Aberdeen v Sheffield University Challenge

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

TOY TRAIN WHISTLE

Hello. Two teams have already received, with rather mixed feelings,

the news that they're through to the semifinal stage of our

seasonal competition for distinguished alumni.

Those teams are from Manchester University and Magdalene College, Oxford.

Now first, the team representing the ancient University of Aberdeen,

founded in the late 15th century.

Their first team member threw away a promising early career as a postman,

and is now a television executive.

A former controller of BBC Four,

he is currently the Director Of Factual Programmes at ITV.

With him is a familiar face from the other side of the camera as the

presenter of the BBC's religious and ethical debate programme,

The Big Questions, as well as ITV's Long Lost Family

and the Radio 5 Live Breakfast programme.

Their captain specialises in marine science.

He's worked for the British Antarctic Survey,

advised the US Navy on how military sonars affect the whale population

and he's the author and editor of several books on the Hebrides.

Joining them is a politician whose career so far has included

tenures as Scottish Labour's Shadow Minister for Youth Employment

and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning.

Let's meet the Aberdeen team.

My name is Richard Klein, I graduated from Aberdeen in 1983,

and I now work in television.

My name is Nicky Campbell, I graduated in 1982,

these days I ask questions, but very rarely answer any.

LAUGHTER Their captain:

My name is Ian Boyd, I graduated in 1979 in zoology.

I'm now a professor at the University of St Andrews

and Chief Scientific Adviser

to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

I'm Kezia Dugdale, I graduated from Aberdeen University in law in 2003.

I'm a member of the Scottish Parliament

and the leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

APPLAUSE

The University of Sheffield is a much more recent institution at a mere 110 years old,

and the team playing on its behalf tonight includes

a sports journalist who lives in Madrid and writes about football -

a career that on the face of it appears to have no downside.

His reports appear in the Guardian and he also contributes to the

US cable channel ESPN and World Soccer.

Next, a former literary editor of the New Statesman and the Observer.

For the past 20 years, she's collaborated with her husband,

Sean French, under the joint pseudonym Nicci French

on a series of bestselling literary thrillers.

Their captain is an award-winning academic author, broadcaster

and the go-to man on everything to do with insects.

He's recently been a presenter on the BBC's Hive Alive

and Life On Planet Ant.

2015 saw the publication of his book on bacteria, The Life Of Poo.

Their fourth member's career in architecture spans both public

and private practice as well as the Planning Inspectorate, the Government

agency responsible for the final outcome of town planning decisions.

She has a particular interest in planning for sensitive rural areas,

and she was awarded a professorship by Birmingham City University

for her contribution to the profession.

Let's meet the Sheffield team.

Hello, I'm Sid Lowe, I first went to Sheffield around about 21 years ago.

It's taken almost as long for me to leave.

I'm now a sports journalist and historian in Madrid.

Hello, I'm Nicci Gerard,

and I was at Sheffield doing an MA more than 30 years ago.

Now I'm a novelist and a journalist.

And their captain:

Hello, I'm Adam Hart, I graduated in 2001 with a PhD in zoology,

and I'm now a broadcaster, author

and Professor of Science Communication

at the University of Gloucestershire.

Hello, I'm Ruth Reed, I graduated as an architect from Sheffield in 1982.

I became the first woman president

of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are constant as the Northern Star,

so ten points for starters, 15 for bonuses,

there's a five-point fine if you interrupt a starter question incorrectly.

Right, fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for ten:

Published in 2015, Charlotte Higgins' work,

This New Noise, is a history of which institution?

Founded in the 1920s, one of its founding figures said it should be,

"The citizen's guide, philosopher and friend."

-The BBC.

-Correct.

You get the first set of bonuses, then, Aberdeen.

They're on national personifications.

Firstly, for five points,

which personification is said to have come into widespread use after

barrels of meat were stamped with the character's two initials

during the War of 1812 to indicate that they were government property?

-I don't know.

-No?

-We don't know.

-It's Uncle Sam.

Which personification was popularised by a character of the same

name in John Arbuthnot's 1712 satire, The Law Is A Bottomless Pit?

No, don't know.

-That was John Bull.

-Gah!

