More Thoughts on 1977

Received wisdom tells us that Mastermind was better in Magnus’ day, doesn’t it? I’ll be honest, I did think that BBC were playing with fire a bit by showing the 1977 series on BBC4 just a couple of hours after the current series on BBC2. I’ve watched every episode of the 77 series as each has been shown. So the question we should ask is – is the classic series REALLY that much better than the current version?

Well, first of all, let’s leave behind fripperies like the odd fashions and hairstyles. Those in 1977 weren’t much better either. Boom boom. But joking aside, let’s try to concentrate on the show itself.

One clear difference is the 2x2 format of the rounds in the old series. I always preferred this even split of two rounds of two minutes’ duration each. 1-0 to the classic series. Now, you’d think that the 1970s questions are a clear advantage over the modern day questions. Well, they were certainly less long winded than the questions that get asked nowadays, yes. The lengthy questions are a major gripe with the show in the current era. But at least . . . at least the questions in the current era are for the huge majority, written with precision. They make you either give a wrong answer or a right answer – they don’t allow for much grey area and I personally feel that this is how it should be. I have been struck by how vague some of the questions in 1977 were. In fact I have gone so far as to call some of them quite poorly written – speaking as a question setter of pretty long standing myself. In every show, it seems, Magnus was called upon to exercise judgement over whether a contender had got the gist of the answer. Well, getting the gist is not good enough. So what the old series wins on the volume of questions, it loses on the imprecise nature of so many of them. Score draw.

What about the contenders? On this very blog, I’ve made the point that the talent pool  in the current era is shallow, and too thinly spread. Well, judging by what I’ve seen in the 1977 series so far, the average contender was no better in 77 than they are today. Yes, they score more points, but only it would seem because they get asked more questions. The 1977 series was considerably shorter than the 31 show series of the modern programme, so maybe the talent appeared a little more thickly spread because it didn’t have to be spread quite so far. I can only speculate on the difference in quiz culture 49 years ago. I don’t know how many quiz leagues there were back in the day and I don’t know if pub quizzes – if indeed they existed – were anything like as popular and plentiful as they are today. I was around in 77 but I was only 13. Even back in the 70s, pub going at that age was frowned upon. However, quiz shows were surely as much a staple on TV back in those days as they are today.

An obvious point of comparison is in the kinds of subjects being offered for specialist round. The 1977 subjects seem more consciously highbrow for want of a better term. In many cases they seem a lot wider as well. I have found that this can make it a little harder to really get a feeling for just how well a contender really knows their subject and how well they seem to have prepared. I have no intention of accusing any contender of skimping on their preparation in my reviews, but I do feel you can usually tell who hasn’t put the work in– and this isn’t just a matter of seeing who had the lowest scores either.

For many of those of us of a certain age, Mastermind WAS Magnus Magnusson. I loved him as a question master and in the years since the original series came to an end it was gratifying to see just how many people who met him and who knew him paid tribute to what a warm, funny, good guy he was. ‘nice’ is a word that loses a lot of currency when you apply it to people but personally I think it’s one of the best things you can say about someone. I spoke in my mum’s funeral last week, and I unashamedly made the point that she was a really, genuinely nice person. She was too. However – and I’m feeling a little bit of a heel for saying this- I have been surprised on the number of fluffs Magnus made in certain shows.

Of course, in my own experience the production teams have been quite zealous about reshooting and ironing out the bumps in the modern series. As for the presenters, well, I always felt with John Humphrys that taking part in 6 shows with him never really constituted an introduction. I knew him no better the last time I met him than I did the first time. But, when he got in the studio, he was a thorough professional, I have to give him that. Likewise, today’s Clive Myrie does a thoroughly professional job as well. More than that I can’t say, never having met him.

If we move to more intangible things, the atmosphere in both shows is more different than I would have expected. For all the formality – in 1977 the contenders were all dressed very formally and each was either ‘Mr.’, ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Miss’, the show seemed somehow a little more intimate than the current series. Contenders’ Row was closer to the black chair. The lighting was a little more natural, without so much of the bright spotlit interrogation of the modern series. Magnus did not try to oversell the drama or artificially build the tension like poor old Clive does – Why are they here? I hear you ask? What is it that persuades ordinary upstanding members of the public to volunteer to face the ordeal of the black chair. Is it masochism? Is it hubris? Is it a combination of both? Do any of you give a rat’s doodah? Etc. etc by which time I’m yelling ‘get on with it, Clive! On the other hand Clive doesn’t have to tell us “We come to you tonight from the Great Hall of St. Angreevsey’s Academy for the sons of smarmy gentlefolk in Shrewsbury, founded in 1562 by the grandfather of Guy Fawkes, Sir Arbuthnot ‘Tuning’ Fawkes. The school’s motto is taken from the family motto of the Fawkes family, which is “Lawks a Lordy, my bottom’s on fire.”

I think that the most honest assessment I can make is to say that despite being essentially the same show, they are pretty different and it’s actually more hard to make a compelling case that one version is much better than the other.  What the audience of 1977 would make if suddenly taken by TARDIS and brought to the recording of the modern show – well, that really would be interesting.