Episode 9 Mastermind

Our first contender in the black chair tonight is Steve Lacey,

a mortgage adviser from Corby.

His subject - the films of Peter Sellers.

Nigel Jones is from Bath. He's answering questions on astronomy.

Graeme Ross is a museum worker from Greenock,

on the musician Arthur Lee, and his band, Love.

And, last in the spotlight, Lynn Edwards, a psychiatric nurse

from Bangor, whose subject is The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy.

APPLAUSE

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

Tonight, four contenders will face their first hurdle in the

race to reach the grand final of the Mastermind Stakes,

and the chance of winning the famous glass bowl and, far more

importantly, be enshrined as the nation's Mastermind.

The rules are simple, two minutes of questions on their

specialist subject, and then two and a half minutes on General Knowledge.

So, let us get on with it

and ask our first contender to join us, please.

Two minutes on the great Peter Sellers, starting now.

Sellers was known for playing multiple characters in his films.

In Dr Strangelove, he plays the title character,

President Muffley, and which other character?

Dr Strangelove.

Captain Mandrake. In Revenge Of The Pink Panther,

Clouseau is in Ball's Disguise Shop

when he accepts a special delivery of what?

A bomb.

In which 1974 Boulting brothers film does Sellers play six parts,

one of whom, Major Robinson, enlists the help of

a brothel full of ladies to beat the Germans in wartime Paris?

Soft Beds, Hard Battles.

What is the name of the professional gambler played by Sellers in

the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale?

Evelyn Tremble.

What is the name of the parrot which tells the Sellers character to

"swab the decks" after it bites him in The Ladykillers?

General Gordon.

In the '63 film The Pink Panther,

which actor plays Sir Charles Lytton, otherwise known as

The Phantom, a thief who tries to steal The Pink Panther diamond?

David Niven.

In the BAFTA award-winning film I'm All Right Jack,

Sellers' character, Fred Kite,

holds the position of chief shop steward in which armaments factory?

Missiles Ltd.

In which film, directed by Cliff Owen,

does Peter Sellers play a gang leader called Pearly Gates?

The Wrong Arm Of The Law.

In Two-Way Stretch, Sellers' character, Dodger,

reads the newspaper in his prison bed, and tells his cellmates,

Jelly and Lennie, "When you knock off any money, never put it on..." what?

The stock market.

For which film did Sellers win a Golden Globe award for

playing the role of Chauncey Gardiner, a simple-minded gardener

whose television-based education is mistaken for political insight?

Being There.

In the 1955 comedy The Ladykillers,

the criminal gang led by Alec Guinness as Professor Marcus,

pretend to be a string quintet,

and Sellers' character is introduced as Mr Robinson.

What's his character's first name?

Harry.

What two words have been handwritten on the nuclear warhead that Major King Kong,

played by Slim Pickens, climbs onto in Dr Strangelove?

It falls out of the plane with him on top.

Hi there.

In The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Clouseau finally gains entry

into Dreyfus' castle disguised as Dr Schultz.

BEEP What is the doctor's profession?

He's a dentist.

He is indeed a dentist.

No passes, Steve. You only got one wrong. You have 12 points.

Thank you. APPLAUSE

And our next contender, please.

Two minutes, starting now.

Which scientist wrote The System Of The World, which includes his estimate

that stars are a million or more times further away than the sun appears?

It was published posthumously in 1728.

Pass.

What famous discovery was made by Asaph Hall in 1877 using the

telescope in the US Naval Observatory?

Pass.

The boundary near a black hole, where its gravitational pull becomes

so great that even light cannot escape from it is given what name?

Erm... Schwartz tunnel.

The event horizon.

In 1979, Linda Morabito of the Voyager team was the first to

notice eruptions on one of Jupiter's moons that is now known to be

the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

Which one?

Io.

Capella, the brightest star in the constellation Aurigae,

is in fact a pair of a type of star at the end of their normal lifetimes. What type?

