APPLAUSE
Asking the questions, Jeremy Paxman.
Hello. Around 130 teams applied to
take part in this series.
28 made it to the televised stage,
and we've watched them fight it
out over the past months, through
2,794 questions.
But it ends tonight.
Over the next half an hour,
the two best teams in the contest
will compete for the title of
series champions,
and one of them will earn the right
to lift the trophy.
Now, the team from Wolfson College,
Cambridge have so far taken
the scalps of the School of Oriental
and African Studies,
Jesus College, Cambridge,
the University of Warwick,
and then Emmanuel College, Cambridge
in the first semifinal.
They won't need reminding that when
they first met their
opponents tonight in their first
quarterfinal match,
they were victorious, but only by
a margin of 30 points.
No doubt hoping history will repeat
itself, and with an average
age of 25, let's meet the Wolfson
team for the last time.
Hi, my name is Justin Yang,
I'm from Vancouver, Canada,
and I'm studying for a PhD in public
health and primary care.
Hi, I'm Ben Chaudhri, I'm from near
Cockermouth in Cumbria,
and I'm studying natural sciences.
And this is their captain.
Hello, my name is Eric Monkman, I'm
from Oakville, Canada,
and I'm studying economics.
Hi, I'm Paul Cosgrove, I'm from
Cookstown in Northern Ireland,
and I'm doing an MPhil
in nuclear energy.
APPLAUSE
The team from Balliol College,
Oxford sent home Imperial College
London
in round one and Robinson College,
Cambridge in round two.
In their quarterfinals, they beat
the University of Birmingham and
Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
and their semifinal victory was at
the expense of Edinburgh University.
They won't need reminding either of
their first encounter with
their opponents tonight.
With an average age of 23,
let's meet the Balliol team
for the final time.
Hi, I'm Freddy Potts, I'm from
Newcastle, and I'm reading history.
Hello, I'm Jacob Lloyd,
I'm from London,
and I'm reading for a DPhil
in English. And their captain.
Hi, I'm Joey Goldman,
I'm from London,
and I'm reading philosophy
and theology.
Hi, I'm Ben Pope,
I'm from sunny Sydney,
and I'm doing a DPhil
in astrophysics.
APPLAUSE
OK, fingers on the buzzers,
here's your first starter for ten.
In Thomas Hardy's The Return Of The
Native, which city does
Eustacia's grandfather describe as
"that rookery of pomp and vanity"?
In an eponymous work of 1933,
George Orwell called it "the land of
the bistro and the sweatshop".
Paris. Paris is correct.
APPLAUSE
Right, your bonuses are on the
ancient mathematician and
philosopher Hypatia.
In which city of the Eastern Roman
Empire did Hypatia teach philosophy?
She died there in 415 at the
hands of a Christian mob.
Soon after, St Cyril became the
city's bishop.
Alexandria. Correct.
Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of
Alexandria,
himself a mathematician and
astronomer.
He's credited with preserving
which of Euclid's works?
The Elements. Presumably. Must be.
Euclid's Elements. Correct.
Associated with the philosopher
Plotinus and the supreme principle
known as "the One", which late
school of Greek philosophy
did Hypatia espouse?
Neoplatonism? Yeah, that's what I'd
go for. Neoplatonism.
Neoplatonism is correct.
APPLAUSE
Time for another starter question.
First Man in Armour, Speaker of the
Temple
and three child spirits are
among the characters in which op...?
The Magic Flute. Correct.
APPLAUSE
So your bonuses, Wolfson, are on
reptiles.
Which country has the highest number
of recorded species of
reptile with more than 850?
These include the freshwater
crocodile and the desert death
adder.
Could it be Australia? Australia.
Australia. Correct.
With more than 800 species,
which country's reptiles include
the Cozumel spiny lizard and the
Sonoran spotted whiptail?
Yeah, Mexico.
Mexico. Correct.
With about 750 species,
which country's reptiles include
the Amboina sailfin lizard and the
Lesser Sundas cat snake?
I would say that would probably be
India. I mean, it could be
Bangladesh.
India's larger. India.
No, it's Indonesia. Ten points for
this.
