THE director of an award winning North-East lettings agency feared he would be up against his own tenants as he made his debut on a famed tv quiz show.

Hundreds of Durham students will get a surprise when they tune into the new series of BBC 2’s University Challenge tomorrow (Monday September 5).

They will see their landlord Peter Smith, but representing potential opposition for Durham, in future rounds.

Mr Smith runs Bill Free Homes in Durham, which owns, leases or manages more than 130 properties, with more than 600 tenants in the city.

He is part of the Salford University team, alongside captain Bradley Wakefield, Mark Saunders and Robert White, on tomorrow’s show.

It is 12 years since Mr Smith founded Bill Free Homes, which was named Best North-East Lettings Agency, in 2015 and 2016, and voted The Sunday Times Student Letting Agent of the Year, in 2014 and 2015.

Mr Smith was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s North-East Housing Awards and has become a prominent speaker on student accommodation matters.

But, beyond his “day job”, he became a mature student, himself, three years ago, starting a Master’s degree in real estate finance, at Salford.

He is now working on a dissertation on purpose-built student accommodation and its effects on Durham, on which he hopes to graduate later this year.

“I’ve long been a fan of University Challenge and I originally qualified for the Salford team two years ago, but we didn’t make it through the incredibly competitive selection process, which reduces 160 institutions down to 28.

“We were thrilled to make it on to the show this year.

“I did not start the degree just to get on University Challenge, but it was definitely a big influence.

“If we hadn’t made it on to the show this year then I may have been tempted to apply for a PhD to extend my time as a Salford student, but, thankfully, now I don’t have to!

“My big worry was meeting Durham University in the first round and finding that the team were all my tenants, as we’ve had a great number of past tenants on the show, and, as we house about six-percent of the students living in the city, then it was entirely possible.”

Salford, however, avoided Durham at the first round stage, where they meet the Open University on tomorrow screening, on BBC 2, at 8pm.

Should they succeed they could yet go on to meet Durham, whose team includes Bill Free Homes tenant, Nat Guillou, who is doing a course in Arab World Studies, at the university.