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

I basically support Fighting Talk existing, a show with its own culture and mythology built up in an original way, and some people I know find it hilarious. Admittedly wouldn't listen to it myself, but as far as long-running panel shows on BBC Radio go it's probably one of the better ones (low bar as that is) and this reminds me that they finally cancelled both Quote Unquote and Mock The Week this year, so good things do happen occasionally.

Yes, my unpopular opinion here is to agree with poster Camaraderie and say that Fighting Talk is not all bad, though I can also understand why someone, like Calzino, would think it was.

The point about 'its own culture and mythology built up in an original way' seems to relate directly to Murray, ie: that is part of his schtick, to try to create broadcasting niches that will become 'legendary' in the way that the broadcasting he loved (David Coleman or whatever) did.

Paul Sinha absolutely does want to do UC. He also wants to do Countdown.

They should've picked him, then, and you can tell him that some random person on the internet said so.

Please excuse the Metro link, but thought the reporter had actually got a good source here:

https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/18/university-challenge-former-question-writer-hits-out-at-amol-rajan-appointment-17207133

UC and OC start again on Monday

followed by uc documentary and that starter for 10 film

Pass

Only realised today that Paxman is still going for this year!

I have to admit I got a little chuckle out of Newcastle captain guessing Red Hot Chili Peppers for that Outkast question.

It was especially annoying for them because one of them did say Outkast and it was disregarded.

It was good to see erstwhile ilxer Mark C aka Markleby on Only Connect this week. He hasn't aged a bit. And sounded quite wonderful when he described a red dwarf as "a small, dim, red star", which it is. Cheers Ailsa for the heads-up.

Did reasonably well on this week's UC, 20:

Pasteur, Beowulf, apoptosis, Computerised tomograpahy, acacia, Royal Navy, Tate, Switzerland, Yoruba, -int, Celtic, Leeds United, 2, stipend, Cannes, Egypt & Sudan, Aswan, Rameses, Jane Austen, crater.

Didn't know it was Outkast, but could tell it wasn't RHCP!

!

I knew I recognised the Outkast track but couldn't place it. Should have got KC on first burst but again thought it was one of several things i had. Was thinking it might be a turn of the 70s Floyd thing for a moment. became pretty obvious after that though.

Enjoyed
CANNES
NO CANNES
NO NOT THE CANNES
CANNES

I was kinda thinking all through that round, where generally I had no clue (I can recognise an Oscar, BAFTA or Grammy award - that's it) "I hope the Cannes award actually *looks* like a golden palm" and then lo & behold...

And then one of the other ones had the name of the festival written on it.

Did well this week, 24.

Holmes & Watson, Washington Monument, Chrysler Building, Lincoln Cathedral, Persion Gulf, Long Parliament, Chiron, rings, pancreas, Nighthawks, xerophyte, Carabao, orange, Mary Wolstencraft, Benjamin Britten, Diplodocus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Montreux, Charlemagne, Scoop, Gladys Aylward.

Am impressed by this University College Oxford team.

Missed one out. E, the Morse code one.

Congrats to Mark on the Only Connect appearance! Definitely a bucket list wish for me.

scumbag

who?

I got 28, probably my highest ever, despite not getting any of the music questions.

on the other hand I completely failed at the only connect walls.

scumbag

oh wait yes I remember that thing that happened a whole half an hour ago.

that was quite a drubbing on uc

but yes, scumbag is an odd thing to include in a bbc2 quiz programme, i thought

Not so much losing as anti-winning.
Has anybody had minus points at the end of a show?
JUst remembering there was one match last series where one team romped away with all teh points and the other was in double digits and giving away points towards the end too wasn't there?

Felt like one of those lucky teams who get trounced in the next round.

They really did just take aim at their own feet and keep shooting repeatedly, didn't they?

Meanwhile, the episodes of Pointless without Richard have started airing. Xander's going to have to start earning his money again.

Yes, we caught a few minutes of yesterday's and wow does Richard make it look easy or what?

Seriously. Poor Sally Lindsay. She is not a natural at this.

I didn't realise Osman was leaving so it was a complete surprise to me. That one was really bad, but it seems like they're cycling through guest co-hosts for the time being? I shall miss the big ol' centrist melt.

That one was really bad, but it seems like they're cycling through guest co-hosts for the time being?

I really hope not. Guest co-hosts work for no-mark celeb panel shows like Have I Got News for You, but Pointless needs someone who knows what they're doing. Osman's left big shoes to fill.

Yeah, sadly they are. Ed Gamble was on something recently and he said he had recorded his week in the chair. I'm hoping that now they're actually airing them, the producers will realize it's not a great idea and sort out a proper replacement.

