2 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:45,530 Today we sally forth upon a quest with our night's quadruple all hail the valiant and 3 00:00:45,530 --> 00:01:04,879 mighty sir Philip the jupiter and audacious Alan Decar lady Alice Levine and the night 4 00:01:04,879 --> 00:01:17,980 on the tiles Alan Davis list G to their nightly noises sir Philip the jupiter's 5 00:01:17,980 --> 00:01:53,590 goes so Alan Decar goes and prepare for combat. I can't actually move with this. It looks nice 6 00:01:53,590 --> 00:02:02,739 on you weirdly. Halfway through the show he's gonna go oh I feel drained. 7 00:02:02,739 --> 00:02:20,189 Wind machine on him. With his head out the car window. How do they wear glasses in the olden days? 8 00:02:20,189 --> 00:02:24,229 They hadn't invented glasses in the olden days darling. I'm gonna struggle on this show. 9 00:02:24,229 --> 00:02:38,259 I was given to understand there was a bee keeping round. Oh I'm from Amsterdam would 10 00:02:38,259 --> 00:02:46,180 you like some lovely cheese? Shall we start the show and do a quest? So what's this man's name? 11 00:02:46,180 --> 00:03:08,300 Is it Don Quixote? Darling. Don Quixote. The X is a ch sound isn't it? Well the X is a ch 12 00:03:08,300 --> 00:03:14,419 technically because he's speaking old Castilian in the book and it should be Don Quixote. 13 00:03:14,419 --> 00:03:20,099 Quixote. But I think we could say Quixote don't you think? Is Don short for something like Donald or Donner? 14 00:03:20,099 --> 00:03:27,219 No it was more of an honorary title. Really? Like the Don? Yeah like the Don yeah. But Quixote 15 00:03:27,219 --> 00:03:32,900 that sounds like an Irish order doesn't it? I love Quixote. Actually technically he's not 16 00:03:32,900 --> 00:03:38,139 called any of those things because the protagonist in the book is called Alonso Chiano. So Don 17 00:03:38,139 --> 00:03:43,180 Quixote is a name he makes up for himself when he loses his marbles and assumes the 18 00:03:43,180 --> 00:03:48,659 character of a medieval knight. Lots of people argue it is the world's first modern novel. Where 19 00:03:48,659 --> 00:03:54,900 do they argue? In the literary world my darling. Oh. He wrote this in prison actually which 20 00:03:54,900 --> 00:04:00,340 used to be a good place to write a book and it was an immediate and roaring success. So the 21 00:04:00,340 --> 00:04:05,939 question is why might Elizabeth the first not have read it? She could read couldn't she? 22 00:04:05,939 --> 00:04:10,020 Do you know what she could read in six languages? Is she like beach reads? Like the kind of big paperback? 23 00:04:10,020 --> 00:04:15,139 Danielle Steele. What's the one thing that we know about Elizabeth the first? Didn't she lose all her teeth? 24 00:04:16,019 --> 00:04:20,019 Yes that wasn't the thing I was looking for but yes that is uh 25 00:04:20,019 --> 00:04:26,180 but I based my act on her. What is the big event in history that uh Elizabeth the first? To do with 26 00:04:26,180 --> 00:04:30,660 the Spanish isn't it? Yes yes. The Armada. Spanish Armada. So she wasn't reading a lot of 27 00:04:30,660 --> 00:04:36,180 Spanish. Oh no uh Tarantiz was a buying agent for the Spanish Armada. Very good pronunciation 28 00:04:36,180 --> 00:04:40,180 of Tarantiz. 29 00:04:46,740 --> 00:04:51,139 But actually that thing that you were doing there that is a little bit like Elizabeth the first 30 00:04:51,139 --> 00:04:56,420 when she lost all her teeth apparently. The foreign ambassadors couldn't understand her and 31 00:04:56,420 --> 00:05:00,819 she obviously because she was queen she carried on chatting. If she's anything like my nan I'll 32 00:05:00,819 --> 00:05:05,699 tell you what Queen Elizabeth the first was saying. 33 00:05:08,420 --> 00:05:13,860 In the novel itself Don Chirwuthy goes mad because of reading. It used to be believed that reading 34 00:05:13,860 --> 00:05:18,500 or what they called excessive contemplation was incredibly bad for you and it caused the most 35 00:05:18,500 --> 00:05:22,500 astonishing range of illnesses. So if you read too much you could get all of these things 36 00:05:22,500 --> 00:05:29,939 according to Dr Robert Burton. Gout catars. Wasting indigestion colic crudities. Vertigo 37 00:05:30,019 --> 00:05:35,379 consumption and wind. All caused by reading too much. It's like the menu in a gastropub. 38 00:05:38,180 --> 00:05:40,819 I feel like I'm in an exciting new hipster coffee bar. 39 00:05:42,420 --> 00:05:50,100 The top 10 names in England in 2035. Yes gout and wasting are at camp but colics at home. 40 00:05:52,980 --> 00:05:57,459 And I just say though it's so nice to be with another Alan because Alan 41 00:05:58,420 --> 00:06:03,139 they're like the white rhino. They're going extinct. There's only me you and Alan Titchmouse 42 00:06:03,139 --> 00:06:07,860 going. Did you know that? There's no other Alan. You think with me being on the telly 43 00:06:07,860 --> 00:06:12,420 there'd be a few more but sadly not. I love you very much Alan but I think you being on 44 00:06:12,420 --> 00:06:26,740 television is not going to encourage the breeding of children. I know it's your first 45 00:06:26,740 --> 00:06:34,870 time on. I'll be very kind and very lovely. Why don't you stamp on me glasses while you're at it. 46 00:06:41,050 --> 00:06:44,889 Collective for Alan's is I wonder what though. A pride. A pride. 47 00:06:46,730 --> 00:06:49,209 You happy with that darling? Yeah. Okay fantastic. 48 00:06:50,569 --> 00:06:53,689 Padavantis himself had quite an adventurous life. He was in the Spanish 49 00:06:53,689 --> 00:06:57,370 army during which he got shot three times. Well he's got a sword in him there. 