Student’s a grand final Mastermind aged just 24
A STUDENT has become the youngest person to win Mastermind.
Jonathan Gibson was crowned the BBC’s 2020/2021 Mastermind winner after a perfect round.
The 24-year-old, who is studying for a PhD in history at St Andrews University, is the youngest Mastermind champion since the show began in 1972.
He won by a margin of four points last night – scoring a perfect 11/11 in his specialist subject, the comedy song-writing duo, Flanders and Swann.
Jonathan’s other specialist subjects throughout the competition were Agatha Christie’s Poirot in the heat andWilliam Pitt the Younger in the semi-final.
He scored perfect scores on all three specialist subjects, as well as a perfect general knowledge score in his semi-final round.
Last night’s grand final was John Humphrys’ last
episode as host of Mastermind. He has presented 735 episodes and asked more than 80,000 questions during that time.
Jonathan, who is from Glasgow, said: “There are so many incredible quizzers my age and younger who are coming up at the moment.
“I want this victory to inspire other possible quizzers of my age and younger to give it a go and prove themselves because we can win!”
The record was previously held by Gavin Fuller, who was also 24 when he won in 1993.
The next series with new presenter Clive Myrie – a BBC news journalist and regular presenter of the BBC News at Six and Ten – will be filmed in Belfast in the summer and will return to viewers’ screens on BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year.