BEFORE hitting 50 next year, former SNJ news editor Sandra Ashenford has compiled a bucket list of 50 goals to achieve before her birthday.

The aim is to do one every week.

List item No. 46 – Apply to go on a game show

WHAT does it mean to be clever? This is a question that is often discussed in our house, and has been the subject of several essays I’ve written during my college studies.

Society tends to apply the word to people who are successful academically.

But in our household, we think there are other ways of being clever, anyone who can do a job that you can’t do has skills that you don’t possess and is therefore cleverer than you in that respect at least.

And there are plenty of entrepreneurs out there who build great businesses out of their own ideas, rather than passing exams.

And artists and musicians can create works that can be immensely powerful but may not have any sort of formal qualification in their field.

TV quizzers are another interesting category. Some people can hold on to huge numbers of facts, which makes them excellent quiz show competitors – but does it make them clever? Mastermind is one of the quiz shows that I always find fascinating, because the contestants may know their chosen subject in immense detail but have poorer general knowledge, particularly in the area of popular culture.

However, I love any show that involves the contestants in answering questions, and I’m always shouting out the answers at the TV, so I decided that applying to go on a game show should definitely be on my list.

But when it came to deciding which one, I started to panic. I didn’t want to go on a game show which involves any physical challenges.

And something like The Chase on ITV would be terrifying, when the frighteningly well-informed chaser got going with their sarcastic comments.

In fact, I could imagine myself frozen into complete stupidity on almost any of the shows that I love so much on the television.

Still, it’s on the list so I decided I had to choose one, and since Antonia and I love “saying what we see”, we’ve chosen ITV’s Catchphrase. The application said it wanted people who were “up for a laugh” so I’ve sent in my form and I’ve just got to wait to see whether TV fame will follow.