Episode 71 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.

And bouncing back, Eggs, yeah?

Very determined indeed.

All right. Now, if you'd like to work on a question from the Eggheads

while you watch at home, Steve, you've got one for us?

I have, Jeremy. Nice and straightforward today.

Which is the only country in the world to be named after a female?

The only country in the world to be named after a female?

We'll find out the answer at the end of the show.

Hoping to get one over on our quiz champions today

are The Old Boars from Lancashire.

Now, this team regularly quiz together

at The Boar's Head pub in Blackpool.

Let's meet them.

Hi, I'm Mick and I'm a self-employed data analyst.

Hi, I'm Jenna, and I'm a head of customer engagement.

Hello, I'm Marc, and I'm an engineer.

Hi, I'm Howard, and I'm a taxi driver.

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

So, Mick and team, hello.

-Hi.

-Great to see you.

From Blackpool, no less, Mick?

-Yes, indeed.

-As soon as I visualise Blackpool I think of the seafront

and the trams and all that.

-Is that where you are?

-Yeah, we all live very close to

the coast so, yeah.

I go walking quite often down from Blackpool

all the way down to Lytham.

And The Boar's Head, is that within view of the sea?

No, it's just about a mile in, a mile in from the sea.

OK. But the quiz is the key thing there?

The quiz is the key thing there.

Right, so tell us about the quiz.

-How competitive is it?

-It's pretty competitive.

There's about... Sort of ten teams, five vying for the top.

Run by a friend of ours called Anthony Parr.

He's a great quizmaster.

Really challenges us.

-So...

-Wonderful.

-Hoping to get some easy questions now.

Anyone here a Blackpool fan?

-Anyone been there?

-I like Blackpool.

-I like Blackpool.

-Mmm.

Brilliant. All the best to you.

Every day there is £1,000 worth of cash

up for grabs for our Challengers.

If they fail to defeat the Eggheads,

the prize money rolls over to the next show.

So, Old Boars, if the Eggs are looking a bit bedraggled,

it's because they've been knocked around the last couple of games.

They've lost two on the trot.

So it's a perfect time to meet them, in some ways.

There's £1,000 if you beat them.

-Would you like to try?

-Yes, we will.

I thought so. The first head-to-head battle is on the subject of

Arts & Books. One of you, please.

And then either Lisa, Steve, Barry, Pat or Chris to play against.

I think we should go with you, Adey?

OK.

Who shall I... Shall I take on?

So, who do you think we should go for?

Chris?

-Chris...

-OK, yeah?

OK. Well, Adey's going to go up for us,

he's our resident arts and books expert.

And we'd like him to go up against Chris.

Good stuff. So it's Adrian from The Old Boars

versus Chris from the Eggheads. And to ensure there's no conferring,

please take your positions in our legendary Question Room.

OK, Adrian, Arts & Books.

And would you like to go first or second against Chris?

Can I go first, please, Jeremy?

Here we go. Notre Dame de Paris,

usually referred to in English as The Hunchback Of Notre Dame,

is a book by which author?

Erm... Well, it's a French book, so...

I don't think it's Dickens or Evelyn Waugh.

And, luckily, I've seen the cartoon version, so it's Victor Hugo.

Victor Hugo is right.

Well done.

Chris, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a novel by which author?

That's the first of the Smiley books, isn't it, by John le Carre?

John le Carre is right.

Is that right, there's a Smiley series, is there?

-Oh, yeah.

-OK.

Adrian, your question.

Which of Dan Brown's novels

is largely set in and around the Vatican?

Erm...

I can only vaguely remember The Da Vinci Code. Mind you,

I've not read any of them, unfortunately.

I'll have to go with...

..Angels and Demons.

Yes, you're right, Angels and Demons it is.

It would be easier to go for The Da Vinci Code because there's a lot of

spiritual goings on in that.

OK, Chris, to catch up.

Bright Star is a work by which British poet born in 1795?

That is by Keats.

It is John Keats.

John Keats is right, so we go to you, Adrian.

Your third question. Who wrote the award-winning play

The Pitmen Painters?

I've never heard of it, unfortunately.

Tom Stoppard, I might rule him out.

Because I might have heard of it if it had been one of his.

I haven't heard of Lee Hall.

I know Martin McDonagh, I think he makes films now.

I might swerve back to Tom Stoppard, actually.

-Yeah, Tom Stoppard.

-OK, Tom Stoppard is your answer.

Don't know much about this play, anybody help us?

Anybody seen it, anyone know it on the Eggheads' side?

I think I've heard of it.

I think it's by Lee Hall.

It is Lee Hall, Adrian.

