I heard that filming new episodes is going to resume October 13. Can anyone confirm or deny that date?

Where did you hear that from? It's normally the first Monday in October which would be the 6th.

Ed down in Bristol said it would be the "start of October", his words. So that would tie in with the usual trick of first Monday of the month.

I really hope it is 6th October, as I've spent weeks trying to get that day off work! I guess I'll ring them this week to find out anyway, since they said they were going to be back in their offices from mid September.

IIRC the first Monday back is the last of the "normal" christmas shows, so should be fun!

The official website confirms The A-Team are now back to book seats for Deal or No Deal series five.

http://www.dealornodeal.co.uk/backstage/tickets/

Am I right in thinking series 1 was Oct 05 to Jan 06, series 2 Jan 06 to Jun 06, series 3 Oct 06 to Jun 07, series 4 Oct 07 to Jun 08 and series 5 Oct 08 to (presumably) Jun 09? (In terms of recording.)

You're half right. When the show is broadcasted on Channel 4 it is referred by the season (August-July). However, they use the "series" production term when they're recording in Paintworks. The first series was comissioned with 66 episodes. Followed by the second series lasting 230 episodes. However, only 219 was recorded due to Noel being ill in May 2006. During the second series recordings, Channel 4 comissioned the show until December 2007. So from series three onwards the recording block is from Oct to June.

Therefore the series dates are as follows.

Series One
31st October 2005 - 17 January 2006 (66 Episodes)
At comission, Channel 4 decided to run the show for eleven weeks, this was before the schedule changes at Christmas.

Series Two
18th January 2006 - 25th October 2006 (219 Episodes)

Series Three
26th October 2006 - 23rd November 2007 (316 Episodes)

Series Four
24th November 2007 - 21st December 2008 (300+ Episodes)