Red Giant.

Yellow Giants. The law that states that the red shifts in the spectra of

distant galaxies are proportional to their distance is named after

which American astronomer?

Hubble.

In 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi discovered an asteroid orbiting between

Mars and Jupiter that is now classed as a dwarf planet. What's its name?

Ceres.

What do the letters CMB stand for in the term for the thermal

radiation left over from shortly after the big bang?

Cosmic microwave background.

The unexpected conclusion that hydrogen and helium are the

most common elements in stars was shown in the 1925 doctoral

thesis of which British-born American astronomer?

Cecilia Payne.

The work Siderius Nuntius, or The Starry Messenger,

first published in 1610, records whose astronomical discoveries?

Galileo.

Which giant spiral galaxy,

one of the few visible to the naked eye, has the Messier number M31?

Whirlpool.

Andromeda. What form of cosmic radiation was discovered in the

constellation Scorpius by the Italian-born astrophysicist

Riccardo Giacconi in 1962?

He won the 2002 Nobel Prize for physics for laying the

foundations of this form of astronomy.

X-ray.

What name is given to the two galaxies in the southern hemisphere that appear to...

BEEP ..the naked eye like detached portions of the Milky Way?

Magellanic clouds.

It is indeed.

And you had two passes.

That famous discovery made by Asaph Hall in 1877 was the moons of Mars.

And Sir Isaac Newton was the chap who wrote The System Of The World.

You have scored, however, Nigel, eight points.

APPLAUSE

And our next contender, please.

Arthur Lee and Love, coming up. Two minutes, here we go.

The American rock band Love, fronted by Arthur Lee, were signed by

Jack Holzman after he saw them playing at Bido Lito's club

in 1965. They were one of the first rock acts on the label. What label?

Elektra.

When the band originally formed in 1965,

they had a name which had to be changed,

because a more successful group was already using it. What name?

The Grass Roots. Which song on the Forever Changes album contains the lyric,

"You're just a thought that someone somewhere somehow feels you should be here"?

Live And Let Live?

A House Is Not A Motel.

Which Jimmy Cliff song did Lee cover on his

'81 self-titled album, Arthur Lee,

released on the Rhino label?

Many Rivers To Cross.

According to Lee, Jimi Hendrix had suggested, shortly before he died

in September 1970, that the two of them form a supergroup with Steve Winwood.

What name did Hendrix suggest for it?

Band Aid.

The teenage Lee formed a band called Arthur Lee And The LAGs while

he was a pupil at which Los Angeles high school?

Susan Miller Dorsey High.

What is the title of Lee's first solo album,

released on the A label in 1972?

Vindicator.

The audio and video recording of the Forever Changes concert in January 2003,

for which Lee performed the full album backed by

a band and small orchestra, was made at which London venue?

Royal Festival Hall.

Lee served over five years in a Californian prison for

accumulated offences, including illegal use of a firearm.

Which prison?

Pleasant Valleys.

What was the name of the art director at Elektra who was mainly

responsible for the record covers of Love's early albums on the label?

William S Harvey.

Love's third album, Forever Changes, is widely regarded as their

masterpiece, and was recorded over the summer of '67,

beginning in June at which Hollywood studio?

Sunset.

Which musician and former Byrds roadie joined Love in 1965 and

wrote the songs Softly To Me and Orange Skies, among several others?

He temporarily left the group after the Forever Changes album.

Bryan MacLean.

What is the title of the track on the De Capo album which is

a nearly-20-minute jam session, and takes up the entire B-side of the LP?

Revelation.

Which Burt Bacharach/ Hal David song... BEEP

..from the film What's New Pussycat?

did Love cover and include on their debut album?

My Little Red Book.

Is correct.

No passes, Graeme, you have 13 points.

APPLAUSE

And our final contender, please.

Forsyte. Here we go. Two minutes.

