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Harvey Freeman

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Harvey Freeman
Octochamp Statistics
Final positionChampion
Seeding1
Points total523
Conundrums solved8
Harvey Freeman

Harvey Freeman was an octochamp in and the champion of Series 10, and the winner of Championship of Champions III and the Supreme Championship, earning him the reputation as one of the greatest Countdowners of all time. He is the only contestant ever to have won four titles – octochamp, series winner, champion of champions and all-time supreme champion. He has also been a top Scrabble player.

Appearances on the programme

Heat games

As a 21-year-old Cambridge University undergraduate from Enfield, Middlesex, he made his debut on 31 October 1986 against David Whiting, prevailing with his solution to the crucial conundrum YUNIGNITE. Freeman won that game and seven more to achieve octochampdom with a then-record aggregate score of 523 points – a record that would stand for almost 14 years before it was beaten by David Williams in Series 43. In his second game, Freeman scored 82 points – not only the highest score of the series, but also then an all-time record. He is also the second octochamp, after Darryl Francis, to solve all eight conundrums – he did this in a combined time of 26 seconds, a record which stood until 2015 when Thomas Carey clocked 17.75 seconds.

Series finals

Freeman returned for the finals as the clear number one seed, and dominated his opponents Elisabeth Jardine and Les Martin in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, before going on to face Mike Percik in the grand final. Despite having outtake ☓ disallowed in the second round, Freeman would enter a commanding performance here too, running out the 96 – 52 winner.

Special episode

On 2 February 1987, Freeman appeared on the special episode to celebrate Countdown's 500th show.

Championship of Champions III

Later the same year, he returned for Championship of Champions III, and after beating Michael Stephenson and John Clarke in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, he found a tough opponent in the grand final in the shape of David Trace. Freeman lost out in the first conundrum to Trace, putting him ten points behind, but he scored in every other round, including the final, crucial conundrum, to win 115 – 107 (the highest ever score in a 14-round game and the only time anyone ever scored over 110 under that format). Freeman became the first ever grand slam winner by claiming the titles of octochamp, series winner and champion of champions.

Supreme Championship

In 1996, Freeman returned to the Countdown studios one last time to participate in the Supreme Championship. Given a bye in the first round, Freeman defeated Ian Bebbington in the second round and Barry Grossman in a closely-fought group final to put himself into the series quarter-finals. There, he beat Andrew Perry before once again beating John Clarke in the semi-finals. In the grand final, he faced Allan Saldanha in what promised to be a true battle of the greats. Critically, though, Freeman put the D on the end of Saldanha’s word CREOSOTE in the first round and was able to hold on to his lead to avoid a crucial conundrum and win 82 – 79, winning the title of "all-time supreme champion" and maintaining his winning streak at a record 19 games (not counting his losses in the special episode, or against producer, Mark Nyman, in Episode M45), until this record was beaten by Conor Travers in 2013. Notably, all but one of Freeman's Supreme Championship games were decided by crucial conundrums.

Notable achievements

  • Third highest total wins on Countdown (19), plus one win as part of a "team" in a special. He was top of the pile for many years, until finally overtaken by Conor Travers in the grand final of the 30th Birthday Championship.
  • Highest score for a 14-round game (115).
  • Second highest score for a 9-round game (82). It was the highest score at the time he made it. It's also the highest score by a champion – neither the 83 by Allan Saldanha nor by Stephen Balment were made whilst they were the sitting champion.
  • Second highest eight-game total (523). It was the highest score at the time he made it.
  • Highest debut score of Series 10.
Preceded by
David Trace
Series winner
Series 10
Followed by
John Clarke
Preceded by
Clive Freedman
Champion of Champions
Championship of Champions III
Followed by
Nic Brown
Preceded by
Alan Sinclair
Series winner
Series 33
Followed by
Huw Morgan

Episodes

# Date Type Contestant 1 Score Contestant 2 Presenters Guest Lex Max
459 31/10/1986 P Harvey Freeman 65 – 45 David Whiting Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Lee Peck Freda Thornton 86
460 03/11/1986 P Harvey Freeman 82 – 30 Rita Meston Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Lee Peck Freda Thornton 83
461 04/11/1986 P Harvey Freeman 60 – 29 Anilkumar Shah Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Lee Peck Freda Thornton 72
462 05/11/1986 P Harvey Freeman 57 – 33 Michael Sim Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Lee Peck Freda Thornton 70
463 06/11/1986 P Harvey Freeman 64 – 28 John Wesley Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Lee Peck Freda Thornton 73
464 07/11/1986 P Harvey Freeman 49 – 21 Frances Kicul Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Lee Peck Freda Thornton 73
465 10/11/1986 P Harvey Freeman 71 – 17 Martin Reed Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Bill Tidy Freda Thornton 83
466 11/11/1986 P Harvey Freeman 75 – 10 Roy James Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Bill Tidy Freda Thornton 76
488 11/12/1986 QF Harvey Freeman 65 – 29 Elisabeth Jardine Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Bill Tidy Catherine Clarke 73
492 17/12/1986 SF Harvey Freeman 76 – 36 Les Martin Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Bill Tidy Catherine Clarke ??
494 19/12/1986 GF Harvey Freeman 96 – 52 Mike Percik Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Gyles Brandreth, Bill Tidy Della Thompson 117
495 02/02/1987 X Bill Tidy with
Mark Nyman,
Brian Hudson,
Peter Evans, and
Darryl Francis
41 – 32 Gyles Brandreth with
Clive Freedman,
Michael Wylie,
Joyce Cansfield, and
Harvey Freeman
Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner none Della Thompson 68
595 22/06/1987 CQF Harvey Freeman 44 – 36 Michael Stephenson Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Sally James Della Thompson ??
599 26/06/1987 CSF Harvey Freeman 45 – 38 John Clarke Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Sally James Della Thompson 71
601 30/06/1987 CGF Harvey Freeman 115 – 107 David Trace Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Cathy Hytner Sally James Della Thompson 127
M45 05/02/1990–09/02/1990 M Mark Nyman 76 – 68 Harvey Freeman Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman none Catherine Clarke 132
1872 01/11/1996 cSF Ian Bebbington 54 – 72 Harvey Freeman Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Geoffrey Durham Susie Dent 85
1874 05/11/1996 cF Barry Grossman 37 – 44 Harvey Freeman Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Geoffrey Durham Susie Dent 73
1902 13/12/1996 SQF Andrew Perry 44 – 54 Harvey Freeman Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Jenny Hanley Susie Dent 72
1905 18/12/1996 SSF John Clarke 48 – 65 Harvey Freeman Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Nigel Rees Catherine Clarke 72
1907 20/12/1996 SGF Allan Saldanha 79 – 82 Harvey Freeman Richard Whiteley Carol Vorderman Nigel Rees Catherine Clarke 127


Championship of Champions Winners

I : Mark Nyman | II : Clive Freedman | III : Harvey Freeman | IV : Nic Brown | V : Tim Morrissey | VI : Wayne Summers | VII : Don Reid | VIII : Chris Rogers | IX : Natascha Kearsey | X : Scott Mearns | XI : Graham Nash | XII : Paul Gallen | XIII : Steve Briers | XIV : Dylan Taylor | XV : Zarte Siempre | XVI : Ahmed Mohamed