c4countdown

Graeme Cole

Quite likely to have been asked before, but in case it hasn't, and you know; Graeme, how many Octochamps have solved all 8 conundrums in their heat games? Eleven. They are Darryl Francis, Harvey Freeman, David Williams, Julian Fell, Kai Laddiman, Daniel Pati, Jonathan Rawlinson, Thomas Carey, Paul ...

Graeme Cole

Both of the losers of the S80 semifinals never declared a 9 during their time on the show. Is this the furthest any player has advanced without doing so, or do some runners-up (even winners?) fit the bill? (exc. CoC, Masters or special games). It's happened before many times. Joyce Cansfield, Darry...

Graeme Cole

What is the biggest decrease in score of a champion from one game to the next, in which they had won both of the games? Stewart Holden went from 137 to 79. Might not be the record though. This pair of games is in second place, beaten only by Hamish Williamson. (All of this only counts games up to t...

Graeme Cole

Hi Graeme, What is the biggest decrease in score of a champion from one game to the next, in which they had won both of the games? .This is applicable to all types of 15R's. I'd have a punt and say it was Jodine Lawrence from S79, who got 117 in her debut, and 75 in the next game, but thought I'd a...

Graeme Cole

I met up with someone at a park today (staying two metres away from each other except to test our eyes). This is the first time I've done something like this since lockdown. This is allowed now isn't it? But I was saying how stupid it was that I've encountered people that I know when I've e.g. gone...

Graeme Cole

The question now is how long does this story go on for before people actually move on - we're not going to get anything more out of the government on this, since they've clearly stated they're now trying to draw a line under this. Let's bear in mind we're 4 years away from a general election and th...

Graeme Cole

Ah, thanks. Perhaps you're right, without claiming to have read every single word of the actual legislation around travel, it would appear the Barnard Castle trip (but not the London-Durham and Durham-London) trip was probably illegal. Feel free to substitute "and probably even illegal" for the wor...

Graeme Cole

I agree with 100% of your post apart from that it began with a quote of me, when as far I can tell no part of your comment bears any relation to any part of my comment. Have I missed a link somewhere? Sorry, I should have been more specific. I was referring to your description of his actions as "le...

Graeme Cole

Ultimately, the guy's actions were the irresponsible but legal behaviour of a private individual. Perhaps it's reasonable that a private individual who also sometimes operates in a public role is subject to more scrutiny of their private behaviour than most others. But what's the absolute cap on a ...

Graeme Cole

Answers and full results here.

Graeme Cole

How does it decide which path to show if there are two (or more) paths of an equal length? For instance, Kate Ogilvie's "official" path goes via Richard Saldanha, Ross McKenzie, Chris Davies, then Kirk Bevins. Another path of that length would be the same root as Scott Mearns: (Mearns), Terry Knowl...

Graeme Cole

For those of you who don't follow the relevant Facebook group, I've made a WikiQuiz quiz with 50 initial snippets of UK game show theme tunes, with which you have to identify the show. It starts easily enough, but the later ones are quite obscure. The quiz is open until 10pm Monday. Register: Intros...

Graeme Cole

What does this have to do with Countdown, Mark? The pub was the Fox and Hounds, which is the pub we go to after COLIN. I should know, I was there. And how can you play pool when you're not supposed to be around other people in person? If the dream was set immediately after COLIN, then the lockdown ...

Graeme Cole

29th May or June? This all seems very strange. June would seem most likely. As alluded to above, two 30BC episodes seem to have been pulled, and presumably the original dates given for the CoC assumed they wouldn't be replaced with other episodes, which we now know they will be. The first replaced ...

Graeme Cole

I'm under 70, let's do this. In all seriousness it's genuinely not a bad idea to have former contestants doing the presenting. They know the program better than any stand-in celeb might do and thus would have a shorter acclimatisation period, those of us who gratuitously chalk up media appearances ...

Graeme Cole

Surprised the ISOLATED round wasn't excised from the repeat given the public's utter hatred of anything remotely connected to Covid. Is this a snipe at someone? If so, who? And why? And if it wasn't, then......what the hell was it? I am confused by your post. Let me try again. Given that any refere...

Graeme Cole

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑
Wed May 13, 2020 6:51 am

Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑
Tue May 12, 2020 3:42 pm
CoCQP5: Jack Worsley vs Kirk Bevins
Domino's is the pizza place for the ExtravaganZZa Feast® pizza, when we combine beef with loads of pepperoni, ham, Italian sausage, fresh onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and black olives, all topped with extra 100 percent real mozzarella cheese.

What?

Graeme Cole

OK thanks. I did think about heat but is there some sort of "ideal" scenario where heat isn't a thing? With your ideal zero-friction ice, there would be no heat generated between the wheels and the road, but there would have to be friction, and therefore heat, between the brake pads and the wheels....

Graeme Cole

A locked wheel sliding along has less kinetic energy than one rolling along at the same speed - to do with kinetic energy being 0.5mv^2. It's proportional to the square of the velocity so the rolling wheel might have the same average speed as the locked one but the faster moving parts above the mid...

