Episode 6 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 come from all over

England and Wales,

and they met through playing an online quiz app.

Let's meet them.

Hello, my name's Malcolm. I'm a retired accounts clerk.

Hello, I'm Steve and I'm a test analyst.

Hi, I'm Huw. I'm a civil servant.

Hi, I'm Ruth. I'm a retired accountant.

Hi, I'm Barry, and I'm a retired computer programmer.

So, Malcolm team, welcome, thanks for coming.

Thank you for having us.

Have you met before? You met through an app, so...

We've met once before.

Right, but you don't know each other very well.

Not really, no.

Is the app one of these things where you answer questions

on your phone and you challenge other players around the place?

-That's correct, yes, yes.

-OK.

You could be playing people internationally.

Yes, yes, we do play players from all over, well,

mainly all over Europe.

This is really interesting, so,

and is there a ranking on this app?

-Yes, there is.

-And are you guys near the top of it?

We, at one point we were all in the top 50, on the app.

-Out of what, 20,000 people...

-Oh, out of about...

-..or something?

..200,000 people.

Oh, wow! OK!

I'm looking forward to this!

And I recognise you, Steve, but we'll explain why

maybe a bit later on.

Look at the... Look at how nervous they look now.

Already, even just by mentioning an app, you've already unsettled them.

Every day there is £1,000 worth of cash

up for grabs for our Challengers, however, if they fail to

defeat the Eggheads, the prize money rolls over to our next show.

So, Strangers On A Train, it's been worth your while

turning up because the Eggheads have been on a streak, they've won 14

in a row, so that means £15,000 says you can't beat them today.

-Do you want to give it a go?

-Yes, definitely.

-Let's give it a go.

All right, the first head-to-head battle is on the subject of Music.

So, Strangers On A Train, who wants this?

-I think that's for you, Malcolm, isn't it?

-That was me, wasn't it?

It was you, was it, Malcolm? Yeah.

Who are we going to go against, then?

Who looks unmusical? Who's never held an instrument?

-Yeah, Judith.

-Do you want to go with Judith?

-Yeah, Judith.

All right, I'll play against Judith please, then.

I think you'll be pleased with that, Judith.

-I'm not very good at music.

-It's not sport.

Well, that's its only advantage.

Well, it's one of its advantages. OK. Malcolm,

from Strangers On A Train, and you,

presumably, are on this quiz app the whole time, Judith.

I've never heard of it, no. I've only found out about it.

Judith from the Eggheads.

This is the 21st century against the 20th century.

To ensure there's no conferring,

please take your positions in the Question Room.

So, Malcolm, are you on a daily commute there with this app

that you play on, or...?

On a daily commute? No, I do play it most days, yeah,

probably more than is good for me, but, eh...

No, I'm retired. I have to fill my time doing something.

So it's a good friend in retirement, is it?

-Yes, it is. Yes.

-Lovely. So are you on, what, two or three hours a day?

Perhaps a couple of hours, yes, yes.

Wow, Judith, what about that?

What about that? I play Candy Crush Soda.

It's a lot more fun.

Do you really? You don't, do you really?

I am completely addicted to it.

Oh, that is, I've heard about that being very addictive, yeah.

I've got it on three different devices at different levels.

Yeah, you have completely lowered the tone, you realise that.

Destroyed the heights that we were reaching with our challenging team.

So, OK, we crack on, Malcolm.

Would you like to go first or second on Music?

Erm, I'd like to go first, please.

And here we go, good luck. Which of these countries

competed in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest?

Eh, that would be Australia.

Australia is the right answer, not surprisingly.

Judith, which of these musicians was best known for

playing the harmonica?

Oh that was, um, Larry Adler.

Larry Adler is quite right.

Malcolm, your question. "I took my baby on a Saturday bang.

"Boy, is that girl with you? Yes, we are one and the same,"

are the opening lyrics to which Michael Jackson song?

Sorry, could you repeat the lyrics, please?

