Propel a pea along a red carpet

Task stats

Points

14

Disquals

1

• Paul places the pea on a cricket bat, and then propels it into the air. After it lands in the grass and he realises it’ll be difficult to find, he asks Alex for another pea and is advised that he had to use the one he was given. Paul casually looks at the grass and states “It’s like finding a pea in a haystack”, thus coining the episode title. He is unable to find his pea before his time runs out. However, since Dave is disqualified from the task, Greg awards Paul fourth place, and 2 points.
• Dave places the pea on a tennis racquet, which he uses to propel the pea into the air. He immediately loses the pea in the grass, and asks Alex for another one, insisting that it’s for eating, not for the task. Alex is suspicious, and says that he will mark the new pea, to be sure. After Alex gives Dave the second pea, Dave pretends to eat it, then turns his back to the camera and miraculously ‘finds’ his missing pea wedged into the strings of the tennis racquet. He throws the racquet along the red carpet, and manages to get the pea to travel 12 metres and 11 centimetres. In the studio, Greg asks Dave if he’d cheated, and he denies it. Alex then shows footage which reveals that the pea was not wedged into the tennis racquet, like Dave claimed it had been. Thinking on his feet, Dave then claims that he’d been using the racquet to sweep through the grass, while looking for the pea, and so that must be how the pea had subsequently gotten wedged into it. Greg doesn’t believe a word of it, so Dave is disqualified for cheating.
• Sara bowls the pea over-arm, and it lands right on the red carpet. She then throws it a second time, and manages to record a distance of 18 metres and 27 centimetres. She throws it one more time, but it doesn’t go as far. In the studio, Greg says that Sara is the only one to enter into the “spirit of the task”, but he can only award her 3 points.
• Rob puts the pea into a wheelbarrow and walks it around the garden, insisting that he is “propelling it with force and drive”. As Alex follows him around the garden with his measuring wheel, Rob complains that Alex is slowing him down. He does five complete laps of the garden before deciding that’s probably far enough, and tips the pea out onto the red carpet. He spends the remaining time checking the definition of ‘propel’ on his phone. In the studio, Greg notes that it was almost if Rob was preparing to have to defend his attempt. However, Greg is happy with his performance and, with a distance of 414 metres, Rob earns 4 points.
• Al places the pea onto the red carpet and then rolls it up. He then orders a taxi, bundles the rolled-up carpet into the vehicle, and asks the driver to drive up the M4 motorway. They drive 18 miles along the motorway before returning to the house. Al then un-rolls the carpet, and locates the very squashed pea within. In the studio, it is revealed that Al paid £150 to transport the pea as far as Slough. Al also reveals that it turned out that he knew the taxi driver’s niece (a GP in Croydon). Al earns 5 points.