Skip to main content

University Challenged: Volume Twenty (16.01.17)


Clear the decks and ring the bell: Monkman’s back in da house.

Apologies for briefly slipping into yoof speak (of the mid-Nineties), but my point still stands. When Wolfson’s finest is safely tucked away behind his University Challenge lightbox, you know the show's going to be a cracker. He is a man with exceptional comic value, even if it’s completely unintended; I’ve never seen anyone look so consistently manic and perplexed.

See below for my Twitter commentary on tonight’s Monkman-filled episode;even if you didn’t watch it, you should be able to pick up the gist.

Wolfson - Cambridge Vs. Balliol - Oxford (16.01.179

8:01pm: Paxman. So weary.

8:02pm: .....iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttt's MONKMAN.

8:02pm: Chaudhri's from near Cockermouth. Heh heh.

8:03pm: Cancel everything: Monkman's in town.

8:03pm: Well...Pope's got a centre-parting.

8:04pm: I'm absolutely completely in love with Monkman. This isn't a drill.

8:05pm: Cosgrove is doing everything he can to present a suave coolness.

8:06pm: I want to do some spin-orbit coupling with Monkman.

8:06pm: Is Monkman wearing a false collar?

8:08pm: Monkman: the world's most ineffectual superhero.

8:09pm: I want Monkman's face as my face.

8:11pm: Goldman and Paxman should stage a disdain-off.

8:13pm: TILING: "Balliol Potts". POTTS: " Tit". TV gold.

8:14pm: Monkman's hair ends where his glasses begin.

8:18pm: Every second Monkman isn't on #UniversityChallenge is spent combing his hair forward and forward and forward and forward and forward.

8:21pm: Balliol Potts, hair of Lego.

8:22pm: Goldman...get an answer right...say it really quickly and disdainfully...DON'T SMILE.

8:23pm: Chaudhri is both smug and angry at the same time.

8:26pm: Monkman will be releasing a cover of Talking Heads' Once In a Lifetime in the spring.



8:28pm: Goldman and the c-word are synonymous.

Popular posts from this blog

Not The Bayeux One.

The Carole King album Tapestry has been my 'getting-ready-in-the-morning' soundtrack for the past few weeks.  It's been a favourite album ever since I was a student, which makes for a pleasantly gentle way to usher in the start of a day. I've always been a fan of a well-crafted song, which is something of a Carole King hallmark, ever since she started writing with her first husband in the early Sixties. Tapestry may be an unimaginative choice for a favourite LP, as it suggests I haven't delved that far into her career, but it's still an undoubted classic; anything with '(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman', 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' and 'You've Got A Friend' on it can't really fail; if nothing else, it proves she likes writing songs with long titles.  Next month, she's set to perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at a gig in Hyde Park, which I would have loved to have gone to, if it weren...

Hitchin is Mine.

As of six o’clock tonight, I take over the Hitchin is Yours Twitter account for a week; a stewardship I’m anxious to get right. I’m proud of my hometown. It’s a great place to live, with so much going for it. I've always sold it to my non-Hitchinite friends; so much so, that a lot have gone on to move here. Any town expansion plans are partly my fault. Feel free to picket outside my house. I love its history and architecture. Take St Mary’s Church, for example. The building is beautiful inside and out, and huge for a town of our size. There has been a place of worship on site since the 7 th Century. Much of the present building dates from the 1300s. You wouldn't get that in America. (Don't forget the British Schools Museum too.)  Hitchin is a hive for creative people and a hub for the arts. It boast two theatres, two comedy clubs, a couple of art galleries, a festival for world music and a thriving music scene. This drew...

'Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream..."

While I’ve been practising meditation for quite some time now, I’ve recently taken to using the mindfulness app 'Headspace' . If you’ve never meditated before, or you’re an old hand at it, it’s a great resource, offering daily ten-minute guided meditations that create a sense of progress, rather than stagnating and going through the same process every day. Until I started using the app, I’d often listen to a handful of audio guided meditations I have on my phone in case of a brain emergency. If you see me with my eyes closed and my earphones in on public transport, I’m probably doing this (unless I’m sleeping and using this blog as an elaborate alibi). While the tracks on my phone are great, they can get a little repetitive as I become too familiar with them and start to anticipate everything the person on the recording will say. This is where Headspace is great, as it offers you a daily course with a different focus each day, as well as pl...