Off piste on the Butter Mountain

You must forgive me for going off-piste again with this post. Blame it on me being piste off that there's no Mastermind tonight

In the building where I work there is a ban on putting used Dolce Gusto/Nespresso coffee pods in the bins. And the thing is that I do like a Dolce Gusto when I sit down at my desk in the morning to find out how many calls to the DAP have come in overnight. Normally the empties are taken and disposed of by one of my colleagues. However, she was on leave all last week and part of the previous so on Thursday I took a carrier bag into work in which to carry away the empties and dispose of them elsewhere.

Come the end of the day, as I was taking my empties-filled bag to my car, my boss asked me what I was going to do with them. To which I replied that my plan was to add them to the EU’s empty coffee pod mountain. At this point it’s probably a good idea to tell you that my manager is still in her mid 20s. She looked at me askance. “You know,” I continued, “like the EU butter mountain?” No, of course she didn’t know. Total incomprehension. For one thing, we haven’t even been part of the EU for a good few years (sadly in my opinion, but feel free to disagree.) For another thing, according to my perfunctory research there hasn’t even been an EU butter mountain since about 2017.

I mean, it’s not that I’m nostalgic about the European butter mountain, you understand. I’m only nostalgic about the mental picture it conjured up the first time that I heard the phrase. When I was a kid it conjured up images of various woolly hatted continental types skiing down an unusually yellow and slippery mountain somewhere outside Strasbourg. I suppose I felt it belonged in the same category as Max Boyce’s outside-half factory and Ken Dodd’s jam butty mines. Somehow I can’t see the Destination X team visiting any of those destinations. Well, not in the first series anyway.

It's sodding started early this year.

It’s sodding started, hasn’t it. Look, I get it that the ending of the England v. India 5^th test was a big sporting occasion. Not of that much interest to me if truth be told, but I get it. But come on, don’t take Mastermind off to make room for it. Or if it HAS to be one of the Quizzy Monday trio, then take it in turns. This time Only Connect, next time UC and then Mastermind after that. Not gonna happen. What makes it worse is that I didn’t know Mastermind had been taken off until I actually tuned in for it.

Destination X Review (Spoilers)

Should we talk about the BBC’s Destination X? Of course we should. But it’s not a quiz? So what, it’s my ball and we play by my rules.

Okay, so it’s been inaccurately described as The Traitors v. Race Around the World. I will come to what’s so inaccurate about this a bit later. Now, I love both of these shows and if you’re familiar with both of them you’ll be aware that these are very different shows. Now, the danger of trying of combine the appeal of two very different shows is that you end up falling between two stools and when you fall between two stools you often just fall.

To briefly summarise what the show seems to be about, 13 contestants met in what looked to be a very small and rather fake departure lounge in Baden Baden airport. This was narrowed down to 10 contestants, who were helicoptered away to where 2 buses with windows (temporarily) blacked out– one for the day and one for the night awaited. On each show they were taken to a well-known European destination. On the way there were stops for clues. At the climax of each show, each remaining contestant had to put their x on a high-tech interactive map to mark where they believed they were. The one who was furthest away was unceremoniously ejected.

Does that sound in any way similar to The Traitors to you? There’s no voting, for one thing. Yes, the contestants don’t all get all of the clues, and so they can be sneaky about what they reveal to each other, but it’s all very tame considering how much the promotion for the show has been pushing this angle. As for Race Around the World? Well, both shows see people travelling a lot. That’s about it. In Race Around the World we do at least get a glimpse of the life and culture of the places being visited. There are chances for us to vicariously stop and smell the roses a little. Alright, to be fair we did get to see a little more scenery in episode 2, but there’s only so much they can show you without losing the play along at homeability. And in Race Around the World, an integral factor is players negotiating hurdles with transport. In Destination X, the transport is all laid on.

So, if you choose to watch because you’ve bought the hype about its similarity to those shows you may well be disappointed. Watch it with an open mind and judge it on its own merits and you may find, as I did, that you give it a cautious approval. The first two episodes did enough to make we want to watch episode 3 this coming week. You know me, I’m a bit of a misanthrope but for all that I do find some of the personalities on board to be quite interesting. Having said that, I could do without Nick – the one who has run a marathon in every country on Earth – continually being dragged into the diary room to tell us he is prepared to be ruthless when it is necessary.  Rob Brydon is a good old Baglan (area of Port Talbot) boy, so he will get no criticism from me and he does the job of presenting the show perfectly well. I think he realises that this is not The Rob Brydon show and that a relatively understated approach works.

It all comes down to the game play, though, and I felt that episode 2 did this better than episode 1. The destination of Episode 1 was Paris. I was pretty much certain it would be so after Mr. Brydon said that the destination was one of the first cities in Europe to be electrically lit. Then he gave us a list of European cities with copies of the Statue of Liberty and didn’t mention Paris. Admittedly there was a strange interlude in Alsace Lorraine, where, amongst some red herrings the contestants were given some clues that belonged in Sybil Fawlty’s Mastermind round on the Bleedin’ Obvious while others would not have been out of place amongst the prize clues in 3-2-1 (ask your grandparents).

I enjoyed the second episode more especially the set piece where the contestants were separated into two teams, put in cable cars which stopped at the same point, high above the ground, and then told to carry out activities to earn a clue. That was fun. Mind you, the big clue that the winning team earned couldn’t have made it a lot more obvious that we were going to the Matterhorn. I mean, it wasn’t quite the full Alpen box, but even so. Mind you, only Marathon Nick seemed to understand it.

Well, as I said there was enough to make me want to give it another go for episode 3. I have to say, though, normally when I like a reality game show, I’d like to play in it myself. In the last 9 years or so I’ve visited over 20 European countries. I love travel, and the idea of travelling all around Europe – and never seeing hardly ANY of it! – is something which just seems wrong.

Mastermind Heat Four subjects

Good morning all. I’ve just had a glance at tomorrow night’s specialist subjects on the Mastermind website. They are – the playing career of Sunil Gavaskar, The Hunger Games, the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and Edvard Munch. I’ll be honest, it’s a case of - pools dividend forecast poor - for me. Cricket is not my favourite sport (unlike several relatives. Both my first cousin and my daughter’s soon to be father-in-law work in cricket in the South East.) I’ve only seen the first film of The Hunger Games series and never read any of the books. I know very little about Leonard Bernstein and as regards Edvard Munch, I’ve seen one version of the Scream in Oslo, but that’s about the length of it. I hope there will be some pieces of low hanging fruit in at least a couple of these rounds, because if I get any points, that will be where they’re most likely to come from.