50 00:06:58,089 --> 00:07:04,889 Oh yes there's not. I'll kill you Ryan don't worry. He lost the use of his left arm. He was 51 00:07:04,889 --> 00:07:10,170 kidnapped and held captive as a slave for five years. He was arrested three times. He 52 00:07:10,170 --> 00:07:14,970 was excommunicated three times. I mean he really had the most astonishing life. Is he from Albert 53 00:07:14,970 --> 00:07:20,170 Square? That's the sort of scene in the extenders all of those bad things happen to you. Nasty Nick. 54 00:07:21,689 --> 00:07:29,209 Now his death date is recorded as the 23rd of April 1616. It is the same date as Shakespeare 55 00:07:29,209 --> 00:07:34,250 and yet they died 10 days apart. How is that possible? You're lying. Yes. 56 00:07:35,209 --> 00:07:40,970 10 points. No. 23rd of April we celebrate St George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday 1616. 57 00:07:40,970 --> 00:07:46,250 So Shakespeare famously died on his birthday. So the same day they are marked down as dying 58 00:07:46,250 --> 00:07:50,490 and yet they died 10 days apart. How is that possible? Is it that calendar they use? It is 59 00:07:50,490 --> 00:07:54,810 that calendar they use. Is it Julian calendar? Yes darling. Which is also my drag name. 60 00:08:03,850 --> 00:08:17,670 Europe was using the Gregorian calendar and England was still using the Julian calendar 61 00:08:17,670 --> 00:08:23,509 and so the dates are very slightly apart. Also in Spain the date of death was recorded as the 62 00:08:23,509 --> 00:08:29,589 day you were buried rather than the day you actually died. Now what's the most thankless job 63 00:08:29,589 --> 00:08:35,909 in history? It was being a mum surely. Don't try and get the mum vote. 64 00:08:37,190 --> 00:08:40,870 We have to say thank you to mum in our house. We won't get any biscuits. 65 00:08:41,590 --> 00:08:49,139 What's the worst job you ever had? I put the raisins into fruit and fibre. 66 00:08:52,860 --> 00:08:56,059 Did somebody else do the apple bits? You were only in charge of the raisins. 67 00:08:56,059 --> 00:09:06,009 Yeah they came in a big box. I didn't put them in individually. Wish I'd gone to school. 68 00:09:09,750 --> 00:09:15,350 I was once working at a record company and someone had a record out with a lyric in it 69 00:09:15,350 --> 00:09:22,549 that mentioned Mr Potato Head and so I was asked as a promotional device to carve faces 70 00:09:22,549 --> 00:09:33,019 into a hundred potatoes. Most thankless job in history comes from ancient China so we're going 71 00:09:33,019 --> 00:09:39,259 to go back to 400 to 100 BC and there were people called Yusha and they were on a constant 72 00:09:39,259 --> 00:09:44,620 quest to rescue anybody in trouble and to help the poor but they hated being thanked 73 00:09:44,620 --> 00:09:48,299 because they were too modest. In fact it was part of their fundamental beliefs that you 74 00:09:48,299 --> 00:09:53,100 should never receive praise so they are almost the equivalent of the night errants which is what 75 00:09:53,100 --> 00:09:59,019 Don Quixote was. But were they really modest or were they like no please don't please don't. 76 00:10:00,779 --> 00:10:05,259 They had codes of chivalry so there was one called Chuchia and he saved hundreds of people's 77 00:10:05,259 --> 00:10:09,740 lives but whenever anybody thanked him he couldn't bear it even when he saved a king's 78 00:10:09,740 --> 00:10:13,580 life he refused to ever see him again just in case he was thanked. It was absolutely 79 00:10:13,659 --> 00:10:20,460 part of who they were. There's a period of time in China it's the 250 year period of warring states 80 00:10:20,460 --> 00:10:24,700 and lots of dynasties were fighting for control. In the end the dynasty called 81 00:10:24,700 --> 00:10:30,139 Qin finally won that's q-i-n and that is where China gets its name from from the Qin 82 00:10:30,139 --> 00:10:35,019 dynasty so you can see this area down here on the left that only lasted for about 15 years 83 00:10:35,019 --> 00:10:41,259 but in these times of untrustworthy government instability people turned to these more 84 00:10:41,259 --> 00:10:46,620 self-sacrificing Yuxia knights to dispense justice instead. Actually the Chinese made a TV 85 00:10:46,620 --> 00:10:50,620 series called Yuxia and it was based on an American television series can anybody imagine 86 00:10:50,620 --> 00:10:56,700 what it might have been? Starcian Hatschuk. Well you've got it in that the car is critical. 87 00:11:04,470 --> 00:11:09,509 They actually made a real version of the car from Knight Rider in China and they sold it 88 00:11:09,509 --> 00:11:15,909 it was called the Yuxia and the operating system was called kit yes name of Hasselhoff's car 89 00:11:15,909 --> 00:11:20,230 and it featured all the sort of leds mimicking the ones from the show who doesn't want one of 90 00:11:20,230 --> 00:11:24,470 those thing about kit was though he's really sassy so he would always tell michael that he 91 00:11:24,470 --> 00:11:28,149 was wrong oh but i'd really like that if there was like a sat nav that spoke back to you i 92 00:11:28,149 --> 00:11:31,110 think that would be rather good fun if what if it said do you want to go to sainsbury's are 93 00:11:31,590 --> 00:11:33,269 surely waitress is more your style 94 00:11:36,389 --> 00:11:42,710 i quite like i think being the voice of sat nav sas nav you can record your own can you 95 00:11:42,710 --> 00:11:46,950 yeah i had a tom tom i did it on that how long does that take do you have to record 96 00:11:46,950 --> 00:11:55,909 every road ever he's been doing it for nine years this week he's been doing 97 00:11:55,909 --> 00:12:02,470 lithium villagers where's alan in the shed like oh god grove avenue grove street 98 00:12:04,389 --> 00:12:10,070 it's uh you know you just go turn left but because it's you you can go turn left 99 00:12:10,070 --> 00:12:14,230 left now no wait have you just done turn left in lots of different moods 100 00:12:14,230 --> 00:12:18,149 you can have done all the different things in different moods yeah but can you do 101 00:12:18,149 --> 00:12:24,629 mine that bus that doesn't tell you to mine that one that is the children 102 00:12:28,230 --> 00:12:30,549 i like you have reached your destination and you haven't 103 00:12:31,750 --> 00:12:33,990 i'd rather it just said i think it's here somewhere 104 00:12:37,110 --> 