Over the past few weeks, many of you will have been under the impression that an important event is just around the corner. Greeting cards have been sent. Food has been stockpiled. Music rehearsed… It’s clearly that time of year again. Which can mean only one thing: the RSP has been on to go for two years — can you believe this?
To celebrate, we couldn’t resist bringing you another Mid-Year Special [all (non-)religious festivals are available]. Following on from last year’s hilarious Only Sixty Seconds, we brought together last year’s winner (Dr. David Wilson), and last year’s ‘most entertaining loser’ (Jonathan Tuckett), with six other contestants, to fight for the coveted RSP Christmas trophy.
The game?
Nul Point! (any resemblance to a popular BBC television programme hosted by Alexander Armstrong is entirely coincidental). Before the show, we gave 64 of the RSP listeners 100 seconds to answer a variety of questions. The aim of the game for contestants is to correctly find the answer which the least percentage of these people answered correctly. Simples.
The contestants?
Professor George Chryssides, Professor James Cox, Dr Stephen Gregg, Hanna Lehtinen, Dr Suzanne Owen, Dr Teemu Taira, Jonathan Tuckett, and Dr David Wilson
The venue?
Liverpool Hope University, at the BASR/EASR/IAHR Conference in September 2013, with a special live studio audience.
What is the least well known book of the Bible? How many people in the UK listed their ‘religion’ as ‘Jedi Knight’ on the UK 2011 Census? What is Professor Jim Cox’s drink of choice? To find out, you need do nothing more than hit ‘Play’ and enjoy this forty minutes of pure, unadulterated, top quality Religious Studies entertainment. Remember to listen to the end for some amusing outtakes.
There was a picture round as part of the game show – you can view these pictures here. Interested in seeing a picture of the winner being presented with their trophy? Click here.
Non-denominational seasonal greetings to all our listeners, and best wishes for 2014. We’ll be back in January — bigger and better than ever. Many thanks to everyone who took part in this recording — the contestants, the hosts, and the studio audience. Thanks to the BASR/EASR/IAHR for facilitating this recording and adding it to the official conference schedule. Thanks to the technical team at Liverpool Hope University for the audio recording, and to the inestimable David Robertson for technical wizardry on the night and for pulling the episode together. Thanks to those listeners and fans who helped out by providing the much-needed material for the game show. And finally—and perhaps most importantly—thanks for listening!
