Jim won £500

First, ITS NOT LUCY!!

Jim (Robertson) was picked, and personalised the game straight away, he was doing it for his grandchildren, and he had a motto - 'Glory is the reward of valour'.

Round one: 10p, he leapt of his chair and yelled for joy, £50,000, he admonished Dave and said he was angry, 1p, he leapt of his chair again, £75,000, his face melted into his right hand, and finally £5. This was clearly going to be a real rollercoaster - at least for Jim - the antithesis of a dour scot, he was one of the most animated players we have seen. The banker was perplexed by Jim's behaviour, but clearly considered him to be little threat, he offered Jim £1900. Now coming from the same area of the world as Jim (he is a bit south of me), I am pretty certain that Jim was putting on a fantastic act, this was not the real Jim.

Round two: £15,000, ('do you understand the rules of the game' said Noel in jest) £750, and on returning from the break he pulled up 50p. The board showed 6 blues against 8 reds including £250k and £100k. Never mind the banker, Noel seemed unable to cope with Jim, he seemed to struggle to join in the act. The banker offered £6000, and it was really down to Jim to get the crowd going again, 'No deal' shouted out from the contestants and the audience, and Jim agreed. Jim was milking the crowd, and they were responding by shouting 'Jim, Jim, Jim'.

Round three: £5000, (I am sure Jim just said 'Oh for F*** sake', surely not), £100 came up and Jim leapt of the chair, conducted the crowd, and they cheered for him, Noel standing back stroking his chin. £10 was the final box and the audience went wild again. The banker phoned immediately, Jim acting up like the 'daft laddie' pretending to be frightened - this was a pantomime and even the banker played along. The offer was £18,000, and the crowd were pushing for him to keep going although his close friend Dave said he should take the money. Jim had created a wave of support, and now he was surfing on it - he said 'No Deal', or rather he shouted it from the rooftops. He had moulded the audience until they had become the crowd from 'Rollerball'.

Round four: £100,000, the bubble burst, the crowd went quiet and Jim was sitting, alone behind the desk. The next box was worse - £250,000. Jim joked that it was the crowd's fault but there was little laughter, this was a defence mechanism, he was hurt, he was damaged, could he recover? He looked for his next box, he was going for our Lucy, everybody loves Lucy, but we would have to wait until after the break to find out what she held in store. 'Brave face, rather than brave heart - 'nil desperandum' - a heap of meaningless platitudes. Lucy lift the lid on £1000. The banker offered £2800 - 'thats not fair is it boys?', Jim continued with this strange personality that he had adopted for the show, but it was waning - Aaron rekoned there was £8000 per box so the deal was low - Jim said 'No Deal'

Round five: Barbara opened £20,000, 'Barbara, Barbara, Barbara' murmured Jim, rueing his luck, then £250 and he cheered again but his energy was low, and finally £10,000, Jim was beginning to sound like Fraser from Dad's army, and he looked like him too. The banker offered him £1700, this was becoming a nightmare for Jim, he had lost £16,300 against his best offer, there was only one way to go - and the banker knew it, this had trap written all over it. Jim rejected the offer, he was now facing a board of 3 blues and 2 reds, lowest £1, highest £35,000.

Round six: £35,000 the first box, this was quickly becoming a disaster, it was like watching Muhammed Ali's last fight, knowing that he just shouldn't be there. The next box opened showed £1, but there was still one box to go, the bar had fallen to £3000, and when the box was opened to show £50, Jim acted as if it was the top prize, a smell of desperation was in the air. The banker offered £1100, again Jim had no option, he was still chasing a now impossible amount of money - he said 'No deal'. I could hear someone shouting 'bloody nutter', not from the audience but from the house nextdoor to mine!

Jim now faced a choice between £500 and £3000, the banker offered him a swap and he took it. The audience seemed to think that was a mistake, but what did they know, they had been pushing him along. Noel saw this, he got a member of the audience to do the swap for him, but that didn't help - it was of course the £500. Jim returned to the safety of the crowd, trying to jeer them back up, but this had been a horrible experience...for all of us. Noel looked a little sick.

Where was the glory Jim?