The Grand Final University Challenge

-Christmas University Challenge.

-APPLAUSE

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello.

14 teams of distinguished alumni have entertained us

over the past few days with, on the whole,

an impressive display of what they know.

What many of them don't know, it turns out,

is when to use their buzzers in this contest and when not to.

LAUGHTER

But we've only been playing the game for 54 years,

and these things do take time to sink in.

LAUGHTER

But now, only the best two teams remain,

and in a little under half an hour,

one of them will become series champions,

winning themselves no prize other

than the right to look immensely pleased with themselves.

LAUGHTER

Now, the team from Leeds University had a very comfortable win

over the School of Oriental and African Studies

in their first-round match,

but they were trailing behind the University of Kent

for much of their semifinal.

When they finally got a grip and had put themselves on level pegging

at the gong, the tie-break question went their way.

They may never have been so pleased

to know about the Tigris and the Euphrates.

LAUGHTER Let's ask the Leeds team

to introduce themselves for the last time.

I'm Louise Doughty,

I graduated from Leeds in 1984 with a degree in English literature,

and I now write novels for a living.

Hello, I'm Gus Unger-Hamilton. I, too, read English at Leeds,

graduating in 2010, and I now play in the band alt-J.

And here's their captain.

Hello, I'm Kamal Ahmed.

I graduated in political studies from Leeds in 1990,

and I'm now the Economics Editor of the BBC.

Hello, I'm Steve Bell.

I graduated from Leeds in fine art in 1974,

and I've been drawing political cartoons

for The Guardian since 1981.

APPLAUSE

The team from St Hilda's College Oxford

beat Magdalene College Cambridge in their first-round match

by a whopping 225 to 65.

Then, in the rare spectacle of an all-female fixture,

they beat St Anne's College Oxford by 165 points to 75.

Let's meet them for the last time.

Hello, I'm Fiona Caldicott.

I graduated in medicine from St Hilda's in 1966,

and I now chair a large teaching hospital trust in Oxford,

and I'm the National Data Guardian for health and social care.

Hello, I'm Daisy Dunn.

I read classics at St Hilda's from 2005 to 2009,

and I'm now an author and journalist.

Meet their captain.

Hi, I'm Val McDermid.

I graduated from St Hilda's in 1975 with a degree in English,

and I'm a crime writer.

Hello, I'm Adele Geras.

I read modern languages at St Hilda's between 1963 and '66,

and I'm a writer.

APPLAUSE

OK, the rules are unchanging on this contest,

let's just get on with it.

Fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for ten.

William Sandys' Christmas Carols Ancient And Modern

was first published during the reign of which British monarch?

His reign also...

Victoria, I was going to say, sorry.

I'm afraid you lose five points.

His reign also saw the Slavery Abolition Act

and the passage of the Great Reform Bill.

William IV?

It was William IV, yes. APPLAUSE

The first bonuses are on writing about winter, St Hilda's.

In a novel of 1950, which fictional country is first encountered

in the grip of an apparently permanent winter?

As one character explains, "It's always winter.

"Always winter, and never Christmas. Think of that."

Narnia.

Correct.

"Let no man boast himself

"that he has got through the perils of winter

"till at least the 7th of May."

Who wrote those words in the novel Dr Thorne, first published 1858?

-Trollope.

-Yeah.

-Anthony Trollope.

-Correct.

Which would complete this couplet from Byron's poem Don Juan,

published in 1819?

"The English winter, ending in July to recommence in..."

August.

August is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this.

Differing only in their second letter,

which two words mean "to roll about in mud" and "a tree of the genus..."

Wallow and willow.

Well done. APPLAUSE

These bonuses for you, Leeds, your first set,

are on gaps and pauses.

Firstly, for five points, from the Latin for "cut",

what term is used in poetry for a division or pause

between two words in a metrical foot?

Caesura.

Caesura is correct, yes.

From words meaning "stand between",

what term can be used both for

a gap between two structures within the human body

and for the space between two adjacent atoms in a crystal lattice?

THEY CONFER

Interstice.

Interstice is correct.

