Manchester v St Anne's, Oxford University Challenge

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions -

Jeremy Paxman.

It's the season of goodwill,

I'm told.

So for no good reason,

we're letting students off the hook

until the new year.

Instead tonight,

we're playing the first match

in our annual series

for alumni of some of

the UK's leading universities

and university colleges.

14 teams are competing,

each comprising four former students

who, since leaving, have achieved

distinction in their chosen field.

They have all very sportingly

agreed to compete

for nothing more than the honour

of their alma mater.

There is no prize on offer

for whichever team wins the series,

beyond an excuse to look smug

as they get first crack

at the mince pies

and Botswana's finest sherry.

Playing for Manchester University

first

is a five-time Paralympian

in wheelchair basketball.

He's also won gold medals

in the Wheelchair Basketball

World Championships,

the European Championships,

the European Champions Cup and

the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games.

With him, a journalist who writes

for the Guardian, the Times,

the Sunday Times Magazine

and elsewhere.

He is also a familiar voice

on Radio 4 and

a familiar face on The Culture Show

and The Review Show,

currently working on

a film adaptation of his memoir

of growing up in Luton.

Their captain is Professor of Poetry

at the University of Oxford

and the University of Sheffield.

He has won RTS, BAFTA

and Ivor Novello awards

for his writing for radio, TV,

film and theatre, and in 1999,

he was named the UK's

Millennium Poet.

Their final team member

is an entomologist overseeing

a globally significant collection

of between 3 and 4 million specimens

of Diptera, Siphonaptera,

Arachnida and Myriapoda.

She has a special interest

in medical entomology

and can often be heard on Radio 4,

enthusing about her subject.

Let's ask them now to introduce

themselves in the time-honoured way.

Hello, I am Sir Philip Craven.

I got a BA honours degree

in Geography in 1972

and now I am the president

of the International

Paralympic Committee.

Hello, I'm Sarfraz Manzoor.

I graduated in 1992

with a degree in Economics

and I am now a writer,

journalist and broadcaster.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I am Simon Armitage.

I got my MA in Social Policy

in 1988 and I am a poet.

Hello, my name is Erica McAlister.

I graduated in '96

in Environmental Biology

and now I manage

the fleas and flies

at the Natural History Museum

in London.

Now, St Anne's College, Oxford,

was founded as

an all-women's institution

and became coeducational in 1979,

though you wouldn't know that

from the team playing tonight.

Their first member maintains

she wasn't very good at lab work

so decided on a career talking

about science rather than doing it.

She now reports on

international science research

for the World Service,

the Today programme

and for Newsnight.

With her, a historian with

an enthusiasm

for popularising her subject.

She has written on Julian of Norwich

and the private lives

of Anglo-Saxon saints,

and her broadcasts for BBC Four

have covered the Hundred Years' War,

medieval monarchy and Viking art.

Their captain began her career

as a physical chemist.

She taught Chemistry in Oxford,

Cambridge and London,

and later chaired several

health institutions.

She is also an authority

on solar energy

and patron of

the Rupert Brooke Society.

Their fourth member has been

a foreign correspondent

for the BBC and Al Jazeera English.

She's reported from Kosovo

and the West Bank,

from Afghanistan shortly after 9/11,

from Cairo during

the 2011 revolution,

and in 2002,

she testified in the trial

of Slobodan Milosevic.

Let's meet the St Anne's team.

Hello, I'm Rebecca Morelle.

I read Chemistry at St Anne's

and graduated in 2001

and now I'm a science correspondent

at BBC News.

Hello, I'm Dr Janina Ramirez.

I read English at St Anne's

from 1998 to 2001

and I'm now an Oxford art historian,

broadcaster and writer.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I am Mary Archer.

I read Chemistry at St Anne's,

1962 to 1966,

and I am currently chairman

of the Science Museum Group.

Hi, I'm Jacky Rowland.

