22 December 2015
‘Fingers on buzzers’ - University Challenge features Essex alumni team
The Essex team with Jeremy Paxman
University of Essex alumni will be competing in this year’s Christmas editions of University Challenge on BBC Two.
The Essex team will be captained by broadcaster, writer and publisher Dotun Adebayo MBE. He will be joined by gallery owner, art expert and paintings expert for Antiques Roadshow Rupert Maas; BAFTA-winning playwright and screenwriter Nick Dear; and computer gaming legend Professor Richard Bartle.
On Wednesday 23 December the Essex will be taking on a team from Christ's College, Cambridge, which will include broadcaster Natalie Haynes and news correspondent James Reynolds. The programme is the fourth match of the Christmas series with both teams playing for a place in the semi-finals.
Dotun Adebayo is an Essex philosophy graduate and former President of the Students’ Union who was named Alumnus of the Year in 2008. His extensive media work includes presenting BBC Radio 5 Live’s Up All Night.
Rupert Maas completed his Art History degree at Essex in 1983 before joining his father at The Maas Gallery in London. He has been an expert on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow since 1995.
Nick Dear completed a BA Comparative European Literature at Essex in 1977. His best-known plays include The Art of Success and Frankenstein at the National Thatre – starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. Among his many screenplays are Persuasion and Agatha Christie's Poirot.
Professor Richard Bartle is a Senior Lecturer and Honorary Professor of Computer Game Design at Essex. He is best known for having co-written in 1978 the first virtual world, MUD, and his influential writing on game design. In 2010, he was the first recipient of the prestigious GDC "Online Game Legend" award.
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