And finally, in the 1960s, Bridget Bardot became the first living

person to act as the model for official busts of which figure?

The personification of the French Republic.

Joan of Arc?

No, its Marianne! Ten points for this:

"A common mistake that people make

"when trying to design something completely foolproof

"is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."

Who wrote these words in the 1992 novel, Mostly Harmless?

-Douglas Adams.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Sheffield, your bonuses are on the characters in the novels of Jane Austen.

I want you to give me the surname, please, of each of the following.

Firstly: What is the surname of Captain Frederick,

who in Persuasion was formally betrothed to Anne Elliott?

-I think it's Weston, but I don't know.

-Frederick Weston?

-I don't know.

-No, I don't know. Go with Weston.

-Nominate Nicci.

-Weston?

-No, it's Wentworth.

-Argh!

-Bad luck!

Secondly, for five points:

What was the surname of Mr John, who rescues Marianne Dashwood

from a rainstorm in Sense and Sensibility?

Willoughby.

-Was it Willoughby?

-It's Willoughby.

-Willoughby.

-Correct.

Finally, Mr Fitzwilliam,

who in Pride And Prejudice has an income in excess of 10,000 a year?

-Is that Darcy?

-Is it Darcy?

-Could be Darcy.

-But is...

Was that the question?

-Darcy.

-Correct.

Ten points for this:

Who, in January 2015, became the Church of England's first

female bishop on her consecration in York Minster as Bishop of Stockport?

-Elizabeth Lane?

-Correct, yes. Or Libby Lane, for short.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Sheffield, this time are on scientists and inventors.

Name each person from the description, please.

Firstly, born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856,

he moved to New York in 1884.

He patented the rotating magnetic field

and developed the three-phase system of electric power transmission?

Faraday?

He was based in Britain, wasn't he?

-It's not Tesla, is it?

-Could be.

-Tesla?

-It is Nikola Tesla, yes.

Born in Connecticut in 1800, in 1839,

he accidentally discovered the process of vulcanisation.

Although he was financially unsuccessful during his lifetime,

A tyre company founded in 1898 and named after him

now has a total equity of around 3.6 billion.

Dunlop.

No, he was Scottish, wasn't he? It was Charles Goodyear.

And finally:

A noted exponent of the scientific method, born in Cornwall in 1778,

he discovered potassium and sodium and invented the miner's safety lamp.

-Humphry Davy.

-Yeah.

-Humphry Davy.

-Correct.

We're going to take our first picture round.

For your picture starter you're going to see a quotation from a play by

Shakespeare, from which the name of a month of the year has been removed.

For ten points, please give me the missing month.

October.

Anyone like to buzz from Sheffield?

-December.

-December. Let's see the whole thing?

It's Rosalind to Orlando in As You Like It.

For your picture bonuses, three more quotations from Shakespeare's

plays from which the name of a month of the year has been removed.

Again, in each case, five points if you can tell me the missing month.

Firstly for five:

One of the winter months.

What do you think?

Got any ideas?

-It's got to be winter.

-November?

What shall we go for? What do you think? November face?

November.

No, it's February.

It's Pedro to Benedick in Much Ado.

And, secondly:

Aye, well, cuckoo's normally May, aren't they?

-May.

-No, it's June, I'm afraid.

That's from Henry IV, about his predecessor,

to Prince Hal in Henry IV Part 1.

And, finally:

April. April?

April showers?

-Yeah, showers.

-It's got to be.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-April.

-April is correct, yes.

It's from Anthony And Cleopatra.

We're going to take another starter question now.

Underpinning many popular social networks,

what generic two-word term denotes the method of running application

software and storing data centrally, while providing users with access

to both applications and data through the internet?

Cloud storage.

Yes, I'll accept. Cloud computing, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on the US filmmaker Sofia Coppola.

In 1903, Coppola won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

for which film of 2003 starring Scarlett Johannson and Bill Murray?

It's set largely in a Tokyo hotel.

Lost In Translation.

-Lost In Translation.

-Correct.

Give the rhyming title of the 2013 film by Coppola,

based on actual events, in which a group of California teenagers

rob the homes of celebrities?

-Don't know.

