University Challenge at 60

 I've just been looking at the schedule for the next week on the iplayer, and it has confirmed that the new series of University Challenge starts on BBC2 at 8:30 following Only Connect, which begins series 18 at 8pm. Happy days - quizzy Mondays are back. No sign of Mastermind returning yet, but soldier on. At the bottom of the BBC's own Mastermind Website History fo the Show page it does say that the show returns in September 2022.

Straight after the first match, though, I noticed there's a special documentary - University Challenge at 60. Fantastic - and it's well deserved by the show. It's an hour long too, so well done, BBC. It's followed by the film, Starter for Ten. So full marks for recognising this milestone.

On the other hand, I've still not found out any information regarding when the next series of Mastermind is going to start. I hope - without necessarily a massive amount of anticipation - that the BBC are intending to mark the 50th Anniversary of Mastermind somehow. In purely symbolic terms if nothing else, 50 is a hugely significant number, which the BBC recognised ten years ago when they celebrated University Challenge reaching the milestone with a similar evening to that planned on Monday. This, mind you, even considering that University Challenge, this most archetypal of BBC quiz shows, was shown on ITV for the first 25 years of its existence. Mastermind has always been made for the BBC, even if it hasn't been made by the BBC for the last few years. On the BBC Mastermind web pages, on the History of the Show page it does say "Mastermind celebrates its 0th Anniversary in 2022'. Well it doesn't actually say 'Mastermind celebrates its anniversary in 2022 (but we don't)' so one can only hope.

Look, you know me well enough by now, and how defensive about Mastermind I can be. I can't help it. I do hope that the BBC mark the anniversary in some way. Even if they've decided not to involve past champions - or even if they do involve past champions but not me - I can live with that. But as I hope hat I showed when I wrote about the history of the show a few months back, there is an interesting story to be told there.