Deborah talks to a toaster

As Deborah arrives at the dome, Alex instructs her to “Please enter the oxygen chamber”. He then agrees with her suggestion that it should be called “The Thunderdome” instead.

After reading the task brief and examining the objects on the table, Deborah admits that she doesn’t actually know how toasters work. As she examines the device further, Alex suggests to her that it might be “speech-operated”, leading to her repeatedly instructing the toaster to “Go down”. She soon realises that he is messing with her, though, and starts the toaster manually.

She then examines the jack-in-the-box, eventually determining that she can make the lid pop open on demand, by releasing the catch on top.

Examining the cat feeder, she attempts to figure out what the numbers on its dial refer to, initially suggesting they might be minutes (rather than hours).

As she considers the bubble gum, Deborah asks if she has to chew it, and Alex facetiously points out that yes, it needs to be chewed, in order to turn it into a bubble.

With about 40 seconds left on the clock, Deborah sets the toaster going again, and reaches for the bubble wand.

With about 13 seconds left on the clock, she starts blowing a bubble using the bubble gum, then extracts it from her mouth and puts it down on the ground to be popped later.

With 5 seconds remaining on the clock, she holds the party popper up to her mouth, and prepares to pull out the string with her teeth.

As the timer hits zero, she steps on the bubble gum bubble, and pulls the string from the party popper. She then uses the catch on the jack-in-the-box to make it pop open, immediately after which the toaster pops, followed by the balloon, and then the monster.

Deborah initially believes that she has popped everything, but has forgotten about the cat feeder. After re-reading the task brief, she realises her mistake, and manually pops open the feeder.

In the studio, Greg pulls Deborah up on her unfamiliarity with a toaster, and she attempts to defend herself by pointing out that she has an Aga stove (which typically comes with an accessory to allow you to make toast on one of the hot plates).

Alex reveals that Deborah had managed to make everything pop within a window of 72 seconds, which earns her third place.

(Written by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected and adjusted by: David Fuller)