Mastermind 2020 - First Round - Heat 1

Right, then, let’s begin with the first heat of this year’s Mastermind. For the first time this season, Mastermind has been produced by an independent production company – I noticed the names Hindsight and the more well known Hat Trick at the end of the show. So the big question, especially considering the document the BBC put out this time last year inviting tenders, was what was the new-look Mastermind going to turn out like?

Well, I will admit that I was worried, but actually reassured by the end of the show. Yes, there were some design changes. The font being used is bolder, and somewhat harsher and more serious. At the start of the show John’s podium and the chair podium are highlighted in white circles, and roundels with a large white M glow on the walls. However if anything this reflected what appears to be a more back to basics approach. The innovations of last year have been shown the door. Contenders once again sit in a row by the side of the chair, and the portal of portent is no more. Frankly, I can’t see it being missed. It also means there’s none of this nonsense about not telling the contenders what each one has scored. All to the good. A smaller cosmetic change is that the blue line of death is no more. Instead it’s more like the white filling of the border is sucked out of it as the last fanfare plays.

It’s far too early to tell if the change I most wanted to see is going to happen in this series, though. Put in most basic terms, and I apologise if this upsets anyone, last year’s series saw too many low scoring contenders in the first round. There is nothing in the least bit entertaining seeing a contender being way, way out of their depth, and struggling their way through a round, and I felt that a number of last year’s contenders should have been saved from themselves.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case for any of the contenders in this first heat. Kicking off the series was David Gerrard, answering on the History and Geography of the Lake District. This was one of three specialist subjects on this particular heat where my knowledge was extremely limited, and only general knowledge brought me a couple of points. David, on the other hand, took a fine 12 points and no passes, and I’ll be honest, judging by this first show, the question lengths seem to have slightly extended again – so much so that 12 looks like a mighty good score, and I would imagine 15 to be impossible.

The only subject that I really knew anything about in this show was The Novels of Sue Townsend, offered to us by Ned Pendleton, from Only Connect’s Road Trippers, and then I only know most of the Adrian Mole books. Still, that was enough to bring me 5 and save me from total specialist embarrassment in this heat. Ned, again, was a well prepared contender who knew his stuff, and also scored a very fine 12 and no passes.

Doctor Lucy Reynolds gave us the life and career of Dorothy Hodgkin. Now, I know enough about her that whenever a UC question contains the words “X Ray crystallography” and “Nobel Prize” I answer with her name. That’s about it, though. For the third time in a row, though, we had a very well prepared contender, who also scored 12 and no passes. What a good show so far.

Last to go in the specialist round was Emma Laslett. Emma last passed this way in the 2014 series, where she won her first round heat with a very high score, and lost out to 2018 champion Brian Chesney in the semi final. Emma  is by now an experienced TV quiz hand, and experience counts for a lot in this game. She couldn’t take an outright lead at this stage, but she too scored 12 and no passes on Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower “ series.

I don’t ask a lot. Give me 4 contenders who have all prepared thoroughly on their specialists, thus showing the chair the respect it deserves, and I’m happy. I’m even happier if they can all manage to put up a decent show on GK, but that remained to be seen.

David Gerrard certainly did that. Okay, 9 might sound a wee bit modest, not being in double figures, but I felt he gave his round a good old lash. If you end with a score in the 20s you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Would it be a winning score, though? I somehow doubted it.

With about 30 seconds to go, maybe even a little more, Ned Pendleton was on 21 and cruising, and a score of around 25 looked highly likely. However the last5 or 6 questions just were not to his liking, and he only managed to add one more point to the total. Two rounds in double figures, that’s good quizzing, but again, I didn’t quite see it being a winning score.

Lucy Reynolds put on another good performance, but a number of the questions she missed were the sort of questions the real challengers for the title would be able to answer correctly. For a while it looked as if she would maybe just equal Ned’s total, but a let spurt saw her just edge over the line with 11 to take the target to 23. That’s a good performance, and I say this because if you can’t blast the opposition away, the next best thing that you can do is score enough points to put them into the corridor of doubt.

If there was any doubt in Emma Laslett’s mind, though, she didn’t show it. In her previous first round in 2014 Emma scored 29, and I would say that the 15 she scored to earn 27 overall was a performance of similar stature, bearing in mind the miserly amount of questions the contenders are being given in their specialist rounds. It was by far the best round of the day, and is the benchmark against which contenders in forthcoming heats will have to be measured.

So John wrapped up proceedings, and then we got the real innovation for this series, a piece to camera by the winner, in this case Emma. Well, I’ve nothing against that per se, and coming at the end you can watch or not watch as the fancy takes you. Overall then, well, I have to say I found this show reassuring. That BBC document last year invited visions of viewers being invited to play along interactively at home, and other horrors, which thankfully we were spared. A cautious thumbs up to the latest revamp of the show.

The Details

David Gerrard	History and Geography of the Lake District	12	0	9	0	21	0
Ned Pendleton	The Novels of Sue Townsend	12	0	10	0	22	0
Lucy Reynolds	The life and career of Dorothy Hodgkin	12	0	11	0	23	0
Emma Laslett	Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series	12	0	15	0	27	0