Quote, "I had the sound first,
without the spelling.
"Then, in one of my occasional
perusals of Finnegans Wake by
"James Joyce, I came across
the word..."
Quark. Quark is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Right, these bonuses are on
medieval earls of Orkney, Wolfson.
Firstly, an early earl of Orkney,
Sigurd the Stout,
was killed at which battle
of 1014, fought near Dublin?
The Irish high king Brian Boru was
also killed.
Um... Battle... Battle of the Downs?
Go for it. Battle of the Downs.
No, it was Clontarf.
Secondly, Sigurd's son,
Thorfinn the Mighty,
extended his rule over Caithness and
which area?
It's named after its relation to
Norse settlements in Orkney
rather than its position on the
island of Great Britain.
Probably south, like...
In a cardinal direction,
it sounds like...
Stornoway. No, it's Sutherland.
And finally, Kirkwall Cathedral in
Orkney is dedicated to which
earl, later a saint? Known as the
Martyr,
he was murdered on the island of
Egilsay in about 1117?
St Edmund the Martyr? I don't know.
St Edmund the Martyr?
No, it's Magnus.
Ten points for this.
Who was the UK Prime Minister
when the short-lived
French Second Republic was
established?
His minority Whig administration
held power because the
Conservatives were split between the
Protectionists and the Peelites.
Lord John Russell. Correct.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on chloroform,
Wolfson.
In an 1847 paper based on his
findings from
self-experimentation, which Scottish
physician first described the
use of chloroform as an anaesthetic?
Could it be Lister?
It's not Robert Graves, is it?
I don't know. I think it might be
Lister, Lord Lister.
Lister?
No, it was James Young Simpson.
Secondly, used as a chemical
weapon during World War I,
which poisonous gas is generated
on the oxidation of chloroform
in the presence of UV light?
Chlorine? Chlorine gas?
Chlorine gas?
No, it might be like...
Chlorine gas? Oh, no, is it...?
No, it's phosgene.
I'm going to nominate you, Chaudhri.
Nominate Chaudhri. Phosgene?
Phosgene is correct, yes.
Apart from amylene,
what solvent is typically
added to stabilise chloroform
and prevent oxidation if
long-term storage is required?
I have no idea on this one.
I mean, I would just pass. Er...
Did you say the family of
the chemical?
Family of the chemical? Yeah.
Is it e...? Erm. Ether?
We could just say ether.
Nominate Chaudhri. Ether.
No, it's ethanol.
Ten points for this picture
starter question.
You're going to see a map showing
the borders of European
states as the result of
a major series of peace accords.
For ten points,
I want the collective term after
a European city by which these
accords are known.
Westphalia.
No. Anyone like to buzz
from Wolfson?
Vienna?
The Congress of Vienna
is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
We follow on from the Congress of
Vienna with three more maps
that show the borders of Europe as
they were redrawn by historic
treaties and peace accords.
In each case, I want you to identify
the treaty or accord that
established them.
All are named after the places
in which they were formulated.
First, I want the name traditionally
given to the series of
treaties that resulted in these
political boundaries.
This is the Peace of Westphalia.
Yes. Yeah. Peace of Westphalia.
It is the Peace of Westphalia.
Secondly, the treaty that
resulted in these borders.
Oh, that's...the
Councils of Claremont.
Oh... Yeah. Try that.
Well, it's earlier than that.
I think this is after Charlemagne.
Charlemagne, isn't that...?
Isn't that Claremont?
Isn't that Claremont?
I don't remember. Claremont?
No, it's Verdun in 843 AD.
And finally,
any of the three treaties that
resulted in these frontiers.
Erm...this is the Treaty of
Versailles maybe, probably. Yeah.
Yeah, Treaty of Versailles?
Versailles?
Yeah, that'll do. Great.
APPLAUSE
Terrific. 10 points for this.
Which lower-case Greek letter
represents in statistics the
standard deviation of a...?
Sigma.
Sigma is correct. Yes.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are
on duelling, Balliol.
In 1598, which literary
figure killed the actor
Gabriel Spenser in
a duel fought with swords?
He avoided the gallows but
was branded on the thumb as
a convicted felon.
