Note how dori has not boxes under £25,000 similar to Jean/ Grin Reaper in 2007 who had no boxes lower than £75,000 with three £100k, one £75k and a £250k in her first five boxes

Watched this one 'live' and was rather impressed! Live at the time of transmission, that is. I loved the way Alex the newbie immediately let the entire world know that the episode was filmed about 4 months ago, during the football pre-season...

Really warmed to Rickie, he seemed like a lovely guy with a great heart, and I was so happy to see him win some genuinely life-changing money! I can't say I'm overly keen on the superstitious stuff coming back, or the belief in Mally's law remaining as strong as ever, but hey, you've got to string it out a bit I suppose and try to have some continuity from one show to the next. It wouldn't be particularly exciting if every day Stephen said, 'well, you had the £25,000 yesterday but let's be honest, it's totally random so who cares, where are you going next?'

I'm not sure about the atmosphere between player and banker, though; in that it doesn't really feel as if there is any. Maybe it's because we live in a different time now, but 'way back when' there was a sense of formality to the way things proceeded, it was much more...how do I even...smart-casual, perhaps, with an emphasis on smart. I preferred that very much, to be honest!

Anyway, back to today - I was so surprised Rickie didn't go at £14,888, but what courage to go on. Nerves of steel, that lad.