Episode 4 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Again tonight, two teams of distinguished graduates

occupy the seats normally taken by fresh-faced students.

Indeed, it becomes harder to characterise the teams taking part

in this special series for grown-ups without resorting

to words like "wizened" and "sprightly",

so let's simply say that, in tonight's contest,

Oxford plays Cambridge, as two venerable colleges

battle for a place in the semifinals.

A score of over 185 will guarantee that tonight's winners go through.

Now, playing on behalf of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

is an entrepreneur who was

part of the team that devised the first webcam,

indirectly enabling numberless grateful students to stay up

late on Chatroulette. A prolific broadcaster

and writer, who has been praised by Hilary Mantel for her

exhilarating narrative gift.

Their captain recently abandoned the ivory tower of Radio 4,

where he was controller, to plunge headlong into the razzmatazz

of academe, and their fourth member is interested in objects

and, in his words, "How we see them and where they lead us".

Let's meet the Gonville and Caius team.

Hello, I'm Quentin Stafford-Fraser. I studied computer science

just before the web was invented and, more recently,

I've been building companies which depend on it.

I'm Helen Castor, I read history in the late '80s and early '90s

and now I'm a medieval historian, writer and broadcaster.

And this is their captain.

I'm Mark Damazer, I studied history in the 1970s

and I'm now Master of St Peter's College, Oxford.

I'm Lars Tharp. 40 years ago, I read prehistoric archaeology

and I've come up to date by being on the Antiques Roadshow.

APPLAUSE

Now, the first member of the team of graduates

of Christ Church, Oxford says he's never had a proper job

and now that he's in the House of Lords, he probably never will.

He's joined by a journalist who may hold the record for covering

the most breaking political stories on British television.

Their captain's been described as the most gifted art critic

of his generation, possibly by his publisher,

and their final team member is the co-author of a biography

of Ed Miliband

and can sometimes be seen taking no prisoners on Question Time.

Let's meet them.

I'm Michael Dobbs. I stumbled through a degree in politics,

philosophy and economics 45 years ago.

I now spend my time writing political fiction

and sitting in the House of Lords.

I'm Adam Boulton, I read English at Christ Church,

leaving in 1980. I'm now political editor of Sky News.

And here's their captain.

I'm Andrew Graham-Dixon, I read English at Christ Church,

leaving in 1981, and I now talk a lot about art on the telly.

I'm Mehdi Hasan, I studied politics, philosophy

and economics in the late 1990s.

I'm now the political director of the Huffington Post UK

and a presenter on Al Jazeera.

APPLAUSE

OK, I guess you all know the rules.

It's ten points for starter questions,

they must be answered on the buzzer or bell individually.

Bonuses are team efforts, they're worth 15.

You can confer on those, you can't confer on starters.

Interrupt a starter question incorrectly

and there's a five-point penalty.

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

When Sir Cecil Chubb purchased Lot 15 for £6,600 at an auction

in Salisbury in 1915,

reputedly as a spur-of-the-moment gift for his wife,

he became the last private owner of which ancient British monument?

-Stonehenge.

-Correct.

She didn't like it, apparently.

He gave it to the nation three years later.

Right, your bonuses are on games and sports, Caius.

Firstly, what game links The Stranger Song by Leonard Cohen,

the 1998 film Rounders

and Victoria Coren's book, For Richer, For Poorer?

Poker.

-Poker.

-Correct.

Secondly, what sport links Shakespeare's Henry V,

a pivotal moment of the French Revolution depicted in a work

by David, and Alfred Hitchcock's film Strangers On A Train?

-Tennis.

-Correct.

What game links Matt Charman's play The Machine,

Vladimir Nabokov's 1964 novel The Defense

and the second part of Eliot's The Waste Land?

(Nabokov, The Waste Land.)

Hockey.

No, it's chess. Ten points for this.

He began his career in television satirising

the patrician Establishment and ended it with a knighthood,

a duke as a father-in-law and...

-David Frost.

-Correct.

OK, your first set of bonuses, Christ Church, are on paintings.