The first of Galsworthy's Forsyte novels about a family

at the turn of the 20th century opens in 1886 at a party

to celebrate the engagement of Old Jolyon Forsyte's niece, June, to whom?

Philip Bosinney.

What commodity is bought and sold by the company Forsyte and Trefry?

It's the basis of Old Jolyon's fortune.

Tea.

Who calls Fleur Mont, Soames Forsyte's daughter, a snob in her own home,

and then sues Fleur for libel for saying she has no morals?

Marjorie Ferrar.

Old Jolyon tells his son about the rumours concerning Irene Forsyte's

relationship with the architect, Philip Bosinney,

when he meets him and the grandchildren one afternoon.

Where does this meeting take place?

Zoo.

Yeah, London Zoo. In To Let, what's the name of Fleur's club,

to which she tells John Forsyte to address the letters he writes to her?

Theismann.

Philip Bosinney designs and builds a house for Soames Forsyte,

which is later bought by his uncle, Old Jolyon, who dies there.

By what name does the house become known, after its location?

Robin Hill.

On an expedition in South America, Hubert Charwell shot a local man.

What is the name of the American professor who was the leader of the expedition?

Allison.

In Swansong, Fleur and Michael's son, Kit, becomes ill, and

Fleur has to withdraw from society for a while to look after him.

What illness did Kit have?

Measles.

What is the name of Soames' clerk at Cathcart, Kingston and Forsyte?

He is the main clerk assigned to the management of Forsyte affairs.

Gradman.

In September 1886, which of the aunts becomes the first of

the old generation of Forsytes to die?

She is found dead in her bed by Smithers, the maid.

Aunt Ann.

What is the name of the Pekinese dog that Michael Mont bought for

his wife, Fleur, on her 20th birthday?

Ting. Yes, Tingaling.

In Flowering Wilderness, in which region west of Sudan was

Wilfred Desert captured by fanatical Arabs?

He claims he converted to Islam to save his skin.

Darfur.

Montague Dartie leaves Soames' sister, Winifred,

to start a new life with a young dancer,

and gives the dancer a piece of jewellery that belongs to Winifred.

What was it?

Pearls.

Tony Bickord is sacked from his job at the publishing firm of

Danby And Winter for stealing books.

What does he try to sell on the streets afterwards to make some money?

Balloons.

Soames sees Irene Forsyte for the first time in many years at a hotel in Washington DC.

What is Irene doing when he sees her?

Playing the piano.

She is indeed.

No passes, Lynn. A very high score for the first round, of 15 points.

Thank you. APPLAUSE

Well, that is a really high scoring first round.

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

In fourth place, eight points, Nigel Jones.

Third place, 12 points, Steve Lacey.

Second place, 13 points, Graeme Ross.

First place, 15 points, Lynn Edwards.

APPLAUSE

It is the General Knowledge round, now,

and 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, there has to be a tie-break,

and it's possible for a runner-up this evening to get through

to the semifinal as well.

The sixth highest-scoring runners-up will qualify,

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

And you have eight points,

with your knowledge of astronomy, let's see how you do.

Two and a half minutes, plenty of time to catch up,

two and a half minutes of General Knowledge.

Here we go.

What word of Greek origin is used for an abnormal,

intense and irrational fear of a given situation or object?

Phobia.

What imperial measure of weight that's equal to 112 pounds

was usually abbreviated to the letters CWT?

Hundredweight.

The opera Satyagraha by the American composer Philip Glass is a portrayal

of incidents from the early life of which Indian nationalist leader?

Gandhi.

By what name, meaning "little gourd" in Italian,

is the courgette known in North America?

Aubergine.

Zucchini.

Of which brand of the arts was the 17th-century architect and

master mason Nicholas Stone a celebrated practitioner?

His works in the field are considered some of the most

significant of the entire century in England.

Erm, pass.

What title, from the Latin for mother,

was traditionally given to the senior female nursing officer

in charge of the domestic or medical arrangements in a hospital?

Matron.

