You know those crazy nights where you end up pissed in Jimmy Carr's hot tub at four in the morning? No, me neither. But Countdown's resident maths boffin Rachel Riley certainly does. In fact, her and other big TV names regularly attend boozy parties at the comedian's lavish, London gaff.

Speaking to The Mirror, the 32-year-old said: "Jimmy throws a good party ­regularly. He's a really good host. I wouldn't name names but there are certainly people who've done all-nighters there and then gone to work the next day.

"I'm lucky that I haven't often been working the next day, because you can end up at 4am in the hot tub - it has been known. A few hangover cures are definitely needed after that."

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The Essex-born Oxford graduate also revealed that many of the jokes cracked on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown are far too naughty to be televised.

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"The lawyers have to be ­involved to make sure some of it doesn't go out because it would end all of our careers," she said.

"Each show takes three hours to record and is cut down to 45 minutes. So the stuff on the edit floor can be even ­funnier.

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"A lot of the stuff is ad-libbed and very funny but they also put effort into preparing and making it look funny."

Rachel now counts many of the show's panellists among her mates, including comedians Lee Mack, Sean Lock, Jon Richardson and Joe Wilkinson.

She says: "It's brilliant working with them all. They're really lovely guys.

"And it's nice to go to Jimmy's and catch up off-screen. They're just as funny in real life as they are on the show."

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Rachel has so far appeared on over 2,000 episodes of Countdown and hopes to beat predecessor Carol Vorderman's 26-year stint.

"I'll do Countdown for ever and a day, if they'll have me," she says.

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But despite being so heavily involved with the program, Rachel says that the filming schedule leaves her plenty of time to do other things. In fact, that's what allowed her to compete on Strictly Come Dancing where she met her current partner.

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"We film five shows a day and record three days a fortnight so I'm lucky as I have time to do a lot of other things."

Of her relationship with Strictly dance partner Parsha Kovalev, she said: "Pasha is Russian so while we're all modern and equal, he's also traditional.

"He'll buy flowers and he's romantic. He'll take me out for Valentine's Day. But people won't be surprised that I do the ­banking and look after finances - saving money and all that stuff.