Semi-Final 1 University Challenge

Christmas University Challenge.

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

APPLAUSE

Hello. We've reached the stage

of this Christmas season of University Challenge for grown-ups

that the grandstanding is over.

We no longer need to know that team members

have walked across the polar ice cap unaided,

won the Booker prize,

or can play the ukulele with their ankles.

LAUGHTER

For we are now at the first of the semifinals.

Be you never so great a panjandrum,

all that matters now is, can you answer the question?

Now, the team from the University of Kent

had the highest score in the first-round matches.

245 against the 35 earned by a plucky team from Sussex University,

who at least avoided falling into the trap of overthinking their answers.

Representing Kent again,

a biologist, adventurer and broadcaster.

A news journalist formerly with the BBC, ITN and Al Jazeera,

now the London anchor for the Turkish news network TRT World.

Their captain is a broadcaster, film reviewer and journalist,

as well as being the brainy brother that Jonathan Ross looks up to.

LAUGHTER

And with them, an academic author, inventor,

and a leading authority in the field of acoustics.

Let's meet the Kent team again.

Hello, I'm Jeremy Wade.

After getting a BSc from Bristol,

I got a Postgraduate Certificate In Education from Kent in 1979,

and an honorary doctor of science this year.

I spend my time getting up close with underwater creatures

as the presenter of a programme called River Monsters.

Hello there, I'm Shiulie Ghosh.

I graduated from Kent in 1989 with an honours degree in law,

and now I'm a journalist and news anchor.

And this is their captain.

I'm Paul Ross, I graduated in 1978

with a degree in English and American literature.

Jonathan Ross is my brother.

Sadly, Diana Ross is not my auntie.

LAUGHTER

Hello, I'm Jamie Angus.

I graduated from Kent with a degree in electronics in 1977,

and a PhD in 1984.

I'm now Professor of Audio Technology at Salford University,

and I recently got engaged.

APPLAUSE

Now, out of the four highest-scoring winning teams,

we're playing the highest scorer against the lowest

in this first semifinal.

But the Leeds University team

still have a very impressive 175 behind them,

and in the face of stiffer competition

than their opponents tonight experienced,

when they met the School Of Oriental And African Studies in the first round.

As before, their team comprises an author, broadcaster,

critic and cultural commentator,

a member of an award-winning and critically acclaimed indie rock band,

their captain's a journalist

formerly with the Observer and the Sunday Telegraph,

and their fourth member is one of the UK's

most distinctive and prolific political cartoonists.

Let's meet the Leeds team again.

I'm Louise Doughty.

I graduated from Leeds University in 1984

with a degree in English literature,

and I now write novels for a living.

Hello, I'm Gus Unger-Hamilton.

I graduated from Leeds in 2010 in English,

and now I play in the band alt-J.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Kamal Ahmed.

I graduated in political studies at Leeds University in 1990,

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

Hello, I'm Steve Bell,

I graduated in fine art from Leeds in 1974,

and I've been drawing political cartoons for the Guardian

more or less continuously since 1981.

APPLAUSE

OK, you must all know the rules.

I'll just remind you, there's ten points for starters,

15 for bonuses.

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

An alternative name of the shrub known as the Christmas berry

or the toyon bush is often claimed to be the origin of the name

of which area of Los Angeles, used as a metonym for...?

Holly.

No, you lose five points.

..a metonym for a particular industry?

Is it... Hollywood?

Hollywood is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses now are on Scottish artists, Kent.

Born in Glasgow in 1868, which artist and architect

designed the Glasgow School Of Art, generally regarded as

the first original example of Art Nouveau architecture in the UK?

Mackintosh.

It was Charles Rennie Mackintosh, yes.

Secondly, born in Paisley in 1940,

which artist and playwright designed Billy Connolly's banana boots

and wrote the Slab Boys Trilogy for the theatre,

and the series Tutti Frutti for television?

He designed the boots for Billy Connolly, the welly boots?

Wrote the Slab Boys, wrote...

I'd say...

Nicola Sturgeon.

LAUGHTER

Funny answer, but not right.

John Byrne.