Graeme Cole

What colour does your synaesthesic side tell you apterous is? For me it's not brown, it's a sort of pale blue. But that could just be because of the background colour.

Graeme Cole

Charlie Reams wrote: ↑
Fri May 08, 2020 8:16 am
You can post whatever you want in here, since it isn't configured to send me an alert. It's also completely pointless since I won't see it. Enjoy!

That's a shame, because Apterous is currently down.

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Wed May 06, 2020 4:01 pm

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑
Wed May 06, 2020 3:19 pm

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:54 pm

a)
We're still waiting for the conclusion to this thrilling post.
I think it was just a reference to this and this.

Thank you for not only clarifying the meaning of this post but also reintroducing me to the discussion leading up to the legendary 2013 eating competition.

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:54 pm

Mark Deeks wrote:How are sardines not a food?
a)

We're still waiting for the conclusion to this thrilling post.

Graeme Cole

I thought that whoever managed to upscale today’s episode into HD did a remarkable job, given (or at least I thought this was the case) it was filmed in SD. I believe the 30th Birthday Championship episodes were the first Countdown episodes to be filmed in HD, although perhaps some of the series 67...

Graeme Cole

“Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing” has the same syllabic rhythm as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I still don't understand why this is a thing. Me too. Basically it means they can chuckle to themselves whenever they encounter something with eight syllables. It's not just the syllable count, the stress pa...

Graeme Cole

I don't know if this is The Mandela effect but did the cheating episode of WWTBAM get shown or did I imagine it ? Not at the time. Charles Ingram's episodes were edited to remove his run. However, the footage was later shown as part of the Major Fraud documentary in 2003. Also, in the last few days...

Graeme Cole

In the denouement of Ep2, the defence barrister said “the three had never met” (so why did Diana constantly stare at Whittock?) Also, the Ingrams didn't need to have met Tecwen Whittock to plan anything - in fact, we know that Diana Ingram and Tecwen Whittock spoke on the phone before the second da...

Graeme Cole

Phil Reynolds wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:23 pm

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑
Tue Apr 14, 2020 12:00 am
Getting help with the audition question while you're actually doing the audition: obviously cheating.
What do you define as "getting help"? Erm, asking for a friend.

In this case, it was having someone there with you to listen in on the question and feed you the answer.

Graeme Cole

I watched the first episode of Quiz (the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire thing) on ITV this evening. A couple of things stood out as a bit weird. The guy built a working electronic fastest finger first machine to practise on. What an idiot. All you need to do is cut out a bit of cardboard from your c...

Graeme Cole

It was my mum who told me to ask you Grampa. Can I write some conundrums for you ? Odd that you'd need to communicate this way considering that all your posts come from the same IP address, which means you almost certainly live at the same residential address. He lives down the road 2 doors down ac...

Graeme Cole

Martin Peters wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:51 pm
CoGlasgow3 will be an Edinburgh Style event.

Martin Peters wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:51 pm
Based on the standings at the end of Round 1 (number of wins, then points scored)

I thought you said that Edinburgh style was specifically points over wins?

Graeme Cole

How does Edinburgh Style differ from Lincoln Style?

Graeme Cole

Hi Martin, I have a few questions. 1. Have you been to an event before? If not then you ought to do that before thinking of organising one, to get an idea of how they work and what's involved in running them. 2. The two basic formats are Lincoln-style (also known as Edinburgh) and Bristol-style. Whi...

Graeme Cole

Susie said you couldn't put the S on MUTTON, which surprised me. Perhaps restaurants don't serve it any more?

Graeme Cole

Get them to write down their answers immediately if you're going to base the decision on the video. Yes, that's the first step. If both players are right then you can look at the video and give the points to one player or the other, or scrap and redo if by some freak coincidence it's still inconclu...

Graeme Cole

Get them to write down their answers immediately if you're going to base the decision on the video. Yes, that's the first step. If both players are right then you can look at the video and give the points to one player or the other, or scrap and redo if by some freak coincidence it's still inconclu...

Graeme Cole

This is similar to, but not really based on, stuff that's happened at co-events. It's a crucial conundrum in the final of an event. You, the host, reveal the conundrum scramble: DINOTIARA. Both players hit the table at about the same time. They both claim to have buzzed first, but you can't be sure ...

Graeme Cole

The husband of someone I used to work with helped build the current Countdown clock.

Graeme Cole

Not counting simply correcting a mistake made by the organiser when entering the score, does anyone know of any occasion when a game's score, as shown on the scoresheet, was changed after the scoresheet was handed in? To semi-answer my own question, I think I have a vague memory of taking a scoresh...

Graeme Cole

My answers: 1. c. Alice was the first to find a correct solution to the conundrum. The fact that it wasn't the intended solution is neither here nor there. 2. b. Doesn't matter that the conundrum had an alternative solution. Alice was still the first to find a correct solution. 3. b. There's no requ...

