Letters and Numbers

TV Series
2010–2012
25m

IMDb RATING

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Two contestants pit their linguistic and numerical skills against each other and the clock in this quiz show. Hosted by Richard Morecroft, maths whiz Lily Serna and wordsmith David Astle.Two contestants pit their linguistic and numerical skills against each other and the clock in this quiz show. Hosted by Richard Morecroft, maths whiz Lily Serna and wordsmith David Astle.Two contestants pit their linguistic and numerical skills against each other and the clock in this quiz show. Hosted by Richard Morecroft, maths whiz Lily Serna and wordsmith David Astle.

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IMDb RATING

8.2/10

YOUR RATING

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Episodes250

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3 seasons2 years

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Richard Morecroft

Self - Host

• 2010–2011

Lily Serna

Maths Expert…

• 2010–2011

David Astle

Dictionary Expert

• 2010–2011

Michael Gin

Self - Contestant

• 2010

Aaron Tyrrell

Self - Contestant

• 2010

User reviews1

8.280

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7wcpom

Why the short run?

It's surprising that this show only ran for two years and three series, when the UK version, called Countdown, has run for forty three years and over eight thousand episodes. It also spurned the spin off comedy version, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, which has run for 14 yeas and 27 seasons itself.

The Australian version is currently running as repeats on SBS. The reason for it's lack of success may be because it airs on a minority channel, or because the presenters are not quite as good as those on the British version. Despite all of this, guess which one has a higher ranking on IMDB.

Maybe there's hope for a Letters and Numbers comeback yet.

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Trivia
A number of informal names were used during this series. Each possible combination of large and small numbers in the Numbers Round had its own informal name:
A "Rat Pack" is six small numbers.
A "Classroom Mix" is one large number and five small numbers.
A "Family Mix" is two large numbers and four small numbers.
An "Even Stevens", also referred to as a "Perfect Match", is three large and three small numbers.
A "Heavyweight" is all four large numbers and two small numbers.
The following informal names were also used:
A "Full Monty" is when all nine letters are used by a contestant in a Letters Round.
A "Kitchen Sink" is when all six numbers are used by a contestant in a Numbers Round.
A "Scenic Route" is a complicated way of getting near the target number where a simpler option is available.
"Tweaking" is the act of adding or subtracting a small number to or from a large number before it is multiplied in order to get closer to the target number than multiplying the large number alone. For example, if the large numbers include 100, the small numbers include 2, 3 and 6 and the target to reach is 580, many people would think of multiplying 100 by 6 and then subtracting the other small numbers to get close to the target, but the 100 can be "tweaked" by subtracting 3 from it first, then the resulting 97 is multiplied by 6 to get 582, and after subtracting 2, you will reach the exact target.