University Challenge deserves Amol Rajan

I wish I could say that Bamber Gascoigne would be turning in his grave at what has happened to University Challenge. But unfortunately, I understand from people who knew the Eton, Cambridge, Yale and Grenadier Guards historian, playwright, critic, polymath millionaire and scion of the upper classes that he chose to compensate for his privilege by embracing progressive causes. So, chances are, the shade of Bamber is thrilled to bits at seeing his old quizmaster’s seat occupied by someone who drops his aitches and pronounces ‘h’ where it should be aspirated and landed a mere 2.2 from hearty, insufficiently medieval Downing.

Bambi’s successor Jeremy Paxman probably isn’t too bothered either. Like a lot of TV presenters who affect to be a bit bufferish, old-fashioned, mildly curmudgeonly, quintessentially English and into stuff like cricket, The Lark Ascending, warm beer, pipes, pre-Beeching railways, fly-fishing – see also Ian Hislop – the real-life Paxman is quite startlingly luvvie-ish. I know this because I once won a prize from a charity quiz he hosted and though he didn’t quite air-kiss me on both cheeks I’m sure he would happily have done so had I proffered them.

 I actually don’t care much that the tediously ubiquitous (though in the flesh very affable) Amol Rajan got the job. Of course he did, for any number of reasons, some of which I have delineated above. But it really doesn’t matter because nobody watches University Challenge any more. Well, I certainly don’t unless my son begs and pleads with me to keep him company – and then tuts at me when I say things like: ‘Why has that student wearing a dress got an Adam’s apple?’

It’s a shame because for much of my married life University Challenge was the perfect programme: about the only thing we consistently watched, year after year, first as a couple and later, when the children were old enough, as a family.