Episode 7 University Challenge

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Last time we saw Warwick University go through to the final

of this festive grown-ups version of University Challenge.

Tonight, we'll find out who'll be joining them.

Playing on behalf of the most successful institution in the students' competition,

the graduates from Magdalen College, Oxford, include a businessman,

a civil servant, a novelist and a journalist and author.

Their first-round match was against University College London,

whom they beat by a margin of 45 points and in doing so,

proved they know a lot about political magazines, the artist Richard Hamilton,

and a very great deal about the wines and cheeses of Italy. Let's meet them again.

Hello, I'm Luke Johnson. I graduated in Physiology in 1983

and I'm a restaurateur.

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

I graduated in 1998 and I now 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 graduated in 1993,

reading Ancient and Modern History and I'm an author and journalist.

APPLAUSE

The graduates from Trinity College, Cambridge,

came away with a score of 225 from their first-round match

which was the joint highest score from that stage of the contest.

Their players are a maths teacher, a television producer,

a comedy legend and a broadcast journalist.

They had some snappy interventions and clean sweeps

on bonus questions about famous librarians, US foreign policy

and the god Poseidon. Let's meet them again.

Hi, I'm Robin Bhattacharyya, I graduated from Trinity in 1995

in Maths, and now I'm a maths teacher at Loughborough Grammar School.

Hi, I'm Daisy Goodwin, I read History, I left in '83

-and I'm a TV producer and writer.

-And their captain.

Hello, I'm John Lloyd, I graduated from Trinity in 1973

with a Law degree and I'm the founder and series producer of QI.

I'm Edward Stourton, I read English and graduated in 1979

and I present the Sunday programme on Radio 4.

APPLAUSE

Let's not waste time reciting the rules. Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for 10.

"The gift is mine, the choice is thine."

In 1932, the British publisher Harold Raymond used that slogan

to launch which innovation, devised after he had received 119 Christmas presents, only three of which...

Trinity, Stourton.

-Paperback.

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

..only three of which were books?

Magdalen, Healey.

-The book token.

-Book token is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

The first set of bonuses are on blogs, Magdalen College.

Founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005,

which social media guide reached more than 30 million monthly page views

to become a leading reporter of web news?

THEY CONFER

(Drudge... I don't know.)

-The Drudge Report?

-No, it's Mashable.

Often ranked the top blog in the world by the listings site Technorati,

which internet newspaper derives its name

from that of its co-founder, a former Cambridge Union president?

THEY CONFER

(Huffington Post.)

-Huffington Post.

-Correct.

Subtitled "Celebrity, sex, fashion for women, without airbrushing,"

which gawker media blog shares its name with a biblical queen of Israel?

HEALEY: Nefertiti?

MOUNT: Bathsheba?

MOUNT: Bathsheba?

HEALEY: I've never heard of it, so if we haven't got any idea, let's pick a queen.

-Bathsheba?

-No, it's Jezebel.

10 points for this starter question. What short name links

the highest station on the national rail network in England,

the author of Larpers And Shroomers, and Fanboys And Overdogs,

and the protagonist of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy?

Magdalen, Healey.

-Dent.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on Shakespeare's sonnets.

For five points, what are the next two words of Sonnet 116,

which begins, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.

"Love is not love Which alters when it..."

-Alteration finds.

-Correct.

According to the opening line of Sonnet 130,

what are "nothing like the sun"?

-My mistress' eyes.

-Correct.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

"Thou art more lovely and more temperate." What line comes next in Sonnet 18?

THEY WHISPER

-(Soft winds do shake the darling...)

-Soft winds do shake the darling buds of May.

No, it's "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."

10 points for this starter question.

Albert Einstein attributed the achievements

of which scientist and contemporary to,

"A devotion and tenacity under the most extreme hardships imaginable,

"such as the history of experimental science has not witnessed."

Magdalen, Mount.

-Marie Curie.

-Correct.

Your bonuses this time are on a foreign secretary.

"The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

These words are attributed to which foreign secretary in August 1914?

Edward Grey.

-Edward Grey.

-Sir Edward Grey is right.

Sir Edward Grey gives his name to an institute at Oxford University

that conducts research into what field of zoology?

Ornithology.

-Ornithology.

-Correct.

