James almost backed away from Countdown once he realized how bad he was and how he would “get destroyed.”
A man who has appeared on some of the biggest UK TV shows has revealed how he cheated on Countdown, nearly pulled out of the show at the last minute, and ended up being banned from The Chase. James Belshaw, a 46-year-old Surrey bus driver, has appeared on more than a dozen of the UK’s top video game shows, including Pointless, The Weakest Link, Tipping Point, and Lingo. He has applied for TV shows since 2010.
Speaking to Spin Genie, James said: “The first thing I applied for was a paper application for Weakest Link but I didn’t hear back for a while. I also applied for Countdown, that was my first online application – there’s no face to face audition for Countdown. It was done over the phone.
They told me, “Right, we’re going to play the game now, so play it honestly. Despite not being particularly good at Countdown, I believed I was superior. On my computer, I had my keyboard, an anagram solver, and number solver. I’ll admit that I cheated. “
They informed me that I was on, he continued. Manchester was the location of the film. When I got to my hotel in Manchester, I sat down on the bed, turned the TV on, and the countdown started playing. I just thought, “Oh my God, I’m not good at Countdown, why am I here?” after watching the entire episode. ’
I called my wife and then my girlfriend and said, “I’m going to bail, I’m rubbish. I’m going to be destroyed. She advised me to “no, go through with it because you’ve applied for other things if you show up and show up.” Many of these people are freelancers [working on TV]. You become more aware of the people I’ve met on these shows who I can’t remember but who also remember me from other sources.
People who use a lot of TV often have a tendency to be quite open-minded about the truth because they don’t want them to believe they’ve done too much. “
James’ first TV appearance was on Coach Trip, he claimed. “My wife and I used to watch it a lot. The first series was in 2005 or something, and I was moved on to 2010, where they both ended it. After that, I thought, “This is brilliant,” and we applied and went through all the hoops.
Then I entered a position where I could apply for jobs. It used to be paper auditions, sending a form, and it was old-fashioned, but now it’s all online forms and Zoom, which is so much better because it makes people feel like they’re selling themselves, so they all have different strategies.
You really need to just turn it on when they get you to do a little piece of the camera, because some people just play a game based on the show. I believe my strategy was to apply for new shows that have never been on because they typically cast people who have done [TV] a little bit to get on shows.
“Quite a few of us actually exist. They are aware of our behavior on television and are aware that you won’t be like a Bullseye contestant from the 1980s, when I work in mines. I love watching all those old-fashioned contestants, and that is brilliant in and of itself. “
James said one trick to help you get onto TV is having an interesting story. He said: “Me and my wife, we held the Guinness World Record for the longest kiss, and that was quite a popular story. But now that we’ve used it quite a few times, it’s probably less interesting. I think you can make an interesting story out of something quite mundane. If you think about what you like doing, there’s always some sort of quirk to it. If people go oh, so I like fishing, golf and breathing, you’ve got to really find an angle.”
However, he hasn’t always been successful, and one major performance would not allow him to. James responded, “I was cast on The Chase, I had a filming day, but they called me up and said, James, were you on Pointless?” Additionally, I didn’t include it on my form.
