Hi Everybody!

My name is Matthew, I'm 24 years old and I'm from Paignton, Devon but originally from Keighley, West Yorkshire. I've also very recently just come out as gay so please be respectful of that as I have absolutely no time for Homophobes.

I've been a fan of game & quiz shows ever since I was 4 when I came across Challenge TV (as it was known back then) on my old Sky Digital box. Some of my personal favourites include Bullseye, Catchphrase, Crystal Maze, Celebrity Squares, Wheel Of Fortune, The Price Is Right, Play Your Cards Right, 15 to 1, Strike It Lucky/Rich, In It To Win It, 50/50, Jungle Run, Who Dares Wins, Takeshi's Castle, Family Fortunes, Blankety Blank, WWTBAM? even some as far back as The Golden Shot!

But then in October 2005 while I was watching C4 and the ads whizzed by, a promo came on for this new game show called Deal Or No Deal hosted by Noel Edmonds and immediately I was fascinated and intrigued by it. I watched the first episode immediately when I got back from school and I got so involved in the drama of what the first contestant (Lynn) was going through as was my mum who was watching with me and I said to myself after it had finished, this is gonna be my new routine now! And it was and by the end of the first season, Deal Or No Deal had officially become my new all time favourite game show.

There have been a lot of great contestants over the years, the 9 £250k winners of course, but a select few I can remember were £20,000 Andy K from November 2005 who I loved even though many (and I have to admit, I was one of them) thought he was being very cocky and arrogant, "Tax Free" £20,000 Harry from October 2006 and £9,501 Farmer Clive from January 2008, who's game I was in complete stitches throughout! But my all time favourites were £20k Tom from May 2008 (who I thought was an extremely fit and hot looking lad!) and Tommii from May/June 2008 who honestly to me looked at least half his age but his banter with Noel show after show I thought was hilarious. Such a shame he didn't break the "21 game streak of no wins above £20,000" prediction the banker made and only went away with £2,000.

I think I first came across this site as far back as March 2009 (probably around the time when your very own h2005 was a contestant) but I was just reading and browsing through it silently as well as reading all the various commentaries of each show! Before I found it however I found another one, called ilovedealornodeal.co.uk (which has since been closed down) which seemed really useful as it gave a lot of statistics about each player as well as results from each show!

Speaking of h2005, I just recently found his full game on Vimeo and I could just tell from the way he played the game, he was having the experience of his life and it was so lovely for the banker to ring after the game had finished to tell David he could keep his own box! So glad he beat the banker too! (although he didn't him as he could've got £10,000)

So there you go, that's my introduction. Kind of pointless really to be a part of this site now since DOND as been off air for nearly 3 1/2 years, but since I was (and still am) a massive fan of this show and since this forum is full of DOND-aholics I thought why not join the family? Have watched the revived U.S version with Howie Mandel and thought can't believe it was off the air for so long! I hope our version gets revived as well sometime! Finally on a serious note, please keep safe as well everyone and stay at home as we continue to fight and get rid of this COVID-19 pandemic.

Matthew

Welcome to the forum!

(Well, welcome again - an issue with the database unfortunately meant posts from the first week of May were deleted. )

Oh *beep*!

Oh H, I never actually saw what you posted originally in response to my introduction and also what you said to my posts in the Tom (May 2008) fan club!

Would you be so nice as to type them out again for me mate?

P.S. Noticed a brief change in your avatar picture a few days ago, when was that?

Oh *beep*!

Oh H, I never actually saw what you posted originally in response to my introduction and also what you said to my posts in the Tom (May 2008) fan club!

Would you be so nice as to type them out again for me mate?

P.S. Noticed a brief change in your avatar picture a few days ago, when was that?

I just said "welcome to the forum" in my original message. I asked if Tom was a Scouser in my post in his fan club - I think I remember him.

I changed my avatar to a more recent one, as the old one was five years old, but it changed back when the database had its wobble. I've changed it back to the new one now.

Oh ok thanks for that mate. To refer to your question about Tom, Yes he was a Scouser and a good looking one at that too! In fact I dunno wether you know this or not, but there’s a YouTube channel called Deal Or No Deal Universe uploading U.S episodes from the very start and UK episodes starting from the beginning of 2008. So pretty soon, we’ll be able to see Tom’s game again! I’m sure you’ll remember him H cos I know I sure do.

Yeah I thought that picture looked a bit more recent, is that you on a cruise ship wearing a dinner jacket?

Yes, I do remember him now.

I've seen that Youtube channel which is interesting - the videos are coming directly from Endemol according to the video descriptions.

You're right that I was on a ship when my avatar photo was taken!

Were you manning the £6,500 barge in it's latest voyage?

I actually won a cruise in a raffle