Episode 5 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. The first-round matches continue tonight

with a small and ancient Oxford college

playing one of the UK's largest universities.

As always, the object is to win a place in the second round

or at least to lose with a score decent enough to earn

one final chance to stay in the competition.

Oriel College Oxford was granted its Royal Charter in 1326

and takes its name from a property with an oriel window,

which lay on the site of what is now the first quad.

It has around 460 students and alumni include Sir Walter Raleigh,

the historian AJP Taylor, Countdown's Rachel Riley,

the fashion icon, Beau Brummell, and Cecil Rhodes,

whose statue within Oriel's grounds has caused so much controversy.

The college won the series championships back in 1966.

Needless to say, none of tonight's four was born then

and it's quite possible their parents weren't, either.

With an average age of 23, let's meet the Oriel team.

Hi, I'm Owen Monaghan.

I'm from Banbridge in County Down and I study philosophy,

politics and economics.

Hello, I'm Alex Siantonas, I live in Cambridge and I study philosophy.

And this is their captain.

Hi, I'm Nathan Helms.

I'm from Dallas, Texas, and I also study philosophy.

I'm Tobias Thornes. I'm from Worcestershire

and I'm studying for a DPhil in atmospheric physics.

APPLAUSE

Right, Manchester University has had an exceptional run

in this competition, winning four times in the last ten years.

But they showed an Achilles' heel, when they crashed out

of the first round of the last series.

Manchester's origins lie in the early 19th century

and a series of amalgamations since then have created an institution

with a student body of 38,000,

which in the past has included Anthony Burgess and Norman Foster.

The comedians Jack Whitehall,

Jennifer Saunders and Ade Edmonson were there,

as were the actors, Benedict Cumberbatch,

Meera Syal and Toby Jones.

Tonight's team have an average age of 21.

Let's meet them.

Hi, my name's Aaron Morrison-Griffiths.

I'm from Liverpool and I study medicine.

I'm Jane Scanlon, I'm from Reading and I'm doing an MA in linguistics.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Joseph Bath.

I'm from Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire

and I'm studying physics with philosophy.

I'm Owen Michael, I'm from Colwyn Bay in North Wales

and I'm doing maths.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are the same as ever.

Starter questions are solo efforts, they're worth ten points.

Bonus questions are team efforts, they're worth 15 points.

Fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for ten.

Established in 1711 by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford,

which company was given the monopoly of trade with Spanish America,

in return for an undertaking to convert part of the national debt

to a lower rate of interest?

This led to gross over-speculation and in 1720...

The South Sea Company.

Correct. Yes, it's bubble burst, then.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Manchester, are on women born in the 1870s.

In each case, name the person from the description.

Firstly, the creator of Anne of Green Gables,

born on Prince Edward Island in 1874.

Montgomery?

LM Montgomery.

LM Montgomery.

Lucy Maud Montgomery, yes.

Secondly, a Dutch dancer and courtesan

shot by the French in 1917, on charges of spying for Germany.

The German government publicly exculpated her in 1930.

Mata Hari.

Correct, or Margaret Gertrude Zelle.

And, finally, born in Virginia in 1879,

the first woman to serve in the House of Commons,

where she advocated temperance and women's rights.

THEY WHISPER

Beatrice something.

Beatrice...?

-Come on, let's have it.

-Mary Astor.

No, it was Nancy, Lady Astor.

Ten points for this. To what device do

the following lines refer?

"The most important thing we've learned so far,

as children are concerned, is never, never, never let them near your..."

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

No, you lose five points.

Near your what?

Stove?

No, it's your television set.

It is from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory -

you identified the work, but not the quote.

Ten points for the starter question. In the early 17th century,

what scientific instruments were known as Dutch trunks,

after the nationality of their probable inventor, Hans Lippershey?

The present-day Greek-derived name became widespread

when it was used by Galileo.

Telescope.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

You're off the mark, Oriel.

Your bonuses are on Germanic tribes.

