c4countdown

Well, I'm back now as you might've guessed. Sorry that you missed me on Thursday, Matt. Me and Steve were actually told at 3:30 that we weren't going to be used, so we were sent back to our hotel. But, luckily we were first up on Friday.

Still have no recording date yet, but we are Show 34 (and possibly 35) of Series 5, so it'll probably be around October time when it's aired.

I have got 4 tickets for this friday's celebrity specials 6 30 pm
PM me if your interested.

I wonder if those specials are the ones that are being shown next week.
The normal series returns a week on Monday.

It's also now switched slots with The Weakest Link, so TWL is now on BBC2 at 4:30, and Pointless is now on BBC1 at 5:15!

Must be cos I'm on the new series.

Good to have Pointles back on TV. What a shit selection of celebrities for today though.

Anyway I'm still a bit confused as to what the fuck happened last series. As James confirmed at one point, they just started showing old repeats and it seemed like only about 15-20 shows into the series. I'm going to go and check the Wikipedia entry....

... ah yeah, so there's just been a massive fuck-off break in the series. James will be in Series 4, not "the new series". Wikipedia entry is a bit shit though, it acts like today's celebrities special is the first one but there was two before the start of series 4.

Well-needed redesign on the head-to-head score stands, thank fuck for that.

Matt Morrison wrote:... ah yeah, so there's just been a massive fuck-off break in the series. James will be in Series 4, not "the new series". Wikipedia entry is a bit shit though, it acts like today's celebrities special is the first one but there was two before the start of series 4.

I'm afraid not.....

I was hoping that when I checked the episode info, hoping that Series 5, Ep 1 was gonna be on next Monday, which would've meant (hoping that there were no breaks) that my show(s) would've been on August 25(/6), but next Monday's show is Series 4, Ep 26, meaning there are still 25 shows of Series 4 to go, before they start Series 5, my series.

So, the earliest it might be now is September 29(/30)..... (I will be told though when it is, so I will tell all immediately)

SPOILER: Happy to get Marina Ogilvy in the final round, remembered her from an episode of Eggheads, when they lost.

James Robinson wrote: SPOILER: Happy to get Marina Ogilvy in the final round, remembered her from an episode of Eggheads, when they lost.

I didn't watch the show today but based on that little snippet I'm going to have a stab and say that the final question was winners of rear of the year?

Man, Pointles seems really shit now. I hope it's just that today's questions were naff and not that I've only just noticed that it's been shit for ages.

Michael Wallace wrote:Man, Pointles seems really shit now. I hope it's just that today's questions were naff and not that I've only just noticed that it's been shit for ages.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I think I'm annoyed at the uselessness of the 100 people they ask. I can't remember how many people did say planet as something you would find in space but it should have been a lot more than it actually was. Also it's sooooo cheap. £2500 for a charity show? Surely they could do better than that, considering how hard it is to win in the first place. Alexander should be scrapped too and just let Richard host it.

Edit: And Richard should be given the Countdown job too.

Ryan Taylor wrote:

James Robinson wrote: SPOILER: Happy to get Marina Ogilvy in the final round, remembered her from an episode of Eggheads, when they lost.

I didn't watch the show today but based on that little snippet I'm going to have a stab and say that the final question was winners of rear of the year?

Indeed.

Michael Wallace wrote:Man, Pointles seems really shit now. I hope it's just that today's questions were naff and not that I've only just noticed that it's been shit for ages.

I think the celebrity version of the show is a bit of an oddity, but soon as it gets back to normal is when the good stuff comes.

James Robinson wrote:I think the celebrity version of the show is a bit of an oddity, but soon as it gets back to normal is when the good stuff comes.

This is the thing though, I think the format has just got a bit rubbish with their tweaking to accommodate the fact that it's actually quite hard to set free-for-all questions (as in, just give us an answer, no multiple choice). Multiple choice rounds are rarely interesting (imo), and the round 3 format is basically just another quiz. The head to head is by far the best bit now since it's the only time you get relatively rapid fire questions, and they're all free-for-all answers so it's more fun to play along at home.

(Yes, I am really boring.)

Mark James wrote:I think I'm annoyed at the uselessness of the 100 people they ask. I can't remember how many people did say planet as something you would find in space but it should have been a lot more than it actually was.

Why? (It was 62, by the way.) Don't forget that the 100 people weren't asked, "Is a planet something you would find in space?"; they were asked, "Name as many things you'd find in space as you can." Within 100 seconds, nearly two thirds of them said planet (among other things). That sounds not unreasonable to me.

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Mark James wrote:I think I'm annoyed at the uselessness of the 100 people they ask. I can't remember how many people did say planet as something you would find in space but it should have been a lot more than it actually was.

Why? (It was 62, by the way.) Don't forget that the 100 people weren't asked, "Is a planet something you would find in space?"; they were asked, "Name as many things you'd find in space as you can." Within 100 seconds, nearly two thirds of them said planet (among other things). That sounds not unreasonable to me.

Maybe I'm being too harsh but I would've expected at least 80% to get both star and planet. I'd love to have a go at being one of the 100, I'd probably prefer that than actually going on the show. Anyone know anyone who's done it?

Mark James wrote:Maybe I'm being too harsh but I would've expected at least 80% to get both star and planet.

Given that the only evidence we have are the data from the show, I guess you're being too harsh.

Did anyone actually win this week? I can't remember it happening but that doesn't mean much.

Michael Wallace wrote:Did anyone actually win this week?

No. That's why they're "Pointless Celebrities".

Matt Morrison wrote:Anyway I'm still a bit confused as to what the fuck happened last series. As James confirmed at one point, they just started showing old repeats and it seemed like only about 15-20 shows into the series.

I'm guessing that it was only after they'd started showing series 4 that it was announced that Pointless would be swapping places in the schedules with Weakest Link. If this means that Pointless is now going to be on more or less permanently, rather than just for six or ten weeks at a time, then presumably they postponed transmission of series 4 and started showing repeats of series 3 on BBC2 while they got series 5 in the can, giving them a sufficiently large stock of new episodes to be able to keep it going on BBC1 for a while.

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Michael Wallace wrote:Did anyone actually win this week?

No. That's why they're "Pointless Celebrities".

Awesome. Good work, guys!

Maybe I'm just being a boring old fart, but I found Dick & Dom's attitude today a bit off - you're supposedly playing for a charity, try and take it just a tiny bit seriously? Or maybe not even seriously, but at least give the impression you're trying to win, rather than thinking it's just some fun game that it's hilarious to be bad at.

Yeah, I'm definitely a boring old fart, oh well.

Michael Wallace wrote: Maybe I'm just being a boring old fart, but I found Dick & Dom's attitude today a bit off - you're supposedly playing for a charity, try and take it just a tiny bit seriously? Or maybe not even seriously, but at least give the impression you're trying to win, rather than thinking it's just some fun game that it's hilarious to be bad at.

Yeah, I'm definitely a boring old fart, oh well.

Nah I'd agree. Didn't see it like but I would have hated this since they are playing for charity they should try and do some good rather than just clown around. Saying that, their whole careers have been built on being clowns. I hate it on WWTBAM when celebrities are say on £64,000 and risk a 1 in 4 guess but lose £32,000 as if it's no big deal. Not quite the same thing but essentially they are playing for a serious organisation so should play the game seriously.

Ryan Taylor wrote:I hate it on WWTBAM when celebrities are say on £64,000 and risk a 1 in 4 guess but lose £32,000 as if it's no big deal. Not quite the same thing but essentially they are playing for a serious organisation so should play the game seriously.

I thought this was playing the game seriously. Aficionadoes of the show have long recognised [citation needed] that, if you reach the next prize level after the second safe haven, that's the best time to take a punt since the potential gain massively outweighs the potential loss. It used to be gaining £61,000 versus losing £32,000 as you say; since the revamp to the 12-question format it's become an even more tempting gamble since it's now gaining £75,000 versus losing £25,000. In that situation, with at worst a one in four chance of jumping to the next level, I think you'd need to be seriously pessimistic to pull out, regardless of whether you're playing for your own money or a charity.

But, back on topic, yes, Dick and Dom were annoying.

What's really annoying about this (& other 'celebrity' shows) is that we're always assumed to recognise the participants - just giving first names is no use, as that even prevents me googling them to discover what they're alleged to be famous for. So far, I've been able to identify about half of them, with several others having faces I recall having seen before, but don't remember where - presumably from programmes I hardly ever look at

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:I hate it on WWTBAM when celebrities are say on £64,000 and risk a 1 in 4 guess but lose £32,000 as if it's no big deal. Not quite the same thing but essentially they are playing for a serious organisation so should play the game seriously.

I thought this was playing the game seriously. Aficionadoes of the show have long recognised [citation needed] that, if you reach the next prize level after the second safe haven, that's the best time to take a punt since the potential gain massively outweighs the potential loss. It used to be gaining £61,000 versus losing £32,000 as you say; since the revamp to the 12-question format it's become an even more tempting gamble since it's now gaining £75,000 versus losing £25,000. In that situation, with at worst a one in four chance of jumping to the next level, I think you'd need to be seriously pessimistic to pull out, regardless of whether you're playing for your own money or a charity.

