With the 2010 series on air, 'University Challenge' is already looking for the teams to compete in the 2011 series – and if that turns out to be you, here are the thoughts of three people closely connected with the programme about a few things perhaps you didn't know.
Everyone hears his voice, but no-one sees his face: 'University Challenge's answer to The Stig is Roger Tilling, who for ten years has been the voice-over artist who announces the team and the player's surname before the answer to every starter question.
Q. Does it bother you that viewers don't know what you look like?
RT. With a face for radio, I'm more than happy for Jeremy to sit in front of Camera One. Most of the students are shocked to see a lanky thirty-something when they meet me - they expect a short seventy-year-old! Because I'm tall I've always had a deep voice, which is rather handy for voice-over work, so I can understand their surprise.
Q. Where do they hide you during the recording of a match?
RT. I sit in a kind of pigeon-loft in the studio, it's a purpose-built podium next to the audience. It's got a table with a lamp on it, which apparently makes it look like a bit like a restaurant dinner table. One day, the director and the props department decked it out with a tablecloth, dinner plates and a menu from the 'Coronation Street' cafe as a joke and a make-up artist was there posing as my dinner date.
Q. Are you ever tempted to shout out the answer to a question instead of the team's name?
RT. Yes! On the odd occasion when I know the answer, I want to scream it out. Heaven knows how I've managed not to. I read Aeronautical Engineering, as all voice-overs do, of course, and I'm a private pilot, so whenever science comes up in starters or bonuses I have to guard my words! People often say I get over-excited towards the end of the show and yes, I do - but when the scores are neck-and-neck I'm as immersed in the game as the team members are!
Olav Bjortomt is one of the question-setters on 'University Challenge', having originally been on the receiving end of them as a member of the Nottingham University team in 2000.
Q. Where do you get your inspiration for your questions?
OB. Everywhere is the simple answer. I remember setting a question about 'nostalgia' because a key scene in the final episode of 'Mad Men's first season was based around it. Don Draper may have got the Greek derivation slightly wrong, but it was a useful pointer nonetheless. But generally, I carry around notebooks - a habit for the last ten years - and pack them with notes and ideas from various sources - newspapers, Tube posters, TV and so on, and deploy them as questions where I see fit. Also, I read at least three books a week, both non-fiction and novels, and this is always a rich source of material that isn't of the 'quiz book' kind. Travel books and travelogues, I've found, are great for this kind of thing too.
Q. How does it feel when you hear Jeremy read out your questions?
OB. It is surreal when you hear your own questions read out. I do think "Oh, I wrote that. Which is nice." You keep a semi-official tally to see which and how many of your questions have been used, and perhaps, this means that the pure enjoyment of watching a quiz contest has been changed utterly forever.
Q. You were on a 'University Challenge' team – does that help when you're writing questions?
OB. I often write questions I wish I was asked on the programme, especially on more youthful pop culture and things like modern American literature and new non-fiction books. The kind of stuff that gets huge zeitgeisty coverage in the press, but is seldom seen or heard on television quiz shows of any stripe. We need a balance of new and old and I think the show currently gets it just right.
Sean Blanchflower was a member of the team from Trinity College, Cambridge who were 'University Challenge' series champions in 1995, and he now has an unofficial but very comprehensive website detailing the programme's history.
Q. For any student thinking of applying for the 2011 series, what are your main memories of taking part?
SB. My memories of filming seem to be more about the parts in between the matches - the tiny dressing room, being plastered with stage makeup, the dazzling array of sandwiches laid out for us, and drinking beer with Jeremy - but watching my recordings of the shows certainly brings back the tension of the semi-final tie-break and the highs of everything going to plan in the final.
Q. Do you think being a 'University Challenge' champion helps when finding a job?
SB. 'University Challenge' certainly did help out in getting a job - one of the heads of a London bank rang us up after seeing us trounce Queen's, Belfast and gave me a cushy summer position. Having said that, our performance on the show didn't stop the entire team from being called 'stupid' by the Daily Mirror's TV reviewer, or being told that we'd failed to make anything of our lives by a Daily Mail columnist! I'm still good friends with the captain Robin Bhattacharyya, Kwasi Kwarteng is now an MP, and Erik Gray is a professor at Harvard.
Q. Do you think the teams who take part now are different to the teams when you took part?
SB. I'd say the teams are much the same as when we were on. All this talk of the questions getting easier and teams getting dumber is nonsense. In fact you can see the effect that the growth of the internet has had over the fifteen years since we were on, with teams now able to answer all kinds of stuff that would have baffled most of the teams back then.
If you are interested in forming a team, contact the Students' Union or email president@staffs.ac.uk