Countdown Dictionary Corner wordsmith Susie Dent has revealed why some people thought she might have been drunk on a TV appearance.

The Mirror has reported that Dent said: "The thing that visibly affects me most is caffeine. My body goes into toxic shock. I get incredibly cold and start shivering. My lips go absolutely black with cold and I start ­slurring my words. I seem much more drunk than I would have done had I had a couple of gin slings."

Dent was recently joined on the show by new host Anne Robinson. Dent also does the same job on the comedy mash-up version 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, fronted by Jimmy Carr.

She added: “It’s pathetic. I did one show – it was something like Would I Lie To You? or The Chase or something – and my lips had gone so dark and I genuinely sounded like I was slurring. I did get a couple of tweets saying ‘Susie has been on the sauce’. But I honestly hadn’t.”

She went on to say that she and numbers whizz Rachel Riley share a hot water bottle to keep warm as the studio they film Countdown in sometimes gets cold.

There was confusion in the comedy industry recently when The Sun ran a story about Dent separating from her husband Paul Atkins and accompanied it with a picture online of Dent from her TV show alongside magician Paul Zenon. Some thought this meant that Zenon was her husband Paul Atkins, but Zenon's real name is Paul Collins.

Countdown is on C4 on weekdays at 2.10pm

Picture: Channel 4