I was watching bits of games from March 2007 the other day and I noticed how Noel has definitely changed since then. Noel went through a phase of being rather aggressive and negative - really rubbing it in if a player had dealt too early and encouraging them to play on. I lost count of the number of threads on here discussing Noel's Wakey attitude! But there is a definite contrast between March Noel and May Noel.

In fact there is a contrast in the show overall - the inflated proveout offers and blue chants have gone - the episodes currently being shown were recorded in March - maybe the producers did actually read what we were saying on here and decided to do something about it?

Noel seemed to be rather odd in general and seemed unhappy - especially in Gus' game when everyone was being positive and all Noel could do was say "No, no, no! It's not good enough! It's not good enough!" etc. and his pathetic attitude in Steven's game and in Nigel's game the day after, when he was referring to Steven's game and he was bashing his head on the table and so on.

But luckily Noel seems to be better nowadays... but why? Did he find love in his life at the beginning of March? Did Endemol give him a pay rise? Did he find a new beard?

I hope Noel keeps it up!

I agree with you H his attitude has changed quite a lot over the last month his new girlfriend must be keeping him very happy and perhaps he has realised that its not cool to scream chicken etc at the players lets hope it continues

He went mad in Anne Marie's game over a relatively small banker victory but apart from that he hasn't been too bad. He's still biased to no dealers though. he thought Paul had blown it big time when he won £20,000 but had the £100,000 whereas Savvas had 'played the game seriously' even though he went away with peanuts and could have had a similar amount of money.

Hmm, that is true, but compared to how he was in March, he's a lot better now. But he is still clearly biased towards no dealing, and does seem to show favouritism towards certain players and with these players, he doesn't rub it in too much if they've dealt too early. Maybe he's liked the players more recently, or he realised his guilt trips weren't the best idea... I still wish he'd go back to his old pre-Christmas self.

yeah, i agree he's a lot better but I wish he'd go back to the 2006 Noel and be about neutral. I also would have liked to know much of a fuss he would have made if there had been £35,000 in Derek's box!

However, he was good in Peter's game though so lets hope for more games like that.

Well considering I'm screaming at the TV much less, not having to mute the TV at all when Noel speaks now I would say he is MUCH improved!!

Long may it continue

Actually Lynn's game s probablt the first time in ages he was talking about regrets becuase of no-dealing as opposed to dealing, so it's good that he's becoming more baalnced. I was just watchig Anne-Marie's game on More 4 and it was as if she'd missed out on the quarter-million!

And I'm also liking the way the banker is playing it these last few weeks, with the glaring exception of P.J.'s game - the offers seem far more testing but fair, and the prveouts are genuine as well - if Jo had played a month ago, she'd have had to have taken out everything above the offer in one round to have got an OPW, as it was she took the highest one, even though she would have had two chances to get out with decent money!

Alas H, I think he was almost stepping back into his old ways again today... I think he probably would have savaged Jeff if he had the £250000 in his box... Maybe he got out of bed the wrong side or something? And the 41k and 52k were definitely in 'deliberately trying to rub it in' territory.

ITA Noel was displaying the same behaviour he displayed in Gus's and Paul H's games

He wasn't too bad today but there was definitely a bit of the old attitude returning. I guess he's probably under instruction from the producers to try and knock the "Lynn factor" out of the current group of contestants...

I didn't think he was too bad today to be honest - and he could've been really bad to try and knock out the "Lynn factor" - he was actually quite positive at the end, saying Jeff had beaten the banker and so on, although that's probably because he knew Jeff probably wouldn't take any *beep* if Noel tried to give it to him!

The only bit that really pissed me off was the "No, no, that's not enough...I absolutely guarantee that the next offer would still have been higher". Noel's not the Banker...he should leave it to him to come up with the offers.

I agree, hes basically pleading with the banker to raise the offer, just rub the contestants nose in it. whereas taking the £100,000 at the point probably was enough. the offer would have been £30,000 again at Max.

The offer would have been more similar to Shahid's 32K probably as the board was similar. 90/91% of the mean both times?! We're not that naive!

I saw this earlier and then saw Jeff's game and thought..hmm...have we gone back a bit? Noel was a bit annoying..he should just shut up sometimes..

And i've already said how high those two offers were..

All I can say is that it's a good job I'm not presenting the show.

After a game like today they'd have to move it to after the 9pm watershed.

The Banker has made dozens and dozens of offers in live play of 90% of the mean and higher. It depends on the player. I think the proveout offers were clearly accurate. He wanted rid of Jeff.

I know! In general, I'm more of a no dealer, but even I would have gone on past the 3rd offer today! Also, I couldn't really take to Jeff at all. I was hurling insults at the TV before he'd even reached the chair!