Scientists v String Section Only Connect

Hello and welcome to the quiz that likes to scramble your brains,

fry your wits and make a deluxe omelette out of overconfidence.

We're at the quarterfinals stage,

where only the hard-boiled can survive, so let's crack on.

Eggs. I'm saying everything is like eggs.

The soldiers who are dipping in tonight

and hoping not to get burned are...

On my right, Innis Carson,

a PhD chemistry student who once broke his leg on a roundabout.

Lorraine Murtagh, a professional

dog walker who first met the team captain

when he was shirtless and eating cheese in her brother's kitchen.

And that captain is Ian Volante,

a physics graduate who

was on the committee of the Jaffa Cake Appreciation Society.

United by a passion for

the periodic table,

they are the Scientists.

Ian, you won you first game against the Builders

and your next against the Athenians.

What's been the secret of your success?

A large dollop of luck

and my team-mates making up for

my deficiencies, I think, mainly.

Let's see if that will happen again tonight.

You are facing, on my left...

Tessa North, a sales assistant who used to live in a camper van

in Texas and was once prevented from getting home by a police cordon

and some escaped cows.

Pete Sorel-Cameron, an actor

and musician who once accidentally

flashed the audience while appearing as Flute the bellows-mender.

And their captain Richard Aubrey,

a secondary school teacher

and keen musician who once played Duncan in a production of Macbeth

where they forgot to kill him.

All intrigued by instruments,

they are the String Section.

Richard, you've beaten the Headliners and the Wayfarers.

What do you chalk your success down to?

Mine is lucky ties

and being able to go for

the Two Reeds question

almost every time, cos it seems most musical.

-You do look magnificent tonight, if I may say so.

-Thank you.

Very nice outfit. Let's see how far

that gets you in the quiz.

Scientists, you won the toss,

but you've decided to put the String Section in first.

Tricksy. So, it'll be your team

to choose an Egyptian hieroglyph.

-The Two Reeds, please.

-The Two Reeds. OK.

What connects these apparently random clues? Here is the first.

Something Yiddish?

It was invented there?

-It is a borrowed word from German, not from...

-OK.

The word itself, I would imagine. Next, please.

Monkey tails?

-Some kind of shape.

-PETE WHISPERS

Like a symbol on...

-On a coin or...

-Yeah.

Next, please.

Is it represented by something in something? Is it a game or...?

Oh, yeah. That's a good one.

Final one, please.

Three seconds.

BELL

Symbols on national football shirt.

Ooh. No. You've found

your way to something,

but that's not the answer, I'm afraid.

Scientists, you have the chance

-of a bonus point.

-I'm struggling.

I'm going to guess...national foods.

The snail, I mean, the Italians

are well-known... When anyone thinks

of eating snails, they think

it's just a classic Italian dish.

No. Now, this is what these nations

would say where we would say an at-sign.

Little A in a circle.

Curly alpha, or kroellalfa,

in Norway. Strudel in Israel.

Monkey tail in Netherlands. Snail in Italy. No points there.

Scientists, which question

would you like for yourselves?

-Let's start with Twisted Flax, please.

-OK.

What is the connection between these clues? Here is the first.

I don't know.

No. Next, please.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

-No, I don't think so.

-It's possible.

Next, please.

Designers of...

HE WHISPERS

Is there a monument there?

THEY WHISPER

Next one, please.

Three seconds.

BELL

Are they are people that designed famous sculptures

associated with those places or things?

I'm afraid not.

It is a very nice idea, but not the designers of those things.

String Section, you have

the chance of a bonus point.

The models for these famous sculptures.

They are the models for those things,

that is exactly right.

Eleanor Velasco Thornton is not the

designer of The Spirit Of Ecstasy,

but she features in it.

The story there is that there was

a fashion for people to have

personalised designs on their

Rolls-Royces, and Baron Montagu had one of his lover,

who was this Eleanor Velasco Thornton.