Firstly, led by Alaric I, which Germanic tribe sacked Rome in 410?

They ruled southern Gaul in the fifth century and most of Spain

until early in the eighth.

That's the Visigoths.

Correct.

Which branch of the Goths split from the Visigoths

in the fourth century and, under Theodoric the Great,

established the Gothic kingdom of Italy?

Is it Ostrogoths?

What is it?

The Ostrogoths.

Correct. The Goths drove other tribes out of France and Spain,

including which Germanic people,

who established a kingdom in north Africa from AD 429

and sacked Rome in 455?

That's the Vandals.

It is the Vandals, yes.

Ten points for this.

In a novel of 1894,

Strelsau is the capital of which central European country,

although the book's title refers to a small town 50 miles

from Strelsau, where a captive is being held in a castle?

Prisoner of Zenda.

No, anyone like to buzz from Oriel?

The Czech Republic?

No, it's Ruritania. You got the right novel,

but I asked again for the name of the country.

So, ten points for this.

The cultural events and movements that occurred in Italy

during the 15th century are often referred to

by what term meaning 400?

The Renaissance.

No, you lose five points.

Meaning 400.

It is an abbreviation of a term meaning 1,400.

Quattrocento?

Quattrocento is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses, having taken the lead, on medicine.

From the Latin meaning "to raid",

what six-letter common name is given to a viral disease

caused by the lyssavirus species?

It produces inflammation of the nervous system

and brain, with high mortality.

Anybody have any idea?

-Is it Ebola?

-What?

-Is it Ebola?

No, not enough letters.

THEY WHISPER

Dengue.

No, it's rabies.

Secondly, rabies is often contracted by a bite from an infected dog.

What term denotes infections that are passed from animals to humans?

What's infect?

Zoo-transmitted.

No, it's zoonosis, but you've got the right area.

But the word is zoonosis or zoonotic.

And finally, uncontrollable spasms of the throat muscles, leading to

difficulty in swallowing, is a late symptom of rabies

and gives rise to what alternative name for the disease?

Hydrophobia or something like that.

-Yes.

-That might be right. Yeah, hydrophobia.

Correct. We're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter,

you're going to see an equation expressing a physical law.

For ten points, I want you to name the scientist who's generally

accepted to have first formulated this principle in this form.

Newton.

It is Sir Isaac Newton.

It's his law of universal gravitation.

APPLAUSE

Well, Manchester, that was listed by the mathematician and writer

Professor Ian Stewart as one of the 17 Equations That Changed The World

in his 2012 book.

Your picture bonuses are three more of those equations.

In each case, I want you to tell me the scientist who formulated

and gave his name to the equation, or equations, you see.

Firstly, for five.

Maxwell's equations, is it?

Maxwell.

It was James Clerk Maxwell, the four Maxwell equations

which form the basis of classical electrodynamics.

Secondly...

THEY WHISPER

De Moivre.

No, its Fourier.

The equation defines the Fourier transform,

which is a mathematical tool, as you know, for analysing waveforms.

Finally, here you can give me either of the mathematicians

who independently identified this relationship.

Bernoulli.

No, it's Euler, or Descartes is also credited with it, of course.

Right, ten points for this.

According to Karl Popper,

what specific concept demarcates the difference between science and...

Falsification.

Falsifiability is correct, yes, or falsification, yes.

APPLAUSE

Demarcates science and non-science.

Oriel, your bonuses are on declarations of love

in 19th-century literature.

In each case, name the character speaking

and the novel in which he appears.

"You strange, you almost unearthly thing, I love as mine own flesh.

"You, poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are,

"I entreat you to accept me as a husband."

-Is it the character or the book?

-It's both.

Rochester, Jane Eyre.

Nominate Siantonas.

Rochester, Jane Eyre.

Correct.

"If I loved you less,

"I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am.

"You hear nothing but the truth from me.

"I blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it

"as no other woman in England would have borne it."

Is it Austen?

-I don't know.

