‘My Desert Rat father will be turning in his grave’: Mastermind viewers slam BBC after new champion wins by one point with the ‘WRONG’ answer (so did she say ‘gerbil’ or ‘jerboa’?)
- Judith Lewis, 59, emerged as the winner of the quiz series by just a single point
- She ‘correctly’ answered a question about the symbol of the Army’s Desert Rats
- Viewers claimed she incorrectly said the symbol was a gerbil instead of a jerboa
- The confusion came as she mumbled final syllable leaving viewers confused
By George Martin For Mailonline
Published: 18:45 EDT, 20 June 2019 | Updated: 21:18 EDT, 20 June 2019
The final of Mastermind sparked a heated debate amongst viewers after some claimed the champion had answered the winning question incorrectly.
Judith Lewis, 59, emerged as the winner of the quiz series on Thursday after being given a point for answering a question on the symbol of the Army’s Desert Rats ‘correctly’.
Some viewers claimed Ms Lewis said the answer was was a gerbil, when in fact the 7th Armoured Division’s signet is a jerboa – a desert-dwelling rodent native to North Africa.
The outrage caused one viewer to write online: ‘My Desert Rat father would be turning in his grave’.
In footage from the final she appears to mumble her response, leading to ambiguity over which animal she had given as the crucial answer.
Ms Lewis claimed shortly after the broadcast she had said ‘jerboa’ and had proved it by spelling out the word in footage that was not aired on the BBC.
Judith Lewis claimed victory in the latest series of Mastermind after narrowly beating the other contestants by just one point
She gave the answer to the final question as the ‘time up’ buzzer sounded to signal the end of her round – as she took victory by just one point from the next best contestant.
One viewer posted soon after: ‘My Desert Rat father will be turning in his grave.’
Actor Barnaby Edwards tweeted: ‘Thrilling final of Mastermind as that massive ignoramus John Humphrys erroneously declares someone the winner because he doesn’t know a gerbil is a different animal from a jerboa.’
Ms Lewis, whose specialist subject had been war-era books by Olivia Manning, said her answer was scrutinised on the set and she was asked to spell out the word.
According to the Sun, the NHS psychiatrist, 59, said: ‘I know a jerboa is different from a gerbil, but it was the last question.
Her final answer was scrutinised after viewers claimed she had got answered incorrectly
A host of viewers took to Twitter to speculate on whether Ms Lewis said ‘gerbil’ or ‘jerboa’
‘I could hear the bleep going, and I could hear my voice drop because I knew this was the last syllable I was going to say.
‘What I said obviously sounded not unlike ‘gerbil’.
‘What I’d said was ‘jerbo’. I now know it should be pronounced ‘jer-bo-a’, but I didn’t know that at the time.’
‘There was discussion among the technical crew, they went back and listened to it again, and in the end they were happy to accept it.’
Ms Lewis claims she still would have won even if the show had ended in a tie as she had the fewest passes.
The winner of the final is declared ‘Mastermind’ for that year and is given a prize in the form of a cut-glass engraved bowl – but no monetary reward.
A spokesman for BBC Studios, which produces the quiz, said proper checks had taken place during the recording and Miss Lewis’s fellow contestants were satisfied with her answer.
Asked what the mascot of the Army’s Desert Rats viewers claimed she said a gerbil as opposed to the actual mascot which is a jerboa (pictured), a small rodent native to North Africa
Ms Lewis claimed afterwards she was asked to spell out the word to make sure she had not confused a jerboa with a gerbil (pictured)
Who are the Desert Rats? Britain’s famous armoured division which routed Rommel in North Africa
The 7th Armoured Division ‘Desert Rats’ insignia features a jerboa
The Desert Rats’ took part in the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942, the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943 and the Normandy D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, before ending the war in Germany.
Their exploits during the Siege of Tobruk were immortalised in the 1953 war film The Desert Rats starring Richard Burton.
The 7th Armoured Division was formed in 1938 to protect the Suez Canal, and went on to fight in some of the war’s bloodiest battles. Nicknamed the Desert Rats, they were deployed to North Africa where, under General Montgomery, they won the battles of El Alamein to help change the course of the war.
More recently they served on the battlefields of Iraq.
The success of the Desert Rats in North Africa during the Second World War led Winston Churchill to declare: ‘Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.’
The Desert Rats went on to fight in some of the war’s bloodiest battles: at Salerno in Italy, in Normandy and crossing the Rhine into Germany. They ended the war in the victory parade in Berlin – at the very heart of the Third Reich.
The 7th Armoured Brigade was detached from the division during early 1942 and fought the Japanese in Burma before returning to battle in Italy.
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