OK, time to move on to the third and fourth runs of Deal. It was during these two years that the show began to twist itself somewhat, and people began to lose faith in it somewhat. It also proved the start of a divisive period, with fans split on whether these twists work or not.
The first weeks of the third run, however, saw one of the most controversial twists of all time: the Battle of the Sexes. Two weeks of just men playing, followed by two weeks of just women playing. None of the games were that memorable, except for two Power 5 wins: Jon Galgey, and Daniel Zapp-Kitcher, who achieved the perfect final four of £50,000, £75,000, £100,000 and £250,000. (He won £75,000)
But almost immediately afterwards, Maria Valente won £100,000, in one of the very few big money wins that has not split opinion online.
A few weeks later, we saw the first instance of something that has well and truely split the fandom: the Banker's Gamble. The Banker, at the final offer, allows a player who has already dealt to give their money back. Phyllis Churchill was the first player to receive this offer. But she declined it.
A few notable games followed: Chris Barraclough won £76,000, and a few days later, Michael Babbs dealt £1,000 on a final eight of £100,000 and seven blues. Luckily, he didn't have the big money in the box. And then, a heartbreaking swap for Artak Poghosyan, who swapped £50,000 for £750. But that was nothing compared to what his successor on the wings did just before Christmas.
Orry Main, one of the show's biggest characters, having appeared for a few shows as 'Miss Orry', turned down his final offer of around £20,000, IIRC, on a final two of £100,000 and £1. He swapped. And ended up with the £1! This stands as one of the most shocking shocks of all time. But, as it was Christmas week, he had a bonus £1,000 from a twist earlier in the show.
Yes, this was the first series to do full blown twist weeks, where there were extra games to be had at 5-box, provided the player was still in LIVE play. Of course, the producers didn't trust all players to get that far, so the Banker was under orders to give them rubbish offers beforehand to make sure they got there.
Another notable quotable was the appearance of Olly Murs, two years before he shot to international fame via the X-Factor. He only won £10, but Noel told him he was sure he'd go on to great things. And the rest, as Danny John-Jules would say, is history.
Moving into 2008, Clive Keam have us one of the best comedy games of all time, with humour throughout covering up what was a pretty ordinary win of £9,501. It was followed the following game by a really heartbreaking 1p win from Katie Walsh, the first of three 1p wins that January, a month where no Power 5 sums made it to the table.
After a fairly non-descript couple of months, two games in late March attracted attention: Matty Cirullo's heartbreaking swap of £50,000 for 1p, made even worse by the fact he was (allegedly) playing for a tsunami relief charity, and the Rev. David Schofield, who chose a box in his third round, and found it empty! The remaining boxes were subsequently shuffled, and he carried on from that point, though he was clearly rattled, and bailed out at the third offer of £12,500.
It was around this time that results took a real nosedive; most games were either blue or low red wins, or deals for poor offers for the board with Power 5s on the table. Eventually, something that was neither of those happened: Betty Hardwick won £100,000, another game that no-one has a bad thing to say about.
Clearly, TPTB were fed up with all these early deals too, and the final straw came when Richard Harris controversially dealt £22,500 at the third offer with almost all the Power 5s left, and missed £100,000 as a result. The Banker made a prediction that none of the witnesses to his game would win more than £20,000, and determinedly stuck by it, refusing to offer more than £20,000 even if the board warranted it. It wasn't until the penultimate witness, Don Graham, who £21,000, that this nonsense stopped.
It stopped. The caution didn't. Most players, even if they had very good boards, cautiously dealt circa £20,000 sums, and missed out on huge sums as a result. Most of these seemed to be influenced by a chap called Les Mooney, who appeared to be only telling people to deal. Then, in his own game, he turned down £25,000 on a £50-£100,000 final two! He won the blue. He later revealed that his advice had been edited so he appeared to be only advocating dealing in order to make his final gamble more shocking.