Born 1934, which artist and writer was described by Will Self as,

"a creative polymath with an integrated politico-philosophic vision,"

and describes himself as

"a fat, spectacled, balding,

"increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian"?

His works include the 1981 novel Lanark.

-Alasdair...

-Alasdair

-Gray? Yes.

That's Alasdair Gray.

It is Alasdair Gray, yes.

Ten points for this. APPLAUSE

A woodcut of 1512 by Lucas Cranach the Elder,

Oliver Reed's first starring role

and a novel of 2007 by Martin Miller

are all linked by what mythological animal?

The werewolf.

The werewolf is correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on artificial intelligence.

Firstly, in a competition now held at Bletchley Park, the Loebner Prize

is awarded annually for the artificial intelligence system

that achieves the best performance in which test,

named after an English mathematician?

Turing test.

-Turing test?

-Turing.

We think it's the Turing test.

It is.

In March 2016, Google's DeepMind system

defeated the South Korean Lee Sedol 4-1

over a five-match series in which game?

-Chess?

-Chess.

It was chess, but we...

We think it was an IBM computer.

No, it was Go.

And finally, which world chess champion

was defeated over six matches in 1997

by the IBM-developed computer Deep Blue?

-Who's a big chess person?

-Spassky?

Boris Spassky?

No, it was Gary Kasparov.

Ten points for this.

"A statue of gold should be erected to him

"in every city in the world."

To whom do those reported words of Napoleon Bonaparte refer?

Born in Norfolk in 1737,

he emigrated to the American colonies and then to France.

-Thomas Paine?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses are on golf and literature, Kent.

"He had avoided what he regarded as some obvious errors of life,

"such as politics and golf."

These words refer to Dorrigo Evans,

the protagonist of which 2014 Booker Prize-winning novel?

Booker Prize 2014...

-Do you know your Booker Prize winners?

-No.

-Can't remember.

No idea, I'm afraid, Jeremy.

It's The Narrow Road To The Deep North.

Secondly, while in the Bahamas,

Logan Mountstuart plays a round of golf with the Duke of Windsor

in Any Human Heart, which is a 2002 novel by which British author?

William Boyd.

-We think it's William Boyd.

-Correct.

"How straight it flew, how long it flew, it clear'd the rutty track."

So begins Seaside Golf, a work by which Poet Laureate?

John Masefield, maybe?

John Masefield, possibly?

I think more... More Betjeman. I don't know.

Betjeman?

Er...

-Go for yours.

-Go for yours.

No... Do you think? Let's go with...

John Betjeman.

Correct. APPLAUSE

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

For your picture starter, you're going to see the ingredients

from a recipe for a seasonal pudding with one item removed.

For ten points, give me precise two words which are missing.

Sheep's stomach?

Correct.

APPLAUSE

That was the recipe for haggis,

which is traditionally eaten on January 25 to celebrate Burns Night.

One of the evening's traditions

is the recitation of Robert Burns' Address To A Haggis.

Your bonuses are three extracts from that poem

in its original Scots dialect.

For five points in each case,

I want you to give me the modern English translation,

according to the Dictionary Of The Scots Language,

for the word or words highlighted in yellow.

Firstly, an adjective and a noun.

-So what...?

-Spindle shank.

Thin leg?

Spindle...

-One's an adjective...

-An adjective and a noun.

Spindle... Spindle is the adjective.

Er...

-So it's a thin...

-Spindle... It's a thin...

-Come on, please.

-Thin...

-Leg?

-Thin leg.

Thin leg?

Correct.

LAUGHTER

As Gus said about five minutes ago.

LAUGHTER

Second, this noun, please.

Hand?

Yeah.

Bit quicker this time. Hand.

Hand, or fist, is correct.

Finally, this noun.

-Stomach?

-Stomach?

Yeah, stomach.

Stomach.

No, it's bottom, or buttocks. LAUGHTER

Ten points for this.

Give two place names,

one of which can be formed by removing the initial letter of the other.

The first is a stopping point

on the world's first permanent steam locomotive railway,

the second is the site of a large military cemetery

in the state of Virginia.

Darlington.

And?

Stockton.

LAUGHTER

Oh, there were two, weren't there?

