Episode 14 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. It's the last of the first-round matches tonight.

13 teams have gone through to the next stage of the competition,

and whichever of tonight's two is ahead at the gong will join them.

If the losers are to have a chance of staying alive,

they'll need a score of 140 or more.

Merton College, Oxford was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton,

the Bishop of Rochester, and was the first college in Oxford

to receive a charter as a self-governing body.

Its Mob Quadrangle is said to be the oldest court in the university,

and its library, dating from 1373, claims to be

the world's oldest academic library in continuous daily use.

Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Gilbert Scott have contributed

to its architecture.

Its fellows have included JRR Tolkien,

and alumni include the poet TS Eliot,

Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the Bodleian library,

and the writer Max Beerbohm,

whose time there inspired his novel Zuleika Dobson.

With an average age of 23, representing around 580 students,

let's meet the Merton team.

Hello, my name's Edward Thomas.

I'm originally from Oxford, though I now live in Kent,

and I'm reading ancient and modern history.

Hello, I'm Alexander Peplow. I'm from Amersham in Buckinghamshire,

and I'm reading for a master's in medieval studies.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Leonie Woodland. I'm originally from Cambridge,

and I'm studying physics.

Hello, my name's Akira Wiberg. I'm from Sweden and Japan,

and I'm reading for a doctorate in molecular and cellular medicine.

APPLAUSE

Now, King's College London was founded in 1828 under George IV

as a Church of England alternative

to the more secular University College London

which had been set up a couple of years earlier.

The Duke of Wellington's support for the institution

was one of the reasons he and the Earl of Winchelsea fought a duel

in 1829, which they both survived,

and which the college still commemorates every March.

The college remains part of the University of London,

although, since 2007, it's awarded degrees in its own right.

Famous King's people include the poet John Keats,

the pioneer of antiseptic surgery, Joseph Lister,

Florence Nightingale and, more recently, Archbishop Desmond Tutu

and the theoretical physicist Peter Higgs.

With an average age of 40 and representing nearly 29,000 students,

let's meet the King's - London team.

Hello, I'm Marta. I'm from Lisbon in Portugal,

and I'm studying for a postgraduate certificate in academic practice.

Hello, I'm Richard Senior. I'm originally from Lincolnshire,

and I'm studying for an MA in 18th-century studies.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Caroline Spearing. I'm from London,

and I'm doing a PhD in 17th-century Latin poetry.

Hi, I'm Lochlan Pryer, I'm from the Wirral, and I'm studying geography.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are the same as ever.

10 points for starters, 15 for bonuses.

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

"A revolution is not a bed of roses.

"A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future

"and the past."

Who said that in a speech of 1961 on the second anniversary

of the revolution that made him Prime Minister of his country?

He became President in 1976 and died...

-Fidel Castro.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses, the first set, Merton.

They're on world religions.

In which present-day country is the city of Nankana Sahib,

the birthplace of Guru Nanak, the first guru of the Sikhs?

That's in the Punjab, but I don't know if it's Pakistan or India.

Could be either. Punjab in Pakistan is bigger. Shall we go for that...?

Pakistan.

Correct.

Born in about the sixth century BCE in Bihar state in north-east India,

Mahavira is a major figure in which religion?

It advocates nonviolence in all circumstances.

-Jainism.

-Jainism, yeah.

-Jainism.

Correct.

Which religious teacher is believed to have been born in Lumbini,

a grove near the southern border of Nepal,

in about the sixth or fifth century BCE?

-Is that Siddhartha?

-Yeah, the Buddha.

-The Buddha, yeah.

-The Buddha.

The Buddha is right.

Ten points for this. In taxonomy, human beings

are classed in the genus Homo.

In which order is this genus placed?

Primates.

Primates is right.

APPLAUSE

You get three questions on the Fifa World Cup.

In the 2002 World Cup, which unfancied African team beat

the holders France in the opening match?

France were later eliminated in the group stage after losing to Denmark.

It's a former colony in West Africa.

It's...either Cameroon or...

Ivory Coast. Try that...?

-I don't know.

-Try Ivory Coast...

Ivory Coast.

No, it was Senegal.

