831

[Peter Dunwoody]

Hey guys...this is one for long-time viewers of Countdown.

Does anybody remember a particularly tricky numbers game back in the mid 90s (probably not Kai, for one)? The target was 831, which I remember because after neither contestant being able to get anywhere near, Carol was off by one, as often happens.

For some reason Richard wouldn't let the fact the Carol couldn't get it go, and it became something of a running joke for the next few days, until eventually Richard gave a solution to it (there is no way it was a solution he worked out himself, as it was far from "obvious"). I remember alot of "831" references being made in subsequent weeks and months.

However I was only a young thing when this edition was broadcast and I was wondering if anybody could remember this, and why on earth such a big deal was made out of the fact that Carol couldn't solve the numbers game on this one occasion?

[Charlie Reams]

I guess that's a no.

[Les Butterworth]

Doesn't ring any bells here maybe it was close to Carol's hourly rate or was that per minute?

[Richard Priest]

I remember it vaguely. I recall finding it somewhat irritating the way Richard kept referring to '831' for several shows afterwards, and felt like writing in and suggesting he try doing Carol's job himself, and I dare say some viewers probably did just that. Like you Peter, I also wondered why it was such a big thing when it was by no means the first numbers target Carol had failed to find. As to who was playing who in that game I've no idea.

[Martin Bishop]

I don't think the issue was Carol not getting 831; it was the fact that Carol claimed it to be impossible. Thus, Whiteley challenged the viewers to prove Carol wrong and, eventually, someone did. I thought it made for a very good running joke for a few months.

[Ian Volante]

I don't think the issue was Carol not getting 831; it was the fact that Carol claimed it to be impossible. Thus, Whiteley challenged the viewers to prove Carol wrong and, eventually, someone did. I thought it made for a very good running joke for a few months.

I certainly remember the running joke about (not) impossible numbers games. Mid-nineties makes sense too. I thought you said mid-eighties first, which would have surprised me...

[Jacob Sutton]

I may have been a young thing when it was broadcast, but I remember Richard saying something to Carol on the 2000th edition special (Spring-ish time '97?) about making sure to never say that a numbers game was impossible. It only twigged when reading this thread that it may have been a reference to 831...