On 24th April, the BBC Radio 4 Quiz show, The 3rd Degree was recorded at UEA. Hosted by comedian and comedy writer Steve Punt, the quiz pits three students and three academics (referred to as ‘dons’) from three different subjects against each other in a series of specialist and general knowledge rounds.
After the show I got to chat to Steve about his visit to UEA (his second for the show which first came in 2011), and he remarked “what a pleasant campus it is.” He told me that he particularly likes the 60s/70s style, and that the trees which were quite small when he was at university have now grown, meaning that “these campuses have really grown into how the architects originally saw them, and it has such a lovely feel to it.”
One of the rounds in The 3rd Degree is called Highbrow-Lowbrow, where contestants are given the choice between answering either type of question. On which he would opt for, Steve suggested that, “if I was on the dons’ side they actually get more points for lowbrow so I would probably try and risk that. There are areas of lowbrow that I would feel reasonably good on, but then there are others like soaps that I don’t know much about, so it’s always a risk to go lowbrow. Then again it’s also a risk to go highbrow, because having done English [at Cambridge], it might be a question about a Victorian novel or a piece of metaphysical poetry, in which case I’d be fine because I’ve done that, but you just don’t know what’s coming up.”
Steve said the inclusion of pop culture and contemporary questions in this round is done to, ”deliberately rebalance [the show], because it’s inherently unfair,” but that the contestants are given the choice whether to take them or not. He highlighted how “it’s always great when a university professor is confronted with a question about Coronation Street that just completely stumps them.”
Considering how he would have fared on the show during his own university days, Steve remarked, “Oh I would have been terrible I think! English is basically just about how much you’ve read and I always did a lot of comedy and theatre at college, so I think it’s fair to say I probably hadn’t read the full reading list. I probably would have done quite poorly on my specialist subject.”
Steve has had a long and successful career, and one of his jobs was as a writer (and occasional performer – you may remember him from the ‘I’m A Knight’ song!) on the original 2009-14 run of Horrible Histories, which last month marked its 15th anniversary. Reflecting on that milestone (apart from it making him feel old!), he told me that “I remember going to the first writer’s meeting where the producer said ‘do not think of this as a children’s show, think of it as a comedy show,’ and we actually watched a bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” to help with the aim of not consciously writing for kids. “The producer was a comedy producer who had previously done Armstrong and Miller, and most of the writers were comedy writers rather than children’s TV writers. The original cast were also the best young comedy actors in the country at the time, so it was something I think they got exactly right.”
The 3rd Degree Contestants
Physics
Physics Student: William Pik, MA Physics
Physics Don: Dr Robert Ferdman, Associate Professor in Physics
How did you find the experience of being on the show?
WP: Going on stage, seeing people and knowing you’re going to be on a live broadcast was obviously quite scary at first, but then when I got on there and started answering a few questions, it quickly became quite easy – not necessarily to answer the questions but to be there.
RF: It was fun, and showed that our students are very knowledgeable, particularly on the subjects of their degrees!
How did you find your competition?
WP: It was great – Dr Ferdman has lectured me a few times and is a wonderful person, so it was fun!
RF: Excellent! In fact, I found the topic-specific questions for my physics student counterpart to be more challenging than my own, and he handled them extremely well.
Why did you want to take part?
WP: It was getting closer to the time and it seemed no one from Physics (as quite a small school) had put themselves forward. So I was discussing it with my other Masters’ cohort and thought ‘yeah, why not, it might be fun!’
RF: To be honest, I’ve always wanted to be on a quiz show. I also felt this would be a good showcase of the quality of our students at UEA!
Did you do anything to prepare for the show?
WP: Unfortunately I did nothing because I’ve been a bit busy with my dissertation and so forth, but I did listen to two episodes of The 3rd Degree the night before.
RF: Apart from my usual watching of University Challenge, I didn’t do anything in particular to prepare.
History
History Student: Marlowe North, 1st Year History
History Don: Dr Geoff Hicks, Associate Professor in Modern British History
How did you find the experience of being on the show?
MN: Being on the show was really good fun. It felt relaxed and low-stress, but I’m very competitive so I still wanted to win!
GH: Thoroughly enjoyable, with the exception of the history round; I didn’t want to appear as if I didn’t know about my own subject while on national radio… but, fortunately, it went fine. And it was great to be on a team with colleagues from the Sciences, whom I’d never normally get the chance to meet.
How did you find your competition?
MN: The “dons” knew a lot, but I think the difference between our scores was much smaller than it usually is on the show so I’m pleased with how we students did.
GH: They were very impressive – I thought they played much more confidently than we did. Mind you, they had a much nicer question on the list round!
Why did you want to take part?
MN: I love quizzing. I’m on the committee for Quiz Soc; I spend my Wednesday evenings quizzing and most of the rest of my week writing rounds for the quizzes! I was also intrigued by the format of the show, with the students versus the staff.
GH: I’m always up for a quiz – I’m on a regular pub-quiz team. And I couldn’t say no to doing one on Radio 4!
Did you do anything to prepare for the show?
MN: My weekly quizzing has probably helped hugely, and writing rounds actually involves a lot of research too, so that’s always good for the fun facts!
GH: No – I didn’t think there was much to do except cross my fingers and hope the questions would be ok!
Biological Sciences
Biological Sciences Student: Alessandro Pinto, 2nd Year PhD
Bio. Sciences Don: Dr Kelly Edmunds, Associate Professor
How did you find the experience of being on the show?
AP: It was a lot of fun, I had a really good time and the energy in the room was quite nice. Thanks a lot to my friends who came out to support me.
KE: It was much more fun and much less terrifying than I was expecting!
How did you find your competition?
AP: Well Kelly’s really knowledgeable and she lectures on a huge range of subjects. I think she is a better birder than me [which helped on one of the questions].
KE: Everyone involved in the show was great and it was a really close contest. The biology student knew answers to some questions that I wouldn’t have got right and it was really good to see everyone getting points on the board. Without giving too much away, it is a high scoring episode.
Why did you want to take part?
AP: Well I just love a good quiz really, it’s a lot of fun.
KE: I enjoy getting involved in public engagement and have done several events around that but this was something unlike anything I’d done before and I thought it sounded fun and it was!
Did you do anything to prepare for the show?
AP: I went to the pub quiz the night before the recording actually – we came fourth though so maybe not the best practice!
KE: I listened to a few episodes from the latest series and was reassured when I knew some of the answers! I also had my husband and family ask me random questions but thankfully Nobel prize winners didn’t come up during the show as that wasn’t a topic I knew well!
The 3rd Degree will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 later this year, and all episodes of Horrible Histories are available on BBC iPlayer.
Images: UEA
Leave a Reply