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A man who has appeared on a string of television gameshows has confessed he cheated to get on Countdown. The 46-year-old has been on countless shows, including Pointless, Tipping Point, Coach Trip and The Weakest Link.
But it was Channel 4 classic Countdown which he most struggled with, even trying to get out of filming it last minute. His wife convinced him to go through with it though, but not because she thought he’d necessarily win.
James said: “Countdown was my first online application – there’s no face to face audition for Countdown. It was done over the phone.
“They said to me, ‘Right, we’re going to play the game now, so play it honestly.'”
Speaking on behalf of Spin Genie, he went on: “I’m not bad at Countdown but I thought I was better than I was.
“I had my keyboard, anagram solver and numbers solver on my computer. I’m going to say it, I did cheat.
“I wasn’t giving like nines or having to solve all the numbers.”
Despite cheating, he got on the show and he headed to Manchester for filming.
He said: “I remember I got to the hotel in Manchester and I sat down on the bed and turned the TV on and Countdown was on.
“I watched the whole episode and I just thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m no good at Countdown, what am I doing here?’
“I phoned my wife, then girlfriend, and I said, ‘I’m going to bail, I’m rubbish. I’m going to get destroyed.’
“She told me, ‘No no, go through with it, because if you’re seen as someone who turns up and flakes off… you’ve applied for other stuff!”
James explained: “A lot of these people [working on TV] are freelance.
“I’ve met people on these shows who I don’t remember but they remember me from other stuff, so it does make you mindful.
“People who apply a lot to shows tend to be quite liberal with the truth, because you don’t want them to think you’ve done too much [TV].”
One show he couldn’t do, though, was The Chase, because he’d filmed Pointless and they found out despite him hiding it on his application form.
