is the answer.

Vanessa.

Who wrote the song Mr Tambourine Man,

a UK number-one single for The Byrds, in 1965?

My husband's favourite. I know it well. It's Bob Dylan.

That's very handy, it is indeed. Bob Dylan. Dave.

Joe Washbourn and Dan Hipgrave found fame as members of which group?

When I start getting a bit excited and dancing,

I tend to dance in the moonlight to their most favourite track.

-It's Toploader.

-Toploader is the right answer. Well done.

Third question, Vanessa, you're going well.

In the musical Seven Brides For Seven Brothers,

the song Bless Your Beautiful Hide is a solo from which brother?

Oh! I know the film well,

but I'm not sure I'm going to get this. Um...

All the brothers are named from A-B-C, aren't they?

So I'm guessing it will start with Adam.

-OK. They're named A-B-C as in...?

-As they go down the seven brothers.

Out of interest, how do you get to Adam rather than, say, Archie?

First man, er, that's just a guess.

-I think it's Howard Keel, but I'm guessing on Adam.

-Is she right?

Yeah, they're biblical names.

They're biblical names, you're absolutely right, Vanessa.

Well done.

I was impressed with your reasoning. OK.

Dave, if you get this wrong, you will be knocked out.

Beethoven's work known as the Moonlight Sonata,

was written in which key?

No idea. I will go for...

A minor.

No, it's C sharp minor.

I wouldn't have got that. Well done, Vanessa.

Well done, Vanessa, you've won on Music. That's great.

You are in the final round.

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

It looked as if the High Flyers might crash land,

but they've actually taken off here.

They lost a brain from the final round, but they have also

taken out an Egghead, too, so it's looking lively.

The next subject is History.

Which of you would like this?

I think the person holding a masters in history is up.

-Aren't you, Jess?

-Yes.

Doesn't make me a specialist.

A masters in history is not going to help you escape this one.

Who would you like to play? It can't be Chris or Dave.

-Take Kevin.

-I think we've got to take Kevin or Daphne.

Kevin!

Kevin is not weak at anything, so we might as well take him

-on the strongest round.

-I think I'm being sacrificed here.

I'll take on Kevin, please.

We did have a team the other day who had the rather interesting

and unusual tactic of playing every Egghead at their strongest subjects.

Their first player went in against Kevin on History,

who had never, up until that point, even got a question wrong

-in history in ten years. Knocked him out, didn't he?

-Yeah.

So Jess from the High Flyers versus Kevin from the Eggheads.

-People taking you on on your strongest subject, Kevin.

-That's all right.

Probably will enjoy that. To ensure there is no conferring, please take your positions.

Good luck on History, Jess. Would you like to go first or second?

I'll go first, please, Jeremy.

See what you can do here, Jess.

In British history, who was the father of Charles II?

Erm, right.

I did try and revise my Kings and Queens of Britain,

but I'm not completely sure on this one.

I think I'm going to go for Charles I.

Charles I is right, Jess, well done. That's a good one to get, well done.

OK, Kevin, in the early third century

when the Romans divided Britain in two,

what name was given to the southern province, whose capital was Londinium?

That was...

And the one that was further north, which was based on York,

was Britannia Inferior, so this was Britannia Superior.

Yes. Britannia Superior is correct.

Jess, your question.

In 1958, the National Health Service introduced schemes

for vaccinations to under-15s for polio and which other disease?

Um... I'm not sure if there is a vaccination for rickets.

-I think it's probably diphtheria.

-Diphtheria is the right answer.

-Well done.

-Ah, thank you.

My pleasure. Kevin, your question.

In 1558, Elizabeth I learned she'd become Queen of England while

apparently sitting under a tree in the grounds of which stately home?

Yes, she was under the guardianship of the owner of Hatfield House.

Hatfield House is correct.

What age was she when this incident happened?

She would have been about 25. She was born 1533.

-JEREMY CHUCKLES

-He knows a lot, doesn't he?

OK, Jess, which banking heiress and philanthropist erected the statue

of Greyfriars Bobby in Edinburgh and was described by Edward VII

as, "After my mother, the most remarkable woman in the kingdom."