But Rolls-Royce didn't like it

because people were picking inappropriate things, so they asked

the sculptor to standardise them,

and they were all then modelled on this person.

What do you have on your Rolls-Royce?

I was going to say a sausage for no apparent reason,

but I don't have a sausage on my Rolls-Royce.

I have Michael Portillo resplendent

over the radiator. Wonderful. LAUGHTER

Yes. Models for those statues.

Well done, you get a bonus point.

What would you like as a question?

-The Eye of Horus, please.

-Eye of Horus.

MUSICAL TONE Ah, the music question.

What connects these musical clues? Here is the first.

# What am I supposed to do?

# Sit around and wait for you?

-# Well, I can't do that. #

-Next, please.

# I can see it in your eyes

# You still despise the same old lines

# You heard the night before

# And though it is just a line to you

# For me it's true And never seemed so right before. #

Next, please.

# I turn away from the wall

# I stumble and fall

-# But I give you it... #

-Next.

-# I was born un... #

-Three seconds.

BELL

I'm sorry we interrupted that beautiful track. What is the answer?

-Performed by Oscar winners.

-They are all

sung by people who won an Oscar.

An Oscar for what?

Paint Your Wagon.

No, I mean for doing what?

-Right!

-Cher, Nicole Kidman...

They didn't all win the Oscar for Paint Your Wagon.

No, just acting, Best Actor winners.

They all had those number-one songs.

What did we hear?

-Cher, believe.

-Mm-hm.

Was that a Nicole Kidman version of Something Stupid?

It was a duet with Robbie Williams,

but that's right, yes.

Wand'rin' Star by Lee Marvin.

Woman In Love was sung by...

-Barbra Streisand.

-Barbra Streisand. Absolutely.

All sung by Oscar-winning performers

in the acting category. Well done.

Scientists, what would you like?

-Lion, please.

-Lion. OK.

What connects these clues? Here's the first.

HE WHISPERS

That doesn't help.

Next, please.

He was in... His first film was...

The film was called...

-Scum.

-Their first film.

-Could be. Could well be, yeah.

-Um... Go for another one?

-Go for it.

-Next, please.

No. I don't think that was... It might have been his first one.

I don't know.

Get the last one, please.

HE MUMBLES Three seconds.

BELL

Going to have to guess that they were their first roles.

They were not their first roles,

I'm afraid. Do you know,

String Section, for a bonus?

-Any thought? I don't think I've got any.

-No, I don't.

-Uh...

-No.

-I don't think you're going to

get it. To be honest,

I think you are all -

perhaps I should say WE are all -

too young for this question.

Older quizzers would get this.

These are all from the BBC's Play For Today.

Alison Steadman played Beverly. Do you know what that was in?

Um... Abigail's Party, I guess?

Abigail's Party, Mike Leigh -

absolutely right. Rumpole,

as in Rumpole Of The Bailey.

That started as a one-off

for Play For Today

written by John Mortimer. Ray Winstone

as a borstal inmate, that was Scum.

The first one, Blue Remembered Hills,

was a Dennis Potter play.

They all featured as

the BBC Play For Today.

No points then, String Section, for the bonus.

What about your own question?

-Horned Viper, please.

-Horned Viper.

These are going to be picture clues.

Something connects them. What is it? Here's the first.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Ne... Because you'll see it. Just go next and...

Next.

Were they stolen?

Next, please.

An exhibition at a major gallery or...?

-But I don't know what that would make...

-OK. The last one, please.

Oh. They were badly restored.

Yes, OK.

BELL

Things that have been damaged and attempted restorations

-have gone badly.

-VICTORIA CHUCKLES

Well, yes. Let's say

controversial restorations.

It is in the eye of the beholder.

That fourth clue is Ecce Homo,

which was the victim of a voluntarily

and, let's say, unauthorised

restoration by an elderly parishioner.

And the BBC Europe correspondent described it as now resembling,

"A crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic."

The first one, Supper At Emmaus,

the restorers said they appeared to

have given it a nose job.

