From early October, we will all be cheering on our latest Durham team as they compete in this year's series of the BBC2 competition, University Challenge.
University Challenge was first aired in 1962, hosted by Bamber Gascoigne, who remained at the helm until 1987. It was reprised in 1994 after a break of seven years, returning with Jeremy Paxman as host. Paxman handed over to Amol Rajan in 2023, his final year coinciding with our Durham team becoming champions.
Now in its 54th series, Durham have been Champions three times, in 1977, 2000 and 2023. This year there will be 37 episodes leading to the Grand Final in April 2025.
In a very competitive process, our team for 2024/25 was selected. The first challenge was a round of written questions to test the candidates’ general knowledge, after which, 20 students went through to the second phase, which was a ‘round robin’, with the 20 successful applicants making up four teams of five. They all played each other in a staged buzzer round to test individual reactions and the overall ‘fit’ of the team. The five team members that were selected:
Jake Roberts (Team Captain); Physics, St John’s College, 3rd year.
Joe Ancell; History, Hatfield College, 2nd year.
Emilia Brookfield-Pertusini; English Literature, St John’s College, 2nd year.
Luke Nash; Bio Sciences, College of St Hild and St Bede, 4th year.
James Gowers (Reserve); History, Trevelyan College, 3rd year.
After the tough internal selection process, the team applied directly to the production company for inclusion on the show;
‘There were 28 places and often well over 120 teams apply. We attended an audition where the producers got to know a bit about us, and we completed a general knowledge quiz. After three tense weeks, I received the call that we had been successful’ Jake Roberts.
The team had several months of intense preparation for the competition and soon found that as their friendship developed, their practice sessions became the focus of their week.
‘I created a spreadsheet to help track our progress and ‘training plan’. We created electronic flashcards to help improve on areas of weakness and read books and listened to podcasts to build our knowledge. We even learnt a set of Noble Prize winners which in recent years has become essential UC learning! We met up several times a week to practice which quickly became weekly highlights for me. By this point we had really gelled as a group.’ Jake Roberts.
Outside of their team sessions, individual training was relentless, they would fill every spare moment with flash cards, lots of reading, watching old episodes and specific research on Wikipedia.
‘I was listening to old episodes constantly; walking to lectures, in the gym - even as I was going to sleep. I was sick of the sound of Jeremy Paxman's voice by the time the filming started’ Joe Ancell.
The team mascot is a dun cow named Duncan, who the team are hoping will bring them luck. Duncan was inspired by the legend of the founding of the city when a milkmaid searching for her lost cow led a group of monks to the Bailey, where the Cathedral would later be built. The monks believed it was a sign from St. Cuthbert.
Episodes are filmed at Media City in Manchester. The team told us that the pace of filming surprised them as there were some quite long breaks between filming whilst technical issues were ironed out by the crew – followed by filming of quick-fire question rounds. The opposing teams spent long periods together in the studio in an atmosphere of competition and healthy cameraderie.
‘All the staff were incredibly kind and the atmosphere in the greenroom was really lovely, even when you were trying to eye up your competitors. Arriving at the studio and seeing your name plate is completely surreal. Before filming, the theme tune is played into the studio to time the cameras in. I couldn't help but giggle because of the complete absurdity of being in the studio of the show I love.’ Emilia Brookfield-Pertusini
The studio experience was improved even further by meeting and getting to know host Amol Rajan, ‘Amol approached us as soon as we arrived on set. He seemed genuinely interested in meeting us and was encouraging both before and after the filming.’ Jake Roberts.
We are very much looking forward to the series and will be supporting the team on their journey. The next few months will be an amazing experience, but worth all the hard work put in by the whole team, ‘It was extremely intense but the single most rewarding experience of my life’ Luke Nash.
One Durham alumna that can identify with this group is Bea Bennett, one of the members of Durham’s winning team from 2023. Bea found the experience not only great fun and rewarding, but she feels it has also improved her personal confidence.
‘My confidence has certainly increased. But it's more than that – it's my belief in my own abilities. I have faith in myself, and I have been able to extend that into a broader sense – for example this year, I've just finished my master's degree at Durham. So, the experience has hugely benefited both my professional and my daily life.’ Bea Bennett (English, College of St Hild and St Bede)
Bea is very appreciative of the opportunity and of the support that she and the rest of the team received from their colleges and the wider University community.
‘It was wonderful to feel the support from the University and specifically from our colleges as well. We had a screening of the final in the bar at Hild-Bede. I had never seen it packed like it was that night – there was standing room only. The evening was a lovely way to round off the intensity of the filming. Everyone was thrilled that we had done as well as we did which was which was great.’ Bea Bennett.
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