Mark_Goodliffe
Cracking the Cryptic
British YouTube channel about sudoku and other puzzles
Cracking the Cryptic (CTC) is a YouTube channel dedicated to paper-and-pencil puzzles: primarily sudoku, but also cryptic crosswords and other types of number-placement, pencil, and word puzzles. They occasionally stream puzzle games on YouTube.
The channel was set up in 2017 by two friends from England: Simon Anthony, a former investment banker, and Mark Goodliffe, a financial director.[5][6] Anthony is a former member of the UK's world sudoku and world puzzle championship teams, while Goodliffe is a 12-time winner of the Times Crossword Championships and UK sudoku champion.[5][6]
Each video is generally composed of one of the two hosts presenting a puzzle with given rules and then solving it in real time, with their live commentary. The channel features both standard and variant puzzles.[7]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the channel grew in popularity, and as of 14 October 2023[update] it had 557,000 subscribers, with the most popular video receiving nearly 10 million views.[8][9][10]
The music played at the beginning and end of many videos is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16, nicknamed Sonata facile or Sonata semplice.[11]