The History Of Mastermind Part 4 : BBCTV Mastermind Take Two

Mastermind returned to BBC TV on the last but one day of 2002. I don’t know if this celebrity special was only ever intended to be a one-off, but it certainly spawned the popular Celebrity Mastermind, which has run for 20 series since and shows no sign of running out of steam any time soon. For the record, those first game celebrities were Janet Street-Porter, Vic Reeves, Adam Hart-Davies and winner Jonathan Meades. The main differences between the celebrity version and the regular show are that each show within a series is self-contained. The winner gets a trophy and doesn’t have to go through to a semi final or a final. Another difference is that winning celebrities can still come back on the show, and some have even won more than once.

In may ways the best thing about the first celebrity show is that it made the return of the regular show to the BBC seem a distinct possibility. And indeed, on the 7^th July 2003 the first of 12 heats was broadcast. Heat winners advanced to the semi finals, and the  semi final winners contested the final. In the final civil servant Andy Page won a tight contest to become the first champion of the new, John Humphrys era.

Now that John Humphrys has retired from the show, we can maybe come to a reasoned appraisal of his tenure. I don’t know that he ever became quite as indelibly a part of the show in the public consciousness as Magnus had during the show’s first incarnation. In part this may well be because of circumstances beyond his control. After the 1973 scheduling shift, for the rest of its run to 1997 Mastermind was shown on BBC1. TV audiences for any shows were generally larger for any kind of show in the pre internet and pre satellite/cable days in which the show was first established, so it was far easier for a show to etch itself deeply on the national consciousness.

I’ve always wondered whether Jeremy Paxman’s selection to host “University Challenge” from its revival in 1994 had an influence on John Humphrys’ selection for Mastermind. In the case of UC, Bamber Gascoigne politely turned down the opportunity of picking up the reins for the revival, so it seems to me that the producers may well have gone for a conscious choice of ‘and now for something completely different’. For me that approach hadn’t worked in Discovery Mastermind, with cleverdick Clive Anderson seeming a very poor fit for the question master’s chair. Fair enough. If University Challenge could use BBCTV’s most renowned political interview rottweiler, then surely Mastermind could use BBC Radio’s.

Whatever the case, response to new Mastermind was favourable enough, and by the later semis John H. was inviting members of the public to apply for the 2004 series. While the 2003 series consisted of 17 shows in total, that was raised to 31 for 2004, and every series since has consisted of the same number of shows. 24 heat winners progressed to 6 semi-finals, and the 6 winners progressed to the final. The final was won by barrister Shaun Wallace, who became the first black Mastermind champion. It was the start of a memorable TV career for Shaun. He lost out on becoming an Egghead when defeated by Barry Simmons in the first series of Are You An Egghead?, however he soon became the first Chaser on ITV’s highly popular The Chase.

The 2005 series was won by one of the few quizzers who can challenge Kevin Ashman for the title of the most successful quizzer. Like Kevin, if it’s worth winning, then Pat Gibson has probably won it. A year or two before appearing on Mastermind, Pat had already won the £1 million prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. In the 2005 final Pat answered on Father Ted. I mention it, because this sitcom is often quoted along with Fawlty Towers and Harry Potter as one of the three subjects that more applicants request as specialist subject choices than any other. Runner up in his final was future Brain of Britain champion Mark Grant, who has now, I believe, made more grand final appearances than any other contender. Pat went on to win the joyous 2010 Champion of Champions tournament, which I was privileged to have a ringside seat for having been the highest scoring runner up n the heats, and therefore being stand in for the final.

This leads nicely to the 2006 series, which was won by the 2003 runner up, Geoff Thomas. It was also the series which saw my own first appearance on Mastermind. I was beaten in the heats by Kath Drury who achieved the highest of all the scores in the semi-finals. As one of three highest scoring runners up, I got to attend the semi-finals as a stand in. I didn’t get to take part, but at least I got to watch the semi-finals as they happened. After this I was convinced that Geoff was going to win the final – he honestly looked a different class, Kath’s performance notwithstanding. The other  talking point was the, at the time, record low specialist subject score in the semi finals.

