Mastermind (1972)
Mastermind is a British quiz show, well known for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and air of seriousness. Devised by Bill Wright, the basic format of Mastermind has never changed — four and in later contests five contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the contestant's choice, the other a general knowledge round. Wright drew inspiration from his experiences of being interrogated by the Gestapo during World War II. The atmosphere is helped by Mastermind's famously ominous theme music, "Approaching Menace" by the British composer Neil Richardson. The quiz programme originated and was recorded in Manchester at studios such as New Broadcasting House and Granada Studios, before permanently moving to MediaCityUK in 2011.
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Episode 1 - Episode 1
Release Date: 1991-01-20Magnus Magnusson returns to interrogate the first four contenders for the title of Mastermind 1991. The black chair is to be found this week in the Great Hall of the University of Exeter. Contestants: James Fane-Gladwin (executive search consultant) Benedictine Order to 1532; Robin Rhoderick-Jones (retired soldier) The Archers; Christine Roderick (mature student) life and works of George Eliot ; Ian Sadler (computer analyst) British battleships, 1860-1956.
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Episode 2 - Episode 2
Release Date: 1991-01-27Four contenders face Magnus Magnusson to answer questions on their specialised subjects and general knowledge. From the Great Hall of the University of Exeter. Contestants: Andy Taggart (teacher) history of the Balkans 1774-1923; Patricia Pay (assistant land registrar) life and works of Tolstoy; Ralph Kite (freelance researcher) land weapons 1900-75; Jeremy Parrott (lecturer) 20th-century fiction publication in Britain.
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Episode 3 - Episode 3
Release Date: 1991-02-03Magnus Magnusson interrogates four more contenders for the title of Mastermind 1991. The black chair is to be found this week in the Academy Room at Stonyhurst College, Preston. Contestants: David Renshaw (civil servant) life and novels of Thomas Hardy; Stephanie Brooke (administrative assistant) life and works of Puccini; Paul Gradwell (credit controller) life and films of W C Fields; Jane Trevor (pre-school day care adviser) life and reign of Richard III.
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Episode 4 - Episode 4
Release Date: 1991-02-10Magnus Magnusson questions four contenders from the north of England in the Academy Room at Stonyhurst College. Contestants: Dave Burnham (local government officer) heroic age of Antarctic exploration 1897-1922; Linden Adams (teacher) life and works of Barbara Pym; Stephen Allen (actor) life and reign of Henry VII; Andrew Francis (lecturer) life and career of Erwin Rommell.
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Episode 5 - Episode 5
Release Date: 1991-02-17Magnus Magnusson tests four more contenders in the Debating Chamber of the Oxford Union Society. Contestants: David Watts (Royal Navy officer) Elizabethan theatre; Indrani Hettiaratchi (teacher) life and works of Frederic Chopin; Roderick Diggins (clerk) English royal palaces, 9th century to 1912; Alan Colby (local government officer) life and works of Francois Truffaut.
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Episode 6 - Episode 6
Release Date: 1991-02-24Magnus Magnusson tests four more contestants in the Debating Chamber of the Oxford Union Society. Contestants: Michael Schwarz (editor) Formula 1 motor racing world championship since 1950; Kate Ford (librarian) life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright; James Tudor (industrial librarian) life and operas of Richard Wagner; Steven Brindle (architectural historian) English Victorian architecture.
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Episode 7 - Episode 7
Release Date: 1991-03-03Magnus Magnusson with four more contenders in the Meeting House Chapel at the University of Sussex, Brighton. Contestants: Colin Harnett (civil servant) life and ghost stories of M R James; Martin Andrew (conservation officer) Norman architecture in England, 1050-1180; Patricia Cowley (consultant editor) Hollywood films, 1930-50; Jim Maginnis (RAF officer) RAF Bomber Command, 1939-45.
