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  • APPLAUSE

  • Christmas University Challenge.

  • Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.

  • Hello. Two more teams of alumni

  • are preparing to ding-dong merrily for our entertainment

  • in this short, sharp seasonal series for grown-ups.

  • We're playing seven first-round matches

  • of which tonight's fixture is the third.

  • But only the four highest-scoring winning teams

  • will go on to the semifinals.

  • Now, the first player on the team fielded by Pembroke College,

  • Cambridge is both a columnist for the London Evening Standard

  • and a writer whose bestsellers include The Templars

  • and The Plantagenets. He's also presented

  • the Netflix series Secrets of Great British Castles.

  • With him, an athlete who won a gold medal

  • in the 2003 World Championships

  • and an Olympic silver the following year

  • before going to work on conflict issues in Bosnia and Iraq.

  • Their captain is a very familiar face on television

  • having presented Channel 4's T4, E4's Tool Academy,

  • the BBC quiz Impossible and the podcast Science(ish).

  • Their fourth player is a musician

  • who at 17 won the BBC's Young Musician of the Year competition.

  • Since then, she's performed

  • as a soloist with many of the world's leading orchestras

  • and collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin and Dame Cleo Laine.

  • Let's meet the Pembroke College, Cambridge team.

  • Hi. I'm Dan Jones. I graduated from Pembroke in 2002

  • having read history, and I'm now a historian and a journalist.

  • I'm Cath Bishop. I graduated in modern and medieval languages

  • from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1993.

  • After a career as an Olympic rower and a diplomat,

  • I now work as a leadership consultant.

  • And their captain. Hi, I'm Rick Edwards,

  • graduated in natural sciences from Pembroke, Cambridge in 2001

  • and I'm now a writer and broadcaster.

  • Hello. I'm Emma Johnson. I read music and English at Pembroke

  • and I'm a solo clarinettist, composter and arranger.

  • APPLAUSE

  • Playing them is the team from King's College, London,

  • which includes the co-founder of the Institute of Making,

  • which describes itself as a multidisciplinary research club

  • for people interested in making anything from soup to cities.

  • She's a panellist on Radio 4's The Kitchen Cabinet

  • and has recently presented BBC Four's The Secret Story of Stuff.

  • With her, a journalist, broadcaster and award-winning science writer

  • whose works include Geek Nation

  • and, more recently, Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong.

  • At the age of 25, their captain

  • became one of the UK's youngest TV news editors.

  • Since then, she's presented numerous programmes

  • including The Westminster Hour and Any Answers? on Radio 4,

  • and on television, The Daily Politics.

  • She's also an author.

  • And finally, an Ivor Novello award-winner

  • whose scores for television and cinema include Jeeves and Wooster,

  • The Crying Game, Poldark, and The Full Monty,

  • for which she won an Oscar.

  • Let's meet the King's College, London team.

  • I'm Zoe Laughlin, I did my PhD in materials at King's College, London,

  • and I'm an artist, designer and materials engineer.

  • Hi. I'm Angela Saini, I received a Masters in science and security

  • from King's College, London in 2008,

  • and now I'm a science journalist.

  • And their captain. Hello. My name's Anita Anand.

  • present programmes about politics on Radio 4

  • and the Reith Lectures, and I write books about history and politics.

  • graduated from King's College with a BA in English.

  • Hello. I'm Anne Dudley. I was a postgraduate student at

  • King's College, studying for a Masters degree in musical analysis,

  • and now I'm a composer.

  • APPLAUSE

  • The rules never change on this show

  • so I'll just tell you that it's 10 points for starters,

  • 15 points for bonuses,

  • and if you interrupt a starter question incorrectly

  • you face a five-point penalty.

  • Fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for 10.

  • According to a tradition cited in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,

  • what seasonal item was created in the 19th century

  • by a Munich housewife who got fed up with being repeatedly asked,

  • "When will it be Christmas?"

  • The advent calendar. Correct.

  • You get a set of bonuses on Christmas-time gift-bearers.

  • Firstly, portrayed as an old lady riding a broomstick,

  • the friendly La Befana in Italian folklore

  • derives her name from which Christian festival

  • observed on January 6th?

  • THEY CONFER

  • Pass.

  • It's Epiphany.

  • Secondly, known by similar names in other Nordic countries,

  • the Swedish julbok is a pre-Christian gift-bringer

  • in the form of what ruminant?

  • What's a ruminant? t's like a cow.

  • Reindeer? Cow? Reindeer?

  • Try reindeer.

