As the Wakey Winter returns in the UK, what will we see in the Netherlands, where the stakes are higher than anywhere else?

Well, we'll see some annoying lighting I'm sure I've not seen before. And we'll skip through the quiz bit rapidly.

ROUND 1 (with a question to which the answer is 'wine gums): red win 446-436 (and start chanting like mad, or at least some of them do!) and all get an espresso machine. From a company widely boycotted by many people around the world (including myself) for their actions in the world's poorest countries. You know, where the charities this show supports are operating. I didn't think this show could make me as angry as the UK one!!

Anyway. 7B/14 (Marees) is offered an iMac and rejects it for a spot in the final six.

ROUND 2 (with the funniest video question of all time, in which someone epic-fails at boxing, followed by a question asking for the origin of a Greek word. No, really): Block 3 by some distance, 11 clear of the rest on 55. 2B/1 (Jeroen) is offered the iMac and a weekend for two in London with €1,000 spending money, and rejects it for a spot in the final six.

ROUND 3... oh we have to interrupt. A video question, with footage from a poor country, that relates to espresso. How ironic can you get?


Does this compensate for earlier?

3B are your winning block by just one point (34-33, after leading by four earlier), and they'll be case-openers for the final, with three of them in the final six... from 3A, seat 3. "Hey, Geordie Becks!", is what I heard.


Goal!

His name is actually spelled Jordy, and he's offered a winter sport holiday somewhere or other along with the iMac and London trip, and rejects them for a spot in the final six. Which means someone else gets them... 9A/18, Tino!

Three from 3B are in the final six with the three plucked from elsewhere; we wind up with a final two of Jeroen and Dennis. I want Dennis to win because he has the best hairstyle.


Or, you may decide, the worst.

Jeroen, who has hardly any hair, has a wife from Germany unless I misunderstood. We're due something really big on the countdown; not the fastest of increases but not the slowest either... STOP at €50,500 for Jeroen! I'd have pushed it just a little bit more... Jeroen said (I think) he wanted to stop as soon as it got to €50,000, and that's probably not a bad strategy. Clock was going to stop at €62,000, so my 'little bit more' comment was bang on. Historically, we'd have a random remote moment here to pick another case-opener to replace the bailout player, but Jeroen wasn't going to be a case-opener anyway so we don't.

Instead we get a break, then a model walk.


Such a sexist bit of the show doesn't really deserve a proper screenshot.

DENNIS is playing with CASE 19. Met his partner Daniella on a blind date.


Could have done an awful lot worse, looks-wise.

There's some audience-Linda-Dennis banter that goes over my head before the game starts.

ROUND 1 (6 to open)
7 (guess €25,000) - €400,000. "Sorry Dennis!" cries the case-opener.
13 (guess €200,000) - Linda goofs and says she'd win "25,000 cases"! - €10,000. "That's better Dennis", Linda says.
1 (guess €50,000) - €50,000! CORRECT GUESS FOR €24,000!


She briefly tried to guess a non-existent €15,000 value!

23 (guess €750,000) - €1,000,000!
8 (guess €0.01) - €5,000. It's on the left at last.
10 (guess €25,000) - €2,500. Almost...

An entertaining opening round, board-wise it's pretty average.

OFFER €25,000

A very quick NO DEAL.

ROUND 2 (5 to open)
18 (guess €500) - €500! CORRECT GUESS FOR €20,000! Top celebration too, she goes absolutely nuts!


Imagine her actually playing the game...

4 (guess €1,000) - €750,000! Linda overreacts fantastically to that one.
3 (guess €10) - €20. Still good for Dennis!
25 (guess €1) - €10. Second time the contestant's guessed a zero out tonight, and again good for the player.
15 (guess €25,000) - €2,500,000!

Very dangerous board now, the top two backups for the jackpot are €300,000 and €500,000. This could be an(other) early deal with the offers as they are here.

OFFER €50,500

The audience laugh. Not often the offers here have personality. Instant NO DEAL again, as it should be.

ROUND 3 (4 to open)
11 (guess €300,000) - €1. Dennis smirks a bit there.
Did he just say he dreamed of a €0.01/€5,000,000 finish?!?
6 (missed guess amongst some comedy) - €50. Which wasn't a correct guess.
"So far, so good" says Linda, in one of her occasional slips into English.
26 (with a guy with bandaged fingers - insists he can still open the case and guesses €5) - €500,000!
A break here?
2 (guess €25,000) - no break - €75,000.

Dennis guesses he'll get an €85,000 offer on this board:



OFFER €148,000

Now that gets the crowd going. The question here for me is simple; what's the eight-box offer going to be if the jackpot stays? "Difficult?" asks Linda, who points out there's three in the next round. Audience start stirring with mixed, loudly-expressed opinions. We call a break now...

...I've decided I'm playing on but only with the aim of chasing the eight-case offer... he pauses over it... stares over the button... NO DEAL! Linda does her trademark Covered Mouth Of Surprise pose.

ROUND 4 (3 to open)
9 (guess €1,000) - €25,000. It's not the big one. Linda points out the 80% chance it'll be there at the next offer.
22 (guess €5) - €100,000. Again, it's not the big one.
Daniella's picking the next one? Lots of banter implying that... but Dennis calls 12, and Daniella says that 12 June is an important date for them...
12 (guess €1,000) - €1,000! CORRECT GUESS FOR €9,000 and Linda bursts into a squee!

I think we've got a Deal coming. Or perhaps I should say we should have one. Linda points out there's a 12.5% chance of the €5,000,000 being in case 19...

OFFER €277,000

That's me out of there, struggling to see the merit in going for more. He's a financial manager? Linda briefly tempts him, it seems, into chasing the €5,000,000 before saying that he will have "never seen €277,000 before". At least, that's how I understood that exchange, excitable yet neutral if I understood it. Daniella says Deal. She says something else which the crowd approve of. Linda points out there's a 25% chance of taking out the jackpot this round... DEAL! As soon as the lid was flipped, the button was pushed. Big win from good play - how can you not love it?

PROVEOUT (and remember, no hypo offers here)
16 (guess €5) - €0.50...
21 (guess €5,000,000) - €300,000. This offer would be €DEAL, Linda reckons it'd be between €400k and €500k.
17 (guess €0.20) - €0.01! Linda looks down and looks frustrated. This might be €700k now.
24 (guess €0.20) - €0.20! CORRECT GUESS FOR €5,000 and the offer might be knocking on the door of a million now, Linda reckons only €800k. The audience are laughing as Linda says random excitable things, so it's obviously not a guilt trip.
5 (guess €5) - €5! CORRECT GUESS FOR €4,000 and an excitable old-lady air-punch! "Yes!" Linda reminds him he's won €277,000, and doesn't point out this would be in seven figures...
11 (guess €200,000 - Linda points out how similar it would be to Dennis's dream) - €200,000!! CORRECT GUESS FOR €3,000!! Linda cannot believe it...
14 gets to guess and reveal first. He guesses €5,000,000 in his case...

...we can't see what's inside at one point!!


As if there wasn't enough drama at this point.

€5,000,000!! CORRECT GUESS FOR €2,000 and a big profit on his €100 case for Dennis!

Great entertainment even after losing a lot from dealing too soon. And four correct guesses in a row to end it - the overall correct-guess winnings totalling a huge €67,000, the highest I can remember in a long time!