Frequently Asked Questions

There were 29 games with a 100% success rate, three of which were played (and won) five times each; they were MUMSEY's QUESTIONS (series four), SUNDIAL and BALLS IN BUCKETS. A further twelve games were played and won four times. 46 games were never defeated, two of which were played six times; they were BALLS IN THE HOLES and ASSEMBLE THE SHAPE, both from series one. Two games were played and lost five times; they were THE CRYSTAL SLIDE and PUT THEM LIGHTS OUT.

Tedious: Prize from world's largest christmas cracker undefeated

The games that were played most often were nearly all, unsuprisingly, from series one. The most played, with ten attempts, was the infamous WALK THE POLE game. DUNE BUGGY, FIND THE CORRECT HOLE and WIRE THE DOORBELL followed with nine attempts each. COGS AND CANDLES, CROSSBOW TARGETS, METAL DETECTOR and RED DOOR MAZE each had eight attempts.

A total of forteen games were played only on one occassion. They were ATOM MIRRORS, BALLOON SHOOT, BALL ROLL, BLACK-BALLED, BUZZWIRE TWO, DOMINO SQUARE, FLAG CROSSHAIRS, FLICKSUM, OCTOPUS TENTACLES, POP THE BALLOONS, ROPE SHAPES, WIND SURFING, STARFISH AND EXCLUDE THE SYMBOL. The final two are the only games of the forteen not to have been used on one of the five children's shows. EXCLUDE THE SYMBOL was needlessly complicated and boring to watch, this presumably leading to its failure to appear a second time. Eleven games were played but twice.

Exciting to watch: Ten contestants wire up doorbell

250 women and 248 men took on the maze; three of each sex per team with the exception of S03E07 which featured four female players and two male. This, I assume, was due to a contestant being ill and replaced by a standby.

Male contestants faired the better, winning 52.4% of all games, the women 43.2%.

Tedious: Prize from world's largest christmas cracker

Seven contestants played but one game each. Six of these due to their being locked in and left to rot, whilst Andrea Addid from series two was only chosen by her captain once. 169 people played three games each, with the remaining 322 playing two.

Each team played between forteen and fifteen games during the first four series, with one team from series one having time for a sixteenth game, thanks largely to team member Mark Wynn completing the WALK THE BEAM game in eighteen seconds. The final two series gained a third advert break, leaving their teams time only for thirteen games.

No nonsense: eighteen seconds and bone-dry

A total of 74 people were locked in during the show's run. No one person was ever locked in more than once. Five teams managed to lose three of their number. 35 teams remained entact. Unsuprising, the Futuristic zone with all its automatic lockins scored highest, with 27 captives in total.

Incarcerated:

Thirty cells were used for playing games accross the five zones.

The most used cell in the maze was cell ten in Aztec, used for all but one of the water games. The least used cells, unsuprisingly were in the Industrial and Ocean zones, with Industrial's green-panelled room used only nineteen times. Of the other three zones, cell three in Futuristic was used only 38 times.

Cell 26 in the Ocean Zone had two doors and was occassionally left empty and used to cross from the main galley to the corridor outside the wanter tank cell. Cell seventeen was the only one to be used twice in one show. Firstly for FIND THE CORRECT HOME and then MATCHES.

Crafty: Let's make the zone look bigger than it really is

Seventeen teams collected over one hundred gold (after deductions) to win the "numbero uno prizes", with seven teams from the first series collecting over fifty gold for the not so good prizes.

Four teams took ten crystals and fifty seconds with them to the dome, this record being set on the very first show. Richard "bothered to open" the door to the dome for S04E04 and their one five second time crystal.

The record for most gold went to S03E03 with 154 after deductions. S01E11 faired worst, with -59 in total.

Windy: Where DID they get the idea for 'Grab a Grand?'