'University Challenge final is a dream come true'

A former University of Warwick student said getting to the final of BBC Two's University Challenge, one of the UK's most prestigious quiz contests, was a dream come true.

Thomas Hart, Benjamin Watson, Ananya Govindarajan and Oscar Siddle will appear in the final of this year's series at 20:30 BST against Christ's College Cambridge.

Mr Hart, 22, was in his fourth year studying maths when the programme was filmed about a year ago.

"I applied every single year I was at university. I made the Warwick team my first two years and we weren't cast to go on the show," he said.

"I was the reserve in my third year.

"To actually finally make it on at the last chance, as it were, and to actually make a fairly decent fist of it was really quite gratifying."

This is the university's third appearance in the show's final and both times, in 2007 and 2021, their teams walked away with the trophy.

Mr Watson, 21, was completely new to the show.

"I watched it a few days before we had the try-outs in the university but I'd never seen the show," he said.

"When I watched it I thought: 'This is pretty fun, I'd like to try out for this'."

Ms Govindarajan, 20, one of his team-mates, is the only one left studying at the university.

"I found that once we actually started playing the game, I stopped noticing that I was being filmed because I started to focus on actually playing the game," she told the BBC.

The university is hosting a watch party of the episode.

"My parents are driving up to watch it with me, they're actually showing it on the big screen in the piazza of the university and so my parents are coming up," Ms Govindarajan added.

"A few of my friends are going to go on campus and watch it together."

The team has had to keep the result a secret for more than 12 months, which Mr Hart said was its own challenge.

"I've had to endure a lot of family and friends trying to get us to spill the beans," he said.

Mr Watson added: "Although we're not allowed to say what the result was, it's a very, very good final and you should watch it.

"It is excellent TV."

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