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The 3rd Degree

Series 1

Episode 5: Salford

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra

Coming this week from the University of Salford, host Steve Punt puts the questions to lecturers and students alike. So if you'd like to hear a Military Historian humming Beatles songs, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology trying to identify Rihanna, or students trying to list types of fruit that begin with the letter 'P', then this is the quiz show for you. Plus the only time in recording history that the word "pebble" has earned a massive cheer.

"The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic new quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones. It's recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz.

Together with host Steve Punt, the show tours the (sometimes posh, sometimes murky, but always welcoming!) Union buildings, cafés and lecture halls of six universities across the UK.

The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and Lady Gaga... In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...

The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list...

Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4. Show less

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