Tomorrow Night's Mastermind

Tomorrow night’s Mastermind, then. The specialist subjects are:-

Kim Philby

Chess: the Musical

The Castles of North Wales

The Life of Thomas Hardy

Hmm. I mean, my natural tendency is to look at these things pessimistically, yet usually it doesn’t turn out anything like as badly as I thought. So you never know. Looking down each of the subjects individually, then –

Kim Philby – well now, I wouldn’t say that I feel that I know a great deal about him. But who knows, maybe general historical knowledge about the period will be enough to pick up a couple.

Chess: The Musical. Never seen it. I can summarise my knowledge as – written with music by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson with lyrics by Sir Tim Rice. Hits from the show – One Night in Bangkok, Murray Head – I Know Him So Well – Barbara Dixon and Elaine Page. That’s really about i. Maybe something will come up about that.

The Castles of North Wales. I’ve only been to North Wales once although I did visit Caernarfon Castle then. I would feel a lo more confident if it was about the castles of South Wales. Might get a couple, might get none.

The Life of Thomas Hardy. Again, if it was the novels of Thomas Hardy I’d feel a lot more confident. Still, hoping that a couple will allude to the works I think that there might just be a couple there.

So while I still think this could end up being the show where total disaster strikes, then again on the other hand we might see anything between say 7 and 10.

University Challenge Round Two - Lincoln, Oxford v. Imperial

The Teams

Lincoln, Oxford

Ella Warde

Mehmet Tatoğlu

Alexander Baker

Anna Drummond Young

Imperial

Justin Lee

Adam Jones

Suraiya Haddad

Sourajit Debnath

Quizzy Monday really lived up to its name last Monday night. First there was the return of Riddiculous. Then Jeopardy! where former Mastermind semi-finalist Kesheva Guha continued building an impressive stack of prize wedge. Then Pointless. Then Mastermind, then the second OC semi final. Finally we arrived at University Challenge. I will admit that I was worried I might be all quizzed out but thankfully there was enough left in the tank for me to do better than last week. Frankly my cat could have done better than I did last week – and he’s asleep for probably 22 out of every 24 hours.

For the first starter Mehmet Tatoğlu came in too early and lost five for mixing up his salvation theology with his liberation theology. Fair enough. Adam Jones took the points for Imperial. One bonus on county towns took their score to 15. For the next starter I guessed that one of the two west African leaders from the late fifties referenced in the question would be Kwame Nkrumah. Justin Lee thought the same and we were both on the money. Questions concerned with Browning’s “My Last Duchess” took Imperial to thirty five. Click chemistry, anyone? No, me neither, but it was the correct answer to the next starter and Adam Jones had it. Cement brought me a surprise full house, but Imperial only managed the last of these. Various Annas brought Adam Jones a second consecutive starter. South East Asia brought two more scoring answers. The picture starter showing the flag of Gran Colombia did the trick for Lincoln and three more flags of countries that no longer exist brought an excellent full house. A quotation from Hardy – no, not the one about another fine mess – brought up Adam Jones’ 3^rd starter of the first ten minutes. Graph Theory means nowt to me but bonuses on the same brought another 20 points for Imperial. The French mathematician Galois – who invented the French ciggie – lost Adam Jones five and brought the correct answer from Mehmet Tatoğlu. Roman history, specifically public offices, brought two correct answers and bit into Imperial’s lead, which stood at 85 – 40 at just after 10 minutes.

Nothing daunted by the earlier failed buzz, Adam Jones buzzed early to identify RUR as standing for Rossum’s Universal Robots from Carel Kapek’s play. The bonuses were on astronomy and my ears pricked up as I sensed the chance of a lap of honour. The first two did no favours to either of us, but the last one had black hole written all over it, so much so that I set off before the answer had even been confirmed. It was that man Jones again who took the next starter with mechanical reproduction. Innuendo overload alert. Bonuses followed on swords, and Imperial were happy to take a full house on that one. Mehmet Tatoğlu knew various works linked by the adjective invisible. Prison scenes in plays by Shakespeare brought us both two correct answers. I have neither read nor seen Measure for Measure, and what we were told in the question makes it sound like a rum old play indeed. I was tempted to award myself a lap of honour for the music starter. “Sounds like Kurt Weill” I said. So did Justin Lee. Music bonuses raised the Imperial score to 140, which prompted Amol to add a little more encouragement to Lincoln. It didn’t seem to work as Adam Jones took the next starter on Charlie Mingus. Members of Parliament for Northampton through the years brought just the one correct answer, though the first female cabinet minister, Margaret Bondfield is a really hoary old quiz stager. Pierre Fauchard was the father of . . . argh, dentistry. Rotten swine. Nobody had that one. Again, Amol made with the encouragement for Lincoln. Fred Sanger won some kind of Nobel Prize for something to do with insulin for the next starter, that fell to Justin Lee. Imperial took just the one bonus on radiation. I recognised a description of the Towers of Hanoi just before Sourajit Debnath buzzed in with the same answer. Chemistry questions saw Amol refuse to accept Avogardo for Avogadro – marginal call that one. Didn’t matter. It had been a really good 10 minute spell for Imperial and the led by 190 – 55.

