c4countdown

Martin Smith

Interestingly, I used to think it was illegal to go over 1000 until I saw someone do it. I've even seen someone declare 1000 on a 999 game (was it against DOD?). Yes, that was me. Unfortunately David did solve it. I always thought the 999 target was a bit spooky/dodgy, as Trudie Goodwin from The Bi...

Martin Smith

I noticed that the polo shirt is gone, which will make me wear mine with more pride. Usually I only wear it at Scrabble clubs and tournaments, although I'm sure one day I'll have the ultimate geek fashion faux pas of not being the only person wearing one.

Martin Smith

I used to know a girl who was the dead spit of Susie. No doubt that's why I fancied her. I think the exits of Des and Carol should have been used as a chance to look at the format. Perhaps Jeff and Susie as the main presenting team, at least until Rachel has settled in? Susie's personality is increa...

Martin Smith

In no particular order: Goodfellas, This Is Spinal Tap, The Truman Show, Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, The Godfather parts 1 and 2, Die Hard, Monster, No Country For Old Men, LA Confidential and Trainspotting. Pretty bleak list really - only one comedy, and in most of the others either the main ...

Martin Smith

An American who doesn't understand the definition of irony? I guess I should start looking out for a Scotsman who's good with money next....

Martin Smith

I wonder what Kate Richardson made of Fiona's wheelchair being marginalised.... At least it was better than Des saying that Frank had 'moved his wheelchair over to the champion's position' or similar after his first game.

That HEDARIM incident must be a first.

Martin Smith

Kai Laddiman wrote: CV: Carol Vorderman.

Gone but not forgotten...

I noticed that the letters came out quite unevenly - presumably Rachel lied on her application by claiming to be able to shuffle.

Martin Smith

I declared 'cambering' for one of the Conundrums (Conundrae?) at my audition, I'm sure I've heard a bike racing commentator say that. On the show I risked PAUSER and nearly risked PARISHER, which are both wrong. I didn't know TRAINFUL was even valid in Scrabble, thanks David, that's one I'll have to...

Martin Smith

I think most people would be unwilling to admit to watching Countdown. Certainly unwilling to admit to actively playing along against the contestants. And yet watching Deal or No Deal (a lengthy guessing game with induced tension and requiring a minor understanding of probability and the cost of a n...

Martin Smith

Danielle, even if she's not technically valid, just for the mental image of her bossing people around with her arm in a sling.

Martin Smith

Hey, just because their names (and parents...) are odd doesn't mean they themselves are.

Martin Smith

If we're going to define an "ordinary" person as someone who is not very good at countdown, then you're right: we will never have an ordinary champion. That's absolutely not the definition of normal I was aiming at. People who are ordinary at something never win against someone whose bett...

Martin Smith

I met a girl called Jupiter a few years ago. That's the kind of name which makes me think hippies should be sterilised

EDIT: Is Jupiter even a word?

Martin Smith

I'm somewhere in between on this, because I swear quite a lot but rarely if uever use swear words in prepared writing. And I don't generally think they add much to comedy - gritty dramas can benefit from them, but not if it's just a simple 'we want people to know that this character's edgy/rebelliou...

Martin Smith

I don't think it can be a coincidence. The spoilers page makes it easier to learn words and compare your performance to other top players. I certainly wish I'd come on here more often before I went on.

Martin Smith

They come back at the start of the next series, and carry on until they win eight games or lose one.

Martin Smith

The only difference the contestants make to the number of shows is that each Octochamp means one more player.

Martin Smith

It's noticeable that a certain type of player is dominating the series at the moment. Usually young, male, with at least undergraduate uni study, and often a bit nerdy. Is this inevitable due to the availability of solvers and online games, and the fact that the older viewers who've been with the sh...

Martin Smith

Ah sorry guys. That quote has boomeranged on me.

Martin Smith

I knew a girl called Kylie at school. She had a twin brother, who fortunately wasn't named Jason - they were born early enough to avoid that. The real meaning of the name Kylie reminds me of my favourite story about Australia - when one of the first European visitors asked an Aborigine "what do...

Martin Smith

A sling doesn't have to be unglamourous. hat did you do to your arm?

Martin Smith

I'm just not sure that market is as big as TV schedulers appear to believe. Even primetime seems to include a disproportionate amount of Norton and O'Grady (and Barrymore before his fall from grace). How different are gay and straight relationships anyway, other than the former not producing childre...

Martin Smith

Agreed on O'Grady, Norton and especially Alan Carr. There aer plenty of witty, clever and interesting people who happen to be homosexuals - Stephen Fry and Stephen K. Amos come to mind. Neither of them overdo it to that extent.

Martin Smith

I wonder if he'll be invited back now that he's back in the limelight?

Martin Smith

Four weeks is a long time to wait without my fix of Countdown, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

Martin Smith

Both my first name and surname are valid words.Not sure about my middle name (James) - does anybody know of anyone whose given name, middle name and family name are all valid Countdown plays? Totally off-topic, but the equivalent words to 'Smith' are common surnames in many other European cultures -...

Martin Smith

Hand-drying machines Chris Martin Mayonnaise (this especially is a tool of oppression - try getting a healthy tasty snack without it) David Milliband (although 90% of politicians would be just as good) Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood's boxing film with unrealistic action scenes and a heartless p...

Martin Smith

Quite a few of these are from The Weakest Link:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dumb_Britain

The one who thought Don Corleone was a recent president of Italy, and the idea of the Lord's Prayer containing the line "Howard be thy name" stand out.

Martin Smith

Lesley Jeavons wrote:I would LOVE to see Hayley Mills there

I was worried for a second - I read this as Heather Mills.

