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 questions 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, and here they are, all lined up.

Taking on the might of our quiz Goliaths today are...

This team are all associated

with the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

Let's meet them.

Hello, I'm Andrew.

I'm retired and a trustee of the National Museum of Computing.

Hello, I'm Phil. I'm a software developer.

Hi, I'm Colin and I'm an IT consultant.

Hello, I'm John.

I'm a journalist and a volunteer museum guide.

Hello, I'm Andy and I'm a network systems engineer.

-So, Andrew and team, welcome. Good to see you here.

-Great to be here.

Fantastic.

So, just tell me about this brilliant team name,

which we definitely haven't had before, Eggs, have we?

We're all from the National Museum of Computing

and one of the exhibits we're most proud of

is a computer called WITCH that was built at Harwell,

the atomic research establishment,

and it's built using a very old-fashioned technology

called dekatrons, that are basically valves

that you used to find in old TVs,

but these ones know how to count up to ten.

-And I'm assuming it's not that size, is it, this computer?

-No, it's huge.

It's about 10 foot high and about 20 foot long and about 4 foot deep.

-How incredible!

-It keeps the room nice and warm.

I've just bought a little laptop and it was £200 and it's...

How much more powerful will that be than your dekatrons, I wonder?

Easily a million times more powerful.

But you have to remember, back in 1950,

the only way to do calculations was pencil and paper.

And, in fact, the WITCH operates at about the speed of a human,

but the point is it keeps going.

It doesn't have to have a sandwich or go to the bathroom.

No, I'm not knocking it. I think it's fascinating and I remember

when my dad was a maths teacher and they bought the first computer

and it did fill the whole room.

-And 1950, my goodness, that's going back!

-It's very early.

I'm leading a project to build a replica of a machine

at Cambridge University that they started in 1947

and that ran its first programme in 1949.

And what people probably don't know is computers started

with some of the code-breaking at Bletchley Park

in the Second World War,

and we have a reconstruction of Colossus from 1943,

which is, arguably, the first computer in the world.

All right, good luck, everybody.

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

However, if they fail to defeat the Eggheads,

the prize money rolls over to the next show.

So, Harwell and the Dekatrons,

the Eggheads have won the last three games,

so there's a handy £4,000 up for grabs for you today.

-Would you like to try and win it now?

-Absolutely.

-Good stuff.

The first head-to-head battle will be on the subject of Music.

So, gents, who would like this?

That's really either John or me, isn't it?

Um... Or shall we go for Andy?

-Yeah, I'll take it.

-OK, Andy will take Music.

-Andy, on Music.

OK, our network systems engineer

against which one of the Eggheads network here?

-Shall we try Kevin?

-I think that's worth going for.

-We'll try Kevin on Music.

-That strategy has worked,

hurling yourself at Kevin before he's fully warmed up.

LAUGHTER

So, Andy from Harwell and the Dekatrons

versus Kevin from the good old-fashioned Eggheads,

please go to our Question Room now.

Andy, what kind of music do you enjoy?

Um, quite a lot of different stuff, really.

Mainly sort of '70s prog rock stuff,

-but some of the new stuff as well, and classical music too.

-OK.

-Would you like to go first or second?

-I'll go first, please.

Here is your first question.

Genie In A Bottle was which singer's first UK number one single?

Ooh, let me think. Don't think it's Britney.

I'm fairly certain it's not Mariah Carey.

So, I'm going to go for Christina Aguilera.

Yeah, very sure-footed play. You're absolutely right.

Kevin.

Link Wray's Rumble and Booker T & The MGs' Green Onions

are both examples of which of the following?

Well, I do like both of those.

They're instrumentals.

Yes, they are instrumentals.

Your question now, Andy.

How is the word "New" spelled in the name "new metal",

a form of heavy metal music,

incorporating elements of rap and hip-hop,

that was popularised by bands such as Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit?

Well, I don't think I need to worry about this one.

I think it's "Nu".

Nu is the right answer, yes.

OK, Kevin, your question.

What is the title of Radiohead's critically acclaimed 2016 album?

Um, it's A Moon Shaped Pool.

-A Moon Shaped Pool is correct.

-Yeah.

Andy, your question, third question.

Keep him on the ropes here.

