Episode 82 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.

Can they be beaten, I wonder?

-We'll see.

-Yes.

-Well...

-It has happened.

It has happened, but at the moment, it's looking difficult.

Hoping to beat the might of the Eggheads today are

Strictly GI from Lincolnshire. Now, this team

are all members of a World War II re-enactment group

who meet each week to recreate the experiences of US Army soldiers

during the Second World War. How fascinating.

-Let's meet them.

-Hi, I'm Ben and I'm a web developer.

Hi, I'm Chris. I'm a self-employed plumber.

Hi, I'm Shaun and I'm a writer.

Hi, I'm Richard and I'm in furniture sales.

Hi, I'm Andy and I'm a civil servant.

So, Ben and team, welcome. Thanks for coming.

-ALL:

-Hi, Jeremy.

-Looking forward to this?

-Absolutely, yeah.

-You've really got an interesting background here.

-So, it's World War II re-enactment?

-Yes. That's right, yeah.

-But from the perspective of Americans?

-Yeah, exactly.

It's just something a little bit different

and we kind of just fell in love with all of it -

The uniforms, the...

Just everything about it and that's our passion in life, I guess.

Do you meet and dress up and then do something?

Yeah, I mean, we travel across Europe

and trace the routes that these guys took in 1944 and 1945

and then try and relay that story to people

and just educate them about what they did, where they were

and just generally how life was for them, really.

Isn't this amazing?

-This is your kind of thing, Eggheads.

-Yeah.

-Totally.

There'll be a fight when we have the History round.

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

for our Challengers. If they fail to defeat the Eggheads, though,

the prize money rolls over to the next show.

Now, when I asked if they could be beaten,

I asked that because they have been on a really good run.

They've won the last 11,

which means you can win £12,000 today...

-Wow.

-..if you bring this roll to an end

and goodness knows, it's time.

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

-So, who would like this first?

-Shaun?

-I think that's got to be Shaun, hasn't it, really?

-Shaun?

-Yeah, I volunteered to do that one.

-OK.

And against which Egghead, Shaun? Any one of the five.

-I thought we were going to do Judith.

-Yeah, I think so.

-Yeah, I think it's got to be Judith.

-Judith.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Shaun from Strictly GI versus our strictly Egghead Judith.

And just to ensure there's no conferring,

would you please go to the Question Room now?

OK, Shaun, Film & TV against the great Judith,

the million-pound winner.

Would you like to go first or second?

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

Here we go. Good luck.

Which 1979 film features guest appearances

from the likes of Bob Hope, James Coburn,

Steve Martin, Richard Pryor and Orson Welles among others?

Well, I think I'm pretty confident I know the answer,

but I'll say that, for definite,

all of those actors weren't in The Deer Hunter

and they definitely weren't in Alien,

so it's got to be The Muppet Movie.

I wondered if they might have all been dressed as the alien

at different times. That's the only thing I can think of.

No, but The Muppet Movie is right. Well done.

Judith, your question.

In Doctor Who, Missy, played by Michelle Gomez,

is a female incarnation of which character?

Oh, dear. I haven't watched Doctor Who for years.

I think she might be an incarnation of the Doctor.

Ooh. Any Doctor Who fans here?

-The Master.

-The Master, says Barry.

-The Master.

-Now the Mistress - Missy.

-She's now Missy the Mistress, yeah.

Oh, I'm so stupid, honestly.

That wasn't one of your questions on Millionaire, was it?

-No, luckily not.

-OK, Shaun, it started well.

Your question - which Carry On actor appeared regularly

as Private Popeye Popplewell in the 1950s sitcom The Army Game?

Well, this really is going to have to be a guess

cos I've not even heard of that.

I can't imagine Kenneth Williams appearing regularly

in something like that.

Jim Dale was in some TV series about a doctor.

Um, I think I'm going to go for Bernard Bresslaw.

Very good. It is Bernard Bresslaw. Good play.

Judith, you need this now.

Who starred as the Britain's Got Talent winner

Paul Potts in the 2013 biopic One Chance?

Well, Paul Potts was quite plump, wasn't he?