-Anybody any ideas?

Pride and Prejudice?

-Go for it, but it's not going be that.

-OK.

Pride and prejudice, Darcy.

No, it's Knightly in Emma. And finally...

"Think a minute or two. I'll wait a while, Miss Everdene.

"Will you marry me? Do, Bathsheba.

"I love you far more than common."

Far From The Madding Crowd and...

Gabriel Oak.

That's Far From The Madding Crowd, Gabriel Oak.

It is, yes. Well done. Ten points for this.

Sometimes abbreviated

to OOBE or OBE,

what name is given to the phenomenon...?

Order of the British Empire.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

What name is given to the phenomenon in which people have the sensation

that their conscious cells exist in a separate location from...?

Out of body experience.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Oriel College, these bonuses are on the miners' strike of 1984-85.

Firstly, the president of the NUM from 1981 to 2002,

who led the miners into the year-long confrontation

with the Conservative government?

Arthur Scargill.

-Arthur...?

-Arthur Scargill.

Nominate Siantonas.

Arthur Scargill.

Correct.

Which Scottish-born industrialist headed the National Coal Board

during the miners' strike, having been appointed in 1983?

Any idea?

Come on, Brits.

THEY WHISPER

Donald Trump!

No, it wasn't! As described by Arthur Scargill,

an elderly imported American, but in fact, he was Ian MacGregor.

And finally, for five points...

On June 18th 1984, one of the most violent clashes of the dispute

took place between striking miners and police officers

at a coking plant in which South Yorkshire village?

Don't look at me.

Is there no village in South Yorkshire?

Middleton.

No, it was Orgreave.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

What element is being described?

A metalloid with a melting point of 1,400 degrees Celsius,

it makes up almost 28% by mass of the Earth's crust

and was first isolated...

Silicon.

Silicon is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses, Manchester, on biochemistry.

Firstly, for five points,

what membrane-bound process separates hydrogen atoms

into protons and high-energy electrons?

This is the major metabolic pathway

for the synthesis of ATP in eukaryotic cells.

THEY WHISPER

-Mitochondria?

-Yeah, but what's the process?

Is that the process?

Come on, let's have an answer, please.

Krebs cycle.

The Krebs cycle.

No, it's oxphos.

Secondly, also known as the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway,

what is the name of the process that takes place in most cells and

involves a sequence of ten chemical reactions that breaks down glucose?

Krebs cycle.

Krebs cycle.

No, it's glycolysis.

And finally, the TCA or tricarboxylic acid cycle

is often known by the name of which British biochemist

born in Germany in 1900?

Krebs!

The Krebs cycle.

It is Hans Krebs, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, we're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of popular music.

Ten points if you can identify the American artist.

RHYTHM AND BLUES SONG PLAYS

Cole Porter.

Cole Porter?!

LAUGHTER

An amusing guess.

Manchester, off you go, come on, one of you try.

Woody Guthrie?

No, it's not Woody Guthrie, either. It's Bo Diddley.

Right, we're going to take music bonuses in a moment or two.

Ten points at stake for this.

Fingers on the buzzers, please.

Featuring such superlatives as "modern industrial agriculture

"might well be the greatest crime in history",

which 2014 book by the Israeli academic Yuval Noah Harari

is subtitled A Brief History Of Humankind?

Its title is the Latin for wise.

Sapiens.

Sapiens is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

We follow on from what you personally thought was Cole Porter,

it was, in fact, Bo Diddley.

That was his self-titled debut single.

We follow that with bonuses -

three more tracks - that are written around variations

of that particular rhythmic pattern, the so-called Bo Diddley Beat.

In each case, I want you to identify the band or artist performing.

Firstly...

POP MUSIC PLAYS

It does sound a bit like Modest Mouse.

-I don't think it's Radiohead.

-It's not Radiohead.

Modest Mouse.

No, that's The Cure's Close To Me.

Secondly...

ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

Wait a minute...

We don't know.

That's The Clash.

And finally...

