Exeter v Magdalen, Oxford University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

STEAM TRAIN WHISTLE

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

Hello. Tonight we play the fifth of seven first-round matches

in this festive series

for distinguished alumni of some of the UK's

leading universities and university colleges.

Only the four winning teams with the highest scores

will appear again in the semifinals.

Which means that the team from Manchester University

are now definitely through to that stage.

University College London, Trinity College Cambridge,

and Essex University remain in contention.

And tonight's winners need to score 195

to guarantee that they will play again.

Here to defend the honour of the University of Exeter

are a prolific composer,

whose work with his writing partner has earned him

an Olivier Award in the UK,

as well as a host of international awards

for the Cameron Mackintosh and Disney production of Mary Poppins.

With him, another composer. Her work has been performed

by the London Philharmonic and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

and has been heard at the Royal Festival Hall,

St Paul's Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey.

She's been a Radio 3 composer of the week

and in 2015 won the Women Of The Future Award for arts and culture.

Their captain turned his youthful passion for living things

into a career in which he writes books and presents programmes,

such as BBC's Springwatch and Autumnwatch Unsprung,

as well as Channel 5's Weird Creatures.

Their fourth member has an extensive list of credits,

as an actor, director, and writer

for theatre, television, film, and radio,

but is, perhaps, best known for the finely nuanced performances

he delivers from inside a polycarbide armoured casing.

Let's meet the Exeter team.

-APPLAUSE

-Hello. I'm George Stiles

and I graduated in music from Exeter in 1983.

While I was there I met a lyricist

called Anthony Drewe, who was studying zoology.

We've been writing musicals together ever since, often about animals.

Hello. I'm Hannah Kendall.

I completed my BA in music at Exeter in 2005.

And now I am a composer of contemporary classical music.

And this is their captain.

Hello. I'm Nick Baker.

I scraped through with a degree in biological science in 1993

and I've been an author and a broadcaster

on the subject of natural history ever since.

Hello. I'm Barnaby Edwards

and I read French and fine art at Exeter, graduating in 1991.

Since then, I've become an actor, a painter and, from time to time,

I exterminate inferior lifeforms

in my capacity as a Dalek on Doctor Who.

APPLAUSE

Now, the term "chequered" scarcely does justice

to the careers of the team from Magdalen College Oxford.

First is the scourge of garden gnomes everywhere,

the gardening correspondent for the Financial Times.

He's also a distinguished classicist.

Rowan Williams called his new book on St Augustine "a landmark",

and he was historical advisor to Oliver Stone on the film Alexander.

Alert viewers will, no doubt,

remember his appearance as the leader of the cavalry.

His colleague is known for her appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe,

where her shows explore the fun side of cognitive neuroscience.

"Geek heaven", said the Edinburgh Reporter.

And she's held academic posts on both sides of the Atlantic,

as well as being the recipient of numerous awards.

Their third member is ideally suited to the role of team captain,

as he's made a television career out of surrounding himself

with disparate individuals in desperate circumstances.

His work in that genre has earned him awards from both Bafta and the RTS.

With them, a writer, journalist, and politician.

As it's Christmas,

we'll skate over briefly his tenure as chair of Northern Rock

and concentrate, instead,

on his distinguished career as the author of numerous books on science.

A writer for The Economist, The Times, and The Wall Street Journal

and, since 2013, a Conservative peer in the House of Lords.

So let's meet the plain, simple folk from Magdalen College.

APPLAUSE

I'm Robin Lane Fox.

I studied Greats - that's Classics - ancient history and philosophy

at Magdalen until 1969 and got a double first.

I'm now an Emeritus Fellow of New College Oxford

and weekly gardening correspondent, for 45 years,

of the Financial Times newspaper.

I'm Heather Berlin.

I graduated with a DPhil

in experimental psychology from Magdalen in 2003.

I'm a neuroscientist and Professor of Psychiatry

at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York

and a TV presenter.

-And this is their captain.

-My name is Louis Theroux.

I graduated in history in 1991 and I now make documentaries.

I'm Matt Ridley, I left Magdalen in 1983 with a DPhil in zoology.

I'm an author, Times columnist, member of the House of Lords,

and father of a University Challenge winner.

APPLAUSE

So, the stakes are intensely high. Let me remind you of the rules.

Ten points for the starter questions, which are individual efforts.

You answer on the buzzer.

And bonuses are worth 15 points

and they're team efforts, in which you can confer.

There's a five-point penalty

if you interrupt a starter question incorrectly.

Fingers on the buzzers. Your first starter for ten.

