Nick and Steve break almost all of the rules

After reading the task brief, Nick and Steve immediately head outside together to find the watermelon, leaving the task brief behind. Nick initially suggests the idea of stabbing the watermelon with an umbrella, and then winks directly at the camera.

After Nick fetches an umbrella and then finds the watermelon, Steve reiterates that they cannot step on the stage. Nick then immediately steps on the stage, and gets shouted at by Steve for doing so. Nick questions where the task brief is, and then remembers that it’s back in the living room, which they can no longer enter. Nick then asks if he could try using his umbrella, and then winks directly at the camera again.

Steve tosses a brick at the plinth to knock it over, making the watermelon drop to the stage and split open (and breaking another rule of the task in the process). Nick then suggests using a pipe to push the watermelon off the stage, and is able to push it closer to Steve, who is able to grab it. However, they then become confused about what the watermelon cannot do, with Nick suggesting that it’s not permitted to leave the stage. Steve decides to lie down on the grass next to the stage and think about this, completing his secret task in the process.

When Nick asks Alex if the melon can leave the stage, Alex states that it’s not his job to remind them of what the task is. Nick then asks if it involved an umbrella, bumping his “umbrella” count to three. He then decides to try to retrieve the task brief, and Steve gets up from his 30-second lie down to follow him with the melon. Nick decides to try and grab the task using his umbrella somehow, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Steve is unsure if he’s allowed to touch the watermelon, and so finds a way to pick it up on the end of the pipe. Unfortunately, it then falls off the top of the pipe and onto the stage, breaking apart on impact.

Steve then picks up the watermelon, while Alex asks the pair what they think the aim of the task is. Although they both know the main objective is to put the watermelon on the table, Nick argues that it can’t be as simple as carrying it there, and then Nick states that it clearly doesn’t involve an umbrella (thereby completing his secret task).

Standing outside the doors to the living room, Steve chucks the watermelon onto the table, where it breaks apart even further, and then most of it slides onto the floor. When Alex asks the pair where the watermelon is, and if they think they’ve completed the task, Steve suggests they cut their losses and claim they’ve completed the task, so Alex stops the clock.

In the studio, Greg highlights Nick’s “showboating” by winking at the camera almost every time he said “umbrella”, and suggests that “the umbrella wink” might catch on (thus coining the episode title). Greg then calls their effort on the primary objective of the task “the worst task attempt” he’s seen in 17 series.

Nick and Steve are disqualified for breaking almost all of the rules, but they each earn the 2 bonus points for completing their secret tasks.

(Written by M3 / Andres Sanchez and proofread by Karl Craven)

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