c4countdown

I was surprised to find the only Chase-based threads were name-specific for Karen and James. I'm not quite comfortable with starting a thread about myself in that way, so here's a generic thread title via which to announce that I too will be on The Chase. In fact you could argue that's well vain, if this thread becomes 'the' The Chase thread then it will always begin with a message about me.

There's a Facebook event - http://www.facebook.com/events/153553681421583/ - so just mentioning it here for those un-Facebook. Which is pretty much just Phil.
It's gonna be Monday 23rd January 2012.

What the hell? Have you filmed? If so, when?

Jon Corby wrote:What the hell? Have you filmed? If so, when?

Back in May. They are not quick.

Matt Morrison wrote:It's gonna be Monday 23rd January 2012.

Woo-hoo! I'm even more excited about this than I am about that other thing that you made up that cryptic crossword about.

Haha. I am getting a bit scared about how excited everyone is.

Good luck, Matt!

I thought Sue was good. Good TV as she always is (far better than I will be whilst shitting myself on Monday). Well done to hold her nerves after the shocking pints/litres incident and coming so close to getting knocked out. The slightly annoying posh young guy looked a bit like Jono when he had his head down (same hair or something) and Glenn looked a bit like Jon Corby.

Yep Sue was good on it and came across well I thought, probably the best out of that team (young Joe was being called a "posh arrogant prick", woman was called "thick teacher" and Glenn was getting "he must be gay the fucking over dramatic cunt" by the mob on Twitter). Some tricky questions in the cash builder (George Clooney's pot-bellied pig called Max springs to mind?!) and held her nerve well to evade Paul's clutches. Liked the Countdown reference too as she is a regular at Edinburgh fringe festival.

Ryan Taylor wrote:Liked the Countdown reference too as she is a regular at Edinburgh fringe festival.

I'm not sure how you mean to make sense, is it "she had met/seen Paul at Edinburgh before, so knew he liked Countdown either from talking or him saying it in a show, so mentioned it herself"?
I did think that her saying that came across as a bit weird, no one knows Paul plays apterous, and even if he's said "I love Countdown" a long time back (I think he did last series at some point) it isn't much of a connection, surprised they kept it in as it looked like a statement without much reason behind it.

Matt Morrison wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:Liked the Countdown reference too as she is a regular at Edinburgh fringe festival.

I'm not sure how you mean to make sense, is it "she had met/seen Paul at Edinburgh before, so knew he liked Countdown either from talking or him saying it in a show, so mentioned it herself"?
I did think that her saying that came across as a bit weird, no one knows Paul plays apterous, and even if he's said "I love Countdown" a long time back (I think he did last series at some point) it isn't much of a connection, surprised they kept it in as it looked like a statement without much reason behind it.

Sorry. At the fringe festival I gather that on one of the nights the comedians play Countdown against each other and someone plays Rachel and Dictionary Corner etc. It' not just backstage, it's put on as a show I think. Former contestant Alex Horne won the inaugural competition at Edinburgh appaz.

Ryan Taylor wrote:Sorry. At the fringe festival I gather that on one of the nights the comedians play Countdown against each other and someone plays Rachel and Dictionary Corner etc. It' not just backstage, it's put on as a show I think. Former contestant Alex Horne won the inaugural competition at Edinburgh appaz.

Aha excellent! A statement well worth making then, just made all the more odd by the fact it lacked any context whatsoever!

Matt Morrison wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:Sorry. At the fringe festival I gather that on one of the nights the comedians play Countdown against each other and someone plays Rachel and Dictionary Corner etc. It' not just backstage, it's put on as a show I think. Former contestant Alex Horne won the inaugural competition at Edinburgh appaz.

Aha excellent! A statement well worth making then, just made all the more odd by the fact it lacked any context whatsoever!

Yeah, I said that to Sue that it wouldn't make sense to many people! But yeah they left it in. I made a comment about my love for Kevin Ashman but they cut that out. Probably because I said I wanted to fuck him.

The only decent thing I said the whole show they said they might have to cut out in case it's seen as offensive. Bah.

Matt Morrison wrote:The only decent thing I said the whole show they said they might have to cut out in case it's seen as offensive.

"Hello, I'm Matt Morrison"?

Just realised too that you were in Sue's episode Matt with the Will Schuester Glee question!

