University Challenge (also featuring Only Connect and other BBC quiz shows)

We watched the movie "Starter for Ten" the other day. The girls laughed uproariously at the original music and the funny looking question-master...

How do people not recognise Warm Leatherette when it's played to them?

they just want to see paxman doing his ~popular culture~ routine.

Haha, the Bill & Ted question on OC.

Tonight's hopeless team leader yelling "whore" at Paxman has to be a series highlight.

Both teams were shit last night

xpost yes, I did ponder if that was half-an-answer that he realised was wrong, or just a posh way of yelling "fuck"

Another highlight was eight students looking totally lost while The Normal's "Warm Leatherette" played.

A few sniggers from the audience too. You think they might have guessed at least, I don't know, Burroughs or something, assuming they'd heard of him.

Is Warm Leatherette particularly well known by people outside of muso/80s alternative circles? I doubt many of my friends would recognise it.

Pretty sure it's not that well known, but they didn't have to know the track just what writer they thought had inspired it.

ah I see - I didn't see yesterday's episode.

Then again, both my wife and Alice got the last question in the music round where I didn't.

The band was called "How great it is to go to hospital" or something like that.

the question was about frost, so I think he was shouting "hoar" rather than "whore". correct answer was "rime".

"Delacroix" is the new "Euler" as common answer

Yeah, I quite often get random points just by saying Delacroix. Also Brueghel, so this tactic paid off twice tonight.

Clean sweep on the walls AND the missing vowels on Only Connect for me tonight. Also spotted a few of the first couple of rounds as well.

Cezanne is a good stock answer too, I find.

Felt smug at OC team's inability to recognise Little Mix

this is painful

jaysus who let the Chessmen back in?

never mind :D

What if they'd answered 'funk'??

well, I got the venerable beade!

i figure they'd've accepted funk or punk. not sure about crunk.

I got venerable bede too and it was a total fluke guess.

speaking of which, anyone watching the Detectorists on BBC4?

saw the first one. second one is waiting for me at home.

Yeah, I've been enjoying it. Low key but satisfying.

Okay, I'm definitely cheering for Magdalen after Quinn's Morrissey hair swipe.

answer the fucking questions ffs

paxman getting fucking soft

GAHHHH ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION

I'm sure Bamber wouldn't let them take as long.

Ugh, too much sass in these Christmas episodes.

Noreena Hertz = be still my fluttering heart

saw her speak at a conference earlier this year, she was an appallingly bad public speaker

"Van hoof" gtfo. (Last week.)

Bit late but Adam Mars-Jones is *very* well-kept for 60

Northern Soul questions were tough for two teams in their early 20s. Two nice teams but not good enough to avoid being ground under the wheels of some Oxbridge juggernaut.

Northern Soul questions were tough for two teams in their early 20s.

yeah i thought that was a little harsh.
loved how they just gave the same answer each time ..

xp Manchester are looking strong again this year too...

I might have mentioned this before, but the guy in charge of the Manchester team selection process (who is competing in this year's Only Connect, the guy who won the tiebreak last week) has (had?) a father who is similarly geeky about quizzing. Said father was my chemistry teacher, and once made several kids at my school complete a quiz, and he put the winners (including me) into a team for School Challenge (school version of UC). We won the regional final for Scotland and were only beaten in the UK finals by the eventual winners. The Pearson family clearly good at quiz team selection.

he's a librarian I think? As a fellow librarian I approve!

Northern Soul questions were tough for two teams in their early 20s.

Yeah, we thought that. I got them all but the first, obv Dusty: I was massively overthinking there.

I did ponder Ruth Swann for the last, but went Gloria, hray.

Gloria was the only one I got!

i only got the dusty one !

loveday taking the fuckin piss

about two thirds of the way through that the Liam neeson history lad was halfway pissed at his own teammate tearing it up like that

He was a miserable so and so, wasn't he, the boy from Ballymena? Bit of a disappointing non contest unfortunately. Gonville & Caius vs. Magdalen though, lol UK 2015.

he came across that way maybe but I mean, ballymena, who can tell

Loveday was amazing. Twelve starters in total, apparently.

"Pictures at an Exhibition" was a booming interruption tbf