Mastermind Prediction

Good morning. I’ve just been over to the BBC Mastermind website to have a look at tomorrow’s specialist subjects. They are – Peter the Great, Exmoor National Park, The films of Quentin Tarantino and The Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris.

I will admit that I do have a tendency to play down my own chances. I didn’t make a preview last week, but if I had made a prediction it would not have approached the 17 that I actually did score. But in all honesty I really can’t see me scoring many points tomorrow. If we take the subjects individually:-

Peter the Great – if any of the subjects tomorrow could be called a banker I suppose that it would be this one, bearing in mind the fact that I once read an excellent biography of him, and watched Lucy Worsley’s documentary on him. But these were some time ago. Prediction – possibly 3 at a push.

Exmoor National Park -I’m ashamed to admit that I have never visited Exmoor National Park and know extremely little about it. It will need a lot of luck and a following wind for me to pick up anything here. Prediction – 0 to 1.

The films of Quentin Tarantino. You know I don’t believe that I have ever watched a Quentin Tarantino film. This is not so much through ever making a conscious decision not to watch one, as due to never making a conscious decision to watch one. Now even when there’s a round about a subject like this, there’s always just the chance something general might slip in. So my prediction, again is 0 – 1.

The Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris. Again, I have never read the books. Now, presuming that the Cicero being trilogised in them is Marcus Tullius Cicero then a reasonably decent knowledge of Roman history gives me a chance of 1 or 2.

So, to summarise, I think that my most optimistic prediction is 7 points, and my most pessimistic is zero. Hopefully I’ll end up closer to the former than the latter.