Friday Funnies: Spilling the beans on TV show latest

BLOGGER John Duckers offers a glimpse into an appearance on Mastermind by two of the region’s business people.

DOUBLE tops – we have a Brummie and a Black Country lad in line for Mastermind 2012.

Apparently, though the final is in the can and the trophy presented, it will be some time next year before the BBC get round to airing it.

Officially, we are still at the heat stage but I am told Birmingham accountant Mark Yates made the last six and so did some character from Wolverhampton.

My spy in the camp was Birmingham businessman Ian Mackay who was at the BBC studios in Media City, Salford, for the recording of the showdown.

A quiz enthusiast, Mackay insists he must not spill the beans in case addicts become upset. But, a tip – I wouldn’t put too much money on our two!

“I was only in the audience, before you get too excited, but we sat right behind the ‘chair’ as the studio director thought my wife Sheila and I were well dressed!”

Indeed, to Mackay’s embarrassment, some people who had got there first were thrown out in his stead.

For non-Mastermind fans, the black leather chair in which the contestants sit, lit by a solitary spotlight in an otherwise dark studio, is the most famous icon of the show.

Supposedly, the inspiration for this was the interrogations faced by its creator, Bill Wright, as a POW in World War II.

But I liked a story about presenter John Humphries. It is suggested he was asked to go into the ‘jungle’ on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

He pondered and pondered and eventually told them he would…..but only if they could persuade Tony Blair to do so too.

So naturally it never happened. But a clever way of saying ‘no’ without actually saying ‘no’.

• For more questionable gossip, tittle tattle and trivia from the region’s business community see Duckers & Diving.