There was a stronger focus on 'gambling' and 'courage' then, though as you say, it paled in comparison to early 2007. One 2007 contestant, Theresa, turned down 21k on a 75k/100k/not much else 8-box. Actual insanity by 2020s standards but back then it was just considered par for the course!

TBF back then you could easily get more than 20k on a 250k/rubbish 5-box more often than not, so Sarah's decision had at least some justification.

I remember that Gary, he seemed to big himself up as a straight talking ''pulled myself up from my bootstraps'' bloke so his game's collapse was satisfying and probably something that genuinely made a character like that feel ashamed.

Now this might be an odd point to make but usually contestants look younger when watching back as many of this forum were children (as was I) and anyone over 25 was an OAP. Sarah is an inverse of this, she looked like a uni student when I was 12 and now looks nearer to 40.

20 years ago today was Rob, who was clearly an issue at the hotel and was playing almost immediately after joining (three recording days at most?). Frosty atmosphere and even Noel seemed to be struggling, like it was an awkward bus stop conversation with the bus permanently 10 minutes away. The game had a fairly dramatic rise and fall too, that would usually be of some discussion if it'd happened to most other '06 players.

(An aside point, Hannah on the wings in this era still a *total* baddie to my eyes)

It was his 11th show, so that would be 4 recording days right?

His game was a weird one, but he did well not to fall into the trap of chasing his losses and dealing a semi-decent sum after a nightmare round. That said, it ended up being one of the dullest proveouts ever - dealing 3.5k, taking out the one sum higher immediately, then several boxes of 'who even cares?' before finally revealing 3k in his box.

The one striking thing I remember from Rob's game, was Maddie revealing the £250k twice in a row, and in contrast to the day before, where Maddie was sobbing with her head on the box after revealing it in Sarah's game, she seemed to just give a Rob a frosty glare after revealing it in his game. Didn't it rub Maddie the wrong way when Rob picked Maddie to open her box and called her "his good friend", or something?

Today marks 2 decades since the game of Cocky Bill, who, just like Rob, played after fairly brief stint on the wings (which felt like much longer, due to him debuting on the second-last show before the summer break). Unlike Rob however, Cocky Bill was a big character who seemed very well-liked by the other players. Apparently there was speculation that CB played after a fairly short run on the wings to avoid "overexposure" or something?

Of course the other memorable thing about Cocky Bill was his game marking the return of Joseph, a big character on the show, who had been in limbo since "Double Deal Week" due to illness, and had sadly deprived us of his company not long after he played

He posted on this forum too, which seemed quite at odds with his age/appearance etc. Looked like somebody who probably treated colour TV as new-fangled, yet had the wherewithal to sign up to what was a precursor to social media.

However if my observation up above continues to hold as it does, I'll rewatch his episode now and discover he was like 46.

There were a lot of shocking revelations about some of the contestants' ages in that era (especially around June 2006). A lot of the female contestants who young forumites fancied the hell out of at the time were close to middle-aged, and there were quite a few young-looking middle-aged contestants at the time who had grandchildren

And now it's 20 years since Maddie's game! An absolutely horrific start, taking out all of the top 4 and 20k in just 7 boxes, but she managed an epic turnaround and ended up with a 10k banker spanking.

Gameplay wise it was an interesting one as basically everyone, regardless of risk appetite, would have won 5k or 10k. A cautious player would have won 5k by dealing at 8 box, a gambler would have won 5k by playing to the end, and everyone in between would have won 10k from 5-box or 2-box!

Lots of 20ths this week with games that were notable at the time.

Emi having a psychosis break on the 18/09/06. Was it the first show where the 50p not having been won became referenced/a focal point? Not gonna revisit it, whole vibe of that show/contestant was just so off. Maybe it's just me.

Khanny on the 20/09/06 who was one of the few contestants (that I have seen) who was just in this for the fun of it. Maybe Corinne (''the penneh?") has him beat on the ''gamble no matter WHAT'' stakes but she did at least have a target, Khanny looked to have appeared on DOND and met Noel just to appear on DOND and meet Noel.