"I took my baby on a Saturday bang.

"Boy, is that girl with you? Yes, we're one and the same."

Erm, I don't know, to be honest, I'm going to have to guess.

Erm, so I'll guess Beat It.

-CJ knows this.

-It's Black Or White.

-Black Or White.

I suppose there's a bit of a hint in "Boy, is that girl with you?

"Yes, we're one and the same."

It was two different races together.

OK, Judith,

a chance to take the lead against the skipper of the challenging team.

Which of the Followill brothers is the lead singer of the rock group

The Kings Of Leon?

I've no idea. Erm, I don't know.

Magic right, Caleb.

-Caleb is correct.

-Ah, there you are, you see.

There you've done it. You've brought out

the magic right when it counted.

You don't do that on the app, do you, Malcolm?

-No.

-Straight down the right.

Here's your question. What was the real first name

of the jazz singer and pianist known as Fats Domino?

Erm, I'm pretty sure that was Antoine.

Antoine is the right answer. Well done, you have got two

out of three there,

so let us see whether Judith can take the round

with her third question.

Ian Stewart had a long-term association with which

British band, initially as a member in the 1960s,

and later, as a pianist and tour manager.

Was it...

Ian Stewart?

Ian Stewart had a long-term association with

which British band, initially as a member in the 1960s,

and later as pianist and tour manager?

I don't know. Rolling Stones.

Malcolm, is she right?

Erm, I think she might be right, actually.

You are right there, Judith.

That's really good quizzing cos I think that's a very hard question.

You got three out of three and you're in the Final Round.

Sorry, Challengers,

your first round and you've lost one.

Please come back to us and we'll play on.

So, first blow struck by the Eggheads here.

Strangers On A Train have lost a brain

and the Eggheads still have all five.

The next subject is Science.

Who would like this?

-That's Barry, isn't it?

-That's you, Barry.

-I think it's Barry.

-Me?

-I think so.

-Yeah, OK.

OK, Barry. Against which Egghead, Barry?

-What do you reckon, then, Chris?

-Chris'll do.

-I think Chris

is good on the science.

-Best go for Dave, I think.

-Yeah? Dave?

-Go for Dave, yeah.

All right, we'd like to play against Dave, please.

OK, Barry from Strangers On A Train

versus Dave from the Eggheads on Science,

and please go to the Question Room now.

Barry, I gather you're a retired computer programmer.

Yeah, that's right, Jeremy.

So you were programming what kind of period?

Oh, in the '80s, '90s.

2000 came along and I became redundant then, basically.

All my knowledge was the old mainframe computers.

I don't think I've met a retired computer programmer before

because it's a relatively new thing, so it's quite, you were

obviously back in the days when it was a lot of code and all that.

Oh, yeah, punch cards and all that sort of thing, paper tape.

Have you got any of those old devices that you could

stick into a museum cos it's amazing seeing them now, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, no, no.

I don't have any relics, not at all, from the old days.

Eh, but as I say, modern computers.

My grandson knows far more about them than I do.

Yeah, cos the speed of change, I know.

All right, good luck here, Barry, I know you love your quizzing.

You're up against Tremendous Knowledge Dave.

-You love yours, Dave, no question.

-Yes, I do like quizzing,

but we'll see how the questions fall.

Let's see how we go. Barry, would you like to go first or second?

Erm, I'd like to go first, please, Jeremy.

And here we go. What type of creature is the Australian galah?

That's G-A-L-A-H.

Oh, dear.

This is something that's passed me by, erm...

Well, if in doubt, go for a bird.

I'll say bird, Jeremy.

That's it, you see, cos Judith has a rule.

Would you go bird, would that be your rule, Judith, here?

Well, I was hoping for antelope.

Yeah, antelope, no antelope there. That's the trouble with that.

That wouldn't really work with this one.

-But would you go bird?

-I think so, probably, yes.

It's a hard old question, this.

-Bird is the right answer.

-Oh.

-Well done, go for bird, love it.

