Episode 58 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.

Hoping to beat the might of our quiz Goliaths today

are The Stitchers from Shropshire.

This team are all members of the Wrekin branch

of the Embroiderers' Guild. And they've been getting in

some quizzing practice at their local village hall

to ensure they will have today's match against the Eggheads

all sewn up. Let's meet them.

Hi, I'm Janet. I keep a craft supply shop.

Hello, I'm Hilary and I'm a retired physiotherapist.

Hello, I'm Wendy. I'm a part-time university lecturer.

Hi, I'm Sylvie and I'm a retired civil servant.

Hi, I'm Pam and I'm a retired teacher.

-So, Janet and team, welcome.

-Hello.

-Hello, Jeremy!

Oh, what a fantastic, lively...

You're way livelier than them.

-So, you stitch together.

-We do.

Right, meaning that you sit and you stitch individual things

or the same thing or what?

It varies. Usually we get together at a monthly meeting

and we talk about stitching. And someone talks to us

about stitching and shows us different techniques.

And we get involved in workshops and exhibitions together.

-OK, and you're quizzers as well?

-Yes.

-You are now.

-Oh, we are now, yes.

-Good, well, good luck against these five.

Every day, there is £1,000 worth of cash up for grabs

for our Challengers.

If they fail to defeat the Eggheads, that prize money rolls over.

-So Stitchers, the Eggheads have won the last nine games.

-Oh!

Right, so they're really motoring.

That's bad news but the good news is £10,000 is on the table.

Excellent.

-So, it's worth playing for. Shall we start?

-Yes, please.

OK, Janet and team.

The first head-to-head battle is on the subject of Arts & Books.

-Who wants to take this?

-Who wants this?

-Who read a book once?

-I did!

-I have read one.

-Would you like to do it?

-Yes, please.

-Hilary will do it.

-OK, brilliant.

-Who do you fancy?

-Because it's so pot lucky.

-David.

-Why not? He's a nice chap?

-Dave, please.

-Tremendous Knowledge Dave?

-Yes, please.

OK, Hilary from the Stitchers versus Dave from the Eggheads

on Arts & Books.

And to ensure there's no conferring,

please take your positions in our very famous Question Room.

So, Arts & Books, Hilary. Would you like to go first or second?

Oh, I'll go first, please.

Here we go.

What type of artist would be most likely to use a palette knife?

I think that's quite clearly a painter.

Painter is right.

Tremendous Knowledge Dave, which of these novels

opens in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre?

Right, don't think it's Wolf Hall. don't think it's the Da Vinci Code.

I'm going to have to go for Brave New World.

By Aldous Huxley, that is right. Brave New World.

Hilary, which art term refers to a preparation

of plaster of Paris and glue used as a surface for painting?

Well, fresco is a painting on a wall that will have had some preparation.

I don't think that's the answer and I don't know what tondo is.

I'm going to go for gesso, please.

Yeah, nicely done, it is gesso.

OK.

-Dave.

-Mm-hm.

TS Eliot was the publisher of which poet

whose memorial was unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner

at the foot of Eliot's own?

Now, all I'm going to go on is that with John Betjeman

and Ted Hughes both being Poet Laureates,

they would have had their own space in Poets' Corner.

I've got to go Philip Larkin on that particular basis.

I'll go Philip Larkin.

-Ted Hughes is the answer.

-Never heard of that.

Come unstuck there.

OK, Hilary.

A painting by which artist achieved a price of 170 million

at auction in November 2015.

Is this...?

I think, in this case, I think I'm going to go for Picasso, please.

-Dave, any ideas?

-I think it's Modigliani.

-It is Modigliani, actually.

-Oh, OK.

OK, so two to our Challengers.

-Dave, if you get this wrong, you're out.

-Yes.

What is the name of the sled dog who's the protagonist

of the Jack London novel The Call Of The Wild?

I should know this. Straight away. And I don't.

Sorry about this to the Eggheads but I'm going to go Buck.

You got it right, Dave. Well done.

You were on the edge.

-Sudden Death we go to, OK, Hillary?

-Yes.

Here's your first question, gets a bit harder,

I don't give you alternatives.

"They create a desert and call it peace"

are words put into the mouth of a British chieftain

by which Roman historian?

I think I'll go with Ptolemy.

