I think you already know my opinion about Celebrity Mastermind. If you don’t, then I will summarise. I don’t want to criticise any of the celebrities who are asked to appear on it. They donate their fee to charity, and in all honesty with the size of the celebrity Mastermind audience and its makeup I think it’s unlikely to give them a huge career boost in the way that shows like Strictly, The Traitors and I’m a Celebrity can do. But when you get right down to it I just don’t think Mastermind is a good match for a celebrity version. For one thing, I don’t think that agents are clamouring to get their clients on the show. Granted, the Has Dave Heard Of Them Index is not the most scientific or reliable indicator of true celebrityness but even so, it’s not uncommon for me to be totally unfamiliar with more than half of the contenders in a series.
University Challenge at Christmas makes an interesting
comparison. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the current series. Basically
it’s not quite a Champion of Champions series. All of the teams have appeared
on previous series, but they didn’t all win theirs. -Ah- thought I – there
could be an issue here- . I’ll tell you what it is. Back in the first couple of
series of UC at Christmas, some of the teams had members who had been
successful in TV quizzes – most notably University Challenge itself. That policy
– if indeed it was such a thing- ended. I thought to myself, if they have such
a team from the early years of the series they might find themselves at a
serious advantage.
Well, indeed there is such a team, in the shape of
Trinity, Cambridge and yes, they have done exceptionally well. Now, I’m not
saying this is only because they have a winner of full strength UC in the shape
of Robin Bhattacharya, but for me he’s been the star performer of the series so
far. Does it matter? No, it’s only a bit of Christmas fun. But I can’t help
thinking it’s a little bit like having celebrities who’ve had dance experience
and training in Strictly.
I’ll be honest, the Christmas Special I’ve enjoyed most
over the holiday period was last night’s Only Connect Book Special. I do find
the OC one off specials to be a little hit and miss (and not just because I’ve
never been invited back to one). For example, last week’s pub quiz special
really didn’t hit the target with me. But last night’s Books special was great,
I thought. One of the things I love about Only Connect is that it’s not afraid
to be conspicuously clever and last night’s show really was. Just now and again
it’s so refreshing to be able to wear your brains on your sleeve without having
to tone things down so that you don’t come across as smug and self-satisfied,
in the comfort of your own home.
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