Episode 69 Eggheads

These people are amongst the greatest quiz players in Britain.

Together, they make up the Eggheads,

arguably the most formidable quiz team in the country.

The question is, can they be beaten?

Welcome to Eggheads, the show where a team of five quiz challengers pit

their wits against possibly the greatest quiz team in Britain.

They are the Eggheads.

Hoping to beat the might of the Eggheads today

are The Great Grandsons.

Now, this team all went to the same secondary school together and

the majority of them share the same great-grandfather.

Isn't that wonderful? Let's meet them.

Hi, I'm Peter and I'm a semi-retired conciliator.

Hi, I'm David. I'm a retired financial adviser.

Hi, I'm Harry, I'm a retired schoolteacher.

Hi, I'm John, I'm a retired police inspector.

Hi, I'm Paul, I'm a former British Council officer.

So, Peter and The Great Grandsons, hello.

-Hello.

-Hello, Jeremy!

Great to see you. And, Peter, tell us about this.

So, you are... You have the same great-grandfather

-as everyone else on the team?

-Four of us.

-Four of you?

-Yep.

-OK, and who was he?

The great-grandfather was Michael Harwood.

He's from Ireland,

he was in Galway and he came over to this country in 1880.

Up to the northeast of England.

And then lived in North Shields,

and that's where we were all originally from.

OK, so, wonderful story.

And two of you are brothers and then the two second cousins and then

a friend on the end there.

And do you quiz together, Peter, as well?

We don't, we are spread around the country now.

But most of us do regular quizzes

and Harry's run a pub quiz for 26 years.

Yes, I noticed Harry in the middle with the pub quiz experience.

I can hear the Eggheads bristling slightly.

Good luck, Challengers.

Here we go. Every day, there is £1,000 worth of cash up for grabs.

If the Challengers fail to defeat the Eggheads,

the prize money rolls over to our next show.

So, Great Grandsons, the Eggheads have won the last 16.

So, that means there is £17,000 for you to win today

if you can conquer them. So, would you like to try?

-I think we would. Thank you, Jeremy.

-Great stuff. So, there we are.

Thinking about your great-grandfather as you do this.

The first head-to-head battle is on the subject of music.

So, it's one of you, please, against either Dave, Beth, Barry,

-Pat or Chris.

-So, what do we...?

-David?

-I think it was. I think...

-Dave.

-Yep, Dave?

Yep. And then we've got to decide who to play against.

Yeah, who do we want to go against?

-OK, Dave.

-Chris.

-Chris?

Chris Hughes doesn't know much about music.

-THEY LAUGH

-You said Chris?

-Yeah. Yeah, I said Chris.

-It going to be Dave on Chris, is it? OK.

-Yep.

So, David from the Great Grandsons taking on Chris, on music,

from the Eggheads. And just to ensure there is no conferring,

would you please take your positions in our legendary Question Room?

All right, so, music is the subject, David.

And would you like to go first or second?

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

And here is your question.

Every Breath You Take is a 1983 hit single by which band?

Well, it's not The Clash. It's not The Jam.

It's The Police, Jeremy.

It is indeed The Police. Well done.

OK, Chris, your question.

Which of these singers was knighted for his services to music in 2006?

That must be Sir Tom Jones.

Tom Jones is right, Chris.

Back to you, David. Which famous piece of music

was not given its popular name by the poet Ludwig Rellstab

until five years after the death of its composer?

Well, I've got no idea.

So, I have to try and make an educated guess.

Go for the Messiah Oratorio.

That's the wrong answer.

Let's just check out this with the Eggheads a little bit.

Is that Handel, Eggheads?

-Yes.

-Yep.

-So, what's the story with Moonlight Sonata, Barry?

It was written by Beethoven.

The chap you mentioned felt that it looked like moonlight striking

the surface of a lake.

So, Moonlight Sonata is the answer there, David.

They've shown us their workings, the Eggheads.

OK, Chris, to take the lead.

