1 Teams on University Challenge are encouraged to bring along a lucky mascot to perch on the desk in front of them.
Two of the largest mascots ever displayed were a 6ft-tall Mr Blobby (Imperial College) and a lifesize rubber model of former Labour deputy leader John Prescott (Gonville and Caius), while a single amoeba (Bristol), visible only through a high-powered microscope, remains the smallest.
In a surprise intervention, Bristol’s amoeba lost five points when it inadvertently pressed the buzzer and answered ‘heliotrope’ to the question: ‘What term denotes the boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium?’ Quizmaster Jeremy Paxman gave the correct answer as heliopause and deducted points from the team.
2 The series has had only three presenters. It is often forgotten that between the original host Bamber Gascoigne (1962-1987) and Jeremy Paxman (1994-present), the quizmaster was Dave Hill, former lead guitarist with Slade.
During his time as presenter, Hill managed to sneak the titles of nearly all of Slade’s top-ten singles into his interventions before anyone noticed. He opened one programme with the words: ‘Your starter for ten. Fingers on buzzers. Get down and get with it.’
The series has had only three presenters. It is often forgotten that between the original host Bamber Gascoigne (pictured, 1962-1987) and Jeremy Paxman (1994-present), the quizmaster was Dave Hill, former lead guitarist with Slade.
In another programme, he chastised a contestant who had given a faulty answer, saying: ‘Look wot you dun! Take me bak ’ome.’
It was only after a student had successfully answered the question: ‘Expressed in metric tonnes, what is one gigagram?’ and Hill enthused, ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now!’ that it was suggested he should resign as host.
3 Over the years, 8,000 students have taken part in University Challenge. It has been estimated that if you gathered together all their facial hair, you could create one giant beard that was 10 ft longer than the Empire State Building is high.
4 Many of the contestants on University Challenge have gone on to greater things. Future prime minister Margaret Roberts (later Thatcher) once represented Somerville College, Oxford, appearing in a purple tie-dye T-shirt with long hair and a bandana. She held her team’s mascot, a Gonk bearing the slogan ‘Make Love Not War’, throughout.
‘At the time, I was undergoing what one might call one’s “hippy” phase,’ she recalled in her autobiography, ‘but thankfully it was not to last long.’
5 In every team, a student at the end of the row traditionally proves unable to answer any of the questions, and just sits there looking bewildered. After ten minutes, the rest of the team-mates don’t even bother to glance in his or her direction.
In 2011, a team made up of these people — calling themselves ‘The Unwanted’ — competed in University Challenge: The Professionals against a team of civil servants.
‘We’re out to show we’ve conquered our demons and can compete against the very best!’ said their team captain Liz Truss, then an up-and-coming Conservative backbencher. Sadly, in the ensuing competition, Truss’s team failed to score a single point.
6 Despite their reputation for scruffiness and unorthodoxy, many students have appeared on the programme dressed in smart, conventional clothes.
In 1989, the young Jacob Rees-Mogg, representing Trinity College, Oxford, became the first and only contestant to appear on the show wearing a four-piece suit and a triple-breasted waistcoat.
Sadly, despite his impressive attire, he stumbled over his starter for ten, ‘Who or what are the Rolling Stones?’, guessing incorrectly that they were an ancient geological formation in the Outer Hebrides mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in The Bride Of Lammermoor, and failed to recover.
Soon afterwards, Rees-Mogg posted a strongly worded hand-written letter to the chairman of the BBC complaining that the standard of questions had fallen.
7 Questions that have never been answered correctly include:
– What is the name of the only surviving member of the House of Lords who still lives on a diet of ants and termites?
– To the nearest three kilograms, state how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
– Is this the way to Amarillo?