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Kevin Ashman is generally considered to be Britain's finest quiz player.
He is the question-setter and arbiter on the Radio 4 quiz show Brain of Britain, working under the pen-name of 'Jorkins' (a name taken from David Copperfield). He was appointed to the position in 2002 on the death of Ian Gillies, who worked under the pen-name 'Mycroft'. Prior to this position he worked as a civil servant in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Ashman's first major success was on Fifteen to One, winning series three in 1989, and returned to win the special 'Millennium Edition' between past champions on New Year's Eve 1999. In 1995 he won Mastermind, with his first-round score of 41 remaining a record to this day. He had already appeared on Mastermind in 1987 but lost in the semi-final.
In addition he has been champion of Brain of Britain itself, and has won the British Quiz Championship, as well as many other tournaments. In 2004 he won the World Quizzing Championships (individual competition), as well as the European Championships both individually and for teams, in Gent, Belgium. He has since followed this up by winning the World Quizzing Championships again in July 2005. He is the first person to retain this title and, for a second year running, he finished ahead of Pat Gibson of Ireland and Nico Pattyn of Belgium. In November 2005 he retained his individual title at the European Quizzing Championships in Tallinn (Estonia). At this event he again captained the England quiz team, this time losing to Belgium in the final.
Ashman became interested in quizzes in his mid-twenties when, having graduated from Southampton University with a degree in History, he resolved to improve his knowledge of the sciences.
He lives in Winchester in Hampshire.
He currently competes on the UK quiz show Eggheads, alongside other quiz champions, in which members of the public pit their wits against them in order to win a cash prize.