OK, Dave, what is traditionally measured in Mach numbers, M-A-C-H?

That's a, hold on, Mach 1 is the speed of sound.

So, speed, it's...

I don't know why I'm struggling with this, I'm all over,

altitude has just put me...

I've got to go with velocity,

but it's just that altitude was a problem to me, but velocity.

You're bang on. Mach 1 is the speed of sound, and speed sort of

-equals velocity.

-It's just because altitude...

All it is, is just because I was thinking planes

and, you know, altitude just...

-Yeah.

-..threw me a bit, but, yeah.

OK. Velocity's right.

I think you've unnerved him, Barry.

You have, yes.

He's already... He's quaking, there.

Here is your next question.

In medicine, the Heaf test was used to detect which disease?

Barry, Heaf is HEAF, the Heaf test.

Of the three, I believe there are a number of tests,

current and historical, for tuberculosis,

so I would give that as my answer.

Nicely done, tuberculosis is correct.

Two out of two. Back to you, Dave.

What name is given to a horse

that is covered with irregular black and white markings?

It could be, feasibly, I don't know what a cremello is, now palomino's

in my head, but I'm going to go piebald, to be perfectly honest.

Piebald is correct.

Barry, back to you.

Tethys is a moon of which planet in our solar system?

T-ETHYS.

Well, it's not Mars, erm, Jupiter or Saturn, well,

they've both got about 60-odd moons, erm,

Tethys, Tethys...

Erm...

Jupiter, Jeremy.

-Jupiter, anyone know on your side, guys?

-I don't know.

No, Challengers don't know. Anyone here know?

-Eh, Saturn.

-Saturn, Kevin says Saturn.

It is Saturn.

So you just slipped up there.

Let's see if Dave can take the round.

Which glandular organ in the human body,

sometimes said to be pistol-shaped, is located behind the stomach?

Can you just repeat the question again, please?

Which glandular organ in the human body, sometimes said to be

pistol-shaped, is located behind the stomach?

I'm not good on this.

Erm, I've got a leaning towards one of them, but...

..I'll have to go with the pancreas.

Pancreas? You said that with about

as little confidence as it's possible

-to use while still speaking.

-Mm-hm.

-Pancreas is your answer?

-Yeah.

You're right, Dave, well done, you got three out of three,

nicely played. Oh, Challengers,

it's painful. You lost another.

So Dave will be in the final and Barry won't.

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

So, as it stands, Strangers On A Train have lost two

brains from the Final Round.

The Eggheads are still intact over there.

A lot of money we're playing for here. The next subject is History.

Who would like History, on this side?

-I don't mind. Do you want me to do it?

-Do you want to do it?

I don't mind. Yeah.

-Ruth?

-It's me, I think.

-OK. Which Egghead?

You can have Chris or Kevin or CJ.

-CJ?

-CJ, is it?

-Yeah?

-CJ.

-CJ.

-You gave a nod, a purposeful nod, there, CJ.

-I quite like History.

About the way this is working,

someone on this side has got to go down in flames!

-Thanks for that, Jeremy.

-I'm just wondering.

I'm feeling this could be it.

Ruth from Strangers On A Train versus CJ from the Eggheads.

Please take your positions.

Do you like your history, Ruth?

Mmm, OK.

CJ, what about you? Any period you love in history?

I mean, parts, periods where you were not alive,

I think we should define it as.

I mean, obviously, I enjoy pretty much all of US history,

but I particularly like Romans, Greeks,

the sort of ancient civilisations, the ones where, if you like,

the facts are less well-known, so it's a matter of investigation.

And we're still finding out stuff, aren't we? They dig stuff up.

-Oh, absolutely, yes.

-Yeah, we're learning all the time.

OK, Ruth, good luck on History.

Would you like to go first or second?

I think I'll go first.

Here is your first question.

In which year was the revolutionary Che Guevara shot dead

while campaigning in Bolivia?

'87's certainly too late.

