Episode 3 University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Welcome to another seasonal demonstration of the wisdom

that's supposed to come with age, as we reach the

midway point in the first round of this contest for teams of graduates.

The four teams with the highest winning scores go through.

Now, students from Magdalen College, Oxford, had been series champions

four times, which is more than any other institution.

No pressure, then. The first of them is an entrepreneur,

whose interests have ranged from pizza parlours to expensive

restaurants, dentistry and greyhound racing.

Until last year, he was also chairman of Channel 4,

which is a television station. Next to him,

someone who knows what it feels like to sit behind that desk.

In 1999, then with the name Fitzpatrick,

she captained Magdalen to one of their series titles.

After which she became a civil servant in the Cabinet Office,

and the Department of Education.

Their captain is one of the UK's leading novelists,

winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and,

more recently, of the Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.

Last month, his latest novel, The Stranger's Child,

was named Book of the Year at the Galaxy National Book Awards.

Finally, a former leader writer for the Telegraph, now specialising

in politics, architecture, language and heroic causes.

Most recently, his attempt to rekindle the country's doomed

love affair with Latin in his book Amo Amas Amat...And All That.

Let's meet the four hoping to say "Veni, vidi, vici."

My name is Luke Johnson.

I graduated in 1983 in Physiology, and I'm a restaurateur.

Hello, I'm Sarah Healey. I read Modern History and English.

I graduated in 1998, and I work at the Department for Education.

And their captain.

Hello, I'm Alan Hollinghurst.

I took my degree in English in 1975, and I'm a writer.

Hello, I'm Harry Mount.

I took my degree in 1993 in Ancient and Modern History,

and I'm a writer and journalist.

APPLAUSE

Now, their opponents tonight represent

University College, London.

And first up, they're fielding a journalist who started

working in Honduras, reporting on local politics after being

thrown out of school for releasing a rat in assembly.

She has since made a career trying to render popular culture

intelligible to Daily Telegraph readers.

Next to her, a performer who once addressed the Oxford Union,

and in doing so, refuted Descartes' maxim, "Cogito ergo sum,"

which makes him of decidedly questionable usefulness tonight.

Their captain is Lady Macgregor of Macgregor of Clan Gregor,

but she's better known to us as a television journalist and

news presenter whose work has taken her from ITN to GMTV and the BBC.

Finally, a journalist who's avoided the laundry chute to oblivion

by staying with the same newspaper for 30 years,

for whom he is now an assistant editor,

having also been Washington correspondent and political editor.

So let's now ask them for the formal "How do you do?"

Hello, I'm Lucy Jones.

I graduated in 2007, with a degree in English Literature,

and I work for the Daily Telegraph.

Hello, I'm Trevor Lock, and I graduated in the '90s from UCL

with a degree in Philosophy, and whilst I wonder what to do

with that, I work as a comedian in people's living rooms.

And their captain.

Hello, I'm Fiona Armstrong.

I graduated in 1980 with a degree in German Literature,

and I work for BBC News, and I write about fishing.

Hello. I'm Michael White.

I read History, graduated in 1966 I'm afraid,

and as Jeremy kindly reminded you, I still work for the Guardian.

APPLAUSE

Well, you all know the rules.

Starter questions are 10 points. They're solo efforts.

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

If you interrupt a starter question incorrectly, there's a fine.

So, fingers on the buzzers. Here's your first starter for 10.

The Rise and Fall of Music Hall and More Than A Game,

the story of cricket's early years, are works by which political figure,

who left the House of Commons at the 2001 General Election?

Julian Critchley?

Anyone like to buzz from UCL?

-John Major.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get the first set of bonuses, then, UCL, on a historical family.

For five points. Originating in the Spanish province of Valencia,

which family produced several popes,

the first being Callixtus III in 1455?

THEY CONFER

Castilians?

Er...no, that's a provincial description. No, the Borgias.

Created Archbishop and Cardinal by his father, Pope Alexander VI,

which Borgia made himself master of several cities of northern Italy,

and was praised by Machiavelli as a model prince?

THEY CONFER

-Cesare.

-Cesare Borgia is correct.

Which illegitimate child of Rodrigo Borgia founded

the San Bernardino Convent, created to house the illegitimate

daughters of her own and other leading families?

-Lucrezia?

-Lucrezia Borgia is correct. 10 points for this.

Catherine of Braganza was the last queen to inhabit

which building on the Strand?

It was redesigned in the Palladian style in the 18th century,

and became home to various...

-Somerset House.

-Correct.

