Episode 30 Mastermind

First in the spotlight tonight is Jeremy Renals,

a technical writer from Banbury, he's answering questions

on Reading Football Club.

Next, Tom Williams, a student from London,

on Benjamin Britten.

David Shah is an education consultant from Cambridge

and his subject - the city of Venice.

Next, Jim Maginnis, an RAF navigator from Lurgan,

who's answering questions on the history of Ulster.

And Margaret Brown, an unpaid carer from Edinburgh,

on the prohibition era in the United States.

APPLAUSE

Hello, and welcome to Mastermind with me, John Humphrys.

Five contenders instead of the usual four tonight,

because this is a semifinal, and all of them hoping,

believing, that they will be the one who gets through

to the grand final and the chance to become the nation's Mastermind.

They'll get 90 seconds of specialist subject questions

and two minutes on their general knowledge.

So let's get on with it and ask our first contender

to join us, please.

And your name is?

Your occupation?

And your chosen subject?

Reading in 90 seconds. Here we go.

Reading Football Club was founded in 1871

and elected to the Third Division in 1920.

They're now known as The Royals,

but what was their previous nickname,

derived from one of the town's major industries?

Biscuitmen.

Which team did Reading beat 4-1

in the 1988 Simod Cup Final at Wembley?

It is, to date, their only victory

in a major cup competition.

Luton Town.

Who was Reading's manager at the time of their move

from Elm Park to the Madejski Stadium in 1998?

Tommy Burns.

In December 1999, Reading fans organised a protest

known as Pants Day during a home game against Wrexham.

The acronym Pants is usually said to

stand for "players are not..."?

Trying sufficiently.

After scoring against Rochdale in 1975,

Robin Friday celebrated by running

behind the goal and kissing who?

A policeman.

Who scored six of Reading's goals in their 7-3 victory

over Stoke City in April 1931?

Arthur Alf Baker.

In recent seasons, rather than being worn by a player,

what number shirt has been allocated to the Reading fans?

13.

Reading beat which amateur team by eight goals to three

in the first round of the FA Cup in 1935?

Corinthians.

Who was the Reading goalkeeper

in an FA Cup match against Millwall

in '33, who stayed on the pitch for some time after all

of his team-mates had returned to the dressing room?

He was unaware that the match had been abandoned

because of heavy fog.

Dick Mellors.

Who became Reading's first million-pound player

when he was signed from Bristol City in 2005?

Leroy Lita.

Oxford United's owner Robert Maxwell

planned to merge his club with Reading in 1983.

What was the proposed name for the new team?

Thames Valley Royals.

BEEP Which... Just started.

Which non-league team did Reading finally defeat

in the second round of the FA Cup

in December 1989 after a third replay?

Take a guess, you're out of time.

Wealdstone.

No, no, it was Welling, but there you go.

Apart from that... I shouldn't have asked that last question, should I?

Because you got all of them right up until then, 11 points.

APPLAUSE

And our next contender, please.

And your name is?

Your occupation?

And your chosen subject?

Benjamin Britten, 90 seconds.

The English musician Benjamin Britten

was an opera composer and pianist.

In 1927, when he was 14, the composer Frank Bridge

recommended that he should begin

piano lessons with whom?

Harold Samuel.

Which song from Britten's settings of the French poet

Rimbaud Les Illuminations,

was dedicated to his long-term partner, Peter Pears?

Pass.

Of which of Britten's early works

did a Times critic comment,

"If it is just a stage to be got through,

"we wish him safely and quickly through it"?

Our Hunting Fathers.

According to his own introduction to Peter Grimes,

which composer did Britten admire for brilliance, freedom

and vitality in the setting of English texture music?

-Mahler.

-No, Purcell.

What musical form is used by Britten

in a considerable number of works,

including an interlude in Peter Grimes and

the finale of the cello symphony?

Passacaglia.

Which of the Roman poet Virgil's works is used

in Voices for Today,

commissioned for the 20th anniversary of the UN founding?

-The Aeneid.

-No, the Fourth Eclogue.

The ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee

introduced Britten to the music of an island

which greatly influenced the style of his ballet

The Prince of the Pagodas, among other works.

Which island?

Bali.

Britten was one of the founders

of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948.

What was the name of the administrator

who was responsible for much of the festival's success,

till he fell out with Britten and resigned in '71?

-Humphry Sarr.

-Stephen Ryes.

What unusual instrument did Britten include

in the last movement of the Spring Symphony?

-Gamelan.

-A cow horn.

The score of which of Britten's operas is inscribed

"libretto after Andre Obey's play"?

Rape of Lucretia.

What work by the Elizabethan composer John Dowland

is used as the basis... BEEP

..for the guitar piece Nocturnal,

written for Julian Bream in 1963?

Pass.

I can tell you it's Come Heavy Sleep.

And you had one other pass.

Apart from that, that song from the

setting of Rimbaud's Les Illuminations

was Being Beauteous.

You've scored, Tom, five points.

APPLAUSE

And our next contender, please.

And your name is?

Your occupation?

And your chosen subject?

Venice in 90 seconds.

Which bridge in Venice was the only one to cross the Grand Canal

until the Accademia bridge was built in 1854?

Rialto.

According to legend, Venice was founded

when the church of St Giacomo was dedicated at midday

on what date in 421?

25th March.

Paolo Lucio Anafesto was said to have

become the first holder of which post in 697?

Doge.

Which 900-year-old structure collapsed on 14th July 1902?

It was said that it "fell like a gentleman".

Campanile San Marco.

The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta

stands on an island in the Venetian lagoon

that was settled in the 5th century

by the people of the Roman city of Altinum.

Which island?

Torcello.

What is the name of the opera house in Venice

where Verdi's opera La Traviata

was first performed in 1853?

Fenice.

Which doge was beheaded in 1355 after he led a conspiracy

to make himself absolute ruler of Venice?

His portrait in the Great Council Chamber was replaced

with a painted black veil.

Marino Faliero.

What name was given to the doge's ceremonial barge,

which was used in the annual ritual

which symbolised the marriage of Venice and the sea?

The Bucintoro.

Who was the British ambassador in Venice in the reign of

King James I?

He coined the saying that "an ambassador is an honest man

"sent to lie abroad for the good of his country".

Henry Wotton.

What name of Arabic origin was used

for the Venetian shipbuilding yard that was once

the largest industrial complex in Europe?

Arsenal.

Which island has been the cemetery of Venice

since Napoleon decreed that all the dead must be taken there?

It was originally two islands,

one of which was called St Cristoforo.

San Micele.

Which Pope was patriarch of Venice before he was elected...

BEEP ..to the papacy in 1903?

Pious X.

Is correct,

which means that you have a completely clear round.

12 points.

APPLAUSE

And our next contender, please.

And your name is?

Your occupation?

And your chosen subject?

Ulster in 90 seconds, here we go.

In 1609, the Solicitor General for Ireland

proposed sending settlers from mainland Britain to Ulster,

which he referred to as "a barbarous country".

What was his name?

Davies.

Which county was created in Ulster in 1613

as a result of a financial agreement between King James I

and London livery companies?

-Londonderry.

-Yes, or Derry.

When Ireland was partitioned in 1921,

six of the nine counties of Ulster remained in the UK.

Two of these had a Catholic majority, Tyrone and...?

Fermanagh.

The Society of United Irishmen, formed in Belfast in 1791,

wanted "a cordial union among all

"the people of Ireland".

Who was the Dublin lawyer and revolutionary leader

who named the society?

Theobald Wolfe Tone.

In 1782, in which town did delegates from 143

independent volunteer companies meet to demand

that the Irish parliament should not be

overruled from Westminster?

Dungannon.

What was the name of the businessman

who commanded a force of Antrim surgeons

during the rebellion by the United Irishmen?

He was hanged in Belfast in July 1798.

Henry McCracken.

What document, signed by nearly a 250,000 men

in September 1912, was a protest

against the Third Home Rule Bill?

The Solemn League and Covenant.

