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00:00This programme contains strong language and adult humour.
00:04APPLAUSE
00:31Hello, everybody. Welcome to the last regular season countdown.
00:36For tomorrow, the series finale begins.
00:39Four quarter-finals, two semi-finals,
00:42and next Friday's big final to crown our series champion.
00:46Rachel, you know I'm overexcited. Yes.
00:48I'm a fan, first and foremost.
00:50But let's put that aside for now,
00:52because there's other big things to be getting on with.
00:54It's Roast Chestnuts Day.
00:56We've got to give that the credit it deserves.
00:58Sweet chestnuts you eat. Mm-hm.
01:00Don't eat a horse chestnut.
01:02Don't eat conkers.
01:04Public health warning.
01:06But that's the only ones I'm interested in,
01:08because, you know, I'm a nostalgic old fool.
01:10Get the knitting needle out. Vinegar.
01:12Vinegar. Bake them.
01:14Behind the immersion heater was always very, very good,
01:16rather than low-bake them.
01:18I'd leave them there every night with the hope
01:20that I'd finally have a winner. Never did.
01:22What about you, then? What else?
01:24Hopscotch? Yep.
01:26What about this? Eh, more Bulldog.
01:28Right, there you go.
01:30Or Sticky Glue.
01:32Nice memories, eh?
01:34I love to play conkers now.
01:36It's too old to do it. People would laugh at you.
01:38All right, let's take a hop, skip and jump
01:40over to Dictionary Corner,
01:42where Susie Dent is back in business with us.
01:44I'm making her debut this week.
01:46We're nuts about her. It's Vic Hope.
01:48APPLAUSE
01:52Loads to get on with today before our big
01:54competitive season quarterfinals begin.
01:56Peter Burke can't be there.
01:58You're running out of road, my friend.
02:00But you've got four wins.
02:02It's your fifth today. That's right.
02:04You'd have to come back at the start of the next series.
02:06And this is where it's time to make
02:08a big countdown announcement.
02:10Because not only have we got our end of series
02:12Big Eight playing to crown
02:14a series champion,
02:16after that, after many years,
02:18it's the return of champion
02:20of champions.
02:22It's the best of all time.
02:24The Countdown Goats will gather
02:26in the new year.
02:28Which is just amazing.
02:30And we'll all be here for it.
02:32So do not miss Countdown. You shouldn't anyway.
02:34But this run is going to be absolutely outstanding.
02:36So if you could win today,
02:38you'll get to walk about like
02:40Johnny Big Bananas.
02:42For, you know, like eight weeks.
02:44Amazing, yeah.
02:46End of January to come back to trampoline and knock the champ.
02:48One step at a time. Good luck to you.
02:50You've got to win another four to get there.
02:52John Crookes is hoping you'll have bragging rights
02:54over the Christmas period.
02:56Now, you probably
02:58recognise him. Let's just get it out of the way.
03:00You know,
03:02the Milky Bar Kid,
03:04the Milk Tray Man,
03:06and of course John Crookes. Just confirm it to everybody.
03:08Yeah, my claim to fame
03:10and my 15 minutes prize for today
03:12was to star in the Chicken Tonight
03:14advert doing the now famous
03:16infamous Chicken Tonight
03:18advert. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:2011-year-old me saw that platform
03:22and embraced it like you
03:24will not believe.
03:26Everybody that knows John have checked on YouTube.
03:28It is there and it's very,
03:30very special indeed.
03:32Right, you try and clip Peter's wings today.
03:34Good luck to both of you.
03:38Once more. This regular season,
03:40the final show before our
03:42big finals. Peter, letters.
03:44Good afternoon, Rachel. Good afternoon, Peter.
03:46A consonant, please. Thank you. Start today
03:48with W.
03:50And another.
03:52S. And a third.
03:54C.
03:56A vowel.
03:58E. And another.
04:00I.
04:02And a third.
04:04E.
04:06A consonant.
04:08N.
04:10A vowel.
04:12A. And a final
04:14consonant, please. A final S.