So your first set of bonuses, now, Magdalen College, Oxford,

are on political magazines.

Launched in 1995 by David Goodhart, which monthly title has featured

columns including Dear Wilhelmina, France profonde and Out of Mind?

-Prospect.

-Correct.

Founded in 2008, which monthly magazine describes its core mission

as to "celebrate our civilisation, in particular democracy debate

and freedom of speech, at a time when they're under threat."

-Standpoint.

-Correct.

Which magazine's past editors include Ian Gilmore, Nigel Lawson,

Boris Johnson and Matthew D'Ancona?

-The Spectator.

-Correct. 10 points for this question.

Based at Wrightington Hospital in Lancashire from the early 1960s,

Sir John Charnley was a pioneer of which surg...?

-Hip replacement.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, UCL, are on retirement.

Derived in part from the Greek for "old man," what term denotes

the science that studies the biology, psychology

and sociology of ageing and the problems faced by the elderly?

Geri...geriatrics?

No, that is the medical problems of old age, it's gerontology.

Deriving its name from a militant group, which organisation

was founded by the US activist Maggie Kuhn in 1970,

on her forced retirement from the Presbyterian Church,

and is concerned with the problems faced by those in retirement.

-Grey Panthers.

-Correct. First cited in

the Daily Telegraph in 2003,

the name of which smoked fish is used in the plural to denote

offspring who stay in the parental home well into adulthood,

thereby reducing their parents' retirement savings?

THEY CONFER

-Sorry, we don't know.

-It's a pity, cos you did know. They're kippers.

10 points for this.

Richard Hamilton, a pioneer of British pop art,

who died in September 2011, is noted for Swingeing London,

a silk screen depicting which rock star...?

Er, Mick Jagger and Robert Fraser.

We only needed Mick Jagger, but that's correct.

A set of bonuses for you. They're on primatologists.

Which British primatologist's research in Tanzania includes

the discovery that chimpanzees use tools in the form of sticks,

which they strip of leaves

and use to take termites out of their mounds to eat.

THEY CONFER

-Dian Fossey?

-No, Jane Goodall.

Regarded as the foremost authority on orang-utans,

which German-born scientist received

the prestigious Kalpataru Award in 1977 from the Republic of Indonesia,

given for outstanding environmental leadership?

-We don't know.

-It's Birute Galdikas.

Finally, which American primatologist was,

along with Goodall and Galdikas,

a protege of Louis Leakey, and dubbed one of Leakey's Angels.

She was particularly associated with the study

of the mountain gorillas of Rwanda.

-Dian Fossey.

-That was Dian Fossey, yes.

A picture round now. For your picture starter,

you'll see a map of part of Europe,

with a wine-producing region highlighted.

For 10 points, I'd like you to name the wine region, please.

-Rioja?

-Rioja is correct, yes.

So, your bonuses, Magdalen College, are on maps of three more

wine producing regions from around the world.

In each case, name the wine region highlighted.

Firstly, this specific region.

Burgundy?

No, that's much further south. It's Chablis.

Secondly, the precise region here.

-Stellenbosch.

-Correct.

And finally, this wine region.

-Chianti.

-Correct. Another starter question.

Quote, "Painting is not made to decorate apartments.

It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy."

Which artist made that statement in 1945,

probably in reference to The Charnel House,

and other works by him of the same period?

-Salvador Dali?

-No. Magdalen College, one of you buzz.

You may not confer.

-Picasso?

-Picasso is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

This set of bonuses are on an Elizabethan courtier, Magdalen.

Sir John Harrington was the inventor, in the 1590s

of a version of what now-ubiquitous device?

His godmother, Elizabeth I, had one installed at Richmond Palace,

but was reputed to be too afraid to use it.

-An indoor toilet?

-No, it was a flushing toilet or a water closet.

Among Harrington's achievements was the first translation into English

of which early 16th century verse epic by Ludovico Ariosto?

-Gerusalemme Liberata?

-No, it's Orlando Furioso. Finally...

among Harrington's achievements was the command of

horsemen in Ireland during the Nine Years War, under which nobleman,

to whom Shakespeare dedicated some of his verse?

-Southampton?

-Yes, it is. Henry Wriothesley, yes.

Right, another starter question.

Chushingura is one of the most familiar stories of which country?

The term refers to fictionalised accounts of 47 warriors who

avenge their lord, who's been forced by a corrupt official

to take his own life.

-Japan?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on geography. After the Dead Sea Depression,

the lowest land elevation on earth

is often held to be Lake Assal, close to the junction

of three tectonic plates in which small African country?

