The new set may resemble something from the Flintstones cartoon, but Rajan clearly takes this quiz gig seriously. If only he looked more comfortable in the chair
It felt fitting that one of the colleges competing in the first episode of series 53 of University Challenge was Cambridge’s Trinity. Most long-running shows – Match of the Day, Woman’s Hour, Newsnight – have had multiple presenters but Amol Rajan, taking over as poser, completes a trinity spanning 61 years of University Challenge, following Bamber Gascoigne and Jeremy Paxman, who retired in May.
Having reached newspaper editorships and the Today studios at precocious ages, Rajan is used to being celebrated for his youth but, of the hosting trio, he has only the second shortest age gap to undergraduates. He has four years on Paxman at his debut in 1994 but Gascoigne, remarkably, was 27 when he began the franchise in 1962.