"Everybody loves the things you do

"From the way you talk to the way you move"

are the opening lines to which song by Adele?

It's not Rolling In The Deep.

Send My Love or When We Were Young?

I have to go with When We Were Young.

You got the answer right. When We Were Young.

David, you need to get this right.

Cheap Thrills and Elastic Heart are singles by which singer?

I'm not sure on this one, Jeremy.

I'll go with Katy Perry.

It's Sia.

David, sorry. So, no way back against Chris.

Chris will be in the final round and you've been knocked out.

Come back to us, gentlemen. We'll play the second round.

As it stands, The Great Grandsons have lost a brain from the final round.

But bear in mind the Eggheads are in storming form at the moment.

All sitting there, all five of them, intact.

And the next subject is science.

Blank reactions, guys.

Who wants this? Come on. THEY LAUGH

Someone's got to go for it.

-Do you want me?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, I think so.

-Yeah, yeah?

Great. I'll give it a go, then, Jeremy.

OK, John, our retired police inspector.

And who would you like to inspect on the other side?

Can't be Chris.

-Try Dave.

-Dave, I think.

-Yeah?

-Dave?

I think we'll give... I'll give Dave a try.

All right. John from the Great Grandsons

versus Tremendous Knowledge Dave from the Eggheads.

Please take your positions.

John, when you were a police officer, you met a king and queen in one day.

It was 40 years ago now since that happened,

but I was only a young bobby on the beat then.

I was security and I met the king of boxing, Muhammad Ali.

He was on a visit to Tyneside at the time.

And, coincidentally, the Queen was on her Silver Jubilee tour.

Only I didn't actually speak to her, whereas I did to Muhammad Ali.

What a gentleman. He asked me how I was, officer?

And a good morning to me.

But I was certainly close enough to touch the Queen.

So, a king and queen on the same day.

That's brilliant. Dave, we love Ali, don't we, Dave?

-Yes, we do.

-John, science is the round against Tremendous Knowledge Dave.

Would you like to go first or second?

I'll go first, Jeremy, thanks.

And, here we go. Which of these animals have webbed feet?

Dingo's a dog.

Tasmanian devil, platypus...

Duckbilled platypus.

So, we'll go for the platypus, Jeremy.

Platypus is quite right.

Here's your first question.

Dave, what is magma?

M-A-G-M-A.

It's molten rock.

Very good. Molten rock is right.

OK, your question, John.

What type of animals are marmosets and tamarins?

Primates is my immediate thought.

Not thinking that they're birds.

Marmosets....

Tamarins... Now, could they be rodents?

Rodent, rat?

No. I'm going to go with what I originally thought

and go with primates.

Indeed, primates is the right answer.

Well done. Back to you, Dave.

Which of these creatures are thought to use echolocation to navigate and

find their prey?

Don't think it's centipedes or cows.

I think it's dolphins, please.

Cows, yeah. Dolphins is right.

Bizarre selection of possibilities, there.

So, you are level. Nothing to choose between you.

Keep the pressure on here, John.

Pathology is the branch of medical science

that deals with the causes and nature of what?

Pathology. When I think of pathology,

I think more about postmortems.

So, I'm more drawn away certainly from plants.

So it's ageing or diseases.

"Path" would suggest to me ageing.

No, it's disease, actually.

So, words like psychopath mean that

you have got a disease of the psyche.

OK. So, anyway, here we are. And it's 2-2. But Dave,

you have a question in hand and you can take the round this.

What is the boiling point of water on the Fahrenheit scale?

Well, it was 100 degrees centigrade,

which will convert to 212 Fahrenheit.

But let me just confirm that.

Yeah, did think that.

Don't want Barry to pull a face.

So, I've got to just make sure I get this right.

Yeah, 212 degrees Fahrenheit, please.

OK, I'm just looking at Barry's face.

-Yes...

-Happy.

-It's... 212 is the right answer.

You've won the round. John, sorry.

It's often on that one question, isn't it?

-Yep.