In the 1920 work, Recreation, Grey describes the detailed knowledge of birdsong

of which figure, the 26th president of the United States?

Was it Teddy Roosevelt?

He's about 26th.

-Theodore Roosevelt.

-Correct.

Ten points for this starter question. Quote -

"It gave excitement equal in duration and superior in intensity

"to that occasioned by high intoxication from opium or alcohol."

These words of Sir Humphry Davy describe the effects of...

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-Nitrous oxide.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You're off the mark, Trinity. Your bonuses are on a publishing house.

Quote - "Back then, to Soho's seedier nooks,

"came a band of lasses keen on books.

"Up dimly-lit stairways they bravely groped,

"While men in macintoshes leered and hoped."

Margaret Atwood wrote those lines in 2003 to mark the 30th anniversary

of which publishing house?

SHE WHISPERS

-Bloomsbury.

-No, it's Virago.

Particularly known for novels such as The Magic Toyshop

and Wise Children, which author's first non-fiction work,

The Sadeian Woman, was published by Virago in 1979?

-Angela Carter.

-Correct.

In 1984, Virago published for the first time in the UK

the first part of a work by which literary figure,

based on her early years in Arkansas in the 1930s?

Willa Cather? Who do you think?

I don't know.

-Willa Cather?

-No, it's Maya Angelou.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

A picture round now.

You're going to see a title of a novel translated into Old English.

10 points if you can give me the name of the novel in modern English.

BELL

Magdalen, Johnson.

Father Ted?

LAUGHTER

Anyone like to buzz from Trinity?

Doesn't look as if you're going to.

I'll tell you by showing its... There it is. White Teeth.

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

"Discovering him was like discovering where I lived.

"It was, as Goethe described the experience of reading him,

"like walking into a lighted room."

These words, of the politician and broadcaster Bryan Magee, refer to which German philosopher...

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-Nietzsche.

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

..which German philosopher, born 1724?

Magdalen, Hollinghurst.

-Schopenhauer?

-No, it's Immanuel Kant. Schopenhauer's a bit later than that, isn't he?

We take another starter question.

Which island in the North Sea gives its name to naval engagements of the first and second

Schleswig wars in the mid-19th century

and to the first naval battle of World War I, captured...

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-Heligoland?

-Correct, yes.

So, Trinity, you get the picture bonuses.

They're three more titles of modern novels, translated into Old English.

In each case, I want the name of the novel in modern English.

Firstly...

-Modern novel...

-Modern novel.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Blind something, it's got to be, hasn't it?

-Don't know.

-You were right, you were working it out

but you didn't get there. It's The Blind Assassin. Here's how it normally looks, by Margaret Atwood.

Secondly...

-Do not forget me...

-GOODWIN: Never Let Me Go?

STOURTON: I think I'd go for that. Never Let Me Go.

-Never Let Me Go.

-It is, well done, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

And finally...

GOODWIN: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time.

-The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time.

-Yes, well done!

Another starter question.

In physics, the hyperfine coupling constant,

magnetic vector potential, unit cell length, mass number,

and a factor of 10 to the minus 18

can all be indicated by which letter of the alphabet?

Magdalen, Mount.

-E.

-No. Trinity, anyone got an idea there?

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-A.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your questions this time are on space exploration.

What object is less than 1,000km in diameter, accounts for almost a third

of the mass of the asteroid belt,

and in 2006, was classified as a dwarf planet?

(Ceres.)

-Ceres.

-Correct, that's right.

Secondly, what name was chosen for the NASA spacecraft due to enter

the orbit of Ceres in 2015, reflecting the mission's aim

of providing information about the origins of the solar system?

THEY CONFER

-(Voyager.)

-Voyager?

-No, it was Dawn.

The Dawn mission is a first in space exploration

because it intends to examine two celestial bodies

in succession, of which Ceres is the second.

Which asteroid is the first?

Vesta?

-Vesta.

-Vesta is correct.

10 points for this starter question. English versions

of the three books of Dante's Divine Comedy

usually end with the same plural noun.

In Inferno, Dante came forth to look once more upon them.

In Purgatory, he is pure...

Trinity, Goodwin.

-The damned?

-I'm afraid you lose five points.

In Purgatory, he is pure and prepared to leap up to them,

and Paradise ends with a reference to the love that moves them. What are they?

