Countdown - Wednesday 1st June 2022
Transcript
00:30Hello, and welcome to Countdown.
00:32On this day in 1935, compulsory driving tests arrived.
00:38And before that, your great-great-great-great-granny
00:42could drive around without even knowing how to reverse.
00:47You got your driving test, Rachel.
00:49I passed mine, you know, when I was 17, but my dear husband,
00:53because he's been driving around with an American licence
00:55for 20-odd years, he now has to take his driving licence in the UK
00:58to be allowed to drive here without me watching him criticising.
01:02Yeah, let's meet our contestants.
01:04Will is back.
01:05Remind us, you're an accountant at a veterinary hospital.
01:09I am indeed, yes.
01:10You don't deal with the animals?
01:11No, no, I just stick to the office work.
01:13Now, competing against you is Stephen from Liverpool,
01:18but he now lives in Skirm,
01:19as do a great many Liverpudlians, don't they?
01:22That's right, yeah.
01:23Lucky Skirm.
01:25Absolutely.
01:26Liverpool's loss is Galmersdale's gain.
01:28Yeah.
01:29And we've both got the same colour hair.
01:32What do you call your hair?
01:34Poppy.
01:35Poppy, yeah.
01:36And...
01:37Receding.
01:38Is it receding?
01:39Yeah.
01:40How old are you?
01:41I'm 50.
01:42OK.
01:43And you've got lots of metal around your face.
01:46Do a lot of people in Skirm have that at 50?
01:49Absolutely not, no.
01:52So you stand out?
01:53I like to, yeah.
01:54Yeah.
01:55Well, you certainly do.
01:56Don't worry about it.
01:57A round of applause for our contestants.
01:59APPLAUSE
02:04Over in the corner, hi, Susie.
02:06Hi, Anne.
02:07And we've got Robert Hardman telling us tremendous secrets
02:11about the Queen and the royal family.
02:13We've just got him for one more day.
02:16Hi, Robert.
02:17Hello, Anne.
02:18Let's get going.
02:19Will, your letters.
02:22Good afternoon, Rachel.
02:23Afternoon, Will.
02:24Can I have a consonant, please?
02:25It can indeed start today with K.
02:28And another one, please.
02:30D.
02:31And a third.
02:32R.
02:34And a fourth, please.
02:36P.
02:37Vowel.
02:39E.
02:40And another one.
02:42E.
02:43And a third.
02:45O.
02:47Consonant.
02:49R.
02:50And a final vowel, please.
02:53Final A.
02:54Let's play Countdown.
03:25Will.
03:27Six.
03:28Good. Stephen?
03:29Sixty, yeah.
03:30Will?
03:31Packed.
03:32Stephen?
03:33Picked.
03:34Yes, both absolutely fine.
03:36And we could not get beyond a six, either.
03:39What we all live in hope of, reader.
03:41Readers, hopefully.
03:43Readers.
03:44Like viewers.
03:47Stephen, your first go at the letters.
03:50Hi, Rachel.
03:51Hi, Stephen.
03:52A consonant, please.
03:53OK, start with L.
03:55And another one, please.
03:57S.
03:58And another.
04:00L.
04:02And a vowel, please.
04:04O.
04:06And another vowel.
04:08U.
04:11And a consonant.
04:13T.
04:17And a vowel.
04:19Another O.
04:23And a consonant, please.
04:26H.
04:30And a final vowel, please.
04:32A final A.
04:34Time starts now.
04:53MUSIC
05:07Stephen?
05:08A7.
05:09Good. Will?
05:10Just a six, not written down.
05:12What's your six?
05:13A lot.
05:14Stephen?
05:15A shallot.
05:16Well spotted. Excellent.
05:18Very good. Robert?
05:20It's only a five and lotus.
05:22Oh, I was with shallot, so that's shallot.
05:24OK.
05:25That's very good, Susie.
05:27Sorry, that's the worst pun in the world.
05:30Will, your numbers.
05:32One large, five small, please, Rachel.
05:34Thank you, Will.
05:35The standard option.
05:37One big, five little, and they are...
05:393, 5, 3.
05:427 and 7 and a large one, 50.
05:46Your target, 203.
05:49203.