POP MUSIC PLAYS

THEY WHISPER

-I don't know.

-Better go for that.

All right, we'll go with that.

Wham!

Well, you're close. It's George Michael.

Right, ten points for this.

On his death in 1926,

which French artist did The Times call the great painter of light?

His works include...

Monet.

Monet is correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on world currencies, Oriel.

Used in several countries, including Algeria and Jordan,

which currency takes its name from a Roman coin whose name means

containing ten, as it originally equalled ten asses?

That's the dinar.

Correct.

A former currency of Ecuador was named after

which independence leader, a close friend of Simon Bolivar?

Anyone other than Bolivar that we know?

Fernandez.

No, it's the sucre.

And a present and former currency of several Mediterranean countries,

which four-letter name derives from that of a Roman unit of 12oz?

The lira.

Correct. Ten points for this.

What ordinal number links an architectural style,

also called Napoleon III,

the theological concept of parousia

and an internet simulation network created in 2003 by...?

Three.

No, you lose five points.

..by the US company Linden Research?

Second.

Second is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses, Manchester, are on operas that premiered

at Venice's Teatro La Fenice, otherwise known as The Phoenix.

In each case, name the work and its composer.

Premiered at La Fenice in 1830,

which opera's characters include Tebaldo, Capellio and Giulietta?

Oh, Romeo And Juliet.

Romeo And Juliet.

It is the Romeo and Juliet story, but actually the opera was

The Capulets And The Montagues, by Bellini,

so I can't accept that, I'm afraid.

Secondly, for five points,

the Duke of Mantua and the titular jester are characters

in which opera, premiered in 1851?

I don't know.

THEY WHISPER

The Marriage Of Figaro.

No, it's Verdi's Rigoletto.

And, finally, premiered at La Fenice in 1954,

the ambiguous narrative of which opera

takes place in an English country house called Bly?

Britten, so...

Turn Of The Screw?

-No, no.

-Peter Grimes.

Peter Grimes, by Britten?

-No, that's not...

-Turn Of The Screw.

-Turning Of The Screw.

-Yes, I'll be kind.

It's The Turn Of The Screw and your colleague told you

it was by Benjamin Britten, so that's fine.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

Which four letters link a motorcycle stunt performer,

who died in Florida in 2007...

E, V, I, L.

No, you lose five points.

..with a proposed solution to the West Lothian problem

in British politics?

-E, V, E, L.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE English votes for English laws.

So, you get a set of bonuses on chemical elements now.

What is the IUPAC name for the element in period seven,

group 18 of the periodic table?

It has the highest atomic number listed so far.

THEY WHISPER

Ununoctium.

Correct.

After a Russian physicist,

what is the iupac-approved name for the superheavy element 114?

THEY WHISPER

Flerovium.

Correct. And finally,

what is the iupac-approved name for the superheavy element 116,

named after the US laboratory where was discovered?

-Livermorium.

-Correct.

We're going to take a second picture round now.

For your picture starter you're going to see a painting.

For ten points, I want you to identify the artist.

Whistler.

It is Whistler, yes.

That was his picture, Old Battersea Bridge.

In 1905, that work by Whistler became the first major acquisition

of the newly-founded National Art Collections Fund,

now called the Art Fund.

Your bonuses, three more works recently secured

for British galleries with the help of the Art Fund.

I want the name of the artist, in each case, please.

Firstly, for five...

It could be Turner.

Turner.

It is Turner's Blue Rigi,

secured for the Tate collections in 2007.

Secondly...

Someone, I don't know, neoclassical.

Poussin or something.

Who?

THEY WHISPER

I don't know.

No, no. Well, maybe it is, maybe it's Renaissance, I don't know.

It could be.

I don't think it's Poussin.

Botticelli's a bit better.

Botticelli.

No, its Titian.

It's Diana And Actaeon.

Finally, this is a self-portrait by which artist?

Van Dyck?

Could be.

That fits the clothes.

-Van Dyck, maybe?