No conferring!

Magdalen, Hollinghurst.

-The spheres?

-No, they're the stars.

10 points for this starter question. Which association of states,

established in 1949, currently has 47 members

and seeks to develop common and democratic principles throughout Europe, based...

Magdalen, Mount.

-NATO.

-No, you lose five points.

..based primarily on the European Convention On Human Rights?

Trinity, Stourton.

-Council Of Europe.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses, Trinity, are about excommunicated rulers.

Firstly, for five, in 1585, Pope Sixtus V, fearing that

the French throne might, in future, pass to the Protestants,

excommunicated which heir? He later became King Henry IV.

SHE MURMURS

-Oh, no, no, er...

-Le Dauphin?

The king of... The king of...

-Is it of France?

-Didn't say.

-Did he say it was France?

-Or was it Henry of...

-So who was he, he became Henry IV? He was excommunicated.

-France.

He became Henry IV. How was he known beforehand?

-He was the heir of France. The king of France...

-Le Dauphin.

Right, come on.

-The Dauphin's not a good enough answer.

-It's not, it's Henry of Navarre.

Which Holy Roman Emperor, the last great ruler of the Hohenstaufen dynasty,

struggled constantly with the papacy, and was excommunicated

three times between 1227 and 1245?

-Frederick Barbarossa.

-No, that was Frederick I, it was Frederick II.

Finally, for five points, during the 16th century,

Pius V's bull Regnans In Excelsis

excommunicated which monarch and absolved Catholic subjects from allegiance to them?

Elizabeth?

GOODWIN: Henry VIII?

What was the date again? I think it was Elizabeth.

Elizab...

-Queen Elizabeth?

-The first, is correct, yes.

Another starter question.

The first was created in London in 1864.

The second in Paris in 1889...

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

Underground systems.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

Second in Paris in 1889. The third, founded by Lenin,

was abolished in 1943. What name denotes these attempts

at co-operative organisations of socialist, communist and revolutionary groups?

Magdalen, Mount.

-Comintern.

-No, they're Internationals.

10 points for this. Give the forename and surname

shared by the Apollo 11 astronaut who orbited the moon in the command module...

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-Michael Collins.

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Trinity, are on the mammalian heart.

Firstly, for five, which chamber of the heart receives the blood

from the superior and inferior venae cavae?

-Right atrium...

-Right atrium?

-The right atrium.

-The right atrium.

-Correct.

Also known as the mitral valve, which valve prevents backflow

of blood from the left ventricle to the left atrium?

GOODWIN: Is it the pericardium?

Pericardium, don't know...

-Pericardium, I don't know.

-Pericardium?

No, it's the bicuspid valve. Finally, which artery receives blood

from the right ventricle?

Er, the pulmonary...the pulmonary artery.

The pulmonary artery.

That's correct. We're going to take a music round at this point.

Your music starter is a piece of classical music. For 10 points,

please name the composer.

Magdalen, Hollinghurst.

-Elgar.

-Correct, yes.

It's part of Pomp And Circumstance.

Get these bonuses, you'll retake the lead.

Following on from Pomp And Circumstance No.2,

your music bonuses are extracts of works by composers, all of whom are regarded to have influenced Elgar.

In each case, all you have to do is name the composer. Firstly...

ORCHESTRA PLAYS LIVELY TRADITIONAL DANCE

-Tchaikovsky?

-No, that's Brahms' Hungarian Dance No.5.

Secondly...

OBOE PLAYS LILTING MELODY

ORCHESTRA JOINS IN

-Tchaikovsky?

-No, that's Johann Strauss The Younger, from the Fledermaus overture.

Finally...

# Treulich gefuehrt ziehet dahin

# Wo euch der Segen der Liebe bewahr... #

Wagner.

That is indeed Wagner, well done.

Right, we're going to take

another starter question. Which political theorist drafted Clause IV

of the Labour Party's constitution of 1918? Together with his wife, Beatrice...

Magdalen, Healey.

-Sidney Webb.

-Sidney Webb is right.

Into the lead again. Your bonuses are on countries and their coastlines,

according to the CIA's World Factbook.

More than 200,000km in length, which country has the longest coastline in the world?

-Chile, is it?

-Chile?

I don't know. It might be Russia.

