Episode 7 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Christmas University Challenge. Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Tonight we welcome the last two teams competing

in the first round of this seasonal series in which we spread

a little Christmas cheer by asking difficult questions of graduates

and staff of some of the UK's leading universities and,

in the process, making us all glad it's them, not us.

Only the top four winning teams from these first-round matches

will go through to the semi-finals

so we already know that New College, Oxford,

and the universities of Liverpool and Glasgow will play again.

If either of tonight's teams is to progress further,

they need to beat the 155 scored by Newnham College, Cambridge.

First, on the team from the University of Birmingham is a man

who's been awarded the CBE for his work on the nation's oral health.

Alongside him, an award-winning writer whose work includes

the television dramas Bodies, Cardiac Arrest, and Line Of Duty.

Their captain began her political career while still at university

when she was elected as the first female Conservative

on the National Union of Students Executive.

She's now a government minister.

They're joined by a member of the University's staff whose main interest lies in the prehistoric.

Which was, of course, when this programme was in black-and-white. Let's meet them.

Hello, I'm Barry Cockcroft.

I graduated in dentistry in 1973.

I'm now Chief Dental Officer for England.

Hi, I'm Jed Mercurio. I graduated in medicine in 1991.

-I'm now a television scriptwriter.

-And their captain.

Hi, I'm Anna Soubry and I graduated in 1977 in law,

and I'm now the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe.

And I'm Henry Chapman.

I'm a senior lecturer in archaeology and visualisation

at the University of Birmingham.

APPLAUSE

Now, playing them is the team from the University of East Anglia.

They're fielding a writer whose multi-award-winning output

includes The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.

Next to him, a former BBC arts correspondent

now involved in news and documentaries.

Their captain began his career in BBC radio before moving to

television to cover the everyday story of political folk

in the Westminster village.

And they're joined by a former member of the modestly titled

band The Higsons, who's now a novelist. Let's meet them.

Hi, I'm John Boyne. I graduated in creative writing in 1995.

Since then, I've published seven novels for adults

and three for young readers.

I'm Razia Iqbal.

I graduated in 1985 in American studies and I now present

the BBC World Service's flagship current affairs programme, Newshour.

-And their captain.

-Hello, I'm David Grossman.

In 1987 I graduated in politics.

I'm now political correspondent on the BBC Newsnight programme.

Hi, I'm Charlie Higson.

I studied English and American literature and film studies

in the late '70s.

And I now do TV comedy and write children's books without zombies.

APPLAUSE AND LAUGHTER

OK, the rules are unchanging.

Starter questions are all solo efforts. You answer those on the buzzer.

If you interrupt a starter question incorrectly, there's a five point penalty.

And bonus questions are worth 15 points

and they're team efforts. So, your first starter for ten.

Fingers on the buzzers.

Friends Forever in 1992. Share The Spirit in 2000.

Welcome Home in 2004.

One World, One Dream in 2008. And Inspire A Generation in 2012...?

BUZZER

The, er, Olympic slogan.

Correct. Summer Olympic slogans, yes.

APPLAUSE

So, the first set of bonuses go to you, Birmingham. They're on snow.

"At Christmas, I no more desire a rose

"Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth."

In which of us Shakespeare's plays

does Berowne say those words to the King of Navarre?

THEY CONFER

(Say Twelfth Night, say something.)

(Say A Winter's Tale.)

(Yes.) A Winter's tale.

No, it's from Love's Labours Lost.

Secondly, "But where are the snows of yesteryear" is perhaps

the best-known expression of which 15th century French poet

banished from Paris for being a vagrant and criminal?

THEY CONFER

-Pass.

-That's Francois Villon.

And finally, "Blondes make the best victims.

"They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."

These are the words of which British film director?

THEY CONFER

-Alfred Hitchcock.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

An old English word meaning "dung"

and an old Saxon word for "twig"

are thought to form the derivation

of the name of which plant, traditionally...?

BUZZER

-Mistletoe?

-Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, UEA, are on Chinese philosophy.

Firstly, for five points, born 551 BCE, which thinker's sayings

were collected by his pupils in the Lun Yu or Analects?

It forms the principal source for his philosophy.

-Who wants to say Confucius?

-Let's go with that. We don't know any other.

-Confucius?

-Yeah, go on.

