Wonderland - I won University Challenge
BBC2 Nov 09

Another wonderful programme from the BBC exploring the lives of seven winners of University Challenge.



Programme Details:
"How has life played out for those endowed with the nation's biggest brains, the previous winners of quiz show University Challenge? After university, is it easy to put those brains to good use?

For some there's a pleasure in simply being brainy. 'I'm very happy being clever. In fact one of the abiding pleasures of my life is the things my mind can do,' says 2002 winner Luke Pitcher. For others, having the kind of mind capable of winning University Challenge is as much a curse as a blessing.

'People don't like intelligent people - they like successful people, but they don't like intelligent people', declares Thor Halland, member of the 2003 winning team. 'The problem with a lot of my life', reveals 1968 winner Pamela Maddison, 'is that I've had to dumb myself down.'

From the champion who was drunk when his team won to the brilliant polymath who now works as a postman, the film unravels the lives and careers of Britain's brainiest."

No doubt these winners were chosen for being the oddest of the bunch and I suspect most were on the autistic spectrum somewhere, all appearing socially disfunctional in one way or another. But what lovely gentle people, some having found their niche in academia, others struggling now with jobs they are clearly over-qualified for. You can read a review here , and watch it here. (Hurry though, expires on 21st Jan 2010).