Countdown host Nick Hewer faced a conundrum of his own when two contestants on today's show came up with the same eight-letter solution in the word game.

Hewer, who first found fame as Lord Sugar's sidekick in The Apprentice, struggled to stifle his giggles when Dubliner Gerry Tynan and Anne Lewin, from Brighton, both offered up erection as their answer.

Fortunately celebrity guest Dr Phil Hammond, who was in dictionary corner with Susie Dent, saved the day with a nine letter word - recondite.

It is not the first time the show has struggled with rude words - last year Hairy Biker Dave Myers offered up the seven-letter word todgers much to the amusement of Hewer and Rachel Riley.

In 2010 the presenters were left red-faced when the letters U, D, F, C, K and E all came up in a selection but the contestants resisted the temptation to go for the obvious and instead submitted the five letter words caged and faced.

The Channel 4 afternoon show, which has been running since the station launched in 1982, recently picked up a Guinness world record after it reached its 6,000th edition.

The words and number contest was launched with late presenter Richard Whiteley at the helm and has also been fronted by Des Lynam and Jeff Stelling.

Countdown is on Weekdays at 2.10pm on Channel 4.