Harvey Freeman

Harvey Freeman Octochamp Statistics
Final position	Champion
Seeding	1
Points total	523
Conundrums solved	8

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				Lucy Summers	Geoffrey Durham	Susie Dent	85
1874	05/11/1996	cF	Barry Grossman	37 – 44	Harvey Freeman	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Geoffrey Durham	Susie Dent	73
1902	13/12/1996	SQF	Andrew Perry	44 – 54	Harvey Freeman	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Jenny Hanley	Susie Dent	72
1905	18/12/1996	SSF	John Clarke	48 – 65	Harvey Freeman	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Nigel Rees	Catherine Clarke	72
1907	20/12/1996	SGF	Allan Saldanha	79 – 82	Harvey Freeman	Richard Whiteley	Carol Vorderman				Lucy Summers	Nigel Rees	Catherine Clarke	127