Erm...

I think I'd go for 1967.

And you're quite right, '67 it was.

CJ, by what name is

Lady Jane Grey also known?

I think the Bloody Queen was Mary, the Virgin Queen was Elizabeth,

but Jane Grey is the Nine Days' Queen.

She is, indeed, the Nine Days' Queen, well done.

Didn't last very long.

Ruth,

who did Henry IV directly succeed as King of England?

Not too sure on this one, I don't think it was John,

I think...

it was Edward IV.

Let's check on the Challengers' team.

Anyone know here, is she right?

I thought it was Richard II.

Richard II, it was.

Ruth, you've dropped a point there. Let's go to CJ.

In which year was the US military officer George Custer, killed?

I think he died in 1876.

You were just saying you love your American history,

what, so this was 100 years after independence, what was going on?

Eh, I think Custer was at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

-So fighting the Native Americans, as they are now called.

-Pretty much.

Custer was killed in 1876, CJ, well done, you got it right.

So you need to get this right, Ruth, to stay in,

and to keep the Challengers' hopes alive.

The phrase "Typhoon of Steel" is associated with which

battle of World War II?

Can you just repeat the question, please?

The phrase "Typhoon of Steel" is associated with which battle

of World War II?

Well, I don't think it's El Alamein.

Not sure out of the other two, I'm going to go for Okinawa.

Okinawa is correct. Well done, you're still in it.

So you've got two, CJ's got two,

but if CJ gets this one right,

he's in the Final Round.

Who was the longest reigning English king before the Union with

the Scottish Crown in 1603?

Who was the longest reigning English king before the Union with

the Scottish Crown in 1603?

This is one of those little wonderful quiz facts, that three

of the longest-reigning monarchs all had the same reginal number.

Erm, I think you've got George and Edward are the other two,

and this is Henry III.

Henry III is the right answer. CJ, you're in the final.

Ruth, you've been knocked out, I'm sorry about that.

It's getting a bit awkward for our

Challengers, but they've got the

firepower on this side. They can fight back.

Rejoin your teams, please,

and we'll play the next round.

So, as it stands, Strangers On A Train have lost three

brains from the Final Round, the Eggheads have not lost any.

This is the moment, Malcolm and team, for the pushback.

-Yes?

-Yes, indeed.

-It's all going to plan.

LAUGHTER

The next subject is Sport.

Who would like this, Strangers?

I think that's for you, Steve.

-That's Steve.

-I think that's me, isn't it?

-Steve, OK.

-I think I'm nominated for that.

And who would you like to take on? It could be Chris or Kevin.

Chris, I think, Chris?

Are you confident enough to go for Kevin?

-Chris, I think.

-Shall we go with Chris?

Yeah, I'd like to take Chris, please.

OK, there was a whisper of Kevin and then it didn't happen.

Yeah, bit scared of Kevin, so I'll go for Chris instead.

Steve from the Strangers On A Train.

Oh, Strangers On A Train, Chris, that's your kind of team name.

Yes, the only train they'll be getting on will be the one

that takes them on a one-way trip to somewhere pretty damned unpleasant.

Well, he's woken up!

Please go to the Question Room now.

So, Steve, I mentioned that you looked familiar

and it's because we met when you did Revenge Of The Egghead with CJ.

-Yeah, that's right, Jeremy.

-What was the upshot there?

Yeah, we took, well, I won £700 as part of a group of four.

So, we managed to beat CJ, which was very good.

-So, it was a bad night for CJ, was it?

-Yeah, one of many, yeah.

LAUGHTER

And we love the team name, Strangers On A Train, which we

should say, I mean, Chris, you'll know this.

It's a great Hitchcock film, isn't it?

Yeah, it is, yeah. Two strangers meet on a train.

They both want to murder somebody and they swap murders.

OK, so we're on Sport here.

That's why Chris let off some steam there, Steve, he hates to do Sport.

Would you like to go first or second?

Erm, I'd like to go first, Jeremy.

