The BBC has revealed the celebrity line-up for Christmas University Challenge and the Manchester team includes Ade Edmondson (or Adrian as the BBC refers to him)

A staple of the BBC 2 Christmas season is Jeremy Paxman grilling celebrity alumni from a range of academic establishments for our entertainment. Among the 56 varied alumni on this year’s Christmas University Challenge, we have none other than Ade Edmondson on the Manchester team, facing Queen’s, Belfast in their first round match. Edmondson is well known for comedy, music (in his band The Bad Shepherds) and recently more serious drama, but one image endures. Vivyan in the Young Ones episode Bambi.

In Bambi, the young ones (Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan) represent Scumbag College on an episode of University Challenge, with then host Bamber Gascoigne played by Griff Rhys Jones. Their opponents were Footlights College, Oxbridge played by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Ben Elton and Emma Thompson. The episode also features Mel Smith, Alexei Sayle and Robbie Coltrane. Looking back it was an historic line-up, but little did we know at the time. As to the quiz, let’s just say Vivyan had an interesting approach to levelling up the competition!

The 2020 series of Christmas University Challenge starts on BBC 2 on Monday 21 December at 8:30 pm. The full list of universities, colleges and contestants may be found here.