Mastermind Grand Final Review (Spoilers)

Well, that’s Mastermind done and dusted for another year. You know how invested I was in this final through the fact that I refused to predict the winner this year for fear of scuppering anyone’s chances. Would it be a case of the prolonged build up to the final just heightening the anticipation, or would it all prove to be a huge anticlimax? Well, you see what you think about it.

Nancy Braithwaite was the first contender to go. She was answering on the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard. Before she did we got to see her filmed insert, where she got to talk to critic Mark Lawson, although not Sir Tom himself. That was a little disappointing considering some of the luminaries who got to leave messages for some of the others. Nancy’s round was not disappointing. She missed a couple, but to even get close to a maximum in the Grand Final is immensely difficult. Nancy posted 10 to show that all of the others were going to need to be at the top of their game to be in with a shout.

John Harden, answering on the 1953 expedition that conquered the summit of Everest was certainly one of the winners of the filmed inserts, getting to share a Zoom call with the son of Sir Edmund Hilary. John also reminded us about the circumstances of his involvement this year, following the very sad passing of his wife. He played down his chances, which I always feel is a sensible thing to do. If you win you can always say you were being modest afterwards, and if you don’t then there’s no embarrassment. There was no embarrassment about John’s round either. He too scored 10.

Ivan Milatovic also scored heavily in the filmed insert stakes. Having answered on Diego Velasquez and then Novak Djokovic it seemed a natural choice to go for Led Zeppelin in the final. Who did he receive a filmed message from? Why, none other than Robert Plant, who made the quite funny observation that Ivan undoubtedly knew a lot more about the band than he remembered! He was right too. Ivan has been pretty much perfect throughout the season on specialist and he came very close again. I think that he only dropped the one point, finishing with 12 points.

I can say this now and you can decide whether to believe me or not but before the final I did not think that any of the first three contenders were most likely to win. I really felt that the winner would be one of our last three, and going on the statistics Dom Tait looked most likely. He was the finalist with the highest average going into the Final. He has won Only Connect. Dom was answering on Penguins, and he did so brilliantly. However, this is the Grand Final and so he was caught out on just one question. He too finished with 12 and no passes.

Claire Reynolds was answering on the only subject in the final about which I knew absolutely nothing, the mathematician Emmy Noether. Claire’s insert reminded us that Claire was in the unusual position of having been beaten in her first round heat by fellow finalist Nancy Braithwaite. But then Claire’s semi final performance had been better than that first round showing, and I did feel sure that Claire would be on the podium in this final. Claire’s enthusiasm and love of quizzing really shone through her filmed insert and it was nice to see her filming in the University of Birmingham, home of the Birmingham mega quiz. Claire too really knew her subject, but she too was still caught out by one question to finish with 12 and no passes.

Finally then John Robinson. John took part in the first semi final and he’d had to knock out the top scorer from the heats, Ian Grieve, to win. I really enjoyed John’s filmed insert. I knew John was a teacher, but not that he was a secondary school English teacher. It’s a great subject and I loved teaching it for about two thirds of my career. The less said about the last third the better. I didn’t know that John had won half a million pounds on Millionaire. The fact that he’s still teaching shows his commitment to his career and his love of teaching. Answering on The Empire State Building John’s Zoom call was with the director of New York’s skyscraper museum. I didn’t visit that last year, but if you ever get a chance to visit the City Museum of New York you’ll love it. Lightning struck for the third time in John’s round, as he too scored 12 with one wrong and no passes.

So this meant that the GK round maintained the same order as the specialist round. First back was Nancy Braithwaite. Without wishing to sound harsh, I did think that Nancy dropped some points in the first minute of her round that she possibly should have known. To be fair she did rally, and finished her round at a cracking pace, scoring 13 for a total of 23. With the amount of General Knowledge firepower that I knew some of our contenders were packing I couldn’t see that being a winning score, but it was certainly a good one.

John Harden returned to the chair. He started well with his trademark style of considering each question carefully then giving the right answer. However his round was holed below the waterline with a long pause on one question. He rallied – that’s what finalists do, and kept going into double figures, finishing with 11 for 21 points. Not a winning score, no, but I don’t know that it was all about that for John. I think it meant the world just getting to the final in the first place, and so it should. I salute you, sir.

