Heartwarming hunt for Britain's brightest sparks

ALAN Carr and Susie Dent's new competition Secret Genius will unearth players who have IQs on a par with Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Stephen Hawking - but just never knew it.

- BY NICOLA METHVEN

Dubbed "Bake Off with brains", the series stars some of the nation's most ordinary and yet cleverest people who are a world apart from the polished and super-confident contestants on The Apprentice or Love Island.

"There's no one with turkey teeth, no one with abs," Alan laughed. "This is a different kind of person. They do not want to be in the limelight. They don't want to steal my job.

"But they would like a second chance, and they would like a bit of fulfilment. Viewers are going to fall in love with these people, I can just tell."

Instead of bragging about their business prowess or astonishing good looks, these gifted players have been put forward for the series because they have enormous brains - but have not always been comfortable with their intelligence.

When the show starts on Sunday, with the first of four regional heats, viewers will discover that many players suffer from chronic confidence issues. But as they come together to tackle a series of complex logic games and challenges - set by Mensa - they not only grow in confidence, they find joy from each other.

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