And James Corden is quite plump, so I think I'm going to go for him.

Brilliant application of logic. You're right. James Corden it was.

Shaun, for the round,

what is the name of the fictional paper

for which Carrie Bradshaw wrote a regular column

in the US TV series Sex And The City?

Right, I have never seen this TV series in my life.

I'm going on that it's about - I'm guessing -

successful women, career women, and they're all good-looking.

I'd probably say the New York Siren, but that's a pure guess.

You're right about the background, but wrong about the paper.

New York Star is the answer.

So, Judith, a chance to come back.

In which Mel Brooks film do some of the main characters leave the action

to go and watch the rest of the film

at the famous real-life cinema known as Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Well, not Blazing Saddles, I don't think.

Um, I think it might be High Anxiety.

No, it is Blazing Saddles, Judith. I'm sorry, you've been knocked out.

-Oh, dear.

-Shaun, you're in the final round after three questions.

Please return to us and we'll play on.

So, as it stands, Strictly GI have not lost any brains

from the final round.

The Eggheads have lost one. Not a very good start.

The next subject for you is Science.

Who wants this, Strictly?

-I think it's got to be...

-Yeah, I think it's you.

-You've got to take it. Sorry.

-THEY LAUGH

That's, unfortunately, me, Jeremy.

OK, Chris, our self-employed plumber,

against which Egghead?

-I think Dave.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Oh, right, OK. Against David, please.

-Good stuff.

So, Chris from Strictly GI versus Dave from the Eggheads on Science.

Please go to the Question Room.

On Science, Chris, would you like to go first or second?

I'll go first if I can, please, Jeremy.

So, here is your first question. Good luck.

The black mamba is a venomous snake native to which continent?

I'm sure it's not Europe.

No snakes in Antarctica, as far as I know,

so I'll say Africa.

-Africa is absolutely right. Very poisonous as well.

-Yes.

Dave, in psychotherapy,

what word comes before behavioural therapy

in the name of the popular method known for short as CBT?

I've got to go cognitive.

Cognitive's right, yeah.

Chris,

if ectotherm is the term for an organism

that relies on an external heat source

to maintain its body temperature,

what is the term for one that can generate sufficient heat for itself?

Um, this is going to have to be a guess.

I think I'm going to go for fluorotherm.

No, it's actually...

It's almost more obvious cos ecto is outside and endo is inside.

So, endotherm is the correct answer.

Dave, what is the largest satellite

of the dwarf planet Pluto?

I think Phobos is Mars.

I think Io is to do with Jupiter. I think it's Charon.

Charon is correct.

Right, we go back to you, Chris, and this one, you need to get right.

What word means one of the turns

of both a spiral shell and the cochlea of the ear?

Again, um, not immediately sure,

but the first thing that crossed my mind was whorl,

so I'll stick with whorl, please.

Yeah, whorl is right. Like whirl.

-Absolutely.

-Yeah.

-So, you're still in it.

Let's see if Dave can get this one right.

If so, he goes into the final. Naphthalene is the main ingredient

of which of these household items, Dave?

Don't think it's sticky tape. I don't think it's deodorant.

Funny deodorant, that, I think.

Mothballs.

Mothballs is the right answer, Dave. You're in the final round.

Sorry, Chris, just one wrong answer can be fatal

against these very good players, the Eggheads.

Please return to your teams and we'll see what happens next.

So, it's been levelled up by the Eggheads.

Strictly GI have lost one brain from the final round.

The Eggheads have lost one, too,

and the next subject is Arts & Books.

So, Ben, who wants this?

Arts & Books?

-That was going to be mine as well, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

I don't know. I think it's who wants it, I guess.

-I don't think either of us want it, particularly.

-No, not really.

What about if we take a risk that maybe Sport will come up next?

-So, Richard goes.

-If Richard's happy to.

-If you're OK to do that.

-Yeah.

-If Richard's happy to.

I think you stand a good chance.

-Thank you for the confidence.

-Richard? OK.

-BEN:

-I think Richard.

The Arts & Books guy against which Egghead?

