Episode 6 University Challenge

University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. Too late now to wish they'd applied for Pointless,

instead, two more teams of students are about to tackle several dozen

general knowledge questions in full view of an expectant nation,

with the chance to do it all over again in the second round

for the winners. We might see tonight's losers again,

if they're among the four highest-scoring losing teams

from these first-round matches too.

Now, Oxford Brookes University began life in the 19th century

as a one-room art school in the city centre.

The artist and author John Henry Brookes became

its vice principal in 1928,

and was a powerful influence on its development over the next 30 years.

In 1970, it became Oxford Polytechnic,

and it took its present form as a university in 1992.

Alumni include the politicians Lynne Featherstone and Jonathan Djanogly,

and the double-Olympic rowing gold medallist, Steve Williams.

With an average age of 36 and representing around 17,000 students,

let's meet the Oxford Brookes team.

Hello, I'm Inigo Purcell, I'm from Chiswick in west London,

and I'm a third-year English literature student.

Hello, I'm Pat O'Shea, I live in Oxford and I'm studying film.

And this is their captain.

Guten Tag, hoeijendagh, bonjour - I'm Thomas De Bock,

I'm from Liege in Belgium, and I study motorsport engineering.

Hi, I'm Emma-Ben Lewis, I'm originally from Woodford Green in

north-east London, and I'm studying for a Master's in psychology.

APPLAUSE

Now, the Courtauld Institute of Art owes its foundation

to a number of art collectors in the 1930s,

among them the textile magnate, Samuel Courtauld,

who leant the Institute both his name and the bulk of its funding.

And it now occupies a corner of Somerset House

on the Strand in London.

The spy Anthony Blunt was its director from 1947 until 1974,

where he taught the late Brian Sewell.

Andrew Graham-Dixon studied there, as did the actor Vincent Price,

the former director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor,

and the former director of the Tate, Nicholas Serota.

With an average age of 23 and representing only 460 students,

let's meet some of the current lot.

Hi, I'm Ty Vanover I'm from Clintwood, Virginia,

and I'm studying for an MA in 19th-century art.

Hi, I'm Margaret-Anne Logan from Patchogue, New York,

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

And here's their captain.

Hello, I'm Harvey Shepherd, I'm from Chesterfield in north Derbyshire,

and I'm studying for a BA in the history of art.

Hello, I'm Jack Snape, I'm from Bolton and I'm studying

for a Master's degree in the conservation of wall paintings.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are the same as ever.

Starter questions are worth 10 points,

they have to be answered on your own, on the buzzer,

but you can confer on bonuses for a possible 15 points.

So, fingers on the buzzers, here's the first starter for ten -

from a word meaning "forced labour",

what short word did the Czech author, Karel Capek...?

Robot.

Robot is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So you get the first set of bonuses, Oxford Brookes,

they're on English indie bands.

Chocolate and The City are tracks on the 2013 number-one debut album

by which Manchester four-member band?

Its name includes the year that saw the Sex Pistols first gig

at St Martin's School of Art.

-1975.

-The 1975?

Correct.

In 2015, which band had their first number-one album with

Marks To Prove It?

Their name is that of a priestly family of Jews who organised

a successful rebellion against Antiochus IV

in the second century BC.

I think it begins with M...

-Maccabees?

-Maccabees, yeah.

-Maccabees.

-The Maccabees is right.

And finally, which band had

a number-one album in 2013 with Bad Blood?

It shares its name with the Paris fortress that was

first used by Colonel Richelieu as a state prison?

-Bastille.

-Correct.

Ten points for this - now in common use,

which two terms did William Whewell recommend

in 1834 for describing opposing directions of electric current

after rejecting...?

AC/DC.

No. ..after rejecting... You lose five points too.

..after rejecting some of Michael Faraday's suggestions?

-Positive and negative?

-No, it's anode and cathode.

Ten points for this - what seven-letter word is this?

Originally an American slang term for a dishonest means of regulating

a gambling game, it can also mean an item used

in a conjuring trick, a professional wrestler's in-ring persona...

