Former Sussex students to appear in Christmas version of ‘University Challenge’
Four prominent University of Sussex graduates will appear on the BBC’s ‘Christmas University Challenge’ this month.
The festive version of the long-running TV quiz show features teams of prominent graduates from 14 universities and university colleges.
Sussex will be represented by:
- Rob Bonnet, a sports broadcaster and producer who spent 1973-76 on campus studying English
- Alice Arnold, a broadcaster and writer who studied politics at Sussex from 1981-84
- Simon Fanshawe, a comedian and campaigner who graduated from Sussex in 1978 with a law degree and later became Chair of Council, the University’s governing body
- Claudia Hammond, a psychology writer and broadcaster. She studied Applied Psychology at Sussex between 1990 and 1993
Sussex’s first-round clash against the University of Leicester will be broadcast on BBC Two on 30 December at 8pm.
Speaking after recording the show, Claudia Hammond said: "It was good fun, but to buzz in you've not only got to know the answer, but to know it faster than seven other people, which is quite a challenge.
“The Sussex University motto is 'Be still and know', but in my case it was more a question of 'Be still and not know the answer'. Luckily my team-mates were rather quicker than me. But we enjoyed meeting each other and reminiscing over life on the Sussex campus."
Simon Fanshawe added: "Sussex has a glorious tradition with ‘University Challenge’. We are third equal in the tables for having won the championship twice. Sussex also gained a certain notoriety by scoring the lowest score ever - 10!
“Unfortunately on this outing, although not as low as that, we fell more neatly into the latter category.
“But we have to remember it's not the soggy old alumni that count, it’s the current students and researchers. And in the 2013 Academic Ranking of World Universities, they are in the top 15 universities in the UK."
Peter Gwyn, executive producer of the show, said: “’Christmas University Challenge’ demonstrates the strong intellectual and emotional ties that continue to bind people to the places where they studied. This provides an intriguing extra dimension to what is set to be a fiercely contested series!”