-You can have Lisa, Pat or Barry.

-Which one? Barry?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, Barry, please, Jeremy.

-So, that's good news, isn't it?

-It's good news for any subject.

He just loves being picked, that's the thing.

You had the same experience at school as I did

-with the football team, did you?

-I was always last.

-I was, too!

So, Richard from Strictly GI versus Barry from the Eggheads,

please go to the Question Room now.

So, Arts & Books, Richard against Barry,

would you like to go first or second?

I'll keep with team tactics and I'll go first, please, Jeremy.

Here is your first question. Good luck.

What nationality was the playwright Arnold Wesker?

Right, I'm afraid it's going to be a guess

and I'm going to take an absolute wild stab.

I'll go with tactics, go down the middle,

so I'll go down the middle - American.

-Barry, do you know?

-He's British.

-British.

-Now, how do we know this, Barry?

-I've read some of his plays.

-Well, what are they?

-Chips With Everything.

OK, so, Chips With Everything is one of his plays, Richard.

Barry The Brain,

as you're known.

-Only by you.

-Only by me.

-Certainly not by my wife!

Which fellow poet did the French symbolist Paul Verlaine shoot,

though not fatally, in Brussels in 1873?

Now, the answer to this sounds as if he ought to be shot

because it was Arthur Rimbaud.

Oh, Arthur Ram-baud. I said Arthur Rim-baud.

Of course it's Ram-baud.

Gosh, I really grievously mispronounced that.

You're right, though. Rimbaud is right, yeah.

Did I tell you my story

-about how I was watching Rambo with my wife, Barry?

-No.

He goes up... I think he starts with some kind of shoot out.

He goes up into the hills. He gets arrested.

We're halfway through the film and my wife says,

"When does he start learning to box?"

HE LAUGHS So, got the wrong movie.

OK, Richard, try and get this one right,

put the frighteners on Barry.

Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel To The Lighthouse

is set on which island?

Again, I'm afraid I don't know, so a guess.

Um, I guess there are lighthouses on all of them,

but the only one I really know of is the Isle of Wight,

so I'll go with that one.

-It is the Isle of Skye.

-OK.

Barry, first published

in 1953,

The Golden Apples Of The Sun is a collection of short stories

by which science fiction writer?

I really should know this and I don't.

They're all famous science fiction authors.

Golden Apples Of The Sun.

It just gives me a glimmer of Arthur C Clarke, so I'll go for him.

-Do you know this one, Richard?

-No, I'm afraid not.

I'd, probably... Again, team tactics on this one.

Ray Bradbury, probably.

-The answer is Ray Bradbury, Barry.

-Oh, well done.

-Pure guess, Barry.

So, you have got one wrong now and we go back to Richard,

but you do need to get this right, Richard.

Basho, the Japanese poet acknowledged as a master of haiku,

was born in which century?

Basho is spelt B-A-S-H-O in our alphabet.

Again, not a great subject for me, I'm afraid.

So, erm...

Let's have a guess again.

Let's try 17th century.

-17th is correct.

-Oh! Sorry, Barry.

-It's turning your way.

-It's turning your way a bit now.

-I could have done that one!

It's a very early art form, isn't it, the haiku?

It is. Very popular, too.

Mm. OK, Barry, if you get this right,

you are in the final.

In 1989, Gillian Ayres was shortlisted

for which of the following?

I really don't know this one.

I've never heard of his name in conjunction

with the Turner Prize or the Booker Prize,

so I'll go for the Olivier Awards.

-No, it's the Turner Prize, Barry.

-Oh.

-How about that, Richard?

That is a let off.

Very rare to see Barry only score one in this round.

So, it goes to Sudden Death, Richard. Gets a bit harder.

I don't give you alternatives.

"All mimsy were the borogoves And the mome raths outgrabe"

are the last lines of which nonsense poem

by Lewis Carroll?

I'm hoping it's one of my favourite ones.

A great nonsense poem. I'm hoping it's the Jabberwocky.

Yes, it's the Jabberwocky. Well done.

