The fourth series starts tonight at 8 on BBC1.

Who'll be watching?

It's a good show nonetheless...but seriously are the cosmos trying to wind me up? Nick Knowles STILL on a Saturday night Yes I know he's the usual host of Who Dares Wins but come on!!

So, just how did the first episode go?

Adam and Dawn returned with £50k under their belt, and wasted no time in racking up their second win with successful low bids on high-grossing animated movies and countries of Central America and the Caribbean.

They then added £15k to their earnings with their knowledge of EastEnders marriages.

Against Howard and Flo, though, they found themselves in trouble when they failed on solo artists who topped the charts in the 2000s. They probably weren't alone in thinking that Michael Jackson had a number 1 right after he died...

And it looked like it was all over for them when H & F got four female Shakespeare characters, needing just one more - only for them to guess Mary.

When Kernick told them that that was the Bard's mother's name, you had to find Flo's response amusing: "Shame on him!"

But it meant a tiebreak list, on the events in the men's decathlon - and when Howard said "400 metres hurdles", A & D held on to their champions' crown by the skin of their teeth.

They proceeded to net another £15k on Matt Damon films, taking their total to a cool £80k.

They're still some way off the eight wins and £150k achieved by James and Daniel in series 2 - how close will they get?

Was ashamed that they couldn't name 5 female Shakesperean characters.

That must have been the lowest failed bid thus far in the show's history...

There was shedloads to pick!

Good to see their winning run continue for now...but I gotta admit I was appalled at how many EastEnders marriages they named...even people who don't watch the soap should be able to name at least 15!

In case you're interested - Nick Knowles likes a bacon and avocado sandwich on a Sunday at 12:30 - whilst naked. The things you learn from Twitter (I'm not sure why I follow him, but I do). He also has a bad habit of misspelling, apparently this show is called Who Sares Wins, there's someone called Maggoe Thatcher and he has a bisty girlfriend...

I didn't realise this was the fourth series of this show though. I've caught some episodes in the past, but not watched it on a regular basis. However, after watching yesterday's episode it reminded me that I quite liked the format of the show and I think the thing that's put me off in the past was Nick Knowles, but for some strange reason he's actually growing on me.

I admit that I was quite surprised they didn't come up with Ricky and Bianca... unless, of course, they did but two more eluded them.

Phil and Ian have 7 marriages between them (although Phil's first marriage would have needed a true fan to remember his bride (a Romanian who wanted a visa)).

Would have talked about last Saturday's episode sooner had it not been for the snooker...

Anyway, Adam and Dawn took their fourth win with little trouble - their opponents slipping up on Hollywood's highest-earning actors and actresses, before they completed a bid of 18 on the 30 countries whose names are first alphabetically (basically all those beginning with A or B).

Interestingly, one of the lists in the last series was the 20 countries whose names are last alphabetically...

They failed to add to their £80k, though, on ex-Beatles singles - getting to £5k with three Wings songs, but losing it when they tried "Lovely Guy".

As Kernick told them, they meant "Jealous Guy" - but it wasn't on the list anyway. Although John Lennon recorded it in 1971, it was not released until several months after his death - and then it was Roxy Music's cover, rather than the original.

Incidentally, "Imagine" wasn't on the list either...

They made amends for this in style, though. First they punched through names of boxing weight classes (excuse the pun), then fulfilled a bid of 7 on Eurovision host cities and towns with some fantastic answers - Birmingham hosted it in 1998, and Riga in 2003.

And then Adam's knowledge of Arnie films - which was quite remarkable, it must be said - won them £50k for the second time.

So, five wins and £130k... they're right up there now among the most successful WDW contestants, though they're still three wins and £20k short of James and Daniel's records.

But as with the Eggheads, who will beat them?

If that's true then the list is wrong. According to http://www.everyhit.com it's had three separate stints in the top 10, even making number 1 in December 1980.

Last night's episode, then.

Adam and Dawn returned once again, and picked up from where they left off as they brilliantly fulfilled a bid of 11 on actors and actresses who appeared in more than one Carry On film. (I would have only managed the most obvious three - Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor... )

It was refreshing to see a single-sex pairing for once - Jonny and Jay - after a multitude of man-lady pairings throughout the last series and in the first two episodes of this series. And they got to play when they said they could name all but six of the 32 teams in this season's UEFA Champions League.

They got to 16 with little trouble, but then tried PSV Eindhoven - a Europa League team this season. In all fairness, they'd have done fantastically well to get to 26, as there were several teams that aren't very well known outside of their home countries - Bursaspor, CFR Cluj, MSK Zilina...

Thus, A & D made it six wins, just two short of James and Daniel's record.