So, Chris, your question for the round.

Which artist created the three-minute piece

called All The Bells,

which consisted of a countrywide mass bell-ringing exercise

which was used to mark the start of the Olympic Games in 2012?

Tracey Emin, she's an...artist artist.

She produces works of art,

she doesn't produce stuff like that.

Sam Taylor-Wood? No.

I'll go with Martin Creed.

The countrywide mass bell-ringing exercise

that started the Olympic Games in 2012.

Martin Creed is the right answer.

Well done, Chris. Three out of three for our Eggheads.

Sorry, Adrian. That beastly third question has knocked you out

and as a result you won't be in the final round.

Return to us, gentlemen, please, and we'll see what happens next.

As it stands, The Old Boars have lost one brain from the final round,

the Eggheads have not lost any so far,

and now your subject is Science.

-Science.

-I think, Howard, do you want to do science or...

I thought Jenna was doing science.

OK, yeah, Jenna.

Happy for science? OK. We'll go for Jenna for science.

-Me for science, then!

-Jenna, brilliant.

And against which Egghead?

Anyone have a preference? Jenna, do you have a preference?

-I don't know.

-What about Lisa?

-Yeah, go on.

You are my favourite!

How nice! Your fan has arrived.

I knew there was one somewhere.

-Yes!

-Be gentle on her.

Jenna from The Old Boars to play Lisa on Science from the Eggheads.

Please take your positions, ladies.

So, you are planning your wedding to Marc, Jenna.

I certainly am.

I gather you've asked for certain type of animal to be bridesmaid?

Yes.

Go on, tell us about that, I don't want to take your story from you.

I've two cats, Sooty and Sweep,

and I asked if we could have them be bridesmaids in the wedding.

But it was an absolute firm no from Marc, unfortunately.

I'm just looking, he's still shaking his head.

We'll try and persuade him when he goes into the Question Room.

I know, if you wouldn't mind.

This will be my moment, yeah.

When is it planed for, your wedding?

Later on in the year.

Lovely. And honeymoon somewhere?

Yeah, little trip to the Lake District and then somewhere a little

bit more exotic shortly thereafter.

How fantastic. Well, all the best to you.

-Thank you.

-Science is the subject here, Jenna.

And would you like to go first or second against our Lisa?

I will go first, please.

OK, good luck. Your first question, Jenna.

How many humps does the camel known as the dromedary typically have?

To be honest, I'm not sure.

It will be a complete guess.

I'm going to say two.

Do you know, I think I would have gone two as well, but it's one.

It's that annoying...

That is a bit of a stinker.

There's a little mnemonic.

I think it's Dave of us that has problems with this

one, there's a little mnemonic you can remember because it a dromedary,

when you've got a capital D, one hump,

but a Bactrian camel, that has two,

a B has got two humps. Cunning little way of remembering that.

It's a Bactrian that has two.

That's the one.

When I was picturing a camel in my mind it had two humps, Lisa.

Well, clearly some of them don't, Jeremy.

You're doing a whole bunch of the camel population a disservice.

I'm on your side here, Jenna,

but sadly you did not get that one right.

OK. Lisa, which of

these types of bird is typically the largest?

This is actually a food and drink question,

it just depends how many of all of the above you have eaten.

Quail, pretty tiny, guinea fowl, a little bit bigger.

I think that would be the common turkey.

Common turkey is right. And back to you we go, Jenna.

The chemical element krypton

takes its name from a Greek word meaning what?

Again, science wouldn't have been my first choice as subject.

No rationale behind it other than I will go down the right and say new.

It's... Let's just see if the Challengers know, what do you think?

It means hidden. Cryptography.

Yeah. Hidden, that's right, because cryptos is code, isn't it?

Or cryptography. Hidden is the answer.

OK, Lisa, you can take the round with this question.

How much of the mass in our solar system is made up by the sun?

It's an awful lot. Is it as much as 99%?

See, when I say things like that I picture Barry's head

going like this.

OK, so, I think 55

is probably out.

The sun is massive, the sun is massive.

It's not a scientific term, but it's a fact.

I don't know, I think I'll have to go for 99 because I think even

a quarter of that...

If you add them all together I don't think you're going to get

that close.

Go on, first instinct, 99.

Shall I check it with the Barry or is that too painful?

Please don't check it with Barry.

It's not painful at all.

-It's not painful, Barry, go on.

-It's 99.9%.

It's 99.9%, he says, Lisa.

Well, there you go.

Sorry, Jenna. I know it's not your subject, science.

And I think Marc is going to have Sooty and Sweep as bridesmaids now,

to make it up to you. Well done, Lisa, you're in the final round.

