Student becomes youngest ever Mastermind winner at 24 - thanks to perfect specialist score

Student becomes youngest ever Mastermind winner at 24 – thanks to perfect specialist score

Apr 27, 2021

A 24-year-old student has become the youngest person ever to win Mastermind since the quiz show began almost 50 years ago.

Jonathan Gibson, from Glasgow, won by four points in the grand final of the latest series, scoring a perfect 11/11 in his specialist subject on 1950s and ’60s comedy songwriting duo Flanders and Swann.

His win, broadcast on Monday, breaks a record previously set by contestant Gavin Fuller in 1993. Mr Fuller, now supervisor of The Telegraph library, was also 24 when he took the title, but Mr Gibson is younger by 90 days, according to the newspaper.

Mr Gibson, who is studying a PhD in modern history at the University of St Andrews, also gained perfect scores for his other specialist subjects throughout the series – Agatha Christie’s Poirot in his heat and William Pitt the Younger in the semi-final – as well as a perfect general knowledge round in his semi-final.

Mastermind, which launched in 1972, is famous for its daunting black chair and sees contestants answering difficult questions in an interrogation-style setting.

Previous famous wins include Fred Housego, a London taxi driver who became a TV and radio personality after his victory in 1980.

Mr Gibson’s record-breaking final marks presenter John Humphrys’ last episode as host of the BBC series, after 735 shows and asking more than 80,000 questions over 18 years.

The next series with newly announced presenter Clive Myrie, a BBC news journalist and a regular presenter of the BBC News at Six and Ten, will be filmed in Belfast in the summer and will return to screens later this year

Myrie will become the fifth host of the long-running quiz show, following in the footsteps of Magnus Magnusson, Peter Snow and Clive Anderson, as well as Humphrys.

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