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Episode 8 - Episode 8
Release Date: 1991-03-10Magnus Magnusson with four more contenders in the Meeting House Chapel at the University of Sussex, Brighton. Contestants: Donald Yule (pensions administration specialist) life and works of Thomas Telford ; Tina Rath (company secretary) the vampire in popular English fiction, 1819-1989; David Bolton (solicitor's manager) Gloucester Cathedral; Peter Bacos (administrator) life and works of George Bernard Shaw. Director Andrea Conway Producer Peter Massey
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Episode 9 - Episode 9
Release Date: 1991-04-07Magnus Magnusson with four more contenders, in the Great Hall of the University of Nottingham. Contestants: Richard Francis (university lecturer) life and career of Mahatma Gandhi; Ashis Banerjee (medical practitioner) Cuba, 1492-1989; Chris Gonet (computer consultant) the lives and films of the Marx Brothers; Ernest Price (retired teacher) life and work of Charles Darwin.
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Episode 10 - Episode 10
Release Date: 1991-04-14From the Great Hall of the University of Nottingham with Magnus Magnusson. Contestants: Alan Parish (teacher) geography of New Zealand; Barbara Gordon-Jones (voluntary arts worker) life and works of James Thurber ; Trevor Brown (retired bank official) the films of John Ford; Michael McHugh (community development worker) English poetry of the 20th century.
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Episode 11 - Episode 11
Release Date: 1991-04-21From Belfast's City Hall, Magnus Magnusson quizzes Andrew Vaughan (teacher) - life and poetry of Seamus Heaney ; Rosaleen Lavery (customs and excise officer) - 18th-century British pottery and porcelain; Alan Friezer (retired schoolmaster) - history of chemistry until 1915; Howard Dolan (assistant director, CBI) - life and times of Franklin D Roosevelt.
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Episode 12 - Episode 12
Release Date: 1991-04-28From the Great Hall of the City Hall, Belfast, Magnus Magnusson questions: John Ross (chartered librarian) Field Marshal Lord Allenby; Cicely Anderson (retired teacher) Venetian art, 1450-1600; Kenneth Barr (supply teacher) The Third Reich, 1933-45; John Gourlay (lecturer) the history of Scotland, 1058-1329.
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Episode 13 - Episode 13
Release Date: 1991-05-05Magnus Magnusson questions the first four semi-finalists in the McEwan Hall at the University of Edinburgh. Contestants: Stephen Allen (actor) Dartmoor; Stephanie Brooke (administrative assistant) Shakespeare's history plays; Ian Sadler (computer analyst) Johann Sebastian Bach ; Richard Francis (lecturer) Paris
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Episode 14 - Episode 14
Release Date: 1991-05-12The second place in the final is at stake when four more semi-finalists face Magnus Magnusson in the McEwan Hall at the University of Edinburgh. Contestants: Jim Maginnis (Royal Air Force officer) history of Belfast, 1690-1960; Roderick Diggins (temporary accounts clerk) life and work of Sir Christopher Wren ; Kate Ford (librarian) life and Hornblower novels of C S Forester; Donald Yule (pensions administrator) Jacobite rising of 1745.
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Episode 15 - Episode 15
Release Date: 1991-05-19The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, is the setting where Magnus Magnusson asks the questions of four more semi-finalists: Howard Dolan (assistant director, CBI) British and American military and naval aircraft, 1939-51; Kenneth Barr (supply teacher) Ed Murrow ; Patricia Pay (assistant land registrar) Nabokov; Trevor Brown (retired bank official) Hollywood musicals, 1933-58.
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Episode 16 - Episode 16
Release Date: 1991-05-26The last place in the final is at stake when Magnus Magnusson interrogates the four highest scoring runners-up at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Contestants: Indrani Hettiaratchi (music teacher) - Vera Brittain; Linden Adams (teacher) - Sir Arthur Sullivan; Dave Burnham (local government officer) - Adolf Hitler; and either Ashis Banerjee (medical practitioner), Alan Colby (local government officer) or Andrew Francis (lecturer).
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Episode 17 - The Final
Release Date: 1991-06-02Magnus Magnusson faces the four finalists competing for the coveted title of Mastermind 1991 at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Finalists: Andrew Francis (lecturer) Erwin Rommel ; Kate Ford (librarian) Frank Lloyd Wright ; Trevor Brown (retired bank official) the films of John Ford; Stephen Allen (actor) Sir Francis Drake. The winner will receive the trophy from Will Wyatt , the BBC's Managing Director of Network Television.