Mastermind Grand Final Review (Spoilers)

Well, that’s Mastermind done and dusted for another year. You know how invested I was in this final through the fact that I refused to predict the winner this year for fear of scuppering anyone’s chances. Would it be a case of the prolonged build up to the final just heightening the anticipation, or would it all prove to be a huge anticlimax? Well, you see what you think about it.

Nancy Braithwaite was the first contender to go. She was answering on the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard. Before she did we got to see her filmed insert, where she got to talk to critic Mark Lawson, although not Sir Tom himself. That was a little disappointing considering some of the luminaries who got to leave messages for some of the others. Nancy’s round was not disappointing. She missed a couple, but to even get close to a maximum in the Grand Final is immensely difficult. Nancy posted 10 to show that all of the others were going to need to be at the top of their game to be in with a shout.

John Harden, answering on the 1953 expedition that conquered the summit of Everest was certainly one of the winners of the filmed inserts, getting to share a Zoom call with the son of Sir Edmund Hilary. John also reminded us about the circumstances of his involvement this year, following the very sad passing of his wife. He played down his chances, which I always feel is a sensible thing to do. If you win you can always say you were being modest afterwards, and if you don’t then there’s no embarrassment. There was no embarrassment about John’s round either. He too scored 10.

Ivan Milatovic also scored heavily in the filmed insert stakes. Having answered on Diego Velasquez and then Novak Djokovic it seemed a natural choice to go for Led Zeppelin in the final. Who did he receive a filmed message from? Why, none other than Robert Plant, who made the quite funny observation that Ivan undoubtedly knew a lot more about the band than he remembered! He was right too. Ivan has been pretty much perfect throughout the season on specialist and he came very close again. I think that he only dropped the one point, finishing with 12 points.

I can say this now and you can decide whether to believe me or not but before the final I did not think that any of the first three contenders were most likely to win. I really felt that the winner would be one of our last three, and going on the statistics Dom Tait looked most likely. He was the finalist with the highest average going into the Final. He has won Only Connect. Dom was answering on Penguins, and he did so brilliantly. However, this is the Grand Final and so he was caught out on just one question. He too finished with 12 and no passes.

Claire Reynolds was answering on the only subject in the final about which I knew absolutely nothing, the mathematician Emmy Noether. Claire’s insert reminded us that Claire was in the unusual position of having been beaten in her first round heat by fellow finalist Nancy Braithwaite. But then Claire’s semi final performance had been better than that first round showing, and I did feel sure that Claire would be on the podium in this final. Claire’s enthusiasm and love of quizzing really shone through her filmed insert and it was nice to see her filming in the University of Birmingham, home of the Birmingham mega quiz. Claire too really knew her subject, but she too was still caught out by one question to finish with 12 and no passes.

Finally then John Robinson. John took part in the first semi final and he’d had to knock out the top scorer from the heats, Ian Grieve, to win. I really enjoyed John’s filmed insert. I knew John was a teacher, but not that he was a secondary school English teacher. It’s a great subject and I loved teaching it for about two thirds of my career. The less said about the last third the better. I didn’t know that John had won half a million pounds on Millionaire. The fact that he’s still teaching shows his commitment to his career and his love of teaching. Answering on The Empire State Building John’s Zoom call was with the director of New York’s skyscraper museum. I didn’t visit that last year, but if you ever get a chance to visit the City Museum of New York you’ll love it. Lightning struck for the third time in John’s round, as he too scored 12 with one wrong and no passes.

So this meant that the GK round maintained the same order as the specialist round. First back was Nancy Braithwaite. Without wishing to sound harsh, I did think that Nancy dropped some points in the first minute of her round that she possibly should have known. To be fair she did rally, and finished her round at a cracking pace, scoring 13 for a total of 23. With the amount of General Knowledge firepower that I knew some of our contenders were packing I couldn’t see that being a winning score, but it was certainly a good one.

John Harden returned to the chair. He started well with his trademark style of considering each question carefully then giving the right answer. However his round was holed below the waterline with a long pause on one question. He rallied – that’s what finalists do, and kept going into double figures, finishing with 11 for 21 points. Not a winning score, no, but I don’t know that it was all about that for John. I think it meant the world just getting to the final in the first place, and so it should. I salute you, sir.

Ivan came back to the chair and really gave his round some welly. In his semi he scored more on GK than he did in his first round, but to take the lead he was going to need to do better again. He gave it a lash, he certainly did that. Come the end of the round he had fallen just a point short of Nancy’s score, adding 10 to take his score to 22.

Dom Tait came into the final with the highest GK aggregate and the highest GK average of any of the finalists. To be honest, I had thought his GK rounds in both heat and semi were fantastic. I’m not suggesting that Dom’s final round of 13 points wasn’t good, because it was. But crucially, although it gave him the lead, it did not blow the others out of the water, and he missed things that I thought he might get. You see , when a really top player has a bit of an off night – which is what I think happened to Dom – they still get a good score and a good performance. But a winning one?

Claire Reynolds had 13 on GK in her heat, and looked even more of a class act in her semi with a brilliant 15. That would certainly be enough to give her the lead. Now, in my preview I wrote about how the players who become champions each year manage somehow to drag their best performance out of themselves in the final. Claire certainly did that. In a fantastic round she answered nearly everything and scored 17 to leave the whole field in her wake with 29.

Or nearly the whole field, for John Robinson had yet to go. I shall not lie to you. After his magnificent semi final win, I had John as a genuine contender to be the next teacher to win the show. It was mostly for his benefit that I decided I was going to make no predictions this year. My hope for John to win was even more heightened when he said the subject he taught. Now, though, he was going to need a monster score to do it. Well, he stumbled on one or two, but he was racking up the score, and the vanishing white line hadn’t yet heralded the end of the round. Closer and closer. Yes, I’ll admit it, I was shouting at the telly, willing him on, probably more excited by this than any final since Isabelle Heward’s. John equalled Claire’s score with one question to spare. And I knew that he knew the last one. Alright, I didn’t know for sure, but I was certain. I was right.

Congratulations to all 6 finalists. In particular I offer commiserations to Claire, who performed superbly and would have been a most worthy champion in her own right. But the night belonged to John Robinson – LAM reader, dedicated English teacher, and Mastermind Champion. I could not be happier for you.

Thanks to the production team for a great series. I don’t blame you for the way that the schedulers have mucked us around this year. And a thank you to all 96 contenders. Without you, there is no show.

The Details

Nancy Braithwaite	The Plays of Tom Stoppard	10	0	13	1	23	1
John Harden	The 1953 Everest Expedition	10	0	11	0	21	0
Ivan Milatovic	Led Zeppelin	12	0	10	1	22	1
Dom Tait	Penguins	12	0	13	0	25	0
Claire Reynolds	Emmy Noether	12	0	17	0	29	0
John Robinson	The Empire State Building	12	0	18	0	30	0