Return to us, please, we'll see what happens in round three.

As it stands, The Old Boars have

lost two brains from the final round.

The Eggheads are all still sitting there and they need to get their

confidence back because they've had some terrible games lately.

The next subject is Music.

Let's see if you can take one down.

So who is going to go for the music round?

Do you want me to go? I don't know anything about music, but...

Yeah, me, I'd rather do your subject.

Yeah, no, it's fair. It looks like it's me, Jeremy.

OK, Marc, our engineer and fiance.

Against which Egghead, Pat or Barry or Steve?

So one of the three gents in the middle.

I don't know. Maybe Steve.

Go for the older one.

-Older one? I don't want to offend them.

-Impossible to tell.

Barry? Barry.

-Barry.

-OK.

So we're hoping he might be caught out on something new.

Marc from The Old Boars versus Barry from the Eggheads on Music.

Please go to the special room.

So, Marc, congratulations on your forthcoming nuptials.

-Cheers.

-Marrying Jenna.

So, Music is the subject.

Marc, would you like to go first or second?

I'll go first, please, Jeremy.

And here we go. Which alternative term is

commonly used for the classical guitar?

I think it's Spanish guitar, Jeremy.

Spanish guitar is quite right, Marc. Well done.

Over to you, Barry.

The band Steps are most associated with which genre of music?

Steps are a pop band, definitely.

Yes, pop is right. And we go back to you, Marc.

Which of these albums was released first?

Wow.

It could be any of them.

I think I'll do a Judith and go down the right.

Graceland by Paul Simon.

Let me just check with your team-mates here.

Team-mates, do we know?

We're guessing on Pet Sounds.

-Yeah.

-'60s, '70s and '80s.

I think that's right. I think '60s, '70s and '80s.

So the Beach Boys was the '60s, Floyd '70s and Graceland was, what,

-early '80s, wasn't it?

-I think it was about '85, I think.

-When was it?

-'86?

Yeah, '85, '86.

Pet Sounds is the answer.

By the Beach Boys.

What we were looking for.

OK, Barry,

who co-created the pop band Gorillaz

with the artist Jamie Hewlett?

Ah.

I think Gorillaz was created by Noel Gallagher after Oasis.

So I'll go for Noel Gallagher.

-No, no.

-No?

Lisa's done the Barry now.

He does it to me so often.

So often. I just have to get my own back occasionally.

No, it's Damon Albarn.

So, level after two.

And your third question, Marc.

Which composer born in 1908 was particularly interested

in birdsong and spent much of his later life roaming the countryside

and transposing what he heard?

I wish my cousin was sat here answering this question,

she's a musician.

Would it be too ironic to be John Cage? Birds.

I'll go for John Cage, Jeremy.

It's a hard old question.

-Barry, do you know this one?

-Yes, it's Olivier Messiaen.

Olivier Messiaen is the right answer.

It's a difficult one to guess.

John Cage was somebody who was very futuristic, Barry, wasn't he?

He was. He made all sorts of interesting music

and made music out of radios and typewriters

and all that sort of thing.

So it's not inconceivable that he could have used birdsong as well.

So it's Olivier Messiaen,

and that gives Barry a chance to wipe the slate clean, Barry,

after a series of games we would rather forget.

We don't talk about.

We don't talk about.

Here we go. Which jazz musician was given the nickname

Maharajah of the Keyboard by Duke Ellington?

Right. You've given me all pianists, which is wonderful.

I was hoping there would be somebody there who wasn't a pianist.

I really don't know this.

I'm sure it's not Dave Brubeck.

So is it Sun Ra or Oscar Peterson?

I mean, I was thinking Sun Ra but it just doesn't sound like him.

I'm going to go for Oscar Peterson.

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

-Eggheads, is he right?

-He is.

Yes, it is Oscar Peterson.

Sorry, Marc. Beaten by our Egghead.

Barry goes through to the final.

-How about that, Barry? We've turned it round.

-At last!

You've won a round.

Come back, rejoin your teams.

One more round to play before the final.

So, as it stands, The Old Boars

have lost three brains from the final round

and the Eggheads appear to be back on form, they haven't lost any.

The next subject is Politics.

-Yes!

-Is this good?

Well, this worked out well because that's what's Howard was going to go

-for anyway.

-OK, Howard.

I don't feel so bad about the science one now.

Food & Drink didn't come up.

So, Howard, you're going to go for that.

Well, there's only two left.

Yeah, it's got to be Pat or Steve on Politics.

I'll go for Steve, I think.

Howard from The Old Boars taking on Steve on Politics from the Eggheads.