I graduated in Modern Languages

from St Anne's in 1986

and I've been a television

correspondent for 25 years.

Well, the rules are the same

as for the student series.

Ten points for starter questions -

they're solo efforts answered

on the buzzer.

And 15 points in total

for a set of bonuses -

they can be answered

conferring between yourselves.

So, fingers on the buzzers,

here's your first starter for ten.

"A Christmas gift to a dear child

in memory of a summer day" -

these words were inscribed

in the final 1864 manuscript

of which story?

Its origins lie in a tale first told

to the three young daughters

of Henry Little.

Alice In Wonderland.

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland,

yes.

Or Alice's Adventures Underground.

That's correct.

So the first set of bonuses,

St Anne's,

are on the recipe for

Delia Smith's Creole Christmas cake.

Oh!

Firstly, for five points.

Delia's recipe includes

one-and-a-half teaspoons

of which botanically infused

alcohol-based tonic

first created in Venezuela in 1824?

Alcohol...

Curacao, one of those things -

a liqueur.

Yes, but Venezuela?

That's...

Tia Maria?

Tia Maria?

What's the thing that goes

in the Mexican...?

Come on, let's have it.

Yeah, sorry. Oh, yes. Hm...

Come on, let's have it!

Anything!

Absinthe.

That French, isn't it?

Angostura bitters is what

I was looking for.

Right!

Oh.

Also required in

this Creole Christmas cake

is half a teaspoon

of which widely used aromatic spice

consisting of the grated seeds

of species of trees

in the genus Myristica?

Could be cinnamon, nutmeg?

Nutmeg.

Cinnamon or nutmeg?

Nutmeg.

Nutmeg.

Nutmeg is right, yes.

Well done.

And finally,

250g are needed of which sugar,

taking its name from its place

of origin in Guyana?

SEVERAL:

Demerara.

Or molasses?

Muscovado.

One of those.

Muscovado.

Muscovado.

Muscovado.

No, it's demerara.

Oh!

I wouldn't go on Bake Off just yet.

Ten points for this.

What three-letter word

in the English language

has more definitions than any other?

Those listed in the OECD...

Set.

Well done.

You get a set of bonuses,

Manchester,

on the poet Sir Geoffrey Hill,

who died in June 2016.

Firstly, Hill's 1971 work

Mercy And Hymns

is a collection that combines

memories of the poet's childhood

in the Midlands

with a celebration

of which 8th century ruler?

It's King Offa.

Correct. Of Mercia.

Secondly, "They seem to me

to be transcendently fine

"human beings whom one would have

loved to have known."

These words of Geoffrey Hill

refer to Robert Southwell

and which other English Jesuit

executed in 1581?

I don't know.

No, we don't know.

It's Edmund Campion.

And finally,

referring to fraught mind,

timing and facial gesture,

Hill mentioned

which British comedy actor

as an influence on his work?

He played the leader role

in a comedy series set

in the 1st century BC.

I think it is Ken Dodd.

No, it is Frankie Howerd,

Up Pompeii!

Ten points for this.

In 1902, Sir Ronald Ross received

the Nobel Prize

in Physiology or Medicine

for his work on the causes

of which infectious disease,

having demonstrated the life cycle

of the protozoa parasites

in the Anopheles mosquito?

Malaria.

Malaria is right, yes.

You get a set of bonuses

on chemical elements, St Anne's.

Firstly, for five, which silvery

white metal with atomic number 22

was discovered by William Gregor

in 1791?

It is low in density,

high in strength

and is named after

the race of deities

to which Phoebe and Hyperion belong?

(Titanium.)

Are you sure?

Um...

22?

Hydrogen, helium, lithium...

Neon, magnesium, aluminium, silicon,

phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine...

I think it is titanium.

I don't think so. Titanium.

Correct.

Well done.

Useful to have a historian, eh?

