University Challenge

Revision as of 15:28, 16 December 2006

Synopsis

Very few quiz programmes could be said to make up part of the fabric of the nation, but University Challenge is certainly a contender.

Two teams of four students, each team drawn from one university, compete in a question-and-answer quiz so old-school that Adam and Eve themselves may have taught there.

All eight contestants individually attempt to buzz or ring in to answer the "Starter For Ten", valued at, er, ten points for their team; however, an incorrect interruption merits a five-point deduction.

Host of the original programme, Bamber Gascoigne.

The team producing a correct answer then may attempt to answer three more questions upon a different common theme, as a team, for five points apiece.

Recipe for success

Repeat for twenty minutes or so. Pepper with occasional visual or musical rounds and bang a big gong at the end. The pace of the game starts slow (a minute or more for a starter and a set of bonuses), but picks up towards the end (under 45 seconds for a full stanza) as the host performs an impersonation of a horse-racing commentator. An excellent pair of teams will score 500 points between them in a game (sadly, a rare occurence these days), so a score of 200+ is good and 250+ very good.

The traditional set, replete with scarves. The "one-above-the-other" effect is created via split-screen.

The big picture

Each contest forms part of a series-long tournament, with the fourteen winners of the first-round matches going through to the last sixteen, accompanied by the winners of two repechage matches between the four highest-scoring losers; it's all single elimination from then on. (In the early days, six groups of four teams played in a league format, with the winner of each group progressing to the knockout phase along with the two best runners-up.) Winning teams get a lovely piece of glassware (latterly, a huge lump of etched metal) and also sometimes get friendlies against their tournament-winning counterparts from America or New Zealand, or even their own university dons. And... er, that's it.

A modern University Challenge team. The captain always sits in the third seat from the left.

With the demise of Mastermind in the late 90s, there remained no finer source of hard questions on TV for your "Bloody hell, I actually got one right!" satisfaction. Even now that Mastermind has returned (based in Manchester and with a famously abrasive news anchor hosting - now wherever could they have got that idea from?), UC still stands head and shoulders above its local rival in this respect. And just how can those sweet, innocent-looking students know so much about all those obscure subjects?

The question remains whether the science questions are "much too hard" or "much too easy" - whether it's possible to write a set of questions which have the same relative difficulty in all the different topics. Both sides have been argued in the past.

The current inquizitor, Jeremy Paxman

The composition of the ideal University Challenge team (in terms of what subjects the team members should study and whether the show shouldn't be restricted to undergraduates in the first place anyway) is the subject of many a heated pub debate. Well, it is if you drink in the same pub as us.

Yet another millennium makeover

Even stalwarts like University Challenge feel the need to modernise and in the year 2000 they gave it a new set and new music, but the format has been kept the same. When we say "new set and music" what we actually mean is "slightly nicer looking set and old tune done in a more classical style." We can't say we're fans of the new music - the old one was refreshingly bouncy, but this remix seems to emphasise the upper class nature of the quiz rather too much.

High marks for the new set though, the main new bits being a reddy-brown colour scheme and a background that's a combination of artwork, lighting and mirrors, best described as a sort of giant academic lava lamp. The colours changed to a blue-and-purple scheme during 2004.

In 2002, an enjoyable "Reunited" series invited back former winners and notable teams, although the way that winners were decided (the four highest-scorers playing two semis and a final) was most abrupt.

2003 saw the start of University Challenge: The Professionals, which has become a regular summer filler and means that the show now carries on pretty much all year round in one form or another. There was even a yuletide mini-tournament in 2004, and another over the new year in 2005-6.

Key moments

Jeremy Paxman getting ever-so-uppity with students who really ought to know the answers. Well, he thinks so anyway.

Watching contestants of advanced years (ringers? shurely not!) especially ones who have returned to university solely to try to appear on University Challenge. At least two contestants have gone this far to get on the programme.

Spotting contestants who you think will turn out to be the next Stephen Fry, Clive James or David Mellor (all UC alumni). Other famous people to have appeared as contestants include author Sebastian Faulks, actress Miriam Margoyles, politician Malcolm Rifkind and screenwriter/actor Julian Fellowes.

A young Stephen Fry

The young lady who argued with Jeremy Paxman - when asked to identify the National Trust symbol, she said, "It's an oak leaf". "Anyone can see it's an oak leaf!" snorted Paxman, only for her to argue, "You asked 'what is it?' not 'what's it for?' You should have asked 'what's it for?!' Paxman then backed down somewhat, with the words, "On a point of pedantry, you may be right, but there you are, bad luck!"

The Clergy team singing 'The Red Flag' on one edition of the first 'Professionals' series - and soon after that, on the next regular series, a music student sang 'I Feel Pretty!'

Catchphrases

"Here's your starter for ten."

"Oh, do come on!"

"No conferring!" - or, as Jeremy Paxman often puts it: "You may not confer - one of you may buzz!"

(Bamber Gascoigne-era): "Well remembered!"