Ryan Taylor wrote:Just realised too that you were in Sue's episode Matt with the Will Schuester Glee question!

Yeah I know! Not to be vain or anything but it was quite funny to think that she almost definitely was thinking of my forearms as she got caught!

Presumably, Matt, despite you and Sue being in consecutive episodes, you weren't there on the same recording day or you'd have mentioned this?

Phil Reynolds wrote:Presumably, Matt, despite you and Sue being in consecutive episodes, you weren't there on the same recording day or you'd have mentioned this?

I had no idea Sue had even recorded til about a week ago when she joined my Facebook group for my appearance on Monday and mentioned it.
They absolutely definitely show episodes in a wildly different order than they are filmed, so consecutive days doesn't mean much.

Matt Morrison wrote:They absolutely definitely show episodes in a wildly different order than they are filmed

Yeah, I'd more or less assumed as much - I don't know how many episodes they record in a day, but I'd imagine they shoot blocks of episodes with a single Chaser and then mix them up for transmission so you get a different Chaser each day.

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:They absolutely definitely show episodes in a wildly different order than they are filmed

Yeah, I'd more or less assumed as much - I don't know how many episodes they record in a day, but I'd imagine they shoot blocks of episodes with a single Chaser and then mix them up for transmission so you get a different Chaser each day.

Think they may do as many as a four in a day. Could be wrong. When I filmed there were two sets of contestants but we started at like 7am (probably filmed at 9am). All the Chasers were there on the day too. They hang out in like a little room or something from where they come so maybe they almost do one a day each. Mark and Anne filmed more shows this series just as they are seen as better on TV (can't really disagree with that) but I forget the exact numbers. Something like 18 for Mark and Anne, 13 for Paul and 11 for Shaun. Could have got those figures badly wrong.

Paul is fucking brilliant TV. I think he's by far the best. To the point now where if we have quite a few episodes stored up on the planner, we'll just watch the final chase round unless it's Paul and then I'm inclined to watch the whole episode.

As far as episodes-per-day, I didn't know it could be four. On the day I was a standby and the day I was filming, it was both 3 a day. And as Ryan says, yeah they all watch every episode. I think the chasers themselves don't even know til just before the episode which one of them is filming it; which fits with how rigid the independent adjudication stuff is with the questions and that.

Matt Morrison wrote:Paul is fucking brilliant TV. I think he's by far the best. To the point now where if we have quite a few episodes stored up on the planner, we'll just watch the final chase round unless it's Paul and then I'm inclined to watch the whole episode.

Agreed. I definitely think Paul should (and will) get more episodes next series. Just because he was a new quantity I think they were being cautious. I still love Anne though too and Mark. But Mark not as much as I did. Paul is by far the funniest but obviously he should be so that isn't saying much. Shaun is, well, I just feel a bit sorry for Shaun. He does have quite a few fans out there too but for me he just doesn't do it for entertainment value.

GO ON MATT.

Psyched.

Bad first round for that poor girl, but it does mean more air time for Matt

Haha, if I didn't know you Matt my gaydar would have clocked you for sure.

Matt, are you the black one or the white one?

Love this guy already. Go for the 30k!

30 grand. Is that about standard for putting on a wedding these days? Suppose it must be judging by the money my mates in wedding band make for gigs. Bit nuts that.

Quality cut to awkward frowny smile there when Olwyn admitted to two counts of attempted murder.

OMG. Is Matt going to be in the final chase by himself?

Andy Wilson wrote:Quality cut to awkward frowny smile there when Olwyn admitted to two counts of attempted murder.

This!

Would love it if he was going for the fifty. Would have gone for two in the A states. This is cool.

Nice anagram question for you there!

YES! Nailed it on an anagram. Faultless so far! Good banter with the Heather reference and the name dropping etc. Loving it.

Has Mark Labett ever lost a final chase to a single player? I don't think he's about to but you never know...

Unlucky Matt, you played well but it must be unbelievably difficult on your own.

Yep, good play Matt, you did your best. Few sloppy ones in the final chase that you'd get right under normal circumstances but there was no way that they would have made a difference. I think the form that Mark was in today he could have quite possibly reached 30. Annoys me though how slow Bradley read for you and then how fast he reads for The Chaser.

Yeah bad luck boi, but you played well and were entertaining to watch. Please tell me Heather doesn't really fancy Mark though.