-Confucius.

-Correct.

Studying under the grandson of Confucius, which philosopher added

to Confucianism the doctrine of the original goodness of human beings?

-Tao. Try Tao.

-Tao.

Tao?! No, it's Mencius.

The definitive texts of Confucius and Mencius known as The Four Books

served as the basis for the Chinese civil service examinations

from 1313 until which decade?

The revolution?

The 1950s or something.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-The revolution, go for that.

-'60...

-The '60s, then.

-'64?

-Go for '60s.

'64? The decade... 1960s.

No, it's the 1900s. 1905, in fact.

Ten points for this. Identify the poet who wrote these lines -

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife

"Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray.

"Along the cool sequester'd vale of life,

"They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

BUZZER

Thomas Hardy.

Anyone like to buzz from Birmingham?

BUZZER

Byron.

No, it was Thomas Gray in his Elegy.

Hardy borrowed the lines for his novel, of course.

Ten points for this. Meanings of what word include, in dentistry,

the withdrawal of the gum from the neck of a tooth,

in astronomy, the movement of an object away from an observer,

and in economics, a decline of activity over a sustained period of time often defined as...?

BUZZER

-Recession.

-Recession is correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Birmingham, these bonuses are on pairs of words

whose spellings differ by the addition of the letter X

after the second letter, for example "foes" and "foxes".

In each cases, give both words from the definitions.

Firstly, religious adherents who aren't members of the clergy

and the state of having loose rules or lose bowels.

-Laxity...

-Laity.

-Laity and laxity.

-Correct.

Vietnamese New Year and the main body of matter in a book.

(Tet and text.)

-Ted and tet.

-(Tet and text.)

Nominate Mercurio.

-Tet and text.

-Correct.

And, finally, Unang, Imperial, Nilgiri and Keemun,

and US state whose cities include Amarillo,

Brownsville and Corpus Christi.

-(Texas.)

-(Texas and teas.)

-Texas and teas.

-Correct.

We're going to take the picture round now.

For your pictures starter, you'll see a phrase in a foreign language.

Ten points if you can identify the language

and the meaning of the phrase.

BUZZER

"Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year" in Spanish.

Anyone like to buzz from Birmingham?

BUZZER

"Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year" in Portuguese.

It is merry Christmas and a happy New Year and it is in Portuguese, yes.

So, your bonuses are "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year" in three more official EU languages.

In each case, simply name the language. Firstly...

(Is it Dutch? Is it Dutch?)

(Is it Norwegian?)

-(Oh, yes. Maybe Norwegian.)

-(I don't know.)

-(No, Norway...)

-(Dutch?)

Dutch.

No, that's Irish. Secondly.

THEY CONFER

-(Serbian or Croatian?)

-(Yes, Serbian.)

-Serbian.

-No, that's in Maltese. And, finally this language, please.

(It's Finnish.)

-Is it? Danish?

-Finnish.

-Finish.

-It is Finnish, yes. Right, ten points for this.

Coined in 2009 and used in the House of Commons in 2012,

what neologism denoting a perpetual state of poor performance

was first heard in lines spoken

by the fictional Malcolm Tucker in the television...?

BUZZER

-Omnishambles.

-Omnishambles is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on a Christmas carol.

Firstly, for five points, which carol has words

by the 19th-century English priest John Mason Neale

and celebrates the good deeds of the patron saint of the Czech Republic?

THEY CONFER

-Good King Wenceslas.

-Correct.

Wenceslas' submission to the German King Henry the Fowler

provoked a conspiracy in which

he was murdered by his brother, Boleslaw.

During which century did those events occur?

Well, it's not this one.

The 12th or 13th? I think it's quite a long time ago.

The 12th or 13th at this end?

13th.

-13th century.

-No, it was the 10th century.

And, finally, the carol mentions "the feast of Stephen."

According to Western Christian tradition,

on what date is St Stephen's Day celebrated?

(26th December, Boxing day.)

26th December.

Correct, Boxing Day, yes.

Right, ten points for this. Seretse Khama was the first president of which African country

which gained independence from Britain in 1966...?

BUZZER

Ghana.

No, you lose five points.

Since then, all his successors have come to power in free elections

and it has transformed itself into a middle-income country

largely through the export of diamonds.

