New Mastermind host Clive Myrie brands the trolls who send him racist abuse ‘sad losers’

Broadcaster is taking over as quiz show’s question master next week

Clive Myrie (BBC/Clive Myrie)

The new host of Mastermind, Clive Myrie, has branded the trolls who send him racist abuse “jokes” and “sad losers”.

The broadcaster is replacing John Humphrys at the helm of the long-running BBC quiz show later this month.

It was announced in February that veteran journalist Humphrys was stepping down after 18 years as question master.

Myrie will be the fifth host of the programme, which marks its 50th anniversary next year.

He told the PA news agency: “It could well be that I end up getting more abuse, I suppose, as a result of Mastermind. I got very little after the announcement, actually. Everything was positive, absolutely everything.”

Myrie added: “This is not something that happens every day. Every now and again someone will send an email or send a letter or a card or whatever, making their racist views known. By and large, my days of getting angry are over. I’m way too long in the tooth for that – or getting upset, rather.

“Now, I just have nothing but pity for these people, that they can be so energised and exercised by the fact that someone might have a little bit more melanin in their skin than they do, that that somehow forces them to be abusive or horrible or whatever.”

He said: “I have nothing but pity for sad, loser racists – that’s what they are. They’re jokes.”

Myrie, a regular presenter of BBC News at Six and Ten since 2010, has previously worked as the broadcaster’s correspondent in Asia, Africa, Washington, Paris and Brussels.

He said presenting the quiz show has come as a welcome contrast to the bleak, “relentless” news of the past year, adding: “It has been nice, actually, to have this to look forward to, something slightly different, a new challenge, a new opportunity. Also a chance for the public to see me in a different light.”

Myrie’s debut as host of Mastermind will air at 7.30pm on Monday 23 August on BBC Two and iPlayer.

Additional reporting by Press Association