  • Reindeer. No, it's a goat.

  • In which country does St Basil the Great,

  • one of the fathers of the Orthodox Church,

  • bring gifts at Christmas time?

  • THEY CONFER

  • Russia. No, it's Greece.

  • Right, ten points for this.

  • What seasonal plant links

  • the American writer played by Joseph Cotton in The Third Man,

  • a disembodied head in the TV series Red Dwarf,

  • and the socialite...

  • Holly. Correct.

  • Right, these bonuses, King's, are on photographs.

  • What popular title is given to the 1985 portrait

  • of the 12-year-old green-eyed refugee

  • later identified as Sharbat Gula?

  • It featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine.

  • t's the National Geographic girl n Afghanistan.

  • s it called Girl of Afghanistan? s that what it's called?

  • - Isn't it...? - Afghan Girl?

  • Er...shall we?

  • The Afghan Girl. Correct.

  • Give the word that completes the title of a 1951 photograph

  • by Ruth Orkin.

  • It shows a young woman, Ninalee Craig,

  • walking down a street and being noticed by a crowd of men.

  • American Girl in...

  • Paris?

  • American Girl in Paris? Yeah.

  • Paris. No, it's Italy.

  • And finally, the art dealer Robert Fraser,

  • often known as Groovy Bob,

  • appears handcuffed to which public figure

  • in a photograph that became the basis for

  • Richard Hamilton's work entitled Swingeing London 67?

  • THEY CONFER

  • Pass. He was handcuffed to Mick Jagger. Ten points for this.

  • Listen carefully. Each cracker on a Christmas dinner table

  • contains a coloured paper crown

  • taken from a choice of six colours.

  • How many crackers must be pulled

  • to be certain of obtaining at least two crowns the same colour?

  • Seven? Correct.

  • APPLAUSE

  • Right. Your first set of bonuses, Pembroke College,

  • are on trees listed on the website

  • of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association.

  • In each case, give the two-word name of the variety

  • from the description.

  • Firstly, "The traditional Christmas tree found in many of our homes.

  • "It is a Scandinavian variety

  • "with pointed mid-green needles standing on tiny pegs

  • "and long cylindrical brown cones which hang down."

  • THEY CONFER

  • Norwegian spruce? Correct.

  • "Introduced into Britain in 1830,

  • "it is a native of Washington and Oregon,

  • "where it grows to a great height.

  • "It has long, upswept blueish-grey needles

  • "at right angles to the twig."

  • THEY CONFER

  • Redwood pine?

  • No, it's the red fir, or noble fir.

  • Nearly, but not quite.

  • And finally, "a native of once-extensive Caledonian forests,

  • "it is our only native timber-producing conifer

  • "and has twisted blue-green needles found in pairs."

  • Scots pine? Correct.

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

  • For your picture starter, you're going to see

  • the tune of a Christmas carol in the key of C major

  • as it would be on a piano roll for a player piano.

  • The notes are to be read from left to right

  • with notes in a higher vertical position

  • being of higher pitch.

  • For ten points I want you to give me

  • the opening line of the carol represented.

  • "Joy to the world."

  • Joy to the world is correct!

  • For your bonuses, you're now going to see three more piano rolls

  • representing well-known festive tunes in the key of C major.

  • Firstly, I want the opening line of the carol

  • usually sung to this tune.

  • THEY CONFER

  • s it Hark The Herald Angels Sing? I don't think so.

  • THEY SING

  • In The Bleak Midwinter?

  • THEY SING

  • Oh, go for Hark the Herald.

  • "Hark the herald angels sing."

  • No, it's "Once n royal David's city".

  • Secondly, the usual three-word name of this carol.

  • ANNE SINGS

  • The First Noel.

  • The First Noel. Correct.

  • And finally, the title of this Christmas song.

  • Note that here, you're seeing the chorus.

  • THEY CONFER

  • Oh, it's Jingle Bells.

  • Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells is correct.

  • Ten points for this.

  • Which two rhyming words end the first and second lines

  • of Clement C Moore's 1822 poem A Visit From St Nicholas?

  • It begins, "Twas the night before Christmas."

  • Mouse and house.

  • Correct.

  • Right, you get three bonuses on the work of Ursula K Le Guin

  • who died in January 2018.

  • Which 1969 novel by Ursula Le Guin

  • concerns the frigid planet Gethin

  • and the race of androgynous people

  • who may become either male or female?

  • THEY CONFER

  • The Wizards of Earthsea?

  • No, it's The Left Hand of Darkness.