Good luck, see if you can pull one back now for

the Challengers, it's really important.

Who won the 2014 BBC Sports Personality Of The Year award?

Right, erm, well, I don't think it's Mo Farah

or Carl Froch, I believe it's Lewis Hamilton,

because he won the Formula 1 title, so I'd say Lewis Hamilton.

Nicely done, you're right, Lewis Hamilton.

Chris.

By what nickname is the football team Newcastle United best known?

They play in black and white, so they're called the Magpies.

Yes, they do and they are. The Magpies is correct.

Steve, your question. Which of these

famous basketball players made his

full debut for the LA Lakers in 1996?

I don't think it's Michael Jordan,

I think that's probably too early for him, erm,

so it's going to be either Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.

I'll go down the middle and say Kobe Bryant.

Is he right, Chris?

I don't think it was him, no,

I think it was LeBron Jones, James, rather.

Yeah, no, it was Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant is the right answer.

Well done, Steve. Well done.

-Lucky you didn't have that one, Chris, wasn't it?

-Well, yeah.

For all kinds of reasons. Your second question.

Which team defeated New Zealand in the final

of the 2015 Cricket World Cup?

I think that was Sri Lanka.

Let's see. Team-mate Judith, you're very good on Sport.

I think it was Australia.

-Australia is the answer, Chris.

-Is it?

-Judith knew that.

Yeah, she's just smiling here.

Sorry, don't look so cross.

OK, well, look, this might be the turning of the tide.

This could be the moment.

This is what, in Revenge Of The Egghead,

-this was the £700 moment, Steve.

-Yeah.

Get this right, you've knocked Chris out,

and then maybe the walls come tumbling down.

Which rugby union player was the captain

of the British and Irish Lyons' famous 1974 tour to South Africa?

Right, I think I know this one.

Erm, obviously Barry John and Gareth Edwards are both Welsh,

but I don't believe it was them, I think it was Willie John McBride.

The correct answer, do you know, team-mates? Is he right, by the way?

-I don't know.

-They're not sure. They don't know.

You're the only one in your team who knows.

You got it right, it was Willie John McBride.

Well done, three out of three, phew! The sweat on the forehead there.

Well done, Steve. So you are in the final.

Chris, sorry, knocked out

on Sport. You can be even crosser

-next time you're picked for it...

-I don't get cross.

..and if you come back to us, Steve and Chris, we will play the

all-important Final Round.

OK, this is what we have been playing towards,

it is time for our 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, that is Malcolm, Ruth and Barry, from Strangers On A Train,

and also Chris from the Eggheads.

Would you please leave the studio?

OK, good luck, Challengers,

-you just pulled it back there at the end, Steve.

-Yeah, yeah.

So this is now looking, well, we'll see.

You've got a good chance here, Steve and Huw.

You're playing to win Strangers On A Train £15,000.

Eggheads, you've lost one, but you know you can go down now.

You are playing for something that money can't buy, which is

your reputation. As usual, I will ask each team three

questions in turn, this time the questions are all General Knowledge.

You can confer. So, Strangers On A Train, the question is,

are your two brains better than the Eggheads' four?

And I know you're really handy quizzers.

Huw, you'll be the spokesman, tell us whether you

want to go first or second.

I think we'll go first please, Jeremy.

Here we go.

The 2013 film, Captain Phillips, depicts the real-life

hijacking of an American container ship in which ocean?

-It's um...

-Isn't it off Somalia?

Somalia, so it's definitely the Indian, isn't it?

Definitely the Indian. It is, yeah.

Indian, please, Jeremy.

Indian is the right answer.

Eggheads.

Paula Hawkins' best selling 2015 novel is titled

the Girl On The...what?

-Train.

-Train, yeah. It is train,

-isn't it?

-I saw the...

The Girl On The Train.

It's train, Jeremy.

Train, it is.

Your question, Challengers.

On a standard qwerty keyboard,

which of these is located on the middle row of letters?

