Christopher Cooke

A Londoner by birth, Christopher Cooke now lives in Amersham in Buckinghamshire. Formerly a computer systems adviser and now running his own business selling kits for scale models, Christopher has met a glittering array of past and future Masterminders during a distinguished quiz career. Christopher's first venture into quizzes was Brain of Britain in 1978; he lost in the semi-final to Arthur Douch, and another contestant on the same programme was Ingram Wilcox - both, like Christopher, went on to appear on Mastermind in 1980. Christopher was a semi-finalist in that year (in the 150th programme) but lost narrowly to Samuel Mortimer. Christopher returned to Brain of Britain in 1988, his opponents in the semi-final being two more ex-Masterminders, Owen Gunnell (1986 finalist) and Rachel Leonard (1984). He made it to the final but came fourth as he was up against stiff oppostion - two more former occupants of the black chair Ian Meadows (1985 champion) and Robert Gleeson (1978 finalist). He encountered Ingram Wilcox again on one of two grand final appearances on Fifteen-to-One.

Christopher admitted that many of his quiz appearances were 'mercenary' - he won prizes on Jeopardy, Winner Takes All, Now You See It and Four Square, as well as the title of 'Richmond Supermind' in a one-off competition in 1981. He also won the Top of the Finals Board Trophy on Fifteen-to-One in 1995.