I didn’t previously know Clemency Burton-Hill, but a quick check on Wikipedia reveals that she is the daughter of TV presenter Humphrey Burton ( Aquarius ? That rings a bell with me, anyway ) , and a novelist, journalist and violinist. That’s enough lists for one person I would have thought. She was answering on the TV series “Downton Abbey”, and she managed to go one better than Steve Punt, scoring a 12 to equal the best specialist scores of the series so far.
This gave Casualty and former Grange Hill actor Michael Obiora food for though. His subject was Arsenal FC since 2000. As an armchair Spurs fan I’m almost ashamed to admit that I had as many right on this round – 3 – as I had on Downton Abbey, Michael did a bit better, but if truth be told he did struggle, and at the end of the round he’d only scored 5. A good GK round was essential to attain respectability.
Weatherman John Hammond announced his specialist subject as ‘the greatest rock boogie band on the planet’ or something like that. John was unimpressed and forced him to reveal that it was actually Status Quo. Now, as it happens in my salad days I did go to see the Quo in the Hammersmith Odeon on more than one occasion, so I thought that I should be ok. And the 7 I scored probably was OK. It wasn’t as much as John, though. To be fair he did go on in his inter round chat to say that playing his guitar along with the boys during a sound check was the greatest moment of his life, so I suppose that 11 was the least he should have got.
Michael , representing the African Caribbean Leuakaemia Trust, returned to the chair, looking at 2 minutes’ hard graft to get him up into the lead. He didn’t quite manage it. The 6 he scored was more than he’d managed in GK, but I’m afraid that it still left him lagging behind Clemency. Steve Punt, whose charity , S.A.N.D.S stands for Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society, set to his work with a will, after having a chat with John about the Now show. Quite partial to it myself. He wasn’t the fastest we’ve seen this series, but I’d say he was one of the most knowledgable, hardly dropping much before he had scored the 17 he needed to take his score to 28. target duly set.
Now, John Hammond, whose chosen charity was MIND, was answering quickly – at least at the start of his GK round, anyway. However he became becalmed towards the middle of the round, and began picking up passes, falling into something of a spiral. By the end of the round he had added another 12 points to his total. His score of 23 was perfectly respectable, but not a winning one, and I did get the impression that he was taking the game quite seriously, which is an attitude I can respect. Clemency needed to match Steve’s score to win the show outright without resorting to pass countback. Representing the Choir of London Trust she , like John, started answering very quickly, very accurately, and very well. Maintaining the momentum for the whole of a GK round isn’t easy, though, and she did pick up a few passes as she went along, and did start to fall behind the clock. In the end her 13 for a score of 25 made sure that she was clear in second, but still some way behind Steve, worthy winner of this show.
The Details
| Steve Punt | S.A.N.D.S. | Tony Hancock | 11 - 0 | 17 - 1 | 28 – 1 |
| Clemency Burton-Hill | Choir of London Trust | Downton Abbey | 12 - 0 | 13 - 4 | 25 - 4 |
| Michael Obiora | African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust | Arsenal FC since 2000 | 5 - 2 | 6 - 2 | 11 - 4 |
| John Hammond | MIND | Status Quo | 11 - 0 | 12 - 5 | 23 -5 |
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