The show put a smile on viewers' faces when the conundrum round saw the words "itchy semi" spelt out beneath the contestants.

Fans of the show were soon laughing on Twitter, saying: "Today on #Countdown people were having huge problems with an itchy semi".

Another commented: "Are the countdown letters seriously spelling out 'ITCHY SEMI' hahaaaa made my day".

After 30 seconds of trying to guess the cheeky anagram's solution, both contestants failed to tell presenter Nick Hewer what the hidden nine-letter word was.

As both men did not get the correct answer, Hewer informed them at the end of the time that the answer was in fact 'mythicise'.

Not everyone was as impressed though, with one viewer tweeting: "Itchy semi? Come on countdown, grow up".

Last month saw a similarly entertaining scene, when the word "orgasmed" was chosen as the highest-scoring choice from the available letters.