Which six-letter word appears in the name of

a particular form of abdominal hernia?

More generally, it means a physical, logical or temporal gap.

Temporal gap... A space, a pause...

I'm not getting it. I'm not getting that.

-Sorry, we don't know. Oh...

-Hiatus, hiatus.

Hiatus?

That's correct, yes.

LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE

Just in the nick of time. Ten points for this.

"The Raphael of our century"

was a contemporary critic's description

of which painter, born in Normandy in 1594?

His works include The Death Of The Virgin

and A Dance To Music Of Time.

Poussin.

Poussin is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Three questions on the periodic table, St Hilda's, for your bonuses.

Sometimes called rare earths, what name is given

to the series of metallic elements with atomic numbers 57 to 71?

Heavy metal?

Is it the heavy metals?

No, the lanthanides, or lanthanoids.

Secondly, what term denotes the series

of highly radioactive elements with atomic numbers 89 to 103?

Transuranic?

-Transuranic?

-I don't know.

Is it transuranic?

No, they're actinides, or actinoids.

And finally, what actinoid element has the atomic number of 94?

Sorry, we have no idea.

It's plutonium.

We're going to take a picture round now.

For your picture starter, I want you to name the figure indicated

by the clues in the image you're about to see,

which will give the location with which he's primarily associated,

the approximate dates of his life, and his feast day.

St Stephen.

Nope.

Anyone like to buzz from St Hilda's?

You may not confer. One of you may buzz.

Let's have it, please.

St Nicholas?

It is St Nicholas, yes. APPLAUSE

He's regarded, of course, as the origin of Santa Claus.

For your bonuses, three more saints associated with the festive season.

Five points for each you can identify.

Firstly, this saint from the approximate dates of his life,

the location with which he's most associated, and his feast day?

Is that St Denis? Paris?

Is that Paris? St Denis?

-Yes.

-Paris?

-Go for it.

Is it St Denis?

No, it's St Martin of Tours,

whose day used to mark the start of Advent.

Secondly, this saint from her approximate dates,

the location of her martyrdom,

and her feast day, which falls during Advent.

Is it Cecilia?

St Cecilia?

No, it's St Lucia of Syracuse.

And finally, this saint,

from the date and location of his martyrdom and his feast day.

-That's St Stephen.

-Oh, yes.

That is St Stephen.

That is St Stephen, yes.

Ten points for this. APPLAUSE

Named as Portugal's Viceroy in India by King John III in 1524,

which explorer died in China on Christmas Eve in that year...?

Marco Polo?

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

Magellan?

You could have heard the rest of the question,

which would have made it inevitable you would get Vasco da Gama,

but you buzzed in instead

and I must accept the answer you give when you buzz.

So, another starter question.

What seven-letter word links terms meaning "a prehistoric refuse heap",

"an informal coterie of political advisors" and...?

A midden.

LAUGHTER

That's very funny, but it's wrong.

LAUGHTER

.."an informal coterie of"... You lose five points.

.."of political advisors",

and "a style of post-war drama that emphasised drab, domestic settings"?

Come on, one of you buzz from St Hilda's.

Kitchen sink?

No, it's just kitchen, so I can't accept that, I'm afraid.

I must accept what you say.

Ten points for this.

Who is the only fictional character to have been given

a full page obituary in the...?

Hercule Poirot.

Hercule Poirot is right.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on words, St Hilda's.

The Washington Post runs an annual competition

to find new meanings for existing words.

Thus, flabbergasted has been defined as being

"appalled at the amount of weight or flab one has gained".

LAUGHTER

Get it? So identify the word in each case.

Firstly, usually denoting a familiar beverage,

what six-letter word has been defined as

"the person upon whom one coughs"?

Coffee.

Coffee is correct.

Secondly, what eight-letter verb has been defined as

"to give up or relinquish any hope of having a flat stomach"?

Retiral?

-Retiral?

-OK.

Retiral?

No, it's abdicate.

LAUGHTER

And finally, what ten-letter noun

usually denotes an embarrassing bodily function,

but in this context means "the emergency vehicle

"that picks one up after being run over by a steam roller"?

