The Scottish accountant who proved Countdown is no 'man's game'

Fiona Wood is the first woman to win Channel 4 game show Countdown in 26 years (Picture: Channel 4) | PA

There are game shows and then... there is Countdown. On our television screens since 1982, its simple format has proved remarkably popular for decades.

So to become Countdown champion is quite an achievement and the newest member of that select group, Fiona Wood, a 50-year-old forensic accountant from Kinross, can be rightly proud. The final was a nail-biting affair, with Wood winning in the last round by deciphering the final conundrum.

The first woman to win since 1998, she had decided to enter after lexicographer Susie Dent issued a plea for more women to take part. “I have absolutely no regrets about applying and would encourage other women to give it a go,” Wood said.

The recent male dominance of the Countdown champions list is at an end, and we trust Wood's victory will ensure that there will be a surge in applications from women so the balance can be restored, one letter at a time.

And it will surely put to bed any antiquated notions that Countdown is, somehow, just a ‘man’s game’.