BBC under fire after furious viewers claim Mastermind champion won with incorrect answer

THE BBC was under fire amid claims the new Mastermind champion won with a wrong answer.

Judith Lewis, 59, apparently said the mascot of the Army’s Desert Rats was a gerbil rather than a jerboa.

Viewers hit out after she won by a point.

One said: “My Desert Rat father will be turning in his grave.”

In fact, the 7th Armoured Division’s insignia depicts a jerboa, a desert-dwelling rodent found in North Africa.

The “gaffe” meant the NHS psychiatrist, 59, won the BBC2 show with 28 points — just one more than runner-up Ian Orriss.

Viewers laid in to host John Humphrys, 75, on social media for failing to spot an incorrect answer.

'MASSIVE IGNORAMUS'

And professional lip-reader Tina Lannin, who studied the footage on a 56in telly, told The Sun: “I can just see her tongue move inside her mouth for the ‘L’, so I’m pretty sure she said gerbil.”

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.”

Mick Fortune wrote of Humphrys: “Giving away the Mastermind final (my Desert Rat father will be turning in his grave) is unforgivable. Time to retire I think.”

Neil Oakes raged: “Gerbils and jerboas not the same. She's won with a wrong answer!”

The final was filmed in November but only shown on Friday.

Asking the final question as the “time up” buzzer sounded, Humphrys asked: “What long-tailed rodent was adopted as the symbol of the 7th Armoured Division who fought in North Africa in the Second World War and were known as the Desert Rats?”

Judith — whose specialist subject had been war-era books by Olivia Manning — then gave the controversial answer.

Judith, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leics, said her answer was scrutinised on set and she was even asked to spell it out — though that footage was cut.

She said: “I know a jerboa is different from a gerbil, but it was the last question.

I now know it should be pronounced ‘jer-bo-a’, but I didn’t know that at the time.

Judith Lewis

“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.”

Judith stressed she would still have won in the event of a tie as the contestant with the fewest passes.

She did so on one question to Ian’s two.

A spokeswoman for BBC Studios, which produces the quiz, said proper checks had taken place during the recording and Judith’s fellow contestants were satisfied with her answer.

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