University celebs in festive challenge
A celebrity team of leicester graduates will battle edinburgh University tonight on a special christmas series of University challenge.
the quartet will look to channel the formidable team of leicester graduates which won the first series, almost 60 years ago.
Four University of leicester students became champions of the popular bbc quiz show in 1963, beating balliol college, Oxford, in the final.
tonight, a team of stars will represent the University in a christmas series hosted by seasoned, sharp-tongued presenter, Jeremy Paxman.
the leicester quizzers are made up of author and tV presenter Dallas campbell, law graduate and newsreader Sian lloyd, earth observation scientist Andrew Shepherd and author Jeffrey boakye.
they will face off against a team from the University of edinburgh in the first episode of the christmas series, to be broadcast on bbc two at 8.30pm tonight.
the University of leicester has set many precedents of the popular trivia show.
As well as providing the 1963winning team of Oliver Andrew, Madelaine Hall, Geoff Ford and John Hewitt, it also saw graduate Sandya Narayansami become the first indian woman to compete on the show in 1974, her team beating St John’s college, Oxford.
Her story is told in the Our 100 book, which was released in this, the university’s centenary year, to celebrate a collection of 100 objects, concepts and people that represent the university’s past, present, and future.
She said: “We made the quarter or semi-final, so did well. i received a lot of fan mail, including three proposals. bamber Gascoigne said i had ‘exceptionally broad general knowledge for a science major’. i replied: ‘that’s because i spent all my time in the library. i read extensively and retained what i read.
“At leicester, i was treated like an intelligent human being and graduated with a first-class degree at the top of my year.”