The frightened man of ‘Mastermind’

Press, 19 March 1984, Page 17

The frightened man of ‘Mastermind’

From JUDITH REGAN in London

The sombre chords of a tune called, appropriately “Approaching Menace" fade away, and the world’s bestknown Icelander leans forward, cool and smiling, to welcome 15 million viewers to another game of “Mastermind.” It is hard to believe that urbane, 55-year-old Magnus Magnusson is more afraid than any of the 48 contestants in Britain’s current “Mastermind” series — but he insists that he is.

“Even though I’ve been doing the show since 1972, I’m a bundle of nerves before every contest,” he says. “I would make a hopeless contestant — I just haven’t got that sort of mind — and the tension gets through to me every time. “I manage to conceal it only because what I do is rather like being an actor. I’ve got to stay cool and in control, however tense I’m feeling underneath.

“As the series nears the final, the tension really is terrific.”

Despite his fame as the key figiire in the world’s most elite television quiz show, Magnus Magnusson, with more than two dozen books to his name regards himself more as a journalist and writer than a television celebrity. His earliest ambition was to become an academic and, after university, he planned to be a teacher in his native Iceland.

Instead, he became a journalist, and now is indelibly identified with “Mastermind” — now in its twelfth year.

“I landed the job only because I boobed as a contestant on another quiz programme,” he claims. “The producer of ‘Mastermind’ remembered that other show, and apparently felt that the idiot who couldn’t get his own answers right was ideal to. become the host on ‘Mastermind’!

“I do find it flattering to be recognised in public, and having people ask for my

autograph. I must confess that I love all that.

“I’m sure that anybody who says they don’t like that kind of thing is quite simply lying . . . “I always maintain that the time to start worrying is when people stop asking for your autograph. So far, I’ve had no cause for concern.”

Ironically for a man who fronts the world’s most searching and high-powered TV quiz, Magnusson claims he is “an absolute failure at almost all the other things that most family men tackle with aplomb. “Gardening, cooking and all the odd jobs about the house are far and away beyond me,” he says. “I wouldn’t dare’ even to try to drive a nail into a piece of wood, because the only certainty is that the wood will splinter. “I’m a non-starter in the kitchen, too, except when it comes to making toast. “And, I’m afraid, I’m a complete failure as a gardener, because gardening is something that simply doesn’t work for me—- — I plant just doesn’t come up.

“Even something .as simple as washing-up is quite beyond my capabilities. I can’t wash up without breaking at least one dish, so I’m never asked to do so again.

“It’s lucky thing that my

wife understands my eccentricities,” says Magnusson, “and now, we take it in turn, day by day, to take the blame for everything and anything. “It’s proved the perfect solution to domestic problems. On a Monday everything is my fault, on a Tuesday everything is Mamie’s fault.

“It’s a wonderful feeling, whenever there’s danger of a row brewing up, to be able to say something like: ‘Darling, today’s Thursday . . . so it’s all your fault!’”

What Magnusson is good at, however, is “masterminding my family into taking over the entire broadcasting system!”

His oldest daughter, Sally, is a television presenter in Scotland. His second daughter, Margaret, is an ITV researcher, and his third daughter, Anna, works for a literary agent.

It will be only a matter of time before his son, John,

completes his Oxford university studies — and follows along in the family wavelengths. “I very much like the idea of working as a family unit,” says Magnusson, whose wife, Mamie, is also a journalist “A few years ago, Sally was working on her first book, which was a biography of Eric Liddell, one of the heroes of the film, ‘Chariots of Fire.’ “Then, we heard the news that the film was being made, and realised that she would have to get a move on.

“We had three weeks in which to complete the book, so we all piled in and helped. “Margaret did the research, Sally did the writing, my wife typed the script and I, not surprisingly, masterminded the operation!” Features International