Hackney teacher reaches BBC Two quiz show final
Richard Aubrey holding his Only Connect name card - Credit: Archant
A Hackney teacher in a team of “journeymen” has beaten Britain’s best to reach the final of a BBC Two quiz show.
Richard, centre, and his team will be in the final, which will be aired next week (picture: BBC/Zodiak/Patrick Olner) - Credit: BBC/Zodiak/Patrick Olner
Urswick School’s Richard Aubrey has answered four rounds of logic puzzles to reach the final of Only Connect.
The 31-year-old’s team, String Section, competed for the big prize despite his team never quizzing together before.
“I’m a fan of the show, and I thought it would be good to enter,” said Richard.
“Pete [Sorel-Cameron] is a friend of mine who runs quiz events, and I met Tessa [North] through him.
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“We hadn’t even met until the auditions.”
The trio got through the audition stage, and the whole series was filmed in Cardiff during one week of the Easter holidays last year.
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“The producers were great, they tried to keep us sane as it’s quite intense,” explained Richard.
“They film it all in one block. Victoria Coren Mitchell, who hosts it, was really lovely.”
Richard, who is an RE teacher at Urswick School in Paragon Road has been getting a lot of support from colleagues and students.
He said: “They’ve been really pushing it, and there’s been a great reaction to it.
“I haven’t said which episodes I’ve been on, though, so it’s been interesting to see who’s seen it on Monday nights and come in and said, ‘I saw you on TV last night, Mr Aubrey’.”
Richard, who is also the choir and band musical director at St John’s Church, Stratford, admitted he didn’t think the team would go as far into the competition as they did.
“We said on the train journey down we wouldn’t even talk about getting past the quarter finals,” he said.
“The producers scour the country for the best quiz brains, and we were just a bunch of journeymen taking their chance.”
The final of Only Connect will be shown on Monday at 8.30pm on BBC Two.
