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Ollie Hill left school at 16 with six middling GCSEs, got a job as ambulance crew in her hometown of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and has never had higher career ambitions.
Yet she is one of the cleverest people in Britain, with an IQ in the top strata of the population.
‘I’ve never shown off,’ says Ollie, 32, a single mum to five-year-old Finley. ‘I don’t like being the centre of attention. I would much rather sit and read a book and do my knitting.’
She found school monotonous but would startle her mother by being able to recite the registration plate of nearly every car on their estate. ‘I don’t know how, but numbers seem to work like patterns in my head, like song,’ she says. ‘They just go in.’
After taking an online intelligence test on a whim to find out her IQ, Ollie was invited to compete on Secret Genius, a six-part Channel 4 competition hosted by Alan Carr and Susie Dent that celebrates people whose IQ wasn’t recognised or capitalised on when they were younger.
Contestants include a pastry chef, a dance teacher, a hotel receptionist, a waitress and a lorry driver, all of whom for myriad reasons have ended up in jobs that belie their intelligence.
Alan Carr's new quiz show Secret Genius has been dubbed 'Bake Off for brainboxes' (pictured alongside co-star Susie Dent)
The show celebrates people whose IQ wasn’t recognised or capitalised on when they were younger - including a lorry driver, a pastry chef and a waitress
‘It’s about ordinary people with extraordinary brains and minds, people who might want a second chance or haven’t reached their potential, and who have this inkling that they might be a little bit “other”,’ explains Alan.
‘There might be a genius in there and we’re just helping to lure it out with games that test every part of the brain. We’re not talking about academic intelligence, we’re talking about a superpower.
'They can look at an anagram and boom! They know the periodic table. They remember bus timetables. They should be in a Marvel film.'
Think of it as Bake Off for brainboxes, says executive producer Jon Cahn. ‘It’s a heartwarming show where we’re giving people who’ve wondered if they’re more intelligent than they give themselves credit for a chance to find out.
'The games have to be tough enough for these people to feel worthy of winning and being crowned a secret genius, but also viewers have to care and will them to get through.’
Twelve people per episode are put to the test in quizzes developed by the Secret Genius team in co-operation with Mensa.
Eight are eliminated over two rounds and the remaining four take part in a game that’s in the ‘upper echelon of difficulty’, according to senior games producer Tasha Wackett.
Three then progress to the next heat, and these are whittled down to four finalists, who will be told their IQs at the end, with one crowned Secret Genius.
Ollie Hill, who left school at 16 with six middling GCSEs, got a job as ambulance crew in her hometown of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, is one of the contestants
The games aren’t fact-based and so can’t be passed through revision; they assess diagrammatic reasoning – focusing on identifying patterns, rules and using logic
By the end, some contestants will have discovered their IQs are in the same realm as those of brainboxes Stephen Hawking and Apple founder Steve Jobs, believed to be 160+.
The average IQ is 100, and anything above 140 is considered genius.
The games aren’t fact-based and so can’t be passed through revision; they assess diagrammatic reasoning – that is, visual tests that focus on identifying patterns, rules and logical sequences without relying heavily on language or numbers.
Viewers will be encouraged to take part, with links taking them to websites containing the puzzles.
‘We test their verbal reasoning, which is word-based puzzles, such as anagrams,’ explains Tasha.
‘We test fluid reasoning, which could be patterns in numbers or patterns in words themselves, and we test memory.’
Selena Alton, a restaurant manager from Hexham, Northumberland, went to university but put her ambitions on the back burner to run a restaurant with her husband, Billy, and raise their twins, who are now 19.
‘I was always smart at school, but I was bullied for it so I kept it quiet,’ says Selena, 44. ‘Then life just got in the way and interrupted my education.
Alan Carr will host the new reality format alongside Susie
'I wanted to find out if I was still that person I was 20 years ago or if I’d lost all my brains to being a mum.’
Hardly! ‘I’ve self-taught myself the current computer tech and I’ve learnt Greek and Romanian,’ Selena says.
'We needed to do bookkeeping for the restaurant, so I taught myself the first three levels of bookkeeping.’
Selena aced some of the quizzes in her heat. ‘Anagrams are probably my easiest thing,’ she says. ‘I can look at the jumble of letters and just see the word.
'I don’t have to think. Doing the show has made me more confident in saying I’m smart. There’s nothing wrong with saying you’re smart!’
Secret Genius, airs Sunday-Monday at 9pm on Channel 4