Come on, Kent. One of you buzz.

Darlington and Arlington.

Correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Bad luck, you figured it out,

but you'd forgotten what the question was.

LAUGHTER

Your bonuses, Kent, are on skin conditions.

What is the short common name

of the small, often hard benign growths

caused by the human papillomavirus?

-It's a wart.

-Wart, yes.

It's a wart.

It is a wart, yes.

What is the common name of the yellow or brownish macules

in exposed skin that are also known as ephelides?

Is it freckle?

Yellowy, though? Are they...?

-Freckles are yellow.

-Yeah?

Freckles?

Correct.

What two-word common name is given to senile or solar lentigo?

These are usually sharply-defined brown skin blemishes,

and are associated with ageing.

Liver spots.

Correct. Ten points for this.

APPLAUSE

Which double digit links the years of

the first of publication of Spinoza's Ethics,

the formal adoption of the Stars And Stripes by the Continental Congress,

the first cricket test between England and Australia,

and the death of Elvis Presley?

77.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, Kent, are on pairs of words

that differ only by the three-letter prefix "pro-".

For example, tractor and protractor.

In each case, give both words from the definitions.

Firstly, "a Latin noun case used in addressing a person or thing",

and, "arousing strong reactions such as anger or sexual desire".

Any crossword solvers, here?

It needs to be something like, with a prefix...

-Pass?

-Yeah.

We'll pass. I'm afraid, no idea.

It's vocative and provocative.

Secondly, "a safety device in an electrical circuit"

and "lavish, abundant or plentiful,

for example, of apologies, thanks, or hospitality".

Fuse and profuse.

Fuse and profuse.

Correct.

Finally, "one who copies documents,

"for example where printing is unavailable,"

and "to prohibit or forbid, especially by law".

-Scribe.

-Scribe and proscribed.

-Yeah.

Scribe and proscribe.

Correct. APPLAUSE

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

For your music starter, you'll hear a work by a British composer.

Ten points if you can identify the composer.

CHORAL MUSIC

John Tavener.

It is John Tavener, yes.

APPLAUSE

That was part of The Lamb,

performed at the 1982 Festival Of Nine Lessons And Carols

at King's College Cambridge.

For your music bonuses, three more modern carols,

all written in the second half of the 20th century

and all by British composers.

Again, in each case,

you get five points if you can identify the composer.

Firstly, for five.

CHORAL MUSIC

THEY CONFER

Could be Bob Chilcott.

I don't recognise...

Go for Bob Chilcott.

Bob Chilcott.

No, it's William Walton, All This Time.

Secondly...

CHORAL MUSIC

Could be Britten. Benjamin Britten.

I don't know.

Benjamin Britten?

That's what I think.

Benjamin Britten.

No, that's Judith Weir's Illuminare, Jerusalem,

composed in 1985.

Finally, this.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

That's Shepherd's Carol.

We think that's John Rutter.

It is. It's the Shepherd's Pipe Carol.

APPLAUSE

Right, ten points for this.

"Built by Christopher Wren 1681.

"Destroyed by the thunderbolts of air warfare 19..."

St Paul's Cathedral.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

"..the thunderbolts of air warfare 1941,

"restored by the Royal Air Force 1958."

These words, in translation from the Latin,

appear on an inscription in which church on the Strand in London?

It's the central church of the RAF.

You may not confer. One of you may buzz.

St Martin-In-The-Fields?

No, it's St Clement Danes.

Ten points at stake for this.

Which English county was the birthplace of

the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel,

the cricket broadcaster John Arlott...?

Hampshire.

Hampshire is right, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses, Leeds, on Sirimavo Bandaranaike,

the first female head of government in the post-war world.

Firstly, Mrs Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of which country in 1960,

after her husband Solomon was assassinated by a Buddhist monk?

Is it South Korea?

No, no, it's Ceylon.

-Sri Lanka.

-Will they count Sri Lanka?

Let's say Ceylon.

Ceylon.

Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, as it is now known.

In the early 1960s, Mrs Bandaranaike enforced a law

that made which language the sole official language of Sri Lanka?

That contributed to the alienation of the Tamil minority.

