Episode 17 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 our awesome quiz champions today are The Farmers Arms

from North Yorkshire.

This friends and family team regulars at The Farmers Arms

in Brompton on Swale, Richmond,

where team member Dave hosts the weekly quiz.

Let's meet them.

Hi, I'm Sue, and I'm a retired management consultant.

Hi, I'm Chris, I'm a retired pathology laboratory manager.

Hi, I'm Lesley, and I'm a retired florist.

Hi, I'm Dinah, I'm a retired primary school teacher.

Hi, I'm Dave, I'm a retired Maths teacher.

So, Sue and team, welcome.

-Great to see you. ALL:

-Hello.

The Farmers Arms is obviously at the centre of this, Sue, is it?

-Absolutely.

-And tell us about the pub first of all.

The pub's in Brompton on Swale, it's a great pub to go for Sunday lunch.

Yeah? And you all get together and quiz there?

Yes, we do, Dave sets the questions and we try and answer them.

Is the question setter a key person in the team today, Dave?

Eh... No.

THEY LAUGH

OK, well, good luck, team.

I hope you do really well.

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 the next show.

Farmers Arms, the Eggs have won just the last game,

so it means there's £2,000 on the table for you if you win today.

They really want to get cracking here,

cos they've had a few awkward moments.

The first head-to-head battle is on the subject of Geography,

-so who would like this?

-What do we think?

Lesley? Going to be Lesley?

-It was meant to be me.

-Are you all right with that, Lesley?

Yeah, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, yeah.

-All right, Lesley?

-Yeah, I'll do it.

-Lesley, OK.

-And I'd like to take on...

Who are you going to choose?

-Lisa.

-All right, so Lesley from The Farmers Arms, taking on Lisa,

straight away to Geography!

-Surprise!

-To ensure there's no conferring,

would you please take your positions

in the legendary Eggheads Question Room?

OK, Lesley, good luck.

Would you like to go first, or second?

I'd like to go first please.

So your question is this, Lesley.

Which city, which had been the capital of Czechoslovakia,

subsequently became the capital of the Czech Republic in 1993?

Oh, er...

I'm not 100% certain on this one.

Um...

I think I'll go for Prague.

-Yes, completely right, well done.

-Thank goodness.

Zagreb is Croatia, any Challengers know where Tirana is?

-Albania?

-Albania, that's right, so Prague is right.

Lisa, which American city

is most associated with the nickname, The City By The Bay?

LISA CHUCKLES

First thought was San Francisco, so we best go with that.

San Francisco is quite right.

-Have you been there?

-No, I'd love to go.

My sister actually is out there as we speak having a wonderful holiday.

OK, back to you, Lesley.

Mount Saint Elias, one of the highest peaks in North America,

straddles both the Yukon Territory in Canada and which US state?

I think I'll...

I think I'll go for Alaska.

-OK, Alaska is right, Lesley.

-Oh! Thank goodness for that.

Well done you. OK, Lisa, your second question.

The Victoria Falls are located on the border between Zimbabwe

and which other country?

Do you know what? I bet only one of them's got border with Zimbabwe.

She says that, thinking about it,

I think only one of them has got a border with Zimbabwe,

which would make it Zambia.

You're absolutely right, it is Zambia. Nicely done!

Good map work. OK, Lesley.

Mount Meru is a stratovolcano

in which African country?

Mount Meru...

I think I will go with...

The one I don't know anything about, or will I?

Yes, I'll go with Equatorial Guinea.

It is in Africa.

Any Challengers know this?

Where would we go? Eggheads, where would we go here?

-Tanzania.

-BARRY:

-Tanzania, I would guess.

Tanzania is the right answer, Lesley.

Two out of three.

Now Lisa has a chance to book her place in the final.

What is the English translation of the name

of the African capital city, Addis Ababa?

I've been caught on these before.

Addis Ababa...

Now, I like home of peace, that is the best logic I can come up with.

So I will say home of peace.

And it sounds, Addis Ababa sounds like "Addis" means home,

and "Ababa" means of peace.

You're going to tell me right now that isn't the case, aren't you?

-It means new flower.

-Oh, well, that's nice to know.

But you said it with such conviction I began to believe it myself.

OK, Lesley, we're on Sudden Death now.

Two questions out of three right, it gets a bit harder now,

I don't give you different options.

Caracas is the capital of which South American country?

