Working on the chain gang (part 4)

After the Walk of Shame, there’s another pause in recording while Dave the floor manager collects everyone’s voting boards and gives them clean ones. Once this was done, it was back to the game.

Round 2

With the second round, the team began to get into its stride. We began with a straight run of 13 correct answers, though some understandably cautious banking from Claire and Tim meant that we didn’t reach the target. Still, we banked £700 – a respectable total.

One of my questions was: "In fashion, which word is used by High Street shops for a style of two-piece swimming costume for women – linguini or tankini?" Again, I froze for a moment; I’d never heard the word "tankini" in my life. But I knew that linguini is a type of pasta, so "tankini" had to be the answer – as indeed it was. (According to my fellow contestant Jo – whom I met up with in November 2006 when we joined the audience of past contestants for the 1000th edition of the show – I had to do a retake of this answer at the end of the round for some reason; I have no recollection of this at all.)

This time the statistics were:

Claire was the weakest link, having got the fewest right answers (even though, as in Round 1, she’d banked the most money). Again, several people had three right, but this time my £200 added to the bank made me the strongest link.

I felt rather self-conscious voting Claire off, as she was standing next to me. The semicircular arrangement of the team makes it difficult to hide your vote from the people either side of you. At one point while writing on my board I glanced to my left and saw Claire sneaking a peak at me.

"Sorry," I winced sympathetically.

"I know, it’s OK," she replied with a smile of resignation. She knew it was her turn for the chop.

Sure enough, when Anne returned and it was time to reveal our boards, it was another unanimous vote. I was spared her acid tongue this time, so I had a few minutes to relax before Claire did her Walk of Shame and we were on to the next round.

Round 3

My turn to start. Again, some over-cautious banking meant that we failed to capitalise on our initial run of 8 correct answers but, by the end of the round, we’d managed to bank £610.

The statistics were:

By now it was getting harder to keep track of who was the weakest link. Jo, Chris and Gail all had two right answers to everyone else’s three; however, Chris and Gail also had one wrong each. Chris, though, hadn’t banked any money, making him statistically the worst player. Of the players with three right answers, I’d banked the most, making me the strongest link for the second round in a row.

However, in the heat of the game, when you’re waiting your turn to answer, keeping an eye on the time and the money chain and making split-second decisions about when to bank, it’s well nigh impossible to keep all the statistics in your head. Given that we were a strong team overall, with very few questions being answered incorrectly, I found it was the wrong answers that stuck in my mind. Of the two wrong in Round 3, Chris’s ("In occupations, what C is a word for a person who makes or mends shoes?") was far and away the easier, so I voted for him – as did everyone else apart from Jo and Chris himself who both voted for Gail. Gail clearly didn’t like being voted for; during the reveal, as the camera swivelled from Chris to her, she had a face like thunder – a portent of what was to come.

It was my turn for abuse from Anne again. This time, she asked me to do some regional accents – another skill in which I’d claimed no proficiency whatsoever. I managed a passable Birmingham, but refused point blank to attempt Liverpudlian in front of Anne, a genuine Scouser.

"Work’s limited for you, is it?" she withered.

"So far, yes," I replied, nearer the truth than I cared to admit.

Chris had only answered one question wrongly in the whole game, and had not yet had a chance for a banter with Anne. On an average day, he would probably have got away it; but we were a strong team and he paid the price for weakness. He had to go.

Round 4

This was the team’s strongest round of the entire game. Jo gave the only wrong answer, just before the end of the round, breaking an incredible run of 17 correct answers. We banked £850; yet again, some over-zealous banking by Tim (in particular, banking just £50 after the first two questions) prevented us reaching the target.

The statistics this time were:

With the increasing pace of the game, I was finding it harder and harder to take in everything that was happening; when it came time to vote, I realised that I had no idea who was the weakest link. I can’t now remember why I voted for Gail – possibly I’d remembered her wrong answer from the previous round. It certainly wasn’t a tactical vote, as up to that stage in the game both Peter and Tim had been stronger overall than Gail.

I was also getting tired, both physically and mentally. We’d been standing on set now for about an hour and a half, and my lower back was starting to ache. Between rounds, once the director was happy with the shots of us all writing, we were able to put our boards down and relax for a few minutes while we awaited Anne’s return; I took the opportunity to stretch a little. Emil and a couple of the other researchers came round with water for us, and suggested that we take the opportunity to sit for a minute. I needed no further encouragement and, along with a couple of other players, walked boldly into the lioness’s den and sat on the edge of Anne’s central rostrum.

When recording recommenced and we revealed our votes, there was quite a split. Peter had voted for me; Jo had voted for Tim; I’d voted for Gail; the rest had voted for Jo. Such was the strength of the team that, for the second round in a row, the player who was the weakest link (both statistically and according to the votes) had answered only one question incorrectly in the entire game.

It turned out I’d inadvertently voted for the player whom the producers had decided was the strongest link. It’s not clear how this was determined, as Gail and I were tied on each of the three primary statistics; it’s possible that having been the strongest link in the previous round counted against me, as I’d had the slight advantage of going first. Yet again, Gail’s facial expression during the reveal left viewers in no doubt of her displeasure at being voted for. In retrospect, although Jo was undeniably the weakest link, Gail might well have voted for her anyway simply because Jo had voted for Gail in the previous round. Gail’s subsequent behaviour would certainly support this possibility.

Round 5

After our strongest round came this, our weakest, with only £100 banked. Tiredness was now definitely starting to tell as the entire team struggled to concentrate, while the questions were becoming decidely less trivial. My first question of the round was: "In history, what G is the Kent town thought to be the burial place of the Native American princess Pocahontas?" When the show was transmitted a month later, my heart sank on hearing that: I hadn’t a clue what the answer was. Imagine my surprise, then, at hearing myself reply after a shrug, "Gravesend?" I’ve no idea where that came from. I can only assume that, on the spur of the moment, I tried to think of a Kent town beginning with G and miraculously came up with the right one.

The statistics were:

Presumably piqued at my voting for her in the previous round – or simply because she had me in her sights as her biggest rival – Gail voted for me (and would continue to do so relentlessly for the remainder of the game). Yet again, I’d lost track of who’d given the fewest right answers. In fact it was Jennifer; for some reason, though, I picked Peter, probably because he was now the first player to my right and so I noticed when he got an answer wrong. Only Tim voted for Jennifer. This is a shame, as both Peter and Jennifer voted for Tim, meaning it was his turn for the Walk of Shame. Students often do badly on Weakest Link, where breadth rather than depth of general knowledge is called for, but – unusually for someone of his age – Tim had been one of the strongest players on the team and indeed had not given a single wrong answer until that round. I was sorry to see him leave.