When did Marlowe die?
Erm...
Might be the sort of
person to do that, then.
Marlowe?
No, he was killed in a brawl.
It was Ben Jonson.
In Hamburg in 1704,
which composer fought a duel with
his friend Johann Mattheson in
a quarrel during the performance of
the latter's opera Cleopatra?
A large coat button is said to have
deflected Mattheson's sword.
What was the date again? 1704.
German. Hindemith or something.
No idea. No, no, that's...
actually going to be...
Hindemith.
No, it was Handel, they were
squabbling over who'd conduct
the second half.
And considered the founder
of modern algebra,
in particular of group theory, which
French mathematician died...?
Galois.
Galois is correct.
APPLAUSE
10 points for this.
What two-word term appears in the
title of a work of 2005 by
Joan Didion and denotes a cognitive
disorder involving the belief
that one event happens as
a result of another...?
Post hoc ergo propter hoc?
No, I'm afraid you lose five points.
One event happens as
a result of another without
a plausible link of causation?
Just world?
No, it's magical thinking,
as in The Year Of Magical Thinking.
10 points for this. Traditionally
regarded as a holy relic,
the Iron Crown of
Lombardy is housed...?
It's housed in Italy somewhere.
Sorry.
LAUGHTER
I mean, it's the one that they use
to crown the King of Italy.
Yes, I'm afraid that is a completely
useless answer. Yeah, it is.
LAUGHTER
And you lose five points.
It's housed in the cathedral
of which city? Situated
about 15km north-east of Milan,
it is a regular venue of the
Italian Formula One Grand Prix.
You may not confer...
Monza. Monza is correct.
Yes.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on cosmology
in the 18th century.
Get them, you'll take the lead.
Born in Stockholm in 1688,
which thinker was an early proponent
of the nebular hypothesis, the
idea that the solar system formed
from a cloud of rotating gas?
It's called the
hypothesis in physics,
so there must have been some
guy who got there first.
Stockholm... Swedish people?
Er... What are two names?
Kant-Laplace?
Yeah, but obviously Immanuel Kant
isn't born in Stockholm. Right.
Erm... So...
Laplace.
No, it was Swedenborg.
Secondly, which German
philosopher applied Newtonian
principles to the nebular
hypothesis in his 1755 work
Universal Natural History
And Theory Of The Heavens?
That's probably Kant. Immanuel Kant?
That was Immanuel Kant.
Which French scientist
independently advanced the nebular
hypothesis in a work of 1796?
Noted for his works on celestial...
Laplace.
Laplace is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
That gives you the lead.
Right, another starter question.
Born 1854, which Frenchman gives
his name to a sphere used in optics,
a symmetry group associated with
the special theory of relativity
and the conjecture
about the topology...?
Poincare.
Poincare is correct.
APPLAUSE
These bonuses are on prose authors
cited in the Oxford
English Dictionary.
Firstly for five, the OED cites
which Scottish author as the
first user of the term freelance?
In this case, he's referring
to a mercenary knight in
a historical novel of 1819.
1819? Yeah, Walter Scott.
Correct. Which 19th-century English
novelist is cited in the OED as the
first user of the noun rampage,
the verb flummox and the word
doormat when applied to a person?
Charles Dickens?
It was Charles Dickens.
The OED states that which US
author may have coined the word
nerd in the 1950 children's
book If I Ran The Zoo?
Hmm.
Could it be, erm...?
Who's that guy, who...?
Maurice...
Yeah, I think Sendak.
Maurice Sendak?
No, it was Dr Seuss.
Right, another starter question.
You're going to hear part of
a recording of a lecture by
a major 20th-century figure.
Ten points if you can identify him.
But liberty is not merely
a cultural matter...
Is it Russell?
It is Bertrand Russell, yes.
APPLAUSE
Recorded in 1948,
that lecture by Bertrand Russell
was one of the inaugural Reith
Lectures, the BBC series of annual
lectures by significant thinkers.
Your bonuses are excerpts from
three recent Reith lectures.
For the five points,
in each case all you have to do
is to identify the lecturer.
Firstly for five...