Oh... South America and me do not go together.

Um, Caracas...

Uruguay.

No, it's not, it's Venezuela.

All right.

OK, Lisa.

In Spanish, what is the name for the Falkland Islands?

And if you get this right, you are in the final round.

I believe they're called the Malvinas.

Malvinas is the right answer.

Well done, on Sudden Death you've taken it, Lisa.

Sorry, Lesley, beaten by our Egghead and knocked out.

Come back to us and we'll see what'll happens in the next round.

So, as it stands, The Farmers Arms have lost one brain

from the final round, the Eggheads haven't lost any so far,

and the next subject is Arts & Books.

Sue, who would like this, do you think?

-Oh, it was going to be Pam.

-Dinah?

-Dinah?

-Do I have to?

-I think so.

I fear you do.

-Oh, right, OK.

-You do, Dinah.

Take one for the team.

Yes, pick an Egghead, Dinah, you'd like to play against.

-Barry?

-Yeah, go for Barry.

-Barry, please.

OK, Dinah versus Barry from the Eggheads,

please go to our Question Room.

Good luck, Dinah. Arts & Books,

would you like to go first, or second?

I'd like to go first, please.

And here we go, then, with your first question.

Dinah, in which type of theatrical event would you be most likely

to hear the audience shout, "He's behind you?"

That's pantomime.

-It's definitely pantomime, well done.

-Oh, no it isn't.

ALL LAUGH

Oh, yes, it is!

OK, Barry.

In the Charlotte Bronte novel, Jane Eyre,

who is the central character talking about in the famous line,

"Reader, I married him?"

Well, Mr Micawber is from Charles Dickens,

Mr Darcy, of course, is Pride and Prejudice,

but Jane Eyre famously married Mr Rochester.

You're absolutely right, a really interesting, unusual book in a way,

-isn't it?

-It's a beautiful book.

Yes, it is. Mr Rochester's quite right.

Dinah, who wrote the

2007 book entitled The Uncommon Reader

in which the Queen stumbles into a mobile library

parked at Buckingham Palace,

and consequently turns into an avid reader?

Well, I have not heard of it, I'm afraid,

but from cancelling out JK Rowling...

Mmm, I don't know,

she doesn't just write children's books, does she?

Hillary Mantell writes historical novels.

It sounds like Alan Bennett,

but JK Rowling has written non-Harry Potter

ones as well, hasn't she?

Um...

I think I will go for JK Rowling.

Oh, your logic was impeccable until you chose the answer.

-Was it Alan Bennett?

-Yes, it was Alan Bennett.

OK, Barry.

Nicholas Bentley drew the pictures for the first illustrated edition

of which book by TS Eliot?

Well, it is hard to see how the Ash Wednesday

or The Waste Land would require illustrations,

so on that principle I will go for Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats.

And you would be 100% right, well done.

-OK, Dinah, you need to get this one right to stay in.

-Oh.

Antigone is a play by which dramatist of the fifth century BC?

Oh...

Unlike Stephen Fry, I'm not very good

at my Ancient Greeks and Romans.

Um...

I have heard of it and I've heard of all those names,

but I'll just have to take a guess.

Sophocles.

You are 100% right.

-Oh!

-100% right, well done.

Well done.

OK, Barry.

This for the round.

Who wrote the influential play, A Raisin In The Sun,

a production of which first appeared on Broadway in 1959,

earning several Tony award nominations?

I believe this is by Lorraine Hansberry.

The correct answer is Lorraine Hansberry.

Well done, Barry. Good answer, good quizzing.

Sorry, Dinah, beaten by a very good Egghead today,

and as a result no place in the final for you.

But come back to us and we'll see what your team does next.

So, as it stands, The Farmers Arms have lost another brain.

Any change of strategy now?

If we had a strategy it would've been helpful!

OK, well if it was in the pub, would you reformat the team, or...?

-No.

-Press on?

-Yeah, press on.

-Good, brilliant.

Well, the last team to win were down to one person in the final,

so it can be done.

The Eggheads are still sitting there, rather too smugly.

The next subject is Music.

So, who's the musician?

Oh, we haven't got one.

Dave?

What about you?

Is Dave doing it?

-Dave, you're doing it?

-Dave, you're doing it?

Looks like it.

Dave against which Egghead,

and you can have any of the three in the middle here.

