Episode 93 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 five quiz challengers pit their wits

against possibly the greatest quiz team in Britain - the Eggheads!

Challenging our quiz champions today

are The Faginites from the Rhondda Valley.

These friends regularly attend the pub quiz at their local, Fagin's.

They usually quiz on separate teams, but have put rivalries aside to take on the Eggheads.

-Let's meet them.

-Hi, I'm David, I'm 57 and a leaflet distributor.

Hi, I'm Irene, I'm 76 and I'm a retired businesswoman.

I'm Colin, I'm aged 63 and I'm a retired civil servant.

Hi, I'm Barbara, I'm 66 and a retired business studies and IT teacher.

I'm Viv, I'm 63 and I'm a retired history teacher.

-David and team, welcome to you.

-Thank you.

-Is it hard-fought, this quiz in the Fagin Arms?

-Yes, quite hard-fought.

-So who comes out on top when you're in separate teams? Or should I not ask that?

-No!

-It'll spoil the atmosphere.

-We all win in turns.

-Do you watch the show?

-Oh, yes.

-Regularly.

-And what do you think of this band...

-- They're all right.

-..of oddballs?

-- They're very hard to beat.

They are. Let's see what happens.

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

If they fail to win, that rolls over to the next show.

The Eggheads have won the last two games,

-so £3,000 says you can't beat them. Would you like to try?

-Yes, please!

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

Which one of you wants this?

-That's Viv.

-My pigeon.

-OK, Viv on this.

-Yes.

-Who would you like to play against, Viv? You can choose from any one of them.

-I think I'll go for... for Pat, please.

-OK, so it is Viv from the Faginites

against Pat from the Eggheads. To ensure there's no conferring, please go to the question room.

Viv, you're taking Film and TV.

-Yes, that's my chosen subject.

-But you're a retired history teacher.

I'm afraid of taking history in case I get something wrong and never live down the shame.

It's funny you say that. I often feel for people when they go in on science and they're biochemists

and they mess it up and it strikes them to the very heart.

I'm sure you've done the right thing. OK, your questions. You can choose the first or second set.

I think I'll go first, please. Go first, come second.

I'm sure not. Here we go. Which TV comedy started out as a French and Saunders sketch

entitled Modern Mother and Daughter?

I don't think it's The Vicar of Dibley or Murder Most Horrid, for that matter.

It sounds like the mother/daughter relationship in Absolutely Fabulous, so that's my answer.

Absolutely Fabulous is right. Well done, Viv. OK, Pat,

in which film does Robert De Niro's character shave his hair into a Mohawk?

It's the malcontent Travis Bickle

in Taxi Driver, who goes into ninja mode.

-"You talkin' to me?"

-Who you talkin' to?

-Taxi Driver. What a film that is!

-Great film.

Goodness me. OK, over to you, Viv.

Which film in the original Star Trek franchise is subtitled The Final Frontier?

Now I've always been a huge Star Trek fan, but mostly of the TV series.

The films never seemed to be quite as good.

I don't think it's Star Trek III. Too early.

Em...

I'd probably plump for Star Trek V.

Excellent work. You've got it right. A hard question.

OK, Pat,

in which children's TV show was the town hall clock said to be telling the time steadily, sensibly,

never too quickly, never too slowly?

One of the great problems with TV quiz questions

is telling the difference between Trumpton, Chigley and Camberwick Green.

Happily, I don't have to confront that here. Well, of the three,

Trumpton is a very civic sort of production with the fire station and the fort

and the policeman.

I don't know the answer, but I suspect Trumpton is the most likely to have a town hall clock like that.

Trumpton is the right answer. Those names roll back the years!

-A bit.

-I don't think I've sais Mary, Mungo and Midge since I was a kid.

Ah! OK...

Your third question, Viv.

Which animator and film producer founded the Laugh-O-Grams Film Company in 1922?

Laugh-O-Gram is the company.

I have it at the back of my mind that I think Walt Disney would be later anyway.

And Chuck Jones was always heavily involved with Tom and Jerry and other cartoons like that.

So I think I'll probably go for Tex Avery.

It was actually Walt Disney, interestingly. The obvious one.

So that has

given Pat a chink of daylight here.

Littlewood is the maiden name of which Coronation Street character, Pat?

Oh!

I've a suspicion Emily, who was at one time Bishop,

I think she was Nugent. That was her original name.

Spider Nugent was her nephew.

So maybe I'll dismiss Emily.

Gail is the multiply-married Gail Tilsley, Gail Platt

and I think Gail Potter.

Rita Fairclough. She married Len Fairclough. Was she Rita Littlewood?