Prestige.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..a professional wrestler's in-ring persona,

and a showy device used to attract attention or publicity.

You may not confer, one of you may buzz.

-Enigma?

-No, it's a gimmick.

Ten points for this - although considered to be

one of the founding members of the Impressionist movement, which

French artist preferred to call himself a realist or an independent?

His outdoor scenes...

-Edouard Manet?

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

..his outdoor scenes often depicted horse races,

but he's chiefly associated with indoor subjects,

such as lawn dresses and ballet dancers?

Degas.

Degas is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Galileo, Oxford Brookes.

In 1613, Galileo published a work on what astronomical phenomena,

disputing Christophe Scheiner's contention that there were

satellites orbiting a major heavenly body?

Erm...

Meteors?

Could be that there may be satellites around the moon?

Satellites around the moon?

No, it's sunspots.

Studied and named by Galileo in 1599,

which curve is the locus of a point on the rim of a circle

of radius A, if the circle is rolled along a straight line?

That is a cycloid... Cycloid?

Correct.

When Galileo used a telescope to observe the night sky,

which was the furthest of the planets he studied in detail?

He initially described it as, "Not a single star,

"but a composite of three, which almost touch each other."

Maybe, like, Saturn, and he thinks maybe Saturn and...?

-Yeah.

-Saturn.

Saturn is correct.

Ten points for this -

the body of Mary Queen of Scots was interred for a time at which

East Anglian cathedral before it was removed to Westminster Abbey,

at the wish of James I?

Catherine of Aragon was also buried there,

and is commemorated each year by a festival in January.

Norwich.

Anyone like to buzz from Oxford Brookes?

Peterborough.

Peterborough is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Ancient Greece and modern theme parks.

In each case, listen to the explanation

and give the single-word name of the roller coaster

and the name of the UK theme park at which it's located.

Firstly, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world,

it commemorated a victory over Demetris the Besieger,

the son of Antigonus the One-eyed.

It's Colossus, but what's the theme park?

-Thorpe Park?

-Yeah.

Nominate Purcell.

-Colossus at Thorpe Park?

-Correct.

Secondly, a long, poetic work,

its characters include Polyphemus, Calypso and Circe?

-Odyssey.

-But where is it?

There's only a certain number of theme parks.

Chessington...?

Yeah, go for that.

Nominate Lewis.

Odyssey, Chessington World of Adventures.

No, it is Odyssey, but it's at Fantasy Island, near Skegness.

LAUGHTER And finally...

Why is Skegness funny?

And finally, the single-word name of which roller coaster means -

"Spirit of retribution against those who display hubris"?

-Nemesis, Alton Towers?

-OK.

Nemesis, Alton Towers.

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Time for a picture round.

We're going to take a picture starter,

which will show you three flags.

For ten points, name the country that's bordered by

all three of these countries.

-Cambodia.

-Cambodia is correct.

They're the flags of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

APPLAUSE

For your bonuses, you're going to see three more sets of three flags,

in each case, name the country that borders all three, but no others.

Firstly...

That's Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya.

Like...Somalia.

Somalia would be my guess.

-Somalia?

-Correct.

Secondly...

Guyana, Brazil and France.

So, Suriname.

Suriname.

Suriname is right. And finally...

So, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro.

Erm...

Bosnia?

It could be Bosnia.

-Bosnia-Herzegovina.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this -

born in Brunswick in 1777,

which German mathematician gives his name both to the law that

states that the electric flux across...?

-Gauss.

-Gauss is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on fathers and sons known as

the elder and the younger.

Firstly, for five points -

give the surname of the two 18th-century British architects

and town planners, best known for Palladian buildings

in Bath, such as the Circus and the Royal Crescent.

THEY CONFER

Me? The surname, I don't know.

I have no idea.

-Pass.

-It's Wood, the elder and younger.

Secondly, what name can denote either of two Roman literary

figures, the elder being a teacher of rhetoric, while the younger

was an author of verse tragedies, who tutored the Emperor Nero?

