A team of our distinguished alumni and academics will compete against rival university teams in this year’s University Challenge festive special on the BBC.
Hosted by Amol Rajan, the iconic British quiz show returns to BBC Two and iPlayer for a Christmas series featuring 56 accomplished alumni in teams representing 14 universities renowned for nurturing exceptional talent.
The contestants will put their knowledge to the test, hoping they’ve retained at least some of what they learned during their time at university as they battle for the coveted champion’s title.
The competition begins with seven first-round matches, after which the four teams with the highest winning scores will advance to the semi-finals. The winners of those matches will go head-to-head in the grand final on 3 January to claim the series crown.
The Durham University team is led by Carla Denyer, MP and co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. She is joined by a group of talented alumni, making them strong contenders in the competition.
Team captain Carla Denyer (Mechanical Engineering, St Chad’s College, 2005-2009) is a British politician and co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales since 2021. She has served as the MP for Bristol Central since 2024 and was previously a Bristol city councillor from 2015 to 2024. Carla played a key role in Bristol City Council's 2018 climate emergency declaration, the first in Europe. Born in Hampshire, Denyer studied mechanical engineering at Durham and worked in the wind energy sector before transitioning to politics. Her shift was driven by a desire to address systemic barriers to achieving net zero.
Carla is joined by Professor Liz James (Ancient History and Archaeology, Van Mildert College, 1982-1985), an art historian specialising in Byzantine art. After Durham she completed a Masters in Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham and then a doctorate at the Courtauld Institute. Liz is interested in all things Byzantine, most especially at the moment, mosaics (check out https://medievalmosaics.com next time you stand in front of a medieval mosaic) and is working on a book, A History of Byzantium in 10 Mosaics. In 2024, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Liz also plays football with Lewes Women’s Vets (veterans, not veterinaries).
Also joining the team is Tracey MacLeod (English Literature, St Aidan’s College, 1979-1982), an English journalist and broadcaster known for presenting arts and music programmes like The Late Show and the Mercury Music Prize. She began her career as a BBC researcher and debuted on Channel 4’s Network 7 in 1987. She has appeared on various TV shows and was a team captain on Radio 4’s All the Way from Memphis. As a restaurant critic for The Independent from 1997 to 2016, she won several awards. She has also been the literary editor of Marie Claire and a radio critic for The Mail on Sunday. Currently, she is a director at KBJ Management, managing TV presenters, and is a regular guest critic on MasterChef.
Sophia Smith Galer (Modern Languages, St Mary’s College, 2012-2016) completes the team. She is an author, journalist, and content creator who has pioneered journalism on TikTok in the UK. Her investigative reporting for the BBC and VICE News has earned her global recognition, and her videos have over 160 million views. Named one of the 25 most influential women in the UK by British Vogue in 2022, she also won the Georgina Henry Prize in 2024. Currently, she is writing her second book, “How To Kill A Language,” about linguicide and language endangerment.
Our team’s reserve is Professor Derek Ward-Thompson (Physics, Collingwood College, 1983-1986), a physicist and astrophysicist specialising in star and planet formation, black hole environments and interstellar magnetic fields. A member of the Event Horizon Telescope Consortium, he contributed to capturing the first image of a black hole in 2019. Derek teaches astrophysics, supervises students, and authored the award-winning textbook An Introduction to Star Formation (2011). Since 2012, he has been Director of the Jeremiah Horrocks Institute at the University of Central Lancashire and has served as Head of Natural Sciences from 2018 until 2023.
With their combined wealth of knowledge, they are well equipped to represent us as they face Warwick University in the first round of the series on Monday 23 December at 8.30pm on BBC iPlayer and BBC Two.
Let’s wish them the very best of luck.
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