"If they want me to do major events, they'll pick up the phone. We are talking about two projects."


One may include a Christmas Swap Shop special.


Rumours he'll take over Countdown are laughed at.


He said: "I'm contracted to do 350 Deal or No Deal shows. When would I do Countdown, even if I was asked?


"The nearest we could get to it is if the clock is ticking we could open some boxes."

I think Countdown are lining up Des O Connor from Des & Mel, I think he's going for a screen test next week

Well, his contract ends in December 2007. And he hasn't actually said that he doesn't want to do Countdown... only that he can't do it... at the moment. Perhaps Countdown will take a break and come back with Noel in 2008? We'll see...

THE DEAL IS.. I NEVER WIN
EXCLUSIVE By Showbiz Editor Rick Fulton
TELEVISION'S Mr Moneybags Noel Edmonds has admitted a shocking secret ... he's a hopeless gambler.

The Deal or No Deal host laughed: "It's easier for me to tear I up a ?10 note than it is to put it I on something.

"I never win. I'm hopeless." As well as presenting the first National Lottery draw 12 years ago in 1994, he's currently hosting Channel 4's Deal or No Deal, a tense game of . chance where contestants have to choose boxes that have either 1p to ?250,000 in them.

But when it comes to aflutter himself, telly's comeback winner admits he's a bit of a loser.

The 57-year-old multi-millionaire said: "I limit gambling to taking risks in life.

"I've put money on the Grand National and always lose it.


Advertisement

"The only time I ever won a raffle I was asked to put the prize back in.


"I won the complete set of Beatles records and someone at the table said: 'He's got loads of records. You can put those back in'.


"So I had to say: 'Yeah, of course.' "It would have been a very good for my collection.


"It's really funny. I've done so many interviews about this show and you are the first person to ask me that question."


Noel, who was talking during a break in recording Deal or No Deal in Bristol, was until 1999 the undisputed king of British television. He started on Radio 1 as a DJ in 1969 before moving into television in the Seventies on Top Of The Pops and Multi-Coloured Swap Shop.


Saturday evenings became his with The Late, Late Breakfast Show, despite a dreadful accident when I Michael Lush died during a bungee jump stunt in 1986. Noel resigned and the show was scrapped.


The presenter returned to Saturday night television two years later with Noel's Saturday Roadshow. In 1991, it morphed into Noel's House Party, giving the UK Mr Blobby before it was axed in 1999, signalling what many thought was the end of Noel's television career.


But in October last year he returned with Deal or No Deal. Almost immediately, he was welcomed back into the fold with his first Bafta nomination, for best entertainment performance.


Although he lost out to Jonathan Ross, it was announced this week he's been shortlisted for two National Television Awards. He is up for Most Popular Entertainment Presenter for Deal or No Deal, and the show is in the running for the Most Popular Daytime Programme.


Noel grinned: "I'm just so grateful Deal or No Deal has been such a phenomenal hit. We always thought it would be successful because it's been sold around the world, but I couldn't have envisioned how it would dramatically change my life.


"I'm so lucky. I've had an almost charmed career and I've had a fantastic relationship with the British public."


The bearded star bristles slightly at a suggestion he's had a second chance.


"I don't see it as a second chance," he said. "I see it as a fresh era.


"It doesn't matter what you do in life.


"We all go through cycles of success and failure and we have different eras in our lives.


"I get up every morning and come to a TV studio and give people money. I like doing it.


"I feel more comfortable with the Noel Edmonds you see on Deal or No Deal than almost anything else I've done.


"I love working with real people and on Deal I'm not an entertainment performer.


"I'm there as the host of the show in support of the real star who is the player.


"And I never lose sight of that."


The Queen is supposedly a fan, although Noel laughs this off.


And when I suggest he might be Sir Noel one day, he said: "Because of what? Services to boxes?"


But he clearly takes Deal or No Deal seriously - or at least his interaction with the audience.


