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Harry Peters was an octochamp in Series 6 who, despite achieving record breaking scores, was controversially removed from Countdown history. Peters made his début in 1985 and amassed 562 points in his eight heat games, easily beating all records from Countdown's original 9 round era. However, all episodes of Countdown featuring Peters as a contestant were scrapped and never broadcast owing to his poor temperament in the studio. In one game, Peters refused to shake hands with opponent Trevor Acorns after being narrowly beaten to the conundrum IFLOPORAL, despite having already won by a comfortable margin. During another game, Peters interrupted an anecdote from Dictionary Corner guest Richard Stilgoe to mock his habit of anagramming contestants' names – holding up a piece of card emblazoned with "wafting tuck".
Following a foul-mouthed outburst in his eighth and final game, Countdown's producers decided that Peters was unsuitable for broadcast. His entire eight-game run was declared null and void, with the contestants who had faced him invited back to Leeds to play each other in games to replace the episodes where they had previously been beaten. Details of Peters' controversial run leaked online in the early 2000s, and his contribution to Countdown was only acknowledged on-screen 22 years after recording. When a user of the gevincountdown Yahoo! Group revealed that Peters had worn a neckerchief and rainbow braces in all of his eight games, Series 57 quarter-finallist and record-breaking hugger Mikey Lear donned an identical ensemble for his first heat game. This tribute to Peters' recklessness prompted Dictionary Corner guest Barry Norman to remark that Lear would be "the death of this show". In 2013, a short clip recovered from a bootleg tape of Peters' final heat was uploaded to the video sharing website YouTube. However, the whereabouts of Peters himself remain unknown. (more...)
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Today in Countdown History
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- A brief overview of Countdown and some of its records and terminology.
- The team: Colin Murray, Rachel Riley, and Susie Dent.
- The show's institutions: The conundrum, the pencam, and the Teatime Teaser.
- Harry Savage, the reigning series champion, and his series grand final against Viraj Seelam.
- The most recent Championship of Champions Final between James Haughton and Ahmed Mohamed.
- The 30th Birthday Championship final between Conor Travers and Jack Hurst.
- Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor, Carol Vorderman, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer and Anne Robinson - the show's former permanent presenters.
- The highest ever score: 154, achieved by Tom Stevenson in Episode 7860 and Cillian McMulkin in Episode 7943.
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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:
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Other Countdown websites
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- Apterous, an online game from the same people that run this site.
- The Countdown 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.
- Greem, a website listing nearly all Co-event scores until early 2020.
- The Countdown Page, the original site of Countdown stats, by Mike Brown.
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Upcoming Countdown tournaments
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The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2024 is here.
The next scheduled event is Countdown in Reading on 20 April 2024.
Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here. |
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