Oh. Absolutely no idea.

Um... I think I'll discount Harriet Taylor.

Probably that will be the answer!

I'm going to go for Angela Burdett-Coutts, Jeremy.

-Is she right, Kevin?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

OK, Kevin, if you get this one wrong, you are out.

Isidor Straus, who died in 1912 as a passenger on board

the Titanic, was a co-owner of which business?

I know he was a business magnate, but...

Oh, dear.

You know my record. Unfortunately, I'm not a good guesser,

so whichever one I go for, it's going to be...

It's going to be wrong.

I'll go for Bloomingdale's. I don't know.

There's been a reaction among your colleagues here.

The co-founder, with R H Macy, of Macy's store. Isidor Straus.

The old couple you see lying on the bed as the ship goes down.

Kevin, ten years unbeaten and now two within a short space of time.

My goodness! You've lost on History again. The answer is Macy's.

-Well done, Jess.

-Thank you.

-Oh, Kevin, I feel your pain.

Please come back, rejoin your teams.

-Well done, Jess.

-Thank you.

-Believe me, we do not see that very often.

As it stands, the High Flyers are starting to soar.

You lost the one brain - Richard, but you've taken two of them out,

including Kevin. The next subject before the final is Arts & Books.

Who would like this?

-Shawn, you'd better.

-It's me, is it?

-Shawn, yes, I think Shawn.

-OK.

-Shawn, against which Egghead?

-What do you reckon?

-Given Jeremy's advice, to take them on their strongest...

-I'm not advising.

-I'm honestly not advising.

-Why don't we go for Judith?!

-I think that's a dangerous tactic.

-It is certainly unusual.

Captain, final word?

Shawn, you're taking the person on, so take a pick.

We'll go with the first choice. Judith, please.

OK, Shawn from the High Flyers versus Judith from the Eggheads on Arts & Books.

Please go to the question room now.

Shawn, your team is continuing what we're calling the frontal assault on the Eggheads,

-because Judith is very good on Arts & Books, aren't you, Judith?

-Well, I haven't done it for ages.

Of the last 32 rounds you've played on Arts & Books, you've won 30.

-Oh, have I?

-Yes.

-Well, that's put the kibosh on it!

-That's torn it.

OK, Shawn, good luck to you. I'm doing all I can here.

Arts & Books, and would you like to go first or second?

Can I go first, please?

Here we go. Which duo made their first appearance together

in the 1915 story Extricating Young Gussie?

OK, well it wouldn't be Holmes and Watson.

I think that's Study In Scarlet. Um...

Tarzan and Jane, I don't think...

It sounds like a Jeeves and Wooster type of story,

so I'll go for Jeeves and Wooster, please.

It is indeed Jeeves and Wooster, yes. Judith, your question.

Golconda, which depicts nearly identical men

in dark overcoats and bowler hats falling through the sky

towards a street lined with houses, is a work by which artist?

-You're saying Golconda?

-Golconda.

It sounds like a Magritte.

Magritte is the right answer.

-He was completely surreal, wasn't he?

-Hm.

Shawn, who painted the first official portrait

of the Duchess of Cambridge, unveiled in January 2013?

Um...

I don't really remember the name.

I just remember that people didn't really like the picture.

Um...

No, it's really got to be a guess.

Could I have Wolfgang Tillmans, please?

-OK. You are drawing on nothing there, are you?

-Yeah.

I really can't remember at all.

Do you know, Judith?

-Is it Wolfgang...

-I think it's Paul Emsley.

Paul Emsley is the right answer.

Shawn, I'm sorry, you got that wrong.

Judith has a chance to pull ahead.

Which of these literary characters marries Edward Ferrars?

I don't know who Flora Poste is.

Maggie Tulliver is out of Mill On The Floss.

I think it's Elinor Dashwood.

-Where is she out of?

-She is out of Sense And Sensibility.

She is indeed, and you are correct, Judith.

Elinor Dashwood is. So, Shawn, don't get this wrong, or you're out.

