Countdown

At the time of writing (December 2002), the programme is broadcast from 16:15 to 17:00 every weekday, with each programme repeated in the early hours of the morning about two and a half days later.

Countdown is based on the French game show Des Chiffres et Des Lettres[?] (Digits and Letters). It was originally broadcast in the Yorkshire Television[?] ITV region as Calendar Countdown - Calendar[?] being that region's local news magazine show which was, at the time, fronted by Whiteley. Yorkshire Television, now part of the Granada Television group, still makes Countdown for Channel Four.

Countdown, like most of the "old guard" of British game shows is never so much about winning prizes as simply competing (and possibly showing off to the nation how smart you are). The current prize fund tends to be a board game and other assorted items for every contestant and a full Oxford English Dictionary for the series winner, which is still a lot more than it used to be.

External links

• "The Countdown Page (http://www.thecountdownpage.com/)" by series 48 contestant Mike Brown
• A Countdown website (http://expage.com/dickengland/) by series 46 champion Benjemin Wilson
• "Countdown Update UK (http://mysite.freeserve.com/countdown_update_uk/)" by fan and series 49 contestant Martin Gardner (no relation of Martin Gardner the recreational mathematician)
• Gevin Chapwell's Yahoo! Group (http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/gevincountdown/) dedicated to discussion of the show