ONA Magazine | Paul Bajoria (ON 73-83)

AFTER DECADES BEHIND SOME OF BBC RADIO 4'S TOUGHEST QUIZ SHOWS, VETERAN QUESTION-MASTER AND OLD NOVO PAUL BAJORIA (ON 73-83) RETURNED TO RGS FOR OUR FIRST-EVER HOUSE CULTURAL CAPITAL QUIZ. 

Read an excerpt of  Paul Bajoria's ONA feature below: 

“I can’t go anywhere without gathering facts and storing little interesting bits of information,” laughs Paul Bajoria, Old Novo and veteran BBC Radio 4 quizmaster. 

“Whether it’s something I’ve read or heard on a random radio programme, I’m always collecting ideas for questions. It’s become part of my way of life, and I don’t think that will ever change.” 

Paul’s memory for facts and knack for crafting clever conundrums has served him well since leaving Eskdale Terrace for Oxford University to study English in the early 1980s. He later joined the BBC as a trainee, where his career as a broadcaster took shape. 

As a radio producer, Paul made his mark behind the scenes of some of Radio 4’s most beloved and intellectually challenging quiz shows. For decades, regular listeners of Counterpoint and Round Britain Quiz have puzzled over hundreds of his questions, until earlier this year, when Paul finally hung up his headphones for good. 

Retirement, however, is unlikely to quell his voracious appetite for fact-finding. 

“I’ve got a mental folder of questions, and also a physical document on my phone where I keep notes and half-formed ideas,” he explains. 

“It can take years to fully form a question. I’ll hear something, and a little light will go on - I’ll think, ‘Oh, that’s it!’ Then the question often evolves into something else. It’s never-ending!” 

More accustomed to writing questions for Baby Boomers and Gen X, Paul’s return to RGS in March to host the inaugural House Cultural Capital Quiz was an opportunity to write for a whole new audience -  teenagers. 

Four intrepid teams from Horsley, Collingwood, Eldon, and Stowell, each made up of four pupils and one teacher, squared up on stage in the Miller Theatre, kicking off a week of RGS 500th anniversary-related events. 

And it was a quiz as tense as any Brain of Britain final. 

Drawing on his decades of experience, Paul designed the questions to blend 500 years of school history with general knowledge about the arts and humanities, incorporating rounds on music, literature, art, history, and languages. 

He approached the task as seriously as any BBC Radio 4 commission, balancing questions to challenge young minds and spark curiosity, while – hopefully - baffling the team captain teachers with popular culture. 

“I didn’t recycle questions from other quizzes, I thought carefully about what was appropriate for the school setting, especially since it was part of the 500th anniversary,” Paul explains. 

“I included questions related to the school’s history - events on Tyneside, notable figures who attended RGS. I covered a wide range of historical periods, but it was certainly a different brief from what I was used to.” 

The eclectic quiz featured questions on ONs John Harle and Admiral Lord Collingwood, as well as famous figures like Richard Burton, Vermeer, and Grammy Award-winning singer Charli XCX. 

“I wanted to make sure the questions connected with the school, including the origins of the house names and notable figures from its past,” explains Paul. “There were some fun facts in there too, like how Lord Eldon eloped with Bessie Surtees in the 18th century, and how the building is still called Bessie Surtees House today.” 

“I tried to make the questions fun but informative, tying them into the school’s history so that even if students didn’t know the answer, they’d learn something. 

“As always, a lot of the questions were off the top of my head, but I would never write one without checking that it was true. Fact-checking is instinctive in my work, so I brought the same principles to this.” 

Alongside historical ONs, one of Paul’s own RGS contemporaries made an appearance in the quiz with the question: “Sir Max Hill KC is an Old Novo who rose to one of the highest offices in the UK legal profession between 2018 and 2023. What title did he hold?” 

The answer, of course, is Director of Public Prosecutions. As Sixth Formers, Paul and Sir Max both spent much of their time outside school hours working for the same hospital radio station in Newcastle.  

For Paul it was the start of a lifelong dedication to radio - while Sir Max embarked on a very different trajectory in law. They remained friends at Oxford and have followed one another's careers closely ever since. 

“It’s fun to be back at the school again,” Paul reflects, standing in the Miller Theatre, a new part of RGS built after his time at the school. 

 “Both my children were pupils here, and they were involved in drama, so I’ve been in this building many times to watch them perform.  I’ve seen the school through different eras and lenses - first as a pupil, then as a parent, and now as a quizmaster.” 

Click here to read the full article in the digital edition of ONA Magazine (Issue 115).