Episode 6 University Challenge

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello, tonight it's the penultimate first round match in this

special series for graduates bravely taking the place of the

students who'd normally be smiling anxiously behind those desks.

Only the four teams with the highest winning scores will go

through to the semifinals,

so we know now that Emmanuel College, Cambridge

and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

have already qualified for that stage.

185 is the score to beat

if tonight's winners are to be sure of getting themselves a place there.

The team representing the University of Leicester

includes two astronomers.

The first ran the Greenwich Planetarium for five years

and is astronomy columnist for the Independent.

The second is a science writer and future astronaut,

and both have asteroids named after them.

Their captain is one of the UK's most familiar TV

and radio broadcasters, having done time on Nationwide

and Crimewatch, presenting, I should add.

Their final member started her career as a journalist in her

native Australia before turning to politics, and is the only

leader of a British political party to be appearing on this series.

Let's meet the Leicester team.

Hello, I'm Heather Couper,

and I graduated in Astrophysics at Leicester, and now I write,

I broadcast, I present on television and I love my fine red wine.

I'm Nigel Henbest, I read Astrophysics and Chemistry

at Leicester in the 1970s, and now I'm an astronomer and author.

Their captain?

I'm Sue Cook, I read Psychology and English at Leicester

way back in 1971, and I'm now a writer and broadcaster.

Hi, I'm Natalie Bennett.

I completed a Masters in Mass Communication through

the University of Leicester in 2001,

and I'm now the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.

APPLAUSE

Now, the University of Sussex team includes a sports broadcaster

who's bankrupted anyone who's listened to his racing tips on Radio Four's Today programme.

He's joined by another Radio Four voice who has

a 20-year career as an announcer on her CV.

Their captain is a one-time Perrier Award-winning comedian who has

just retired as the Chair of Sussex University Council, and their fourth

member is the author of books on subjects including

the perception of time and the science of feelings.

Let's meet the Sussex team.

Hello, I'm Rob Bonnet,

and I graduated from the University of Sussex

with an English degree in 1976.

I've been a broadcaster and producer with the BBC,

both TV and radio, for 35 years.

I'm Alice Arnold, I graduated in 1984 in Politics,

and I'm a writer and broadcaster.

And their captain. I'm Simon Fanshawe,

I studied Law at the University of Sussex from '75 to '78.

Obviously, I'm not a lawyer any longer,

and I am now a diversity consultant and a broadcaster.

I'm Claudia Hammond and

I graduated with a degree in Applied Psychology in 1993.

I present All In The Mind on Radio Four

and I write books about psychology.

APPLAUSE

Not that you need reminding,

I will just nudge your memory that it's 10 points for a starter

question, but that has to be answered on your own on the buzzer.

Bonuses are collaborative efforts, they're worth 15 points.

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

What name links the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1924,

a crewmate of Yossarian in Catch-22 who dies during a mission,

and a former technical contractor who leaked details of mass

surveillance programmes to the press in June 2013?

Snowden, erm...

Yeah, it is Snowden.

It's the name I was looking for, what they all have in common,

cos they've obviously got different forenames, you see. Exactly!

Very good. Right, you get the first set of bonuses, Sussex.

They're on newspaper launches.

Which Sunday newspaper launched in December 1791,

resolving to report on the "greater objects of general concern"

"as well as the fine arts, science, the tragic and the comic news,

"the national police, fashion and fashionable follies?"

1791?

French Revolutionary...?

Oh, it's not a British newspaper?

What do you think? What do you think?

Sunday Times? It's my best guess.

Sunday Times.

No, no, that's much more recent. It's the Observer.

Which daily newspaper announced itself to be politically free

when it launched in 1964?

Initially published as a broadsheet, it became a tabloid in 1969.

Oh, was it...? No, I think that sounds right. The Sun.

Correct. Which newspaper began as the Daily Universal Register in 1785

but was renamed three years later?

It didn't start permanently printing news on its front page until 1966.

I think it's the Times. The Times?

Yeah? With the thing, the news on the front page.

They used to have classified ads on the front. They did, didn't they? OK.

The Times. The Times is correct, yes.

10 points for this starter question.

"Works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth

"which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."