LAUGHTER

Come on.

Flatus?

No, it's flatulence. LAUGHTER

Ten points for this.

Aesop's fable of The Fox And The Grapes

is a classic but anachronistic illustration

of what psychological concept?

It was first identified in the 1950s by Leon Festinger,

and is defined as "a feeling of discomfort that occurs

"when one holds two conflicting ideas at the same time".

Cognitive dissonance.

Correct. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Greece, St Hilda's.

In each case, I want the name of an island group.

Firstly, the name of which island group resembles that of

the Platonic solid whose faces are regular pentagons?

Dodecanese?

Yeah. Go with that.

-Dodecanese?

-Correct.

Which island group has a name relating to an English word

meaning "recurring series of operations,

"such as those in internal combustion engines"?

Cyclades?

-Cyclades.

-Correct.

Which island group has a name that is etymologically related

to an English word meaning scattered or dispersed?

No idea.

Sorry, we're not on that one.

It's the Sporades.

Right, we're going to take another starter question now.

Quote, "Richard and Judy, Vini Reilly,

"that stupid, yellow, circular face now known simply as the smiley."

These are among the references in an ode released in 2015

by Mike Garry and Joe Duddle.

To which cultural figure are they referring, a part owner of

Factory Records and the founder of Manchester's Hacienda nightclub?

-Tony Wilson.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on Lady Jane Grey, St Hilda's.

Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537.

Her grandmother, Mary, stood in what relation to King Henry VIII?

Grandmother... Aunt?

-Aunt?

-Aunt?

Aunt.

No, she was his younger sister.

As part of an attempt to divert the royal succession,

Jane was married in 1553, against her wishes,

to Guildford Dudley, the son of which duke?

-Dudley... Leicester?

-Leicester.

Leicester.

No, it was Northumberland.

The Dudley faction proclaimed Jane as Queen

on the death of which monarch?

Lacking widespread support,

she was quickly overthrown, and Mary Tudor became Queen.

-Edward... Edward...

-Edward, isn't it?

-Edward VII? No.

-No.

-Edward IV. III.

IV.

Edward... Edward IV?

No, it was Edward VI, the boy king.

Right, we're going to take a music round, now.

For your music starter,

you'll get an excerpt from a well-known symphony.

Ten points if you can get both its composer

and the single-word subtitle usually assigned to it.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Is that Beethoven's Pastoral?

No. You can hear a little more, Leeds.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC CONTINUES

Beethoven's Eroica.

Correct. APPLAUSE

In 2016, a poll of leading conductors by BBC Music Magazine

voted Beethoven's Eroica the greatest symphony.

Your music bonuses are extracts from three more symphonies

that made the top ten.

In each case, I simply want the composer

and the single-word subtitle by which it's usually known.

First, name this work and its Russian composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

-That sounds like Tchaikovsky, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

What Tchaikovsky symphony, do we know?

Tchaikovsky...

Yeah. I'd go Tchaikovsky.

Yeah, but what's the name of the symphony?

Sorry, we don't know.

You're right with Tchaikovsky. It's the Pathetique.

Secondly, name this work and its Austrian composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC WITH SINGER

Is it Mozart?

What's our symphony?

-Doesn't sound like Mozart.

-Maybe it's not.

DROWNED BY MUSIC

-Come on.

-I simply don't know.

Sorry, we don't know.

That's Mahler.

It's his second symphony, usually known as the Resurrection.

And finally, name this work and this composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

DROWNED BY MUSIC

Mozart, but sadly, no name.

It is Mozart.

It's his Jupiter Symphony.

So ten points at stake for this.

Fingers on the buzzers, please.

Born 1946, also known for her poetry and autobiographical fiction,

which US feminist activist was the author, in 1983,

of Right Wing Women - The Politics Of Domesticated Females?

She...

Gloria Steinem.

No. She... You lose five points.

She died in 2005.

One of you may buzz, St Hilda's.

It's Andrea Dworkin. Ten points for this.

Largely written in rhyming couplets and first staged in London in 1987,

which play by Caryl Churchill concerns the excesses

and greed of the stock market?

