University Challenge Tuesday 1st September 1987 - University College Oxford vs Open University. 

Is that *the* Helen Grayson?

Nice to find this. It was my final appearance on University Challenge. 1987 was the last year that the ITV network took the programme and therefore the last series with Bamber Gascoigne.

The sheer speed at which this goes compared to the modern day competition is quite frightening!

R.I.P. Bamber Gascoigne, you`re one of the greatest quizmasters, and will be sadly missed.

The incredible speed and lucidity of the answers seems to give a freedom and spontanaity to the contest. Some great characters make up the teams. More enjoyable, in my opinion than today's show.

Afterwards in the pub, Bamber asked us why the whole OU team burst into laughter when I answered 'Mark Lemon' as the first editor of Punch (you don't really see this as transmitted). Before the programme, we were waiting together and someone suggested we try and think of some likely questions. The question was raised of the name of the play Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was shot. We knew that it was 'Our American Cousin', so who wrote it? I said an early editor of Punch, someone like F.C. Burnand or Mark Lemon, so we'd actually discussed the answer to the question before, albeit a different question. (For completeness the author was Tom Taylor, who had written a lot of stuff for Punch over decades and became editor in the 1870s.)

Robin Darwall-Smith is now a venerable archivist at Oxford, with several books to his name. I'm sure that today his intellect is as sharp as ever, but his delivery is rather more measured.

Really entertaining watch, this. Fast paced, both teams on the button, mistakes by both the host and the teams, and loving the rowdiness of the audience.

RIP Bamber Gascoigne , a gentleman and a legend, the likes of which we will never see again.

I was 17 and looking forward to actually doing University Challenge when I went to university the following year. I was gutted when they said they were culling it. So for the whole time I was at uni 1888-1994 there was no university challenge and as soon as I had graduated they brought it back and I never got the chance to go on it. But I had watched it since 1976 and loved it. ( I'm tempted almost to do a postgraduate course somewhere and get on it )

"Starter for ten", "No conferring", "I must hurry you.." That's was good TV. R.I.P. Bamber Gascoigne...

Ive just graduated with the OU in Engineering (BEng honours), and i didnt get most of these answers lol. Brains the size of planets-especially Darwall Smith :)

I love how fast and loose this is compared to today's games. And the contestants are super intelligent.

This is magnificent to watch

My god, that was unbelievably fast and the breadth of knowledge extraordinary. Thanks for posting. 👍

That's me, or rather my Deceased Twin, on the left of the OU team. Ten years after this I was a bit of a cause celebre; it's no great secret and as it happened in the infancy of the popular Internet it's not hard to look me up. It was nerve-wracking stuff and I still feel we wuz robbed! - Bamber's blunder towards the end was edited out; I was sure that he'd ditched the starter that he'd misread and that Univ's first bonus was a fresh starter. The four of us agreed at the outset that we didn't mind what happened so long as we didn't go out in the semis to an Oxbridge College, which of course is what happened. At the time I thought our quarter final, where we were very lucky to snatch a last-minute win against a very feisty team from Essex, was tougher than this one. When we were in Manchester in February 1987 to record the first two rounds, we saw off KCL over two legs on day one, then it snowed heavily overnight and stranded the Glasgow team's bus on day two. We felt rather sorry for them in the second round when they finally arrived tired, cold and hungry and made a meal over two legs against a Swansea team clearly there to take the piss. We were giving them rather a battering but eased up at the end when they looked like achieving the ignominy of a negative score. I live in Glasgow now and a couple of that Glasgow team are still around; I've enjoyed a wee dram with them! Helen Grayson sadly died in 2013, much too young. She was very well known around the quiz circuit and especially the national Scrabble championships where she was a bit of a demon.

740 points total - Unbelieveable, had I not seen it with my own eyes.

What a truly magisterial episode. Both teams were completely superb.

What very much helped the pace and high score was that contestants could just call out the answer, they didn't have to be filtered through the captain. The present system that the captain has to repeat the answer or nominate a contestant to answer just slows everything down.

This is far superior to the Paxman version. Paxman is so condescendingly rude and the contestants are slower to answer so the pace is far slower.

Great how they made the colour scheme of the set match Bamber Gascoigne. Loved the fast pace too.

This is my all-time favourite show, first broadcast in 1987 and I was 20 years old at the time.

The good old days! Great contest, and sharp presenting from Bamber.

I’m out of breath just watching this! I can’t think as quickly as they can answer!! Brilliant to have this so fast-moving and so high scoring. Sadly the questions in this would have suited a number of this season’s teams (2021/22). Very disappointing answering.

So much better than the more modern format. Outstanding, thanks, Nay.

The questions were much more general-knowledge based in 1987, rather than today, where they seem to be much more curriculum-focused. It was the same with "Mastermind"; the specialist subjects used to be much broader so the contestants needed a wide knowledge base, rather than just being able to mug up all the facts. It's easier in that respect for the contestants now, but less entertaining and engaging for the viewers.

Hard luck Open, great effort.

Gosh, 1987 seems so long ago and the TV technology looks so primitive. Yet Bamber Gascoigne's pace is wonderfully refreshing, the questions are distinctly easier but not down to The Chase level, there's a distinct class divide between the teams (I adored the "unwaged house spouse" on Open), and Ian Hislop is still editing Private Eye!

Okay the questions are easier being! importantly non curriculum orientated, the pace, set by the QM, is faster and importantly, any team member can answer the question - thus no need for the tedious debate with the captain. The result? More entertaining television!!

