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00:31Good afternoon and welcome to the Countdown studio.
00:33Now, I wonder whether you've got any old vinyl records lying around at home, perhaps in the loft.
00:39I mean, bearing in mind that until tape was invented, everything was on vinyl and millions of records were sold.
00:46And now apparently some of them are really worth a lot of money, a lot of money.
00:50Very few are worth quite as much as a rare Beatles record that sold at auction for, wait for it,
00:57£77,500.
01:00But it was special.
01:02It was the first, I'm reading this now, the first Beatles disc to be cut before the band broke into
01:09the charge.
01:09And it bears the writings of their manager, Brian Epstein.
01:12And essentially what happened was the centre bit, which normally is printed with all the tracks on it, was not
01:19printed.
01:19It was handwritten by Epstein.
01:21So, Rachel, I guess that makes it worth a lot of money.
01:24And one day, who knows, it could be worth £100,000 and so forth.
01:28Now, have we got any vinyl records at home?
01:31We weren't actually a very musical family.
01:33My mother played the piano really quite badly, to such an extent that my father had some workmen in.
01:38And they created a trap door in the hall that went down straight into the cellar, so that the piano
01:46could be lowered into the cellar.
01:48And she used to be sent down there to play.
01:49Right, well, there's scratch marks on the underside.
01:53It was actually a very, it was a wonderful series of cellars.
01:57That was our playroom down there.
01:58It's a great cellar.
01:59We had a lot of fun down there.
02:01A lot of fun, actually.
02:02Now, what about your vinyls?
02:05Do you have any?
02:07I've got one.
02:08I've got one by the feeling, but I'm not cool enough to have anywhere to play it.
02:11But I still, I treasure it.
02:12But my granddaddy used to have a gramophone like you.
02:14Now, of course, people are actually going out and actually buying newly made vinyl records because they claim that the
02:21reproduction is better.
02:23It sounds more authentic.
02:24You can hear when something's played in a gramophone, can't you?
02:26Especially if it's from that era, it does sound better.
02:29I guess.
02:29In its original, authentic state.
02:31Indeed.
02:32There we are.
02:33Who's back?
02:33Young Matthew McCabe is back, our reigning champion from Macrofelt in Northern Ireland.
02:38A swimmer and likes going to the gym.
02:40So many athletes on this show these days.
02:42And, Matthew, you're joined today by Alistair Haynes, a geography student from the University of Exeter.
02:48Another athlete in the Countdown Studio, Queen Cricketer.
02:52Member of the University of Exeter Cricket Club.
02:53And also plays golf for the university.
02:55And what do you hope to do when you graduate?
02:57Trying to get a job in London in oil and gas energy, hopefully.
03:00Oh, right.
03:01That would be interesting.
03:02I suppose, John, if he kicks in there somewhere along the line.
03:04A little bit, yeah.
03:05But anyway, you know what you're doing.
03:06Let's have a big round of applause for Alistair Haynes and Matthew McCabe.
03:14And over in the corner, Susie and the wonderful Chris Hollins.
03:19Wow, wonderful.
03:20That's the first time.
03:21No, because you're a considerable athlete because you won Strictly Come Dancing.
03:25And the athletes always do well, don't they?
03:28They do.
03:29I think it's a lot to do with the training.
03:31And also, as a sportsman or a woman, you're used to criticism because the crowd shout at you.
03:36They don't go, oh, bad luck.
03:37You got out for nought.
03:39Oh, bad luck.
03:39That was a bad pass.
03:40And it's the same with you go up to the judges and they say, you're useless.
03:43He needs to say, yep, I pretty much agree.
03:46Well done.
03:47Now then, Matthew, let's get down to business here, shall we?
03:49Letters game.
03:51Can I get a consonant, please, Richard?
03:53Thank you, Matthew.
03:53Start today with L.
03:56And another.
03:58H.
03:59And a third.
04:02N.
04:04And a third, sorry, a vowel.
04:07E.
04:08And another.
04:10I.
04:12And a third.
04:14U.
04:15A consonant.
04:17S.
04:19Another.
04:22R.
04:24And a final vowel.
04:28And a final A.
04:30And here is the countdown clock.
04:41THE END
04:43THE END
05:14THE END
05:15THE END
05:23THE END
05:26THE END
05:27THE END
05:33THE END
05:36THE END
05:40THE END
05:45THE END
05:46THE END
05:48THE END
05:48THE END
05:55THE END
05:56THE END
05:56THE END
05:56THE END
05:59THE END
06:05THE END
06:07THE END
06:08THE END
06:09THE END
06:10THE END
06:15vowel, please. And
06:17a final A.
06:19Stand by.
06:51Alistair.
06:52Seven. A seven and?
06:54Seven. Two sevens.
06:56Alistair. Trowels. And?
06:58Seeing. There we go.
07:00Happy, Alistair? Yep.
07:02Very good. Same. Same.
07:05And the girl,
07:05Susie? Um, yep, there is an eight there
07:07and it outwears.
07:09To outwear, to last longer than.
07:12So material that will outwear
07:13any other type of material.
07:16All right. Fifteen plays. Seven.
07:18Now then, Matthew, numbers game.
07:20Can I get one large
07:21and five small, please? Thank you, Matthew.
07:24One from the top row and five
07:25little ones. And for this round, the little numbers.
07:28Three, two,
07:31one, four
07:31and nine. And the big one,
07:3325. And the target,
07:36872.
07:38872.
08:03882.
08:09Matthew.
08:10you. No one aired. No. How about Alastair? 872. 872, briskly said. Let's hear about it.
08:194 times 9. 4 9 is 36. Take 1. Take 1, 35. Times that by 25. It's 875. And take
08:28the 3.
08:28Yes, well done. 872. Well done. Well done, Alastair. Got us a blistering start there. Let's have
08:36a tea time teaser, shall we? It's Roger Mow. And the clue, Roger had to mow the lawn frequently
08:42after applying this. Roger had to mow the lawn frequently after applying this. Welcome
09:02back. I left you with the clue. Roger had to mow the lawn frequently after applying this.
09:07And what did he apply? Grow more. Grow more is the answer. There we are. 25 for Alastair.
09:13Matthew on 7. And it's Alastair's letters game now. Can I have a consonant please, Rachel?
09:19Thank you, Alastair. S. And another. P. And another. V. And another. D. And one more
09:32please. T. And a vowel. O. Another vowel. I. Another please. A. And a vowel please.
09:47And lastly, E. Countdown.
09:50T. And then you will be Możli.
09:52T. And then you are more native-friendly.
10:22Alastair? Seven. Seven, Matthew? Seven. Alastair? Dopiest. And your seven? Deposit. Deposit. Very good. Both? Yep. We happy? Can we
10:33match it? Can't match it, but I saw one of my favourite words. My grandad used to call it, use
10:38it spiv. Spiv? Yeah.
10:42He looks a bit spivy, doesn't he? Indeed. And what have we got? Susie? There's adoptive for eight, as in
10:49adoptive parents. Thank you. It's 32 to 14. Alastair on 32. Matthew? Hey, Constance, please, Rachel. Thank you, Matthew. R.
11:00And another? X. And a third? D. A vowel? I. And another?
11:10O. And a third? U. Consonant? P. Another? N. And a final vowel, please. And a final A. Cantan.
12:03Matthew? A six. A six? Alastair? A six. Matthew? A round? Same word. Same?
12:10Just show Matthew there, just for protocol. Chris?
12:15I couldn't be that. Did you come up with anything?
12:17There is a seven, slightly unusual seven. It's a pandour, P-A-N-D-O-U-R, and it's had
12:25various locations throughout history,
12:27but it's always meant a member of a military force in some kind. So, for example, in Hungary,
12:32Croatia, or other parts of Eastern Europe, a guard or an armed servant, somebody in the local
12:38constabulary. A pandour? A pandour, yeah. Well, well, well. Thank you. 38 plays 20. Matthew
12:44on 20. And it's Alastair's numbers game. Can I have one large, please? You, Katie. Thank you,
12:49Alastair. One from the top, and five little ones coming up. And these more ones are one, six,
12:57three, ten, and seven. And the big one, 75. And this target, 962.
13:03Nine, six, two.
13:06One, six, three, ten, and seven.
13:07One, five, ten, and seven.
13:13One, seven, and seven.
