International Mastermind was an international spin-off of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 Mastermind

Mastermind (TV series)

Mastermind is a British quiz show, well known for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and air of seriousness.Devised by Bill Wright, the basic format of Mastermind has never changed — four and in later contests five contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the...

quiz show.

History

The 1979 competition was a one-off series hosted by Magnús Magnússon

Magnus Magnusson

Magnus Magnusson KBE was a television presenter, journalist, translator and writer. He was born in Iceland but lived in Scotland for almost all of his life, although he never took British citizenship...

 involving the winners of Mastermind from around the world, including UK Mastermind champions David Hunt and Rosemary James, or winners of quiz shows similar in format to Mastermind. The competition was won by the Irishman John Mulcahy.

As International Mastermind was a success it became an annual event. In 1980 it was hosted by Magnússon again, but after that it was decided that the winning nation hosted the next series.

In 1981 the programme was hosted by Huw Evans, who hosted the Australian version of the show, and filmed in in the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

. The 1982 edition was made in New Zealand and hosted by Peter Sinclair

Peter Sinclair (New Zealand)

Peter Sinclair was a New Zealand television personality and radio host.Born in Sydney, Australia, he rose to fame in the 1960s and early 1970s firstly on New Zealand radio and then as host of Let's Go, Happen Inn and C'mon, New Zealand's primary rock music television shows of the time.In the late...

, who was the questionmaster on the New Zealand version of Mastermind and also the New Zealand version of University Challenge

University Challenge

University Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....

.

Following the first British victory, the 1983 series was hosted again by Huw Evans and was filmed in the Sheldonian Theatre

Sheldonian Theatre

The Sheldonian Theatre, located in Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1668 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the university at the time and the project's main financial backer...

 in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

. It was won by Christopher Hughes, better known today as an Egghead

Eggheads

Eggheads is a BBC quiz show created by 12 Yard Productions, first broadcast in 2003, and presented by Dermot Murnaghan. For the 2008 series, Jeremy Vine was brought in to present on nights when Murnaghan was hosting the spinoff series Are You an Egghead? This happened again from October 2009 while...

, but as this was the final series, he believes he is the reigning International Mastermind and has sometimes introduced himself in each episode of Eggheads as "...still International Mastermind champion...".

Champions

Year	Winner	Country	Specialist Subject
1979	John Mulcahy	Ireland	Irish History (1916-22) History of Ireland The first known settlement in Ireland began around 8000 BC, when hunter-gatherers arrived from continental Europe, probably via a land bridge. Few archaeological traces remain of this group, but their descendants and later Neolithic arrivals, particularly from the Iberian Peninsula, were...
1980	Rachel "Ray" Stewart	Australia	Life and times of Julius Caesar Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
1981	David Harvey	New Zealand	The Lord of the Rings trilogy The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
1982	Leslie Grout	Great Britain	Windsor Castle Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
1983	Christopher Hughes	Great Britain	British Steam Locomotives Steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...