-Sinhalese.

-Correct.

In 1976, Mrs Bandaranaike hosted the conference

of which international organisation?

Founded at Bandung in 1955, it is now known by the initials NAM.

New Asian...?

Non-aligned.

The Non-Aligned Movement.

Correct. Ten points for this.

APPLAUSE

Quote, "He lived only for his schemes and enjoyed life

"only as a cannonball enjoys space,

"travelling to its aim blindly and spreading ruin on its way.

"Humanity is not much indebted to him."

These words refer to which financier and politician

who died in 1902 in South Africa?

Cecil Rhodes?

Correct.

APPLAUSE

His obituary in Le Temps.

And you get a set of bonuses on Alan Bennett, Kent.

It was by performing at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival

in Beyond The Fringe that Alan Bennett first found fame.

Name two of the other three Beyond The Fringe performers.

Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller.

-It was Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller.

-Correct.

What is the title of Bennett's Talking Heads monologue,

first shown on television in 1988,

in which Dame Maggie Smith plays a vicar's alcoholic wife

who begins an affair with an Asian grocer?

Isn't it...

..Voices?

Voices?

No, it's Bed Among The Lentils.

And finally, "When a society has to resort to the lavatory

"for its humour, the writing is on the wall."

LAUGHTER

So says the headmaster of Albion House in which play,

Bennett's first to be staged in the West End?

The History Boys.

No, it's Forty Years On.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

"Another lesson to learn from him,

"don't call anything great before it becomes great.

"Otherwise, one is looking at is a great disaster."

This online comment in September 2016

refers to the 40th anniversary of the death of which national leader,

and to both the Leap Forward and the Cultural...?

Mao Tse-tung?

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses this time, Leeds,

are on dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous period.

In each case, name the dinosaur from the description.

Firstly, discovered in what is now Sakhalin in Russia,

which herbivorous dinosaur has a name meaning "Japanese lizard"?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Bronto?

Bronto?

OK, yeah. Brontosaurus.

No, it's a Nipponosaurus.

LAUGHTER

Secondly, discovered in Canada and the United States,

which two-legged herbivorous dinosaur has a name meaning

"thickheaded lizard"?

Two-legged...

Means thickheaded, doesn't it?

-Testa is head, or something, isn't it?

-Testasaurus?

-Testasaurus.

Testasaurus.

No, it's a Pachycephalosaurus.

LAUGHTER

And finally, discovered in Mongolia,

which carnivorous dinosaur has a name meaning "quick plunderer"?

-Velociraptor.

-Yeah, velciraptor.

Speed, quick.

Velociraptor.

Correct. APPLAUSE

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

For your picture starter,

you're going to see a photograph of a British museum.

Ten points if you can identify it.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

The V&A was voted the 2016 Art Fund Museum Of The Year.

For your picture bonuses, I want you to identify the subjects

of three of its major exhibitions of this year.

Firstly, for five, this is a work by which photographer?

The museum's exhibition celebrated her bicentenary this year.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Julia Margaret Cameron.

Correct.

Secondly, who's this engineer,

shown with a photograph of perhaps his most notable project?

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Sorry, we don't know.

That's Ove Arup and the Sydney Opera House, of course.

And finally, this is a work

from the museum's collection by which artist?

The museum held an exhibition of modern reimaginings of his work

earlier this year.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Fra Angelico?

No, it's Botticelli. Ten points for this.

Often seen in upland areas,

which pigeon-sized bird has two common names -

one from its wavering flight, the other from its call?

Known binomially as Vanellus vanellus,

it has a distinctive, crested head.

Capercaillie?

Nope. Anyone like to buzz from Kent?

Hoopoe?

No, it's the lapwing, or peewit.

There's no crest on a capercaillie.

Ten points for this.

Give the five-word name of the art event and memorial

conceived by Jeremy Deller and Rufus Norris,

staged in July 2016 to mark the centenary

of the start of the Battle of the Somme.

The name is a repetitive song performed by participants

to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

# We're here because we're here because we're here. #

Correct, well done.

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on a politician, Leeds.

