Why Paxo’s in the hot seat for his toughest university challenge

YOUR STARTER for ten: which silver fox broadcaster has been invited to ditch the microphone and TV studios in favour of becoming the head of an Oxford College?

Yes, it’s Jeremy Paxman, who for the past 25 years has been ‘master’ of University Challenge. He has, I can disclose, been interviewed for the role of Principal of Hertford College, alma mater of Question Time host Fiona Bruce and Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh, who fictionalised Hertford as ‘Scone College’ and made it the scene of an episode of Bullingdon Club depravity.

The college declines to comment on Paxo’s chances. However, it has enlisted the help of headhunters Moloney Search in finding a successor to current incumbent, former newspaper editor n

FORMER war correspondent Martin Bell, in a loving gesture, exchanged his famous white suit for more sombre garb at the funeral of his older sister Anthea Bell. ‘She was the translator of the Asterix cartoons and when she died she got the most amazing obituaries,’ he says. ‘It was only towards the end of her life that I realised how eminent she was.’ Will Hutton, who steps down next summer after nine years. The successful applicant will receive a £91,900 salary, and live at the Principal’s Lodgings rentfree, as well as enjoying lunch and dinner in college ‘free of charge’ and ‘reasonable expenses’ for travel and entertainment.

That may seem rather modest from Paxo’s perspective. In the days when he presented Newsnight, from which he retired in 2014, as well as University Challenge, it was estimated that he was trousering £1 million-a-year.

On the other hand, Paxo is all too aware his TV bosses may wield the axe at University Challenge before long, acknowledging eight years ago that the BBC would one day say: ‘let’s get rid of this old person’.

Oxford is more tolerant, allowing colleges to determine the age at which their heads retire. A number are in their seventies, including Sir Ivor Crewe, 73.

Hertford is offering an ‘initial term’ of five years, which would take Paxo to 75.

But his politics may be a problem. Though a Labour supporter during his own university days at Cambridge, Paxo is now bracingly independent and has little sympathy for political correctness.

Hertford, by contrast, proudly proclaims its ‘progressive social agenda’. Will Paxo make it to the final short-list? It promises to be as nail-baiting as any University Challenge nerve-jangler.