Fair balls Matt.

Unlucky Matt. Some of those questions in the final were nasty. I thought the chaser's were much easier. I agree with Ryan though that he could have gotten around thirty today. Good performance for you though, especially on the anagram question. Some nice banter too. Have to say I felt really bad for the first lady. I genuinely thought the button wasn't working. I could've swore she had a few attempts at pressing it within the time.

Unlucky Matt.

But what a bizarre programme. I've never watched before, and I can't say it's high up on my list of things to do again. The "first round" (almost all of the show) seems to be rendered almost completely pointless by the final round. The first round seemed to be fair enough. You gamble on how far away from the endpoint you want to start, and you always get a bit of a head start over the "chaser". But when that's all over you don't actually win anything. You then have to beat the chaser (a general knowledge God) in another round where everything is pretty much level to start with. Does anyone ever win? From what I understood, if the others hadn't been knocked out, they would have been able to work as a team, but while they might have got a few more answers, there would have been a lot of time loss with the conferring (is this how it works?) so they're still not likely to beat a single general knowledge expert answering on their own.

Gavin Chipper wrote:But what a bizarre programme.

Not bizarre. Very popular and often wins TV ratings with Pointless.

Gevin wrote:I've never watched before, and I can't say it's high up on my list of things to do again. The "first round" (almost all of the show) seems to be rendered almost completely pointless by the final round. The first round seemed to be fair enough. You gamble on how far away from the endpoint you want to start, and you always get a bit of a head start over the "chaser". But when that's all over you don't actually win anything.

You don't win anything because the idea is you're meant to build up a kitty to then play for at the end.

Gevin wrote:You then have to beat the chaser (a general knowledge God) in another round where everything is pretty much level to start with.

It's not level. For starters Matt got 1 head start on the ladder. For another, Matt is allowed to get questions wrong and pass without being punished. The Chaser doesn't have the luxury to pass. If The Chaser were to get one wrong then Matt could then answer the question right and push The Chaser back. Had all 4 contestants got back home they would have a 4 step advantage to start with and 4 brains against one. And then the 4 brains to answer any not swept up by Mark. Mark answered one question wrong in the whole programme. This is rare. Extremely rare.

Gevin wrote:Does anyone ever win?

Yes, often enough. Roughly once a week someone wins. From what I can remember, in this series 15 out of 60 of the shows end up in a win for the contestant(s). Two people have won it individually too.

Gevin wrote:From what I understood, if the others hadn't been knocked out, they would have been able to work as a team, but while they might have got a few more answers, there would have been a lot of time loss with the conferring (is this how it works?)

No. They don't confer. You just buzz in and either pass or answer it. Sometimes it causes long pauses but a decent rule is if no one has buzzed in with 2 secs gone then just pass the question.

OK thanks. But it is bizarre.

Gavin Chipper wrote:OK thanks. But it is bizarre.

You're bizarre!!

Well done on getting to the final chase, Matt. It was always going to be tough on your own. I didn't know that Paul Sinha was off the telly until today; I still haven't seen him in action though as I don't generally watch The Chase and the woman who got everything wrong until the final round was on it when Ryan was on.

Yeah, very well done, Matt. So hoped you'd get the beast, and I think it's fair to say that it was the level of the questions that was the key factor in today. The last couple of shows especially have had tougher questions, which definitely stumped the majority of contestants.

At least you got to the final though, well done.

Haha cheers all. Watching it wasn't half as awkward as I've been fearing on an almost daily basis for 8 months!
Was SOOOO nervous. More than you can imagine. It definitely cost me a few questions I knew (as well as inspired plenty of ridiculously serious-looking staring and awkward lip-licking and eye-blinking).

But overall loved it - I seemed to come across more confident than I felt and said a load of good funny stuff. Thought I would be a real disappointment after Ryan's show but yeah, thankfully I made up for skill with good chat. Was an impossible task, sure it's happened before but I don't think I've ever seen any Chaser get so few wrong, there was no way I was walking out of there with money, I knew that. Don't regret going £5k at all either. I know it must have been one of the most anti-climactic episodes ever, but fuck it, I got good airtime.

Thanks for all the nice comments! I think I got one single admirer on Twitter, and I even had to encourage her. Not even any men, though I agree I came across pretty gay. But then I usually do, nervous smiles and dimples have that effect.