In the 2010 tournament, which European team beat

the holders Italy 3-2 in their final group match,

knocking them out of the competition?

France or Germany.

-You sure it's not the Netherlands?

-No, I don't think so.

-OK.

-Go for...

-Who won it in 2010?

-I don't know.

Go for Fra... Germany.

Germany.

No, it's Slovakia.

And finally, in the 2014 World Cup, the holders, Spain, were

knocked out in the group stage after losing twice.

Name either of the teams that beat them.

-That might be the Netherlands.

-Try.

The Netherlands.

Correct. The other one was Chile.

10 points for this. Who's this?

Born in the West Indies in the 1750s,

he played a major role in the American Revolution

and became the first Secretary of the United States...

Alexander Hamilton.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Merton, are on diseases named after

the location in which they were first identified.

Firstly for five points, having a high mortality rate,

which acute febrile viral disease is named after the village

in north-eastern Nigeria where it was first reported in 1969?

-That's Lassa fever.

-Lassa fever.

Correct.

Named after a major East African landform,

which viral fever can be transmitted to humans by mosquitoes

or by the tissues or secretions of infected animals?

-Zika, I think, is from Uganda...

-So, like the West Nile virus...?

-But he said East African.

-Yeah.

Oh, I suppose that could be West Nile...

-Is Zika landform?

-No, it's not. Go for West Nile.

The West Nile virus.

No, it's the Rift Valley fever.

And finally, which haemorrhagic fever is caused by a filovirus

named after the river in the northern Congo Basin

where it first emerged in 1976?

-Ebola.

-Ebola.

-Correct.

We're going to take a picture round.

For your picture starter, you're going to see the first four lines

of one of Shakespeare's sonnets with two words missing.

For 10 points, give me both those missing words.

Minds, finds.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

For your picture bonuses, three more of Shakespeare's sonnets with

a pair of rhyming words removed.

Again, please give me both missing words for the points.

Firstly...

-Sun...

-Sun, dun. Yeah?

Sun and dun.

Sun and dun is correct, yes. Secondly...

I would say find and wind would be a good guess.

Find and wind.

No, it's behold and cold.

And finally...

-Eyes... Hang on. Eyes and cries.

-Eyes and cries.

Eyes and cries.

Correct. Right, 10 points for this.

Originally introduced in a series of children's books from the 1940s,

which group of characters reappeared in 2016...?

The Famous Five.

The famous five is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on events of 1907, this time, Merton.

Thought to be the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book,

a copy of the Diamond Sutra was discovered in a cave

in Western China in 1907.

It dates to 868 in the latter part of which Chinese dynasty?

Is that Song? Tang?

HE WHISPERS

-Sui... I mean, I think Song.

-Song.

-Song.

The Song dynasty.

No, it's the Tang dynasty.

Secondly, under the suzerainty of the Russian Empire,

which territory became the first in Europe to hold

a parliamentary election by universal suffrage

and with women candidates?

It became independent in 1918.

Finland. Finland, yeah.

Finland.

Correct. Along with New Zealand,

which colony became a dominion of the British Empire in 1907?

It joined Canada in 1949.

That's Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland.

Newfoundland.

Newfoundland is correct, yes.

Right, 10 points for this.

In mathematics, what alternative name is given to the box principle

first stated in 1834 by the German Peter Dirichlet...?

The pigeonhole principle.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Merton College, you get another set of bonuses,

this time on an expression.

The words "I am escaped with the skin of my teeth"

appear which book of the Old Testament?

Often cited as an example of wisdom literature,

it presents an explanation of the existence of evil

and suffering in the presence of God.

Is that Job?

-I was going to guess Job.

-Yeah.

Job.

Job is right.

The Skin Of Our Teeth is a stage work by which US author

also noted for the 1927 novel The Bridge Of San Luis Rey?

-Any idea what this is?

-No.

-No.

-No.

-We don't know.

That's Thornton Wilder.

"Insofar as we are the heirs of Greece and Rome,

"we got through by the skin of our teeth."

Which broadcaster and art historian wrote those words

in the opening chapter of the 1969 work Civilisation?

Kenneth Clark.

Correct. 10 points at stake for that.