Nobody knew the Irish ball sport Camogie for the next starter. For the starter after, I recognised a description of Grœnlendinga Saga – or the saga of the Greenlanders. Now, Justin Lee buzzed in and said Greenlandic Saga, before correcting it to Greenlander Saga. Now, point of order here, Amol. Only minutes earlier you said you have to accept a first answer, whereas here you let Justin Lee have two bites of the cherry. Can we have a little consistency please. Jacobean tragedy proved a tricky set – I’ve never heard of the Atheists Tragedy – or I don’t believe so anyway. Ella Warde, trying valiantly to get her team moving again, came in too early on the next starter.I didn’t understand the next starter but Ella Warde came in very early with the correct name of Kirchhoff, who at one stage in his career was the Head of Durmstrang Institute as well. Paintings of ice were not the second picture set. It might have helped if we could have seen the pictures because Lincoln failed to add to their score. Ironically the set tha followed was the picture set. Adam Jones identified an absolutely gorgeous painting of a port by Claude Lorrain – or maybe Lorraine Claude. Bonuses of paintings of more ports or harbours yielded a pretty good two bonuses. So to ornithology. Hen, Marsh and Montagues could only be Harriers, as Adam Jones knew. A full house on 20^th century History with years ending in 5 added more gilding to the Imperial score. For the next starter another hoary old chestnut made is return to UC – the only Shakespeare Play that has the name of a modern European Capital city in its title. I’ve always had a sneaky feeling ROMEo and Juliet should count too, but it is of course Timon of Athens. Contrary to popular belief he never wrote a sequel called Pumbaa of Athens, mores the pity. Two bonuses on Tanuki bought more respectability to the Lincoln score and they weren’t completely finished yet. Gibbs Free Energy – he must have discovered it after inventing his SR toothpaste – was given by skipper Alexander Baker to the next starter. Two bonuses on cloud types took Lincoln to triple figures. Ella Warde buzzed in extremely quickly to answer some maths thing for the next starter. Two bonuses took Lincoln to 120 before the gong ended the contest. Imperial showed imperious form on the buzzer, winning with 255.

A good win. Imperial scored a BCG of just over 50, while Lincoln achieved 65, albeit that this was off a much smaller number of bonuses. They couldn’t cope with the buzzing of Imperial, and of Adam Jones in particular whose 9 starters was one of the best performances we’ve seen in this series so far.

Amol Watch

I thought that Amol was maybe a little too quick to issue Lincoln with the statutory 8 count that is the “Plenty of time for you to get going.” We were just over 7 minutes into the show, and the score was 75 to minus 5. There will be tears before bedtime over the controversial calls regarding “You say Avogardo, I say Avogardo, so I’ll call the whole thing off’ especially considering Amol allowed Justin Lee to juggle with the saga.

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

Taunton is pretty much as far from Oxford as it is from Truro

Kate Bush at 63 was the oldest woman to have a UK umber 1 single.

Baby Elephant Walk Moment.

Which Swiss-born chemist formulated the law that states the following? If a reaction can take place by more than one route from the same initial and final conditions then he total enthalpy change is the same for each route? – I was with you as far as Which - . Dum de dumdum dum dum dum dum dumdum.

Mastermind 2024 First Round Heat 19

Another Monday, and another heat of Mastermind. Not long now until we’re through the heats. Still, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, shall we?

Our first contender was Trevor Abrahams, who was answering on another Trevor, of the Sir Trevor McDonald variety. Now, if you read my doom-laden forecast at the weekend, then you’ll know that I really wasn’t expecting much here. So you can imagine my surprise to find that I knew quite a bit more about Sir Trevor than I thought. In fact I got I’ve of these through a combination of a wee bit of knowledge and a lot of decent guesswork, and five is more than I thought I’d get for all of the specialist rounds put together.