  • Secondly, which minor figure from Virgil's Aeneid

  • is the title character of a critically admired novel of 2008?

  • She's a daughter of Latinus and becomes the wife of Aeneas.

  • THEY CONFER

  • Dido? No, it's Lavinia.

  • And finally, featuring a wizard called Ged,

  • which fictional world is the setting

  • for Le Guin's popular series for young adults?

  • Earthsea. Correct.

  • Right, ten points for this.

  • Which 20th-century artist is the subject of a poem by Margaret Atwood

  • that includes the lines

  • "Here in the souvenir arcade you're everywhere:

  • "the printed cotton bags, the pierced tin boxes,

  • "the red T-shirts..."

  • Picasso.

  • No, you lose five points.

  • "..the pierced tin boxes, the red T-shirts, the beaded crosses,

  • "your coiled braids, your level stare..."

  • Anyone want to buzz from Pembroke?

  • Dali?

  • No, it's Frida Kahlo.

  • Ten points for this.

  • Meanings of what four-letter word include

  • a body segment of an annelid,

  • the structure of benzene, a device for identifying...

  • Ring.

  • Ring is correct.

  • Your bonuses are on transuranic elements.

  • In each case, identify the element from its anagram.

  • Firstly, "alumni crew"

  • is an anagram of the name of which transuranic element,

  • named after the US physicist who invented the cyclotron?

  • I can't spell, so this is no good.

  • THEY CONFER

  • We should guess this.

  • Don't spend too long on it. Keep going.

  • Er, pass, sorry.

  • That's Lawrencium.

  • "Punier comic" is an anagram of which transuranic element

  • named after a Polish astronomer?

  • THEY CONFER

  • Er, Copernicus.

  • No, it's copernicium.

  • And finally, "not meringue" is an anagram of which element

  • named after the inventor of X-rays?

  • THEY CONFER

  • Argentinium.

  • No, it's roentgenium.

  • Right, ten points for this.

  • What seasonal name in English

  • corresponds to the given names of the following people?

  • The composer of Aida and Rigoletto,

  • the manager of FC Barcelona between 2008 and 2012,

  • the musician formerly known as Cat Stevens,

  • and the Puerto Rican actor noted for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac?

  • Is it Josep?

  • It is Joseph, yes.

  • APPLAUSE

  • Right, you get a set of bonuses on the TV series Sex and the City

  • which in 2018 marked the 20th anniversary of its first broadcast.

  • I need the given name and birth surname

  • of each character.

  • First, which character in Sex and the City

  • shares a surname with the Stockport-born jurist

  • who presided at the trial of King Charles I in 1649?

  • Pass.

  • Carrie Bradshaw. John Bradshaw was the person who presided.

  • Which character shares a surname

  • with the closest city to the 1644 Battle of Marston Moor?

  • THEY CONFER

  • don't think this is our specialist area.

  • That's Friends. Pass.

  • It's Charlotte York.

  • And finally, which leading character shares a surname

  • with a political philosopher born in Wiltshire in 1588?

  • Just say Mr Big. I've no idea.

  • Yeah. Mr Big.

  • Who's Mr Big?!

  • Yes. It's Miranda Hobbes.

  • Thank you. Right. Ten points for this. Who's this?

  • The first artistic director of London's Globe Theatre

  • and the recipient of the 2016 Academy Award

  • for Best Supporting Actor...

  • Mark Rylance?

  • It is Mark Rylance, yes.

  • APPLAUSE

  • These bonuses are on the British primatologist and anthropologist

  • Dame Jane Goodall. Firstly, born in Kenya in 1903,

  • which anthropologist and archaeologist

  • was a major influence on Jane Goodall's career and researchers?

  • THEY CONFER

  • Louis Leakey. Correct, Louis Leakey is right.

  • Which director made Jane, the 2017 biographical documentary

  • about Goodall?

  • His other films include On The Ropes and The Kid Stays In The Picture.

  • Pass. That was Brett Morgan.

  • And finally, in which African country

  • is the Gombe Stream Research Centre, founded in 1965 to promote

  • Goodall's ground-breaking findings about chimp behaviour?

  • THEY CONFER

  • Uganda? No, it's in Tanzania, apparently.

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

  • For your music starter, you'll hear a song first released in 2011.

  • Ten points if you can name the solo artist singing.

  • # Swinging in the backyard Pull up in your fast car

  • # Whistling my name

  • # Open up a beer and you say get over here... #

  • Lana del Rey. It is indeed, yes. Well done.