-What shall we say?

-Why don't we say Russia?

-Russia.

-No, Canada.

Which island state has the second longest coastline,

around 55,000km in length?

-Australia.

-Australia.

-No, that's Indonesia.

Two EU member states have coastlines of more than 10,000km.

One's the UK, which is the other?

-Ireland, or...

-Norway?

THEY WHISPER

Ireland or...

JOHNSON:(Italy.) HEALEY: (Italy.)

-Italy. Italy.

-No, it's Greece. Another starter question.

"A sad, serious prince, full of thoughts."

These words, of the philosopher Francis Bacon, describe which king of England...

Magdalen, Mount.

-Er, Henry V?

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

You get the rest of it, Trinity.

..describe which king of England, who, despite the rebellions of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck,

succeeded in establishing a dynasty and amassing a treasury surplus?

You may not confer, one of you may buzz.

Trinity, Goodwin.

Er, Richard II.

No, Henry VII. Another starter question.

Now the eastern part of Hiroshima prefecture,

which former province of Japan shares its name with that of a popular British gambling game,

the name often being used to express sudden success?

Trinity, Goodwin.

-Bingo.

-Yes!

Right, you get a set of bonuses, having retaken the lead,

on apes.

Pongo pygmaeus, the only Asian great ape,

is commonly known by what name?

Orang-utan.

-Orang-utan.

-Correct.

Which great ape, closely related to common chimpanzees and humans,

is sometimes called the pygmy chimpanzee and is found only in the rainforests along the Congo river?

-The Bonobo.

-Correct.

Hoolock and siamang are genera of which apes, sometimes called the lesser apes,

in the family Hylobatidae?

-Er...

-Gibbons?

-Gibbons.

-Correct.

Another picture round. For your starter,

you're going to see a painting. 10 points if you can give me the name of the artist.

BUZZER

Trinity, Goodwin.

-Canaletto.

-Correct.

OK, that was a painting by Canaletto, of the River Thames.

Your bonuses are three more paintings, depicting European rivers.

In each case, I'd like the name of the river. Firstly...

-The Tiber.

-The Tiber.

It is, yes. Secondly...

STOURTON: Is that St Petersburg?

BHATTACHARYYA: If it is St Petersburg, the river is the Neva.

-If you think it's that place, that's right.

-The Neva.

-Correct.

And finally...

-GOODWIN: Oh, the Seine.

-The Seine.

-That is the Seine, yes.

10 points for this starter question. What term can denote

both a solid solution of carbon in a non-magnetic form of iron, stable at high temperatures,

and a scholar or afficionado of the English novelist whose first work was published in 1811?

Magdalen, Mount.

-Austenite.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Magdalen, are on cities,

specifically those whose English names begin and end with the same letter.

In each case, name the city from the description.

Firstly, a city in the German state of Baden Wuerttemberg, downstream from Heidelberg,

at the confluence of the Rhine and the Neckar.

Stuttgart, no...

HEALEY: It doesn't begin and end in the same letter.

Let's have an answer, please.

-We don't know.

-It's Mannheim.

Secondly, a major city of the Russian far east, on the River Amur, close to the Chinese border.

I've no idea.

-Come on.

-We don't know.

-That's Khabarovsk.

And finally, the EU capital on the River Vistula.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Let's just think of capitals.

-Come on, let's have it please.

-We don't know.

That's Warsaw. 10 points for this. Species of what family of birds

have common names that are homophones of words meaning noise made by a steam locomotive,

tenth letter of the alphabet, and chess piece.

Magdalen, Mount.

Jay...

No. Trinity.

Trinity, Goodwin.

-Chuff.

-No, it's the family, it's crows.

Chuff, and the jay and the rook, they all belong to the same family, crows.

10 points for this starter question.

Equal to the weight in grams of 9,000 metres of the yarn,

which unit is used to measure the fineness of material such as silk, rayon....

Magdalen, Hollinghurst.

-Denier.

-Denier is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Magdalen, are on the spouses of kings of England.

Name the king who was married to the following.

Firstly, Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore.

No, no, no, no.

No, I don't think so, I think it was William II.

William the Conqueror?

HEALEY: William I? MOUNT: William the Conqueror.

< OK, let's try it.

-William I.

-No, it was Henry I.

