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

But isn't it the same on regular UC? Don't they sometimes tailor the bonus questions to people's specialities (or is it specialisms? I can never tell anymore)?

I think the Christmas starter questions feel easier, because the answer is often something festive.

Yeah, there was a bunch of (classical) music questions, fairly obscure. Paul Gambaccini had nothing to say: it wasn't his team.

Christmas questions are definitely easier than 'normal' ones in my view! The later in the series, the harder they are too (normal ones). I've had to quit in recent series because it just got boring not knowing anything.

Brookmyre was on last night. was he ailsa's backup specialist subjecy when she was on mastermind

Had no idea! Weirdly I've just read/ re-read a whole ton of Brookmyre books in the past few months.

(i could be wrong! but istr it was a scottish author i hadn't read anything by)

Yes, hello, I did the Jack Parlabane books as a specialist subject a few years ago.

(Jack Parlabane is a character in a series by Christopher Brookmyre, if that isn't clear)

Captains rushing in to answer without listening to the actual correct answers coming from their teammates is a bit of a theme on the quizzes at the moment.

Grinds my gears something fierce

Not as much as being told "no no no, it's not that.... We don't know!" by our quiz captain. Not TV, just our local pub quiz league, still though..."

(ignore that last quote mark)

paxman in a christmas jumper is just wrong

So, was that the last ever Paxo?

it's back to the normal series next week, i guess the end of that will be the last

I think that was the last he recorded, was what I meant

The Christmas UCs haven't been very Christmassy imo. Token 'Letters of the word MISTLETOE' but no 'if Santa goes down the chimney with radius X' etc etc. Still, I've been getting a bunch of them right which is more than I do in the usual series!

Only Connect was tough tonight. That Roman numeral question, aargh!

Not normally wound up by UC contestants, but was by St Andrews's Cryan tonight. He really did talk too much.

Anyway, 17 for me tonight.
Romola Garai, Crewe, Perth, Robert Koch Institute, Max Planck Institute, Galilean telescope, Bulgaria, Slovakia, erratic, drumlin. moraine, collage, Suzanne Sontag, Dorothea Lange, Maximillian, Sweden, philology.

Cryan didn't know any answers, but certainly knew when his teammates were wrong.

Anisimov had great eye rolling energy on UC.

Brown from Royal Holloway was really good, but man, did that drag tonight, the conferring was at Christmas special level of "get on with it".

Yeah, St Andrews (and Cryan) were doing my head in

Brown was great though, and she had a lovely soft-spoken manner

ursula le guin as an answer two weeks in a row.

I like this Robert Gordon team a lot. Very strong performance from their captain Cullen.

A solid 30 for me x-ray, covalent, Constantine, Dominican, Avignon, Ozymandias, Wexford, garlic, celery, goosegrass, Tasmania, Liberia, Creation, Rough Trade, Def Jam, border, Albanian, Francium, John Lanchester, Scott, Shackleton, okra, primates, chain, polymerase, period, war, Yemen, Oman, Peru

I had no idea amino acids had code letters to identify them, let alone which was which.

think I got 25.

Lol, students have no idea who Joanna Newsom, The Byrds or Jefferson Airplane are, I should be on there instead (though I would be useless for all the other questions)

Oh I got those. And Linda Perhacs.

But, nobody else home to witness, so hey.

mastermind specialist subject tonight: Friends guest stars. not even the whole of friends, just the guest stars.

UC

How is Liberalism and Libertarianism the same thing?

We were having a go at the wall earlier and husband coined the word "spanger" and we both fell around laughing for at least two minutes. What do they do on the real programme if that happens, I wonder? Does that ever happen?

Ach, just got a double pointer for "Rite of Spring"

if anybody laughs on OC they cut and then shoot it again with no laughter ime

I'm sure you're right - and someone will possibly confirm..

My impression is that Mastermind specialist subjects have gotten softer in recent years, in terms of breadth of coverage.

xp i was confirming it!

Soz, I read ime as "in my estimation"

Have to admire the tactic of shooting your toes off one by one. Think this Newnham lot got more minus 5s than the bunch last year who seemed to see it as a positive move.
Distributed it right across the team too how egalitarian. Guess they did relatively ok despite that.

watching last week's, southampton's captain is wearing a t shirt saying LEONARDO and a picture of a bicycle he supposedly designed, but it's a well known fake.

Has Kehler heard any popular music?

I lolled that after all their wayward guesses, they thought REM were "Byrds" - which is kind of close in a way!

The finals of University Challenge has ended up being a rematch of the very first match in round 1. Symmetry.

rock lobster!

is that the trophy? it looks like a bit of corrugated tin roof. can't decide whether if it's good or bad.

Is that thing heavy, just looked like it wasn't so much presented to as picked up by the team captain. Or was that social distancing requirements.

Also the subtle way that Jeremy Paxman bowed out by saying 'I look forward to watching it with you' though maybe a big issue has been made elsewhere of him leaving .

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-new-york-times-just-invented-only-connects-connecting-wall/

I noticed they added the Countdown numbers game a while ago, but I guess that is not nerdy enough to be remarkable.

OC, UC back on Monday

too soon

Am genuinely kind of dreading post-Paxman university challenge. I’ve never not found Rajan annoying. Hopefully it’ll be fine

Amol Rajan is speaking too fast but without the enunciation of Paxo, so I can't keep up!