Which peninsula extends south about 1,000 kilometres to Cape Piai,

the southernmost point of the Asian continent?

The Malay Peninsula.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on serial publications

of the 19th century, Merton.

Established in 1928, which political magazine borrowed its title

from an 18th-century publication by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele?

-Is that The Spectator?

-I was thinking The Spectator.

-Yeah.

The Spectator?

Correct.

The Tracts For The Times were a series of 90 works published

between 1833 and 1841 by the members of which theological group named

after the city with which its founders were closely associated?

-Oxford Movement.

-Yeah.

The Oxford Movement.

Correct.

Surviving for only four issues between January and April 1850,

The Germ was a periodical established by which group

of English painters, poets and critics?

-ALL:

-The Pre-Raphaelites.

-The Pre-Raphaelites.

Correct.

10 points for this. What initial letter

links a unit of length equivalent to one tenth of a nautical mile,

a unit of radioactivity replaced in 1975 by the becquerel,

and the SI units of electrical charge and luminous intensity?

C.

C is correct, yes.

Right, these bonuses are on astronomy, Merton College.

Firstly, for five points, which comet bears the designation 1P

to indicate that it was the first periodic comet

to have its period established?

-That Halley's?

-Halley's Comet.

Halley's Comet.

Correct.

Which two surnames designate comets including 118P, 129P

and the periodic comet that hit Jupiter in 1994?

-Hale-Bopp...I suppose.

-Hale-Bopp.

No, it's Shoemaker and Levy.

Since its mission ended in 2016

in a gentle collision with the comet's nucleus,

which European Space Agency probe is now part of the periodic comet 67P?

So, that must be Philo. Philo.

No, it was Rosetta.

We're going to take a music round now. For your music starter,

you'll hear a piece of popular music.

10 points if you can give me the name of the artist.

SNARE DRUM ROLL

-# War, huh

-Yeah

# What is it good for?

-# Absolutely

-Nothing

# Uh-huh.. #

T. Rex.

No. Anyone like to buzz from King's? You can hear a little more.

-#

-..huh

-Yeah

# Was it good for?

-# Absolutely

-Nothing

# Say it again, y'all

-# War, huh

-Good God!

# What is...? #

Is it Tom Jones?

No, it's not. It's Edwin Starr, his War.

So we'll take the music bonuses in a moment or two. 10 points for this.

The Moth, The Poker Night and Blanche's Chair In The Moon were

among the titles given by Tennessee Williams

to early drafts of which...?

-A Streetcar Named Desire.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

That means you get the music bonuses.

Edwin Starr's War was banned from broadcast on BBC radio

during the Gulf War.

For your music bonuses, three more songs banned by the BBC

during that period.

Five points for each artist you can name. Firstly...

# Help me make the

# Most of freedom and of pleasure... #

Tears For Fears.

It is. Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Secondly...

# Strumming my pain with his fingers... #

Roberta Flack.

It is, yes, Killing Me Softly With His Song.

What a ridiculous organisation it is!

LAUGHTER Finally...

# Saturday, Saturday, Saturday

# Saturday, Saturday, Saturday... #

Elton John.

It is Elton John, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting.

APPLAUSE Right, another starter question.

In the variant of football called futsal,

originating in South America, each team has several substitutes

and a maximum of how many players on the field, including the goalkeeper?

Five.

Five is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Three questions on the British physicist and engineer Hertha Ayrton

for your bonuses.

In 1902, Ayrton published a standard work on what form of lighting?

Its name comes from the shape formed by the high-density current

between two separate conductors.

-Arc.

-Arc.

Correct.

"The police soon traced me to the house of my friend,

"Mrs Hertha Ayrton, and the place straightaway

"became a besieged fortress."

Which campaigner wrote that in an autobiographical work of 1914?

THEY WHISPER

-Emmeline Pankhurst.

-Correct.

When a young woman in the 1870s, Ayrton was an inspiration for

the character of Mirah Cohen in Daniel Deronda,

a novel by which author?

George Eliot.

Correct.

Ten points for this. William Cowper's lines,

"I am monarch of all I survey, my right, there is none to dispute,"

described which man during his time living alone on a remote island

in the South Pacific?

