Christmas alumni episode had one blind entrant and another who was neurodivergent, both of whom say they did not get help
The BBC has apologised and pulled a Christmas episode of University Challenge after two contestants complained about a lack of provision for their disabilities.
The festive spin-off from the BBC Two quiz show, hosted by Amol Rajan, features teams of distinguished alumni who compete on behalf of their former universities.
Continue reading...Former Newsnight presenter, 73, will end stint as longest serving current quizmaster on British television
Jeremy Paxman’s stint as the longest serving current quizmaster on British television will come to an end on Monday night when he presents his final edition of University Challenge.
The 73-year-old former Newsnight presenter is bowing out from the show after revealing he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Continue reading...Corporation rejects freedom of information request from campaigner who claims show is ‘rigged’
The BBC has been accused of “hiding” the extent of its Oxbridge bias on University Challenge in a deepening row about alleged elitism on the show.
The Guardian revealed that Frank Coffield, a Durham-based emeritus professor of education at University College London, is campaigning for fairer entry rules for the show for what he says is a rigged contest.
Continue reading...Ahead of the grand final of the brain-squeezing series next Monday, test your mental mettle with 15 questions set by the show’s quizmasters
The opening scene of which of Shakespeare’s plays comprises just 61 words, the longest of those words being "lightning", "hurlyburly" and "graymalkin"?
Macbeth
Twelfth Night
Timon of Athens
Comedy of Errors
What term for a type of particle accelerator also applies to a type of electromagnetic radiation generated by charged particles spiralling in magnetic fields?
Cyclotron
Gamma
Synchrotron
Collider
The works of which Italian artist, born in 1449, include St Jerome in His Study and the frescoes for the Sassetti chapel in Florence? His numerous apprentices included Michelangelo.
Fra Angelico
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Leonardo Da Vinci
Sandro Botticelli
For which film set in Rome did Paolo Sorrentino win the 2014 Academy Award for best foreign language film?
Life Is Beautiful
The Great Beauty
Parasite
The Postman
What bird does the British Trust for Ornithology describe as: "By far the biggest passerine, with a similar wingspan to a buzzard. The bill is strikingly long and heavy"?
Long-tailed tit
Rook
Raven
Tawny owl
In March 1969, the Ussuri River was the scene of armed clashes between which two major powers?
China and the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union and the US
China and the US
The UK and Argentina
In April 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly solo over which body of water, crossed earlier by Louis Blériot?
The Channel
Atlantic Ocean
Black Sea
Lake Superior
Described as "the little town keeping the lights on in France", Arlit in Niger was until 2021 the site of one of the world’s largest mines of which toxic metal?
Bismuth
Mercury
Lead
Uranium
What colour links the field of the flag of the Basque country, William Morris’s house in Bexleyheath and leading football clubs in Belgrade and Salzburg?
Red
Green
Purple
Blue
Who wrote the Nebula-award-winning novels Doomsday Book and All Clear?
George R R Martin
Neil Gaiman
Connie Willis
Ursula Le Guin
Nenagh, Clonmel and Cashel are towns in which inland Irish county, bordering Galway and Cork?
Kerry
Tipperary
Kildare
Offaly
According to Jeff Bezos, what "has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in the human being"?
Online reviews
Social media
Hunger
In materials science, the ratio of the contractile to the tensile strains is named after which French scientist, born in 1781?
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Charles Friedel
Siméon-Denis Poisson
Louis Pasteur
Which English cathedral is noted for stained-glass rose windows known as the Dean’s Eye and the Bishop’s Eye?
Lincoln
Durham
Ely
York Minster
Totem and Taboo, and Civilisation and Its Discontents are early 20th-century works by which thinker?
Otto Rank
Frantz Fanon
Carl Jung
Sigmund Freud
15 and above.
You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo
14 and above.
You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo
13 and above.
You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo
12 and above.
You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo
11 and above.
You may not confer – and you certainly don't need to, with a score like that! Bravo
10 and above.
And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?
9 and above.
And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?
8 and above.
And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?
7 and above.
And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?
6 and above.