00:12:41,769 it's a bit non-committal like yeah we could yeah it's round here 105 00:12:41,769 --> 00:12:46,809 have a look get out and look what don't you buy a map buy a map 106 00:12:47,210 --> 00:12:53,610 anyway moving on what's the lowest camping experience you can think of 107 00:12:54,490 --> 00:13:00,970 oh my god i was there that year where is that that's glastonbury 2006 or seven that was the 108 00:13:00,970 --> 00:13:09,049 year when there were police divers um going into the tents looking for bodies oh they didn't 109 00:13:09,049 --> 00:13:13,450 find any so it's all right it looks like a cross between camping and a soup from wagamamas 110 00:13:13,450 --> 00:13:24,330 i went to glastonbury once yeah and i got absolutely paralytic i i woke up on the floor 111 00:13:24,330 --> 00:13:32,250 someone must have trodden on me because i had two footprints and someone had stubbed a fag 112 00:13:32,250 --> 00:13:43,850 out on my face annoying can i be if i'm lying on the floor i'm talking about the lowest 113 00:13:43,850 --> 00:13:51,370 campsite in the world it is 1.6 kilometers down inside the deepest cave on earth is in georgia 114 00:13:51,370 --> 00:13:57,529 the krubera cave it is obviously not open to your average camper ah this is a genuine picture 115 00:13:57,529 --> 00:14:02,730 from the inside of the cave it is 13 kilometers long it is over two kilometers deep and it can 116 00:14:02,730 --> 00:14:08,970 fill with water really fast with absolutely no warning whatsoever nevertheless people go 117 00:14:08,970 --> 00:14:15,690 camping down inside this cave so in 2018 56 cavers from seven different countries spent 118 00:14:15,690 --> 00:14:21,450 four weeks down inside they were sleeping six to a tent and for fun they would dive down into 119 00:14:21,450 --> 00:14:26,889 sumps which are sort of freezing they're freezing cold passages submerged underwater 120 00:14:26,889 --> 00:14:31,129 and squeeze as far as they could down these extremely narrow passageways four weeks can you 121 00:14:31,129 --> 00:14:37,049 imagine how much is it for a family of four it's not for me what do you mean it's not 122 00:14:37,049 --> 00:14:44,389 for you you're a perfect size for underground living i can't get in that corridor where's sandy 123 00:14:44,389 --> 00:14:50,629 sandy get down there will you tell us there's any sumps you like stuart little we get your 124 00:14:50,629 --> 00:14:58,519 little car go and find find the interesting things underground sandy and make sure you come 125 00:14:58,519 --> 00:15:03,320 back we'll have a lovely bit of cheese for you so i was listening to that flight of fancy 126 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:08,440 and he went cheese and i thought i would come back from the deepest point of the cave is 127 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:13,960 called the terminal sump oh dear nobody knows how deep it is i've got one of those 128 00:15:19,049 --> 00:15:24,649 only my doctor knows where it is well i know a ukrainian diver who could go and have a look 129 00:15:27,529 --> 00:15:32,169 and he holds the record for the deepest dive so far 52 meters down to the terminal sump why 130 00:15:32,169 --> 00:15:37,289 would you do that i do not want to go any further down here sandy sandy go further 131 00:15:37,289 --> 00:15:39,289 oh 132 00:15:42,570 --> 00:15:50,090 the thing i love about this cave is the deepest terrestrial animal ever found on earth lives 133 00:15:50,090 --> 00:15:55,450 there it's a hexapod three millimeters long just a tiny little thing it's called a plutomorus 134 00:15:55,450 --> 00:15:59,929 autoballaginensis and it lives at nearly 2000 meters down do you not think that's 135 00:15:59,929 --> 00:16:03,289 astonishing that life is carrying on it's not camping it's living there full time i like 136 00:16:03,289 --> 00:16:08,570 the element oh are you looking at the same picture i didn't really think you think it 137 00:16:08,570 --> 00:16:11,929 looks ugly alice but you wait till you've seen sandy doing dressage on one 138 00:16:24,809 --> 00:16:29,289 they're too heavy for it it does look like it's oh why have i got these 139 00:16:31,289 --> 00:16:36,889 they put them back yes just needs a bit of product or a scrunchy yes 140 00:16:38,169 --> 00:16:44,600 camping is a pastime first documented where do i reckon early victorian early victorians 141 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:49,399 it's british so yeah it is the victorians absolutely loved it there was a great boating 142 00:16:49,399 --> 00:16:53,720 craze so it was up and down the tems and some boats even converted into floating tents the 143 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:59,000 person we have to blame is a british tailor called thomas hyrum holding he is regarded as 144 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:03,639 the sort of father of lightweight camping as a boy in 1853 he and his family went across 145 00:17:03,639 --> 00:17:08,359 the united states by pioneer wagon across the prairies and he absolutely loved it and has 146 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:12,039 inflicted on the rest of us for the all eternity that we have somebody that wears a 147 00:17:12,039 --> 00:17:17,720 pussy bow is not genuinely camping like i feel like they he's got an inflatable mattress in there 148 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:23,079 he's got heaters he's got a hot water bottle well he did a little me he rather hilariously 149 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:27,720 produced the camper's handbook and under meal suggestions he provides recipes for blancmange 150 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:41,579 and lobster salad just come out in a vegetarian cookbook in the 80s and had a crisp sandwich 151 00:17:42,140 --> 00:17:50,599 in it it's not much of a tent is it but he has road there on dry land which is quite impressive 152 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:54,920 tides