Professor of Classics, Mary Beard, will appear on the expert panel of Jamie Oliver’s new television show, to be aired next week.

Jamie’s Dream School features a panel of inspirational individuals, such as Alistair Campbell, Rolf Harris and David Starkey, with the aim of encouraging 20 youths not to turn their back on education.

Prof. Beard taught Latin to the group – of whom none had five A-C grades at GCSE – which she described as a ‘tough assignment for anyone’.

Despite not having the celebrity status of some of her colleagues on the show, including sailor, Ellen MacArthur, Prof. Beard found her own unique way of exciting the students’ need for knowledge by introducing three of them to Cambridge University students.

“I was very pleased that Jamie's students and ours’ had so much to talk about!”, a relieved Prof. Beard told Varsity, after revealing that she appeared on the show to “put [her] money where [her] mouth is.”

One of the Cambridge students involved, Jenny Buckley, a third-year historian, explained to Varsity that it was an interesting experience because the participants were so confident:

“They asked some challenging questions, particularly regarding motivations for going to university and whether people go because they are following a process which is prescribed to them by society without thinking about whether it is the right thing for them to do as an individual.”

 

Prof. Beard admitted in her blog for The Times that she felt she had a “higher mountain to climb than most of the others,” not only because she is more accustomed to teaching Britain’s brightest:

“For a start, I wasn't a celeb and they certainly wouldn't have heard of me. Many hadn't done any foreign language past the age of 14...let alone something as structured as Latin.

“But all the same it was a bit of a triumph (for me and them) to get about half of them reading, straight and in Latin, a two line epigram of Martial.

“I'm hoping that in 20 years tine they will remember the slightly eccentric old bat from Cambridge who taught them that.”

Fighting off sceptism, Prof. Beard reassured cynics that the kids were not abandoned after the programme but offered support by “nice boy” Jamie.

However, Prof. Beard’s teaching talents will reach a lot further than the group of 20 school-leavers. The show has sought links with YouTube to ensure that the experts’ lessons can be viewed in full online; including the Cambridge don’s four Latin classes.

This will not be Jamie’s first bout of Cambridge success, however. This week it was announced, on the anniversary of his Wheeler Street Italian restaurant, that the business has welcomed an average of over 600 diners per day in its first year.

“We see him at least once a month. It’s certainly the restaurant he visits the most out of all the Jamie’s Italians,” its manager told Cambridge News.

Jamie’s Dream School will air on Channel 4 on Wednesdays at 9pm