Watched the show today, puzzled by the celebrity guest, his point of interest being that he takes very hot saunas, he was being fed all the time by Suzy Dent who in turn is plugged into encyclopedic search engines,or so it's rumoured.
All was revealed when I looked him up,Pasha Kovalev is the husband of one Rachel Riley, the enchanting maths genius. No mention of this on the intros or during the game.
Be careful Countdown, Ms Riley is known to hold very extreme political views, it would be a shame if everbody's favourite game show were to be infiltrated in this way.