Many shades of beige, taupe and light brown never before seen

I've been watching the modern show lately, but would much prefer a return to this format. I like how anyone speaks when they know the answer, which I think speeds things up. It also seems the 1987 participants studied harder.

Rest in Peace, Bamber Gascoigne

John Authers (Univ Oxford captain) has gone onto become one of the financial media’s most respected commentators - first at the FT and now at Bloomberg.

Ra Ra Ra - We're going to smash the oiks!

12:14 Dear oh dear. Robert the first is not the same thing as Robert the second.

Hard to believe UC was broadcast on ITV. I seem to recall they showed Tarkovsky's Solaris one Sunday afternoon in the early 80's. Can you imagine that?

I got far more right than I do on the current ones & 1 contestant came from my home town and another from 12 miles away. It was friendlier & more fun then.

Thank you so much for this. I presume alas, that as this was 1987, it was the last series of University Challenge on ITV before they had the odd idea to end the series altogether (I know I read somewhere that the last ever edition was on New Year's Eve that year going into 1988). I know the different ITV companies at the time suddenly decided that the series would end there, even though viewers felt otherwise. Bamber Gascoigne would of course chair it one more time on BBC2 at the end of 1992 when they screened their tribute to Granada tv; but I know I read too that he declined his invite when the series returned there in 1994, so that was why Jeremy Paxman took it on instead. Now alas, as he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and has decided to give it up too, that Amol Rajan will take it on instead from next series. Thank you of course!!

Great upload, thanks!

Stunning.

By far the best host of University Challenge. Bamber Gascoigne wasn't aggressive like Jeremy Paxman. RIP Bamber and thanks for the memories

Wonderful really of course-thank you so much too!

LEGEND GONE BUT BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Thanks for the upload.

Tuesday 1st September 1987

R.I.P. Bamber Gascoigne 😞

I can see why the scores were higher back then, The question's were MUCH shorter, Some of the bonus questions these days take over 10 seconds just to read out and then over 20 seconds conferring. Question setters now are probably doing 50% less work than there predecessors.

RIP Bamber.

RIP Arthur Bamber Gascoigne

The set, opening and closing credits look very dated for 1987. I noticed the copyright says "Granada UK", all other Granada programmes had the copyright as "Granada Television" from 1986

The same opening theme tune! That's quite amazing.

1 week after I was born. What a show!

I no longer watch UC now that Amol Rajan is chairing; this brings back fond memories of Gascoine, his class and style.

Paxo wouldn't tolerate the hesitation after buzzing. And they're not really playing as teams with a captain answering.

so fast- almost sounds like an auction

Anyone remember the series of University Challenge in which in half of the shows the teams had batons attached to the set which they passed down the line, resulting in a sequence of one to one contests between individual contestants?

Superb.

Well that was retro fun. I relished watching that and what fun.

18:12 Spry putting up his hand like he's still in school 🙂

The upstairs vs downstairs classic quiz.

That was fun!

Rather depressing that if these questions, at this speed, were posed to today's teams I doubt if they'd get anywhere near these great results!

That was fast and furious

RIP Bamber Gascoigne

Should bring it back - would love a merseyside derby between LJMU and Edge Hill. Can see the questions now: "which brand of vodka is best used in a cheeky vimto?" lol

Squire is the only one that could rock that style even in the 2020s.

Damn, the standards were higher back then.

I flunked out of school at age 17, but I got about 45% of the answers correct.

Riveting!

so sad he's no longer with us

Less fun to play along when the questions are answered in a split second.

1:16 “Unwaged house spouse” 🤔 I’ve not heard it called that before. She almost sounded bitter about it 🤔

As someone not from the uk, what is university college oxford? Is it not the same as the oxford university today?

Breaking news: Squire to be played by Matt Damon in the upcoming film...

Bamber was the gold standard.

The Golden Girls shared a house not an apartment.

Awesome episode, but I gotta ask, was Darwall-Smith on drugs? Speed? Coke maybe?

The scores may be much higher than today's University Challenge, but the questions were far easier in Bamber's day, i doubt half if these questions would get pass the first round, let alone a semi-final

Well done Univ despite the disadvantage of youth. What erudition. Education ain’t what it used to be. 😀 A wonderful competition. It could have gone either way. Univ was still a man’s college?

I wish there was closed caption for this

Someone told me Bamber Gascoigne was barred from arm wrestling contests in his local pub because he wouldn't give the others a chance.

I thought in 86 and 87 the desks were one on top of the other to play Pass the Baton?

I got 5 correct in this episode and Dalwall Smith is a freak

easier questions is those days

where has our good television gone?

So this is where the word Spry originated.... Very interesting.

Bamber Gascoigne kept his cool even if you got answer wrong. Just laugh it of and get on with it

Hellish. Unbelievable.

#unwagedhousespouse

I really am thick.

Amazing to see how much these contestants knew, on a wide range of subjects. There were very few mistakes or passes. I just recently saw a UC from the last decade, and their lack of knowledge was pathetic, compared to these 2 teams from 1987. It made me wonder if today's students rely too much on computers, and less on reading?

No way should Robert the First have been allowed.

You'd NEVER get scores this high these days with Paxman's appalling delivery.

The host's accent is so plummy.

A tragedy Paxman got the job...

Can you do BBC NEWS 24 October 24th 2003 CONCORDE'S FINAL FLIGHT with the full hole live coverage 24:10:9999 Can you do BBC NEWS 24 October 23rd October 2003 CONCORDE FAREWELL with the full hole live coverage 24:10:9999

I find this chaotic and garbled and.. rather adolescent.