  • APPLAUSE

  • That was her Video Games.

  • For your music, you're going to hear three more pop songs

  • that reference items you might find under the tree on Christmas morning.

  • In each case, name the band performing. Firstly:

  • # I've got a bike You can ride it if you like

  • # It's got a basket A bell that rings

  • # And things to make it look good

  • # I'd give it to you if I could... # Er, nominate Jones.

  • Is it the Bonzo Dog Band?

  • No, it's Pink Floyd, Bike.

  • Very good guess, though.

  • It was a terrible guess, actually.

  • I thought Pink Floyd and I thought, "It can't be that obvious."

  • But I was wrong. OK, secondly.

  • # To my dog on wheels I'll tell my pleasures and woes

  • # To my dog on wheels I'll tell my secrets and more... #

  • Belle and Sebastian. It is - Dog On Wheels. And finally:

  • # Come on, Barbie, let's go party

  • # I'm a Barbie girl In a Barbie world... #

  • Er, Aqua. Aqua is correct, Barbie Girl. Yes.

  • APPLAUSE

  • No shame at all. Right, ten points for this.

  • "For one glorious seven-week spell, he frightened Australians rigid.

  • "He was a bogeyman, a monster, a man who sacked their sporting cathedrals

  • "and then ruined Christmas."

  • These words refer to which sportsman

  • who announced his retirement from international cricket in 2018?

  • Alastair Cook. Correct.

  • APPLAUSE

  • These bonuses are on psalms, King's.

  • Firstly, what five words begin the psalm that contains the line,

  • "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

  • "I will fear no evil"?

  • The Lord Is My Shepherd. Correct.

  • Secondly, what Latin word appears at the start of Psalms 66 and 100?

  • It's particularly used in reference to the latter

  • when set to music.

  • didn't even understand the question.

  • Pass. It's Jubilate.

  • And finally, what Latin word is often used to refer to Psalm 95,

  • which opens with the words "O come let us sing unto the Lord"?

  • Hosanna. No, it's Venite.

  • Ten points for this.

  • Published in 2018, Fascism: A Warning

  • is the work of which former US Secretary of State?

  • Her family...

  • Condoleezza Rice? Er, no, you lose five points.

  • Her family fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 when she was a young girl.

  • s it Madeleine Albright?

  • It is Madeleine Albright, yes.

  • APPLAUSE

  • You get three bonuses on the librettist Alice Goodman.

  • Goodman wrote the libretti for

  • the first two operas of which US composer,

  • the second of which, The Death of Klinghoffer,

  • was first performed in 1991?

  • John Adams.

  • John Adams. Correct.

  • Secondly, Goodman's 2017 collection History Is Our Mother

  • contains her translated libretto for a production at Glyndebourne

  • of which opera by Mozart?

  • The original version from 1791

  • was written by the German Emanuel Schikaneder.

  • Magic Flute.

  • That is correct. And finally, which English poet was married to Goodman

  • between 1987 and his death in 2016?

  • His collections include For The Unfallen and Mercy And Hymns.

  • THEY CONFER

  • Pass. That was Geoffrey Hill.

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

  • For your picture starter you're going to see

  • a photograph of an artist.

  • Ten points if you can give me his name, please.

  • David Hockney.

  • David Hockney is correct.

  • Now, David Hockney was one of the

  • first subjects of the South Bank Show,

  • which turned 40 in 2018.

  • For your picture bonuses, I simply want you to identify three more

  • people profiled in that first series.

  • First, this writer.

  • WHISPERED CONFERRING

  • t could be, yeah. Pinter?

  • That is Harold Pinter, yes.

  • Secondly, this film director.

  • Is that a young David Lee?

  • Think it's a Polish guy.

  • I don't know. Pass.

  • Uh, uh...

  • Do you have an idea?

  • Polish...

  • Karol Reiss?

  • No, that's Ingmar Bergman.

  • And, finally, this conductor.

  • Leonard Bernstein.

  • No, that's Herbert Von Carrion.

  • Right, ten points for this.

  • Oak, crab and custard

  • can all be followed by what...

  • Apple.

  • Apple is correct, yes.

  • These bonuses are on shorter words that can be formed

  • from the letters of the name Santa Claus.

  • Identify each term from the definition.

  • Firstly, named after a figure in Greek mythology,

  • the first or uppermost of the bones in the human vertebral column,

  • supporting the skull.

  • Uh, Santa Claus... Can be made out of Santa Claus? Yes.

  • It's not ulna, is it? No, that's in the arm.