05:50MUSIC
06:21Will?
06:22203.
06:23Good. Stephen?
06:24Yeah, 203.
06:26Will?
06:277 minus 3 is 4.
06:294.
06:30Times 50.
06:31200.
06:32And add the other three.
06:33Simples.
06:35Stephen?
06:36Exact same way.
06:38Oh.
06:39APPLAUSE
06:42First teaser coming up.
06:44Strip, nut, strip, nut, and the clue.
06:48You might employ him if your rotisserie is broken.
06:53You might employ him if your rotisserie is broken.
06:57See you in a minute.
07:06APPLAUSE
07:13I left you with a clue.
07:15You might employ him if your rotisserie is broken
07:19and the answer is turn, spit.
07:22Now, if you'd like to become a Countdown contestant,
07:25you can email Countdown at channel4.com
07:29to request an application form,
07:31or you can write to us at contestantapplications,
07:35Countdown, Leeds, LS31JS.
07:41The scores, 16 to 23.
07:44Stephen, it's going to be your letters,
07:46but first of all, I need to know all about the piercings.
07:51What do you want to know, and which ones?
07:54OK, why have you got them?
07:56It was just... Well, it started out, I've got a few tattoos,
08:00and it was many, many years ago, decades ago now.
08:03I've always liked to be a little bit beyond the norm,
08:07you know, a little bit to the sidelines,
08:10on the edge of society, so to speak.
08:12I think you've achieved that.
08:15And I've got a few tattoos.
08:17I couldn't afford tattoos at one time or so,
08:20so I'll get a piercing instead, try that,
08:23and I just caught the bug for that.
08:25Have you got a girlfriend? No.
08:27No. Do you think you can pull with piercings?
08:31Perhaps not the right type of woman.
08:35Would you need a woman with piercings?
08:38Not necessarily, you know.
08:40I'd never get away from her, just in case we got entangled.
08:45OK. So there is hope for us all, really. Us girls.
08:50If you play your cards right, Anne.
08:52Oh, your letters.
08:54Consonant, please, Rachel. Thanks, Stephen.
08:56G And a vowel.
08:59I And a consonant.
09:02F And a vowel.
09:05O And a consonant.
09:09S And a vowel, please.
09:12I And a consonant.
09:16T And another vowel, please.
09:21E And a consonant, please.
09:24And the last one, D.
09:2630 seconds.
09:35CLOCK TICKS
09:58Stephen? Seven.
10:00Good. Will? Seven as well.
10:02Stephen? Foisted.
10:04Will? Fidgets.
10:07Very good. That's good.
10:09Robert?
10:11I'm wondering if this is a proper word, but Tifosi,
10:15which is the Italian for motor racing fans,
10:17would that pass muster?
10:19Ooh.
10:21Yes. Excellent.
10:24Fans of a particular sports team known for their enthusiastic support,
10:28especially those following Italian soccer, cycler or F1.
10:31Excellent. That's very impressive.
10:33That's what seven meant.
10:37And there is an eight there as well with digestif,
10:40so a little alcoholic drink that aids the digestion.
10:43Very good.
10:45Will, your letters.
10:47Consonant, please, Rachel. Thank you, Will.
10:50P And again, please.
10:53N The third.
10:56T And a fourth.
10:59M Vowel, please.
11:01I And another.
11:03A And another.
11:06I
11:08Consonant, please.
11:10S And a final vowel, please.
11:14Final A. Good luck.
11:31MUSIC
11:47Will? Just a five.
11:49Stephen? Six.
11:51Your five, Will. Stamp.
11:54Stephen? Paints.
11:56Yes. Very good. Robert?
11:59I've got stamina, which hopefully is seven.
12:02Definitely is. Very good, seven.
12:04A couple more to join it are piñatas and timpani.
12:08Kettledrums.
12:10Stephen, your first go at the numbers.
12:13One from the top and any other five, please, Rachel.
12:16Same selection. One large, five little. Thank you, Stephen.
12:19And they are ten, nine, seven,
12:24one, four and a big E.
12:27100. And your target, even worse, 901.
12:32901.
12:57MUSIC
13:05Well, Stephen, you've been able to count your fingers
13:08while the clock went right.