How many years is the term of office of an American Senator?

Er, five.

Six. Which band recorded the single, The Joker, which topped the UK charts

in September 1990 after it featured in a television advert for jeans?

Steve Miller Band.

To which songbird did John Keats write an ode that includes

the line, "Thou wast not born for death, immortal bird?"

Nightingale.

Which country was permanently awarded the Jules Rimet trophy

after winning the football World Cup for the third time in 1970?

Brazil.

What is housed in a binnacle on board a ship?

Compass.

Which British novelist's first five books include

The Ice House, The Sculptress, and The Scold's Bridle?

They were all adapted for television in the '90s.

John le Carre.

Minette Walters. Which former British crown colony in Southeast Asia is

located immediately to the east of the Pearl River Estuary?

Hong Kong.

What stage name did Anthony McVay Simpson,

who died in March 2016, adopt as a child star?

Under that name, he's best known as the creator of Coronation Street.

Pass.

Which Hebrew patriarch married his cousin, Rachel, after

he had first been tricked by his father-in-law, Laban,

into marrying her older sister, Leah?

Jacob.

What Spanish word for "tomorrow" is also used to mean any vague

date in the future?

Manana.

Which notorious gang used Leatherslade Farm in

Buckinghamshire as their hideout in 1963?

Great Train Robbers.

Flanders, Iceland and Alpine are varieties of

a flowering plant found in the wild and in gardens. Which plant?

Lily.

Poppy. Pashto and a form of Persian known as Dari are the

official languages of which Asian country?

Afghanistan.

What name honouring the Queen has been given to the Crossrail line

that will eventually link Reading in the west to Shenfield in the east?

Take a guess. Jubilee Line.

You're a bit out of date with that one.

No, it was the Elizabeth Line. Two passes.

That stage name that Anthony McVay Simpson adopted as

a child was Tony Warren. Yeah.

And that 17th century master, Nicholas Stone,

was pretty good at sculpture.

You have, Nigel, now a total of 21 points.

APPLAUSE

And now Steve again, please.

And you start out, Steve, with 12 points.

And the score to beat, as we speak, is 21, so let's see how you

do with your two and a half minutes of General Knowledge, starting now.

What is the colour of the maple leaf at the centre of the Canadian flag?

Red.

Who was the lead vocalist with the group The Jam?

Paul Weller.

In which English city is the Walker Art Gallery that's been

nicknamed "The National Gallery of the North?"

Manchester.

Liverpool. Which jockey has ridden the most English Classic winners?

His 30th and last was in 1992,

on Rodrigo de Triano in the 2000 Guineas.

Lester Piggott.

The African-American version of The Wizard Of Oz stars Diana Ross

as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow.

What's its title?

The Wiz.

Sweden lies on the western shore of the Gulf of Bothnia,

a northern extension of the Baltic Sea.

Which country lies on its eastern shore?

Finland.

For which law enforcement aids are "darbies" or "bracelets" slang terms?

Handcuffs.

Which insects' larvae live in cuckoo spit that protects them from predators?

Pass.

Which controversial Conservative politician joined the

Ulster Unionists in 1974, and served as MP for Down South until

his defeat at the '87 general election?

Enoch Powell.

What is the name of the spacecraft in which Yuri Gagarin became

the first man in space in April 1961?

Vostock 1.

In Dante's Divine Comedy, which Roman poet, who represents the

epitome of human knowledge, conducts Dante through hell and purgatory?

Virgil.

Of what species of fish are yellowfin, bigeye,

and bluefin all types?

Tuna.

Which legendary figure of the American West,

who was appointed Marshal of Abilene in 1871,

was shot dead at a poker table in Deadwood in 1876?

Wyatt Earp? No, Wild Bill Hickok.

In which television comedy series are some of the main

characters the Geordie, Oz, the boring Brummie, Barry,

and the Liverpudlian arsonist, Moxey?

