Dawn Tozer

A teacher from Portsmouth who appeared on Mastermind in 1989, Dawn Tozer was the unwitting catalyst for what might be described as a 'pass controversy'. She took 'The Life and Works of Gwen John' as her subject and at the halfway stage was lying joint first with Mary Gibson on 18; however, Mary had one pass while dawn had none. In the second round, Mary scored a further 17, with no passes, to make 35, so it appeared that Dawn had her work cut out. When the final buzzer went, Dawn had also reached 35 (still with no passes), but Magnus Magnusson was in the middle of a question, so there was a chance for her to take an outright lead. Dawn passed; Magnus reminded her that there was no point in passing after the bell, so Dawn took a guess and got it wrong. However, she had won on the passes rule.

A furore ensued - according to the Sun newspaper (which it must be said is often prone to exaggeration), the BBC switchboard was jammed with calls from viewers complaining that Magnus had 'bent the rules' by allowing Dawn a second chance after she had already said 'Pass'. However, Magnus had often in the past encouraged contestants to 'have a go' after they said 'Pass' after the bell. Mary Gibson herself agreed that Dawn had beaten her fair and square, and in any case it was all academic as Mary qualified for the repechage semi-final for the highest scoring losers. As for Dawn, she bowed out in her semi-final with 'The Songs of Schubert'.