The freedom to make contact with
other human beings with whom
you may wish to share thoughts,
your hopes, your laughter
and at times even your
anger and indignation
is a right that should
never be violated.
Nominate Chaudhri.
It's Aung San Suu Kyi.
It is Aung San Suu Kyi, yes.
Secondly...
But the bedrock nature of space
and time and the structure of our
entire universe are surely among
science's great open frontiers.
Think it's... Nominate Chaudhri.
Martin Rees.
It is Martin Rees, yes.
And finally...
But the thing is, I think there are
boundaries still about what
can and cannot be art...
Oh, yeah, Grayson Perry.
..but the limits are softened.
Grayson Perry.
Grayson Perry is correct.
APPLAUSE
Right, ten points for
this starter question.
Said to be based on Truman Capote,
which character in...?
Dill?
Dill is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
In To Kill A Mockingbird.
That means you retake the lead
and your bonuses now are on
Tudor executions, Wolfson.
In each case, you will hear
a list of three people executed in
successive years
of the 16th century.
In each case, I need one of those
three years and the name of
the reigning monarch.
Firstly, the Nun of Kent,
Sir Thomas More and Anne Boleyn.
That was like 15...
Henry VIII and 15...
38?
38? OK. I don't know...
Henry VIII in 1538?
No, I'm afraid you can't get the
points. They were 1534, 1535 and
1536. It was, though,
Henry VIII, obviously.
Secondly, Lady Jane Grey, Nicholas
Ridley and Thomas Cranmer.
That'd be Mary I in 1550...
Let's say 1558.
Cos that was a...
Or, no, 1550... 15...
Elizabeth came in 1558. 1550, maybe?
1550? No, 15... Well...
I'll nominate you.
I don't know. It's...
Just do it between... 1555, then?
1555, yeah. OK.
Mary I, 1555.
Yeah, 1554 and 1556
for the two others. Yes.
And finally, the Roman Catholic
priest Thomas Aufield,
the conspirator Anthony Babington
and Mary Queen of Scots.
I think that's like '87, 1687?
Yeah. 1587, Elizabeth I. Yeah.
1587, Elizabeth I.
Correct.
APPLAUSE
The others were 1585 and 1586.
You got the monarch
absolutely spot-on.
Ten points for this. Listen
carefully, answer as soon as
your name is called.
The atomic number of sulphur is 16.
What is the sum of the atomic
numbers of the four
elements whose symbols spell
the word snob?
37?
Anyone like to buzz from Wolfson?
31?
No, it's 36.
16, 7, 8 and 5.
So, 10 points for this.
What given name links the
17th-century Queen of Sweden known
as the Minerva of the North...
Christina.
Christina is correct, yes.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses are on languages
this time, Wolfson,
and the two-letter ISO codes used to
denote them in Wikipedia addresses.
English, for example, is EN.
The two-letter ISO code for which
major African language is the
same as the internet top-level
domain of the country between
Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan?
So that's Armenia, AR. Yeah.
And Afrikaans? Afrikaans, sure.
Afrikaans?
No, it's Amharic, it's AM.
Secondly, the element between
potassium and scandium in the
periodic table has a symbol that
corresponds to the ISO code
for which Romance language?
Is that francium? No. Then...
Potassium. Potassium, calcium?
Calcium... Canada. Canada?
Sorry, between scandium, so it's...
It's caesium. So, Czech? OK, yeah.
Czech?
No, it's Catalan.
And lastly, which Turkic language
has a two-letter ISO code
that is also the postal abbreviation
for the US state between
Indiana and Tennessee?
Is it Kentucky? So Kyrgyz?
I don't know. I think it is. Kyrgyz?
Correct. 10 points for this.
APPLAUSE
In Earth science, what four-letter
term denotes the zone that
separates the Earth's crust
from the mantle?
It is a shortened form of the
surname of a Croatian seismologist.
It's the Mohorovicic discontinuity.
Nope.
Moho.
Moho is correct.
You got the source but I was
looking for the term.
I'm afraid you lose five
points, too, as well.
Your bonuses,
Balliol, are on flowering plants.
In each case, give the common
or the scientific name of the
family described.
Firstly, for five points,
which family includes the clematis,
anemone and marsh marigold?
