TV presenter Rachel Riley became emotional while watching old clips of one of her shows as she reflected on a painful loss. The maths expert got her big break as Carol Vorderman's replacement on Countdown at the age of 22.
She has since gone on to star on Strictly Come Dancing, where she met her husband Pasha Kovalev, but it is her work on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown that has introduced her to a wider audience.
Tears of sadness and laughter
The show, launched in 2012, is a crossover between Countdown and comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats. Rachel says she loves working on the programme, but watching back old clips featuring the late comedian Sean Lock reduced her to tears.
It is just over five years since Sean died of lung cancer at the age of 58. He was one of the team captains, along with Jon Richardson, from the show's inception until his death.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, she told Anne-Marie Wallace "we miss Sean so much". She said: "It is so much fun (filming the show). It's around about the five-year anniversary since we lost Sean Lock.
"And they were playing us some of his old clips, you forget things that have happened. It's a front row seat to comedy, which I absolutely love.
"It's such a good show to work on, we miss Sean so much. Even watching the old clips back, because I've forgotten what happened, you're just sort of crying watching it.
"With Sean, it's tears of sadness but mostly tears of laughter because it's just so funny. To work on something like that, it's brought Countdown to a new audience as well. So yeah, we love doing that."
Replacing Carol Vorderman
The 40-year-old mother of two also talked about replacing the legendary Carol Vorderman at the age of just 22. It was effectively her first job out of university after completing a degree in applied mathematics at the University of Oxford. Her mother encouraged her to apply and she beat out 1,000 other applicants.
She said: "I love it (Countdown). I used to watch it as a kid myself. Our audience, we're so lucky that we've had contestants who used to watch it with their grandparents, and now they're introducing their kids to letters and numbers for the first time on Countdown.
"We're so lucky to part of this national institution. I'm just lucky that social media wasn't around when I got my job because it's nearly 18 years now, it would have been brutal. It's a completely different landscape to 2008 when I got this job."
Rachel appears on TV twice on Friday, August 21. She is on Countdown on Channel 4 from 2.10pm to 3pm, followed by the new series of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown on the same channel from 1.05am to 2.05am.
