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Julian Fell was the champion of Series 48, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Countdown contestants of all time. A Cambridge University student at the time of recording, Fell matched or broke multiple Countdown records. He scored at least a century in all of his eight heat games, and became only the third contestant to solve all eight of his preliminary round conundrums. His final heat game against Carl McDermott marked the first time a player had even won by more than 100 points. Fell's octochamp total of 924 points went unbeaten for more than six years, before Kirk Bevins amassed 925 en route to winning Series 60. Fell's semi-final against Danny Hamilton remains the only time a contestant has found four nine-letter words in a single game. Although Fell failed to unravel the conundrum THEIRCOPY in this game, he had amassed 146 points. This score remained the highest ever achieved in a single game at that time which was later matched a decade later by Conor Travers but never exceeded until Zarte Siempre smashed it with a score of 150 in January 2019, which was then bettered by Elliott Mellor, who scored 152 in May 2019, then by Tom Stevenson with 154 in October 2022.
In the series final against Grace Page, Fell immediately gained an 18-point advantage with the nine-letter word MANTICORE. He extended this lead with LEOPARDS in round 2 and ZODIAC in round 6, but Page reduced the deficit with the darrenic KNITWEAR in round 9. This ended a run of 59 consecutive rounds in which Fell's various opponents had been able to prevent him from scoring. Page reduced her arrears to 14 points in the final numbers game, which Fell failed to solve. He returned to form for the conundrum APIMOMENT and became series champion with a score of 112 points to 88.
Fell returned for the Championship of Champions XI as the favourite. In his first match against Series 42 semi-finalist Terence O'Farrell, Fell gained a 14 point lead across the first two letters games and scored in all 15 rounds to win comfortably, 118 – 64. His quarter-final pitted him against Graham Nash, champion of Series 43. Both contestants had offerings disallowed – formica ☓ for Nash and gambiers ☓ for Fell – but otherwise scored point-for-point across the first 14 rounds. Trailing by one point going into the conundrum, Fell was beaten to the buzzer and Nash won the game 120 – 109. Despite losing, Julian maintained his streak of scoring a century in every game. Julian's final appearance on Countdown came in a special against Chris Wills, which he won 100 – 92 on a crucial conundrum. As such, 100 was Julian's lowest ever score on Countdown. (more...)
- ...that the target for the last numbers game of the Championship of Champions VIII grand final was 100?
- ...that on 23 January 1990, Bob Holt became the first known contestant to choose four large numbers (outside of the Countdown Masters)?
- ...that exactly six years later, two tie-breaker conundrums were required to separate Sean Carey and Kenneth Michie?
- ...that on 21 July 2004, a Teatime Teaser with the answer MUTINEER was immediately followed by a letters round where MUTINEER was the longest available word?
- ...that the word TORTURING has been featured as a conundrum no fewer than four times, with each occasion featuring a series finalist, and on one occasion, featured two series finalists?
- 2025: Darren Melling beat Jason Hook with scores of 83 – 41.
- 2024: Neil Holland beat Samer Ullah with scores of 92 – 41.
- 2023: Fran Orford beat Philip Goodwin with a score of 102 – 65.
- 2020: Sam Blanning beat Liz Tilley by 88 – 39.
- 2019: Pierse Walsh beat Roqaya Ahmed in a 80 – 49 game.
- 2018: Paul Hollidge beat Andy Wedlake with a score of 77 – 75.
- 2017: Alex Smith beat Jo Counsell with final score 96 – 71.
- 2015: Gareth Chapman beat Naomi Powell in a game that ended 90 – 48.
- 2014: Dan McColm beat Antony Aston, by a score of 126 – 44.
- 2013: Mark Hartnett beat Edel Creely, scoring 93 – 52.
- 2012: Rose Boyle beat Gavin Sutton with scores of 89 – 44.
- 2009: John Drinkwater beat Mark Greenhalgh in a 108 – 74 game.
- 2008: Charlie Reams beat Darren Edwards with a score of 126 – 31.
- 2007: Dorian Lidell beat Konstadinos Sfyris with final score 78 – 76.
- 2006: Stu Horsey beat Tom Rosoman in a game that ended 83 – 68.
- 2003: Bob Selby beat Paul Trow, scoring 82 – 78.
- 2002: Julian Fell beat Kevin Neate with scores of 117 – 63.
- 2001: Simon Cartwright beat Ian Williams, by a score of 83 – 38.
- 2000: Bola Adelaja beat Irene Rhodes in a 71 – 38 game.
- 1998: Valerie Swanick beat Judith Turner with final score 54 – 44.
- 1997: Kate Surtees beat Dorothy Pymer with a score of 61 – 51.
- 1996: John Clarke beat Andy Bodle, scoring 55 – 39.
- 1990: Harry Venet played Elisabeth Jardine in the second leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- 1989: Liz Wilcox played Roy Jackson in the first leg of a Countdown Masters game.
- 1987: Alan Steel beat Margaret Smythe in a game that ended 58 – 34.
- 1986: Liz Wilcox beat Louise Stevenson with scores of 62 – 43.
- 1985: Clive Freedman beat Jill Payne, by a score of 36 – 6.
- 1984: Joyce Cansfield beat Christine Hunt in the second Championship of Champions I quarter-final.
- A brief overview of Countdown and some of its records and terminology.
- The team: Colin Murray, Rachel Riley and Susie Dent since the first episode of Series 87.
- The show's institutions: the letters and numbers, the conundrum, the Countdown clock and its music, Dictionary Corner and the Teatime Teaser.
- Patrick Thompson, the reigning series champion and his series grand final against Charlie Harrison.
- The latest Championship of Champions grand final between James Haughton and Ahmed Mohamed.
- The 30th Birthday Championship grand final between Conor Travers and Jack Hurst.
- The show's former permanent presenters: Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor and Carol Vorderman, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer and Anne Robinson.
- The highest ever score: 154, achieved by Tom Stevenson on 29 September 2022 and Cillian McMulkin on 31 January 2023.
Everyone can edit the Countdown Wiki, just register and then click the edit link at the top of any page (except this one!) and start editing. Here are some useful links:
- Learn about this wiki and how to use it.
- Episode style guide - if you want to help us edit the episode pages, this style guide gives comprehensive help.
- Suggest a featured article which will in turn be featured on the Main Page.
- Apterous, an online game from the same people that run this site.
- Beat The Clock: Words & Maths, a Countdown-inspired Android app created by Series 63 champion Jack Hurst.
- The Countdown Database, detailed statistics and round-by-round details of over 7,800 episodes.
- FOCAL, regular in-person events that anyone can enter.
- c4countdown, Countdown's main online forum, populated by many past octochamps.
- Quantum Tombola, a numbers game solver designed by Series 65 champion Graeme Cole.
- A mobile version of the above.
- Greem, a website listing nearly all Co-event scores until early 2020.
- The Countdown Page, the original site of Countdown stats, created by Mike Brown.
- Online tournaments on Apterous.
- In-person tournaments organized by FOCAL.
- Next scheduled event is Countdown in Durham on 31 October 2026.
