Does anything about DoND or this forum make you feel old?

Some of the things that make me feel old are:


- The fact that all the young-middle aged contestants from 15-20 years ago are now in their mid 40s - early 60s, and that the elderly characters beloved by the "forumites" are likely no longer with us, sadly.

- The fact that, as a forumite at least, I appear to have suddenly turned into someone who hasn't aged a day past 2014.

The fact(s) that...

• I'm now 38 (and a half), and Glenn Hugill - born Feb 1970 - was only 35 when DoND started!
• Inflation (particularly in the last five years of course) means £250k today is the equivalent of about £138k when DoND started.
• I used VHS tapes to record DoND for the first five years or so until the Freeview switchover happened.
• The long 'stalks' on the money paddles on the on-screen gameboard were (apparently) originally designed like that to cater for people who still had 4:3 TVs.

Double Deal week is TWENTY years ago this week.......

Just the fact the heyday is now 20 years ago. Twenty years. If you roll back 20 from '06, you land in 1986 and it felt like three different generations of difference.

That said it does actually feel like it's been a fair minute, the clue is to look at the audience - you can smell the singe of hair straighteners through the screen. As well as the boozy student culture that they actually engineered. Other points:-

*The fact it was difficult to watch episodes again if you missed them at 16:15 or didn't have Freeview to access More4. YouTube was new, restricted, sh*t quality and Endemol were hounds at getting stuff removed. And streaming/catch-up? Flat out not a thing. It meant several episodes retained some kind of mythical, quasi lost media status and requests for pics from these games meeting dead ends.

*Related but deserves its own point, it also meant Madie (Player 14) was reasonably successful at blocking details of his game being accessible online. It was just about doable in the final embers of the original internet before social media gained teeth. Also the fact his request was adhered to, rather than being pissed on and rolled back to him in a soggy little ball. People were too nice!

*The phone in competition was clunky even for the time, it now looks Bullseye tier.

*As mentioned, all the contestants are now a whole generation older than our memories/YouTube have them locked in as. Players earning uni spends or clearing student debt are now all over 40. The absolute youngest will be preparing for their 40th. She probably still gets ID'ed.

*The drinking culture? It seems to still be touched upon in the ITV version but in 2006 you were considered unusual and aloof if you *weren't* a boosehound and rolling into the recordings half-cut. If that still does occur, I can't see it being as celebrated as it once was.

*VHS recordings still being a common way to archive editions. In fact, there's a fair few 2006 episodes online (or were) that include the adverts and are sourced from a DVD/Sky+ recording and it actually looks strange, like it could be today. No thanks, keep it looking fuzzy and musty.

*The fact the 2016 end of the OG show is equidistant between the heyday and the present day. Or 2012, when I rediscovered the show and this forum, being so relatively close to the prime and actually not *too* removed from it.

*An episode being unbroadcastable in its original guise because the contestant was making Jimmy Savile impersonations, who was alive and beloved (somehow)

*References to Gordon Brown being the chancellor, ''(he can't) touch the tax free winnings".

*Tax Free Harry using a compact digital camera, and it being regarded as quite flashy, to take photos rather than swabbing and flailing at a memory clogged Google Pixel.

*I have work colleagues who are entering university and driving cars who were born years after the show debuted.

*Ohh and a pretty obvious one, people swatting away offers of about £20,000 or wins of under £10,000 being considered modest or actually disappointing half the time.

I just searched the forum to find out who that was and it seems it was Double Deal Week Daz.

The search revealed another contestant who did a Savile impression as well - Stevie from Aug 2007. Who'd have thought there were two games where the playing contestant did a Savile impression?

The search also unearthed now-awkward Savile references in other games. Makes me wonder what a search for Rolf Harris would reveal...

Apropos the topic, the fact you being born in the 1970s still put you in your 20's when the forum was flourishing. And I did see you as a ''wise old man'' of the Forums, at an age that's now a few years younger than I currently am.

Yep 48 now I'm afraid. That said I felt old at 28 on here when almost everyone else was teenagers or early 20s!