BUZZER

-Botswana?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on eponymous adjectives

from the names of literary figures,

for example "Orwellian",

in the words of the Times columnist Ben Macintyre.

Firstly, noting that his eponymous adjective

cannot be applied to the person himself,

of which playwright does Macintyre say, "I only met him once.

"There were no ominous pauses in the conversation.

"There was no oblique and enigmatic dialogue.

"The atmosphere could not have been less sinister."

THEY CONFER

-Pinteresque.

-Yes, Pinter is the person I'm looking for.

I'm looking for the person in each of these, but that's correct.

Of which playwright does Macintyre say,

"His aficionados insist his eponymous adjective means

"'mixture of quixotic seriousness and harsh laughter.'

"To me, the word means

"'not nearly as funny as it was when it was first written.'"

THEY CONFER

Let's have an answer, please.

What's he called?

-No.

-It's not Dickensian.

Oh, it's... Dario Fo... Fo...

-I'm going to nominate you.

-No, don't.

-I'm going to nominate Mercurio.

-Fo.

No, it's George Bernard Shaw, Shavian.

Of which 19th-century novelist does Macintyre say,

"He was amusing, energetic and good company,

"yet his name has come to denote

"all that is grim, decayed and doom-laden"?

-Dick... Charles Dickens.

-Correct, yes. Ten points for this.

"Being the story of 12 months in hell told by one of the dammed

"and written down by Robert Tressell."

This was the original subtitle of which novel,

first published 1914 and, in an unabridged version in 1955,

that became a classic of the British Socialist movement?

BUZZER

-The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses, East Anglia, are on an Italian noblewoman.

An inspiration for numerous literary works,

what was the given name of the young woman

who was beheaded on the orders of Pope Clement VIII in 1599,

for the murder of her abusive father, Francesco Cenci?

THEY CONFER

Lucrezia Borgia.

No, it's Beatrice.

Born in Bologna in 1579,

which Baroque artist is noted for a painting of Beatrice

now in the Galleria Nazionale in Rome?

His works include the ceiling fresco Aurora.

We're looking for a fresco artist.

I don't know.

15th century? Titian or something. One of that lot.

No, no.

Fra... Fra Angelo?

Fra Angelico.

-Let's have an answer, please.

-Nominate Iqbal.

-Fra Angelico?

No, it's Guido Reni.

Finally, Reni's painting of Beatrice

is thought to have been the inspiration for The Cenci,

a verse tragedy of 1819 by which Romantic poet?

THEY CONFER

-Poet.

-Italian?

-Byron?

-Try it.

-Byron.

No, it's Shelley. We're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you'll hear a modern Christmas song.

For ten points, simply give me the name of the artist singing.

# Who's got a beard that's long and white

# Santa's got a beard that's long and white

# Who comes round on a special night

# Santa comes round on a special night... #

-Bob Dylan.

-Yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are three more singer-songwriters,

this time performing their own festive compositions.

Five points for each you can identify. Firstly.

# I knew of two sisters whose name it was Christmas

# And one was named Dawn, of course

# The other one was named Eve

# I wonder if... #

-Elvis Costello.

-Yes. Secondly, who's this?

# It's Christmas

# And the spotlight's shining on Christmas

# And the spotlight's shining on us... #

-Any idea?

-Chrissie Hynde?

No, it's Rufus Wainwright!

-THEY LAUGH

-Finally, who's this?

# It's coming on Christmas

# They're cutting down trees

# They're putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy... #

-Joni Mitchell.

-It is Joni Mitchell, yes.

Ten points for this - Father Christmas and his sleigh

can travel the 40,000 kilometres around the globe in 12 hours.

To the nearest day, how long would it take him to fly, non-stop,

the 400,000 kilometres to the moon?

3,650.

Birmingham, anyone like to have a buzz?

(Only if he repeats it.)

LAUGHTER

WHISPERING

You may not confer. One of you can buzz. Doesn't look as if...

-Three thousand, one hund-...

-No, it's five days. Ten for this.

Which medical condition

has been associated with the British Royal Family

because of the number of Queen Victoria's descendants.

Haemophilia.

Correct, yes, well done.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, UEA, are on an electronic device.

What device is formed of a p-n semiconductor junction,

which when forward biased, leads to electrons and holes recombining,

with energy being released in the form of photons?