Graeme Cole

A couple more I just remembered: 5. It's a letters round. The host puts an A on the board but mistakenly announces it as "E". Nobody says anything. After the 30 seconds, Bob offers a word which is valid but uses an E which isn't there. The host definitely said "E" while putting the A up - this is no...

Graeme Cole

A few conundrum oddities have actually happened at events. I've been meaning to post about them in here for a while but haven't actually remembered to do so until now. Any identifying information has been changed, because I'm not trying to criticise the people who had to rule on these immediately wh...

Graeme Cole

I didn't think it was that great. I mean it was OK but it wasn't very "Inside No 9". There was no twist or was I missing something? (Other than the bit that happened quite early on so doesn't really count.) I was looking at the clock - "10:28" - surely something has to happen now to make this episo...

Graeme Cole

There appears to be a problem with duplicate names too. For example, David Barnard's route is given as: David Barnard... played Ian Williams in Series 67... ... who played Simon Cartwright in Series 46... ... who played Ben Wilson in the quarter-finals of Series 46... ... who played Conor Travers i...

Graeme Cole

How far has this been updated to? As of this morning, it includes all games up to the end of 2019 . BTW, Dinos is broken due to name changes! What, still? Yesterday I noticed and fixed a couple of cases where the database thinks someone is two different people, and Dinos was one of them. As far as ...

Graeme Cole

Ian Volante wrote: ↑
Fri Feb 07, 2020 8:09 pm
How far has this been updated to?

As of this morning, it includes all games up to the end of 2019.

Graeme Cole

We had 9R for around 19 years, Old 15 for approx 12, and New 15 only for the last 7... would it be fair to say that the changes from 9R to 15R, and subsequently to New 15R, were all about evolution to a best format... or were these done principally to keep the show fresh? Will "New 15R" become the ...

Graeme Cole

Kinetic Pixel, who have provided Countdown's scoring systems and displays etc since 2017, have a short but interesting writeup about it on their website. We even get to see what they're hiding in that curtained-off bit at the back of the studio.

Graeme Cole

Callum Todd wrote: ↑
Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:44 am
I hope that you won't find the contents of the Code of Conduct, once it is produced, to be either "paranoid" or "crap", but may I ask: if not the 21st, then from which century would like us to draw our ideas?

Best C4C comment for ages.

Graeme Cole

Wasn't the main piece of critical feedback from the first episode that it was an order of magnitude too long? This is why it seems odd that now the second episode has come out, it's exactly the same length, but this time there isn't even an abridged version. (Edit: I have been some quantity of muppe...

Graeme Cole

The Lib Dems did get 1.4m more votes than the 2017 GE. So that's evidence of the effect. But who's to say the elasticity(/plasticity?) of Tory Remainers' vote is the same as Labour? It's a hard thing to know. I'd be interested to read more statistical analysis of all the above. There are some sweep...

Graeme Cole

Fiona T wrote: ↑
Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:22 am
Molineux looks pretty big - where are we going when we get there?

ta

Centre circle. Then a coin toss will decide which end is the Open and which the Finals.

Graeme Cole

When did this mass delusion start, that people who work in TV aren't allowed, or shouldn't be allowed, to make political statements away from TV? This only applies to broadcast journalists who work in news and current affairs. Coincidentally, people only seem to want to enforce this rule when the th...

Graeme Cole

Not sure that 930 was a good example for using the 937.5 method as two standard method solves are possible too! ((75-50)x25)+(3x100)+5 ((25-3)x50)-100-75+5 Doesn't mean it isn't a good example. One of the most important things to know about the 937.5 rule is that often it isn't the easiest way to s...

Graeme Cole

The classic disadvantage of raw scoring is that if you fail to score in a round, it's very difficult to catch up, so it heavily discourages offering risky words. And assuming the contestants therefore play it safe, the conundrum is much more likely to be crucial unless one player has dominated the ...

Graeme Cole

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 13, 2019 8:42 am
I can't find the standings.

Here they are.

Graeme Cole

The classic disadvantage of raw scoring is that if you fail to score in a round, it's very difficult to catch up, so it heavily discourages offering risky words. And assuming the contestants therefore play it safe, the conundrum is much more likely to be crucial unless one player has dominated the g...

Graeme Cole

Well, I’ll leave that until the broadcast, since I missed going to the recordings, cos of the stupid trains, I don’t have first hand knowledge of it, so some of it will be new to me too. Whatever happened to your insider knowledge? :roll: I have had some, but some of it sounds very confusing to me,...

Graeme Cole

Jon O'Neill wrote: ↑
Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:35 pm
Corby is 2.94 or roughly 35% to be next Prime Minister

I wondered why he hadn't been on the forum so much recently.

Graeme Cole

I was looking at odds of who is going to win the election, but (after a quick search admittedly) I couldn't find what I was after. There were odds on which party would have the most seats, odds on each party getting an outright majority, odds on specific minority governments etc. But you need to pu...

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