Sleb Mastermind - Show 8

I’ve been neglecting you, and I’m sorry. So lets start off with a round up of the last three Sleb Mastermind shows. First of all , Wednesday night’s. Simon O’Brien , first into the chair, you may remember as a Brooksider. He’s done quite a bit since mind. He earned brownie points from the Clark sofa for taking Bob Marley as his subject, and these questions were no picnic either, he had to know his stuff to get 10 . Well done for that.

Digby Jones – or Lord Digby Jones – is a businessman and politician probably best known for heading up the CBI IIRC. I liked his subject too, the Kings and Queens of England since 1485. – Hello Dave – I said to myself – rich pickings here boy, and I wasn’t disappointed. Like Digby I too scored 16, although not the same 16, interestingly enough, and I didn’t pass any. Not that it matters. 16 looked pretty good, and my noble lord looked sharp and in form.

Jason Merrells is an actor . John Humprhys alluded to roles in Emmerdale and Lark Rise to Candleford, but for me he remains Jack Rimmer from Waterloo Road - or as we in the trade call it, The Gross Professional Misconduct Show. Its actually a guilty pleasure of mine, and I do enjoy it. And the show too, come to that. Sorry, I apologise for bringing smut and pointless digressions into your homes. Jason scored 15 on Leonardo da Vinci, and was well in contention at the halfway stage.

Finally Terry Christian. He made the telling point in the inter round chat that his seminal TV show The Word actually looks pretty tame considering some of the things you see today. Well, that’s progress ? Oh well. He was answering on the Manchester music scene from 1977 to the present day – a topic full of interest, and also much wider than you might think. He managed 11 points.

Simon returned to the chair, and put on a fine GK display to garner a further 14, and take himself into the mid twenties. Terry Christian couldn’t quite manage double figures, and 9 left him languishing with 20. Jason Merrells found that his own challenge foundered in this round, in a case of the memory refusing to share what it knows with the mouth. You could see he knew a few more than he answered, but they just wouldn’t come. It happens. Digby Jones then needed just 9 for the win, but as I had expected did considerably better than this. A bravura performance on an admittedly gentle set of questions added another 17 to take him to 33, which is a fine score even in sleb terms. Well done.

The Details

Simon O’Brien	Bob Marley	Greenpeace	10 - 1	14 - 1	24 - 1
Digby Jones	Kings and Queens of England from 1485	Breast Cancer Care	16 - 1	17 - 1	33 - 2
Jason Merrells	Leonardo da Vinci	Leukaemia and Lymphona Research/ Diabetes UK	15 - 0	8- 4	23 - 4
Terry Christian	Manchester Music 1977 – present day	Five Star Scanner Appeal	11 - 1	9 - 4	20 - 5