Countdown

This was the first show ever aired on Channel 4 on its debut afternoon in 1982. I'm not sure whether the fact that it's still being trotted out every weekday some 21 years later says more for it, or Channel 4.

Essentially it is mainly a word game loosely based on, I suppose, 'Scrabble' where contestants have to make the longest word possible from 9 letters selected in a nearly random manner (they can choose between a pile of consonants or vowels, but not see the specific letters beforehand) To add interest they have a couple of rounds of numbers chosen from rows (organised into large and small numbers) of face-down cards that contestants must combine arithmetically to produce another larger number generated by 'the' computer. Contestants range from fairly ordinary folks to the sort of geek that can recite the entire bible backwards - in Latin. The geeks always win of course.

Every five or ten years the producers like to have a anniversary special so they can trot out the original tapes of their younger selves and enjoy a good giggle with the audience. They of course never show old footage of the presenters who have been quietly shelved over the years, including my personal favourite Cathy Hytner who used to select the letters - 'consonant please Cathy.'

It was the numbers sub-contest that Carol Mather (as she was known before reverting to her maiden name Vordeman some years later) used to get her minor starring role. A former propeller-head technician on the Welsh 'Electric Mountain' Hydro project she had the mental agility to get the numbers game right, most of the time. As her fellow presenters (I mean hostesses of course) were switched and then dispensed with she gradually took over the entire stand up role, moving from area to area as required. Richard Whitely, the host, remained sitting behind his desk and the lack of exercise appears to have doubled his body weight since 1982.

But while Whitely simply loosens the cut of his bizarre jackets every year, Vordeman has undergone a selection of makeovers testing stylists skills to the limits. It seems to have achieved the desired effect as she managed to present and appear on shows of unrelated genre, and adverts promoting a wide variety of products from low cholesterol spreads to loan sharks.

I've never felt the need to rush home to watch this, preferring instead the show which immediately precedes it on the schedule, the excellent 15-1, presented by William G. Stewart. I wonder how much the viewing figures for countdown are inflated by folks who like me are too damned lazy to switch channels after 15-1 has finished...

Just because this show is on in the dead of the afternoon, don't dismiss it as lightweight. This show is a hit and has had such a long run because it is intelligent and does not rely on stupid stunts or gimmicks. Thirty seconds to produce a word from nine randomly picked letters is difficult to say the least, and the numbers game is even harder. It's one of the programs I miss most since moving to Canada. Sure Whiteley's jokes are bad, but that is part of the fun. In a TV world where shows like Survivor and Temptation Island get all the attention and millions of viewers, it's great that there are still some programs that need some brain power to get prizes. I'm not surprised that Countdown has lasted so long.

It's a classic "oh what shall I do today when I can't be bothered to get out of my pyjamas?" sort of show. Also worth watching for Rachel Riley.

Richard Whiteley's jokes are terrible and overused. The music is terrible. The whole thing looks years out of date. The sets are awful. Just don't get me started on that irritating "diddle diddle diddly ding... BOOM!"

For some reason, however I still love this show. Richard's jokes, although terrible just seem to fit. The show just wouldn't be the same without that horrible music (with the "diddle diddle diddly ding... BOOM!"), the ugly sets and Carol's tailored suits. This show has been running every teatime for over 20 years and Channel 4 would be lost without it.

Why it is a cult hit watched and loved by teenagers, middle aged people and pensioners alike (it regularly sits in the Top 10 ratings) I can never explain. It is, just accept it. Just watched it a couple of times and I guarantee you'll be hooked, but you won't know why.

Countdown, Channel 4's longest running and first programme to air on the network. The concept is simple: 9 random letters, make the longest word you can. Repeat four times. Now get six numbers of any combination from 1-10 twice over and/or 25, 50, 75 or 100 all once-over. Have a huge sum total and try to get to it using only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Now repeat all of that three times over, chuck in a 9 letter word scrambled up, descramble it, thank you, goodnight.

Okay, so its a popular programme. It turned purple in 2003 for its new set (although it looked like somebody had started hanging wallpaper and left the job half finished) and the show later changed timeslot as well which caused a major upset in the political world of the House of Commons with an early day motion tabled to get Channel 4 to shift it back again! I kid you not.

One thing that strikes you when you first see this show is Richard Whiteley, or rather what he's wearing. This man must go out of his way to pick some awful blazer in some shocking colour and/or pattern and then choose a tie that doesn't complement it or the background in any way whatsoever. I thought there was something wrong with my set when I turned Countdown on one day and there was Mr Whiteley in some god-awful blazer that looks like the sort of interference you get when you use a mobile phone next to the TV set.

Fortunately the shocking blazers don't happen *that* often I'm pleased to say and you can see this man in "normal" attire most of the time.

Carol Vorderman launched her TV career on the back of this. Initially wandering on to do the numbers game, now she does everything. She works well with Richard. It's incredible to think that we are now on series 52 and these two presenters have featured in every single episode to date, which is well over 3000 episodes by now.

The show "expanded" to a 45min format in 2002 from its previous 30min format which tided it over for 20yrs. While the 30min format indeed felt "cramped" at times, You now get the impression that there's too much time to fill under the 45min format which might explain why there's more yakking overall.

Still, beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

Worth watching though but will eventually grate as the format doesn't change. When it does, watch something else for a few months.