We got a lot of points in Thursday night’s quiz, but typically it was one of the points we didn’t get that I remember most. Thursday night’s question master, whom I like a great deal as a person, is the same one who has been nicknamed Captain Slapdash by my team. It’s a nickname he’s earned, I’m afraid, by giving some answers that he could have found were just plain wrong by the simplest google search. Well, he was going great guns on Thursday until we got to round 7 out of 8. “Sport.” He announced. “Who was the only British swimmer to win a gold medal in the 1980 Summer Olympics, and you can have a bonus if you give me the event.” – Easy – said I – Duncan Goodhew, 100m breaststroke.- The answer the Captain gave ? Sharron Davies – 400m individual medley.- I couldn’t stop myself from protesting but it did no good.

Being the kind of person I am I thought – well, Duncan definitely won gold, and Sharron definitely got silver on the podium, but in light of revelations about the East German doping programme, and Gold medal recipient Petra Schneider’s subsequent admission that she was doped, has Sharron Davies, I wondered – been retrospectively awarded gold? Apparently not, which is a bit of a scandal if you want my opinion. It’s not even as if she was the only silver, either. Phil Hubble – who I think was swimming for Hounslow at the time - won silver in the 200m butterfly.

Is it some comfort that at least the East German cheating was eventually revealed to the world, even though Sharron Davies has yet to receive the gold medal that her performance deserved? You’d have to ask her that. She’s been quite open about the fact that everyone in the sport knew the East Germans were at it at the time.

Still, it is interesting to speculate how many cheats who won Olympic titles who have never been conclusively revealed as such. The first three Olympic Marathons have all had the finger of suspicion pointed in their direction. First across the line in 1904, Fred Lorz, was definitely cheating, and found out too. He said he had caught a lift after dropping out, and ran into the stadium after being dropped off a mile or so away as a prank. In 1900 baker’s roundsman Michel Theato has been accused of using his local knowledge to take shortcuts enabling him to win. A similar accusation has been levelled at the inaugural 1896 winner, Greek shepherd Spiridon Louis. Host nation Greece were without a win going into the final event, and to an outpouring of national joy the first three men to finish the race were Greek. However, 4^th placed runner Gyula Kellner from Hungary reported that the third placed man had boarded a carriage for at least part of the journey. Kellner was awarded third while the hapless cheat had the athletics vest stripped from his back in front of the stadium. The speculation goes that Louis, the winner, may have cheated in a similar way. I suppose you have to say, though, that considering any Greek winner had been promised free haircuts for life, you can understand the temptations.

Probably the most famous case of a disqualification in an Olympic Marathon, in 1908, wasn’t a case of conscious cheating at all. Dorando Pietri entered the White City stadium comfortably ahead of the field. However he was in a bad way. A group of officials kind of gathered him up and ushered him over the line, by the Royal Box. When the second person over the line was an America athlete called Johnny Hayes the US officials protested and Pietri was disqualified. Urban myth has it that one of the officials in the photograph taken as Pietri was bundled over the line was Sir Arthur Coan Doyle. I suppose there is a vague resemblance, but it has been proven that it wasn’t.

Dorando’s is not quite as sad a story as it may sound, since there was a huge outpouring of sympathy for him and he was presented with an inscribed silver cup by Queen Alexandra. This cup is still in existence and is currently kept in the vault of the Unicorp branch in Carpi in the province of Modena in Italy. For the centenary of the Dorando Marathon, it was displayed in London during the London Marathon.

Coming Back to Loomis Day

I broke my shoulder on 30^th May, and in the short post I wrote the next day I said I had planned a great post on Loomis Day. This was during the spring break from Quizzy Mondays, you appreciate, when I planned to keep the blog going by posting on anything I found interesting. Best laid plans of mice and men ganging aft agley there.One of the interesting things I found out about was Loomis Day. On a whim on about the 29^th I googled to see whether the 30^th May was anything sigificant, and the fact that it was World Loomis Day caught my eye.

Mahlon Loomis was born in New York state in 1826. By the end of the 1840’s he had qualified and begun to practise dentistry. The second half of the 19^th century really was the Age of the Inventor and nowhere more so than in the USA. Loomis invented a process for making dentures entirely from porcelain, but as an invention it was not a great success, commercially or otherwise.

His fame, such as it is, and the whole basis for Loomis Day rests on his claim to have sent a primitive radio signal between two peaks in Virginia in the late 1860s, decades before Guglielmo Marconi. He demonstrated his wireless telegraph system before Congress in 1868, applied for a patent and four years later, received patent number 129,971 for it.

I don’t think it brought him much luck or success. The theories on which he based his work were severely flawed, and when Marconi came along it seems that what Loomis did was largely forgotten. It’s a funny thing, but History shows us that just because you invent something, this doesn’t mean that you’re going to make any money from it. You may be aware that a man called Elisha Gray submitted a patent for a telephone at more or less exactly the same time that Alexander Graham Bell did. There’s allegations that Bell’s crafty lawyer who was in the patent office at the time incorporated a key idea of Gray’s into Bell’s application and ensured it went forward first. None of which is to even mention Antonio Meucci, who, it is claimed, invented a telephone system to communicate with his bedridden wife from his workshop. He filed a patent caveat in 1871 but was unable to afford the full patent, and so he lost out to Bell.

Then, conversely there’s the case of George Selden. Selden wasn’t even an inventor. He was a lawyer, and a smart one at that. In the late 1870s he applied for a patent for an automobile. Until Henry Ford came along he was pretty successful in extracting licensing fees from automobile manufacturers in the USA. Henry Ford took him on in the courts where is successful appeal made the Selden patent useless – there was only a year left on it anyway.

As for Thomas Edison, well, we probably all know of his 1,093 US patents. What we don’t know is how many of these related to things that were not actually invented by Edison himself, but assistants in Menlo Park. Not that Edison himself was a great businessman himself anyway.

John Logie Baird? Never made a packet from television, but then the television system he invented was mechanical and a bit of a dead end in the evolution of telly. Even Philo Farnsworth, the man with the best claim to being the father of the completely electronic television system used for much of the 20^th century had to fight tooth and nail to get his just dues from RCA.

