Well, here we are, peeps. We’ve now seen the Mastermind champion of 2025. Oh, we don’t know who it is yet, because there’s still the 24 semi finalists left. We’ll have a post taking a look at the runners and riders before the semis start. For now, though, let’s concentrate on last night’s final heat.
Of all of last night’s subjects I really didn’t have a fill
yer boots one, so I was frankly surprised and delighted to manage five of
Rashmi Bhardwaj’s subject, Audrey Hepburn. I’m not saying there were questions about
everything I knew about her, but it was getting on for it. Rashmi remained calm
throughout her round and if anything she seemed to be really enjoying it. The 8
that she scored wouldn’t give her an unassailable lead, but it would be
competitive.
If you’d put a gun to my head and asked me before the start
of this show which would have been my best specialist, I’d probably have
plumped for Graeme Donaldson’s Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I came late to this
particular party having watched and enjoyed all of them on Netflix during
lockdown. Well, I should have remembered that there were 7 series, and frankly
I was lucky to get 2 answers right. Graeme did well to get 7 on a round which
for the most part really expected a lot of in depth knowledge.
Shelley Barnes’ subject, The DCI Ryan Novels by LJ Ross was
always going to be my worst subject, since I’ve never read any of them. Crime
and detective fiction just isn’t something that really interests me that much,
and I failed to add to my aggregate. Shelley somehow looked very nervous to me
as she began her round, and the points proved a little difficult to come by. In
the end she managed a decent five, but this would leave her with a bit of a
hill to climb in the GK.
Rob Caley brought us the final specialist round of the
heats with John Barry. I though that there might be a couple of points here for
me if there were questions on his James Bond film themes and these brought me
the two points I needed to bring me an aggregate of 10 for the SS rounds. Rob
managed the top score in the round although there wasn’t a great deal in it as
he scored 9.
Shelley returned to the chair first. In all honesty she
needed a score in the teens to open the door to the corridor of doubt for the other
three contenders. She didn’t do badly with 8, but it wasn’t going to be enough
to move her up the board by the end of the round.
Graeme did manage a solid double figure round of 10. This put
him on 17. It was a good performance, but even before Rashmi returned to the
chair I couldn’t help feeling that he would have needed maybe two more points
to seal the deal.
I mentioned before that Rashmi seemed to be really enjoying
her Mastermind experience. It’s the best mindset that you can have when you’re on
the show although I don’t pretend for one minute that it’s easy to achieve.
Each show rushes past so quickly when you’re on it. I only ever once achieved
it, ironically during the final, when I told myself on the way to the chair for
the GK round- you may never come this way again, old son. Smell the roses a
bit. - Well,Rashmi did what she needed to do and scored 10, which put her one
point ahead of Graeme.
Rob Caley had given us the last specialist round of the
heats and now he gave us the final GK round. I don’t know, it seemed somehow fated
– he took a pass and I said to myself – that’s what’s going to put Rashmi into
the semis. - Now, you know very well when it comes to predictions, Mystic Dave
I am not, but for once it turned out that I was right. Rob scored 9 to equal
Rashmi’s 18, but that one pass was enough to put her through.
So let’s end the heats by saying a big thank you to all of
the 96 contenders. Whatever people might say, putting yourself out there is a
big commitment, and without contenders willing to do so, we don’t have a show.
Congratulations Rashmi, you really seemed to enjoy your Mastermind experience
and I hope that you will enjoy the semi final just as much.
The Details
|
Rashmi Bhardwaj |
Audrey Hepburn |
8 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
18 |
0 |
|
Graeme Donaldson |
Star Trek:Deep Space
Nine |
7 |
0 |
10 |
1 |
17 |
1 |
|
Shelley Barnes |
The DCI Ryan Novels
by LJ Ross |
5 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
|
Rob Caley |
The composer John
Barry |
9 |
0 |
9 |
1 |
18 |
1 |
6 comments:
Am I the only one who is pretty bored with the current Mastermind format? There are so many heats, many of which fail to produce a score above 20. There is flack in the press about some of the specialist subjects (with Friday Night Dinner drawing a lot of attention). Above all, I really dislike the 'essay' style questions which mean you're lucky if you squeeze out 10 questions in a specialist subject round. Presumably the product of a warped emphasis on educating the public over testing a contestant's knowledge of their subject? This may be a reason why top performing quizzers in leagues around the land seem to be opting to give Mastermind a miss. I do think Hat Trick and the BBC are in danger of running the format into the ground. And I haven't even got onto the dreadful Celebrity version...
Hi Brendon, thanks for taking the time and trouble to leave a comment. For what it’s worth my feelings are, in no particular order –
Mastermind is not a good format for a celebrity show. Yet the BBC seem to value it more than the proper show. It went on far too long this year, delaying the completion of the first round. It didn’t help that there were few stand out performances left to come in the first round shows.
I’ve been banging on for years now that the questions are too long. Unfortunately there are no signs of any change to this happening any time soon. Is it an emphasis on educating the public? I think it’s maybe through the belief that longer questions allow the viewer at home to have a better chance of answering the question. But it makes it much harder for the contender to really show off what they can do, and slows down he show – while I find that when the show is at its fastest is when it is far more exciting.
The media do talk a load of old cobblers about Specialist Subjects and they have been doing so for years. Yeah, I saw a lot of the stuff written about Friday Night Dinner as a subject – very unfair.
It is a real shame, because when Mastermind is good, I think it’s great TV. Last week’s heat, with Eddie Crawford’s magnificent GK round bringing him to the brink of a remarkable comeback win was brilliant. Hopefully the semis will provide us with more excitement than the average show of the last few weeks. I will say more about his when I preview the semis.
I do think the key improvement would be to revert to the time when questions were short and read quickly, making 30+ scores a possibility and also making it feasible for someone to win from behind in the general knowledge round.
It was a mistake to remove highest scoring runners up from the semi final line up (about 10 years ago), bearing in mind the producers' noted tendency to put 2 or more strong contestants in the same 'stacked' heat. I recall a heat a couple of years back in which the top 3 scored 27, 26 and 23 points. Players 2 and 3 were eliminated with scores that greatly exceeded those of many other heat winners. That injustice would have been avoided had highest scoring runners up still made the semi finals.
The producers seem determined to pursue their apparent drive for education and entertainment and I am very concerned that what they are doing will ultimately damage the Mastermind format.
Hi Brendon,
Time will tell, obviously. The length of questions has been a hobby horse of mine for several years now as I said, and I do think it would improve he show to go back to shorter, snappier questions. I think that the question of semi final places for highest scoring losers is an ongoing debate that will continue to run and run. Playing Devil’s advocate, I myself fell foul of it in 2006 when I was a highest scoring runner up but not used in the semis. However, even had I reached the semi I very much doubt that I would have had any chance of winning the series and I doubt that I would have reapplied any time soon. So for me, not having repechage semi final places worked out pretty well.
My thought is that the longer the average question, the less questions are asked and therefore the closer the match will be throughout. TV producers want close matches.
This also explains making the questions more obscure.. Lower scores, closer matches.
I have no evidence for this theory but it makes sense and has the benefit of being simple.
Hi Martin. You could be right, although if that IS the reason, then I don't find that it works for me.
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