In books by Enid Blyton, what do Molly and Peter find

in an antiques shop, which ends up taking them to magical lands?

HE EXHALES HEAVILY

I have never read any Enid Blyton, so, um...

I don't think it would be a lucky bedstead. Um...

That sounds like a Bedknobs And Broomsticks type of thing.

Singing bath or the wishing chair.

I think I'll go for the strange one, the singing bath.

I think wishing chair sounds too obvious.

I think I'll go for the singing bath, please.

-I really don't know.

-Yeah, Vanessa, what's your thinking on this?

-Go for the obvious!

-A wishing chair in an antiques shop.

I don't know whether they sing in the bath or the bath

sings at them, but I think that was beyond Enid Blyton,

-because she went for a wishing chair.

-Oh!

-You got it wrong

and Judith is in the final round. You've been knocked out.

So that leaves us interestingly poised for the final

and, if you both come back to us, we will play it.

So this is what we have been playing towards.

It is time for the final round, which, as always, is General Knowledge.

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

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

So, Richard and Shawn from the High Flyers

and Kevin and Dave from the Eggheads, would you please now leave the studio.

Mark, Vanessa and Jess, you're playing to win the High Flyers £10,000.

Judith, Daphne and Chris, you are playing for something money can't buy,

which is 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, High Flyers, the question is -

are your three brains better than the Eggheads' three?

And would you like to go first or second?

We'll go first.

Good luck. You played a really good game.

What type of creature is a curlew?

-Oh, I think I know.

-What?

-I think it's a bird.

I think it's a bird as well.

-I've got no idea, so I'll trust you two.

-I thought it might be a bird.

That's my first instinct.

Go with the first instinct.

We are going to say bird.

Bird is correct.

-Help us, Eggs, where do you find a curlew?

-Moorland.

-It's got a funny long beak, has it?

-A beak that goes that way.

It's a characteristic sound you hear on a moorland,

-or moors.

-OK. Eggheads, Steve McManaman played football

for which club between 1990 and 1999?

None of us can do that!

We said we hoped sport doesn't come up.

McManaman, what sort of name is that?

-It sounds Liverpudlian.

-I thought Liverpool.

-I thought Liverpool.

-Did you?

-Yes, but...

I thought McManaman might be an Irish name,

in which case it might be Liverpool.

I was thinking it does sound vaguely Liverpudlian, doesn't it?

-Shall we just go for it?

-I don't think it's Arsenal.

Some of us remember what used to be there at Ashburton Grove!

I think, on balance, we've got to go for Liverpool, haven't we?

If you're sure.

In the absence of anything else.

We're going to guess at Liverpool.

Steve McManaman played for Liverpool.

Daphne's little inkle there.

OK.

You've knocked out two of their strong players

and they are going to struggle a bit here.

Which name is given to the theory that in organisations,

people are promoted to the level of their incompetence?

-I think it might be Peter Principle.

-You work in HR.

-Don't put it on my back!

-You think it's the Peter Principle?

-I think it's Peter Principle.

-I've never heard of the other two.

-Yeah, OK.

-Let's go for Peter Principle.

Peter Principle.

-Vanessa, you are in HR.

-Oh, don't!

You have got it right. Well done. You know what Parkinson's Law is?

No.

Parkinson's Law, it says work expands to fill the time provided.

OK, you got it right. Peter Principle it is.

All right, Eggheads,

in the ancient Olympic Games,

the pentathlon consisted of running, long jump, discus,

javelin and what else?

-It might be wrestling.

-I thought wrestling.

-Wrestling.

It's classical Greek, isn't it?

-Greco-Roman wrestling.

-Wrestling, Jeremy.

Wrestling is correct.

That's two sports questions. Not fair!

Two sports questions.

You had less trouble with that one than with your famous McManaman.

Goodness me. All right, they are there for the taking, I can feel it.

High Flyers, your question. Get this right, put the pressure on.

What was the first name of the wife of Abraham Lincoln?

-Anyone seen the film?

-No, I haven't seen it yet.

I think it is Mary.

