Skip to main content

'University Challenge: Week Twenty' (04.12.17)


While I’ve generally found the current series of University Challenge a little dull, tonight’s show was more fun than usual.


Perhaps it was just Raii’s inspirational beard density that got me going, or Roger Tilling’s particularly enthusiastic voice-overs (though when are they not?). I may have been deeply perplexed by UCL’s complete incapability to identify a song performed by Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave, but that’s the way things seem to go on the programme, if one team’s incapacity to identify a track by the Manic Street Preachers was anything to go by; if a question’s not about something elitist, the contestants basically have no hope.

See below for this evening’s Twitter rundown.

8:01PM: Maybe tonight, Paxman will be all warm, cuddly and approachable.

8:02PM: Just looking at Raii's beard makes a woman instantly pregnant.

8:04PM: There's nothing amusing about Roger Tilling proclaiming "Edinburgh Wang".

8:05PM: Eight students, but only one woman. Classic.

8:06PM: Raii's beard is made from the same material as a letterbox draught-excluder.

8:11PM: I like to imagine Jeremy Paxman in a Wiltshire cornfield in the dead of night, making two massive crop circles that read "COME ON" and "NO”.

8:14PM: You could lose two ferrets in Raii's beard. TWO.

8:17PM: Kylie and Nick, in a cave.

8:21PM: Love's Labour's Lobs.

8:22PM: Stone just gave Paxman a cheeky little wink; Paxman will make her a star.

8:23PM: I identified the picture of Edmund Hillary purely because he looked like Rob Brydon.

8:24PM: I’ve got a Vietnamese Dong.

8:24PM: Stroke Raii's beard to make fire.

8:25PM: Martin Luther wrote Free Willy?

8:26PM: I'm looking forward to when they do the Physical Challenge.

8:28PM: Heaton-Armstrong is wearing such a big denim shirt.

8:28PM: I think Roger Tilling just passed an "Edinburgh Stone".
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

'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream..."

While I’ve been practising meditation for quite some time now, I’ve recently taken to using the mindfulness app 'Headspace' . If you’ve never meditated before, or you’re an old hand at it, it’s a great resource, offering daily ten-minute guided meditations that create a sense of progress, rather than stagnating and going through the same process every day. Until I started using the app, I’d often listen to a handful of audio guided meditations I have on my phone in case of a brain emergency. If you see me with my eyes closed and my earphones in on public transport, I’m probably doing this (unless I’m sleeping and using this blog as an elaborate alibi). While the tracks on my phone are great, they can get a little repetitive as I become too familiar with them and start to anticipate everything the person on the recording will say. This is where Headspace is great, as it offers you a daily course with a different focus each day, as well as pl...
Read more