The festival, which was initially conceived last year as a practice run for the actors who would be taking shows to the Festival, slowly evolved into a bigger and more comprehensive event as it emerged that the amount of DramaSoc members going to Edinburgh to perform this year had more than doubled.

The festival has been running since Sunday and will continue until this evening and has already featured a wide range of performances, such as the highly rated The Second Star to the Right. Also included are performances by Comedy Soc’s improvisation group The Shambles and their sketch comedy group The Sketch Emporium, as well as many more of the shows which have featured at the Drama Barn earlier in the year.

Speaking to Vision, DramaSoc President Dan Wood said that “the fact that we’ve got a hundred people from York going to the Fringe in quality shows is a real tribute to the society.” He added that, before they go, they’d “love to show people in York what we can do!”

Wood went on to say that the event came at the end of “a good year for DramaSoc” and praised the Ex-Chair Joe Hufton and his committee for “putting the society into a position whereby the society can really kick on with ambition this year.” He also remarked that he hoped that this event and events like it would “go some way towards forging a real camaraderie between all of the performing societies on campus.”

The team, which was selected from a pool of almost 300 applicants in December, is led by first year History student and team captain Andrew Clemo and also consists of Biology student Ben Keane, English and Linguistics student Chris Caudwell and Simon Donelly, a third year Computer Science and Maths student. Second year Politics student Tom Coates is waiting in the wings as the team’s reserve.

Speaking to Vision, captain Andrew Clemo said he is hoping to redeem York after last year’s dismal performance. He also revealed that the team have been training regularly by attending the pub quiz at the Victoria pub on Hes Road and having “occasional success.”

At present the identity of their first round of opponents is still unknown although Clemo hopes “it won’t be an Oxbridge team.”

As for meeting the infamously scathing host, the team are very optimistic.

“We are very, very much looking forward to meeting Paxman, hopefully we will be able to withstand his sarcastic putdowns and maybe even get an approving comment” said the captain, before adding, “but we’ll take it one step at a time.”

Overall the team is confident that they’ll put up a good fight regardless of who they are drawn against due to the diversity of their interests.

Clemo revealed that each member of the team has their own area of expertise: “I bring history to the table, Simon is our maths and classical music specialist, Ben obviously brings biology knowledge and Chris has great all round knowledge.

“We will do our best, and hopefully we’ll be able to show off our arcane knowledge to the full.”

The campaign, led by York Vision columnist, Scott Bryan, began after FitFinder creator Rich Martell was forced to close down the website and pay a £300 fine to his university, UCL for “bringing their name into disrepute.”

After apparently finding Scott’s comment article defending FitFinder on the Vision website, published in print earlier this term, Rich got in touch with Scott asking him if he would be happy to lead the campaign to bring the website back.

After considering Rich’s proposal, Scott started up the Facebook group “BRING BACK FITFINDER” which now boasts over 2,200 members.

Speaking to Vision, Bryan revealed that even if he hadn’t been approached he would probably still have been moved to act.

“I have always been a keen user of Fitfinder, it was great between friends as banter,” he said.

“I was going to set up a Facebook group and just when I did I got contacted by Rich Martell who said that he would help it in any way he could and endorse the campaign. In one hour the group got 100 members and the minute it was linked on the official FitFinder website it jumped to 1,000.”

Bryan also told Vision that despite the objections of some that the website is “letchy” and “a threat to people’s privacy” he is standing firmly behind his initial comments defending the site.

“Although I admit that a small portion of ‘filthy tweets’ did make my skin crawl, you can’t close down a website for the actions of a very small minority of people. I think the support people have shown the website shows that people remember the website favourably rather than as a social evil.”

“As for privacy issues – a social networking site is only a product of the people who use it. Anyone can go through your pictures on Facebook or follow you on Twitter and these were never closed down. Rich has assured me that new privacy features will be added to the site when it eventually does return but that it’ll be done in a way which doesn’t undermine the whole website.”

Other students at York also seem to agree with Scott’s point of view. One third year Computer Scientist remarked: “I really have no idea why UCL would want to shut down the website. People showing initiative like this should be praised not punished – it’s absolute madness.”

