University of Leicester v UCL University Challenge

APPLAUSE

Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

Hello. Like a promising sauce, the plot begins to thicken.

We've played three of the seven first-round matches in this

short seasonal series for grown-ups, and the highest winning total

so far is the 220 scored by Keble College Oxford.

So, if tonight's team can beat that, they're guaranteed a place

in the semifinals and an opportunity to relive the whole grisly ordeal.

So, with a target of 225 firmly in their sights,

the team from the University of Leicester are fielding an expert

in the field of cereal grains.

He was awarded an OBE in 2003,

knighted in 2014 for services to charity, science and human rights,

and in 2017, he received a lifetime achievement award

from the Scottish beer industry.

Next to him, the first disabled competitor to represent England

in an able-bodied discipline, doing so in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

She won a gold medal in the Paralympics in 2008

and again in 2012, and was awarded an MBE for services to her sport.

She now helps others to achieve their goals.

Their captain is a television presenter

who also writes for the Daily Telegraph.

His astronomical photography has won recognition from

the Royal Photographic Society

and he's acted as a consultant for programmes including

Stargazing live, Horizon and The Archers

when Phil Archer was learning to use his telescope.

Their fourth member has written 17 novels in 17 years

and all of them have been bestsellers,

with three million sales in the UK alone.

She's been translated into 26 languages.

She's a patron of the literacy charity the Reading Agency

and a trustee of the Guildford Book Festival.

Let's ask the Leicester team to introduce themselves.

My name is Geoff Palmer.

I did an honours degree at Leicester in 1964

and I spend my time now doing charity work

and the occasional lecture in growing and distilling.

Hi, my name's Danielle Brown.

I graduated from the University of Leicester in law.

I'm currently working as a professional speaker

and I'm the co-founder of inclusive sporting company 4 All.

And their captain.

Hi, my name's Pete Lawrence.

I graduated from Leicester in 1983

with a degree in physics with astrophysics,

and I present the outside observing section

of The Sky At Night. I've done that for the last 13 years.

Hello, I'm Adele Parks.

I graduated in 1990 with a degree in English language and literature

and I'm now a novelist.

APPLAUSE

Now, University College London is fielding a stalwart

of BBC journalism, an award-winning war correspondent who's

reported from over 90 countries,

being particularly associated with the Middle East.

He has also presented series on the lives of Jesus and Moses.

Next, the founding editor of the Philosophers' Magazine.

He's written or co-written several books, including

The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten and A Short History Of Truth.

He's also appeared as a character in two novels

by Alexander McCall Smith.

Their captain's accolades include in 2013

being named on the health service's inaugural list

of 50 inspirational women in health care,

and in 2017 on the Debrett's list of people of influence

in science and medicine.

She's a professor of medical education, is vice-chair of the

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and is a consultant rheumatologist.

Their fourth member is a composer and video games developer

whose work is "stupendous" according to the Washington Post

and "gorgeous" in the opinion of the Guardian.

She won a Bafta for her score

for the video game Everybody's Gone To The Rapture,

which was also named soundtrack of the year by Mojo Magazine.

Her music's been performed in various venues, including

the Barbican, the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Opera House.

Let's meet the UCL team.

Hello. I'm Jeremy Bowen,

and I did history at UCL.

I graduated in 1982,

and after that, I joined the BBC.

For 30 years or so, I've been a foreign correspondent.

I'm Julian Baggini.

I got my PhD in philosophy from UCL in 1996,

and I'm now a freelance writer-philosopher.

And their captain.

I'm Jane Dacre.

I did medicine at UCL, I qualified in 1980,

and I'm president of the Royal College of Physicians.

Hello, I'm Jessica Curry.

I read English literature and language at UCL,

graduating in 1994,

and I'm now a composer and presenter on Classic FM.

APPLAUSE

Well, let's make the rash assumption you all know the rules

and just get on with it. Fingers on the buzzers.

Here's your first starter for ten.

Quote: "Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox,

"that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home."

