Thought it would be interesting for everyone to share your observations on the show.

We have now come to expect odd and unusual things such as banker making 1 box offers (sometimes by player request), bankers gamble etc. If you consider season one to be pure, they've diluted it considerably to keep it fresh and I'm not against that if it keeps it on the air.

Player fluff
What I have noticed recently is that there is more of what I call 'player fluff' at the beginning of the show. Today it was at least 16mins past the hour before the first box was opened! As a friend of mine said if you removed all the fluff from the show it would take them a few minutes to open all the boxes.

Timing - Boxes left at 4:50pm
Also does anyone else keep an eye on the clock with respect to number of boxes left? Maybe its because Im sad and have a radio controlled clock in the kitchen I have noticed that if the time is approaching 4:50, we are in live play and there are still 5 boxes in play, then the contestant will deal and we then have a rapid opening of final boxes. The players box is always opened around 4:54pm with credits rolling and Noel doing the voiceover. By the same token if its approaching 4:50 and they've ony 3 boxes left you'd expect them to go all the way but I've not seen a 1p win recently to confirm.

With regards to player fluff, it can get rather tiresome when it involves gimmicks and/or gimmicky ideas however it does make most games individual. Some are very annoying though, there is a fine line.

Timing is something I have been aware of for years and years now. A normal game where the player is still in active play, will see the 5 box offer at around 10 minutes before the end of the show, an overly early deal will see sometimes see even the 8 box offer occur at 5 minutes before the end of the show! On the other extreme, I recall Morris's game (may 2006) reached the 5 box offer 25 minutes before the end of the show!

On this principle it is usually a good assumption to say that games with more active play time are far more enjoyable to watch rather than games where the player deals early, as games with early deals rush through the vast remainder of the game that has been left. Games like Morris's are great because the 5 box round was so long and tense that it probably lasted over 5 minutes!

I observe the timing, and how many boxes are left, unless I've paused it on Sky+ at some point and surprise myself.

Usually, you can tell if a deal is right or not by the timing as well. If someone deals at 5-box at 4.50pm - that usually means that they keep at least one of the big numbers to the end. But if the deal is at 4.52pm, then you know the game will collapse in the proveout round.