04:16Art Ulman in the studio.
04:18Let's play Countdown.
04:44MUSIC PLAYS
04:50Time, Peter?
04:52Six. And John?
04:54Going to go with a seven. Oh, what a start.
04:56Peter? Winces. Winces is there.
04:58And John?
05:00Encases.
05:02Encases. It's absolutely fine.
05:04You can have incases as well, which is a variant spelling,
05:06but both are there for seven. Well done.
05:08APPLAUSE
05:10Can we get on over on the far side of the studio?
05:12What?
05:14Are you two all right?
05:16Another seven. Seances.
05:18Oh, now it makes sense.
05:20Now it makes sense.
05:22It's seances for seven.
05:24Spooky stuff.
05:26And spooky to see Peter not in the lead.
05:28John, your letters. Good afternoon, Rachel.
05:30Afternoon, John. Can I have a consonant, please?
05:32You can indeed. N.
05:34And a second.
05:36D.
05:38And a third.
05:40And a third.
05:42T.
05:44And a vowel.
05:46U.
05:48Another vowel.
05:50A.
05:52A consonant.
05:54P.
05:56Another consonant.
05:58R.
06:00A vowel.
06:02I.
06:04And a final vowel, please.
06:06A final A.
06:08MUSIC PLAYS
06:10MUSIC CONTINUES
06:36John?
06:38Going to try a seven again. OK, and Peter?
06:40A six. What's a six?
06:42Putrid. A little less sure, John,
06:44I think, this time. What have you got?
06:46Yeah, unapart. Unapart.
06:48Not there, I'm afraid.
06:50It was a very good try, but
06:52sorry, John, not in the dictionary.
06:54There you go. Chanced his arm again.
06:56But you've still got a one-point lead.
06:58Anything better in Dictionary Corner there?
07:00VH?
07:02We could get a seven in Puritan.
07:04Yes, beautiful. Beautiful word.
07:06Unpaid. Loads of sixes.
07:08Yep. There you go.
07:10Right, well, listen, he's going to gamble, isn't he,
07:12every step of the way, but it's out of your hands now
07:14because Peter's picking our first
07:16numbers of this afternoon.
07:18Six more, please. Six more ones.
07:20Back to your favourite.
07:22Thank you, Peter. First numbers of the day
07:24are two, nine,
07:26four,
07:28one,
07:30another nine and eight, and the target?
07:32462.
07:34462.
07:36Numbers up.
08:04462, Peter?
08:06I think I've got 464, not fully written down.
08:08OK, two away. And John?
08:10I've got 459, not written down.
08:12For the points, then, Peter, let's hear it.
08:14Nine minus two is seven.
08:16Nine minus two, seven.
08:18Multiplied by the other nine.
08:20By 963.
08:22Take away the four and the one.
08:2458.
08:26And multiply by eight.
08:28And that gets you to 464.
08:30Two away, lovely.
08:32I was two the other way and 460,
08:34so pray tell, Rachel, how do we get to 462?
08:36Well, when the outside
08:38digits add up to the middle one, you know it's divisible
08:40by 11. So you can say
08:42nine plus two is 11.
08:44And then you can say eight times
08:46four is 32.
08:48Add the other nine and one,
08:50442, and 42 times 11
08:52is 462. Yes.
08:54APPLAUSE
08:56Fantastic stuff.
08:58The first Tea Time teaser of the day
09:00is fur love.
09:02As an old Irishman, I'm going to have to spell that for you.
09:04F-A-R-E. Fur love.
09:06It's why the caterpillars argued
09:08they weren't on the same page.
09:10It's why the caterpillars argued
09:12they weren't on the same page.
09:22APPLAUSE
09:24Welcome back.
09:26A cute Tea Time teaser.
09:28It's why the caterpillars argued
09:30they weren't on the same page.
09:32Fur love becomes over leaf.
09:34Good start to today. I think I might be quite close.
09:36Our champion, Peter, has got 13.
09:38John's got seven.
09:40Only the numbers separate you so far.
09:42So let's get some more letters.
