A WEST Somerset duo from a town with a ‘great name’ put in a strong performance on BBC game show Pointless last night (Thursday, October 3).

Matthew Bowden and his cousin Mason Hawker, from Watchet, appeared on the show and were quizzed on subjects including town names and the 100 funniest films of all time.

Matthew introduced himself and said: "I live in a small town in Somerset called Watchet with my wife Georgie and my two children Amber and Sam."

Watchet’s town name, as ever, piqued interest and host Alexander Armstrong asked “Watchet”?, which prompted Matthew to spell it.

And co-host Gok Wan chipped in saying: “Great name.” Matthew added: "There was a video rental store on my road called 'Watchet Videos' back in the day where video rentals were a thing."

Matthew started the first round, which involved guessing towns with eight or fewer letters in the name, with the objective in all rounds being to offer the most obscure answer.

He was able to get the pair into a very strong start, scoring an incredibly low score of just three points by answering Bangor.

Contestants need to score the least amount of points possible by guessing the least popular answers provided by people in polls.

It was then the turn of Mason, who has written a book intended for young children though has yet to have it published, and his answer of Truro brought in five points, with the team’s total of eight points being enough to comfortably secure a place in the second round.

The next round saw contestants guess what movies appear in Time Out magazine’s top 100 funniest films of all time, with clues to the options being given in the form of the name of two of the actors, the film title’s initials and the year it was made.

Mason would start this round, giving the answer to one of the options as ‘Blazing Saddles’. It was indeed a correct answer, continuing their strong start, scoring just six points.

After the first section of the round, it was Matthew’s turn to answer, and he would only need a score lower than 83 to take he and Mason through to the penultimate round. His answer would be ‘This is Spinal Tap’, which comfortably got the pair through with a score of four.

After a round between the final two teams that aimed to increase the prize pot failed to gain any more money, Matthew and Mason stood to win £1,250 if they got through to the final round.

This would provide a similar format to the second round, though Matthew and Mason would be able to answer collectively, and the winner will be contested in a best of three format, while the question will change after each point is scored.

Matthew and Mason would pick up the first point, correctly guessing the Booker Prize judge with the least answers, but would end up losing the next two points in the head-to-head.

Unfortunately, this meant that their time on this episode came to an end. However, they have been invited to return to the show.