Rosemary James

The 1978 Mastermind champion was a 33-year-old Latin teacher from York. She had been urged by her friends to enter for a programme which she initially knew nothing about, as she had never watched the earlier series, and it took three auditions before she was accepted. Taking 'The Mythology of the Greeks and Romans' as her subject, she lost on passes to Ray Ward; however, she qualified for the repechage semi-final as one of the best runners-up, and won this with 'The Life and Works of Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo)'. In the final, she reverted to her original subject and scored 16 on this, adding 14 on general knowledge to win the title. She thereby qualified for the first Mastermind International but lost to the Irish entrant John Mulcahy.

Rosemary went on to contest the 'Champion of Champions' trophy, fought for by the first ten Masterminds. she won the first round with 16 on 'Norse Mythology' and 13 on general knowledge. In the final she scored 16 on 'The Life and Works of Frederick William Rolfe', adding 7 on general knowledge to finish in a three-way tie behind Sir David Hunt. After a break from teaching to undertake postgraduate study, Rosemary became Housemistress at Harrogate Ladies' College.