Well, coming back to our old friend Marlon Loomis, the founder of Loomis Day was a certain Richard Birch. Richard Birch, who passed away in 2005, was a librarian with a fine track record of creating minor holidays – possibly his greatest triumph being National Trivia Day. And if that particular celebration day doesn’t light your candle, may I respectfully suggest that you may be reading the wrong blog.

Neanderthal or Not?

I don’t have red hair. In these days I don’t have much hair of any other colour for that matter. When I was first born I had black curls but these soon disappeared and eventually were replaced by hair of my natural light brown colour. However, when I first grew a beard, now that was red. It’s white now and I am considering a new career as a department store Santa.

Some time ago I read a remarkably ill-informed article that confidently asserted that red hair was a genetic inheritance from Neanderthals. Now I’m reliably informed that this is, in civil service parlance, a consignment of geriatric shoe repairers i.e. a load of old cobblers. The genes responsible for red hair in homo sapiens are not the same genes that produced red hair in Neanderthals.

Not to worry though. After UC on Monday night I watched the latest edition of BBC2’s Humans. According to this, pretty much everyone of western descent outside of sub Saharan Africa do have about 2 percent Neanderthal genetic material. Well, not native Americans and South American Indians. No, like many people ultimately of Asian derivation they have a small percentage of Denisovan genes. Basically, the Denisovans were another species of human, like the Neanderthals and pretty much contemporary with them. Little fossil evidence of Denisovans has yet been found, but the genetic evidence is pretty much irrefutable.

I’m not an expert on any of this, I hasten to add.

So, prior to discovering that my red beard was not significant, and pretty much all of us have either Neanderthal and/or Denisovan genes, why was I so interested in the fact that it seemed that I was (a tiny) part Neanderthal? I’m not sure, to be honest, but this might have something to do with it. In Oaklands Junior school in the early 70s, my three best friends had a) a Nigerian father and a Jamaican mother – b) A Dad from Pakistan and a mum from Sweden - c) A Turkish father and a Mum from Italy. I used to really envy their exotic heritage, while all I could offer was a Scottish grandfather. I used to go on about him, you’d better believe it. Even though he died before I was born and I never even visited Scotland until my Mastermind final in 2007 when I was forty three.

Not, you understand, that I’m trying to imply for one minute that Scots have more Neanderthal DNA than anyone else. Even if some people do persist in depicting stereotype Scots with flaming red hair – I’m looking at you, Groundskeeper Willy!

University Challenge 2026 - First Round - Bath v. Southampton

The Teams

Bath

Lewis Blakeborough

Sajjan Johal

Joni Wildman (capt.)

Luca Romagnoli

Southampton

Cormac Stephenson

Zain Mahmood

Florence Williams (capt.)

Ben Hermanns-Kermode

After two high scoring contests which may well see all four teams involved playing in at least one other match, what was Monday night’s third heat going to bring us?

Well, the first starter fell to Jodi Wildman of Bath who recognised several allusions to the cardinal compass direction West. Soren Kierkegaard yielded both of us just the one bonus. “Born in the year after Turner, which British artist – “ always looked to be pointing towards John Constable. To be honest both teams sat on their buzzer a bit and it wasn’t till his native Suffolk was mentioned that Florence Williams came in with the answer. The playable character classes in the 2014 D and D handbook were actually easier than they sounded and provided Southampton with a full house. Ben Hermanns-Kermode knew the German operation to rescue Mussolini – which only proved to be a stay of execution for him (Mussolini, not Ben Hermanns-Kermode). Jellies in the natural world brought two bonuses. So to an early picture starter and a warning sign in English, Greek and another language. It surely had to be from Cyprus. Ben Hermanns-Kermode thought so and was right. Bonuses on maps of islands with British overseas military bases brought two bonuses. Luca Romagnoli struck back knowing that the word finger could precede three other given words. Bath were able to answer two of the bonuses on cities that are important stops on the Trans Siberian Railway. This meant that the score stood at 65 – 35 to Southampton as we approached the 10 minute mark.

Now, the words ‘Saul’ and ‘my father’ meant that the speaker being quoted in the next starter had to be Jonathan. But was the question looking for him or David as the answer? Well, it was looking for the recipient and Luca Romagnoli was first in with the answer of David. A lovely UC set on the saying ‘all that glitters is not gold’ provided two bonuses and narrowed the gap to 10. As soon as Amol mentioned Metropolitan Cathedral Florence Williams was in with Liverpool for the next starter. Bonuses on works involving the use of the organ (wash your minds out with soap) only brought the one correct answer. Nurungji in Korean cuisine is a term involved in a particular way of cooking rice. There you go. Cormac Stephenson had that one. The Fischer-Tropsch process (gesundheit) amazingly brought me two correct answers – more than enough for a wheezy lap of honour around the Clark sofa. Southampton also took two although not the same ones. With the music starter Amol was extremely impressed that Cormac Stephenson recognised the stylings of Charlie XCX so quickly. More songs dedicated to the artists’ musical collaborators again brought two bonuses. The Mahavamsa is a notable work chronicling the traditions of Sri Lanka. Zain Mahmood had that one and all of the Southampton team had correctly answered at least one starter. Zoological loan words from Celtic languages sounded an interesting bonus set but only yielded one to Southampton. For the next starter three seemingly innocent words led Cormac Stephenson to give the correct answer of object oriented. Fair enough. Cricket records in 2024 brought the two bonuses necessary to extend Southampton’s lead to 100 points. The next starter asked for a city, and it could have been almost anywhere until the mention of the date 6^th August 1945. That made it obvious and allowed Ben Hermanns-Kermode in with Hiroshima. Nicknames of presidents of the USA followed, and they were probably wise not to include any for the present incumbent. Most of which are unbroadcastable. Southampton took two, missing out on Zachary Taylor. Sorry – but every time I hear the name Zachary I can’t help thinking of Dr. Smith from Lost in Space. So as the 20 minute mark loomed just ahead of us, Southampton had extended their lead as the score stood at 175 – 50.