The Northern Ireland parliament

was opened by George VI in 1921, in which building?

Belfast City Hall.

What did the Irish Prime Minister

Eamon de Valera send to support the people

of Belfast after a massive German air raid

on the city in April 1941?

Fire appliances.

Which Conservative politician went to Belfast

to speak against home rule at a meeting

of Conservatives and Orangemen in 1886?

He called it "playing the orange card".

Ronald Churchill.

What political organisation was set up

in November 1945 at a conference in Dungannon...

BEEP ..attended by nearly 500

Nationalist delegates?

The Irish Anti-Partition League.

Indeed.

Nothing wrong with any of those answers.

Another 11 points.

APPLAUSE

And our final contender, please.

And your name is?

Your occupation?

And your chosen subject?

The Prohibition era in the United States.

In 90 seconds, starting now.

The Prohibition Act resulted from the 18th Amendment

to the Constitution in 1920,

banning the sale and manufacture of alcohol.

What alternative name,

after a Republican congressman, is given to the act?

The...

Volstead Act.

Yes. A woman called Carrie Nation

was one of the main campaigners

during the prohibition period

and led attacks on saloons.

What weapon or tool became her emblem?

A hatchet.

Yes. Which Italian-born Chicago mobster

took over the crime empire of Big Jim Colosimo

and developed an illegal liquor business

that he passed on to Al Capone in 1925?

Johnny Torrio.

When prohibition came into force,

brewers could remain in business,

provided their produce had a maximum of 0.5% alcohol.

By what rhyming two-word name was the drink widely known?

Half and half?

Near beer. When a repeal

of the Volstead Act was considered in 1930,

Senator Morris Sheppard dismissed the idea.

He said, "A bird had as much chance of flying to Mars

"with the Washington Monument tied to its tail." Which bird?

Hummingbird.

Yep. In 1924, the Boston Herald offered 200

to the reader who invented a new word

for someone who wilfully violated the 18th Amendment.

What word won?

Scofflaw.

What was the name of the temperance organisation

founded in Ohio in 1893

and became a powerful force

behind government policy on prohibition?

The Anti-Saloon League.

Which industrialist and staunch supporter

of prohibition commented,

"If booze ever comes back to the United States,

"I am through with manufacturing"?

Henry Ford.

What alliterative two-word name was most commonly used

for the line of ships loaded with liquor

and anchored just beyond the maritime limit

of the United States from the early '20s?

Rum Row.

Which gang leader... BEEP

..and rival to Al Capone

narrowly missed death in February 1929

when he was late joining his gang

to pick up a consignment of illicit whisky?

All the men inside the building were killed

in the St Valentine's Day massacre.

Bugs Moran.

Is correct.

No passes, Margaret. Nine points.

APPLAUSE

Well, plenty of high scores there.

Let's have a look at all of the scores.

In fifth place, with five points,

Tom Williams. Fourth place, nine points,

Margaret Brown. Joint second place, 11 points apiece,

Jeremy Renals and Jim Maginnis.

In first place, with 12 points,

David Shah.

APPLAUSE

So it is the General Knowledge round now.

If there's a tie at the end of it, then the number of passes

is taken into account and the person with the fewer passes is the winner.

If they're tied on passes as well,

then there has to be a tie breaker.

So let's get on with it and ask Tom to join us again, please.

And, er...

here's your chance to do a bit of catching up, Tom,

because you have two minutes of general knowledge, starting now.

On her wedding day, a bride should traditionally wear

something old, something new, something borrowed and...?

Something blue.

Michael Stipe was the lead singer of which American rock band

founded in Georgia in 1980?

R.E.M.

What facial features are missing from Leonardo Da Vinci's

portrait of the Mona Lisa?

Recent evidence suggests they might have been worn away

by overenthusiastic cleaning.

Eyebrows.

Which comedian played the title role

in the 2014 television programme

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Brainstorm?

Harry Hill.

Which classic travel novel starts with a £20,000 wager set

by the principal character's friends at the Reform Club?

Around The World In 80 Days.

What legal term is used to describe a person who dies

without having made a valid will?

Intestate.

What English word means both tepid

and having or expressing little enthusiasm or conviction?

Lukewarm.

Which large variety of turnip with yellow flesh

takes its name from the country

where it was first developed and grown in medieval times?

Swede.

Which British horror writer's novels include

The Hellbound Heart and The Thief Of Always?

Pass.

In computing, picture element

is usually shortened to what single word?

Pixel.

Which registration mark is issued in Britain

where there is doubt about

the age or identity of a vehicle?

X.

Q. Before large-scale pasteurisation,

the initials TT showed that the cows that the milk came from

were free from what disease?

Tetanus?

Tuberculosis. On 9th July 2015,

which American state voted to take down the Confederate flag

from the grounds of its capital,

where it had flown since the 1960s?

South Carolina?

Yes. In the 2006 film version of the television series

Miami Vice, Colin Farrell plays Sonny Crockett.

Who plays Ricardo Tubbs?

Channing Tatum.

Jamie Foxx. Who won his second major

when he beat Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen

in a play-off to win the 2015 Open Golf Championship?

Rory McIlroy?

Zach Johnson. In which English National Park

are Win Hill and Lose Hill?

The Peak District.

Members of which profession

traditionally take the Hippocratic Oath...

-Doctors.

-..on graduating?

Which former leader of the Liberal Democrats held the

British record for the 100 metre sprint for seven years?

Ming Campbell.

In the Great British Bake Off... BEEP

..what term is used by the judges and presenters

when the base of a contestant's pie or tart

has failed to cook properly,

resulting in saturated or undercooked pastry?

A soggy bottom.

It is indeed, soggy bottom.

And you had one pass.

That British horror writer who wrote The Hellbound Heart

and all that was Clive Barker.

But, I tell you what, you didn't half put a few points on.

19 points.

APPLAUSE

And now Margaret again, please.

And, er, you start out with nine points

with your knowledge of prohibition.

And 19 is, as we speak, the score to beat with your general knowledge.

Here we go.

Who is the demon barber

played by Johnny Depp in a 2007 film

directed by Tim Burton?

Sweeney Todd.

What everyday objects come with fittings described

as bayonet or Edison screw?

Lights.

Yep, light bulbs. Which double Olympic cycling champion

had their first ride as a jockey in 2015,

when she rode a horse called Mighty Mambo

in a flat race at Newbury?

Victoria Pendleton?

Who presented the opening lecture

at the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition

at London's new Burlington Gallery

dressed in a deep sea diving suit?

Dali.

For what branch of literature are the Roman writers

Virgil and Ovid particularly famous?

Odes.

No, poetry. In which present-day country

was the tennis player Victoria Azarenka born?

She won the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013.

Switzerland?

Belarus.

Ardennes 1944 - Hitler's Last Gamble,

first published in May 2015,

is by a military historian

educated at Winchester and Sandhurst.

What's his name?

Max Hastings?

Antony Beevor. What French name is usually given

to a simple glass coffee pot with a mesh filter

and a tight plunger that forces the grounds down before pouring?

Cafetiere.

What flower was adopted as the badge of the House of Tudor,

following the marriage

of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in 1486?

The Tudor Rose?

The red rose, yes.

Which indie rock band from Leeds had their first UK number one

in March 2007 with Ruby?

Kaiser Chiefs?

How many Parliamentary seats were contested

at the 2010 and 2015 general election?

256?

650.

St Mary's Airport is in which British island group?

The Canaries?

No, the Scilly Islands. HE LAUGHS

What name is usually given to the descendants of

the French settlers exiled from Acadia,

largely in modern-day Canada,

who then settled in Louisiana?

The Huguenots, oh...!

The Cajuns.

Which tree-dwelling Australian marsupial

has a large, rounded leathery nose

and a pouch that opens downwards, towards its hind legs,

rather than upwards towards its face?

A koala?

In which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is Colonel Fairfax

held under sentence of death

in the Tower of London... BEEP

..on a charge of sorcery?

Yeomen of the Guard.

Is correct.

Margaret, your score has gone up to...

18 points.

APPLAUSE

And now Jeremy again, please.

And, er...

..you start out with 11 points. The score to beat, at the moment, is 19.

Here we go. Two minutes of general knowledge.

According to the nursery rhyme,

who went to Gloucester in a shower of rain?

Dr Foster.

Which food items, originally served at Chinese New Year,

consist of rolled up squares of dough or pastry

filled with vegetables and sometimes seafood or meat

and then are usually deep-fried?

Fortune cookies?

Spring rolls. Which Roman leader was born in 100 BC

and had three wives during his life -

Cornelia, Pompeia and Calpurnia?

Caligula?

No, Julius Caesar.

Which former leader of the Conservative Party

stood down from the House of Commons

at the 2015 general election?

Willie Whitelaw.

William Hague.

Which British actress won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar

at the 2006 awards for her role

as Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener?

Vanessa Redgrave?

Rachel Weisz. What type of animals are the subject matter

of the two books that the English wood engraver Thomas Bewick

illustrated in 1797 and 1804?

Donkey.

Birds. Which television cartoon series

features the character Robert Terwilliger,

also known as Sideshow Bob?

The Simpsons?

Tower Bridge in London is an example of what type of bridge

that takes its name from the French for seesaw?

Cantilever?

No, it's a bascule.

The Other Boleyn Girl, published in 2001,

is one of a series of books

about the Tudor court by which author?

Henry Moore?

Philippa Gregory. What name is given

to the parking of lorries on the M20,

on the approach into Dover, carried out since 1996,

whenever there are problems with the Channel crossing?

Operation Stack.

Which writer was born in Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester

in 1840, the son of a stonemason?

He set much of his work in the imaginary county of Wessex.

Thomas Hardy.

Under what name from Greek legend

did Sir William Connor write a column in the Daily Mirror

for over 30 years?

Lord Deedes?

Cassandra. Which Australian cricket coach and former player

replaced Peter Moores as England head coach in May 2015?

Trevor Bayliss.

The title of which 1790s Mozart opera

can be translated into English as Women Are All The Same?

Donnos totto...

No, Cosi fan tutte.

In the ABO blood group system... BEEP

..which group is the universal red blood cell donor?

O.

Is correct.

No passes, Jeremy.

17 points.

APPLAUSE

And now Jim again, please.

And, er...

you also start out with 11 points, Jim.

19 is still the score to beat.

Here we go.

Which disputed British overseas territory occupies

a narrow peninsula on Spain's southern Mediterranean coast

and has been nicknamed The Rock?

Gibraltar.

In the Bible, who were the parents of Cain and Abel?

Adam and Eve.

Which war was ended by the Treaty of Paris,

signed on 30 March 1856?

The Franco-Prussion.

The Crimean War.

What is the principal ingredient

for the Greek dish taramasalata,

usually served with bread or crackers as an hors d'oeuvre?

Roe.

Yeah. Fish roe eggs.

In which Charles Dickens novel does the title character

travel to America with Mark Tapley to seek his fortune?

Pass.

In which Soviet bloc country

did the Solidarity trade union movement

gain world attention during the 1920s,

when it challenged the power of the Communist government?

Poland.

Which 1960s television comedy series

starring Miriam Karlin and Peter Jones

was set in the dressmaking workshops of Fenner's Fashions?

The Rag Trade.

What name meaning "little cape" in Spanish is given to the lace

or silk scarf worn over the head and shoulders by women?

Pass.

The Caledonian Canal in Scotland

links Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and others,

including which more famous inland loch?

Loch Ness.

The Potato Eaters was the first major painting

by which Dutch artist?

Vermeer?

Van Gogh. Which television presenter,

who was born in Egypt in 1925,

served as a war correspondent in Korea

and began the first of his many travel series in 1959?

Hastings?

Alan Whicker. What is the name of the band that kicked off

the 1985 Live Aid concert with their track

Rockin' All Over The World?

Status Quo.

