Kirk Bevins appeared on Countdown on 11th February 2004, taking on octochamp-to-be Richard Pay in his fourth game. Despite failing to dislodge the champion, Kirk managed to score a respectable 69 points to Richard's 90. This is the story of his audition and his two days spent at the studio in Leeds. Over to you, Kirk...
It all started in mid-April 2003, when I was watching Countdown (as I used to do on the odd occasion when the TV was free from my brothers wanting to watch, as they called it, "more interesting" programmes) and I saw a 15-year-old girl, Beth Sutton, on the show. She became a champion and went on to win a couple more games before being defeated. I have always wanted to go on Countdown, as I felt I had the potential to do well, but was partly afraid and partly waiting till I was older, as I felt the older I was, the more vocabulary I'd learn. I was equalling and bettering her scores and so I thought I should apply. A few days passed and I felt my vocabulary wouldn't increase that much if I waited, and also, if I waited till I was older, being at university and then going on to get a full-time job as a maths teacher (hopefully!) would not give me time to go on Countdown. Fired with these thoughts, and backed up by the spite of my older brother arguing that I was too "chicken" to apply, I wrote off for an application form.
A couple of weeks later, the application form arrived. I filled it out, found a recent photograph of myself and sent it off, including that all-important SAE. As it so happens, I didn't actually have a stapler or any glue to stick my photograph down with, so I Blu-tacked it down, with paper clips holding it in place! Looked very unprofessional, but hopefully that wouldn't put them off!
So, there I sat, thinking how long it would take for a reply to come back. I'd cycle home from school every day, excited at the prospect of there being an envelope for me, postmarked Leeds, telling me my audition date – but there wasn't. After a couple of weeks, I gave up the excitement and plodded on with my life. I completed my AS-levels, had my summer holidays, enjoyed the sunshine, collected my AS-level results in mid-August and passed them all, and so, as you can imagine, my mind was well off Countdown. Come the end of August, I was just preparing to go back to school at the start of September, when a letter arrived through the post, addressed to me, with my handwriting. Hmm... so who did I send an SAE to? I sat and couldn't remember, then looked at the postmark – Leeds. My heart jumped at the prospect of it being from Countdown, so I promptly opened the letter. Indeed, the first thing I saw was the Countdown mark on the top of the letter – yay! It asked me to go to an audition in Birmingham on Tuesday 23rd September 2003. There was an accompanying slip to return to say whether or not I could make the audition, or whether I was no longer interested (and of course, sending off another SAE). Well, this involved me making my own mind up and saying "Yes, I can still make the audition" – even though I hadn't gone to school and asked my teachers. Whatever they said, I wasn't going to miss this! As it turned out, all the teachers were really enthusiastic, and said go for it – which was nice. The only flaw was that I would miss an important day, a day that consisted of university application information and a 100 minute session on Further Maths, which would take a bit of catching up if I missed it! Oh well, hard lines. The green light was on for my audition.
