There's been a flurry, for the last three or four years, of celeb versions of quiz shows - usually with prize money (if there is any) being donated to charity. Sometimes they are moden quizzes that are also running as their normal version - other times they bring back an old favourite and give it a twist.

One of these started out as part of a Channel 4 'Mash Up' to celebrate the anniversary of the channel's launch - with lots of crossover stuff going on across the year, but it's become a regular thing now: 8 out of 10 Cats Do Countdown

Initially it was just a special and counted as part of the current run of 8 Out of 10 Cats - now it has its own run and is into its third series.

The original Countdown is a very long running quiz show - a bit of an institution, it was the first programme for the newly launched Channel 4, back in 1982 and has now run for 70 series. It's still running, though with a new host after the death of the original host a few years back.

Here's a little clip of an episode from the 90s just to give you a sense of what the show is like - a little words and numbers game, which plays in the afternoons - exciting things and raucousness are not part of Countdown's brief :p



It's updated itself a little in recent years but is basically the same beast.

Needless to say, 8 out of 10 Cats does it a little differently. So, here's what the Cats do with Countdown: the woman on Dictionary Corner is the current incumbent for the regular show, as is the gorgeous mathematician, who took over from Vorderman a couple of years back.

Fair warning - nsfw language

Let's not forget Moss from the IT Crowd when he was on Countdown. :D
http://youtu.be/49UakIHb1yI

Will begin The Fades tonight. Until then, Dana, you remain on double secret probation.

You're gonna be disappointed.... but not because it's not good, it is goooood.

A conversation starter for those who've seen all of Luther and all of Sherlock:

Alice vs Irene.

Twil is firmly in Alice camp, while I have not yet made up my mind.

There was a facebook campaign to get a second series of Fades, but the BBC was having to cut back on its original programming because of budget cuts. Alas, they were about 18 months too soon for the recent trend for Netflix/Yahoo online productions. And now the main cast are all busy being successful and doing other stuff.

Damn shame.

I watched the first one and then was all like "WTF? how can you kill Natalie Dormer in the first five minutes of the show?"

Then, I was all like, "OK, I'll take ND as a ghost. I can work with that."

I had to stop watching the second ep midway through because I was getting freaked out just like the mm did the other night. I have never gotten spooked like that from anything I've watched in the past 40 years.

Damn.

I don't have cable...need to figure out how I'm gonna watch new Doctor Who as it happens.


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Psst - watchseries online.ch

There's no way I'll ever catch up with 50 years of Dr. Who, so I won't even start.

Don't try to catch up on 50 years - just start with Nu-Who in 2005 - it was a relaunch, after the series had been cancelled for over a decade and you don't need any of the previous series to get into it.

Start with Rose the first episode with Chris Eccleston

There are quite a few connections to the old show though. I think knowing some of the older doctors and companions (particularly Sarah Jane) is helpful.


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Nah. Just a bonus if you do. The first few series especially were designed as a fresh start for people who hadn't seen the original.

No need to watch the old series (unless you find yourself wanting to after watching the new :p)

Also - the original tended not to story arc quite so much. There'd be a story across a few episodes and then the next set of episodes would be something totally different. There was no real overarching story so it doesn't matter if you'[ve seen none of them, a few of them, or just one of each doctor - the new series is its own beast.

In fact - thinking about it - I suspect that the modern series works much better in some ways without seeing the classic series first.

Take the Timelords, for instance - the Doctor's own people. In the modern series they have a kind of grand mythic quality - now that was hinted at in the original but frankly they were really rather drab and bureaucratic once you got to meet them. There's quite a lot about the new Doctor that doesn't really gel with the original. In fact there was quite a lot of the original that didn't gel with itself!

Nu-Who takes the idea and character model and gives it a different aspect - starting from a point with the Doctor as a Timelord (he wasn't originally - that didn't come about until a few series in), with a clear back story as the last of his kind, and a much more thought out story line.

This is all you need to know about the Doctor.