Friday 6 January 2012

Sleb Mastermind - Show 8

Well, my sources inform me that this is actually a ten edition series – so much the better, so apologies for my comments yesterday. Neil Dudgeon, currently occupying the hotseat in England’s most dangerous village, Midsomer, was the first to brave the chair. He offered us a favourite poet of mine, Philip Larkin, and I’m happy to say that I did considerably better with this round than I managed with the Ted Hughes round that we saw a few days ago. Neil, though, well, Neil put in a perfect 12 from 12. great quizzing. His charity is The ITP Support Association

Stuart Francis is another of the comedians who get the chance to have another bite at the cherry – look, I’m not complaining about this, honestly I’m not. I needed two goes myself. Last time out, in the show that Andi Osho won in 2010 Stuart offered us the Toronto Maple Leafs. Last night it was the Toronto Blue Jays. He had 14 back in 2010, and 9 last night, which is probably just about the same – that’s not bad going at all. Stuart was playing for Right to Play UK.

Andrew Collins is a well known face, even if he is not quite so well known a name. A journalist, performer and writer, he co-wrote the series “Not Going Out”. Andrew was answering on 1970s disaster movies. A brave choice that. I was around in the 70s , and as I recall there were more of them than you could shake a stick at during the middle of the decade. So to be fair his 8, never a bad score off a 90 second round, was even better than it looked. Andrew’s chosen good cause is Thomas’s Fund.

Finally to Sandie Shaw. Sandie Shaw was a 1960’s icon, known for having a few hits, for being the first British act to win the Eurovision Song Contest, and for singing in bare feet. I guess that she was probabaly the sentimental favourite for many of the older members of the viewing audience. Her subject was Nichiren Buddhism. Now, I pricked up my ears about this one.Firstly because I thought John said Ned Sherrin Buddhism, which would certainly have been a new one on me. Then when I realized what he said, that rung a bell. Anywhere you go on the net which gives background information about MM will probably mention some of the subjects that have been rejected in their time – ( the use of bone cement in hip replacement surgery – diamonds are a girl’s best friend ( as everybody knows ) etc. ) . Then it might mention some of the more unusual subjects – and The Buddhist Sage Nichiren is always given as one of these. OK – digression over. Sandie managed 8, so certainly knew her stuff. Her charity is Centrepoint

Back to the chair came Andrew. He produced one of the better rounds of GK that we’ve seen in this series. As with the regular series it’s all down to luck against whom you get drawn , but suffice it to say that 15 gave him 23, which would have been a winning score in another show. Hard lines that. Then Sandie came back to the chair. John immediately picked on “Puppet on a string”, and Sandie expressed a wish – only half joking – that the song would go away. I have heard her on interviews expressing this same point of view as well. Well, to be fair, this would have sounded a lot more convincing had she not been dressed in a 60’s type miniskirt, and had her hair not been dyed and cut to look just like it did in the 60s. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m no kind of clothing fascist, and I have no problem with people dressing how they want to on the show, whatever their age. But if you are trying to forget, or live down your past , then there are probably better ways to do it. She struggled a little, but put on another 8 for 16.

Last time on the show Stuart scored 9 on GK. His chosen technique then was giving celebrity names for answers when he didn’t have a Scooby. This time out he had refined his technique slightly, and was happy to offer us “Bamber Gascoigne” several times, which prompted John to suggest that he might be hearing from the great one’s lawyers. Not a bit of it – I have no doubt that he has a fine sense of humour. Well, Stuart managed to struggle to 8 answers this time, and I’m afraid after two tilts at Mastermind I would have to say to him – don’t give up your day job. Last but not least, Neil Dudgeon. With 12 needed for an outright win it wasn’t a doddle, but he made it look that way. He concentrated on providing answers to almost every question, and the vast majority of them were right. He cruised through the tape with questions to spare, and pushed his score to 29. That’s the highest score of the series so far, and I would guess a sleb record for 3 and a half minutes of questions. Well done.

The Details

Neil DudgeonPhilip Larkin12 - 017 - 129 - 1
Stuart FrancisToronto Blue Jays9 - 28 - 217 - 4
Andrew Collins1970’s Disaster Movies8 - 115 - 023 - 1
Sandie ShawNichiren Buddhism8 - 38 - 316 - 6

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