These words from a Nobel citation of 1995 refer to which Irish poet

who died in August 20...? BELL RINGS

Seamus Heaney.

Correct.

Your bonuses, Leicester,

your first set are on operas with a winter setting.

Firstly, for five points,

based on a story by Gogol, Christmas Eve is an opera by which

Russian composer, the youngest of the group called The Five?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

You reckon Korsakov? I don't know, he is one of The Five.

We'll take a stab at Korsakov, Rimsky-Korsakov.

Correct. Set in the title character's mansion as snow falls,

the 1958 work Vanessa was the first opera by which US composer?

1958...

Is it John Cage?

I don't know, this would be a guess. OK.

John Cage?

No, it was Samuel Barber.

And finally, which opera of 1896

opens with a poet, a painter, a musician and a philosopher

struggling to keep warm in a Parisian garret?

Erm, Puccini, La Boheme.

Could be. La Boheme, Puccini?

Correct. 10 points for this.

In the 1611 paper

On The Six-Cornered Snowflake,

which German scientist stated the conjecture long-known to

greengrocers that the most space-economical arrangement

of identical spheres is either hexagonal or cubic close packing?

He also gives his name to three laws of planetary motion.

Er, Johannes Kepler.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Leicester, your bonuses are on the science of throwing snowballs.

Firstly, for five, what is the optimum angle relative to the ground

at which to throw a snowball

to maximise its horizontal distance travel

for a given velocity, assuming no air resistance?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

BELL RINGS

You don't need to buzz, you can confer. Oh, right!

Yeah, 45 degrees. 45, I think. 45 degrees.

Correct. If the snowball's initial vertical velocity at ground height

is 15 metres per second,

and the acceleration due to gravity, G,

is 10 metres per second per second,

for how many seconds is the snowball in the air?

THEY LAUGH

Jeremy, naughty!

No, you're the naughty one, you're not answering. Come along.

It's less than that.

I'd say six. Six? You're going for six.

All right, we're going for six.

Some snowball. No, it's three seconds.

In the same circumstances, if the snowball has been

thrown at a 45-degree angle, what is the horizontal distance travelled?

Depends how hard, depends how hard you throw it.

I've just given you all the information.

I've told you the angle it's going at, how long it's in the air.

Come on, how far does it go? I'll go for three metres.

Three metres?! Sorry.

LAUGHTER

Unbelievable! If it's going 10 metres per second, erm...

Three seconds. So, it's 30 metres. 30 metres? It seems too obvious.

It's going that way, so it's going...

Oh, it's 45 degrees. Oh, right, so...

So, that's... 20. 20. All right.

20 metres. No, it's 45 metres.

Wrong angle.

Very impressive snowball, Jeremy.

More impressive than your maths, anyway!

We're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter you're going to see

the title of a well-known fairytale in its original language.

For 10 points, please give me

the title as it's usually given in English.

BUZZ

The Tin Soldier.

No. Leicester, one of you buzz!

I can't even take an educated guess. BELL RINGS

The Standing Tin Soldier.

No, it's The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Let's see the whole thing, there it is.

So, picture bonuses in a moment or two. 10 points for this.

Saint Aldhelm's Church and its adjacent hall, Swallows Bank, the

Marigold Tea Rooms and the Novelty Rock Emporium are locations in which

fictional South Coast town first appearing on television in 1968?

BELL RINGS

Brighton?

Oh, fictional, no.

No, that was a really silly answer.

Come along, Sussex, one of you buzz. You may not confer.

One of you, no, you may not, don't you understand English?!

You can't confer, just buzz!

Buzz, buzz. No, cos I don't know. Can't confer.

It's Walmington-on-Sea. ..On-Sea! Too late. I know.

Right, another starter question.

From the Tamil language,

what is the common name of the tropical shrub "Pogostemon cablin"?

It's dried leaves yield an oil used in perfumery and incense making...

BUZZ

Eucalyptus?

No, you lose five points, I'm afraid, as well.

And its earthy, musk-like aroma is particularly associated with

the so-called "hippie era" of the 1960s.

BELL RINGS

Patchouli oil. Yes.

APPLAUSE

So, you get picture bonuses.

They're the titles of three Hans Christian Andersen

Christmas and winter fairytales, again, in the original Danish.

In each case, for five points,

I want the title as it's usually given in English.

