In this 'Jubilee' year, the Mastermind series celebrates its centenary with the 100th programme coinciding with this year's Final.

To reach the Final, 48 contenders, selected from the many thousands of applicants throughout the United Kingdom, line up for the first-round heats of this intellectual marathon.

The arena for tonight's confrontation is Reading University. The contenders are:

HUGH MERRICK author and translator - The Alps

MARTIN LEADBETTER, fingerprint expert - Instruments of the Symphony Orchestra

SUE JENKINS, student teacher - Children's literature

IAN SEWELL, printer - Old Testament

Are you in the Mastermind class? To find out, match your scores against those of the experts.

Tonight's group all hail from Northern Ireland and in this second heat in the series they meet in contest at Reading University. The contenders are

GRAHAM ANDREWS, clerical officer - Science Fiction

ARTHUR GREEN, civil servant - Life and Works of John Buchan ELIZABETH FULTON, schoolteacher - Life and Works of Vincent van Gogh

PATRICK HAMPSHIRE, wine merchant - Life and Works of P. G. Wodehouse

The history of London is one of the specialist subjects of tonight's heat, which appropriately enough comes from the City University, in London. The contenders are:

TIMOTHY BEAUMONT, freelance journalist on the Life and Works of Dorothy L. Sayers DENNIS BYERS, export clerk - Ancient Egypt from 2700 BC to 2339 BC

CATHERINE SLATER, housewife - History of London from Roman times

SIMON FOSTER, teacher - Drama in Athens 500-388 BC

Memory, recall, speed, concentration. These are just some of the qualities required of a contestant entering Mastermind.

Four such Masterminds appear tonight in this fourth heat which comes from the City University in London. The contenders are:

ANDREW WOOD, sales assistant - Life and Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

GEOFFREY REYNOLDS, image intensifier tester - Life of Sir Francis Drake

HAZEL margin, project engineer - Lady Members of the House of Commons

SIR DAVID HUNT, retired ambassador - British Campaigns in North Africa -World War II

There are two groups from Scotland competing for the Mastermind title. The first of these matches comes from Strathclyde University, in Glasgow. The contenders are:

RAYMOND VICKERS, research student - Spanish Anarchist Movement 1908-1975

JONATHAN DALRYMPLE-SMITH, air taxi pilot - History of the Royal Navy 1794-1805

MARIANNE SIMPSON, school secretary - The ' Berry ' novels of Dornford Yates

JOHN WIDDOWSON, headmaster - The Operas of Benjamin Britten

There are 12 heats in the first round of Mastermind and tonight's match from Scotland brings us to the half-way stage.

Strathclyde University in Glasgow provides the setting for tonight's programme.

The contenders are:

ANTHONY KERR, author and translator - The Common Market

WILLIAM CHALMERS, solicitor - The Life and Works of George Orwell

JAMES ROBERTSON, lecturer - The City of Rome

MARTHA IRVINE, court clerk - History of Costume 1600 to present day

Tonight Wales presents its group of aspirant masterminds, and for the occasion Cardiff University is the location.

The contenders are:

ANGELA ALVES, housewife - Life of Henry

VI JOHN LLOYD, barrister - History of Singapore 1819-1969

STUART LAIRD, consultant anaesthetist - World War II in Europe

THOMAS DAWKES, librarian - Life and Works of J. R. R. Tolkien

Taunton, Oxford, Bristol and Jersey are the home towns of tonight's Mastermind competitors. They meet together at Cardiff University for the eighth heat. The contenders are:

RICHARD THOMPSON, retired banker - The Mahrattas and their Wars 1657-1848

JOHN MCKEAN, licensee - The Zulu War - 1879

PETER TABB, newspaper executive - The Life of General Robert E. Lee LORNA VERSO, housewife - Life of Mary Queen of Scots

Tonight Mastermind moves to the Midlands with Keele University providing the venue for competitors from Nuneaton, Nottingham, Bromsgrove and Norwich. The contenders are:

JOHN F. WEST, college lecturer - The Vikings

MICHAEL GAINSFORD, civil engineer - Life and Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams

DAVID HOUGH, retired analytical chemist - Life and Travels of David Livingstone

RUTH BUTLER, librarian - The Life of the Emperor Tiberius

Competitors from Leicester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Burslem take up the Mastermind challenge at Keele University to win a place in the semi-final round. The contenders are:

Kate Irving, chartered accountant -The Life and Career of Otto von Bismarck Michael Gearx, pharmacist - History of Church of England since 1530

Charles Potts, probation officer - Life and Works of Ernest Hemingway

Alan Rush, researcher - Myths and Legends of King Arthur 1100-1485

The first round heats are almost at an end and for this penultimate heat Mastermind comes from

Bradford University. The contenders are SHEILA RAMSDEN, hospital domestic worker - Life and Works of Rupert Brooke MORRIS WILLIIAMS, research student - The History of the Zulus 1816-1879 CHRISTOPHER EAMES, teacher - The Stuart Kings and Queens of England 1603-1714 ROBERT LEY, customs and excise officer - Salvation Army History

Bradford University is the location for this final match of the first round heats. With this result, 12 heat winners will be known.

These, together with the four best heat runners-up, move forward into the semi-final round.

Contenders: SUE CLARK, teacher - King Richard III

IAN LISTER, computer engineer - The Life of Captain William Bligh BOB HESKETH, taxi driver - Shakespeare's English Kings

PETER RICHARDSON, production manager - Life and Work of George Stephenson

First semi-final from the University of Surrey. Contenders: ARTHUR GREEN, civil servant - The Novels of Anthony Powell

GEOFFREY REYNOLDS, image intensifier tester - The Byzantine Empire in the Age of Justinian I

ANGELA ALVES, housewife - W. E. Gladstone

CHARLES POTTS, probation officer - Life and Works of Giuseppe Verdi

Four more heat-winning competitors take up the challenge to gain a place in this year's Mastermind Final.

This is the second of the four Semi-final matches which comes tonight from the University of Surrey.

The four contenders are :

SUE JENKINS, student teacher - France in the 17th century TIMOTHY, BEAUMONT freelance journalist - The History of the Liberal Party since 1877

John MCKEAN, licensee - Venomous reptiles

PETER RICHARDSON, production manager -Tolkien's fiction

The third Semi-final from the University of Salford and tonight's contenders are:

MARIANNE SIMPSON, secretary - The operas of Gilbert and Sullivan WILLIAM CHALMERS, solicitor - British politics 1900-1918

CHRISTOPHER EAMES, teacher -

Political history of China since 1911 MICHAEL GAINSFORD, civil engineer - Indian tribes of North America 1550-1C00

The last competition in the Semi-final round, which gives a chance to the four best losers from the earlier heats to compete for the last place in the Final. Tonight, at the University of Salford, the contenders are:

TOM DAWKES, librarian - The history of linguistics, 19th and 20th centuries

SIR DAVID HUNT, retired ambassador - The Allied Armies in Italy, World War II

ANDREW WOOD, graduate - The Glorious Revolution

JONATHAN DALRYMPLE-SMITH, air-taxi pilot - English poetry of World War I

This year's Final celebrates the programme's 100th anniversary, and to mark the occasion, comes from the Old Library of the Guild-hall in the City of London. The finalists are:

GEOFFREY REYNOLDS, image intensifier tester - Life of Francis Drake

SUE JENKINS, student teacher - Children's literature

CHRISTOPHER EAMES, teacher - The Stuart Kings and Queens between 1603-1714

BEST RUNNER-UP