Decided to revive this blog since it's nearly a year since my father's death.
On this day last year, 20th April 2012 we visited the Endemol West studios at Paintworks, Bristol to see another recording of Deal or No Deal. My father was into game and quiz shows. He was one who said he graduated from The University of Life. His general knowledge background was so massive, I didn't know how he knows so many things. He first watched Deal or No Deal on Tuesday 1st November 2005. He didn't watch the first ever episode as he was with me in the local hairdressers on the Monday afternoon. When I arrived home on Tuesday afternoon his first words about the show was "this is thrilling". He was addicted to the show ever since and watched it for many weeks and months. I remember back then he really wanted to see someone win the 1p and he watched Nick Bain win it in 2006. He also witnessed the first three quarter millionaire winners as well as Corinne's massive crash from £88,000 to end up winning a penny. He did also joke that the show could run itself without Noel Edmonds being there and I think they actually did that once. Albet for a few minutes
Since it's debut in October 2005, as a family we have visited the studios a total of eight times to witness ten recordings. Two visits were to see two shows being recorded, whilst the other six were to see one show being recorded. The first recording in November 2005 featured contestant Rob who accidently knocked over his mug twice and broke the bottom of the Crazy Chair. That was a memorable recording but the tenth and final visit to Paintworks was even more special. A fantastic but emotionally draining show to wrap up our visits down there. I will confess that had he been alive today we probably would've gone down there this month but due to his passing away last June. We decided to call it a day.
It was announced in March 2012 Channel 4 commissioned a series of celebrity specials to air in the spring. Unlike the conventional celebrity special, there are no consolation prizes. Therefore if the celebrity wins a penny they would leave the studios with a cheque to their nominated charity for one pence. However they allowed the celebrity to promote their charity on the show and on the official Deal or No Deal website. I telephoned the audience team in March to book ourselves for a Halloween special recording. I was informed by Hannah on the Audience Team they weren't recording them until September and I would be booking ourselves in for a regular show. I decided to book us in for a morning recording session on Monday 16th April. However, due to my dad's part time work commitments at Superdrug. We agreed to phone Hannah back and rebook the trip for the same morning session but for for Friday 20th April. A day where he wasn't working. During this week I was on annual leave from work. I was following The Banker's tweets that the likes of Louis Walsh, Jimmy Carr and McFly were recording their celebrity specials. Somewhere on the internet (probably on twitter) there was talk of stand up comedian Sarah Millican taking part on the show. I received a telephone call from Hannah on Wednesday 18th April to confirm final arrangements for Friday's recording. To my surprise, she informs me we would be attending a celebrity special. When questioned to Hannah who the celebrity is. She confirmed the rumours it would indeed to be Sarah Millican as the contestant. My jaw had dropped. My dad does have a sense of humour. When I revealed it would be Sarah Millican, he was thrilled to hear the news. He was an admirer of her stand up comedy when she regularly appeared on Live at the Apollo.
After the final preparations were in place I decided to reply to a tweet regarding the twists used on the show where The Banker replied to the conversation. I decided to reveal we were going to see the celebrity special on Friday. To my surprise he replied "Wow. Lucky you. Those tickets are pure gold
dust. Almost as if someone recognised your name....".
Given the recording was a morning session on Friday, we left Worcester when the sun was rising high in the sky. Usually when we head to towns and cities unfamiliar to us I would act as navigator as he wasn't a fan of using satellite navigation technology. He once said "why do we need sat navs when we live on an island". I would simply plan the route before hand and tell him where to go. As we've been down to Bristol before there was less planning as we both knew the route to get there. It was breezy day when we reached the studios but then again it's always windy down at Bristol given it's a by the Severn estuary and the sea. We managed to park up at the studios without any problems (although he hated the speed humps there) and queued up to confirm our attendance and entered the audience holding area. After the encouraging talk by the Deal or No Deal crew to get the audinece livened up we headed down to the studio entrance. The three of us were at the front of the queue. We saw Sarah arrive outside the studio after some initial filming for the final edit. To my surprise she was quite tall. I would say she was round my height, give or take a couple of inches. We were let into the studio at 11.30am and sat on the bottom two rows the right hand side audience stand. I am talking from the TV's view here. So you have got the Pound Table in the middle therefore we're sat to the right hand side as you're watching the show. Me and my mother was sat the front with by dad sat behind. Behind him was a women mostly wearing purple (more on her shortly). As with these celebrity specials, the celebrity taking part has their friends and family taking part as the box openers. They also have a representative from the celebrity's nominated charity. The warm up guy, Mark Olver reveals it would be his first on-screen appearance as a box opener. He speaks to the friends and family on the wings to one particular person who claimed "appearing on Deal or No Deal is the pinnacle of my shitting career". I didn't recognise him at first but when he did his Peter Dickson impersonation I worked out it was Brummie comedian Joe Lycett. Mark asked if anybody remembered Joe appearing on the BBC show Epic Win. To Joe's amazement I said we both remembered it from watching it summer 2011. Although it was a bit cheesy. Given the format, it was fun show to watch on an early Saturday night. Shame nobody watched and therefore got the BBC ratings axe. There was a technical delay but Mark seemed to fill the time well with speaking to audience. I mentioned I spoke to The Banker earlier in week on twitter, making me a certified twanker. This caught the attention of a couple of young ladies in the audience. I know the show features many audience members who have seen the show live more than once but this time the virgins to the studio dominate the numbers in attendance.