-No, Tacitus.

-Ooh!

OK, Dave, for the round.

Which Renaissance painter and architect left his final work,

The Transfiguration, incomplete on his death in 1520?

He died in 1520? Probably got it wrong, Raphael.

Raphael is the right answer, you've taken the round.

-Sorry, Hilary, you've been knocked out there.

-Thank you.

Please come back to us, both of you, and we'll play on.

Right, the threads a little bit loose now, Stitchers.

But it's early days.

You can save it, no question.

You've lost a brain, the Eggheads are all sitting there, so smug.

The next subject is Sport.

-Oh!

-Who would like this?

-That's me.

-OK, Pam?

-Yes.

-Retired teacher against anyone but Dave.

-What do you think about Lisa?

-Yeah, we'll go for Lisa.

-Go for Lisa, is that cool?

-Why not?

OK, so Pam from the Stitchers versus Lisa from the Eggheads on Sport.

To ensure there's no conferring,

please take your positions in the Question Room.

-So, Pam, do you want to go first or second?

-First, please.

All right, good luck to you. Here is your question, Pam.

What type of athlete would be most likely to use starting blocks?

Well, I think a shot-putter would look pretty silly

using a starting gate.

I think that you'll find is a sprinter.

Sprinter is quite right.

Lisa.

Crouch, bind, set

is an instruction given by the referee in which of these sports?

It ain't cycling.

Crouch, bind, set.

Is that the scrum in rugby union?

Rugby union.

I could see it being cycling.

I think I would have been...

Because you crouch on the bike

and you bind your feet in and then you set.

-Oh, God, is it that?

-No, it's not.

THEY LAUGH

-Rugby union, well done.

-Thank you.

Back to you, Pam.

The legendary footballer Eusebio spent the majority

of his professional career playing for which club?

I hate football.

But I will make a good go at this.

Erm, I don't think it was Manchester United.

I don't think it was Real Madrid.

I think it might have been Benfica.

It is Benfica, well done.

-Ah!

-Really well done.

Lisa.

Which of these is a golfing term

for a ball that has been buried in a bunker?

It's not one I've ever heard.

You say buried in a bunker?

Erm, maybe that would be a poached egg if it's sort of underneath,

like the yolk of a poached egg is underneath the white.

I could be over thinking this in culinary terms.

Fried sounds really stupid.

I don't know.

I don't know. There's no way I could scramble to this one, I don't think.

Erm, I'll try scrambled egg on the basis it was my first instinct.

Oh, dear.

-Oh, dear.

-Did I get there on logic and it's a poached egg?

-Well, think about what it looks like when it goes in the bunker.

-I did!

No, it's not a poached egg, it's a fried egg.

It doesn't look like that either.

Yeah, but the bunker is the white and then the yolk is the ball.

But the ball is white, as a rule, as well.

All right. Clearly they're in crisis, Pam.

-This could spread throughout the whole team.

-It could.

So, Pam, get this right, you're in the final.

Which of these West Indian fast bowlers ended his career

with the most test wickets?

Ooh.

Now, this is going to be a complete guess.

I'm going to go with Michael Holding.

Barry will know.

-Malcolm Marshall.

-Malcolm Marshall is the answer.

-Oh!

So, you've given Lisa a way back in here

with her scrambled eggs.

In which country was the British tennis player Aljaz Bedene born?

Just when you think everything's lost,

a tennis question comes along to make it all better.

Erm, Aljaz Bedene, I think was a Slovenian before he was British.

Slovenia is the right answer.

So, Sudden Death again. Oh, Pam.

Here we go.

Which US-born multiple division world champion boxer

was granted Russian citizenship in 2015?

I hate to say this but I have not got a clue,

-so I think I'm going to have to pass.

-It's a hard question.

-Anyone know?

-Roy Jones Jr.

Roy Jones Jr is the answer.

OK, Sudden Death. Lisa.

The Estadio Vicente Calderon is the traditional home ground

of which football club?

I don't know.

I'm kind of thinking my way through the Spanish clubs

that it might be but I don't even know for sure it's a Spanish club.

Erm, is it Atletico Madrid, Jeremy?

-Atletico Madrid is the right answer. Well done.

-Oof!

New stadium being constructed apparently for 2017

but, yes, you are bang on.

