Mastermind Error?

[gen2]

I have just watched Mastermind but didn't record it. Can anyone confirm that John Humphrys made a mistake with the last contestant in the GK section?

John Humphrys asked "What element has the atomic symbol Ti?" The Contestant answered "Titanium"
"Thallium" said John Humphrys - and passed on to the next question.

I presume he had misread the question card and took a lower-case L to be a capital i. (Tl = Thallium).

[mike b]

I noticed that as well... It's a bit pathetic that they didn't bother to tack an apology or explanation on the end of the recording.

[jno]

maybe they haven't noticed yet?

[llllozzajh]

yes, this outraged and disgusted me as well. i shall boycott all further BBC transmitions.

[gen2]

Thanks for confirming that mike b. I think I'll try and email the BBC - they've been making too many mixups with competitions recently. Even Blue Peter cannot get it right.

llllozzajh Do you always over-react like that? If you take that attitude it won't be long before you are Boycotting everyone and everything. You'll be living your life as a hermit soon.

[mike b]

As far as I remember, gen 2, the lady involved only lost by two points - she was losing a lot of time hesitating anyway, but the bum question didn't help and could have been crucial...
The other thing I noticed was the gentleman who had to ask for several questions to be repeated as he hadn't heard them properly - surely this was a problem which should have been spotted at the run-through (although it might have been just nerves...)

[Prescott]

I agree with you Mike b. I thought it was an awful error.
As for the old boy - I thought his hearing aid was not functioning properly. Certainly something should have been sorted out before the competition.
Does anyone else agree that Mastermind has been devalued by allowing frivolous special subjects ?

[novalis]

Unfortunately they don't have a run-through/rehearsal now. It's straight on to the platform and then to the chair.
Agree about Titanium/Thallium but such things are normally corrected in advance of broadcast. I can assume only that it had not been picked up beforehand.
As for "dumbing down" I've mixed views. I was beaten in the final purely on the number of passes by somebody whose specialist subjects were all football related. He played to his strengths and was a worthy winner on the night. I've only myself to blame and two questions ( one specialist and one general knowledge ) will haunt me to my dying day.

[gen2]

I have just received a reply from the BBC. I think this is the best result that could be expected. Here is the text of the message:-

Thank you for your query regarding 'Mastermind', and specifically, the question regarding the chemical symbol for Thallium.

Due to an error on our part, this was wrongly given as Ti (which is actually the symbol for titanium) rather than Tl. In the heat of the moment, John Humphrys mistook a lowercase 'L' (l) for an uppercase I (I). However it was entirely the responsibility of the production team to spot this potential pitfall before the recording took place and to have picked up on the error during the actual recording.

Fortunately, this error didn't affect the result of the contest as the contender in question lost by two clear points. However, we obviously we take any mistakes very seriously on 'Mastermind', and we will do our utmost to ensure that it is not repeated. We will also be offering the contender in question a full apology and the opportunity to come back on the next series of 'Mastermind'.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention; I hope it did not interfere with your enjoyment of the programme.

Yours faithfully

Jon Kelly
Series Producer Mastermind