The former University Challenge quizmaster, playwright and publisher was a genuinely erudite man, with an intensely telegenic way of showcasing his natural intelligence

Television quiz masters have the great advantage of the answers being written on cards. Some like to give the impression that they would know more than the contestants regardless of those prompts. Bamber Gascoigne, who has died aged 87, almost certainly did.

There were many sweet moments on University Challenge, which he fronted for its first 25 years from 1962, when Gascoigne would, for example, absent-mindedly sing a line of a Bach cantata to confirm a response, or quote the whole couplet or paragraph from which an answering phrase came.

Continue reading…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Alaa Abd el-Fattah exhausted and weak, family say after visit

The activist’s mother was allowed to visit her son for the first…

Posy Simmonds returns with a new work to mark the Guardian’s 200th anniversary

Join the throng for the bicentenary celebrations on our party page Continue…

Khan and Patel to clash over campaigns to protect women

Both the mayor and home secretary are about to unveil major media…