But, from here on, it all unravelled...

First, they blew £5k for the second time when they found that Jilly Cooper wasn't among the 100 best-selling authors of the 2000s. Then, Nat and Euan put them in with a bid of 9 on number 1 singles with 'love' in the title - and they only managed two before trying "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", which twice reached number 2.

Finally, they were put in with a bid of 19 on English-speaking countries. They'd impressed with their geography no less than three times before - and, sure enough, they got to 17, great answers including numerous Caribbean and Pacific nations. They also considered India, Pakistan and the Philippines...

...but instead, Dawn suggested they go back to the Caribbean, and tried the Dominican Republic - a Spanish-speaking nation...

A sad way for their reign to end - but hey, any team that wins £130k can only be really good. And they'll soon appear on a list, too - the All Time Winners List on UKGameshows.com...

N & E, though, were the new champions - and their knowledge of Sandra Bullock films earned them £10k.

How much further will they go? We'll have to wait an extra week, because of Eurovision, before we see them in action again...

Well, they stayed on throughout that first show after the songs in Dusseldorf.

And the show after.

And the show after that...

And along the way, countries of Africa whose names end in 'A' won them £50k, actors and actresses who have played Hogwarts professors earned them £25k more, and acts who have had a Christmas #1 got them another £50k - and they sure knew how to provide tension.

With a further £20k from two other profitable money lists (only one failed to yield anything), it meant that their winnings stood at a whopping £155k.

They had, of course, surpassed the £150k achieved by James and Daniel, though they had won one game less.

Trish and Seamus in series 1 also won eight games - and only they had won more money (£170k).

So, going into last night's episode, could Nat and Euan end up becoimg the most successful WDW contestants ever?

Well, I was certainly hoping they'd get their eighth win when I saw their opponents. Gareth wasn't too bad, but that Abby... Jeepers H Crackers...

Not only did she look uncannily like Nikki Grahame - whom I've never liked - but for heaven's sake, she acted uncannily like her too.

Naturally, she's right up there among my least favourite WDW contestants...

So I was disappointed when she and Gareth fulfilled a bid of 12 on Sylvester Stallone films. The Rocky and Rambo ones were obvious - but then they came up with some great guesses...

But then came easily the best bit of the night. Enormous bids on elements of the periodic table, Nat and Euan got in with one of 40 - and proceeded to rattle them off without any hesitation.

After that, they absolutely deserved to get their eighth win IMHO - but, alas, justice isn't always served...

The tiebreak list was on A Question of Sport team captains, and none of the obvious ones (Bill Beaumont, Ian Botham, Ally McCoist, John Parrott, Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell) were missed.

But then, Gareth and Nikki-Lookalike just had to come up with some more brilliant guesses - and that left N & E with pretty much nowhere to go...



Thus, Trish and Seamus remain WDW's most successful contestants.

But of all the contestants that Nat and Euan could lose their crown to...

And, sadly, Nikki-Lookalike was still there at the end of the show, as she and Gareth won £5k by getting the three most obvious members of the current Cabinet, then another £15k on the 20 US states whose names are first alphabetically.

Before I go, I should apologise for three things:

(1) Bumping up this thread

(2) Being a complete blabbermouth

(3) Being mean and nasty when talking about Abby - except that many on Twitter didn't like her either...

I just wanted to get all this off my chest, that's all.

With the fifth series well under way, I think it's time to revive this thread...

So, just how did the first two episodes of the series go?

Nina and Michael returned with £10k in their pockets from the end of the last series, and quickly rattled off their second win with successful bids of 9 on Tom Cruise films and 10 on Shakespeare's plays.

This gave them a money list on acts that had a UK number 1 single in the 1990s - and they proceeded to take their total to £60k.

They didn't have quite an easy ride through the second half of the show, though. They fulfilled a bid of 13 on the 50 most populated US cities - but very nearly went with Tallahassee (which despite being Florida's capital isn't even in the top 125), and weren't too sure about Detroit, which Nina thought was in Illinois rather than Michigan...

Then Kelly and Scott got in with a bid of 17 on the 20 best-selling vegetables in Britain, and got to 13 - only to plump for beetroot...

Incidentally turnip, spinach and aubergine weren't on the list either.

So, having squeaked out win number three, N & M faced a money list on women nominated for a Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress Oscar since 2000.

And they got to £5k fairly easily - only to then go with Scarlett Johansson...

The cynics will inevitably say that they went from champs to chumps, and ask "Why on earth didn't they go with Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Catherine Zeta-Jones or even Reese Witherspoon?" To be fair to N & M, though, I was quite surprised to learn that SJ hasn't had a nomination yet...