And secondly, which hard

blue-grey transition metal

with atomic number 73 was discovered

by Anders Ekeberg in 1802?

Highly resistant to corrosion,

it is named after a Greek king

imprisoned eternally in Tartarus.

Greek king...

Hard blue-grey transition...

Chromium?

Oh... Chromium?

73...

No, it's heavier than chromium,

it's a group down.

If it is named after a Greek king...

I think we'd better have

an answer here.

Pick something.

Manganese.

No, it's tantalum.

And finally,

which radioactive actinide metal

with atomic number 90 was discovered

by the Reverend Morten Esmark

in 1828

and named after

the Norse god of thunder?

Thorium.

Thorium.

Correct.

Yes!

We're going to do the picture round.

For your picture starter,

you're going to see a lesser-known

verse from a popular carol.

Ten points if you can give me

the name of the carol.

O Come, All Ye Faithful.

Indeed it is.

Yes!

That's the verse that is usually

sung on Christmas Day, isn't it?

Your picture bonuses are three more

lesser-known verses

from Christmas carols.

Again, five points in each case

if you can name of the carol.

Firstly...

# Glorious now

Behold him arise... #

How does that begin?

We Three Kings.

We Three Kings.

We Three Kings is correct.

Sing-along.

Here is the second one.

# Now to the Lord sing praises

# All you... #

God Rest Ye Merry...

Gentlemen.

Gentlemen.

Yes.

Yes.

And finally...

Away In A Manger.

Away In A Manger.

Would you like to sing that too?

Ten points for this. Fingers on

the buzzers. Who wrote these lines?

" 'Twas in the month of December

and the year 1883 that

"a monster whale came to Dundee."

No, I'm sorry, if you buzz,

you must answer straightaway.

It's tough, but if you buzz,

you're shutting them out.

You can't confer!

One of you can buzz.

We forgot.

Well, nobody's got it.

We don't know.

You can hear the rest

of the question.

"..that a monster whale

came to Dundee."

They appear in the poem

The Famous Tay Whale.

Oh.

Who wrote it?

Henry James?

No, it's the worst poet

in the English language -

William Topaz McGonagall.

Ten points for this.

Ornamented with platinum

and diamonds to resemble frost

and sitting on a base designed

to imitate a block of melting ice,

The Winter is a decorative object

made by which company?

It's one of 50...

Faberge?

Faberge is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on winter weather,

St Anne's.

The severe smog that enveloped

London in December 1952 lead

to legislation known by what name?

You don't need to buzz,

you can just confer.

Clean Air Act.

The first of its kind in 1956

and the second, 12 years later.

Clean Air Act.

Correct.

December of which year of the 1960s

saw the beginning of

winter weather conditions

regarded as the coldest

for over 200 years?

The conditions persisted

until the following March.

1962.

Correct.

And finally, in late December 2015,

which city of northern England

was hit by severe floods

when the River Ouse flowed back

to combine with the River Foss?

York.

Correct. Ten points for this.

What is the defining characteristic

of prose that is described as

sesquipedalian?

I'll tell you -

it uses very long words.

Ten points for this.

"How are you? You've been

in Afghanistan, I perceive?"

These are the first words of which

enduring literary character

in a novel of 1886?

Sherlock Holmes?

Correct.

Your bonuses, St Anne's,

are on an author.

Born in 1883, of whom does

the Faber & Faber website say

"a writer with a huge output -

"he wrote too much but novels

like Sinister Street

"and entertainments like

Whisky Galore deserve to survive"?

Compton Mackenzie?

Yeah, yeah.

Compton?

Compton Mackenzie.

That's it, that's it.

Compton Mackenzie?

Correct. In 1923, Mackenzie

co-founded which magazine

devoted to classical music?

It shares its name with the device

for the reproduction

of recorded sound.

The Gramophone.

The Gramophone?

Correct.

And finally, Mackenzie died in 1972,

was buried on which island

in the south of the Outer Hebrides?