Luca Romagnoli got Bath moving again, knowing that Argentina won the 2024 Copa America. A tough set on eponymous effects in Physics yielded just one bonus. For the second picture round we saw a map of the Elizabeth Line and Florence Williams was the first to identify it as such. Other winners of the RIBA Stirling prize brought just one bonus, but to be honest anything much more would have just been gilding for Southampton. No one knew about hyperons for the next starter – quelle surprise. Luca Romagnoli knew that if it mentions Aldeburgh then the answer is Benjamin Britten for the next starter. The bonuses on direct carving really weren’t very difficult but poor old Bath did not have a scooby. Nobody knew tawny as in owl and port for the next starter. Ben Hermanns-Kermode knew that George Weah had been president of Liberia. Black rivers brought a full house – and held out the tantalising possibility that Southampton might reach 300 by the gong. Florence Williams added 10 more to their score knowing that “construction” and “Galileo” has to be heading in the direction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The city of Bialystok (Max Bialystok?) added another full house in quick time. Nobody knew parallelogram was the answer to the next starter. Merciless Ben Hermanns-Kermode was in very quickly to identify the Shatt al Arab as the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates. There was time for Southampton to add a bonus on a surface feature of Venus, but no more, and the final score was 255 – 70 to Southampton.

For the record Bath managed a BCR of 40 while Southampton’s was 66. No way to sugarcoat this pill, I’m afraid, Southampton were better on both buzzer and bonuses. Hard lines to Bath, but remember, it’s only a game.

Amol Watch

Did you know that Amol’s favourite poem is Gray’s “Elegy. . . “? Not a bad choice, but I can’t help plumping for the sumptuous perfection of Keats’ Ode to Autumn.

Amol offered his encouragement to Bath at 16:53 – but for once it had little effect. Bath seemed to have fallen into the mindset that Southampton were going to beat them to the buzzer and as a result, for the most part they did.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know of The Week

An unetymological letter p was added to the spelling of ptarmigan by erroneous analogy with unrelated words from Greek. In all seriousness I had wondered why that p is there.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

The Fischer-Tropsch process is a series of catalysed chemical reactions used to produce hydrocarbon molecules, such as which class of fully saturated hydrocarbons with general formula CnH2n+2. Please spell your answer. (Ironically, I had this right, mainly through dim memories of UC questions in previous years – alkanes often rear their complicated heads. So I’m not so dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum)

Mastermind 2026 Heat 3

Well, after last week’s pyrotechnics the odds did seem to favour a rather more bread and butter edition last night which is pretty much what we got.

First up was vicar Elis Mathews. The last time a vicar won a series was as long ago as 1996 when the series was won by the Reverend Richard Sturch, a very nice, quietly spoken gentleman whom I had the pleasure to meet at the Champion of Champions mini-season in 2010. I’m sure Elis Matthews is just as nice, although I don’t believe that we have ever met. Elis was answering on my least favourite of last night’s subjects, Piero della Francesca so being able to guess the answers to two of his questions put me in a good mood from the start. Elis scored 11 and looked extremely secure under the garryowen (look it up). Good start.

By way of contrast Eulalie Burrows was answering on my ‘banker’ subject – Doctor Who: The Jodie Whitaker Years. Answering very well too, scoring 11 and no passes. Me? I scored five. Well, as I explained in my preview post, this really wasn’t my favourite era of the show. I noticed that the questions were almost entirely about plot points and details from within the individual episodes. It’s a shame considering what you could have asked about production details, but there you are.

You have to feel for Ellen Salkeld. For one thing, the King she picked to answer on , Edward III was one of those stubborn old devils who persistently went on kinging for over fifty years, way past his usefulness if truth be told. For another, she’d had to watch the two previous contenders deliver excellent rounds. For a third thing, she was not going badly at all until she was stopped by a question that she seemed to know that she knew, but whose answer refused to leap from the tip of her tongue. This plunged her into a pass spiral from which she never really recovered. Five? Well, it’s not a disaster by any means. But Ellen looked very crestfallen as she sat back in her chair.

It was left to Kumaran Sivathillainathan to finish the first half with his round on Short Stories of Roald Dahl. As I predicted, memories of Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected from years ago brought me a couple of points. This meant I’d scored on each round, and ended with a pleasing aggregate of 12. Which is not that impressive considering that Kumaran too managed 11 from just his own round. Like Elis and Eulalie he also managed to avoid passing as well.

Little remained for Ellen Salkeld as she returned to the chair, save producing the best GK round that she could. I think that this is just what she did. In these days 8 is perfectly respectable. As regards the specialist round, well, she’s not the first person to be momentarily undone by the chair and I’ve no doubt that she won’t be the last. Well done for recovering in the GK.

So to the first entrant in our three-horse race. The best advice I can give anyone sitting down in the chair to start their GK round is to clear your head, trust the answers that pop into your head and concentrate on them one question at a time. Once a question’s gone, whether you got it or not, let it go. Concentrate on the next. This was pretty much what Elis did. So although he didn’t produce a double figure score, I’d say he pretty much wrung all that he could out of the round to set a competitive target of 20.

Too competitive for Eulalie, I’m afraid. She gave it her best shot, but, unlike during her specialist round she never looked comfortable in the chair and never managed to get enough momentum to power her towards the target. She scored 7 for 18.

Which just left Kumaran Sivathillainathan. This was a very interesting round. With 18 scored and over half a dozen questions left to go you’d have thought he was going to do it. I did. Yet those pesky questions just wouldn’t fall for him. He managed one more to put him on the brink of at least earning a tie break, but it just wasn’t enough. He scored a respectable 8 but ended a point short with 19.

Yes, I know some will point to the fact that we did not have any double figure GK rounds in his show and then point out that last week’s runner up, Dennis Wang scored 25, five more points than this week’s winner. Well, Dennis isn’t necessarily out of it yet. But that’s tournament play. That’s Mastermind. So many congratulations Elis, and best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Elis Matthews	Piero Della Francesca	11	0	9	0	20	0
Eulalie Burrows	Doctor Who: The Jodie Whitaker Years	11	0	7	3	18	3
Ellen Salkeld	Edward III	5	4	8	0	13	4
Kumaran Sivathillainathan	The short stories of Roald Dahl	11	0	8	0	19	0

Mastermind Heat 3 Subjects

I don’t know that many previous generations before mine have had the problem of something that you say on television when you’re a callow teenager coming back to bite you on the behind many years later. For the record, I’m not referring to anything that involved me.

