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00:00This programme contains strong language and adult humour.
00:05APPLAUSE
00:31Good afternoon, good afternoon.
00:33Very noisy crowd in today.
00:35Good afternoon and welcome to Countdown Studio.
00:37I read the other day, fascinating world championships
00:40that were held in Suffolk.
00:43It wasn't arm wrestling, it was thumb wrestling.
00:46Now, arm wrestling, I happen to know that Susie,
00:48who graces our studio every day, is a brilliant arm wrestler.
00:51Slight though she may be, she has a tremendously strong arm
00:54and great technique, but thumb wrestling I haven't heard too much about.
00:59But anyway, it's in its ninth year and apparently the rounds
01:02and somebody came out as the thumb wrestler of the year.
01:05What is thumb wrestling?
01:07I can't believe you don't know what thumb wrestling is.
01:09One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war.
01:11I've played with Jimmy Carr on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
01:14You're clearly not watching, Nick.
01:16Or I was half-asleep or something, anyway.
01:18Thumb wrestling. The thing is, these days,
01:20and I like these kids' games, Conkers,
01:23apparently you can't play Conkers anymore or climb trees or anything.
01:26I think all children should risk life and limb at the top of a tree
01:31because they then know what danger is. Do you not agree?
01:34Are you ever allowed to babysit your grandchildren?
01:37My grandchildren are fairly adventurous, actually, physically, yeah.
01:41They swim and dive and mess around.
01:44That wasn't what I asked.
01:46I've never... To answer your question, I've never...
01:50What's it called? Babysat.
01:52Babysat. I've never done that.
01:54I've missed out, haven't I?
01:56Well, at least they're still alive.
01:59I know. All right. Now, let's see who else is still alive.
02:02James Kennedy's alive. He came back.
02:04Fought strongly yesterday, got overtaken once or twice,
02:07but came back and won a good win.
02:09Retired teacher from Kilsyth in Glasgow.
02:11Now, you're up against Krishna Chukla,
02:14a retired college lecturer from Carshalton.
02:17You used to lecture at Lambeth, you were telling me.
02:19That's right. You've been retired a while now.
02:22Yeah, well, like 15 years.
02:24Well, good luck today. Good luck to you both.
02:26Big round of applause for Krishna and James.
02:32And Susie, the arm wrestler.
02:34Have you ever done this thumb wrestling, Susie?
02:36No, I haven't. I have to give it a try.
02:38Yeah, OK. Well, we'll have a little go later on.
02:40And you're joined once again by Adrian Childs.
02:43Adrian, do not take her on arm wrestling. She's a demon.
02:46Well, I certainly won't. I'll have a little go at a thumb wrestle.
02:49Shall we have a thumb wrestle? You go one...
02:53Actually, I'm going to lose that. I'm not going to carry on,
02:56because she's got real strength just here.
02:58Oh, she's extraordinary. Just here.
03:00I'm calling it a truce now,
03:02because now James Kennedy is going to war.
03:04James, let us go.
03:06Thank you, Nick. Consonant, please, Rachel.
03:08Thank you, James. Start of the day with K.
03:11And a vowel.
03:13A.
03:15And a vowel.
03:17E.
03:19And a consonant.
03:21C.
03:23Consonant.
03:25N.
03:27Consonant.
03:29S.
03:32A consonant.
03:34C.
03:38A vowel.
03:40I.
03:43And a consonant, please.
03:46And lastly, R.
03:48And here's the Countdown Clock.
03:51CLOCK TICKS
03:53RHYTHMIC TAPPING
03:55RHYTHMIC TAPPING
04:19Yes, James?
04:21Eight.
04:23Seven.
04:25And a seven. Your seven?
04:27Certain.
04:29Certain. And...?
04:31Canister.
04:33Canister. Excellent.
04:35APPLAUSE
04:39Very nice.
04:41Adrian and Susie?
04:43We can do you a seven in the shape of tinkers.
04:45I don't know who this applies to on the Countdown team,
04:47but crankiest is a nine.
04:49A nine! Brilliant.
04:52So, eight points, James. Krishna yet to score,
04:55and it's Krishna's chance now. Yes, Krishna?
04:58A consonant, please.
05:00Thank you, Krishna. D.
