Bravehearted Glaswegian triumphs as youngest ever Mastermind champion
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IT was meant to go down in TV history as John Humphrys’ last hurrah as Mastermind host.
Instead it will be remembered as the night a young Glaswegian stunned the UK with an accent that made Bertie Wooster sound like Rab C.
In another, more significant achievement, Jonathan Gibson, a 24-year-old studying for a PHD in Modern History at St Andrews, was crowned the youngest ever Mastermind champion in the quiz show’s 49-year-run.
In a short introductory film before he took his place in the famous black chair, Mr Gibson explained: “I was born and brought up in Glasgow despite the evidence of my very confusing accent. No-one in my family understands why I speak like this.
“Family legend has it I had an audiobook of Stephen Fry reading Winnie-the-pooh when I was two.”
Had his fellow contestants known about Mr Gibson’s University Challenge past, when he became briefly famous on Twitter for his turtleneck sweater and boundless enthusiasm, they would have known they were in for the fight of their lives.
Instead they were like lambs to the quiz show slaughter as Mr Gibson scored a perfect 11 out of 11 in his specialist subject, the comedy song writing duo, Flanders and Swann. His father introduced him to the pair’s work when he was seven.
He topped this by 17 points and no passes in the general knowledge round, taking his score to 28.
It would have been more had he interrupted the questions with the answers he so clearly knew, instead of waiting politely for the former Today presenter to finish.
In previous rounds Mr Gibson’s specialist subjects had been Agatha Christie’s Poirot and William Pitt the Younger. He also had a perfect general knowledge score in his semifinal round.
After 735 episodes and more than 80,000 questions, Humphrys now hands over to BBC journalist Clive Myrie as host.
A new series will be filmed in Belfast in the summer and shown later this year.
When it emerged he had won, Mr Gibson waved an arm in triumph before clutching the winner’s trophy, a Caithness Glass bowl, to his chest.
Despite declaring himself speechless, he managed a bravehearted declaration aimed at any who might wish to follow his lead.
“I am fiercely proud to be Scottish and really proud to demonstrate that Scottish quizzers and quizzers from outside London exist and can beat the rest.”
Mr Gibson takes over the youngest winner title from Gavin Fuller, who had held it since 1993. Asked by Humphrys if he was planning to become a professional quizzer, Mr Gibson said he could not imagine that far ahead yet.
“I’m just looking forward to getting [the trophy] home and putting it on my desk.”
Mr Gibson’s sister Florence said: “We could not be prouder.”