To ensure there's no conferring, for the last time,

please go to our Question Room.

So, Howard, you're a taxi driver in Blackpool?

-Yeah.

-So who have you had in the back of your cab?

We used to have the big party conferences,

so I've had Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson,

but we haven't had them for a few years.

And shows, people like Sheila Ferguson,

-Kid Creole, Barbara Windsor, in the past.

-Great.

That's quite a consignment.

-Yeah.

-Not all together, though?

-No. No.

-All right.

So we're on politics, and I hope that all those conferences serve you

well against Steve. Would you like to go first or second, Howard?

I'll go first, please.

So your first question, Howard, is this.

How many seats did the Conservative Party win

in the 2017 general election?

It's 318, just short of a majority.

Yes, it is. Now, if I'd said, 318,

319, 317, would you still have got it?

Maybe, maybe not.

I don't know.

318 is the right number.

Well done.

All right, Steve,

which of these politicians was born first?

I can't do it on dates, but visually,

if that's not too insulting,

I would say Angela Merkel.

Angela Merkel is right.

1954.

Le Pen was '68 and Sarah Palin was '64.

Howard, here's your question. Which of these men served as

Prime Minister of the UK for the longest time?

Well, Clement Attlee did a full term.

Neville Chamberlain, I'm not certain.

Anthony Eden, it's not,

because he had to resign after Suez after a couple of years.

So I'll go for Clement Attlee.

Clement Attlee is the right answer.

Yes, well done.

Steve, of which then US President did Patricia Schroeder say,

"He's attempting a great

breakthrough in political technology.

"He's been perfecting the Teflon-coated presidency.

"He sees to it that nothing sticks to him."

Well, I think the man they famously associated with Teflon...

..was Ronald Reagan.

Now, whether this is somebody else that you're talking about

I don't really know. But because I know they...

Well, somebody called Reagan the Teflon Kid,

I'll say Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan is correct.

2-2, playing well, Howard.

Get this one right, put some pressure on.

The Aso Rock presidential villa is the office and residence

of the president of which country?

Aso Rock...

I haven't really got a clue on this.

Maybe I'm more likely to have heard of it if it was Australia, so...

Aso Rock...

I'll go for Nigeria.

Nigeria is correct.

Playing well. Three out of three.

Well done. OK, Steve.

You're knocked out if you get this wrong.

In the late 1960s,

the Markovic Affair was a political scandal in which country?

Never heard of it. How are you spelling Markovic, Jeremy?

M-A-R-K-O-V-I-C.

I've not heard the name.

So...

It's obviously not a native. Not a native name, anyway.

I'm trying to think if anything was happening in the countries

at the time. In France there was a lot of civil unrest

with the students.

Really not sure. I'm going to rule out Spain.

It's a straight 50-50 guess.

I'll try Italy but I really don't know.

-Eggheads, do we know?

-I sort of have a feeling it might be France

-but I can't remember the details.

-Not much here.

France is the answer, Steve.

You've been knocked out. Well done, Howard.

You're in the final round. Three out of three was enough.

So you've taken on an Egghead and emerged triumphant.

It's good news. Because it levels it up a little bit.

So come back to us, we'll play the final round.

So the Markovic affair, Eggheads, I know you love this stuff.

Anyone here know about it, by the way?

Just to check? No.

Steve Markovic was a bodyguard of a film star called Alain Delon.

Markovic was killed and then there was an issue over

whether or not there was some connection with Pompidou,

the President.

OK, and it involved some photos as well.

OK, here we are, this is what we've been playing towards.

The all-important moment, the time the final round begins.

As always, its General Knowledge.

But I'm afraid those of you who lost your head-to-heads are not allowed

to take part in this round.

So, Jenna, Marc and Adrian from The Old Boars,

and also Steve from the Eggheads,

would you please now leave the studio?

Mick and Howard, you're playing to win The Old Boars £1,000.

Lisa, Barry, Pat, Chris,

you're playing for something that money can't put a price on,

which is the Eggheads' reputation

and to just try to get motoring again.

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

This time, they're all General Knowledge, and you may confer.

So, Old Boars, the question is can your two brains defeat these four?

Mick and Howard, would you like to go first or second?

We've decided to go first.

So here we go with your first question.

What name is given to the style of architecture that flourished from

the '50s to the '70s that's become synonymous with people such as

Le Corbusier and Erno Goldfinger?

Right, well, Art Deco is from the 1910s up to the 1930s, I think.

-Palladian is back centuries ago.

-Yeah, that's...

-So it's going to be

-brutalist.

-Yeah, brutalist.

Yeah, like the Trellick Tower, brutalist.

