Brain of Britain Appearance

Before I start, it is worth mentioning that this post contains Spoilers about yesterdays episode of Brain of Britain. If you want to listen to the episode you will find it HERE

 

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Five years ago, I made my first appearance on Brain of Britain. It was shortly after I had taken steps towards competing in more competitive quizzes and I was full of enthusiasm and trying to enter as many broadcast shows as possible. Things didn't go to plan and I ended up bottom of my heat with 3 points. I was determined to come back 5 years later (the necessary waiting period for re-application) and do myself more justice.

 

 

The show you heard yesterday, was only recorded last Monday (16^th April) at the BBC Radio Theatre in London. During the audition process I had stated I was happy to travel to either venue (Salford being the other) and having been to Salford for the recording in 2013, it was nice to go somewhere different. The Radio Theatre itself is a fantastic venue, and as always with these recordings, was full to the brim.

 

My main ambition going into the heat was to better my performance from 5 years ago. In that time I have done a heck of a lot of quizzing and improved my scores in the GP’s dramatically from where I started (although still highly inconsistent). Despite nerves getting the better of me at a recent TV recording, I felt quite relaxed, until the theme music hit. I wasn’t as nervous this time around, but still had the “blank mind” issue that has plagued me before.

I must admit, the first priority was to score a point. I think the “fear of zero” needed wiped out, so was happy to pick up the Sampdoria question on a bonus. I made a couple of schoolboy errors…..When asked for a character for the Lolita questions, I somehow managed to get in my head they were looking for a historical figure and when it came to the Dennis Meanace questions, I was completely down the wrong tracks looking for a cartoon-duo for some reason!

 

The annoying questions were the Right Said Fred/Taylor Swift question which I only recently read but couldn’t recall in the time, and the Great Expectations question which just didn’t come to mind. Salt N Peppa too is something I will have answered right before, but by that point in the show I think even if they asked me my own name I would have passed!

 

Even on my best day, I would still have been nowhere near to Mark Coopers commanding score. The way Brain of Britain works, it helps if you haven’t got other keen and experienced quizzers in your heat, and Mark gave a masterclass. Anthony Fish too, I later found out, is a keen GP attendee and regular quizzer which explains his stellar comeback towards the end of the episode.

 

However, I have no complaints and again the whole experience was fun, meeting great people and taking part in one of my favourite broadcast quizzes. I will still be under 40 the next time I am eligible to re-apply which will hopefully work in my favour, and I would love to have another stab at doing my self-justice. Somehow I need to master quizzing under pressure, and despite leaving Brain of Britain terribly disappointed I didn’t do myself justice (especially with recent GP scores), it certainly hasn’t put me off!