-It's The Bling Ring.

And finally,

Kirsten Dunst played the title character in which 2006 film directed

by Coppola, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Costume Design?

It's an adaptation of Antonia Fraser's biography

of a royal figure born in 1755.

1755, female... Queen...?

It's...

Ant...onia...?

Marie Antoinette?

Sorry, don't know.

It WAS Marie Antoinette, bad luck.

Right, ten points for this:

Which feast day is celebrated in the Western Christian Church on December the 28th?

It marks the narrative in Matthew's gospel,

according to which, King Herod ordered the death of all children

of two years and under, in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem?

St Stephen?

No.

Anyone want to buzz from Sheffield?

The Slaughter of the Innocents?

I'll accept that, it is the Holy Innocents Day,

or the Massacre or The Feast of the Holy Innocents.

So you get a set of bonuses, this time, on 20th-century art, Sheffield.

Which movement was founded in Amsterdam in 1917?

Its members, including Piet Mondrian,

advocated pure abstraction, reduced to essential forms and colours.

-Was that Bauhaus?

-Bauhaus?

Cubism?

-Bauhaus?

-Yeah.

Nominate Nicci.

-Bauhaus?

-No, it's De Stijl.

And secondly, Henri Matisse was the acknowledged leader of which movement?

Prominent in France and first exhibiting formally in 1905,

its artists used pure, bright colours applied vigorously to the canvas.

The postimpressionists.

Postimpressionists?

No, that's fauvism. And finally:

Which movement's name means hobby horse in French

and is thought to have been adopted in Zurich around 1916?

Its adherents included Tristan Tzara.

Maybe that's Bauhaus?

No.

-What do you think?

-French for horse is cheval, right?

Yeah. So what's hobbyhorse?

Don't know.

-We don't know.

-It's Dadaism.

Ten points for this starter question:

Its name derived from the Greek for glue-producing, which fibrous,

structural protein is noted for its extremely high tensile strength

and is the major component of connective tissues...

-Collagen.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Sheffield, are on subatomic particles.

What collective name denotes subatomic particles

that have a half integer spin and obey the exclusion principle?

Meaning only one of them

can occupy a particular quantum state at any given time.

Hadrons.

No, they're fermions.

What is the umbrella name for those bosons that mediate

interaction between other particles?

I nominate you.

I looked at this the other night as well.

-I don't know.

-They're gauge bosons.

And finally, there are four types of gauge boson - photons,

gravitons, intermediate vector bosons, and which others?

They hold quarks together.

-Gluons.

-Correct.

We're now going to take a music round.

For your music starter you'll hear a song from a film soundtrack,

for ten points, I'd just like you to identify the person singing, please.

CROONER MUSIC

-Frank Sinatra.

-Yes!

APPLAUSE

High Hopes, from A Hole In The Head.

And so, December 2015 marks Sinatra's centenary.

For your music bonuses, therefore,

three more of his musical performances from films, and this

time, in each case, I'd like the name of the film that each comes from.

Firstly, for five:

# She gets too hungry

# For dinner at eight...

Lady is a Tramp, what's the film?

What film was it?

# Never comes late

# She'd never bother...

Not Breakfast at Tiffany's, but...

Could've been an Astaire film.

-Originally.

-# That's why the Lady is a Tramp. #

-I don't think we know that one.

-Don't know.

That's from Pal Joey, it was The Lady Is A Tramp.

Secondly:

# Adelaide, Adelaide

# Ever-loving Adelaide...

-Blimey.

-# Is taking a chance on me

# Taking a chance, I'll be respectable and nice... #

Can we just listen to some more of these? They're great.

I think we don't know.

That's from Guys And Dolls. And finally:

-# Who wants to be a millionaire?

-I don't...

Oh, yeah.

-High Society.

-High Society.

It IS High Society, yes!

Ten points for this:

What is the common name of Taxus baccata, a conifer often found...?

-A yew.

-Yew is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Sheffield, these bonuses are on the ballet The Nutcracker.

Firstly, for five:

The scenario of Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker is

based on Alexander Dumas pere's adaptation of the story

The Nutcracker And The Mouse King, by which German author?

Is it...? Is Hans Christian Andersen German...?