-So, John's knocked out.

Dave's in the final. Return to us, please.

We'll play round three.

As it stands, The Great Grandsons

have lost two brains from the final round.

The Eggheads have still not lost any. So, let's press on here.

History is the subject now.

Who would like this?

-I'll take it.

-Are you going to take that?

I'll take that one, Jeremy.

OK, that's Peter, our semi-retired conciliator.

And who would you like to conciliate with now?

Any of the three in the middle.

Beth, Barry, Pat.

-Beth.

-I would say Beth.

-Beth?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Beth, I think.

OK, Peter, one of The Great Grandsons

versus Beth from the Eggheads.

And the Challengers now have to see if they can level this up.

Go to the Question Room, please.

So, history, Peter. Would you like to go first or second against Beth?

I'll go first, please, Jeremy.

And here we go. What name is given to the period of US history

characterised by poverty and unemployment

that began with the Wall Street crash in 1929

and ended in the late 1930s?

Well, the Dark Ages were a lot earlier in terms of British history.

I'm not quite sure about the Anarchy.

But I'll go with the Great Depression.

The Great Depression is quite right.

Yes, indeed. OK, Beth, how are we feeling today?

-All right, yeah.

-Good, good, good.

-Ready for your history?

-Yes.

Your first question - which of these historical figures was born first?

Well, Cleopatra being one of the Ptolemaic dynasty Pharaohs of Egypt,

it's got to be her. Cleopatra.

Cleopatra is the right answer, Beth.

Well done. Back to you, Peter.

Who famously said in 1938,

"I am myself a man of peace, to the depths of my soul.

"Armed conflict between nations is a nightmare to me.

"War is a fearful thing, and we must be very clear before we embark on it

"that it is really the great issues that are at stake."

Well, I know Neville Chamberlain...

he was viewed as an appeaser with Hitler when he came back from

the discussions with him.

So, you'd think it's the sort of thing he might say.

Churchill? Obviously, had a bit of a more pugnacious attitude.

I know the USA were reluctant to get into war.

So, I'll go for Franklin D Roosevelt.

I can see why you've done that,

because it took them a while to get into the Second World War.

But, Eggheads, who was at?

-Chamberlain.

-Neville Chamberlain.

-Chamberlain is the answer.

-It was him.

-And we go over to Beth.

The birthplace of the religious reformer, Martin Luther,

is in which modern-day country?

Beth...?

Lutheranism is very...

big in the low countries of Belgium and Holland and...

Germany, I'm thinking.

Yeah, Germany, I think.

Germany is the right answer, well done.

The Lutheran Church.

OK. So, Peter, you need this one to stay in.

In which waters did the British Fleet

defeat the French at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782?

Saintes is S-A-I-N-T-E-S. OK?

Well, it's not one I'm familiar with.

So, it might have to be an inspired guess.

I don't think it would be the English Channel.

Well, it sounds as if it could be... Well, the islands.

It might be...

Islands in the Caribbean.

There's a few, St Lucia, that sort of thing.

I'll say the Caribbean.

Caribbean is the right answer, well done.

Caribbean Sea. So, you're level with Beth.

OK, Beth, you can take the round with this.

The 1833 Factory Act fixed a maximum working time for children

between 13 to 18 years of age of how many hours a week?

I don't think they had a limit on hours before.

Factory Act... I'm really drawn to 58 hours.

I don't know whether I'm just going for that because it's the middle.

Yeah, I think 58 hours was...

-Over the other two.

-58 hours.

Any Eggheads know this?

-I'd have gone 68.

-68 is the right answer, Beth.

-68 hours a week!

-68 hours a week.

-Wow!

-OK, so, you've held her off.

And after three questions each, the scores are level.

So, we go to Sudden Death. Gets a little bit tougher.

I don't give you different options, OK?

Who crowned himself King of Italy in Milan in 1805?

Oh, Napoleon?

Napoleon is the right answer, yes.

Napoleon Bonaparte.

