Countdown is a national institution and one of the most comforting programmes on the box.
But is Rory Bremner the right host for it?
Carol Vorderman and Des O'Connor celebrate Countdown's 25th birthday last year
As my colleague Tara Conlan reports exclusively today on MediaGuardian.co.uk, Bremner is the favourite to take the role after Des O'Connor announced he is leaving at the end of the year.
For some reason, although I am no longer a regular Countdown watcher (the office televisions unaccountably being tuned to Sky News and BBC News 24) who becomes the next host is a matter of some importance to me.
Maybe I am recalling the time five years ago when I arrived on these shores jobless and homeless and sought solace in the tick-tock of the clock, the gentle punning and that incredibly daggy but hypnotic music.
I realise that for most of you, like me, Countdown is probably more fondly remembered than actually watched. But one Aussie TV executive mate visited these shores couldn't stop raving about Carol Vorderman. Clearly the programme still has a strong appeal and whoever the new host is, chemistry with Carol is a key part of what the new host needs.
Of the other names in the frame, Michael Aspel or Gyles Brandreth would do well, I think, but I'll pass on Aled Jones.
My brainwave was to give it to Nicholas Parsons, the exuberant host of Radio 4's Just A Minute, who be ideal and perhaps the closest the late Richard Whiteley. His experience on ITV's Sale of the Century in the 1970s might help.
Could there be a woman host? What about former Today show host Sue MacGregor? Or Joan Bakewell or Esther Ranzten?
Or maybe they need a series of guest hosts to run the programme for a while until one settles in?
After due consideration, I think Bremner would be fine - but only if he plays it straight. The moment he slips into impressions then he will ruin the programme.
The continued popularity of Scrabble and the rise and rise of the word game Scrabulous on the Facebook website should give Countdown a new lease of life, if Channel 4 plays its cards right.
And what of Vorderman, who turns over the letters and effortlessly adds up the numbers while I am still scratching my head on the sofa? Channel 4 said it is "in negotiations" with her, which I presume means that its production company wants to pay her less than she wants to be paid.
These must be delicate negotiations indeed, for without her, can there be much of a programme?