What scene of the Nativity Story is depicted in an unfinished work

by Leonardo da Vinci?

Commissioned for a monastery near Florence, it was abandoned

in 1482 when he was tempted away to Milan and is now in the Uffizi.

-The Adoration of the Magi?

-Whatever you say.

The Adoration of the Magi.

Correct. Hanging above the altar of the chapel

of King's College, Cambridge is a painting of The Adoration

of the Magi by which painter of the Flemish Baroque?

Um...Rubens?

-Rubens.

-Correct.

Who made his name in Florence with an Adoration of the Magi

for Gaspare del Lama in around 1475?

The artist includes his own, not-inconspicuous,

self-portrait in a yellow cloak, at the far right of the foreground.

-I don't know.

-(Have a guess.)

Benozzo Gozzoli, but it isn't.

No, it's Botticelli.

Ten points for this.

Listen carefully.

Elves wrap Christmas presents at a rate of one every five minutes if

working individually, but one every two minutes if working in pairs.

Compared to two elves working alone,

how many more presents would two elves working together

wrap between 6:00pm and midnight on Christmas Eve?

200.

Anyone like to buzz from Caius?

You may not confer, but one of you can buzz

-if you have an inspired idea?

-100.

No, it's 36. Ten points for this.

What given name links the US inventor who founded Kodak,

an engineer and industrialist who gives his name to a railway

-sleeping car and the English engineer...?

-Eastman.

No, you lose five points. ..and the English engineer who built

the Rocket steam locomotive in 1829?

You may not confer, one of you may buzz.

Stephenson.

No, it's the given name. It's George.

Right, ten points for this.

"Transported to a surreal landscape,

"a young girl kills the first person she meets and then teams up

"with three strangers to kill again."

Sometimes attributed to Lee Winfrey, a critic for the

Philadelphia Enquirer, these words refer to which film musical of 1939?

-The Wizard Of Oz.

-Yes.

Right, your bonuses are on British wading birds.

What is the common name of wading birds of the genus Haematopus?

Feeding mainly on shellfish, they're distinguished by their black

and white plumage, orange-red bill and reddish-pink legs.

I nominate Tharp.

-Oystercatcher.

-Correct.

Great White and Little are species of which bird of the heron family,

distinguished by long tufts of feathers on the head or neck?

Grebe?

No, they're egrets.

After its brightly-coloured legs, what is the common name of Tringa

totanus, a wading bird that breeds around lakes and salt marshes?

I think it's all yours to have a guess at a wading bird.

Choose any wading bird you know.

Yes, cos it will be one more than I know.

-The curlew.

-No, it's a redshank.

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

For your picture starter, you'll see a map of London on which a football

shows the location of a 2013 Boxing Day Premier League fixture.

For ten points, name the stadium

and the team that play their home games there.

Tottenham, White Hart Lane.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Are you a Spurs fan?

I suffer.

OK, following on from Spurs, then, who are hosting

West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day this year, for your bonuses,

three more locations hosting Premier League football this Boxing Day.

In each case, I want the name of the stadium

and the team that plays their home games there.

Firstly for five, A.

THEY CONFER

-Aston Villa, Villa Park.

-It would have been so...

You're quite right, your idea of English geography is terrible.

Secondly, B, please.

Hull, the KC Stadium.

Correct, yes. And finally, C.

That's Carrow Road and Norwich.

Yes, ten points for this.

Fingers on the buzzers,

which three-letter word denotes the mathematical expression

for the inverse of the exponential function

and is also associated with a sweet roulade of sponge

and chocolate buttercream, traditionally served...?

-Log.

-Log is right, yes.

Right, these bonuses, Gonville and Caius, are on a film.

What is the title of the 1965 film, directed by George Stevens,

based on the life of Jesus?

Its large cast includes Max Von Sydow as Jesus

and Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate.

-The Greatest Story Ever Told.

-Correct.

In The Greatest Story Ever Told, who plays the part of John the Baptist?

He appeared as Moses in the 1956 film, The Ten Commandments.

