Introduced by Magnus Magnusson from University of York

Are you sitting comfortably in your chair, or do you think you should be in the chair of the 'Mastermind'?

Well over 2,500 viewers thought they should be and, of those, 48 have won through the initial interviews and auditions. Tonight four of them are out to prove their worth, both in the field of specialist and general knowledge questions.

The rules of the contest are as last year, and designed to exploit the contestants' ability for concise answering, quick recall and depth of knowledge.

They are:

Dr M.L. Harris, doctor

R.S. Johnson, university lecturer

Miss S.H. Reynolds, student

S.R. Turnbull, schoolteacher