-Judith.

-Judith.

-Judith.

-Judith, please.

You've chosen Judith, good luck, Judith, good luck, Challenger.

Please go to our Question Room.

Dave, would you like to go first, or second?

I'd like to go first, please.

Here's your first question.

Which song did the Beatles write

especially for the 1967 television programme Our World,

the world's first live television satellite linkup?

Looking at those, I would go for, I don't know the answer,

I would go for All You Need Is Love.

Yes, that's completely right. Well done.

Judith, your question.

The composer Johann Strauss the Elder

was born in which city?

He was born in Vienna.

Vienna's right, Judith, well done.

Dave, which singer caused controversy with lyrics about

Becky with the good hair in a 2016 album release?

2016...

Again, I don't know, I don't know this one at all.

I'll go for Lady Gaga.

Right, Lady Gaga's not the right answer, it's actually Beyonce.

But what's the controversy about it?

Lisa, you'll know.

I think it's something to do with the fact that

the album's called Lemonade, which which I think is a sort of

abbreviated version of when life gives you lemons

and the album is sort of rumoured to be

about her husband's potential indiscretions.

So Becky with the good hair may have been the subject of one of those.

OK, you explain that very delicately, thank you.

Judith, your question, second question.

No More Heroes was the title of an album and single by which band?

No idea.

Um, The Stranglers.

-JEREMY CHUCKLES You're right.

-Is it?

Completely, yeah.

OK, third question to you, Dave.

You need to get this one right.

Who wrote the opera Idomeneo?

Idomeneo.

I...

..again don't know.

I'll go for...

..Mozart.

Barry will know, Barry?

It is. It is Mozart.

Well done, Mozart's correct.

Well done, Dave.

OK, Judith.

You could take the round with this answer.

Whose first UK number one in the 1960s was

I Can't Stop Loving You?

I think that's Ray Charles.

If you've got this right, you've got three out of three on music,

and it becomes then a very strong subject for you.

Ray Charles is right, well done, you're in the final round!

Well done. Sorry, Dave.

That one wrong answer, the blasted Beyonce.

Judith, you're through,

come back to us if you can and we will play the next round.

OK, as it stands, The Farmers Arms have lost three brains

from the final round, the Eggheads have not lost any so far.

Let's see if you can just dislodge one now.

That might rock them.

The next subject is Science.

-Is that good?

-Yes.

Happy with that, yeah.

OK, retired pathology lab manager, against which Egghead?

You can have either Chris or Kevin, and they're not stupid.

I don't know. Kevin, do you fancy taking Kevin out?

-Kevin.

-I heard the phrase, let's take Kevin out.

-That's the...

-Take Kevin out.

-OK.

Where are we going?

ALL LAUGH LOUDLY

He's not been out for ages.

So, Chris, from the Farmers Arms versus Kevin from the Eggheads,

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

Chris, you're on science, which I know is home territory, but beware,

Kevin is a very good player.

Would you like to go first, or second on Science, Chris?

I will go first, please, Jeremy.

Your first science question, Chris, and here it is.

What is the name of the NASA spacecraft

which entered Jupiter's orbit in the summer of 2016?

Now, I think that's Juno.

OK. You're right, it is, well done.

Kevin, your question.

The adjective "porcine" refers to which animal?

Well, as in pork, in a way, it's pig.

That's it. Pig is right.

-Probably not the hardest question you'll ever face, but...

-No.

You could have gone wrong there.

-Could very easily go wrong.

-Yeah, exactly.

OK, back to you, Chris.

How many laws of motion did Isaac Newton outline

in his 1687 work Principia Mathematica,

which translates as mathematical principles?

Now, that's a physics question,

and I'm notoriously bad at physics,

but I think it's three.

So, Newton's first, second and third laws of motion.

-That's right.

-You're absolutely right, it is three.

Kevin, which technology company

bought the messaging service WhatsApp in 2014

for approximately 20 billion?

I hate these because a lot of these start-ups that have become

very successful as apps, or whatever,

then get bought by one of the giants, and it's always,

the problem is remembering which one bought which app,

so all sorts of things like WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.

I'll rule out,

for no reason, particularly...

I'll rule out Google.

I'll say Microsoft.

But no confidence whatsoever.

Microsoft, let's see if your team-mates can help.

-Eggies?

-I thought it was Facebook.

-So did I.