13:11What have you got? 901.
13:13Will? Yeah, 901.
13:15Stephen?
13:17Nine times 100. Yeah.
13:19Plus one. I could even see Ed in our sound department
13:22celebrating on that one. That's how easy that one was.
13:25Ed? Will?
13:27Same way, yeah.
13:29Robert, we've had a really interesting time with you
13:32talking about the Queen.
13:34A very, very appropriate time.
13:37The Jubilee right on our doorsteps.
13:40You say in the book that she's had so many presents
13:45and how difficult it is to think of anything she hasn't got.
13:48Well, it's true, Anne.
13:50I mean, everybody wants to give her something
13:52and it's the old adage of,
13:54what do you give the woman who's got everything?
13:56And they do range from boxes of diamonds.
13:59She was once given a gold handbag in the Gulf.
14:02Amazing jewellery.
14:04But some of the more touching things are the sort of smaller items.
14:07She's very fond of a portrait of herself made out of banana leaves,
14:11which she got on a Commonwealth tour.
14:13And a particularly sweet gift was in 1961 in The Gambia.
14:18She was on her yacht and was about to leave
14:20when a boy ran up the quayside with a biscuit tin
14:22and handed it to the equerry and said,
14:24this is for the Queen.
14:25And she opened it up and inside was a baby crocodile.
14:28Aw!
14:29And it was a sort of case of, well, what do we do with this?
14:31And her private secretary said, well, put it in my bath
14:33and I'll look after it.
14:34And it spent the rest of its days in London Zoo.
14:37Right.
14:38Talking of portraits,
14:39did she like or dislike the Lucian Freud portrait of her?
14:43She was actually quite touched by it.
14:46A lot of people thought it was appalling.
14:48It's a very small portrait and it's got what one art critic said
14:52it looked like six o'clock shadow.
14:54But she could see he was a great artist
14:58and she was happy to be painted by him and she considered it an honour.
15:02But I don't think it's necessarily her favourite,
15:04but she's, you know, she's glad she did it.
15:07What's her favourite portrait?
15:09I think one that she's always been very fond of
15:12is the earlier portraits, like, as you might expect,
15:15there's a wonderful Anagony, one of the classics.
15:19But she gets a lot of portraits of herself every week in the post
15:23from schoolchildren.
15:25And a lot of them do make their way up in her red box.
15:28She always likes a selection of whatever's in the post
15:30and she's always being painted wherever she goes around the world.
15:35The one thing children always get rather upset about
15:37is when she turns up and she's not wearing a crown
15:39and she often has to explain and walk about.
15:41The first thing they ask is, where's your crown?
15:43She has to say, well, I'm not wearing it today.
15:45I wanted to ask you, when Prince Charles,
15:49she's begun to hand things over,
15:52will we look at a very different time,
15:55even now that he's doing many more of her duties?
15:59He is, Prince Charles is now, he is, in the same way the Queen
16:02is the longest reigning monarch we've ever had,
16:04the longest lived monarch we've ever had,
16:06Charles is the longest serving heir to the throne.
16:09So, you know, he's been round public life now
16:12for longer than anybody else in this country,
16:15with the exception of his mother.
16:17So he's very well trained, if you like, very well prepared.
16:20But he is taking on more and more of what you might call the heavy lifting.
16:24The Queen's decided she's not going to fly any more overseas,
16:27so he does those tours.
16:29He does most of the investitures now.
16:31It's a sort of sensible, they don't talk about regency
16:34or anything like that, they just talk about transition.
16:37And it's just about him gently taking on more and more of her duties,
16:41while, nonetheless, she is very firmly, you know, staying number one.
16:46But at 96, mobility is a bit of a problem,
16:50standing for a long time, isn't it?
16:53Yeah, I mean, the Queen often sort of cracks jokes about it,
16:56she says, oh, I can't move or whatever,
16:58but, I mean, she's the first to realise she's just got to be practical,
17:02you know, she can't push herself too far.
17:06But she's, as we've seen, right the way through the pandemic,
17:09through the challenges of losing Prince Philip,
17:12she's absolutely determined to stay on top of the job.
17:15Thank you very much.
17:16And I'll just remind everybody, Queen of our times, Robert Harding.