09:44Safer ground, I think, for you, John.
09:46Thank you. Go with consonant, please.
09:48Thank you, John. G.
09:50And a second.
09:52And a second.
09:54L.
09:56And a vowel.
09:58E.
10:00A consonant.
10:02N.
10:04And another vowel.
10:06U.
10:08Consonant.
10:10T.
10:12A vowel.
10:14E.
10:16Another vowel.
10:18I.
10:20And a vowel.
10:22S.
10:24Thanks, Rachel.
10:50APPLAUSE
10:52Time's up. John?
10:54Seven. Yeah, and Peter?
10:56Seven. What have you got, John?
10:58Glisten. Beautiful.
11:00And Peter? Ugliest.
11:02Quite a lot of sevens there, Vic.
11:04Yeah, tingles as well. Beautiful word.
11:06A lovely word. Yeah, all those nice words
11:08Peter could have had and he went for ugliest.
11:10But we got anything better, Suze?
11:12Well, we have a utensil for another seven,
11:14but, yes, there is an eight there with stealing,
11:16as in stealing yourself for something
11:18that you don't like.
11:20So, Peter?
11:22Stealing.
11:24Stealing.
11:26Stealing for nerves.
11:28Beautiful, there you go.
11:30APPLAUSE
11:32Stealing for it was the top score,
11:34but we couldn't separate Peter and John,
11:36so let's go again.
11:38Peter, your letters.
11:40Consonant, please.
11:42M.
11:44And another.
11:46And a third.
11:50A. Consonant.
11:54J. Vowel.
11:58O.
12:00Consonant, please.
12:02Lastly, D.
12:04Half a minute.
12:16MUSIC PLAYS
12:36Peter, how did you do?
12:38Just a six. And John?
12:40Six. Yeah, just a six.
12:42That's how high the standard is.
12:44And John? Same word.
12:46Brilliant. Double boom.
12:48Let's head over to Dictionary Corner.
12:50Anything better, what are we looking at?
12:52Well, we can go for a seven,
12:54with mamboed.
12:56As in...? We mamboed into the night.
12:58As in a little bit of Mambo No. 5?
13:00Perhaps, yeah.
13:02A little bit of that? Yeah, it's perfect.
13:04A little bit of Tina in our lives.
13:06A little bit of Rachel on the board?
13:08A little bit of Susie on the words?
13:10Mamboed, beautiful word.
13:12Let's switch back to the numbers.
13:14Your first time picking them, John, so I'm intrigued.
13:16Safety first, Rachel.
13:18Can I have an inverted T, please? You can indeed.
13:20Oh, yes. One from the top
13:22and five little Ns coming up for you, John.
13:24And for this round they are
13:26seven, ten, two,
13:28nine, three,
13:30and a large one, 75.
13:32And the target,
13:34263. 263.
13:36Numbers up.
13:38MUSIC PLAYS
13:42MUSIC CONTINUES
14:06263, the target.
14:08John? 263.
14:10And Peter? No, it's 264.
14:12You missed it. Big ten points, John,
14:14if you can get them. 75 plus nine?
14:1675 plus nine,
14:1884. Times three?
14:20Times by three is
14:22252.
14:24Add to ten, add to one?
14:26There is no one.
14:28Oh, hang on.
14:30Where have I got my one from?
14:32I think you made up a one. Sorry, John.
14:34Peter, you were one away.
14:36Chance to steal a precious seven points.
14:38So 75 plus ten?
14:4085.
14:42Multiply that by three? Multiply that by three
14:44for 255.
14:46And then add the nine? And the nine.
14:48Yep, 264, one away.
14:50Great, it's 263. You've both
14:52overcomplicated this. If you say three
14:54times nine is 27,
14:56times that by ten,
14:58270, take away the 70.
15:00Easy, easy!
15:02APPLAUSE
15:04Right, 33 plus 20
15:06for our final regular season game
15:08before the best of the series
15:10come back to try and win that title.
15:12Let's catch our breath.