Which English writer wrote those words in the 1929 essay

The Spirit Of Christmas?

His works include The Man Who Was Thursday,

The Napoleon of Notting Hill and the Father Brown mysteries.

GK Chesterton.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on an anniversary in 2017.

Quote: "It was built to be modern, efficient,

"and a pleasant place to live.

"Many Britons find this amusing."

That description by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

refers to which urban area,

officially designated a new town in 1967?

-Is it Milton Keynes?

-Milton Keynes.

-Milton Keynes.

-Correct.

Which farm animal is depicted in Liz Leyh's 1978 concrete sculpture,

now housed in the Milton Keynes Museum?

In reference to Leyh's work, 15 new figures of the same animal

have been placed in the town as part of its 2017 birthday celebrations.

Cow?

-Cow?

-Correct.

Established in 1969,

which institution with the motto "Learn and Live"

has its headquarters in Walton Hall in Milton Keynes?

-Is it...?

-Open University.

-Open University.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Ten points for this starter question.

"He is the only genius I've ever known with an IQ of 60."

These words of Gore Vidal refer to which cultural figure?

Born in Pennsylvania in 1928, he's quoted as saying,

"If you want to know all about me,

"just look at the surface of my paintings and films and..."

Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

So your second set of bonuses, UCL, are on US satire.

Firstly, for five points, Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson

founded which satirical magazine in 1988?

It ceased publication in print in 2013 but continues as a website.

Is it The Onion?

Yeah. Yeah.

-The Onion.

-Correct.

Founded in 1871, which undergraduate magazine's former presidents

have included John Updike and Conan O'Brien?

Its alumni have gone on to create comedy series including

Parks And Recreation and the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.

UCLA? UCLA?

-It's a magazine.

-Oh, it's a magazine. I thought he said...

It's a magazine, right? You said?

I've given you the question.

LAUGHTER

Harvard Crimson? That's...

Harvard Crimson is the Harvard magazine, but...

Harvard Crimson.

No, it's the Harvard Lampoon.

You were nearly there, but not close enough.

And, finally, created by Lizz Winstead

and Madeleine Smithberg, which satirical news programme's

correspondents have included John Oliver,

Samantha Bee, and Stephen Colbert?

Its current presenter is Trevor Noah.

Is it the Daily Show?

The Daily Show.

Yeah, go for that.

-The Daily Show.

-Correct. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. What place name connects

the title of a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion,

a Christmas carol written in the 1860s

by the US clergyman Phillips Brooks,

a psychiatric hospital originally founded in Bishopsgate,

and a town whose name means "the house of bread"?

Bedlam?

Anyone like to buzz from UCL?

-Bethlehem?

-Bethlehem is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, these bonuses are on computing terminology, UCL.

In each case, give the term from the description.

All three answers begin with the same letter.

First, designated by a Greek letter,

a software development phase usually implemented by a sample

of the intended users but prior to general public release.

-That's beta.

-Beta.

-Beta.

-Correct.

After a 19th-century English mathematician,

an algebraic system used extensively in the design of computer circuitry.

Boolean?

-Boolean?

-Boolean is right.

And finally, the basic unit of information in computer storage,

consisting of eight binary digits.

I need you to spell the term.

That's B-IT.

Bit. B-I-T.

No, it's byte. B-Y-T-E.

Oh!

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

For your picture starter,

you're going to see an abridged list of the original illustrations

of a 19th-century novel.

For ten points, I simply want the title of the novel.

Note that any nouns that appear in the title have been redacted.

Pickwick Papers.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

So, for your picture bonuses,

I simply need you to identify three more of Dickens's novels

by a partial list of their original plates.

Again, in each case,

any instances of nouns in the title have been removed.

Firstly, for five.

THEY CONFER

David Copperfield?

-David Copperfield.

-OK.

I think we'd better have an answer.

David Copperfield.

No, it's A Tale Of Two Cities. Secondly.

Oh, that's, um...

