12 October: Mastermind

This date in 1929 saw the birth of Magnús Magnússon, television presenter who is best known as presenter of the BBC television quiz programme Mastermind, which he hosted for 25 years. 10 things you might not know about Mastermind:

1. The show was created by Bill Wright, who drew his inspiration from his experiences of being interrogated by the Gestapo during the second world war.

2. The theme music is Approaching Menace by the British composer Neil Richardson.

3. The black Chair in the original series was designed by Charles and Ray Eames. This chair was was given to Magnus Magnusson as a souvenir when he retired from the show, and subsequently inherited by his daughter, Sally. The current chair is an Eames Soft Pad Chair made by Herman Miller. The original chair was once kidnapped and held to ransom by students for charity, delaying filming. As a result the BBC commissioned a duplicate chair to be kept under lock and key in case it ever happened again.

4. The first question ever asked on the show concerned Picasso's Guernica. An almost identical question was the last one asked on Magnús Magnússon’s final show. This was plotted as an in joke, which wouldn’t have been used if the scores depended on it.

5. In the original series, episodes were filmed in various universities, with the show visiting every university in Britain at the time. Some episodes were filmed in churches. The last programme of the original series was filmed at St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney. These days, it’s filmed in a TV studio.

6. Participants are always referred to as "contenders", never "contestants".

7. The highest ever score was 41 points, set by Kevin Ashman in 1995. Kevin went on to be a member of the Eggheads quiz panel. The record score on an individual round is 23, set by Jesse Honey on "Flags of the World" in the specialist subject round in a Mastermind champion of champions edition in 2010. His final score was 36 and two passes, but he lost the overall contest to Pat Gibson (another Egghead) who had no passes. The highest score for the Celebrity version of the show, 36 points, was achieved by Hilary Kay and Rhys Thomas in two separate 2010 editions.

8. The lowest ever scores occurred on celebrity editions of the show. The current record for the lowest score in the specialist subject round is jointly held by Simon Curtis, Steve Ferry, Nancy Lam and Amy Tapper, all of whom only scored 1 point, with Amy Tapper going on to score only one point in the general knowledge round, giving her a grand total of 2. The only contender to score no points in a round was parasport athlete Kadeena Cox, who scored 0 on general knowledge, but had scored 3 points on her specialist subject of Arsenal F.C.

9. The oldest ever Mastermind champion, Sir David Hunt in 1977, who was 64 while the youngest ever, was Gavin Fuller in 1993. who was 24.

10. In 1987, married couple Paul and Christine Hancock competed against each other in one edition of the show. Both scored 34 correct answers and two passes; Paul Hancock won the play-off by one question. Magnus Magnússon dubbed that edition 'Hancock's Half-Hour'.

Character birthday

Magpie, aka Margaret “Maggie” Blair. She is a genetic variant with the power of flight, and a former thief with an extensive knowledge of small, high tech artefacts and precious stones. She turned to crime to help care for her sister, Chrissie, who re-appeared after being missing for several years, severely traumatised and unable to speak or take care of herself. Magpie specialised in stealing jewellery and small devices, usually from hotel rooms on upper floors, gaining access using her power of flight. As she wore black and white, any witnesses would see nothing but something black and white flying away, hence she became known as "The Magpie".

After a string of thefts from the penthouse suite at Hamilton Lonsdale's Paradise Hotel in London, Lonsdale decided to set a trap for the Magpie, sure he could use her power for his combat team. When he'd caught her, using two of his team posing as a wealthy couple as bait, he offered her a place on the team in lieu of prosecuting her. He would pay her enough to afford a professional carer for Chrissie. Magpie agreed to this and joined Combat Team Beta.