17:22Thank you, Anne.
17:27Will, your letters.
17:29Consonant, please, Rachel.
17:30Thank you, Will.
17:32T.
17:33And another one.
17:35D.
17:36And a third.
17:38W.
17:39And a fourth.
17:41C.
17:42Vowel, please.
17:44E.
17:45And another one.
17:46A.
17:47And a third.
17:48A.
17:50Consonant, please.
17:52P.
17:54And a final consonant, please.
17:56A final N.
17:57Start the clocks.
18:05CLOCK TICKS
18:29Will.
18:30Seven.
18:31Stephen.
18:32Six, that's it.
18:33What's your six?
18:34Consonant.
18:35Will.
18:36Not sure if this is a word.
18:37Candate.
18:38Candate.
18:40Mandate would be there and candidate,
18:42but I don't think a mixture of the two is not there.
18:45I'm sorry, Will.
18:46What did you think it meant, Will?
18:48I have no idea, to be honest.
18:49I knew it was a panic at the last minute.
18:51I thought, ooh, that's a word.
18:52And now I know it's not.
18:53Oh.
18:54Robert.
18:55A peon of praise.
18:57Yeah.
18:58Very nice.
18:59Yes.
19:00Six really was our best with catnap and panted.
19:03Thank you.
19:05Right.
19:06My fellow red-headed Scarsome, your letters.
19:11Consonant, please, Rachel.
19:13Thank you, Stephen.
19:14H.
19:15And another F, please.
19:17T.
19:18And one more.
19:20G.
19:21And a vowel, please.
19:23E.
19:25And another vowel.
19:26E.
19:28And a consonant.
19:30C.
19:33And a vowel, please.
19:35O.
19:37And a consonant.
19:39L.
19:41And a consonant, please.
19:44Final D.
19:46Good luck.
19:58MUSIC
20:17Stephen.
20:18Six.
20:20Will.
20:21Seven.
20:22You're six, Stephen.
20:23Etched.
20:25Will.
20:26Clothed.
20:27Clothed.
20:28Yes, very good indeed.
20:29In the corner.
20:31I've got six, Anne.
20:32Echoed.
20:33Yes, very nice.
20:34And, Stephen, were you thinking about putting the L in front?
20:36Yeah.
20:37Yeah, you can spell etched with a T, I'm sorry to say.
20:40And that would give you another seven.
20:42Sorry.
20:43Will, your numbers.
20:46Six more, please, Rachel.
20:48That was a deep exhale as you bit the bullet and you're gambling.
20:52Let's see what this round brings.
20:54The six little ones for you are one, three, nine, six, six, and eight.
21:01And the target, 336.
21:04336.
21:06MUSIC
21:25MUSIC
21:36Will.
21:37336.
21:38Good. Stephen.
21:39Yeah, 336, not written down.
21:41OK, you go first.
21:43Six times six.
21:4536.
21:47Multiplied by nine plus one.
21:50Multiplied by nine plus one for 360.
21:54Minus eight times three.
21:56And then eight times three that you haven't used.
21:59Yeah, lovely.
22:00336.
22:01Good. Will.
22:02Six plus one is seven.
22:04Six plus one, seven.
22:05Times eight.
22:06Times eight.
22:07It's 56 times six.
22:08Yeah, quite nice, that one.
22:09Six times seven times eight.
22:11336.
22:12Well done.
22:15Second teaser.
22:16Learn, sit.
22:17Learn, sit.
22:19Learn, sit, and the clue.
22:21You'll have to learn to sit correctly if using these.
22:24You'll have to learn to sit correctly using these.
22:28See you in a minute.
22:45Welcome back.
22:46I left you with the clue.
22:48You'll have to learn to sit correctly if using these,
22:51and the answer is latrines.
22:54The scores are 50-62.
22:57Stephen, your letters.
22:59Consonant, please, Rachel.
23:01Thank you, Stephen.
23:02L.
23:03And another one, please.
23:05R.
23:06And another, please.
23:08S.
23:09And a vowel.
23:11O.
23:13And another one, please.
23:15U.
23:17And a consonant.
23:19N.
23:21And a consonant.
23:23B.
23:26And a vowel.