Its original version drawn up in 1880 by Edward White Benson,

then the Bishop of Truro,

what form of festive worship has, since 1918,

been particularly associated with the chapel of King's College Cambridge?

Choral... Er, yeah...er...er...

Sung carols...is what I'm trying to say.

No. That's not specific. Anyone like to answer from Exeter?

-Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

-That is correct. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Right. Exeter, your bonuses

are on aunts in the novels of Charles Dickens.

Which of Dickens's novels includes a relative of Flora Finching's

late husband whom Flora inherits on his death?

Known as Mr F's Aunt, she is a little old woman of extreme severity.

-Isn't it Nicholas Nickleby?

-I don't know.

-Shall we go for it? Nicholas Nickleby.

-No. It's Little Dorrit.

"She was always grave and strict. She was so very good herself, I thought,

"that the badness of other people made her frown all her life."

This is Esther Summerson's description of the woman

she discovers to be her aunt in which novel?

-Bleak House, Esther Summerson.

-Bleak House.

-Correct.

In which novel is the hero's great aunt disappointed

that he is not born a girl?

She compensates by imagining that he might have had a sister

named after herself, telling him,

"Your sister Betsey Trotwood would have been as natural and rational a girl as ever breathed."

-David Copperfield.

-David Copperfield.

-Correct.

Right. Ten points for this starter question.

In 1965, which route became the first long-distance footpath in the UK

to be designated as a National Trail.

Around 250 miles long,...

-The Pennine Way.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on wide-of-the-mark predictions.

Firstly, in 1878, which of Edison's innovations

was described by a British parliamentary committee

as "good enough for our transatlantic friends

"but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men"?

In the UK, Joseph Swan was independently developing

a similar device.

-Was it a match? Swan? Swan...

-No, no, no.

-Joseph Swan invented the light bulb.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-Light bulb.

It is the electric light bulb, yes.

In 1926, of what did the US inventor Lee de Forest write,

"While, theoretically and technically, it may be feasible,

"commercially and financially, it's an impossibility -

"a development of which we need waste little time dreaming"?

-Nuclear power, I think.

-Nuclear power?

-Nuclear power.

-No. It's television.

Of what innovation, much used in reconnaissance

in the early stages of the First World War,

had the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch said, in 1911,

"They are interesting toys but of no military value"?

-Aircraft.

-Yes.

-Aircraft.

-Aeroplanes is correct. Yes.

Ten points for this.

Which composer's piano concerto of 1868 features in a sketch

in which the designated pianist tells the conductor

that he is "playing all the right notes,

"but not necessarily in the right order"?

The sketch was first shown on television on Christmas Day 1971.

You may not confer. One of you can buzz.

Rachmaninov.

Anyone like to buzz from Magdalen?

-Prokofiev?

-No. It was Eric Morecambe trying to play a piece of Grieg.

Ten points for this.

"He was far too great an artist to be a mere exponent

"of the fashions of his time."

"Rather, it was he whose dreams and ideals

"helped mould the fashion we call "rococo"."

These words of EH Gombrich refer to which artist

who died in 1721 in Paris at the age of 36?

-Rubens.

-No. One of you buzz, Magdalen.

-Poussin.

-No. It was Watteau. Ten points for this.

What 15-letter word denotes the reproductive process

employed by, for instance,

a percentage of Florida's smalltooth sawfish,

thought to be a response to its dwindling population?

The process is sometimes called "virgin birth".

-Parthenogenesis.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, Magdalen, these bonuses are on the cricketer and broadcaster

Richie Benaud, who died in April 2015.

Richie Benaud led Australia in the first tied test match

at Brisbane in 1960.

Who were Australia's opponents, captained by Frank Worrell?

-West Indies.

-We can...

-You can confer on these.

-Nominate him.

-No, but you're quite right.

Nominate Lane Fox.

LAUGHTER

-Very good.

-Too much on parthenogenesis.

West Indies was right, yes.

Secondly, Benaud later became the first to make what all-round,

or double, career record in Test cricket?

George Hirst of Yorkshire is the only player to date

to have achieved the same in an English season, doing so in 1906.

-Do you know?

-Is it 1,000 runs and 100 wickets?

-1,000 runs and 100 wickets?

-1,000 runs and 100 wickets.

No. It's 2,000 runs and 200 wickets.

AUDIENCE AND TEAM GROAN

As a broadcaster, Benaud excoriated Australia in 1981

when they used what tactic to beat New Zealand

in the last over of a match?

Law 24 now bans this form of play, unless it's agreed beforehand.

Bowling wides?

Kicking the ball onto the stumps, when hit by another batsmen?

No, no. It's underarm bowling.

