Leeds quiz whiz Barry Simmons has become the latest member of the BBC hit show, Eggheads.

Broadcast on BBC Two, Eggheads features a team of highly regarded quiz- and game-show champions, who pit themselves against a series of challengers over five rounds.

Mr Simmons, 59, joined the show after winning knockout competition Are You an Egghead? He joins fellow quiz experts Kevin Ashman, CJ De Mooi, Daphne Fowler, Chris Hughes and Judith Keppel. But because it is filmed in advance, Mr Simmons, a former IT consultant, says he had to keep his new job a secret until now.

He tells People: “It’s the best job in British quizzing and to get paid for doing something you love is just the icing on the cake. But I have to admit I hate losing.”

A semi-finalist on Mastermind, Mr Simmons has also previously won £64,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and is a member of the England Quiz Team.

He says: “My training is just the same as ever. I love reading in general and I read quiz questions for two or three hours a day. I have an extremely extensive library of a thousand quiz and reference books. But the gift is not just having a good memory but having an even better recall. There’s no point knowing it if you can’t recall it. I am a naturally inquisitive person.”

He also works for text message question and answer service AQA and says he hopes to win Mastermind one day.

Mr Simmons, who lives in Roundhay, is a member of the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Synagogue. He is married to Janet, a former deputy head of Brodetsky Primary School.