The Families

All the families underwent stringent cognitive pre-screening before they took part in the show using an online intelligence test - The Cognitron - designed by Dr Adam Hampshire, the show's neuroscience consultant from Imperial College.

If you'd like to try the test yourself to see how you score, go here

The Smith family

The Games

Heats

In the Heats all families play the same five games, designed as below:

• Letter Shift: a game testing vocabulary and teamwork, demonstrating group dynamics and co-operative intelligence, played by all four family members.

• Colour Frame: a game exploring group communication and non-verbal reasoning of a complicated 2D geometric shape, played by all four family members.

• Eight Things: a game demonstrating working memory and a risk analysis of speed vs accuracy, played as a family, head-to-head game.

• Broken Calculator: a game testing numerical skills and brain plasticity, played head to head, in pairs.

• Interrogation: the end game testing all forms of intelligence: employing effective group communication, cogna-flexibility, creativity and lateral thinking all against the clock, played by all four family members.

Semi-Finals

• Word Ladder: a word game, requiring an appreciation of strategy while illustrating crystallised v fluid intelligence, played by all family members.

• Shape Shifters: this takes the 2D visual task from the Heats (Colour Frame) and increases the complexity by using a 3D geometric shape, played by all family members.

• Pathfinder: this game tests co-operative spatial planning and logic, and is played by the two adult members of the family.

• Card Slide: this is a numerical game, also reliant on strategy, played by the two child members of the family.

• Interrogation: as before, this tests all forms of intelligence, employing effective group-communication, cogna-flexibility, creativity and lateral thinking against the clock, played by all four family members.

The Final

Three families return to battle it out to become the The Family Brain Games Champion.

• Cross purposes: the pressure is on, as all three families compete in a head to head language-based game.

• Chain Reaction: for the first time we test engineering and mechanical intelligence, played by all four family members.

• Interrogation: a familiar game, but this time only two winners of this game proceed to the final.

• The ultimate brain game: a quick-fire head-to-head game for both families simultaneously, using questions from all the disciplines tested across the series.

The Smith Family, from Ayrshire, consists of maths teacher dad, Chris (37), teacher mum, Elaine (39) and two children Daisy (12) and Heidi (10).

Chris currently holds the title of Scottish Teacher Of The Year and has been a secondary school teacher for 13 years. A self-proclaimed maths geek, Chris writes a weekly maths newsletter which has up to 3,000 subscribers. The newsletter has even developed a celebrity following, with Countdown’s Rachel Riley, Johnny Ball and The Proclaimers avid fans!

Elaine is a bona fide maths groupie, and is a teacher of the deaf. During the games she is a strong lateral thinker.

Daughter Daisy is a strong mathematician and has won two Gold medals in the Scottish Maths Challenge Awards. She shares her father’s passion for Pi and can recite the first  20 numbers. Ten year-old Heidi is also a strong competitor as she is the youngest person to have ever won Gold in the Scottish Maths Challenge Awards last year.

The Simmons family

The Simmons family from Lewes consists of graphic designer dad Jason (49), retired printer, Grandad, Ricky (80) and two children Jane (15) and Robert (11).

Jason is an avid fan of typography and published a five-star rated book in 2010 called The Designer Desktop Manual.

Grandad Ricky is the oldest member in the competition. He didn’t learn to read or write until he was 10 and was an evacuee in World War II. At 16, he went on to do an apprenticeship as a book binder in the print trade and he went on to set up his own printing business in 1993 with some of the other young apprentices. Ricky is used to working in pressurised environments as he had to work meticulously every day to reach tough print deadlines.

Jane is a passionate young feminist and is already a member of the Women’s Equality Party. She recently organised a feminist discussion group at school, talking about what it means to be a young woman in today’s world, and is currently learning sign language.

Youngest of the family Robert once built a working vending machine out of Lego, and when he is not building complex structures with Lego he spends his time coding and designing his own computer games. He was awarded The Gordon Cup last year, which is his school's end-of-year award for outstanding services to the school.

The Kerr family

The Kerr Family from West Sussex consists of director of fundraising mum Nikki (41); retired maths teacher grandma Kate (68); and two children Sam (11) and Ben (9).

Grandma Kate read Mathematics at Oxford University and met her husband over a crossword whilst in a Maths lecture. Her ambition to become an Actuary was put on hold to have her family.