A quick glance at the BBC Mastermind website today informed me that tomorrow’s specialists are – Piero della Francesca – Jodie Whittaker’s tenure on Doctor Who – Edward III and the short stories of Roald Dahl.

Well, there’s only two of those that tickle my fancy. I know very little about Piero Della Francesco. I know that some of Roald Dahl’s short stories were used for the first season or two of Tales of the Unexpected so I might get one or two of those, despite never having read any of them. With Edward III, well, I’ll always give Kings and Queens a lash. However, if you know me at all you’ll know that Doctor Who will always trump pretty much any other subject for me.

Which is not to say that the period of the show in question was my favourite. Many years ago, there was a BBC programme titled Open Air, the purpose of which was to let invited viewers air their views about selected shows in the presence of people associated with the show. A few short years before the original series ended in 1989, the attention of one edition of Open Air came to Doctor Who. One of the invited viewers was a teenager called Chris Chibnall, who very eloquently analysed some of the problems with the show as it was – ridiculous, hackneyed plots, resurrection of old enemies/monsters for no good reason and so on.

This was the same Chris Chibnall who would go on to write the widely acclaimed Broadchurch.

When Peter Capaldi’s time as the Doctor came to an end the showrunner (in the old series we called this the script editor) Steven Moffat finished as well. The BBC offered the position to Chris Chibnall, who accepted. The showrunner alone does not make all of the critical decisions about the show, but it’s fair to say that they have the biggest say, and they carry more of the can for those decisions. I never had a problem with the decision to make the first female Doctor – especially when the role went to an actress I rated highly in Jodie Whittaker. But sadly, I never thought much of the vast majority of stories during her tenure, and however great an actor you are, it’s hard to shine when the writing ain’t great.

Which brings me back to my point about old TV coming back to bite you in the bottom. I was not the first to point to Chris Chibnall’s appearance on Open Air (widely available on Youtube) and to suggest that the same criticisms he made back then about the old series could apply just as much to the modern series during his tenure. But I certainly agreed with that point of view.

Well, in fairness, nobody likes to whinge quite as much as a Doctor Who fan.

New Experiences

I don’t kid myself that I have yet experienced more than a tiny fraction of all that life has to offer. This was brought home to me in work today when my friend and colleague Lisa asked me if I’d like a cup of Bovril this morning. And it struck me – in 61 years I had never knowingly consumed a cup of Bovril before. Now, I want to make this clear, I don’t believe that I’ve ever been offered a cup before and turned it down. It’s just never arisen as an opportunity before. To me, Bovril has always conjured up images of lads and dads sharing a flask at half time on cold, wet football grounds in late November. The thing is, the late George Clark was never a ‘taking his boys to watch football’ kind of guy. (Don’t worry, this is not another post slagging off my father, fun though it is to write such things.)

Since retiring from teaching as part of the general improvement in my mental health I’ve become more open to new experiences. So “Yes, Lisa,” I replied, “I WOULD like to try a cup of Bovril for the first time.” And d’you know what? It was alright. A bit like drinking a full packet of steak flavoured McCoys. I can see a cup going down a treat at half time in an Aberavon RFC home game in the winter.

Well, me being me I couldn’t help doing a little bit of research about that name, Bovril. The Bov part of the name, well, that seemed obvious, a reference to Bovril describing itself as beef extract as in bovine. But ril? Now it occurs to me that this is the sort of thing that I may well have heard of before – so if you have, then forgive me. But as I delved I found that the Vril (rather than Ril) comes from a novel that was published in the early 1870s just a few years before the name Bovril was coined. “Vril: The Power of the Coming Race” was an early science fiction novel that told the story of a subterranean race called the Vril-Ya. They are able to access the Vril, an ‘all permeating psychic essence or fluid’ that gives them superhuman abilities. So the Vril part of Bovril is there to suggest that this is a substance that will enhance your already considerable abilities. Which is kind of similar to what the brand name Ambrosia (rice pudding masquerading as the food of the gods) tries to suggest as well.

May I ask, would you like to guess who wrote “Vril: The Power of the Coming Race”? It was none other than our old pal, Edward ‘Unreadable’ Bulwer-Lytton. Remember him? If not, then you might like to read my post ‘The Pen’ from 6/7/25. The Pen

I’ve never read this novel and both my previous attempts to read others of his novels have ended in failure. Hmm – reading a Bulwer-Lytton novel from cover to cover. Now, there’s a new experience that I wouldn’t be open to.

When is a Rocket not a Rocket?

I have a post I made on the Only Connect alumni Facebook page to prove that I did spot this at the time. On Monday, in the very first set of the series we were shown firstly snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, then Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy. Being as Mr. O’Sullivan has the nickname Rocket both I and the team in the studio had this relatively gentle set from these two clues. Victoria went on to ask what they felt the next clue would have been then said it was Stephenson’s Rocket. The photograph that appeared was certainly a Stephenson locomotive. But not the Rocket – it was in fact Stephenson’s Locomotion number 1, an earlier and more primitive locomotive.

From the lofty vantage of their high horse that champion of Truth and Justice, the Daily Express has today thundered about viewers’ outrage about the error. Well, what can you expect from the Daily Express after all? To be honest, what the incident does do is to highlight how very rare it is for any kind of error to happen in OC. Because, you know, errors can come into any quiz. I remember Sinatragate in Alan Heath’s Mastermind Grand Final a few years ago, for example, where a question to one of the other finalists wrongly said that the singer died 10 years before he actually did.

Mistakes happen. Human error happens.

As it happens, the fact that the team got the connection after two clues meant that the mistake did not affect the outcome of the show. But what interests me is to think about what would have happened if it had? Let’s play out the potential scenarios:-

The team take the third clue. One of them recognises the Locomotion, which confuses them. They have to take a fourth clue. They get rocket from 1,2 and 4 and then point out the error. The production team maybe stops the show – investigates – films another set instead and the error is never aired.

The team see the error but in the heat of battle do not mention it. They get 1 point instead of the 2 they would have had. However his does not affect the outcome of the show.

The team see the error but in the heat of battle do not mention it. They get 1 point instead of the 2 they would have had. They go on to lose by a single point. They then raise it after the show has been filmed. Outcome?

The team don’t see the error. They watch their heat on TV and in the days that follow many people point it out to them. As it did not affect the outcome they shrug it off.

