Aldbourne couple to appear on BBC quiz show Pointless hosted by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman

A couple from Aldbourne will be making an appearance on a BBC1 daytime quiz show today (Friday).

Nancy and Simon Hancock will be trying to win the Pointless jackpot on the show that requires contestants to give the most obscure answers to a series of questions.

Mrs Hancock said: "We always watch the show and applied in spring last year, but of course Covid meant things were not happening.

"Out of the blue, earlier this year, I got a call from 'Derek at Pointless' and we recorded our show in February."

Mr and Mrs Hancock moved to Aldbourne two years ago after Mr Hancock inherited a 440-year-old cottage from his grandmother.

"Simon grew up in the village, but I am from the United States and we had been living in LA," Mrs Hancock said. "We upped sticks and moved over here just before travel closed because of the pandemic."

When they arrived at the cottage, they realised that the garden would need a lot of work doing on it.

"You will see us explain on the show that the reason we wanted to go on Pointless was to hopefully win enough money so we could go on Garden Rescue and have the garden done up by the Rich brothers."

Mrs Hancock is no stranger to television quiz shows. "When I first moved to LA in the late 90s I went on Wheel of Fortune and was lucky enough to win a three-week safari in Africa, so I have a bit of history."

Mr Hancock is a professional drummer and travels the world supporting bands, while Mrs Hancock, who works for Marlborough Law part of the Hungerford Legal and Financial Centre, also sings. She and her husband have a Siouxsie and the Banshees Tribute Band and will be performing in Swindon in November.

"When the programme was being recorded, Simon had just got back from touring with the Long Ryders, which Richard Osman said was one of his favourite bands.

"Both presenters were really friendly and put you at your ease. In fact, although I was nervous in the run up, once we were in the studio and filming it was fine."

As she is from the US, Mrs Hancock was a little worried about whether or not she would be able to answer some of the more quirky English questions.

"In the end it was fine – luckily no football questions came up," she said.

"There was one question you will see where I thought I had a brilliant answer, but at the last minute realised it wasn't right so changed my mind – Richard Osman guessed what I was going to say and we had a laugh about it on the programme."

Mrs Hancock is not giving anything away about how they did, but of tomorrow's show she said: "You never know – we might be back on Monday!"

To see how they did, tune in to Pointless on BBC1 at 5.15pm on Friday, October 22.