Hats off to Derek French, Law Society Council member and candidate for the post of Deputy Vice-President, who was a contestant on the BBC's Mastermind show last week.

The council member for Birmingham's specialist subject was British sitcoms, 1970-1990. At one stage it looked as if he was going to set the record number for passes, but he rallied to score six. A further five points in the general knowledge round gave Mr French a grand total of 11, which put him in joint third, alongside a Cambridge professor.


While not wishing to take anything away from the eventual winner, Mr French tells Obiter that he committed a tactical error by choosing too large a subject area - one previous series winner chose a single sitcom, 'Father Ted'.


'In retrospect I was a bit gullible,' he says. 'I knew that the subject matter was so wide. Over a 20-year period there have been hundreds of sitcoms. I said that to the BBC but they said "trust us, it'll be OK". I should have been a bit longer in the tooth.'


One particularly obscure question was: Who played the housekeeper in 'Bless Me Father'? a programme from the 1970s that ran for three series. 'I've never met anyone who knew who played the housekeeper,' Mr French laments. (It was Gabrielle Daye.)


However, he describes the experience as 'great fun' and - given that the BBC has said that as long as a contestant is not an overall series winner, they can re-enter - is already considering another stab at it. 'Next time I will pick a very small subject area, the wit and wisdom of John Prescott perhaps.'