It's usually named after
a distinctive meadow flower
avoided by cattle.
(Buttercups?)
THEY CONFER
Buttercups.
Correct.
Which family includes the cranberry,
azalea and rhododendron?
It's often named after the low
evergreen shrub that is the
main food of the red grouse.
Gorse? Gorse, did you say?
Yeah. Gorse.
No, it's Heather.
And finally, apples, almonds,
cherries and strawberries
belong to which family,
named after a common garden flower?
(A common garden flower?)
Rose.
Correct.
APPLAUSE
We're going to take
a picture round now.
For your picture starter, you're
going to see a painting that's
a reinterpretation of
a work by another artist.
For 10 points, I want the name of
both the artist responsible for the
painting you will see and the
painter of the original work on
which it is based.
Velazquez and Picasso.
Correct.
APPLAUSE
Puts you on level pegging again.
And your picture bonuses are
three more paintings,
each a reinterpretation of
a particular work by another artist.
In each case, I want both the name
of the artist who painted it
and the artist on whose work it was
based. Firstly...
So, that's, that's The Rape of...
It's Tintoretto.
I haven't the foggiest who that's
based on, though.
Could it be...?
Is it Rubens based on Tintoretto?
Yeah, Rubens and Tintoretto.
No, it's Rubens and Titian.
Secondly...
Van Gogh and Hiroshige.
Correct. And thirdly...
Erm, that's Rembrandt. Is it Monet?
Could be Monet, he was the one who
was very blurry.
Yeah. Monet and Rembrandt.
No, it's MANET and Rembrandt.
AUDIENCE GROANS
10 points for this. For what does
the J stand in the abbreviation
JTB, used in the modern
interpretation of the philosophy of
Plato to define...
Justified.
Correct.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses are on physics this
time, Balliol.
Named after an Indian
physicist born in 1894,
what broad class of particles
in the standard model of particle
physics have integer spin?
Bosons.
Correct. What type of massless boson
with zero electrical charge is
involved in transmitting the strong
force between quarks?
Gluon.
Gluon. Correct.
Finally, which three heavy bosons
carry the weak nuclear force?
Erm, W and Z. Three. Yeah, there's
two charge states of W.
OK, so the two Ws and a Z.
The two Ws being?
W plus and minus.
Correct. Absolutely.
Right, another starter question.
Who was the first Scottish king to
make a pilgrimage to Rome?
He came to the throne after
defeating Duncan I in battle and was
himself...
Macbeth.
Correct.
APPLAUSE
You get three bonuses on the
academic and translator
David Bellos.
In 1994, Bellos won the Prix
Goncourt for his
biography of which French
author who died in 1982?
His novels, some translated by
Bellos, include
Life: A User's Manual,
and Things: A Story Of The Sixties.
I've no idea what the answer to this
one is. I'm really not sure.
THEY CONFER
Camus?
No, it was Georges Perec.
Bellos has translated several
novels by Ismail Kadare
from French into English. In what
language were they originally
written?
Arabic, maybe?
No, Kadare... Arabic?
No, it's Albanian. He's Albania's
most famous novelist, really.
In 1989, Bellos published
a biography of which French
actor and film-maker? His works
include Monsieur Hulot's Holiday.
Is it Jean-Luc Godard?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Jean-Luc Godard?
No, it's Jacques Tati.
4 minutes to go, 10 points for this.
What final letter links
the English names of
the four countries whose cities
include Pokhara...
N?
No. You lose five points.
..Ziguinchor,
Braga and Porto Alegre?
L. L is correct, yes.
Balliol, you get a set of bonuses
on cities in South America.
Firstly, for five points,
founded by Pedro de Valdivia
in 1541, which South American
capital shares its name in
part with a major site of pilgrimage
in north-western Spain?
(Chile...) Santiago.
Correct.
(Yeah, Santiago.)
Home to its country's
busiest airport,
Santa Cruz de la Sierra is a major
city in which landlocked country?
Bolivia? Bolivia.
Correct. And finally, which major
South American city is dedicated to
St Sebastien?
It was the capital of its country
from independence
in 1822 until 1960.