I don't know, but of the three I'm inclined towards Rita.

-Think he's right, Viv?

-I think he's right, definitely.

Rita is the right answer.

-Sorry, Viv. He's a very tight player.

-A very good player.

Well done to Pat. You're in the final round. Viv, at least it wasn't history. Rejoin your teammates.

So, as it stands, the Faginites have lost a brain from the final round.

The Eggheads are, so far, intact.

The next subject is Arts and Books.

Who would like this?

-Intake of breath!

-Me.

-Irene, you took the intake of breath, then you volunteered!

Against which Egghead, Irene?

-I think I'll have the smiling Dave.

-Smiling Tremendous Knowledge Dave against Irene.

Please go to the question room.

-I know musicals are your passion, Irene.

-That's right.

You've spent a life putting them on.

-Yes, about 40 years.

-Amazing. What kind of things have you done?

I started in Edinburgh in the Gilbert and Sullivan Society chorus,

worked my way up, came to South Wales and there was a vacancy for a musical director.

I knew more about music than anybody else, so I volunteered, fool that I was!

And 40 years later, I gave up!

OK, Arts and Books against Dave. Would you like first or second?

I'll buck the trend and go second.

Here we go, Dave. In art, what term is used to describe a substance such as wax crayon

that repels paint?

I'll go for Remove.

It's interesting, that. I'm confused by this as well.

-The answer is Resist.

-Oh, right. Wouldn't know.

There we are. It's a Resist. Chris, make sense to you?

-Yeah.

-If Chris says it's right, it's right.

Irene, how about that?

You're in the lead.

In the theatre, the time a show starts is described as the time it does what?

It's got to go up, surely. I haven't heard the expression.

You're quite right.

APPLAUSE

Two interesting questions.

Dave, who wrote the time travel short story The Chronic Argonauts in 1888,

seven years before his more famous novel on the same subject?

I've got to go HG Wells.

-Because his more famous novel was...?

-The Time Machine?

-Yeah.

OK, Irene, over to you.

Henry James' novel The Ambassadors tells the story of an American man travelling to where?

The answer is I don't know.

So I've got to bring into play either science or logic.

-My logic tells me go for Asia.

-It's Europe.

OK. So you are equal.

Third question, Dave. For what does the letter E stand in the name of the author E Nesbit?

Edith.

Not a second's hesitation. You're right. Edith is correct.

Irene, you've got to get this.

The eyes of Dr TJ Eckleburg painted on an advertising hoarding

is a recurring motif in which novel?

I haven't heard of As I Lay Dying.

I haven't heard about the eyes. I'll go for The Great Gatsby.

You're right! The Great Gatsby.

Interesting. We go to sudden death, Dave. It becomes a bit harder. I don't give you alternatives.

Little Eyolf and When We Dead Awaken are plays by which Norwegian writer

who died in 1906?

Henrik Ibsen?

Ibsen is right. Henrik Ibsen.

Irene, because he's gone first,

he's got you on the back foot. Here's your question.

Who wrote the novel Libra, about Lee Harvey Oswald and his involvement in the assassination of JFK?

The answer is I don't know.

I'm trying to think of an author of that time.

Try John Grisham. Probably wrong.

Anyone on your team know? Not John Grisham.

-I thought it was.

-Barbara thought it was John Grisham. It's actually Don DeLillo.

-Don DeLillo.

-Never heard of him.

So Dave has taken the round and I'm afraid he's knocked you out.

So thanks for playing. Come back, rejoin your teams, please.

Bad luck again to the Faginites. They've lost another brain.

That's two gone. The Eggheads have not lost a brain.

How frustrating is that? The next subject is Sport.

Which Faginite wants Sport?

-I'll take Sport on.

-OK, David. Against an Egghead.

-It's got to be Chris, hasn't it?

-Diolch yn fawr iawn!

-Does that translate as anything...?

-"Thank you very much"!

-OK.

So David from the Faginites versus Chris, who is fluent in Welsh.

To ensure there's no conferring, please take your positions in the question room.

I gather your sport is darts, David.

-Yes, I play darts on a Sunday night.

-You like to play darts.

-And a Friday night.

We had a question: what is the quickest way to 501? Nine darts?

-Nine darts, yes.

-Three triple 20s...?

-180, 180 and 141.

-Have you ever done that?

-No.

-My highest out is 154.

-Highest out.

So 154. The commentators are so fast when they do it. What would that be? Triple 20...

-Yeah.

-And double 17?

-Treble 20, treble 18, bull.

-That's very good. Did you have to buy a pint for everyone?

-No, they bought me one!