Sorry, Pam.

Sudden Death can end suddenly.

Come back to us, please, both of you and rejoin your teams.

So as it stands, the Stitchers have got

a little bit of trouble here, haven't we?

But now is the moment to just turn on the turbo boosters.

OK, you've lost two.

The Eggheads have not lost any and the next subject is Science.

-With £10,000 to win.

-Oh!

I can't do science. That was going to be me!

-I'll go.

-Do you want to go?

-I will be brave.

-Unless you want to send me, it's you.

-No, no, no!

-You're our secret weapon. I will be brave.

-It's such a good secret!

-Yes, I'm going to be brave.

-OK, Wendy. Against whom?

-I'm going to go for CJ.

-OK.

-So, whatever the next subject is, it's mine?

-Yeah!

Let's see how we go. Wendy from the Stitchers, CJ from the Eggheads.

And to ensure there's no conferring,

please take your positions.

Wendy, you're a part-time university lecturer so just to check,

-is it science you lecture in?

-Unfortunately not, no.

I help nurses understand what it's like to live with

someone with dementia.

-All right.

-So no, not science related, really.

-But there's medical science there, for sure.

-True, true.

-So, you never know.

-Fingers crossed.

-It's a very wide topic, this.

You may be lucky. Let's see.

Wendy, would you like to go first or second?

I'd like to go first, please.

OK, Wendy. Science. Your first question.

What is the name of a process whereby a blood clot is formed?

THEY LAUGH

Well, I like the idea of it being constipation but I know it's not.

Thankfully, I do know the answer to this question and it is coagulation.

It is indeed coagulation, of course.

CJ, which of these apex predators

will typically have several rows of replaceable teeth?

As far as I'm aware,

both tiger and grizzly bear only have one row of teeth.

But I think famously with several rows

and they are replaceable is the great white shark.

Great white shark is correct.

And apex predators, for anyone confused?

-Top of the food chain.

-Nobody eats them.

OK, Wendy.

What term is used to refer to a computer of which a hacker

has gained control without the knowledge of the user?

OK.

Well, I'm not thinking werewolf for this because they're just

people who turn to wolves at the sign of a full moon.

I'm reminded of the Christopher Lee vampire movies.

He actually bit the girls and they didn't realise they were

under his control, so I'm actually going to go with vampire.

That's my answer, please.

Yeah, I see where you've gone but, of course,

vampire is sort of the dominant role and this computer

is on the receiving end of something unpleasant and so, it's zombie.

Ah.

Right, CJ.

What name is given to the crustacean Birgus latro,

also known as the coconut crab?

This is one of those that if I've heard of it, it's the right answer.

So, it's not mugger crab.

The problem is there are, I'm sure, robber and burglary

used for other creatures

and I can't quite remember which ones are the crab.

Robber crab, burglar crab...

Not sure but I'll go with my first instinct which was robber crab.

Yeah, it's the largest land-living arthropod in the world

and it is the robber crab, well done.

CJ is ahead.

Which means, Wendy, you need this answer.

Ernest O Lawrence was the first scientist to develop

which type of particle accelerator in the 1930s?

So, the 1930s.

I'm thinking we haven't really got micros in that age

because that's, gosh, an awfully long time ago.

Based on nothing other than the fact that old videotapes

were known as beta tapes, I'm going to go with betatron.

-Let's see if the Eggheads know. Is it right?

-Cyclotron.

OK, cyclotron, Wendy, sorry, is the answer.

So, you've been knocked out by CJ, I'm afraid.

Please come back to us, we'll play the next round.

Now, Janet, we're in trouble here, slightly. You've lost three brains.

They are still sitting pretty with none lost.

And the last subject before the final is Film & TV.

Oh, my God!

-Is this good for Sylvie?

-No, not really, but anyway.

-You don't want to take it, Janet?

-No, no, it's a bit of a...

-It's me.

-Are you sure, Sylvie? You want to go for it?

-Yeah.

-Sylvie, Pat or Barry?

-Oh, I don't, I think I'll have Pat.

He's looking away. OK, you've got it.

Sylvie from the Stitchers versus Pat,

known as the Silent Destroyer...

THEY LAUGH

..from the Eggheads. Please go to the Question Room.

So, Sylvie, good luck in this round. I know it wasn't quite your choice.