-Seneca.

-Correct.

Give the surname of the two 16th-century Flemish painters,

whose works between them include The Peasant Wedding

and The Census At Bethlehem?

-HE USES FLEMISH PRONUNCIATION, THEN CORRECTS TO ENGLISH

-Breugel.

Breugel is correct, yes.

Or as we call it, incorrectly, no doubt.

You would know.

Ten points for this - "A happy ending was imperative,

"I was determined that, in fiction, anyway, two men should fall

"in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows."

These words refer to which novel, published in 1971...?

-Maurice.

-Maurice is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

By EM Forster.

So you get your first set of bonuses, Courtauld,

they're on American artists.

Firstly, born in 1915, which abstract expressionist

created the series entitled Elegy To The Spanish Republic?

His surname is also the name of a town in North Lanarkshire.

-Robert Motherwell.

-Correct.

Secondly, appearing in various forms in different media,

which pop artist's most enduring image is the word "love"

in upper case, red lettering,

with the L and a tilted O on top of the V and E?

In 1958, he changed his surname to that of his home state.

-Robert Indiana.

-Correct.

And finally, adopting the name

of the Midwest city in which she was born,

which feminist artist's works include the large,

1970s, mixed-media installation entitled The Dinner Party?

Judy Chicago.

-Judy Chicago.

-Correct.

Ten points for this -

in the 1947-48 cricket season, the Australian Bill Brown

was twice run out while backing up, by which Indian bowler?

His name is now used eponymously for this form of dismissal,

regarded by some as controversial.

Bodyline.

No, that was a style of bowling.

No, anyone like to buzz from The Courtauld?

It's Mankad. Ten points for this - published in 2016,

The Bricks That Built The Houses is the debut novel by which

south London poet, playwright, spoken-word performer and rapper...?

-Kate Tempest.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get three questions on the shipping forecast, Oxford Brookes.

Two shipping forecast areas share their names with firths,

or estuaries, on the Scottish coast.

Please name both of them.

Forth and...?

-I don't know, Clyde?

-Yeah.

-Try that.

Forth and Clyde?

No, it's Forth and Cromarty.

And secondly, in 2002, the Finisterre shipping forecast area

was renamed after which historical figure,

the founder of the meteorological office?

I don't, sorry.

Does anyone listen to the shipping forecast at all?

Just say somebody's name.

Erm...Smith.

No, it's Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle.

And finally, "Is this your ridiculous idea of a joke?" -

says a teacher in the 1969 film Kes,

when Billy Casper interrupts his reading of the register

after the name Fisher.

What shipping forecast area does Billy call out?

-German Bight.

-Dogger.

-Dogger? Is it Dogger?

Dogger.

No, it's German Bight.

Ten points for this -

what six-letter surname links a general who

defected to the British during the American Revolution...?

Arnold.

Arnold is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on the works of Tennyson, Courtauld.

In a poem by Tennyson, who what is described as sleeping...

"Below the thunders of the ancient deep

"Far, far beneath, in the abysmal sea

"His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep"?

-King Arthur.

-No, it's the Kraken.

"To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield,"

is the last line of which dramatic monologue by Tennyson,

named after a figure in Greek myth?

Odysseus.

Odysseus.

No, it's Ulysses.

And finally, referring to an episode in Homer's Odyssey,

which poem by Tennyson states that,

"Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil"?

THEY CONFER

Circe.

No, it's the Lotus-eaters.

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

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of music from an opera.

For ten points, I want you to name the opera, please.

SPARSE, ETHEREAL MUSIC

# Summertime... #

Porgy and Bess.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Summertime is, of course, one of the most-covered songs of all time.

For your music bonuses, three more recordings of Summertime,

each by a different solo artist.

Five points in each case if you can give me the name of the artist.

Firstly...

LIVELY JAZZ SAXOPHONE

Charlie Parker did play saxophone.

-Miles Davis?

-No, Miles Davis was the trumpet.

No, I think Charlie Parker seems... Charlie Parker?

-Charlie Parker.

-No, that's John Coltrane.

Secondly, who's this?

SHUFFLING BLUES SOPRANO SAX AND GUITAR

I don't think it's Miles Davis, because I think of Kind Of Blue...

Louis Armstrong?

No, that's Sidney Bechet. And finally...

BRASS-BACKED FEMALE VOCALS

# Summertime

# And the living is easy

# Fish are jumping

# And the cotton is high... #

Billie Holiday.

It is Billie Holiday, yes.

APPLAUSE Right, ten points for this -

with a total mass probably no more than 5% of that of our moon,

which group of objects are classified according to their

reflection spectra by letters including S for siliceous,

M for metallic, and C for carbonaceous?

Asteroids.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on the British coast,

this time, Oxford Brookes.

Flamborough Head is a chalk promontory that separates

Filey Bay from which other bay, immediately to the south?

It's also named after a seaside resort.

Whitby?

-Because they're both in Yorkshire.

-Yes, yes. Go for Whitby.

Whitby?

No, it's Bridlington Bay.

At the Battle of Flamborough Head,

the Bonhomme Richard embarrassed the Royal Navy by capturing HMS Serapis.

During which conflict did that occur?

So, it's British and...American, did I hear?

Or something else completely?

I don't know.

Conflict in British waters, I don't know...

-Could it be the Civil War?

-No, not in the water.

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

-Sorry, we don't know.

-It's the American War of Independence.

And finally - a few miles north of Flamborough Head, Bempton Cliffs

is the site of a visitor centre owned by which registered charity?

-Is that Salvation Army?

-RSPCA?

RSP... Birds.

-The RSPB.

-Yep, go with that.

-What's that?

-RSPB.

RSPB.

The RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, is correct.

Ten points for this -

"Is he French or is he Flemish?

"Whatever we say, someone will complain."

To which painter does this refer?

Born in 168...

-Watteau.

-Watteau is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses, Courtauld Institute, on human anatomy.

To which organ of the human body does the adjective "otic" refer?

The spleen.

No, it's the ear.

Secondly, which two nerve branches transmit sensory impulses

for balance and hearing to the brain?

Any ideas?

-Central nervous system...

-No, it's the vestibular and the cochlear.

And finally, the cochlear and the vestibular nerves form

a cranial nerve given what numerical designation?

-Ten.

-No, it's eight, or the eighth.

Ten points for this -

in 1984, what did George Orwell describe as,

"The one public event to which the proles paid serious attention?"

Ford's Day?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

"..the proles paid serious attention.

"It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne,

"their intellectual stimulant."

You may not confer.

Drinking.

No, it's the lottery.

Ten points for this - which novel by Thackeray relates the life

and times of its eponymous narrator, an 18th-century Irishman...?

-Barry Lyndon.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on women buried in London's Highgate Cemetery.

Born in Bournemouth in 1880,

which author was noted for The Unlit Lamp and The Well Of Loneliness?

Any ideas?

..I think early '20s...

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

-Erm...

Ah...

Agatha Christie.

No, I don't think so, no. It's Radclyffe Hall.

Born in London in 1829, a poet, artist

and model for several of the Pre-Raphaelite artists,

known by what name before she married

Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1860?

-Lizzie Siddal.

-Correct.

And finally - born in London in 1902,

an author and journalist noted for the 1932 novel, Cold Comfort Farm?

-Stella Gibbons.

-Correct.

Right, we're going to take another picture round now.

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

Ten points if you can tell me who painted it?

Turner.

No, anyone like to buzz from The Courtauld? Quickly?

You should have got this!

It's by Constable.

So we're going to take the picture bonuses in a moment or two,

when someone gets a starter question right.

Ten points at stake for this - the eighth-century Muslim saint,

Rabiah al-Adawiyah, is seen principally as a mystic

with direct experience of the divine,

and hence is associated with which branch of Islam?

-Sufi.

-Sufism is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Now, you'll recall that you failed to identify

John Constable's Harwich Lighthouse, which is

part of the collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

For your bonuses, you're going to see

three more English artists who are housed there.

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

THEY CONFER

Come on.

Erm...Waterhouse.

No, that's Edwin Landseer, The Hunting Of Chevy Chase.

Secondly, who's this by?

THEY CONFER

Turner.

No, that's by Joseph Wright of Derby. And finally...

-Ford Madox Brown.

-Correct.

You would have been in really deep doo-doo if you hadn't got that one.

Right, ten points for this - whose use of the

modularity conjecture for semistable elliptic curves was noted

in the official citation for the Abel Prize for mathematics in 2016,

in particular, as part of his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem?

-Wiles.

-Andrew Wiles is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So you get a set of bonuses on African capitals.

In each case, name both the capital and its country.

Firstly, the first four letters of the name of which African

capital spell a word meaning a thump or sudden explosive noise?

Bang. It might just be bang?

Mombasa...?

I don't know what starts with a bang.

-Starts with bang?

-Three letters?

-No, four letters.

Erm...

I can't think of anything, really.

Ah...

Oh, Bangui, Central African Republic.

Correct, yes.

The first four letters of which capital spell an everyday, natural

phenomenon, examples of which include helm, chinook and mistral?

It's wind, so Windhoek...

-Windhoek, Namibia.

-Correct.

And finally, the first four letters of which capital spell

the name of an extinct, flightless bird of Mauritius?

Dodo... So, Dodoma, Tanzania.

-Dodoma, Tanzania.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points at stake for this - in 1935 and '57,

which current German state was returned to Germany...?

-Saarland.

-Saarland is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on baroque architecture now, Oxford Brookes.

One of Germany's largest baroque palaces, the Ludwigsburg is

situated in the south-west, just north of which state capital?

What's southwest?

It's Baden-Wurttemberg, so it might be Stuttgart that's around there.

-Munich?

-No, Munich is south-east.

Stuttgart?

Stuttgart is correct.

And secondly, a Unesco World Heritage Site,

the baroque residence of the former Prince-bishops is in which

Bavarian city, between Nuremberg in Frankfurt?

It's not Munich, that's nowhere near.

Heidelberg?

I don't think that's in Bavaria.

We can try that.

Heidelberg?

No, it's Wurzburg.

And finally, the Chinese House is in the grounds of the

Palace of Sanssouci, in which German state capital, not far from Berlin?

Leipzig isn't far from Berlin?

I don't know if it's a state capital.

Leipzig?

-No, it's Potsdam.

-Potsdam!

Ten points for this -

in 1914, the ruler of which Empire held

titles including King of Jerusalem, Lord of the Windic March,

Grand Prince of Transylvania and Grand Duke...?

-Ottoman Empire.

-No, you lose five points.

..and Grand Duke of Tuscany and Krakow?

One of you buzz, Courtauld?

Austro-Hungarian Empire?

Correct. You get a set of bonuses now on the US performer, Danny Kaye.

Firstly for five - early in his career,

Danny Kaye was noted for a patter song that recited names

such as Stravinsky, Glinka and Rachmaninov in rapid succession.

Which composer is the title figure of the song?

THEY CONFER

Come on.

Who did Flight Of The Bumblebee?

Let's have it, please.

Tchaikovsky.

It is Tchaikovsky. And other Russians.

In a 1947 film, Kaye played which henpecked husband,

the title character of a short story by James Thurber?

THEY CONFER

-Come on.

-We don't know.

It's Walter Mitty, as in The Secret Life Of.

And finally, form the 1950s...

GONG

And at the gong, the Courtauld Institute of Art have 85,

Oxford Brookes have 175.

APPLAUSE

Well, bad luck, Courtauld.

You are going to get some stick for not identifying one or two

of those paintings, I think. But never mind. Thank you very much.

And Oxford Brookes, congratulations to you, we shall look forward to

seeing you in the second round. Thank you for joining us.

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

But until then, it's goodbye from the Courtauld Institute of Art...

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Oxford Brookes University...

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

APPLAUSE