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Television

Your starter for ten: why do we Brits so love University Challenge?

James Delingpole revels in a hagiographic two-parter on the nerdy BBC2 quiz show

12 July 2014

9:00 AM

12 July 2014

9:00 AM

‘Fingers on buzzers!’ says Jeremy Paxman on University Challenge. But technically this is inaccurate. Only one of the teams actually has buzzers. The other side has push-button bells, instead.

I’ve been watching the programme religiously for God knows how many years without ever consciously noticing this. But, once you’ve been told, it’s obvious — in much the same way it’s obvious that the way you tell Thompson and Thomson apart is that one has an upturned moustache and the other doesn’t.

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