After Mark went through the technical things with the recording to the audience and Little Noely entering the studio, the cameras were rolling. Sarah's nominated charity was Macmillian Cancer Support. Skipping through the game, Sarah reached five box. She had left 1p/50p£250/£5,000/£100,000. The Banker telephoned to offer her £9,000. However, if she says No Deal and opens two boxes and avoids the £100,000 the three box offer would be £20,000. She speaks to the wings and the audience advising what to do. One audience member confessed she has terminal cancer. This lady was the one wearing purple who was sat behind my dad. Noel and Sarah immediately spoke to Debbie about her condition and the camera was focused on her. Sarah decided to reject £9,000 and open two more boxes. She chose the right boxes to open as she removed £5,000 and the infamous penny. As promised, the next offer was £20,000. She decided to accept it and say Deal. Unfortunately she had £100,000 as her chosen box but had no regrets in the end. We left the studio at 2.10pm. Although we were in there for over 2 & 1/2 hours, it was worth every minute. Before leaving the studio, the two young ladies who caught my attention whilst talking to Mark about twitter asked when the celebrity special would be aired. Thanks to Digiguide, it told me earlier in the week it would be shown the following Sunday. 29th April. I would've loved to speak to them more about the show and other things but had to rush, If you are reading this then you can chat to me on twitter at @travisapenery
The whole experience with this recording was totally amazing. As mentioned, an emotionally draining episode, especially with Debbie's revelation towards the end of the show. My dad loved every minute of watching it live. The only problem was it went on for so long he needed to eat something to help his diabetes. Once we left the studio, we rushed to McDonalds on the nearby retail park so he could tuck into a burger.
As stated, the celebrity special did air on Sunday 29th April at 8pm. My parents didn't watch it live because they were watching Vera at the same time on ITV1. It wasn't until they watched the recording on Monday afternoon they noticed his full face was shown on camera whilst Noel and Sarah was speaking to Debbie. To quote my mum "his full moon face is on camera!". From what he told me that week, he was mobbed by Superdrug staff on Tuesday about his stardom about appearing on the show as an audience member. Even some of the customers he visited on his rounds talked about him being on camera. As he passed away five weeks later after the show had aired. This was one of the final imagines of him being alive before his death.
For some reason Channel 4 decided to repeat the celebrity special on 7th July. One month after his sudden death. I informed all of my friends and family to watch it if they didn't watch it the first time. I know there are different reasons why this special was repeated but it was nice to see him a living person again for a few minutes..
In December 2012, Denise Stringer, one of the Deal or No Deal crew also died suddenly and is much missed by the team at Bristol. I tweeted The Banker from a fan and audience member to a loved crew member will be sorely missed. He kindly replied "sending my love to you". You are a fantastic person Mr. Banker.
Saturday 20 April 2013
Saturday 4 August 2012
The National Lottery
We have been playing The National Lottery (or Lotto as the current term these days) for years. In fact, since it was introduced in November 1995. My mum has been using the same numbers and have won many £10 wins (by matching three numbers) over the years. Whilst I am the only person in the household to have won £70 (by matching four numbers) in August 2010. However, I have been playing it less times than my mother. It was decided a couple of years ago my dad would also start playing Lotto. He decided to choose six numbers based on house numbers and birthdays.
Every Saturday we would watch In It to Win It, Who Dares Wins, Secret Fortune, or whatever lottery show was on at the time and see whether we would be fortunate to win something. Before the Lotto draw my dad would say something like "this is our night, I can feel it." Then the numbers are dropped out of the machine and discovers he doesn't win anything. Let alone matching one number. He would moan all the time that he doesn't win anything. Not even £10. He would go into a rant, saying stuff like "this is a waste of time" and "none of my numbers come up." He always gave threats that "he would never play Lotto again". Turns out these threats were false as he still played the same numbers every Saturday. Although he didn't enter Lotto Plus 5. He would still see whether he would've won something. As with the Lotto draw he would moan again that none of his numbers would come up.
After the incident it was decided between me and my mum we would still play his numbers because he would've wanted us to. After a fantastic day with the Olympics with Team Great Britain winning six gold medals. I managed to see the Lotto draw earlier tonight. I don't know whether it's fate or complete irony but when the balls came out, three numbers out of the six matched three numbers on my dad's line. He has finally won a tenner. My mum couldn't believe it and was almost in tears to hear he has finally won £10. She was so disappointed for the fact he isn't here to celebrate, waving his ticket and bragging he has won something. No doubt he is jumping up and down right now "upstairs" that he has finally matched three numbers.
Since it was his numbers, we have decided we will treat him to some flowers for his grave.
Every Saturday we would watch In It to Win It, Who Dares Wins, Secret Fortune, or whatever lottery show was on at the time and see whether we would be fortunate to win something. Before the Lotto draw my dad would say something like "this is our night, I can feel it." Then the numbers are dropped out of the machine and discovers he doesn't win anything. Let alone matching one number. He would moan all the time that he doesn't win anything. Not even £10. He would go into a rant, saying stuff like "this is a waste of time" and "none of my numbers come up." He always gave threats that "he would never play Lotto again". Turns out these threats were false as he still played the same numbers every Saturday. Although he didn't enter Lotto Plus 5. He would still see whether he would've won something. As with the Lotto draw he would moan again that none of his numbers would come up.
After the incident it was decided between me and my mum we would still play his numbers because he would've wanted us to. After a fantastic day with the Olympics with Team Great Britain winning six gold medals. I managed to see the Lotto draw earlier tonight. I don't know whether it's fate or complete irony but when the balls came out, three numbers out of the six matched three numbers on my dad's line. He has finally won a tenner. My mum couldn't believe it and was almost in tears to hear he has finally won £10. She was so disappointed for the fact he isn't here to celebrate, waving his ticket and bragging he has won something. No doubt he is jumping up and down right now "upstairs" that he has finally matched three numbers.
Since it was his numbers, we have decided we will treat him to some flowers for his grave.
Sunday 29 July 2012
Amstrad CPC 464
It's been ages since I set up this blog and didn't add anything as a starting point. Well then, here goes.
Back in 1993 I was treated to a computer for my birthday. As you know, many years ago technology wasn't as powerful as it is now with Windows and tablets. Although I know tablet PCs existed in the early 2000s. The computer I had was an Amstrad CPC 464. I won't go into much detail what the CPC 464 is since you can look it up via Google and the CPC Wiki but it had 64k of RAM and was more powerful than the ZX Spectrum 48k model and on par with the Commodore 64 but the Amstrad had better graphic capability.
I remember visiting a cottage outside a local village as they were selling one in the local paper for £100. That was a lot of money in 1993. I think it was on a quite cold Saturday afternoon (I was born in January). When we got there the keyboard and monitor was set up and one of the games they let me test was Robocop. It was a good machine and since I was happy with it they let me have it for my birthday. It came with two joysticks and a selection of games. All the games were on cassette. When we got home to unpack everything there were about 30 games. This included a couple of education games like Animal, Vegetable, Mineral and Timeman One. As well as some software packages including Mini Office and Home Budget. We didn't really use the software programs as it didn't come with a printer but the games had some fun moments.
One of the first games we loaded up was Chuckie Egg and we immediately fell in love with it. I know many people say Manic Miner is a cult classic but Chuckie Egg blows that game out of the water. Simply because.
1) Chuckie Egg only takes about 3/4 minutes to load.
2) Manic Miner is an ultra hard game. Youngsters might be put off with the difficulty.
3) Manic Miner is a single player game. Chuckie Egg is playable up to 4 players.
4) Chuckie Egg had a brilliant tune if you lose a life. Manic Miner had a blip noise.
If you want to see how Chuckie Egg is played check out the clip below. I do recommend having a go via an emulator.
