University Challenge

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Experts. And so, if you are in a History Department and specialise in the pre-Conquest era, no one expects you to know what the Battle of Agincourt was all about.

Not "all about", no - but they wouldn't expect you to suggest "Robert the Bruce" as the English King at that particular battle (which is the equivalent of what Ms Manahan Thomas offered last night).

[LMcD]

Perhaps they were trying to go one better - or worse - than Reading in 2017 and end up with a minus score.

[zola]

Not "all about", no - but they wouldn't expect you to suggest "Robert the Bruce" as the English King at that particular battle (which is the equivalent of what Ms Manahan Thomas offered last night).

It seemed remarkable that she could not identify Rostropovich as the cellist associated with Shostakovich but then she did not appear to be absolutely certain who Shostakovich was.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It seemed remarkable that she could not identify Rostropovich as the cellist associated with Shostakovich but then she did not appear to be absolutely certain who Shostakovich was.

Yes - she got Casals easily enough, but when Theroux suggested "Mstislav Rostropovich" there was a distinctly uncertain "who?" in her whispered response to him.

Stroanery.

[burning dog]

Experts. And so, if you are in a History Department and specialise in the pre-Conquest era, no one expects you to know what the Battle of Agincourt was all about.

I'd expect them to know quite a bit about it, unless they opted for specialsation in pre-conquest aged 11.

A old work colleage of mine, drove the van, left school at 16, said, when Waterloo was the Eurostar Terminus, that they were thinking of changing the name of Waterloo Station as it may antagonise the French. He was undecided between Agincourt and Crecy as the new name.

[Stanfordian]

I was reminded of a Christmas Quiz on R4 some decades ago when I think it was pianist Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich who didn't recognise a piece of Beethoven although they were playing his own recording of it. I think we might expect too much of musicians and artists.

[zola]

No old hippies on the teams this time !

[LezLee]

Oh dear, I so wanted Birmingham to win. I thought a lot of the questions were much easier than the usual UC. I knew quite a few.

[ardcarp]

Fancy having a UC on Christmas Day. It's a good job our Botty (Catherine Batt, lately of this parish) was on the Guildhall team otherwise I reckon their score would have been measley. They did lose to UCL whose 'science expert' did less well than expeceted (I thought).

[MrGongGong]

Fancy having a UC on Christmas Day. It's a good job our Botty (Catherine Batt, lately of this parish) was on the Guildhall team otherwise I reckon their score would have been measley. They did lose to UCL whose 'science expert' did less well than expeceted (I thought).

3 luvvies and a singer vs people who know stuff (YES, CB does know stuff)
surprising they did so well considering

[underthecountertenor]

He was rather good last night too! It seems that whenever there’s classical music artists are on, they do not know much about it!!!

I thought Skelly was pretty hopeless - barely contributed a thing.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

3 luvvies and a singer vs people who know stuff (YES, CB does know stuff)
surprising they did so well considering

And it was CB who earned them about 2/3 of their total score.

Some astonishing attempts at answers in this Christmas run - not least the woman who was insistent that Scrooge chased off the Carol singer for singing White Christmas in Dickens' original! Puts the proper students' errors in a more favourable light.

[ardcarp]

...and the carol questions were ridiculously easy. Surely the 'Once in Royal' question was hardly in the UC spectrum...even for the celebs?

[antongould]

I thought Skelly was pretty hopeless - barely contributed a thing.

Agreed ...... identifying CSNY as Simon and Garfunkel for instance .......

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes - Elin Manahan Thomas was rather out of her "comfort zone" last night, wasn't she!

Mind you - the Vicar was a bit lost on his Biblical characters ... and the Head of Ofsted came across as someone who wasn't sure how to tie her own shoelaces (which comes as no surprise to any teacher in the country ) No spoilers, but I was personally very happy with last night's result!

Just watched this one. Yes surprised at Elin MT