-Is it Great Expectations?

-Yeah.

Great Expectations.

No, that's The Old Curiosity Shop. And finally.

Great Expectations? Don't know.

-Great Expectations?

-Or David Copperfield?

I don't think it's David Copperfield.

Great Expectations.

No, that's Nicholas Nickleby.

There's still plenty of time, Leicester, to get going.

Ten points at stake for this starter question.

I need a nine-letter term, here.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017 was awarded

to an American trio for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms

controlling which biorhythm?

The term in question comes from the Latin for "about a day".

Diurnal?

No. Anyone like to buzz from Leicester?

You may not confer. One of you can buzz.

-Circadian.

-Circadian is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses, your first lot, Leicester,

are on the absurdity of existence.

In the words of one reference work, which 19th-century philosopher

"strongly senses the absurd but seeks to be cured of it

"by making it an attribute of a God whom he then embraces?"

He died in a Nordic capital in 1855.

-Not a clue.

-No.

-No.

No, sorry, we don't know.

That was Soren Kierkegaard.

Secondly, in Lectures On Ethics,

which German philosopher said that, "All our actions obtain

"completudo, or fulfilment, through religion?"

He died in 1804.

Kant?

Kant?

-Kant.

-That was Kant.

And finally, "The struggle itself towards the heights

"is enough to fill man's heart."

Who made that statement in the 1942 work The Myth Of Sisyphus?

THEY CONFER

-No?

-No.

-No, sorry, we don't know.

That's Albert Camus. Ten points for this.

Which historian's writings have been compared to

"rich fruitcakes crammed with raisins, nuts and glace cherries,

"all mulled in brandy sauce"?

Born in London in 1945, his notable works include Rough Crossings,

The Embarrassment Of Riches

and Citizens: A Chronicle Of The French Revolution.

-Simon Schama?

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses on women associated with

the Natural History Museum in London now.

Dorothea Bate, firstly,

was one of the first women to work at the museum.

On an expedition in the early 1900s, she discovered fossil bones of

a dwarf elephant in the Kyrenia hills of which Mediterranean island?

-Mediterranean island...

-Is it Cyprus?

Corsica?

Corsica.

Corsica.

-No, it's Cyprus.

-Oh, damn!

From the 1920s,

Evelyn Cheesman collected about 70,000 specimens for the museum.

She made solo expeditions to islands including New Guinea, New Caledonia

and which present-day country formerly known as the New Hebrides?

It's an island...an island chain in the Pacific, isn't it?

The New Hebrides.

Don't know.

Don't know, sorry.

That's Vanuatu.

And finally, born in Cornwall in 1900,

Ethelwynn Trewavas is noted for her studies of the Cichlid family.

To what general type of vertebrate does this family belong?

THEY CONFER

-A lobster?

-Amphibians?

Amphibians.

No, they're fish.

Ten points for this. Listen carefully.

Answer as soon as your name is called.

Take the three US state names that each contain only four letters.

How many vowels in total appear in these three?

You may not confer.

Five.

Nope.

You may not confer. One of you can buzz.

LAUGHTER

Four.

No, it's eight.

The states, of course, being Utah, Iowa and Ohio.

Right, another starter question now.

The Andrei Tarkovsky film The Sacrifice,

the paintings of Caravaggio,

the fiction of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

and the Martyrdom Of St Sebastian are all referenced

in the music video to which song of 1991 by REM?

Its title is a southern American expression

meaning "at my wit's end".

Losing My Religion.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses this time are on culinary herbs and the cinema.

In each case, I need both the short, common name of the herb

and that of the person described.

Firstly, Salvia officinalis.

Its common name rhymes with the surname of the lead actor

of Leaving Las Vegas and Con Air.

Remember, I need two answers here.

Sage, Cage.

Sage, Cage.

Yes, sage and Nicolas Cage is correct, yes.

A herb often used in stuffings along with sage.

Its common name rhymes with the surname of the character

played by Orson Welles in The Third Man.