Beneath contempt.

We're going to take a picture round.

For your picture starter, you're going to see a Christmas jumper.

For ten points, I want the name

of the traditional textile pattern featured thereon.

Pringle.

Anyone like to buzz from Exeter?

-Argyle.

-It is Argyle. Yes.

APPLAUSE

Three more Christmas jumpers in traditional patterns.

Again, I want the name of the particular textile pattern on each.

Firstly, for five.

-Is that not dogtooth?

-Yes, I think it probably is.

-Dogtooth check?

-Yes, it's houndstooth, or dogstooth. Yes.

Secondly.

Good grief.

-Herringbone?

-Herringbone.

-Correct. And, finally,...

-Paisley.

-Yes.

Yes. I'm so glad I can't see inside your wardrobe.

Ten points for this.

The work of the US author and illustrator

Chris Van Allsberg includes which 1985 novel for children?

Concerning the young passengers on a northbound train journey,

it was adapted as a computer-animated film of 2004...

-Polar Express.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right. Your bonuses are on fish, this time, Exeter.

-Oh, no!

-Don't sound too excited.

Having the distinguishing feature

of fused dorsal, anal, and caudal fins,

fish of the order Anguilliformes are commonly known by what name?

-Eels.

-Correct.

Also known as slime eels,

what name is given to the primitive fish of the Myxinidae?

They are characterised by simple eye spots, a single nostril,

and the capacity to produce large quantities of slime

to deter predators.

-Hagfish.

-Correct.

Referring to a jawless, elongated fish, "a surfeit of lampreys"

was, according to Henry of Huntingdon in his Historia Anglorum,

a contributing factor in the death of which King of England?

Oh, go on. Henry the... first or second?

-Henry I.

-One of the Henrys, we're going to go for Henry I.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right. Another starter question now.

"Santa Claus has the right idea - visit people once a year."

These words are attributed to which Danish pianist and comedian,

noted for his irreverence towards pomposity

in classical music performance?

Victor Borge.

Victor Borge is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Exeter,

are on novels that mark the centenary of their publication in 2015.

Initially called The Artistic Temperament Of Stephen Carey,

then later Beauty From The Ashes, what title was finally given

to Somerset Maugham's novel about the orphan Philip Carey?

-Of Human Bondage.

-Or Cakes And Ale, maybe?

-What shall we go for?

-I don't know.

-Go with yours.

-Of Human Bondage.

-Correct.

Beginning with the words, "This is the saddest story I have ever heard",

which novel concerns the seemingly perfect gentleman Edward Ashburnham?

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.

-The Good Soldier.

-The Good Soldier is correct.

Finally, which novel spans three generations of the Brangwen family?

Its characters include Ursula and Gudrun,

the two sisters whose story continues in the 1920 novel Women In Love.

Is it The Rainbow?

I don't know. The Rainbow?

It is The Rainbow, by DH Lawrence. Yes.

APPLAUSE

We're about halfway through. We're going to take a music round.

For your music starter, you're going to hear a piece of classical music.

Ten points if you can give me the name of the composer, please.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC AND CHORAL SINGING

Handel.

No, it's wrong. You can hear a little more, Magdalen.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC AND CHORAL SINGING

THEY CONFER

You can't confer. One of you can buzz.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC CONTINUES

Buzz, come on, one of you!

Purcell.

No, it was Bach! Bad luck. Johann Sebastian.

So, music bonuses in a moment or two. Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's another starter question.

What term for a religious building derives

ultimately from the Greek for "a thing sat upon"?

In the Christian world, it came to mean the seat or throne of a...

Ah, cathedral.

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you heard, a moment ago,

Bach's setting of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, which begins with

the words of the angels announcing to the shepherds the birth of Christ.

Your music bonuses are three more settings of the Gloria.

In each case, you just have to identify the composer.

Firstly, for five, the composer to whom this work has

been popularly attributed since 2001.

FEMALE: # Glo-o-o-o-o-ria

# Gloria in excelsis Gloria in excelsis Deo... #

THEY CONFER

-No, it's been attributed to him SINCE 2001.

-Oh, I see.

It can't be Bach. It's got to be...

-..Purcell?

-(No, no, no...)

I think it's pre-Handel. Don't you think?

-I don't know.

-Purcell.

No, it WAS Handel.

Second lead is a French composer, please.

CHOIR SINGS "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO"

-(Did he say French?)

-A French composer?

THEY CONFER

CHORAL SINGING DROWNS OUT SPEECH

French? Saint-Saens? Debussy?

You think it's Debussy? It doesn't sound like Debussy...

-Anything?

-No.

-Saint-Saens.

-Correct!

-Yes!

Finally, this Italian composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

CHOIR: # Gloria, Gloria. #

Vivaldi.

It is Vivaldi, yes. APPLAUSE

Right, ten points at stake for this.

Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel To The Lighthouse

is set primarily on which Scottish island?

The Little Minch separates it from the Outer Hebrides.

Skye?

Skye is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses, Magdalen College, are six-letter terms in the sciences.

In each case, give the term from the definition.

All three begin with the same letter.

In physics, a physical quantity that has both magnitude and direction.

-Vector?

-Vector?

-Vector, yeah, vector, actually.

Vector.

Correct. Secondly, in meteorology, or fluid mechanics,

a rapid swirl of fluid rotating about a line or axis, generated,

for example, by an aircraft wing.

-Vortex?

-Yes, yes.

-Vortex?

-Correct.

And finally, in pharmacology, the commercial name of an oral

drug known by the chemical name Sildenafil Citrate.

-Viagra.

-Is that Viagra?

Viagra.

Suspiciously quick, I thought, there. LAUGHTER

Ten points for this.

The surface of which organ of the body is marked by furrows

known as sulci and ridges known as gyri?

The brain?

Correct. APPLAUSE

Bonuses now.

On the Forbes 2015 list of the world's 100 most powerful women.

Firstly, for five points, who appeared at number 12 on the list?

She was the founder in 1986 of the multimedia company

-Harpo Productions.

-Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah Winfrey.

Correct. Ranked number seven on the list,

which politician was in 2010 elected Brazil's first female president?

It's Rousseff, she is called something Rousseff.

We don't need... Just Mrs Russeff.

Rousseff?

It was Dilma Rousseff, yes. And placed at number 65, which US singer

and songwriter became, at 25, the youngest person to be included on the list?

(Taylor Swift?) Taylor Swift.

Yes! APPLAUSE

Right, ten points for this.

Snufkin, Sniff and Snork Maiden are all friends of which fictional

family, created in the 1940s...?

The Moomins.

The Moomins is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Level pegging. These are your bonuses.

They're on English forests, Exeter.

Designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest,

the former Royal Hunting Forest of Hainault is a remnant of a forest

named after which English county?

Ooh, erm...

No... I was going to say Sherwood, but... It's not, is it?

-I'm thinking which county.

-Yeah... No?

-Is it Essex?

-It might be Essex.

-Yeah.

-Essex.

Correct. Located near the historic market town of Frodsham, Delamere Forest

is the largest area of woodland in which English county?

Delamere, Delamere, Delamere... Erm...

(I don't know.)

Guess one? Lincolnshire?

No, its Cheshire.

And finally, designated the first National Forest Park in

England in 1938, the Forest of Dean lies largely in which English county?

-Gloucestershire?

-Gloucestershire.

Correct. were going to take a second picture round. APPLAUSE

For your picture starter, you will see a painting. For ten points,

all you have to do is to name the artist.

Gauguin.

Gauguin is correct. It's his Birth of Christ. APPLAUSE

Your picture bonuses are three 20th-century takes on aspects

of the Nativity. Following on from that theme.

Five points for each artist you can identify.

Firstly, for five, this Spanish artist.

-(I don't know that one.)

-Dali?

-You think that's Dali?

-Maybe not.

-I think so.

Dali?

It is Salvador Dali. Secondly, this British-born artist.

-THEY WHISPER

-British-born...

Maybe Francis Bacon...

THEY CONFER

Anything?

Erm, Bacon?

No, that's Leonora Carrington. Nativity Triptych.

And finally, another British artist.

-Stanley Spencer.

-Stanley Spencer.

Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

In 2015, the Royal Mail issued commemorative stamps to mark

the bicentenary of the birth of which novelist?

In 1852, as a senior civil servant for the post office, he introduced...

Trollope.

Trollope is right, yes. APPLAUSE

You get bonuses this time on Shakespeare's The Winter's tale,

Magdalen College. In act two, scene one of The Winter's Tale, which character says,

"Do not weep, good fools, there is no cause: when you shall know your mistress

"Has deserved prison, then abound in tears"?

-Leontes?

-I've not got anything.

Leontes?

No, it's Hermione.

In act three, scene two, Hermione says she is, "A great king's daughter,"

later saying that her father was the Emperor of which country?

-It could be Bohemia.

-Yeah?

Bohemia?

No, it's Russia. Finally, who is the daughter of Hermione and her husband,

Leontes, the King of Bohemia? Her name in Latin means lost.

-Sorry.

-Perdita?

-Perdita.

Correct! APPLAUSE

I love my buzzer!

I'm so pleased. You can take it home with you, if you like. LAUGHTER

It's like my horse.

Right, ten points for this. Meaning a state of spiritual apathy,

"acedia" is a late Latin word for which of a seven deadly sins?

Sloth.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a German city, this time, Magdalen.

Founded in 1827, the Gurzenich Orchestra is based in which

city on the River Rhine?

-Frankfurt?

-Cologne?

-Is Frankfurt on the Rhein?

-No, it's on the Main.

So, try Cologne.

Cologne.

Correct. Who escaped with the friar William Roy to the

city of Worms in 1525, after his print shop in Cologne was

raided during the production of an English version of the New Testament?

It's Tyndale. It might be.

Tyndale.

William Tyndale is correct. And finally, Cologne Bonn Airport is named after which post-war

Chancellor of West Germany?

He was the mayor of Cologne between 1917 and '33.

-Adenauer?

-Is it? Adenauer?

Konrad Adenauer is correct. Ten points for this.

Which modern orchestral instrument typically has seven

pedals at the form invented in the early 19...

-Harp.

-The harp is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Exeter, are on people born in 1915.

In each case, name the person from the description.

Born in Cherbourg, an exponent of structuralism,

whose works include The Death Of The Author and The Eiffel Tower

And Other Mythologies? He died in 1980 following a road accident.

THEY CONFER

-Don't know.

-No idea?

Jacques Derrida?

No, it's Roland Barthes.

And secondly, a British cosmologist, who, with Hermann Bondi

and Thomas Gold proposed the steady-state theory of the universe?

-Marten somebody...

-No? Pass?

-Pass.

That was Sir Fred Hoyle. And finally, an actress born in Stockholm.

Her films include Gaslight, For Whom The Bell Tolls, and Casablanca.

-Ingrid Bergman.

-Yeah.

-Ingrid Bergman?

Correct. Ten points for this. APPLAUSE

The six letters of the chemical symbols of bromine, xenon

and titanium may be recombined to form which topical portmanteau word?

Brexit.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, this time, Magdalen, are on honeybees.

To what order within the class Insecta do honeybees belong?

The name comes from the Greek for membranous wings.

Hymenoptera.

-Hymenoptera?

-Correct.

Referring to a phenomena first reported in 2006, and resulting in

large-scale losses of bee colonies, for what the letters CCD stand?

Colony Collapse Disorder.

Colony Collapse Disorder.

Correct. The queen bee in a colony will often mate with many drones.

By what specific term is this type of mating behaviour known?

-Polyandry.

-Polyandry.

-Polyandry is right. Ten points for this.

APPLAUSE

October 1st 2015 marked the 40th

anniversary of which BBC Two arts series?

Edited since 1985 by Anthony Wall, its title...

Arena.

Arena is correct. The next set of bonuses, this time on the 1930s.

During the 1930s, the Normandie

and the Queen Mary were among the ocean liners to win which

marked distinction, sometimes also known as the Hales Trophy,

by setting a record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic?

THEY CONFER

-Go for it.

-Blue Riband.

-Correct.

Which aviation pioneer won the King's Cup Air Race

in 1933 in a plane of his own design?

The aircraft built by the company he founded include the Tiger Moth

and the Mosquito.

De Havilland.

-De Havilland.

-Correct.

In September 1935,

who became the first car driver to exceed the speed of 300mph,

when he set a land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah?

THEY CONFER

-Campbell?

-Which one?

-Donald.

-Donald.

-No, that was the son. It was Malcolm Campbell.

Ten points for this.

Born in 1911, Elizabeth Anscombe was a pupil

and literary executor at which Austrian...?

Wittgenstein.

Wittgenstein is correct.

You get a set of bonuses, this time, on imperial and metric units...

GONG

And that's the gong. Exeter University have 130.

Magdalen College, Oxford, have 220.

APPLAUSE

Well, you made a steaming start, Exeter,

but you faded a bit, as time went on, I thought,

but thank you very much for joining us.

-ALL:

-Thank you.

Magdalen, that's a terrific score.

That is the highest score so far we've had,

so you'll definitely be in the semifinals.

You'll have to come back now. LAUGHTER

And you can't go to the pantomime. Sorry about that!

-I'll bring my buzzer!

-BUZZER, LAUGHTER

Thank you very much - a great performance. Thank you...

Stop pressing your buzzer, will you?

LAUGHTER

I hope you can join us next time for another first-round match,

but, until then, though, it's goodbye from Exeter University.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

It's goodbye from Magdalen College, Oxford.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

-And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE