The Agency's Operation: Sleeper Cell raised a total of £3,638!
Chat about the mission 'Fishy business' here.
__________________________
5 cups of tea a day keeps the doctor away.
Thanks Practicalman for filling in some gaps!
To get some more people on board to track down those missing numbers, I'll explain the basics of how it works:
The diagram shows the middle of the sleepercell grid - ignoring the outer edge of the 11 x 11 square. When you map the Fishy Business puzzle onto the cells, then the clues from those cells point to the digits we are looking for.
We still don't know why there are 10 numbered squares - especially since some of those squares point to sponsored links, or even a blank square! It could be a simple countdown from 10 down to one.
Here is a brief explanation of how we arrived at our numbers so far:
[MAJOR SPOILER - solutions to Cell CLUES given]
Zig-Zag = Mission Impossible episode "The Double Circle" = 2
Microfilm = ?
Leading Role = 7 (practicalman may explain)
Tour of London = DangerMan episode "Colony 3" = 3
Russian Roulade = 4
Driven = Department S episode "Six Days" = 6
Civvies = You only live twice = 2
Mind the gap = Octo[coffee] = 8
Face Value & Listen and Learn.... ANY IDEAS OUT THERE?!
Picture messaging = Man from UNCLE episode "The Summit-Five Affair" = 5
Stuff and Nonsense = Avengers episode "Six Hands Across a table" = 6
From Russian TV = Spooks episode "The Seventh Division" = 7
Laws, Laws, Laws = Mission Impossible episode "TOD-5" = 5
Colourful = The Prisoner episode "Once Upon a Time" = 1
Prediction = Man from UNCLE "The Double Affair" = 2
Agency Fact File = 1
MAM have already started testing values of 1 for the first digit so that we have ruled out the following:
2?734628??5675121
Failed attempts: 21734628115675121
21734628125675121
21734628135675121
21734628145675121
21734628155675121
21734628165675121
21734628175675121
21734628185675121
21734628195675121
21734628215675121
So if another team can try starting from the opposite end? Or better still, now you know how it works, can anyone track down any of the three we're missing?
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
LOL: I love the name of the Bond Film OCTO-coffee!!
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
Yep, I'm waiting for the sequel, Octo-Tea and Biscuits to come out
To reiterate what Andy has said, he has put a massive amount of work into getting this many numbers and it would be a shame for it all to go to waste. Please can people work on the three we're missing and in the meantime use their 5 tries a day to try and brute force it?
Please??
__________________________Consumate Tea Drinker - Earl Grey with a slice of lemon if you're making one!
To make things easier to record and check:
Failed attempts at missing numbers – abc -
111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125
045 046 047 049 095
[How much simpler it will be if someone comes up with one more digit!!]
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Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
I just had a message from Juliette at Law 37....
Oh, by the way of the remaining numbers the easiest one to get is in my opinion the bottle of wine (you can ignore the name of the wine too - it just happened to be the bottle we had with dinner that evening!)
So I suggest we home in on this digit!
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
All I keep coming up with is the film Sideways, though no obvious number. Oh, other than there are 7 wineries in the film - bit lame.
As a now experienced (if utterly hopeless) guesser, I'm happy to take part in any brute force if required. I can tell you that the following abc combos don't work.
994
944
954
Bit random, I can be more systematic if so instructed.
Abbo4 has now also obtained some hints from Juliette, see below...
FACE VALUE (San Francisco map/four degrees): This is from a spy comedy series that might not have instantly come to mind when you think of spy TV series.
LISTEN & LEARN (Concorde/Mona Lisa/First on the left...): This one is hard. The video is on YouTube so you won't be able to google it and like Face Value isn't a series you might immediately think of.
Its not 126-131 (abc)
We now have 10 attempts, but I fluffed a few coz I thought I hadnt' submitted my answer
It's not 132 - 136.
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
It's not 137-146
__________________________Consumate Tea Drinker - Earl Grey with a slice of lemon if you're making one!
They're on our side and want us to crack the code! I'd only just realised the attempts had gone up to ten a day! If we get one more digit clue, it will soon fall.
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
No luck with 206, 216, 226... 296 (acting on - wrong - hunches)
Only numeric spy episode I can find connected with wine is the Avengers' "A surfeit of H20" - this has the required number but has no obvious connection with 1961, being made in 1965.
Which spy series count as classics? Man from Uncle, Mission Impossible, the Avengers (sort of), the Prisoner (sort of) - everything else is either not a classic or not really a spy series?
Also, as has been suggested before on the forums (fora?), perhaps the wine is irrelevant altogether and only the date matters.
Its not 311, 322, 333, 344, 355, 366, 377, 388, 399
(apologies for the obscure-ish choices entered!)
If it helps, here are the "numeric" episodes from UNCLE and MI
Mission: Impossible (Number possibilities: 2)
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (Number possibilities: 4, 5, 6, 7)
And a list of numbers tried so far, for convenience:
007, 045-047, 049, 095, 111-146, 200-209, 216, 226, 236, 246, 256, 266, 276, 286, 296, 311, 322, 333, 344, 355, 366, 377, 388, 399, 944, 954, 994
Here are some more duds
161, 162, 341, 342, 343, 345, 346, 641, 645, 744, 754, 794
I'm bemused that, unbeknownst to me, the post I posted earlier appears not to have materialised, but it's not 400-409 either.
__________________________If meat is murder, does that make 'Quorn' wasting police time?
not 147 - 155
Amadeus - you may have done what I've done several times - click on 'Preview comment' but then forget to click on 'Post comment' afterwards!
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
I've done some more, making the full list now:
007, 045-049, 054, 056, 064, 066, 074, 076, 086, 095, 096, 111-155, 161, 162, 200-220, 226, 236, 246, 256, 266, 276, 286, 296, 311, 322, 333, 341-346, 355, 366, 377, 388, 399, 400-409, 641, 645, 744, 754, 794, 944, 954, 994
Incidentally, the wine one is not 'A surfeit of H2O' as I have now watched it! Rather dodgy-looking site at www.veoh.com
Nor is it 300-306
From a survey of TV episodes, I've found the following numbers available (not used) for the 'A' slot:
Obviously, the best solution would be to find the episode, but as it remains elusive, we may be able to pare down the possiblities a bit by holding off on 3, 8 & 9 for slot A for now. Unless there is some other "classic" spy series that I've missed. Thoughts?
It's not
312, 313, 334, 335, 336, 337, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615
There is a Danger Man episode called "NO marks for servility" - about a butler - (loose wine-link) and could be a zero. And another episode called "Have a glass of wine"!
The I-Spy series has numbers 1, 3, 4 and 7 in its titles.
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
Im getting spam-blocked trying to send this.
I tried to send a longer message about this, but I think we could focus on the air-dates for the series:
Most of those listed earlier started their run after 1961
1966 * Mission: Impossible - 2
1964 * The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - 4, 5, 6, 7
1960 * Danger Man/Secret Agent - 1, 2
1969 * Department S - 1, 2
1961 * The Avengers - 1, 2, 5
1967 * The Prisoner - none
1962 * The Saint (?)- 2
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Espionage_television_series
There was one called, "One of Our Aircraft" for "Spy-Catcher" in 1961
__________________________I prefer my biscuits with gravy
Sorry I haven't had much time for research but has anyone looked into the Get Smart series as well?
__________________________Consumate Tea Drinker - Earl Grey with a slice of lemon if you're making one!
NOT 789, 798, 879, 897, 978, 987, 666, 999, 842, 376
Add 410-418 to the wrong attempts.
__________________________If meat is murder, does that make 'Quorn' wasting police time?
List is now:
007,045-047,049,054,056,064,066,074,076,086,095,111-155,161-162,
200-231,236,246,256,266,276,286,296,300-306,311-313,322,333-337,
341-346,355,366,376-377,388,399-418,611-615,641,645,666,744,754,
789,794,798,842,879,897,944,954,978,987,994,999
You can rule out 156 to 166.
__________________________Marsh-Ayre Mob (MAM) rule... OK! Always take your wrappers off before nibbling!
Joined: 1988-10-31