Beth, to stay in. Which king of England,

Scotland and Ireland was married twice

to Anne Hyde and Mary of Modena?

Pretty sure it's after the Act of Settlement.

That would be after Anne.

So, William IV.

-Oh!

-Barry's pulled a face.

I thought he might be doing, yes.

-Go on, Barry.

-James II.

James II or James VII, you could've said.

-And Anne Hyde was the mother of Mary II and Queen Anne.

-Right.

Mary of Modena was the mother of the Old Pretender.

OK. So, Beth, you've been knocked out.

And well done, Peter. You're in the final round.

How about that?

And maybe it's turning here for our Challengers.

They're playing for £17,000.

We have one more round to play before the final.

Please return and we'll do it.

-So, Peter, well done.

-Thank you.

Team captain in the final!

I'm just... More hopeful than we were before, yeah.

The strategy is starting to take fruit.

It's all been planned, it's all been planned.

I sense it's been planned.

You're playing for £17,000 and you are just that little step closer.

As it stands, The Great Grandsons have lost two brains from the final round.

But they've hit back and they knocked out Beth.

So, the next subject, one more subject before the final,

and it's sport.

So, Peter, who wants to take this on?

Are you going to do it?

Harry or Paul?

-Yeah.

-Harry?

-Paul's going to take it.

-Paul.

OK, Paul, our former British Council officer.

And you can play either Barry or Pat.

No easy choices here.

There isn't. I really... Who should it be?

-What do you think?

-Barry, yeah. Barry.

-What do you think?

-You are the one that's going up.

-Yeah. Barry, yeah?

-Barry, please.

-I heard Barry's name about eight times.

He will have enjoyed that. So, Paul from The Great Grandsons.

Let's see if you can knock out Barry. It really is game on.

For the last time, please go to our famous Question Room.

OK, well, good luck playing sport with Barry.

And would you like to go first or second?

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

Here we go. August 4th, 2012, the day that Jessica Ennis,

Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah all won Olympic gold

is known by what popular name?

Now, I don't know the answers to this immediately

because I had in mind somewhere that it was

a Tuesday. But, in fact, clearly, it wasn't.

So, my second thought would be then that it was Super Saturday.

Super Saturday is the right answer.

Well done. It was an amazing time.

Barry, your question. In rugby union,

how many players from each team normally make up the scrum?

Let's see, rugby union. That's...

15 players and I think in the scrum there would be...

Eight.

Eight is right.

Back to you, Paul. Which sportsman famously said,

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars.

"The rest, I just squandered."

I think all three were...

developed reputations along those lines.

But I think from memory it was George Best.

It was indeed George Best.

Bless him. OK, Barry.

Since 2004, the Super Bowl has been held in which month of the year?

Oh, gosh. See now,

I've watched a few of these

and I can't remember now what month I watched them in!

It's at the end of the season.

The football season is normally played throughout the winter.

-June.

-No!

-Oh!

Ah! February!

Ah!

This is useful. You are playing for £17,000.

There's already one extra Challenger in the final.

Let's see, Paul. Get this right, you will be in the final, too.

Here's your question. Which of these snooker players has won

the World Championships on the most occasions?

A lot riding on this.

I can picture all of them and I've seen them all playing fantastically

over the years. I'm thinking that Neil Robertson

hadn't been around long enough to win it that often.

Likewise, possibly Mark Williams.

So, the one who I would say has been around the longest is John Higgins.

And I will go with John Higgins.

John Higgins is your answer.

Team-mates, is he right?

-Yes.

-Yes, think so.

-Yes, they love that!

You are right, it is John Higgins!

You're in the final, well done!

So, you defeated Barry.

Oh, this is looking exciting now!

Great comeback, well-timed by our Great Grandsons.

Return to us both of you, please.

And we'll play the final round for £17,000.

OK, this is we have been playing towards.

It's time for the all-important final.

As always, it's General Knowledge questions.

But those of you who lost your head-to-heads,

I'm afraid, can't take part.

