My Mastermind Story

My "Mastermind" story.

Prologue

From when I can remember one of my favourite TV shows has always been the BBC quiz Mastermind. Every time I watched it I would see how many questions I could get right. As I got older and my store of knowledge increased and I got a few more questions right and I started to think "I could do that." When in 2005 Magnus Magnusson made his annual appeal for contenders for the next year's series I decided to apply. I applied again in 2006 when I was lucky enough to be called for an audition to take part in Mastermind 2007.

Off I went to Manchester for the audition and I met the producer and production assistant from the BBC. They asked me some general knowledge questions and stuff about my specialist subjects. I got about two-thirds of the questions right but I knew only one in ten of those auditioned got on the show and I was one of the other nine.

Audition

I applied again in 2008 when I had moved to Oxford Brookes University I was asked for another audition so on September 17th I walked down the road from the Art department to The Randolph Hotel for another audition. Same format as before and I did about the same on the general knowledge, I was told that they were thinking of recording a heat in Oxford in the coming series. Off I went fully expecting to be one of the other nine again. Then one evening.....

I came home to find a message on the answer phone from the BBC inviting me to take part in Mastermind 2009!!!! As I heard the message it was very strange, as if it was happening to someone else, I had to play it through again to make sure it was really true. November 25^th 2008 in the Oxford Union Society, my specialist subject, "The Harry Potter Novels." Oh no, what had I done. I've always been good at quizzes but this was the big league, Mastermind.

First round - Oxford Union Society

And so, after two months of rereading my J. K Rowling books, the great day arrived. At 3.30pm I arrived at the Oxford Union feeling rather nervous. As soon as I arrived I was introduced to Magnus and seated in the dreaded black chair for a photograph and an interview by the Oxford Mail, all before I got a chance to catch my breath!

My fellow contenders were:- Peter Bolt, a factory worker from Studely in Warwickshire, his specialist subject was "The Life and Reign of Emperor Franz Joseph 1848-1916". Katharine Taylor, a graduate student at Cambridge University, her specialist subject was "The Life and Music of Elton John". Christine Warman, a Tesco checkout operator from Clitheroe, her specialist subject was "Therapod Dinosaurs".

We were to take part in the first of two first round heats to be recorded that evening. All of the Masterminders had a briefing to explain the rules with Magnus and the producer, David Mitchell before we all went into the Oxford Union debating chamber for a dress rehearsal. We all had 2 lots of old general knowledge questions so we could get used to the quiz format and the BBC technicians could get the sound and lighting and cameras set up for the evening. Apart from the lack of audience and no specialist subject questions the rehearsal was exactly like the real thing. I came 3rd out of 4, everyone else seemed to get easier questions than me! I had no thoughts of winning at that stage, all I wanted to do was not make a fool of myself, I reckoned 20 points would leave me with some dignity. Most importantly I wanted to BEAT Cambridge! I couldn't lose to a Cambridge student on my home ground.

After the rehearsal we had to go into make up so we would look OK under the TV lights, I was now getting very nervous indeed as the clock ticked round to 7.30pm.

With about 15 minutes to go I went to meet my guests who had come to watch me suffer in the black chair. My mum was there with my Dad and my old friend Vicky, most of my year group from the Art department were there as well. I would not be short of support in the audience. By now I was so nervous I was seriously thinking of an escape route before the recording started, I hope I'm never that nervous again in my life. But it was too late to escape now, Scotty wasn't there to beam me up, this was it.

We all lined up outside the debating chamber whilst David Mitchell was "warming up" the audience before he handed over to Magnus. Then we all trooped in one at a time as we were introduced to the audience. When everyone was in position and Magnus was behind his desk the lights were dimmed, "Approaching Menace" was played. Magnus did his introduction bit about the contenders and the Oxford Union before mentioning that we had a Cambridge Student taking part and also an Oxford Brookes student to maintain a variation on the traditional rivalry.

Peter went up first and got 14 on his specialist subject, Katherine was second and got 9 and then it was my turn. I managed to get out to the black chair without falling over and sat down to face the dreaded interrogator, Magnus Magnusson. The lights dimmed so that there was just a bright light in my eyes, I couldn't see anyone else but Magnus.

Name? Lauren O’Day
Occupation? Student
Specialist Subject? The Harry Potter Novels.

Magnus started questioning me and I just sat back and answered them, all the nerves went away. I only guessed on one which I got wrong, all the others were straightforward enough and I got them all right! My 2 minute interrogation seemed to take about 30 seconds and at the end I was having fun and wanted Magnus to keep going. At the end I thought I'd got about 15 but Magnus told me I'd got 19 points with no passes!!! Raise lights, get up from the black chair to thunderous applause. My first thought was "If I'm not careful I could win this". Now I was really, really nervous.

Christine was 4th up and she got 15 right on dinosaurs, strange how the two non-academics took the most academic specialist subjects. I was in the lead by 4 after the first round.

Straight into round 2 for general knowledge, we went up in ascending order of our first round scores. Katherine got 13 to total 22, one of her answers was "Cambridge." Peter got 12 to total 26 then Christine went up, she had won the rehearsal on old general knowledge questions so I was worried she'd set me a tough target. She got 13 to total 28 so I needed 10 to win.

Back to the black chair and I had the best round of general knowledge of my life, after getting the first 6 right I knew I was going to win, I ended up getting the first 11 right before getting of all things a science question wrong. One of my answers was "Oxford"! I only got 1 out of the last 4 right but I scored 16 with one pass to total 35 and win by 7 points. In all my years of trying to answer the questions when watching Mastermind on TV I'd never got much more than 10 or 11 so 16 was amazing. More thunderous applause, Magnus announced the scores, handshakes all round from the other three contenders. I'd achieved both objectives by a large margin, I scored a lot more than 20 and the Cambridge student came last (what a shame).