05:03Another consonant.
05:05L.
05:07Another consonant.
05:09Z.
05:11Vowel.
05:13A.
05:15Vowel.
05:17E.
05:19O.
05:21O.
05:23Consonant.
05:25D.
05:27Consonant.
05:29C.
05:31And a vowel, please.
05:33And, lastly, A.
05:35Stand by.
05:37RHYTHMIC TAPPING
05:49RHYTHMIC TAPPING
06:07Krishna?
06:09Seven. A seven, James?
06:11I've only got six. Your six?
06:13Eluded.
06:15Now, Krishna?
06:17Cradled.
06:19Cradled?
06:21There's no R, I don't think, there.
06:23It's really bad luck.
06:25Oh, sorry.
06:27But it was a tough one, Nick, this.
06:29How tough was it, I wonder? Six is for us.
06:31All right. Very good.
06:3314 points to James now.
06:35James, it's your numbers game.
06:37Could we have one big one and five small ones, please, Rachel?
06:40Thank you, James. One from the top row and five little ones.
06:43And for this round, they are...
06:455, 8, 3 and 25.
06:50And the target, 951.
06:52951.
06:54RHYTHMIC TAPPING
07:15RHYTHMIC TAPPING
07:25James?
07:27950.
07:29One away, Krishna? 950.
07:31Two 950s. Let's start with James.
07:345 x 8 is 40.
07:365 x 8 is 40.
07:38Minus 3 plus 1.
07:40Minus 3 plus 1, 38.
07:4238 x 25.
07:44And Krishna?
07:46I have got 5 x 8, 40.
07:495 x 8 is 40.
07:51Take away 3.
07:5337.
07:57And then take away 1.
08:01Then take away 1.
08:03Yeah. 36.
08:07And then...
08:09Oh, sorry, I've gone wrong.
08:11Sorry, Krishna.
08:13Bad luck. Let's turn to Rachel. She never goes wrong.
08:16Rachel, 951?
08:18There were a couple of ways.
08:20You could have said 9 minus 3 is 6,
08:23times 5 is 30.
08:25Add the 8, you have 38,
08:27which you can then times by 25,
08:29and you have 1 left over for 951.
08:32Fabulous.
08:34APPLAUSE
08:36And now it's time for our first tea time teaser,
08:39which is our cheetah.
08:41And the clue... Ah, he was a cheetah.
08:43That's why she was feeling so much of this.
08:46Ah, he was a cheetah.
08:48That's why she was feeling so much of this.
09:07Welcome back. I left you with the clue,
09:09that he was a cheetah.
09:11That's why she was feeling so much of this.
09:13So much of what? Why?
09:15Heartache.
09:17Heartache's your answer.
09:19Now, Krishna, your letters game.
09:22Thank you. Can I start with a consonant, please?
09:25Thank you, Krishna.
09:27P
09:29A vowel.
09:31U
09:33Consonant.
09:35N
09:37Vowel.
09:39E
09:41Consonant.
09:43T
09:45Vowel.
09:47O
09:49Consonant.
09:51R
09:55Another consonant.
09:57T
09:59And a vowel, please.
10:01And lastly, E.
10:03Stand by.
10:07E
10:33Krishna.
10:35A six.
10:37Yes, James? Six.
10:39Krishna.
10:41And James?
10:43And repent.
10:45Happy enough? Very happy.
10:47Now, can we beat it, I wonder?
10:49We have a seven with portent.
10:51Thank you.
10:53And Susie, that's it?
10:55Yeah, that's it. Just a reminder about portent.
10:57It's a sign or warning. It's an omen.
10:59Portentous.
11:01Momentous is going to happen, yeah.
11:03Off the blocks there, James.
11:05Lessons game. A consonant, please.
11:07Thank you, James.
11:09R
11:11And another one, please.
11:13T
11:15And a consonant.
11:17M
11:19Vowel.
11:21I
11:23Vowel.
11:25A
11:27Vowel.
11:29E
11:31Consonant.
11:33N
11:35Consonant.
11:37R
11:39And a consonant, please.
11:41And lastly, S.
11:43Stand by.
12:01CLOCK TICKS
12:15Yes, James?
12:17Eight. Eight. Krishna?
12:19Eight. Two eights. James?
