Episode 5 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Our Christmas series for graduates is gathering pace

with four first-round matches played and three to go, we know that

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge are through

to the semifinal stage, and from now on, any team that matches or beats

their score of 255 will go through as well.

Scotland plays England tonight.

The team from St Hugh's College, Oxford includes

a player with a CV longer than an eight-year-old's Christmas list,

having been director of programmes for Channel 4,

the chair of the Arts Council in England

and much else besides and is now chair of the Bristol Old Vic.

Her colleagues' achievements include holding the record

for the longest unsupported polar journey in history.

Their captain is an award-winning broadcaster who'll be very familiar

to Radio 3 and to Radio 4's listeners

and to viewers of the Proms.

And their fourth member is a former editor of The Erotic Review.

She now writes a column for the Telegraph,

dispenses relationship advice for the Daily Mail

and performs stand-up comedy.

There's a difference, apparently. Let's meet the St Hugh's team.

Hello. I'm Liz Forgan. I read modern languages in the early '60s,

became a journalist and I now chair various arts organisations.

Hi. I'm Alex Hibbert. I studied biology,

graduating in 2007, and now I lead expeditions in the Arctic.

Their captain. I'm Suzy Klein.

I graduated in music in 1996 and I'm now a writer and broadcaster.

Hello. I'm Rowan Pelling.

I graduated in 1991 with a degree in English literature

and I'm now a writer and journalist.

APPLAUSE

Now, their opponents from the University of Stirling include

a journalist and former director of communications

for the Scottish Conservatives, a role which must demand

some stoicism or possibly a belief in reincarnation.

Next, a scientist whose specialism, in her own helpful words,

is mathematical modelling and automated reasoning

for concurrent communicating systems.

Their captain dispenses invaluable financial advice

on Radio 4's Money Box and elsewhere.

And in a heart-warming nod to cross-party cooperation,

they're joined by an SNP member of the Scottish Parliament.

Let's meet the Stirling team.

Hi. I'm John McLellan.

I studied English and media studies and graduated in 1983.

I'm a former editor of the Scotsman

and I'm now director of the Scottish Newspaper Society.

Hello. I'm Muffy Calder. I studied computing science,

graduating in 1980.

Now I'm a professor at the University of Glasgow

and the chief scientific adviser to Scottish Government.

And their captain. Hello. I'm Paul Lewis.

I graduated in the '70s in psychology

and now I make my living as a financial journalist.

I'm Richard Lochhead. I graduated in political studies in 1994

from Stirling. I'm the member of the Scottish Parliament for Moray

and a Cabinet Secretary of the Scottish Government.

APPLAUSE

Let me just refresh your memories of the rules.

Starter questions have to be answered individually on the buzzer.

There's a 5-point penalty if you interrupt

a starter question incorrectly.

Bonuses are team efforts. You can confer on those.

They're worth 15 all up.

Right. Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for 10. If it's good enough for the Obamas

or the Pope, then it's good enough for Word of the Year. These words

from the Oxford Dictionary's website refer to which six...

Selfie.

Selfie is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

First set of bonuses are on seasonal stories.

Which novel of 1868 opens with the complaint that

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents"?

WHISPERING

Little Women. Correct.

Secondly, what's the title of O Henry's short story about

a young couple who each sell their most precious possession

to buy the other's Christmas present?

Pass. That's The Gift Of The Magi.

And finally, "Mittens made for giant sloths

"and tam-o'-shanters like patchwork tea cosies"

are among the so-called useful presents listed in

A Child's Christmas In Wales

by which writer who died two years before its publication in 1955?

Dylan Thomas. Correct. 10 points for this. Listen carefully.

In the American Institute of Architects' list

of America's favourite architecture, only two of the top ten

are outside New York or Washington DC.

One is the Vanderbilt residence in North Carolina.

Which structure in California is the other?

The Hollywood Bowl.

No. Anyone want to buzz from St Hugh's? You may not confer.

You may NOT confer, Pelling!

LAUGHTER

The Golden Gate Bridge. Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right. Bonuses this time on gift-giving.

The French historian Edouard de Laboulaye made the proposal

for the giving of which prominent gift on which work began in 1875

under Frederic Auguste Bartholdi?

Oh. Er, it's not the... Eiffel Tower? Eiffel Tower?

Eiffel Tower? It's worth a go.

Or the Statue of Liberty? Oh, the Statue of Liberty!

The Statue of Liberty. Correct.

In November 1914, who gave 18 of his sculptures

to the V Museum in honour of French and British troops

killed in World War I? They included The Age Of Bronze.

WHISPERING

Isn't it Rodin? No, no. It's...

Um...

Oh, it's one of those guys like Gill or somebody.

WHISPERING

What do you think? I think it's Rodin.

