Mastermind 2025 Semi Final 3

 

							Table Position
Cathryn Gahan	12	0	10	0	22	0	9
Arnav Umranikar	6	0	12	0	18	0	19
Roopam Carroll	9	0	10	1	19	1	18
John Harden	13	0	11	2	24	2	6

There’s lies, damn lies and statistics. Only sometimes, there can be truth in statistics as well. Let’s come back to that shortly.

Looking at the table, then, here seemed to be an even split between the contenders. In Cathryn and John we had two from the top 10 performers in the heats, and in Roopam and Arnav two from the bottom 10 performers in the heats. Was this a clue towards the way that this semi would work out?

First up was Cathryn Gahan. She was answering on the films of Mel Brooks. In my opinion the great man’s work tended to tail off a bit after the brilliance of The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein but I’ve still watched most of them and so I wasn’t that surprised that I managed 7 of them. Delighted, yes. I should think that Cathryn was delighted with her own round of 12. It looked a winner right from the first question and she was definitely going to be in the running in the second half.

Arnav Umranikar gave us a good old traditional Mastermind subject in Homer’s Odyssey. I’ve probably put on record before my love of Greek Mythology when I was a kid, added to the fact that it’s only a few weeks ago I read Stephen Fry’s retelling of the story. Again, I was delighted to take 7 of these. Last week I had an aggregate of 14 on the specialist rounds and I thought that this might prove to be my highest of the semis. Here I’d equalled it with 2 rounds to go. Arnav scored 9 which was a considerable improvement on his specialist score from the heats. However, this was a different class of opposition from the heats.

Roopam Carroll was answering on LL Cool J. I will admit that to this point of my life Mr. Cool-J’s work has largely escaped my attention, thoroughly decent chap that he may well be. So I didn’t trouble the scorers further. Roopam scored 7. In this day and age that is a perfectly respectable score. However it’s not going to be enough to put you into contention in a semi final, I’m afraid.

Finally John Harden. John, you may recall, was egged on to enter by his late wife. He was due to participate in the previous series, but his wife passed just prior to filming. John was answering on Sir John Mortimer’s Rumpole stories. I first came to these through the excellent TV adaptations starring Leo McKern, Patricia Hodge, Peter Bowles and others. Funnily enough I met Sir John in the summer of 1983. I was working for slave drivers a temp agency out of Ealing Broadway in the weeks leading up to me starting at University, and they sent me to wash up in the canteen of the old Lime Grove studios. They filmed BBC Breakfast Time there, which I’d guess he might have been appearing on. I was going up the stairs and he was coming down. I recognised him and said, “Excuse me, are you John Mortimer?” He hadn’t yet been knighted. He replied, “Yes.” paid me no further attention and continued down the stairs at a brisker pace than before. It takes all sorts. Maybe he was having a bad day. John Harden wasn’t having a bad day. He calmly and smoothly collected 12. I took a further 3 to take my aggregate to 17.

Roopam returned to the chair. In the heats I noticed that she had a very calm way of approaching the general knowledge questions, giving each one due consideration and applying guesses where she didn’t know the answers. This method brought her 10 in the heat, sadly she didn’t quite reach those heights last night scoring 7. Didn’t matter. She’s a semi finalist and I know quite a few people who’d love to be able to say that.

Arnav had managed an excellent 12 on GK in the heats, but like Roopam, his round didn’t quite come together for him. He too scored 7, as we said it’s a perfectly respectable score. But it’s not going to be a winning one. Doesn’t matter.

So to the battle for the win. Cathryn Gahan scored 10 on GK in the heats. At a couple of times during her GK round last night I felt she was on course to do a bit better than this. Well, she certainly gave it her best, but a couple of errors towards the end limited her to 10. I say limited. If you can get a double figure GK round in a semi final you’ve done really well. Would it be enough?

John had scored 12 in his GK round in the heat. John does not answer hastily, but there’s a nice economy in the way he thinks for a split second then gives the answer and the majority of these were correct. He was ahead of the clock for most of the round and sealed the win with some questions to spare, in the end fishing with 12 for a total of 24 and no passes. Just out of interest his is the same total that highest scoring under up Ian Grieve achieved in the first semi-final, although that’s purely academic.

Many congratulations, John. I have promised myself not to make predictions about the final this year but I reckon that you will be many people’s sentimental favourite in the 2025 Grand Final

The Details

Cathryn Gahan	The films of Mel Brooks	12	0	10	0	22	0
Arnav Umranikar	Home’s Odyssey	9	0	7	0	16	0
Roopam Carroll	LL Cool J	7	1	7	1	14	2
John Harden	The Rumpole Stories of Sir John Mortimer	12	0	12	0	24	0