We were quite good on Chuckie Egg. We always had competitions between us as I would reach level 11 before losing all my lives. My dad was quite good in Chuckie Egg but I had the winning edge over him. I did have Chuckie Egg 2 for a Christmas present some time later but it didn't have the charm of the first game.
Another game we also liked tackling that came with the computer was Fantasy World Dizzy. This game was very memorable but embarrassing as we actually got stuck in the first room for hours. We used to load the game, try out the first puzzle and give up since we didn't know what to do. Silly it might sound but it wasn't that hard. You are placed in a dungeon with a troll blocking the exit with an open fire at the other end of the dungeon. You are holding a loaf of bread, an apple and a jug of water. Have a guess what you needed to do to escape the room? Actually we never thought of bribing the troll with the apple as it turned out he revealed how to escape the dungeon. I couldn't believe we were so thick not knowing how we got out of that dungeon.
When we did get out and continued through the castle my dad coined a phrase "as you know there is always a way". He would always say that when we would work on the Dizzy games. Since we liked Fantasy World Dizzy so much we managed to track down the rest of the series. All thanks to the Future Zone video game shop (which changed to Electronics Boutique, which then got bought out by GAME). I always got that phrase tattooed in my brain when I'm trying to solve a puzzle or brainteaser.
One thing my dad was, he was a strong guy. So when my parents bought a few more games later in 1993 one of them was the infamous Daley Thompson's SuperTest. I remember the cycling event you had to waggle the joystick like mad so the bicycle would pedal faster. I was so useless at that event he would do the waggling for me. He might be strong person but it definitely took a lot of his upper body strength just to beat the 45 second qualifying time.
He was also into his quizzes, more on that in another blog entry. Sometime in 1993 or 1994 (not sure which year) he bought me a game called Arcade Trivia Quiz. We were literally addicted to that game. It was based on a fictional pub quiz machine that would reward you with fake cash if you got answers right. You start with 80p and it would cost you 20p per wrong answer, whilst working up a pyramid of questions.
Sometimes we would play as one player and work together but other times we would play against each other. I would be the old guy with the glasses, whilst he would be the Wayne Rooney lookalike. Unlike Chuckie Egg he would thrash me by reaching further into the game. After each round you would have to option to collect your winnings or progress into the next round. We never took the money and would progress the next round. Basically we would keep playing until we lose all our available money. When we played as a duo we would reach round 5 before going bankrupt. In 2001 I bought myself a Speccy 1999 CD which included emulators and hundreds of games for the ZX Spectrum. One of the games was the very one we first played in 1993. Unlike years ago we would crash out in round 5. We actually made an incredible blitz and reached the dizzy heights of round 50. Due to time we had to stop but I'm sure I saved a screen grab showing round 50 and saved our progress. Just a matter of tracking it down. As with Chuckie Egg, I would recommend playing this game via an emulator, especially if you want to test your general knowledge pre 1990. To see how it works, check out the clip below. The ZX Spectrum version is exactly the same A little fact, this game had terrible spelling for the questions/answers.
Another quiz game we had was Pub Trivia. Unlike Arcade Trivia Quiz, this was a game with zero margin of error. Get a single question wrong and it would signal the end of the game. Obviously, we didn't fare as well with this since it didn't give you any second chances.
There are other things I can blog about the time we played on the Amstrad CPC 464 but I'll leave that for another time.
Back in 1993 I was treated to a computer for my birthday. As you know, many years ago technology wasn't as powerful as it is now with Windows and tablets. Although I know tablet PCs existed in the early 2000s. The computer I had was an Amstrad CPC 464. I won't go into much detail what the CPC 464 is since you can look it up via Google and the CPC Wiki but it had 64k of RAM and was more powerful than the ZX Spectrum 48k model and on par with the Commodore 64 but the Amstrad had better graphic capability.
I remember visiting a cottage outside a local village as they were selling one in the local paper for £100. That was a lot of money in 1993. I think it was on a quite cold Saturday afternoon (I was born in January). When we got there the keyboard and monitor was set up and one of the games they let me test was Robocop. It was a good machine and since I was happy with it they let me have it for my birthday. It came with two joysticks and a selection of games. All the games were on cassette. When we got home to unpack everything there were about 30 games. This included a couple of education games like Animal, Vegetable, Mineral and Timeman One. As well as some software packages including Mini Office and Home Budget. We didn't really use the software programs as it didn't come with a printer but the games had some fun moments.