Virgin And Child with St Anne, they said it was over-cleaned.

The third one, it is a fresco from

the Qing dynasty that they said

it went a bit cartoonish.

So, all works that have been accused of being badly restored

in various controversies. Well done.

Scientists, one question remains -

Water. Maybe you'll get some points on this one. Good luck.

Something connects these clues. What is it? Here is the first.

It's somebody's autobiography.

Next, please.

I don't know.

-No, it doesn't help me.

-OK. Next please.

-Did the same person make all of these?

-Um...

OK, I think it might be...

Nile Rodgers from Chic.

I'm not sure.

Best get the last one, then. Next, please.

-No.

-Two seconds.

BELL

All...written by...

Dostoevsky.

I'm afraid none of them

was written by Dostoyevsky,

so over to the String Section

for a possible bonus point.

So, if you prefix them with "one day in"

you get the thing that is above it.

That is what it is.

One Day In My Life is the memoir

of Bobby Sands, the hunger striker.

One Day In Your Life,

Michael Jackson's first

UK number one. One Day In September

is the film about the Olympics,

the terrible Munich Olympics.

And One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

is the great novella not written by Dostoevsky.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Unlucky. But well done for the bonus.

That means at the end of Round One,

the String Section have four points, the scientists are yet to score.

Onto the sequences round and the String Section,

you will be going first again.

Which hieroglyph would you like?

-Two Reeds, please.

-As always, the Two Reeds.

But which in this Two Reeds question would be the fourth clue?

The first one is coming in now.

THEY WHISPER

Or some kind of pact or something.

HE WHISPERS

Next, please.

MI5 codes. Escalations.

THEY WHISPER

-DA05.

-And...?

THEY CONFER QUIELTY

We'll take the next, please.

SHE WHISPERS

Three seconds. BELL

It is DA05...

-And you think it's...?

-I think the whole thing.

-And...it's e-mail correspondence, isn't it?

-I need an answer.

And e-mail correspondence.

Not it, I'm afraid. There's a bonus

possibility for the Scientists.

Radio communications.

That is not it either.

It is DA05 UK security and intelligence services.

I'd have taken spies, MI5,

anything like that.

It is the Defence Advisory Notices System,

commonly known as D-Notices.

It's warnings to the media not to

publish sensitive information

about certain things and number five

would be the personnel,

the spies and their operations.

You don't get the bonus, but you do

get a choice. What would you like?

-Eye of Horus, please.

-The Eye of Horus.

What would come fourth in this sequence? Here is the first.

That's no help.

Next, please.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

-Is that binary?

-HE MUTTERS NUMBERS

-Take another one.

-Next, please.

THEY MUTTER

-Try that.

-Three seconds.

-BELL

-Right, OK.

Is it 100 x 11 = 1,100?

That is exactly what it is! Well done, Innis.

There are ten types of people in the world -

those who understand binary

and those who don't.

We just wanted to hear

4 x 3 = 12 in binary. Well done.

Back to you, String Section,

for a choice.

Lion. The Lion, please.

The Lion question.

What is the connection between these clues and, more importantly,

what would come fourth in the sequence? Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

So, the next, please.

Oh, um...

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

But not in 1966. Big Wednesday, when did that come out?

-Yeah, OK.

-Is that...?

Next, please.

Oh, that's War Of The Worlds.

-Blue Sky. Blue Wednesday, isn't it?

-It could be.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

-Blue...

-Blue Sky.

What did you say the Jeff Wayne was? Blue Sky?

Oh, no. I don't know.

I don't know.

Three seconds.

BELL

The Long Good Friday.

Not it, I'm afraid.

There's a bonus possibility

for the Scientists now.

I am going to guess something about winter,

so a Shakespeare play, A Winter's Tale.

You have to tell me something

a little bit more than that

for a bonus point.

Well, the Jeff Wayne song, I'm assuming, is Forever Autumn,

so always winter is...

Always winter, that's all I want here.