Which jazz artist recorded albums in the 1950s and '60s

entitled Walkin', Cookin', Relaxin', Workin' and Steamin'?

I'm really not sure about this one.

So, I think I'm going to need to guess.

Um, I'm going to go with John Coltrane.

Kevin, do you know this?

I don't think it's Miles Davis

and I know the titles of a couple of John Coltrane albums

and I don't recall these one-word things,

so I'd probably have gone for Charlie Mingus, but...

-It's interesting. It is Miles Davis, actually.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-OK.

OK, Kevin, your third question.

If you get this right, you're in the final round.

Used in traditional Korean music,

the changgo is a two-headed drum that resembles which shape?

Don't think that's one I've come across?

How do you spell that, Jeremy?

C-H-A-N-G-G-O.

I'll rule out barrel.

There are various types of drums which could be seen as rather...

..barrel-like.

This may have something specifically Korean about it but...

I'm a bit torn between the others.

It's probably a bluff but on the basis of why is hourglass there,

I'll go for hourglass.

Hourglass is the right answer,

Kevin, so well done. You've taken the round.

Andy, sorry you've been knocked out by our Egghead

and Kevin, not you, will be in the final.

Please return, rejoin your teams, gents.

As it stands, Harwell and the Dekatrons have lost a brain

from the final round. You lost a few RAM.

That's the computer way of saying it, isn't it?

-Absolutely, but there's still plenty of power left in the CPU.

-Exactly!

The processor is still going great guns, I can see that.

The Eggheads are all sitting there, but they may get complacent.

That's what we have to hope for. The next subject is Science.

Which of you would like Science?

-Shall I take that one?

-Mmm.

-OK, I'll take Science.

Andrew, team captain, against which Egghead? Obviously, can't be Kevin.

-It's you and me, Lisa.

-Excellent.

Brilliant so, Andrew from Harwell and the Dekatrons

versus Lisa, who likes her science.

Cos your degree was History and English, wasn't it?

I don't know what planet you're on, Jeremy! The degree bit was right.

To ensure there's no conferring,

please take your positions in our Question Room?

So, Andrew, you mentioned your love of computers.

Was that your background, computing, or something else?

Yeah, I studied Computer Science at the University of Leeds

and then went to Cambridge and did a PhD

building computer operating systems.

Brilliant! So, roughly what decade was that in? Give me an idea.

-The 1970s.

-So you were really ahead of the curve. How fascinating.

Yeah, my career followed the growth of the computer industry.

It's been great fun.

-OK, so, Andrew, would you like to go first or second?

-I'll go first.

Your first question, Andrew, is this.

In trials of a new drug,

a placebo normally contains how much of the drug?

I know this one.

It's none at all, and the placebo effect

is where not having any of the drug actually produces the results

because your mind plays tricks on you.

None at all is quite right.

Lisa.

In optics, what is the deviation of light rays through lenses

causing objects to appear blurred known as?

Dunno. It certainly sounds like MY optics.

Everything's blurred without my contact lenses.

Um, yeah, I mean, it's one of those times

where I'm trying to answer a question

that's gone flying over my head at a rate of knots.

But we'll go for aberration.

Yeah, I didn't know this myself, but aberration is used for that as well.

OK, aberration, the answer.

Andrew, the South American capybara, the largest rodent on Earth,

is able to perform which of these activities very well?

Ah, a biology question - my Achilles heel.

Gosh...

It sounds more like a ground-based creature,

but I'm sure it's not jumping long distances. That's a kangaroo.

So, I'm going to go for climbing tall trees.

The capybara is a specialist at climbing tall trees.

Lisa, is that right, do you think?

Do you know, I'm a little bit torn

cos I had a vague idea it was a jumper,

but I might have gone for climbing tall trees.

-Anyone else here?

-Great swimmer.

-It can swim.

Ah, pretty much everyone here thinks it's swimming

-and it IS swimming underwater, Andrew.

-Argh!

OK, Lisa, your question

to take the lead.

Dinosaurs are believed to have died out how many years ago?

Um, so, as ever, with science subjects

where I'm not all that great,

I'm forced to fall back on the subjects where I AM great.

Jurassic Park's tag line -

"An adventure 65 million years in the making." There you go.

So, I think I can probably take that as fairly standard.

I think 5 million would be cutting it a little bit close.

So, we'll go for 65 million years.