15:14Vic Hope making her debut
15:16in Dictionary Corner. And as I said,
15:18I mean, you're a firebrand. There's so much we could
15:20talk about. But as it's Countdown,
15:22I just want to come back to your love of words,
15:24which we talked about on Monday.
15:26What about, are you a bookworm?
15:28Yes. I've always
15:30loved reading. I think growing up,
15:32it was my escape.
15:34I think for kids, and it's
15:36so important to me to push books into
15:38the hands of as many children as possible, because they deserve
15:40to find themselves and
15:42lose themselves in all of these words.
15:44And that's why I've written
15:46a couple of kids' books, and that's why I work with
15:48the Young Adults Reading List for the
15:50Women's Prize for Fiction. And I was a judge on the
15:52Women's Prize for Fiction recently, so I read 74
15:54books in five months.
15:56Wow. You know, and you start to go a little bit crazy.
15:58But it was an amazing
16:00thing to lose myself in worlds that I'd
16:02never really ventured into before, like thrillers
16:04and horrors, which I wouldn't usually touch.
16:06But it was amazing. There was little
16:08post-its around my flat saying things like
16:10restored and destroyed me
16:12and other cliches like that.
16:14But yeah, I think it's
16:16really important for children especially
16:18to see themselves on the pages of books
16:20and it validates their feelings and
16:22it helps them understand their potential.
16:24And yeah,
16:26a lot of the work I do is
16:28around getting as many kids
16:30to read as possible, especially when they don't have
16:32access to books. Have you got a favourite book of all time?
16:34If there's one, there's the classic
16:36Desert Island Desk question. I mean, I'm taking
16:38the bean out. What about you?
16:40I'm going to say Half-Yellow Sun
16:42by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
16:44So my mum grew up during the Nigeria-Biafran
16:46War and she grew up running away from air raids,
16:48housing soldiers,
16:50being fed by the Red Cross
16:52and she told us these stories growing up.
16:54But she was a child, so I never really fully understood
16:56the socio-political
16:58economic situation.
17:00And then when I read this book, it plugged in all the gaps
17:02that she hadn't been quite able to
17:04explain to me growing up and it all
17:06made sense. I understood her struggle, I understood
17:08her story, I understood my own background, my culture, my
17:10heritage. So I would say that and
17:12just the way she writes, it's like
17:14philosophy without philosophising. I love it.
17:16It's beautiful. It's one of the best books of the modern age
17:18by far. Destined to be taught
17:20in decades to come, I think, that book
17:22in schools. Definitely. If anyone hasn't read it,
17:24give it a go. I think they might now.
17:26The book club is now closed. Well done.
17:28APPLAUSE
17:32Right, who's round is it? You, Peter. Get them in.
17:34Consonant, please, Rachel. Thank you, Peter.
17:36H. And another.
17:38M.
17:40And a third.
17:42L.
17:44Vowel. E.
17:46And another.
17:48A. And a third.
17:50I.
17:52Consonant.
17:54K.
17:56A vowel.
17:58E.
18:00And a final consonant, please.
18:02And a final. S.
18:04Here we go.
18:24MUSIC PLAYS
18:34Peter?
18:36Just a five. And John?
18:38Just a five. Peter?
18:40Shake. Shake.
18:42Smile. And smile.
18:44Shake and smile, that's what I say every morning.
18:46LAUGHTER
18:48Anything beyond a five, Vic?
18:50So, for seven,
18:52Mealy's. Mealy's? Yes.
18:54Bit of South African English, this.
18:56Mealy is a maize plant,
18:58if you think about meal or millet,
19:00that kind of thing. So, seven's our best.
19:02Yeah, well, I think you two
19:04have been sitting back in your laurels
19:06a bit, not earning your money.
19:08Yeah, I was thinking of Susie's fishnet.
19:10LAUGHTER
19:12That was brilliant. No comment on that.
19:14Mesh like. Well done. Mesh like for it.
19:16OK, more letters from John Crookes.
19:18Can I have a consonant, please?
19:20Thank you, John.
19:22R. And I'll go with a vowel.
19:24O.