Firstly for five.

The little...

The little pig with... The little girl...

The little pig with...

No, "pige" is girl. Is it? With, erm...

With, erm, "svovlstikkerne?" Pigtails? What can that be?

Pigtails. Pigtails.

Erm, Little Red Riding Hood.

No, it's The Little Match Girl. Oh!

Secondly, this one, please.

Good Lord!

"Grantraeet?"

I have no Danish.

One-word fairytale.

Must be one or two words. Yes, one or two.

Grand, does that mean large, like French? Probably not.

Could be, it could be large something.

JEREMY WEARILY EXHALES

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

You're not going to suddenly learn old Danish sitting there!

Jack and the Beanstalk.

No, it's The Fir-Tree.

And finally this one, please.

Snow? Snow White? Snow?

Sned sounded like snow. We'll try Snow White.

No, it's The Snow Queen but you nearly got it.

Right, 10 points for this, listen carefully.

The Sam Cooke song Wonderful World begins with the words,

"Don't know much about history," and also mentions ignorance

of the use of a slide rule and of two branches of mathematics.

Can you name either, please?

BUZZ

Trigonometry and geometry.

You only needed one.

Er, I'll accept that then.

So, trigonometry was one, the other one was algebra,

so you get a set of bonuses. They're on London thoroughfares.

In each case, the answer is the name of a space on the standard

London edition of the board game Monopoly.

The name of which space formed part of the title of a gazette

founded in 1865 by Frederick Greenwood and George Smith?

It was later incorporated into the London Evening Standard.

Is that the Islington Gazette? Pall Mall.

Pall Mall? God, I don't know.

Oh, Whitehall?

What do you want to go with?

(Pall Mall.)

Pall Mall?

Pall Mall. Correct.

Which space shares its name with

a school of painting that flourished in the late 1930s?

Its founders included Sir William Coldstream and Claude Rogers.

School of painting?

Is that Paddington?

Strand? Ooh, Strand.

What d'you reckon?

Let's get on with it. Yeah, Strand.

No, it's the Euston Road.

And finally, which street on the Monopoly board gave its name

to an early police force founded by the writer Henry Fielding in 1749?

Oh, Bow Street. Yes, of course.

Right, 10 points for this. Described by GK Chesterton as

"the devil's walking parody on all four-footed things,"

which animal links an 1876 travel work by Robert Louis Stevenson

with the symbol of the United States Democratic...?

Donkey. Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Leicester, are on precious metals.

Under the 1973 Hallmarking Act, four precious metals are required

by law to be hallmarked before they're sold in the UK.

Silver, gold and platinum are three, what's the fourth?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

What do you make rings out of?

White gold, what about white...?

Well, that's gold, isn't it?

Must be platinum, palladium... Come on. Erm...

Try palladium.

Palladium. Correct.

What name is given to silver that contains 925 parts per thousand

of pure metal in its alloy?

Silver? Sterling seems all right.

Sterling silver. Correct.

Of the four assay offices responsible for hallmarking precious

metals in the UK, which city is represented by the mark of a rose?

Yorkshire?

York. No, it's Sheffield.

We're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you will hear a song being performed by a popular band.

For ten points, all you have to do is name the band.

# If I lay here

# If I just lay... #

BUZZER

Keane? No.

Leicester, you can hear a little more.

# If I lay here... #

You can't confer.

BUZZER

Snow Patrol. Correct. Yes, Chasing Cars.

APPLAUSE

So following on, three more songs by bands whose names have a

connection with winter.

In each case, simply name the band. Firstly, for five.

# Although you're trying not to listen but your eyes are staring at the ground

# She makes a subtle proposition

# I'm sorry, love, I'll have to turn you down

# Oh, we must be up to summat... #

MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

# Got a feeling in my stomach

# Start to wonder what his story might be, what his story might be

# They said he changes when the sun goes down... #

We're a bit blank here, I'm afraid. OK, I'll tell you, then.

It's the Arctic Monkeys.

Secondly, can you give us the name of this band, please?

# Summer swells anon

# So knock me down, tear me up

# But I would bear it all broken just to fill my cup

# Down by the water and down by the old main drag... #

Coldplay? Yeah.

