Tonight Mastermind's tenth season opens and, between now and Christmas, 48 contestants will pit their wits against each other in the quest to win television's premier quiz battle.

Magnus will be 'starting', and he hopes that you will stay with him until he has 'finished' the search for the successor to London taxi-driver Fred Housego as Mastermind 1981.

The first heat comes from the RAF College at Cranwell and the contestants are: Peter Arbuthnot (commodity broker): Indus Valley Civilisation (2500-1700 bc)

Phillida Grantham (youth worker): Wines of Europe

Leslie Grout (schoolmaster): St George's Chapel, Windsor, since 1475

Peter Wilcockson (art gallery manager): Life and Work of Picasso to 1940

Heat 2 in the search for Mastermind 81 from the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell Captain Patrick Lawrence (retired soldier): The Indian Mutiny (1857) Tim Parry (trainee hospital administrator): British political history since 1905 Madeline Simpson (local government officer): The novels of Margaret Drabble Nicholas Woodward (district inspector of taxes): Life and career of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith (1764-1840)

Four more contenders for the Mastermind 81 title meet in this third heat of the competition at the University College of North Wales in Bangor.

Janet Barker (housewife): History of fashion 1920-70

Albert Holmes (retired export manager): Life and music of Robert Schumann

Milan Pavasovic (postman): European history

Tim Stirk (housemaster): Roman Britain AD 43-410

The University College of North Wales at Bangor is host to the contenders in the fourth heat.

Ian Barton (university lecturer): Roman emperors of the first and second centuries AD

Anthony Dart (chartered engineer): Strangers and Brothers, novels of C. P. Snow

Liam Fogarty (graduate): Life and works of Gustave Courbet Roger Morris (industrial glove manufacturer): Great Western Railway in the 19th century.

The fifth heat of Mastermind 1981 comes from the Great Hall at the University of Bradford and features contestants from the Midlands.

John Mellor (HGV driver): The Battle of Waterloo

Peter Shilston (freelance sports-writer): Gangster age in the USA 1919-1939

Kate Williams (teacher): Life and times of Bess of Hardwick

John Rose (educationist): Life and works of Chaucer

Four contestants from the North of England take up the challenge in the sixth heat of Mastermind 1981 at the University of Bradford. Hutton Barton (probation officer): Battle-cruisers and battleships 1906-1966

Mary Ann Ebert (civil servant): French wars of religion 1550-1588 Marion Mayers (housewife): James Graham , 1st Marquis of Montrose

John Watt (lecturer in computing): History of Kenya from 1895

Four contestants from the South East of England meet at Middlesex Polytechnic in this seventh heat of Mastermind 1981. James Bitton (retired civil servant): The Second Boer War

Maureen Blakesley (schoolteacher): The Royal Shakespeare Company James Craven (cook-general): Life of Marie Antoinette

Craig Scott (advertising executive): History of 19th-century Leeds

Four contestants from the South of England are assembled on the Quarter Deck at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. Katherine Davies (department store buyer-manager): Life of Queen Mary, Consort of George V

John Hill (retired colonial administrator) Thuggee in India Connaire Kensit (polytechnic lecturer): History of China from 1850 John Pretty (miller): Air War in Europe 1939-45

The Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth is host for this tenth heat of Mastermind 1981. On the Quarter Deck are contestants from the West of England.

Godfrey Abbott(ordnance surveyor): History and architecture of Bath Peter Barlow (solicitor): Novels of Kingsley Amis Judith Carter (nursing sister): Works of Dorothy L. Sayers Brenda Read (computer systems designer): Novels of Graham Greene

Scots and Irish contenders for the Mastermind 1981 title meet tonight at Scotland's oldest university, in the Younger Graduation Hall of the University of St Andrews.

Arthur Arnold (schoolmaster): 17th-century British history Richard Beatty (biologist): Poetry of W. H. Auden John Crawford (solicitor): Peloponnesian war Bernard McGinley (graduate business student): Politics and letters in Augustan England

The first-round heats of Mastermind 1981 are completed tonight at the University of St Andrews as contestants from Scotland and Northern Ireland challenge for the last place in the semi-finals. Derrick McClure (university lecturer): Pre-conquest history of Mexico Rosemary Meechan (teacher): Life of Robert the Bruce James Murray (teacher): Life and career of General de Gaulle David Stevenson (employee relations manager): Battle of the Somme

Winners from the first round return to face each other in the debating chamber of the Oxford Union Society in this, the first of the semi-finals.

Janet Barker (housewife): The films of Alfred Hitchcock James Craven (cook-general): Life of Eva Peron 1919-1952 John Hill (retired colonial administrator) Geography of Fiji Nicholas Woodward (tax inspector): Test cricket 1877-1930

Another finalist in Mastermind 1981 is chosen tonight as four more winners from the first round pit their wits against each other in the Debating Chamber of the Oxford Union Society.

Godfrey Abbott (ordnance surveyor): Railways of Wales

Leslie Grout (schoolmaster): Burial grounds of London

Iris Henson (research student): Life and works of Gilbert and Sullivan John Watt (lecturer in computing): 'Flashman' novels of G. Mac Donald Fraser

The third semi-final from St Aidan's College, Durham University

Ian Barton (university lecturer): Classical Greek and Roman architecture

Richard Beatty (biologist): Life and works of Oscar Wilde John Mellor (HGV driver): Life of Henry V

James Murray (teacher): Life and works of Renoir Director

St Aidan's College, Durham University is the setting for this special Semi-final when five' runners-up ' compete for a place in the final.

James Bitton (retired civil servant): History of Brighton

Anthony Dart (chartered engineer): Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle

Mary Ann Ebert (civil servant): Women in the New Testament

Albert Holmes (retired export manager): 18th-century European painting

from The Metropolitan Police Cadet School at Hendon.

Ian Barton (university lecturer): Roman emperors of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD

Leslie Grout (schoolmaster): St George's Chapel, Windsor

Nicholas Woodward (tax inspector): Life and career of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith

James Bitton (civil servant): Second Boer War.