Whilst a puzzle with relatively old routes, it is remarkable just how quickly Sudoku evolved from a relatively niche puzzle to an international sensation, but nowhere was this craze more evident than in the UK in the mid-2000s.

Following the first published Sudoku puzzles in The Times in 2004, the puzzle immediately surged in popularity, going from the puzzles section to the front page within a matter of months.

By July 2005, eight months later, it was everywhere, and this was when the first-ever TV game show based around Sudoku was made.

Hosted by Countdown’s former co-presenter Carol Vorderman, Sudoku Live consisted of nine teams of nine, each solving a classic nine-by-nine puzzle with a £23,000 grand prize.

Ironically enough, its greatest controversy was a large chalk puzzle that turned out to have so many solutions it did not count as a Sudoku puzzle at all.

It was a one-off special, but it proved the appeal of the concept, and within the year, BBC’s SUDO-Q was broadcast on BBC One, hosted by former GMTV presenter Eamon Holmes.

The show unusually did not use a full nine-by-nine sudoku grid, instead having multiple rounds using smaller grids similar to other popular puzzle adaptations such as Crosswits.

It was relatively popular, lasting long after the initial craze and only ending in 2007 after 70 episodes and four seasons.

The final game, which had a similar shelf life to SUDO-Q, was the even more unusual hybrid of number puzzle and panel show that was Street Cred Sudoku.

A baffling combination of Have I Got News For You and a traditional sudoku puzzle that was played on the set of Numberwang, Street Cred Sudoku incorporated picture rounds, truth-or-lie challenges and improvisation in order to win numbers that fit onto the grid itself.

Rather unusually, it was one of the earliest original productions for UKTV G2, later known as Dave (now U&Dave), famous for broadcasting the far more successful comedy-themed gameshow Taskmaster until 2020.