The Brains Trust

Synopsis

A panel answered questions sent in by listeners, and were expected to talk intelligently on any subject, no matter what it was. The show's original brief was "for useful knowledge to be supplied over the microphone in pithy, entertaining and authentic form... serious in intention, light in character." The three regulars would be joined by one or two additional panellists each week, with frequent guests in the original radio series including the likes of physicist Edward Andrade, economist Margery Fry, literary critic Desmond MacCarthy and conductor Malcolm Sargent.

About half-a-dozen questions were dealt with in each live 45-minute broadcast, and the producers selected the questions to play to the panel's strengths. The questions ranged from simple matters of fact (How did marriage originate?; How does a kangaroo keep its pouch clean - if it does?) to more philosophical questions (What is happiness?) and advice (How can a person improve their ability to concentrate?; Can the panel recommend some interesting holiday reading?). While party politics were eschewed, international politics and religion were open for general discussion.

Trivia

Although the panel were known as the Brains Trust from the start, the programme itself was originally billed as "Any Questions?". That title simply didn't stick with the public, and realising that everyone called it "The Brains Trust" anyway, on the series' first anniversary the Corporation bowed to the inevitable and made that the official title instead. The name "Any Questions?" was later recycled for another topical discussion programme in 1948, which (as of 2020) is still running.

Long before the show transferred to television, there was a version which was filmed and shown in cinemas. It was claimed to be the first completely unscripted and unrehearsed feature film. As far as we can tell there were four films in all, with the first one (in 1942) being a film of a radio show, and the other three (in 1943) made specially for the big screen. Donald McCullough was the chairman for all four.

One of the most famous discussions concerned the question of whether a fly landing on a ceiling approaches upside-down or right-way-up. The answer, arrived at after multiple discussions and experiment, was that a fly approaches the ceiling right-way-up and executes a "flip" to land.

Discussion of religion was banned from the show in 1942 after complaints from the Anglican and Catholic churches that the show had an agnostic bias. Similarly, the following year the Ministry of Information put pressure on the BBC to prevent politics being discussed because of socialist bias from the three regulars.

"Professor" C.E.M. Joad (not technically a professor, though he was head of the Philosophy department at Birkbeck College) was one of the first game show regulars to be dropped after a press scandal. The popular contributor to the radio version suddenly found himself persona non grata in 1948 after being convicted of dodging a 17s 1d train fare.

Audio from most of the television episodes were repeated later the same week in the Home Service. When the telly show took a week off for Easter 1960, the radio made a Youth Special, chaired by politician Shirley Williams and with playwright Dennis Potter on the panel.

A Welsh-language version, Seiat Holi, had two series on radio and occasional broadcasts on television - our records may be incomplete.

Inventor

Howard Thomas, who claimed to have coined the term "question-master" specially for Donald McCullough. The programme was "inspired by" the American series Information Please!.

Merchandise

The Brains Trust Book was published toward the end of 1941, and an LP of highlights from the radio show was issued in 1967.

See also

Petticoat Line, a similar show with an all-female panel.

Web links

IMDb entry

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