Tside » Brains takes on the Prisoner!

Brains takes on the Prisoner!

By Anna Gutridge Added 01.50pm, 05-February-10

Steph with her supporters before the show

I am not a number – It’s a game!!!

She’s started…but will she finish? Fingers will be crossed all round this Friday as Hartlepool woman Stephanie McCann takes her place in the famous black chair to be put through the mill on the BBC’s Mastermind quiz show.

Brain box Stephanie, 29, a data technician for Middlesbrough council applied to be on the series over sixteen months ago and made the trip to the studios in London to film the programme before Christmas to be televised this week.

Her chosen specialist subject is the town of Portmeirion, an “Italiante” village in Wales which was the location for the surreal spy drama “The Prisoner” starring Patrick McGoohan.

This topic was chosen after her other choices of Jmes Bond, Urban Legends andthe Novels of Terry Pratchett had already been snapped up by boffins in the games long running history.

Stephanie said: “I applied for the show but didn’t think I would ever get on because I really don’t think my general knowledge is as good as some people you see on the show.

Iit was a great surprise when I got the letter inviting me to take part, and then it was quite funny when they kept rejecting my specialist subject choices.

“I am going to be really nervous when it is shown, even though I know what happened! I am going to invite friends round and have a little party to all watch my performance together. It was a really fun experience.”

The experience was so much fun according to Stephanie that she has since applied to appear on several other programmes and is hoping to hear back in the very near future.

The quirky british quiz has been on air since the early seventies and has bamboozled the nation with wide ranging topics such as Post-Socratic philosophy, burial grounds of London and the surprisingly rejected topic of the banana industry.