19:26And a consonant.
19:28N.
19:30And another. H.
19:32And a third.
19:34D.
19:36And a vowel.
19:38I. And another.
19:40O.
19:42And another.
19:44U.
19:46And a final
19:48consonant, please.
19:50Final G. Here we go.
20:18MUSIC CONTINUES
20:22John?
20:24Got a chance of seven. OK.
20:26And Peter? Yeah, I'll try a seven.
20:28Intrigued to hear what they are. John?
20:30Hooding. Thank goodness for that.
20:32And Peter? Same word.
20:34Same word.
20:36I hope it is your job, contractually,
20:38to tell us other sevens. Another seven,
20:40erm, could be horndog.
20:42Horndog. Hmm. Definition, please, Susie.
20:44Definition is a man with strong desires.
20:46HE LAUGHS
20:48Well, thank you very much. Very informative.
20:50Let's get some numbers now. Peter, Bert.
20:52Six small, please. Six small ones
20:54coming up.
20:56And this time around, they are
20:58as follows. One.
21:00Oh, no. One. Bad start.
21:02Six, two,
21:04seven, eight. Let's see if this one
21:06will be possible. Target 841.
21:08841.
21:10Numbers up.
21:12MUSIC CONTINUES
21:16MUSIC CONTINUES
21:42Can we have another minute, please?
21:44How did you get on there, Peter?
21:46I think I've got 840, not written down.
21:48And John?
21:49Nope.
21:50OK, good. Thanks for your honesty.
21:52Peter, one away, let's hear it.
21:54OK, so 6 x 2 is 12.
21:56Yep, sounds good.
21:58And then 8 x 1 x 1 is 10.
22:00There we go.
22:02Multiply those together.
22:03120.
22:04And then multiply by 7.
22:05840.
22:06Well done. One away, is that as good as we could muster?
22:09The rest she could have done, this was impossible.
22:11One, one, that's foiled us all.
22:13Wow, that's the absolute jackpot then. Well done.
22:16APPLAUSE
22:18And yet again, every time we face a tough challenger,
22:21it's the numbers that have been giving you the edge so far.
22:23We're seeing that again today.
22:25And to be fair, it's made many an OctoChamp, exactly that.
22:2852 plays 32.
22:30As we go to tea time, teaser, why not?
22:33A curb nose. Curb nose.
22:35They're not in fires, but definitely in the ashes.
22:38They're not in fires, but definitely in the ashes.
22:41MUSIC
22:56Welcome back. I love a tea time teaser like this.
22:59Curb nose becomes bouncers.
23:01The clue was they're not in fires, cricket reference,
23:04but definitely in the ashes.
23:07Right, up the bat then, it's John.
23:09Consonant, please. Thank you, John.
23:11T
23:13And a vowel.
23:15A
23:16And a vowel.
23:18E
23:20Consonant.
23:21R
23:23Vowel.
23:25U
23:27Consonant.
23:28T
23:30Consonant.
23:32R
23:34A vowel.
23:36E
23:38And a final vowel, please.
23:40And a final, another U.
23:42Good luck.
24:08MUSIC
24:14Time's up. John?
24:15Just five.
24:16And Peter?
24:17Seven.
24:18The five is?
24:19Treat.
24:20What's Peter saying?
24:22Retreat.
24:23Oh, no, John!
24:25Game of Inches, this countdown, it's a game of inches.
24:29Retreat.
24:30Yeah, excellent. And we could not do better than that.
24:33Right, Peter, more letters.
24:35Consonant, please.
24:36Thank you, Peter.
24:37T
24:38And another.
24:40W
24:42And a third.
24:44N
24:45Vowel.
24:46A
24:48And another.
24:49U
24:51And a third.
24:52E
24:54Consonant.
24:56T
24:58And a vowel.
25:00I
25:02And a final consonant, please.
25:04Final, R.
25:06Kind time.
25:08MUSIC
25:37Peter?
25:38Seven.
25:39And John?
25:40I'm going to try a seven, then.
25:42What are you going to try?
