On 29 April 2010, Chris Leek, British Mensa Chairman, headed to the BBC’s White City, London to present the British Mensa Intelligence Award to the people behind BBC Radio 4’s More or Less programme. The programme was selected to receive the award as it was considered to exhibit intelligent thinking, when analysing the world of numbers.

Accepting the award Richard Knight, Series Producer of BBC Radio 4's More or Less, said: ‘We're delighted and very flattered to receive this award from Mensa. We think what we do on More or Less is useful - so it's great to discover that others think so too!’ 

The original nomination for More or Less was put forward by a Mensa member as they believed that the programme, which looks at how statistics are presented in the news, and tries to find the truth behind them, is delivered in a very intelligent, and yet accessible way. 

The judging panel selected More or Less from a range of nominations including those for authors, journalists, and presenters. On selecting More or Less as the winner the judges stated: ‘This is a fantastic programme that helps the general public engage with and understand data - a particularly good nomination at this time, considering the economy, climate, and health, and all the spurious data-related claims surrounding them!’ 

This is the first time that British Mensa have bestowed the award, which was created to fulfil one of the original purposes of Mensa; to ‘identify and foster human intelligence.’ Nominations were sought from members, with the criteria being that the person or group being in the public eye would have made a significant contribution to intelligence in the past 12 months. It is hoped that the Award, chosen to reward those displaying high levels of intelligence throughout their work or endeavours, will become an annual fixture in the Mensa calendar.

 

Photos provided by Anna Gordon