Would you like to go first or second?

I'd like to go first please, Jeremy.

Come on, you can do this, Sylvie.

What do two teams compete to buy and sell at a profit

in the daytime TV series Bargain Hunt?

Well, that's one of my favourite programmes.

I sit and eat my lunch while I watch that programme and that's antiques.

Yeah, absolutely, antiques, well done.

OK, Pat, your question.

What is the title of the 2015 film starring Carey Mulligan

with the tag line "Mothers, daughters, rebels"?

I think that the history-based drama Suffragette, I think.

People like Meryl Streep made brief appearances.

So, it's suffragette.

Suffragette is correct.

Over to you, Sylvie.

In which 2015 film does Saoirse Ronan play a young Irishwoman

who emigrates to 1950s New York?

I only went to see this film last week, Jeremy. It's called Brooklyn.

-Yay, how about that? Well done.

-Yeah.

Two out of two, no sweat.

Pat, to catch up.

Who played the role of Little Bill Daggett

in the 1992 film Unforgiven?

Oh! Dear me.

All three were in the film.

I think I'll go for Richard Harris. I may well be wrong.

You are wrong, it's Gene Hackman.

OK, Sylvie, get this right, you're in the final.

In the Hunger Games series of films, what is the name of the area

where Jennifer Lawrence's character grew up?

Well, I've never seen this so I haven't got a clue.

I'm going to go for Area 9.

-Challengers, is she right?

-No.

-Sadly, no.

-What do you think?

We think District 12, they're all called districts.

District 12 it is.

So, Pat has a chance to come back.

At which university do Sheldon and Leonard work

in the US show The Big Bang Theory?

I think they live in sunny Pasadena

and they work at Caltech.

Caltech is right.

So, two out of three for you both.

Sudden Death we go to, Sylvie.

Here's your first question, gets a bit harder,

I don't give you alternatives.

In which 1949 film does Alec Guinness

play eight different members of the D'Ascoyne family?

Would it be Arsenic And Old Lace?

No, it's Kind Hearts And Coronets.

-Oh!

-Right, sorry.

No, no, you were close.

Pat, for the round, which 1953 film

starred John Gregson and Dinah Sheridan

and Kenneth More and Kay Kendall as competing couples?

Competing couples, that could be the London Brighton Vintage Car Race.

'53.

I'm thinking of Genevieve, which is certainly,

'50s is about right for Genevieve.

I don't think you'd be likely to get couples

competing in too many different things, I'll go for Genevieve.

Genevieve is the right answer, Pat.

Well done, you've won on Sudden Death.

Sorry, Sylvie. That was close,

you were an answer away there from knocking him out.

So, you have yourself been knocked out, Pat has not been.

And if you both return to your teams, we will play the final round.

This is what we have been playing towards,

it is 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 in this round.

So, Hilary, Wendy, Sylvie and Pam from Stitchers,

would you please leave the studio?

Janet, was this part of the plan?

-Not my plan.

-HE LAUGHS

-But I know they were saving you.

-Yes.

Well, I hope I do them justice but I'm nervous.

Well, don't worry, you're playing to win the Stitchers £10,000.

Dave, Lisa, Pat, CJ, Barry,

you're playing for something that money really can't buy,

which is the Eggheads' reputation and to continue this roll you're on.

First it was a streak, now it's a roll.

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

This time, the questions are all General Knowledge.

You are allowed to confer. Sorry, that doesn't help you.

Janet, the question is can you with your one brain

have a famous victory today over these five?

-Would you like to go first or second?

-I'll go first.

And here is your first question.

What name is normally given to the practice of purchasing

a property specifically to rent it out?

Buy-to-let.

-Oh, straight there.

-Yeah, well...

-No messing.

-Too nervous to hang about.

-Buy-to-let is right.

You take your time, though. Don't snatch at it.

Eggheads, all five of you.

What is the official title of the professional head of the Royal Navy?

-Everyone happy with First Sea Lord?

-First Sea Lord, yes.

The head of the Royal Navy is the First Sea Lord.

It is the First Sea Lord, well done.

Janet, List Of The Lost

is the title of a 2015 debut novel by which singer?

Right.

I don't know.

It sounds really miserable.

Which makes me think of Morrissey.

Morrissey is the right answer.

Nicely done.