If I was in this situation left with a blind guess between 1 in 4 then I'd take £64,000 probably. If it was the new format then I'd probably take the gamble on £75,000. Maybe a poor first example but then I've seen people do it on levels higher up too.

Thought the James Bond scores a bit peculiar, I'd have thought Moonraker would easily be the least popular answer.

Edit: the re-reading of the final question from the guy with the glasses (Richard apparently) sounded awfully like it has been dubbed in from an office somewhere. Epic bit of stretching out the 'tension' too...

Fair enough if your one doesn't know any Irish leaders but she was so confident picking international politics you would have imagined she would have known enough about domestic politics to know the people she picked weren't. Can't believe Charlie Haughey was pointless either. And yes Craig, I thought what you said would've been the least popular, certainly not what was anyway.

Octopussy for me. Moonraker is so much more famous I think, for including Jaws and that at the very least. Either way, Goldeneye being least popular was a surprise but pretty succinctly shows they must have asked a bunch of people from a fairly close age range.

and only 3 people being able to guess an "el" airport is Spanish is ridiculous.

Helluva shame that Irish question though. Really liked that couple. If they couldn't win today, it's a crime not to see them again tomorrow. Balls.

Matt Morrison wrote:Helluva shame that Irish question though. Really liked that couple. If they couldn't win today, it's a crime not to see them again tomorrow. Balls.

Yeah, it's not often I see a couple I want to win, but if you get Sao Tome and Principe you go straight into my 'wahey' book.

Mark James wrote:Fair enough if your one doesn't know any Irish leaders but she was so confident picking international politics you would have imagined she would have known enough about domestic politics to know the people she picked weren't.

But "domestic" to whom? Bear in mind that the contestants weren't brought up in the UK.

When Richard said there were five one-word Bond titles, I ran through them in my mind - four came to me straight away and I had to struggle to think of the fifth, which turned out to be the least popular answer. I guess it's an age thing.

Matt Morrison wrote:and only 3 people being able to guess an "el" airport is Spanish is ridiculous.

This sort of thing does surprise me a bit, because you pretty regularly see options in that round where you can have a pretty good guess. The Schoenfeld one was another yesterday, as was the Indian one. It makes you wonder if the people doing the questionnaire are told not to guess.

Matt Morrison wrote:and only 3 people being able to guess an "el" airport is Spanish is ridiculous.

The trouble is that it's obviously a Spanish speaking country, but which one

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Mark James wrote:Fair enough if your one doesn't know any Irish leaders but she was so confident picking international politics you would have imagined she would have known enough about domestic politics to know the people she picked weren't.

But "domestic" to whom? Bear in mind that the contestants weren't brought up in the UK.

Fair enough, then it was just international politics, which she was happy with and still didn't know who they were. I'm not from the UK but I knew who they were, although I suppose I do watch Have I Got News For You and could probably name a hell of a lot more British politicians than Irish ones. I did get three pointless answers though. Result.

Matt Morrison wrote:
and only 3 people being able to guess an "el" airport is Spanish is ridiculous.

I've finally caught up with this.

I think you are being a little harsh Matt. Admittedly, people might recognise 'El' as a Spanish word. However, 'Prat de Llobregat' is Catalan and I suspect people who only know a little Spanish might think it doesn't sound very Spanish - which is a fair point because it looks and sounds quite different.

That woman today was desperately unlucky to go out in round 1 for giving WHOLEGRAIN as a word ending -RAIN. According to Richard, it's hyphenated in the OED. Really? Not in the ODE2r it ain't.

Agreed on the unlucky bit though I didn't bother checking dictionaries. SCATTERBRAIN and then WHOLEGRAIN were my answers.

Matt Morrison wrote:Agreed on the unlucky bit though I didn't bother checking dictionaries. SCATTERBRAIN and then WHOLEGRAIN were my answers.

Mine were SUZERAIN (thanks to practice) and WOODGRAIN (thanks to S64, SF1).

Glad I got Ewen Macintosh in the final too.

Having read this (before I saw James' post), the two that came to mind quickly were SOUTERRAIN and SUZERAIN. Didn't think of WOODGRAIN this time.

James Robinson wrote:Glad I got Ewen Macintosh in the final too.

Yeah, he would have been my best shot at a pointless answer but I couldn't think of his surname. Having to have been in 10 or more episodes made it really tough, even for fans of The Office; the only other less-well-known cast members I could think of were Oliver Chris (can't remember his character's name, but he was only in the first series so wouldn't count); Patrick Baladi, who played Neil - second series only; and Chris Ineson who played Finchy - again though, only in a handful of episodes.