Getting it through a Steven Spielberg tag line is impressive.

-65 million is quite right.

-Thank you, Mr Spielberg.

-Brilliant.

That's what you're up against, Andrew -

-that level of knowledge.

-Indeed.

They don't care how they get them right around here, I tell you.

What is the name of the part of the small intestine

that connects the duodenum to the ileum?

And you need to get this right.

Colon, to put it crudely, feels like the wrong end.

That leaves me between the caecum and the jejunum.

I'm going to go for the first, the caecum.

-The caecum is your answer. As in Harry Secombe!

-Mm-hmm.

Any advice from the Eggheads here? Come on, Eggs.

-Jejunum.

-Kevin?

-Jejunum.

-Jejunum.

So, the answer is jejunum.

I'm sorry, Andrew, we didn't have enough megabytes

in there, did we?

-We didn't.

-Lisa, you've triumphed on science.

-Alarmingly.

Please come back to us and rejoin your teams.

As it stands, Harwell and the Dekatrons brought

a lot of computing power to the table but you've lost two brains.

The Eggheads have not lost any but they have, many times,

lost the game from this position, so keep plugging on.

The next subject is History,

so which of you brilliant computer people would like this?

-I guess that's me.

-You'll take it, Colin?

-All right.

OK, Colin, on History, against which Egghead?

-It can't be Kevin or Lisa, obviously.

-I'll play Dave.

-Yeah, sounds good.

-Good stuff.

So, Colin from Harwell and the Dekatrons

versus Dave from the Eggheads on History, Dave.

Yeah, see how it goes.

Some areas of History are better than others for me.

To ensure there's no conferring,

please take your positions in our famous Question Room.

-Colin, you're originally from the USA.

-Yeah, I'm afraid I am.

No, don't apologise!

And how are you on your British history,

because, obviously, that might just come up in our History round here?

I'm not bad, I'm not bad. I did history at St Andrews,

modern and medieval, but unfortunately,

I've become a little specialist in computer history since then,

so hopefully, I can recall what I was taught.

OK, good luck against Dave.

Would you like to go first or second, Colin?

I'd like to go second, thanks.

OK, Dave, my friend, good luck to you as well. Here's your question.

How old was William Pitt the Younger when he died

during his second stint as Prime Minister?

I don't know.

I'm just trying to get a hold on dates.

I've got a total brain freeze here. Don't need the question repeating,

it's just trying to get a handle on when he was...

It's his second term we're talking about, isn't it?

-During his second stint as Prime Minister, yeah.

-Right, OK.

I think he was 24 when he was Prime Minister first time.

Um, I should be able to get exact dates on it

but I'm going to go 38 and hope for the best.

-Dave, it is 46.

-Mmm.

All right.

Colin, your first question.

The Greek War of Independence,

that began in 1821 and concluded in 1832,

was a struggle against which empire?

Now, you'd think I'd know this.

But 19th century is not my period, as they say in history studies.

Um...I am going to say - and I'm going to regret this -

I am going to say the Ottoman Empire.

-You got it right. Well done. Ottoman Empire it is.

-Phew!

Dave, back to you to catch up.

In which part of the Palace of Versailles was the 1919 treaty

that ended World War I signed?

Doing well today. Um, I'm going to go the Hall of Mirrors.

OK, Eggheads, do you know?

-Is he right?

-He is.

-You're right.

Hall of Mirrors it is.

Colin, back to you.

Operation Copperhead was the code name

of a 1944 deception plan by the Allies

that involved the American actor Clifton James

impersonating which military leader?

Again, I don't know this one and out of the Allied leaders,

I'm going to be choosing between Patton and Montgomery,

but I would have thought Montgomery.

Um, I'm going to stick with Bernard Montgomery.

Really good play. You're right. Bernard Montgomery it was.

It's 2-1. If you get this wrong, Dave,

-you're out.

-Yep.

-I'm sorry to remind you.

What was the name of the ship that discovered the Marie Celeste

on 4th December, 1872?

Right.

Was the Birkenhead the one where women and children first...?

Don't know about the James Caird.

I'm not entirely sure, but I'm going to go for the Dei Gratia, please.

-Dei Gratia is quite right.

-Mm-hmm.

So, we go back to you, Colin.