Its main settlement is Castlebay.

No.

One of those "Ug" or "Og" things.

Any idea?

No.

Uig, or something.

Do you know?

No idea.

Go with that.

Come on.

We don't know.

What do you think it is?

It's Barra. Ten points for this.

In October 2016,

the general election in which

country saw the Independence Party

win the largest number of seats

with the Pirate Party

in third place?

Norway.

No, you lose five points.

..with the Pirate Party

in third place?

(Denmark!)

It also became the European country

with the highest proportion

of female parliamentarians,

ahead of Finland and Sweden.

You may not confer.

You can buzz, one of you.

Is it Austria?

No, it was Iceland.

Right, ten points for this.

Cotton wool consists almost entirely

of what carbohydrate substance?

Cellulose.

Correct.

Your bonuses, St Anne's,

are on birds which migrate

to Britain in winter.

I want you to identify each bird

from its description.

Firstly, Calidris canutus -

a short, stocky wading bird,

it shares its common four-letter

name with a unit of speed.

Ibis...

That's not a unit of speed.

I mean, coot...

But that's not a unit of speed.

Unit of speed...

A unit of...

Swift. No, that's not four.

A tern...

No, it's a knot. K-N-O-T.

OK.

Five points for this, secondly.

Cygnus columbianus -

a relatively small water bird,

compared with other members

of its genus,

its two-word name

refers to a British naturalist

noted for his wood engravings

and the use of white line printing.

Coo... No.

It's not Berwick?

Um...

Swan or something?

Somebody's swan?

Somebody's - something swan?

Swan, it's got to be swan.

Yes.

Which are the swans that migrate?

There's a Berwick swan, I think.

Berwick swan.

No, it's a Bewick swan.

Oh, close.

Near miss.

And finally, Bucephala clangula -

a diving duck that shares its name

with the Jamaican residence

of the writer Ian Fleming.

Gosh, what's the Jamaican

residence of Ian Fleming?

Agh!

Oh, gosh!

What's the...Jamaican...

The Ian Fleming novel

that's set in...?

Jamaica?

Yeah.

Jamaica Inn.

Jamaica Inn - but that's...

It's the house, isn't it?

- We don't know.

- I can't think.

Let's have it, please.

Guess. Guess.

I...

It's a bird, I don't know.

Diving duck - I don't know!

A something swan.

No, we've done that.

No, it's a goldeneye.

Oh!

Ten points for this music starter.

For your music starter you're going

to hear an excerpt

from a piece of classical music.

Ten points if you can tell me

the name of the composer.

Vivaldi.

It is Vivaldi.

It's Winter from The Four Seasons.

Your bonuses are three more pieces

of classical music,

each one evoking the sense of

a phenomenon, object or activity

that one might encounter in winter.

That's what I want you to identify.

Firstly, what phenomenon is named in

the title of this piece?

It's something snow...

Snow goose?

Ice maiden, or...?

Yes...

Do you know?

It's going to be frost or ice.

Ice.

Ice maiden.

No, it's snow. That was Debussy's

The Snow Is Dancing.

Secondly, what activity is

the composer evoking here?

That's snow, too.

Er...

Waltzing.

That's a waltz.

Winter...

OK, yeah.

Ice skating.

That's correct, yes.

Waldteufel's The Skater's Waltz.

And finally, what object

is named in the title

of the suite of 12 pieces

from which this is taken?

It's a suite...

Is it from The Nutcracker,

and the object is the nutcracker?

Could be, yes. Is it? OK.

I dunno.

Nutcracker?

No, it's a Christmas tree - that was

from Liszt's Christmas Tree suite.

Manchester, there's still plenty of

time for you to catch up.

Ten points at stake for this.

Published posthumously in 1955,

A Child's Christmas In Wales

is a prose recollection by which...?

Dylan Thomas.

Correct.