Of which politician did Harold Macmillan say that he

"was trained to win the Derby in 1938,

"but only let out of the starting stalls in 1955?"

Anthony Eden?

Anthony Eden.

Correct.

To what was Eden's wife Clarissa referring in 1956 when she said,

"For the past few weeks,

"I've really felt as if it was flowing through my drawing-room"?

-Suez.

-Yeah.

-Suez Canal, sorry.

Suez Canal.

Correct.

And finally, also speaking during the Suez crisis,

Eden remarked that, "Long experience has taught me

"that to be criticised is not always to be..." What?

Wrong?

Come on.

Wrong.

Wrong is correct. APPLAUSE

There are about three minutes to go,

and there are ten points at stake for this.

What number lies in the centre

of every standard three-by-three magic square

that contains the first nine positive integers?

Five.

Five is correct. APPLAUSE

These bonuses could give you the lead. They're on scientific terms.

In each case, give the term from the definition.

All three begin with the same four letters.

Firstly, in physics,

the apparent bending or spreading of waves around obstacles

such as an edge or aperture.

-Refraction?

-Refraction?

Refraction.

No, it's diffraction.

Second, the movement of gas or solute molecules from

a region of higher concentration to one of lower concentration.

Diffusion.

Correct.

And finally, in mathematics,

a term used in calculus to mean related to derivatives.

Differential? No?

Differential?

Differential?

Correct. Ten points for this. APPLAUSE

Noted for its gruesome and surreal imagery,

which short film of 1939 by Luis Bunuel and...?

L'Age d'Or.

No, you lose five points.

Chien Andalou?

Un Chien Andalou is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

That puts you in the lead,

and you get bonuses on the boxer Muhammad Ali,

who died in 2016.

At the age of 18,

Ali won the light heavyweight gold medal at which Olympics?

I need the year and the host city, please.

THEY CONFER QUIETLY

Let's have it, please.

1960, Seoul.

No, it was 1960 in Rome.

No points there.

Ali was an unfancied 8-1 outsider

when he beat which boxer to become world heavyweight champion in 1964?

-Sonny Liston.

-Correct.

The name of which political organisation completes this retort,

allegedly uttered by Ali when refusing military service in 1966?

"I ain't got no quarrel with them..." What?

The Vietcong.

Vietcong is correct. Ten points for this.

APPLAUSE

Described as "a triumph for word-of-mouth",

the popularity of which novel of 1965,

revived following its reissue in 2007,

13 years after the death of its author, John Williams?

Its protagonist teaches...

Jonathan Livingston Seagull?

No, you lose five points.

Its protagonist teaches English literature

at the University of Missouri from 1918 to 1965.

-You cannot confer.

-Oh, sorry!

LAUGHTER

Stoner.

Stoner is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

These bonuses...

GONG

And at the gong...

AUDIENCE: Ooooh!

Oh, dear. LAUGHTER

Right, well, I'll tell you what happens in these circumstances.

It's a dead heat, obviously, at the gong.

So I'm going to read a starter question.

Whoever gets this answer right will automatically go through,

but if you buzz in incorrectly, you'll lose five points

and the other team won't even have to go to the inconvenience of trying to answer.

LAUGHTER

Everyone clear?

So it's another starter question.

Fingers on buzzers.

Masetto, Zerlina and Donna Elvira are among characters in which opera,

first performed in Prague in 1787?

The Bartered Bride?

No. One of you buzz, Leeds.

Marriage Of Figaro.

No, it's Don Giovanni. AUDIENCE: Ooh!

Ten points for this.

The confluence of which two rivers forms the Shatt al-Arab,

whose lower course forms part of the border between Iraq and...?

Tigris and the Euphrates.

Correct, well done! You win!

APPLAUSE

Well, you can't get a closer win than that, Kent,

so you went out all guns blazing.

Thank you very much for taking part,

and congratulations to you, Leeds,

we'll look forward to seeing you in the final,

which may be a mixed blessing, as far as you're concerned.

LAUGHTER

Anyway, thank you very much for joining us, too.

I hope you can join us next time for the second semifinal.

But until then, it's goodbye from Kent University.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

It's goodbye from Leeds University.

-ALL:

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE