Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm
Thanks for all your answers!
Inspired by him being on a repeat of the celebrity chase right now - I've had Jon Culshaw as a DC guest for two separate 'runs' - my first 3 heats, and then my CoC QF. How many people have had some DC guest for more than one run?
161 distinct players have had the same DC guest in more than one distinct guest run.
I had Jon Culshaw in heats and finals, and Mark Foster in a special and 30BC. Getting two distinct guests on two distinct runs each is much rarer than it used to be, because now we get a lot more variety in DC guests than before. In the 80s and 90s it was more like the same old favourites cropping up again and again.
To go on a silly digression because it's a stat that has me in it: about 42 players ("about" because there are issues with this question, see below) have seen at least two distinct guests on two distinct runs, but for only four of those players does that involve a guest appearance later than 1997. Besides myself the other three are Junaid Mubeen, Ed McCullagh and Dylan Taylor.
Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm
Has anyone had the same guest three separate times, or more than two guests at least twice?
33 distinct players have had the same guest in at least three different guest runs.
Beyond three it gets a bit difficult. For example, my script said
Joyce Cansfield and
Ash Haji were both there for four distinct Nigel Rees and Gyles Brandreth runs respectively, but what actually happened there was
Episode 80 got counted as a new run for Gyles because both he and Kenneth Williams were guests, the previous episode being Gyles only. Similarly for Nigel Rees and Ned Sherrin in
Episode 191, when the previous day's episode had been Nigel Rees only.
For the same reason,
Mark Nyman,
David Trace and
Mick Keeble appear to have had four distinct Ned Sherrin and Gyles Brandreth runs respectively even though they didn't really.
However,
Russell Byers was in four legitimately distinct Gyles runs.
Note that in the early days they did quite a bit of
daily alternation between two guests, and each time this happens it's counted as a new "run". This is the main reason the above players have so many distinct runs with the same guest.
Two players have seen at three guests on two distinct guest runs. They are
Sydney Price (Nigel Rees, Eve Pollard, Gyles Brandreth) and
Kenneth Michie (Richard Stilgoe, Jan Harvey, Rosalind Ayres).
Pete Cashmore also got picked up by this but that's the above wrinkle again, this time counting Terry Wogan twice in the series 35 semi-final and final.
Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:38 pm
By 'run' I'm going to go with a time that a guest was in DC with no different guest in between, rather than individual filming days as I know some guests have filmed multiple days in a row for whatever reason.
Specifically, I'm counting a guest's "run" here as one or more consecutive appearances of the same guest with no other guests in between, when you order all the episodes by transmission date and ignore unbroadcast episodes. What I didn't take account of was two guests appearing in the same episode, which is why we get issues there.