Facebook is the answer, Kevin.

-Facebook.

-Yeah.

Now, OK,

is the tide turning a little bit here?

Let's treasure this moment, Chris, you're in the lead against Kevin,

and if you get this question right you're in the final

and you've knocked out the big man.

The Green Bank Telescope,

the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope,

is located in which US state?

Now...this is an important answer.

I don't know.

But I'm thinking... Firstly, I'm thinking...

..it should be somewhere high, but that doesn't help.

It should be, I would have thought, somewhere near the Equator,

so I'm going to go for Texas.

Yeah, I can see why you did that, because it's...

It's a bit clearer, maybe, of vegetation.

West Virginia is the answer.

Kevin has a way back in now.

Kevin, get this right, we go to Sudden Death.

Sir Nicholas Bacon was elected president of which society in 2013?

I don't know Sir Nicholas Bacon, I'm afraid,

which makes it a one-in-three guess.

Let's assume that he is a forensic scientist, then,

it's literally a one-in-three guess, so...

Do you know, Chris?

Mmm, interesting.

The Royal Horticultural Society, there definitely is a society.

The other two I've never heard of as societies.

And I think I would have maybe guessed at

the Interplanetary Society.

-I think it's the RHS.

-Me too.

We've got a little consensus-building

-for the Royal Horticultural Society, Kevin.

-Oh.

And that is the correct answer, so we say well done, there, Chris.

You've taken on Kevin and you've knocked him out,

that happens once every couple of years,

Kevin gets knocked out of Science, so really well done, Chris,

well played and it means you will be joining your team in the final round,

you won't be down to one player.

Come back to us, we'll play that final round.

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 Lesley,

and Dinah and Dave from The Farmers Arms,

but also Kevin from the Eggheads, going into the sin bin.

Please leave the studio.

Sue and Chris, you're playing to win The Farmers Arms £2,000.

Barry, Judith, Chris and Lisa,

you're playing for something that money cannot buy -

the Eggheads' precious reputation.

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

This time the questions are all General Knowledge.

You are allowed to confer.

So, Farmers Arms, the question is,

can your two brains now defeat these four?

And would you like to go first, or second?

We'd like to go first, please.

OK, Sue and Chris, good luck, here's your first question.

The football team of which constituent country of the UK

reached the semifinals of the 2016 UEFA European Championship?

-It's Wales.

-It's Wales, isn't it?

-I think it's Wales.

-Cos Gareth Bale was playing.

-He was.

And he's an ex-Spurs player, so Wales, please, Jeremy.

The Bale connection, Wales is right, well done.

Eggheads, back to you.

K Street is a street that is home to a number of lobbying companies

and think tanks in which American city?

-Washington.

-BARRY:

-Lobbyists must be in Washington.

The streets are letters too.

Well, Chicago, the streets have got names,

New York, the streets are numbered.

Washington, streets are lettered.

Yeah, well, New York streets are numbered,

Chicago streets have names,

Street with letters are found in Washington, DC.

So it's Washington, DC.

Very good, or you could have said, it's political and that's...

-That's where you find all the politicians.

-Yeah.

Washington, DC is right. Well done, Washington, DC.

OK, you're equal on one point.

Second question to the Challengers.

What did the makers of Cluedo announce

as the name of its new character in 2016?

I don't know. Do you?

I think it's Dr Orchid.

-Do you?

-Mmm.

-Shall we go for that, then?

-Yeah.

How certain are you?

-50-50.

-50-50!

OK, we're going for Dr Orchid, please, Jeremy.

OK, Dr Orchid is right.

-Well done.

-Well done, dear.

Two out of two.

Eggheads, what was the first name of the American actor who appeared in

films such as Airplane,

and who was the father of the actors Beau and Jeff Bridges?

-It's Lloyd.

-Lloyd Bridges.

-Lloyd Bridges, yeah.

Yes, Lloyd Bridges, Jeremy.

Lloyd Bridges is right.

2-2. Back to you.

Which comedian co-wrote the musical, I Can't Sing! The X Factor Musical,

which ran in London's West End in 2014?

-Do you know?

-No, I don't know.

Have you got any idea?

Well, it could be any of them, couldn't it?

Is there any of them we can exclude?

I think, Jack Dee's not noted for his writing skills, is he?

I wouldn't know, dear.

Is it the sort of thing Harry Hill would do?

