UCLan alumni to star in BBC's Christmas University Challenge

The UCLAN alumni team will be captained by the BBC's Breakfast editor Richard Frediani, and he will be joined by sports broadcaster Richard Askam and journalist Mark Tattersall - both from Preston - as well as children's writer and illustrator Kate Pankhurst, who studied at UCLan.

The team will take part in the Christmas University Challenge which airs on BBC Two on Monday, December 21 at 8.30pm.

The UCLan team will be pitting their wits against celebrated alumni from some of the UK's top universities in the popular academic quiz hosted by Jeremy Paxman.

It will feature 56 prominent alumni from 14 universities, and each team will compete in one of seven first round matches, after which the four teams with the highest winning scores will face each other in two semi-finals.

The winners of each of those ties will then face each other for the series crown.

The UCLan team will first face-off against Leicestershire's Loughborough University, captained by poet and stand-up comedian Kate Fox.

Her team boasts a sporty line-up of Loughborough alumni, including former England cricketer Monty Panesar and Naomi Dattani, the captain of Middlesex Women's cricket team, as well as former Commonwealth champion and world medal-winning swimmer Caitlin McClatchey.

Meet the UCLan team

Team captain Richard Frediani, is editor of BBC Breakfast. Known throughout the industry as ‘Fredi’, he studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire before joining the county’s Red Rose Radio as a reporter. He then switched to television where he edited news programmes for ITN and ITV before taking the helm at BBC Breakfast.

Mark Tattersall, 35, is a journalist and former news reporter for ITV's Granada Reports. Mark grew up in Preston and attended Hutton Grammar School before studying at University of Central Lancashire. He is now executive producer at Artlab Films, based in London and Preston.

Richard Askam is a sports broadcaster from Preston. He is a former sports presenter on North West Tonight and has worked for BBC Radio Lancashire. He has covered some of the world's biggest sporting events, including the Olympic Games and Champions League finals.

Kate Pankhurst is a British writer and illustrator, known for a series of children's picture books. She won second place in the 2002 Macmillan Prize for Picture Book Illustration.

Produced by ITV Studios, the series begins on BBC Two on Monday, December 21 at 8.30pm, with the first of this year’s clashes between Christ’s College Cambridge and St. John’s College, Oxford.

Peter Gwyn, executive producer at ITV Studios, said: "From architects to authors, comedians to sports stars, we are once again looking forward to welcoming our distinguished alumni as they battle it out for the coveted title of being the Christmas University Challenge champions."

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