12:21Mariners. Mariners.
12:23And?
12:25Minarets. Minarets.
12:27Excellent. Very, very good.
12:29APPLAUSE
12:33Now, let's see whether the corner can beat it
12:35with something even more exciting.
12:37I must say, I hate to give myself credit,
12:39but I've just had one of the greatest moments of my life
12:41where I actually thought of one which Susie hadn't.
12:43Yes. I said it to her.
12:45Very good. It was strainer.
12:47Strainer. Strainer.
12:49We share your joy, by the way. Thank you very much.
12:5135, please. 14.
12:53And, Krishna, your numbers game.
12:55Can I have one big one and five small ones?
12:58You can, indeed. Thank you, Krishna.
13:00One large, five little.
13:02And for this round, the little ones are three, six, one, nine,
13:08and another six, and the large one, 100.
13:12And your target, 843.
13:14843.
13:28CLOCK TICKS
13:46Yes, Krishna?
13:48I've got 839.
13:50839. Can you get closer, James?
13:53842.
13:55One away. Let's hear from you, James.
13:57100 plus 6.
13:59106.
14:019 minus 1 is 8.
14:03Yep.
14:05Times them together is 848.
14:07It is, indeed.
14:09And take off the 6.
14:11Lovely. 842, one away.
14:13Well done. Not perfect, though.
14:15For that, we turn to Rachel. Can it be perfect?
14:17It can. If instead you say 100 minus the 6 is 94,
14:21times that by 9 for 846,
14:23and then take away the 3.
14:25Well done, Rachel.
14:27Perfect as ever.
14:2942 plays 14.
14:31We turn to Adrian. Adrian, you're doing pretty well on this,
14:33but I understand that you're a bit of a scrabble player.
14:36Yeah. Good training.
14:38I've never really played much, bizarrely,
14:40until I started covering football full-time,
14:43and we'd be travelling the world
14:45doing Champions League matches and tournaments,
14:47and I worked very closely with a footballer called Lee Dixon,
14:50who played for Arsenal in England.
14:52Very bright guy, good friend of mine.
14:54And we started playing scrabble
14:56while we were travelling on our iPads.
14:59And my memories of those years are as much about scrabble
15:03as they are about the football that we watched.
15:06The struggles we had were absolutely titanic.
15:10Six-, seven-hour transatlantic flight
15:13the whole time we would get through one game.
15:16And we'd have these, you know, those titanic defensive struggles
15:20where all the letters are clumped in the middle of the board.
15:23But I always said to him, because I used to call him a thick footballer,
15:26which he wasn't, but I said,
15:28to your advantage, you don't know any words.
15:30You don't know many words.
15:32I'm encumbered by trying to find the meaning of words.
15:35And it's interesting, I spoke to the world scrabble champion,
15:38and he said, you've got to forget about the meaning of words.
15:41Forget about thinking of words that mean anything.
15:43You've got to just...
15:45He said, I'm sorry, you've just got to learn
15:48whatever it is, the 22 words that begin with Q
15:51and you don't need a U for.
15:53It's funny, just like you can remember in football
15:56goals that you scored or goals against you,
15:58I can still remember words.
16:00There was one seven-letter word which Lee Dixon came up with
16:05against me to win a game on a flight to Romania.
16:08And I was livid, and it was linters.
16:10I can still remember the moment that he got this bingo,
16:14this seven-letter word linters.
16:16And I still don't know what it means.
16:18And he still doesn't know what it means.
16:20It just looks like a word, linters.
16:22What does it mean again?
16:23The machines that remove cotton fibres from cotton seeds.
16:27Right.
16:28The fibres, yeah.
16:29Trust me, Lee Dixon's a bright guy, but he wouldn't have known that.
16:32But anyway, he won the game, so hats off to him.
16:34People should stick to Countdown.
16:36It's far better than every aspect.
16:38Thanks so much, well done.
16:44There we are.
16:45Now then, James, letters game.
16:47Can I have a consonant, please?
16:50And a consonant.
16:52P
16:54A consonant.
16:56T
16:58A vowel.
17:00A
17:01A vowel.
17:03O
17:05A vowel.
17:07U
17:09A consonant.
17:11D
17:14A consonant.
