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2 items from 2011

Jeremy Paxman failed to get into University Challenge team

28 June 2011 3:26 AM, PDT | The Guardian - TV News | See recent The Guardian - TV News news »

Presenter who has hosted the programme for 17 years makes startling admission in interview for the Radio Times

Fingers on buzzers, here's your starter for 10: which well known BBC presenter tried out for University Challenge as a Cambridge University student, but failed to get into the team? I'll have to hurry you.

The answer is: Jeremy Paxman, the presenter of University Challenge and Newsnight. Paxman, who attended St Catharine's College, made the admission in an interview for the Radio Times with former Conservative MP and unlikely Strictly Come Dancing star Ann Widdecombe.

Paxman, 61, who has hosted University Challenge for 17 years, said he was not picked because he was unable to answer the questions. "I did have a go. I didn't get chosen! There was a quiz going on one night to choose a team for University Challenge. I remember going along with a couple of friends, sitting in the common »

- Jason Deans

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Tim Hetherington obituary

22 April 2011 9:50 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

An outstanding photojournalist and film-maker, he defined a generation of reportage

The photographer and film-maker Tim Hetherington, who has been killed at the age of 40 while covering the escalating violence in Misrata, Libya, was a leading light of his profession. The canon of work he bequeaths defines a generation of reportage.

His eye and ability for capturing on film some of the most disturbing events of the past decade was as relentless as it was unsurpassed. With a great sense of self-deprecation and humanity, Hetherington was driven repeatedly to explore the ragged, violent margins of society to bring back portraits of people profoundly affected by conflict.

Never an end in itself, for Hetherington the purpose of working in war was to understand better the lives of the civilians and soldiers caught up in it. Fundamentally a humanitarian, he worked not only for news organisations and magazines, but for human rights organisations, »

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2011 | 2009

2 items from 2011

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