Alexander Selkirk.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses this time on the Cold War, Merton College.

Often referring to the thaw in US-Soviet relations from the 1960s,

what French term means the easing of strained relations between states?

Detente.

Correct.

A form of detente, what German term is used of the approach of

the West German leader Willy Brandt

who sought to improve ties with East Germany?

Gestalt.

No, it's Ostpolitik.

Meaning "openness", what Russian term denotes the practice

initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev that involved greater openness

in debate and in the reporting of events.

Glasnost.

Glasnost is correct.

10 points for this.

A 60km canal linking which two major rivers enables ships

from the Caspian Sea to reach the Black Sea?

The rivers are the two longest of European Russia.

The Volga and the Don.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on two-letter ISO codes for languages.

Firstly, which major language shares a two-letter ISO abbreviation

with a major sporting body founded in 1863?

Its recent executives have included Greg Dyke and Adam Crozier.

That's the FA.

What's that...?

-..a language?

-FA.

And French is FR.

-Farsi maybe.

-Yeah.

-Try that.

Farsi.

Farsi, or Persian is correct, yes.

Which major language shares a two-letter abbreviation

with the canton of Zurich in Switzerland?

-Zulu? Zulu?

-Try that.

Zulu.

No, it's Chinese.

And finally, the two-letter ISO abbreviation of which major language

corresponds to the postal abbreviation of the US state

whose capital is Honolulu?

So HI. So...

-Hindu?

-Hindi.

-Hindi.

Hindi is right.

10 points for this. Which character

in Melville's Moby-Dick shares his name with a biblical outcast...?

-Ahab.

-No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..the son of Abraham and Hagar?

The character is the only one to survive...

Ishmael.

Indeed. "Call me Ishmael."

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the cavalier poets, Merton College.

Having been imprisoned for presenting a Royalist petition

to a hostile House of Commons, which poet wrote the lines,

"Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage."

THEY CONFER

THEY CONFER

We don't know.

That's Richard Lovelace.

And secondly, the Cavalier poet and dramatist Sir John Suckling,

who was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I,

is credited with the invention of which card game?

-Bridge?

-Bridge?

-I thought that was way later.

-OK...

Or contract bridge is way later, anyway.

-Whist?

-Yeah. Whist.

No, it's cribbage.

And finally, which cleric wrote the poem which opens,

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."

-That's Robert Herrick, I think.

-Yeah.

-Robert Herrick.

Correct.

We're going to take a picture round. For your picture starter,

you're going to see a photograph.

10 points if you can identify the subject.

Mata Hari.

It is Mata Hari, yes.

APPLAUSE

Executed in 1917 on charges of espionage for Germany

during the First World War.

For your bonuses, three more figures

known for their involvement in spy craft.

Five points for each you can identify.

Firstly...

-That is Francis Walsingham, I think.

-Francis Walsingham.

It is Francis Walsingham, yes.

He was Elizabeth I's spymaster, of course.

Secondly...

..Harriet Tubman.

-But was she a spy?

-No.

THEY CHUCKLE

Just pass? We don't know.

That's Harriet Tubman, who was a scout for the Union Army

during the American Civil War.

And finally...

-Oh, is that one of the Cambridge Five?

-Yeah.

-Blunt?

-Philby, or...Blunt?

-I don't know.

-Shall we go for Blunt?

-OK.

Blunt.

No, that is Kim Philby.

Part of that same ring, of course, but that was Philby.

Right, 10 points for those.

Answer promptly. In degrees, what is the value of two Pi radians?

360.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Three questions on playing the violin for your bonuses, this time.

When playing the violin,

what technical term denotes the rapid repetition of a single note?

It's usually represented in musical notation

by three thick parallel diagonal lines.

-That's tremolo.

-Tremolo.

-Yeah. Tremolo.

Correct.

Meaning hammered, what French term denotes a percussive strokes

produced by increasing the finger pressure of the index finger

on the bow at the beginning of each note?

Male?

THEY CONFER

Oh, hammered in French... Yeah, something like that.

Malle?

Male.

No, it's martele.

And finally, what Italian musical direction indicates that

the strings of the instrument should be plucked with the fingers

rather than played with the bow?