Is it Serious Money?

It is Serious Money, yes. APPLAUSE

Right these bonuses are on the rhetorical device known as anaphora,

that is, the repetition of a word or phrase in close occurrence.

Firstly, anaphora is the dominant figure of speech

in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43.

Which three words occur repeatedly across eight lines?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning?

Um...

-I love you?

-THEY LAUGH

Is it a word or lots of words?

Three words. Three words.

"I love you".

It's "I love thee".

AUDIENCE: Awww!

I wanted the words, there's no reason to...

They had the wrong words! LAUGHTER

Secondly, an example of anaphora in the Book Of Ecclesiastes,

in the King James Bible, begins, "For everything there is a season."

Which three-word phrase is repeated more than 20 times

in subsequent verses?

-Time for? Or a time to?

-A time to.

A time to.

A time for? Time for?

"A time for".

No, it's "A time to".

AUDIENCE: Awww!

And finally, repeated anaphorically numerous times,

which four words are the informal title of a speech given by

Martin Luther King during the March On Washington in August 1963?

"I have a dream".

That's correct. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

Give any three of the four words

that follow separate iterations of the word "sans" at the end

of the Seven Ages Of Man speech in Shakespeare's As You Like It?

"Sans teeth".

-Come on.

-Three...

-Oh, three?

-Any three.

Sans... Sans hair. Sans eyes.

Sans everything.

No, it's not hair.

Oh.

Anyone like to buzz from St Hilda's?

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans nose.

No. It's sans teeth, sans eyes,

sans taste, sans everything.

Leeds, you lost five points for an incorrect interruption, too.

Shame on you.

LAUGHTER

Right, ten points for this starter question. Listen carefully.

What is the only single digit positive integer

that is not a factor of the number 2016?

Seven.

No.

St Hilda's?

Five.

Five is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Three questions on the history of science, St Hilda's.

Which learned organisation has its origins in 1660

Invisible College of natural philosophers and physicians?

-Royal Society.

-Royal Society?

Royal Society.

Correct.

The first meeting of the Royal Society was on

the 28th of November, 1660,

after a lecture at Gresham College by which polymath?

-Could it be Robert Boyle? I'm not sure.

-Boyle?

-Could be Newton...

-Think it's Newton?

Newton.

No, it was Sir Christopher Wren.

And finally, what is the motto of the Royal Society?

You may give the three words in Latin, or in the English sense.

-Don't know.

-No?

Never knowingly under...

No.

Sorry.

It's "Nullius in verba",

take no-one's word for it.

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

For your picture starter, you're going to see a small detail

of a painting on the theme of winter.

Ten points if you can name the artist.

Monet. Claude Monet.

It is Monet, well done.

We'll just see the whole thing, there it is.

APPLAUSE

That's his Magpie.

For your bonuses, three more details

from paintings on the theme of winter or winter weather.

I want the name of the artist in each case.

First, this British artist.

Ben Nicholson?

No, that's Turner.

Turner? Yeah?

Turner.

Well done, it is Turner, yes.

It's Hannibal Crossing the Alps In A Snowstorm.

Secondly, this German artist.

That's Caspar David Friedrich.

Caspar David Friedrich?

Caspar David Friedrich.

Yes. We'll see the whole thing. His Sea Of Ice.

And finally, this Japanese artist.

-Hokusai?

-Got to be Hokusai, I think.

-Hokusai.

Hokusai.

No, it's Hiroshige.

You were in the right part of the world, but it's Hiroshige.

The whole thing, there it is.

Snow Scene In The Garden Of Daimyo. BUZZER

All right, Steve?

LAUGHTER

Ten points for this.

The view that the labouring man of the 1820s

was in want of more bread, bacon and beer

is attributed to which political journalist and pamphleteer,

born 1763?

A champion of traditional rural England, he's noted for

both the Political Register - he founded it in 1802 - and...

William Cobbett.

William Cobbett is right, yes. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on popular music, Leeds.

In each case, give the title of the song

in which all the following people are mentioned.