23:28E.
23:31And finish with a consonant, please.
23:34Finish with D.
23:36Start the clock.
23:47CLOCK TICKS
24:08Stephen?
24:09Eight.
24:10Good. Will?
24:11Just a seven.
24:12What's your seven?
24:13Blondes.
24:14Stephen?
24:15Rebounds.
24:16Very nice.
24:17Yes, excellent.
24:19Robert?
24:20I think it's an eight, Anne, with blunders.
24:23Oh, good.
24:24Yep.
24:25Erm, and, erm,
24:27boulders as well,
24:29and bounders.
24:30OK.
24:31Will, Stephen's moving ahead.
24:34It's your letters.
24:36Consonant, please, Rachel.
24:38Thank you, Will.
24:39C.
24:40And a second one.
24:42M.
24:43And another.
24:45R.
24:46And another one, please.
24:48M.
24:49Vowel, please.
24:51U.
24:52And a second.
24:54O.
24:55And a third.
24:56E.
24:58Consonant, please.
25:00D.
25:03And another consonant, please.
25:05And the last one, N.
25:06Let's play Countdown.
25:13CLOCK TICKS
25:38Will?
25:39Seven.
25:40Good. Stephen?
25:41Just a five, that's all.
25:43Oh, what is it?
25:44Mound.
25:45Will?
25:46Mourned.
25:47Yeah, very good.
25:48Robert?
25:50Decorum.
25:51Oh, that's nice.
25:53Yeah, very appropriate for Robert.
25:55There's an eight there, communed, as in she communed with nature.
25:58Yeah.
25:59And over to you, Susie.
26:01Thanks, Anne.
26:02Well, we've been hearing a lot this year
26:05about fuel, politically and economically, of course.
26:11And it's a strange-looking word, if you just look at it on the paper.
26:15So I thought I would just explain a little bit as to where it comes from.
26:19You know, as they say, it's risen to such significance today.
26:22So it came into English in the late 14th century
26:25and it came to us from French, courtesy of the Norman conquerors,
26:29but ultimately it goes back to the Latin focalia.
26:32So it looks a little bit different to how it started.
26:36And focalia was used in legal documents in Roman times
26:39for material for making a fire.
26:41That's what it was all about.
26:43And, of course, focalia also gave us focus.
26:46And focus, for the Romans, meant the hearth or the fireplace.
26:50And the fireplace, of course, was so important,
26:52both for warmth and also for cooking.
26:55And it's because of that that we get the idea
26:57of the burning point of a lens, really,
26:59but also the subject of concentration,
27:02because it is just so important.
27:05So that's where we get fuel from,
27:07the idea of a focus of a hearth or a fireplace.
27:09But that Latin focus also gave us foyer,
27:13which, again, comes from French.
27:15And that too is from the idea of a hearth
27:18and something being the hub of activity,
27:20you know, where everyone would gather late at night.
27:22That was really, really important.
27:24And actually the first sense of foyer was the green room in theatre
27:28and then eventually the area that the public could gather in
27:31during intervals, again, that hub where everybody would assemble,
27:34around probably a giant fireplace.
27:37And while we're with foyers, just a reminder, really,
27:39that curfew also has a fire at its heart, albeit a secret one,
27:43because curfew began as the French couvre-feu, cover, fire.
27:47And it was a bell often rung at night,
27:50reminding households to put out their fires, to extinguish them,
27:53not in order to keep them in, as a modern curfew would do,
27:56but simply so that their houses wouldn't burn down.
27:58Thank you, Suzy.
28:00APPLAUSE
28:04Stephen, your letters.
28:06Consonant, please, Rachel.
28:08Thank you, Stephen. B.
28:10And another one, sorry.
28:13R.
28:15And another one, please. T.
28:17And a vowel.
28:19A.
28:21And a vowel, please.
28:23E.
28:24And a consonant.
28:26S.
28:28And another consonant, please.
28:30R.
28:32And a vowel.
28:34A.
28:36And a consonant, please.
28:39Lastly, F.
28:4130 seconds.
29:02MUSIC PLAYS
29:13Stephen.
29:14Seven.
29:15Will.
29:16Seven.
29:17Stephen.
29:18Barters.