St Anne's, you get three questions

on the author Jenny Diski,

who died in 2016.

At the age of 15, Jenny Diski

was unofficially adopted

by which future Nobel laureate

whose works The Golden Notebook?

- Doris Lessing.

- Oh!

Doris Lessing.

Correct.

Charlotte, the protagonist of

Diski's novel Monkey's Uncle,

is a supposed descendant of which

naval officer and meteorologist

associated with Charles Darwin?

Naval officer...

I can't remember his name.

Who was captain of The Beagle?

That's what I'm thinking...um...

No. I don't know.

John...someone.

John Smith.

No, it's Fitzroy. That's the person

you were looking for.

Oh!

And finally, Diski's 2008 novel

Apology For The Woman Writing

features Marie de Gournay,

the amanuensis of which French

essayist born in 1533?

Essayist... Racine?

No...

Diderot.

Diderot.

No, it was Montaigne.

Ah, he's the earliest one.

Earlier than that.

Ten points for this.

Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda,

which hip-hop musical

won 11 prizes...?

Hamilton.

Hamilton is correct, yes.

Well done.

Right, Manchester, these are your

bonuses. They're on ski resorts.

In each case, name the country where

all three resorts are located.

First, Mezica, Kranjska Gora

and Straza Bled.

- Sounds like Austria to me.

- Yeah, I could see that.

Sounds like Austria to me.

He said Austria.

I think it's Austria.

I dunno,

I was going to say Russia, but...

Kranjska Gora...

Go on, then.

Austria.

No, it's Slovenia.

Secondly, in which country

are Narkanda, Mundali

and Yumthang Valley?

Oh, dear.

Yumthang Valley...

Could be Japan. Try Japan.

Japan is good - yeah,

Japan's not bad.

Japan?

Yeah.

Japan.

No, they're in India.

And the ski resorts

Kinosoo Ridge, Lake Louise

and Kicking Horse Mountain

are which country?

Is that Canada?

Yeah.

Canada. Canada.

Correct.

No need to buzz.

Haven't even given the question yet!

Here it comes. Ten points for this.

2016 is the 500th anniversary

of which literary work

first published in Latin

in the Low Countries?

It's title is from the Greek

for No Place,

but it's also a pun on an almost

identical word meaning a good place.

Oh...Utopia.

Correct.

These bonuses are on the 2016

Golden Raspberry film awards.

Firstly, for five points,

a nominee for Worst Screen Combo

was Johnny Depp

and his glued-on moustache

for his role as a roguish art dealer

in which 2015 film?

2015, Johnny Depp,

roguish art dealer...

Oh, no, I don't know. I don't...

Any Johnny Depp film?

I don't know. I have no idea.

It got panned.

Um...

Johnny Depp...

I haven't seen any of his.

We don't know.

It was Mortdecai.

And secondly, which 2015 sci-fi film

achieved six nominations,

out of which Eddie Redmayne won

as Worst Supporting Actor?

Sci... Sci...

Was that...?

It was a sci-fi film.

Eddie Redmayne.

- Any idea?

- 20...

Star Wars.

We haven't been to the cinema

recently, sorry.

It's Jupiter Ascending.

And finally,

who won the Worst Actress award

for her role in

Fifty Shades of Grey?

She's the daughter

of Melanie Griffiths.

- Dakota...

- Dakota Fanning.

Dakota Fanning.

No, it was Dakota Johnson.

Dakota Fanning's someone else,

I think.

Right, ten points for this picture

starter question.

You're going to see

a statue of a ruler.

Ten points if you can give me

his name.

Emperor Hadrian.

No, anyone like to buzz

from Manchester?

Nero. Nero.

No, it's the emperor Augustus.

So, picture bonuses

in a moment or two -

another starter question

in the meantime.

Fingers on the buzzers.

In a song of 1971,

whom did David Bowie call

"a strange young man with

a voice like sand and glue"?

Aladdin Sane?

