Susie Dent, 55, has been a favourite on Countdown for a staggering 28 years, however before finding fame thanks to the programme she turned down the opportunity a whopping three times. The Channel 4 sensation addressed her time on the show with presenter Steph McGovern on her self-titled daily, Packed Lunch, last week.
Steph began by asking Susie: “What was it like that first time doing it?”
“It was terrifying because I had said no three times,” she replied.
“It was an arrangement with OUP [Oxford University Press] where I worked and we published the dictionaries used on the show.”
Recalling the moment, Susie remembered: “My boss said, ‘I think it would be a really good thing to do,’ and there were loads of us who rotated and it just wasn’t something I thought I wanted to do.
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“You know me, Steph, I don’t like being above the radar, so I said no.”
Susie told Steph and her viewers what it took for her to change her mind.
“I was eventually persuaded, thank goodness because I love it,” she shared.
“Thank god Rula Lenska had big hair is all I can say, because I kept trying to hide behind it.”
After the adjudicator was asked whether being the UK’s word expert has always been her “life goal”, she laughed: “It was definitely an accident!
“I was a reluctant addition to the Countdown team. I worked at Oxford University Press and was asked to go as part of their partnership with the show.”
Susie recalled her first episode, adding: “I still remember my very first show because I look absolutely terrified.
“I think I even looked a little arrogant, which I really didn’t mean to be, sitting beside Rula Lenska.”