Skip to main content

'University Challenged 2016/17: Volume Seven (29.08.16)'


“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”. So says Thumper in Bambi. While this may be sage advice from a rabbit, it isn’t necessarily the case when tweeting along to BBC2's University Challenge.

This week’s show saw a battle between the two university Goliaths: Cambridge (Robinson) and Oxford (Wadham). While the former won the game, the latter came first when it came to amusing hair and eyebrow combinations, thanks to the follicular work of Holmes and Lucas. In fact, it seems I was obsessed with hair in general when tweeting about this week's programme, as the following posts attest. I may be big, but I’m not clever; clearly, or I’d be competing myself (though I’m not sure if my drama school diploma in Acting & Musical Theatre would class as a university qualification).

Robinson - Cambridge Vs. Wadham - Oxford (29.08.16)

8:02pm: Anyone who says 'reading' instead of 'studying' needs a swift punch up the bracket.

8:03pm: Holmes' hair: only on #University Challenge

8:04pm: Holmes' hair reads from left to right.

8:05pm: Lucas' eyebrows are made of fuzzy felt.

8:05pm: Holmes is waiting for his student loan to come through before finishing his haircut.

8:07pm: I want Paxman saying "a popular term for the buttocks" as my text tone.

8:09pm: Paxman's hairstyle tribute to Wendy Craig is nearly complete.

8:09pm: Hodge is f**king furious.

8:11pm: No-one has ever said Kafka so angrily.

8:15pm: The texture of Pinder's hair is reminiscent of a badger's pelt.

8:18pm: Holmes ran out of change to put in the meter, mid-electric-razor-haircut.

8:19pm: Paxman: "Ferkin'".

8:20pm: Think of the banter in the green room.

8:24pm: Hodge keeps falling asleep.

8:26pm: There's no-one more comfortable in their own skin than Verghese on the planet.

8:28pm: Verghese has the look of a man who favours elbow patches.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Not The Bayeux One.

The Carole King album Tapestry has been my 'getting-ready-in-the-morning' soundtrack for the past few weeks.  It's been a favourite album ever since I was a student, which makes for a pleasantly gentle way to usher in the start of a day. I've always been a fan of a well-crafted song, which is something of a Carole King hallmark, ever since she started writing with her first husband in the early Sixties. Tapestry may be an unimaginative choice for a favourite LP, as it suggests I haven't delved that far into her career, but it's still an undoubted classic; anything with '(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman', 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' and 'You've Got A Friend' on it can't really fail; if nothing else, it proves she likes writing songs with long titles.  Next month, she's set to perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at a gig in Hyde Park, which I would have loved to have gone to, if it weren...
Read more

Shakerpuppetmaker.

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

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...
Read more