-I don't know.

-Do you?

Who plays her in the film?

Sally Field.

Oh, she does, yeah.

Millicent...

-It sounds very modern.

-Maud. Maud. Could be Maud.

I think we should go for our first instinct, which is Mary.

-Try Mary.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Mary.

-You've not seen the film?

-ALL: No.

Jess, you got that from somewhere.

-Was that a memory, or...?

-Probably. Probably an Oscars memory.

Because it was Sally Field who played her. Mary is right.

Three out of three.

Doing really well. Three out of three in the final round.

Excellent play by the High Flyers.

-This is why our universities are in such a good state.

-That's right.

Eggheads, if you get this wrong, they've won £10,000.

The architect W G R Sprague, who died in 1933,

designed several of which type of building in London?

-Chris?

-It's not underground stations.

-Right, OK.

That's Leslie Green and then Charles Holden.

And theatres.

-Theatre design is a specialist sort of...

-Frank somebody, wasn't it?

There must be more than one, though.

-Yeah.

-Libraries, OK.

Was the '30s... He died in 19...?

He died in 1933.

Was it a great era of building libraries?

Well, the Carnegie libraries, but...

But it was probably 1910s...

Given the specialist nature of theatre design,

I would say he was a theatre architect.

-Would you?

-Yes, I would.

They are all sort of Edwardian-looking, aren't they?

If he died in '33, obviously, he was active around the turn

of the century, which was the golden age of theatre building.

It was. So...

-What do you think?

-Yeah.

-Likelihood.

-Well...

It's not underground stations, I promise you.

That was Leslie Green and, later, Charles Holden.

We don't know about libraries, they're not specialised enough,

but theatres are a specialised field of architecture.

-And it was a golden age of theatre buildings, so there we go.

-Yes.

-Likelihood.

-Yes.

We think the likelihood is that it's theatres.

Theatres? You struggled with that one as well, didn't you?

It is fair to say that.

And if you've got it wrong, if,

the jackpot goes to our very good challengers.

Your logic was impeccable. Chris, particularly.

-Theatres is the right answer.

-Oh, well done.

Very good play by Chris on the end there. OK.

So we go to sudden death.

We haven't been in sudden death yet in this contest.

Gets a bit harder, because I don't give you alternative answers.

Good luck, High Flyers.

Which English comedian embarked on his Out Out stand-up tour in 2010?

-Out Out.

-Out Out.

-So, English comedians, what have we got?

-2010.

Not Ricky Gervais.

-Um...

-Russell Brand?

-Alan Carr?

-Oh, Alan Carr is a good...

-It could be Alan Carr.

Out Out.

Tim Vine?

Tim Vine?!

I've see them all!

Jeremy's smiling. It may not be that!

I don't think it is that. I think Alan Carr would be a good...

-Mark Watson?

-Out Out.

Kind of...

-Yeah, Alan Carr? Are we happy with that?

-We'll try it.

Alan Carr.

Leaving my brother aside, I think the answer to this

is my favourite comedian at the moment.

It's not Alan Carr. It's a guy called Micky Flanagan.

And he has a particular sketch where he talks about, "We're going out.

-"We're going out, we're going out out."

-Oh, out out.

And that means, Eggheads, it could be your moment.

In January 2012, which banker was stripped of the knighthood

he received in 2004?

Sir Fred.

-Fred the Shred. Fred Goodwin, yeah.

-Fred Goodwin.

Plain mister. Fred Goodwin is the right answer.

We say congratulations, Eggheads, you have won.

Well, you did all you could there.

You really did. That theatre question

was more than a guess, wasn't it?

They did remorselessly apply logic there. You played well, Eggheads,

-but you've been shot to pieces here, haven't you?

-LAUGHTER

By some very good High Flyers, who came in out of the sun. Well done.

Commiserations to you. The Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them,

and their winning streak continues.

I'm afraid you won't be going home with the £10,000,

so the money rolls over to our next show.

Eggheads, congratulations. Who will beat you?

Join us next time to see

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

£11,000 says they don't. Until then. Goodbye.