Saturday 21 April 2012

The 3rd Degree

It's been a busy week, and I'm afraid it's also a busy working weekend as well, hence the posts yesterday, when I knew I could find a couple of hours to do it. I was tapping away at the keyboard, listening to the last e[isode of this year's series of the 3rd Degree on Radio 4. I will admit that I haven't caught any of the previous espisodes of this series - the rotten devils who schedule radio 4 have moved the Monday quiz to 3pm, which is hopeless for me, I'm afraid.

If you haven't listened to the 3rd Degree it's a relatively lighthearted quiz between a team of students from a particular University, and a team of their lecturers. There's no great significance to me not having listened to any of this series before, it's a pleasant enough half hour, even if Steve Punt isn't quite as amusing on this , in my opinion, as on the Now Show. However, I digress. Well, as I say, I was listening to The 3rd Degree from Monday, and this question was asked - something along the lines of : -
"Which two word phrase is actually a legal term to refer to events so long ago that nobody can remember them, which is taken to refer to the reign of Richard II ? "
Well - thought I - that would be time immemorial. However, I thought that went back to 1189 - which come to think of it was the start of the reign of Richard I. The answer was given as Time Immemorial - but then Steve Punt went on to confirm that it was indeed 1189.

I was just a little surprised that this error hadn't been picked out in the question setting stage, or the editing of the show. It didn't make any material difference to the result of the show, but, I don't know, maybe I'm just getting old, but I found myself tutting, much the same way that I do when a QM makes a mistake in a pub quiz. Is pedantry an unavoidable complication of quiz obssession ?

6 comments:

Eoin said...

Thanks for pointing this out, quite like it.

In the 'lists' round, the host said kings of Great Britain/ England where there have been more than one person (i.e George, Henry etc...) but then it turns out you were allowed queens. A bit frustrating

Still, enjoyable and something to catch up on have I an hour to spare.

E

Eoin said...

Or half an hour should I say

drgaryegrant said...

Dave, you typed 'e[isode' rather than 'episode' in your first paragraph.

Do pedantry and quizzing go hand in hand? Difficult to know, really.



;-)

Londinius said...

Hi guys

E.Mon - your welcome !

Gary LOL - well, quite :-)

Quentin Vole said...

If 15:00 on Monday doesn't suit, it's repeated at 23:00 on Saturday - 'Counterpoint' is now occupying this slot. Or you can (all together now) "listen again on iPlayer".

Thank you, I'm here all week.

Londinius said...

Hi Quentin

Yes, actually I didn't wait and listened to it on the iplayeer - enjoyed it too, even if I am better on the first line of Pretty Vacant type of questions than the Mozart ones.

As an aside, I noticed that Paul Gambaccini had a name check in the GK rounds in Mastermind as presenter of Counterpoint in the last semi final.