Mastermind Grand Final 2026 (Spoilers)

Well, I’m just starting to come down from all the excitement of the double bubble of Quizzy Mondays Grand Final evening. My first thought is – thank goodness I didn’t try to predict that final! Well, we’ll say a bit more about that later. Meanwhile, on with the show.

Kicking off the final was Lorna Frankel. In both previous rounds Lorna had been rock solid on her specialist rounds and I expected her to be so again. She certainly did well, scoring 11. However, she did drop a couple of points, and her score was slightly lower than she had managed in her two previous specialists. No disaster at all, though and game on.

Ross Taylor was answering on the films of Danny Boyle. His solid 10 in the heat was trumped by his excellent 12 in the semi. Which was not actually the highest specialist score in that particular match. Ross’ upward trend continued as he whacked in a near perfect 13. I had no doubt that this would put Ross in the shakeup when we got into the business end of the competition.

There was a kind of symmetry about Danielle’s specialist round. She had scored 11 in the heat and 11 in the semi so we can’t claim it was a surprise when she also scored 11 in tonight’s round on Beatrix Potter. Yes, she was a couple of points behind, but if she could match her GK round from the heat then she would have a very competitive score.

David Ford started his round on Robert Burns extremely well. He’d scored 11 in the heat and he looked on course to at least repeat that. However a couple of stoppers in mid round seemed to put him off his stride a bit, but in the end he recovered to get into double figures with 10. 3 points behind the lead is not an unbridgeable gap, especially if he could produce a GK round like the one he’d had in the heats.

Miles Searle did point out in his filmed insert that if he won, then he would be the youngest ever winner, being a remarkable 21 years old. I don’t know if this makes him the youngest finalist since Susan Reynolds in 1974, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Oh, you know, I do sometimes wish that they wouldn’t ask contenders to talk about this sort of thing in their films for the start of the specialist rounds. I always think it’s tempting fate. I remember for my film for the 2008(7) SOBM Grand Final I was asked about my chances of winning, and I stonewalled it with ‘1 in 6, same as everyone else.’ Miles’ round of 8 points on Notre Dame Cathedral was a perfectly satisfactory one. But in the final, the banker only pays double figures.

Finally Diane Howe. Answering on Jim Lovell she scored a fine 12. This was on a par with the score from her the specialist round in her heat, and notably better than the 9 points she had scored in the semi final. At just one point behind in second she was handily placed on the leader’s shoulder at the canal turn.

For the record, I scored 5 on Jim Lovell, 4 on Julie Andrews, one each on Danny Boyle, Beatrix Potter and Robert Burns and precisely zero on Notre Dame.

First to return to the chair was Miles Searle. Miles had scored a brilliant 15 on GK in his semi and if he could repeat or improve upon this then it would certainly put the cat among the pigeons. Well, it didn’t quite work out that way this time and he finished with 17. But a Mastermind finalist at 21! All that he is missing from his armoury is a few good years at the quiz face and, should he desire, he could easily pass this way again.

David Ford, as with his specialist round, at first looked like he was on for a very fine performance. But a wrong answer in the middle of the round robbed him of all momentum. Oh, as we know any score in double figures in the modern era of Mastermind is a good one. But when you’re 3 points behind, 10 just isn’t going to be enough. Not in the Grand Final.

Now, I did mention in my preview that what you hope to do in the Grand Final is to find your very best form and pull out a better round than you managed in either heat or semi. In the heat and semi Lorna Frankel managed GK scores of 12 and 10. Tonight she got to 10 and kept answering. She got to 12 and kept answering. She got to 13 and finally ended the round with 14 and no passes. 25 and no passes overall. That could, just could, be a winning score, I thought.

Danielle Connolly’s best GK score so far of 13 in the heat would not quite be enough. Like Lorna before her she was going to have to improve on her best form in GK. Well, she gave it a good go. But before the white line of time started to run out it was clear she wasn’t going to get there. Nonetheless a good 10 for 21 gave her 2^nd place with 2 contenders still to go.

The first of whom was Diane Howe. Diane’s best GK form from the heat, where she scored 14, was required to take the outright lead. She looked calm and was answering well. As the round went on there were perhaps just signs of fatigue as she closed in on the 13 and no passes that she needed for a share of the lead. It was close, but she got there. Also 25 and no passes.

Finally Ross Taylor. Alone of all the contenders, Ross returned to the chair knowing exactly what he needed to do. 12 points and no passes for a share of the lead and a three way tie break. 13 for an outright win. Make no doubt, Ross could do this. He’d produced the joint best GK round of the whole series in the semi, where he’d scored 15. Of all of the finalists he has played in the most high-powered and pressured quizzes. All he needed was for the questions to run for him. It was close, desperately so. However, Ross, in an attempt to maintain momentum I believe, passed during the round which meant that 12 would not be enough. As it was, he just fell a wee bit short. It happens. He finished with 24.

Which meant that we had a tie break, between Lorna and Diane. In one way it is a shame that one of these fine competitors would have to lose, but that’s Mastermind. Lorna was the first to answer the five questions in the tie break. I was fairly sure that she had two of them. Diane was brought back and she, I believed, answered 3 of them correctly. I was right. Diane, the self confessed adrenaline junkie, is our new Mastermind champion. Huge congratulations.

I offer my heartfelt commiserations to Lorna. And my thanks to all 6 finalists for a great hour’s entertainment. It was nice to see Clive paying a fulsome tribute to them and to all of the contenders, without whom we would not have a show. Thanks to the team who make the show too. Cheers Mastermind – I look forward to the next time we meet in the 2027 series.

The Details

Lorna Frankel	Julie Andrew	11	0	14	0	25	0	28
Ross Taylor	The Films of Danny Boyle	13	0	11	2	24	2
Danielle Connolly	Beatrix Potter	11	1	10	1	21	1
David Ford	Robert Burns	10	0	10	0	20	0
Miles Searle	Notre Dame Cathedral - Paris	8	0	9	0	17	0
Diane Howe	Jim Lovell	12	0	13	0	25	0	3