A student from Glasgow who has become the youngest person to win the BBC’s Mastermind said he had to keep quite about it for four months until the programme aired. 

Jonathan Gibson, 24, won by four points in the Grand Final – scoring a perfect 11/11 in his specialist subject on comedy song writing duo Flanders and Swann.

But he couldn't share the news with his friends and colleagues until the episode appeared on TV. 

READ MORE: Glasgow student Jonathan Gibson becomes youngest Mastermind champion

He said: “I told my parents and my sister, but that was basically it. 

“I’m so incredibly overwhelmed  - the response on social media and from everyone has been so incredibly lovely  

“And apart from anything else the last four months have been like a dream, so it’s good to have visual evidence from TV that it actually happened." 

The Herald:

The final was the last appearance of host John Humphreys

Mr Gibson is studying a PhD in Modern History at the University of St Andrews.

His other specialist subjects throughout the competition were Agatha Christie’s Poirot in the heat and William Pitt the Younger in the semi-final.

He scored perfect scores on all three specialist subjects, as well as a perfect general knowledge score in his semi-final round.

It saw him become the competition’s youngest-ever champion since the show began in 1972, a record previously held by Gavin Fuller in 1993.

He said the experience was "nerve-wracking", but had prepared by concentrating on subjects he was passionate about.

The student said: “They have all been things that I have really loved since I was very young and things that have meant a huge amount to me. 

“Me heat subject was the TV show Poirrot, which I was introduced to by my mum and my grandma, just watching episode after episode with them, so it was really lovely to re-visit. 

“Then for the semi-final I did William Pitt the Younger, the late 18th century Prime Minister, and that was inspired by a book my history teacher gave me in school which was one of the main reasons I decided to become a history student.  

READ MORE: Mastermind contestant appears on TV hours after his funeral

He added: “And for the final I did Flanders and Swann, which was a favourite of my dad’s - I’ve known the lyrics to everyone of their songs since I was seven or eight. 

“I definitely don’t have a photographic memory, but I am good at learning things that interest me.  

“And I think the thing that distinguishes good quizzers, is we try to be interested in as many things as possible. But it is easier to learn something in the amount of details you need to for a specialist subject if it is something that you are already passionate about.” 

The final marks John Humphrys’ last episode as host of Mastermind, having presented 735 episodes of the series and asking more than 80,000 questions during that time.

The new series with newly-announced presenter Clive Myrie, a BBC news journalist and a regular presenter of the BBC News at Six and Ten, will be filmed in Belfast in summer and will return to screens later this year.

Mr Gibson said he now plans to focus on his PHD, but hasn't ruled out returning to the world of quizzing in the future.

He said: “It means the world. I really hadn’t thought about as a possibility when I applied or really until I won the semi-final and the producers told me I would be just marginally younger than Gavin Fuller when he won. 

“So it’s really just incredible to make history in that way and beyond anything I could have imagined.”