17:16V
17:17And a vowel, please.
17:19And the last one, I.
17:22Countdown.
17:48Yes, James?
17:50I'll try a seven.
17:51A seven. Krishna?
17:53I'll try a six.
17:55And your six?
17:57I don't know whether it's such a word.
17:59A patoid.
18:00P-A-T-O-I-D.
18:01We'll come to that in a second.
18:03What about James?
18:04Outpaid.
18:05Outpaid.
18:06Outpaid.
18:07Yeah, that was the first thing I looked up, James.
18:09It's not there, I'm afraid.
18:10No, outpay.
18:11Outpaid.
18:12Outpaid.
18:13Outpaid.
18:14Outpaid.
18:15It's not there, I'm afraid.
18:16No, outpay as a verb.
18:18And I don't think it's a patoid either, Krishna, for six.
18:22No.
18:23So, no luck on either of those.
18:25So, standstill?
18:26Yeah.
18:27Standstill there.
18:28Adrian?
18:29A nice one at six.
18:30Utopia.
18:31Ah, yes.
18:32Very tricky with that, an E, isn't it?
18:33Yeah.
18:34If you could pick some Es, we'd be very grateful.
18:36That's fine.
18:37Well, order some up.
18:38Just ask her nicely.
18:39I'm sure she'll give you one.
18:4042 plays 14.
18:41Krishna, your letters game.
18:43Can I start with the vowel, please?
18:45Thank you, Krishna.
18:46There's your E.
18:48Another vowel.
18:50U.
18:52Another vowel.
18:54E.
18:56Consonant.
18:58F.
19:00Consonant.
19:02S.
19:04Consonant.
19:06N.
19:08Consonant.
19:10Q.
19:13And consonant.
19:15N.
19:19Another consonant.
19:21And the last one, L.
19:23Countdown.
19:43MUSIC CONTINUES
19:58Krishna.
19:59Seven.
20:00And...
20:01Seven.
20:02Two sevens. Krishna, seven.
20:04Funnels.
20:05And James.
20:06Funnels.
20:08Thank you.
20:09Two funnels over here. And...
20:11Not only that, we've got six queens, but a seven for funnels.
20:15So we're on the same page.
20:17Well done.
20:18That's it?
20:19That's it.
20:20Thank you.
20:2121 plays 49.
20:22James on 49.
20:23And now, James, it's your numbers game.
20:25Can I have one big one, Rachel, please?
20:27And five small.
20:28That's the usual.
20:29Only one large and five little coming up.
20:31Thank you, James.
20:32And this time they are three,
20:34one,
20:36nine,
20:37six,
20:38seven,
20:39and 50.
20:41And the target, 765.
20:43765.
20:45MUSIC PLAYS
21:10MUSIC STOPS
21:16Yes, James?
21:17764.
21:19One away. Krishna?
21:21I haven't got anything, sorry.
21:23No? Shall we stick with James, then?
21:25Yes, James.
21:269 plus 6 is 15.
21:28Yes.
21:29Times 50.
21:30Times 50 is 750.
21:333 minus 1 is 2.
21:35Yep.
21:36Times 7 is 14.
21:3714 for one away.
21:39Yep, 764.
21:40Well done.
21:41But 765.
21:42Rachel, can you unravel this for us?
21:44Yes, if you start the same way as James.
21:46So 9 plus 6 is 15.
21:49And then you say 50 plus 1 is 51.
21:52Times those together and you get 765.
21:54Oh, well done.
21:55APPLAUSE
21:56Thank you, Rachel.
21:57765.
22:00The score's down in 56 to Krishna's 21s.
22:03We turn to our second Tea Time teaser,
22:05which is I Aptly Car.
22:08And the clue, I aptly chose to leave the car at home
22:11in case I ended up like this.
22:14I aptly chose to leave the car at home
22:16in case I ended up like this.
22:19MUSIC
22:27APPLAUSE
22:30MUSIC
22:35Welcome back. Welcome back.
22:37I left with the clue, I aptly chose to leave the car at home
22:40in case I ended up like this.
22:42Like what?
22:44Well, in case I ended up paralytic.
22:47Paralytic.
22:49Dear me. 56 plays 21.
22:51James on 56. Krishna's letters game.
22:54Krishna.