Rodin. It was Rodin, yes.

What gift given annually since 1947 usually bears an inscription

stating that it is given by the city of Oslo as a token

of Norwegian gratitude to the people of London?

The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. Correct.

10 points for this. "Biography lends to death a new terror."

Which poet, novelist and playwright said those words?

His own biographers include Hesketh Pearson in 1946

and Richard Ellmann in 1987.

The latter work inspired a film biography staring Stephen Fry.

Oscar Wilde. Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right. Your bonuses are on writers who trained as physicians.

Having graduated from the Moscow University medical faculty in 1884,

which playwright wrote most of his work for the Moscow Art Theatre

after Stanislavski produced his play The Seagull in 1898?

Chekhov. Correct.

Who graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1815

at the age of 19 and became personal physician to Byron?

His short story of 1819 is one of the earliest examples of English

of vampire fiction.

WHISPERING

Not Robert Louis Stevenson or someone like that, is it?

Shall we guess? Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Louis Stevenson.

No, it's John William Polidori. And finally,

also a graduate in medicine from Edinburgh University

and later a ship's surgeon, which writer's best-known stories

were usually the first person narratives

of another doctor-turned-writer?

Pass. Arthur Conan Doyle. Right. We're going to take a picture round.

For you picture starter, you'll see some of the words

to a Christmas carol with two words missing.

For 10 points, simply give me both the missing words.

Fountain, mountain. OK. We'll see the whole thing. There it is.

So, your picture bonuses are other carols with words missing,

as given in the New Oxford Book Of Carols.

In each case, simply give me the missing words, please.

Firstly, for 5.

Triumphant. Bethlehem and...

Born the King of Angels.

Triumphant, Bethlehem, Angels.

Correct. Let's see the whole thing. There it is. Secondly...

HUMMING

WHISPERING

It's going to rhyme with "come". It's got to be one word.

MUMBLING

What do we think? I think the first one's got to rhyme

with "come", hasn't it? Heaven and nature sing? OK. Welcome and nature.

No, it's room and nature.

Finally, let's see the last one, please.

Infant, tender, bright, heavenly, heavenly.

Holy, infant, tender, bright, heavenly, heavenly.

It's tender, mild and heavenly and heavenly. Well done.

10 points for this.

The term megafauna indicates land animals

often larger than their modern counterparts

and is particularly associated with which geological epoque?

Ice Age.

I'm afraid you lose 5 points.

Spanning the most recent ice ages, it ended around 11,000 years ago.

You may not confer! Were you conferring?

Pelling, you've got to pull yourself together! Sorry.

Were you conferring?

Yes, Jeremy. Right. That's more like it.

Let's have some order around here.

I'm going to give you another starter question instead.

Let's have another starter question.

The titles of a French television series of 1965

and a Japanese anime series of the 1980s

and the name of an indie pop band of the 1990s, all derive from the title

of which novel by Cecile Aubry about a boy and his dog in an Alpine village?

Belle And Sebastian. Correct.

Right, so you storm away to 5 points and you get a possible 15

if you get these bonuses in addition. They're on commissions.

Firstly, which commission of inquiry was established in 1480

by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile to impose Catholic orthodoxy?

The Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition is correct.

Secondly, what Portuguese phrase meaning act of faith denotes the public ceremonies

at which the Iberian Inquisition sentenced prisoners

and handed them over for punishment?

Don't know. Auto-da-fe.

And finally, in 1616,

the Inquisition in Rome placed De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium,

published 70 years earlier, on the index of prohibited books.

Who was its author?

Galileo. It was Copernicus. 10 points for this.

Also the title of a folktale collected by the Brothers Grimm,

what name was given to the horse trained by Wilhelm Von Osten

around the end of the 19th century and apparently able to solve

arithmetic problems and read from a chalkboard?

Rumpelstiltskin. No.

Stirling, one of you buzz, you may not confer. One of you can buzz.

It's called Clever Hans. 10 points for this.

Caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere,

the luminous ring sometimes observed surrounding the sun or the moon is known by what...

Perihelion.

No, you lose 5 points.

..by what four-letter term, the Greek Word for a disc?

Halo. Correct.

Right, Stirling, these bonuses are on worship.

Around 550BC, which King of Lydia built the temple of Artemis,

one of the seven wonders of the world in what is now western Turkey?

We don't know. Croesus.

Regarded as the masterpiece of the Ottoman architect, Sinan,

the Mosque of Selim was completed around 1575

in which city in Eastern Thrace, previously known as Adrianople?

No, don't know. It's Edirne.

And finally, the Istanbul mosque known as the Hagia Sophia

was built as a cathedral in the sixth century

under the direction of which Byzantine Emperor?

