As planned I managed to watch (and record of course) Carol Vorderman's final edition of Countdown and before that I saw "One More Consonant" which was a light hearted interview from Giles Brandeth done in front of an audience. I liked how Giles introduced Carol as probably the most seen woman on television possibly only beaten by another Carol, that being the girl who played noughts and crosses at regular interludes throughout the 70s and early 80s.
There were also special guests including Kathy Hytner who was the original "letters girl" on the series when it started in 1982, Dictionary Corner guests Barry Norman, Paul Zenon and Rick Wakeman, Richard Whiteley's wife Katherine Apanowicz and of course Susie Dent.
There were plenty of vintage moments including plenty of funny bits involving both Carol and Richard who is still mentioned on the show today whenever his favourite word "Moonset" appears in the selection of letters chosen.
In fact along with Bob Holness, it's a show which has allowed many of it's younger viewers to learn their alphabet just by watching the programme.
The final show itself was done with no major frills and was a great grand final overall with two contestants from Oxford and Cambridge University respectively and I was fully behind Junaid who was from Oxford as I have a bit of a dislike for Cambridge University.
This is entirely down to the arrogance of CUR 1350 at this year's Student Radio Awards on picking up the award for "Best Chart Show" and urged the audience to listen to them and "hear how it should be done" which didn't really go down well.
Another reason is that Concha's son Tony has started at Oxford this semester although he came home last Friday and had to take all his belongings from his room as they're doing an inspection over Christmas.
The guest in dictionary corner for the final show was quite naturally Giles Brandreth who known for his bizarre jumpers was wearing an Oxford University t-shirt and it was well chosen as Junaid won what was a well played contest by both contestants although it didn't end in a crucial conundrum.
As usual I couldn't get any words as long as five letters although I did manage to guess the first teaser into the break which was "DDESOOSING" and the clue was something along the lines of "Gracious Me" which more or less gave it away.
Des's farewell consisted of a 30 second montage of the funniest moments over the last two years and Carol did get a bit tearful near the end and I felt a bit of the same as well.
Having watched the programme on and off for 17 years, it will be difficult to imagine the series without Carol putting up the letters and solving the numbers puzzles but I'm looking forward to seeing how Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley take the reigns in exactly one month today.
I managed to do my shopping and make a start on my cooking soon after by sorting out what I hope will be a lovely lamb and mushroom stew which I may have with conchiglie (jagged shell shaped) pasta.
After that it will probably be an evening spent in front of The ONE Show, Have I Got News For You with Jerry Springer as the host and Live At The Apollo featuring Sean Lock and Jason Manford both off of 8 Out Of Ten Cats.
In between the last two shows will be the premier of the video for Geraldine McQueen AKA Peter Kay's new Xmas single that would hilarious if that ended up knocking off the winner of the official X Factor final. Especially if it's Eggnog who wins.
Definitely a warm up for the follow-up programme next Friday which will feature
Ben Shepard following the progress of Geraldine after her victory on the spoof talent show.
Speaking of which New Year's Day sees Ben hosting the long awaited return of
The Krypton Factor on ITV1 which may make a bit more sense to people as to why I constantly refer to the programme when walking over the bike posts on the way back from a Monday night at the Underpants.
It's been scheduled in a rather strong slot up against Eastenders although considering it's the most popular show on television I'd prefer it if they moved Emmerdale to elsewhere in the schedule as it's on way too many times a week and the programme did really well in it's 7pm timeslot on a Monday night for many years.
I've also managed to find out who will be taking part in 2008's Big Fat Quiz Of The Year which will consist of Dara O'Brain, Davina McCall, Sean Lock, Michael McIntyre, James Corden and a woman who could possibly be one of Davina's doppelgangers that being Claudia Winkelman, although she has been really good when appearing on 8 Out Of 10 Cats.
As I type I'm in the SADiE room where I haven't been doing any editing as such but have helped a few of the others out including Phil H who wanted me to put together a loop of the intro to Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" for his feature on making the perfect party. It's now stuck in my head to annoying extent although I like the idea on how Phil plans to use it by having it as the music to illustrate travelling from one location to another.
I personally prefer ZZ Top's version.
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