David Bodycombe
David J. Bodycombe (born 1973 in Darlington, County Durham) is an English puzzle author and games consultant. He is based in London, and his work is read by over 2 million people a day in the UK, and is syndicated to over 300 newspapers internationally.[1] He devises puzzles for the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Metro and BBC Focus magazine.
Bodycombe consults on television game shows, including The Crystal Maze, The Krypton Factor, The Mole and Treasure Hunt. He was the question editor for the first 8 series of BBC Four's lateral thinking quiz Only Connect. On BBC Radio 4 he appeared on the quiz Puzzle Panel and devised the cryptic clues for X Marks the Spot. He has written and edited over forty books, including How to Devise a Game Show and The Riddles of the Sphinx – a history of modern puzzles.
In 2005 he started to devise sudoku puzzles, and was the first person to have sudokus published in several major territories, including India and Scandinavia. As well as the classic 9x9 puzzle, he pioneered a number of alternative designs. His games, puzzles and questions also appear in magazines, and on websites, advertising campaigns, board games and interactive television.
He edits UKGameshows.com, a wiki-based web site cataloguing UK television and radio game shows.
Main credits
Television series
- The Crystal Maze (1991–1995) – games devisor
- Sub Zero (1999) – games devisor
- The Mole (2001) – games devisor, UK series 2
- Treasure Hunt (2002–2003) – clue writer
- Mind Games (2003–2004) – puzzle writer
- Starfinder (2003–2004) – games devisor
- Inside Clyde (2004) – games devisor
- Codex (2006–2007) – games designer
- Only Connect (2008–present) – question writer/editor
- The Krypton Factor (2009) – games designer
- Panic Attack (2009) – question writer
- Fifteen to One (2017) – question writer
- Armchair Detectives (2017) – plot producer
- The Family Brain Games (2019) – games devisor
Streaming series
Radio series
- Puzzle Panel (1998–2005) – panellist/contributor
- X Marks the Spot (1998–2006) – clue writer
Books
- The Mammoth Book of Brainstorming Puzzles (1996)
- The Mammoth Puzzle Carnival (1997)
- Lateral Puzzles (1998, reprinted in the US as Mind Benders: Adventures in Lateral Thinking)
- Optical Illusions and Picture Puzzles (1998)
- Codes and Ciphers (1999)
- Reader's Digest Compendium of Puzzles and Brain Teasers (2000, consulting contributor)
- How To Devise A Game Show (2003)
- Number Crunchers (2004)
- Visual Vexations (2004)
- SU DOKU for alle (Denmark, 2005)
- SU DOKU for alle 2 (Denmark, 2005)
- SU DOKU Classic (Denmark, 2005)
- SU DOKU Classic, English version (Denmark, 2005)
- SU DOKU Classic 2 (Denmark, 2005)
- Master SU DOKU (Denmark, 2005)
- Sudoku Classic 2006 Calendar (2005)
- Penguin 2006 Sudoku (2005)
- Penguin Holiday Sudoku (2006)
- Master SU DOKU 2 (Denmark, 2006)
- SU DOKU Classic 3 (Denmark, 2006)
- SU DOKU Classic 4 (Denmark, 2006)
- SU DOKU for alle 3 (Denmark, 2006)
- Penguin 2007 Sudoku (2006)
- Hyper Su Doku (Denmark, 2006)
- Sudoku Classic 2007 Calendar (2006)
- The Riddles of the Sphinx (2007)
- SU DOKU Classic 5 (Denmark, 2007)
- SU DOKU for alle 4 (Denmark, 2007)
- SU DOKU Classic 6 (Denmark, 2007)
- Master SU DOKU 3 (Denmark, 2007)
- SU DOKU Classic 7 (Denmark, 2007)
- SU DOKU for alle 5 (Denmark, 2007)
- Penguin 2008 Sudoku (2007)
- SU DOKU Classic 8 (Denmark, 2007)
- Sudoku Classic 2008 Calendar (2007)
- Penguin Pocket Sudoku (2008)
- Penguin 2009 Sudoku (2008)
- Penguin Pocket Sudoku 2 (2008)
- Penguin 2010 Sudoku (2009)
- Penguin Pocket Sudoku 3 (2009)
- Penguin Sudoku Challenge Vol. 1 (2010)
UKGameshows.com
Bodycombe co-founded and still runs the website UKGameshows.com.
References
- "Books | the Guardian".
- Tom Scott (25 February 2016), Rock Paper Scissors Hammer Helmet: Steven Bridges vs Emma Blackery – Game On 1x01, archived from the original on 22 December 2021, retrieved 31 May 2018
- Lateral: Game 1 with Kat Arney, Helen Arney, Simon Clark, and Sally Le Page, archived from the original on 22 December 2021, retrieved 31 May 2018
- Weight For It (with Evan Edinger and Luke Cutforth), archived from the original on 22 December 2021, retrieved 8 March 2019
- Tom Scott (13 August 2020), DISCONNECTED with Jaiden Animations, Ellen Rose and Hank Green, archived from the original on 22 December 2021, retrieved 13 August 2020
- "Tom Scott presents: Money". Archived from the original on 30 May 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
External links
- Labyrinth Games, David J. Bodycombe's official website
- UK Gameshows website
- David Bodycombe at IMDb
- Forlaget SuDoku, Danish publisher of David J. Bodycombe's sudoku