Decided to revive this blog since it's nearly a year since my father's death.
On this day last year, 20th April 2012 we visited the Endemol West studios at Paintworks, Bristol to see another recording of Deal or No Deal. My father was into game and quiz shows. He was one who said he graduated from The University of Life. His general knowledge background was so massive, I didn't know how he knows so many things. He first watched Deal or No Deal on Tuesday 1st November 2005. He didn't watch the first ever episode as he was with me in the local hairdressers on the Monday afternoon. When I arrived home on Tuesday afternoon his first words about the show was "this is thrilling". He was addicted to the show ever since and watched it for many weeks and months. I remember back then he really wanted to see someone win the 1p and he watched Nick Bain win it in 2006. He also witnessed the first three quarter millionaire winners as well as Corinne's massive crash from £88,000 to end up winning a penny. He did also joke that the show could run itself without Noel Edmonds being there and I think they actually did that once. Albet for a few minutes
Since it's debut in October 2005, as a family we have visited the studios a total of eight times to witness ten recordings. Two visits were to see two shows being recorded, whilst the other six were to see one show being recorded. The first recording in November 2005 featured contestant Rob who accidently knocked over his mug twice and broke the bottom of the Crazy Chair. That was a memorable recording but the tenth and final visit to Paintworks was even more special. A fantastic but emotionally draining show to wrap up our visits down there. I will confess that had he been alive today we probably would've gone down there this month but due to his passing away last June. We decided to call it a day.
It was announced in March 2012 Channel 4 commissioned a series of celebrity specials to air in the spring. Unlike the conventional celebrity special, there are no consolation prizes. Therefore if the celebrity wins a penny they would leave the studios with a cheque to their nominated charity for one pence. However they allowed the celebrity to promote their charity on the show and on the official Deal or No Deal website. I telephoned the audience team in March to book ourselves for a Halloween special recording. I was informed by Hannah on the Audience Team they weren't recording them until September and I would be booking ourselves in for a regular show. I decided to book us in for a morning recording session on Monday 16th April. However, due to my dad's part time work commitments at Superdrug. We agreed to phone Hannah back and rebook the trip for the same morning session but for for Friday 20th April. A day where he wasn't working. During this week I was on annual leave from work. I was following The Banker's tweets that the likes of Louis Walsh, Jimmy Carr and McFly were recording their celebrity specials. Somewhere on the internet (probably on twitter) there was talk of stand up comedian Sarah Millican taking part on the show. I received a telephone call from Hannah on Wednesday 18th April to confirm final arrangements for Friday's recording. To my surprise, she informs me we would be attending a celebrity special. When questioned to Hannah who the celebrity is. She confirmed the rumours it would indeed to be Sarah Millican as the contestant. My jaw had dropped. My dad does have a sense of humour. When I revealed it would be Sarah Millican, he was thrilled to hear the news. He was an admirer of her stand up comedy when she regularly appeared on Live at the Apollo.
After the final preparations were in place I decided to reply to a tweet regarding the twists used on the show where The Banker replied to the conversation. I decided to reveal we were going to see the celebrity special on Friday. To my surprise he replied "Wow. Lucky you. Those tickets are pure gold
dust. Almost as if someone recognised your name....".