Yeah, if you force me, as you're going to, force me into an answer,

I would go for Harry Hill.

Always go with your first instinct.

That is our rule, always go with your first instinct.

We'd like to go for Harry Hill, please, Jeremy.

Always go with your first instinct, a great quizzing rule.

Great husband and wife partnership here, Harry Hill is right.

Well done, dear!

You've got three out of three, there. That's good!

£2,000 on the table here.

Eggheads, get this wrong and they've won.

The use of the word "snob" is first recorded in the 18th-century

to describe which of the following?

Shoemaker.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-Why?

Cos...

What they call...

A last used to be known as a snob.

-Oh, well done.

-I thought it came from the old Oxford colleges,

where they wrote "sine nobility."

Oh, no, no, no.

Is that just an apocryphal story?

That's an apocryphal story. Well, "sine nobilitate" without nobility

would work, yeah, but actually the word snob comes from

shoemaker, Jeremy.

-Shoemaker is right. 3-3.

-Good knowledge, Chris.

-Yeah.

Chris impresses, doesn't he?

Old Chris Hughes over there.

So we go to Sudden Death, gets a bit harder,

I don't give you different options.

Here's your question.

In which 2008 film does Liam Neeson's character

famously declare, "I will find you and I will kill you"?

I don't know.

2008. "I will find you and I will kill you..."

Is it a James Bond?

I don't think so.

-I don't think it's James Bond.

-Is it a Bourne thing?

No, I've seen the Bourne films, I don't recall it being Bourne.

2008, what happened in 2008?

2008?

What was the hit film of 2008?

We need Kevin back here this side with us.

Well, what are we going to go for?

Pick a film from around that era, and hope for the best...

-Shall we go for Skyfall, then, if you thought it was a Bond?

-Yeah.

We don't know.

Um...

Jeremy, um, so we're going to go with a Bond film, which was Skyfall.

Let's see if the Eggheads know.

-Taken.

-Taken is the film.

-I hadn't seen it.

-I hadn't seen it.

Eggheads, for the contest.

Which Manhattan street, famous for its theatres,

is also the location of the Chrysler Building

and Grand Central Terminal?

Is it Broadway? It's famous for its theatres.

-It's not Broadway.

-Grand Central's not on Broadway.

-Isn't it?

-No. Chrysler Building's Fifth Avenue, isn't it?

-That sounds good.

-Yeah.

Third Avenue is where the El used to go up.

Have you ever seen a theatre on Fifth Avenue, cos I haven't.

It may be right down the other end.

Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.

I think Broadway goes like this, and 42nd Street goes like that,

and Grand Central is sort of here,

so I think technically you could say...

I didn't know the Chrysler Building was on Broadway,

-which is what's throwing me.

-Mmm.

-But, er.

-You're saying 42nd Street?

42nd Street, there are theatres, yeah.

Fifth and 42nd.

So, 42nd Street would make more sense, wouldn't it?

-Yeah.

-I'm inclined for 42nd Street.

-And I'm sure Grand Central is there.

-Shall we go for 42?

-Mm-hm.

Yes.

Well, are you for Fifth Ave?

Well, I want to know what you think.

Um...

Well, I don't know, I'm ducking out.

Right, one abstention, one for Fifth and two for 42nd,

-so it's 42nd.

-Go for it.

-42nd Street, Jeremy.

That's the first time I've ever seen actually organised collecting of

votes on your side. Usually...

Chris doesn't get to do this bit very often.

Everyone should learn from Chris, because so often in the final round,

you begin with the idea that you all vote,

and then it just completely falls apart.

The answer is, indeed, 42nd Street.

We say, congratulations, Eggheads, you have won!

But it was Chris there managing the voting,

and it was... Who was...?

Someone was not 42nd Street, Judith abstained.

-I abstained.

-You weren't interested in taking part.

-Somebody was Fifth?

-I thought Fifth Avenue

-and these two thought 42nd Street.

-But well conducted there, Chris.

Commiserations to the Challengers here,

the Eggheads have done what comes naturally to them.

Just about beginning to get into your stride again.

It does mean that the Challengers are not going home with the £2,000,

so we roll the money over to the next show.

Well done, Eggheads.

I wonder what will happen the next time you play.

Join us to see if a new team have the brains to defeat this lot

over here. £3,000 says they don't.

Until then, goodbye.