Pizzicato.

Correct. Another starter question.

Gower, Cannock Chase, the Northumberland Coast and Quantocks

were, in the 1950s, among the first regions of England and Wales

to be given what designation?

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

That is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on income tax, Merton College.

During which decade did William Pitt the Younger introduce

income tax as a temporary measure to cover the cost of war with France?

THEY CONFER

-1790 rings a bell.

-Was there a war...?

THEY CONFER

..French Revolutionary Wars, so if it's actually Napoleonic Wars...

-OK.

-Well, actually...

I don't know, somewhere, somewhere in my guts, I've got 1790s.

-Yeah, go for 1790s.

-1790s.

Correct.

As part of a programme of free trade and tariff reduction,

which Prime Minister reintroduced income tax in 1842?

Is that going to be...Peel? Or...?

Peel.

It was.

In the People's Budget of 1909,

which Chancellor brought in income tax with varying rates

and a supertax for higher levels of income?

-Lloyd George.

-Correct.

10 points for this. Dating from the 1620s,

to which post was Judith Weir appointed...?

-The Master of the King's Music.

-Yes, or Queen's Music.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on stately homes.

Begun in 1687, which stately home in the Derbyshire Dales is

the principal seat of the Dukes of Devonshire?

SHE STUTTERS

They're called... Ch...Chatsworth.

-Chatsworth.

-That's in Derbyshire, yeah.

-Chatsworth.

-Correct.

Which restored medieval castle in West Sussex is

the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk?

-Is that Arundel Castle?

-Arundel Castle.

-Arundel.

Correct.

Rebuilt from a Cistercian abbey in the 18th century,

which stately home is the seat of the Dukes of Bedford?

Um... Abbey...

HE WHISPERS

It's...

No...

-I think we'd better have an answer, please.

-We don't know.

That's Woburn Abbey. 10 points for this.

Lying mainly in the constellations

Dorado and Tucana respectively,

the two major irregular companion galaxies in the Milky Way

are known by what...?

Magellanic Clouds.

Magellanic Clouds is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

You're probably pronouncing it better than I am.

Right, you get a set of bonuses on

the tag lines of British films, King's.

Released in 2000, which British animated film featured the voices

of Mel Gibson, among others, and had the tag line "Escape or die frying"?

THEY CONFER

-Chicken Run.

-Chicken Run.

Correct.

Secondly, "A romantic comedy with zombies" is the tag line

of which 2004 British film directed and co-written by Edgar Wright?

-Shaun Of The Dead.

-Shaun Of The Dead? Shaun Of The Dead.

Correct.

Which 1987 cult black comedy follows

the adventures of two unemployed actors, and had the tag line

"If you don't remember the '60s, don't worry, neither did they."

Withnail And I.

That's correct.

APPLAUSE

Another study question.

What surname links Jacob, a deceased character

in a short novel of 1843, with Bob...?

Marley.

Marley is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on tea, King's.

In each case, identify the tea-growing area

from the description.

Firstly, a state of north-eastern India with its capital at Dispur.

Darjeeling.

No, it's Assam.

Secondly, an upland area in Tamil Nadu state.

Its name means "blue mountains".

-Nilgiri.

-Correct.

And finally, a city in West Bengal about 500km north of Kolkata.

Its name means "place of the thunderbolt".

-Darjeeling.

-Correct.

10 points for this.

In the standard model of

particle physics, what general name is given to particles

with half-integer spin...?

-Fermion.

-Fermions is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on pairs of titles that differ

only in their final word.

For example, Life Of Pi and Life Of Brian.

In each case, listen to the description and give both titles.

Firstly, two novels published in 1957,

one by Jack Kerouac, the other by Nevil Shute.

GONG

APPLAUSE

Well, they are, of course, On The Road and On The Beach.

But, King's, I could hear you sighing with frustration

when they just beat you to the buzzer so often.

But Merton, that was a terrific performance from you,

very well done,

we shall look forward to seeing you in round two of the competition.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you both for joining us.

I hope you can join us next time when we'll have the first

of the play-offs between the highest-scoring losers.

But until then, it's goodbye from King's College London.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Merton College, Oxford. ALL:

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE