There was no Conundrum for Colin Murray when he got the call to ask him to step into the Countdown presenter's hot seat.
The Belfast man's love affair with the long-running TV show goes back as far as when he first set out to pursue a career in journalism aged 24.
During a break from filming another show for the BBC in St George's Market, Belfast Live caught up with the 45-year-old and even helped him pick out a new jumper to wear on the Channel 4 daytime quiz.
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Reflecting on when he first fell in love with Countdown, Colin recalls how it's long been his dream to land a role presenting on the show.
"Countdown was my favourite programme growing up. When I first moved to London, I had this agent and she said we had to put a short bio about me on the website and I had fallen into radio by accident, and we wrote this thing up, 'Colin is a Radio 1 DJ, etc etc, and the last thing I wrote was, 'Colin's dream is one day to present Countdown'.
"I remember my agent laughing at me saying, 'what are you putting that down for, you're 24?"
"She also looked after Richard Whitely at that time who sadly passed away. There will never be anyone like Richard Whitely, he is the Godfather of Countdown and we all aim to be half as good as he was.
"So I had that connection and then it was after Richard that I ended up going into Dictionary Corner and from there Susie Dent and I got on great and we've had a friendship ever since, so I kind of became part of the family of a show that I absolutely love."
When Nick Hewer fell ill with Covid, Colin then got the call to step into the presenter's chair to fill in, a role he didn't need to think twice about.
"When Nick Hewer got Covid, they probably thought who loves the show? Who is a presenter? Who would cancel everything they're doing to present the show?, and I was the only one in that category, so I got lucky and I filled in for a bit and I thought that's great that's that ticked off my list."
After Ann Robinson stepped down as host earlier this year Colin was again asked to step in and he is now crossing everything that he can get the role permanently.
"As it stands, I was meant to do until the end of October and then they have a big 30th Anniversary in November so they're doing specials for that, and then I'm coming back to do up until the end of February so anything after that is in the lap of the TV Gods. I'm pretty sure if Richard Osman says he wants to do it I'm out, but I can only hope that nobody more talented wants to do it.
"It's a job personally from my point of view that I'd never give it up if I had it permanently, they'd have to drag me out of the studio. Channel 4 could close down and I'd still turn up!
"But whether it's for six months or six years I'm loving it."
When he first stepped into the show as the lead presenter, Colin admits it was nerve-wracking but fellow presenter Rachel Riley helped keep him on track.
"When I was first doing it and was nervous, recording show after show, she was the one on set, she'd spot where I was flailing and she'd go, 'Colin, I've got it' and she would pick the line up. Rachel is this very strong person, she's one of the strongest people I've ever met, she's brilliant, she just keeps me right on schedule because my brain goes off and she keeps me right on topic.
"I feel like part of the family now and I know whatever happens I'll still be like the show's little brother whether I'm going to end up being the daddy or not, we'll see."
The Dundonald man also paid tribute to two teachers who he credits with helping him with the two important subjects if you want to be a Countdown host.
"I wasn't good at school fullstop, my checkered record would fill your entire website but the only thing I was really interested in was Maths and English Literature. I had two brilliant teachers, Mrs Piper and Mr Hobbs. I love maths, I'm quick at maths in my head, my mental arithmetic, so Rachel likes that as a host if you're good at that. When I'm in Dictionary Corner if the contestants don't get it Rachel would let me do it because I've got it, but unfortunately, you're not allowed to do that as host.
"When it comes to straight-up mental arithmetic I love it and if I didn't have that particular teacher [for English] I wouldn't have been a journalist. She just said it was OK for me to be a bit wacky and a bit creative and she knew she could get my attention if she just gave me a book that I loved and I would just be right into it so it suits me."
For Countdown fans at home or those who think the game is too difficult, the Radio 2 DJ has a number of pointers.
"For the easily distracted like me, Countdown is a great show because it's just these 30-second games and you're on to the next one, so how many shows can say it's got 15 rounds, one after the other? So I love it, for me, it's my perfect quiz show.
"People out there should know if you're doing the letters, if you think you can only get fours and fives, the people that are getting six, seven and eight [letter words] aren't that clever...it's endings! It's -ing, -er, -ation, -ed, look for endings first folks, that's how I do it.
"A good way to play it at home, three charts, challenger, champion and you and do the points as a three-way game, that's what I do, how nerdy is that?," he laughed.
Aside from his love of Countdown, the Match of the Day 2 host is also a huge Liverpool FC fan and lived another dream of his when they reached the Champions League final in 2019.
He said: "Countdown is my dream job on TV, but the best hour I've ever had because of my job was DJing for an hour on that stage in Madrid.
"70,000 fans and I was the only non-scouser I think, you had Jamie [Webster] obviously doing his amazing things, Chelcee Grimes doing One Kiss and then there was this Irish guy, the plastic scouser and they were brilliant.
"There were a couple of best moments of that night, John Barnes came on and did Grandmaster Flash The Message, and he was up there giving it loads and it was amazing.
"Then at the end when I was saying thank you to the 70,000, Sami Hyypia walked on stage and he is one of my favourite Liverpool players of all time and I'd never met him and I thought they're all cheering me very loudly here and I looked across and it was him, it was brilliant."
One of his first guests in Dictionary Corner is fellow Northern Irishman, boxer Carl Frampton, whose episodes air this week. Colin admits it took a bit of persuading to get him to agree.
"One of the things I want to do with Dictionary Corner is to have some people in there that you might not expect to see there and it comes down to the fact that Countdown is not elitist, it's for everybody, it's just words and numbers.
"There are loads of kids that watch, people of all generations watch and there are not many shows like that left. With Dictionary Corner you ring somebody up and you say 'do you fancy doing Dictionary Corner' and their first answer will always be 'no way, no way I'm not doing that'. And I'm always like, it's a bit like going swimming with a lifeguard, you're not going to drown, Susie is there, she is going to help you, that's how it works.
"So Carl said no initially, and then I told him what it was about and what to expect and he was like 'alright, let's do it'. Carl's way smarter than people think, he was brilliant at it, he's a natural, he made everybody laugh, he's a good guy."
With his future on the show undecided, Colin is just enjoying it as it comes and hopes one day he could be the permanent host.
"For me now I've just learned to enjoy every day on it and I'm not thinking about what is going to happen beyond February, worst comes to worst I've got a lovely wee six months presenting my favourite show," he added.
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