But not on OC if the first clue is a number or letter.

Are you new to BBC Four?

but now it's on BBC2 it should be Circle, Square, Triangle....

You do realise that they were introduced as a joke?

They used to have letters of the alphabet, but Greek ones which are used commonly in maths, just as A, B, C, D and 1, 2, 3, 4 are. Then Victoria said they had been accused of being elitist so they decided to change them - and started using the current symbols.

You wouldn't expect 'Pointless' or 'Deal or No Deal' to use Greek letters of Egyptian hieroglyphs , but they're fitting for a quiz that requires a tad more thought.

I'd love to see Deal or No Deal with roman numerals.

I'll open XVIII please Noel

You do realise Viccy was just joking when she said that ?

I suspect some of their contestants have enough problems counting up to 22 using Arabic numerals.

By that argument, I wish they would ditch Victoria Coren, or at least get her to present the quiz 'straight'. Her 'style' is becoming tiresome.

Don't watch it then - there are many others that like VCM and her "style"

I thought the 'celebrity chefs with a boy's name instead of a girl's name, and vice-versa' was a bit odd. Especially given that the first example was a well-known real person, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that Fanny Craddock's Dad might be called Frank, or Raymond Blanc's Mum called Ramona...

Agree, they are there as a bit of self-referential fun, but it would be hilarious if they did now change them to shapes for BBC2...

But, everyone knows Nigel is Nigella's dad, so for a first clue to be so obviously "parents of TV chefs" is recognisable as an OC trap. If it were that connection, it would start obscure and Nigel Lawson would have been the 4th clue.

Yes, let's get Ant and Dec or Lily Savage. And a studio audience. And have the contestants complete the grid whilst being pelted with wet sponges. And have the public phone in to vote off one member of each team after every round. And let's have more flashing lights, bells and whistles.

That sort of 'we all know that that would be too easy so isn't worth saying' thinking could be a bit of a turn-off to a new audience...

Isn't that what this episode was about? They were introducing the various kinds of questions to a new audience, so there were questions based on simple reasoning (e.g. the bra one) and questions based on more complex reasoning (e.g. the countries one). The chefs' names question was an example of a question that's not what it seems at first, which is another OC genre for new viewers to discover.

Round, Square, Arched or Triangular surely?

But circle, square, triangle, X wouldn't be enough. Don't they need six letters/symbols/marks?

Same with round, square, traingle, arched.

How about prehistoric cave paintings? Deer, Horse, Mammoth, Man with spear and, um, another two
Last edited by willowfan : 03-09-2014 at 12:42

Hugh (yes, I know), Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb.

Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James & Percy ?

If only it'd been that recognisable to us in the studio!

I like Victoria Coren-Mitchell but am biased because I loved watching her dad, Alan, on 'Call My Bluff'. She's definitely a chip off the old block.

Well, I can't speak for your watch, but on mine the hands go to the right as they pass 12 and to the left as they pass 6. (Well, they would if it wasn't a digital watch.)

And Simon, Simon ... oh dear! Why didn't you call yourselves the Ailurophiles and avoid having to apologise for that awful Latin/Greek hotch potch?

Given that OC has previously had a question about words which are a mix of Latin and Greek - I can't remember them all, but the fourth was television - I don't think we have much to apologise for! Oh, and we also earned a point for Helen's inspired "twelve in hexadecimal".

Our team name was very much a last minute decision when we sent the application form in - up until about five minutes before I sent the email, we were nearly the Data Geeks.

There was actually a bit of discussion in the studio about the "clockwise/going to the left" question - VCM had to re-record her link to try to make her explanation clearer. Had we lost the show by a point we might have been a tad miffed about it being accepted, but we weren't tempted to challenge it at the time. Unlike some (actually only one) of the other teams we came across in Cardiff, we were there to enjoy ourselves. We wanted to win, of course, but not enough to be dicks about it.

That's tele (Greek) vision (Latin) for you ...

There must be a rule or an in-joke that the team name must be etymologically " interesting " so that Vicky can be smartass and witty about it .

I mean, Cat Lovers as a team name is simple, self explanatory and sensible, why go down the Proustian cul-de-sac of Felinophiles ?

Robert Robinson must be turning in his shroud.