Does the other half of the 'Countdown' clock work?

I loved this question so much that I decided to write to Channel 4 to find out. Here is their response:


Thanks for your e-mail.

Yes, the clock would, if necessary be able to go all the way round.

The reason that we have a one minute clock is that when Countdown first started, the people who were producing the show then couldn't make up their minds as to how long the countdown should run for....30 seconds, 45 seconds or a minute.

Eventually, the designer got fed up waiting for a decision so he made a full-faced clock and told them that they could stop it when they liked!