One month passed, and the morning of Tuesday 23rd September came. I packed my bag, and found out I was extra early and extra bored – but I decided to head for the railway station early just in case trains were late etc. I'm also a railway enthusiast and so this wasn't a bad choice! My train arrived, and I had a 1-in-37 chance of it being a train I needed to travel on – and guess what, it was my last one that I required! What luck! Could this be a good omen for the day ahead? Well... the train turned out to be 15 minutes late, but never mind, I was catching an earlier train in case my other train ran late! All the way to Birmingham, well, 35 minutes, I was playing on my electronic version of Countdown, sometimes scoring 8-letter words and sometimes scoring 5's. I was slightly nervous and also slightly excited! I arrived at Birmingham New Street station at 11:30am and my audition started at 12:30pm in a hotel, somewhere in Birmingham, for which I was provided with a map. The map didn't turn out to be much help – nor did it to the other auditionees, who I shall refer to later. The street names were incredibly hard to find, so I had to ask several people along the way the right direction to go. Eventually, I found the Crowne Plaza Hotel. It was a huge luxurious hotel, I couldn't believe my eyes! I'd never set foot in a place like this before! I had arrived at 11:50am and I headed for reception to sign in. A very friendly American woman stood behind the counter... and I told her my name and I was here for Countdown. She checked the board, and said "Meridian Suite, Floor 2, good luck!". All very well saying that, but how did I get there? Eventually, I decided to use the lift as I couldn't find any stairs. On exiting the lift, a posh LCD screen told people which way to go for the Countdown auditions. I followed the sign, and found the door, realising I had arrived 40 minutes early! There were no seats around, so I had to stand! After about 10 minutes, I decided to walk up and down the corridor, admiring the hotel when I heard a door open – the Meridian Suite door! Could I be allowed in? Nope! It was a bunch of contestants just leaving the previous audition!!! I heard one lady say "If we can't perform well in an audition, we've got no chance in a studio!" This didn't give me much encouragement but I hoped for the best. At about 12:10pm, a couple of other auditionees arrived, and I went up and spoke to them, before a third arrived and a fourth. We were finally let in the room at about 12:25pm by the lovely Marie Wale – the researcher of Countdown. We waited for the fifth and final other auditionee to arrive – but they never turned up! The room was quite large, with a posh table in the middle and really nice comfortable chairs – each having a couple of pieces of paper in front of them on the table. We sat down and Marie explained to us what was going to happen, and what we should do, should we pass the audition.
The audition was very informal, consisting of 7 letters games, 3 numbers games and 3 conundrums in the form: LLLNLLLLNNCCC, where L = letters game, N = numbers game and C = conundrum. Marie read the letters out slowly, each one pronounced using a name, such as "A for Albert" and "C for Charlie". We all then had 35 seconds (Note: 5 seconds extra than the standard 30 seconds used on the show) to make the longest word possible. I got off to a bad start, not being able to spot anything of value from a reasonable selection of letters. I had a safe 6, but I knew that wasn't good enough... and since the three auditionees in front of me had declared 7, 7 and 8 respectively – so I said "I'll risk a 7". It turned out my 7 was disallowed, UNCLAIM is not a word – although UNCLAIMED is! One of those words that works when adding ED but you can't take the ED away! It was only when we got to round 3 that I really shone. I had an 8 letter word, compared with the others' 5's and 6's. Going onto the first numbers game, the faculty which is my strongest, I got it spot on – in fact, I was the only person to do so in the audition! The rest of the audition passed, with me getting another 8, a couple of 7's and a 6-letter word. I managed 2 out of the 3 numbers games spot on and the last numbers game I was 5 away. I also got 2 out of the 3 conundrums correct within a total of 3 seconds, yet the rest of the auditionees didn't even manage one. This did cheer me up a bit, especially after I declared the first conundrum - there was mumbling around the room, indicating that they either would never have got it – or they've never heard of it! Anyway, at 1:00pm, the audition was over and I left the room, saying thank you to Marie and followed signs back to the station. All the way back to the station I was kicking myself for risking a 7-letter word, which was disallowed and only getting LOCKER on a certain round, when there were 8's and 9's available in all letters rounds! I thought I'd done averagely well, but perhaps the letters would let me down? Maybe, my 8-letter word, MORTUARY, would save me? I was later told, by ex-contestants, that the conundrums in the audition do not count for anything, so that then put me in a negative position about my performance, but all I had to do was wait – as she said we'd be told within the next couple of weeks whether we'd passed or not, but I didn't have to wait long.