So, David and John from The Great Grandsons,

but also Beth and Barry from the Eggheads,

would you please now leave the studio?

Peter, Harry and Paul,

you are playing to win The Great Grandsons £17,000.

Dave, Pat and Chris, you're playing for something that money can't buy,

which is to defend the Eggheads' precious repetition.

Now, as usual, I'll ask each team three questions in turn.

They're all General Knowledge and you may confer.

So, Great Grandsons, the question is,

can your three brains defeat these three and take the great jackpot?

And Peter, Harry and Paul, would you like to go first or second?

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

All right. All the best to you.

And here's your first question.

Pope Francis was born with what first name?

Pope Francis.

I think it's Jorge.

-That's my first impression.

-Pope Francis?

He's Argentinian.

-Yeah.

-So...

-That sounds like an Argentinian name, then.

I would definitely rule Mauricio out.

-You would?

-I think it is Jorge.

OK. I'll go with you.

Jorge.

Jorge is the right answer.

That's actually very good quizzing, well done.

-Well done, yeah.

-Eggheads, your first question.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

"Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read,"

is a line attributed to which American comedian?

-Groucho Marx.

-OK.

-Yeah?

-Yep.

-I've not heard it, but...

-Yeah, it's Groucho Marx.

-That's fine.

-OK.

Chris assures me it's Groucho Marx.

Yeah, you never catch Chris out on the Marx Brothers.

Groucho Marx is right.

Second question to our Challengers.

Very tense in here. £17,000 we are playing for.

In which year was cigarette advertising banned from British television?

-I'm almost certain it's 1965.

-Yeah, it wouldn't be '45.

-No, definitely not.

-I don't think it was late as '85.

I'm inclined to... It's '65, or '85, certainly.

But I thought '65 seems a bit early.

Well, "You're never alone with a Strand," and all of those...

-They were a long time ago.

-They were certainly pre-65.

Yeah, late '50s, early '60s.

-I think it's '65, I do.

-I think '85's too late.

Right, OK. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going...

We think it's 1965, Jeremy.

Yeah, I can see why you were wavering, cos obviously,

there were cigar adverts on later.

But you're right. '65 is the right answer.

OK, Eggheads, to catch up.

By what name is the American rapper Cornell Haynes Junior better known?

-Nelly.

-Yeah.

Cos it's CORNELL Hayes.

Jay-Z is Shawn Carter.

-And Diddy is...

-Sean Combs.

-Sean Combs.

So, yeah, we've eliminated the other two, and it's Cornell.

-OK, so it's...

-Cornell.

-Nelly?

-Nelly.

-OK.

-Definitely.

We think that's Nelly.

Nelly is correct.

2-2, and this is a great quiz.

Both playing very confidently, both teams.

Third question could be crucial.

Get this one right, and that may be your work done for the day.

In which country, Challengers,

was the film director Abbas Kiarostami born?

So, I'll just spell it. Abbas is A-B-B-A-S.

And then K-I-A-R-O-S-T-A-M-I.

-That's Kiarostami. Have you ever heard...?

-Abbas is not a Greek name.

-No, Abbas is...

-Not a Greek...

-Abbas. It's an Arabic name.

It's an Arabic name, so it would be...

I think it's a Muslim name, as well.

So it would be Turkey or Iran.

Now, this is really clutching at straws, but the letter pattern,

the sound pattern, sounds more Farsi than Turkish.

Right.

We're going to go for Iran, Jeremy.

Iran is the right answer.

You got three out of three. You are playing really well.

So, you have won £17,000 if the Eggheads get this wrong.

In the 1989 TV film The Firm,

Gary Oldman's character leads what type of gang?

-Football hooligans.

-I thought it was football hooligans.

I thought it was football hooligans, but let's just have a think.

Don't believe it's cowboy builders.

Cos there were several gangs that called themselves The Firm.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I...

Football hooligans would be...

I can't see a reason for veering off.

1989, I mean it was the height of the football hooligan...

