This evening, 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown returns with host Jimmy Carr and contestants Sean Lock and Miles Jupp take on Jon Richardson and Rose Matafeo. Vic Reeves will join Susie Dent in Dictionary Corner, with Rachel Riley. Susie is the longest-serving member on the of the original Countdown panel.
Susie, 54 is an English lexicographer and etymologist and has written several books and reports on the English language.
She loves her job on Countdown and 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (or “Catsdown” as she has dubbed it).
She said: “It’s my gig and I genuinely love it. My life would be a lot sadder without it.
“And it means I can indulge my love of the dictionary.
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“It’s quite a rare skill to have, to be able to look words up quickly – and also a really un-useful one, except on Countdown.”
Susie has loved books and discovering language from a young age, describing her childhood: “I really was the nerd in the car that read vocabulary books.
“If we were going on day trips, I would quite like to have just stayed in the car with my German and French vocab books. It’s embarrassing to admit to it now.”
In writing one of her books, Susie confessed to an odd habit to discover turns of phrase or odd words.
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She said she would eavesdrop as: “The best time to catch tribal jargon is when it’s not looking.
“I don’t intentionally eavesdrop. I’m not looking for salacious gossip, I’m just looking for vocabulary items.”
Her primary school teacher husband, Paul Atkins and their two daughters Lucy, 17, and Thea, nine tease her for this odd habit.
When Susie is distracted and eavesdropping, they have a word to snap her out of it – “potatoes”.
This refers to a moment when she appeared on Test the Nation and fell into a daze during the commercial break.
She was snapped out of her reverie by an annoyed Anne Robinson.
Susie confessed of the moment: “She’d asked me about plurals and I’d missed the question completely. I just said ‘potatoes?’
“Anyway, that’s my family’s way of saying ‘get back into our world because you’re off on one again.’ I do that quite a lot.”
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is on Channel 4 tonight at 9pm.
