If your idea of a good Monday night involves a battle of wits and famous faces struggling with anagrams, then Celebrity Puzzling is here for you. The new series, which airs Monday to Friday, kicks off its premiere on Channel 5 on Monday, June 23, at 7 PM, with Jeremy Vine at the helm.
The first episode pits team captains Carol Vorderman and Sally Lindsay against each other, joined by guests Ore Oduba and Gareth Malone. Expect a gauntlet of word and logic games designed to trip up even the sharpest minds. Rounds include “In Other Words,” which requires decoding two-word answers from initials and synonyms, and “Thirdle,” where teams must complete words with missing third letters against the clock. “Cinema Cypher” adds a visual element, challenging teams to decipher film titles hidden by symbols.
Vine, ever the showman, even tries to impress Malone with his singing, with results that are, charitably, up for debate. Other brain-ticklers include “Heat Map,” a QWERTY keyboard twist where letters change color based on their frequency to help with deduction, and “Funundrum,” which rolls out increasingly difficult anagrams for bonus points. The tension builds to the final round, “Memory Bank,” which tests memorization with a word grid and trivia.
It’s a straightforward premise: celebrities, puzzles, and a dash of lighthearted competition. If it delivers on that, it might just earn its place in the early evening lineup.