-Yeah.

-..thing.

Yeah. I think...

OK. I've got to go football hooligans.

We're not certain, but I've got to go for football hooligans.

We're not certain this, Jeremy.

But we feel we should go for football hooligans.

Football hooligans is the right answer.

Well played, Chris.

3-3.

We go to Sudden Death, it gets a bit harder.

I don't give you alternative answers.

Here we are, playing for £17,000. Just keep up the pressure.

You're doing brilliantly, Challengers.

What is the full name of the international news agency

known by its initials AP?

-Associated Press.

-Associated Press?

-I'm quite happy with Associated Press.

-That's what I'm thinking, it's Associated...

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Associated Press.

Associated Press is correct.

Sudden Death. Back to you, Eggheads.

You get this wrong, it's over.

In terms of the Declaration of Independence,

for what does the letter U stand in the abbreviation UDI?

-Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

-Unilateral.

-Yeah.

-Like Rhodesia.

-Rhodesia.

Unilateral. Unilateral.

We think that's unilateral.

Unilateral is correct.

Sudden Death, back to you.

No-one's made a mistake yet.

By what more common name is the Australian arachnid

Atrax robustus known?

Is it that small one, the one that's really lethal?

-Yeah, what are the deadly spiders in Australia?

-Yeah.

-I don't know what it's called.

-Funnel-web? Is that it?

No, I don't think it's that. I think it's got a colour in its name.

-Red something.

-Aye.

The black widow. There's the black widow spider.

-No, that's not it.

-No.

The...

The funnel-web is the only one that I know of.

I think you're right, it's not that.

No. It is a deadly one.

It gets under the toilet seats.

That's where it bites.

What should we go with, then?

-Funnel-web?

-Well that's...

That's the only deadly Australian spider I know,

-but I think you're right.

-It's grasping at webs, here.

The funnel-web spider.

Funnel-web spider is the correct answer.

-Is it?!

-After all!

LAUGHTER

I tell you what, you are scaring the living daylights

-out of the Eggheads now.

-Well played!

-You really are.

Eggheads, we've got a quiz on here, haven't we?

In the modern Church of England,

what rank of clergyman is addressed as the Venerable?

Get this wrong, the Challengers have won £17,000.

The modern Church of England. Well, what we got? We got Dean.

We've got Canon.

We've got...Reverend.

Is Bishop like Reverend?

-Yeah.

-You got people like Sextons and Rectors.

-Yeah.

-Have they any relevance?

I think we're looking at a Dean here, actually.

My instinct would be that. But we're in trouble.

-The Venerable Dean sounds...

-The Venerable Dean sounds right.

Cos I can't see it being a Canon.

-It's our best guess.

-Our best effort. Yeah.

-You think Dean's our best effort?

-I think it is, because I can't...

Unless we've missed an obvious rank in the clergy.

I think it is around that area, but...

-Venerable.

-OK. We happy with that?

-Yeah, we got to do that.

-Next to a cathedral, aren't we?

-So, yeah.

-Yeah, we got to do that.

-Yeah.

-OK, we're unsure.

But we're going to go for Dean.

Your answer is Dean.

If you've got it wrong, you've lost and they've won £17,000.

They went through a lot of ranks, these Eggheads.

And they never mentioned the right answer, which was Archdeacon.

We say congratulations, Challengers, you have won!

Well done, Peter! Well done!

Really well played!

You properly out-quizzed them, there.

And your funnel... I was willing you to say the funnel spider.

I knew if you didn't say funnel spider,

-you were going to be so cross with yourselves.

-Yeah, yeah.

-We would have been.

-Well done, Great Grandsons. What a great contest!

You got the jackpot which, has been building up for quite some time.

You are officially cleverer than the Eggheads.

It's great when really good quizzers win.

And you've certainly proved that they can be beaten.

You won fair and square, Challengers.

Really, really pleased for you.

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

can do what they did. Doesn't happen often, does it?

Till then, goodbye!