Countdown @ 25
Carol Vorderman

Friday 2nd November 2007 was Channel 4's 25th birthday. As such, it was also the 25th birthday of Channel 4's oldest programme, the much-loved Countdown. Countdown was the first programme ever to transmit on Channel 4, when Richard Whiteley opened the show back in 1982 with the words ‘as the countdown to the launch of a new channel ends, a new Countdown begins’.

Sadly, Whiteley is no longer with us, but one familiar face from that historic first episode is Carol Vorderman, who appeared on the show as a fresh-faced 21-year-old graduate whose role was to tot up the numbers. 25 years on, she's a household name. As well as putting up the letters and numbers, not to mention teasing her co-host, Des O'Connor, she still finds time to dazzle viewers with her mathematical wizardry every day.

Here, Vorderman recalled her first day in the job, looked back at 25 years of numbers, letters and hilarity, and revealed what was in store for the Countdown: 25th Birthday Special.

Happy 25th birthday.
Thank you very much!

Does it seem like 25 years?
No, I don't suppose it does, really. It seems like an awfully long time, though. I've been on it all my adult life, since I was 21. I've been doing it for many more years of my life than I haven't. It does seem like a long time.

What do you remember of the first show?
It was very formal. No one had ever really told me anything about a television studio, and my only job back then was to answer the numbers game. In the first show, Richard introduced me first, and I didn't even know that when the red light came on, the camera was filming. So I think I just found myself mumbling "Hello" in a pathetic little voice. It's quite odd, because when I watch myself on camera then, it wasn't how I am at all. I seemed to be shy and withdrawn, and I wasn't like that.

Were you nervous?
I was a bit nervous. I wasn't exactly sure what I should have been doing. I didn't really have a proper rehearsal.

How were you recruited for Countdown?
We'd moved to Leeds, because mum and I didn't have any money, and the only place we could afford to buy somewhere was Leeds. I was going out with a lad from Leeds, but my mum had never even been to Yorkshire before. So we moved to Leeds, and within three weeks there was an article in the Yorkshire Evening Post about how they couldn't find anyone to do the numbers game for this new television programme. And mum said "Oh, you'd be good at that, darling." And I said "Don't be so silly – the idea of me on television!" And she wrote this letter, which was awful, and tried to get me to sign it. It was awful, all me saying how great I was, so I refused to sign it. So she forged my signature and sent it in anyway.

When the show started, did you have any inkling it would go on to become the phenomenon that it is?
No, not at all. I still had a proper job, so to me it was just something that was very exciting and interesting. And, thank the Lord, Channel 4 had so many problems with their schedules during their first six months, that because Countdown was doing just about okay, we were just ignored and recommissioned. And then we started to gather pace, and we were doing rather well. And then when I started to do the letters as well, it really started to gel, because I started giving Richard cheek and people seemed to like that. And then for 12 or 15 years, we made-up Channel 4's top five shows every week. In the end, we were offered a five-year contract, which we eventually signed. It was the contract with the largest number of television shows, for a presenter, that had ever been signed in this country. It was 1,125 programmes.

Why has it been such a success?
The format is wonderful, and it's also not fashionable. If you go for something that's high fashion, it will necessarily go out of fashion. And to watch Countdown, you have to take part. Every time the clock goes round, in television terms it's dead air, because all you see is the top of somebody's head as they scribble on a piece of paper. So you have to take part. You can't watch Countdown without playing. It's such a simple format, anyone can play it, and compete against each other. It's not general knowledge, where you either know the answer or you don't.

You've mentioned the fact that you didn't initially put out the letters and the numbers. When and why did that change?
I can't remember the year, but it was something like 1986, and we were already on to our third hostess, and she decided that she wanted to go and be an actress. And we were at a drunken Christmas lunch – as ever - with John Meade, who was the producer at the time. And we were very drunk, and he said something about how I ought to do it, and Richard piped up and said he thought I should do it, and it was such a drunken conversation I'd almost forgotten about it. And the next thing I knew, when we were back in the studio I was doing the letters. No more money or anything, either!

Richard and the show were a perfect fit, weren't they?
Completely. It took him a little while to bed down. When he started he was the news presenter on the local news show, Calendar, and he was very formal. And when I started doing the letters, I just started taking the mickey out of him. Which he didn't like at all at first. The first time I mentioned his jacket – which in those days were terrible – I said something like "Oh, you can't say anything to me, wearing a jacket like that!" and he just looked at me, stoney-faced, and after the programme he said "Don't you ever criticise me - this jacket is perfectly decent." It was yellow, and looked like a deckchair, and I just burst out laughing and said "If you carry on wearing jackets like that, I'll carry on criticising you." And that was where all of that was born. Then he got used to it. And people loved him for it, because he could just laugh at himself.

I know he became a dear friend of yours. What are your favourite memories of him?
Every day on the show we'd end up crying with laughter. He didn't necessarily always mean to make us laugh. He was always getting contestants' names wrong, and putting his foot in it, saying terrible things, like "Colin has 34 points, and Patricia 69. Patricia, 69, what a marvellous position for you to be in." And we'd all be laughing, or sniggering, or there'd be a sharp intake of breath, and he knew that he'd done something wrong, but he wasn't sure what, so he'd just laugh and carry on.

Both the Des' have brought their own style to the show, haven't they?
Oh yes, absolutely, they both managed to introduce their own stamp to the show very well, which is great. Des O'Connor is fantastic.

What have been your own favourite moments on the show?
I think they're all to do with Richard. And we've had some great contestants. We had a lovely lad on who was only eight, and he had to sit on two cushions. And we had Conor Travers, who'll be on our anniversary programme, who won the series a couple of years ago when he was 14. Lovely, lovely boy. And we've had great people in Dictionary Corner as well. They always tend to be fans of Countdown. And the audience are great – some of them will travel for hours and hours to come and see the show. People come from Ireland, Cornwall, we get loads of people from Scotland.

Have you had any acutely embarrassing moments?
I've had loads! Particularly to do with swearwords coming up in the letters. You'll pull out the 's', the 'h' and the 'i' and the audience will all be shouting "consonant". And arse is always coming out, because they're all quite common letters. But most of the stuff on the internet isn't real – people have added in letters.

Are you any good at the letters part of the game?
Not bad. If you have an octo-champ, I wouldn't be an octo-champ, but I could probably win a few programmes.

Have you ever had anyone on the programme who you reckon was better than you on the numbers round?
Um… no. But very, very, very occasionally we've had people on and they've got it and I haven't, and I do say when that happens. I'll say "That was really good, because I didn't get that!" Of course, then I've got the bit between my teeth, and I'm determined to beat them after that.

What are the plans for your anniversary special episode?
Well, Conor Travers is coming back, and one of our best champions called Chris Wills, he's coming back. And there will be lots of celebrity messages on film, from the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Terry Wogan.

What other programmes have you enjoyed on Channel 4 over the last 25 years?
There have been some great dramas – I love drama. The one with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I was one of the best that they've ever done. And they've funded some brilliant films over the years as well. And I loved Equinox, the science strand that they used to do. I wish they were still doing that. And Fifteen-to-One was great – we used to start at 4:30pm, and that would be on at 4pm. That was every day. And, actually, the cricket I thought was excellent – not that I'm a cricket fan. The way that they covered it even, sometimes, got people like me interested in it.

Will you still be doing Countdown it in another 25 years?
I don't know. I doubt it – I'll be 71 by then! I'll need a Zimmer frame with me while I'm putting out the letters. I hope Countdown's still going in 25 years, maybe I'll come back then for a guest appearance.

By Benjie Goodhart