-Charlton Heston.

-Correct.

In the same film,

which English actor plays the part of Herod the Great?

His numerous film roles included that of Captain Renault

in Casablanca, in 1942.

-Claude Rains.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Probably a jocular coinage,

hippomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

is a term denoting, perhaps appropriately, a fear of what?

Hippopotamus.

No.

You may not confer, one of you can buzz.

-Obesity?

-No, it's long words.

-Ten points for this.

-LAUGHTER

Later the title of a song by the group Sparks,

what ten-word retort was attributed to the film actress...?

This town ain't big enough for the both of us.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points. ..attributed to the

film actress Tallulah Bankhead and was supposedly her response

to the greeting of an ex-lover she hadn't seen for many years?

No conferring.

Eh, you may buzz.

Are you pleased to see me or is that a gun in your pocket?

That was Mae West.

No, it's "I thought I told you to wait in the car."

Right, ten points for this.

The Oxford English Dictionary's traditional rule that a word

needs to be current for ten years before it can be considered

for inclusion was broken in...

Selfie.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..was broken in June 2013 with the addition of what five-letter

word in its social networking sense?

-Tweet.

-Tweet is correct.

These bonuses are on greetings.

Firstly for five, by the time of the Ming dynasty,

which Chinese ritual involved three kneelings and nine prostrations?

The requirement for Western envoys was abolished after the Opium Wars.

You don't need to buzz, it's a bonus question,

and it's going to the other team, I'm afraid.

LAUGHTER

-It's a kowtow.

-It is a kowtow, yes.

Used when formerly receiving visitors,

which traditional Maori greeting is done by pressing the noses together?

Their version of kissing.

Well, yeah, it's their equivalent of kissing

and done all the time at St Peter's, I believe, it's called a hongi.

And finally, a respectful greeting said when bringing the palms

together, which word comes via Hindi from the Sanskrit for bowing to you?

We're not good at that.

It's Namaste. Right, ten points for this.

In which epistolary novel of 1782 does the married

and deeply virtuous Madame de Tourvel become the victim of...?

-Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

-Correct.

Right, these bonuses are on German scientists.

Good, thank you(!)

We've got one on our team, somewhere.

Which German theoretical physicist won the 1932 Nobel Prize

for Physics for "the creation of quantum mechanics"?

-Eh, Heisenberg.

-Heisenberg is correct, yes.

Felix Hoffmann first synthesised acetylsalicylic acid in a form

that was suitable for medical use in 1987.

Under what name did the German company Bayer market it?

-Aspirin.

-Correct.

Born 1773, which German geologist gives his name to the scale

he developed for comparing the hardness of minerals?

-Carat?

-No, it was Friedrich Mohs.

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

For your music starter, you'll hear a well-known Christmas carol.

Ten points if you can name the singer.

MUSIC: "Silent Night"

-Placido Domingo.

-Correct.

That was his version of Silent Night.

For your bonuses, you'll hear three more tenors performing

Christmas standards, five points for each singer you can identify.

The first is Italian.

MUSIC: "O Holy Night"

-Enrico Caruso.

-Correct. Secondly, this Welsh singer.

MUSIC: "Come All Ye Faithful"

Bryn Terfel.

No, that's Harry Secombe and, finally, another Italian singer.

MUSIC: "Angels We Have Heard On High"

-Andrea Bocelli.

-Correct.

Ten points for this.

What descending sequence of numbers links Mendelssohn's

Reformation Symphony, Schubert's Tragic and Beethoven's Eroica?

-Five, four, three.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Gonville and Caius, your bonuses this time are on philosopher MPs.

Which Dublin-born philosopher

and political theorist was the MP for Bristol from 1774 to 1780, but

alienated voters due to his support for improved rights for Catholics?

-Edmund Burke.

-Correct.

In 1867, which philosopher

and MP for Westminster forced a debate on an amendment to Disraeli's

suffrage bill, proposing the substitution of the word

"person" for "men"? He later published The Subjection of Women.

-Dilk?