  • Spinal? No, that's Santa Claus, no.

  • Uh...

  • Column.

  • No, it's Atlas.

  • Secondly, a microscopic space in the human bone matrix

  • in which osteocytes are located.

  • Secal?

  • No, that's lacuna.

  • And, finally,

  • the Latin name for the ankle bone

  • articulating with the lower leg.

  • Hmm. We don't know. Pass.

  • That's the talus. Ten points for this.

  • There are about four minutes to go.

  • What five-letter word can mean both

  • a string used to accentuate the rhythm in a sitar,

  • and to speak tediously in a dull monotone?

  • Drone.

  • Drone is correct, yes.

  • You get a set of bonuses on debut albums of 1978. The album name

  • is that of the band or artist in each case.

  • Running With The Devil and Eruption

  • are tracks on which hard rock debut album

  • of 1978 named after the Dutch-born brothers

  • who founded the band in question?

  • Van Halen?

  • Van Halen?

  • Correct.

  • Another Girl, Another Planet is perhaps the best known track

  • on which eponymous 1978 album?

  • Pass.

  • It was The Only Ones.

  • Fronted by Mark Knopfler,

  • which prominent band released its self-titled debut album in...

  • Dire Straits.

  • Dire Straits is correct.

  • Ten points for this.

  • In nautical terms, what seven-letter word is the opposite of windward?

  • Leeward.

  • Leeward is correct.

  • You get a set of bonuses now...

  • ..on holidays celebrated on December 25th

  • that are unrelated to Christmas.

  • Which Asian country marks the birth of a national founder

  • on Quaid-e-Azam Day on December 25th?

  • Myanmar?

  • No, it's Pakistan.

  • Good Governance Day has been celebrated on the

  • 25th December since 2014 in which large Asian country?

  • China.

  • No, it's India.

  • Constitution Day is an unofficial holiday

  • celebrated on December 25th

  • on which island state?

  • Japan.

  • No, it's Taiwan.

  • Ten points for this.

  • Generally attributed to the same author

  • as the Gospel According to Luke,

  • what is the fifth book of the New Testament?

  • Acts.

  • It is the Acts of the Apostles, yes.

  • Your bonuses this time are on novels with kinship terms in their titles.

  • In each case, name the work from the description.

  • Firstly, a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell about the relationships

  • of Molly Gibson, the daughter of a doctor,

  • with others, including her stepmother and stepsister?

  • Uh...pass.

  • Yeah, pass.

  • It's Wives And Daughters.

  • Secondly, which psychological thriller

  • of 1964 by Sheridan Le Fanu

  • concerns the teenaged orphan Maud Ruthyn?

  • Pass.

  • It's Uncle Silas.

  • And, finally, a novel of 1862 by Ivan Turgenev,

  • its characters include Arkady, Bazarov and Nicolay.

  • The Brothers Karamazov?

  • No, that's by Dostoyevsky,

  • it's Fathers And Sons.

  • Or Fathers And Children. Ten points for this.

  • A shortened form of a title meaning "Barbarian subduing general",

  • what six letter term is often used

  • to indicate the defacto leaders of Japan

  • from the late 12th century to 1867?

  • Shogun.

  • Shogun is correct, yes.

  • You get a set of bonuses on similar words.

  • According to legend, at which of the seven hills of Rome

  • were Romulus and Remus deposited

  • by the River Tiber?

  • You need to be quick, come on.

  • Pallantine.

  • Palatine is the word.

  • Palatine, sorry. I can't accept that, I'm sorry, you were wrong.

  • GONG

  • APPLAUSE

  • At the gong...

  • I'm sorry to be harsh there, King's, but there we are.

  • I've got to accept what you say.

  • Not what you meant to say.

  • Pembroke College, Cambridge, 85. It's not a BAD score...

  • t's not a good score, is it, Jeremy?

  • No, it's not, it's a pretty useless score, really,

  • but I was just trying to be nice to you. Thank you.

  • But we won't bother! t felt empty to me.

  • It was a bit empty. But you had some good answers I thought.

  • King's, congratulations to you,

  • 150 points may well be enough to come back

  • as one of the highest scoring winners. We'll see.

  • But thank you very much for joining us.

  • I hope you can join us next time for another first round match, but until then,

  • it's goodbye from Pembroke College, Cambridge...

  • ALL: Goodbye.

  • ..it's goodbye from King's College, London... ALL: Goodbye.

  • ..and it's goodbye from me. Goodbye.

  • APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE

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