out 153 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:00,359 you say there's not much of a tent he sold it to e or just after this photo 154 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,359 camping these days can get seriously intense 155 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:15,779 oh okay moving from the deepest quest on earth to the highest what do everest 156 00:18:15,779 --> 00:18:22,259 summitors come down with i was offered the chance to walk to base camp and i did one 157 00:18:22,259 --> 00:18:29,619 day's training on hamster teeth and declined they say hamster teeth harder so you have to 158 00:18:29,619 --> 00:18:34,980 talk to the dog walkers but there's only a fortnight in may and a fortnight in october 159 00:18:34,980 --> 00:18:40,180 when you can even go to the top and the rest of the it's 400 mile an hour winds and minus 160 00:18:40,180 --> 00:18:44,099 60 oh why would anyone go up there i thought you're gonna say it's all school groups 161 00:18:46,900 --> 00:18:50,579 if you do get permission to go you have to queue and people get really bad tempered 162 00:18:50,579 --> 00:18:54,339 there are many fights that break out as people are waiting what do they come down 163 00:18:54,339 --> 00:18:59,940 with a black eye by the sounds of it if everyone's like or a fridge magnet something 164 00:18:59,940 --> 00:19:00,900 like that 165 00:19:04,339 --> 00:19:07,619 one of those pens with something that's like a climber 166 00:19:10,980 --> 00:19:12,819 well there's a surfer in a bra 167 00:19:15,380 --> 00:19:25,369 sir edmund wow you could see his hillary the best ones don't call it ever as they call it 168 00:19:25,450 --> 00:19:33,529 tumalanga and they employ in fact 30 porters their sole job is to carry poo down the mountain 169 00:19:34,250 --> 00:19:37,690 yes to special pits further down the mountain you're not allowed to leave your poo up there 170 00:19:37,690 --> 00:19:41,690 well no in fact if you do climb up now the nepalese government they require you to bring 171 00:19:41,690 --> 00:19:46,410 down 18 pounds of rubbish uh that includes other people's poo or you will lose your four 172 00:19:46,410 --> 00:19:53,609 thousand dollar deposit just over 26 000 pounds of human excrement is dumped at base camp 173 00:19:53,609 --> 00:20:00,410 will the poo ever overtake we can do this for comic relief 174 00:20:02,730 --> 00:20:06,250 but the nepalese porters who carry it all down they are astonishing they they use something 175 00:20:06,250 --> 00:20:10,890 called a numlo it's a sling that goes across the forehead and on average the male porters 176 00:20:10,890 --> 00:20:15,769 can carry 90 percent of their body mass and there's female porters as well they can 177 00:20:15,769 --> 00:20:20,730 carry 66 percent there's one porter who can carry twice his own body weight hillary went 178 00:20:20,730 --> 00:20:23,930 back to the himalayas lots of times after climbing everest he led an expedition 179 00:20:25,769 --> 00:20:32,329 he led an expedition to look for the abominable snowman he concluded that it didn't exist no no 180 00:20:32,329 --> 00:20:36,809 but the nepalese government has yeti hunting rules you have to pay for a permit it's the 181 00:20:36,809 --> 00:20:40,569 first thing you have to photograph or capture it you're not allowed to kill it and you 182 00:20:40,569 --> 00:20:45,130 have to turn it over or turn over the photographs of any sightings whatsoever i like 183 00:20:45,130 --> 00:20:48,890 the idea that edmund hillary's there at the press conference and this is what we're looking 184 00:20:48,890 --> 00:20:51,609 for and there's a bunch of sherpas in front of the gap oh you mean keith 185 00:20:54,730 --> 00:21:08,089 he said and you see no hat the yeti or the center parting do you think they saw lots of 186 00:21:08,089 --> 00:21:10,890 ones with little side parties like that's not the one i'm looking for 187 00:21:12,970 --> 00:21:18,250 if we cannot find the yeti we will settle for the lead singer of herman's hermits 188 00:21:18,250 --> 00:21:27,690 from mountains to cliffs how did the first ever cliffhanger ending conclude with somebody 189 00:21:27,690 --> 00:21:33,130 falling off a cliff or somebody not falling off a cliff where do we think it comes from 190 00:21:33,130 --> 00:21:39,529 the idea of using a cliffhanger in a story well as from serial storytelling was it dickens 191 00:21:39,529 --> 00:21:44,009 this is a famous british author who first came up with this test the devils dude oh 192 00:21:44,009 --> 00:21:48,890 obscure thomas hardy did it is thomas hardy thomas hardy wrote a novel in 1873 called a 193 00:21:48,890 --> 00:21:54,009 pair of blue eyes and one of the characters henry knight is left dangling perilously 194 00:21:54,009 --> 00:21:58,809 off the edge of a cliff and his love interest elf reader she realizes that he's in some 195 00:21:58,809 --> 00:22:02,329 terrible trouble and this is rather shocking and daring at the time she goes and takes 196 00:22:02,329 --> 00:22:07,130 off all her underwear in a bush and makes it into a rope and saves his life makes her bush 197 00:22:07,130 --> 00:22:07,769 into a rope 198 00:22:11,289 --> 00:22:15,529 this is it test the devils there's a wonderful line and it's dark and she's walking along 199 00:22:15,529 --> 00:22:18,809 and she suddenly felt a huge erection in her front and it turns out to be stonehenge 200 00:22:20,890 --> 00:22:26,650 wow the metaphorical cliffhanger so uses a literary device is much much older so the 201 00:22:26,650 --> 00:22:31,849 arabian 1001 nights is in the story from the eighth century of sherezade and she tells a 202 00:22:31,849 --> 00:22:36,009 story every night to avoid being killed and she always ends it so that the king wants to 203 00:22:36,009 --> 00:22:40,730 find out what happens next is there one in the bible what is the story in the cliffhanger 204 00:22:40,730 --> 00:22:45,450 with mary when she tells joseph that he's not the father of the kid and it like 205 00:22:49,210 --> 