THEY CONFER

OK? It didn't quite sound like them but... Coldplay?

It doesn't sound like them because it's NOT them.

It's the Decemberists. Finally...

# Para...

# Paradise... #

This is Coldplay! This IS Coldplay. This is, yes.

Sounds different, doesn't it? Well done! Ten points for this.

An Italian scientist, the title character of a Mozart opera,

the opening word of the Koran, a lively Spanish dance,

a stock character of the Commedia dell'Arte, and an alternative

name for the devil are linked by which 1975 number one single?

BUZZER

Bohemian Rhapsody. Yes.

APPLAUSE

This set of bonuses, Leicester, is on Impressionist painters.

Born in the West Indies, which French painter

and graphic artist was the only one of the group to

display his work at all eight Impressionist exhibitions?

The one in the West Indies. West Indies?

Any ideas?

I mean, he's most likely to be at all of them. Yes.

So he's got to be a good one because he's in all eight. Monet? Monet.

Seems a... Yes. Monet.

No, it's Pissarro.

In the 1870s, Pissarro's prints appeared in a self-published

volume alongside those of Degas and which other artist,

one of three women

and the only American to exhibit with the Impressionist group?

Frida? Don't know.

I've got no idea.

Go for it. Frida. Frida who? A Mexican. A Mexican.

Are you thinking of Frida Kahlo? No, it's Mary Cassatt.

And finally, born in Aix en Provence in 1839 and initially

a protege of Pissarro, which artist exhibited twice with the

Impressionists without ever wholly adopting their aims and techniques?

Any idea? Picasso? Yes, that's what I was thinking.

Might as well go for it.

Picasso. No, it's Cezanne. Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

In Newton's law of gravitation,

the gravitational force between any two bodies

is proportional to the product of their masses divided by what...

Leicester, Henbest.

Two. The square of the distance. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, Leicester. These bonuses are on animals in winter.

Lepus timidus, whose coat become lighter in winter, except for

its black ear tips is in the same genus as which British lagomorph?

Lagomorph? It doesn't snow here.

I think a hare, yes. A hare. Correct.

What is the common name of Panthera uncia or Uncia uncia,

an endangered cat species that lives at altitudes of about 2,000

metres in winter in the mountains of central Asia? It's a snow leopard.

Correct. Give any of the common two-word names of Vulpes lagopus or alopex lagopus,

a carnivore native to hyperborean regions whose coat

changes from brown to white in winter.

A wolf of some sort?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Arctic foxes. Arctic Fox, that's what I was thinking. All right.

Arctic Fox. Correct. Right, your second picture round now.

For your picture starter, you will see a painting.

For ten points, all you have to do is to name the artist.

BUZZER

Goya. Goya is correct, yes, well done.

APPLAUSE

That's Goya's Snowstorm.

You're going to get three more paintings of snow scenes

from the Romantic era for your bonuses.

In each case, simply give me the artist, please.

Firstly for five, this German artist.

I don't know any German artists.

Adolf Hitler is the only German artist I can think of!

LAUGHTER

It's not Durer, is it?

Hammond? Durer.

Durer? No, it's Caspar David Friedrich.

Cemetery In The Snow. Secondly, this English artist, please.

Is that Turner? I was going to say Turner. Turner?

No, that's John Martin. And Manfred On The Jungfrau.

And finally, another English artist.

No idea. Do you know? Who did those pictures around the lake?

Is that like the Lake District?

Don't know. I guess?

No idea? No.

It's JMW Turner and it's not in the Lake District,

it's near Grindelwald. Right, ten points for this.

Slowworms, like many other lizards, are able to autotomize.

This means that in order to escape predators, they have the ability to do...

BUZZER

To lose their tail. Correct.

Right, these bonuses are on literary critics, Leicester.

Shakespeare And Society and The Ideology Of The Aesthetic

are among the works of which Marxist critic

who joined Lancaster University's English department 2008?

2008...?

Marxist critic...

I don't know any current ones.

I know all the old ones, but no the current ones!

Sorry, I think we don't know.

It's Terry Eagleton.

The lyrics of which American songwriter were the subject

of a book first published in 2003 by Christopher Ricks,

elected the Oxford Professor of Poetry the following year?

Mmm.

Oh...

I don't know. Oxford Professor of...