One of the first games we loaded up was Chuckie Egg and we immediately fell in love with it. I know many people say Manic Miner is a cult classic but Chuckie Egg blows that game out of the water. Simply because.
1) Chuckie Egg only takes about 3/4 minutes to load.
2) Manic Miner is an ultra hard game. Youngsters might be put off with the difficulty.
3) Manic Miner is a single player game. Chuckie Egg is playable up to 4 players.
4) Chuckie Egg had a brilliant tune if you lose a life. Manic Miner had a blip noise.
If you want to see how Chuckie Egg is played check out the clip below. I do recommend having a go via an emulator.
We were quite good on Chuckie Egg. We always had competitions between us as I would reach level 11 before losing all my lives. My dad was quite good in Chuckie Egg but I had the winning edge over him. I did have Chuckie Egg 2 for a Christmas present some time later but it didn't have the charm of the first game.
Another game we also liked tackling that came with the computer was Fantasy World Dizzy. This game was very memorable but embarrassing as we actually got stuck in the first room for hours. We used to load the game, try out the first puzzle and give up since we didn't know what to do. Silly it might sound but it wasn't that hard. You are placed in a dungeon with a troll blocking the exit with an open fire at the other end of the dungeon. You are holding a loaf of bread, an apple and a jug of water. Have a guess what you needed to do to escape the room? Actually we never thought of bribing the troll with the apple as it turned out he revealed how to escape the dungeon. I couldn't believe we were so thick not knowing how we got out of that dungeon.
When we did get out and continued through the castle my dad coined a phrase "as you know there is always a way". He would always say that when we would work on the Dizzy games. Since we liked Fantasy World Dizzy so much we managed to track down the rest of the series. All thanks to the Future Zone video game shop (which changed to Electronics Boutique, which then got bought out by GAME). I always got that phrase tattooed in my brain when I'm trying to solve a puzzle or brainteaser.
One thing my dad was, he was a strong guy. So when my parents bought a few more games later in 1993 one of them was the infamous Daley Thompson's SuperTest. I remember the cycling event you had to waggle the joystick like mad so the bicycle would pedal faster. I was so useless at that event he would do the waggling for me. He might be strong person but it definitely took a lot of his upper body strength just to beat the 45 second qualifying time.
He was also into his quizzes, more on that in another blog entry. Sometime in 1993 or 1994 (not sure which year) he bought me a game called Arcade Trivia Quiz. We were literally addicted to that game. It was based on a fictional pub quiz machine that would reward you with fake cash if you got answers right. You start with 80p and it would cost you 20p per wrong answer, whilst working up a pyramid of questions.
Sometimes we would play as one player and work together but other times we would play against each other. I would be the old guy with the glasses, whilst he would be the Wayne Rooney lookalike. Unlike Chuckie Egg he would thrash me by reaching further into the game. After each round you would have to option to collect your winnings or progress into the next round. We never took the money and would progress the next round. Basically we would keep playing until we lose all our available money. When we played as a duo we would reach round 5 before going bankrupt. In 2001 I bought myself a Speccy 1999 CD which included emulators and hundreds of games for the ZX Spectrum. One of the games was the very one we first played in 1993. Unlike years ago we would crash out in round 5. We actually made an incredible blitz and reached the dizzy heights of round 50. Due to time we had to stop but I'm sure I saved a screen grab showing round 50 and saved our progress. Just a matter of tracking it down. As with Chuckie Egg, I would recommend playing this game via an emulator, especially if you want to test your general knowledge pre 1990. To see how it works, check out the clip below. The ZX Spectrum version is exactly the same A little fact, this game had terrible spelling for the questions/answers.
Another quiz game we had was Pub Trivia. Unlike Arcade Trivia Quiz, this was a game with zero margin of error. Get a single question wrong and it would signal the end of the game. Obviously, we didn't fare as well with this since it didn't give you any second chances.
There are other things I can blog about the time we played on the Amstrad CPC 464 but I'll leave that for another time.
Thursday 21 June 2012
Looking in the past and onwards
On Monday 4th June I lost my wonderful father, Jeff Penery. He died suddenly at the hospital on that Monday morning, I was shocked and saddened to lose a great person and a best friend. Today, Thursday 21st June we had a send off in his honour. I read out a tribute piece to him of all the things we did over the years and how he never let me down. Due to timing, I wanted to say loads more as I can remember many things on what we did over the decades. I have decided that the memories I still hold will be published in a blog for anybody who knows me want to see. When I will get a spare moment I will update this blog with our memories.
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