At the time of printing the petition had amassed almost 8,000 signatures from students who wish once again to be able to share their knowledge of fitties on campus.

A university spokesperson released a statement, saying that “The University of York made no formal complaint about the FitFinder website. Our understanding is that it was taken down by its creator following advice from UCL. More generally, the University of York has a duty of care towards students and staff, and will take action on harassment and bullying using electronic means. If necessary, that will include disciplinary action, whether the harassment or bullying is taking place using University equipment or not.”

Following the recent switch over from Tru to Salvation on a Tuesday night, the rights to host the other official student nights now appear to be under review by YUSU.

Persistent rumours suggest that York’s often overlooked Vodka Revs is to merge with Orgasmic and be refurbished. The new club is expected to collaborate with YUSU; however, at the time of printing these reports remained unsubstantiated.

When asked whether they would be happy with a shake-up of the bars and clubs which YUSU promoted the majority of students reacted positively. Second year Biology student Jonathan Robertson told Vision, “Getting a bit more variety in the club nights on offer would be a really good thing – at the moment all the clubs seem to offer the same basic things on student nights. I’d like to see a broader spectrum of music played on a regular basis: it would be great to get a YUSU backed Drum and Bass night or Dub-step night going on somewhere.”

YUSU Democracy and Services Officer Lewis Bretts, who is currently negotiating the changes with various companies in York, told Vision: “I’m happy with the way the club nights are shaping up – the market in York is changing substantially, and I am confident that students are going to have some great nights over the next year.”

Bretts also suggested that plans are generally in line with those of York’s student population and that students’ wishes for more variety could be granted. “Hopefully people will understand and support the idea that there should be something for everyone to enjoy,” he said.

Moreover, he also assured students that that YUSU will still be striving to get the best deal possible for students. “For me the priority is always whether or not people will have a good time. We’d never promote a club night that wasn’t the best on offer.”

The event, which will be held in the new Goodricke area of the Heslington East campus, was set up by the college to mark the college’s official opening.

College Chair Tim Ellis told Vision: “The decision was made to have the event in the summer so that we could take full advantage of the surroundings on a hopefully sunny day.”

The event is running over the whole weekend with afternoon and evening events on the Saturday and a more relaxed atmosphere on the Sunday.

A variety of fairground style stalls will be run by the JCRC over the weekend and will include a tombola, a hook-a-duck stall and a “sponge the chair” game in which the Chair will be pelted with sponges dipped in green paint.

There will also be a stand from local business Milkshack selling milkshakes, a barbeque selling food and entertainment in the form of Juggle Soc throughout the day and a Samba band in evening.

Goodricke have also managed to borrow the Courtyard’s mobile bar for the day and meaning Goodricke students will be able to drink in their own college for the first time since they lost McQs at the end of last year.

Ellis continued: “It should be a great atmosphere. People from all colleges are welcome – not just Goodrickers.”

The Sunday event, whilst still open to students, is actually an open college event meaning that local residents and local schools have also been invited to see the new campus and meet Goodricke students.

“Local residents have had to put up with a lot of disruption because of the building work so it’s a great chance to foster good relations with them,” said Ellis, adding: “If all the planning and effort put into is anything to go by it’ll be a fantastic weekend!”

GoodFest is first “campus festival” of the year and is soon to be followed by the likes of the Alcuin Summer Fete, the James College Quad Dash, Wentworth’s WentFest and charity favourite Woodstock later this term.

Her most recent project is a documentary for the BBC World Service on internet marriage in India. Rajini attended the University of York and was heavily involved in student media there.

1) What is the most rewarding thing about your job?
The most rewarding thing about my job is that through my job I’ve had the privelege of having a front row seat on some massive events in history, like announcing Obama had won the US election live. And, I”ve also seen the world – reporting from Washington, Romania, India, Jerusalem and Brussels to name a few.

2) Who is the most powerful person you’ve ever interviewed?
I interviewed Tony Blair several times when he was PM – on some heavyweight issues including the Middle East. I’ve interviewed most of the main UK party leaders and key players. And Al Gore!