22:56Consonant, please.
22:58R
23:00Another consonant.
23:02L
23:04One more.
23:06M
23:07Vowel, please.
23:09U
23:11Another vowel.
23:13E
23:14Another vowel.
23:16I
23:18Consonant.
23:20S
23:22Consonant.
23:24T
23:27And to finish with consonant, please.
23:30And finish with R.
23:32Stand by.
23:34MUSIC
23:56MUSIC
24:07Yes, Krishna.
24:09Six.
24:11A six. James?
24:12Seven.
24:13And a seven. Krishna's six is...
24:15Muesli.
24:17And James's seven is...
24:19Mosphia.
24:21Now, over to Susie. Susie, we happy?
24:24Muesli. Thank you.
24:26Mosphia is seven.
24:28Yeah, and also Miss Ruler.
24:30Miss Ruler.
24:32Yeah, doesn't come into use very often, I imagine.
24:3563 plays 21. James on 63.
24:37What have you got for us, James?
24:39Er, consonant, please.
24:41Thank you, James. B
24:43And a consonant.
24:45D
24:47Consonant.
24:49R
24:51A consonant.
24:53A vowel.
24:55A
24:57A vowel.
24:59E
25:01A vowel.
25:03O
25:05A consonant.
25:07G
25:09And a consonant, please.
25:11And the last one, R.
25:13Stand by.
25:15MUSIC
25:24MUSIC
25:45Now, James.
25:47Eight.
25:49And eight. Krishna?
25:51Two good, er, good numbers.
25:53Anyway, let's start with James.
25:55Botos. Botos.
25:57No. Say them again.
25:59Botos, yeah.
26:01Show it to James.
26:03APPLAUSE
26:07They have to be borders, obviously.
26:09We could also do a re-boards.
26:11To re-board something.
26:13Yep. Very good.
26:15Eight's all round. 71 plays 29.
26:18Susie, we turn to you now
26:20for the origins of words.
26:22Susie?
26:24Well, anyone investigating the origins of words
26:26will quite often refer to a certain body
26:29that operates under the acronym CANOO.
26:32And CANOO stands for
26:34Committee to Ascribe a Nautical Origin to Everything.
26:37And that's because so many words in English
26:39are said to have begun their life on the high seas.
26:42And, as you can probably tell, not all of them are true.
26:45But one of the most hotly disputed stories of all
26:47involves the saying BRASS MONKEYS.
26:49That's monkeys' weather. It's incredibly cold.
26:52And in full, the expression is
26:54to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
26:57And it's said to come from the triangles
27:00that supported large kind of pyramid-style stacks
27:03of iron cannonballs that were held on sailing ships,
27:06military sailing ships.
27:08But the plot does thicken a little bit,
27:10because we do know that a naval cannon itself
27:12was known as a monkey,
27:14and the boys that loaded the cannons on naval ships
27:16were called Powder Monkeys.
27:18So the origin is just about possible,
27:20but where it gets confusing
27:22is that the cannonballs came along
27:24after a whole line of other sayings involving a brass monkey,
27:27and most of them involved extremes of hot or cold weather.
27:30So you would have,
27:32it's hot enough to singe the hair off a brass monkey,
27:34hot enough to burn the ears of a brass monkey.
27:37You could also talk the legs, not off a donkey,
27:40but off a brass monkey.
27:42You might not have the brains of a brass monkey,
27:44or you could touch the heart of a brass monkey
27:46and be very, very kind.
27:48There's a whole line of expressions involving this brass figure.
27:52Which means, in the end, with all these bodily references,
27:55that the balls in question are simply testicles,
27:58with an added punning reference to those monkeys that I mentioned,
28:01which were the cannons on naval ships.
28:03So the sea does come into it somewhere,
28:05but it's a very, very thick plot
28:07that you have to really kind of get into to find out the truth.
28:10We're very grateful to you.
28:12APPLAUSE
28:17Very good.
28:19Monkeys, eh?
28:2171 plays 29, James on 71.
28:24Krishna, your letters game.
28:26Can I start with a consonant, please?
28:28Thank you, Krishna. M
28:32Another consonant.
28:34G
28:36The third one.
28:38P
28:41Vowel, please.
28:43U
28:45Another vowel.