25:43Unright.
25:44Unright. And Peter?
25:46Nuttier.
25:47Well done. Unroast chestnut there as well, I salute you, sir.
25:50Over to Dictionary Corner, big moment, actually.
25:53So, unright?
25:54Oh, I'm afraid not. Unright is not in...
25:57Unwritten would be, but not the transitive verb, as we would say.
26:01I'm sorry.
26:02All right, Vic, what else have we got?
26:04Also for seven, taunter.
26:06Someone who taunts.
26:07Tawnier.
26:08Nuttier.
26:09There's loads and loads.
26:11Loads in there, but not unright, unfortunately.
26:14No.
26:15So, Peter can do all the taunting he wants
26:17as we head over for Origins of Words with Susie.
26:20It was all animals yesterday. I can't wait for today.
26:23Well, I'm going to stick with children's games,
26:26because you got me thinking.
26:28You talked about hopscotch. Yes.
26:30And the scotch bit in there has nothing to do with Scotland
26:33and everything to do with scotching or scoring lines in the ground.
26:37So, obviously, you make the grid and then you hop over them.
26:40First reference of that is 1800, so it has been with us for a while.
26:44And conkers. I have to talk about conkers.
26:47Conkers were first played, as far as we can tell, with conch shells.
26:52And conch shells were the shells of these little marine mollusks.
26:56And we think that mollusk also gave us the conch that is our nose,
26:59incidentally, because of the shape.
27:01But certainly that seems to be the first reference to what was used.
27:05They were snail shells, essentially,
27:07rather than the horse chestnuts that we know today.
27:10But there is another possibility, which is that it started as conkerers.
27:14And there are lots of references in the past
27:17to conkerers being the name of the game,
27:19because, obviously, who conkers wins.
27:21So, the jury is slightly out on this one.
27:23But if you look at the lexicon for children's games and playground slang,
27:27it is so rich and so huge.
27:29And one day I will also talk about all the names in English
27:32that are our way of saying truce.
27:34In other words, stop. You know, you could be home, there's fey nights,
27:37there's just lots of lovely words. So I'll come back to that subject.
27:40APPLAUSE
27:43All right, let's get back to the game.
27:45Jon, you're picking letters for me, my friend.
27:48Consonant, please, Rachel.
27:50Thank you, Jon. G.
27:53And a vowel.
27:55E. And another.
27:58A. And a consonant.
28:01F. And another.
28:04S. And a third.
28:07Z.
28:09And a consonant.
28:11R.
28:13And another.
28:15G.
28:19And I can't do that, can I?
28:21I've only got two vowels so far. Do I need four?
28:24You need three.
28:26So I'm just going to do my own thing.
28:28Oh, sorry. A final I.
28:30We got there.
28:57MUSIC STOPS
29:02Right, Jon?
29:04I'm going to try a seven. Yes, and Peter?
29:06Seven. And what are you trying?
29:08Grazes. Grazes.
29:10Grazes. And Peter?
29:12Rag-ear.
29:14Rag-ear.
29:16There's no grazes with an I, unfortunately.
29:19It's just there for a six without the I.
29:21And there is... Rag-ear is in the dictionary,
29:23but you need two Ls, which we don't have.
29:25Oh, so zero, zero. Yes.
29:27Drawing blanks, both of them.
29:29So even a three-letter word gets you the points here, Vic,
29:32but I'm guessing you've done better.
29:34We can have sag-ear. Sag-ear. A lovely word.
29:37I don't know if that's a nice word, but...
29:39More letters, our final letters round, actually, from Peter.
29:42Consonant, please.
29:44Thank you, Peter. Y.
29:46And another.
29:48M. And a third.
29:50R.
29:52A vowel.
29:54E.
29:56And another. E.
29:58And a third.
30:00A. A consonant.
30:02T.
30:04A vowel.
30:06Another E.
30:08And a consonant, please.
30:11Lastly, P.
30:13And last letters.
30:22BUZZER
30:45Peter, how do you get on? Eight.
30:47Very good indeed. John? Just a six.
30:49What's the six? Peter.
30:52And what's this magnificent eight?
30:54Permeate. Very good.
30:56APPLAUSE
30:59And there you go. I did say it.
31:01I did say it after just, I think it was your second win.
31:03I see you're an OctoChamp,
31:05but you'll have won the last show of this series, no matter what.
31:08You'll have to kick your heels until the end of January
31:10before you can do, but well done.
31:1274 plays 32.
31:14More numbers now. Two rounds to soak up.
31:16And, John, it's you.
31:18Two from the top this time, please.
31:20Shake it up a little.
31:22Well, you've gambled your way through the letters this whole time,
31:25but you have definitely been a chicken tonight
31:27when it comes to the number selections.
31:29For the final time today, they are 8, 10, 6, 9,
31:32and the big two, 50 and 25.
31:35And your target, 568.
31:38568. Last numbers.
31:50CLOCK TICKS
32:10What have you got, John? 568.
32:12Yes, come on, Peter. 568.
32:14Off you go, John. 50 plus 6?
32:1656.
32:1810? 560.
32:20Plus the 8? Straightforward enough.
32:22Very good. And, Peter?
32:24Exactly the same. Exactly the same.
32:28Right, 84 plays at 42.
32:31Peter, on exactly double what John has,
32:34but you've made a good fist of it, sir.
32:36Put your fingers on the buzzers and let's get on with it
32:38and reveal the final regular season.
32:41Countdown conundrum.
32:49BUZZER
32:50John?
32:51Glorified.
32:52Let's have a look.
32:54Yes!
32:58It's always brilliant, John, to go out with a countdown conundrum.
33:01Win or lose, isn't it?
33:02I'll take that and a numbers game at the end.
33:04Yeah, that's a bet.
33:05Fantastic. What a finish for you.
33:07And you got over the half-century with 52.
33:09I'm afraid, though, you've got a stick of fork in you,
33:12like a well-cooked chicken.
33:14But thank you for being our cheapest contestant ever.
33:16But we don't even have to get you a taxi, right?
33:18No, walking distance.
33:19I love it.
33:20Well, keep your phone on.
33:21If anyone pulls out at short notice,
33:23we'll give you another crack at the title.
33:26Peter, that's it.
33:28You've got to wait for ages now.
33:30We've got our end-of-season finale,
33:32then we've got our champion of champions,
33:34which, wow, how exciting.
33:36And then you'll be back, I think, in a week or two.
33:38I'm sure you'll be back in a week or two.
33:41Wow, how exciting.
33:42And then you'll be back, I think, to become an OctoChamp.
33:45All right, thank you very much.
33:47We'll see you soon.
33:49Vic, you're here in your debut for an amazing day tomorrow.
33:53Oh, it's just the best of the season,
33:55and we have six OctoChamps in this series.
33:58I mean, that's ludicrous.
34:00The standard's so, so high.
34:02Susie, it's going to be vintage.
34:03I can't wait, genuinely.
34:05And, Rach, we all know what that means.
34:07We always start with the number one seed.
34:10The all-time top scorer in an individual episode, Tom Stevenson.
34:14And we'll get the team to put down some puppy pads in your area,
34:17cos I'm not sure you're going to be able to control yourself, are you?
34:20I don't apologise for it. I cannot wait.
34:22Christmas comes early tomorrow on Countdown.
34:25Rachel, Susie and I will be here. You can definitely count on us.
34:30You can contact the programme by email at countdown at channel4.com
34:34or write to us at countdownleads ls31js.
34:38You can also find our webpage at channel4.com forward slash countdown.
34:45Bursting with inspiration for a handmade Christmas,
34:48Kirsty's craft competition continues on Channel 4 weeknights at 5.
34:52Today, it's all about decorations.
34:54And tomorrow night, festive cheer boosting the bottom line.
34:57They've got it all wrapped up.
34:59Aldi at Christmas at 8.
35:01Next, will the wine cave be ready in time?
35:04Chateau DIY at Christmas.
35:08www.channel4.com