(Paxman-era): "And it's goodbye from me - goodbye!"

"And at the gong....!"

Music

The theme music is called College Boy by Derek New, and the current version is performed by the Balanescu Quartet.

Inventor

Based on the US format College Bowl by Don Reid. The format has its ultimate origin in the Second World War when Reid (who actually hailed from Canada) first devised it as a recreational activity for the US military.

Trivia

In 1970, a Mrs Westgate from Southampton complained to listings magazine TV Times about the Cambridge team on UC: "I missed the introduction and could not be sure whether I was looking at boys and girls - or girls and boys. How nicely masculine the other team looked though."

At its peak, the programme pulled in 12 million viewers. Not bad considering it was pretty much the antithesis of the usual slick-pattered, come-and-have-a-go, big money game show usually associated with commercial TV in those days (and in these days, indeed). The series was axed in 1987 when those ratings fell to 1 million.

The BBC incarnation grew out of a 1992 one-off that was produced as part of BBC2's "Granadaland" theme night.

The glass-effect background behind each team in the first modern incarnation read "University Challenge" in different lettering and symbols, including Greek, Cyrillic and Braille.

Contrary to the impression you might get from watching Jeremy Paxman's reaction to unexpected responses, it's actually the producer who adjudicates on borderline answers. When Paxman appears to be umming and ahhing over whether to award points or not, he's really just waiting for a signal in his earpiece.

Special editions have included a Red Dwarf-themed edition, cleverly re-titled Universe Challenge, with Bamber back in the chair; and two "Comic Relief" specials hosted by Angus Deayton.

Stephen Fry must surely hold the record for the most appearances (after the hosts) on the programme. He represented his university in the 1981 series, reaching that year's final, and has since reappeared on several celebrity specials, including the 1992 one against Keble College, Oxford, and at least one of the Angus Deayton-hosted Comic Relief specials, and he presented the trophy to the winners of the Reunited series. He also took part in the 'Young Ones' spoof of the programme.

During the Paxman-era, every single first match of the 12 regular series so far has seen the losing team qualify among the highest-scoring runners-up, usually due to a strong comeback by one of the teams.

The potential points total for a set of bonuses has not always been fixed at fifteen. In the early days, University Challenge followed College Bowl's lead and had a varying score for bonuses (ten, fifteen or twenty points), which was announced by the chairman before reading out the starter question.

The lowest score for the regular series was achieved by the girls of New Hall, Cambridge. Their 35 points were scraped together in 1997, beating a 40-point low previously kept by Birkbeck College, London. Bradford University also scored 35 in 2004, as did the Royal Naval College and the Lawyers in the 2003 Professionals series. However, the all-time low for the Paxman era was also achieved in the 2003 Professionals series, when the Politicians team scored only 25. In 2006, Robinson College, Cambridge scored 40 points. Other teams to score only 40 have included Oxford Brookes University (1998); St Andrew's University (2001 and 2004); Keele University (2002) and Queen's University, Belfast (2005).

University Challenge features in David Nicholls' bestselling comic novel Starter For Ten, which has been made into a feature film.

Champions

1963 Leicester
1965 New College, Oxford
1966 Oriel College, Oxford
1967 Sussex
1968 Keele
1969 Sussex
1970 Churchill College, Cambridge
1971 Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
1972 University College, Oxford
1973 Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
1974 Trinity College, Cambridge
1975 Keble College, Oxford
1976 University College, Oxford
1977 Durham
1978 Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
1979 Bradford
1980 Merton College, Oxford
1981 Queen's University, Belfast
1982 St. Andrews
1983 Dundee
1984 Open University
1985 Jesus College, Oxford
1986 Keble College, Oxford
1995 Trinity College, Cambridge
1996 Imperial College, London
1997 Magdalen College, Oxford
1998 Magdalen College, Oxford
1999 Open University
2000 Durham
2001 Imperial College, London
2002 Somerville College, Oxford
2003 Birkbeck College, London
2004 Magdalen College, Oxford
2005 Corpus Christi College, Oxford
2006 Manchester

University Challenge Reunited
2002 Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge 1979

University Challenge: The Professionals
2003 Inland Revenue
2004 British Library
2005 Privy Council Office
2006 Bodleian Library

Challenge Matches
1993 Celebrity Alumni team* beat Keble College, Oxford 1986 team
1997 Magdalen College Oxford 1997 beat Imperial College London 1996
1999 Magdalen College Oxford 1998 beat Leicester 1963

*Alumni team consisted of previous UC contestants: John Simpson, Charles Moore, Stephen Fry (captain) and Alistair Little.

Merchandise

University Challenge: The First 40 Years (paperback)

University Challenge Quiz Book (paperback)

See also

Sixth Form Challenge

Web links

Wikipedia entry

Sean Blanchflower's page - includes some excellent statistics and features, including an interview with David Elias (former question setter)

Chris Harrison's page

Pictures

Picture 1 - A more recent picture of Bamber Gascoigne.

Feedback