Like a lot of students, I whiled away many afternoons when I should have been studying some academic text or writing an overdue essay watching daytime TV.

Which naturally meant ensuring there was a plentiful supply of chocolate digestive biscuits and tea available before settling down to squander another half an hour making a half-hearted attempt to unravel the Countdown Conundrum and groaning at presenter Richard Whiteley’s jokes.

Now it seems the end is nigh for what everyone says is a TV institution. I can’t say that I’m that bothered. In fact, I’m beginning to think the sooner it is pulled from the schedules the better – allowing us all more time to concentrate on important matters, like whether those plastic shoes that look like half-baked pasties with holes in are no longer fashionable.

Frankly, I’m perplexed by the outpouring of sympathy for the saintly Carol Vorderman, who, “friends” say, has been shabbily treated after being told to take a 90 per cent pay cut and seem to think that the possible demise of Countdown will mark the end of civilisation as we know it, rather than the end for a programme that has been on the air for 25 years and is getting a bit tired.

I would understand this shock at such mistreatment if we were talking about nurses, but as Carol of all people must know, these things are all relative. A 90 per cent pay cut for her might be unpalatable, but speaking personally I wouldn’t dismiss a salary of £100,000 a year out of hand straightaway – nor, I imagine, would many nurses or cleaners.

Still, there might be a silver lining. If Channel 4 does fail to solve its own Countdown conundrum sparked by Carol and Des’s decision to quit, let us hope it opens the door to the resurrection of the TV student quiz Blockbusters.

After all, students will still need someone to pit their wits against while diving into the biscuit tin...