(It's L, isn't it?)

-P is at the top.

-Yeah.

-Cos M's at the bottom.

Yeah, it's definitely L.

It's L.

Did you have to type that out in your head or how did you do it?

-Just visualised the keyboard.

-Oh, you've got one of those brains?

OK, that's very handy. I couldn't do that. L is right. Two out of two.

Good time to play well, as well. Final Round.

OK, Eggheads, all four of you, here we go.

Amal Alamuddin, who married George Clooney in 2014,

was born in which city?

It sounds like Kabul, doesn't it?

-Is she Afghan, an Afghan?

-Well, I've got a sort of instant thing,

whether that's true or false.

-Do you think she's Afghan?

-I thought Beirut.

I thought she was Lebanese.

Lebanon sounds...

She's certainly not Turkish.

-Not Turkish.

-She's not Turkish. My immediate thought was Lebanese.

If you two have got the instinct, I'm happy to go with that.

What about you, Judith?

Well, I'm happy to go with Kevin

because he's always right.

-Well, I don't know.

-Well, the instinct, the instinct, I think so.

Cos we could talk about it all the time and talk ourselves

-out of this.

-Yeah, yeah,

-very easily.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Yeah, we'll go for it.

Erm, we're not sure, but we think it's Beirut.

Beirut is your answer.

You're right. Beirut, it is.

Well done, well done.

Could have swerved off that.

I've seen that happening before.

Do you know that one, guys?

-Yeah, we would have gone for that.

-Yeah. OK, so two-two.

This is tense.

I'm feeling some tension here.

Here's your third question.

Get this one right, otherwise you give them the initiative.

Who wrote the 2013 James Bond novel Solo.

I know Martin Amis is a Bond fan,

isn't he? A Bond book.

That's the one that I was thinking.

I don't really know, to be honest.

I don't think Nick Hornby's wrote one.

I don't know about William Boyd, but I think Martin Amis has wrote one.

-We'll go for Martin Amis.

-I think so. We'll go for that.

Martin Amis.

Martin Amis is your answer. Shall I just ask the Eggheads?

Are they right about this?

No, funnily enough,

his father wrote a Bond book.

-Kingsley Amis, really?

-Yeah.

Under a different, under the name of Robert Markham.

-Yes.

-Yeah, he did. Colonel Sun.

So, maybe there was a false memory going on.

Who was it then?

William Boyd.

William Boyd is the answer.

So, you've got two out of three, there.

And that gives the Eggheads the initiative. If you

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

The phrase "time immemorial", used to refer to a point in the past

that was so long ago that people have no knowledge or

memory of it, was defined by the Statute of Westminster

as starting with the accession of which king?

-It's Richard. It's 1189.

-OK.

That's when time immemorial starts.

OK, fine.

Yeah, for legal purposes, it's, time immemorial starts at 1189,

which was the year that Richard I came to the throne.

OK. You've made light work of that.

First time I've heard of that.

Do you know about this?

-No, no.

-They're good, aren't they?

-Yeah.

The answer is Richard I.

We say congratulations, Eggheads,

you have won.

And I sense just a little bit of

gloating by CJ on the end, there.

-That was tense, that was a tense last round...

-It was.

..and I wanted my revenge on Steve.

LAUGHTER

Well, you pulled one back there.

Yeah, we know how good you are,

and I'm sure the three knocked out doesn't really reflect that

properly, so keep quizzing, guys.

It's great to have a team of quizzers in here, isn't it?

Commiserations to our Challengers, to Strangers On A Train.

Good team name, as well, by the way.

The Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them and, you know,

your winning streak is impressive, there's no doubt about that now.

It does mean you won't be going home with the £15,000

so we've got a big jackpot for next time. It rolls over.

Eggheads, well done. You're never going to lose. That's my prediction.

-Never!

-Oh, dear.

Join us next time to see

if a new team of Challengers can prove me wrong.

£16,000 says they can't. Till then, goodbye!