I like a good quiz programme. Not one that is slow and dressed up in frilly entertainment but a quiz programme that gets straight to the questions and values knowledge.
Here in Great Britain, the BBC hosts a weekly quiz show called "University Challenge" in which teams of four students from different universities battle against each other for supremacy. The questions are broad and pretty difficult ranging from astrophysics to the poetry of John Donne and from Formula One racing cars to the life of Alexander the Great. You never know what you are going to get.
It is an institution in this country though the programme fell into abeyance when the first quizmaster - Bamber Gascoigne - retired in 1987. The BBC resurrected the show in 1994 and since then the quizmaster has been Jeremy Paxman who will sadly retire this year because of his ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease.
"University Challenge" is one of my favourite television shows and every week I manage to correctly answer a handful of questions - sometimes ones that the contestants fail to get.
Some brilliant young men and women have appeared on the show displaying amazing stores of knowledge but there are also panellists who contribute very little indeed and you wonder what they are even doing there.
It is such a part of our modern culture that there have been several spoof versions of it, such as this one from six years ago:-
Thank you for the giggle on this damp Sunday morning. I think I find the Young Ones funnier now than when they were originally aired. Must be senility creeping in.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have given you a giggle sparklingbabycham!
DeleteBoris Johnson, sigh. As my grandfather would often say, "what a maroon."
ReplyDeleteI could think of some ruder names for that egomaniac!
DeleteThe Young Ones were definitely funnier than Johnson. But of course beneath the surface of Johnson lurks an evil creature!
ReplyDelete"It Came From Within" starring Mr Tumble as Boris Johnson.
Delete"Inside all of us there is a beast lurking..."
I think The University Challenge would be too far over my head, I'm just not that smart. I can learn stuff, just can't remember it later. Unless it is something I am particularly interested in.
ReplyDeleteThey tend not to ask questions about hunky male film stars!
DeleteCould it be simply nerves when some contestants can‘t contribute much?
ReplyDeleteI have never watched University Challenge, but I own all episodes of The Young Ones on DVD, inherited from Steve.
I don't get the impression that it is nerves. More like uselessness I am afraid.
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ReplyDeleteA recent innovation on UC is that you can now hear the contestants discussing their answers to the bonus questions. There are some impressive team leaders.
Yes - some of the contestants have an amazing wide range of knowledge.
DeleteBefore I lost most of my hearing , P and I would watch University Challenge together. It was very satisfying if we could get a correct answer before those bright young things.
ReplyDeleteCan you get subtitles on it?
DeleteWhat a prat. How could anyone vote Conservative?
ReplyDeleteI am not a prat! How dare you!
DeleteEarly in some of our tv quiz programmes, absurdly easy questions are asked, yet still some get them wrong. I can't remember where but I've seen University Challenge and the questions were not easy. Lol at DB's grandfather using maroon. Boris is a right maroon.
ReplyDeleteHe is now a fabulously rich maroon though I prefer the term "moron" for him.
DeleteOver here, the closest we have is Jeopardy which airs daily and has 61 questions. If not saddled with being first to the buzzer, I expect I could get half right every day but my mind just isn't quick enough to get the answer out first. That is why I like quiz nights at the pub. I generally have enough time to think of the right answer.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should pop a couple of amphetamine pills before watching "Jeopardy" Ed! That should speed you up.
DeleteYes, I was going to mention Jeopardy. It's been on the air for approximately a thousand years and is still quite popular, especially in the over-sixty crowd.
ReplyDeleteWe watched "University Challenge" for years - back in the days of Bamber Gascoigne, and then again with Jeremy Paxman. We were usually able to answer some questions before the contestants, but no chance with others.
ReplyDeleteI think some of the contestants are so brainy that the answers to simpler questions are beneath them! I still watch the programme occasionally
I remember that particular episode of "The Young Ones"! The whole series was a must watch and so stupid, you just had to laugh. Don't recall which programme had Johnson as the idiot contestant!
I LOVE University Challenge, though I haven't watched it in a while. It's much harder than any quiz show in my native land.
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