3) Why did you decide to become a politics reporter?
What’s great about is is that it matters. This current election has shown how politics affects everything we do. It’s exciting and totally unpredictable too.

4) Would you ever allow your personal beliefs to influence your reporting?
Never.

5) What are you most proud of?
See answer 1, but I’m proud of all the amazing things I’ve done and the people I’ve met through my work – not just celebrities but just interesting people from all walks of life. I’m very proud that I’ve won awards for my work too – always nice to get recognised for all those late nights, and long hours!

6) Who would you most like to interview?
I suppose it’s a bit clichéd but I’d love to interview George Bush now he’s out of office… spend time with him in his Dallas home. Oh – and away from politics totally – Paul McCartney.

7) Who are your heroes and influences?
My mum and dad.

8) What would you like to be remembered for most?
I think it’s too early to be writing my memoirs don’t you!

9) What do you spend your time doing when you don’t have to work?
I love live music and indie films. If I’m not at work you might find me at a gig, sitting in a coffee shop with friends or holidaying somewhere around the world. Work-life balance is essential.

10) What’s the first thing you would do if you were declared leader of the world?
Wouldn’t happen so best not to answer.

11) What subject do you most enjoy reporting on?
Politics, naturally.

12) What’s the best place you’ve got to visit as part of your job?
Probably Jersualem and the West Bank in terms of being beautiful and interesting too. Also lucky to have been to my fave cities – NY and Mumbai and Washington for work.

13) What is your favourite sort of music?
Guitar music. Acoustic singer songwriter stuff.

14) What was the last movie you watched?
The Blind Side.

15) What’s the best book you’ve ever read?
Hmm. Harry Potter. Or Catcher in the Rye!

16) Describe yourself in 3 words.
Enthusiastic, loyal, fun.

17) What is your guilty pleasure?
Hello Kitty branded merchandise. Kooky but cute.

18) What could you not live without?
My family.

19) What would you advise students who hope to achieve similar successes as yourself?
Be patient. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Have a vision, and don’t give up, as cheesy as that might sound!

20) Vision or Nouse?
Without a shadow of a doubt Vision. I edited the paper at York. It was my life for years. Some of my best friends were made on the paper. Pathetic, but rivalries with Nouse still exist 10 years on. So no way to Nouse. Victory to Vision!

Today Coach Trip is essential student viewing. It has gained a cult following and is regarded as highly amongst fans as seminal reality TV game shows such as Big Brother and Survivor.

There are several reasons for this popularity: there’s the opportunity to see some extraordinary places, see people turn on each other and argue in an international setting and of course there’s the star of the show: tour guide and presenter, Brendan Sheerin.

When I catch up with him, Brendan starts by telling me the story of how he became a tour guide more-or-less by accident when he had to take over from a girl mid-season whilst working on a summer job in Spain on the Costa Brava. “I was literally thrown in the deep end” he says. “I had a week of training with a Spanish guy and a week of training with an English girl and then they just gave me a clip board and said: ‘those are your people, go and see to them!’ I was definitely in the right place at the right time.”

Brendan found that he loved being a tour guide so much and that people responded so well to his ever upbeat manner so well that he went on being a guide.

“I was a guide for nearly 30 years. I did a lot of resorts in Europe like the Algarve, the Costa Brava, the Costa Blanca – before it exploded and became a bit tatty – and places like the Canaries and Costa Del Sol.”

It wasn’t until many years later that Brendan ended up working near to us here in York for the Scarbrough tourism office that the opportunity to do Coach Trip presented itself.

Brendan applied and thanks to his cheery and unflappable manner the producers saw his charm as a perfect fit for their new show. One practice run later and the show was being commissioned by Channel Four.

“We did a little pilot with only about four or five couples to start and we travelled from London up through Oxforshire. We spent a long weekend away figuring out how it would work, with the votes etc. Then we sent that off to Channel Four and they loved it!”

Brendan insists that nobody predicted how big of a hit the show would become. “From my point of view, when I first started I was just interested in the travel and going to these wonderful places. Then of course I saw their interaction and the dramas began to unfold!”