Sage and... Sage and onion?

-That's not a herb, though.

-No.

-Thyme and Lime. Harry Lime.

-Yeah.

Thyme and Lime.

Thyme and Harry Lime is correct, yes.

And finally, the common name of the family Lamiaceae,

to which both sage and thyme belong.

It rhymes with the given name of the actor whose screen roles

include Josey Wales and Harry Callahan.

-Eastwood.

-That's, um...

-Clint Eastwood.

Yeah.

-And... Um...

-Oh, is it...?

A family...

We don't know.

Eastwood...

We've got Eastwood, but we can't think of the next bit.

It's mint and Clint Eastwood.

Oh, mint and Clint. Oh!

I can't give you the points.

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

For your music starter, you'll hear a well-known piece

of classical music. Ten points if you can name its composer.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

Samuel Barber.

It is. It's his Adagio For Strings.

APPLAUSE

That recording was its world premiere,

conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

March 2017 marked the 150th anniversary of Toscanini's birth,

and your music bonuses are now three more of his recordings.

Again, I want the composer of the piece you'll hear.

Firstly, for five.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

-Don't know!

-Really familiar, but...

Come on. It's always on Classic FM!

I know! I'm so... I'm going to get lynched.

LAUGHTER

Well, that would be entertaining.

It's Rossini's Overture To The Barber Of Seville.

Secondly.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

Tchaikovsky.

-No, that's Mendelssohn, from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

-Oh!

And, finally.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

Beethoven.

Beethoven, that's part of his Seventh Symphony.

Your honour is slightly salvaged. LAUGHTER

Right, ten points for this.

In 2017, which former Children's Laureate

won the Children's Book Awards for a record fourth time

with his novel Eagle In The Snow?

His previous wins were for Kensuke's Kingdom,

Private Peaceful and Shadow.

-Michael Morpurgo.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on French fashion designers, Leicester.

Beginning her career as a milliner before moving into clothing,

design and perfumery,

who in 1909 opened what is now the oldest fashion house in the world?

She launched the perfume Arpege in 1927,

in a bottle bearing an illustration of her and her daughter.

Coco Chanel?

Coco Chanel.

No, it was Jeanne Lanvin, apparently.

Born in Saumur in 1883, the fashion designer Coco Chanel

introduced her perfume Chanel No 5 in which decade?

THEY CONFER

The '50s.

No, it was the 1920s, specifically 1922, apparently.

And finally, which French fashion designer, who died in 2016,

was known for her knitwear collections

and created what came to be known as the Poor Boy sweater?

Died in 2016...

-No?

-No.

-No.

Sorry, we don't know.

That was Sonia Rykiel.

Right, ten points for this.

Meanings of what five-letter word include hawthorn in a hedge,

an archaic word meaning "not dead",

the soft flesh below the growing part of the nail,

and by extension, the innermost region for person's feelings?

Quick.

Correct.

APPLAUSE

Your bonuses this time are on statues.

Firstly, the Boot Monument at Saratoga in New York State

marks the achievements of which US general of the Revolutionary War?

He's neither depicted on the monument nor mentioned by name in

its dedication, presumably because he later defected to the British.

THEY CONFER

No idea. Sorry.

That was Benedict Arnold.

Secondly, Stalin's Boots are the remains of a very large statue

torn down in a rebellion of 1956.

They stand at the entrance to Memento Park

in which central European capital?

-Central...

-'56.

Not sure.

-Munich?

-Capital...

-What do you think?

I don't know.

-Berlin?

-Berlin?

Try it.

Berlin.

No, it's Budapest. And finally, its boots

and lower legs smeared with the Ukrainian national colours, a statue

of which revolutionary thinker was relocated to Manchester in 2017?

He made the city his home in the mid-19th century.

Mid-19th century, 1840s, 1850s...

Who would that be?

-No idea.

-No, I don't know.

No, sorry. No.

