Which partners of contestants stick out in your memory?

Jean's Derek was the most bizarre partner ever, wasn't he? There was something a touch tragic about him turning up to show after show.

But most strange was the absolutely empty, cliche-ridden advice he kept giving and the solemn way he delivered it as if he was the brain of Britain. Admittedly, it is hard to not resort to the odd cliche when giving advice to contestants but he only game meaningless cliches and then delivered them with the tone of a man who thought himself a genius.

And the way yesterday he kept going on about "that box 17, I've got a feeling about it" and as the game got worse and worse, he kept "having a feeling about it". By the time they got to the final two boxes (£500 and £10,000) he solemly stated that he "had a feeling" it would either have £500 or £10,000 in it. Yeah, no flies on you mate.

He also said at one point "With the backing of this audience, you'll have another all-blue round". (It doesn't - and didn't - work like that, dear.) Also, when you look at the advice he gave Jean, he lost them a lot of money by constantly spurring her on because he "had a feeling" about box 17. There was no sign of any remorse on his part at the end. Probably just waiting to say "What goes around comes around" in that pompous voice of his.

I'd quite like to give him a job as a radio phone-in show host. The show could be an advice show where people ring in and ask him what he thinks and he comes up with inarticulate cliches delivered in a voice that suggests he thinks himself a brainbox who has discovered the cure for cancer.

Who are your memorable partners?

£25,000 Trevor's wife. She was annoyed with him for dealing at £25,000! I wouldn't mind if someone I went with did that.

haha! neither would I!

i liked Jeans partner, i thought he looked a bit like Lance

Yeah he did look like Lance! Only Lance had class and charm so there the similarity ended.

Well there's a few obvious...

Donna and her fiancee
Lynsey and her boyfriend turned fiancee
Elizabeth and MANDY!

Also...

Ned's girlfriend
Monica did a doubler with her husband didn't she?

A few others stick in mind for some reason...

Conor's girlfriend
Simon's boyfriend
Dave E's...friend? "That's OK"

Dave E had his brother, Jez, with him.

I remember for a while after Donna's game, Noel was going on about how partners / friends of people who are in the audience shouldn't have an infulence on the game... then in games after Donna's game, Noel was asking partners down to sit with the contestant...

I often think partners / friends get too involved with the contestant's game, and it should ultimately be down to the contestant what their decision is as to whether to deal or not at a certain stage in the game - the worst example I can think of off the top of my head is, dare I say it - Donna's boyfriend - whereby they even seemed to almost have a row on set when they were blaming each other for the fact that she'd dealt...

There was much discussion about Donna and her boyfriend on the forum at the time.

I agree 100%. If the partner/friend wanted to play the game, they should have applied themselves. I think asking the partner for advice is fine, but the partner shouldn't be annoyed with the player if they make the wrong decision and it goes wrong. I wonder if Jean would have gone all the way to the end if her husband wasn't there.

If I was a contestant, I don't think I'd want to have a supporter in the audience, in case they were to influence me to make a decision I wasn't happy with. I wouldn't want to be a contestant's supporter either in case I said the wrong thing.

I agree, too. In Derek's case, he didn't just want to dominate Jean's game but - as he kept turning up day after day to sit in the audience - tried to do so with other people's games.

Playing devils advocate here.

Do you never ask for any advice in life? I am sure there are or will be situations where you ask other people's advice, especially if that person has played a large part in your life. In a situation like Jean and Dereks, where they have spent a lot of their life together, they will have probably made numerous decisions together, and some a lot more serious and life changing than whether to open another box or not. So in a gameshow where the whole format is based around decision making, yes they will turn to each other for advice as it's a natural extension of their daily life.

It's probably best that you don't go along to an actual recording of the show chapmanbaxter, as I imagine that we only see a very small part of any advice and discussion made over a decision. Remember that the show is edited down from up to a 2-3hrs recording sometimes, and I imagine most of that is made up of getting advice from various people in the studio, either contestants, friends, partners or the audience. If the contestant playing has a friend or partner in tha audience on their show, it's fair to expect that the producers will focus on them in the final edit more than any other people who give advice.

Your domination statement by Derek is intriguing as well, yes, he did have more airtime with his advice than other people on the show, but I have mentioned the reasons why this would be the case above. But at no time in the show did he give advice or opinion unless he was asked for it by either Noel or Jean, so I would hardly class him as dominating the game. Now if he had been continuously calling out things during the game that would be different, but as far as I could see he only gave advice when asked for it.

This also extends to the comment about other people's games that you feel he tried to dominate As from what I can remember (not always the best memory ) he was seen giving his opinion in only one other show, and again only when asked for it by Noel, unless you know otherwise?

I'm not at all sure how most of your points apply to my message.

I didn't say I had a problem with people asking partners for advice. I just Derek was a tit who thought himself some sort of genius but who actually only gave meaningless, boring advice.