I meant to say about the woman in round 1: as if looking like a character from Psychoville wasn't unlucky enough...

Watched Pointless for the first time in ages and I have to say I think I picked one of the best episodes to watch. It was in some ways the perfect game.

SPOILERS (my review of the show)

First to be eliminated were two twats from Newcastle University one of whom was wearing red twatty trousers and they twattishly thought of themselves as "film buffs" yet couldn't name one single Michael Douglas film. Ha! Fuck off!

Next round was really tight and exciting to the end and everyone seemed to display sound enough knowledge so as not to raise my blood pressure but thankfully the debating couple were booted off.

The final round and the two women went 1-0 up and they looked to have it in the bag when they were asked to name a Simon & Garfunkel Single to which one of the women admitted to being "possibly their biggest fan". Of course she was made to eat these words as she gave a dud and it was soon 1-1 and then for the decider the couple who were 1-0 down clawed it back by getting the only possible answer that could have beaten their opponents. 2-1 to Paul and his bitch and they could almost smell the cash.

The jackpot stood at £10,750 and this couple gave 3 great answers of which the first 2 went all the way down to 1. Just when you think this isn't gonna be their day the final answer is a pointless one and BOOM they've got the money. Fuck yeah! I probably won't watch it again until James is on but hell I chose a good one to watch.

P.S. I'm a cunt.

Yeah, pretty good show. Impressed with all three couples avoiding utter failure in the literature round, pretty atypical. The jackpot struck me as one that would be pretty easy if you're old enough - 12 years of cabinet posts to think of someone obscure? Seems straightforward if you've lived through it (cue a jackpot question about members of Blair's cabinet and me failing at it).

Some rather low scores in the gold medal winning Commonwealth countries and periodic table elements with 5 letters or less.

How could they allow In the Name of Love? It's called Pride. I don't give a fuck what's in the brackets. Anyway I felt it was quite reassuring that nobody seems to know any U2 songs. Just goes to show how shite they really are.

Mark James wrote:How could they allow In the Name of Love? It's called Pride. I don't give a fuck what's in the brackets. Anyway I felt it was quite reassuring that nobody seems to know any U2 songs. Just goes to show how shite they really are.

Just about the funniest round of all time.
Amazed that Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me was Pointless though.

James Robinson wrote:

Mark James wrote:How could they allow In the Name of Love? It's called Pride. I don't give a fuck what's in the brackets. Anyway I felt it was quite reassuring that nobody seems to know any U2 songs. Just goes to show how shite they really are.

Just about the funniest round of all time.

Except for all of mine and CF's rounds, obviously.

James Robinson wrote:Amazed that Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me was Pointless though.

Yeah. It would have been my answer if I'd been on the show but I'd have expected it to score, albeit low enough. I'd like to know if they'd have accepted Numb or is it considered an Edge solo effort.

Absolutely loving round 2 today. Was wondering if the producers were going to have to resort to saying to the pairs "look, we'll toss a coin and whoever wins we'll tell an answer to".

Michael Wallace wrote:Absolutely loving round 2 today. Was wondering if the producers were going to have to resort to saying to the pairs "look, we'll toss a coin and whoever wins we'll tell an answer to".

Fill me in (on the round synopsis).

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Michael Wallace wrote:Absolutely loving round 2 today. Was wondering if the producers were going to have to resort to saying to the pairs "look, we'll toss a coin and whoever wins we'll tell an answer to".

Fill me in (on the round synopsis).

(I operate under the assumption that no-one will read the Pointles thread until they're up to date with Pointles, 'cos you're asking for spoilers otherwise.)

So it was poets and their poems, 12 poems and you had to name who wrote them. Two of the three pairs were impressively awful, scoring four 100s between them (the other pair were a couple of ladies who presumably went to school when they actually taught you Proper Poetry rather than the rubbish we had to learn, so they were fine). We're talking incredibly famous poems, with some of the contestants saying "well I've heard of Jabberowocky...". (Also "I think Lord Byron was a poet, so I'll go for him for $random_answer".)

So anyway, since the other pairs had 200 each, it was a tie-break, which means they have to keep giving answers until someone gets one right, so it briefly looked like it could go on until they randomly picked a poet/poem combo that was correct. In the end one pair managed to get that Wordsworth wrote I wandered lonely as a cloud, so we didn't get any long-term hilarity, but it makes you wonder what they'd do in the (quite conceivable) situation where all the contestants in a tie-break have no clue whatsoever.

