We go to the banya, the Russian spa. And you go into the sauna, which is really hot, much hotter than a normal sauna, and then they beat you with branches.

Before 'Countdown,' I'd never even met anyone who was on TV.

I was on 'Strictly' because I was getting stage fright. I was taught that I had to imagine what a good outcome would be and be happy with it.

I was with my ex-husband for eight or nine years, and we became good friends. I met him at university, and our relationship ended. We are still good friends.

You sit men and women down and give them a maths test, and they will do fairly equally. Then you set up the same test, but with different people, and make them tick a box to say whether they are a man or a woman, and the women do significantly worse in the maths test than they did previously in a group set.

A review of maths teaching is a great thing, but it's a complex issue, and often the damage is done in the very early years of education.

My parents encourage me to save, but I do buy the odd thing that I wouldn't tell them about.

I take vitamin C and zinc every day to keep colds at bay. I also take calcium tablets to supplement my lack of dairy, and d-mannose, a cranberry extract thought to be good for women's health.

I never Google myself because that way madness lies.

People can underestimate you when you're blonde and from Essex, but it's easy to shut that down. I used to get dumb blonde jokes when I was 18, but when I replied that I was studying maths at Oxford, it usually shut them up.

In school productions, I was always villager No. 7. I was never at the front of the stage dancing and never had any lines.

Digital exclusion is a difficult issue for families across the whole of the U.K., including my own. I love seeing my nan, but with such a busy schedule and a long distance between us, I don't get to see her nearly as often as I would like.

I never would've thought of going on 'Strictly,' I mean, I went on because it's my mum's favourite programme in the world.

To get a job in TV is just amazing.

I don't want girls to aspire to being famous for the sake of being famous.

I didn't realise until I did CBT that I was a perfectionist. Whenever you do anything, there are always going to be things that go wrong, it's never going to be 100 per cent perfect. Because of how I was, I'd focus on those bits and always see the negative in anything.

CBT really helped me, and I would recommend it to anyone.

I like a challenge. I like doing things that scare me.

In TV, you get so many different opportunities, and especially, you get to try something different you don't get to do as a normal person, then great.

Even though you picture Russians as stoic, their language is really poetic.

Maths is the language of science.

I'm not into bags, so I don't pay a lot for them; I get them from H&M and Topshop.

I am lucky because I often get my makeup done by professionals, and they always try new ideas; I'll attempt to vaguely recreate what they've done.

I'd happily describe myself as a TV presenter now.

If I find a dress I really like and it happens to be a bit short, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. The thing about going to Oxford is it does give you the confidence to be how you want to be.

When you're out shopping, try to calculate the discount of something in the sales, or work out how much a bill in a restaurant will come to. Your brain is just like any other muscle - you have to train it to make it work faster.

I'm the sort of person who has to learn something properly before I show anyone.

I use a stylist, which wasn't something I imagined I'd ever do, because I like shopping, but because we prerecord 'Countdown,' I don't want to wear something that everyone has from the high street by the time the programme goes out.

When I see myself on screen, I don't even feel like it's me - it's like it's a completely different person.

My biggest vice? Vegan cupcakes, which are delicious.

I love that once you know the basic rules of maths, you can do whatever you want with it.