The Countdown maths conundrum is tricky at the best of times, but some people make it even harder on themselves. Like this guy on one of the show's classic episodes, who performed what may be the most incredible calculation the show has ever witnessed.
WTF!?Channel 4 tweeted the clip, along with the declaration: "If you think you're a maths wizard, get a load of this guy."
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Tasked with getting a sum of 952, a contestant called James succeeds in his endeavour, but not in a typical way.
He starts off easy enough by adding six to a hundred (which is 106, I got that one), multiplying that to make 318.
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It's then that James throws the ultimate curveball, multiplying 318 by 75. And as you can probably figure out (like me), that's a big number. A very big number, as a perplexed Carole noted, wearing a green and yellow paisley outfit not dissimilar to one of Manchester United's away kits in the 90s.
Admitting he 'isn't quite sure what that makes', an exasperated James asks Carole to work out the total, which seems like cheating, but she does it anyway.
It's 23,850 for those of you not up to speed.
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James asks her to take away 50 - easy enough - then asks Carole to divide the result by 25. Which isn't a straightforward thing to do. Why? Well, do you know what 23,800 is divided by five?
Its 952, boys and girls.
The late Richard Whiteley seems as shocked as Carole, the audience and James himself to discover he's somehow got the question right.
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James's feat is impressive, but he's just one of a number of Countdown contestants to have performed admirably on the daytime favourite of the elderly, unemployed, and students.
The highest ever score is held by Glen Webb, with 141 points (in the new format) while Webb and Tom Cappleman both hold the records for the number of nine-letter words in a single contest.
Between them, the clever duo found the words 'divesting', 'deviators' and 'fascinate', which is FASCINATING.
The unofficial highest score was set on the 8 out of 10 Cat Mash-ups version of Countdown when Jon Richardson and Jack Whitehall beat Sean Lock and Roisin Conaty by a total of 890 points to 28.
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Richardson and Whitehall's numeracy/linguistic victory did not come due to gargantuan levels of genius, not solely at least. The two comedians were aided not the least bit by the fact that the conundrum was worth a strange 843 points rather than the usual 10. Well, alright then.
Featured Image Credit: Channel 4Topics: TV and Film, Countdown, UK Entertainment, TV and Film, Countdown, UK Entertainment