28:47A
28:49And the third vowel.
28:51E
28:53Consonant, please.
28:55R
28:58Another consonant.
29:00L
29:03And the last one, also a consonant.
29:06And the last one, D.
29:08Stand by.
29:15B
29:41Krishna.
29:43Six. James?
29:45Seven. No. Krishna.
29:47Glared.
29:49Thank you. And James?
29:51Plagued.
29:53Susie? Plagued. Yep, absolutely fine for seven.
29:55All right. 78 plays 29.
29:58James, your letters game.
30:01A consonant, please, Rachel.
30:03Thank you, James. H
30:05And a consonant.
30:07G
30:09A consonant.
30:11Vowel.
30:13O
30:15Vowel.
30:17I
30:19Consonant.
30:21B
30:23Consonant.
30:25Y
30:27Vowel.
30:29E
30:31And a consonant.
30:35And lastly, S.
30:37And the clock starts now.
30:41CLOCK TICKS
30:43CLOCK TICKS
31:09James?
31:11A seven. Krishna?
31:13Six. And that six?
31:15Bigots.
31:17Bigots. James?
31:19Bothies.
31:21And what's that, Susie?
31:23They're small huts, bothies, in Scotland.
31:25It's in mountain refuges, roughly.
31:27Bothies.
31:29OK. What else have we got there?
31:31Adrian, you're looking excited.
31:33We've got an eight for you.
31:35Thank you. And I didn't think of it,
31:37so I'm going to hand over to Susie
31:39to tell us what it is.
31:41Susie? Thanks for that, Adrian.
31:43It's gobs***.
31:45LAUGHTER
31:47Are you allowed to say that?
31:49Well, it's vulgar slang, so you have to be careful.
31:51A stupid, foolish or incompetent person.
31:53All right. 85 plays 29.
31:55And it's the final numbers game for you, Krishna.
31:57One big one
31:59and the rest small, please.
32:01Thank you, Krishna. One large, five little.
32:03From the final one of the day.
32:05And this selection is
32:07five, six,
32:09one, nine.
32:11If I can catch my nine.
32:13And 100.
32:15And the target,
32:17110.
32:19One, one, zero.
32:21MUSIC PLAYS
32:37MUSIC STOPS
32:53Krishna?
32:55Yeah, just about.
32:57Just about. And how about James?
32:59Yes, I think I've got it, yeah.
33:01Let's deal with this very briskly. Krishna?
33:03100 plus nine plus one.
33:05I did 100 plus six plus four.
33:07All right, there we are. Nice to vary it, isn't it?
33:09So, 95 plays 39.
33:11Krishna won 39 as we go into the final round.
33:13Gentlemen, fingers on buzzers.
33:15Let's roll today's Countdown Conundrum.
33:23BELL RINGS
33:25James, so quick.
33:27Midwicket.
33:29Midwicket. Let's see whether you're right.
33:31Midwicket.
33:33Well done.
33:39Well done, James.
33:41Well done. And over 100.
33:43I'll come back to you in a second.
33:45Krishna, well played.
33:47Well played. Good score against somebody
33:49who's chalked up his first
33:51over 100.
33:53So, well done. Please take this goodie bag.
33:55Thank you very much for coming.
33:57We shall see you tomorrow, James. Well done.
33:59Well played.
34:01We shall see your characters tomorrow.
34:03Adrian and Susie, of course.
34:05See you tomorrow. And Rachel too, of course.
34:07See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow.
34:09Thank you. Same time, same place.
34:11You'll be sure of it. A very good afternoon.
34:13APPLAUSE
34:15Contact us by email at countdown at channel4.com,
34:19by Twitter at C4Countdown,
34:21or write to us at CountdownLeadsLS31JS.
34:25You can also find our web page at channel4.com forward slash countdown.
34:29APPLAUSE
34:31Tomorrow night on Channel 4,
34:33brand-new Food Unwrap does Packet Custard
34:35hold the mystery to ketchup out of a bottle at 8 o'clock.
34:39But back to tonight at 9 o'clock,
34:41and mock exam results are in.
34:43It's not exactly building confidence,
34:45educating Greater Manchester.
34:47But next up, Find It, Fix It, Blog It.
34:49APPLAUSE