-Well, good luck.

-Thank you.

-Sport, David. First or second?

-First, please.

Here's your question. Which golfer earned his 75th victory on the PGA Tour

when he won the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in 2013?

Ooh...

I don't think it's Rory because he's a bit young.

Tiger's a bit young. I think I'll go for Vijay Singh.

OK, there's a murmur of discontent in the Eggheads here.

-Is it wrong?

-It's Tiger.

-It's Tiger!

-Oh, is it.

-David, sorry. Chris, your question.

The midfielder John Obi Mikel made his international football debut for which country in 2005?

It doesn't sound Portuguese.

They tend to use home-grown talent.

Don't think the USA do much international football, so I'll say he's from Nigeria.

And he is from Nigeria. Plays for Chelsea.

OK, your question, David.

In January, 2013, the BBC revealed that one of the most watched clips from the 2012 Olympics website

was the German Stephan Feck's performance in which sport?

I don't think it's weightlifting.

I think most of them were done by the Asians.

I don't think it was diving.

I think it might be gymnastics.

I've got a memory of this. Something happened.

What would happen in this clip?

A dive went catastrophically wrong.

It was diving. He ended up doing a bomb into the water.

He wasn't ready. He came off early.

-Oh.

-Yeah. He didn't just make a splash, he made a fool of himself.

Diving is the answer. Chris, get this and you've won on Sport.

How good will that feel?

What is the name of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club's limited overs team?

Now Nottingham is associated with the legend of Robin Hood.

Sherwood Forest and all that. And they were outlaws.

If I wanted a name for a cricket team, I'd go for Outlaws.

Outlaws is quite right, Chris. You've taken the round.

David, sorry.

You've been knocked out. Please come back and rejoin your teammates.

So, as it stands, the Faginites have lost three brains. The Eggheads have not lost any.

The next subject is Geography.

-Is that good news or bad?

-It would have been mine.

-Bad.

-I'm locked.

-I'm more happy than Barbara.

-It's Colin, then.

-Except I'll be last!

-You'll be left on your own, Barbara!

-I will!

-No, you won't.

-OK, which Egghead? Daphne or Barry?

-Look at Daphne's smile there.

-Daphne, please.

-Colin from the Faginites against our dear Daphne.

Please go to the question room.

-So, Geography, Colin. Good luck to you. First or second?

-First, please.

You'll like this one. Ebbw Vale...

..is a town in which part of the UK?

It's definitely not Northern Ireland or Scotland. It's Wales.

-If you got that wrong...

-I wouldn't be able to go home.

-You would have to relocate.

Move house. Wales is correct.

Like asking you where Weston-super-Mare is, Daphne.

The level in a landscape above which snow or ice cover the ground throughout the year

is known as what?

That's the snow line.

Snow line is correct. One each. Back to Colin. They may get harder.

Which of these Balearic islands is most northerly?

I really don't know.

I'll go Formentera.

-Do you know, Daphers?

-No, actually, I don't.

I might have guessed Ibiza, but it would have been a guess.

-Menorca is the answer.

-Oh.

-Bad luck.

Daphne has a chance to go ahead.

Which European country had a population in 2011 of 81.7 million?

Oh, gosh! I hate these questions.

I have no idea.

Well, since my stepdaughter lives in Germany, Germany.

Very handy. Germany is correct. Spain... Let's go through them.

Poland is a lot fewer. Right?

Poland's about 40 million. And Spain's about 42, 43.

-I think it's around that.

-I think it's about that, yeah.

Colin, your question.

Get this wrong and you're out and Barbara, as she feared, will play alone.

So come on, Colin. In which US state is the Olympic National Park located?

I'm not sure. I'll say Arizona.

It's Washington. Sorry, Colin.

So no way back for you.

We say well done, Daphne. You've beaten Colin on Geography.

If you come back to us, both of you, rejoin your teams and we will play that final.

So this is what we have been playing towards, the final round, which is General Knowledge.

Those of you who lost

won't be allowed to take part, so David, Irene, Colin and Viv from the Faginites,

please leave the studio.

So, Barbara, you are playing to win the Faginites £3,000.

Dave, Daphne, Chris, Barry and Pat play for something money can't buy - the Eggheads' precious reputation.

I will ask each team three questions and they're all general knowledge.

You are allowed to confer. I'm sorry that doesn't help you!

Barbara, the question is is your one brain better than the Eggheads' five?

-We'll see.

-Exactly. As long as there's a question left to come, there's hope. First or second?

I'll go first, please.

Here we go, Barbara. Good luck. The abbreviation ETA is commonly used to mean estimated time of what?