Barry,

Luxury And Degradation is a series of works focusing on alcohol

by which artist born in Pennsylvania in 1955?

Oh, my goodness me. That's a toughie.

I have a feeling, at the back of my mind,

that Andy Warhol was born in Pennsylvania,

but is 1955 too late for him to be born?

No, I've got nothing, but I think it's far too late for Andy Warhol,

but on the basis that I thought he was born in Pennsylvania,

I'll go for Andy Warhol.

OK, let's sort this out. Andy Warhol's birth year, anyone?

Be in the '20s sometime - 1929.

Yeah, we think about 30 years earlier, Barry.

-I thought he was...

-The answer is... Any Eggheads know?

-Jeff Koons.

-Jeff Koons, Dave, yeah.

-Oh!

-Jeff Koons is the answer.

I would have never thought... That's not his sort of thing.

He does giant inflatable balloon statues of dogs and puppies.

-Your balloon is burst.

-Mm.

-Richard, I think that probably is

the greatest comeback I've ever seen.

-Since Lazarus, probably.

-To get the first two wrong

against Barry in Arts & Books

and then to win the round - I've never seen that before.

So, you're in the final. That's quite remarkable.

And there we go, Barry.

Sorry, you've been knocked out. Please come back to us.

Well, Barry, that was a round.

That certainly was a memorable round.

I don't think I'll forget that for a long time.

And we should make a small correction.

I think, in the last game, we had Jacqueline du Pre as a man.

In this game, I think you said Gillian Ayres was a bloke

or you may have just mis-said or misheard.

No, I don't think I mentioned the sex at all.

OK, well, just to say, it's a woman, as you know.

-I heard him say he.

-Yeah, we thought you said he.

-You said he.

-Did I?

-Yes.

-Oh! Sorry, I apologise. See, that's how bad the round was.

He was so rattled. I've got a feeling about this game

because you've completely rattled them.

You've certainly rattled Barry,

who will need to be put under a very warm flannel later.

Strictly GI have lost one brain from the final round.

The Eggheads have now lost two.

Don't know what's going to happen next.

Last subject before the final is Politics.

Is this good

-for you guys?

-Not really.

-No, it's not great.

-Not really.

If you get uncertain, you can just re-enact something.

Well, I'm going to take it.

-You happy for that?

-Andy, civil servant.

Andy, against which Egghead? Either Pat or Lisa.

-Lisa, please.

-Very good.

So, Andy from Strictly GI.

I thought it was going that way.

Yeah, cos, you know, that wasn't a contest.

-Not even slightly.

-You're all good at Politics. Come on.

Lisa from the Eggheads,

please go to our Question Room now for the last time.

Andy, tell us about what you collect from the Second World War.

All sorts of different US items,

but I sort of specialise in the chaplain items.

Oh, so, the chaplain, as part of the unit,

-would have certain special things?

-Yes, that's right.

Obviously religious artefacts and what have you.

-Fascinating. What have you got?

-Probably my prize piece

is a 1941 Gulbransen fold-in chaplain's field organ.

Oh, so, he'd take the organ

to play the hymns out into the field with him?

-To the front lines...

-In a suitcase?

-..for the service of the troops.

-Isn't that amazing, Lisa?

I'd love to say something like,

"I'd like to play on your portable organ,"

but I fear that wouldn't go down very well.

It might lower the tone slightly, yeah.

-Yeah.

-And have you ever been to a re-enactment of some battle?

You know, I would really like to go

cos it sounds incredibly interesting,

but I'm not sure I would want to get involved

cos I fear I'd just be the person standing in the middle going,

"What am I supposed to do now?" And getting in everyone's way.

You have spectators, presumably, Andy, when you do them.

Yes, a large amount of public at some of the events,

-some of the larger ones that we do.

-Good. Well, good luck in this round.

Politics may or may not be your strongest subject. I don't know.

-Definitely not.

-OK, well, do go for it. And, Andy,

-do you want to go first or second?

-I'll go first please, Jeremy.

Your first question, Andy. Good luck.

How many seats did the Scottish National Party win

at the 2015 UK general election?

