The History of Mastermind: Towards a 6th Decade

The later years of the fifth decade of the show would bring some of the greatest upheavals since the 2003 TV revival. We’ll come to that.

In the 2014 Grand Final, the man who has faced the black chair on more occasions than any other contender, Hamish Cameron, reached his first Grand final. According to my own database – which may well be less than perfect, I admit, Hamish appeared in no fewer than 8 separate series. I believe he was a 6 times semi-finalist, and reached the final in his last two series, 2014 and 2019. Putting that into perspective, I believe that he faced 15 specialist rounds, and 15 general knowledge rounds in the chair altogether. Sadly, Hamish passed away a matter of days before the broadcast of the 2019 final. In 2014 Hamish was beaten by Clive Dunning, who would go on to add the Brain of Britain title to his CV. Runner up was Brian Chesney, who for a few years was saddled with the reputation of being the ‘nearly man’, after becoming runner up in both Mastermind and Brain of Britain. Well, his time would come.

Up to the 2015 Grand Final, only one of the revived series champions had been a woman. Many people fancied that this could change in 2015. Diane Hallagan had previously reached the Grand Final in 2011. However, in the final Diane fell just a little short, and was eclipsed by Marianne Fairthorne, who won a very tight and exciting final on pass countback, just beating David Greenwood. Marianne had been one of the highest scoring heat runners up, and her victory justified the reinstatement of the repechage places a few years earlier.

Of course, if the 2015 final was tight, then 2016’s would prove to be even tighter and not without controversy. At the halfway stage Jim Maginnis had a 2-point lead over Alan Heath. Alan scored 2 points more on GK than Jim did. Neither contender had passed at all, and so we had a Grand Final Tiebreak. As it happened, we had two, since the contenders both later explained that there had, in fact, been 2 tie breaks, since both Alan and Jim had the same score in the first. The BBC won no friends by editing out the first tiebreak when the final was broadcast. Alan won the second and was duly crowned the champion. The controversy came when, in the broadcast, it was noted that John Humphrys read out the wrong year for Frank Sinatra’s death in Jim’s GK round. Both contenders reacted with grace and dignity. We’re all human, and human beings make mistakes from time to time.

I’ve already paid tribute to Hamish, who made it to the Grand Final on his 7^th attempt. 2017 belonged to another stalwart of the show, Isabelle Heward. Before 2017, Isabelle had appeared in 4 series, losing out in the semi final of the last three. It wasn’t easy for her to reach that 2017 final either, since it required a 3 way tiebreak in her semi-final. Then, in the Grand Final she was 3 points off the lead after the specialist round. However a superb round of 17 on GK brought her the win.

If at first you don’t succeed, in Mastermind, then try, try again. It doesn’t always bring success, but it did so for Isabelle in 2017, and it did again in 2018. Brian Chesney finally laid his grand final hoodoo to rest. Joint leader at the halfway stage after the specialist round, he ran away with a monster score of 19 on GK.

Big changes were in the air. Even before the 2019 series began broadcasting in the Autumn of 2018, the BBC had put the production of the show out to tender from independent production companies. It’s fair to say that the show had come under criticism from some quarters due to the length of the majority of the questions being asked. Many people, me included, felt that the length of the questions did, at times, seem ridiculous. Certainly question setters were under fairly strict instructions as to the way the questions should be couched. The tendering process was won by Hat Trick and Hindsight, who would produce the show from the 2020 series onwards.

In the meantime, the BBC production team introduced a couple of cosmetic changes to the show which left many of us scratching our heads a little bit. Contenders would no longer sit on the side, facing the chair while waiting for their turn. Instead they would have to walk through a neon portal to the chair for their specialist round, then be marched off the set again. They would all be brought back together before the GK round, but not actually told the order in which they would be returning to the chair. To be honest, I couldn’t really see the point of these changes, and I was glad to see them quietly dropped by the start of the 2020 series.

As for the 2019 series, we’ve already seen that Hamish Cameron reached his second final. We would also see Mark Grant reach his third final, an outright Mastermind record. While it would have been fitting for either Hamish or Mark to win and create a treble of perseverance champions in 2017,18 and 19, it was not to be. The final was actually won by Judith Lewis. There was just a little hint of controversy about whether Judith said ‘gerbil’ or ‘jerboa’ in response to a GK question. The discussion was purely academic. Even if Judith had not been given that point, she would still have won on pass countback.

So farewell, then, BBC production, and hello Hat Trick and Hindsight for the 2020 series. I for one was pleased to see that they had sensibly adopted a policy of – if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it, but if it is broken then fix it. So the cosmetic changes of the previous season were quietly dropped. Sadly, so were the repechage slots for highest scoring runners up. The questions were still on the long side, but nonetheless there was evidence that the show may well be taking on a renewed vitality. The 2020 Grand Final was won by Dave McBryan. Predictably there was a little comment on the fact that Dave is a professional quiz master. The majority view, that Mastermind is meant to be a serious challenge for the best and you don’t discount applications because the applicant might actually be good is one I have always agreed with.

As the 2021 series began in late 2020, John Humphrys announced that he was stepping down from the question master’s role. On a personal note I have mixed feelings about John Humphrys. I still don’t understand why he couldn’t have just popped his head around the door after the 2008 (2007) final to offer a word before he went. I do think that his was an important hand in lengthening the show’s questions, which I feel had a detrimental effect on the show. However, on set he was a great broadcaster in my view. I will never forget his assured handling of my Grand Final.

Still, as speculation about who would become the new host abounded, the 2021 series continued, and in the shape of Jonathan Gibson we had a challenger to Gavin Fuller’s status as the youngest ever Mastermind Champion. He looked like a good contender in the first round. In the semi final he looked like a great one, and very much a potential champion. Come the Grand Final, he was still younger than Gavin had been in 1993. You might have expected that maybe this would have weighed on him a bit but come the Grand Final and he absolutely smashed it. He led by a point after the first round, and with a brilliant 17 in the GK round he won going away from the pack.

In March of 2021 the news broke that Clive Myrie was to be the new host of Mastermind. The news was greeted with general approval. Although in a couple of quarters fears had been expressed that a light entertainment personality might be parachuted in, most commentators felt that the new host had to have a BBC news background, with the name of Samira Ahmed gaining approval in many quarters. Still, even though she didn’t get the nod, on paper Clive fit the bill well.

Not just on paper, either. With the exception of a few brainless, racist internet trolls, reaction to Clive Myrie as host throughout the most recent series in 2022 has been extremely positive. With regards to his style as question master, many have noticed his willingness to speed up his delivery to match the fastest contenders. Magnus Magnusson himself used to do the same, and I can give no higher praise than that.

Sometimes the final is won by narrow margins, as in 2019. Sometimes it’s won by one contender blowing away the competition, as happened in 2021. In 2022, a similar thing occurred. Coming into the final a couple of the finalists had commendably consistent records in both heat and semi, while others had shown that they were capable of high scores in GK, but also in not so high scores. Alice Walker led after the specialist round. Then, in the GK round she had the round of her life and achieved a monster total of 19 to win by 6 points.

Which all brings us up to date. I don’t have a crystal ball and can’t say how long BBC will choose to continue with Mastermind. Just because a show has lasted in one form or another for 50 years, doesn’t mean that the BBC won’t one day decide that it is surplus to requirements again. Hopefully not for the foreseeable future though, and here’s to us all being here in 2032, celebrating its diamond anniversary. Cheers!