The first heat sees contenders facing questions on the history and geography of the Lake District, the novels of Sue Townsend, the life and career of Dorothy Hodgkin, and Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' series.
Charles Dickens's female characters, the Mughal Empire, the life and legacy of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, and Rod Serling's 'The Twilight Zone' are the specialist subjects chosen by the four contenders in the black chair.
Four more contenders take to the black chair, with their specialist subjects the members and music of Genesis, Shakespeare's Elizabethan tragedies, the Thirty Years' war, and 'Firefly' and 'Serenity'.
Specialist subjects are Mary, Queen of Scots, the life and works of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Star Trek: The Original Series, and the life and career of Jenson Button.
In the first of the semi-finals, specialist subjects are the life and career of Robin Williams, the Giro d'Italia, Cab Calloway and the suffragette movement.
In the Grand Final, specialist subjects are the Wars of the Roses, the Ancient Universities of Scotland, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, the View Askewniverse films of Kevin Smith, the Stonewall riots and Johannes Vermeer.