-Yeah, I'll go for that.

All right. Van Dyck.

It is Van Dyck.

Right, ten points for this.

Which final two digits link the years

of the Battles of Rocroi, in the Thirty Years' War,

Dettingen in the War of the Austrian Succession

and the World War II battle of Kursk?

43.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on 14th-century history.

Around 1360,

Murad I succeeded his father Orhan as ruler of which dynasty,

named after its nomadic first chief?

Could it be the...?

I mean, that's pretty late so it could be, I don't know,

the Seleucids, the Ottomans, the Seljuks, maybe?

Seljuks sounds a bit late for then.

The Seljuks.

No, it was the Ottomans.

Secondly, in about 1360,

Murad captured which city in eastern Thrace,

then known as Adrianople, the second city of the Byzantine Empire?

It is now a major city in Turkey's European region.

It's not Istanbul.

Erdine or something?

Sure.

Erdine.

Yes, I'll accept that. It's Edirne or Edirn-eh, I think.

Murad was killed at which battle of 1389?

It shares its name with a country that declared independence in 2008

and is recognised by more than 20 EU member states.

Kosovo?

Montenegro is recognised by... Kosovo.

-Kosovo.

-Correct. Kosovo is correct.

Three minutes to go, ten points for this.

Listen carefully. Give two answers, as soon as your name is called.

The short English names of four countries contain the letter Q.

One is Iraq.

Name any two of the others.

Er...

Sorry, if you buzz, you must answer straight away.

Equatorial Guinea and Mozambique.

Correct. Qatar's the other one.

APPLAUSE

I'm sorry, you really can't do that.

You can't buzz and then think, you must know the answer.

Right, your bonuses, Oriel College, are on a Japanese cinema.

Which director successfully sued Sergio Leone

after the Italian film-maker adapted Yojimbo as the spaghetti western,

A Fistful Of Dollars?

That's got to be Kurosawa.

Yep.

-Kurosawa.

-Correct.

Which 2004 Oscar-nominated film by the director Yoji Yamada

is about a low-level samurai, named Seibei,

who works as a clerk in the clan office?

The only film I know's Spirited Away and it's not that, so I don't know.

I have no idea. We don't know.

It's The Twilight Samurai.

And, finally, the 1953 film, Tokyo Story,

regarded by many critics as one of the greatest films ever made,

is the work of which director?

Not Kurosawa, the other one.

-Owi?

-What is it?

Owi.

Owi.

No, it's Ozu.

Ten points for this. Discovered by Portuguese navigators

on January 1, 1502, Guanabara Bay lies to the east of which city,

named after the mistaken belief that the bay itself was a river?

Rio de Janeiro.

Rio de Janeiro is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on a French chateau, Manchester.

The chateauneuf at Saint-Germain-en-Laye,

west of Paris,

was the birthplace in 1638 of which royal figure?

-Louis XVI.

-Which one?

Louis XVI.

Try XIV.

Louis XIV?

-Louis XIV.

-Correct.

Born at St James's Palace in London in 1633,

which former monarch died at the Chateau of Saint Germain in 1701?

James II.

-James II.

-Correct.

In 1919, the Treaty of Saint Germain was signed

between the Allied powers and representatives

of which specific country?

Austria-Hungary.

Austria-Hungary.

Not Austria-Hungary.

Austria is correct, so I'm afraid you can't have the points.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

According to the US historian and critic Lewis Mumford

in his 1931 work on urban architecture

entitled The Brown Decades,

"every generation revolts against its fathers

"and makes friends with..."

GONG

And at the gong, Manchester University have 95,

Oriel College, Oxford 150.

APPLAUSE

Bad luck, Manchester,

I'm afraid we're going to have to say goodbye to you.

Oriel, well done. We'll look forward to seeing you in round two.

Congratulations to you.

I hope you can join us next time, for another first-round match

but until then, it's goodbye from Manchester University.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Oriel College, Oxford.

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

APPLAUSE