This Semi-final is devoted to the four best runners-up from the initial 12 heats, and it is the last chance for a woman to make it to the Final. But there are three of them lined up against a lone male. So the odds should be in their favour. The contestants and their special subjects are:

MARGARET ASKEW , journalist. The Life and Career of Stonewall Jackson

JACQUELINE PEARSON. university lecturer. The Life and Works of Christopher Marlowe

GENA DAVIES, unemployed, Gemology ALAN BLACKBURN, law student, History of Northern Ireland from 1921