00:22:51,450 yes he's not my son no 206 00:22:55,369 --> 00:22:59,369 that's a cliffhanger that isn't it yeah but i like the doom that's what i think 207 00:22:59,369 --> 00:23:04,009 you're so right it is better with it it is much better previously in the bible 208 00:23:04,009 --> 00:23:17,079 oh you mentioned uh cereals what did you mean coca-pops in newspapers and and okay 209 00:23:18,519 --> 00:23:22,119 there were serial films in the early 20th century that would be shown once a week usually on a 210 00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,960 saturday morning and then they would continue on from the last and episodes tended to have 211 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:30,519 some kind of suspenseful scene that would then resolve the following week the most successful 212 00:23:30,519 --> 00:23:36,519 of these probably 1914's the perils of pauline that does have a literal cliffhanger in it in 213 00:23:36,599 --> 00:23:41,559 episode six with pauline the protagonist clinging halfway down a cliff but there's 214 00:23:41,559 --> 00:23:46,039 an effect called the zigharnik effect and cliffhangers take advantage of this 215 00:23:46,599 --> 00:23:53,400 people can remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than they can remember completed 216 00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:59,720 ones so there was a psychologist working in 1927 bluma zigharnik she was the very first 217 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:04,119 russian woman ever to attend university and she studied this phenomenon after her professor 218 00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:11,319 noticed that a waiter had better recollections of unpaid orders than paid ones and she found that 219 00:24:11,319 --> 00:24:17,319 people will remember an interrupted task about 90 better than something that is uninterrupted 220 00:24:17,319 --> 00:24:21,880 in a cliffhanger context you remember the story better and you're more invested in it 221 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:29,720 if the scene is left unresolved now how did britain's greatest national treasure get here 222 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:44,579 taxi what do you reckon what britain's greatest national treasure crown jewels it is to do with 223 00:24:44,579 --> 00:24:50,099 the crown jewels the cullinan diamond world's largest diamond ever found like a molar 224 00:24:50,099 --> 00:24:55,940 it's about the size of an orange so if you imagine the average diamond is about the size 225 00:24:55,940 --> 00:25:01,539 of a seed and you compare that to the cullinan diamond it was absolutely massive it was 226 00:25:01,539 --> 00:25:06,339 discovered in 1905 in the cullinan mines in south africa probably the most valuable object 227 00:25:06,339 --> 00:25:12,180 in the world at the time now as you said is in the crown jewels and so obviously they want to 228 00:25:12,180 --> 00:25:15,940 get it to london but did they just someone have to pocket it well what they did was they wanted 229 00:25:15,940 --> 00:25:19,059 to make sure that it was safe so they rather ceremoniously put it in a package and they 230 00:25:19,059 --> 00:25:22,980 locked it inside the safe of a steamboat there was a team of detectives and all those things 231 00:25:22,980 --> 00:25:27,539 making sure this huge thing was absolutely safe in fact that package was a decoy and the 232 00:25:27,539 --> 00:25:33,539 diamond arrived in london safe and sound by a registered post don't you love that they 233 00:25:33,940 --> 00:25:38,740 stick a stamp on it be all right i'm very glad that you said that because i just imagined 234 00:25:38,740 --> 00:25:45,750 the poor man walking all the way down the mall going oh god delivery for the coin 235 00:25:50,309 --> 00:25:54,869 it was taken immediately to king edward the seventh to inspect in fact the diamond went 236 00:25:54,869 --> 00:25:59,109 unsold for two years and the government of transvaal eventually they bought it 237 00:25:59,109 --> 00:26:03,430 after the equivalent of 15 million pounds today and they wanted to give it as a gift 238 00:26:03,430 --> 00:26:08,150 to the king but the government wasn't sure but churchill was the colonial secretary and 239 00:26:08,150 --> 00:26:12,230 he said absolutely we need to take this and because everybody was so grateful in transvaal 240 00:26:12,230 --> 00:26:16,789 to him for doing this churchill was given a replica he used to put it on a silver plate 241 00:26:16,789 --> 00:26:20,950 and show it off at dinners to guests i like the idea that you take it to the king and the king 242 00:26:20,950 --> 00:26:25,349 would inspect it but i mean i'm presuming he doesn't know loads about no diamond i mean 243 00:26:25,349 --> 00:26:28,789 what's he looking for i don't know i would have taken it to david dickinson 244 00:26:31,589 --> 00:26:33,910 he knows a bit more to me well that hs samuel 245 00:26:34,470 --> 00:26:39,829 is that a good one of course you did have to find somebody who was good with diamonds and the 246 00:26:39,829 --> 00:26:43,990 people who really knew about it was the asher brothers in amsterdam and again they made a big 247 00:26:43,990 --> 00:26:49,750 song and dance out of it the royal navy took a box across the north sea in fact abraham asher 248 00:26:49,750 --> 00:26:55,109 took the diamond put it in his pocket and caught the train and went by train and ferry 249 00:26:55,109 --> 00:26:58,950 all the way tickets please oh shit 250 00:27:01,109 --> 00:27:06,069 his brother joseph studied the diamond and he planned the cut for weeks and weeks and weeks 251 00:27:06,630 --> 00:27:11,430 four days before making the initial groove he he did a thing with the cutting knife and the 252 00:27:11,430 --> 00:27:16,069 knife broke rather than the diamond i mean it really was a massive thing he spent nine 253 00:27:16,630 --> 00:27:21,430 months cutting it into nine major diamonds and 96 what they call what do you want it to say 254 00:27:21,990 --> 00:27:27,910 how do you spell it so cullinan's one which is the great star of africa that is at the top of the 255 00:27:27,910 --> 00:27:33,349 scepter and cullinan's two is in front of the imperial state crown they're the major components 256 00:27:33,349 --> 00:27:39,109 that ruby there is black prince's ruby the largest one in the world not cut properly just 257 00:27:39,109 --> 00:27:45,029 give it a bit of a polish now on to the quest for true love who would be interested in this 258 00:27:45,109 --> 00:27:51,829 dating profile stocky build short bald bolivian male moderate drinker never been in a previous 259 00:27:51,829 --> 00:28:06,470 relationship definitely wants children that's basically me is it a human no obviously it's 260 00:28:06,470 --> 00:28:11,349 not a human all bolivian yes creature beginning with a q it doesn't begin with a q 261 00:28:11,349 --> 00:28:18,630 well it's in the wrong series it is but we are on a quest to find this creature a mate it 262 00:28:18,630 --> 00:28:26,230 is a frog a frog so this is a very sweet story okay this is a story of romeo a sewencus 263 00:28:26,230 --> 00:28:32,230 frog so he has been living in a tank in bolivia in the kochambamba natural history museum 264 00:28:32,230 --> 00:28:37,029 and it was thought that romeo was the last one in his species so the last one of species 265 00:28:37,029 --> 00:28:42,789 is called an endling and in 2018 his conservation has set up an online dating profile 266 00:28:42,869 --> 00:28:48,150 for him on match.com in an effort to find him a mate and here is the video 267 00:28:48,150 --> 00:28:54,390 that they made for their search hi there i'm romeo a sewencas water frog from bolivia 268 00:28:54,390 --> 00:28:58,789 i'm a pretty simple guy i tend to keep to myself and love spending nights at home 269 00:28:59,910 --> 00:29:07,109 i also love eating then again who doesn't oh who could resist right who could resist 270 00:29:07,109 --> 00:29:10,150 they're good friends to do that didn't want to do it himself yeah 271 00:29:14,150 --> 00:29:16,309 miguel could you do a video for me 272 00:29:24,759 --> 00:29:29,720 i have the tiny arms of the frog he is not possible for me to hold the phone 273 00:29:30,599 --> 00:29:35,779 in the world you want me to say 274 00:29:36,900 --> 00:29:40,980 right it's not a big piece of pepper behind your phone 275 00:29:43,460 --> 00:29:46,339 the thing is it worked loads of frogs started turning up 276 00:29:49,539 --> 00:30:02,339 went out on a frog finding expedition they found three males and two females and he has now 277 00:30:02,339 --> 00:30:07,380 been paired with a female who they have obviously named juliette exactly right see 278 00:30:07,380 --> 00:30:12,259 because i'm called romeo this photograph was taken of me at my modern jazz dance class 279 00:30:20,539 --> 00:30:29,269 dancing bolivia must never smile what's wrong about romeo's personality as they put 280 00:30:29,269 --> 00:30:33,990 him with juliette she's really energetic she loves to swim she eats a lot she keeps trying 281 00:30:33,990 --> 00:30:41,910 to escape and she is driving me on the wall climbing out of the tank yeah he's eating my 282 00:30:41,910 --> 00:30:48,150 arms he's very shy he doesn't like her there's no such thing as shyness 283 00:30:48,150 --> 00:30:51,750 that's an affectation he doesn't like her and he's acting as if he's shy 284 00:30:53,269 --> 00:30:57,269 i want a different one this is your one there are other animal dating 285 00:30:57,269 --> 00:31:02,069 apps there is a dating app called tudder does anybody know what that might be for cows it is 286 00:31:02,069 --> 00:31:08,150 for cows it was launched in early 2019 and you can browse cattle from all over the uk 287 00:31:08,150 --> 00:31:11,750 to find a suitable mate for your livestock you're going to request either cows or bulls 288 00:31:11,750 --> 00:31:16,150 and you do literally swipe left or right find someone that looks at you the way that that 289 00:31:16,150 --> 00:31:22,150 freesia is looking at me honestly apparently andy murray is invested in tudder i don't know 290 00:31:22,150 --> 00:31:26,789 why you thought that's not true is it yeah that is a true thing yes why i don't know 291 00:31:26,789 --> 00:31:32,470 the i don't know the workings of his mind i don't know if you're aware but i recently had 292 00:31:32,470 --> 00:31:37,750 an artificial hip put in so i need to find new avenues of uh revenue 293 00:31:39,509 --> 00:31:48,619 i thought cow dating i was on a lot of painkillers anything like him at all 294 00:31:50,380 --> 00:31:58,470 yeah but i sound a little like the bull the frog was in the room but i don't know who this 295 00:31:58,470 --> 00:32:01,829 float is andy murray i won't wumble them 296 00:32:04,470 --> 00:32:11,339 he certainly physically resembled him anything left or right with uh i think they get the farm 297 00:32:14,299 --> 00:32:27,190 speaking of breeding who has the world's most sinister genitals 298 00:32:28,950 --> 00:32:37,509 in attendance or in the world in the world the most sinister sinister as in to the left 299 00:32:37,589 --> 00:32:49,259 exactly latin for left so in 2017 there was a snail called jeremy who was really lonely 300 00:32:49,259 --> 00:32:58,230 and there is uh yeah so where's he from i'll do the accent jeremy was from southwest london 301 00:33:00,230 --> 00:33:07,269 it is an extremely rare sinistral snail so that means that the shell spirals to the left 302 00:33:07,269 --> 00:33:10,869 so he was called jeremy because they named him after jeremy corbyn but it meant his 303 00:33:10,869 --> 00:33:14,950 genitals were on the wrong side so he could only have sex with another snail who also had 304 00:33:14,950 --> 00:33:19,190 genitals on the left side anyway they did a search and they found two potential mates this 305 00:33:19,190 --> 00:33:23,910 is a lovely story you keep saying it's a lovely story a succession of perverts trying to get 306 00:33:24,869 --> 00:33:31,670 weird animals to have sex this isn't a