No.

You lose five points, I'm afraid.

In October 2016,

he became a Nobel laureate.

- Oh...

- Yes.

Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan is correct.

So, you're going to get

the picture bonuses, St Anne's,

and they follow on from that picture

of the emperor Augustus

who, according to Luke's Gospel,

ordered the census that brought

Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

For your picture bonuses,

three more statues of rulers

who ordered a significant historical

census or survey during their reign.

Five points for each you can name.

Firstly, who's this biblical figure?

King David.

Yes, he's got a harp -

David, King David.

It is King David,

who ordered a census of Israel

and Judah,

according the Book of Samuel.

Secondly, name this Spanish monarch.

Philip...?

Say King Philip!

Philip?

Do you want a...?

Which one?

Philip...IV.

No, it's Philip II.

Oh, I nearly said that!

He ordered a survey of the Spanish

territories in the Americas.

And finally,

name this king of England.

Gosh, who's that?

Let's try Alfred the Great.

Try Alfred the Great.

Alfred the Great.

No, it's William the Conqueror,

who ordered the Domesday Book,

of course.

Right, ten for this -

about three minutes to go.

What bird of prey links

the Cambridge pub

in which Crick and Watson

announced their discovery...?

Eagle.

The eagle is correct, yes.

These bonuses are on astronomy,

St Anne's.

What astronomical event visible

from Britain

occurred on the 9th of May 2016?

The next two such events will take

place in 2019 and 2032.

It's Mercury. Transit of Mercury.

Yeah.

Transit of Mercury.

Correct.

Which English astronomer observed

a transit of Mercury in October 1677

during an expedition

to the island of St Helena

to catalogue the stars of

the Southern Hemisphere?

1677...

16...

I can't remember his name.

Not, um...

I know it,

I just can't remember his name.

Who's the one with the observatory?

We'd better have an answer, I think.

It's not Herschel,

cos that's much too late.

Sorry.

It's Edmond Halley.

And finally, Mercury Bay,

so-called because Captain Cook

observed a transit of Mercury

from the region in 1769,

lies off the coast

of the Coromandel Peninsula

in the north of which country?

Coromandel...

I'd expect it to be a bit...

New Zealand?

- Is it New Zealand?

- New Zealand, yeah.

New Zealand.

Correct.

Ten points for this.

Before Theresa May in July 2016,

who was the last Prime Minister

to have previously held

the office of Home Secretary,

doing so from 1967 to 1970?

James Callahan?

Correct.

Here are your bonuses.

They're on Kingston-upon-Hull,

the UK City of Culture in 2017.

Firstly, in 2017,

the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull

will host which annual event

inaugurated in 1984?

Turner Prize.

Correct. Which actor was born

in Hull in 1937?

He first came to prominence

in the 1960s

in films such as Billy Liar

and Doctor Zhivago,

and was nominated for

an Academy Award

for his performance in The Dresser.

Tom Courtenay.

Correct. Which independent theatre

was founded in Hull in 1971

and became particularly associated

with the plays of John Godber?

Hull Truck.

Correct.

Ten points for this.

In December 2012, Wild Oats XI

set a record time

of 42 hours and 23 minutes

in an annual yacht race

from Sydney to which city,

the capital of Tasmania?

Hobart.

Hobart is correct, yes.

And at the gong, Manchester have 55,

St Anne's College Oxford have 185.

Well, you started coming back

at the end, there.

Honour is satisfied, I think.

Just about.

Congratulations to you, Manchester,

thank you very much for joining us,

and many congratulations

to you, St Anne's,

for a terrific performance.

And thank you all for doing

something you didn't need to do.

Thank you very much.

So, until next time, when we'll have

another first round match,

it's goodbye from

Manchester University...

Er, goodbye.

..it's goodbye from

St Anne's College Oxford...

Bye!

Goodbye.

..and it's goodbye from me -

goodbye.