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Which Wagner opera that was first performed in 1865

opens on a ship bound from Ireland to Cornwall?

The Flying Dutchman? Tristan and Iseult.

Who stars as Jack Colton alongside Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder

in the film Romancing The Stone, and its sequel The Jewel Of The Nile?

Michael Douglas.

Which African dictator, who died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003,

once declared himself King of Scotland, promoted himself to

Field Marshal, and awarded himself the Victoria Cross?

Idi Amin.

What is the name of the Nobel Prize-winning British writer whose

plays include The Caretaker, The Homecoming, The Room, and Silence?

Harold Pinter.

Susan Orleans's book, subtitled The Life And The Legend,

tells the story of a famous dog, originally a star of the silent screen.

Which dog?

Rin Tin Tin.

What name is shared by two unrelated edible plants,

both originating in the Americas?

A root containing an orange yellow pulp,

and a tuber that forms part of the staple British diet?

Potato.

Yes. OK.

Yes, always worth a guess, isn't it? Absolutely.

And your pass, that insect larvae that lives in cuckoo spit,

it's the common froghopper. Ah.

So there you go. You've now got, Steve, 28 points.

APPLAUSE

And now Graeme again, please.

And you start out, Graeme, with 13 points.

The score to beat, as you have just heard, has gone up a bit. It's 28.

Two and a half minutes, in which to reach or pass that score,

here we go.

In a popular television series,

Great Uncle Bulgaria, Tobermory and Bungo are what fictional characters?

The Wombles.

Which English city is the home of The Steelers ice hockey team?

Sheffield.

WHat is the name of the antichrist baby born to the American

ambassador and his wife in the film The Omen and its sequels?

Damien.

In 1867, from which country did the United States buy the north-western tip

of the North American continent that makes up the state of Alaska?

Russia.

The Mozart opera Cosi Fan Tutte is subtitled La Scuola Degli Amanti,

which, when translated into English, means The School For...?

Pass.

In which mythology was the god Mimir renowned for his knowledge and wisdom?

Greek.

Norse. What name is given to the muscles located between the ribs and

surrounding the lungs that are used as part of the respiratory system?

Maximum.

Intercostal.

Which fictional special agent spent two terms at Eton before he was

expelled for a dalliance with a maid and finished his education at

Fettes College in Edinburgh?

James Bond.

What is the name of the former tea clipper that's preserved

on the Thames at Greenwich and is now a major tourist attraction?

Cutty Sark.

Which Eastern European country's international vehicle registration

code is HR, from Hrvatska, the country's name in its native language?

Poland.

Croatia.

In what 1967 film is the title character, played by Paul Newman,

put on a chain gang for cutting off the tops of parking meters?

Cool Hand Luke.

Which American rap singer's 2004 debut solo album,

The College Dropout, won a Best Rap Album Grammy?

Ice-T.

Kanye West. Which artist,

who's famed for his paintings of Parisian nightlife in the 1890s,

had accidents in his youth that left him with stunted legs?

Toulouse`Lautrec.

In which Commonwealth country is the city of Ballarat?

It was the scene of a gold rush in 1851.

Rhodesia.

Australia. What is the official name of the film industry awards

popularly known as the Oscars?

Pa... Sorry, can you repeat that?

What is the official name of the film industry awards

popularly known as the Oscars?

The Academy Awards.

What four-letter word meaning "extravagant publicity" had its

origins in America where it meant "cheating," or "deception"?

Pass.

What hereditary form of anaemia destroys the red blood cells

by causing them to take on the rigid shape that the disease is named after?

Rickets?

No, sickle-cell anaemia.

Which of the terns that breeds in northern polar regions and

winters in southern polar regions has the longest annual migration of any bird?

Arctic.

Which city at the mouth of the River Tawe is known in Welsh as Abertawe?

Aberystwyth.

It sounds logical, doesn't it? It's Swansea, in fact.

Two passes. That four-letter word meaning "extravagant publicity,"

an American word, really, is "hype".

