London: Episode 1.7, 1983

London

Episode 1.7
10 February 1983

Contestants

John Forster, accountant, and his wife Sue, housewife and freelance translator, from Warwickshire

Start Position

Clue 1	You get your first number on one of three Hs south of a cathedral. And the second after changing vehicles to go under three bridges to a bridge which was in Korea in 1951. 1
Leads to	Blackfriars heliport2 (one); then HMS Belfast – ship’s bridge (zero)

Clue 2	The next number is the number of rectangular sundials on the wall of Flamstead House, west of the Meridian. And the fourth is where the captain sat when he dined in state beneath Thornhill’s self-portrait. 3
Leads to	Greenwich – number of sundials on Flamsteed House (three); then Royal Naval College, on chair at head of dining table in Painted Hall (four)

Clue 3	Ringing Ferreira’s bell on a ship that made good time between Australia and England gets the last number. 4, 5
Leads to	Cutty Sark, Greenwich – on ship’s bell (eight)

Bonus Clue	Somewhere under the poop rail is the number you need.
Leads to	Cutty Sark, Greenwich – under water bucket beneath poop rail (eight)

Result

The contestants won the treasure and the bonus prize, a bottle of champagne, with 1 minute 28 seconds to spare.

Notes
1	Three large letters ‘H’ are painted on the landing pad of Blackfriars heliport, which is on a jetty on the River Thames south of St Paul’s Cathedral. Annie and the crew ride in a motor launch from the heliport to HMS Belfast, which is moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge and which saw action in the Korean War in the early 1950s. One of the ship’s staff gives Annie impossibly long directions to the bridge.
2	Blackfriars Heliport was demolished in the 1990s. It was situated where the northern end of the Millennium Bridge is now located.
3	‘Flamsteed’ was spelt ‘Flamstead’ in the clue, which may have lost the contestants some time. As Keith overflies Flamsteed House, which is next to the Old Royal Observatory, Annie counts the sundials. Keith then lands on a small wooden jetty, leaving Annie to take to the Thames in a rowing dinghy while the crew watch. She gets into difficulty (!) and Kenneth stops the clock and announces a commercial break.
4	Annie runs from the Naval College to the nearby Cutty Sark, once named ‘Ferreira’. The contestants win the £1000 top prize with 7 minutes to spare and decide to try for the bonus prize.
5	This hunt was unique in that all clues were numbers that made up the combination to a treasure chest holding the prize. All were on discs apart from the Flamsteed House sundials. Although there were only three clues plus the bonus clue, clues 1 and 2 were both in two parts.

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