Can you answer these six cryptic celebrity brainteasers set by GCHQ codebreakers?
THIS year’s Poppy Appeal launches today with a clever twist – calling on help from GCHQ.
The spy agency will unmask a host of celebs poised to join in street collections for war veterans.
As a bit of fun for Sun readers, codebreakers at GCHQ, which is marking its centenary year, have devised six tricky brainteasers about some of the stars who will be rattling buckets for the Royal British Legion.
To get you started, the answer to the first puzzler is gameshow Countdown, hosted by Rachel Riley.
Now see if you can crack the other five.
The answers, and how you get to them, can be found below.
ANSWERS
1) RACHEL RILEYA University of Oxford graduate, this celeb is known for appearing on which channel 4 show since 2009?
Q. Solve to reveal clue: Which TV programme makes Dracula depressed?
A. Dracula was a Count and another word for depressed is down. The TV show was therefore ‘Countdown’.
2) BEN SHEPHARD
This celebrity is the presenter of which gameshow where everything hangs in the balance
Q: Fill in the blanks…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
T O P P O N G B L A N K
A: The missing words are TIP/TOP, PING/PONG, POINT/BLANK making the answer Tipping Point
3) JB GILL
This ex-boyband member now teaches children about the wonders of the great outdoors, but on which Cbeebies programme?
Q. Solve to reveal clue:
Soft immature feathers
———————————
All Together Now band
A. Soft immature feathers are known as ‘down’, and this appears placed ‘on the’ second part of the puzzle The band famous for Altogether now was ‘The Farm’. So the answer is ‘Down on the Farm’
4) ANTHONY COTTON
This celebrity operative arrived on our screens 16 years ago as which character?
Q. Solve to reveal clue: Aunts yell out in the street. (4,5)
A. It’s a cryptic crossword clue suggesting an anagram of ‘aunts yell’ = Sean Tully, a character in The Street
5) EDDIE IZZARD
Our next famous poppy collector got his big break at which venue?
Q. In the following phrase, each letter of the alphabet has been replaced by another, but always the same one in each case. For example all the I’s might have been replaced by Z’s. Break the code to reveal clue: TSDSDS ASTSUNP
(We may give a partially filled out answer grid to help make this one much easier to solve)
B _ _ _ _ _ C _ _ _ _ _ _
A. From the letters filled in to begin with, you know:
T = B
A = C
The unique letter pattern of the first word should give you a clue to the substitution. It can only be the word BANANA. Now you know that:
S = A
D = N
So the second word is CABA_ _ _ … trial and error combined with the fact that the clue should be leading towards a venue should give you CABARET.
So the complete answer is BANANA CABARET.
Also, if you organise the decoded letters in alphabetical order….
S = A
T = B
A = C
N = E
D = N
U = R
P = T
… you’ll find a hidden further clue: Stand Up (as in comedy).
6) ARLENE PHILLIPS
This undercover celebrity is best known for choreographing which well-known 80’s movie musical?
Q. Solve to reveal clue:
T7 = STEVEN
S3 = ESTHER
L1 = LEON
A10 = NATE
A9 =?
A. The list of names on the right hand side of the list can be created from an anagram of the letter and number when spelled out:
T7 = T SEVEN = STEVEN
S3 = S THREE = ESTHER
L1 = L ONE = LEON
A10 = A TEN = NATE
So A9 = A NINE = ANNIE
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