10 September – 11 October
Fingers on buzzers. After a sell-out run in 2024, the musical adaptation of David Nicholls’ novel and the 2006 film returns to Bristol Old Vic with big hair, bigger vocals, and the full force of 80s nostalgia. Set in 1985, Starter for Ten follows bright-eyed fresher Brian Jackson (Adam Bregman), newly arrived at Bristol University and desperate to secure a place on the University Challenge team. His drive is more than competitive: his late father adored the show, and winning becomes a tribute. But campus life complicates things as Brian falls for glamorous, unattainable Alice (Imogen Craig), clashes with his loyal working-class friend Spencer (Christian Maynard), and faces off with the principled Rebecca (Asha Parker-Wallace), who questions what sort of man he is trying to become. The tug between aspiration, authenticity, and conscience forms the musical’s emotional core.
The show is steeped in British institutions: the quiz-show desk, the student bar, the faint Thatcher-era glow of meritocracy and hierarchy. University Challenge itself is the supposed leveller, yet still framed by inherited privilege. The production gestures toward this critique but never fully commits, most clearly in its dismissive handling of student activism. Spencer embodies authenticity and loyalty, but the tension between him and Brian is left underdeveloped. In the end, Brian’s tug-of-war between heritage and ambition lands more forcefully than the production’s tentative social critique.
As a musical, it makes sense: performance, status, and public testing translate naturally into song. Montage sequences, match-play quizzes, and campus parties find a heightened energy in music. But sound levels need tightening. The pleasure of hearing quiz answers (the “itch” the audience longs to scratch) is often lost beneath the band. At times the score drifts into indistinct 80s pastiche, but Weightless is a riot of kitsch spandex and Doing It For The Story gives Alice unexpected dimension, Craig’s performance lifting the character beyond stereotype. Parker-Wallace’s Rebecca has little comedy to play, but her voice brings conviction to a role written as the scold.
Will Jennings is the night’s comic revelation, his Patrick dry and precise, while Mel Giedroyc is immaculate in both of her turns: Brian’s mother Irene, tender and warm, and Julia Bland, Bamber Gascoigne’s deliberately stiff TV sidekick. Stephen Ashfield plays Gascoigne himself, the real-life quizmaster and establishment foil, with polish and wit, the script using him more as emblem than argument. Miracle Chance (Lucy) and Rachel John (Dr Bowman) bring flair, keeping the ensemble sharply in motion.
Design and lighting deserve special praise. The versatile quiz desk morphs into bars, dining halls and party scenes with ease, while the lighting creates a smoky, cinematic palette that gives the production much of its atmosphere. Choreography is full-throttle throughout, sometimes edging into filler, but mostly exuberant and built to please the crowd.
Starter for Ten chooses euphoria over argument, and the audience clearly chose it back. The finale was met with stamping feet, whoops of delight and a standing ovation. It may not answer every question, but the show’s energy and charm are undeniable.
★★★★☆ Tilly Marshall, 18th September 2025
Photography credit: Pamela Raith Photography