Ivan came back to the chair and really gave his round some welly. In his semi he scored more on GK than he did in his first round, but to take the lead he was going to need to do better again. He gave it a lash, he certainly did that. Come the end of the round he had fallen just a point short of Nancy’s score, adding 10 to take his score to 22.

Dom Tait came into the final with the highest GK aggregate and the highest GK average of any of the finalists. To be honest, I had thought his GK rounds in both heat and semi were fantastic. I’m not suggesting that Dom’s final round of 13 points wasn’t good, because it was. But crucially, although it gave him the lead, it did not blow the others out of the water, and he missed things that I thought he might get. You see , when a really top player has a bit of an off night – which is what I think happened to Dom – they still get a good score and a good performance. But a winning one?

Claire Reynolds had 13 on GK in her heat, and looked even more of a class act in her semi with a brilliant 15. That would certainly be enough to give her the lead. Now, in my preview I wrote about how the players who become champions each year manage somehow to drag their best performance out of themselves in the final. Claire certainly did that. In a fantastic round she answered nearly everything and scored 17 to leave the whole field in her wake with 29.

Or nearly the whole field, for John Robinson had yet to go. I shall not lie to you. After his magnificent semi final win, I had John as a genuine contender to be the next teacher to win the show. It was mostly for his benefit that I decided I was going to make no predictions this year. My hope for John to win was even more heightened when he said the subject he taught. Now, though, he was going to need a monster score to do it. Well, he stumbled on one or two, but he was racking up the score, and the vanishing white line hadn’t yet heralded the end of the round. Closer and closer. Yes, I’ll admit it, I was shouting at the telly, willing him on, probably more excited by this than any final since Isabelle Heward’s. John equalled Claire’s score with one question to spare. And I knew that he knew the last one. Alright, I didn’t know for sure, but I was certain. I was right.

Congratulations to all 6 finalists. In particular I offer commiserations to Claire, who performed superbly and would have been a most worthy champion in her own right. But the night belonged to John Robinson – LAM reader, dedicated English teacher, and Mastermind Champion. I could not be happier for you.

Thanks to the production team for a great series. I don’t blame you for the way that the schedulers have mucked us around this year. And a thank you to all 96 contenders. Without you, there is no show.

The Details

Nancy Braithwaite	The Plays of Tom Stoppard	10	0	13	1	23	1
John Harden	The 1953 Everest Expedition	10	0	11	0	21	0
Ivan Milatovic	Led Zeppelin	12	0	10	1	22	1
Dom Tait	Penguins	12	0	13	0	25	0
Claire Reynolds	Emmy Noether	12	0	17	0	29	0
John Robinson	The Empire State Building	12	0	18	0	30	0

Stop Press! English Teacher becomes new Mastermind Champion!

I’m going to post about this in more detail later, but my heartiest congratulations to John Robinson! Not only is he a teacher, but he’s a secondary school English Teacher too. I am so happy to lose the title of the last schoolteacher to win Mastermind. I couldn’t think of a better person to pass it on to.

Congratulations John! A truly magnificent performance.

Mastermind 2022 Grand Final Review

Well, dearly beloved, shall we begin the grand final review which inevitably begins with me apologising to all the contenders, and to all of you, for the fact that I had as much success predicting the outcome of this final as I had last weekend in picking a winner in the Grand National? Let’s do just that.

Kicking us off was Ian Wang. The highlight of Ian’s filmed insert was probably receiving a filmed message of encouragement from Sir Steve McQueen himself. He also received a visit in person from Jonathan Gibson, last year’s winner and the youngest ever Mastermind champion. His opinion is that records are there to be broken, and so wished the 23 year old Ian the very best of luck. Well, if you prepare properly, then luck doesn’t need to come into it. Ian has been pretty much perfect on specialist all series, and tonight was no different. 13 meant that he was going to be up among the leaders at the turnaround.

In her filmed insert Alice Walker said that she lives in the Peak District, so maybe being filmed walking amongst that magnificent setting was a little bit of a busman’s holiday. She didn’t seem to mind, though, and indeed, who could possibly complain about it? Alice scored a decent 11 on specialist in the heat, and an excellent 13 in the semi, and her round on the Peak District tonight topped that. A pretty much pitch perfect display saw her set the target at 14, one more than Ian’s score.

Eleanor Ayres’ film concentrated quite a bit on her own specialist subject, her namesake Eleanor of Aquitaine. She visited nearby Cambridge University to speak to ain impressive professor, who professed delight to see someone take Eleanor on Mastermind. There was also a message from Judtih Keppel, the Egghead and first winner of the million on Millionaire. Why? Oh, do pay attention 007! Eleanor of Aquitaine was the subject of Judith’s million-pound question. Eleanor scored 9 in the heat and 11 in the semi final on specialist, and I did highlight this as my main concern about her chances. She matched her semi final score, but this meant that she was now 3 points behind the leader.

Anthony Fish hadn’t really put a foot wrong in either first round heat or semi-final. His film concentrated on his family, and how they have supported his efforts to become a better quizzer, and to be successful in his chosen pursuit. The message of encouragement came from no less a personage than Sir David Jason – although this was in the form of a letter rather than a short film. In the first round Anthony scored 14 on specialist, and in the semi final 13. Sadly, the curse of the Clark tip struck him in his round tonight. He stumbled badly on an early question, and although he rallied himself well, he ended with 11. Being 3 points behind at half time isn’t necessarily a gap you can’t bridge, but it’s hard.

Patrick Buckingham explained in his film that his whole family used to watch the Magnus era of Mastermind together – I know the feeling, sir - but that he’d never found time in his life what with his intense career to do much quizzing until the last few years. He possibly has the best case for regretting that he wasn’t on the show 5 years ago, when his specialist subject of Carole Lombard would surely have bought him a trip to the US to make his film. Well, that was then, and this is now. If you read my preview you’ll know that Patrick was one of my pre-race favourites, and sadly I think the curse of the Clark tip did for him as well. Having scored a brace of 13s in his previous specialists, he languished on 10 after this one.

Finally Sarah Trevarthen got to sit in the chair, as we watched her own filmed insert. She showed us her winning appearance on Pointless with her husband, and again, seems to be another finalist whose interest in quizzing has really developed over the last few years. Her appearance in the recent final of Counterpoint is a pretty good demonstration of this. Like Patrick she came into the final with a brace of 13s in her previous specialist rounds. Unlike Patrick my tipping her for a podium position didn’t seem to do her any harm, as she completed a full set of 13 pointer specialist rounds on Dame Barbara Hepworth.

4 points off the lead, Patrick was looking like the outsider when he returned to the chair. If all the contenders matched their average GK scores from the heats and semis, then he couldn’t win. But nobody seemed to have told him that. Yeah, okay, so he was some way off the lead. It didn’t matter. He threw himself into his GK round, gripped it firmly in his teeth and never let it go until the 2 and a half minutes were over. 17 in a final is a terrific score, more than enough to place the rest of the field within the corridor of doubt. One thing that I was in no doubt about was that Patrick would not be finishing in 6^th place.

The only other contender to have scored 17 on GK this series was Eleanor Ayres, who was the next to take the chair. Eleanor had scored 17 in a brilliant round in her semi-final. This was 5 points better than she managed in the heat. So the big question was, could she reproduce this form? Well, for the first half dozen questions the answer was yes, certainly. However, a golf question stopped her momentum, and several wrong answers followed. By the time she got moving again, it was going to be a case of damage limitation. And indeed, a score of 11, for a total of 22 is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about at all.

So the question now had to be faced – could my pre-race favourite, Anthony, match Patrick’s general knowledge heroics? Well, he certainly gave it a lash. After a minute and a half I thought he was slightly slower than Patrick, but then he had started one point to the good. But he fell behind, and by the time the white line of doom began to snake around the score it looked as if 15 for 26 was going to be the best he could do. Which indeed it was. Another fine GK effort, even if it was not quite good enough on this occasion.

So to Ian Wang, just one point off the lead on 13. In my preview I said that I didn’t think Ian’s general knowledge was quite strong enough to win the big one at this early stage of his quiz career. Well, his first half dozen answers seemed to make a mockery of this observation. Sadly, though, the wrong answers began to creep in. He was never very far away from what he needed, but never quite got the run of five or 6 correct answers in a row when he really needed them. In the end, he levelled out at 12 for 25. So Patrick could not be worse than 3^rd, and with only 2 contenders to go could still end up as champion.

Sarah Trevarthen had scored 15 in her first-round heat GK, and if she could repeat that then she would go into the lead. And for much of the round it looked as if this was going to happen. And yet, when the white line made its first appearance she still wasn’t there yet. In the end it was only her last question which brought her a 14th point. Were we potentially in for a tie break? In a word no, because Sarah led by pass countback.

Finally, Alice Walker came back to the chair. She scored 15 in her GK round in the heat, and a repeat of that would do it with a little bit to spare. In the semi she scored 11, and that wouldn’t do it. Still, with two and a half minutes now, the title was hers to win or lose. What followed, over the next two and half minutes, must have been the round of her life. She faced 22 questions. She passed on none. She gave 3 wrong answers. The mathematically gifted among you will have worked out that this meant she gave 19 correct answers. Nothing slowed her at all. She won’t have realised which answer meant that she was the champion, nor the fact that she went on to give another 6 correct answers after that. It was a perfect example of a contender finding that wonderful head space where you are just totally in the moment, concentrating on each question and for the most part, finding the answers. It was a magnificent performance, and yes, I was standing up and applauding the telly. 33, as Clive pointed out, is the highest score of the series.

Thanks to all of the contenders, not just in this high-quality final, but in the whole series. Without you and your willingness to learn your subjects and brave the chair, then there is no show. Thank you to the production team as well for bringing us another fine series. Especially, thanks to Clive Myrie, for proving that my conviction that he was a good choice to replace John Humphrys was correct. But let’s end with congratulations to Alice Walker, Mastermind of the United Kingdom 2022!

The Details

Ian Wang	The film and TV works of Sir Steve McQueen	13	0	12	0	25	0
Alice Walker	The Peak District National Park	14	0	19	0	33	0
Eleanor Ayres	Eleanor of Aquitaine	11	1	11	0	22	1
Anthony Fish	Open All Hours	11	1	15	0	26	1
Patrick Buckingham	Carole Lombard	10	1	17	0	27	1
Sarah Trevarthen	Dame Barbara Hepworth	13	0	14	0	27	0

The Better - Late - Then - Never - Mastermind 2021 Grand Final Retrospective

You know, since reviving the blog in August I have felt a little guilty that I didn’t review the 2021 Grand Final of Mastermind. Apart from anything else, I like to recognise what must be one of the high points and most memorable achievements in any quizzer’s quiz career – contending in a Grand Final. LAM reader Carly, in a comment to a post from 18^th December asked about the possibility of writing a review of the final. Well, it’s maybe a bit late for a real review – but if we call it a retrospective, then maybe I can get away with it.

So, in order to write this post I did watch the final again. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember much of the series and the semis leading up to the final, other than thinking that Frankie Fanko had a very good chance of adding the Mastermind Bowl to the OC trophy. Mind you, after having a good performance to win his heat, Jonathan had achieved the feat of answering every single question correctly in his semi-final, and if that’s not a declaration of intent I don’t know what is.

Dan Afhsar started us off. His filmed insert gave us a pretty good idea what a covid-era filmed insert was going to look like. Yes, he did have an away day, but this was to Dulwich College to see the James Caird lifeboat, rather than to the island of South Georgia or some other redolent location. We also learned of his interest in running and saw that families of the contenders were also going to make important contributions to the films. As regards the round, Dan put in a fine performance to score 10. As you might expect, none of the contenders passed on their specialist rounds at all.

In Claire Barrow’s film she gave us cycling as opposed to running. Claire interestingly revealed that she’s been on a number of quiz shows, and revealed that one of her motivations for Mastermind was to expunge the memory of a second round exit in the early days of The Weakest Link – which incidentally made it’s return to the Beeb last Saturday. Personally I don’t like it when they seem to have asked the contenders how much they want to win, and what it would mean to them. I mean, you can take it for granted that it means a massive amount, and each of them are going to be doing their very best to win. It goes without saying, so there’s no need to say it. When I was asked the question ‘How do you rate your chances of winning?’ for my own filmed insert in the 2008 SOBM I stonewalled it with the answer ‘1 in 6 – same as everyone else. If the questions go my way I’ll do well, and if they don’t then I won’t.’ I think they edited that out of the final cut. Coming back to Claire, she’d obviously worked like stink on Cole Porter, but sadly a couple of points just got away from her. Three points behind is not an insurmountable gap, but bridging it is a lot to ask.

Frankie’s spotlit hobby of choice was singing in a choir. Various members of the family were featured in the insert, including husband Andrew – fellow winning team member in OC, and a contender in his own right in the current series. Frankie talked of her love of quizzes and general knowledge, and to be fair this shone through, and is something I can really get on board with. As was her specialist subject, the Vienna Secession. I spent a few days in Vienna in the October half term of 2019, and particularly enjoyed a visit to the Belvedere Museum, where I learned a little bit about the movement. Frankie knew more than a little bit. 9 put her just one point behind Dan.

Harry Heath’s film also focused on his family, at the family farm. Now, I may be wrong, but I think that Harry would also have beaten Gavin’s record as youngest champion if he had won, yet I don’t recall this being mentioned on his film. Maybe it was covered and then edited out after the final itself had been filmed. The new element introduced in this insert was the personal letter of congratulations and encouragement from Jimmy Carter himself – that’s a former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, mind you. Impressive. Harry’s round on the man himself was pretty impressive too. As had Frankie before him, Harry managed 9 and no passes, and again was sitting just one point off the lead.

Jonathan Gibson’s insert was value for money too. Firstly we had some rather lovely scenery from the beautiful east coast of Scotland. We had contributions from Jonathan’s sister, and another nice location in the shape of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. We had the message of encouragement, this time from Gavin Fuller – 1993 Champion and Champion of Champions Grand Finalist, and the man whose record of being the youngest champion stood to be broken. Finally, we had Jonathan himself singing one of Flanders’ and Swann’s on stage – rather pleasantly, if truth be told. Well, after all of this it would have been easy for the round to be an anticlimax, but it wasn’t. After the way the previous contenders had performed, nobody was going to blow everyone away in the first round in this final, but Jonathan’s exceptional preparation put daylight between himself and the pack, as he scored 11.

Hazel Humphrey’s film appropriately took place in a lovingly renovated Curzon Cinema. Support from family came in the shape of partner Paul, and Hazel spoke of her Mastermind career, and her progress through appearances in previous years, to the stage when she’s made the final. And let’s all raise a glass to that, gentle readers. Because to make a Mastermind Grand Final IS something special. With 6 players contending each final, obviously 5 of them are going to go away disappointed, but think about the achievement for a moment. According to the always excellent Weaver’s Week, less than 300 people have ever made it to a Mastermind Final. To put it bluntly – duffers don’t get to the final. Capping off Hazel’s film, the film within a film she was watching in the cinema was a message from none other than film maker David Cronenberg, the subject of her specialist round. Sadly, the round itself did expose a couple of gaps in Hazel’s knowledge. Her 6 was by no means a bad performance, but it wasn’t a winning one.

To the general knowledge round, then. Hazel returned to the chair and put in a good round of 11 and 2 passes, to set the bar at 17. There was a wry smile, as I think she knew that it wasn’t going to be enough. Claire Barrow did something very similar, well, in terms of her score it only differed in passes, 11 more points and no passes. This was enough to take the target to beat to 18.

Frankie answered like a TV quiz veteran in her GK round in the way that she answered very quickly, giving just surnames where possible, without dwelling on wrong answers. A few of the questions just didn’t fall her way. She too scored 11 points and no passes, but her superior specialist round gave her the lead with 20.

Frankie was guaranteed a place on the podium when Harry fell just a bit short on his round. In fact his round illustrated just why Gavin’s record had lasted as long as it did. There seems to be nothing that Harry lacks as a quizzer, short of a few more years at the quizface, picking up that  vast treasury of quiz knowledge that comes with it.

So to the top two. Dan was just one place and one point off the top of the leaderboard at half time, and the question was whether he could put in a round which might win him the title. And the answer was, well, frankly, yes. Dan put in a really good GK round to score 14 and take the score to beat up to 24. This was easily the best GK round of the night.

Of course, we all know now that by that I mean the best GK round of the night. .  . so far. Because Jonathan was going to deliver another absolute belter of a round. Yes, he missed. . . what, 1? 2? My goodness, though, the things that he either knew, or knew enough to guess! To have that kind of GK at that young age is, well, remarkable.

My commiserations to the other contenders, especially to Dan, who I recall as having his finest performance in the final. To Jonathan, my belated congratulations, and apologies that I didn’t post about it at the time.

The Details

Dan Afshar	Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition 1914 - 1917	10	0	14	0	24	0
Claire Barrow	Cole Porter	7	0	11	0	18	0
Frankie Fanko	The Vienna Secession 1897 to 1905	9	0	11	0	20	0
Harry Heath	Jimmy Carter	9	0	9	1	18	1
Jonathan Gibson	Flanders and Swann	11	0	17	0	28	0
Hazel Humphreys	The Films of David Cronenberg	6	0	11	2	17	2