A Very Bad Deal

One of the more unfortunate aspects of being at home looking after Audrey is that we’ve both become addicted to an atrocious day-time game show called Deal or No Deal.

The show is hosted by a guy called Noel Edmonds who appears every day in his trademark bad-taste shirt/jumper combos. Edmonds was a mainstay presenter with the BBC in the 80’s and 90’s starting as a DJ and then moving on to host a series of game/quiz shows. Amongst other things he was the eponymous host of both Noel Edmonds Breakfast Show and House Party. During this time he also created the puerile ‘Mr Blobby’ character which subsequently (and rather depressingly) went on to have a No.1 hit in the UK. Edmonds 'first' career come to an abrupt halt when one of the contestants on his show died in a televised stunt and he was deemed (in my eyes, if not the courts), to blame for the death.

Now though he’s back. Deal or No Deal gives contestants the opportunity to win anything between 1p and 250k. It’s actually a really painful 30 minutes of television. Edmonds tries to build up the tension by speaking periodically on the phone to ‘The Banker’ who is cast as the villain. Actually anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that it’s really just a production assistant back-stage.

The show really drags. There’s less skill involved than flicking a coin and the programme culminates when the contestant opens his/her box at the end to reveal whether the cash prize they’ve won (or lost) is more or less than the amount in their own box. I decided after watching one episode that you could save a lot of time and bother by just jumping to the end and opening the player’s box in return for a cash offer but that wouldn’t really give Edmonds his stage. Edmonds contract for hosting the show is rumoured to be around 3 million pounds.

So why then, if Deal or No Deal is the most low brow and brainless programme you could imagine, are we always there at 5.30pm watching?? I think I'm ready to answer the question....