Did you miss me? I've been in Spain for the last couple of weeks, which is why I haven't posted. No quizzes out there this time, so really not a great deal to say.
Now that I'm back however, we have to start with the big news. You'll probably have heard by now that the coming series of University Challenge will be Jeremy Paxman's last as host. It's only a year ago that I made my first review of UC for quite some time, and I said that I was not going to continue with the Jeremy Paxman watch section of the reviews since I didn't feel comfortable doing so bearing in mind that Jeremy Paxman had announced that he is suffering from Parkinsons. I've read a number of articles about him stepping down, and none of them are explicit about his reasons, but I doubt that any of us can seriously blame him for doing so.
After all, he's been hosting the show for 28 years. That's even longer than the late great Bamber Gascoigne's twenty five year stint. I believe that Bamber was offered the opportunity to helm the series again when it returned to BBC in 1994, but politely declined, thinking that he'd done enough. Why exactly the production team decided to opt for JP's chalk when they couldn't have Bamber's cheese heaven only knows, but it turned out to be an inspired decision. So thank you, Jeremy Paxman. I've thoroughly enjoyed the show, and you have been a vital part of it.
Which begs the question, though, who will take over? The appointment has already been made, so it seems, although the Beeb are giving nothing away at the moment. One name being bandied about is Samira Ahmed. A similar thing happened in 2021 with Mastermind before Clive Myrie was announced as the new host - taking to it like a duck to water it should be said. So I'm not reading too much into it, although I think she's fit very well into the question master's seat. Whoever is appointed I hope that they have similar credibility to Samira and JP himself. Yes, it worked out well the last time they did 'and now for something completely different' - but please, please, please do not parachute in some light entertainment personality. It's just not that kind of show.
I have no right to offer advice to whoever takes over, but I'm going to do it anyway. Take one leaf from Bamber's book, and one from Jeremy's. Do your homework. Bamber always used to go through the questions very carefully himself long before filming started. Also, be yourself, and when you're enjoying it, don't be afraid to show it. With JP I thought you could always tell when he was particularly enjoying a contest.
According to the first article I read, UC's new series starts on the 29th, a week on Monday.
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