c4countdown

David Williams

I'm sure I read once that the "El" in El Alamein means "The". But Alamein comes from another Arabic language, and is two words run together, the first of which, "Al", means "The". So when one speaks of, say, the El Alamein campaign, that's a pretty classy turn...

David Williams

I just read the article a second time. The funny thing is that, as you read it, you just know it's all leading up to a conclusion that the show is under threat, but it doesn't. It's a very poorly written and researched article, but it's balanced. Accusations against Rachel and a response. Praise of ...

David Williams

I didn't appreciate the figures were so volatile, or that they had been so low before. Consequence of the dreadful time slot, I suppose. The "RW/CV used to get four million" point has never been a valid point about presenters. RW/CV got an awful lot less than that in later years.

David Williams

It's easy to attack the article, which appears to have been written by one of those chimpanzees that used to type Hamlet but has graduated to Google. But if last week's weather is enough to reduce the audience to 650,000, there's a problem, and what a couple of dozen of us think counts for very litt...

David Williams

If you're going to go Ben's way you might as well do it properly. Any advance on 317?

David

David Williams

Which bit?

David Williams

I notice the deadline for this poll is approaching. May I just register how appalled I am going to be by the first half dozen posts after 5:15 and demand action from the moderators.

David Williams

I was on in the old days and I have to say I was totally shattered after doing six nine-round shows in a day. I'm mightily impressed by people who do five fifteen-rounders. But six? I applaud the thinking but I don't think there's any need to increase the number of shows per day. If you film five a ...

David Williams

Worth adding, for those not familiar with the area, that Leeds to Manchester must be commuting hell. On the map it's not that far, with excellent road and rail links through lovely countryside, and many people commute much further to London, but travelling is decidedly not the joy you might think. S...

David Williams

Already done it. There's a few going by names I didn't recognise! Good night.

David Williams

The one who was about seven feet tall and played with Eusebio? If I can't use Google, I'm stuck.

David Williams

I recognise most of the nine names in question 9 as footballers, and Torres for one plays with a 9 on his back, but at least two of the others are defenders. Seem to be Spanish, Portugese, Brazilian. Number nines in winning World Cup, Euro Nations Cup?

David Williams

Wouldn't It Be Lovely If . . . Nothing wrong with good intentions (apart from their use in paving the road to hell). But better if they were applied in some way that had a remote chance of achieving something, and just possibly this forum and the ingenuity of its members could come up with a few ide...

David Williams

The petition does not close for three months, during which time plans will continue apace. It is addressed to the Prime Minister, who has no power or influence over the decision, and will have no problem whatever ignoring it, as he ignores many other such petitions. It would be more useful to all ho...

David Williams

I remember persuading my MP to sign the Early Day Motion to have Countdown restored to its 4:30 slot. (To be honest, she said she would, but she didn't.) Still waiting.

David Williams

As I understand it, swearwords are pretty much essential if you want to demonstrate passion and a wide vocabulary. I'd be fascinated to read a few job applications made by forumites.

David Williams

As I read the options, two permit absolutely anything, two forbid absolutely everything. I'm somewhere in between.

David Williams

So, based on anecdotal evidence that your performance is improving, you extrapolate that the improvement is factual and will continue indefinitely into the future. You see your own mortality as deterministic and ignore morbidity considerations. You also take no account of the change in the overall s...

David Williams

This would be the same Helen Warner who forced Carol out, then? So we think this was a good thing now, do we?

David Williams

Television cameras should be banned from all games. Players like Ronaldo and Gerrard would be mythical gods to people who actually went to watch their local team. All matches should kick off at 3:00 on a Saturday and finish at 4:40 on the dot, for the convenience of those attending. All boots should...

David Williams

The other side of the coin. Has anyone ever seen any evidence that CIGARET, regularly trotted out as the American spelling, is actually used by anyone in the colonies?

David Williams

So if it's not Damian, it's Mrs Corby?

David Williams

Great to see you back, Damian. Your views on gay rights and contestants' dress sense have been sorely missed. And I've not seen the point in starting a thread about all the deficiencies of the new show without the anticipation of your contribution.

David Williams

I can't see the harm in allowing more people a second go. A couple of dozen a year who showed themselves to be well above average, but were just unlucky. They wouldn't be as nervous the second time round, the overall quality would go up. I do think qualification would have to be pretty subjective th...

David Williams

As someone who watches University Challenge maybe once a year, read about Gail Trimble yesterday, recorded it and has studiously avoided seeing anything about it today . . . Though I agree viewers do like human interest, one of the strengths of Countdown is that you don't get much. Although they see...

David Williams

Was he not also accused of verbally giving an identical numbers solution to his opponent, and then shredding his written version before it could be verified?

David Williams

I just remember this as a neat little problem that illustrates the power of calculus.

Log tables are provided. (What's a calculator?)

David Williams

A rectangular brick has a volume of 72 cubic inches and one edge twice the length of one of the others. What is its minimum surface area?

GCE O-Level 1964

David Williams

Must have been confusing to have a wife and daughter with the same name and title. I think not.

David Williams

There was a King on the throne in 1945.

He had a wife, I believe, who was not known as the Queen Mother in those days.

David Williams

Sorry, never had an unsolicited PM before! Chance of the game finishing on any particular numbered pick is 5/6 times chance of it finishing one pick earlier. Let k = 25/36, and assume over many games Bob wins n on his first pick. So he wins nk on his second pick, nk^2 on his third, n/(1-k) altogethe...

