The Natural Friends play charades

In the first round, Sam mimes, and his allowed sound is a steam train.

Without waving, Sam mimes looking puzzled, and moves his hand in a counting motion. After Alex reminds him to wave, Sam squats down and waves while flapping his other arm in a wing motion. Julian correctly guesses that Sam is miming “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”.

Sam then mimes stirring something, before looking around and silently yelling. After incorrectly guessing that Sam is miming “A watched pot never boils”, Julian correctly guesses that Sam is miming “Too many cooks spoil the broth”.

The Natural Friends lose the first round by two correct answers to three.

In the second round, Lucy mimes, and her allowed sound is that of someone falling off of a mountain. Lucy approaches her mime more like a game of charades, rather than picking out key words to focus on.

She brushes her palms together in the stereotypical ‘make it rain cash’ motion, awkwardly waving with one hand as she does. She then waggles a finger back and forth, until Julian guesses that she’s miming ‘doesn’t’. Finally, she shakes both of her arms upwards and outwards, which leads Julian to correctly guess that she’s miming “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

The second round ends prematurely, as the team only needed one correct guess to win it, so The Natural Friends win the second round by one correct answer to nil.

In the third round, Julian mimes, and his allowed sound is “the mighty bong of Big Ben”. Julian pretty much just plays the game as if he is playing charades, complete with the actions indicating how many words are in the proverb, and how many syllables are in the word he is about to mime.

This actually works well for him with the first proverb he is miming, as all he needs to do is get Lucy and Sam to identify that he is about to mime the fifth and final word of his proverb, then mime that he is taking a drink. Sam guesses that Julian is drinking water, and then Lucy correctly guesses that he is miming the phrase “Blood is thicker than water”.

In the final eight seconds of their time, Julian points from his own eyes to his team-mates, then uses his waving hand to indicate that his proverb has four words, before jumping off of his spot on the stage. Right on the whistle, Sam correctly guesses that Julian was miming the proverb “Look before you leap”.

The Natural Friends lose the third round by two correct answers to three.

Overall, they lose the task by one winning round to two, and earn 3 points each.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by David Fuller)