Well, it only seems like about 3 weeks since Alex Guttenplan and his team won the last series but it's back again.

I watched it last night and managed to get a few right and even surprised myself by correctly identifying the water vole in the picture round starter-for-ten!

Anyone else watch it?

The ones I remember getting were the Water Vole and the Abbey Road, but there were others.

Mark

Not since Bamber hung up his hairbrush.

I can't stand Paxman.

Ooh, I got all the element symbols and towns aswell.

I can't believe they guessed beryllium when it was there 2 above the one they were looking at.

I do occassionally. His comments about them can be very funny, like its "watching paint dry" when they are slow to answer and seem to be struggling.

Yes - though I am not sure why. I feel there is something wrong with University Challenge, I tend to put it in the same box as that Connection programme on BBC4. It gets worse when Paxman’s old alma ata turns up and he gets uppity with them for getting stuff wrong. I have yet to see my old University compete in the series. Maybe their students have better things to do.

I was genuinely shocked that they could not identify the animals in the pictures. They should stop drinking gin and get out more, methinks.

I watch it, but I didn't realise that it was back.

On average, I correctly answer about ten questions from each show. It helps if one of the picture rounds is something that I know (about every other show) but I often answer questions that the teams don't get.

I consider a fun quiz to be one where you should or could know the answer, but on University Challenge, the answer often means nothing and the question even less, but I do surprise myself sometimes.

The trick is to listen carefully to each question. Often the answer hinges on a single word or short phrase among a load of [LIFTED]. Unless it's quantum physics or calculus, in which case you can count me out.

I did not do too badly I knew quite a few of them, though my knowledge was not extensive enough for some of the obscure references.

I just got the Roy Orbison answer.

Mark

I think this may be the first year Bath's there. I certainly ain't clever enough to be on the team, though!

I think I got about 10 there, but that is dependent on my saying Gary Kasparov for every chess player- it had to be right once, but I'd have looked pretty stupid saying it for all three bonus pictures, as he was first

You just reminded me that I got the robot chess player question. (8+)

Mark

I did not keep count but I did pretty well more than ten right. Some bonus questions were obscure.

It’s the expectations of the quiz. Opera, Latin, bizarre mathematics - if this doesn’t scream middle/upper class elitism, I don’t know what does.

The programme that follows is also dreadful.

It might be elitist but that does not have to be a class thing.