#13: University Challenge (1962)
For those who love the idea of an academic dust-up, it doesn’t get much better than University Challenge. First broadcast in the UK in 1962, the show involves two teams of undergraduate university students battling it out, question by question, over a wide range of academic subjects, from literature to science to history.
University Challenge is inextricably linked with serious academia. Think of ‘the quiz of quizzes’, with its relentless pace and rippling tension. It’s exciting, nail-biting viewing, but it’s also terrifying. For 50-plus years, University Challenge has been the arena where the brightest and best show what they’re made of.