Aimee has £15,000 in her box 8.

Box 3 with Fred contains the £35,000

Noel says that's a draw.

And basically, we have a draw to start the week...odd but really 2-box would've more ideal to stop then, but £15,000 guaranteed would make a lot of people push their luck

I guess those first three boxes weren't a false dawn after all then... but that was definitely something of a rollercoaster ride to start this week.

I've just noticed this post on a certain other forum:

"why not leave 18 'til last and guarantee the holiday?"

Would that be allowed to happen I wonder?

Well it wouldn't be guaranteed as there would be 3 boxes left when you choose the last box.

That pre-amble went on a bit too long IMO. I had to double check the Radio Times to make sure the show hadn't been extended to an hour. Ten minutes before Noel even got around to his housekeeping and poor Aimee got a little overshadowed by Corrine and the whole celebration thing.

I quite like the VIP area and the twist with box 18, same principle as the Love Week twist of course, but one that seems to work quite well. Good on Kirsty & Corrinne for playing it tactfully there, don't think anyone has ever done that before, and of course Aimee left the box till the last possible moment to increase the odds.

The Banker's 3 box offer was perfectly pitched, very clever in that there was only one possible combination that would lead to a higher offer if she went on. I don't blame Aimee at all for taking that and it's just a shame that she hit on the 33% chance and took out the blue.

Really like the birthday theme because its different than done before, lets hope for a bigger win in the remaining games, well done Aimee on a great result.

A good game to start the birthday week. Contestants looked lovely although the pacing of the game seemed strange.

Aimee probably took a small risk leaving Noel's box to last as it was less likely to find 2 good boxes from 5-box to 3-box but she got the reward for doing so and a nice touch for the guessers to give her a no-lose situation.

That is true - but I think the poster might have meant "why not leave 18 till the very end"? As in, don't open it at all before the final offer?

I don't think there's been too much mentioned about the set designers and the costume makers; but they've done a great job, definitely the right mood for a celebration. Everything looks fantastic, and Aimee especially so. Well done guys.

The show itself wasn't as good. There was so much going on, that at points Aimee was completely overlooked while Noel had to juggle all the different things expected of him. Corinne's appearance was welcome, though rather than involve her in the show, she was relegated to a pre-game interview and a guessing game on a box's contents. That could of course be the result of editing, though.

The twist was convoluted, when simplicity would have been great - a reminder on why the game was good in the first place. Of course, a £500,000 top prize show would have been even better; instead, a chance of a holiday - but only if you haven't dealt before.

Not much to say on the game itself. A first offer of 50% of the mean is very rare, and the second offer was similar. Of course, taking either offer on a special's show is verboten. Next good offer was £9,000 at 5-box, which was so good I'd have taken it, even without the chance of a holiday. Offers were designed to create a feel-good start to the week - no complaints, just not very exciting.

Aimee did well with what she had, though; and Corinne and Kirsty also surprisingly did the right thing strategy-wise. Wonder whether anyone from the wings who sits there will deviate from the strategy, as that would pique the banker's interest for their game.

Her fellow wingmates (when they were actually shown, that is) were very supportive of her, and £15,000 is a good result considering the game was looking precarious for a while. Well done, Aimee.

It certainly didn't help that Noel didn't do the greatest job explaining this twist at the start of the show.

They've certainly taken a real liking to offering chances of holidays during these special weeks, haven't they? I agree that increasing the top prize to £500k would have been better.

My, loads of the women really do look a million dollars!!!

My thinking is of a 3-box offer, if you're offered around the middle amount, then if you would deal the same offer at 2-box if you then proceed to take out the middle amount (or no-deal a banker's gamble) then you should definitely deal! £15k would have been really generous on £35k/£750 so she definitely did the right thing in my book.

I'm also amazed that Corinne seems to have been the most memorable contestant of the last year, instead of all the bigger winners!!!

Out of interest, hopefully one of the ex-contestants can answer this for me.

Obviously when there's a fancy dress theme - like love week or Banker's Birthday - then the costume department would take full responsibility for dressing the contestants but is the same true on these more 'glitzy' occassions. I'm thinking most people own a suit or ball gown - depending on gender - so are contestants encouraged to bring their own? I imagine there would be spares available but do they actually take responsibility for all the contestants or just those that don't feel they have something suitable of thier own?

i,m sure the guys wouldn,t be that fussy about there suit ? i,m sure ch 4 will have something for everyone unless people have got a posh frock !!!!!!!!!!!

By the look of the outfits that the contestant are wearing this week, black suits with blue or red shirts and ties for the men and blue and red shoulderless dresses for the ladies, it looks like they are ones that were provided for the contestants as they all seem to be similar.

Plus they use the colours from inside the boxes...

Good point actually, i hadn't noticed the colour co-ordination

I did take that as not needed to be said.