And the Mozart opera, the subtitle means "the school for lovers."

You have a total, Graeme, of 23 points. Thank you.

APPLAUSE

And, finally, Lynn again, please.

And you're already well on your way, with 15 points, but the score,

as I say, is 28,

so let's see if you can score enough points to pass it in the

two and a half minutes

of General Knowledge questions, starting now.

The Walt Disney World theme park opened in October 1971 near

which major city in Central Florida?

Anoling.

Orlando. The bark of an evergreen oak that grows in Mediterranean

countries is the main commercial source of

a material that's widely used in the wine industry.

Which material?

Cork.

In which novel is Major Major the commanding officer who would

only allow visitors to his office when he was out?

Catch-22.

What name is given to a projecting stone spout in architecture, often a

grotesquely carved person or animal, designed to drain water from a roof?

Gargoyle.

Which East End police station was the setting for The Bill,

that ran on television for 26 years?

Bow Street.

Sun Hill. What natural disaster that was followed by a massive fire caused

severe damage in San Francisco and neighbouring towns in April 1906?

Earthquake.

Which actor and writer, who's best known

for his portrayal of an inept radio and

television presenter, has a 2015 autobiography, entitled Easily Distracted?

Steve Coogan.

What did the Irish-American triple-jumper,

James B Connolly, become the first winner of in Athens in April 1896?

Long jump.

Olympic medal. The coffin of King Edward I's wife was rested on its way from

the village of Harby, near Lincoln, where she died in 1290,

to her final resting place in London.

What name is given to the 12 stone monuments put up to mark the resting places?

Eleanor Crosses.

The title song from The Beatles' second feature film topped

the UK singles charts for three weeks in August 1965.

What song?

Help!

What variety of whole blanched nut is traditionally used to top a Dundee cake?

Almonds.

Which greenhouse gas forms more than 96% of the atmosphere of Venus,

resulting in it having the highest surface temperature of the

planets in the solar system?

Nitrogen. Carbon dioxide.

Which fictional character's first name and initial,

rarely mentioned in the many stories he appears in,

is given as John H in the introduction to A Study In Scarlet?

Dr Watson.

What alternative name for a blacksmith,

or person who shoes horses, comes from the Latin for iron?

Farrier.

Percy is the family name of a duke whose seat is at Alnwick Castle. Which duke?

Northumberland.

Every racehorse in the northern hemisphere

has its official birthday on the same date. What date?

January the first.

The artificially-produced chemical element with the symbol Cn

and atomic number 112 is named after which Polish astronomer?

Copernicus.

Traditionally how many pillars of wisdom are there?

The phrase comes from the biblical book of proverbs,

and was later used as the title of a book by TE Lawrence

Seven.

What name is given to the joint between the femur and the pelvis in anatomy?

Hip.

Which North African country's plain green flag was adopted in 1977,

and replaced in 2011 by a former version consisting of horizontal red, black and green

stripes with a white star and crescent in the middle?

Ethiopia.

Well, why not guess? But it wasn't, it was Libya.

And anyway, it doesn't matter, because, Lynn,

you have a total of 30 points.

APPLAUSE

Ah, what a great contest. Let's have a look at all of those scores.

In fourth place, 21 points, Nigel Jones.

Third place, 23 points, Graeme Ross.

Second place, 28 points, Steve Lacey.

First place, with 30 points, Lynn Edwards.

APPLAUSE

Well, no doubting the result of that.

Lynn Edwards is tonight's winner,

and she goes through to the semifinals. Congratulations to her.

Commiserations, maybe, to Steve Lacey,

but his score of 28 means it is entirely possible that we

shall see him again in the semifinal.

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

do go to our website:

And follow us:

And do join us again next time for more masterminds.

Thanks for watching. Goodbye. APPLAUSE

Dip into the BBC Proms.

Get your flags ready and join Juan Diego Florez and many more

for the world-famous last night of the Proms.