If you can give me an example,

a nice one might be

the White Witch's curse on Narnia.

But something always or eternal,

because we are looking at the Rodin sculpture

Eternal Spring, that surfing

documentary is Endless Summer,

Forever Autumn, so something that is forever winter, for example,

the White Witch's curse.

Well done. You get a bonus point, and which question would you like?

-Horned Viper, please.

-The Horned Viper. What...

MUSICAL TONE Ah, a music sequence.

What would you expect to hear in fourth place?

The first one is coming in now.

# Don't call me baby

# You got some nerve, baby That'll never do

# You know I don't belong to you. #

Next please.

# Don't you want somebody to love?

# Don't you need somebody to love?

# Wouldn't you love somebody to love?

# You better find somebody to love. #

Next, please.

# Got my first real six-string

# Bought it at the five and dime

# Played it till my fingers bled

-# Was the summer of '69. #

-Three seconds.

BELL

Um...

And something... Woodstock by Matthews' Southern Comfort.

A song from 1970.

No good, I'm afraid.

That is not a sequence.

String Section, your chance for a bonus point.

Just say any artist. Dinah Washington.

Something by Dinah Washington.

Any song by Dinah Washington,

that's it. They share their names

with the fourth to first

presidents of the United States.

We're going backwards.

We heard from Madison Avenue,

share their name with James Madison.

Then Jefferson Airplane

for Thomas Jefferson.

Next was Bryan Adams.

And I wanted to hear something from an act that shared their name

with George Washington - for example,

anything by Dinah Washington.

Can you name anything

by Dinah Washington?

-Mad About The Boy.

-Mad About The Boy is lovely.

The audience might not know what

you mean. Let's give it a go.

Not again.

One, two, three, four.

-DISCORDANTLY:

-# I'm mad about the boy. #

-Something like that.

-I've run out of...

You gave it a try,

that's the main thing.

You showed up and gave it a try, absolutely lovely.

Well done. You get that point and

you can choose your own question.

What would you like?

-The Twisted Flax, please.

-Twisted Flax, OK.

What would come fourth in this sequence? Here's the first.

THEY WHISPER

Next, please.

-Oh.

-It's where the Pauline letters were written, so...

But I can't... Um...

HE WHISPERS

Next, please.

Um...

SHE WHISPERS

BELL

-The Hebrews.

-Richard.

I'm afraid that is not the answer.

There is a possible bonus point

for you, Scientists.

The Ecclesiastes.

No. The answer would be Rome.

-Let me go back to our resident RE teacher.

-They're backwards!

-Why would the answer be Rome?

-It's going backwards, isn't it?

So, that's the first place to which Paul wrote a letter.

That is it. We're going backwards.

It is the letters written by Paul,

but it is more what he would have

popped on the envelope.

He'd have had to write Rome on there,

Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus.

He is writing to people that live in those places

in the books of the Bible,

and we're going in reverse order.

That'll be an awkward moment

when you go back to school, won't it? OTHERS LAUGH

So, Scientists,

you don't get the bonus point,

but you get the last question, Water.

What would come fourth in this picture sequence?

I'd like you to describe the sort of thing

you'd expect to see in the fourth picture. Here is the first.

That's between Germany and Poland.

THEY WHISPER

That is behind the Iron Curtain.

Next, please.

Baltic Sea.

Are they all places that were neutral?

Or on the opposite side. Controlled by the opposite side.

I think. Shall I guess?

But we need the fourth one.

-Yep.

-I'd go for it.

BELL

West Berlin, a picture thereof.

Not a sequence, I'm afraid.

I like your gambling spirit.

Let's show the third one

to the String Section,

see if you want to have a go.

Texas.

I mean, it spectacularly isn't Texas.

Would it help if I told you

that those areas of the map depicted

represented Stettin, the Baltic

and Trieste?

It's to do with Churchill's speech about the Iron Curtain

coming down over Europe.

That is exactly what it is.