I think that's arrival.

Estimated time of arrival is quite right. Well done.

Eggheads, a hobby horse

is most likely to be used in which type of dancing?

-Morris.

-Morris dancing.

It's terrible.

It's Morris dancing.

Morris dancing is right. Any Morris dancers here?

-Chris, I fancy you'd be doing that in your spare time.

-Dream on, pal!

-Hopping up and down in an outfit. No?

-No.

-With a bell?

OK, one each, Barbara.

Don't be put off by their insanity.

Which character appeared on the front page of the 1937 first issue of the Dandy comic?

Oh, I do not know this.

The Dandy and other such comics were a bit before me, I believe.

-So 193... What was it?

-Let me read it again.

-Yeah.

Which character appeared on the front page of the 1937 first issue of the Dandy comic?

A pure guess. Korky the Cat.

-Is she right?

-Yep.

Yay! You got it right.

-Beryl the Peril is mates with Dennis the Menace. He was The Beano?

-Mm-hm.

-OK. Korky the Cat is correct.

-Thank you.

-You're playing well.

In the late 1940s,

Ferruccio Lamborghini, later a maker of sports cars,

began his first automobile business building what type of vehicles?

-Tractors, wasn't it?

-Tractors.

-All happy?

-Yes.

-Lamborghini started out building tractors,

but very fast tractors!

I can imagine. Tractors is the right answer.

How interesting. Didn't know that.

-I didn't know that, either.

-I'm glad you went first.

-Yes!

Get this right, then wait and hope they get theirs wrong. You never know.

What type of creature is the jacana?

What type of creature is the jacana?

I've never heard of it, I must say.

Jacana...

I'll go for wading bird.

-You're playing so well! Wading bird is correct.

-Thank you, God!

Three out of three. Well done.

And your team are very pleased. I can see behind you.

-It's a very interesting bird. It can walk on water.

-Can it?

Its feet are spread so far it can run across the surface of water.

-It's called the lily trotter.

-The lily trotter?

-Yes.

-Whereabouts in the world would you find it?

-South America.

-Mm-hm.

OK. Well, Eggheads, you're just recovering from a really big defeat a few days ago

where you went down with a huge jackpot and now you're on the edge of going down again!

What's happening to you?

Get this wrong and the game is over.

What Russian term was applied in the former Soviet Union to those who played key roles

in the State and Communist Party machines?

-It's Nomenklatura.

-Nomenklatura.

-They were the bureaucrats.

-The really well-connected ones.

-I was looking for apparatchik.

-So was I!

-Nomenklatura is the same.

-Happy?

-Yeah.

-We believe the answer to this is Nomenklatura.

Nomenklatura is the right answer. Three out of three for you both.

-It gets harder. Sudden death.

-Gosh!

-And I don't give you alternatives.

The Bundespolizei is the uniformed federal police force of which European country?

-I believe it's Germany.

-Germany is the right answer. Well done.

-Thank you.

Again, Eggheads, on the edge.

It's over if you get this one wrong. In which decade did the pound note cease to be legal tender in England?

-I thought it was the '80s.

-'80s.

-1988.

-Is it '83?

-No. The pound coin came in '83.

The legal tender stopped in 1988.

-Oh, that's... We're happy with the '80s?

-Yes, I'm pretty sure it's the '80s.

I remember the pound notes well. We all believe they stopped being legal tender in the '80s.

1988 it was. The '80s is the correct answer.

Well done. Sudden death.

Barbara, which French philosopher wrote a trilogy of novels known as The Roads to Freedom?

Which French philosopher rote a trilogy of novels known as The Roads to Freedom?

I can only think of one. I'll say Rousseau.

I would normally ask you for first name and last name, but it's wrong.

-Jean-Paul Sartre.

-Ah!

-Yeah.

-OK.

So this for the contest.

Your question on sudden death.

What was the name of the Irish washer woman devised and played in music halls by Arthur Lucan

and then Roy Rolland?

-Old Mother Riley.

-Yep.

A wonderful character, this. Played with gusto and verve. It was Old Mother Riley.

Old Mother Riley is the right answer. Congratulations, Eggheads. You have won.

-So we were talking about Beryl the Peril and Dennis the Menace. Beryl was in...

-The Topper.

-Yes.

-Commiserations, Barbara and the Faginites. A storming round there.

-I tried!

Many have done what you did and won, but they were on better form today.

-Commiserations to you.

-Thank you.

-The Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them.

They still reign supreme over quiz land. You won't go with the £3,000,

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 can defeat the Eggheads.

£4,000 says they don't. Until then, goodbye.

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