Hilarious.

They've had GoT and Star Wars questions in Xmas UC so clearly you've not been paying attention. Bit embarrassing for you really...

You seem to be contradicting yourself. Your'e agreeing with my second sentence. So why are you saying the knowledge of books, paintings or music depends on a "working knowledge of basic pop culture"?

So you think Alan Rickman's best remembered role is one that got him 46th place on a list that hardly anybody's ever heard of? Well that explains a lot!

Yes. Was I not abundantly clear before?

Ah.....Hermione last time...and now the lovely Clemency....

pity they weren't up to the mark but always a pleasure.

Poor from the Question setters/Paxo , Wolff actually gave the German name for Jutland but Paxo said it was wrong and fined them five points!

"The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of Skagerrak)"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jutland

Ahh, I'm surprised he didn't protest, but then much like the battle itself, both sides laid claim to victory,

Imagine not recognising The Broons

Where did I say that?

Well, St Hida's romped that, despite having to carry Caldicott who contributed zero . Let's hope she ups her game in the next round!

Fair point, but if everyone was allowed to answer questions in their native tongue Paxo would need to be multilingual.

That's very sloppy not to have included it on the card as an alternative. They did the same thing once when someone gave the Chinese name for the Yellow River - Huang He.

There have also been other instances but Paxman usually intimidates the contestants too much for them to speak up. I think the verification process is quite poor in fact.

Oh for goodness sake! Just read the quotes. You contradicted my statement that I didn't see how a working knowledge of pop culture had anything to do with recognising the film (Die Hard).

No, he just needs the correct alternative answer given to him. Regardless of any one's native tongue.

But often foreign words pronounced in the native language are not obvious to someone not speaking that language. It could get out of hand so I would hope there is a line in the rules that all answers must be in English, otherwise a lot of time could be wasted.

There was a University Challenge earlier where the student who answered was from one of the Baltic states (I think) and gave the answer of Stravinsky's Firebird in its original Russian. He didn't know the English name of the ballet but translated it literally which gave the answer expected.

You're missing the point. re read what I wrote.

The question was "Which battle ... ?" which does rather imply that the usual title in English is required. The question was not "Where did the battle take place of which ...?" There is no Battle of Skaggerak listed in any English language history. Had the full term in German been given (Skagerrakschlacht) there might have been more to complain about but it would still be no more than arguable. Where local names of sites are required in geography questions, etc. this is specifically stated in the question so the presumption of answers in English is pretty clear.

Would have thought it more common to pronounce "Don Quixote" with a y sound, rather than as spelt?

I was taught at school (many years ago) to say 'kee-ho-tay' but have frequently heard 'kwik-sote' as well. The latter is also used in the pronunciation of the adjective 'Quixotic'.

On a separate note I thought the overall standard tonight was pretty feeble, exempified by the fact that no-one even thought to hazard a guess at Don Quixote (however you pronounce it) given that the question mentioned that the author died in Madrid on the same day as Shakespeare.

I thought both teams were rubbish tonight

objectively 'cos they hardly got enough points between them to get in the top 4 and subjectively because they didn't seem to know as much between them as I knew on my own

and did anyone think Will Hutton was incredibly rude to that blond woman on his left particularly when she was practically screaming 'Jurassic' at him and he was ignoring her and said 'Jura, oh Jurassic' as though he'd though of it............

Indeed - they might have at least gone over the century if he hadn't spent half the day blathering on in a stream of consciousness!

I think Will Hutton must be a contender for most irritating contestant ever.

He works (?) for the Observer / Guardian. That is all their people can do.

I take your point, but I still feel sorry for the lad.

I just googled 'Battle of Skaggerak'' and, of course, Jutland came up. But, see this:

http://www.wtj.com/archives/hase_03.htm


Considering Paxman is such a sneerball on subjects that he happens to know I think that there should be some other verification process as an earlier poster said.