-No, he's Danish, wasn't he?

-Danish.

Which one's Grimm then?

-Grimm was German.

-Go for Grimm.

-Grimm?

-No, it was Hoffman.

Described by him as something between a small piano

and a glockenspiel, what instrument did Tchaikovsky

use for the score accompanying the Sugarplum Fairy's solo variation?

-That's the, kind of, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

-What?

-Harpsichord, is it?

-Could be.

-Harpsichord?

-No, it was a celeste.

In 1992, which British choreographer created a new

version of the ballet to celebrate its centenary?

It opens in a bleak orphanage.

-Nominate Nicci.

-Matthew Bourne.

-Correct.

Ten points for this:

Celebrating his 80th anniversary in 2016, which comic strip character

is a mischievous nine-year-old boy from the fictional town...?

-Dennis the Menace.

-No, you lose five points.

Fictional town of Auchenshoogle, and appears in Scotland's...?

-Oor Wullie.

-Oor Wullie is right, yes!

APPLAUSE

You'll be pleased to hear, Aberdeen, your bonuses are on fish.

LAUGHTER

Give the name of each of the following,

all three answers include the word fish - for example, goldfish.

Firstly:

Amphiprion ocellaris, a small fish noted for its association with

sea anenomes, and for its striking orange and white colouration.

-Clownfish?

-Correct.

Secondly, Clarias batrachus, native to south-east Asia, its two-word

common name refers to its ability to move on land using its pectoral fins.

Mud fish?

No, that's the walking catfish.

And finally: Xiphias gladius,

a food and game fish that can grow up to four metres in length.

Its common name refers to its distinctive bill.

Billfish?

No, it's a swordfish.

Ten points for this:

What is the six-letter common name of Cimex lectularius?

With atrophied, non-functioning wings and a distinctive oily odour,

it is a species of nocturnal parasite whose numbers are said to have

increased in recent years?

-Bedbug?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Aberdeen, your bonuses are on former Bank of England notes.

In each case, I need the name of the person described

and the domination of the banknote on which they appeared. Firstly:

A scientist and Warden of the Mint, born in 1642.

The banknote on which he appeared was issued in 1978

and withdrawn ten years later.

Robert Hooke?

No, it was Sir Isaac Newton on a £1 note.

Secondly: An inventor and engineer born in 1781.

The banknote was first issued in 1990 and withdrawn in 2003.

-Was it Watt?

-Brunel?

-Brunel?

Oh, no... Stevenson?

Brunel is 19th-century.

-When was James Watt?

-1781... Could be.

James Watt?

No, it was George Stephenson on the £5 note.

And finally, an architect born 1632.

The banknote was first issued in 1981 and withdrawn in 1996.

-Christopher Wren?

-And the banknote?

-Tenner.

-£10?

No, it was the £50 note. Bad luck, I can't accept that.

We're going to take our second picture round now.

For your picture starter you're going to see a photograph of a bird.

For ten points I'd like you to give me

the common, two-word name of the species.

-Arctic tern.

-It is an Arctic tern, yes.

APPLAUSE

Its seasonal migration from pole to pole is one of the longest known.

For your picture bonuses,

three more species that make notably long seasonal migrations.

Five points for each species you can identify.

Again, I'm simply looking for the common name.

Firstly for five:

That's a wildebeest.

It is a wildebeest, or a gnu.

Around 1.5 million wildebeest make

a 1,200 mile journey across the Serengeti,

away from the dry season, apparently, each year.

Secondly:

That's a leatherback turtle.

Leatherback turtle.

Yes, they migrate thousands of miles between breeding and feeding areas.

And finally:

That's a monarch butterfly.

It is indeed, they fly up to 2,000 miles south for the winter.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this starter question:

On the final day of the first Test in Antigua in April 2015,

which bowler broke Sir Ian Botham's England wicket record

with his 384th dismissal in his 100th match?

-James Anderson.

-It was indeed, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses, Aberdeen,

are on Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In The Willows.

In each case, name the character from its scientific name.

Firstly, which character's name has the binomial Meles meles?

-The badger.

-Correct.

Secondly, which character's name may be rendered binomially as Bufo bufo?