Approaching Menace again and they dimmed the lights before they stopped recording and we were let out of the debating chamber. By now I was shaking like a leaf, all the nervous energy I was able to control during the recording came out. Lots of congratulations from my guests and other audience members. One of my rehearsal questions was who said "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes", in my case Andy Warhol was right.

Back into the debating chamber to sit at the back of the audience whilst they recorded the second heat of the evening. I was still shaking all the way through this recording although now I wasn't taking part I could notice more of what was happening behind the scenes. They try to record Mastermind in one go although they do have to stop and restart sometimes, it's not as seamless as it all appears to be on TV. After the second heat was all finished all of us Masterminders and our guests went to a reception put on by the BBC for us. Mum, Dad and myself got to have a chat with Magnus, the other contenders, some of the BBC people and some local members of the "Mastermind Club". The guest of honour was Nancy Wilkinson, winner of the very first Mastermind in 1972. Finally out into the real world again, what a night!

The next day I got my picture in the Oxford Mail and I got interviewed by the Warrington Guardian on my next visit home. I wasn't allowed to reveal the result as it would be some time before the programmes would be transmitted. I now had the dubious honour of having to go through it all over again in the semi-final. February 26th 2009, Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, my specialist subject, "The films of Tim Burton."

Semi-Final - Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth

And so after 3 more months of study the semi-final came around. Off on the train to the West Country to Paignton, got a taxi to the river Dart ferry and across the river to Dartmouth to the very impressive looking Naval College. Met up with the BBC people, they were going to record the last of the first round heats before our semi-final. I was nervous but nothing like as bad as last time in Oxford.

The other three semi-finalists were:- Akintunde Akinkunmi, a forensic psychiatrist from Luton, his specialist subject was the Life and Career of Rommel. Tony Dart, a chartered engineer from Reading, his specialist subject was the Professor Fen stories of Edmund Crispin. Colin Cadby, a building society employee from Hove, his specialist subject was British Naval History 1939-1945. Akintunde had won the other first-round heat in Cambridge. Tony (President of the "Mastermind club") had beaten Colin by one point in their first-round heat but after the recording they realised one of Colin's incorrect answers should have been correct. Colin had qualified for the semi-finals as one of the highest-scoring losers so this semi-final was a rematch.

We had a rehearsal as before with old general knowledge questions in which I managed to come last, I knew was up against people who were really good at general knowledge. After the rehearsal my guests Vicky and Nic arrived, I was starting to get a bit more nervous, instead of wanting to escape I wanted to get the whole thing over with. We semi-finalists sat at the back of the auditorium of the "Quarter-Deck" of the Naval College whilst the last first-round heat was recorded. This seemed to drag on for ages, there were quite a few technical problems before they were finished. By the interval between the recordings I was feeling as if I was on the start-line for a big race, I was warmed up and raring to go.

As in Oxford we walked out to our seats one at a time. From my contestants seat it looked very impressive under the lights in the auditorium. In Oxford the audience appeared to be full of students but here in Dartmouth there were lots of special guests seated by the contestants, several high-ranking Naval officers and local civic dignitaries, some of these guests had to be moved as all light reflecting off the gold braid on the Naval uniforms and all the shiny Mayoral chains were affecting the television cameras! Akintunde went up first and got 14 points and now it was my turn. Out to the black chair, dim the lights and Magnus started his interrogation.

Name? Lauren O’Day
Occupation? Student

In the first round your Specialist Subject was "The Harry Potter Novels", what is your Specialist Subject for the semi-final? "The Films Of Tim Burton".

The questions were on the whole pretty straightforward, I got one wrong which I should have got right. There was one tricky one which I passed although the correct answer was the one I thought it might be. 17 points with one pass, thunderous applause but I was disappointed not to have got more.

Tony went up next and equalled my score with 17 and Colin ended up first round with 15. I was in the lead but not by much, it wasn't going to be as easy as in Oxford.

Second round for general knowledge, Akintunde scored 10 more to total 24. Then Colin went up and scored 18 more to total 33, what a target to set! Off to the black chair for my second interrogation. I got the first 4 questions correct but after that things started to go seriously wrong. I made some plausible guesses which were wrong and only passed on 2, I managed to get 3 more correct to crawl level with Akintunde's score of 24. Sympathetic applause, my first thought was that I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I still had to sit through Tony's second round, he did well to get 12 to total 29 but Colin got his revenge to win by 4 points and qualify for the "final final" in the Orkney Isles. Handshakes all round, applause from the audience and Approaching Menace was played. I wasn't quite free yet, I had to go out to the black chair one more time as there was a problem with the recording of my walk out earlier on. Finally we were free and I could get back to Shelley. Felt a bit disappointed at first but I'd done really well to get as far as I did and I didn't disgrace myself in the semi-final. The Royal Navy put on a really good reception for us, Vic, Nic and I got to have a chat with fellow Masterminders, Magnus and the BBC people as well as some of the Navy people. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to end a long, exciting day.

At breakfast the morning after I got see the Masterminders again which was a nice way to end our stay in Dartmouth. I wished Colin good luck for the final and told him I never wanted to play him at trivial pursuit!

Transmission

Monday 23rd June 2009, transmission date for the first-round heat. I happened to be doing an exhibition at School that day so I was able to get out in the evening to watch with my house mates. Did I really look and sound like that? Not how I thought I would look and don't I have a funny voice!

The semi-final was transmitted on Monday 11th August, I was back in Warrington so we watched it with my family and friends at home. I got to see myself squirming in the black chair in the second round but it wasn't as bad as I feared. It was strange to be recognised by people who normally wouldn't notice me in the days after transmission but fairly soon I was back to anonymity. All in all a great experience.