Jeremy Paxman is a clever cloggs but doesn't quite know the answer to every or even most questions on 'University Challenge' (BBC2). As a host, he can be hectoring, boorish, patronising and a total pain in the arse. But he brings the best out of the real clever clogsses, who have been 'reading' English, Science and Law since 1962 and have been amazing viewers with their arcane and astonishing knowledge and memory. Quizzes are a dime a dozen but 'thetvreviewguy' has always had time for this particular programme ever since he made a couple of ill-fated appearances on the now discontinued Irish equivalent 'Challenging Times'. It's particularly impressive that students have a broad range of reading and knowledge in this 'google' age of transient news and information overload. For 'thetvreviewguy', original quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne will always be the 'Guvnor', one of the original 'telly dons' (even if Gazza wasn't a lecturer as such, he came across as one, and a brainy one to boot). Of course, 'University Challenge' flatters this viewer's ego whenever he answers a few questions during an episode - but unfortunately, barely any of the science ones; 'UC' shows the audience and critics alike that 'high-brow' and 'tv' don't have to be exclusive of each other. There are, in Donald Rumsfeld's phrase [former Chief of Staff in the Ford Administration, became associated with the strategy of 'shock and awe' and later 'extraordinary rendition'] lots of unknowns out there. A programme like 'University Challenge' reduces the unknowns for 'thetvreviewguy' somewhat; it still leaves him knowing how much he doesn't know. Who'd have thought something that makes us feel smart can make us feel dumb at the same time?
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