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Susie Dent is a staple of daytime television thanks to her role on Countdown, but she passed up the opportunity three times before finally signing on.
Word expert Dent was asked to become the permanent resident lexicographer on the Channel 4 game show in 1992, before which, the role was filled by representatives from Oxford University Press (OUP).
However, she rejected several offers because she is more reserved by nature and was against the idea of being on TV.
Speaking at Henley Literary Festival, Dent explained: “It wasn’t that I had a real antipathy towards it, but I just don’t love my head being above the radar. It wasn’t that I felt, ‘Oh, this will be too nerve-wracking.’ I was just so happy where I was and didn’t really feel like I needed to expose myself like that.”
She continued: “But my boss was extremely persuasive and asked me three times, at which point I knew this was something that I had to do for my job’s sake.”
Dent, who at the time had accepted a role compiling English dictionaries, reflected on her “mortifying” first episode, in which she sat alongside actor Rula Lenska.
She said that she presumed then-host Richard Whiteley had referred to her as a “glamorous lexicographer in dictionary corner” when he was actually talking about Lenska.
Dent, who also appears on panel show 8 Out of Cats Does Countdown, also joked that she was “the oldest thing” on the show since they replaced the iconic clock timer.
The TV star told The Independent in 2022 that she had concerns about lexicography being viewed as uncool when she was younger, but now “thinks it’s the coolest job in the world”.
”I’ve made it my box,” she said. “It’s definitely my identity, and actually, it’s served me really well. I do think now that there’s more celebration of people who really immerse themselves in topics. ‘Geek’ has become a bit of a fashionable label for people who really know their stuff – and I think that’s absolutely brilliant, because it was an insult for a long time.”
She added: “I think that’s been one of the good developments in telly over the last decade – authenticity is now really appreciated. So I think people really do feel much more able to be themselves. That wasn’t always the case.”
When asked if she “knows of any unexpected fans of the show”, Dent previously claimed that Whiteley “always reminded us that the Queen and Queen Mother enjoyed watching us”.
She added that Hollywood stars George Clooney and Bill Murray “apparently also tune in”.
