Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk and Thought for the Day. 
Clips
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About The 3rd Degree
“The 3rd Degree” is a funny, lively and dynamic quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones. It’s recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz. Being a Radio 4 programme, it of course meets the most stringent standards of academic rigour – but with lots of facts and jokes thrown in for good measure.
Together with host Steve Punt, the show tours the (sometimes posh, sometimes murky, but always welcoming!) Union buildings, cafés and lecture halls of six universities across the UK.
The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the ‘Highbrow & Lowbrow’ round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors’ awareness of television, film, and Lady Gaga… In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...
The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list… -
Steve Punt
The host, Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, not just in the Humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. As well as “The Now Show” he has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4, on subjects as varied as “The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen” and “Getting The Gongs” - an investigation into awards ceremonies - as well as a half-hour comedy for Radio 4’s 2008 Big Bang Day set in the Large Hadron Collider, called “The Genuine Particle”. This makes him the perfect host for a show which aims to be an intellectual, fulfilling and informative quiz, but with wit and a genuine delight in exploring the subjects at hand.
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Pozzitive
The 3rd Degree is a Pozzitive production, produced by David Tyler. His radio credits include Armando Iannucci’s Charm Offensive, Cabin Pressure, Bigipedia, Another Case Of Milton Jones, Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, The 99p Challenge, The Castle and even, going back a bit, Radio Active. His TV credits include Paul Merton – The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul & Pauline Calf Video Diaries, Coogan’s Run, The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon and exec producing Victoria Wood’s dinnerladies.
