Countdown

After 119 shows and six months, the search to find Countdown’s 53rd series champion is over as the show’s grand final approaches. It is a poignant grand final because it is the final time viewers will see Richard Whiteley on screen as Countdown’s original host following his death from complications after having undergone an emergency operation for endocarditis at the Leeds General Infirmary six days earlier. He was 61 years old.