Bamber Gascoigne – former University Challenge host – dies, aged 87

Gascoigne is best known for being University Challenge's original host, coining catchphrases such as 'Fingers on buzzers', 'Your starter for 10' and 'I'll have to hurry you'.

Famous quizzers across the UK paid tribute to Gascoigne this morning, with The Chase's Paul Sinha writing on Twitter that his "effortless erudition, making whole swathes of impenetrable knowledge seem cheerfully accessible, was totally inspiring to this kid of the '80s".

Bobby Seagull, who competed on University Challenge in 2017 and has since established a career in TV presenting, described Gascoigne as "scholarly, gentle and yet commanding", adding: "He joins the pantheon of great gameshow hosts. We shall miss you. RIP Bamber."

Novelist and screenwriter David Nicholls, who wrote the novel Starter for Ten and adapted it for the screen in 2006, also paid tribute, writing: "Bamber was a big part of my TV childhood and was very gracious about his fictional cameo in Starter for 10."

The TV presenter was played by Sherlock's Mark Gatiss in the 2006 film about a university student (James McAvoy) who wins a spot on a University Challenge quiz team, while in 1984, he was memorably parodied by Griff Rhys Jones in an episode of The Young Ones titled Bambi.

Gascoigne hosted University Challenge for more than 20 years before the quiz show was revived in 1994 by the BBC with Jeremy Paxman as the new host.

Speaking to The Times about Paxman's appointment, Gascoigne said: "He couldn't be more different than me, because he had this reputation of being a hard man, whereas I was always a bit of a softie, really."

For his part, Paxman told the Radio Times magazine in 2010 that he initially turned down the chance to host University Challenge, saying: "The producer rang me up, asking would I present it. I said, 'Jolly nice of you, but it's Bamber Gascoigne's show.'

"Then two weeks later, in the reading room at the British Museum, I saw Bamber and said, 'Hey, we've never met, but they're bringing it back. Get in there!' He laughed, said they'd rung him months ago, but it felt too much like hard work. So I said yes."

Outside of University Challenge, Gascoigne wrote several novels, including satire Murgatreud's Empire and Quest for the Golden Hare, and fronted a number of documentaries.

He wrote and presented the 13-hour docuseries The Christians for ITV back in 1977, as well as Victorian history documentary Victorian Values and 1990 series The Great Moghuls.