29:19Will.
29:20Berates.
29:22We need two Es for berates, so it's B-E-R-A-T-E-S.
29:26Sorry about that, Will.
29:28In the corner.
29:29I think seven, Anne. A breast.
29:31Good.
29:32Yes, and rafters are also there.
29:34Thank you.
29:35Will, your letters.
29:37You're very much still in the game.
29:39Thank you.
29:40Consonant, please, Rachel.
29:42Thank you, Will. S.
29:43And another one.
29:45N.
29:47And a third.
29:48X.
29:50And a fourth.
29:52R.
29:53Vowel, please.
29:55I.
29:56And a second.
29:58I.
29:59And a third.
30:00U.
30:02And a fourth.
30:04O.
30:07And a fifth, please.
30:09Let's try for a better one.
30:11No, another I.
30:12Off you go.
30:14MUSIC PLAYS
30:31MUSIC CONTINUES
30:44Will?
30:45Five.
30:46Oh.
30:47Stephen?
30:48I have two, yeah.
30:49Will?
30:50Ruins.
30:51Stephen?
30:52And irons.
30:53Yes.
30:54Hard.
30:55Very, very hard, and those exactly are two, I think.
30:58Irons.
30:59Irons.
31:00Yes.
31:01Irons in the final.
31:02Thank you.
31:03Penultimate round.
31:04Round 14.
31:05Stephen?
31:06Your numbers.
31:08Er, a big E and five little Ns, please, Rachel.
31:11A big E and five little Ns to secure the teapot.
31:14Let's see if this does it or it goes to the conundrum.
31:17The final numbers are 6, 8, 3, 1, 10, and the large one, 25.
31:24And the target, 240.
31:27240.
31:29MUSIC PLAYS
31:58MUSIC STOPS
31:59Well, you're both looking very serene.
32:02Stephen?
32:03Yeah, 240.
32:04Will?
32:05Yeah, 240.
32:06Stephen?
32:07Eight times three.
32:0824.
32:09Times ten.
32:10Times ten, easy.
32:11Sorry, Will.
32:12Same way.
32:13Yeah, next one.
32:14Exactly the same.
32:15OK.
32:16It is the final round.
32:18The scores are 72 to 92.
32:23Fingers on buzzers.
32:25Please reveal today's Countdown Conundrum.
32:56MUSIC STOPS
33:02Oh, interesting.
33:04Anyone in the studio?
33:07No.
33:08Ah.
33:09Let's have a look.
33:12Well, how easy was that, you guys?
33:16It's easy when you can see the answer.
33:18Yeah.
33:19Will, thank you very much.
33:21Thank you, Anne.
33:22I've had a wonderful three days, thank you.
33:24Yeah, and give my love to all the animals.
33:26I shall do.
33:27Yeah.
33:28And good luck with the lawn bowling.
33:31Thank you very much.
33:32I now know that lawn bowling is straight and crown bowling is a hump.
33:38It is, yes.
33:39Oh, OK.
33:40Stephen, congratulations.
33:42Thank you, Anne.
33:43I presume with the hair you support Liverpool?
33:45Absolutely, yeah.
33:46Yeah, of course you do.
33:48Susie, thank you very much.
33:50Thanks, Anne.
33:51Robert Hardman, thank you.
33:52Thank you.
33:53Rach?
33:54Well, I think Stephen gives a whole new meaning to the term Scousebrow.
33:57I'm not sure it would go down very well with the blue side of Liverpool,
34:00but I like the commitment to the red.
34:02Yeah, we don't worry about the blue side.
34:04Do we, Stephen?
34:05Absolutely not.
34:06No.
34:07Thank you for watching.
34:08Bye.
34:09APPLAUSE
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34:14or write to us at countdown leads ls31js.
34:18You can also find our web page at channel4.com forward slash countdown.
34:26When they get it right, they get it really right,
34:29but when they get it wrong, oh, my.
34:31Big off the professionals stream the series so far now on all four.
34:35It's not called Location, Location, Location for nothing.
34:38Kirsty and Phil are after two dream houses in a tempestuous market
34:42tonight here on Channel 4 at 8.
34:44Up next, just a place in the sun will do.
34:48Thank you.