University Challenge at 60 Documentary

Well, well, dearly beloved. After months of having very little to say but still saying it anyway, we’ve got a lot to get through today. We’ve already reviewed last night’s UC. So let’s discuss for a moment the filling in last night’s UC/Starter for 10 sandwich, University Challenge at 60.

I felt it was a little ironic to see that Samira Ahmed voiced this affectionate documentary. She’s been the stand-in presenter should anything happen to JP for a while, yet she has been passed over for the main gig in favour of Amol Rajan. Well, there we are. Her affection for the show came through the voice over, and indeed, so did the affection of everyone else taking part.

There seemed to be a conscious effort to avoid going over similar ground to previous celebrations of OC. This we didn’t have contributions from some of the luminaries who went on from appearing on UC during its first quarter century on ITV. The only one was the lady from Southall (London Borough of Ealing! Yay!) who explained how appearing on University Chalenge for the University of Leicester in the early 70s - the first woman of asian heritage to do so - gave her back some of the confidence which years of racial bullying at school had taken away from her. This was moving and added a welcome serious note amongst all the jolliness of the show. 

Instead we had contributions from Chasers Mark Labbett and Jenny Ryan, both of whom had early TV appearances on UC. Neither won the series, but be fair, they’ve both done alright for themselves since. Then really a group of luminaries from the last fifteen years or so. Erik Monkman was the most relaxed and engaging that I’ve ever seen him appear on TV, and a joy to listen to. Part of the show looked briefly at the question whether anyone could be called the greatest contender ever. The name of Alex Guttenplan, who did not appear sadly, was toyed with, before a section featuring the great Gail Trimble, who it claimed holds the record for a single show of fifteen starters. I’m not arguing. Mind you, it made no reference whatsoever to the greatest controversy of the 60 years of the show when Gail Trimble’s Corpus Christi team were stripped of their win when it emerged that one of their team has left the University before filming the final. I mean, come on, we all know what happened, and a long time has passed. It could easily have been mentioned, along with – filming dates have been since changed to ensure that this won’t happen again. It just struck me as odd that you’d go to the trouble of having Gail Trimble on, yet not even mention it once.

I did enjoy the filmed insert featuring Brandon of Imperial, the 2020 champions. He described his single minded preparation, which involved watching something like fifty hours of Newsnight to get familiar with Jeremy Paxman’s accent and diction. His point was that preparation will beat talent, and he suggested that anyone can do it with the right preparation. I’m not so sure. Preparation beats just talent – yes, probably. But I think that preparation plus talent beats just preparation. Or let’s put it another way. I feel that we probably each have an optimum level of quizzer we could be. Some of us, because of our personal talents and abilities – our recall, for instance – have a higher optimum level than others. So in the same way, it doesn’t matter how hard you practice and how many lessons you have with a top professional, you are never going to be as good a golfer as Tiger Woods was in his pomp. However if you do undertake the preparation and have the lessons you are going to become a lot better than you were. I think it’s the same with preparation for quizzes.

An enjoyable hour then, when all of the talking heads had something interesting to contribute. I found it amusing to hear Griff Rhys Jones say that when he met Bamber Gascoigne the great man was far too polite to mention Griff’s impersonation of him for the immortal Young Ones ‘Bambi’ episode. Mind you, Griff himself didn’t mention that he’d previously made the same impression in an earlier Not the Nine O’Clock News sketch – HM Prisons Challenge. (Was it Reggie ‘the dog’ Trubshawe?)

So now that we’ve had justice done to University Challenge, come on BBC – what about Mastermind’s Fiftieth Anniversary?