13:37alistair 962 yes matthew 962 take it away alistair um seven plus six 13 times 75 975
13:48take the 10 and the three for another 13 yep 962 and matthew
13:57well done both of you 48 plays now where matthew's 30 not too much in it matthew
14:03but now to give you a rest let's turn to chris chris hollins you've had some strange things
14:08while reporting for watchdog untold yes well we're a consumer program um and it can get a bit
14:15monotonous boring um people moaning about washing machines uh or dodgy phone bills etc so we have
14:22to come up with entertaining ways of telling a story and getting to the bottom of of a complaint
14:27so for example um we had a storage office uh they said that the security wasn't good so we
14:32organized a party in one of the storage rooms um and with no one came to uh move us out
14:38we had
14:39um we had seven dwarves tidying up a holiday camp once um snow white the seven dwarves our little
14:44helpers um but my favorite and it was the very first story i ever did for watchdog um it was
14:50about
14:50a well-known burger joint mcdonald's and it was about their parking and if you went in and bought
14:57something uh from their car park left and thought oh i haven't got any ketchup or a really fancy an
15:03apple pie and you go back in you would get fined if you returned to the car park within 10
15:07minutes
15:07seemed a bit strange and we had hundreds upon hundreds of complaints so you can imagine the
15:12creative team at watchdog said what could we possibly do with this um and i'd never worked
15:17with watchdog before and i thought well wonder i wonder how they work and i turned up
15:21um and what they thought was i wonder if they would find ronald mcdonald himself if he went to
15:28go and get a hamburger and then return within 10 minutes so we had a massive clown car um uh
15:34an actor
15:34playing ronald mcdonald driving around constantly in and out of this car park and eventually as you
15:41probably expect the staff came out and started making complaints at which point in my first ever
15:47watchdog appearance i am standing outside a car park with a clown driving around the car park
15:52explaining to a police officer that i'm working for the bbc and that this is a very serious story
15:58and so that was my um sort of breakthrough on watchdog but what i loved about it was just the
16:03imagination how are you going to make something a little bit more interesting but i didn't think i'd
16:07ever work with them again but you did and in fact you've been working with them for a long time
16:11now
16:11yeah you started in 2010 i think 2010 um with a fantastic annie robinson uh and matt all right
16:18uh and i haven't been thrown off since so i might be doing something okay well you never know well
16:23done chris good story good program too well done very good so hours 48 uh matthew on 30 and it's
16:30matthew's letters game matthew can i have a consonant please rachel thank you matthew g and another
16:36t t and a third b a vowel i another o a third u a consonant s another d and
17:02a final vowel
17:04and a final a and a final a stand by
17:37matthew six alistair six now then matthew dotes and bigots and bigots chris and susie
17:51outbids outbids yes yes that was our best for seven that's it yep outbids all right and alistair
17:58your letters game can i have a consonant please thank you alistair l and another
18:05t and another t and another t and another q and one more t the vowel please e and another
18:24o and a third
18:27i and a consonant please and lastly p countdown
18:39so
18:51so
19:07alistan seven a seven matthew seven so pottier pottier and pottier there we are are you pottier yes we
19:18had a pottier but we also had triplet triplet yes very good and what should we do matthew let's have
19:28a numbers game can i get one large and five small please thank you matthew another one large one
19:33and five little ones and this selection is three four ten another four nine and the big one 75
19:42and this target 166 166
19:46so
19:55so
20:01so
20:03so
20:04so
20:05so
20:07so
20:09so
20:16matthew
20:17matthew
20:18166
20:18and alistair 166 thank you matthew
20:22uh nine times ten is 90
20:25four minus three is one
20:28yep
20:29that's under 75
20:30yep
20:30lovely
20:31well done 166
20:33alistair
20:33uh four times four times ten
20:36four times four times ten
20:38one hundred and sixty
20:39plus nine minus three
20:41yep
20:42lovely
20:42well done 166 again
20:43very good
20:46so alistair on 71 matthew on 53 as we turn to our second tea time teaser which is send eels
20:53and the clue she didn't have to work the dough with her hands there was simply no point
20:57she didn't have to work the dough with her hands there was simply no point
21:18welcome back i left with the uh the clue she didn't have to work the dough with her hands there
21:22was uh simply no point
21:23and the answer is needless needless needless there we go 71 to alistair matthew on 53 alistair let us go
21:33consonant please rachel
21:34thank you sir
21:35c
21:36and another
21:38n
21:40and another
21:42r
21:44and another
21:46m
21:47and one more please
21:49s
21:50and a vowel
21:51a
21:53and another
21:54e
21:55and another
21:58u
21:58and a vowel please
22:00and the last one
22:01i
22:02stand by
22:04and
22:31thank you
22:33to be
22:34Yes, Alistair. Seven. A seven. And Matthew? I've got a risky eight. Mm-hmm. Alistair? Remains. Remain and? Carmines. Tricky
22:47one with carmines. It's a vivid crimson colour. It does say mass noun in the dictionary. And likewise with the
22:53crimson pigment that's made from cochineal. So I'm going to have to say no, I'm afraid. Sorry, Matthew. Sorry.