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the ADRIATIC,

"an Iron Curtain has descended

"across the continent."

We wanted to hear the Adriatic.

At the end of Round Two...

What about a couple of horrible Only Connect

quarterfinal Connecting Walls?

I thought you'd like it.

You get the dubious pleasure of going first this time, Scientists.

-Would you like Lion or Water?

-I fancy the Water today.

-Water.

OK, you have two and a half minutes to solve it, starting now.

OK. Would it go through the old blues musicians?

Hoover Dam - that's an Elvis song.

-Yeah.

-Plage is beach.

Monrovia is the capital of Liberia.

-Juba is the capital of South Sudan.

-Oh, well, OK.

-African capitals?

Yeah, that's got to be what it is. Kahakai one?

Um, I don't know that one.

-BUZZ

-Oh, there's Praia.

-Victoria's one, isn't it?

-No, I don't think so.

It might be, but I don't think it is.

-BUZZ

-It might be Seychelles, actually.

-Just try something.

-Yeah. Um...

-Oh, lovely.

-Right, OK.

-Next one.

Monrovia is named after an American president.

-Well, yeah, so is Hoover Dam, so...

-Hoover, yeah.

-And teddy bear.

-Teddy.

-Yeah, and then...

-Polk.

-Polk.

-BUZZ

-Oh, OK.

-So, that's five things.

Woody Guthrie might have been named after...

-Woodrow or something like that.

-Woodrow, yeah.

Look, we've got a certain...

-BUZZ

-No. Monrovia.

-Oh, oops. OK.

-Not Cristiano Ronaldo.

-BUZZ

-Other stuff. Spiaggia - no idea.

-BUZZ

-Surrender is...

-BUZZ

-Strand is another word for a beach.

-BUZZ

-Did we not try all of these?

-No.

-BUZZ

-Kahakai might be a beach word.

-BUZZ

Spiaggia as well.

-Oh, all seafront words.

-Nice one. Nice one.

Right, OK, that's probably one of the groups.

-Three strikes now.

-Let's think this through.

Teddy Bear is an Elvis song.

Surrender is an Elvis song.

OK, so, it's definitely...

-Wait.

-Um...

-Cristiano Ronaldo...

-Polk.

-..might have been named after...

It's hard to...

Maybe he was right after Ronald Reagan or something.

-Hmm, yeah.

-Is one of these an Elvis song?

Must be Polk Salad Annie or Hoover Dam.

-Oh, it could be...

-Yes!

That's it. You've solved the wall.

Very well done.

You get all the points for the groups.

What about the connections?

Let's start with the top blue group that begins Victoria.

I think they're all African capital cities.

Yes, they are.

And the green group, starting spiaggia?

They all sound to me like words for beachfronts or seasides.

They all mean beach. That's right.

And the pink or purple group, stating Surrender?

-They're all Elvis songs. Elvis Presley songs.

-They are.

And the light blue group, starting Monrovia?

Things named after American presidents.

That is absolutely right.

Monrovia, of course, a red herring in the other groups,

is the capital city of Liberia,

-but who's it named after?

-Um, is it...

-James Monroe.

-..James Monroe?

-Absolutely right.

That is all the connecting points as well.

I'll give you a bonus for getting it all right. That's the maximum of ten.

Let's bring back the String Section and give them the other wall -

the Lion wall - and see what they can do with it.

Two and a half minutes, of course, is what you have

to try and solve this wall.

Time starts now.

-OK. OK.

-It's...

Culture vulture, but vulture, buzzard, osprey, kite -

-they're all birds of prey.

-We've got falcon as well.

Do you want to go in there and...?

-BUZZ

-Types of...?

-What about...?

-There's kite as well. There's four.

-There's economists. Keynes, Friedman.

-Keynes, Friedman.

Um...

Ooh, wait! They're the second half of towns.

-So, Saffron Walden, King's Lynn...

-Good.

..Milton Keynes and Leighton Buzzard.

Well done. Nicely spotted.