This is going to be a complete guess,

but I think they did quite well,

so I'm going to go for 112.

No, because I think there are only, I think, 59 in total in Scotland.

So, it was 56.

And the easy way to remember is that the other three

were from one of each of the other parties.

So, one Labour, one Con, one Lib Dem.

Lisa,

who stepped down as Foreign Secretary in July 2014?

Not convinced Gove or Osborne have ever been Foreign Secretary,

so it must be William Hague.

William Hague, who's now in the House of Lords, yeah.

Andy, Zac Goldsmith,

the Conservative candidate for the 2016 London mayoral election

was previously the editor of which magazine?

Again, have no idea whatsoever

and it's going to be a pure guess again.

And I'm going to go for The Spectator.

He's on the right, as The Spectator is,

but it's not that. He's quite an environmentalist.

It's called The Ecologist.

So, if Lisa gets this right, she's in the final.

In which country, Lisa, are the CDU,

the CSU and the SPD three of the main political parties?

Now, is that, like, Zentral Sozialist and Sozialpolitik

or something that you could associate with Germany?

It might be Spain and I'll discount France.

No, I can't make a better case than for it being for Germany,

so I'll try Germany.

Yeah, I think the D is Deutschland in those names.

-Oh, right.

-Germany is correct.

So, well done, Lisa. Sorry about that, Andy.

I know not your strongest subject.

It's a shame History didn't come up for you guys.

You were beaten by our Egghead and won't be in the final.

If you both return to your teams,

we will play that final round for £12,000.

So, we were talking about German political parties

and we had the SPD and I said all the Ds stands for Deutschland,

which was a classic sweeping generalisation.

SDP is Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland,

so I was right there, but the CDU - the D is for Demokratische,

as in Democratic. Christian Democratic Union.

And the CSU is sort of Christian Socialist Union.

-OK?

-OK.

-OK.

-It might not come up for another five years,

-but when they do, you're ready.

-Yes, absolutely.

So, 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, that is Chris and Andy from Strictly GI

and also Judith and Barry from the Eggheads.

Would you please now leave the studio?

OK, so, you managed to level it up here, Challengers.

That's good. Ben, Shaun and Richard,

you are now playing for a big jackpot here on Eggheads.

You're playing for £12,000.

Dave, Lisa and Pat,

you're playing to protect the money and your reputations as well.

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

This time, the questions are all General Knowledge.

You can confer, guys, all right?

So, Strictly GI, the question is

can your three brains finally take down these three over here?

-Would you like to go first or second?

-First, please, Jeremy.

OK, Ben,

here is your first question.

-You're Ben Major, aren't you?

-I am, yeah.

Do they call you Major Major when you do your re-enactments?

No, they don't, but I used to get teased a lot

at school for that, oddly enough.

When they found out what I did for a hobby, it was... Yeah.

We call him a lot of things which are non-repeatable.

Here's your first question.

What is one said to scream if shouting very loudly?

-It's blue murder.

-Blue murder.

-It's blue murder, Jeremy.

Blue murder's right. Screaming green robbery?

I might give it a go.

It's not a bad idea, actually.

OK, Eggs,

what is the name for a hub in a computer network

that stores programmes and data files

that other computers in the network can access?

-Go for server.

-Server?

-At least where I work, yeah.

Are we happy with that? We'll go with server?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-OK. We're going to say server.

That's right. Server's correct.

-And, Pat, you've got your big computer with you?

-Yes.

You carry it around everywhere?

-Comfort to me, yes.

-OK.

Server's right.

Your question, Challengers.

In hunting, the partridge shooting season

officially begins on which day of the year?

-Isn't grouse September?

-Yeah, grouse is a lot later.

-I wouldn't have thought anything's on the 1st of April.

-Too early.

But you said something else was the 1st of September.

That's grouse. I think - I think - that's grouse.

Would it be on a different day or the same day?

-Yeah, well, that's...

-Shall we just go down the middle?

I think we'll just go down the middle, yeah.

We're not really sure, but I think we'll go down the middle

with the 1st of June, Jeremy.