Four days later, on the morning of Saturday 27th September 2003, my dad and my little brother woke me up, handing me my SAE, postmarked Leeds. I was full of cold by now though, and had to peer through my puffy eyes to read the letter. It wasn't very long, so I'd assumed I had failed, as if it was a pass, I figured it would have been a long letter detailing what I'd have to do. Usually, I am a relatively slow reader, but I was quickly scanning the letter for good words. It wasn't long until I found the word "delighted", which cheered me up a bit. I read the letter, which told me that my audition had been successful and they would be writing to me in the coming months with details of my recording date. I put on a frown and handed the, now folded, letter to my dad, who swiftly said "Oh dear, no good?" before I punched the air shouting "Yes!!". I was so happy! I had passed – I knew I was going to be on television. I knew I had the capability of winning a few games, if not becoming an octochamp as I'd played against the contestants on the show, as if I was there, and I'd beat them 95% of the time! All I was concerned about at that very moment was not winning, but the fact I was going to have my 45 minutes of fame – three times longer than the expected amount! I was also going to come away, whatever happens, with a monster goody bag! I was over the moon! It only took a few days, however, for my mood to change slightly, and I concentrated more on winning, rather than just taking part. I knew I had the potential – but could I match up to it on the day!? After speaking to past contestants online, the average for a recording date is about three months, which would mean a recording date in, perhaps, January or February. Not good. January is full-flow exam season – January and May/June must be avoided at all costs. I knew the filming for the quarter-finals of Series 50 was taking place in mid-November 2003, and so I didn't think I'd be in Series 50. I figured I'd be in Series 51, which would be filmed from December onwards (my estimates), so I knew I had a long wait. "Wait" was the operative word there! In the mean time, constant questions of "When are you going on Countdown?" were being asked – usually at least three times a day! After about two weeks, I got a bit frustrated/annoyed! Anyway, I didn't really mind as I was looking forward to it so much. One of my friends has met all of S-Club 8, I was about to meet Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall in November, doing Bottom Live 5 and others had appeared in the audience of the Trisha show – and had got on TV in the background! Now was my chance to excel! My form tutor was so excited for me, she said she was going to arrange a form outing to go and watch me, despite my pleas for her not to, as I'd be nervous enough as it is without an audience full of class mates willing me on! (occasionally getting ready to fire abuse at me if I was to make errors – especially on the numbers games, as that was my forte). All I had to do now though is wait, and wait, and wait.
It turned out the wait wasn't that long – about five weeks in fact. I came home from school on Wednesday 5th November 2003 (Bonfire Night) and lying on the doormat were two letters, both addressed to me. One took my eye, as it was quite thick. I quickly checked the postmark, and it was indeed Leeds. Now, was this a thing from Leeds University, as Leeds was one of the six universities I applied to! I promptly opened it and found it was from Countdown, telling me of my recording dates, Wednesday 3rd December 2003 (and Thursday 4th December if I win more than three). I was so happy that I knew when I was on – and that it didn't clash with any exams I was about to take in January! Upon opening the second letter (from my school), it had told me I had won the school prize for Further Mathematics!! Double whammy! I was a happy bunny that day! Numerous things were going through my mind now, including being excited about going to see Bottom, live, on 22nd November – although, primarily, more Countdown practice was in order. I was OK at home and playing against the challengers/champions at home, but would the pressure in the studio get to me? There was only one way to find out...
Quite quickly came the 3rd December 2003, and, having booked two days off school to go to Leeds, I was up at 06:30 ready to catch the 07:25 to Tamworth, where I would change and get another connecting service to Leeds. To my horror, there was a notice on the platform at Rugby saying that many Cross Country Virgin Trains had been taken out of service on Wednesday December 3rd 2003 due to problems with their new Virgin Voyager fleet, and that only 70% of the services would run. It also said I could expect an hourly service on main routes. Did that mean I would be late for my TV debut? There was only one sure-fire way to find out, get to Tamworth and check! It just so happened that the train that was cancelled was the one that avoided Leeds, and the one that was on time was my one, albeit packed due to the previous cancellation! I had left in plenty of time anyway, arriving into Leeds at 10:35, when I was due to be in the Yorkshire Television Studios by 12:30pm. After spending some time on Leeds railway station and treating myself to a rather expensive sausage roll (about £1.50!) and a Mars bar, I was off to find a taxi, and by 11:40am, having paid the taxi driver my £3.20 fare, I was signing in to the YTV studios and sat down, watching GMTV until I was called in to arrive. Whilst I sat there trying to watch TV and solving some Scrabblegrams in the Daily Mail's paper, along came five other people who sat with me, three of which being other Countdown contestants that day and two others being their guests. I had gone alone, as nobody could make it with me. It turned out that the lad next to me, trying to solve a cryptic crossword, was my opponent, Richard Pay, who you shall hear more about later.
