Ivo winds string around a dog's snout

Here's a description of the contestant's attempt. Someone's probably working on collecting some images to illustrate it.

Ivo says Alex's name within seconds of entering the room. Having read the task brief, he bemoans "the curse of politeness" which has worked against him (thus coining the title of the episode), while starting to unravel the ball of string. Although the text on the back of the task brief is face-up on the table as he does this, he fails to notice it. After he completely unwinds the string, Alex checks with him whether he has done everything on the task, and he finally finds the additional text on the back. While frantically rewinding the string, he states that it is "optimistic" to think that there might be another ball of string in the house, but checks outside of the room for one, just in case. Not finding one, he starts winding the string back up around his fingers, cutting the circulation off. He has to unwind some of it again to free his digits, and then starts winding the string back up around the snout of a ceramic dog figurine instead. He is able to create a fairly loose but acceptable ball of string using this technique, which he then slips off the dog's nose and places onto the red cushion. In the studio, Alex notes that Ivo had been the one who unwound the ball of string quickest, and had eventually placed a ball of string on the cushion after 7 minutes and 24 seconds. This puts him in fourth place.

(Written by Karl Craven)