Let's see if they're right. Do you think they're right?

I fancied September, but I don't know anything about it, really.

And you did kind of....

You had your grouse thing,

-where you thought, "Well, it can't be that."

-Yeah.

It is the 1st of September.

-OK.

-Sorry, chaps.

Don't worry. This has been a very,

very higgledy-piggledy game, so you're not out of it.

Eggs, which Oscar-winning actor was a professional boxer

before entering show business,

once taking on the world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson

in a 1909 exhibition match?

It must be McLaglen, mustn't it?

Can't see it being Gary Cooper or Spencer Tracy.

It would be a stretch for Cooper, wouldn't it, sort of date-wise?

To fight Jack Johnson?

-Well, let's have a...

-If it was Tracy or Cooper -

big, big stars - surely we'd have heard

the time they took on Jack Johnson?

Well, even 1909

-sounds a bit early for both of them.

-That's pretty early.

So, do we know that McLaglen won an Oscar?

Yeah, he did do in the mid-'30s.

I think it's such an extraordinary fact

that if it was Tracy or Cooper, we'd have heard.

I'm trying to remember what he won it for, just to qualify that.

-Obviously, those two have won two each, haven't they?

-Yeah.

He definitely won in the mid-'30s.

-So, is he our preference?

-Yeah, he's my preference, definitely.

-I would probably, yeah.

-So, we don't really know.

-We've not really got an idea.

-Well, Jeremy, we don't know.

This is an extraordinary fact, but we don't know about it.

We're assuming that if it was Spencer Tracy or Gary Cooper,

such a juicy morsel, we would have heard,

so we're going for Victor McLaglen.

-Victor McLaglen is right, Eggheads.

-Good work, dudes.

They're quite good at

quizzing blind. So, you need to get this one right.

The Zimmerman Telegram of 1917

was instrumental in causing which country

to join the First World War against Germany?

-I'm leaning towards USA, to be honest.

-Yeah.

Cos I'm not sure when Russia joined it.

-Russia was earlier.

-Was it?

-Sure.

And...don't know about Spain,

-but I, with the name...

-Hmm.

-Yeah.

It's sort of erring towards America. I'm sure they joined it late.

-Mm.

-Yeah. Shall we go for that?

-Go for that?

-Yeah.

-Go for America? Yeah? USA.

We're going to go for USA, Jeremy.

USA is correct.

OK, Eggheads, your question now. If you get this right,

the contest is over. Otherwise, we go to Sudden Death.

Which US President's portrait is printed on the back of a 50 bill?

-Is it Grant?

-I first thought of Grant.

-Because I'm not...

-I don't think Taft...

-Can't imagine it would be Taft.

-I think he's on a standard bill.

I'm not sure Cleveland's on any of the standard bills.

Grant would be. Cos we've got what? We've got Lincoln, Jackson...

-Jefferson.

-Washington. Lincoln's the 2.

-Jackson's five, is he?

-Yeah.

-I think Jefferson's on one of them.

-Jefferson is on one.

I thought Jefferson was on the 2 bill.

There's somebody else on one. Who's on the 100?

The Benjamin is either 20 or 100.

Yes, cos they call them Benjamins, don't they?

-I'd be inclined with Grant.

-I think it's Grant.

And also with the history of Grant as well,

-as a war hero...

-Yeah.

-..popular...

-We're happy with that?

-I'm happy with Ulysses S Grant.

We don't think...

Well, we're not certain,

but we don't think that Taft or Cleveland made it onto the money,

so we're going for Ulysses S Grant.

Well, you're very good on your presidents.

Ulysses S Grant is the correct answer.

We say congratulations, Eggheads. You have won.

-Commiserations there.

-Thank you.

Thanks for coming with a great back story.

-No problem. Thanks for having us.

-And good quizzing as well.

The Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them.

This roll continues, my goodness.

It means you are not going home with the £12,000,

so we take the money and push it over to the next show.

Eggheads, very well done.

I wonder if you can be beaten. I'm thinking not.

Join us next time to see if a new team of Challengers

can take them down and win £13,000.

Till then, goodbye.