Firstly, from a song released in 1987,

Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Brezhnev,

Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.

-Title of a song in which they're all mentioned?

-Yes.

I mean, I've got no idea.

-Any thoughts?

-What was the date?

-1987.

-1987.

-Lenny Bruce, Lester Bangs...

-A 1987 hit.

Steve?

How about This Charming Man by The Smiths?

This Charming Man? By The Smiths.

No, it's REM's It's The End Of The World As We Know It.

Secondly, from a song released in 1979,

Woody Allen, Dali, Dimitri and Pasquale.

1979...

-'79.

-1979.

No? Sorry, we don't know.

That was Reasons To Be Cheerful Part Three, from Ian Dury.

And from a song of 1934.

Inferno's Dante, the great Durante,

Botticelli, Keats and Shelley.

I don't know.

-Could be Cole Porter.

-Cole Porter?

We need to be quick.

Come on.

Oh, um... Let's Do It.

No, it's You're The Top by Cole Porter.

Right, there's about two and a half minutes to go, ten points for this.

John MacBride, James Connolly and Padraig Pearse

were among the leaders of which insurrection...?

The Easter Rising.

The Easter Rising is correct. APPLAUSE

St Hilda's, your bonuses are on fictional characters.

Frederick Winterbourne appears in which work of 1878 by Henry James?

He's staying by Lake Geneva

when he meets the American princess who's the title character.

Princess Masamassima.

Nominate Geras.

Princess Masamassima?

No, it's Daisy Miller.

LAUGHTER

And secondly, George and Elizabeth Winterbourne are characters

in the 1929 novel Death Of A Hero, by which English author,

also known for his 1955 biography of TE Lawrence?

-Don't know.

-Don't know.

-Sorry, think we're...

-That's Richard Aldington.

And finally, Giles Winterborne falls in love with Grace Melbury

in The Woodlanders, a work of 1887 by which English novelist and poet?

Thomas Hardy.

Correct. Ten points for this. APPLAUSE

What six-letter name links

the founding editor of the New York Tribune,

a Gothic writer who purchased the villa Strawberry Hill

in Twickenham in the 1740s,

and the Roman poet whose works include...?

Horace?

Horace is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

These bonuses, St Hilda's, are on medicine.

What physical phenomenon is denoted by the term borborygmus?

Movement of air in the gut, but...

I'll accept that, yes. A stomach rumble, yes.

Borborygmus can be a symptom of which disease,

caused by a reaction to a class of proteins present in gluten?

-IBS.

-Is it? IBS?

IBS. Irritable bowel syndrome.

No, it's coeliac disease.

Borborygmus can also be a symptom of IBS.

For what those letters stand?

Irritable bowel syndrome.

That's correct. LAUGHTER

Ten points for this. APPLAUSE

What five-letter word links

the 19th-century essayist and critic associated with the term

"art for art's sake",

and a Latin term for the male head of a household?

Pater.

Pater and pater, of course. APPLAUSE

15 points for these bonuses. They're on flags.

Which constellation is depicted on the national flags of

Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea?

-Southern Cross, isn't it?

-Mm-hm.

The Southern Cross.

Correct.

The national flag of which country contains 27 stars,

roughly corresponding to the positions of constellations

visible over one of its cities?

Any ideas?

-Sorry, we're not flag girls.

-LAUGHTER

It's Brazil.

And lastly, which of the United States has a state flag...?

GONG

And at the gong, Leeds have 55,

St Hilda's College Oxford have 160.

APPLAUSE

Well, you were a fun team, Leeds, and you were...

Your knowledge was nicely spread, I thought,

but you're going to have to concede defeat

in the final of this Christmas series to St Hilda's College Oxford.

You said you were old, but then, well,

you are a bit older than most of the students who take part.

LAUGHTER

Anyway, congratulations. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you.

Thank you all for playing.

APPLAUSE

So, thank you to all the teams

who've taken part in this Christmas series,

and thank you for watching.

Next time, we resume the students' competition,

but until then, it's goodbye from Leeds University...

Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from St Hilda's College Oxford...

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me.

Happy Christmas. APPLAUSE