The 3rd Degree (radio series)
| Other names | The Third Degree |
|---|---|
| Genre | Quiz show |
| Running time | 28 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| Hosted by | Steve Punt |
| Created by | David Tyler |
| Directed by | David Tyler |
| Produced by | David Tyler |
| Air dates | since 21 February 2011 |
| No. of series | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 36 |
| Opening theme | "Ruby" by Kaiser Chiefs |
| Website | BBC homepage |
The 3rd Degree (sometimes written as The Third Degree) is a British quiz show broadcast on BBC Radio 4, hosted by comedian Steve Punt and made by Pozzitive Productions. The series is recorded at different universities around the country, the contestants all coming from the university in which the recording takes place. One teams consists of three students and the other of three lecturers (known as the "Dons") who teach the subjects the students are studying.
The show consists of several rounds which are as follows:
Reviews for The 3rd Degree have been mixed. Iain Weaver from UKGameshows gave a positive review of the series, saying: "We're not tremendously upset by the way the teachers went through the series unbeaten, they are university lecturers, and university lecturers are meant to know an awful lot. We also liked the way Steve Punt kept the programme flowing at a decent pace, adding jokes and asides, and keeping proceedings moving along most enjoyably. He's probably helped by the audience at the student bar, who have doubtlessly taken this opportunity to have their one pint of something for the week. If there's one slight criticism we'd make, it's that the Highbrow Lowbrow round is a bit of a block in the middle of the programme. We might prefer to split the round into two parts, perhaps shifting the first immediately before the lists round. That would add a little bit more variety, and make the programme a little less imposing. That's just a minor criticism: most of what The 3rd Degree does, it does well. Given that it replaced the venerable Quote... Unquote, it didn't have a high bar, but we can see this programme running for a fair few years."
Elisabeth Mahoney was negative in her summing up writing in The Guardian: "There are lots of rather lukewarm, predictable asides like this between rounds that rarely move beyond mildly distracting. You can imagine that on paper, this looked like a really swell idea: the reality on-air lacks pace and excitement, and you know the dons will win. It's a bit foggy in places, too, with a mysterious regime of bonus points available at some times and not others, and it can be hard to remember, by first name, who is on which side of the academic divide... There are a few amusing moments like this, but ultimately it's all a bit soulless and you don't really care who wins.
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Wikipedia