Constantine. No, it was Justinian I, Justinian the Great.

Right, time to take a music round.

You will hear a song by a popular band.

10 points if you can name the band, please.

MUSIC: "Fairytale Of New York"

The Pogues.

Yes, Fairytale Of New York has several times been voted

the nation's favourite Christmas song.

It was co-written by The Pogues' Shane McGowan whose birthday is Christmas Day.

For your bonuses, three more singles

by well-known artists born on December 25.

All you have to do is name the artist in each case.

Firstly, this British pop singer.

# I will go down with this ship... #

It's Dido. It is, very good.

It'll be the only classical question we'll get...! Shh!

Secondly, this American jazz and scat singer.

# Hi de hi de hi de hi

# Oh...

# He de he de he de he

# Yeah...

# She messed around with a bloke named Smokey... #

Cab Calloway or Louis Jordan.

# ..She loved him though he was... #

Louis Jordan? No, it WAS Cab Calloway, bad luck.

Finally, this British singer.

# I used to be woebegone... #

It's Annie Lennox. It is indeed.

Right, 10 points for this.

Give the three successive letters of the alphabet that begin words

meaning a musical performer of exceptional skill,

a dance in three/four time

and the percussion instrument whose name means...

VWY. Sorry.

No, you lose 5 points as well. ..whose name means wooden sound.

You may not... Pelling, pull yourself together!

OK, I think we've had it... VWX. VWX is correct. Poor chap misremembered the alphabet.

It happens to all of us at a certain stage in life.

Right, bonuses for you, St Hugh's, linked by a weather phenomenon.

In viticulture, night-time helicopter flights can be used

to pull down air from an inversion layer and thereby prevent which potential crop hazard?

WHISPERING

Come on! Are we going to answer?

I don't know. We're passing after all that, sorry.

No...to dispel locusts. OK.

It's a weather phenomenon! Well, I don't know...

We're going biblical, Jeremy.

OK, right. It's frost damage.

In inorganic chemistry, a Frost diagram illustrates how the standard

electro potential of a substance changes as which property varies?

Humidity.

Humidity.

It's its oxidation state.

In dehydrating a substance via freeze-drying,

ice is encouraged to sublimate from a product after freezing

by the reduction of which physical quantity?

Humidity. No, it's pressure. 10 points for this.

What class of organism involved in the Devonian period

and comprised the first vertebrates to adapt to dry land?

Its name derives from the Greek meaning living a double life.

Amphibian. Correct.

Your bonuses, St Hugh's, are on British airports

and their three-letter codes. Give the airport's name in each case.

Firstly, the three-letter code of which UK airport

spells the informal name of the MTV Europe Music Award?

WHISPERING

Manchester. No, it's the East Midlands Airport, EMA.

Secondly, the three-letter code of which airport in eastern England

spells the surname of an Indian economist and Nobel Laureate,

the author of Collective Choice And Social Welfare.

Sen.

What's the airport?

Stansted. No, it's Southend Airport.

You did get Sen, though, that was good.

And, finally, when used on railway timetables,

the three-letter code of which English airport indicates that

a service doesn't run on, for example,

the last Monday in May or August?

WHISPERING

Go for it. Go for it?

Try XM.

I don't know why. XM.

No, the answer's Birmingham.

BHX - bank holiday excepted.

OK, another picture round now. For your picture starter,

you'll see a photograph of a well-known cultural figure.

For 10 points, I'd like you to name him, please.

Rudolf Nureyev. Correct.

Following on from Rudolf, for your bonuses,

you will see photographs of three more prominent figures

whose names also have a seasonal connection.

5 points for each person you can name. Firstly, for 5...

WHISPERING

Judge Winter, Judge Spring...?!

Judge Winter.

No, it's Judge Christmas Humphreys,

a very prominent Buddhist in his day.

Secondly, the name of the man on the far left.

I need a first name, please, as well as a surname.

WHISPERING

Velvet Underground people...

WHISPERING

No? No?

Anybody know? No, we're going to pass.

That's Doug Yule of the Velvet Underground. And finally...

That's Noel Coward. Are we happy with that? Yes. Noel Coward.

It is Noel Coward, yes. Right, 10 points for this.

Born near Glasgow in 1947, Janette Tough has performed

on stage and television under what stage name as half of...

Wee Jimmy Krankie. Indeed, yes!

APPLAUSE

National hero!

Right, your bonuses this time, Stirling, are on television comedy.

Indicating either basic illumination devices or parts for pieces

of gardening equipment, what two words denote a Two Ronnies sketch,

the script for which was sold at auction for over ?48,000 in 2007?

Four Candles. Four Candles, yes.

First heard in the 1980s, what two words denote a sketch written

by Victoria Wood in which Julie Walters plays an elderly waitress?