12:30 arrived and we were taken through to the male contestants' changing rooms, where I hung all my tops out, for the clothes checker woman to check and see if any needed ironing, and whether any contained logos or stripes etc, which would not be allowed on the show. There was a letter on the table addressed to me, which explained the day's procedure and a few quick reminders, and the all-important £4 meal voucher!! We were then escorted back into the green room, where we all awaited our turn to be on TV. There on the table was the list of people due to be playing and the order in which they would play. Richard Pay was the current champion as he had won one game the night before and was returning today to hold his title. We were discussing with him what had happened yesterday and we were reliably informed that a 14-year-old was on, but lost marginally, although the woman who beat him felt so sorry for him that she gave him her teapot (a winners-only item)!! I was very nervous at this point... my body couldn't really feel the nerves as I tried to keep calm, but when I looked in the mirror, boy did it show it! My face was bright red! Oh dear, I hope this goes before I go in front of the TV cameras! It wasn't long until I was taken into the make-up department to have my make-up put on (oh dear!), just some camera-resistant shine on my cheeks and nose, which cooled my face down a bit, and took away those red bits, and there were lots of them! In the make-up department sat Carol Vorderman. She was having her hair done and her make-up applied too. Back into the green room I went and then the first show of the day was about to start (I was on 3rd). I was offered whether I wanted to stay in the green room and watch the live recordings on the TV in there, or go into the studio audience and watch them from there. I said I'd rather stay in the comfort of the green room and watch from there, and one of the floor managers Jenny took the rest into the studio audience to watch the game, and she also took the two contestants to their places. I was now left alone in the green room, and, feeling lonely, I immediately asked Charlotte Hudson, the game researcher, if she could direct me to the studios as I had changed my mind and wanted to sit in the audience! My request was taken and I sat in the audience amongst some elderly folk. I watched the game ahead and did quite well sitting in the audience, but watching Richard Pay, the champion, score 105 points against his opponent's 51, daunted me slightly. In fact, if I had have been playing Richard, I would have lost, 97 points to 101 – and I wasn't under the influence of TV cameras! Oh dear! What was about to happen was a challenge – a real challenge.
I was then ushered to the front of the studio audience for game 2 of the day's recordings, as that is where Richard Whiteley comes to you to see if you got the conundrum, and to introduce you to everyone as you are playing in the next show. I had a microphone given to me, which I fed up my T-shirt and out the top, and handed it back to the floor manager to attach to my T-shirt. I sat there, quite nervous, next to an old lady who kept whispering answers out loud during the game, which didn't help when I was trying to see how well I did!!! This was also the case when the conundrum came, without a chance to try to unscramble it myself, all the old ladies round me were whispering the answer, so I had it after about 5 seconds – which looked quite impressive when I told Richard how quick I got it! Of course, this wasn't a real reflection!