Well, Leonard Cohen.

No, it's Bob Dylan. Oh!

On his death in 2010...

I said Leonard Cohen cos it's - my idiom! Close.

Yes, exactly.

On his death in 2010, whom did the Daily Telegraph describe as

"the most eminent critic of English Literature since FR Leavis"?

His works include The Scent Of An Ending.

THEY WHISPER

No... Never studied English.

Let's have it, please.

Come on, let's have it. Sorry. It's Frank Kermode.

Four minutes to go, ten points for this.

Gounod's Funeral March Of A Marionette

and a rotund line-drawing caricature introduced a US television series

first seen in 1955 and presented by which British film director?

BUZZER

Alfred Hitchcock.

Correct.

Right, your bonuses, Sussex, are on telegrams.

At one time the drama critic for the New Yorker, which American humorist

sent the magazine's editor a telegram on first arriving in Venice

that read, "Streets full of water, please advise"?

Probably George S Kaufman...

Dorothy Parker...

THEY WHISPER

Do you want to go for it now? What was the first one you said?

George S Kaufman.

No, it's Robert Benchley.

A 1939 telegram simply declared, "Winston is back,"

following Churchill's appointment to what position?

Foreign secretary? Was he foreign secretary?

Foreign secretary?

No, he was First Lord of the Admiralty.

In 1884, the British biologist WH Caldwell

wrote the Latin telegram "Monotremes oviparous, ovum meroblastic",

revealing his discovery that which animal lays eggs?

Snakes. Snakes?

Snakes.

Snakes.

No, it was the duck-billed platypus.

Another starter question, ten points for this.

What term was coined by the Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney

in 1894 to represent the fundamental unit quantity of electricity?

Amp?

No.

You may buzz.

Coulomb.

No, it's an electron. Oh!

Ten points for this.

What surname links the director of the 1930 film Hell's Angels

with the author of Tom Brown's School Days

and the poet whose collections include Birthday Letters and Crow?

Hughes.

Correct.

So, the bonuses, Sussex, on national capitals, for you.

Located near a branch of the Silk Road

and the Tian Shan mountain range,

Bishkek is the capital of which country?

What do you think?

Bhutan?

Could be. Hm? Could be.

Somewhere like that, isn't it? None of us know.

Hm? Turkmenistan? Total guess.

Turkmenistan? A guess.

What shall we go for, lads and lasses?

Bhutan?

No, it's Kyrgyzstan.

It's name, meaning "Monday", referring to the market day

of the original settlement, Dushanbe is the capital of which country?

Dushanbe.

Dushanbe...

No idea.

Never heard of it. I haven't either.

Not an African country, I'd say.

Sounds like it's the same neck of the woods, doesn't it?

Sort of Asian. Yeah.

Come on! Bhutan.

No, it's Tajikistan.

We weren't far off, come on, don't laugh!

You were a very long way off.

A former centre for scholarship and commerce on the Silk Road, Tashkent,

meaning "Stone City", is the capital of which country?

Is that Turkmenistan? We've had Turkmenistan.

Yeah, but it wasn't the right answer.

Tajikistan was the last one.

Which one is it?

Shall we go Turkmenistan?

Turkmenis...?

Turkmenistan.

No, it's Uzbekistan.

Right, ten points for this.

Born on New Year's Day 1895, who held the position

of director of the US Bureau of Investigation and later the FBI...?

Herbert Hoover.

Oh, Hoover, John Edgar Hoover.

You can't do that, I have to take your first answer.

They're two separate people - Herbert Hoover was a president.

LAUGHTER

I said Hoover. You did say Hoover... GONG

..you might have been referring to a vacuum cleaner.

APPLAUSE

Only I wasn't referring to a vacuum cleaner.

No, you were referring to a president.

I was referring to the director of the FBI, he just changed his name.

LAUGHTER

Well, you can't have it, it's wrong.

That's jolly nice of you, thank you for being so strict

and giving me such clear guidance.

You're a very difficult man.

So, at the gong, Sussex University have 60 points

and Leicester have 125.

APPLAUSE

Well, I hope you can join us next time.

In the meantime, in the spirit of Crimewatch,

here are some artists impressions of tonight's suspects

before they were old enough to know better. Goodbye.