You can almost say the same about Rob Price’s round on Leeds Utd. I did say in the preview that I knew a wee bit about the Don Revie era, and indeed this was enough to bring me 4 points. Two rounds down and the aggregate already stood at 9. Rob was caught by one or two questions that robbed him of a little momentum at crucial points in the round. Having said that though he still took enough to overhaul Trevor’s lead and score 8.

This was followed by Sharon Reading’s round. Sharon is the very best type of teacher . . . (drumroll please) . a former one! I currently have 115 teaching days left until retirement. You can work out what exactly the fact that I know the precise number means. I knew little about Myrna Loy, although what I did know picked me up 2 more points, but somehow judging by what was asked about her she seems to have been something of an all round good egg. Sharon took 7, which at this stage of the game was certainly competitive.

Finally Carol Kermode. She gave her occupation as farmer’s wife, which led to my daughter spluttering that she didn’t think that’s an occupation. She bet that Carol does as much farming work as her husband and should have said her occupation is a farmer. Me? I said nowt, I just wanted to get on with the questions. And let’s be fair, Carol got on very well with the questions herself. The History of Cattle is one of those subjects where you’re pretty sure that nobody would have taken it before. Carole took a good nine to give her the lead as the half time oranges and the cups of Bovril were being wheeled out.

Two points separated all 4 contenders so it was a pretty safe bet that whoever whacked in the best GK round was going to be there or thereabouts. It certainly looked as if Trevor Abrahams was giving himself a pretty good shout, with a good round of 11. That could do it – I thought to myself, and I said as much to Pip. It looked an even better shout as Rob Price returned and could only add 7 to his own total to end up with 15. Perfectly respectable, but some way behind the leader.

Sharon then returned, and she needed to equal Trevor’s 11 to go into the lead. She didn’t equal Trevor’s 11. She actually outdid it by scoring a good 12. This was achieved through keeping her head and finding answers to every question. It meant that she didn’t go exceptionally quickly but amassed a challenging total without passing any.

So only Carole could now overhaul Sharon. She needed 10 and no passes to force another tiebreak, and 11 to win outright. She gave it a try, no doubt about that. For most of the round it really was too close to call. Then, with only a couple of questions to go, Carole passed. She ended up with 10, but since Sharon had not incurred any passes in her own round, she lost by the narrowest of margins.

Well done Sharon! Best of luck in the semi finals.

 

Trevor Abrahams	Sir Trevor McDonald	7	2	11	1	18	1
Rob Price	Leeds United Football Club	8	1	7	2	15	3
Sharon Reading	Myrna Loy	7	0	12	0	19	0
Carol Kermode	The History of Cattle	9	0	10	1	19	1

 

So much for 2023

It was the New Year quiz on Thursday evening, and I think it was a triumph. Mind you, I was question master, so I’m probably not the man to give you an objective opinion.

I found the compilation of the quiz a more difficult job than last year. In every year there are certain events which generate more questions than any other and in 2023 it was the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla. I could have easily done a whole round of questions on this event but I didn’t feel that would be in anyone’s best interests. It’s a rather delicate balancing act, compiling the New Year quiz. On the one hand you want the teams to have a decent chance of getting a decent score on all of the rounds. On the other hand though you don’t want to ask all of the same questions that come up in all of the newspaper quizzes of the year. You want people to enjoy it, think – oh, I didn’t know that I knew that – and maybe hear a thing or two which they didn’t know but are interested to hear about.

Oh, yes. You want to use a little bit of filth as well.

You have to judge it right, just how explicitly filthy you want to be because it’s easy to overdo it and upset people. I found one question that really fit the bill though and the fact that it’s a question local to South Wales made it all the better. –

What did the Barnardo’s charity shop in Gorseinon make a public request for people to stop donating to the shop? Answer – sex toys.

Now, I’ll be honest, when I first saw the story back in October 2023 I immediately mentally earmarked it for the New Year quiz. It went down a treat too.

Mastermind Heat 19 Specialists Preview

Heat 19 of Mastermind 2024, this coming Monday, will feature these specialist subjects:-

Sir Trevor McDonald

Leeds Utd. FC

Myrna Loy

The History of Cattle

I like to take the position of a bit of a Jeremiah when I discuss the forthcoming specialist subjects for a particular show, so hopefully I’ll be proved wrong when I say that this group of specialisms holds out every chance of bringing my first ever zero aggregate. Seriously –

Trevor McDonald. I’ve liked Sir Trevor ever since he surprised Lennie Henry on Tiswas while Sir Len was doing his thinly veiled impression Trevor McDoughnut. But other than he’s originally from Trinidad, he wrote a biography of Viv Richards and he was Nana’s last words in The Royle Family, l I don’t know that much. Every possibility of nul points.