The beauty of the show definitely lies in the ‘trouble in paradise’ feel to the whole thing. On the one hand contestants are on the holiday of a lifetime but on the other, as Brendan tells me, “they’re in a confined space for quite a while and it gets very psychological.”

Whilst Brendan himself loves the travel aspect of the show he accepts that most people love the contestant interaction.

“There’s a part of everyone who loves to tune in to see who’s forming allegiances, who’s getting stabbed in the back and what’s going to happen come vote time. There’s a lot of intrigue.”

As you may expect as one of the only constants of the show Brendan has seen pretty much every combination of contestants come and go. He knows exactly how the game works. “With all respect to you students I find that the ones who have the best game plans are students and young people. Look at Paul and Matt [a pair of student contestants from the most recent series] the way they worked the coach, they managed to stay on for 33 days!”

“They started with a game plan straight away. That’s the secret. The older people are just getting to know each other and taking it slowly whereas these lads were in and networking from day one.”

But Brendan also warns that even the best laid plans can go awry. “I think people who try and instigate tactical voting have to be very, very careful. Everybody knows that there are game plans and that they need alliances to stay on but if you approach someone in the wrong way the whole plan can turn on you.”

The role of the tour guide is one that Brendan takes very seriously and as such he stays neutral when it comes to the voting. “Obviously I have my own views and I do see certain cliques forming,” he tells me “but in the end I have to be everybody’s friend.”

Coach Trip is often a dog-eat-dog world and people very rarely show any mercy when it comes time for the vote. Brendan recalls one couple who only lasted about two days (the shortest amount of time it’s possible to stay).

“There was once a lovely mother and son and I think I only had them in for Istanbul! The mother was a bit ill one day and the son was very quiet.” It goes to show that you do have to earn your place on the coach as Brendan tells me. “If you show any sign of weakness you become a target and the next thing you know you’re off!”

But despite all the talk of voting and allegiances, which makes the programme sound more like the build up to WW1 than a holiday programme, Brendan is keen to assure me that the trip really is worth going on. He calls it “the ultimate holiday” and the more he describes it the more I’m inclined to believe him. Everything from the start of your time on the coach is paid for, every drink, every activity and every meal.

As seen on the show the activities are as far ranging and diverse as the people. “The most exciting thing we’ve ever done I wasn’t actually allowed to do!” says Brendan. “We were about to go bungee jumping over the Corinth canal and the producers didn’t want me to do it just in case but I thought it was brilliant for the passengers anyway.”

Another highlight of the trip for Brendan was seeing his passengers going camel riding in the Sahara. “Sometimes you didn’t know which posterior was the biggest, the contestants or the camel!” he laughs.

However it’s not all thrill seeking and the usual holiday activities. People on the coach also get a good flavour of the local culture although Brendan admits that these don’t always go down too well.

Could this be you on the next series? Apply now on the Channel 4 website to be in with a chance at getting on "the ultimate holiday!"

“There are a few activities that I did think were a bit dull. A good example is sugaring the rose petals in Croatia or somewhere like that, that was a bit boring but it’s something that you’ll never do again so you should make the most of it – I always go in with gusto regardless.”

So what’s next for Coach Trip? I ask Brendan if he can give me any tidbits about the new series but he’s been sworn to secrecy. He does however give a small teaser about what’s in store for series five of the show: “I can tell you that we’ve never been there before – it’s virgin territory.”

The students, a group of six girls, have asked to remain anonymous for fear of once again incurring the wrath of the landlord. They described their experiences to Vision as “a living nightmare”.

When the girls moved into the house which they had found on the university housing list in a popular student area, they had no idea of the predicament in which they would eventually find themselves.

The students’ problems started from as soon as they moved in. They noted that the house was in “a state of disrepair and had not been redecorated at all.” However although they noticed these things they did not think to take photographs for evidence; something they would go on to bitterly regret.

“We were very naive looking back. If we’d taken photos when moving in and out the whole drama could have been avoided.”

However, like most students, the possibility that they were about to be ripped off did not even enter the minds of the girls.