Kate has two daughters and one son. Her daughter, fundraiser mum Nikki, worked hard at her state school for her place at Oxford University and left with a (BA) Modern Languages and can speak French and German fluently.

Sam is a reading enthustiast and was elected by his class to became a member of the School Parliament. Youngest son Ben takes after Kate when it comes to maths and has a passion for dinosaurs. He wants to be a palaeontologist when he grows up.

The Riley Family

The Riley Family, from Hampshire, consists of photographer mum, Rachel (44), engineering department manager dad, Michael (45) and two children Lizzy (14) and Ben (11).

Rachel studied Archaeology and Prehistory at Sheffield University and did a PGCE at Cambridge. When she was at university she got into stand-up comedy. She performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1995 and was a finalist in the So You Think You’re Funny competition alongside Lee Mack. Michael has travelled to Kazakhstan, the Philippines and India with work.

He designed the foundations for Superlambana, a bright yellow sculpture in Liverpool, which looks like “a hybrid of a lamb and a banana”. Daughter Lizzy is a drama ambassador at her school, a house captain, and has a passion for theatre. Youngest son Ben is a football fanatic and has won a hoard of trophies.

The Griffiths Family

The Griffiths Family, from Woking, consists of prison education tutor mum Anne (52), manager of a council Education Department dad David (47), and two children Will (16) and Ollie (13).

Anne is a Social Science graduate from the University of Lancaster and is passionate about the education of girls. She recently took part in the Women’s Equality March in London.

David studied Maths at Bath University and is a self-taught guitar player and collector.

Eldest son Will is in his first year of sixth form college, his proudest achievement to date was being awarded a 9 in his Latin GCSE. He is especially proud of this grade as this subject is usually only taught in private schools and Will does not attend a private school.Will has a passion for ancient civilisation and Latin and would like to pursue a career in this field.

Ollie is in Year 9 and his favourite subjects are PE, Latin and Maths, although his mum thinks that Ollie is a strong all-rounder.

The Ross Family

The Ross Family from London consists of mum, Katie (46), financier, Jonathan (43) and two children Amelia (14) and Alexander (12).

At school, Katie was insistent about taking the Mensa test and achieved a score of 164, putting her in the top 0.1 percent. She studied Human Sciences at St John’s College, Oxford. Katie was a former BBC presenter on Tomorrow’s World and Country File and has written a revision book for children.

Jonathan studied PPE at Oxford University and received a double first. He speaks Latin and wants to take part in the competition to further our understanding of intelligence.

Eldest daughter Amelia has developed a ‘perfect pitch’ which means she can sing any note perfectly, tune her violin and name any note played. She was awarded a distinction in her Grade 8 violin and is now working towards her performance certificate. She has successfully taken part in the Junior Mathematical Challenge and the Junior Olympiad and Kangaroo.

Youngest son Alexander can complete a variety of different Rubik’s cubes in under a minute. He loves geology and has an impressive rock collection.

The Mohammed Family

The Mohammed Family, from Watford, consists of systems analyst dad Iqbal (49), mum Bushra (40), and two children Zain (14) and Haris (12).

Iqbal was born and raised in Glasgow and studied Computer Science at Glasgow University. He considers himself to be extremely logical and is able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of others.

Bushra was raised in Pakistan and completed a diploma in Commerce. English is her second language. Bushra is the instigator behind their family debates.

Zain loves engineering, maths and IT and has been taking part in the Leonardo’s Engineering course. He was selected to take part in the regional Maths Challenge where he represented his age group for his school.

Haris is in his first year of secondary school. He attends the local grammar school and is a proficient mathematician. Last year, Haris competed in a maths challenge where he managed to score the highest marks in his year group and has a huge back catalogue of maths certificates. Haris is currently learning to speak Urdu and Arabic.

The Smith Family

The Smith Family from Cumbria consists of maths tutor mum, Andy (51), retired engineer dad, Rob (55) and two children Ailith (13) and Ivan (12).

Mum Andy loves maths and studied Maths at Oxford University. Rob studied Mechanical Engineering at Leeds University and is a passionate orienteer, enjoying the physical and intellectual aspect of it.

Eldest daughter Ailith says she is the most creative one in her family and is currently writing a 600-page novel with her friend.

Youngest son Ivan is passionate about Maths, like his Mum, and orienteering, like his Dad.

Related Programme Information

• Episode one
• Episode two
• Episode three
• Episode four