The editing always makes it look like they have never been to London and dont know where anywhere is.

I always think that most people would know the central areas but it never seems to be the case on this show.

I lived in London for a couple of years and know it well, so unless you have lived and worked in london maybe you are up against it

I think London is very hard to get your head around, unless you've lived there. I've lived in the south east for over 20 years, visited London many times, but I hardly know how anything joins up at all. On the other hand, my OH drove around London for a year for his work, and knows it like the back of his hand.

(Although that could just be the difference between men and women for you )

Well I'm from Plymouth (not north, but y'know ) and I wouldn't have a clue where anything in London is! I know there's a big river, and there's an oversized fairground ride next to it called Eye, and near that theres a big clock where the politicians live. Not everyone knows all that much about London.

I wouldn't have a clue where to go in this kind of task, I'd be counting on people who live there. But to be fair, I think when you've been living somewhere a while you just kind of expect people to know where things are. I feel the same if someone asks me where Plymouth Hoe is. Its just natural

I'm male and lived in London for 5-6 years. But I didn't drive then - the tube can give a very skewed view of how London is laid out. I really would have no idea how long it takes to get from, say, Tower of London to Kew Gardens by road.

I lived in London years ago and have been back on business recently. I just multi map where i am going and get on the tube. It always astounds me though that Many Londoners still have no idea of life beyond the south east and find it amazing that I travell from Scotland in a matter of a few hours to be at a 9am meeting in the centre of London. I am sure if you dumped a bunch of Londoners in Manchester or Glasgow they would not have a clue

I live in West London which I know well but haven't a clue about North, South or East London. You have to know your area otherwise you can waste hours trying to find places.

That's true about the tube.

As far as this week's task goes, the advantage of knowing London would really be to avoid trying to source items at the most expensive parts of town and not spreading your items over too wide an area of London, which I think they all knew anyway.

Having a cab driver's knowledge of London would only really help you out by knowing which areas would be a real time waste trying to get to and from. I think the advantage of being familiar with London is simply that you are familiar with it, ie you feel comfortable and have a general understanding of your surroundings. People not familiar with London will not feel that they have their bearings or any idea of the proximity of one area to another.

Getting from one place to the other on the tube is fine, you'd only have a problem if you find the underground itself hard to navigate (I often smile when the tourists are looking at the map for ages not quite knowing which line to use).

Out of the underground it can be bit abit more trickier if you're heading away from the central areas and lose track of how many road turnings you've done because it's such a long road. Generally though (as long as you have a good sense of direction) you'll find things easy enough. You can usually tell who doesn't know their way around London when they're always looking down and following their mobile phone, ha.

With Gavin, I found it funny when he said '"calm down" or "chill out" because I highly doubt he felt at ease during any part of the task, whether with locating items, getting around London, organising the team etc. He was just so unconvincing.

I've been visiting my friend in London since she moved there for college over 20 years ago and I still have no idea where one place is in relation to another. To be honest, I'm not sure she has either.

I'm from London, but have lived in Yorkshire, for Many Years, most people I now, Up here, have never been....if they have, it's just to Wembley or Twickenham ...via Kings Cross and Trafalgar Sq.

Even if you were born in London, as I was, it takes many years to get to really feel the layout of the place (no matter how long you look at maps).

Typically there will be areas that you are very familiar with and at some point you will realise how these join up and get a good feel for larger areas.

But unless you need to drive around all of it as part of your working day you are going to be hard pressed to gain real familiarity with it in its entirety.

Surely someone on Gavin's team could have pointed out that they were different Yellow Pages for different areas. I smell sabotage there.

Yes, but does he LISTEN?

Oh, good God no!

As a Londoner, if I was to go to Manchester to buy a closhe, I'd have no idea where to start.

Also, if someone asked me how long it would take to get from Twickenham to Walthamstow, I'd have no idea with that either. I know where Twickenham is as that is in the part of London I tend to frequent for work, pleasure and live in. God knows where Walthamstow is though.

So I can fully understand why someone doesn't know their way around any town, whether they are from there or not.

Certainly if you travel by tube you get the wrong perspectives and also limited imagination as you can't picture the area in relation to other places. I've lived in London for 10 years, bought a huge map when I first came down and stuck it on my bedroom wall so I knew where I was. I travelled by bus rather than tube or train and that gave me a really good idea where everything was (even if it did take 40 minutes to get anywhere), but now when I think of an area or town I can actually picture it and not just an image of a tube station.

A lot of born Londoners don't know certain areas either, some fellow students on a course I did had never been to Canary Wharf or had a clue where it was, most of the students came from West London.

yeah, the tube map isn't to scale, and the distances between stations are spread out evenly for illustrations purposes. There are some stations that are only 10 minutes wlking distance apart, there are other stations thta would take you 30 minutes to walk between. But you can't tell from the tube map.

They used to draw tube maps to scale, but it got confusing to read so they simplified it

There's a reason that to be a London Black Cabbie, you have to take an exam (called The Knowledge.) London is one of the biggest cities in the world. In terms of streets, it's probably got more then many small countries! Born and bred Londoners rarely venture out of their own locale, unless it's to go into the West End. But throw your average North Londoner into South London, well, you might as well just throw them abroad.

It's a huge disadvantage to the canditates, to have no knowledge of London at all. Saying that though, surely everyone is familiar with the Monopoly board? Everybody knows that Mayfair is the most expensive, don't they?

Quite true, but also just looking at the place you can tell it's an expensive area.

The buying tasks really do bring out the stupid in the candidates, happens most years.

Yes, take Leicester Square to Convent Garden or Charing Cross to Embankment, it's just as quick to walk between these stations rather than catch the tube but the Tube map doesn't indicate that.
Most of the tube network North of the Thames, South of the Thames tends to be mainly National Rail, so again the tube map may not be useful if you want anywhere in South London.

Apparently the reason the Tube wasn't extended as much in the South as in the North was because the soil in South London was too sandy. Of course modern techniques could mean a full Tube system in South London now, but since it will cost billions it will never happen.

Thankfully you can now use your Oyster on most National Rail services in South London (and all of Greater London). It used to cost more before as they were separate payments for train as to tube. Now it's in the Zone system of payments.

Mornington Crescent!

Are you quite sure you're a Londoner?

I'm a Londoner, born and bred. Have only ever lived in north/northwest areas such as West Hampstead, Wood Green, Kilburn, but I still know roughly whereabouts things are, like Battersea, Chelsea, Victoria, Edmonton etc. I find it a bit lazy if you're a Londoner and you haven't a general idea of other areas and where they are.

Susan had it right when she said go east for cheaper prices, although of course some of those items should have been bought at markets. The steak for sure. And they could have called a hotel to say "what's a cloche?" And, and, and...

....but they didn't.

I would have chosen two adjoining phonebooks (probably city and east) and asked everyone to start with those (making everyone responsible for one or two items each) - use the book, write down some numbers for leads, pass the book onto someone else. If you really can't get a lead, use your initiative (phone hotels to find what X item is) or only then use another area book... and then when you know where you're going, set out.

Simple, right?