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A History of Numberwang
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.
The setup
Watch on YouTube
Watch onYouTube
The premise
Here’s the bit.
A solemn BBC documentary traces the imaginary history of Numberwang, from Bertrand Russell’s mathematical breakthrough to its awkward first television broadcasts. Wartime scientists build Colosson to settle the game’s baffling scores, then equip their invention for a career in entertainment. Period broadcasts, newspaper puzzles and international adaptations chart the quiz’s success, interrupted by the computer’s ambitions to rule the world and the surprisingly ordinary safeguard designed to stop it.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 13
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Highly quotable.
It actually bloody works, you genius.
Yes, that is a number!
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
In a pre-broadcast interview about series two, Robert Webb singled out a history of Numberwang in the sixth episode as one of its returning elements.
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
More from That Mitchell and Webb Look.