Anyway, I got 25 in this week's UC - one up on last week, if it carries on like this I'll have a full house by season end, heh heh.

Brazil, Kings Cross, Humber Bridge, phlogistron, spontaneous generation, Breath of the Wild, Amsterdam, DH Lawrence, Erasmus, Weber, Gray, melon, Godzilla, Slovenia, coup, impressionism, naked mole rat, cassowary, honey badger, cat, Kissinger, Kurosawa, genetic, hardness, Copernicus.

Fair play to Coventry's Harrod for her name 'that tune in three' schtick to get Ariane Grande. All that music was far too modern for me. I may have got Billie Eilish if I'd heard more of it.

Also that UC proved I know *nothing at all* about the Incas!

was half watching and didn't keep notes but the things i did get that aren't in your list were the genre film questions Them, William castle, Godzilla although i did give the third answer the moment i heard him say 1954 during the first question. oh, and the Nintendo question about the instrument.

did enjoy the way the two girls were freezing out the boys on anything that wasn't history or science

Other Pointless hosts yet to have a go are Alex Brooker, Ed Gamble, Stephen Mangan, Konnie Huq and Lauren Laverne.

Every one of those people sounds a better option than Sally who just doesn't seem comfortable in the role at all.

She was Warwick Davies' stand-in on "Tenable", not great at first but got better.

I thought she was officially an alternate presenter in her own right rather than a stand-in. Not that this makes her any better at Pointless which is very much its own thing.

I really hate Richard Osman. Soz, that's the post

I don't straight up hate him but there's def a strong disconnect between his talents and the absurd amount of celebrity he holds.

he's been behind the scenes creating household name programmes for years though. and now his books are so popular that they couldn't print enough of them last Christmas. he does seem to be everywhere at times, but he's not like, say, romesh

His two books are actually okay! The second one is better -- which shows some sense that he's interested in improving as a writer rather than just coldly cashing in (although that, too). It's all a bit (consciously) sub-Kate Atkinson, readymade for BBC at 8pm, but I've read worse, and there are good jokes.

33 on UC this week - might be a PB!

Crete, insulin, pulsars, cross, Descartes, Oklahoma, Washington & Idaho, Marie Curie, turtle, snapping turtles, Stockton to Darlington, percolator, Greek, anion and cation, Nauru, phosphate, Magritte, epoch, Holocene, sloth, Clarksville, Georgia, Chattanooga, The Haunting of Hill House, Borgen, The Killing, The Bridge, The Brothers Karamazov, uranium, bassoon, trombone, frog, Georgia.

... It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

Great job, think I got 24 or 25.

"The only thing I know is that the kimberley plain is in western australia" - well that is pretty useful if the question is what australian state is kimberley in.

got nowhere near 30, or even 20 (again, only half watching) but i did get the lottery and oboe which are missing from that list

23 this week.

Beautiful, Corazon Aquino, Indira Gandhi, Leeds Castle, Boticelli, grenadine, Kiribati, Dominica, Uganda, MASH, Wolf Hall, Valentina Tereshkova, Paint Your Wagon, Oklahoma, jaguar, Catherine the Great, Crimea, orchid, Do The Right Thing, Selma, Dr Mabuse, Moebius strip, craters

20.5 (the half being the first name of octogenarian astronaut), only 6 of which match the above list.

26 Beautiful golda meier corizon acquino indira gandhi knitting juneteenth mash joan didion mushroom snowdonia wolf hall cae tereshkova toucan jack catherine the great crimean orchid gorgonzola do the right thing black panther bus moebius strip han ginsberg craters

Interesting to see the ledge's answers as there were several he got right where I vacillated between two or more possible answers and went the wrong way, or I hesitated, i.e.

considered Meier, but went for Ben Gurion. Went for Lake District instead of Snowdonia, forgetting Snowdon was taller than Scafell, would have got toucan and gorgonzola but hesitated and couldn't quite recall what Black Panther was called.

Dream team for UC The Professionals: Me, ledge, Ailsa (team captain) and koogs. PF as sub.

i did write them down, in red on a busy TV listings magazine, whether i can read them now is another question

beautiful, knitting, June teenth, mash, snowdon, wolf hall, wally (funk), annie get your gun, 1812, toucan, jack, catherine, crimea, clara bow, orchid, gorgon-zola, do the right thing, persia, selma, moebius

not including perhaps a couple that i think i would have got eventually but which were spoiled by them answering too quickly. Valentina for instance, panther.

my favourite was the long winded question about the year which i had no clue about until he mentioned it was also the year Dickens was born...

to much overlap with ledge's for me to contribute much