Leeds Utd. FC. I always hope that s sport round might bring me one or two sneaky points.I know a little bit about the Don Revie era, so you never know, 1 or 2 possibly.

Myrna Loy. Yes, I know she was a film actress in the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood. She made a number of films with Dick Powell. Urm. . . that’s it. Nul points.

The History of Cattle. Where do you start? It’s a subject which is so potentially wide ranging that maybe I’ll get some points for it from general knowledge, and maybe I’ll end with 0.

Overall, I’d be happy with four. Scratch that, I’ll be happy enough if I get one!

Revivals, resurrections or resuscitations?

There must be something in the air. I’ve just written about the latest revival of Jeopardy!, only to notice that this month we can also expect the revival of two venerable old stagers from years gone by, although both are game shows rather than quizzes.

Let me give you a starter for ten. Which three word phrase links Alfred the Great, Geoffrey Chaucer, Elizabeth I, Michael Miles, Nicky Campbell, Bradley Walsh, Carol Smilie, John Leslie and Graham Norton among others? Answer – Wheel of Fortune. The phrase was notably coined by late Roman writer Boethius, in his book “The Consolation of Philosophy”, where, if my memory serves me correctly, he envisaged Fortune as a beautiful but fickle lady, who held a wheel, which determined the fortune (small f) of men. When you’re at the top of the wheel there’s only one way to go. Like Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur”, Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”. Wilde’s “Ballad of Reading Jail” and Jeffrey Archer’s “Prison Diary”, “The Consolation of Philosophy” was written while its writer was in chokey. He upset Theoderic the Great, who couldn’t have been a fan of the book since he had Boethius tortured then executed.

“The Consolation of Philosophy” became extremely popular in the Middle Ages. Alfred the Great translated at least part of it into Old English – Chaucer into Middle English and Elizabeth Ist into early Modern English.

Slightly later, the first ever quiz show on ITV was Michael Miles’ Take Your Pick. This ended when the ITV company that produced it lost their franchise in 1968. Miles moved to Southern TV where he hosted the first “Wheel of Fortune” game show for three years until he died. I vaguely remember watching it when I was tiny, and basically I recall contestants being invited to spin the eponymous when to see whether they’d won for the sake of argument a twin tub washing machine or a dishmop.

The Wheel of Fortune Game show that I suspect that many UK readers remember was a rather different kettle of fish. Like the several UK versions of Jeopardy!, Scottish Television’s “Wheel of Fortune” was a UK version of a successful US game show, based losely on the game of Hangman. The US show will celebrate its half century next year, and the STV show didn’t do badly, lasting for 12 years. I particularly remember Nicky Campbell’s long tenure, but I was surprised to see that Bradley Walsh cut his hosting teeth on the show for a season. This had no other relation to the earlier ITV show other than the name, and the use of a big wheel, hence the name. Having seen the previews of the show that airs this Saturday, it looks like a revival of the STV show.

Why revive game shows? Silly question. You revive game shows because you think that if they have worked for an audience before, they might well work for an audience again. Okay, so Jeopardy! has never caught on in the UK, but its success in the USA makes it an acceptable gamble. “Wheel of Fortune” ran for more than a decade, but it’s been over 20 years since it ran and you never know, maybe it might have similar success again and find a whole new audience.

A better question would be why have it presented by Graham Norton? I’m not suggesting that he would be anything other than successful – he’s a great and very popular entertainment broadcaster, which is something that his longevity pays testament towards. But I did think that he was solidly established as one of the jewels in the BBC firmament. Getting him to present a game show is something of a coup for ITV, and I can imagine that they must have paid him a pretty penny.

………………

It’s a long time ago that I reported that the BBC was reviving ITV’s 1990s ratings powerhouse Gladiators. I didn’t know that there had been a short lived Sky TV revival in the noughties. As with Wheel of Fortune, a big name host will be fronting the show – none other than Bradley Walsh, along with his son Barney.

Can it work again? Well, the original show debuted on ITV at the same time as the hype, razzmatazz and cartoon violence of the pseudo sport WWF (later WWE) American wrestling gained popularity in Britain. It’s fair to say that we hadn’t seen anything quite like “Gladiators” in the UK before – the closest thing was possibly “It’s a knockout”, which was further from Gladiators than Saturday afternoon 'grunt 'n groan' wrestling bouts on World of Sport were from the WWF. Since Gladiators ended on terrestrial TV at the end of the 20^th century though we’ve seen quite a few other shows which also put physically gifted (and some not so physically gifted) members of the public through physical challenges, ranging from “Total Wipeout”, through “Survivor”, “Desert Forges”, “Ninja Warrior UK” and “SAS Who Dares Wins” to name a few. Not only will Gladiators The Next Generation be judged against the original British version, it will also be judged against what has come since.

