'University Challenge' has 'got harder'

Jeremy Paxman has rejected suggestions that University Challenge has become easier over time.

The host of the quiz show for higher education students told the Radio Times that the questions on the programme are in fact harder than they used to be.

Paxman said: "For heaven's sake, do you watch the show? We have intentionally made the questions harder... And they get harder still as the series progresses.

"It might be interesting to speculate on why it is that a quiz in which much of the audience doesn't expect to get most of the answers right achieves such spectacular ratings, in a difficult slot."

He added: "I think it proves that television doesn't have to dumb down. If you pay the audience the courtesy of inviting them in by suggesting they're quite smart enough to go along with the programme, they will come in."

Executive producer Peter Gwyn confirmed that there is "no doubt whatsoever" that the questions are harder now than when Bamber Gascoigne headed the show, with more questions on the sciences and in greater detail.

However, he admitted: "In the early years, a question would require a piece of general knowledge that you either knew or you didn't.

"These days, we give more clues - perhaps the century, perhaps the country of origin. Sometimes we give as many as five clues in a question, hardest first."