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Mastermind (British game show)

British quiz show

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ370193
Source-derived summary

Mastermind is a British television quiz show for the BBC, first broadcast in 1972. Its creator, Bill Wright, drew inspiration from his experiences of being interrogated by the Gestapo during World War II. The show features an intimidating setting and challenging questions. Four (and in later contests five or six) contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the contestant's choice, the other a general knowledge round.

Mastermind's theme music is "Approaching Menace" by the British composer Neil Richardson. The show was recorded, with original presenter Magnus Magnusson, on location at UK universities. Later, it was recorded in Manchester at studios such as New Broadcasting House and Granada Studios, before moving to dock10 studios in 2011. The show relocated to Belfast for the 2019–2020 series. The current presenter is Clive Myrie.

Format

Round 1

For the first round, each contestant in turn is given a set length of time, usually two minutes (one minute and a half in semi-finals), to answer questions on a specialist subject which they have chosen. The contestant scores one point for each correct answer and may pass as often as desired.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Mastermind (British game show)” as british quiz show. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mastermind, British and game.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1972, 2011, 2019, 2020—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Mastermind, British and game providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mastermind (British game show)”, the useful work is to connect “british quiz show” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q370193. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1972, 2011, 2019 and 2020.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Mastermind (British game show)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.