22:59Bad luck, Matthew. What else have we got in the corner there? Chris, Susie? Well, we have a nine. Manicures.
23:06Manicures. Very good. Well done. Manicured hands. Clapping there for you, Chris. That's very good. Susie, anything else? No, we
23:19were... That's quite good enough. Not enough. Indeed. Now, Matthew, letters again. Can I get a counsellor, please, Rachel? Thank
23:27you, Matthew. R.
23:28And another. And another. K. And a third. T. And a vowel. A. And another. O. And a third. E.
23:45A consonant. N. And another. S. And a final consonant.
23:56And a final P. Stand by.
24:00The Althea Thousandól.
24:03One.
24:28One.
24:30It's a final traffic
24:31Matthew. Eight. And eight. Alistair. Seven. That's seven. Tankers. Matthew McCabe. I've got two R's in it. Sorry. No good?
24:44Yeah. All right. And in the corner, I've got tokens. Is that right? Absolutely fine. Spoken, but I bet you've
24:52beaten me.
24:52Well, there's stonker for seven. I like that. A stonker. And pronate is there, the good old countdown word. Indeed.
25:01When the sole of your foot or the palm of your hand is turned inwards. Indeed. That's pronating. Yeah, but
25:06stonker's got a bit more sort of vigour about it. It has. What a stonker. Very good. Well done. 85
25:13to 53. Susie, how will you entertain us this afternoon?
25:18Well, I might only entertain one half of our audience. I'm going to talk about gynaecology today and how it
25:25all started, which was in the 19th century. And it took many, many years, many centuries, in fact, until those
25:33ailments that were exclusive to women became actually recognised in medicine. It had been a bit of an uphill struggle
25:38until then.
25:40Again, gynaecology comes from the Greek for women and Logos' study. And as I say, it took a long time
25:48to get there. And in 1834, Professor William P. Dewey assumed the first chair of obstetrics at the University of
25:58Pennsylvania.
25:59And this, if you like, dignified the name obstetrics as something quite serious. But he had a very hard time
26:07of it because certainly his colleagues would tease him that obstetrics actually was another word for a midwife.
26:13And certainly no man would want to be a midwife at all. There was a male version of a midwife.
26:17That was a midman. But it was quite rare to find a midman.
26:21And obstetrics itself, if you look at the Latin roots, means to stand before. And it's the idea of the
26:28midwife literally, if you like, standing at the end of the bed ready to, before the woman, probably ready to
26:34catch the baby.
26:36And there was a standard joke in medical circles for many years that the only instrument that an obstetrician needed
26:41was a very large basket.
26:43So it was quite difficult for male obstetricians in those days. But finally, towards the end of the century, obstetrics
26:52and gynaecology became recognized, really recognized areas of science.
26:57And of course, lots and lots of other parts of gynaecology came into it and for which surgery and surgery
27:03skill was needed, more instruments, etc.
27:05So it took on more prestige. But it reminds me of the word hysterectomy. Hysterectomy goes back to the Greek
27:13for the womb, hostera.
27:16But the reason I don't really like the connection is that hysteria was thought specifically to be something that only
27:23women ever suffered.
27:24And it was all to do with the womb. It was the seat. The womb was the seat of any
27:28kind of histrionic emotions.
27:29And so if any woman became hysterical, it was down to the fact that she was a woman and her
27:34womb was at fault.
27:36And as I said, just another example, really, linking into the obstetrics and the gynaecology side of things, which were
27:42a bit of an uphill struggle.
27:43So hysterectomy and hysteria are linked and probably not for the reason that you might expect.
27:48Indeed. Well done.
27:53Very good indeed. Thank you for that, Susie.
27:5685, please. 53. And Alistair.
27:59Can I have a consonant, please?
