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

he merely looked world-weary when reading out questions about Polish football

loads of pop culture Qs this week. loved the synth themes. Is it weird that Carew knew the Sonic answer as Sega Genesis rather than Megadrive?

xp yes loved the reactions of RNCM to "football... in Poland..."

If you only know the Sega history as history or thru emulators I think it's understandable to think of Genesis

For last night's episode I started on my own, then my wife and I were a team for the 2nd half (when she walked into the room) and we got 28:

mint, High Rise, Christopher Nolan, lemming, Albrecht Dürer, Phoenix, Rhesus monkey, red blood cells, Krakowia, Legia Warsaw, cold fusion, dark matter, poikilothermic, Moliere, Dutch, Twin Peaks, Assault on Precinct 13, sun spots, Japan, Civilization, Sega Megadrive, Torquay, Scarborough, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Austria, Frankfurt, date, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Got the wrong Polish dynasty for one of those football teams and said Jagiellonia (who are in a team, but out east in Białystok) rather than Piast!

Didn't catch the answer to the Zelda question...what was it? I know I could watch again but I can't be arsed. I've only played Breath of the Wild.

Anyway, I hope the Royal Northern College of Music *do* make it back as one of the highest scoring losers as I quite liked them, Carew and Captain Chrisp especially.

a link to the past

can't remember the 3rd of the electronic themes. oh, vangelis bladerunner. they got that before i could really hear it.

the tv adaptations were quite easy, given they were recent, but had quite generic names.

I assumed RNCM would get completely trounced, and they did okay, considering - but it was an unusually softball week for questions.

The disco round was slightly harder than I would've expected, though

a link to the past

Nice punny name. Cheers, koogs.

Uzbekistan BABY

agree

"Dr. Glissando?"

I got the first three letters in the German words for... before Jeremy had said any.

i got pikmin and ico

Nowakowski was a clown, but I did laugh when he challenged Captain Aggarwal about Chopin: "he's Polish actually but you're the captain".

got 20 this week:

time, and, event horizon, Von Braun, Jimmy Wales, enzyme, electron, Byron, Thomas Becket, Shangri-Las, Bobby Gentry, casino, Madame Butterfly, Jackson Pollock, The Ridgeway, sch, Montana, Maine, Alaska, Aristophanes

Terrible pop culture knowledge tonight. How does no one know cabaret?

Will Sussex be lowest ever scoring team?

Do they always have this many Shakespeare/ olde literary questions?

Both of my brothers' Universities vying against each other or not as the case may be. Birmingham vied, not sure what Sussex did .
THought they might take off but never did. Was trying to remember what the scores in previous heavily imbalanced scores were. I do remember thinking do you need all the points on a couple of occasions in i think this series previously but yeah not a good score for Sussex at all.

If Sussex had buzzed and answered the question Jeremy had asked when the gong went, they'd have doubled their score.

...or lost 5 points

trying to think what i got last night, and it wasn't much, but more than i can remember now

tunguska (thanks x-files), 36

Man, that was a real ass-kicking. Go Birmingham!

I went to Birmingham for one year of study abroad, and I think that was honestly the first time I've ever felt any Brummie school pride whatsoever.

Apparently Sussex is joint lowest scoring team ever tied with themselves in 1971-72, says wikipedia. Also Royal Northern College of Music will be back next week or the week after in the highest scoring loser playoff. Last time they were here they managed to get to the quarterfinals.

Lol at those dweebs getting a hip hop round

Was like playing Public Enemy to a row of cats.

"Bass, how low can you go..."

<deathly silence>

If they'd guessed that one right, they'd have won this week.

I like the new BBC1 daytime quiz, The Tournament. The generic name suits it because it's 45 minutes of quickfire head-to-head rounds with no gimmicks.

Oh, I like the sound of that. Might record a few.

To be fair I didn't get the Lil Wayne or Ariana Grande (although neither did they)

Is it me, or does it seem like the UC always put teams with better gender splits against each other in the second? Because teams are routinely 4 guys or 3 guys, any team with a different ratio seems to stick out. And then those teams always seem to get pitted against each other.

*in the second round

How do we feel about Paxman throwing in the Oxbridge nicknames during a game ("Cat's", "Eddie's"). I know he's been doing that forever and I like him but it still makes me throw up a bit in my mouth.