THEY CONFER

-I think we'd better have an answer.

-Rwanda.

-No, it's Djibouti.

At a similar elevation to Lake Assal, the Turfan Depression

lies south-east of the city of Urumchi in which Asian country?

-Can we have an answer?

-China?

Correct. The lowest point in South America is the Laguna del Carbon,

more than 100 metres below sea level in which country?

-Peru.

-No, it's Argentina.

A music round, now. For your music starter,

you'll hear a piece of music which featured in a film released in 2001.

For 10 points, I simply want you to name the film.

MUSIC: "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II

Pride and Prejudice?

Anyone like to have a go from Magdalen? You can hear some more...

-Moulin Rouge?

-No, it's Hannibal.

So, music bonuses shortly. Another starter question in the meantime.

Fingers on the buzzers. For 10 points.

Described by its inventor, Jean-Paul Nerriere,

as a tool rather than a language, which international

auxiliary language is a highly simplified form of English,

with a 1500-word vocabulary designed for non-native speakers?

Scouse?

LAUGHTER

No, er...Magdalen College.

-Esperanto?

-No, it's Globish. 10 points for this.

October 2011 saw the announcement of the winner of a competition

by the Royal Institute of British Architects,

the National Grid and the Department of Energy...

-Er, telegraph pole.

-No.

You lose five points. The Department of Energy and...

Erm, it's the electricity...things that carry electricity.

-What are they called?

-Pylons.

-I'm sorry, I can't accept that.

That's what she was looking for, and you were very kind to help out,

but she'd buzzed, so I can't accept that.

Another starter question...

Which village on the River Erne in Ireland lends its name to

the thin, ivory-coloured porcelain manufactured there from 1857?

-Waterford.

-No, UCL, one of you buzz.

You may not confer, one of you can buzz.

-Delph?

-Wrong country altogether. No, it's Belleek, in County Fermanagh.

10 points for this. Which century links

the beginning of the Gupta Dynasty in India,

the fall of the Han Dynasty in China,

the establishment of the Sassanid Empire in Persia,

and the excision of the reforming Roman Emperor, Diocletian?

The 4th?

Anyone like to buzz from Magdalen?

-3rd century.

-The 3rd is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So we follow on, after that interval with the music bonuses, which

we were due to hear earlier, but no-one identified the music starter.

You, however, get the bonuses, having got a starter question right.

Following on from The Blue Danube. Three more pieces of classical music

which have featured in the Hannibal Lecter films.

I want you to name the composer in each case. Firstly, for five...

MUSIC: "Goldberg Variations" by JS Bach

-Mozart?

-No, that's one of the Goldberg Variations by Bach.

The second is a piece composed specifically for Hannibal in 2001.

MUSIC: "Vide Cor Meum" by Patrick Cassidy

-Come on.

-John Taverner?

-No, it's by Patrick Cassidy. And finally...

MUSIC: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Felix Mendelssohn

-Grieg?

-No, that's by Mendelssohn, from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

10 points for this.

The Ariege, Tarn and Lot are among tributaries of which...?

-Garonne.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses, UCL, are on scientific terms.

Specifically, those that can be made using any of the seven

letters of the word "gondola." In each case,

give the word from the description.

Firstly, for five, an animal organ that secretes

substances for use in the body, for example, the thyroid.

THEY CONFER

It sounds a bit, no, well, the only thing we can come up with, dongon.

Whereabouts in the body is that?

-I'm not sure. But if I say it with authority.

-No, it's a gland.

Secondly. Pertaining to the joint of a stem, or the part where

a leaf or several leaves are inserted,

or to a point of intersection in general.

-Gload. We're having a big guess, there.

-No, it's nodal.

Finally, for five points,

the three-letter short form of a term meaning "power to which

a fixed number of base must be raised to produce a given number."

-Come on.

-We don't know that one.

-No, it's log.

10 points for this. Deriving from a Maldivian word,

what term denotes a ring-shaped coral reef that surrounds a lagoon?

Examples include the Chagos Bank in the Indian Ocean,

and Bikini in the Pacific.

-Atoll.

-Correct. Here are your bonuses. They're on Italian cheeses.

Which cheese is an essential ingredient of the dessert tiramisu?

-Mascarpone.

-Correct.

Which cheese is produced primarily in Sardinia, Sicily and Tuscany,

and has a name deriving ultimately from the Latin meaning "sheep?"

-Come on.

-Ovario?