CF and me (kind of) getting simultaneous abuse:

The good and the bad together

Sorry. Kinda fun though. First time on TV and all that, forgive me.

Unlucky there Matt. You did well to get through to the final round and you didn't actually do badly, despite what the Twits say. The chaser hardly put a foot wrong for the entire episode. I doubt there are many teams who'd have beaten him that day.

Cheers Graeme! I've only really got into Twitter over the last few months but having seen Ryan and Mark and CF retweet some of the shit they get, I was already prepared for a bit of abuse and absolutely loved it all really. No problems. Plus you just feel sad for how deluded most of the abusers are, calling me dumb but spelling it wrong and that. Plus if I didn't look for the abuse, I wouldn't get joyful interactions like these two:





Priceless.

Good stuff (only just got uploaded to itvplayer), as everyone's said no real chance at winning on your own. I still reckon that the 'head start' thing is a bit cheap, but at least being on your own saves the buzzing that wastes so much time. Good banter and some good answers.

I've started watching the show again, and is it just the ones I've seen or are contestants much more happy to all just say "go for the middle amount!" than they used to? Could've sworn back in the day you'd get everyone trying to sneakily persuade people to go high only to go low themselves, wonder if that's actually a change in play or just my imagination.

Michael Wallace wrote:I've started watching the show again, and is it just the ones I've seen or are contestants much more happy to all just say "go for the middle amount!" than they used to? Could've sworn back in the day you'd get everyone trying to sneakily persuade people to go high only to go low themselves, wonder if that's actually a change in play or just my imagination.

I don't think it's changed much to be honest. Maybe very slightly more conservative than in the old days but not massively - I'd say on an average show the recommendations are pretty much about 60% "middle" and 40% "top", whereas maybe a couple seasons ago it would be more like 40%-60% in the other direction. Still almost no one ever recommends the lower amount.

Maybe you just caught a few unfortunately conservative games recently since you've been re-watching, including mine! Mind you, I have skipped watching the last 5 or so shows before Sue's, so maybe it's me who's skewed.

I do quite like to have a look at the "#thechase" tweets each night and they wind me up. They really do. One girl one day had berated a middle aged woman for saying that the Venga Boys were going to Barbados. I picked her up on it mentioning that she clearly had the original by Typically Tropical in her head and she tweeted back with an apology. It's so, so, so, so easy to think something is common knowledge just because you know it. How anyone can call any of the contestants from last night thick is beyond me really. What would they have said if I'd got Matt's questions and said "I never knew Rick Stein had a dog, let alone what the breed is" and "Beloved, never heard of that film before". They would probably call me a mong.

On Mark's performance, yeah, I don't think that has ever been done on the show yet in terms of nuber of wrong answers. I'd be prepared to say that none of the contestants in any series of The Chase would have been able to stop him catching them at the pace he was going.

Yeah I don't feel too aggrieved, kind of nice that my performance had no real relevance in the scheme of things.

Back story on the Beloved answer - in my intro they unfortunately went for the "liverpool fan but not been there" angle in the cutting room, but the other big thing I spoke about was photography as a hobby, hand-in-hand with having just moved to London. I said something about "the two landscapes are very different, when I was in Devon I was 30 seconds from the seaside and now I'm 30 seconds from a fried chicken shop". I thought that was a great first thing to say, quite funny, Bradley laughed, but was really taken aback by one of the make up ladies in the next pause saying "can't believe you said that about the chicken shop!" or something to that effect. So I suddenly started thinking that I'd done a total racist. Maybe I said "now that I'm in East London" when I thought I just said "now" but still - nothing that bad.

So yeah when it came to Beloved, I had to faff around the answer - the real reasoning was "Toni Morrison wrote that novel, and like all her novels it's almost entirely about black life and black struggle, which is exactly what Oprah Winfrey is totally into". But obviously I couldn't say that or at least didn't want to after having in the back of my head coming across a bit racist with my fried chicken shop comment. So there you go - sucks really as it looked pretty much like a guess on screen, whereas really I was much, much surer and actually did some good working out in my head that I couldn't take credit for.

Haha, serves you right for being a filthy racist. "Name dropper" was superb though

Andy Wilson wrote:Quality cut to awkward frowny smile there when Olwyn admitted to two counts of attempted murder.

Actually two counts of successful murder, since she said "electrocuted".