THE champion of Mastermind 2025 also won an incredible £500k on a rival quiz show – but do you remember him?
Viewers watched on as John Robinson became the BBC quiz’s latest victor.
4
4
4
The school teacher, from Sutton Coldfield, faced off against Claire Reynolds in a tense finish.
John emerged as the winner of series 52 with an impressive 30 points – while also correctly answering the last episode of the series.
Discussing his victory, he said: “I cannot quite believe that I have won the final of Mastermind.
“I’m not often lost for words, but I think this is one of those occasions where I don’t know what to say…I’m just delighted.”
Earlier in the show, John scored 12 points on specialist subject The Empire State Building.
In fact, he wore a New York skyscraper shirt as an homage to this subject.
It’s not the first time John has experienced success on a legendary game show.
He previously won an impressive £500,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire back in 2019.
By question 14, John had used all of his lifelines and chose to take the money rather than risk.
He is only one of 11 contestants throughout the hit ITV game show to win £500,000.
As presenter Clive Myrie handed over the Mastermind trophy, he acknowledged the contestant’s past game prowess.
Pointing to the coveted prize, Clive added; “Money can’t buy that.”
John agreed, saying: “It certainly can’t, no. A lot more pressure in this chair, compared to that chair.”
Earlier in the series, Mastermind viewers fumed as they declared questions were “dumbed down”.
It saw contestant Phil choose classic sitcom Blackadder as his specialist subject.
Hardest Quiz Show Questions
Would you know the answers to some of quizzing TV’s hardest questions
- Who Wants To Be A Millionaire – Earlier this year, fans were left outraged after what they described as the “worst” question in the show’s history. Host Jeremy Clarkson asked: “From the 2000 awards ceremony onwards, the Best Actress Oscar has never been won by a woman whose surname begins with which one of these letters?” The multiple choice answers were between G, K, M and W. In the end, and with the £32,000 safe, player Glen had to make a guess and went for G. It turned out to be correct as Nicole Kidman, Frances McDormand and Kate Winslet are among the stars who have won the Best Actress gong since 2000.
- The 1% Club – Viewers of Lee Mack’s popular ITV show were left dumbfounded by a question that also left the players perplexed. The query went as follows: “Edna’s birthday is on the 6th of April and Jen’s birthday falls on the 15th of October, therefore Amir’s birthday must be the ‘X’ of January.” It turns out the conundrum links the numbers with its position in the sentence, so 6th is the sixth word and 15th is the fifteenth word. Therefore, Amir’s birthday is January 24th, corresponding to the 24th word in the sentence.
- The Chase – The ITV daytime favourite left fans scratching their heads when it threw up one of the most bizarre questions to ever grace the programme. One of the questions asked the player: “Someone with a nightshade intolerance should avoid eating what?” The options were – sweetcorn, potatoes, carrots – with Steve selecting sweetcorn but the correct answer was potatoes.
One person wrote on X: “I haven’t seen Blackadder in about five years, but I got four, so that set of questions was clearly far too easy…”
Another remarked: “Blackadder?! What’s that, 14 hours of TV to bone up on? Pathetic. I managed to answer all bar two of those and I’ve not seen any of it for years. So dumbed down now.”
Viewers also branded another player’s selection of sitcom Friday Night Dinner as “ridiculous.”
Mastermind airs on BBC One and iPlayer.
4