Given the recording was a morning session on Friday, we left Worcester when the sun was rising high in the sky. Usually when we head to towns and cities unfamiliar to us I would act as navigator as he wasn't a fan of using satellite navigation technology. He once said "why do we need sat navs when we live on an island". I would simply plan the route before hand and tell him where to go. As we've been down to Bristol before there was less planning as we both knew the route to get there. It was breezy day when we reached the studios but then again it's always windy down at Bristol given it's a by the Severn estuary and the sea. We managed to park up at the studios without any problems (although he hated the speed humps there) and queued up to confirm our attendance and entered the audience holding area. After the encouraging talk by the Deal or No Deal crew to get the audinece livened up we headed down to the studio entrance. The three of us were at the front of the queue. We saw Sarah arrive outside the studio after some initial filming for the final edit. To my surprise she was quite tall. I would say she was round my height, give or take a couple of inches. We were let into the studio at 11.30am and sat on the bottom two rows the right hand side audience stand. I am talking from the TV's view here. So you have got the Pound Table in the middle therefore we're sat to the right hand side as you're watching the show. Me and my mother was sat the front with by dad sat behind. Behind him was a women mostly wearing purple (more on her shortly). As with these celebrity specials, the celebrity taking part has their friends and family taking part as the box openers. They also have a representative from the celebrity's nominated charity. The warm up guy, Mark Olver reveals it would be his first on-screen appearance as a box opener. He speaks to the friends and family on the wings to one particular person who claimed "appearing on Deal or No Deal is the pinnacle of my shitting career". I didn't recognise him at first but when he did his Peter Dickson impersonation I worked out it was Brummie comedian Joe Lycett. Mark asked if anybody remembered Joe appearing on the BBC show Epic Win. To Joe's amazement I said we both remembered it from watching it summer 2011. Although it was a bit cheesy. Given the format, it was fun show to watch on an early Saturday night. Shame nobody watched and therefore got the BBC ratings axe. There was a technical delay but Mark seemed to fill the time well with speaking to audience. I mentioned I spoke to The Banker earlier in week on twitter, making me a certified twanker. This caught the attention of a couple of young ladies in the audience. I know the show features many audience members who have seen the show live more than once but this time the virgins to the studio dominate the numbers in attendance.
After Mark went through the technical things with the recording to the audience and Little Noely entering the studio, the cameras were rolling. Sarah's nominated charity was Macmillian Cancer Support. Skipping through the game, Sarah reached five box. She had left 1p/50p£250/£5,000/£100,000. The Banker telephoned to offer her £9,000. However, if she says No Deal and opens two boxes and avoids the £100,000 the three box offer would be £20,000. She speaks to the wings and the audience advising what to do. One audience member confessed she has terminal cancer. This lady was the one wearing purple who was sat behind my dad. Noel and Sarah immediately spoke to Debbie about her condition and the camera was focused on her. Sarah decided to reject £9,000 and open two more boxes. She chose the right boxes to open as she removed £5,000 and the infamous penny. As promised, the next offer was £20,000. She decided to accept it and say Deal. Unfortunately she had £100,000 as her chosen box but had no regrets in the end. We left the studio at 2.10pm. Although we were in there for over 2 & 1/2 hours, it was worth every minute. Before leaving the studio, the two young ladies who caught my attention whilst talking to Mark about twitter asked when the celebrity special would be aired. Thanks to Digiguide, it told me earlier in the week it would be shown the following Sunday. 29th April. I would've loved to speak to them more about the show and other things but had to rush, If you are reading this then you can chat to me on twitter at @travisapenery
The whole experience with this recording was totally amazing. As mentioned, an emotionally draining episode, especially with Debbie's revelation towards the end of the show. My dad loved every minute of watching it live. The only problem was it went on for so long he needed to eat something to help his diabetes. Once we left the studio, we rushed to McDonalds on the nearby retail park so he could tuck into a burger.
As stated, the celebrity special did air on Sunday 29th April at 8pm. My parents didn't watch it live because they were watching Vera at the same time on ITV1. It wasn't until they watched the recording on Monday afternoon they noticed his full face was shown on camera whilst Noel and Sarah was speaking to Debbie. To quote my mum "his full moon face is on camera!". From what he told me that week, he was mobbed by Superdrug staff on Tuesday about his stardom about appearing on the show as an audience member. Even some of the customers he visited on his rounds talked about him being on camera. As he passed away five weeks later after the show had aired. This was one of the final imagines of him being alive before his death.
For some reason Channel 4 decided to repeat the celebrity special on 7th July. One month after his sudden death. I informed all of my friends and family to watch it if they didn't watch it the first time. I know there are different reasons why this special was repeated but it was nice to see him a living person again for a few minutes..
In December 2012, Denise Stringer, one of the Deal or No Deal crew also died suddenly and is much missed by the team at Bristol. I tweeted The Banker from a fan and audience member to a loved crew member will be sorely missed. He kindly replied "sending my love to you". You are a fantastic person Mr. Banker.
