Ten Years of Deal or No Deal: Part 1: The Glory Days (2005-07)

Yes, it really has been ten years since Deal or No Deal first aired in the UK. And to mark this, I am going to give you a series of posts marking this. So, here goes...

While I am writing this, I am also watching the Grand Final of Series 15 of Fifteen-to-One, which was shown on Challenge earlier today. Deal often gets unfairly picked on for replacing Fifteen-to-One; unfair because it debuted nearly two years after the original Fifteen-to-One came off the air. It ended in December 2003; Deal first aired on the 31st of October 2005.

Player of that first game was Lynn Atherton, who won £14,000, and had £10 in her box. In fact, the first few players of the show all got the most out of their game; it wasn't until the fourth game that someone could have had more.

When the show first began, it did get attention from enthusiasts; even though the Unofficial Fansite and Forum didn't come about until 2006, early commentaries were still provided by our friends at Bother's Bar. As far as I know, those early commentaries are all still up.

Except one. One player, Madie Bolourchi, asked BB to remove their report of his game because he was so embarrassed about what he'd done. (He'd turned down an offer of £28,000 that was well above the average, and crashed to just £4,800) A few days earlier, the £250,000 had come to the table for the first time, but was sold for £22,000.

A couple of games later, a record was set by Jennifer Miller, who dealt £120,000 on a final two of the £250,000, and, er, £750! (She had the blue in her box). That stood at the highest sum ever dealt for nearly eight and a half years. However, she later revealed, online, that she meant to deal a previous offer of £55,000, but said the wrong thing!

About a month into the show's run, a blue was won for the first time. Raj won just 10p, much to the anger of his fellow winger, game show regular Andy Kelly, who, the next day, gave us a very memorable game, winning £20,000.

The show motored on into the New Year, and we saw another memorable game almost immediately in the year: the first 1p win! Nick Bain swapped his box, £100, and ended up in the Hall of Fame! A few weeks later, Julie Walton sold the 1p for £33,000, which was the most it had been sold for for four years and nine months, but that's another story.

Other memorable games early on in 2006 included Geordie, who set the record for the lowest ever deal, dealing £20 on an all-blue finish. It proved the right move, as he only had 10p in his box! And also John Gilbert, who turned down a very generous £25,000, and ended up with £10.

Throughout this time, people began to notice that the order in which the various sums appeared in what box appeared to have a pattern. This is known to this day as 'Sequencegate', and the system was changed as soon as people began to notice. One game in which this came to the fore was Trevor Bruce, who hit the £250,000 in the final box, having turned down £9,900 on a final five of £250,000 and four blues; he won 1p. Some has theorised that the Banker gave him such poors offers because he knew 1p was in his box due to Sequencegate.

But we also saw games like those of Germaine Williams, who won £75,000, having dealt it on a £250,000-blue final two. And the first player to win a Power 5 sum from their box, £50,000 won by Saj Sarfraz. And also Lucy Harrington, who waited 49 games before finally playing on her 50th show. Alas, she only won £5.

And then twice in just over a month, the £250,000 came within a swap of being won. Firstly, Kirsty Hardle ended up with a perfect final three of £75,000, £100,000 and £250,000. She went ended up with the first and last as her final two, but won the £75,000.

And then Morris Simpson, who had the £250,000 alongside £20,000 as his final two. He turned down the resultant offer of £101,000, but only won the £20,000. No other male turned down the final offer with the £250,000 in play for over five years after this.

We also had Gaz Hall, an ice cream man from the Isle of Wight, who is remembered to this day for hitting the £250,000 in his first box selection, but recovering, and going on to win £100,000.

Come the show's summer break, and the end of the theoretical first series, no-one had yet won the Jackpot, but 7 people had won 1p. And within a week of the show resuming, we had an 8th. But we also had Lance Warrington, who won £87,000 and whose game still stands as one of the best of all time.

After a few weeks of fairly normal play, we had two memorable games in a row: Billy Bonner sold £5 for £50,000, and then Matt Borer opened his game with a run of eight blues. But he was not so lucky: he swapped his box, gave away £50,000 and only won £5,000. The following week, another player, Barbara Dobson, swapped £100,000 for £1,000.

Another notable first happened later on, when one game, that of Amanda Edwards, was not aired; instead, a repeat of Kirsty Hardle's game was shown. It later emerged that Amanda's game was pulled following the death of a close relative. It eventually aired amidst a run of repeats on Challenge in 2013.

However, something odd had happened: the £250,000 had not come to the table for nigh on five months. It finally came to the table twice in just over a week, and was undersold on both occasions: firstly by Ingerlise Stephanson, and secondly by the infamous Donna Rampton, who burst into tears long before it was revealed inside her box. It came to the table a third time shortly afterwards, and was undersold again, for £107,031, by Claudine Whyte. One of the least gutting undersellings that.

So, at the end of 2006, still no Jackpot winner. But then, finally, come the New Year, it happened. Laura Pearce won it! She turned down a rather low £45,000 on a final two of it and £3,000, and won it!

And, from then on til well into the year, the players ran rampant, with most going to the end, and Noel doing very little to stop them. Some times, it paid off: Jonathan 'Bunney' Bunney, one of the show's biggest characters of all time, won £110,000 after dealing on a final two of £250,000 and £20,000. Others it didn't: Dennis Powell turned down an above-the-average offer of £15,001, and ended up with 50p.

It was about this sort of time that I stopped watching the show for a while. Others carried on for a bit longer, but I simply stopped for a bit. The memorable games kept on coming, with wins of £35,000 (Charlene Dixon), £50,000 (Patrick Melia) and £75,000 (Doug May, who had his benefits stopped as a result!).

Moving on into later in the year, two more memorable games followed: Gaz Lawton won £70,001, but could've had exactly £100,000 more if he'd gone on another round, and Aberdeen's own Graeme Garioch won £101,000, after making an exceptionally brave no deal beforehand.

And then we had Shahid Khan, who won £44,000, and now releases pop songs under the name 'Naughty Boy'! And, oh, Paul 'PJ' Johnson, who swapped £75,000 for 1p at the first offer, and was offered nothing but a swap when left with those two sums at 2-box. He won 1p, but was later given an extra £10,000 via the viewer's competition that was in operation at the time!

Going into the home stretch before the show's second summer break, we saw Rodney Lyons win £85,000, and Adam Field become the 11th 1p winner, having turned down an ultra generous third offer of £20,000 early on in the game.

The show reached it's 500th game in June, which was marked with a fairly unremarkable game, in which Annie Hebington won £10,000. The remaining games of the season saw some notable quotables: Maria Andreou achieved the same final two as Laura Pearce and get a much better final offer of £75,000, which she dealt. And Igor Karpov achieved an absolutely unbeatable record, that for the lowest sum ever dealt: 2p!

That's enough for now. I was going to go on until the end of 2007, but I think I'll leave it there, and move on next time. When that will be, I don't know. We'll wait and see when I get a spare moment.

I'll be back tomorrow with a look over last Friday's Fifteen-to-One 2.0 final.