Your question, Eggs.

In which country is the municipality of Davos,

the venue for the annual World Economic Forum?

-Switzerland.

-Switzerland, yes.

There was a unanimous chorus of Switzerland

coming from all of us are there, so that's our answer.

Yes, it is, it's Swiss.

Janet, this can be crucial.

Get this one right and I have seen panic wash over them.

The Metallica musician Kirk Hammett, born in 1962,

is best known for his expertise on which instrument?

-Kirk Hammett.

-Kirk Hammett.

-Metallica?

-Metallica.

Lars Ulrich on drums.

Name beginning with a J on guitar.

On the lead vocals, anyway.

I've seen Metallica. Enjoyed.

Kirk Hammett.

Guitar.

-Guitar's the right answer.

-Yeah.

-Synthesiser's a very old-fashioned word now.

-Right!

-Well done, you've seen Metallica in concert?

-Oh, yes.

-How many times?

-Only the once.

-OK. Well, listen, well played.

Superb and obviously, bringing in Lars Ulrich on drums and all that.

So, we just need to hope that something very bad happens now.

Here's your question, Eggheads.

Built in the Third Century AD,

the Aurelian Wall enclosed parts of which city?

It's a main defensive wall for Rome. Looks like it.

-Yeah, yes, Barry.

-Carry on being exciting, Barry, all right.

Wait a minute, let me think again.

Rome, Athens or Byzantium.

Byzantium had her own defensive wall as well. Let me think.

Aurelian was the Roman emperor

who was known as the restorer of the world,

because he brought back order to the Roman Empire in the Third Century.

He was just after Constantine, so he would have moved,

so the capital would have moved to Byzantine then.

-So they probably would have wanted a better wall round there then.

-OK.

So, on the basis that Aurelian...

Oh, sorry, let me think, was it before?

Third Century means the 200s though, doesn't it? Could be.

If those dates are correct, then Rome's still the main gate.

-Yes, so I'm going back to Rome.

-OK.

OK?

Right, well, we were struggling a bit on there,

I'm certainly struggling a bit.

But I know in the Third Century, Rome was still the Imperial capital,

Byzantine became capital much later.

So on that basis, we're going to go for Rome.

You jumped in with Rome before I'd even read the options

and you are known as the Brain, so I was thinking it's got to be Rome.

And then suddenly, confusion swept over you

and you were almost on your own there, Barry.

-You've come back to the right answer.

-Well done, Barry.

Rome it is, Rome it is!

So, we go to Sudden Death.

Janet, your question.

In August 2015, Lamine Diack stepped down as the head of

which sporting governing body?

I don't know the name and I don't recall the story because

there's been so much fuss in the last year

over the problems in FIFA.

But I've never heard that name with football.

I'm trying to remember the proper name of the

athletics governing body,

because they've also had scandal attached.

International Athletics Federation.

I can't give you that, it's the IAAF.

It's the International Association of Athletics Federations.

I got the right sport.

You did get the right sport, you were a whisker away

but I can't give it to you, I'm sorry.

OK, Eggheads, your question.

This is for the contest.

On which country did the Turkish Ottoman Empire

declare war on 4th October 1853?

-The start of the Crimean War?

-So, it must be.

-1853. Russia, Russia.

The Turks and the Russians had a big naval battle at Sinope,

-the Turkish coast around that time, so it's got to be Russia.

-Russia.

-Are we all happy with the Russia?

-Yes.

Oh, I know the Turks and the Russians had quite a major battle,

sea battle at Sinope around that time.

So, we believe the answer is Russia.

The answer is, it was the start of the Crimean War and is Russia

and we say congratulations, Eggheads, you have won.

Sorry that I have to get the right answer on the athletics,

-I feel terrible.

-I knew Russia.

And I could have given you IAAF as well, actually,

but not just the three out of the four words.

I'm sure you knew Russia. You're a quizzer, we can tell.

Commiserations to our Stitchers.

The Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them.

Struggled a bit there. Didn't you?

You had to think it through, my goodness.

It does mean you won't be going home with the £10,000,

so the money rolls over to our next show.

Eggheads, well done.

Can't see you being beaten for a while, I must say.

You join us next time to see if the next team of Challengers

have the brains to pull it off and take them down.

£11,000 says they don't. Till then, goodbye.