Chance to take the round, otherwise we go to Sudden Death.

Here's your question. The Battle of Castillon,

which is often said to have ended the Hundred Years' War,

took place in which century?

Now, this should be fairly automatic.

I'm thinking it's the 15th century.

I'm just trying to make sure I don't goof this one up.

I'm going to stick with the 15th century.

15th is the correct answer. Well done. Three out of three.

-Good play, Colin!

-Thank you.

Well done. You're in the final round.

Maybe things are turning for our Challengers.

Sorry, Dave, you've been knocked out. Please return to us now.

Harwell and the Dekatrons have lost two brains from the final round.

The Eggheads have lost a brain now. They lost Dave.

And the last subject before the final is Sport.

Who wants this?

Who was going to be our sports candidate? Did we decide?

-It's got to be Phil or John.

-I'll have a go with it.

-OK.

I know nothing, less than nothing about sport, but...

It's time for, what was the famous line of pointless sacrifice?

-Fall on the sword? Yeah.

-Phil, before you go, choose an Egghead.

-Who looks like they don't want to do this?

-It's got to be Chris, I think.

So, Phil from Harwell and the Dekatrons versus our own Chris,

known as Mr Sport - well, not really - from the Eggheads.

Please go to the Question Room now.

So, Sport is not your thing, I'm sensing, Phil.

Um, sacrificial lamb comes to mind.

Would you like to go first or second?

I think I'll go first, please.

Here is your question.

Who won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 1970?

I haven't heard of John Curry.

Virginia Wade, of course, was tennis, I believe.

Henry Cooper, boxing.

Um... I'll go with Henry Cooper.

-Lovely answer. Quite right, well done. Chris.

-Mm-hmm.

By what nickname is the football team Crewe Alexandra known?

Oh, gosh.

Well, they're called a number of things in Crewe,

but their official nickname is the Railwaymen.

That question combines everything you love.

Crewe and railways, although not football, of course.

Railwaymen is the right answer. They just come out as they come out.

We didn't know he was going to be sitting this one.

So, Phil, in which year did the basketball player Michael Jordan

make his debut for the Chicago Bulls?

When you first said the name, I was immediately thinking of the '80s.

I'm going to have to go straight down the middle with 1984.

It's that kind of trainers, um...that kind of era. 1984.

1984 is right! Really good.

Chris,

which team beat India by 125 runs

to win the 2003 Cricket World Cup?

Unlikely to be South Africa. Don't think it was Australia.

Think it was bit of a David and Goliath do with Sri Lanka,

so I'll say Sri Lanka.

-It is actually Australia.

-Mm-hmm.

-So...

the score is 2-1.

Phil, this is really rather good here. Here's your question.

Which New Zealand rugby union coach was appointed coach

of the British and Irish Lions for their 2001 tour to Australia?

Um...I haven't got a clue.

Um...I'm going to say Steve Hansen.

-I'm afraid you're wrong. Graham Henry is the right answer.

-Right.

OK, Chris, get this right, you're still in it.

Get it wrong and it's the sin bin.

Who was the only player to defeat Ray Reardon

in a World Snooker Championship final?

It's a toss-up between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor. Um...

It needs a good steady player, so I'll say Steve Davis.

OK, Alex Higgins is the answer.

Chris, you're wrong.

Phil, how about that?

You've won on Sport! What about that?

-APPLAUSE

-Thanks.

And it means you'll be playing in the final and Chris will not be.

If you both return to your teams,

we will play the all-important 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, Andrew and Andy from Harwell and the Dekatrons,

and Chris and Dave from the Eggheads,

would you please now leave the studio?

So, Phil, Colin and John,

you are playing to win Harwell and the Dekatrons £4,000.

Over here, we have Kevin and Lisa and Pat, who are playing,

basically, for the soul of the Eggheads, for your reputation.

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

This time, they're all General Knowledge

and you are allowed to confer.

So, Harwell and the Dekatrons, the question is,

are your three brains able to defeat these three over here?

Would you like to go first or second?

We'd like to go first, please.

Your final round questions start with this.

What name is given to the ability of some animals

to return to a certain place even when separated by great distances?

-It's homing.

-Homing.

-It's homing, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Our answer is homing.

Homing is right, well done. Back to you, Eggs.

What is faience a type of?

It's a type of pottery, isn't it?