Geoff was presented the trophy for winning the final by Magnus Magnusson himself. Sadly, the following year saw Magnus pass away in the January, and it’s fair to say that the 2007 series rightly served as something of a memorial to the great man. The decision had been made prior to the start of the series to begin broadcasting the heats in the late summer, which meant that the final would not be broadcast until the end of March 2008. However, the shows were all in the can by the middle of June. The final was actually filmed on 15th June 2007, which by coincidence was my birthday. As a tribute to Magnus it was held in Glasgow Caledonian University, a place very dear to Magnus’ heart, where he had served as Chancellor. The trophy was presented by his daughter, broadcaster Sally Magnusson. I’m perfectly fine with not being one of the most distinctive or distinguished champions, but I think my win was noteworthy for a couple of reasons. I was the first – and only – schoolteacher to win during the Humphrys era (and at time of writing am still the last to do so.) Also, I am the only champion to date to be knocked out in the first round of one series, and come straight back to win the very next series.

In the early days of the Mastermind, the first four winners were all schoolteachers or college lecturers, and the first three champions were all women. New Mastermind had its first schoolteacher champion in 2007. 2009 would bring its first woman champion, Nancy Dickmann. Nancy’s series was the first that I covered in LAM, and it’s a matter of some pride to me that I tipped her as the most likely contender in the series to become the first woman to win in the revived show. I did, I will admit, tip Ian Bayley to win the final, while he in fact came second behind Nancy. In my defence, Ian was a top Masterminder, as he would go on to prove in his next final appearance in 2011.

In 2010, the production team finally bowed to requests to reinstate the semi final places for the highest scoring runners up. As series of Mastermind go, I look back on 2010 as a classic. There were so many very fine quizzers involved. Reading my preview back, for the final I couldn’t decide who to tip as the most likely champ between Jesse Honey and Kathryn Johnson, and indeed they did take the first two spots on the podium. In the final Jesse scored a Humphrys era record of 37 – which would, incidentally have won many of the finals in the Magnus era as well. The recording of the heats of the 2010 champions series took place just a couple of days before the broadcast of Jesse’s final. Jesse was runner up in the tournament, however, in his heat he set the all-time record of 23 points for a single round, answering on Flags. That was a 2-minute round as well.

In 2011, Ian Bayley bounced back from his narrow defeat in 2009, to add the Mastermind title to the Brain of Britain title he’d won the previous year. His Brain of Britain performance was the most commanding win in many a long year – I know because I was sitting next to him at the time. He was also a member of the all conquering Crossworders team which won the first series of Only Connect. In 2011 Ian made no mistakes, and won comfortably, equalling Jesse’s modern era record of 37 from the previous final.

During 2010 my team, the Radio Addicts, reached the final of the 4th series of Only Connect. Neil Phillips, captain Gary Grant and I spent a fair bit of time together on the filming days for the show, and skipper Gary shared with us his desire to become a Mastermind champion. He’d reached the semi finals in Nancy’s series in 2009, but this was never going to be enough for him. In 2012 his ambition came to fruition. In the grand final, Gary scored a spectacular 19 on his specialist subject of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, and in the end won with a total of 35, 5 points ahead of Andy Tucker, an excellent quizzer in his own right. Gary was the second medical doctor to win the title, following in the footsteps of 1987 champion Dr. Jeremy Bradbrooke.

So to the 2013 series. In the previous 3 finals the winners had all scored in the high 30s. From 2013 onwards, there was a move towards longer questions, which worked to make monster scores like this very much the exception rather than the rule. Nonetheless the Grand Final in 2013 was a very keenly fought contest, and was won by charity director Aidan McQuade. I’ve never met Aidan yet, nor had any communication with him, but his attitude towards the show is one that I’ve always been able to run up the flagpole and salute. Aidan said that he wasn’t that bothered about winning or losing, for him it was all about the ‘craic’, the giving it a go, and the camaraderie between the contenders. Amen to that.

So that’s our first 10 seasons of the revived series. In the next and final installment, we’ll bring the show up to the present day.