Skip to main content

'University Challenged 2017/18: Volume Six (28.08.17)'


It felt fitting to spend my final night in Edinburgh staying in to watch University Challenge, particularly when the programme featured heavily in what I might grandiosely call the finale of last year’s show.

For those who didn’t see it, it ended with me holding the eighteen-second long top E Bill Withers sings at the end of his hit 'Lovely Day' over a clip from the programme where two teams sat in silence for the same time period, unable to identify an audio clip of the Manic Street Preachers' 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’; you had to be there for it to make sense.

Tonight’s episode was a relatively sedate affair, save the fact it featured not one but two turtle-neck sweaters, which are always a treat. As ever, I tweeted along with proceedings; see below for what was said:

Oxford Brookes Vs. Courtauld Institute of Art (28.08.17)

8:00PM: ...and cue the social outcasts.

8:01PM: General knowledge, Jeremy? GENERAL KNOWLEDGE? I don't think so.

8:02PM: Is Lewis actually Dom Joly?

8:02PM: Look at Shepherd.

8:03PM: Vanover has come dressed for the front cover of With The Beatles.

8:05PM: Oxford Brookes sounds like an author.

8:05PM: Shepherd doesn't sound like how he looks.

8:07PM: I'm still recovering from De Bock saying, "Guten tag."

8:10PM: Shepherd reminds me of a young Eric Morecambe.

8:10PM: De Bock's beard isn't.

8:12PM: Shepherd's glasses get bigger the longer you look.

8:13PM: The Shitting Forecast.

8:15PM: Shepherd is Dennis with glasses.

8:18PM: John Coltrane's version of Summertime: because there's nothing quite like covering a song while avoiding all the notes.

8:20PM: Shepherd's glasses were drawn on with a marker pen.

8:24PM: The only correct answer I've got so far was 'Billie Holiday'; back to the swamp for me.

8:25PM: Tilling's 'Oxford Brookes De Bock' has a beat and you can dance to it.

8:28PM: "We will, we will De Bock you."

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...

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...

Hitchin is Mine.

As of six o’clock tonight, I take over the Hitchin is Yours Twitter account for a week; a stewardship I’m anxious to get right. I’m proud of my hometown. It’s a great place to live, with so much going for it. I've always sold it to my non-Hitchinite friends; so much so, that a lot have gone on to move here. Any town expansion plans are partly my fault. Feel free to picket outside my house. I love its history and architecture. Take St Mary’s Church, for example. The building is beautiful inside and out, and huge for a town of our size. There has been a place of worship on site since the 7 th Century. Much of the present building dates from the 1300s. You wouldn't get that in America. (Don't forget the British Schools Museum too.)  Hitchin is a hive for creative people and a hub for the arts. It boast two theatres, two comedy clubs, a couple of art galleries, a festival for world music and a thriving music scene. This drew...