And at the gong ... you've done pretty well. Not quite well enough to be in the University Challenge final ... but who needs that kind of stress anyway?
5 and above.
Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round
4 and above.
Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round
3 and above.
Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round
2 and above.
Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round
0 and above.
Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round
1 and above.
Oh, do come on! You tried your best, but unfortunately there's no way you're going through to the next round
The University Challenge grand final airs Monday 5 April at 8.30pm on BBC Two
Continue reading...Are you a brainbox like Brandon, or even half as wise as Wang? Ahead of Monday’s final, pit your wits against our truly tricky questions, as compiled by the show’s question setters
In which present-day country is the ancient kingdom of Sheba, whose queen visited King Solomon?
Oman
Yemen
Saudi Arabia
Which Latin-derived philosophical term was popularised by Ivan Turgenev’s 1862 novel Fathers and Sons, where it was used to describe the crude scientism espoused by the character Bazarov?
Nihilism
Nominalism
Probablism
Which US state capital was named after a dukedom conferred on the future James II (James VII of Scots) in 1664?
Albany
Hartford
Bismarck
More than 80% of compounds used in nuclear medicine are labelled using which radioisotope? It has atomic number 43 and mass number 99.
Gallium
Thallium
Technetium
Appearing in the title of an opera by Philip Glass, which term did Mahatma Gandhi use for his policy of non-violent resistance to British rule?
Satyagraha
Pratyahara
Swaraj
Named by the US sociologist Robert K Merton after a book of the Bible, which "effect" can be summarized as: "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer"?
Mark
Matthew
Genesis
Depicting an impoverished pea-picker and her children in 1936, Migrant Mother was a celebrated image by which photographer?
Dorothea Lange
Jack Delano
Arthur Rothstein
Polka dots and "infinity rooms" with mirrors are a characteristic feature of the installations of which Japanese artist, born in 1929?
Yayoi Kusama
Tatsuo Miyajima
Yoshitomo Nara
What term denotes the boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium? It lies about 123 astronomical units from the sun.
Heliopause
Heliosheath
Heliotrope
The first independent French-speaking African state, which country did Ahmed Sékou Touré rule from 1958 until his death in 1984?
Ivory Coast
(Republic of) Guinea
Mali
Describing an allegorical place populated by women of "great renown", The Book of the City of Ladies is a 1405 work by which French author?
Marie de France
Christine de Pizan
Clémence de Bourges
In transport history, the Rainhill Trials - won by Stephenson’s Rocket - took place towards the end of which decade?
1780s
1820s
1850s
Expressed in metric tons, what is one gigagramme?
1,000
10,000
100,000
Changsha is the capital of which Chinese province, the birthplace, in 1893, of Mao Zedong?
Hunan
Hebei
Hubei
Which Swiss architectural firm designed the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 summer Olympics?
Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Mario Botta Architetti
Herzog & De Meuron
15 and above.
Wang, is that you?! If those were all guesses, then they were superb
14 and above.
Wang, is that you?! If those were all guesses, then they were superb
13 and above.
Wang, is that you?! If those were all guesses, then they were superb
12 and above.
Wang, is that you?! If those were all guesses, then they were superb
11 and above.
Wang, is that you?! If those were all guesses, then they were superb
10 and above.
And at the gong ... looks like you’ve done a more than respectable job!
9 and above.
And at the gong ... looks like you’ve done a more than respectable job!
8 and above.
And at the gong ... looks like you’ve done a more than respectable job!
7 and above.
And at the gong ... looks like you’ve done a more than respectable job!
6 and above.
And at the gong ... looks like you’ve done a more than respectable job!
5 and above.
Oh, do come on! Sadly, it’s a non-starter for 10
4 and above.
Oh, do come on! Sadly, it’s a non-starter for 10
3 and above.
Oh, do come on! Sadly, it’s a non-starter for 10
2 and above.
Oh, do come on! Sadly, it’s a non-starter for 10
0 and above.
Oh, do come on! Sadly, it’s a non-starter for 10
1 and above.
Oh, do come on! Sadly, it’s a non-starter for 10
The University Challenge grand final airs Monday 20 April at 8.30pm on BBC Two
Continue reading...