On, then, to last week's episode, as the female half of N & M's fourth set of opponents did what the likes of Phil 'The Power' Taylor and Clarke Carlisle have done, and became a regular game show contestant despite being Fairly Famous Already.

Because, of course, Montell Douglas participated in the women's 100m and 4x100m relay at the Beijing Olympics, and currently holds the British record time for the former event.

She and Eddie (whose surname was Murphy, although he's less famous than her and certainly a lot less famous than his Hollywood namesake) got in with a bid of 10 on Kevin Costner films, and got to nine without much trouble. But, unfortunately, they'd clearly overbid - Shark Tale being a complete and utter guess...

They quickly made up for it, though, on characters in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' - making another bid of 10, and cheekily going with Alice last.

That meant the first tiebreak list of the series, on Beatles albums.

After the most obvious ones (Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band et cetera) had been answered, Nina and Michael went with Introducing... the Beatles.

Well, it was an album - but the list didn't include ones not released in the UK...

A cruel way for them to lose their crown, IMHO.

Anyway, Montell and Eddie were the new champions, and now faced a money list on countries located on or south of the Equator.

They got some of the obvious ones (Australia, New Zealand, Argentina) - but then Eddie seemed to become totally obsessed with Pacific nations, with the result that the respective levels of excitement and Montell's agitation shot right up.

This approach did take them to £25k, though.

And just as well that Eddie decided to play safe then, as he kept considering Micronesia - just north of the Equator - and would have gone with that had they played on...

I wouldn't have been too sure about Micronesia anyway, not knowing whether or not it would be accepted for the Federated States of Micronesia.

Anyway, after that, M & E faced Dave and Verica - who not only looks a bit like an older version of Jessie J (well, she's got almost the same hairstyle), but, I've got to admit, was also wearing a fantastic top...

And, for the second time, a tiebreak list was required, after M & E knew their footballers who have scored 50 or more Premier League goals, and D & V knew their U2 hits.

This one was on Britain's bestselling men's magazines, and Nuts, GQ and FHM were all easily found.

But then M & E went with Maxim - and just about everyone was surprised to learn that it wasn't there...

So, the number of appearances by Montell on WDW was to be restricted to just one - but we'll see plenty more of her later this year, in a stadium in Stratford.

But we had more new champions in D & V - and they picked up £5k by getting the three most obvious stars of the Pirates of the Caribbean films (Depp, Knightley and Bloom), before doubling it with three not-so-obvious ones.

I'd like to see them get quite far, if only because Verica is so pretty...

But will this series feature a couple that are as brilliant as James and Daniel, or Nat and Euan, or even Trish and Seamus?

Well, one will just have to watch to find out.

That really was a cracking episode - saw both it and this Saturday's. I'd forgotten how good this show was, having probably become annoyed with the name (ironically, Nick Knowles is not remotely Noel-esque with his risk attitudes despite the title inviting it). That money list of Montell and Eddie was yet another moment to add to a burgeoning "game show moment of the month" competition - The Bank Job's finale, the three top-3-at-5-box DoND games this month, the incredible first episode of The Exit List, and now the terrifying sight of an Olympic sprinter being dragged along by a big bloke called Eddie Murphy asserting his knowledge about Pacific island states.

Pairing Montell up with the namesake of a celebrity was a stroke of production genius from 12 Yard.

I seem to have completely missed this show in the UK. I watched it a bit when I was in Australia but had no idea that it had gone international. It would be great to watch the British version and compare to the original. Is it still on the beeb? Hopefully I ll be able to find a link somewhere...

Yes, BBC1 on Saturday nights.

I think the show actually was a British format that got exported before it aired in this country (ITV turned it down several times, I believe). Including a US version that hilariously lasted only one episode.

Time to review the last two episodes...

As regular viewers know, Nick gives an example of a list at the start of each episode.

And on the Saturday before last, the example was... A Question of Sport team captains.

Yes, the tiebreak list on which Nat and Euan were denied a record-equalling eighth win by Gareth and the enormously odious Abby...

Returning champions Dave and Verica, on the other hand, weren't one bit odious - and nor were their second set of opponents, Ossie and Stephen.

As I said in my last post, I would have liked to have seen D & V get quite far, if only because of Verica's unquestionable beauty. As well as that, she was wearing another sleeveless top...

But then, it's always refreshing to see a same-sex pairing, as O & S were - I don't fully agree with the vast majority of pairings being man-lady, as was certainly the case in the last two series. Gender equality gone ever so slightly too far, if you ask me.

So I didn't mind it at all when the two men took the champions' crown.

What a way to take it, though...

D & V got in with a bid of 14 on countries that use the euro as an official currency, and got to 10 without much trouble, the Vatican City being a very good answer.