The words may form part of an order given in a restaurant.

Service charge?

We don't know. It's Two Soups.

First heard in 1973 and voted the funniest line in British

television comedy in 2002,

what four words form part of an exchange between

a German U-boat commander and a British captain of the Home Guard?

Don't tell him, Pike. Yes!

10 points for this.

Meanings of what five-letter word

include a straight line segment

connecting two points on a curve, a zoological...?

Chord. Chord is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, St Hugh's, are on events since January 1, 2001.

In each case, give the year in which the following occurred.

Firstly, euro notes and coins were introduced in more than ten countries,

East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century,

and the Queen Mother died aged 101.

WHISPERING

No, it's much further back than that.

2001...

WHISPERING

2001.

No, it's 2002.

Malta and Cyprus adopted the euro, Kosovo declared independence,

and Prince Charles marked his 60th birthday in which year?

He's just had his 70th, so 2003? Yes.

2003.

No, it's 2008.

Finally, Estonia adopted the euro, South Sudan became independent,

and Prince William married Kate Middleton.

WHISPERING

2011. Correct.

10 points for this.

Born in Reno, Nevada, in 1911, the tattoo artist, Norman Keith Collins,

became known by what two-word nickname

which later came to be applied to various commercial products,

including a spiced Navy Rum?

Captain Morgan?

No.

LAUGHTER

St Hugh's, one of you want to buzz?

St Hugh's, Forgan.

Black Joe? No, it's Sailor Jerry.

10 points for this.

In mathematics, what two-word term denotes

an "n" by "n" matrix of integers

arranged so that the sum of the entries in each row,

column and diagonal is the same?

Symmetrical.

No. One of you want to buzz from St Hugh's?

It's a magic square.

10 points for this.

What form of electromagnetic radiation has a wavelength

between 1mm and 30cm?

Gamma. No. Anyone want to buzz from St Hugh's?

Longwave. No, they're microwaves.

10 points for this. In January 2013,

who became the first man

in the 45-year history of tennis's Open era

to win three consecutive singles titles at the Australian Open?

Djokovic. Djokovic is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Stirling, your bonuses are on medical imaging.

In which case, give the full name of the method of medical imaging

from its abbreviation.

Firstly, CT, used, for example, in CT colonography.

WHISPERING

Colonic tomography?

No, it's computerised tomography.

Secondly, PET, commonly used in scans of malignant tumours.

Electron tomography...

P...?

I can't think of the P. Electron tomography.

Piezo electron tomography?

No, it's positron emission tomography. Of course.

Of course it is, yes(!)

Finally, MRI, often used in scans of soft tissue?

WHISPERING

Magnetic resonance imaging. Correct.

Two minutes to go. 10 points at stake. Fingers on buzzers.

The Bellman's Speech, The Barrister's Dream and The Banker's Fate...

The Hunting Of The Snark. Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Stirling, are on films.

Often shown during the winter holiday period,

despite their lack of festive content,

name the film from the description.

Firstly, a 1939 film shot mainly in Technicolor

and directed by Victor Fleming. WHISPERING

The Wizard Of Oz. Correct.

A multiple Academy award-winning epic of 1959 directed

by William Wyler and based on a novel of 1880 by Lew Wallace.

Ben Hur. Correct.

A 1963 film directed by John Sturgess

and based on a non-fiction work by Paul Brickhill.

Sorry?

The Great Escape. The Great Escape. Correct. 10 points for this.

It's name derived from the Greek for horn,

which fibrous protein is a major constituent of mammalian hair...?

Ketone. No, you lose 5 points.

..mammalian hair, hooves and nails?

WHISPERING

Pectin? No, it's keratin. 10 points for this.

What general type of geographical feature links

the titles of works by James Baldwin, Thomas Mann,

Annie Proulx and Charles Frazier?

Mountain. Correct.

Your set of bonuses, St Hugh's, are on astronomy.

The ZHR - or zenithal hourly rate - measures the intensity of what

astronomical phenomenon?

WHISPERING

Intensity? The sun. Say the sun?

The sun. They are meteor showers.

What term is applied to the point in the sky

from which meteors of a shower appear to issue?

WHISPERING

Milky Way.

Have a guess.

Let's have it, please.

No, don't know. It's the radiant point.

Occurring in December, which meteor shower is named

after its radiant in the constellation ...

GONG SOUNDS

At the gong, Stirling have 95, St Hugh's College, Oxford, have 125.

APPLAUSE

Thank you both for playing.

I'm afraid we'll be saying goodbye to both teams,

but you're good sports for doing it. Thank you.

I hope you can join us next time.

We'll leave you with a heart-warming reminder of the days

when our contestants were even more eager-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Goodbye.