David Williams

Why doesn't David win?

David Williams

If you assume that he's lovely today, you might conclude that he will be lovely tomorrow, so if you can identify one day in the past where he has been lovely, that would prove the initial assumption. But if that works, you might substitute 'obtuse', or 'thick'.

David Williams

275/1296??

David Williams

If you can't puzzle out what I mean, Paul, I'll assume it's not clear! So here's a slightly longer-winded version. Assume you can do it for a square board of side 2^n, with one corner square left blank. Now make a square board of side 2^(n+1) by fitting four of these smaller boards together. First f...

David Williams

Maybe we should all have one stab at this. A bit like Murder on the Orient Express. Mathematical induction is not a method that starts with any old assumption you like - all cats are black, all odd numbers are prime. It starts with an equation and shows that assuming that is true for n, it is also t...

David Williams

Assume you can do it for a square of side 2^n, with one corner square left blank. Fit three of these squares together with the blank squares adjacent and fill them with another L shape. Insert the fourth square such that its blank square faces outwards. Then, by . . .

David Williams

Assuming this isn't deliberate obtuseness.

You can show that 1000000^2 is positive if 999999^2 is positive, and it is if 999998^2 is positive. Several hours later you will have found that 1000000^2 is positive if 1^2 is positive. And it is. Nothing relies on an unproved assumption.

David Williams

Not sure what you can do about Charlie, but you could sue Soo. Bloody homophone.

David Williams

Are you sure Claire didn't get the second numbers game? Mike Brown's site gives her score as 53 and my recollection is that every game in those finals went to a crucial conundrum except for Turner v Williams.

David Williams

At home, I spotted POOFTER and some other seven letter word straight away. An opportunity to say a rude word on national TV! But should you use the other one in deference to Kate? But should her presence make a difference? If it does, does that imply you have some objection to (now I'm not entirely ...

David Williams

Aficionados are choosy
We want to hear more about Susie
But excellent spelling
Cuts no ice with Stelling
He favours the numerate floozy.

David Williams

It's the way the presenters of Countdown are so obviously disinterested that really bugs me.

David Williams

I very much enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada on C4 last Sunday. It stars Meryl Streep as Roxanne, and Anne Hathaway as Jon Corby.

David Williams

Jon, I already have to employ staff to keep up with all the stuff here. One is working on "The Best of Jon Corby" as we speak, but we're some months away from publication.

David Williams

My problem with Jon's humour is that he seems to simply exaggerate what he actually thinks, and waits for a reaction. If he get's one, so what. The butt of his humour was probably lost any way. What's funnier is if you can say something perfectly reasonable, and get people to over-react, expose a fe...

David Williams

Well, Tony, still happy with your part in this saga?

David Williams

I'm not going to dignify Jon's post by repeating his final sentence. If (and only if) his assumption is correct, what he says before it is fair comment. But that's so way over the top it's unbelievable. She's 18, for God's sake, making a point (which personally I couldn't give a toss about) with a b...

David Williams

What connects the United States of America, the London Underground and the English Football League?

Looks like no-one knows this one. The answer, obviously, is MACKEREL.

David Williams

I reckon one of the great unanswered questions is whether you need to know what 25x65 is. That sort of thing doesn't happen very often, and usually the contestant won't have worked it out. As you say, you don't need to. In the past, if the contestant just went quiet Carol would supply the intermedia...

David Williams

Perhaps the biggest decision ever was the disallowing of Julian Fell's GAMBIERS. I'm sure Damian told us that was Susie, who was concerned enough to get second opinions from Oxford, so I imagine true decisions are hers. But still no-one asks her if she can dance. (I'm a day behind. I haven't caught ...

David Williams

Still nope. Sorry Kai.

David Williams

Nope.

David Williams

What connects the United States of America, the London Underground and the English Football League? I'm looking for a one word answer. If you know that word, give it, but please do not give a reason. Let someone else have a go at that.

David Williams

Imagine someone with perfect memory and anagram skills but no knowledge of English (like a computer). Set it to watch Countdown, and remember everything declared by contestants and Dictionary Corner. How long before it could play a decent game? Put another way, I wonder how large a set of words woul...

David Williams

I'm pleased to hear that about Rachel. Early on, after she'd not spotted what I'd thought was an easy one, she got one (out of time) that seemed a lot harder. Call me a cynic, but I did wonder if it was all her own work. Let's face it, if Susie is getting help, there's no reason not to help Rachel. ...

David Williams

I didn't know that. How do you know that? I'm sure Carol did all her own numbers. There's good authority that, in the days when Michael Wylie and Damian Eadie were joint producers and there was a different lexicographer every week, words were fed to Dictionary Corner. You would certainly expect that...

David Williams

Never been a cool kid, I'm afraid!

David Williams

I imagine you could make yourself word-perfect in limited areas if you wanted too now that you can access a full list of allowable words. For example, extract every word that contains all of AEINRST, and sort them ARTESIAN - ABSTAINER, ASCERTAIN, STERADIAN, . . . BANISTER - ? CANISTER - DICENTRAS, ....

David Williams

If you look at the real content of the programme, Rachel may average one numbers solution a game. Susie contributes a longer word, an interesting word, a definition, an adjudication, maybe ten times a programme, and she also has her own slot of a couple of minutes. Yet at the start of the show it's ...

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