But then they went with Turkey - which still uses the lira...

The next list was on acts that have had a UK number 1 single or album since January 2010 - and O & S made a bid of 10 before D & V said "Name them."

To which Ossie responded, "It's all gone wrong!"

How right he was, though - he and Stephen got three before confidently going with Justin Bieber...

But when Nick announced that the tiebreak list was on Champion Jockeys 1960-2010, the respective facial expressions clearly indicated that this was much more to O & S's liking than it was to D & V's.

And so it proved - the guys said Lester Piggott without any hesitation before D & V, pretty much out of ideas, offered Tony McCoy.

...Except that their opponents had already answered AP McCoy - the same person.

Oh dear... OH DEAR... OH DEAR...

How many times has it happened that a team has given an answer that's already on the list, albeit worded differently? Certainly not many...

But on this occasion, it meant that we wouldn't be seeing Verica, her fantastic good looks and her brilliant dress sense again...

Unless, of course, she appears on another game show.

Ossie and Stephen, though, were now the first same-sex champs since early on in series 3, nearly two years ago...

And they proceeded to bag £10k on Nicolas Cage films - knowing five for sure and then guessing Knowing.

They then faced Cherie and James in a game where the lists were very big indeed - with 367 names of pasta, and 230 musicals that have been nominated for an Oscar.

C & J got in on both lists, fulfilling a bid of 8(!) on the first despite failing to pronounce 'tagliatelle' correctly.

On the second, though, they got to three (of 9) before plumping for Carousel...

So, for the fourth game in succession, a tiebreak list was required. And there were quite a few laughs when this one was revealed to be on characters in Thomas the Tank Engine.

Again, this fell better for the challengers than it did for the champions, with C & J rattling off James, Henry and Percy without any trouble, and O & S offering Thomas himself and the Fat Controller before making a stab at 'Jeremy'.

This turned out to be a fantastically good stab - Jeremy, if you didn't already know (and I didn't), is a jet plane at the Sodor Airport.

Of course, this didn't put C & J off their stride, and Gordon meant that the guys had to make another stab - this time at 'Ted'.

They should have expanded that to Edward...

It meant that Cherie and James became, astonishingly, the fifth different champions in as many games. Has this ever happened before?!

Their first money list, on historic counties of England, could have had any outcome - the 'historic' bit certainly threw them, and it looked to me like they would go at £5k.

They didn't, though - and ended up tripling that amount.

I doubt that the likes of Huntingdonshire and Westmorland would be known by many people under the age of 45 - the former becoming part of Cambridgeshire in 1974, and the latter being fused with Cumberland to create Cumbria the same year.

Anyway, on to last Saturday's episode...

C & J's next opponents were Laura - who, IMO, came across as not being much of a smiler - and Mark.

These two got in with a bid of 8 on Oscar-winning film directors, and got to 6 before going with Sofia Coppola, having said her father.

Well, as Nick told them afterwards, she did pick up an Oscar - but it was for Best Screenplay...

And, of course, no female director received the statuette before Kathryn Bigelow.

Neither team fancied their chances on the next list, countries that have yellow or gold on their national flag - and when C & J got in, it was with a bid of just 6.

Well, they fulfilled it, and thus became the first contestants since Nina and Michael to win more than one game. They got an obvious one in Spain, and also guessed China and Portugal - but made no mention at all of Germany or Belgium, which even with their doubts was a bit surprising...

Anyway, they were through to another money list, on Beyonce hits. And they picked up another £5k, taking their total to £20k - though they were fortunate to have "I'm a Survivor" accepted for "Survivor".

They weren't to get a crack at any more lists, though...

On came Doug and Margaret, who not only was wearing a top almost the same as the one worn by a certain Laura Pearce on a show broadcast on 7 January 2007 - but even had a similar hairstyle, despite being 30 years older...

They had no trouble naming 12 of the 150 best-selling novels in the UK since January 2000 - thanks to Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings and Twilight.

And the next list? Actors and actresses who appeared in the Lord of the Rings films.

Cue a lot of groans from the audience. "That's how they fall," explained Nick.

Again, there were low bids, and D & M got in with one of 7. They had little trouble fulfilling it - and thus the number of champion pairings this series went up to six.

And we're only halfway through!!

Anyway, D & M then faced a money list on athletes who have won an Olympic gold medal since 1980 - and Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson and Christine Ohoruogu earned them £5k. And just as well they stopped then, before they plumped for Colin Jackson - whose only Olympic medal was a silver one at Seoul.

And that was that, until 11 February - next Saturday being taken up by the start of the Six Nations.

Sorry this was such a long post...