Friedrich Engels was the person in question there.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

"One aged man - one man - can't keep a house, farm, countryside,

"or if he can, it's thus he does it of a winter night."

Which US poet wrote those lines in the 1916 work

An Old Man's Winter Night?

Robert Frost?

Robert Frost is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Bonuses on the World Athletics Championships,

held in London in 2017, for you, UCL.

The British athletics team won two gold medals.

Mo Farah in the men's 10,000 metres was one.

Which men's team event was the other?

Relay?

Which one? How many metres?

100 metres?

Relay?

Which one?

100 metres?

It was. The men's 100 metres relay was correct, yes.

LAUGHTER

Right, which Scottish hurdler captained the GB team

in the 2017 Championships?

She won silver in the 400 metres relay.

I don't know.

Don't know.

It's Eilidh Doyle, that.

And finally, Usain Bolt won bronze in the men's hundred metres.

Which US sprinter won the gold medal?

Justin Gatlin.

Justin...?

-Gatlin.

-Gatlin.

-Justin Gatlin.

-Correct.

APPLAUSE

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

For your picture starter, you're going to see

a still from a biographical film.

For ten points, give me the name of the author portrayed.

Jane Austen.

Jane Austen is right. That was Anne Hathaway in Becoming Jane.

APPLAUSE

2017 marked 200 years since the death of Jane Austen,

and your picture bonuses are stills from three notable film

versions of her novels, all adapted for the screen by women.

This time, I'll need title of the novel on which each film is based.

Firstly, for five.

Well, that's...

Alic...yeah. Um...

-It's Alicia Silverstone...

-Emma?

-Emma, say Emma.

-Emma.

It is Emma, yes.

The film, of course, is Clueless,

directed and written by Amy Heckerling.

And, secondly.

-Is that Mr Darcy?

-Yeah. Pride And Prejudice.

Pride And Prejudice.

No, that's Mansfield Park.

Written and directed by Patricia Rozema.

And, finally.

That's Emma.

Emma.

Oh, no, sorry! No...

I'm sorry!

LAUGHTER

I'm sorry, we have to take the answer that's given.

Sorry, it's Sense And Sensibility.

It is Sense And Sensibility, but that isn't what you said.

No, I know, I know!

I have to take what you said. I can't read your mind.

LAUGHTER

Right. Emma Thompson, of course, wrote that script.

Right, ten points for this starter question.

The achievements of Devon Harris, Michael White, Dudley Stokes

and his brother Chris at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary

provided the inspiration for which film of 1993, with the tag line...?

Cool Runnings.

Correct. Cool Runnings is correct.

APPLAUSE

Right, your bonuses are on botany.

In botany, the adjective acicular describes leaves of what shape?

Acicular...

Not circular?

-Oval?

-Come on.

Oval?

No, it's needle-shaped.

Secondly, characteristic of a particular class of trees,

strobili are structures more commonly known by what name?

Pine cones?

-Pine cones.

-Cones?

Cones is correct.

With certain species having commercial significance

during the Christmas period, what is the common name

of coniferous trees in the genus Picea?

P-I-C-E-A.

Christmas tree, spruce?

-Is it spruce?

-Spruce is correct. APPLAUSE

Ten points for this. Answer as soon as your name is called.

In chemistry, how many atoms are there

in one molecule of sulphuric acid?

Six.

Anyone like to buzz from Leicester?

Seven.

Seven is correct, yes.

you get a set of bonuses, this time, on countries...

GONG

APPLAUSE

And at the gong, Leicester have 45.

University College London have 175.

You never really got going, Leicester, did you, unfortunately?

-No.

-Wrong questions!

-Wrong questions?

LAUGHTER

-I'm so sorry about that!

-Wrong answers!

Right, UCL, you will definitely, I would guess,

be coming back on a score of 175.

Many congratulations to you.

Thank you very much for joining us, too.

You were an entertaining team to watch.

LAUGHTER

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

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

-Goodbye.

-It's goodbye from University College London.

-Goodbye.

And it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

APPLAUSE