-No, it's Pecorino.

Finally, which soft blue-vein cheese was developed

in the 1960s for the British market as a milder alternative to

Gorgonzola, and has a name which is the Italian for sweet milk?

-Dolcelatte.

-Correct.

A picture round, now. For your starter you'll see a painting.

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

-Ford Madox Brown?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Following on from that, he was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites.

You're going to see three paintings by artists

who were members of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

And unusually for that group, it's a landscape painting in each case.

Five points for each artist you can name. Firstly.

-Holman Hunt?

-Indeed, it's the scene in Cornwall. Secondly...

-Rossetti?

-No, that's by James Collinson. And finally...

Who painted that?

-Rossetti?

-No, that's by Millais. The Sound of Many Waters of 1876.

Right, listen carefully.

6, 28, 496 and 8,128 are the first four examples

of what type of number, defined as a positive integer that is

the sum of all its divisors apart from itself.

-Prime?

-No, UCL, one of you may buzz.

Proud?

No, another P. It's perfect. 10 points for this starter question.

What area of Stoke-on-Trent took its name from an ancient

state of central Italy known for its artistic...?

-Etruria.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on the novels of Thomas Hardy. In each case,

identify the character, from DH Lawrence's description or opinion.

Firstly, for five. "Monkish, passionate, medieval,

belonging to woman yet striving away from her, refusing to know her."

-Tess?

-No, it was Jude Fawley of Jude The Obscure.

Secondly, "Dark, wild, passionate, quite conscious of her desires

and inheriting no tradition which would make her ashamed of them,

since she is of a novelistic Italian birth."

Which of Hardy's characters is Lawrence describing?

-Shall we have an answer, please?

-Tess?

No, it's Eustacia Vye. And, finally...

"She is passive out of self-acceptance.

A true aristocratic quality amounting almost

to self-indifference."

-Tess, I think.

-That is Tess, yes.

Right, four minutes to go. 10 points for this.

In 2005, Labour MP Kate Hoey became the chair of which

campaigning organisation, formed in 1997,

out of the British Field Sports Society and two other.

-Countryside Alliance?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, UCL, are on words that can be spelt from the

chemical symbols of the first 10 elements in the Periodic Table.

In each case, give the elements whose symbols

spell the word defined. For example, for the name "Ben,"

the answer would be "beryllium" and "nitrogen." OK?

Firstly, the tissue of the body in which Haversian canals

and osteocytes are found.

We preferred the cheese answers. We don't know that one.

It's boron, oxygen and neon, i.e. bone. B-O-N-E.

The surname, secondly, of the Italian playwright who won

the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.

-Right, let's have it. Come on.

-We don't know the answer.

Well, that was a lot of fuss about nothing. Fluorine and oxygen,

as in Dario Fo. F-O. In geometry, an infinitely extending,

one-dimensional figure that has no curvature.

Come on, let's have it, please.

It's the infinity thing, but...

No it's not, it's Line, and that comes from lithium and neon.

10 points for this.

The French painter Louis Lejeune is noted for a panoramic

painting of which major battle of September 1812,

named after a village 120 kilometres west of Moscow?

-Borodino.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on similar names. Five points firstly.

Substituting the first letter of the surname changes the author

of The Rape of the Loch into the star of The Road To Singapore.

For five points, name both.

-Pope and JG Farrell.

-What?!

That's not by changing one letter, is it?

-It's Pope and Bob Hope! Road movies.

-Oh, road movies!

Right, substitution of the final letter of the surname changes

the composer of the Academic Festival Overture

into the creator God in Hinduism.

Five points if you can name both, please.

Come on.

Come on, we're nearly at the gong. Come on!

-Shiva.

-No, it's Brahms and Brahma.

Finally, substituting the third letter of the surname changes

a figure of the Gothic Revival into the president of Russia

from 2000 to 2008.

For five points, name both.

-No need to buzz, just tell us. Come on!

-Just getting excited.

-Pugin and Putin.

-Correct.

10 points for this question.

Martini's Law is an informal term for the assessment of the probable

effects of increasing nitrogen narcosis in which specific activity?

-Drinking.

-Er, obviously not!

-GONG SOUNDS

APPLAUSE

It was scuba diving, UCL, but thank you very much for taking part.

Magdalen, we look forward to seeing you

in the next stage of the contest. Congratulations.

I hope you can join us for another match. Until then,

-it's goodbye from University College, London.

-ALL: Goodbye.

-Goodbye from Magdalen College, Oxford.

-ALL: Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

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