... my wife and I like it - we play our own little comp - but we do use the pause button to give ourselves more time to think. Last night's was one of the best I've ever seen.

Always a timely reminder that I know fuck all about anything, and damn exciting too. I think the feeling of getting a few UC questions right might be one of the best things in life. Which tells you a lot about me, I suppose. :-\

miss it. I think I like the picture rounds best. Except when it's flags. Or stamps.

I'm usually pretty good on literature and art questions but useless at science.

I'm dying for a good Beatles music round. Spot the solo would be good. But then I'm also regularly shocked by the gaps in our finest minds' popular musical knowledge.

"comprising" not "comprised of"

100 lines next time

learning last night where the word "gossip" comes from.

Did anyone notice when Sheffield were answering the bonus questions on Apples in Greek Mythology that the guy on the captain's left whispered Hesperides? The captain piped up don't know when the answer turned out to be right.

Golden rule of quizzes - never give a don't know if someone offers an answer.

I said to my wife the captain would get a good kicking if they lost by 5 pts.

That guy from Magdalen who incurred the 5 pt penalty on the final question must be wishing he kept his mouth shut. Mrs P piped up with Who would ever think Keats would write a poem to someone called Betsey.

A quiz that's purely about the questions, not the personalities or the faux tension. And it's thirty minutes of content fitted into a thirty minute slot, instead of being stretched and diluted to an almost homeopathic extent. It's one of the few programmes I bother switching the TV on for.

I love UC, one of the few programmes I never miss (thank gawd for the iplayer, I work on Monday evenings). I still have one gripe, which I've had ever since it was relaunched, and that is the supercilious hectoring of Paxman. With Bamber, the personification of elegance, the only editorialising we got was "Bad luck Scumbag, just behind on the buzzer there" and "I'll have to hurry you." Paxman? Well, I have to disagree Stuart, it's far too much about him for my liking. We get "Come on!" in that peevish voice; we get "No, that was much later!" [translation: I know a lot of stuff]; we get pantomime expressions of disbelief. I wish he'd play it straight. That other renowned "rottweiler" gets it just right on Mastermind.

BTW, boo to the OP for the spoiler!

I like it.

I like knowing there is so much out there I have no clue about. Maths, for instance. 'What would be the cube root of the prime numeral following on from a quadratic delta of -7 on the first Tuesday after Whitsun? Come onn!!'

Oddly I find it comforting to know I have a head full of porridge.

Equally on occasion I do know the answer to some of the literary questions and quietly mumble it first to swoons from Mrs Beezer.

Particularly like the music questions where none of them have a clue who the composer is and 'Mozart' is repeated relentlessly until it's the correct answer.

Marvellously straightforward telly.

the thing that burns me up is the way Paxo is soooo patronising and sycophantic to all the Camford (or is it Oxbridge) colleges. Particularly his alma mater Cambridge. Oiks win and it's "Well Cambridge you put up a mighty mighty battle and should have won. Oiks, we'll see you in the finals". Watch for it.

because it is people being intelligent and not trying to get laughs about their take on current affairs or having a stab in the dark at multiple choice. While there is room for all three University Challenge should never be threatened with the axe again otherwise I've got to watch Only Connect and try and be clever while staring at Coren's tits (thanks for that gag Andy Gray)

Me, I just try to answer all the questions asked in the entire programme, in real time before either team give their answer. I keep a running total, and compare week with week. My best score was 19 correct answers. Very tense.

my own trumpet (although like any red blooded male I'm tempted) but I've been on UC. Mind you I was much cleverer then.

However, my one gripe with the 'new' UC is that they now use the camera to pan away at the end so you can see the two teams sitting side by side.

NO!

I like to imagine (Young Ones style) that they are on top of each other (in the manner of Celebrity Squares or Lenny Bennett's Punchlines) and do not wish the magic of television to be spoiled by this thoughtless bit of camera action.

Interviewing team captain Henry Pertinez - complete with his comedy Beelzebub beard - outside the University of Manchester in 2009 after they were awarded the title by default.

I was on the Irish version of it yonks ago; my main contribution was the bonus round which was all about the various incarnations of Quentin (Norman) Cook.

One thing that pisses me off about the current incarnation of UC is when Paxo gives the average age of the team; it's bad enough feeling thick - it's a sod of lot worse when it seems like a bunch of tweenies administering the psychological ass-whupping.

Though I haven't seen it for a few weeks, sadly.

One thing I've noticed though, that in the bonus round when there are three questions, the answer to the last question is nearly always the obvious answer.

If the category is Spanish painters or 19th Century Prime Ministers, before the questions are asked, thing of the most obvious/well-known example of someone in that category. More often than not, that's the answer to the third of the three questions.

but it clashes with EastEnders.

Probably in the Union bar at the time. Went to the Granada studios in the minibus to provide audience support though. Sadly we got thrashed in the first round. Had a slash between filmings (they used to do two shows in each session - not sure if the Beeb do it that way anymore) and found myself standing next to the mighty Bamber. As we washed our hands he surmised that I was with the losing side and remarked, "Bad luck there", when in truth we had been ignominiously destroyed. Nice chap.

UC is the only television programme I make a serious effort to watch as it goes out each week. It has me on the edge of my seat most weeks, even if it's a thrashing, because it's the only quiz show with genuinely difficult questions that cover a properly wide range of subjects.

I'd happily pay my TV licence fee to secure this show alone.

Would have been rejected as implausible if scripted

I know nothing about maths / science/ nature/classical music but curiously find that in my small handful of correct answers I often get one no - one does ( usually literature or politics )

More sports questions would help

at your 'Scumbag College' allusion. A Russell Group institution Ranked 8th in the country is only slightly less difficult to get into than an Oxbridge college.

Have they ever justified not switching to one team per university rather than letting Oxbridge colleges in? Presumably this squeezes out other whole universities

alludes to the classic 'Young Ones' episode and is in no way intended as a slur on what I am sure is a very fine institution. Sheffield didn't even need any questions about Toxteth O'Grady to secure their win.

I read this as the UC season started and found that the some of the questions in this series were in there. Even better than answering the questions, I could say what the next question was going to be. Admiration from partner.
I confessed later

I think the Oxbridge college thing is that each college is actually a teaching institution in its own right, whereas at other unis with a college system, such as York (where I work) you are allocated a college mostly for residential/social reasons, but teaching is done by university departments.

I find the changes to the game in the last year or so disappointing, because after the semis the same teams just play over and over again. It was such a close finish on Monday yet Magdalen aren't out yet, they will play another losing team and it just seems never-ending !

Marx.

Fact: Kwasi Kwarteng, the Conservative MP who appeared on the 10OCS last week (in the discussion about the banking industry), was on UC as a student. It's not a name easily forgotten, as I'm pretty sure his team won the series. In fact I can name two of the others: Eric Gray and Robin Bhattacharya. Useful info, eh?