Which fictional secret agent,

whose original creator was born in May 1908,

features in Sebastian Faulk's novel Devil May Care,

published in May 2008?

James Bond?

The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame,

who were supported by The Seven Mules,

were famous players in American sporting history

in the 1920s in which sport?

American football?

Which radio and television broadcaster

was announced by the BBC in June 2015

as the new main presenter of Top Gear?

Chris Evans.

What three-letter abbreviation is defined by the US Air Force as

"any airborne object, which, by performance,

"aerodynamic characteristics,

"or unusual features, does not conform..." BEEP

"..to any presently known aircraft or missile type"?

UFO.

Yes, exactly.

Two passes.

Mantilla is that sort of lacy cape

that women wear over their shoulders and head.

And the Dickens novel

was The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit.

So, those two passes, Jim,

but you've scored 22 points.

APPLAUSE

And finally David, please.

And you start out, David, with 12 points, which is the good news.

However, Peter has now gone up to 22, as you just heard.

So here we go. Can you get through to the grand final?

Which children's television character had

the Christmas number one in the UK charts in 2000

with the song Can We Fix It?

Bob the Builder.

In which ancient sport do the two competitors throw salt

as a purification ritual before the start of the bout?

Sumo.

What is the only part of the rhubarb plant

that is used in cookery?

The roots?

No, the stalks.

Which English astronomer gave his name to a comet

that reappears about every 76 years?

Halley.

In the television comedy series Only Fools and Horses,

what is the surname of the characters Rodney and Derek?

Trotter.

In which Cumbrian town are the Brewery Arts Centre

and Abbot Hall Art Gallery?

Pass.

Which Booker prizewinner's novels

include Enduring Love and Atonement,

which were adapted for the cinema

in 2004 and 2007, respectively?

McEwan.

On which Japanese city was the second atomic bomb

dropped on 9th August 1945?

Nagasaki.

What completes the line from Sir Walter Scott's poem Marmion,

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

"When first we practise..."

Pass.

Which American female singer entered the UK Singles Chart

at number one in March 2003 with Beautiful?

Whitney Houston?

Christina Aguilera.

The Worcester black that appears

on the county badge of Worcestershire

and its cricket team

is one of the oldest varieties of which fruit?

Plum?

Pear. Who, in August 1875,

became the first man to swim the English Channel?

Pass.

In which 1998 Stephen Spielberg film,

set during the Allied invasion of Normandy,

is the title character played by Matt Damon?

Saving Private Ryan.

Which English composer,

especially known for his orchestral music

and film scores, lived on the island of Ischia

for many years and died there in 1983?

Erm...

Britten?

Walton. Which American president,

who held office from 1923 to 1929,

was so noted for saying very little

that, when informed of his death,

Dorothy Parker asked, "How do they know?"

Hoover?

Coolidge. The novel Mightier Than The Sword,

published in 2015,

is the fifth in the Clifton Chronicle series

by which bestselling author?

Pass.

What is the unique ability of Griffin,

the title character in HG Wells' 1897 novel?

BEEP

He can travel in time?

No, he can't. Well, he might be able to.

But he's also...

invisible, when he chooses to be.

Four passes, David.

Jeffrey Archer wrote Mightier Than The Sword etc, etc.

Captain Webb was the first bloke to swim the English Channel.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

"When first we practise to deceive!"

So it ends.

And Kendal is the town

which houses the Brewery Arts Centre and the Abbot Hall Art Gallery.

You have now a total, David, of 19 points.

APPLAUSE

So a clear winner. Let's have a look at all the scores.

In fifth place with 17 points,

Jeremy Renals. Fourth place, 18 points,

Margaret Brown. Joint second place, 19 points apiece,

Tom Williams and David Shah.

First place, 22 points, Jim Maginnis.

APPLAUSE DROWNS SPEECH

Which means, of course, that Jim is tonight's winner

and he goes through to the final. Congratulations to him.

If you would like to be a contender on the next series,

do go to our website.

And you can follow us on Twitter.

And do join us again next time for the grand final.

Thank you for watching. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE