A University Challenge team led by former Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer thought Minsk was in Russia during an awkward moment on the show.
In an error that left host Amol Rajan laughing last night, the Durham University alumni quartet failed to know that the port city is actually the capital of Belarus.
During a Christmas special of the episode on BBC Two, Rajan had asked: ‘Now the most populous city north of the Arctic Circle, which Russian city was founded on the Kola Peninsula in the 1910s to serve as a naturally ice-free seaport for the country?’
TikTok influencer Sophia Smith Galer asked her teammates: ‘Minsk isn’t in Russia is it?’ But the broadcaster Tracey MacLeod replied: ‘Yes’, as Smith Galler said: ‘It is?’
Team captain Ms Denyer then answered to Rajan: ‘Minsk?’ But the host laughed after telling them: ‘Minsk is the capital of Belarus. It’s Murmansk that we’re after.’
Durham, whose team also featured art historian Liz James, eventually had the last laugh as they beat Trinity College Cambridge by 185 to 125 in the semi-final.
But one viewer tweeted: ‘Carla Denyer MP, until recently leader of the Greens, was on University Challenge last night and she didn’t know where Minsk was.
‘Am I being unreasonable in thinking that seems like a pretty big knowledge gap for *a party leader* given events in Ukraine over the last four years?’
Others however praised Ms Denyer and the team, with one congratulating them on getting to the final and describing their display as a ‘whole team enthusiastic effort’.
Tonight, Durham will take on a Keble College Oxford team in the final at 8.30pm after they beat University College London 170-115 in the other semi-final.
Ms Denyer studied mechanical engineering at St Chad’s College, Durham from 2005 to 2009, then worked as an engineer in renewable energy before moving into politics.
The 40-year-old was one of four Green Party politicians elected to Parliament in the 2024 General Election, the best result the party has ever had at Westminster.
The Bristol Central MP was co-leader of the party alongside Adrian Ramsay between October 2021 and September 2025, when Zack Polanski took over.
Ms Denyer, who grew up in the Hampshire town of Fleet, announced last May that she would not stand again as co-leader in order to focus on her work as an MP.
The University Challenge Christmas 2025 final airs on BBC Two at 8.30pm tonight