-Um...

-Dragon. Are they...? Are these...?

Dragons and Scarlets and Ospreys are rugby...

-Um, badges.

-Say Falcons as well.

-One, two, three, Falcons.

-BUZZ

-No.

-Um, Blues.

-So, let's go with Dragon.

-Oh, good.

-Three strikes now. Plenty of time.

All right, so, presumably, Vulcan, fal...

Vulture, falcon, kite and hobby.

But, then, are they some...?

How specific do we need to be?

-Are they just...?

-Wait, Modigliani is an artist.

-And an economist.

-But are they...?

-Is that also the name of a...?

-Hayek?

Salma Hayek? Yeah.

And Tobin.

I'd be tempted to say it's hobby, kite and vulture,

-and then one of these two or one of the bottom three...

-OK.

..with that being what they expect for a surname.

-But then what are the...?

-OK.

-What are the surnames?

-Um...

-What kind of art is it?

-What kind of economists?

Early 20th century?

I can tell you Friedman is the choreographer on The X Factor.

-Really?

-That's useful. Spelt that way - with an I-E?

-I believe so.

-Right. Shall we...? We need to start pressing.

-Let's go one, two, three, four.

-BUZZ

-One, two, three, four.

-BUZZ

One, two, three...

Cor!

You've solved the wall.

Very interesting strategy you had there,

but that's four points. What about the connections,

starting with Kaynes or Keynes in the top group?

Second half of English towns.

That's right.

They are the second halves

of two-worded English place names.

The second green group, starting scarlet?

They are...rugby union teams.

I need to hear something else.

-Are they all Welsh clubs?

-Are they all Welsh?

They are Welsh rugby union teams. Absolutely right.

The pink group - hobby, vulture, kite, falcon?

-Birds of prey.

-They are all birds of prey.

And the light blue group starting Modigliani?

Economists.

They are all economists.

I'd love to hear something else as well, if you can tell me.

Nobel-winning economists?

They are Nobel-winning economists.

That's absolutely it. Yes, they are economists,

so you get full Wall points for the connections

and a bonus for getting it all right.

That's the maximum of ten. Let's have a look at the scores.

We are now going to decide who goes through to the semifinal

and who goes home with the missing vowels round.

So, fingers on buzzers, teams.

The first group are all songs from Saturday Night Fever.

String Section?

-More Than A Woman.

-Correct.

Strings?

-Disco Inferno.

-Yes, it is.

Scientists?

-If I Can't Have You.

-Correct.

-Scientists?

-How Deep Is Your Love.

Yes, it is.

Next category - names with the word Taylor removed.

String Section?

-Samuel Coleridge.

-Correct.

-Scientists?

-Pass. Sorry.

Don't know it?

String Section, do you know?

-Tim Brooke.

-Yes, that's right.

-Scientists?

-Shelley Dawson.

Not it, I'm afraid. String Section?

-Ashley Dawson.

-It is Ashley Dawson,

or Taylor Dawson from Hollyoaks.

Next clue.

String Section?

-Courtney Taylor.

-Correct.

Next category - Greek muses.

-Scientists?

-Terpsichore.

-Correct.

-String Section?

-Erato.

-Correct.

-String Section?

-Urania.

-Correct.

-Scientists?

-Clio.

-Correct.

Next category.

END MUSIC SOUNDS

But we will not have another category

because the bell has gone for the end of the quiz.

And looking at the final scores,

ending with an excellent 23 points and through to the semifinal,

it's the String Section.

Very well done to you.

Finishing with 15 points after a very good series,

but sadly going home,

it's the Scientists.

Very sorry to lose you.

You've been a great team.

Some lovely quizzing, some beautiful singing.

I'm sorry to say goodbye.

Well done to you guys.

We will see you next time.

And I hope we'll see you next time for another episode of the show

that brings unbridled joy to quiz fans everywhere

and deep anguish to quiz fans everywhere.

That's BBC balance for you. Goodbye.