I thought the second round opponents were based on first round scores? The biggest scorers vs. the lowest scorers and 2nd biggest scorers vs 2nd lowest scorers and so on? or have I got it wrong?

I like the new BBC1 daytime quiz, The Tournament. The generic name suits it because it's 45 minutes of quickfire head-to-head rounds with no gimmicks

If you don't count the gimmick of the terrible battle cries, which are in no way just there so that they can pre-script all of Alex Scott's contestant interaction so she doesn't have to adlib at all, oh no (I was involved in the run-throughs, which were quite painful to do, as she is also terrible at pronunciation of key words in questions which is really off-putting). The questions and the format are decent though.

lol yeah they're cringey, but not that much worse than the chaser introductions in The Chase.

I don't mind the Chaser introductions on the Chase; if you're watching for high comedy it's probably not the show for you. It's Bradley Walsh, ffs.

Have to check out this Tournament. I quite like Alex Scott despite her presenting limitations, though I can imagine the annoyance is 1000x if you're actually *on* the show.

Anyway, it was great to see a 75% female team on UC from a mixed college (St. Catharine's, Cantab). I see that as real progress though we need a few 100%s to make up for all the completely male ones.

Got 20 this week: Wagner, Titian, Gaugin, black, Paternoster, Phobos, Camelia, Joseph Priestley, Hindu Kush, Public Enemy, d-e-l-a, Thessaloniki, Ursa Major/Ursa Minor, Canis Major/Canis Minor, 3, circumflex, tilde, Idris, redshank, redwing.

Forgot there was a LEO Minor...d'oh!

lol yeah they're cringey, but not that much worse than the chaser introductions in The Chase.

Oh god. I always fast-forward through those. I was watching it with my mam one day and was impressed to see that she not only fast forwards the chaser intros, but also the contestant chat. "Harsh, Mam," I said.
"Well, they always want to go to America or Australia to see their sister or something. Who cares."
I actually think the contestant chat on The Chase is well above any of the BBC ones, partly because you actually could do something interesting with the money if you won it.

How do we feel about Paxman throwing in the Oxbridge nicknames during a game ("Cat's", "Eddie's"). I know he's been doing that forever and I like him but it still makes me throw up a bit in my mouth.

― Sam Weller

I hate this so much.

I give Bradley Walsh all due respect for coming up with fresh ‘comments’ about all the chasers every episode.

“Always different, always the same” !

Also, if you ever want to be on “The Chase”, you have to have an interesting occupation, hobby, or ‘something you need the money for’ otherwise you won’t make it past the pre-vetting. (So, that’s me out…)

I like Omid Djalili, but each contestant has slotty-in “remind me of your occupation/something interesting about you” bits that go…There.

(Ref: “Winning Combination”)

Spoilers: Bradley doesn't come up with the quips.

It's entirely possible to make up stories to get past the vetting. I told the Fifteen to One team I wanted to go to watch Andy Murray at the US Open then spent the whole time shitting myself that I was going to get a piss-easy tennis question wrong and they'd bring it up.

It's interesting how much worse Bradley is on Blankety Blank than he is on The Chase. I wonder why that is? Any insights, Ailsa?

My understanding is that he genuinely loves the Chase. It's his thing and he's made it his own (watch old ones to see how much better he's got at it over the years) - I'm pretty sure if he left, it would finish. I suspect Blankety Blank is just for the money, but I don't actually know. I should be meeting up with some people with proper insight in the pub tomorrow so shall casually slip it into the conversation, if I can bluff it without having actually watched Blankety Blank.

i did laugh when blankety blank came up in an internal video of new attractions. that's like its 4th reboot?

the christmas bloopers edition of The Chase is often a highlight of my time at home for the holidays (the only time when i watch it as part of the interminable daytime tv schedule imposed by parents)

rachel's been on mastermind before, hasn't she? i remember her winning last time. (and 15-1 and a couple of other things. i know of her through indiepop circles)

Yeah, think this is her third or fourth time.

Forgot to get any Bradley gossip at the weekend, sorry!

That was the funniest bit she's ever done on this show.

And wearing a vintage tee from her dad’s old mag.