Noel opens Elaine B's Box 13 and reveals 10p

The remaining Box 4 with Karen contained £35,000

Given that a final offer of that sort of generosity could reasonably be expected given the very first game, I'd have played on at five-box. I'd take £3,500 now on that board though!

Sara, the first person to have the perfect finish, having already dealt though was in the audience today (at least I think that's her name!)

I spotted other contestants in the audience too (I recognised them but can't remember their names). It seemed to happen quite a lot in the early days, and there were some close-up shots too. I know the audience is generally on show (more than it is nowadays), but you'd think they'd have avoid doing close-ups of the contestants-to-be!

I suspect that when contestants were due to make their "newbie" appearance in the second or third game of the recording day, they watched the earlier game(s) from the audience.

Was that still the case when you were a contestant, h2005?

I think some were asked to, although I was never asked. It probably depends on how full the audience is for any given show.