Turned down nearly £50k on a strong but not exactly monstrous board and reacted to the collapse (where only him swapping stopped him getting 50p) like his coffee had been served with a little less milk than he preferred.

Michaela on the 23/09/06. Not a very memorable game tbf because I can't recall what happens in it, but I think she earned 'iconic' status (amongst us freakin nerds) for having the £250k four times in a row on the wings. Props to her not changing her hairstyle from 1985 too. Which would be.... like... someone appearing on the ITV version with a straightened indie bob now. Christ.

Then a few more upcoming, a triptych of Billy, Matt and Hannah. Man alive, these games felt vintage in like June 2007 ffs.

Jeez, it's 20 years since Mr Tax Free started on the wings (then wing-hopped for no apparent reason lol)

Matt's game was a total fever dream. The highest opening offer not counting the 500k shows, and the highest second offer after two all-blue rounds in a row. Even for a board like that it's insanity the banker was offering 35k that early on and frankly I'd have taken it and run!

And even though in isolation his 5k win sounds like an okay result, how strong a start he had and the fact he swapped away 50k honestly made it feel worse than the vast majority of blue wins!

For the stats nerds out there, starting the game with 8 consecutive blues is just shy of a 1 in 2,000 chance, and I think this might be the only time in UK DOND history it happened.

Think it was, aye. Ridiculous game. That £35,000 looks not just dealable, but where dealing it looked the most logical option?? Only four values higher than it on board of 14, and only further extreme good luck would net a significantly higher offer.

Hannah played 20 years ago today. It's quite a strange game in retrospect, Noel and 'Banker' are clearly being a bit ''On The Buses'' over her. Think the backstage team held a candle too, it was picked as a ''classic'' show repeat the following year, despite it being reasonably ordinary considering what was meriting the classic shows their status, and was super randomly referenced in a 2008 game (which may as well have been 20 years later itself).

She only needed £2,000 to clear a uni debt (is that all, bro?) and survived a fairly tense final round and actually declined the £2,000 final offer to win £10,000 from the box. Worth noting that she ended up quickly marrying a fellow contestant on the wings, the first of about 120 intershow couplings.

Still a classic though, to me, cos she bad af. Hahaha.

Hannah's game was a great example of what made DOND so great back in the day. You were torn between 2k being really quite a terrible offer for the finish (£50 vs 10k) and wanting her to take it to cover her overdraft. It made her turning it down and winning all the more intense and sweet for it. It practically felt like a power 5 win!

Today marks almost (but not quite) 20 years since Stuart became the first person EVER to have the £425k nightmare round! It was quite extraordinary, since he was practically invincible during the first half of the game, yet still got generous offers after THAT round and ended up winning £20,000! The other thing about Stuart's game that everyone seems to forget was that it was the game where the LTL competition was officially discontinued.

IMO, Stuart's game felt like the last "early 2007 game" despite said era being long behind us at that point!

The LTL was a f0cking mess in 2007. If I'm remembering correctly, it came under unfair scrutiny because the prize was judged to have been pre-determined because the show had been pre-recorded? Well, why bother broadcasting ANY game show then, under that metric? The player will have already bought, wedded, beheaded and died by the time we watched them winning £8,200.

So what happened, they turned it into a postal competition - extremely clunky/outdated on a higher profile show even for 2007 - with the footage of Noel choosing a spectator to pick a prize box to open spliced very awkwardly from the end of the show into the... end of the first advert break? I'm guessing you could only enter from that point. And quite obviously it acted as an inadvertent spoiler for that episode as the body language, speech, expressions etc by Noel (and the crowd) would tell you how the game was gonna end. Chipper? Our guy's going home with spends? Downbeat and obligatory? They were crashing to a blue.

Anyway 20 years ago today some guy called Steve played. No idea what he did as I haven't seen his episode since broadcast, but he married Hannah. Line cook energy I presume.