Martin Smith

Imagine how bad she might have been if she'd met us all in the bar the night before as planned...

Martin Smith

I like the idea of Jeff Stelling. Good solid host on the football, a master of amusing running gags 'dancing on the streets of Total Network Solutions', and probably about time he presented something on terrestrial TV. Most of the apparent favourites would be fine by me though.

Martin Smith

Was the Middle East really the smartest example to use, considering the backgrounds of the people present in Monday's game? I wonder how many complaints it will receive, and whether they considered editing it our or reshooting it?

Martin Smith

Ian seemed slighly Aspergic to me, very awkward and somehow distant. But I expect every contestant is nervous to some extent - it's more of a case of trying to hide it and not let it get in your way too much.

Martin Smith

I got LANDER instead of LAUNDER, which is annoying. At least I beat them with TIPTOED and DACOIT (although I'll have to remember DACOITY}

Martin Smith

I liked him. Refreshingly honest about his own performance at the games, and some great anecdotes delivered in delightful accents - his imitation of Mel Brooks' Yiddish-American voice was spot-on.

Martin Smith

The thing I don't like about the Scrabble rating system is that it ignores the spread completely. In my first ABSP tournament (ran by my local club) I was put in the middle group (which my rating in club games narrowly placed me into, a few weeks earlier it would've been the bottom group) and I had ...

Martin Smith

I might give it a go, although I'm not sure I've got the charm, charisma or looks. I'd be a great 'struggles to success' story though.

Martin Smith

Is there anything official about what happens when Des and Carol leave? Will the current series be filmed as planned, is there a reason for the current 4-week gap (hosts absent or a shortage of contestants?) Will the current 'male host, female hostess/maths whizz, Susie in DC with a different guest ...

Martin Smith

There was a very brief clip of him on the New Heroes of Comedy Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G / Borat) programme - a very early clip from Cohen's career introducting an interview with him, calling him "the King of Conundrums, the Prince of Puns" or similar, which Richard liked.

Martin Smith

Good point here, if both players declare the same length there should really be no "Susie will have to check that" or "not sure you can spell it without the e" type comments until both players have declared their words. I'm not sure anybody would cheat for the sake of a teapot, b...

Martin Smith

It's a shame the two weeks haven't been used for repeats of classic games, such as finals and Crucial conundrums. Four weeks effectively without it will have rotted my brain - good job I haven't been in most days.

Martin Smith

I don't think I have it, although I fit some of the stereotypes. I can imagine that it might be an advantage for Countdown and Scrabble and similar - ability to memorise patterns and facts more easily than most people, and less likely to be distracted by social situations.

Martin Smith

It sure doesn't. I've learnt more from 4 years of basically browsing Wikipedia and watching QI than I did from 3 years of university. You have to keep learning to keep working nowadays, you need to be able to learn new skills, master new technologies and adjust to new attitudes.

Martin Smith

Congrats to Paul. Now we just need David to take Scrabble up and give him some rivalry for the Province's best player.

Martin Smith

I think the kind of obsessive word-learning that the very top players have to do is a male thing. The same is true for Scrabble, which is very male-dominated despite women generally been seen as better with words. As for the race issue, remember that a lot of older ethnic minority people are not nat...

Martin Smith

Not sure if Michael is English or Scottish, although I'd guess English from his accent. Otherwise, all the top recent contestants have been from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. When I went for my audition they noted that only 1 of the 45 applicants had passed the recent London audition. If Engl...

Martin Smith

Matthew Green wrote:No winners but none of my words were mentioned:

PENISES...
MAROONED
SYRINGE
POTHEADS

You must have an interesting lifestyle....

Martin Smith

John was probably the best first-timer they've had for ages, highlighted by a great anecdote about his horse misfortune. He obviously knew the show's format and style.

Martin Smith

I don't know how well I did on this one, as I came up with five potentially-scoring words which I wasn't sure of and weren't mentioned. As well as SOLOES and AVIATED, I had DANCIER, MUSICS (almost certainly a mass noun) and OUTRAN. Are those okay?

Martin Smith

I can't believe I did that by accident....

Martin Smith

Spookily, immediately before I came on here for the first time in a week or so, I was watching The Shawshank Redemption, the old prison film. When the water scene came up in that, it reminded me of my failed attempt to learn to swim (on a weekly school visit, so everybody could see my failing/flaili...

Martin Smith

How many players got over 450 in the 9-round format? As that is only 3.75 points less per game, that might be a reasonable trade-off. Maybe we could calculate it based on a player's 4 highest scoring games, to give a better impression of how good some of the players who lost close 9-round games were?

Martin Smith

It's logical that the best players are better now. With online recaps and solvers, it's a lot easier to learn all the fancy words. 15-round episodes also increase the chance of the better player winning, and having the show on all year round makes it easier to stay in form. Younger contestant domina...

Martin Smith

Yes, although he looks to have become a Goth.

Martin Smith

The letters and numbers are visible on a small monitor embedded into the set, so it isn't vital to write them down. I must admit that I've often solved the easiest games before the 30 seconds have started.

Martin Smith

If you don't watch Sky Sports you probably won't know Jeff Stelling, but he'd be a good choice. I liked his stock "dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions" joke.

Martin Smith

Isn't peace just an absence of war?

Martin Smith

Regulars on non-Channel-4 panel shows might be difficult for contractual reasons, but most of those would be good. Patrick Stewart is an excellent idea. Craig Charles? Stephen Merchant (who I'm convinced is more talented than Ricky Gervais)?

Martin Smith

'Editorialising' I think is the technical term for David's caption.

Martin Smith

Yea, relatively poor display from DC. I liked the bonus 'origin of words' for 'croon' being from Dutch to groan - although I don't think Des did....

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