A summer break was dearly needed, but the games after it were even more desperate. Most of the players were forced into blue wins by poor offers designed to encourage gambling, and most of them got handouts of around £1,000 to make up for it. I mean, one chap, Brian Kelly, who won 50p, was offered £2,500 in exchange for a mug he had bought as a lucky talisman!
It wasn't until Jay Wade won £20,000 that things began to pick up, triggering a run of good games, culminating in the first Power 5 win for months, when Julie Holdsworth won £75,000. But we also had games like Mark Grimmett, who won 4p after being lured against his will into turning down £20,000 at 8-box by a promise of generous offers later on.
Things had picked up, but very little memorable stuff happened again until late November, when Lee Whitehouse became the first DoND player to win NO MONEY AT ALL, after a twist designed to make some drama out of a total trainwreck went wrong! And then, a few days later, we had Keran Jackson recover from a horrific start to hit nine blues in a row, and win £75,000 from her box!
And that triggered a good run of games that carried on right up to Christmas, when we saw three Power 5 wins in under a week that finished off 2008 with a bang.
But it was an early game of 2009 that is the most remembered from this period: Mary Collins was offered about £20,000 at 5-box, said 'NO DEAL' to it, and then instantly realised she'd said the wrong thing! She stuck by her accidental response, and won £75,000 as a result!
The first few months of the year, however, weren't that memorable, though interest was sparked by the appearance of Daniel Judge, a stats fanatic who was able to inform the others how generous the Banker was being, and whether it was worth taking the offer. As a result, things generally flowed a bit more smoothly in terms of offer generosity. In his own game, he won £16,500 via a third offer deal.
Another notable face who popped up on the show around this time was David Watts, aka h2005, administrator of the unofficial DoND forum. His game was a fairly ordinary £6,500 5-box deal, but, like Clive the previous year, it was the entertainment value that made his game so memorable.
Not as memorable, though, as a certain Miss Alice Mundy, who played two weeks earlier. Her game started off as a fairly ordinary £16,500 deal at 8-box, but then became one of the games of all time. After her deal, she ended up with a final two of 1p and £250,000! And the Banker evilly offered her the Banker's Gamble! And she took it!! And she won £250,000!!! This stands as one of the biggest base-breaker games of all time: was this a fantastic game, or an utterly manufactured and undeserved win?
The rest of the run to the summer recess petered out by comparison to her and Mr Watts' activities, though interest was sparked by the show's milestone 1,000th episode, in which Aberdeen's own Lisa McLean won £50,000, and a couple of great games immediately before it: Stephen Callender-Ferrier's £35,000 win, and Dirk Nyenhuis' hilarious game, in which the humour more than made up for him only winning 1p!
After a month of fairly ordinary games, we had two Power 5 wins in a row, courtesy of Mel Ashmead winning £50,000 after yet another controversial Banker's Gamble, and Eddie Scott winning £70,000, which was only slightly soured due to him having the Jackpot in his box.
Not much happened for a while until early June, when Ben Bartlett won £25,000 after lying about wanting to do all the way and totally fooling the Banker! Followed the following day by Amy Velleman receiving, what I believe is, the highest 5-box offer of all time: £75,000! (She dealt it)
The run to the summer break petered out with only two more games of note: Simon Lawlor winning £35,000, after initially dealing £4,300, but being offered the Banker's Gamble on a final two of 10p and £35,000. He was going to reject it, but his wife, distraught at what was happening, fainted! Recording was stopped, and resumed after a break, and he changed his mind to DEAL it!
The final game before the summer break was that of Calum Simpkins, whose game stands as one of the best and most dramatic of all time. After some very brave gambles, he was offered an ultra generous £40,000 on a final two of 10p and £100,000, which he dealt, of course!
Overall, then, this period was full of plenty of memorable games, but it was also the period where the fans began to tire with the show. Many were unhappy about the increasing presence of gimmicks such as the Banker's Gamble, which they saw as being responsible for the manufacturing of many big money wins.
But the worst of the twists was still to come, and I'll get to that in the next part of my retrospective.
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