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00:00This programme contains strong language and adult humour.
00:05APPLAUSE
00:31Hello, everybody, welcome back to another week of Numbers and Letters
00:35here on Countdown.
00:37Brilliant competition and half-decent company.
00:40And speaking of half-decent, Rachel Riley's back after a weekend of raves
00:43and oxygen tensie, all right?
00:45Well, apart from when you said I look like an aubergine...
00:48No, I said you looked like the aubergine emoji.
00:50Right. Which is slightly different.
00:52Which has even different connotations. Thanks, Cole.
00:54Yeah, moving on. Listen, I've been here long enough to ask you,
00:57I feel comfortable enough to ask you this question.
00:59I find it really surprised how interested the media are
01:02about the relationships between Countdown presenters, past and present.
01:06Let's just do it and get out at the open,
01:08because I'm sick of the speculation.
01:10Answer these honestly. OK.
01:12You've worked with four permanent hosts over, what, nearly 15 years now.
01:16Mm-hm.
01:17Who was the biggest diva?
01:20Jeff Stelling. It's true, though. Yeah.
01:22Good. Get out in the open. Botox, sun tanning.
01:26Yeah. I mean, everything. Everything, yeah.
01:28Who was the least hygienic?
01:32Probably Jeff. Yeah.
01:35I know some of the people did Soccer Saturday with him
01:37and they said that was an issue.
01:39That's why he had to sit separately from the other four hosts I heard.
01:42And you can't mention the hairline.
01:44Don't mention the hairline. Don't mention the hairline.
01:46You had to sing Hartlepool songs all the time.
01:48So to all of the silly tabloid stories,
01:51you've got your answer now, right at once, and it's absolutely done.
01:54Let's get on with the show.
01:56Over in Dictionary Corner, great to have Susie Dent here,
01:59and she's joined by, let me see, I haven't checked...
02:02Oh! It's Jeff Stelling!
02:05CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
02:09Mr Stelling to you, too.
02:12Listen, you only ever get roasted by people who truly love you.
02:17I'm just absolutely in awe to have you here.
02:19We talk about the Countdown family all the time and its history.
02:22We absolutely mean it. Jeff Stelling, everybody.
02:25Yes.
02:27Well, on Wednesday, you might get an OctoChamp.
02:30We will see. George Baker, 432 points over five wins.
02:35Croydon's finest.
02:37I find when you come back on the Monday, it's a bit tricky.
02:42You almost feel like it's another first day at school.
02:44How are you feeling? Yeah, I feel like the nerves are back again.
02:47It feels like I'm playing the first show again.
02:49I'm a little bit disappointed hairline has already come up to the topic as well.
02:52But we'll just have to move past that.
02:54We'll see. Every show with you has been really enjoyable.
02:56So let's see how it goes with you.
02:58You're up against Anthea Leslie.
03:00I'm just going to say this because we're being honest today.
03:04This isn't even your favourite TV show.
03:06It is not.
03:08Well, tell me, what's this about?
03:10Well, Neighbours has always been my favourite TV show, I'm very proud to say.
03:16How big is your obsession with Neighbours?
03:19Spooky.
03:21Have you been there?
03:22I've been there, I've been on the set in Australia.
03:25I've had a look round in the green room.
03:28Yes, yes.
03:30Good luck to you. Anthea, George.
03:34Right, Mr Baker, let's go.
03:36Hi, Rachel. Hi, George.
03:38Start with a consonant, please. Thank you.
03:40Start with G.
03:42And another one.
03:44R. And another.
03:46D. And a vowel, please.
03:49A. And another vowel.
03:51E. And another.
03:54I. And a consonant, please.
03:57N. And another.
04:00R. And a final vowel, please.
04:03A final. E.
04:05That old man in the studio, let's play Countdown.
04:21COUNTDOWN MUSIC PLAYS
04:38A friendly start to the week. George.
04:41I'll try a risky nine.
04:43And, Anthea? Seven.
04:45Well, it's risky, he said, so what's the seven?
04:47Let's hope it is randier.
04:49That's a very, very interesting start to the week.
04:52George. Re-reading.
04:54Re-reading.
04:56Oh, you can re-read something. Re-reading is brilliant. Well done.
05:03Fantastic stuff. Orgasmic, you could say, after your word, Anthea.
05:07Really strong seven. Unlucky. What a start, champ.
05:10Well done to you. Did you get that, Geoff?
05:12I got a nine.
05:14Oh, a different one.
05:16Within one second, Mr Stelling showed me his pad.
05:19Wow. And on it... Grenadier.
05:21Grenadier.
05:25My final contribution to date.
05:27The very first thing was a fantastic...
05:29Doesn't matter what you do now.
05:31First round back and you get a different nine than the champion.
05:34We can salute that for sure.
05:3618 points to nil. Early doors, Anthea.
05:38Let's get some more letters.
05:40Could I have a consonant, please?
