A COUPLE from South East Cornwall have won £38,000 on a new game show.

Pete and Helen Davis scooped the money on BBC1's Break The Safe, which is hosted by Nick Knowles.

The format of the show means that competitors have to know each other really well to succeed, said Helen, as each partner must choose whether to answer questions themselves or pass them on.

'I think we only had one part of a question where Pete froze and wasn't sure of the answer,' she said.

'For the rest of it, we seemed to make the right call and the right decisions each time – people watching it said our tactics were good.'

During the nerve-racking final round, the couple, from Looe, stood to either win or lose the £38,000 they had banked, depending on whether each hit the buzzer at the right moment during a tricky 30-second countdown.

'Every spare second we had, we were practising it,' said Helen.

'When you're recording the show your heart's going 10 to the dozen. Our secret was singing songs in our heads to get the timing right – Pete sang Lionel Ritchie's Penny Lover, and I was singing TLC Waterfalls.'

Pete, a shark fisherman, and Helen, an accounts assistant, have been married for 12 years and the audition for the show in Bristol took place on their wedding anniversary.

'We do well under pressure when we have each other to lean on. It confirmed and proved to us how well we do know each other,' Helen added.