Hey everyone!

Just thought I'd post this here, so everyone will find it in time!

The forum tends to get pretty sleepy during the annual summer break, although the regulars will still pop on here. But we'll have a few things still running on here after the season ends next Friday:

1) Noel's Hall of Fame Shows will make a return on the telly the following Monday right through until the return of the new season in mid-August. We'll have a thread on here to at least discuss the selected shows, surely worth a good catch-up and reminisce about the good times!

2) The 2010 Forum Wing Line-up will be taking shape during the summer break too. Incase anyone hasn't contributed yet, it can be found in the Contestants section, where so far we've had all 22 places on the wings up for discussion. As of next Friday (23rd July), once the season has ended, I will be starting the all-important polls to determine who wins a place in the 3rd Line-up. The holders from the two previous line-ups will get a place in the polls by default, the rest will be added in accordance with those mentioned in the threads. And from there, it's a simple poll as whoever comes out top in each will win a place in the Line-up. The polls will be open throughout the summber break, and will close the weekend before the new season starts.

So enjoy the rest of the current season, with Kes and H providing your regular commentaries - but don't go anywhere from next Friday! See you then!

Don't go anywhere at all! Season ends on Sunday this year.

I still intend on starting on Friday

It's often about this time of year that I have to admit to being slightly relieved that the summer break is approaching, not because I'm getting bored of the show or anything, but it's when I start to suffer from what I call 'spreadsheet fatigue', after updating stats every week since last August... and to think I only initially started it after Bother's Bar kept a record, and I kept adding various stats over the years, and now it must be over 300 pages!

I certainly need a break!

Although I will be attempting to explain my (admittedly rather complex) EV calculator system, so look out for that!

Will do!

Can't imagine what the HoF shows will be - I know last year they covered both Seasons 3 and 4, and can't think of 20 possible games they could show from just Season 5. Corinne, Ramesh, Cheryl, Jean and a few other £50k or £75k box wins are possibles, but I'm hoping they show some games from Seasons 1 and 2!

Oh I wish they could, if Noel was allowed to choose games from that long ago

I wouldn't want to watch repeats of Season 5 so quickly anyway. A blast from the past would be nicer.

I'd love to see series one episodes again but it might be a bit of a culture shock, I came across a couple of old 2006 recordings on VHS recently and it looks so different - the set is much starker, the boxes look cheap and bland and (most shocking of all) the contestants just sit in the crazy chair for the whole show, there's no pacing or running about at all.

Yes plus inside the boxes are shock white amounts even though it's all about blues and reds.

Do they actually take a 2 week break from filming as well (do the contestants all go home and come back?) The shows that are airing now were filmed early March I think as people I saw when I went are starting to appear.

The filming schedule is here

viewtopic.php?p=642575#p642575

Although now we know there is a Sunday game next week, it would explain the missing day a few weeks later in the filming schedule.

Something I've just thought - they may just have a HOF show where there's still a "current" player, as I reckon Cheryl is an absolute shoe-in for these, Maria was the newbie for her game as she replaced laurence, and she hasn't played yet, now that will be odd!

Yes, it would be great if they showed some of those classic early shows!

Am I right in thinking that the board changed slightly around January time and became more vivid and brighter?

Yes - the graphics changed on New Year's Day.