05:42You could have. V.
05:44And another one.
05:46S.
05:48And a vowel.
05:50U.
05:52And another vowel.
05:54A.
05:56And a consonant.
05:58T.
06:00And another consonant.
06:02S.
06:04And another vowel.
06:06I.
06:10And a vowel.
06:12U. Another U.
06:14And another consonant.
06:16And a final C.
06:1830 seconds for Yolk.
06:42MUSIC
06:50Well, we know Geoff's got a nine, but, Anthea, how did you get on?
06:53Five. And George?
06:55Yeah, five as well. Five as well. What have we got? What's the word?
06:58Suits. Suits. Same word.
07:00Lovely.
07:02Suits you, sir. Anything else?
07:04A weird one over here.
07:06Because I thought there was an O in this, but...
07:09Yes, there is, normally.
07:11We're talking about a viscous, gloopy substance.
07:14It's the I-S-C-O-U-S.
07:16But you can have viscous C-U-S, which is the singular form of viscera.
07:20You know, we talk about our intestines
07:22and having a visceral response to something.
07:24So, really good round-up. Five points each. Good to get a test.
07:27George, first numbers of the week.
07:29Well, we know what you're going to do after last week. Off we go.
07:32Stick with the six small ones, please.
07:34Six little ones coming up for you, George.
07:36And the first challenge of the week is...
07:39..three, five, six, three and ten.
07:44And the target, 208.
07:46208. Numbers up.
08:09MUSIC PLAYS
08:19208 the target, George?
08:21Yeah, 208. Got it. And Thea?
08:23209. Yeah, I think a lot of people might have been stuck around the 209.
08:26So, George, how did you get there?
08:28Five times ten is 50.
08:3050.
08:31And then six divided by three is two.
08:33Yep. And then times that by four.
08:35Add those together, times that by four.
08:37Times four. 208. Well done.
08:39APPLAUSE
08:42Very good. Great start by our champion, George.
08:44You're going for a sixth win.
08:46Here's your first tea time teaser of the week.
08:48Love this one.
08:49Nil Chess. Nil Chess.
08:52He was a terrible boxer, but even worse at the violin.
08:55He was a terrible boxer, but even worse at the violin.
08:58MUSIC PLAYS
09:07APPLAUSE
09:14Welcome back. Nil Chess becomes chinless.
09:16He was a terrible boxer, but even worse at the violin.
09:19And it's been a tough couple of rounds so far for our challenger, Anthea.
09:23But time to pick yourself up off that canvas
09:26and get going again with more letters.
09:28Consonant, please. Thank you, Anthea.
09:31D.
09:33And another.
09:36And another.
09:39And a vowel.
09:43And another vowel.
09:47And a consonant.
09:50And a vowel.
09:54And another consonant.
09:59And a final consonant, please.
10:05Thanks, Rich.
10:36That's all the time we have, Anthea.
10:38A seven. A nice seven. What have you got, George?
10:41The six. The sixes.
10:43Maiden. I told you she's going to come out swinging. Anthea?
10:46Um, dreams, but I've only got one E.
10:48You've missed a target. You've dreamt up an E that wasn't there.
10:51Easy to do. So the six sixes?
10:54Yes, it wasn't easy. Maiden kind of, you know, leapt out at us,
10:58but it was tricky to find a seven. We did just find one.
11:01Hard men. Hard men.
11:03It's often used to describe the likes of you and I, Geoff.
11:06Yeah, all the time. Let's wimp out and another round. George?
11:09Start with a consonant again, please, Rachel. Thank you, George.
11:12L. And another one.
11:15M. And another.
11:17P. And a vowel, please.
11:20U. And another one.
11:22E. And another.
11:24I. And a consonant, please.
11:28T. And another consonant, please.
11:31S. And a final vowel, please.
11:34Final E. Half a minute.
12:01Time's up. Pens down. George?
12:04Seven. And Anthea?
12:06Seven. Seven. What's your word, George?
12:09Cuniest. Yeah, I was thinking after hard men,
12:12finally got a word out that sums us up, Geoff. And Anthea?
12:15Cuniest. But I haven't written it down.
12:18Oh, bad luck. Bad luck with it.
12:21Needed to have written that down, so it'll be seven points for George.
12:25There's our word at last, Geoff.
12:28We've got eight over here. Oh, nice.
12:31We've got pentiles. A pentile?
12:34Yes, same as a pantile, which is a roof tile.
12:37But it's just a variant spelling.
12:39Right, second number's right. Anthea?
12:41Two large numbers and four small numbers.
12:44Two large, four little coming up for you, Anthea.
12:47And the four small ones are eight, one, seven,
12:51and another one, and a large 15 and 25.
12:55And your target, 700.
12:58Love it. 700 numbers up.
13:26MUSIC
13:34Nice, easy target, but only easy if you see it. Anthea?
13:37I haven't seen it. George?
13:39Yeah, 700. Off you go.
13:411 plus 1 times 7. 1 plus 1 is 2, times 7 is 14.
13:44Times 50. Yeah, there it is.
13:47Well done.
13:51OK, in an unfamiliar seat but a very familiar studio,
13:54let's have our first chat of the week with Geoff Sterling.
13:57At that stage now, you're getting asked back on shows you used to present,
14:00but I'd love you to take me all the way back to the beginning.
14:03I'd take you right back to school days, to be honest,
14:06because I was not a brilliant pupil.
14:08In fact, I was hopeless at pretty much everything, apart from English.
14:12And I always thought, well, what can I do with English?
14:15So I thought, I'll be a journalist.
14:17And my headmaster was a sort of Dickensian-type character,
14:20you know, long black robe, cane in his hand,
14:23and he said, no boy from this school will get involved
14:26in such a disreputable profession, prying into people's private lives.
14:30And I thought, well, actually, this sounds pretty good.
14:33But better than that was, because I was halfway decent at English,
14:37I thought there might be an opportunity.
14:40And I decided one day, you being a football fan, you will know,
14:45George, the same year, there used to be, on a Saturday after a game,
14:49there was a football paper was printed by your local newspaper.
14:53It would be the green or the pink.
14:55And we had the football mail in Hartlepool,
14:57and they had a letters column.
14:59And the writer of a star letter each week won £5.
15:03So I thought, I'll give this a go.
15:05So I wrote my letter to the football mail.
15:08The following week, there it was.
15:10Star letter, Geoff Stelling, £5.
15:12I thought, I'll try this again.
15:14Two weeks later, star letter, Geoff Stelling, £5.
15:18And so it went on and on and on.
15:20And I thought, I am good at this. I will be a journalist.
15:24So my first job a few years later was at the Hartlepool Mail.
15:28And I made a beeline for the sports department,
15:30and the sports editor there, a fellow called Arthur Pickering,
15:33he was a bit of a tough customer.
15:36And I explained to him how my letters had inspired me to become a journalist.
15:42Because every week, Arthur, I wrote, and it was the star letter.
15:47And he said, you idiot.
15:49It wasn't just the star letter, it was the only letter.
15:53We wrote the rest ourselves to fill the column inches.
15:57Did you ever remember, covering local football,
16:00when it was a half seven, eight o'clock kick-off,
16:04when my early training as a print journalist,
16:07I remember at 17, shaking, because the match finished at ten to ten,
16:11and the guys on the phone to me,
16:13boy, you've got to have this 300 words done by ten o'clock.
16:17And you'd phone a copy-taker,
16:19who would type it as you said it down the phone.
16:22Could you spell that, please?
16:24Yeah, yeah.
16:25I've inherited very different days.
16:27Yeah, you would desperately hope she heard you correctly,
16:30because you'd see it in print the next morning,
16:33and it bore some sort of vague resemblance to what you'd rung in with.
16:37There were many players who ended up with different names
16:40in the paper the next day.
16:42Tough times, but fun times.
16:44Geoff, thank you so much, mate.
16:48Right, stories still to be written here.
16:50Long way to go. George, you're picking the letters.
16:52Start with a consonant again, please, Rachel.
16:54Thank you, George. T
16:56And another one.
16:58R
16:59And another.
17:00D
17:01And a vowel, please.
17:03O
17:04And another vowel.
17:05A
17:06And another vowel.
17:07E
17:08And a consonant, please.
17:10L
17:11And another consonant, please.
17:13B
17:14And a final consonant, please.
17:17A final T.
17:18Start the clock.
17:42MUSIC CONTINUES
17:51George?
17:52Stick with the safe seven.
17:54Safe seven. Anthea?
17:55Seven.
17:56Not even safe. Just straight and confident.
17:58George, what's yours?
17:59Bloated.
18:00Yes, bloated. And, Anthea?
18:02Leotard.
18:03And leotard. Nothing to worry about there.
18:05Fits perfectly. Seven points each.
18:07Dictionary Corner.
18:09Classic leotard, isn't it? But we're both bloated.
18:11Yes.
18:12That'll do. That'll do.
18:13We'll move on, then, Anthea.
18:15Let's have nine more.
18:16Consonant, please.
18:17Thank you, Anthea.
18:18N
18:20Another one.
18:22T
18:23And another one.
18:25N
18:26And a vowel, please.
18:29A
18:31And another vowel.
18:32E
18:34And a consonant.
18:36S
18:39And another vowel, please.
18:43I
18:45And a consonant.
18:48T
18:50And a final vowel, please.
18:54Final E.
18:56Right, here we go.
19:08E
19:10E
19:12E
19:14E
19:16E
19:18E
19:20E
19:22E
19:24E
19:26E
19:28That'll do, Anthea.
19:30I think I've got an eight.
19:32An eight, she thinks, George.
19:34Eight.
19:35An eight. What is it, Anthea?
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