Bury me with 20 volumes of dictionary, says Susie Dent
SUSIE DENT has said she wants to be buried with “all 20” volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary and come back to haunt the Countdown studio.
The lexicographer, who has featured on the show since 1992, said she wanted her coffin to be carried by comedians who feature on the spin-off show 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, such as Joe Wilkinson, Katherine Ryan, Jimmy Carr and Joe Lycett.
Dent, 59, said that because viewers of the Channel 4 show only ever see her top half, her torso would be “swooping” around the set, trying to haunt the person who took her job.
Describing her funeral procession plans in a wicker coffin, she told the podcast Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake: “I’d like to go, I think, on a rickshaw. I’ve not been on one before.
“I’d like to have some naff 80s music playing very loudly and be carried in on a rickshaw.
“The only problem with this is, I would quite like to be buried with all 20 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary, so that could be a bit of a struggle especially coming up to a hill on a cliff.
“So, maybe I can have a tandem rickshaw or something or people pushing to give them help.” Deciding who would be the pallbearers, she said: “I decided it would be some of the comedians – many of the comedians from 8 Out of 10 Cats.
“Can you imagine Joe Wilkinson in his stained brown suit having some kind of laugh not knowing what he’s doing?
“Jon [Richardson] would be too small walking on behind, Katherine Ryan maybe Jimmy, Joe Lycett please – just a few of those, I just thought they could make it a funny affair.
“They will struggle, Joe’s suit is going to be even more stained.”
On whether she’d be interfering from the grave, she added: “I figured I’m going to haunt the Countdown studio because I don’t like the thought of anyone taking over from me.”
She said she would like to be greeted at the “pearly gates” by her father, her childhood dog and the comic Sean Lock.