Vintage Mastermind - 1977 Heat 1

I didn’t realise until I watched the show on Monday evening, but the first heat of Mastermind 1977 - shown on Monday on BBC4 -  did actually get a brief mention in Magnus Magnusson’s “I’ve Started So I’ll Finish”. I only realized this when we came to the end of the show and Magnus issued a correction to Martin Leadbetter’s score, where he was awarded an extra point. It made no difference to the out come of the show and neither would it had he been awarded another point for what he felt was another badly worded question.

The heat was won by student teacher Sue Jenkins. I was struck by a number of things about it. Remember that this was 1977, by which time the show had well and truly found its feet and was becoming something of a national institution. I was just surprised how relatively unimpressive visually it was. If you compare it with the studio bound set used in the Next Generation, it all looks smaller, even maybe just a little cosier – although it was nice to see the black ribbed flooring around the chair that I remember.

Another thing which surprised me – and I feel a heel for saying this, because I was a fan of Magnus as the question master and regret never having had the chance to meet him – was how many slight stumbles and hesitations he made asking the questions. In fact he actually said that meticulous efforts were made to ensure each contender had the same amount of time and extra time was allotted for his own little stumbles and hesitations. Talk about letting daylight in on magic.

As for the contenders, well, I think I have to strike a note of caution. I do not know what quiz culture was like in the UK in the mid 70s. I really don’t know if, for example, pub quizzes were anything like as common or popular as they are now. I do know that quiz shows were one common TV staple back then because I watched a lot of them. But I have to say that I felt the GK round scores were rather modest considering the number of questions they got through. I don’t know if it was just an anomaly in this particular heat, but the number of passes made across the 4 rounds was huge compared to a show from the 2020s.

One other thing that struck me as well was that at least 3 of the contenders in this heat were a lot less impassive than has become the norm. You could see , at times, frustration, anger and despair going on inside all of which was at times written across the three gentlemen’s faces.

I hope that BBC4 is going to continue showing the 1977 series. If nothing else, in heat 2 we get to see where Magnus supposedly tells a contender that Jesus’ first name was Reginald. (It was Jeeves’ first name, but a viewer in Northern Ireland misheard and complained about the ‘blasphemy’).