.

People Anna Pickard remembers Richard Whiteley:

"Richard himself quite often looked shocked and surprised when he managed to think of a word longer than his socially-awkward contestants, or solved the number puzzle all on his own, and would smile a smile of the genuinely proud, while Carol looked on patiently, as if she'd come up with the same answer several minutes before, and had now mentally moved on to creating a new type of clean fuel in the few seconds before she'd be called upon to perform another stunning act of braininess.

He was, apparently, a lot cleverer than he let on.

Somewhere in heaven tonight, Richard is presenting a special episode of Countdown in which Shakespeare is playing against Pythagorus with Samuel Johnson in dictionary corner.