lovely story at all wait i want to see the snails 307 00:33:31,910 --> 00:33:34,470 oh 308 00:33:40,869 --> 00:33:42,470 snail porn come on 309 00:33:44,309 --> 00:33:50,470 takes ages it takes ages anyway this is a nice story because two potential mates were found one 310 00:33:50,470 --> 00:33:56,150 in spain and one in suffolk and they brought the three together oh there is a threesome 311 00:33:56,150 --> 00:34:03,109 no no it's worse darling the ones from spain and suffolk got down to it and jeremy had to watch 312 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:12,119 was he videoing it this is the key yeah you say he had to watch he could have just gone indoors 313 00:34:12,119 --> 00:34:20,199 yeah now because i love you phil we do actually have some snail porn oh yeah 314 00:34:22,599 --> 00:34:26,920 there's snails engaging in foreplay so what they do is they circle and they touch each 315 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:35,159 other's tentacles yeah if you look carefully there you can see their penises come out of their 316 00:34:35,159 --> 00:34:41,480 heads that is just a thing it's a snail thing oh baby yeah don't worry about unblocking the sink 317 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:50,710 come to bed only one final challenge remains for our gallant knights as we trepidate into 318 00:34:50,710 --> 00:34:56,630 the treacherous kingdom of general ignorance fingers on buzzers please which is the closest 319 00:34:56,630 --> 00:35:25,269 planet to earth yes absolutely right it is mercury but it's not how we normally think of it 320 00:35:25,269 --> 00:35:29,590 so the minimum distance between the earth and venus is 24 million miles if you have a look at 321 00:35:29,590 --> 00:35:33,909 this this is how we generally very very near isn't of it yeah well it is in sort of space 322 00:35:33,909 --> 00:35:39,590 terms the minimum distance to mars is 34 million miles and to mercury it's 48 million 323 00:35:39,590 --> 00:35:43,349 miles so you would imagine that it all goes like that and everybody stays in the same 324 00:35:43,349 --> 00:35:49,110 line up however that is not how orbits work so let's have a look at this video which explains 325 00:35:49,110 --> 00:35:53,750 it a little bit more initially it looks as though mercury is the furthest away but the 326 00:35:53,750 --> 00:36:01,349 way the orbits function is that venus often is right the other side of the sun making it 327 00:36:01,349 --> 00:36:06,070 really really far away and there's a guy called oliver hawkins and he wrote some 328 00:36:06,070 --> 00:36:10,630 computer code to try and work this out and he found that the planet that spends most of 329 00:36:10,630 --> 00:36:15,349 the time closer to earth than any other is mercury so it's closest to earth 46 percent of 330 00:36:15,349 --> 00:36:21,670 the time venus was closest 36 percent of the time and mars only 18 i think i did say all of that 331 00:36:21,670 --> 00:36:30,309 yeah venus is an astonishing place because a day on venus is longer than a year it rotates 332 00:36:30,309 --> 00:36:35,510 so slowly that you could stroll across its surface at exactly the same speed as the sun 333 00:36:35,510 --> 00:36:41,190 passes through the sky it means you could watch the sunset forever just by walking but you'd be 334 00:36:41,190 --> 00:36:48,389 eviscerated you would darling it rains sulfuric acid and the atmosphere is 872 degrees fahrenheit 335 00:36:48,389 --> 00:36:54,550 but anything for a sunset am i right anybody have a mnemonic to remember the planets in order 336 00:36:54,550 --> 00:37:03,829 yes it's mercury venus earth mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune thank you darling that's 337 00:37:03,829 --> 00:37:09,510 perfect um that is the order and gruto doesn't count it's actually a disney character yes 338 00:37:11,190 --> 00:37:14,550 that is the order of the planets and one is often taught it at school so 339 00:37:14,550 --> 00:37:18,869 many volcanoes emit mulberry jam sandwiches under normal pressure 340 00:37:18,869 --> 00:37:23,670 or my very easy method just speeds up naming planets so they were i couldn't get past vagina 341 00:37:23,670 --> 00:37:37,670 though i've got moist vagina expected might just steam up nighty so so weirdly that's 342 00:37:37,670 --> 00:37:44,869 probably the one i'm going to remember anybody else alice you've got one mine's quite depressing 343 00:37:44,869 --> 00:37:51,829 okay mom's vacant expression means jane sulks and less noticed wow you're a jolly girl at school 344 00:37:53,429 --> 00:37:57,750 my favorite is mary's virgin explanation made joseph suspect upstairs neighbor 345 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,440 we're pointing out of course that pluto is no longer regarded now not there 346 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:13,639 it's now a dwarf but on the subject of earth where would you find the oldest part of it 347 00:38:14,119 --> 00:38:20,840 antique shop alice is sort of heading in the right direction in terms of it being on display 348 00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:25,880 somewhere is it a fossil in a museum is it something like that well it's actually in 349 00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:30,519 shuston oh it's the moon rock moon rock is darling it is absolutely a piece of moon rock 350 00:38:30,519 --> 00:38:39,480 because it was don't blind me with science so we're talking about apollo 14 so 1971 they 351 00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,000 brought some bits and pieces back and they haven't really had time to analyze them all 352 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:47,960 you know how you have stuff in a box you think i must get to it so it's at mass's lunar sample 353 00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:53,400 laboratory facility in houston and in january 2019 they analyzed a piece of this rock 354 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:57,239 