Thursday again, my life is flashing before me. Did anyone watch last night's Apprentice where Paul said the one thing that got him angry was street beggars selling the Big Issue? Breath-taking insensitivity.
And so to business. Noel summarised the week so far, a rollercoaster ride for Francesca before she won £20,000, a courageous Gaz left with £100,000, and a joking Pat took home £1000. Today Patrick was called to the front, DOND's resident fortune teller. He needed a glass of water to deal with a sore throat which he'd had for roughly the time he had been on DOND - that'll be the singing in the hotel when they have emptied the bar. Patrick was registered blind, but could see a little around the edges of the retina - he had been blind for 13 years. He had a photograph of a wedding which he thought was his, but his wife, Glen, corrected him from the audience, it was his daughter's. Noel was going to have to relay the contents of the board, and the identity of contestants because they were all beyond Patrick's vision.
[When have you last seen a blind man on a normal TV game show? This show really is special, the format allows nearly anyone to take part and be treated equally.]
Patrick had a system, he was converting the letters of his name into numbers, he would call out the box numbers and Noel would convert them into contestants.
Round one: Box 7, this was Rich - £750. Box 12, Maxine - £50,000. Box 5, Jason - £5000. Box 14, the beautiful Terry - £20,000. He was hitting the reds, but four of the power were still in play. Patrick then did something remarkable, he predicted Sandy had the 1p, she opened box 16 - 1p - amazing. The banker noted that Patrick tended to have low numbers in his box - the offer was £3800. 'No deal', said Patrick, completely comfortable and confident, maybe being almost blind stopped the nerves from kicking in.
Round two: Box 1 - Emma B, wearing red everything (well I don't know about everything) - £15,000. Tan box 18 - £500. The board had eight blues against seven reds and Patrick went for Lofty with box 9. After the break Noel mis-called the number (at least I think it was Noel, but both Noel and Patrick seemed to suggest that it was Patrick) and Simon lifted the seal on box 3 before Patrick tried to correct the mistake. He decided to go ahead with Simon, to see what this said about his luck - £100. The offer now was £10,000 and the audienced oooo'd. Noel asked Glen, she said 'you've got the three largish ones still there'. Patrick opened out the question and the audience also thought he should go on - 'but its not their money', said Noel, to which everyone laughed - 'No Deal'.
Round three: Lofty, box 9, the number Patrick was going for originally - £10 - the audience clapped vigourously. June opened box 11 - £75,000 - the audience ahhhh'd. Susie opened box 2 - £35,000, and the studio had returned to silence. Not a good round, Patrick's face becoming worn as we watched, but he still seemed in control. A large gap had opened between the top two and the next red. The banker offered £6500 against a board of six blues and five reds. Glen said 'I think you go another round' and the audience clapped her proposal. Patrick turned to the front - 'No Deal'.
Round four: Noel built up Dave (smiler), harking back to the golden era when he only ever opened blues; he opened box 6 - £100,000. This had now become a one box game, Patrick went for Morris. His worst poem yet, it was as if he had not prepared a poem, he rhymed 'mate' with 'box 8' and then revealed the £250,000 - game over. Patrick sat with his mouth wide open, the last four boxes had all been from the power five. He then went for Patricia with box 10, but Noel called a break before she opened the lid on £1. The board now contained five blues against three reds, the highest of which was £10,000. The offer now was £800, Patrick smiled ruefully. Glen thought he should carry on, he was a positive person, and he was experiencing some bad luck which should end. Patrick seemed almost to deal, but finally he shook his head - No Deal'.
Round five: Tom opened box 13 - 50p. Box 15 was gorgeous Sarah, and not so deadly today - £50. Box 17 was opened by Mark, the boy - £250. An all blue round, could Patrick salvage something from this game afterall? The board had now switched, two blues against the three reds, the offer was £2000, and the audience groaned. Noel pointed out that there were two amounts greater than the offer. Patrick had placed a photo of his 18 month old grandson Dillan, on his box, he needed a bit more money - 'No deal'.
Round six: all the contestants were now holding hands, hoping that Patrick could find a way through the minefield. Buz, the new guy, opened box 19 - 10p. Patrick's hand shaking as he held it at his mouth. Emma D, box 21 - £3000 - the aduience didn't know how to react, but eventually elected to clap. Patrick's hands had moved to his eyes, Noel said that 20 and 22 were still out there, his wedding anniversary was the 22nd, so he went for Raj's box 22 - £1000. The choice now was between £5 and £10,000, what would he do, did he have Hilary's courage? Noel groaned at the offer - £3000. Noel asked Glen to come down, Patrick said to her 'I don't want a fiver'. Glen held him as if he was unwell, Patrick's head in her arms. Noel asked him the question and inevitably he said - 'Deal'.
Noel asked Patrick if he had a feeling about what was in his box, he said 'Not now'. 'You mean you did have, it kept you going through all the rounds', said Noel. Patrick should have stuck with his feeling, he did have the £10,000 in his box, the £5 was in Gary's box 20.
This was not a great game, it lacked tension but I can't put my finger on why. Patrick started off confidently but as the game continued he seemed to withdraw into his shell. The numbers did not fall well for him, losing four out of the power five in consecutive draws was very unlucky, and I think the effect of that sequence may explain why he dealt at the end of round six rather than continue to the end. Maybe if I was Paul from the Apprentice I might suggest that Patrick lacked courage at the end, but Patrick was playing with less information than a player has normally, he was surrounded by people he couldn't see, and he was having to make decisions based on what he could fathom in his head - he did well enough.
Patrick won £3000.
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2 comments:
Very interesting observation, in noting that Deal Or No Deal is breaking the mould in featuring a blind contestant. Much applause to Endemol.
I think every TV game show should follow suit - though getting Bullseye referee Tony Green to commit to the idea might be a bit of a task.
Did anyone else notice that, aside from the box 3/box 9 confusion (which didn't affect the course of the game at all, both having low numbers), Patrick made a rather more serious deviation from his system?
His first 11 selections (i.e. up to the end of round 3) should have spelt out his wife's name (G-L-E-N), then his (P-A-T-R-I-C-K). In fact, he missed out a letter from his own name. The second box in round 2 should have been box 20 (T); instead, he jumped straight to 18 (R).
This had two quite significant effects on the progress of his game. First, by the end of round 3 he had removed three of the power five - it should only have been two (the £35000 would have still been in play). This would have meant a higher offer, though probably not enough to tempt him to deal.
More crucially, at the end of the game, instead of £5 and £10000, he would have been left with £1000 and £10000. He would not have had to face the sickening prospect of going home with a fiver, and might well have been tempted to "no deal", which as we know would have resulted in his winning the ten grand. Truly tragic.
Incidentally, I have seen blind contestants on other game shows, including most recently Weakest Link. Anne made some gloriously non-PC comments, which I was pleased about; if you have a disability, you should be able to take part in a quiz show and expect equal treatment - which in the case of Weakest Link includes taking the abuse!
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