After the cameras had stopped, and the edits had been done (yes, they had to re-shoot the bit where the woman in the audience put her hand up next to me and told the nation what the conundrum was), my microphone was taken from me and I was escorted back to the changing rooms to change my T-shirt and put on the shirt of my choice to go on the show with... and I chose a trusty little green T-shirt that I never wear in "real life", so I thought I may as well put it to good use now, and wear it for my TV appearance! After I had changed, it was time for a quick tea break, nothing more than a few biscuits and a cold bottle of Coke! Soon, I was back onto the Countdown set, this time in the challenger's chair!! The chair was very comfortable, much more comfortable than the audience's chairs!! I had a nice fluffy purple cushion to rest against. The Countdown-headed notepaper was in front of me, a little TV monitor was buried into the desk to show me the letters/numbers when they appeared, to the right of me sat my opponent, the amazingly clever Richard Pay, to my left was Richard Whiteley's notes and behind me was the huge famous clock! Soon, I had a microphone shoved up my shirt again (don't worry for all you budding contestants, I did the shoving) and Richard Whiteley came out, organised himself and started chatting to me, and immediately swearing when I told him I had come alone! Who would have thought it, hey, Richard Whiteley swearing (albeit a mild swear word)! Dictionary Corner then came out, Michael Aspel first, and then the lovely Susie Dent. After they were fitted with their microphones, Carol Vorderman arrived and stood next to the letters board and cue...the show was about to start!
The Countdown music was played, and after about 25 seconds, the audience started cheering, as they usually do, to welcome today's show! Richard told the nation one of his little stories (I forgot what it was now, but I don't think I even listened to it, I was too nervous!) and then he introduced Richard Pay and myself, Kirk Bevins. He then made me tell him what train wagons carried, to which I stuttered and came up with a pathetic reply of "err...anything" then stuttered further to name about two examples I could think of under pressure! (Luckily, they edited this bit out before screening). Before long, the game was under way, and the first nine letters had been chosen by Richard (Richard Pay, I mean! Yes, this got a bit confusing, I was sandwiched by two Richards! Not good!). The TV monitor in front of me wasn't brilliant as numerous times it wasn't focussed on the letters, but on the word "vowel" instead, so I didn't know what had been chosen, and I couldn't see the letters on the real board due to Carol being in the way, oh well. After about five letters had been chosen, the problem was rectified, and I wrote down the nine. Richard then pushed the button to start the time and the Countdown music was playing... I don't think it put me off that much, although it did on some occasions, and the thing that really put me off was chattering in the audience, squeaking of the clock as its huge hand ticked down, and the clanking backstage. My first letters game and I offered a 7, GAMBIER. Richard asked me to spell it, before Dictionary Corner looked it up and Susie gave the definition of the word to the nation. Richard then asked how on earth I knew that, to which, my only reply was "Don't ask!". The rest of the game went OK... with Susie looking across and smiling and nodding to put me at ease each time I offered even a slightly dodgy word – well, I knew they weren't dodgy, but Richard Whiteley thought they were!! At the end of the second-half of the show (Yes, Countdown is a game of three halves!) I was 69-62 down, but that isn't too bad, still time to catch up – but, unfortunately, I couldn't. The third half I was under so much pressure, and my mind started wandering adrift, and on Round 12, two rude words flashed in front of my eyes out of the selection and I just could not get them out of my head! I ended up offering a 6 letter word (which doesn't seem to appear in the dictionary, oh well) but that didn't matter as Richard offered a 7 letter word, and he accelerated ahead. My love for maths, which Mr Whiteley told the nation I had, didn't show off, with me only achieving one out of three of the numbers games.
And that was it, my TV fame was over. I had looked forward to this day all during 2003, having applied back in April, a long eight months ago, and was expected to win at least one by most people, if not eight, but it was not to be, Richard Pay was too good. I was promptly given my goody bag full of stuff, including my name tag, and a dictionary, which I asked numerous people to sign, including the two Richards! I was good friends with Mr Pay and his mother afterwards, and we all had a drink in the nearby bar till 11:30pm before resorting back to the hotel for a not-so-good night's sleep! Richard told me he kept waking up in the middle of the night and all he could think about was anagrams! I kept waking up in the middle of the night too, but all I kept thinking about was how I lost, and how I wished I was playing someone a bit more "average" because I might have won then!
Anyway, after the goody bag, it was the photo shoot, and all of the day's contestants stood around Richard Whiteley and Carol Vorderman (who were both sitting down in the contestants chairs) and had about five photos taken of us, standing around the two stars with the huge clock behind us! We were told we would have to wait around four weeks for them to be sent to us.