The team don’t see the error. They watch their heat on TV and in the days that follow many people point it out to them. Let’s say it did affect the outcome, but the series has already been filmed. What then?

And so on.

Look, I know that if I was playing in a quiz and such an error had happened to me, I would have been really annoyed about it. I’m not perfect, far from it. But at the end of the day, at times like this I think it helps to remember the Great Magnus Magnusson’s observation about Mastermind – It’s Only A Bloody Game. The same can be said of any quiz, I think. From my own personal experience nobody takes more care over their questions than the team behind Only Connect. Thankfully Monday night’s did not affect the outcome of the show. Mistakes happen. Get over it.

University Challenge 2026 - Round 1 - UCL v. SOAS

The Teams

University College, London

Zak Lakota-Baldwin

Alice Lee

Michael Doherty (Captain)

Manny Campion-Dye

School of Oriental and African Studies (London)

Patar Moyazen

V Davis-Aladren

Andrew Graham (Captain)

Matthew O’Regan

Our first question began with ‘In Japan, what common food item – “ and I don’t really blame V Davis-Aladren for jumping in with rice. Had it been right it would have looked like an inspired buzz. Sadly it wasn’t, though. This lost five and given a wee bit more of the question both Manny Campion-Dye and I gave the correct answer of soy sauce. The use of mud in architecture saw my opening spurt end with just two consecutive answers. UCL didn’t get the mosque of Djenne (with the light brown hair?) either. Now, in the next question the Treaty of Tordesillas and Portugal suggested Brazil, but neither team had it. The American economist Henry ‘Who’ George allowed Matthew O’Regan to open the SOAS account. The history of the Motion Picture and Television Fund yielded them two bonuses. Manny Campion-Dyer knew about the synthesis of urea for the next starter which brought up a set on the American War of Independence. A timely full house brought us to the picture starter. A beautiful UC special placed partial maps of the USA and the West of England, with the location of two sports teams bearing the same name partially. Chicago suggested Bears, which Bristol confirmed. Andrew Graham, the SOAS skipper had it right and more pairs of NFL gridiron and EPL rugby teams brought SOAS their own full house. The irrepressible Manny Campion-Dyer was in most quickly to identify Derek Jarman for the next starter. Highly specific plant pollinators brought 2 correct answers. This meant that just after the ten minute mark UCL were leading 65-40, but both teams were looking pretty useful.

Andrew Graham recognised a Joyce Carroll Oates (known to her mates as ‘Scotts Porridge”) quote about boxing. St. Stephen delivered up a full house and SOAS were level with UCL. Zak Lakota-Baldwin opened his personal account recognising components of an Indonesian orchestra. Languages of Pakistan provided another full house. Chatham House Rules (I prefer Cider House Rules) brought Alice Lee her first starter. Icelandic composer Johann Johansson brought them two bonuses and they were starting to pull away from SOAS. A little bit of punk pioneers The Damned brought SOAS closer and 3 bonuses on more punk/post punk singles from bands formed in ’76 yielded a good full house. Zak Lakota-Baldwin took the clues in the question about orogeny and correctly worked out it must be referring to mountains. Does that mean mountains are orogenous zones, then? (The Brecon Beacons were in 1985 once but that’s a story for another time.) Literary characters sharing a given name brought UCL a full house again. I think that Andrew Gaham recognised a description of Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners at the same time I did to take the next starter. The physics of golf balls proved an unusually boring set, but it did give me my one correct answer on a science set needed for a lap of honour. Yes indeed – ask me for a Swiss mathematician and I’ll say Bernoulli until the cows come home. SOAS had that one too. The next was one of those starters where you wait . . .and . . .wait . . . andthenitsuddenlybecomesobvious. Alice Lee took another starter with Mull. Only one bonus on pine forests was taken but it meant that UCL led by 150 to 105 as we closed in on the 20 minute mark.

I thought that Group f/64 was a private security firm, however when the name Ansel Adams was mentioned it turned out they had something to do with photography. Andrew Graham knew that too. Academic works whose original non-English titles are puns – sounds like a barrel of laughs to me – brought a full house to SOAS and reduced the gap significantly. I am a little surprised that neither team recognised a painting depicting the Massacre of the Innocents for the second picture starter. I’ll be honest I have not heard the term bladder diplomacy before, but Michael Doherty took the starter and every member of the UCL team had answered at least one starter now. This earned the picture bonuses of three more paintings depicting aspects of the same part of the gospels bought a UCL full house. Atlas and Iapetus were both Titans, and Michael Doherty knew that the moons named after Titans orbit Saturn. So now each member of the UCL team had answered at least 2 starters. The constitution of former Yugoslavia brought only 1 bonus, but with three minutes left SOAS would need at least 3 visits to the table. Andrew Graham correctly read the clues to the word fugue for the next starter. Two bonuses on jazz fusion reduced the gap to 35. If a question mentions the Ziggurat of Ur (does that have an interior called Ur Indoors?) the answer’s Iraq and Mattthew O’Regan was first in with it. Two bonuses on terms to do with the orbit of the Earth reduced the gap to fifteen, and I couldn’t help thinking that the next starter could well decide the match. It proved to be a controversial moment as Alice Lee buzzed in to give the answer of the play Nye starring Port Talbot’s finest (one of them) Michael Sheen. At the same time Manny Campion-Dyer blurted out the same answer. “Manny!” expostulated Alice Lee, but Amol, ever the gentleman, accepted the answer because she had said it at the same time. Names of characters in the Super Mario games surely ought to have given us Sir Henry Koopa but didn’t. UCL still took the full set. Nobody knew the provinces of the Basque Country for the next starter. The next starter also went begging. Manny Campion-Dwyer took the last starter as he had taken the first completing a trio of Renaissance turtles artists with Leonardo. The gong meant that the contest ended here with UCL winning by 210 to 170.

Another fine, high quality contest. UCL ended with a BCR of 77, while SOAS achieved 79, only losing out on the buzzer. Seriously, that is top notch. You know I felt last week that Sheffield’s 170 guaranteed them a repechage slot. If this goes on, maybe I will be proved wrong.

Amol Watch

You know, one of the things I appreciate about Amol is that when he does accept an answer that isn’t quite what’s on the card, he does tend to give a good reason for it. Dravidic he deemed acceptable because it is sometimes used as an alternative for Dravidian. Running that one up the flagpole, Amol.

