Fingers on the buzzer. Here’s your starter for 10: who is the most popular University Challenge contestant? The answer this week has to be Oscar Powell, a suit-wearing geological-science student with Boris Johnson hair, from Peterhouse, Cambridge, whose exaggerated facial expressions have earned him a legion of online fans. Asked to identify Je T’aime by Serge Gainsbourg, he stuck out his tongue, screwed up his face, bit his hand and scratched his head. As one Twitter admirer told him, he won “not only #universitychallenge but the nation”.
Of course, Powell is not the first contestant to become an overnight sensation after appearing on the show. But what happened to other breakout stars?
Ted Loveday
Quickfire answers were Loveday’s calling card earlier this year – he managed to answer 10 starter questions in a row for his team. Despite not making the cut the first time he applied for the show, the Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge student won the audience’s admiration for knowing that hapax legomenon is a Greek term for “said only once”. Now taking his bar exams at the University of Law, he revised for the show by reading Wikipedia, and wore his dad’s cable-knit jumper to filming. Loveday says the reaction to his performance was unexpected, but fun. “There was no nastiness, I think University Challenge fans are quite civilised. It’s a bit strange because you are not on the screen for that long.
“But I think people like the fact that in some ways University Challenge is a bit stuffy and has weird, highbrow questions, but has big characters and a bit of quirkiness.”
He is watching Oscar’s rise with interest. “I think he was fantastic – and definitely one to watch.”
Gail Trimble
Trimble was dubbed the “human Google” after the 26-year-old performed an “intellectual blitzkrieg” on her opponents in 2009. The captain of the Corpus Christi College, Oxford team personally scored 185 out of 260 points in a match against St John’s College, Cambridge, and in the quarter-finals she won 15 buzzer rounds, leading Corpus to a 350-15 victory (sadly her team were later disqualified because a team member had started a job before the series had completed filming). Her confident performance, however, led to taunts that she was “smug” – leading to fellow classicist Mary Beard to describe her as “splendid”. Then Nuts magazine contacted her brother to ask if she would consider a “tasteful” shoot for them. Now a tutor in classics, Trimble is currently on maternity leave. Looking back on the reaction to her success after the show, she told one newspaper “this would not be happening if I was a man”. Correct again, Trimble.
Alex Guttenplan
Now studying for a PhD in pharmacology at Cambridge, natural-science student Guttenplan steered his team from Emmanuel College, Cambridge to success in 2011. He first won praise when he was brave enough to argue with Paxman, when the presenter suggested one of his answers was a guess. Breathless compliments from his fans followed when his team scored 315 points to 100 against St John’s College, Oxford in the final. A sci-fi fan, keen sailor and a member of the university ceilidh band, Guttenplan was called “the pinup Einstein” by the Daily Mail. With admirable understatement, Guttenplan said the online attention from an army of Guttenfans was, “odd”.
Kaamil Shah
With many University Challenge contestants resembling etiolated wallflowers, Shah was always going to stand out. Sitting next to a man wearing a Christmas jumper with owls on it, the King’s College, Cambridge history student made the brave fashion choice to wear a vest. A leather-look vest. Set off with a chunky silver chain. Twitter responded with both dismay and delight. Julian Clary tweeted: “A VEST on #UniversityChallenge #Bold I’m calling the Police,” while others suggested his sartorial decision marked the “end of days”. Shah himself said he was not sure what the fuss was about, as he “just didn’t clock that the vest would be that outrageous ... I thought I’d just dress how I normally do.” His studies continue.
• This article was amended on 10 December 2015. An earlier version referred to “Peterhouse College, Cambridge”.
