There was a stronger focus on 'gambling' and 'courage' then, though as you say, it paled in comparison to early 2007. One 2007 contestant, Theresa, turned down 21k on a 75k/100k/not much else 8-box. Actual insanity by 2020s standards but back then it was just considered par for the course!

TBF back then you could easily get more than 20k on a 250k/rubbish 5-box more often than not, so Sarah's decision had at least some justification.

I remember that Gary, he seemed to big himself up as a straight talking ''pulled myself up from my bootstraps'' bloke so his game's collapse was satisfying and probably something that genuinely made a character like that feel ashamed.

Now this might be an odd point to make but usually contestants look younger when watching back as many of this forum were children (as was I) and anyone over 25 was an OAP. Sarah is an inverse of this, she looked like a uni student when I was 12 and now looks nearer to 40.

20 years ago today was Rob, who was clearly an issue at the hotel and was playing almost immediately after joining (three recording days at most?). Frosty atmosphere and even Noel seemed to be struggling, like it was an awkward bus stop conversation with the bus permanently 10 minutes away. The game had a fairly dramatic rise and fall too, that would usually be of some discussion if it'd happened to most other '06 players.

(An aside point, Hannah on the wings in this era still a *total* baddie to my eyes)

It was his 11th show, so that would be 4 recording days right?

His game was a weird one, but he did well not to fall into the trap of chasing his losses and dealing a semi-decent sum after a nightmare round. That said, it ended up being one of the dullest proveouts ever - dealing 3.5k, taking out the one sum higher immediately, then several boxes of 'who even cares?' before finally revealing 3k in his box.

The one striking thing I remember from Rob's game, was Maddie revealing the £250k twice in a row, and in contrast to the day before, where Maddie was sobbing with her head on the box after revealing it in Sarah's game, she seemed to just give a Rob a frosty glare after revealing it in his game. Didn't it rub Maddie the wrong way when Rob picked Maddie to open her box and called her "his good friend", or something?

Today marks 2 decades since the game of Cocky Bill, who, just like Rob, played after fairly brief stint on the wings (which felt like much longer, due to him debuting on the second-last show before the summer break). Unlike Rob however, Cocky Bill was a big character who seemed very well-liked by the other players. Apparently there was speculation that CB played after a fairly short run on the wings to avoid "overexposure" or something?

Of course the other memorable thing about Cocky Bill was his game marking the return of Joseph, a big character on the show, who had been in limbo since "Double Deal Week" due to illness, and had sadly deprived us of his company not long after he played

He posted on this forum too, which seemed quite at odds with his age/appearance etc. Looked like somebody who probably treated colour TV as new-fangled, yet had the wherewithal to sign up to what was a precursor to social media.

However if my observation up above continues to hold as it does, I'll rewatch his episode now and discover he was like 46.

There were a lot of shocking revelations about some of the contestants' ages in that era (especially around June 2006). A lot of the female contestants who young forumites fancied the hell out of at the time were close to middle-aged, and there were quite a few young-looking middle-aged contestants at the time who had grandchildren

And now it's 20 years since Maddie's game! An absolutely horrific start, taking out all of the top 4 and 20k in just 7 boxes, but she managed an epic turnaround and ended up with a 10k banker spanking.

Gameplay wise it was an interesting one as basically everyone, regardless of risk appetite, would have won 5k or 10k. A cautious player would have won 5k by dealing at 8 box, a gambler would have won 5k by playing to the end, and everyone in between would have won 10k from 5-box or 2-box!