Sunday 13 July 2014

University Challenge: Class of 2014

OK, so I finally got around to looking back at the two UC special documentaries that we had earlier this week. Haven't seen much comment on them elsewhere, so here's a couple of comments on them.

Well, the first show pretty much consisted of all the applying teams filling out their application forms and auditioning amongst themselves. We got to see some people get selected to be on their teams; one team from, I think, City University showed us their team being selected.

Most of the attention was paid to Oxbridge and Manchester, with a behind-the-scenes look at Manchester's extensive preparations. Stephen Pearson talked to a great extent about his coaching of the teams, and setting up practice matches between various former Manchester teams and the current one.

The show was also littered with various former UC contestants, most of them previous winners.

The first half of the second show saw numerous teams being rung up by the production office to be told if they'd got on. Most of the teams we'd seen extensively in the first show got through, apart from Edinburgh and Churchill College Cambridge.

Amongst the teams that did get selected, the Courtauld Institute of Art got on for the first time of the Paxo era, and the Open University got through for the first time since their '99 victory.

The rest of the second show was mostly consisting of teams prepping, revising, choosing mascots etc. We then got to see some behind-the-scenes footage of teams resting backstage before going on set for filming.

We also got to see Roger Tilling, which was a nice touch, and got to see where he sits and announces from; he had a nice bit of advice that you should field a team of people with long names (like our friend Filip), as they have longer to think after buzzing!

Overall, a nice pair of shows to lead us in to the new series, which begins tomorrow. Lets hope for another good series.

4 comments:

  1. I watched and commented - or ogled and drooled if you like. I will be commenting the show at universitychallengecrush.blogspot.com but leave the clever reflections to you. What I would be interested to know is how the seating order of the team members is decided? Apart from the captain always being third from the left, I haven't detected any pattern.

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    1. Hi, and welcome! Will be keeping an eye on your blog.

      As far as I am aware, there is no real rule on who sits where, apart from the captain sitting in seat three, as you say. Presumably, they just sit in an order that they think works well.

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  2. Hi Cassiopeia (and hi again Jack),

    There's no rule about where you sit, or at least there wasn't last year. We just discussed it between ourselves, and fortunately all wanted different seats!

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  3. Thanks for answering! I thought that the production team had a say but watching yesterday it makes sense that the teams decide themselves.

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