For the first time I can remember we just saw the angry side of Amol when he thundered “YOU CAN NOT CONFER!” when it seemed as if SOAS were talking in class to each other on the Group f/64 starter. Mind you, with Jeremy Paxman you always kind of expected him to add – or I’ll smash yer face in! - when he said it, so I suppose it’s all relative.

Interesting Fact that I didn’t already Know of the Week

Excluding English and Welsh, speakers of Punjabi form the third largest linguistic group in the UK.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

It seemed to me that there were no questions ridiculously prolonged past the point of consciousness in last night’s show. As we say in Wales da iawn! Ardderchog!

Mastermind 2026 - Heat 2

It’s early, early days in this year’s series of Mastermind, but as the last credits rolled away last night I couldn’t help thinking – there’ll be tears before bedtime over that. Why? I will explain later.

First out of the blocks  last night was Dennis Wang. Dennis has serious TV quiz form from Only Connect, University Challenge (2016 Worcester College) and Jeopardy!, First cause of controversy – there’s always a certain vocal minority who are opposed to people they see appearing across a range of quiz shows. To which my reasoned and thoughtful response is stuff the begrudgers. Due to his pedigree Dennis looked to me like the man to beat, an impression that was only confirmed by his barnstorming round on the Euros 2000- 2024. I managed to sneak one point on this round – the only point I gained on specialist all night. Dennis delivered near perfection, his speed allowing him to take a 13^th point by the end of the round. Impressive.

Naomi Killen was answering on Truman Capote. Now, I may well be proved wrong on this, but based on last week and last night I think it’s possible that contenders may be having ever so slightly shorter questions on average. If so, it’s not before time. Even allowing for that, though, 8 is a respectable SS score, so even though there were gaps in Naomi Killen’s knowledge she can be pleased with her round. However it left her five points off the lead and to all intents and purposes out of contention for the win.

Natalie Abbott was answering on the TV series Gilmore Girls. Perfunctory research tells me that the show ran for 7 seasons and 153 episodes and that, my friends, is a hell of a lot of stuff you could be asked about even without going into production details. Long running popular TV series – they really should come with a government health warning on the side. To be fair to Natalie she did know a lot about the show and powered her way to a good nine points. However, this meant that she in her turn was four points off the lead.

So to final contender David Ford. David was answering on painter L.S. Lowry. Lowry’s most characteristic work has the quality that makes you look at it and think – I can do that. Until you try it then you realise – no I can’t. I like Lowry’s work, but couldn’t copy it. As regards answering questions on the man and his work, well, I couldn’t do that either. David Ford could. He wasn’t going to equal or better Dennis’ score, but he brought himself to within two points with 11. It’s a curious thing, but I’d say a four point gap is more than twice as hard to bridge as a two point gap. I mean mathematically speaking maybe not, but it’s not just about Maths.

So realistically speaking we were left with a two-horse race. First though Naomi and Natalie duked it out for the minor placings. Naomi scored 9, and Natalie 8 to leave both with a respectable 17. Look, the majority of Mastermind contenders don’t end up getting close to a win either, and sometimes it is not all about that. Both of them undertook the challenge and acquitted themselves well. If you can achieve that, then good luck to you and thank you for taking the time and trouble to enter.

But as I said, there were only two contenders left, one of whom looked a strong favourite for the win. I mean no disrespect when I say that it was David who looked like the outsider. At the start of the round that is. By he end of a round which he knocked seven bells out of the situation was very different. David blazed his way to an outstanding round of 16. Nothing seemed to slow him down at all, even the few questions he didn’t know the answers to. 27 in this day and age is a hell of a good score.

Not that you would have bet against Dennis yet as he returned to the chair. He needed 14 and no passes for a tie and 15 for the outright win. Doable but by no means easy. And for the early part of the round he was on course. But errors crept in, and crucially you could see that they were playing on Dennis’ mind as he seemed annoyed with himself over a couple of answers. With only a couple of questions to go the tape was just a little too far away. Dennis added 12 to his total to finish with 25.

Which is the second reason for tears before bedtime. Like many people I do think it’s a shame that two such capable contenders being in the same heat means we inevitably lose one of them. People with lower scores than Dennis’ will win heats and go through to the semis. I can’t help wishing for some kind of repechage system. But I would never want to see a system whereby semi-final places are determined solely by heat scores. That’s not Mastermind. Purely my opinion and as always feel free to disagree.

So congratulations David! Superb performance. If that GK was not a flash in the pan, then you, sir, could do well this year. Best of luck in the semis.

The Details

Dennis Wang	The Euros 2000 - 2024	13	0	12	0	25	0
Naomi Killen	Truman Capote	8	2	9	4	17	6
Natalie Abbott	Gilmore Girls	9	2	8	6	17	8
David Ford	L.S. Lowry	11	0	16	0	27	0

Mastermind 2026 Heat 2 Subjects

Here’s a sneak preview of tonight’s specialist subjects. We have – the Men’s Euros 2000 – 2024, Truman Capote,  The Gilmore Girls, L.S.Lowry. I’ll be honest, purely on selfish personal terms this really does not hold out much promise for me. We can probably forget the Gilmore Girls since I have never knowingly watched an episode. Peter Gilmore in the Onedin Line (more steam, Mr. Baines), him I do remember. Although I am an admirer of his work I can’t expect much from L.S.Lowry. I’ve never read anything written by Truman Capote – I saw the Truman Show and I don’t remember him writing anything in that – so there won’t be much coming from that quarter. Which just leaves the Euros which just might allow me to scrape one or two. See how you get on.

University Challenge 2026. First Round heat 1 - Sheffield v. Warwick

The Teams

Sheffield

Rhys Lewis

Abdelrahman Elsisi

Jacob Price (Capt)

Isobel Dobbie

Warwick

Josh Howarth

Antoni Kluzowski

Chris Levesley (Capt)

Lucy Dennett

Welcome back UC! How nice to see Quizzy Mondays return in July rather than halfway through August. So let’s get cracking, then.