28:01Thank you, Alistair.
28:02R.
28:04And another.
28:06V.
28:07And a third.
28:09N.
28:11And a fourth.
28:13S.
28:14And a fifth.
28:17F.
28:18And a vowel, please.
28:21I.
28:21And another.
28:24E.
28:25And another.
28:28O.
28:29And a vowel, please.
28:31And lastly, I.
29:05Alistair.
29:06Alistair.
29:06Six.
29:07A six, Matthew.
29:08Seven.
29:09Alistair.
29:10Phonies.
29:11And?
29:12Noisier.
29:14Well done.
29:15Noisier.
29:16Yes.
29:17Phony's not there.
29:18I'm afraid of the F.
29:19It'd have to be the PH.
29:20Alistair.
29:21Sorry.
29:22Now.
29:23Chris and Susie?
29:24Anything you came up with something I used to hate doing?
29:28Revising, i.e.
29:29Revision.
29:30Revision.
29:31Very good.
29:32Suzie?
29:33Yeah, that was our best for eight, actually.
29:35Version there for seven.
29:36But revision paid.
29:37All right.
29:38Okay, so where are we?
29:40Final letters game.
29:41Matthew.
29:42Can I get a constant, please, Rachel?
29:44Thank you, Matthew.
29:45L.
29:46And another.
29:48M.
29:48And a third.
29:51S.
29:52A vial.
29:54U.
29:56Another.
29:57A.
29:59And a third.
30:01E.
30:03A consonant.
30:05G.
30:07And another.
30:10L.
30:12And a final consonant.
30:16And a final R.
30:18Stand by.
30:50Matthew. Seven. Seven. Alistair. Seven. Matthew. Mollers. Mollers. Same word. Yeah. Yes. Mollers your hands. Absolutely fine. Yep. Anything else?
31:07I didn't know. Glues. I like that word. Glues. But that was it. You could have mullers as well. Which
31:13is to wreck or destroy something to muller it. You can be mullered as well if you're very drunk. Mullered.
31:18Oh that's a mullered mullered.
31:19Yeah. I've got it like it. I know. She's everywhere. Mullered. I hope I never see you mullered. Or using
31:26that word again. OK. Thank you. All right. 92 to 67. Good outing Alistair. And it's your numbers game. Can
31:34I have one large again please Rachel? You can indeed thank you. So one from the top five little to
31:39finish the day off. And these numbers are four. One. Seven. Two. One. And 75.
31:48And the target. Two hundred and thirty four. Two. Three. Four.
31:51Three. Four.
32:21One.
32:22Alistair? 2, 3, 4. And Matthew? 2, 3, 4. So, Alistair? 75 plus 1 plus 2. Plus 1 plus 2,
32:3278. And 4 minus 1. The other one is another. And multiply them. Yeah, lovely, well done. 2, 3, 4.
32:39There we go. And Matthew? 4 minus 1 is 3. Yep. Times 75 is 2 to 5 plus 7 plus
32:452. Lovely, well done. Same result.
32:49Very good. So, Alistair, 102. And Matthew, good score on 77 as we get into the final round. Gentlemen, Matthew.
33:00Alistair, fingers on buzzers. Let's reveal today's countdown conundrum.
33:10Alistair? Is it epitomised? Let's see whether you're right. Nope. Down to you, Matthew.
33:22Matthew? Optimised. Optimised. There we go.
33:34Good finish there, Matthew. Good finish. But Alistair takes the day. 102. Very good score. To your very good score
33:42of 87. So, bad luck.
33:45As I say, Alistair takes the day. So, it's back to Macrofelt. With you. With this. And a teapot.
33:51My best wishes to Northern Ireland when you get there, too. Well done indeed, Alistair. Thank you.
33:56We shall see you tomorrow. And Chris and Susie, see you tomorrow. Good stories today, Chris. Lovely stuff.
34:03Lovely stuff. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. And Rachel, not bad start from young Alistair. What do you think?
34:09Yep. Broken a century. Very good start. Very promising.
34:12All right. See you tomorrow. See you then. Same time, same place. You be sure of it. A very good
34:16afternoon.
34:18You can contact the programme by email at countdown at channel4.com, by Twitter at C4Countdown, or write to us
34:25at countdown leads LS3 1JS.
34:28You can also find our web page at channel4.com, forward slash countdown.