-A cathode ray? A cathode tube?

-No idea.

-TV tube?

-A television tube?

-No, it's a light-emitting diode.

On account of its lower wavelength, what colour LED is used in modern

optical disc storage technology, such as HD DVD?

-Blue?

-Blue.

-Blue.

Correct. What name is given to the effect of the creation

of an electrical voltage in a semiconductor p-n junction

in the presence of light?

-Photovoltaic?

-Give it a go.

-Photovoltaic?

Correct. Ten points for this. A Moment Of War,

by Laurie Lee, For Whom The Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway,

and Homage To Catalonia, by George...

-Spanish Civil War?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the seasonal works of an author and poet.

"'Peace on Earth!' was said, we sing it.

"And pay a million priests to bring it.

"After 2,000 years of mass, we've got as far as poison gas."

These lines conclude Christmas, 1924,

a work by which poet and novelist?

Siegfried Sassoon or..?

THEY CONFER

Come on.

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

Sassoon.

No, it's Thomas Hardy.

First published in The Times on 24 December, 1915,

which of Hardy's poems is inspired by a traditional legend

of animals kneeling in their stables at midnight on Christmas Eve?

THEY CONFER

-Come on.

-The Nativity.

No, it's The Oxen.

Originally called The Century's End, 1900, and dated 31 December, 1900,

which poem by Hardy begins,

"I leant upon a coppice gate when frost was spectre grey."

-I don't know anything about Hardy.

-No, nor do I!

We don't know.

The Darkling Thrush.

In the children's book by J Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh,

Olive, The Other Reindeer, is actually what sort of animal?

A moose?

Nope. Birmingham, one of you buzz.

Dog.

It was a dog! Yes!

Right, your bonuses this time, Birmingham, are on British history.

Name the Prime Minister who said these words and give

the year in which they were uttered. "Roll up that map,

"it will not be wanted these ten years."

THEY CONFER IN WHISPERS

-Any ideas?

-Chamberlain, 1939.

Chamberlain, 1939.

No, it was William Pitt the Younger, in 1805.

Secondly, "I hope we may say that, thus, this fateful morning

"came to an end all wars."

THEY CONFER

David Lloyd George, 1918.

David Lloyd George, in 1918.

Correct. Finally, "I have nothing to offer

"but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

-Churchill, 1940...

-1940?

-'40.

-'40?

-Yep.

Winston Churchill, in 1940.

Correct. Right, a second picture round now.

For your starter, you'll see a photograph of a familiar scene

at this time of year.

For ten points, name the city in which it's located.

New York.

It is. It's the Rockefeller Plaza. You get the bonuses, well done.

We follow on from that ice rink with three more photographs

of outdoor ice rinks. Name the city it's located in, please.

Firstly, for five...

-It could be Paris.

-Brussels or somewhere? Prague?

-Come on.

-Paris?

-I think Paris.

-Paris.

-It is Paris, yes.

Secondly, where's this?

-Is it Toronto?

-Is it North American?

-Dubai(?)

-Toronto?

-Toronto, maybe.

Toronto.

It is Toronto, yes! And finally, where's this?

That's Somerset House. London.

-London.

-Yes, Somerset House.

Ten points for this... In the tetrapod

circulatory system, what is the large vein

with superior and inferior branches that carries...

Erm...vena cava.

Correct, yes.

Your bonuses this time are on science in the 1730s, Birmingham.

A work on differential calculus, which scientist's

Method Of Fluxions was first published posthumously in 1736?

THEY CONFER

Come on, if you're going to go through, you have to hurry.

Leibniz, Leibniz.

-Nominate Mercurio.

-Leibniz.

No, it was Newton.

The discovery of which supernova remnant

in the constellation of Taurus

is generally credited to the English astronomer John Bevis in 1731?

Crab.

-Nominate Mercurio.

-Crab Nebula.

Correct.

In 1735, which Swedish biologist

published the groundbreaking work of classification

known by the Latin title of Systema Naturae?

-Linnaeus.

-Linnaeus.

-Linnaeus.

Linnaeus is correct.

Five minutes to go and 10 points for this starter question.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

Give the dictionary spelling of the fragrant gum resin known as myrrh.

BUZZER

M-Y-R-R-H.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

You retake the lead.

Your bonuses are on New Year's Eve in 19th-century fiction.

In which novel of the 1860s does a ball held on December 31 1809

prompt Natasha Rostova to declare,

"It's the loveliest time I ever had in my life?"

War And Peace.

Correct. In which novel by George Eliot does the eponymous hero

adopt Eppie, a two-year-old girl,

after she wanders into his home on New Year's Eve?

THEY CONFER

Silas Marner.

Correct. Which of Hans Christian Andersen's tales

begins on New Year's Eve

with the poor, little girl

wandering the snow-covered streets in the dark,

too scared to go home to her father?

The Little Matchstick Girl.

The Little Match Girl, yes.

Ten points for this.

The Sebou and Oum Er-Rbia

are the longest rivers in which African country,

rising in the Middle Atlas, they both flow into the Atlantic Ocean?

BUZZER

Libya.

No. University of East Anglia? One of you buzz?

BUZZER

Morocco.

Morocco is correct. Your bonuses are on geometry.

In geometry, what short word describes a smooth curve

joining two points, in particular referring to any portion

of the circumference of a circle?

An arc.

Correct. What term denotes a plane figure bounded by a circular arc

and its corresponding chord?

Come on.

Pass.

It's a segment. And finally, what term indicates

the portion of a circle enclosed by two radii and an arc?

Don't know.

A sector. Three minutes to go. Ten points for this.

Listen carefully. Answer as soon as your name is called.

If the 24 days of an advent calendar

are randomly assigned 24 different pictures,

six of which contain a reindeer,

what is the probability of revealing a reindeer on Christmas Eve?

BUZZER

One in three.

-Anyone like to buzz?

-BUZZER

One in four.

Of course.

Your bonuses are on history.

An adversary of the Junto Whigs, Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford,

served as Lord Treasurer under which monarch?

THEY CONFER

George III.

No, Queen Anne.

After the accession of George I, Harley was impeached for his part

in the Treaty of Utrecht, ending Britain's involvement in which war?

Peninsular War?

Peninsular War.

No, the War of the Spanish Succession.

The impeachment denounced Harley for designing

the destruction of the ancient rights of which principality?

It's now an autonomous community of Spain.

THEY CONFER

Andorra?

No, it's Catalonia.

Which poet wrote these lines?

"And London shops on Christmas Eve

"are strung with silver bells and flowers

"as hurrying clerks, the City leave..."

BUZZER

John Betjeman.

John Betjeman is correct, yes. His Christmas poem.

These bonuses, UEA, are on a US financier.

Born 1837, Charles Tyson Yerkes assembled the consortium

that funded the mass transit system of which major city of the Midwest?

THEY CONFER

Chicago.

Correct. Part of the University of Chicago,

The Yerkes Observatory houses

the world's largest example of what specific type of telescope?

THEY CONFER

-Radio telescope.

-No, a refracting telescope.

Based on the life of Charles Yerkes, The Financier and The Titan

are novels by which author, also noted for Sister Carrie?

THEY CONFER

Theodore Dreiser.

Correct. Ten points for this.

Perpetual Peace is a far-sighted essay of 1795

on the prevention of war by which German philosopher

whose major work was the Critique Of Pure Reason?

BUZZER

Kant.

It was Immanuel Kant.

Yes, so you get a set of bonuses this time on place names.

Kutaisi was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Colchis

and is today the second largest city of which country?

THEY CONFER

Come on.

Turkey.

No, it's Georgia. The Rann of Kutch

is a salt marsh around the size of Wales close to the Arabian Sea.

It spans the borders of which two countries?

GONG

And at the gong, Birmingham University have 115

and East Anglia have 195.

Congratulations, UEA. You will go through

as one of the four highest-scoring winning teams.

So you will have to come back, I'm afraid.

Bad luck, Birmingham.

Although you did lead pretty conspicuously at one point,

but you all faded after about the halfway point.

But thank you very much for joining us.

So now we know that those teams competing in the semifinals

of this Christmas University Challenge are

New College Oxford,

the University of Liverpool, the University of Glasgow

and tonight's winners the University of East Anglia.

I hope you can join us next time for the first semifinal,

but until then, it's goodbye from the University of Birmingham.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from the University of East Anglia.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE

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