University Challenged at Christmas (6) (25.12.16)


In my keenness to cover yesterday’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special on Twitter, I neglected to do the same with the same day’s Christmas University Challenge.

As with Friday’s show, which I missed when it went out and then covered in a iPlayer-and -smart-phone faux-Twitter simulation, I watched my forgotten episode today (see below). It seems my last blogs of 2016 will be mostly tweet summaries, which is a laidback way to round things off; next year, I’ll post just a single word here a day.

Magdalene - Cambridge Vs. St Hilda's - Oxford (25.12.16)
6:45pm If you’re lucky, I'll show you my distinguished alumni.

6:46pm: Note Paxman gave Patrick Moore the prefix 'popular’, while Brian May was just 'Queen guitarist'. 

6:47pm: Film producer Newell doesn't look very happy about it. 

6:47pm: "Clemency". Of course.

6:48pm: Imagine how high pitched a Jimmy Somerville college would be.

6:50pm Geras: member of a ‘local’ team for ‘local’ people. 

6:51pm: Caldicott's hair is like an unkempt Father Ted. 

6:54pm: Someone's been at that poem with Tipp-Ex. 

6:55pm: Paxman described the poem mash-up question in a similar way to Partridge’s World Cup draw system in The Day Today. 

6:56pm: Anna Karenina always sounds like an exclamation. 
6:57pm: Nick Hornby?

6:57pm. Not Nick Hornby. Bugger. 

6:58pm: Geras' necklace is made from humbugs.

7:00pm: The Gift of the Gorgon was by Peter Shaffer. I knew this. 

7:00pm: Black Comedy. I knew this too. 

7:00pm: Sleuth. I knew this too. I know my Peter Shaffer. 

7:01pm: Was it Little Wing? 

7:01pm. Not Little Wing. Shit. Seems I know my Shaffer better than my Hendrix. 

7:03pm: Gentleman Prefer Blondes. I know my Marilyn Monroe better than my Hendrix and nearly as well as my Peter Shaffer.

7:04pm: West Side Story. I forget the name of the actress. 

7:04pm: Newell should tell his face. 

7:05pm: Fairytale of New York. 

7:06pm: East 17: my favourite boy band / postcode. 

7:08pm: McDermid correcting Paxman. Few would dare. 

7:09pm: Which ruler? A metre ruler. 

7:10pm St Hilda's have 200 points. Wowser. 

7:12pm: Mark Gattis. 

7:12pm: Wolff looks like a Nazi war criminal. 

7:13pm: Well, now Newell’s all laidback.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Image
Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...
Read more

Hoo-ray and up She Rises.

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane ...
Read more