When television historians write about Jeremy Paxman, most attention will be given to his spell on Newsnight from 1989 to 2014 and the number of times he asked Michael Howard the same question. But it is University Challenge that marks his longest association with a show: from 1994 until now. And, poignantly, unless the undergraduates from Durham and Bristol, the 2023 finalists, stayed up late for Newsnight in their early teens, this is the only part of their interrogator’s TV CV with which they will be familiar.
There are different ways for a presenter to leave a significant gig. Phillip Schofield’s abrupt two-stage implosion at ITV meant that he hosted his final editions of This Morning, Dancing On Ice and the British Soap Awards without knowing they were the last. Contrastingly, Paxman’s final Newsnight was a whole programme of clips, tributes, in-jokes and stunts, including riding a tandem with the then mayor of London, Boris Johnson. (Paxman, who hinted on that double-ego trip at being a “one nation Tory”, was subsequently asked by the Conservatives to run to succeed Johnson as mayor, but declined.)
