Your starter for ten: Meet the SOAS University Challenge Team
SOAS returns to BBC’s iconic University Challenge with a team of talented students ready to compete against some of the UK’s top universities. We caught up with them to find out how they've been preparing, their memorable University Challenge moments, and what’s next for them after the competition.
For the first time in 6-years, SOAS University of London is competing in BBC's long running quiz show, University Challenge. For the last 62 years, the famously challenging TV quiz has had university students from across the UK answer questions on everything from history to science, literature to pop culture - before the buzzer, that is.
After competing in tryouts at the SOAS Student Union, five SOAS students were successfully selected to be contenders on the show's latest series. Meet this year's team: Tom Hasler (captain), Ella Dorn, Janet Delves, Cameron Lambert and Lola Finch.
What was it like getting accepted?
Cameron: Getting accepted was extraordinarily exciting. Having watched the show growing up and knowing how many teams apply for the show but don’t get on, I had to try quite hard not to get my hopes up too much before we heard. As soon as we found out, though, all of that came flooding out, and I just couldn’t stop smiling for a week.
Janet: I was an undergraduate during the empty years of the University Challenge interregnum, so I knew that applying during my MA was a last-ditch attempt to redress the lost opportunities of my youth. I was ridiculously excited to make the SOAS team and delighted that we got through to the TV rounds.
Lola: It was surreal as I've been watching University Challenge for as long as I can remember. Knowing that I was a part of it was a really gratifying feeling; though I was the reserve player and didn’t end up featuring on the televised show, I really enjoyed being part of the team and getting to know my fellow teammates and being constantly impressed by their knowledge.
How did you prepare for the show individually and as a team?
Tom: We had weekly practice sessions as a team going over old questions from University Challenge. We tested our general knowledge while finding out where our various strengths and weaknesses lay, and who might be more knowledgeable in various areas.
Cameron: Individually, I must have watched hundreds of old episodes in the run-up, trying hard to be as fast as possible. As a team we gathered often to go through a book of old questions from the show that Ella found for us. It was so much fun getting together and seeing whose strengths were in which areas.
How did I prepare? By watching so many old episodes that the theme tune continues to haunt me.
Janet: Individually: learning lots of facts, UK prime ministers, US state capitals etc (none of which came up!) Also, watching so many old episodes that the theme tune continues to haunt me. As a team we had regular get-togethers to go through questions in Ella’s UC book, and we tried a couple of pub quizzes which were fun.
Ella: The preparation starts from the day you’re born - I read as much as possible about what I was interested in and hoped it would transfer to the show. We went through a whole book of sample questions from the previous series, practised our buzzer technique, and attended a few pub quizzes around London.
Lola: I practiced regularly with the team, and then with my own friends at the SU pub quiz where I managed to win a lot of free drinks!
What's one standout fact you learnt during the process?
Tom: Just prior to filming, it was interesting hearing from one of the producers how the questions are set. A few are set in-house, but the majority come from a freelance panel of academics. These questions are then filtered through by the production team and sorted for difficulty, with the comparatively easier ones being used for earlier rounds and the more difficult ones being saved for later rounds.
Cameron: The answer is 41 but I’m not allowed to tell you the question.
Janet: You have to be really, really quick on the buzzer.
Ella: ‘Bamber Gascoigne’ is an anagram of ‘Organise BBC Game’!
Lola: It’s much easier to answer trivia questions without a hangover – I was far too often guilty of this during our practice sessions.
Is there a question on the show you remember?
Tom: One other memorable question that I narrowly missed out on being able to answer was where Amol Rajan was looking for an ancient civilisation, and during the list of facts about this civilisation, mentioned the name of a particular god, upon which it became immediately obvious to me, and also to my opponents, and we all tried buzzing in almost at once.
Cameron: There was a bonus round where my nerdy teen years came shining to the fore. I knew if I got any of them wrong my brothers would have never forgiven me.
Janet: I can’t remember the question – but I know the answer was Coventry Cathedral.
Ella: Our opponents were given a bonus question about a Classic Hollywood actress - I’d seen 19 of her films and had even been commissioned by the Guardian to write a long article about the centenary of her debut in 1924. I remember feeling very sad because I would have nailed it.
Lola: There were some bonus questions that went to our opposition about the regions of the shipping forecast. Though I was biting my tongue for the entire filming, it was particularly hard not to respond to those. It had become a frequent joke during practice that I was keen on the shipping forecast and occasionally carried around a handkerchief printed with the regions on it to help remember them.
How did it feel to represent SOAS?
Cameron: It felt great. University Challenge is strongly associated with the traditionally prestigious universities like Oxford and Cambridge, so being there showing off our smaller and more unique institution was fun.
Janet: I felt very proud that we had made it to the TV rounds from a niche university like SOAS, without the help of pure scientists, mathematicians and medics, etc. Seems that SOAS is onto something with its broad worldview.
University Challenge is strongly associated with the traditionally prestigious universities like Oxford and Cambridge, so being there showing off our smaller and more unique institution was fun.
Lola: I was very proud of us for making it through the demanding selection process. I think, as a team, we were all very aware of the fact that the focus of SOAS is not mathematics and the sciences, so competing against more traditional universities was always going to be a challenge for us. When it came to answering questions on these subjects, a lot of pressure fell on our captain, Tom. It was inspiring to watch him face off against whole teams made up of scientists.
What are you looking forward to for the rest of the academic year?
Tom: The rest of this academic year, I'll be busying myself with job applications. That being said, I've got some interesting modules coming up next term that I'm looking forward to, such as the Economics of the Environment and China and World Development.
Cameron: I’m really enjoying getting to work on my dissertation on labour struggles in the garment industry of Bangladesh. It’s kind of a terrifying amount of work, but it’s so rewarding to completely steer the direction of your research.
Ella: I graduated with my BA in September, and I am now freelancing as a writer while doing events and social media work for the Academy of Ideas in London. I have no plans to go back into academia, but am really excited to keep writing about film and culture for as many publications as possible, plan out some book projects, and possibly branch into Chinese-English literary translation.
Janet: I’ve finished my MA, so I am looking forward to getting the final results and enjoying some time away from studying.
Lola: I’ve just started my third year at SOAS and have been mostly interested in studying Zoroastrianism. I chose this topic with no prior knowledge, and I’m so glad that I did; the lecturers are so engaging, and their knowledge is so encompassing. Every time I enter their classroom, I am reminded of why I chose to attend SOAS.
Watch the SOAS episode on BBC2's University Challenge at 8:30pm on Monday 11 November. There will be a screening in the SOAS SU JCR. Want to join next year's SOAS University Challenge team? Express your interest.
