From the Torygraph. Bullet points to follow.
Forget Jeremy Paxman â the real star of University Challenge is Eric Monkman. With his furrowed brow, his inability to master an indoor voice and his penchant for a well-starched collar, the 29-year-old captain of Cambridge Universityâs Wolfson College team is the only reason viewers are counting down the hours to tomorrow nightâs grand final.
Monkman, with an intellect matched only by his awesome ferocity, has taken over the most recent series â and the internet. According to the hashtag #Monkmania, he is now a verified social media sensation. Fans have compared him to everything from a superhero to a god, with one saying: âI love him more than my children.â
Paxo himself was so struck by Monkmanâs enthusiastic translation of âHe who lives by the sword shall perish by the swordâ from the original Latin â delivered with an inflected Canadian accent and wild hand gestures â that he told him: âYou would have made a wonderful revivalist preacher.â
Back home in Oakville, where Monkman has lived ever since he graduated from his Masters in Economics at Cambridge last year, he is modest about his fame. âIâm just someone who really enjoys quizzing,â he says, in the wondrously deep tones that have taken over the nationâs living rooms. âIâve been doing it for some time and itâs a really fun hobby for me. Iâm always happy to hear there are people enjoying the show, and it was satisfying to know there were people out there who enjoyed the hobby I do, because for most of my life it felt⌠fringe.â
âThe Monkmanâ, as his fans know him, grew up in an âintelligentâ family of physicians. His mother Debbie is a doctor, as was his father Evan until he died of cancer when Monkman was a teenager; his older sister Katie is also a doctor. âIâm the odd one in the family,â he explains. âI donât handle blood well.â
At school, he was obsessed with everything from Ancient Egypt to learning Latin â a subject taught to him by his uncle. His sister described him to the BBC as âeccentricâ, while his teachers said he was a ânerdy, geeky studentâ â epithets that Monkman admits to as fair.
âI bring intensity to things I do â you see it on television. When I was very young, my goal was to become a scientist, but I was also interested in history because I find the past so mysterious. With Latin, I was interested in the language because of the idea of there being old inscriptions that could somehow be unlocked.â
Yet his biggest passion was always physics, and he went on to study maths and physics at the University of Waterloo. His voice softens â though it is still quite loud â as he admits: âI found I didnât have the mathematical aptitude for it. Thatâs been a source of sadness for meâŚâ
Instead, he went on to work for the Canadian governmentâs financial law enforcement agency, before deciding to study economics at Cambridge University in 2015. Since graduating, he has spent time back home in Canada looking for a job, and rather unexpectedly for someone who seems to know everything, he tells me: âI am taking some time to figure out what I want to do with my life.â
Before I can put him down as a typical millennial, he explains he has spent this time learning the piano, reading non-fiction â âif I can find a well-written book on an academic subject, itâs likely Iâll find it interestingâ â and watching absolutely no Netflix: âIâm not someone who watches a lot of contemporary TVâ.
One of his main hobbies has always been quizzing, and applying for University Challenge was one of the first things he did on joining Cambridge University. Indeed, it even helped sway him to accept his offer at Wolfson College. On a trip to the university campus, he bought the showâs official quiz book at a churchyard sale.
âI didnât really know a whole lot about University Challenge, but I did know it was something I was interested in,â he explains. âQuizzing is an activity I love, and one I donât think people in Canada are as interested in [as the British].â
He never expected to receive any attention from the show and, at first, was uncomfortable with the comments on Twitter about his personal appearance and facial expressions. âThe first time I appeared on television, a lot of people were saying I was too loud or obnoxious. Eventually, people came to like my idiosyncrasies, but at the beginning, it was a bit surprising and somewhat unpleasant.â
Monkman cannot understand why so much fuss has been made about his appearance on the show. âI donât really understand it. Maybe itâs because I donât play as if Iâm on television. [With informal quizzes], you donât have a microphone, so you have to speak up. Thatâs maybe why I have interesting facial expressions.
âI wore the same outfit for every recording because it was one fewer thing to think about. I try to keep all my mental capacity [for the questions]. The only thing that changed was whether my collars were tucked in or not, which people noticed.â
Monkmanâs long-term â and long-distance â girlfriend Jiang Na, a professor of law at Beijing Normal University, whom he met when she studied in Canada, is even more confused. âShe doesnât really see much thatâs happening [to me] from China, so she only knows what I tell her. She thinks itâs a bit strange.â
Monkman fans, particularly those who have professed their love for him online, will doubtless be devastated to hear he is already spoken for, but Monkman does not believe any of them are âseriously obsessedâ with him: âI certainly donât think of myself as any object of desire. I assume people are being ironic, not serious. I think theyâre just trying to be funny.â
While Monkman cannot disclose how his team fares in tomorrow nightâs final, he says heâs âvery pleasedâ with how Wolfson have done generally. Either way, Monkman is adamant he will not be turn his quizzing into a career.
âItâs a hobby I enjoy, but my ideal would be if people remember me as a âguy who appeared on University Challengeâ, rather than âthe guy known for appearing on University Challengeâ. I think probably for most of my life Iâve been interested in ideas and trying to make some kind of contribution to a field, and do something interesting and worthwhile. Quizzing is a lot of fun, but itâs just a hobby.â