Buenos Aires. Oh, no... Rio?
No, we want the country, don't we?
No, we want the city.
Which was the
capital of Brazil before Brasilia?
Rio de Janeiro.
Yeah, Rio de Janeiro.
APPLAUSE
Correct. 10 points for this -
in stage works, which two letters
begin the names of an ancient
British ruler
and a flamboyant soldier
in love with Roxanne?
They're the title characters of
works by Shakespeare and
Edmond Rostand.
C Y. C Y is correct.
APPLAUSE
Cymbeline and Cyrano de Bergerac.
You get three bonuses now on
geology.
In each case, give both four-letter
terms defined.
The two terms in each question
differ only by a single letter.
Firstly, the site of excavation of
minerals, and consisting of
small particles,
the opposite of coarse.
Mine and fine.
Correct. Secondly, the unsorted
sediment laid down by a glacier,
for example, boulder clay, and
tabular intrusive igneous rock.
It's, erm... Tabular intrusive...
Erm... I don't... Tuft and... Sill?
Sill and till.
Correct. And finally, fine-grained
sediment deposited by rivers,
and a simple compound whose mineral
form is halite.
Is it salt? Salt and... Salt and
silt? Yeah. Salt and silt.
Correct. 10 points for this.
What three-letter word often
precedes the names of plants to
indicate that they are considered
inferior, worthless or unfit for
human consumption?
Examples include fennel,
violet and rose.
Decorative and bad.
No.
Sub. No, it's dog.
10 points for this.
The timespan of which Chinese
dynasty encompassed the lives
of the literary figures
Gavin Douglas, Thomas Mallory
and Edmund Spenser?
Ming. Ming is correct.
APPLAUSE
Your bonuses, Balliol,
are on German cities
as they've appeared over the years
in references on this programme.
Firstly, the birthplace of Brahms
and Mendelssohn, which city
links early European coffeehouses
with the mouth of the River Elbe?
If it's the mouth of the Elbe,
then it's Hamburg. OK. Hamburg.
Correct. The birthplace of Albrecht
Durer, secondly, which city links
the 16th-century pocket watch with
Wagner's Meistersingers?
I think it's von Nurnberg.
Nurnberg?
Nuremberg is right.
And finally, the birthplace of
Lucien Freud, which city links
the limestone bust of Nefertiti
with a 1973 album by Lou Reed?
Oh, wait a sec, Lou Reed, Berlin.
Yeah. Berlin.
Berlin is right. 10 points for this.
Which element
did the German physicist Friedrich
Ernst Dorn discover in 1900...?
GONG
And at the gong,
Wolfson College, Cambridge have 140,
Balliol College, Oxford have 190.
APPLAUSE
Well, Wolfson, bad luck.
You've been one of the more
entertaining teams in this
year's contest.
But thank you very much for joining
us and there is absolutely
no shame in being runners-up.
And, Balliol,
many congratulations to you.
You are of course the series
champions of University Challenge
for 2016-17.
Well done.
APPLAUSE
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Well, we recorded that final
a little while earlier and now
for the trophy presentation.
For only the second time
in the programme's history,
we've left the studio and come to
Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge,
where one of the fellows will look
after our two finalists tonight.
He's one of the world's leading
theoretical physicists and
probably the most famous
scientist in the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
Professor Stephen Hawking.
Professor, can I ask you to say
a few words to tonight's finalists?
I have said in the past that it is
not clear whether intelligence
has any long-term survival value.
Bacteria multiply and flourish
without it.
JEREMY CHUCKLES
But it has one of the most
admirable qualities,
especially when displayed
by such young minds.
Many congratulations to both teams,
and especially to
Balliol College, Oxford
on becoming series champions on
University Challenge,
a programme I have long enjoyed.
APPLAUSE
Well, thank you very much.
Balliol, I think it's time you
received the trophy, then.
Many congratulations to you.
APPLAUSE
Well, that's it. Many thanks to
Professor Stephen Hawking.
Thanks to both our finalists
and congratulations, too, to all
the dozens of teams that took part
or tried to take part,
and many thanks to you for watching.
Until next time, goodbye.
APPLAUSE