and they realized it came from what's known as the hadian earth so we are talking about the 355 00:38:57,239 --> 00:39:01,800 planet only being about half a billion years old at that point and it was found on the 356 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:06,760 moon but almost certainly what happened is this particular specimen was blasted off the 357 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:11,159 earth about four billion years ago when a large asteroid struck so it would have shot 358 00:39:11,159 --> 00:39:15,480 through what would have been much thinner atmosphere and collided with the moon which 359 00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:19,079 at that time was only a third of its current distance as i'm sure you know the moon is 360 00:39:19,079 --> 00:39:24,440 drifting away from the earth annually about 1.6 inches used to be much closer than it is so 361 00:39:24,440 --> 00:39:27,719 so that is an astonishing thing that they found it in the cupboard um it's only tiny 362 00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:32,280 it's a chip just about a couple of centimeters squared everyone's got that draw with you know 363 00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:40,280 yes elastic bands yeah some floppy disks we cleared out our understates cupboard and 364 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:46,039 we found three fondue sets what is i've never been less surprised by anything 365 00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:54,119 the oldest known piece of earth was found on the moon what is the name of this sword 366 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:56,840 Excalibur 367 00:40:00,679 --> 00:40:04,840 that's the first one he got Excalibur is the one later yes from the lady of the lake the one he 368 00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:10,840 pulled out the stone is called terry oh yeah you're right the sword the sword and stones 369 00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:16,039 likely called clarent claren claren is a sort of piece he pulled it out of the stone shortly 370 00:40:16,039 --> 00:40:21,639 before buying his first pair of trousers they're quite a fit aren't they that's what 371 00:40:21,639 --> 00:40:28,760 they're all laughing at i did see a boy in the street the other day wearing uh jeggings 372 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:33,559 a boy it's a mistake isn't it you can see everything because he was sinister 373 00:40:37,079 --> 00:40:38,440 i know a snail like you 374 00:40:40,599 --> 00:40:47,000 with the quest for eternal life so so alan of car your final challenge okay 375 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:55,690 okay upon the under table lies the chalice of eternal life prithi select the one true 376 00:40:55,690 --> 00:41:01,369 holy grail and bring it to me oh okay good luck this is my hat oh yes of course if i 377 00:41:01,369 --> 00:41:05,769 look like indiana jones i look like a charlie hungerford from berserak 378 00:41:14,710 --> 00:41:20,309 so um you are looking for the holy grail which one are you going to select what's that 379 00:41:20,309 --> 00:41:25,269 indiana jones one where it thinks that jesus's cup will be like the golden one but it's the 380 00:41:25,269 --> 00:41:30,630 modest one isn't it okay so what do you reckon well i think it's the wooden one 381 00:41:35,820 --> 00:41:41,340 here is the thing you should have picked the tray tray is the holy grail a grail was most 382 00:41:41,340 --> 00:41:47,980 likely a serving dish so would you please bring me the tray and none of the cups whatsoever 383 00:41:47,980 --> 00:41:53,659 has it got one of those bean bag padded bottoms i love those if i could have that 384 00:41:53,659 --> 00:41:57,980 please darling the word grail like thank you sweetheart it comes from the latin gradale 385 00:41:57,980 --> 00:42:02,059 grail and it means a deep platter that you would serve food on during medieval banquets 386 00:42:02,059 --> 00:42:06,940 it gradually evolved from sort of middle ages onwards into people thinking it was a larger 387 00:42:06,940 --> 00:42:10,940 vessel with an elaborate cover and then a drinking cup tradition the idea is it gives 388 00:42:10,940 --> 00:42:15,820 immortality to the drinker although the bible gives no special significance to the chance 389 00:42:15,820 --> 00:42:20,699 that jesus uses to consecrate his land why it became very popular in arthurian tales 390 00:42:20,699 --> 00:42:24,860 one of these stories tells of joseph of aramathia bringing it to glastonbury actually 391 00:42:25,340 --> 00:42:33,739 where he got smashed oh well there's a stream that runs red is that right oh by the red bull 392 00:42:33,739 --> 00:42:39,420 stand well the legend has it it's because it's traveled through christ's blood via the holy 393 00:42:39,420 --> 00:42:45,420 ground i think spoil sports scientists will tell you it's the high levels of iron red oxide in 394 00:42:45,420 --> 00:42:50,380 the soil well i'm afraid you picked wrong but you look very fetching in the hat i would love 395 00:42:50,380 --> 00:42:54,539 to see a camp indiana jones make terrible happens because 396 00:42:58,139 --> 00:43:03,019 a grail actually looks like this which means a holy grail looks like this 397 00:43:05,420 --> 00:43:12,539 i'm working my ass off here people which brings us to the scores in first place 398 00:43:12,539 --> 00:43:23,000 with minus one it's phil in second place with minus seven making a fantastic debut it's alan 399 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:48,969 car this is surprising minus 15 alan plays with minus 18 it's alan farewell to my noble 400 00:43:48,969 --> 00:43:54,090 knights alice alan phil and alan and me till we meet again let us dwell upon this questing 401 00:43:54,090 --> 00:43:59,289 quotation from the late great knight of the realm sir terry pratchett so much universe 402 00:43:59,289 --> 00:44:03,849 and so little time good night