-Type of...

-Sort of earth, glazed.

-I'm happy with that.

-Definitely pottery.

-That's pottery.

How do you know this stuff? How do you know?

Pottery is right. OK.

Here's your second question.

In which year did Bulgaria join the European Union?

It's certainly not 2013. I think it's 2007.

You DON'T think it's 2013?

Well, there's accession dates

and then there's various scales of membership as you come up.

-They're one of the new ones, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Have you any idea, Phil?

I'm drawn to 2007, not for any good...

I'm drawn to that as well, but, hopefully,

I'm not getting the dates wrong,

cos there is a scale of...um, of acceding.

On our heads be it, but...

-There's nothing like forgetting your own lifetime!

-I know.

I'm frustrated by this. Anyway, the consensus is that it's 2007, is it?

-Do we agree?

-I... That...

Without further inspiration, yeah, I think that's where we stick.

Jeremy, I think we are going to take a punt on 2007.

2007. Well, there was, there was...

I think the reason you might have wanted to go later

was something to do with the migration rules,

because that was the big story of Bulgaria and Romania,

-but that would have misled you, cos it was 2007.

-Yeah.

I think there might have been a hold on migration for a while after that.

That was the reason that that was more recent.

OK, so you've got two out of two.

That's good.

The Eggheads are behind. Eggs, you need to catch up.

The poet John Cooper Clarke

is famously from which part of the world?

-He's very, very Salford.

-He's very Salford, yes.

-Yeah?

We're fairly sure he's from Salford.

He is. Famously from Salford, I don't know,

but he is from Salford, yeah.

The next question is for Harwell and the Dekatrons.

What would one normally use to play the game faro,

or "fah-ro"? It's F-A-R-O.

-It's playing cards, isn't it? It's playing cards.

-Yeah.

Yeah, I think so. We all agree on that, do we?

Yeah, we all think playing cards.

Playing cards is right. Well done.

Three out of three in the final round.

£4,000 we're playing for.

You may not have to do another stroke of work today.

Let's just see. The Eggheads mess this up, then you've won the money.

Here is your question, Eggs.

A Macfarlane is a form of what item of clothing?

Presumably that's spelled as it sounds.

I was going to say, just for clarity,

it's M-A-C-F... Like that.

Macfarlane. M-A-C-F-A-R-L-A-N-E, all one word.

I don't think I've heard the name.

No, it doesn't ring any bells.

Have I heard of a Macfarlane knit, or am I just grasping at straws now?

-It's possible.

-Um, I'm slightly worried I'm making that up.

-In terms of a jumper or something?

-Yeah.

My instinct would be to rule out skirt

because there are more types of others to go for.

Yeah, I can't really...

A Macfarlane skirt? Does that sound...?

No, your coats are the ones that tend to have...

Crombie and things like that. Um, but...

Yeah, I don't think it's skirt, so...

It's between coat and jumper.

It's obviously a Scots-sounding name.

So, you could make a case for either of those.

Do you think you've heard of it as a pattern?

As I say, I think I might just be grasping at straws there.

I really... If you said, "Is it a coat of a jumper?",

I would really struggle

to make any sort of case for either of them.

Do you have a preference?

I... I actually slightly prefer jumper.

-I hate to muddy the waters.

-OK.

-But I have absolutely no reason to...

-Well, I have nothing.

No reason whatsoever to say that.

Um, I'll take... Go for jumper.

-I'll take it.

-OK.

-I'll take it.

-All right.

We're all at sea here, Jeremy,

completely at sea. We're going to take a chance with jumper.

I'm afraid you're wrong because the correct answer is coat.

So, Eggheads, you've lost.

Congratulations, Challengers, you've won!

APPLAUSE

I listen so closely to the way they make decisions and it's beyond me.

But in the end, you didn't know.

Somebody at some point said, "There are lots of kinds of coats",

and maybe that's the only little thing you've got

is that there are lots of coats.

But the main thing is you've won. Many congratulations.

You've beaten them, you've won £4,000.

You are officially cleverer than the Eggheads,

who were just getting themselves back together

after a slightly torrid time.

You've proved that they can be beaten.

Join us next time on Eggheads, please,

to see if a new team of Challengers will be as successful

as Harwell and the Dekatrons. Till then, goodbye.