The first starter took a moment or two to get to the point but as soon as it mentioned the Russian Empire suppressing literature in a specific language I took a flyer with Ukrainian. Josh Howarth came in too early, allowing Sheffield the full question. Jacob Price gave the correct answer. I didn’t think I knew that much about David Lynch but I took a full house on his acting roles, while Sheffield missed out on Harry Dean Stanton. Both Jacob Price and I guessed that the term from Jamaican cuisine being called for to answer the next starter was jerk. When Amol said that the bonuses concerned some of the world’s longest continually occupied cities I guessed Damascus (kills all known germs) would be one. In fact we both took a full house. 8 correct answers on the bounce became 9 when Amol mentioned ‘artist’ and Nuremburg which was enough to give both me and Jacob Price Albrecht Durer. That was as far as my run went, as I didn’t know Polish novelist Tokarczuk. A bit of bad luck deprived Sheffield of a full house, but that’s the way it goes. In life, things aren’t clear cut – there’s probably a lot more grey than black or white. But this isn’t life, this is quizzing, and an answer is either right or wrong. (Discuss).  For the first picture starter we were shown the distribution of seats in a recent general election. The name of the majority party was missing. For me, seeing Inkhata told me it must be South Africa so we were missing the ANC. Josh Howarth was the first to work it out. Good shout. For the bonuses I knew the New Popular Front in France and the BJP in India, but didn’t get Morena which Warwick did for a timely full house. The next one was one of those starters that seem unfathomable – I like butterflies and moths but I have never heard of the Bogong Moth – which suddenly becomes crystal when one key thing is mentioned. In this case it was Mount Kosciusko. Both Jacob Price and I knew it had to be Australia where it’s found.  The mathematical groups bonuses that followed proved as impenetrable to me as you would expect. Sheffield took a couple and as we approached the 10 minute mark they were very comfortably in the driving seat, leading 85-20.

I’ll be honest, I always thought that Narbacular Drop was a move which resulted one wrestler inflicting damage to the genitalia of his opponent, but apparently according to Josh Howarth it was also the precursor to the video game Portal. Climate change and the Caribbean region provided us both with 2 bonuses. For the next starter ‘ballet’ and ‘ritualistic’ suggested Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (which we all know was really about dinosaurs) which was also Jacob Price’s answer. This earned Sheffield a set of bonuses on stadia with a capacity over 100,000. We both answered just the one correctly. ‘Novel’ and 1870s often makes me think of Middlemarch, and when Amol mentioned the heroine Dorothea, Isobel Dobbie came in with just that answer. Sheffield took a full house on people named after ants – sort of. So to the music starter. With classical music starters I occasionally recognise the composer but hardly ever the specific piece of music. -Allo- thought I – this sounds like Mozart’s Requiem-. Bloomin was, too. Rhys Lewis also recognised it. Bonuses on other pieces written late in their respective composers’ lives brought one bonus. I like flags so I knew that the one Amol mentioned in the next starter belonged to the Marshall Islands. Neither team knew it but Sheffield lost five. Abdelrahman Elsisi knew Unicode to take back those five and more besides for the next starter. Le Corbusier – so often name checked in UC – brought 2 bonuses. Antoni Kluzowski recognised various authors of works containing the word Meditations to get Warwick moving again. Bonuses on the Clark (no relation) Medal for Natural Sciences brought us both a single bonus. At least Warwick were moving again. For the Shakespeare starter that followed Abdelrahman Elsisi provided the right play – Othello – but the question required the name of the heroine – Desdemona. I’m sure Lucy Dennett knew it anyway, but she was gratefully in to snap that one up. Looking back this was a pivotal moment in the contest, since Warwick took a full house on beds in Mythology. So instead of increasing their lead, Sheffield actually saw it reduced by 30. At the 20 minute mark the score stood at 150 – 80.

Warwick were still long odds underdogs, though those odds shortened a little when Antoni Kluzowski recogised the work of Degas for the second picture starter. Bonuses on other paintings recently exhibited as the centrepiece of exhibitions in the National Gallery brought one bonus. Lucy Dennett realised that a teacher brought to England by Catherine of Aragon was surely intended for the future Mary I. Warwick’s odds contracted again. Characters from the Lord of the Rings with names beginning with G again yielded a single bonus. However, even though Warwick were only taking bite sized chunks out of the lead, it was now down to forty. Jacob Price extended the lead again, knowing the Kepler space telescope. 2 bonuses were taken on probability. Chris Levesley knew Mickey Mouse’s predecessor – Oswald the lucky rabbit for the next starter. Castles and the kings in whose reigns they were built brought just one bonus. Lucy Dennett knew works with ‘and its discontents’ in their titles. This time they took two bouses and the gap was down to one full set. Chris Levesley came in first to identify plasma in blood. Gap down to fifteen points. Words that can also mean to move effortlessly brought two bonuses, and at this point it was anybody’s game – although all of the momentum was with Warwick. Valley of the Shadow of Death, thinking of Tennyson, had to be the Crimea War. Antoni Kluzowski thought so and it gave Warwick the lead for the first time in the contest. Bicycle brakes brought 2 bonuses. Sheffield desperately needed the next starter, but it was Lucy Dennett who took it with sprites. Don’t ask. A full house on Japanese islands meant that Sheffield needed snookers. But it was too late anyway. With the finest comeback since Lazarus, Warwick had won by 210 to 170.

Many commiserations to Sheffield. A BCR of 66 is not to be sniffed at, but once Warwick built some momentum they just couldn’t win the buzzer races. Warwick themselves had a BCR of 63, but it was their buzzing in the last third which won the game. I think Amol is probably right saying that there’s a good chance we’ll see Sheffield again in the repechage. All in all a fine show to begin the new series.

Amol Watch

Amol’s a seasoned veteran now with a couple of good seasons under his belt. Last season I applauded his not accepting answers which others might have felt were close enough and this continued with The Book of Jacob being given as wrong when the answer required was the Books of Jacob. It seems harsh, but it is the only fair way, in my opinion.

It’s aways interesting to note if and when Amol will offer his plenty of time encouragement to one of the teams. He issued it his time on almost exactly fifteen minutes, when Warwick were 100 points behind and in danger of being overwhelmed. Good shout.

Interesting Fact That I Didn’t Already Know Of The Week

The largest capacity stadium in the USA belongs to the University of Michigan

Baby Elephant Walk Moment

Your bonuses are three questions on the mathematics of groups. A mathematical group must contain what sort of element which does not produce a change when used in the group’s operation? A square matrix with this name features number ones on the main diagonal and zeroes elsewhere. Umm – would that be dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum?