Mastermind 2020-21 Grand Final (and Semi-Finals 3-6)

Greetings friends. So, Mastermind ended its current series tonight with an excellent final, the last before John Humphrys steps down as chairman and Clive Myrie comes in. I covered the first two semi-finals alongside the UC final three weeks ago, so, here, before we get to tonight’s final, is a quick run through of the other four.

 

Semi-Final 3, from two weeks ago, was won by Dan Afshar, who I’m pretty sure has been on other quizzes before. He led after both rounds, and ended the shows with 24 points, four clear of Steve Goddard in second. Jackie Hunter and Sallie Phillips, a high scoring runner-up who came in to replace Briony Havergill who had to withdraw, came joint third with 14 each.

 

SF4, shown immediately afterwards, was won by Harry Heath, who I think may have been on UC for Exeter back in the 2014-15 series. He also led after both rounds and won the show with 24 points, though he was just two clear of joint second place Tim Hall and Ashton Davies. Sally Wilson, another high scoring runner-up who was replacing Edena Guest who withdrew, finished third with 18.

 

And so to last week’s two semis, both of which were utter crackers. SF5 was won by Frankie Fanko of OC and Brain of Britain fame; she was joint first with Clare Murphy on 10 each after the specialist rounds, but a better GK performance saw her win with 24 points to Claire’s 21. Mohan Mudigonda wasn’t far behind on 20, while Maxim Hughes finished fourth with 13.

 

And the sixth and final SF was won by Jonathan Gibson, another UC alumnus, who captained Magdalen of Oxford in the 2017-18 series. He was also joint first with 10 points after the specialist round, before producing a barnstorming GK run that saw him rack up a terrific 27 points! Alsion Lyndon-Parker, the other 10 pointer, finished second with an also good 19 points, while Mark Robotham and David Workman finished just behind with 18 and 17 respectively.

 

And so, to tonight’s final. As per usual, each contestant’s specialist round was preceded by a short film discussing their previous performances, previous quizzing experience and why they chose their specialist subject for the final. I believe this used to happen in the semis as well, but is now strictly Grand Final only.

 

First up, Dan was answering on Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition of 1914-17, and correctly answered all his questions correctly for a total of 10 points. Second up was Clare Barrow, who took old UC favourite Cole Porter as her subject, and scored 7.

 

Frankie was next up, answering on the Vienna Secession of 1897-1905, and only made one mistake en route to a total of 9. She was followed by Harry, who was answering on former US president Jimmy Carter (who, as revealed in the VT, even sent him a letter wishing him luck!); he also scored 9 points.

 

Next up, Jonathan gave us my personal favourite subject of the final: Flanders and Swann, who I’ve long been a fan of, and he duly gave us a clean sweep to finish on 11 points. Finally, Hazel Humphreys gave us the films of David Cronenberg (who also gave her a good luck message in her VT!), and she ended that round with 6 points.

 

So, at the half way stage, Hazel had 6, Claire had 7, Frankie and Harry were tied on 9, Dan had 10 and Jonathan led on 11. And none of them had any passes.

 

So, General Knowledge saw Hazel go straight back into the chair, and a solid performance of 11 (with two passes) took her score to 17. Claire came in next, and equalled Hazel’s performance, also scoring 11, but with no passes, which took her to 18.

 

Frankie was the first of the two 9 point scorers to return to the chair, and completed the hat trick with a score of 11 with no passes, taking her score to 20. Harry was next in, and he broke the run with a still respectable 9 (with one pass) that took his final score to 18.

 

So, Frankie’s 20 was still the target as Dan returned to the chair; he surpassed that with a couple of questions to spare, and ended with a very good 24 (with no passes), with just Jonathan left to go. And given his excellent GK round in the semi-final, you’d have fancied his chances.

 

And indeed, he surpassed the total with about half a minute to spare, and ended on 28 points! He duly returned to the chair and collected the trophy, as the other finalists gave him a standing ovation. Many congratulations to him, a very worthy winner, and the youngest in Mastermind history as well! Well done indeed!

 

And that concludes Mastermind for another series, and indeed John Humphrys’ tenure as host of the main show (there are still a couple of celeb editions fronted by him to be shown). As I said in my UC retrospective last year, considering the near impossible job he had taking over from the late great Magnus Magnusson, I think he’s done a good job as host in the circumstances. Thanks very much to him for his years of service, and I look forward to seeing Clive Myrie’s take on the show when it returns next series.

 

Yeah, so last time I said I wasn’t sure whether a new series of UC had been filmed or not; I have since learned that it has, and so, hopefully, it will return in mid-July as per usual. Hopefully with OC and Mastermind not far behind.

 

So, until then, I’ll be putting this blog into its usual Spring hibernation, as I don’t have any big essays planned this time. I may decide to reawaken my Second Blog at some point, but, as far as here is concerned, I’ll be back with my usual UC coverage in July.

 

So, as usual, until we next meet here, sayonara!