'New' Show - Jeopardy!

Question. A TV quiz show that has been a hit in the USA for forty years consecutively but has never been a great success in the UK despite being tried several times?

Answer. What is Jeopardy! ?

You know, if I was meaner of spirit than I already am, I might well have decided not to write about the latest revival of Jeopardy! since I did not get invited for an audition to appear on it despite going to the time and trouble of filling in an application form. Well, there’s lots of shows that I could say that about, so what the hell?

Can you call a show that was first created 60 years ago a ‘new’ show? Ah, but that was in the USA. Okay – then can you call a show which has been tried in the UK no fewer than four times previously a ‘new’ show? Well, for the purposes of LAM, I’m going to.

I said that Jeopardy! debuted in 1964 in the US, which it did, and ran for just over 10 years. I don’t wish to go into mind numbing detail about syndication in the US and what it means, but the current version of the show began its run in syndication in 1984. It’s probably fair to say that as quiz shows go it’s something of an American national institution. In his introduction to the latest UK revival host Stephen Fry as good as said as much himself, speaking of his own enjoyment of the show on many visits to the USA. Which is probably as good a reason as any why there have been so many attempts to establish the show in the UK.

You know, I watched the first episode on New Year’s Day and I had mixed feelings about it. If you know anything about the show then you know that the format is pretty simple. It’s a general knowledge quiz made up of several rounds. Three contestants buzz in to ‘answer’ questions from specified categories. The questions can be worth between £25 and £150 depending on the degree of difficulty. In each round there are 1 or more ‘daily doubles’ which enable the contestant to nominate a certain amount of the cash they have already won. If they get the question right, they double the stake. If they get it wrong then they lose it. At the end, the contestants have to stake as much or as little of the money they have earned on one question. Whoever has most money left at the end, is the winner and can come back on the next show.

Of course, the big gimmick of Jeopardy! is that contenders get given the answers and have to provide the questions. I’ll be honest, I’ve always thought that this is a bit naff as gimmicks go. Let’s be honest, there’s not a great deal of difference between asking

“Who was the writer of “Jane Eyre”? – answer Charlotte Bronte –

And

“The writer of “Jane Eyre” – answer “Who is Charlotte Bronte?”

I’ll be honest, it brings out the smartarse in me, and makes me want to answer

“The writer of “Jane Eyre” – which writer used the pseudonym Currer Bell? – which of course is not what is required – the great Stephen spells it out quite clearly that the answers must start with ‘who is’ or ‘what is’.

Okay I’m being a smartarse here. The question and answer format is what really makes Jeopardy! what it is and if you don’t like it then don’t watch. One of the funny things that I felt while I was watching it was that the gameplay itself felt rather old-fashioned. Basically you listen to a general knowledge question, beat the others to the buzzer, give the right answer and there’s cash in the bank. This is what quizzes were like when I was growing up. There’s a lot to be said for this as well. You know that I always think that the more questions that are asked in a show, the better, and you do get a lot of questions for your money in this revival.

While we’re on the positives, what this version of Jeopardy! has that no previous British version had is Stephen Fry. Stephen Fry is an inspired choice as host, especially when you consider that we might well have ended up with Richard Madeley. Previous hosts of British versions include Derek Hobson (personality not included) – Steve Jones (wipe the smile off your face, sonny, and lose the silly mid-Atlantic accent) and Paul Ross (Jonathan too expensive?). Actually I didn’t think that Paul Ross did a bad job of it either. But someone further removed from a primetime US quiz show host than Stephen Fry would be hard to find. I could listen to Stephen Fry read out selections of the most boring parts of the Yellow Pages – and I paid good money to see him reading from his book “Mythos” in Cardiff a couple of years ago. He brings class to everything he’s involved in.

Will this one run and run? I don’t honestly know. The fact that it was put on at quarter to six in the evening suggests that ITV do not see this as a prime time show – and to be honest the amount of cash that can be won on each show is nice but not earth shattering. Yet it runs at an hour long, with precious little variation between rounds. It feels padded. While I’d consider making it a regular watch for the presence of Stephen Fry if for nothing else if it was no longer than forty-five minutes, an hour is asking too much of me. And I like quizzes. Aiming to capture a reasonable proportion of viewers used to “Pointless”, “The Chase”, “Eggheads” and “Richard Osman’s House of Games” may well prove to be too much of a tall order, the great Stephen notwithstanding.