-No, it's John Stuart Mill.

-Of course it is.

Created Baron Verulam in 1618, which philosopher had previously been

the MP for several places including Liverpool, Middlesex and St Albans?

-Bacon.

-Francis Bacon is correct.

Ten points for this.

Which water-soluble polysaccharide is found in the cell walls

of some ripe fruits and, when the fruit is cooked,

acts as a thickening agent for jellies and jams?

-Pectin.

-Correct.

You're obviously a jam-maker.

You've got a set of bonuses, Gonville and Caius,

on Tennessee Williams. Tennessee Williams won two Pulitzer prizes.

One was in 1948 for A Streetcar Named Desire, the other in 1955

for which play set in the plantation home of a wealthy cotton magnate?

-Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

-Correct.

In the 1968 film Boom!, adapted from Williams'

play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore,

the character of the Witch of Capri was played by which English

playwright, actor and composer?

I think that one escapes us.

-That's Noel Coward.

-Of course it is.

I love the way you say, "Of course it is."

It's easier when you've been told the answer, isn't it?

Williams gave his own first name Thomas or Tom to the

protagonist of which play, first staged in 1944?

It was his first major success

and was based in part on his earlier screenplay The Gentleman Caller.

No, we don't know.

That was The Glass Menagerie.

Of course it was(!) Ten points for this.

What is the only continent whose name can be typed

using the top row of characters on a standard QWERTY keyboard?

Asia.

Anyone like to buzz from Christ Church?

-Europe.

-Correct.

Right, your bonuses this time, Christ Church, are on minerals.

-Also known...

-Not German scientists?

LAUGHTER

Also known as common or rock salt, what is

the name of the naturally-occurring form of sodium chloride?

Saltpetre?

Salt?

No, it's halite.

Halite occurs in close association with which mineral of hydrated

calcium sulphate?

It occurs in compact form as alabaster.

If you know, you say.

Lyme?

No, it's gypsum. And finally,

which mineral of calcium sulphate differs from gypsum to which it

alters in humid conditions by having no water of crystallization?

-Marble.

-Marble?

-Yeah.

It's anhydrite.

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

You're going to see an engraving of a British scientist.

Ten points if you can give me his name, please.

-Faraday.

-It is Michael Faraday, yes.

As you know, he established

the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1825,

with the aim of introducing young audiences to scientific

subjects through spectacular demonstrations.

Bonuses are three more scientists who've given

the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture since then.

Five points for each one you can identify.

Firstly, this American scientist who gave his lecture in 1977.

-It's Carl Sagan.

-Stafford-Fraser.

-Carl Sagan.

-It is Carl Sagan.

Secondly, this British scientist who gave lectures in 1937 and 1957.

THEY CONFER

Francis Crick.

-No, it's Julian Huxley.

-Of course it is.

And finally... Of course it is.

This British scientist who gave his lectures in 2006?

-Marcus de Sautoy.

-Correct.

Another starter question now, listen carefully, then answer promptly.

The town of Huddersfield is synonymous

with fine woollen manufacture.

Give the dictionary spelling of the word "woollen" in this sentence.

I think this is a trick question.

W-O-O-L-L-E-N?

Correct.

-Of course it is.

-I'd grab it, if it's there, if I were you.

LAUGHTER

These bonuses are on extinct Germanic languages.

LAUGHTER

In each case, identify the language from the description.

Give the two-word name of the parent language of Icelandic, Norwegian

and Faroese.

It's the literary language of the Skaldic poems and Eders.

-Old Norse?

-Correct.

-Yes.

A language spoken in the Middle Ages, secondly, in Caithness.

It was also used in Shetland

and Orkney where it is thought to have survived until 1800.

-Old Gaelic?

-No, that's Norn.

And finally, an East Germanic language,

known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy

of a 4th-century translation of the Bible by Bishop Ulfilas.

Hunnish?

No, it's Gothic. Ten points for this.

What seven-letter term describes a solution of a metal in mercury,

until recently, widely used by dentists when filling teeth?

-Amalgam.

-Amalgam is correct.

Your bonuses are linked by Christmas tree decorations,

Gonville and Caius.

"Consideration like an angel came

"and whipped the offending Adam out of him."

Spoken by the Archbishop of Canterbury,

these words refer to which of Shakespeare's kings of England?

THEY CONFER

-King John.

-No, it's Henry V.

Of course it is.

"Take away that fool's bauble."

To what symbol of state did those words of Oliver Cromwell refer?

-The Mace.

-Correct.

And finally for five points, "Bright star, would I were steadfast

"as thou art." This line begins a sonnet by which Romantic poet?

-Coleridge.

-No, it was Keats.

Of course it was. Ten points for this.

What given name links the Prince of Orange from 1585 to 1625,

the composer of the ballet Daphnis and Chloe,

and a novel by EM Forster, published posthumously in 1971?

-Maurice.

-Correct.

Right, your bonuses are on food plants, Gonville and Caius.

What is the common name of the vegetable

that consists of the small, compact buds of Brassica oleracea?

-Brussels sprouts.

-Correct.

Pastinaca sativa is the binomial of which winter root vegetable

of the parsley family?

-Parsnips.

-Parsnips is right.

Salvia officinalis and Allium cepa are often found together

in a traditional roast dinner.

-By what names are they commonly known?

-Garlic and sage.

No, it's sage and onion.

Right, ten points for this.

Quasi Una Fantasia was the original title of a sonata of 1801 in C-sharp

minor, opus 27, number 2, now usually known by what familiar name?

Fantasia?

No, Gonville and Caius, one of you buzz.

-Moonlight?

-Yes, the Moonlight's Sonata is correct.

Your bonuses are on archaeological sites in Turkey.

Firstly for five points, Hisarlik is the name of the archaeological

mound generally believed to be located at the site of which

ancient city of western Turkey, also known as its Latin name Ilion?

-Troy.

-Correct.

Which ancient city in western Turkey was the site of the

Temple of Artemis, one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

-Ephesus.

-Correct.

Containing many artefacts from the ancient city of Pergamon,

the Pergamon Museum is in which European capital?

Berlin.

Berlin is right. Ten points for this.

The English name of which major world river rhymes with words

meaning fluids stored in the gall bladder and...?

-Nile.

-Nile is correct.

Rhymes with bile.

Your bonuses this time, Gonville and Caius, are on classical music.

Begun in 1866, Winter Daydreams is a name often given to which

composer's Symphony number 1 in G-minor, opus 13?

-Tchaikovsky.

-Correct.

Snow Behind The Window and Waltz On The Ice are movements

in Winter Bonfire, a 1950 work by which Russian composer?

-Prokofiev.

-Correct.

A set of poems about lost love by the German lyric poet

Wilhelm Muller,

the 1827 song cycle Winterreise or Winter Journey is by which composer?

-Franz Schubert.

-Correct, ten points for this.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

In pre-decimal currency,

what fraction of a pound was 15 shillings?

-Three quarters.

-Correct.

Right, your bonuses are on the actor Spencer Tracy.

Tracy won an Oscar for Best Actor in which 1938 film,

loosely based on Father Edward J Flanagan,

the founder of an orphanage in Nebraska?

-Angels With Dirty Faces?

-No, it's Boys Town.

Directed by John Sturgess,

in which 1955 film does Tracy play a one-armed ex-soldier

who arrives in a small desert town,

seeking to discover the fate of his former comrade's father?

GONG CRASHES

It was indeed Bad Day At Black Rock.

APPLAUSE

Well, thanks very much for taking part, Christ Church.

I don't think we're going to be seeing you again.

You can spend more time with books about German scientists, perhaps.

Gonville and Caius, that is the highest score

so far in this first round of the contest, so we shall be seeing

you, I think, in the next stage, in the semifinals.

Thank you very much.

I hope you can join us

next time for another of these first round Christmas matches,

but meanwhile, feast your eyes on how kind time has been to this lot.

Goodbye.

APPLAUSE