“When he took most of our deposits we were shocked,” said one of the girls. “We’d always had quite a good relationship with him; we’d even had him over to one of our parties.”

However the girls conceded that there had been signs that something may have been wrong.

“He had always been quite hit and miss when responding to problems, for example it took him a month to fix the toilet seat when it fell off, and he took ages to sort out the constant smell of gas in one of the back bedrooms.”

When the landlord refused to give a written list of all the reasons he had not returned their deposits, it became clear that there would be no reasoning with him and the girls, with the help of legal aid, took him to small claims court.

Upon hearing that he was being taken to court, the landlord came back out in force, making nearly £3,500 worth of claims in a counter-suit.

These included attempting to charge £800 for a mirror which he himself had broken whilst drunk at their party, £320 for a washing machine which had broken down during their tenancy and £150 for stained mattresses despite the fact that everyone in the house had used a mattress protector.

A stressful, two year legal battle ensued in which the landlord had the court adjourned twice and submitted reams and reams of irrelevant evidence including business cards and unrelated hospital appointment records.
The girls told Vision: “As we had to come from all over the country he attempted to prolong it and prolong it in the hope that we’d give up.”

“It was incredibly petty – it was only a few hundred pounds – it meant nothing to him as he’s got houses all over town.”

“We incurred loads of court costs but it was worth it in the end as he had to pay us.”

Eventually the ruling went against the landlord and the girls received their deposits back in full as well as compensation awarded by the court. After further complaints from the girls the landlord was also struck off the University Housing list.

The girls offer this advice for all students in order to avoid a similar situation: “Always ask for an inventory – to avoid being charged for things that are already broken – and always keep it professional with your landlords; get every visit properly recorded.”

Though they thought the matter was finally behind them the landlord has recently applied for the opportunity to appeal the judgement.

Langwith College’s Philip Charlesworth is planning the mammoth bike ride for this summer and is looking to raise £2600, one pound for every mile he cycles. The proceeds will go to the British Legion. Philip, a first year Biology student, initially wished to complete the bike ride as a personal challenge but his military family background compelled him to turn the ride into “something worthwhile”.

Speaking to Vision, Philip said that despite the fact that he stays in good shape, the bike ride would still be quite a challenge. “I’m not a cyclist at all,” he said, “boxing and swimming are my main sports”.

Choosing to embark on the ride without a support team or even a riding partner, Philip can do nothing but cross his fingers and hope everything goes well. I don’t have anything as a back up apart from my phone,” said Philip, although he added that thanks to his dad’s military connections he does know “quite a few people dotted around the place” who will be there just in case of emergencies.

The student has received a positive reception from everybody he’s shared his plans with, including York Cycle Works who generously loaned Philip a bike on which to do the ride.“I need to hope I don’t lose it or crash it or something awful like that” he joked.

Finally Philip revealed that whilst he is doing the bike ride for charity he is also planning to make the most of his rest days: “I’ll be having about one rest day a week or so – I’m hoping to tie it into when I’m on the beach!”

Despite the efforts of Goodricke JCRC’s Campaigns Reps, Jamie Fisher and Andreas Gabrielsen, plans to install a much needed ATM on the new campus fell through after it emerged that clauses and requirements in the supply company’s contract were unacceptable to the university.

Jon Greenwood, the university’s Director of Commercial Services, told Vision: “I haven’t had specific dealings with the company that Goodricke identified but my own research has found that private cash point providers look for a footfall of 5000 people, want site exclusivity for 5 years and of course charge for withdrawals.”
However these stipulations were deemed unreasonable and, to the disappointment of the JCRC, the installation did not go ahead.

Tim Ellis, Goodricke Chair, maintained that the affair had not been futile. “I was very impressed with the efforts of the Campaigns Officers; it was disappointing that it didn’t come through.” Adding: “hopefully this has put more pressure on the uni to sort out the cash point situation”

When asked by Vision, Jon Greenwood confirmed that plans to get an ATM were indeed being taken forward. “I am speaking to HSBC, Barclay’s, Nationwide and others to get a free-to-use machine from a recognised high street provider.”