Carol Vorderman reveals Countdown secrets and what happened when rude words appeared

Virgin Radio

7 Sep 2023, 15:20

Former Countdown number cruncher, Carol Vorderman, has admitted what happened behind the scenes of the hit show when inappropriate words popped up during filming.

The 62-year old maths whizz, who starred on the Channel 4 show between 1982 and 2008 alongside Richard Whiteley until his death in 2005, was later replaced by Rachel Riley.

The presenter told the Off Menu podcast what used to occur behind the camera. She explained: "Some [rude words] did come up, and we would have to keep a straight face. It was all about keeping a straight face.

"You know, in the early days they would go, 'No, cut, cut, cut', and we would have to do it again. If it was allowed, we would have to re-record it and give [them] a different seven.

"When something rude came up, that awful one that begins with 'CU' – that never happened," she said.

"You see that on a meme quite a lot – that never happened. No, we’d never have that [filmed for a show]."

Once filming had finished, some of the stars would play their own non-PG version of the gameshow. "Rude word Countdown happened in the bar after," she said.

Talking about the time she performed Cher's Shoop Shoop Song on Stars In Their Eyes and missed her intro, she admitted she 'died for months'.

Vorderman explained how she was one of the 'first ever' celebrities to appear on a special version of the show.

“They persuaded me to do Cher, and it was really weird,” she said. “We were recording it, and I had literally never sung through a microphone in my life. I mean, [I was] a bit of a partier, you’d always find me on a table somewhere singing.

“But it’s alright when you’re drunk, isn’t it? Because you just hear you as – I was a crash between Cher and Celine Dion. I was amazing, except I wasn’t.

"I came through, everyone went, ‘Ahhh!’ because I’d been little Carol Vorderman on Countdown, here she was, this incredible tart in leather.

“Everyone screamed; I couldn’t hear a thing. And then I thought, ooh, there’s the music, I better start. Whereas by that point it’s too late.

"Literally, the tears were involuntarily falling down my cheeks.

"I thought, oh my God, I can’t hear the music… It went out months later, I couldn’t watch it, I literally felt sick. I thought my career, that’s it, it’s over."