Matilda, secondly, of Boulogne, an heiress whose estates near London

facilitated her husband's seizure of the kingdom.

That could be Stephen.

No, no, I know we daren't say it again but I think that was one married to...

-William I.

-No, it's Stephen. Finally,

Matilda, the daughter of Count Baldwin V of Flanders.

HEALEY: Shall we try it again?

We wondered if that might be Stephen.

No, that was William I,

your first answer! Right, 10 points for this. Recent winners

of which National Hunt race include Kauto Star, Imperial Commander...

Magdalen, Mount.

-Cheltenham Gold Cup.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

Get these bonuses, you're on level pegging.

They're on the east coast. The Iron-Age construction

known as Danes Dyke encloses part of the peninsula containing which east coast headland,

defined as a Heritage Coast in 1979?

Spurn Head?

Spurn Head...

Try that.

-Spurn Head.

-No, it's Flamborough Head.

Which seaside resort gives its name to the bay that lies immediately south of Flamborough Head?

Which seaside resort is there...

Let's have it, please.

-Scarborough.

-No, it's Bridlington.

Formerly an area of marshland, what is the area of low-lying agricultural land

between the Yorkshire Wolds and the Humber Estuary?

THEY WHISPER

-Let's have an answer, please.

-We don't know.

Holderness. Under three minutes to go, 10 points for this.

Listen carefully. Of the Asian states whose names end in "stan",

which one is entirely surrounded by others whose names...

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-Uzbekistan.

-Uzbekistan is correct, yes.

Your bonuses are on Irish counties this time, Trinity College.

In each case, give the county name that corresponds to the following.

Firstly, the distant home in an eponymous song

said to have been first performed in Stalybridge, Cheshire, in 1912.

-Tipperary.

-Correct.

Secondly, the under-plumage of a bird used as an insulating material.

-Down!

-Down.

-Correct.

Finally, Quercus suber, a tree native to South-West Europe,

grown commercially for its bark.

-Cork.

-Cork is correct.

10 points for this starter question. The Kitemark,

familiar as a UK-registered certification symbol of quality and safety, is enclosed at its base

by two lines in the shape of a letter V. Which two letters appear at the top?

Magdalen, Healey.

-B and I?

-No. Trinity, one of you buzz?

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-E and S?

-No, B and S, standing for British Standards. 10 points for this,

What precise interval separates the deaths of Isaac Newton and Ludwig van Beethoven...

Trinity, Bhattacharyya.

-100 years.

-Precisely, yes.

APPLAUSE

Here are your bonuses, on world capitals,

specifically those whose names would have a low points value in the board game Scrabble,

if proper names were ever allowed.

Separated by the Alps, which two capitals of adjacent European countries

both have Scrabble values of six points?

Berne might be one. And...

Paris is probably...

Is P a three?

-Rome? I don't know.

-Separated by the Alps.

I'd go for Berne and...

-Come on.

-Berne and Paris or Rome.

-Berne and Paris.

-No, it's Berne and Rome.

Slightly to the west of Rome and Berne,

which Mediterranean capital has a Scrabble value of five?

To the west of Rome...

Madrid? I don't know.

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

THEY CONFER

Lisbon?

Five, can't be.

Come on, I need an answer, please.

-Er, Paris.

-No, it's Tunis. And finally, two world capitals

would have a value of only four. One is Sanaa in Yemen, which Nordic capital is the other?

-GOODWIN: Oslo.

-Oslo.

Another starter question. The bezoar is a wild species

of which mammal of the family Bovidae,

and shares a genus with the West Caucasian tur, the markhor and the ibex?

Trinity, Lloyd.

-The yak.

-No... Magdalen, one of you...

-FINAL GONG

-Bad luck!

Just to settle arguments at home, it's the goat.

Magdalen, we must say goodbye

to you, but you've been a terrifically strong team so far.

You were up against... Well, you led for much of the contest,

so thank you very much for joining us, we have to say goodbye to you.

Trinity, well done, you go through to the final. In the final,

they will be playing Warwick University.

I hope you can join us next time for that final but until then,

-it's goodbye from Magdalen College, Oxford.

-Goodbye!

-It's goodbye from Trinity College, Cambridge.

-Goodbye!

-And it's goodbye from me, goodbye.

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