The fourth show of the day, I watched from the audience, which had now changed primarily to under-21's, mainly students from Leeds University, who were all younger than Countdown itself! Apparently they were a nicer crowd as they cheered more and gave the contestants more confidence! Shame I didn't have that! I would have liked students as an audience, since I am a student myself and they can relate to me being their age – well, perhaps!
The next day, I returned to the studios as I didn't want to go home just yet as I had enjoyed the people there so much, I couldn't just say goodbye and leave for good... I just had to have another day in the audience, enjoying a once in a lifetime experience (or twice in a lifetime in my case!). The kind people at the studios allowed me in as Richard Pay's guest, and I was cheering him on, and in one case, he was losing quite badly, 62-22 as he was playing badly on the Thursday (first show) – being a musician, he wasn't used to getting up early, or so he admitted! Anyway, remarkably, he went on to win 79-77 on what must be the best game in history, and I witnessed it in the audience! I was going mad cheering him on and laughing so much afterwards as I could not believe what I had just witnessed. Susie Dent even noticed me in the audience and told Mr Pay that he had a supporter – and she recognised me and remembered my name!! I was quite impressed! After watching Richard become the first Octochamp of the series (or Octavian as they are now called) and #1 seed, we waited to see two more games, before departing home. Complete with goody bag, two bags full of clothes, and one of the numbers solutions that Carol Vorderman wrote [it was from one of Richard's later games where he said (50+7+4)x2=122. 122+3=125], I set off for home. It must be quite a thing to keep, a numbers game solution that Carol wrote! It's a shame I didn't get to keep mine, some Leeds University students in the audience had nicked them before I had a chance to get there at the end of Wednesday's recordings! D'oh! It would also have been nice to take home the introductory card that Mr Whiteley reads out, but I forgot to ask for that, and on the Thursday when I did remember to ask, it had already been thrown away!
In June, Series 51 ended and Richard Pay was now #5 seed. The top eight seeds return for the quarter-finals, so he duly did, playing the #4 seed. It was a very tight game, with Richard 5 or 6 ahead come the conundrum, a crucial one... however, as I anxiously watched at home, the 30 seconds ticked by and Richard was the victor. Just after the 30 seconds had elapsed, he told Richard Whiteley that he had just spotted the word, CRYOGENIC, but it didn't matter, he was through to the semi-finals. And who should he play in the semi finals? Well, none other than the #1 seed, Scrabble whizz, Stewart Holden, nicknamed "The Nottingham Nobbler" by Mr Whiteley. Stewart came up with some fantastic words, BEAUTIES and DINOSAUR both very good words from otherwise ugly selections, both beating Mr Pay. Unfortunately, it was all over for Richard, he was a defeated semi-finalist, and Stewart was into the final.
The final was played, Stewart Holden vs Steve Graston. Steve was a very good opponent, excellent in fact, and at one point, was leading 65-64 against Stewart. Throughout Stewart's runs, he looked unstoppable with people coming close, but not that many were beating him at any one stage, not any at all! This one-point lead by Steve was soon dropped when Stewart hit back with two great words, PROSAIC and WALDOES, before getting the conundrum, GENEALOGY, in a very quick time, a word neither me nor Steve Graston had heard of! Stewart Holden was the champion and took home the complete set of Oxford dictionaries. This comforted me somewhat, since I now knew I had lost to Richard Pay, an octochamp and a defeated semi-finalist... and he in turn lost to the eventual unbeaten champion, Stewart Holden.
Wednesday December 3rd 2003 was a day I certainly won't forget... and neither was February 11th 2004 when it was screened!!! Watching all the shows around that date brought back fond memories of the nice personalities of the other contestants present in the Green Room on those two recording days back in December. It is a real shame you can't go back on Countdown once you've lost and no other game show will provide as good an experience as Countdown did, particularly because it was my first ever game show, and it was so strange being taken away from "the real world" for a day and a half! It was so sad returning to school afterwards – knowing Countdown was all over for me.
Kirk Bevins