Some scientists have claimed you only need to watch Deal or No Deal three times to become addicted, and much of that is down to Noel's style - he clearly wants his contestants to do well.


He admits he's just had a disastrous game where a lady has won just ?1.


"She's in tears and we are very subdued," he said.


"I feel for these people."


And these people seem to have become obsessed with Noel all over again. There are now websites which discuss what he is wearing or the length of his hair.


And, of course, the strange symbols he began putting on his hand caused all kinds of conspiracy theories, especially as his return to television screens came with his faith in cosmic ordering, which claims to grant your heart's desire.


He said: "The symbols were a joke. It was a Dan Brown moment.


"I'd read The Da Vinci: Code and thought why don't I put some signs on my hands to see if people notice.


"It's extraordinary how much attention this show has generated."


But all the attention has a downside. Noel's private life is once again under the spotlight.


The former playboy of Radio 1 and Top Of The Pops is dating again after splitting with his wife Helen in 2003 after 18 years.


They have four daughters - Charlotte, 23, Lorna, 19, Olivia, 15, and Alice, eight, and Noel, more than anything else, wants to make sure he doesn't embarrass them.


"Helen and I always said we would be supportive to the girls," he said. "That was our main focus.


"I can't claim we are the best of friends but we certainly have no problem with our new relationship which is focused on making sure the girls have the very best life possible.


"It was a sad end to an era in my life, but the import ant thing is that my key relationship with my daughters is very much intact.


"I see the girls a lot. In a funny sort of way, I probably spend more time with them now than ever before. It's not an estrangement where there's a big division through the Edmonds family.


"I spent a lot of time with Charlotte because she's involved in the broadcast industry.


"Lorna is in France running the house we've got there.


"The other two are at school and I see them every weekend. They come to the show frequently."


NOEL admits he sat the girls down and asked them whether he should go back on television, knowing his private life would be out there.


They agreed he should go for it, but there have been a couple of stories already that have given Noel a red face.


After he split with estate agent Marjan Simmons, she did a "kiss and tell" on him.


And then he claimed in a magazine that 20 years ago he'd driven at 186mph naked.


Noel said: "I did get a rap over the knuckles from Charlotte for the speeding story. Not that I drove at 186 mph but that I was naked.


"She said: 'Dad that was just too much information'."


And what about the latest lady he's been linked with - former Miss England Pauline Bull?


Noel said: "I'm very fortunate that I know a number of very nice ladies and I continue to maintain that I am only dating."


Clearly Noel isn't using his cosmic ordering to find himself a wife and is quite happy with the way things are going.


Well, he would. As well as the television show, he's got a book about the programme out later this month and a DVD game out next month.


And if that wasn't enough, earlier this month he had a best-selling book, Positively Happy, his take on Barbel Mohr's The Cosmic Ordering Service, and also made a soothing sounds CD called Positively Tranquil.


But he said: "I'm not a guru.


"I'm not setting myself up to be an expert in the field.


"Nothing I say in the book is quasi-religious and I'm not suggesting this is a faith where disciples should follow the creed.


"I'm merely pointing out that if you adopt a positive mental position you will make yourself more attractive to opportunities.


"But I don't have any beads, sandals or lentil soup."


Now he's back with Deal, he isn't making dream wishes for Saturday night television again, although last month he did return to BBC1 after six years to front a two-part, 90-minute The National Lottery - Everyone's A Winner.


"It was a one-off," he said.


"If they want me to do major events, they'll pick up the phone. We are talking about two projects."

One may include a Christmas Swap Shop special.


Rumours he'll take over Countdown are laughed at.


He said: "I'm contracted to do 350 Deal or No Deal shows. When would I do Countdown, even if I was asked?


"The nearest we could get to it is if the clock is ticking we could open some boxes."


Deal or No Deal is on Channel 4. The Deal or No Deal book is out October 26 with the interactive DVD game out on November 13. Noel's CD, Positively Tranquil, is out now