Not really that funny (especially when explained like that), but I enjoyed it. (Because I am an elitist snob, obviously.)

Ryan Taylor wrote:First to be eliminated were two twats from Newcastle University one of whom was wearing red twatty trousers and they twattishly thought of themselves as "film buffs" yet couldn't name one single Michael Douglas film. Ha! Fuck off!

It's like calling yourself a wine buff and not being able to name any of the grapes used in Tesco Value booze.

Hugh Binnie wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:First to be eliminated were two twats from Newcastle University one of whom was wearing red twatty trousers and they twattishly thought of themselves as "film buffs" yet couldn't name one single Michael Douglas film. Ha! Fuck off!

It's like calling yourself a wine buff and not being able to name any of the grapes used in Tesco Value booze.

Haha, very good.

Hugh Binnie wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:First to be eliminated were two twats from Newcastle University one of whom was wearing red twatty trousers and they twattishly thought of themselves as "film buffs" yet couldn't name one single Michael Douglas film. Ha! Fuck off!

It's like calling yourself a wine buff and not being able to name any of the grapes used in Tesco Value booze.

Erm, not really. Michael Douglas is one of the most famous names in acting. He's a multi Academy Award winner and won other top acting awards like Golden Globes and Emmys as well as being the offspriing of two high profile acting people and married to another famous actress. The two are not comparable. He's hardly the Tesco Value wine of the film industry.

Ryan Taylor wrote:

Hugh Binnie wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:First to be eliminated were two twats from Newcastle University one of whom was wearing red twatty trousers and they twattishly thought of themselves as "film buffs" yet couldn't name one single Michael Douglas film. Ha! Fuck off!

It's like calling yourself a wine buff and not being able to name any of the grapes used in Tesco Value booze.

Erm, not really. Michael Douglas is one of the most famous names in acting. He's a multi Academy Award winner and won other top acting awards like Golden Globes and Emmys as well as being the offspriing of two high profile acting people and married to another famous actress. The two are not comparable. He's hardly the Tesco Value wine of the film industry.

Wow, chill, it's a joke dude. Like when somebody says "name a football team..." and someone else says "Liverpool" and then they're all like "I said football team lololol"

Jon Corby wrote:Wow, chill, it's a joke dude. Like when somebody says "name a football team..." and someone else says "Liverpool" and then they're all like "I said football team lololol"

Err, Liverpool are quite clearly a football team. I mean, what do you think the F in Liverpool FC stands for? Idoit.

Michael Wallace wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Wow, chill, it's a joke dude. Like when somebody says "name a football team..." and someone else says "Liverpool" and then they're all like "I said football team lololol"

Err, Liverpool are quite clearly a football team. I mean, what do you think the F in Liverpool FC stands for? Idoit.

Yeah, but I didn't say Liverpool FC. That's the joke. The Liverpool I referred to is the city. That's what makes it so funny.

Jon Corby wrote:

Michael Wallace wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Wow, chill, it's a joke dude. Like when somebody says "name a football team..." and someone else says "Liverpool" and then they're all like "I said football team lololol"

Err, Liverpool are quite clearly a football team. I mean, what do you think the F in Liverpool FC stands for? Idoit.

Yeah, but I didn't say Liverpool FC. That's the joke. The Liverpool I referred to is the city. That's what makes it so funny.

WELL DON'T I LOOK SILLY

(v funny joke n1 )

Jon Corby wrote: Wow, chill, it's a joke dude. Like when somebody says "name a football team..." and someone else says "Liverpool" and then they're all like "I said football team lololol"

Sorry, that did sound overly aggressive. Basically what I meant is, it's funny and witty when you read it the first time but then when you read it again the analogy doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

I really thought I was struggling today to name world cup final scorers. All the ones I thought of I thought were pretty obvious. Turns out they were all pointless. My answers were Tardelli Jaizinho Puskas.

Mark James wrote:I really thought I was struggling today to name world cup final scorers. All the ones I thought of I thought were pretty obvious. Turns out they were all pointless. My answers were Tardelli Jaizinho Puskas.

Never heard of them and I'm meant to be a football fan.

Mark James wrote:I really thought I was struggling today to name world cup final scorers. All the ones I thought of I thought were pretty obvious. Turns out they were all pointless. My answers were Tardelli Jaizinho Puskas.

I only caught the very end of it, just as the first answer was wrong and I was trying to work out what the question was. I immediately thought of the last one of those three. But yea they're all pretty well known I'd have thought.

Nobody's going to pick opera.

Hugh Binnie wrote:Nobody's going to pick opera.

I no rite. I thought today's champions might after they demonstrated vague competence throughout the show, but alas.