She said the £16,500 will allow her to get a deposit on a house - no wonder, as there are two-bed houses for less than £100,000 in Littleborough, even quite nice ones like this one. (This does not compute to someone who has spent all of his life in either the London commuter belt or the south coast, as I have).

Only saw the last 10 minutes on 4+1 but read the commentary on here live so can't really comment on the whole show until it comes on 4OD (will Sky+ the other shows this week).

oh it was brilliant, you missed a brilliant show (sorry to be the bearer of bad news)

It will be on 4OD eventually and will watch it then. Wonder which ex-contestants will be there on Friday when I am there (although I was talking to one at the weekend).

what a fab show,Noel was a natural(years of experiance helped)glad Louise got out when she did.just hope the rest of the live ones are as good as this.l enjoyed every second!

Well, that seemed to go pretty well all things considered!

Liked the opening VT segment and the pacing was reasonable enough to allow for plenty of banter. However, I'm not overly thrilled about the break divisions leaving the 3 key decisions to be made in the final part of about 15 minutes, could lead to see out-of-character gambles (or conversely, overcautiousness!), especially after likely rushed final rounds.

But overall, there was an amazing atmosphere and tension to it, and as people have said it gave an extra edge to proceedings, very slick camera work and with the offer graphic (I suspect the graphics department or whatever they are called was relayed a split-second before Noel was told, although Powerpoint/Publisher etc. can generate a pretty instant effect) and music.

Very much looking forward to my visit next week now!

Well I watched on Tivo, but i have to say i still got the sense of the game unfolding live.

I think Louise was a good choice for first live contestant, bubbly excitable quite outgoing. She was a little bundle of energy dashing round the studio and clearly enjoying every minute of the experience. Could have been quite awkward if she'd gotten stage fright as some contestants do even after 3-4 weeks on the wings

Noel of course pretty much built his career on live TV and he handled proceedings with consumate ease. It was nice seeing the wings made up of that mix of F&F and old faces, though i'm a little surprised the Banker let Suzanne back into the studio again . Wonder if the OB link up will a regular fixture

There was probably a good argument either way for the 5 box deal, and it was great that Louise jumped the right way. There was no way the Banker could have ignored an opportunity to throw in a Banker's Gamble in a live game,it was almost inevitable we'd get one at some point i'm just a little surprised the opportunity presented itself so soon.

And loathe though i am to admit it part of me wants to see a live train wreck, just to see how Noel and the poor unfortunate contestant deal with it

The game is finally online on 4OD now.

Interestingly, in the most obviously relevant academic study on decision-making under time pressure (as it used a simplified version of blackjack), it was found that "under time pressure, participants were more conservative at the lower risk levels but were more prone to take risks at the higher levels of risk. This crossover interaction reflected a reduction of the threshold within a single decision strategy rather than a switching of decision strategies." Translation: people approach the decisions in the same way, but are more likely to make statistically questionable decisions. (The actual study, if you're interested!)

Of course DoND decisions are about utility first and probability second, so that research may not be that applicable. Nevertheless, it does suggest that there will be some surprising choices made in these shows, and some all-over-the-shop generosity patterns that create obvious decisions may be visible if Glenn et al want to keep in charge of the clock.

Finally watched the show. Sensible deal and a good OPW to start the live shows.

Few random thoughts:
Interesting that unlike the Xmas Star shows, they've stuck to the contestant having their box randomly selected rather than choosing one.

Joycie's second appearance on TV in a few days but there would have been 7 months between the shows being filmed (and her and Corinne being in the same room represented £178,000 worth of failed gambles).

Surprised they let someone in the front row wearing pink which is definitely against the usual pilgrim clothing rules but from where she was sitting, she may have been a disabled lady.

I realise there has to be some padding and box opener interaction but if I were playing, I'd want that to be kept to a minimum, even an extra minute's decision time could be vital.

I finally got round to watching it this morning on 4od, excellent!

Very well done to all the team who made it as normal looking as possible with graphics and music etc! Looking forward to the next live shows!

Just watched the more4 repeat - very good first live episode, Louise was a good choice for it. I assume the wing order is randomly selected as well, barring a few ex-players in their original positions?

The offers were a bit all over the place, weren't they? There was a lot of onus on what Louise's Dad said but I think Louise may have ended up dealing anyway - she'd said she was nervous about taking the top 3 out at 8-box so at 5-box, losing the £75k was probably on her mind.

Overall, great start to the live shows. Loved seeing all those ex-contestants again and the end result was a banker spanking without looking like a forced big win - as good a start as the producers could have hoped for, probably. I hope this bodes well for the next fortnight!

Still haven't seen the game yet, which Dave was the ex-contestant opening the box? Was it Dave Largie or another one?

No, it was Dave Largie.

What a great start to the live shows with a banker spanking! Well done Louise!