Brutalist is right. Well done.

Eggheads, who won his third World Snooker title in 2017?

-Selby.

-Mark Selby.

-Yeah, Higgins has won three, maybe four now.

-Four.

-And Ebdon has only won the one, hasn't he?

Everyone happy with that?

That's Mark Selby.

Mark Selby is right.

OK, back to you, Challengers.

Who was the editor of the Manchester Guardian when it changed its name to

the Guardian in 1959?

It's not going to be Rusbridger, he's too soon.

CP Scott, he was, like, kind of, I think, the founding....

So you think CP Scott was a founding...

Yeah, I think maybe he's too early, and Rusbridger was too late.

Well, it's definitely not Rusbridger.

So Rusbridger is around about the '70s, '80s, '90s, is it?

Well, Rusbridger is only just retired.

OK. OK,

so on that logic we think CP Scott would probably be around about the

time of founding the Manchester Guardian,

Alan Rusbridger might be one of the editors of the Guardian later on,

so we're going to go down the middle with Alastair Hetherington.

-Are they right, Eggheads?

-I would have been drawn to CP Scott.

-So would I.

-I would have been, but you are famously,

I hate to say it, but you're terrible on newspapers.

-We are.

-You have a history of erring on newspapers.

Alastair Hetherington is correct.

-Great.

-It's a shame you didn't give them that question.

-I know, I know.

-The number of newspaper questions

you've got wrong is just startling. OK, Eggheads.

The Kayapo people are indigenous to which country?

K-A-Y-A-P-O.

The O has a little accent on it.

I think they're the Brazilian rainforest people with the plates

in their lower lip, that Sting used to support and visit.

It sounds Amazonian to me, it doesn't sound Indonesian,

it's definitely not South African.

-Are we happy with that?

-Happy with South American.

I think they're from the rainforest. South America.

We think that's Brazil, Jeremy.

Brazil is the right answer.

OK, 2-2. Third question can be crucial, Challengers.

And here it is. Which of these is the name of a system

for ageing sherry and other fortified wines

in which younger wines are used to top up casks of older wines?

Well, boca means mouth.

Concha means shell.

And solera is sun? Sun?

So maybe, boca being mouth. Why would that relate to the mouth?

The young wines being topped up,

so, old wines being topped up with the young wines.

Conchas means shell, did you say?

Possibly. Possibly not.

I think so, yeah.

So why would that relate to...

..something being topped up?

-I don't know.

-Solera, is that sun?

I fancy boca, for some reason.

You fancy boca?

Well, maybe because when you top it up it's the mouth of the barrel or

something like that. Maybe that's what it could come from.

Possibly.

-Yes.

-OK, shall we...

Do you want to take a punt on that one?

I've no idea, really.

OK, so our logic might be that when

you're topping up you're tipping young wine

into the mouth of the older wine, so boca, meaning mouth...

-Maybe when you feed, birds feed each other.

-Exactly.

-Something like that.

-Yeah.

-So we're going to go for the boca method.

Eggheads, do we know?

I think it's the solera method.

What do the words mean?

I don't know, but I'm pretty certain it's solera.

It is the solera method.

Solera method is the way they do that with the wines in the casks.

And that answer gives the Eggheads a way

to win the contest on this one question. Your third question, Eggs.

Which commercial product is obtained from the plant Glycine max?

It's not quinoa, I'm sure.

-I'm pretty sure it's the soya bean.

-So, am I.

-Happy to go with that.

Happy with that?

We think that's soya beans.

You didn't mess around here, did you?

The correct answer is soya beans.

We say congratulations, Eggheads, you have won.

It's that close in the final.

I bet you knew that one as well.

We had a guess.

3-2 in the final.

Commiserations, Old Boars.

They got back on track a little bit here, these Eggheads,

after a tough old time.

They reign supreme again.

But you gave them a good chase there.

It does mean you're not going home with the £1,000,

so we roll the money over to our next show.

Eggheads, well done.

Can you feel the confidence coming back again?

-A little.

-A little bit.

Good. Oh, Steve, we mustn't leave before you've told us that question.

Yes, the question was what is the only country in the world to be

named after a female? Before I give you the answer, Jeremy,

if I tell you it was named for

a woman called Saint Lucy of Syracuse,

who was martyred under Diocletian and in the early fourth century,

that will hopefully lead you to Saint Lucia.

Saint Lucia. Yeah.

Small country but the only one named after a woman.

Thank you, Steve. I hope you got that at home.

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

to defeat the Eggheads. They've been shaky, they're back on track.

There'll be £2,000 to play for.

Until then, goodbye.