Sunday afternoon post-roast activity will be skimming through a bunch of eps circling their 20th anniversary.

Today's exact ''20 years since'' was someone called Ashok. Ye, me neither. But it's indicative of this time in the show's run when the 1p still had a stigma/novelty aura, he specifically wanted the 1p win (once all decent values had already gone) so he could be remembered. Just about doable before the glut of July winners made it look like a 50/50 chance of obtaining as soon as you passed the audition.

Didn't. Was £250, dispensable then but nowadays it would probably not be deemed all that horrible of a trainwreck. Certainly the 2006 'sad piano' wouldn't be utilised.

The first properly disliked contestant played 20 years ago today, Janelle from London. Very interesting and subdued atmosphere to the game, matched by that of the nation with England getting knocked out of the World Cup at the very same time.

20 years ago today, Linda played and took an 8 box offer of £20k, but there was another £10k in it at the 5 box offer!

19 years ago, after finding the £250,000 in the very first box, Usha dealt at £7,500 at 5 box - after receiving the same offer FOUR times in a row! £10 in the box and a Banker Spanking

18 years ago, another £20,000 for Louise, like Linda at 8 box. However, Louise missed out on the DREAM FINISH! And the £250,000 was on the table - Second QM'aire denied.

17 years ago, Deborah found the top 2 in the opening round, and didn't ever recover. Sadly, she slept-walker her way to £10.

16 years ago today, Dave had a cracking start and earned The Banker's respect with some good eary offers, howveer crashed to a final offer deal of just £400.

15 years ago, Victoria found NINE reds in the first 3 rounds, earning her a third offer of just £250. With just £1,000 and £100,000 left on the right hand side, she managed to keep the latter to 5 box with 4 blues, declined £6,500 and had The Banker call at 4 box with a bonus offer! She accepted the £10,000 lifeline, but regretted it in the end, as she had the £100k on the table!

14 years ago, it was an 8 box deal for Patrick at £11,000, but there was more to be had - he missed out on a £20,000 deal at 5 box.

Finally, 13 years ago, after a poor game, Brian took £2,000 at 5 box.

17 years ago was the infamous game of Simon, whose wife fainted on set as he pondered the "banker's gamble"! However, the bizarre incident prompted Simon to take the gamble and win £35,000!

16 years ago, Dennis had an even more controversial game by initially taking £15k at the third offer, and then UNDOING his deal after comments from Dennis during the break were picked up!! Dennis then had an awful round following his un-deal, and cut his losses by dealing at £7,500 What then followed was one of the most bizarre and most ridiculous deus ex machina twists in the history of the show - If Dennis handed back his deal of £7,500, he'd win £15,000 if it was in his box, but if he had the blue in his box........he'd keep his winnings of £7,500 . Dennis accepted the gamble and won £15,000!!

Glut of notable ''20 years since" in and around this date. I still strongly link this week/the start of the initial summer break with Lily Allen's 'Smile'. Shout out to James Morrison too.

Sally on the 14th July winning 1p and being the first woman to do so, it felt downright weird as the only winners were older or cocksure blokes where winning the wooden spoon seemed to befit them. Sally was an upset to the applecart. I've also randomly seen her IRL, a grim area in a decaying city. Out of place like she would have been in that ''phonebox''.

Buddy on the 15th winning £50,000 when that was still a big deal. Doubt he needed the money too much. Oh hang on didn't he deal it? That is odd, throwing money at someone.

Connell on the 17th winning 1p, again like Sally it felt incongruous and I didn't 'see' this happening to him. Surely a Big Bald Guy is too Tough to allow himself the ignominy? As was my child logic - but you kinda get me too?

John on the 19th July had one of the worst boards we'd ever seen by the 3rd offer, but the game gets slightly forgotten about as the remaining red or two was kept until the last round and there was at least one 'decent' offer, putting it above some of the monumental disasters that were to come.

Giorgio on the 22nd July brought the first 'season' to an end and he became the final winner of the 1p! That was it. It was abolished, no more 1p winners from here on in. Five weeks of no new shows also followed and this felt interminable, believe me.

17 years ago, Mark played the last "regular" show of Season 4 before the summer specials, and won £33,000, in a fantastic game that was almost completely forgotten about despite being a large-ish money OPW with great offers during the later stages of the game (especially during an era where basically any win above £20,000 was well-received on here, regardless of the context)! I guess no really remembers Mark's game or talks about it because it was overshadowed by the week of games that followed!

12 years ago, Billy had one of the worst trainwrecks ever, without a single offer worth an iota of consideration, and left with 5p


17 years ago, Dot played the first of the summer specials leading up to the summer break, and had a very strong game at one point, but was lured into playing on by the banker's mind games after he looked in Dot's box after she failed at the 5-box twist and went away with £1

14 years ago was the infamous game of Mark De Souza, who left with NOTHING and the unenviable honour of being DoND's unluckiest player ever!

14*. But it's still a sickener that it is closer to the 1990s than it is to now. I hadn't long got back into the show and couldn't believe how bad a game this was, it prompted me to VHS record it on +1 - yes, VHS in 2012. Given how 'old' 2012 now feels, it doesn't look too jarring watching this all mired in grain and dirt tbh.

Funnily enough a 'highlight reel' of Mark's game came up on YouTube and I ended up watching it this week. As horrible as it was, it's arguably less painful to have a game which collapsed from the beginning and only got worse than one where you got a decent offer, turned it down and then it collapsed.

Had he won £500 at the end it would've been the lowest value banker spanking of all time!

Funnily enough, around 2012/2013 was the peak of my "90s nostalgia phase", which involved me re-discovering my Y2K-era Pokemon obsession by buying pretty much all of the series boxsets around 2013, and getting caught up with the "New music sucks! What happened to REAL music like Ace Of Base?" crowd!


Funny how circa-2012 now looks like an "in-between era" techonology-wise, as VHS cassettes were long gone by that point, but the streaming age wouldn't come knocking for at least another couple of years, so we were firmly in the Blu-Ray era around that time.

Tbf the music of the early 2010s did genuinely age very poorly, with terrible production techniques that basically make it all sound like Toytown music. An awkward time to be a music snob (as I was), as while our pontificating was likely insufferable to listen to, it wasn't completely without cause. However - Ace of Base as an example of overtly superior music? They were no more sat at a computer/keyboard than Tinie Tempah was.

The streaming age was novel, there's actually an advert for Netflix during the breaks on Mark De Souza's game that really emphasises its age.