-That's the toad.

-Correct.

And finally, Talpa europaea is the binomial of which character?

-Mole.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this:

A narration by John Grierson, a soundtrack by Benjamin Britten

and poetry by WH Auden feature in which 1936 documentary film,

depicting the journey of a steam locomotive travelling to

Scotland with the postal special?

-The Night Mail.

-The Night Mail is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Sheffield, are on the artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman.

Early in his career, Jarman worked as production designer

on which 1971 film by the director Ken Russell,

concerning the 17th-century witch trials at Loudon in France?

-Any ideas?

-Do you know?

-No, I don't.

-We don't know.

-It's The Devils.

Which Christian martyr of the third century

was the title character of Jarman's 1976 film

in which the dialogue was spoken entirely in Latin?

Was that Sebastian?

Sebastian?

Yes, it was St Sebastian.

And finally, in 1986, Jarman made a short film,

conceptualising the music of which English rock group?

Featuring their songs The Queen Is Dead, Panic,

and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.

-The Smiths.

-Correct.

Ten points for this:

Listen carefully - for your answer I'll allow ten either way.

What number results if you subtract the total number of

Assembly Members in the Welsh National Assembly

from the total number of MPs in the House of Commons?

410.

What?! LAUGHTER

Sheffield, anyone like to buzz?

595.

I'll except that! It's 590, in fact. Yes, well done.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time, Sheffield, are on chemical substances.

Firstly, used on the cutting edges of saws and drills to give resistance

to wear, what unusually hard substance has the chemical symbol WC?

-Tungsten carbide.

-Correct.

Found in steel, the hard, brittle substance known as cementite

is a carbide of which metal?

I don't know.

Cementite?

-Found in steel?

-Nickel?

Selenium? Try it?

-Selenium.

-No, it's iron.

And finally, calcium carbide reacts with water to give which simple hydrocarbon?

Its formula is C2H2.

-Ethyne.

-Ethyne is right. Correct.

We're going to take another starter question now.

From an Arabic word meaning soda ash or potash, what six-letter term

denotes a strong base that turns litmus paper from red to blue?

-Alkali.

-Alkali's correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, Sheffield, these bonuses are on the

Forbes List Of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, published in 2015.

Occupying sixth place on the Forbes list,

which French lawyer and politician became the managing director

of the International Monetary Fund in 2011?

-Christine...?

-Yes.

-Is it Christine Lagarde? Christine Lagarde.

-Christine Lagarde.

-Correct.

Janet Yellen is ranked in fourth place, having become in 2014

the first female head of which financial institution?

Not the International Monetary Fund!

-We're going to have to guess this.

-So, we're guessing...?

-Come on.

-We don't know.

It's the US Federal Reserve. And finally:

Name both of the political figures who occupy

the top two positions on the Forbes list?

-Clinton.

-Clinton?

-Hillary Clinton's got to be one, hasn't she?

-And Angela...?

Angela Merkel.

-Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton.

-Correct.

Ten points for this:

Botticelli's tempera painting of 1475,

The Adoration Of The Magi, now in the Uffizi, depicts several members

of which family, prominent in Florence for much of the Renaissance?

-The Medicis.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get bonuses on the works of Agatha Christie.

In the 1933 novel, Murder On The Orient Express, the victim,

Mr Ratchett, is murdered in his train compartment

and is found with how many stab wounds?

-13, I think.

-Yeah?

-13.

-No, it's 12.

Christie's play The Mousetrap has been

running in the West End for over 60 years,

most recently at St Martin's Theatre.

It opened in 1952 at which adjacent venue?

-Come on, let's have it, please?

-We don't know.

-Just have a guess.

GONG

APPLAUSE

I'll tell you, it opened at the Ambassadors Theatre.

Aberdeen, bad luck - you never really got into your stride there, did you?

No, we didn't.

Congratulations, Sheffield -

185 is certainly enough to qualify for the semifinals.

Many congratulations to you.

And we shall look forward to saying goodbye to you, quite presumably!

LAUGHTER

I hope you can join us next time for the last of the first-round matches.

-But until then, it's goodbye from Aberdeen University.

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from Sheffield University.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE