It was originally presented by Noel Edmonds from 31 October 2005 to 23 December 2016 on Channel 4, and then by Stephen Mulhern from 20 November 2023 on ITV1.

Based on the original Netherlands format of the game show, each episode sees a contestant choosing one of 22 boxes, each containing a cash amount.

In December 2022, six years later, ITV recorded two pilots at dock10 with Stephen Mulhern as host for a possible revival of the show.

If the contestant rejects the final offer and has not dealt, their box will be opened and whatever prize it contains will be what the player has won.

Swaps are more likely to occur when a relatively large prize money value remains in play alongside a much lower monetary value, with the offer done by the Banker in the hope that the player unintentionally gives away a significant prize and leaves with a much smaller amount.

In the original series, if the final red in play was the jackpot prize (£250,000), the swap would automatically be offered to the contestant.

[citation needed] In October 2013, production moved to the Bottle Yard Studios, Bristol, which had been custom built to house the show.

[15] The game show participants comprise the host (Noel Edmonds in the Channel 4 era and Stephen Mulhern for the ITV1 revival), the unseen character of the Banker, the main contestant playing that day's game, the other 21 contestants, and a studio audience.

[19] Additionally, Big Brother 16 contestant and YouTuber Jack McDermott and Big Brother 20 contestant Kerry Riches appeared on the show in its early series, with Riches enduring a studio power cut during her game.

During the original Channel 4 series, many special and seasonal episodes of Deal or No Deal aired with themes including Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter,[25][26] Summer and the "Banker's Birthday" week.

As such, his role is to make cash offers (usually with the first few digits being odd [e.g., £5,900]) to buy the contestant's chosen box rather than allowing them to continue and risk them winning much more.

As Broadcast magazine noted in March 2006, the UK version of the show was the first to exploit the potential for the Banker to be an active character.

The Guardian newspaper called the Banker "a cult character in the making and no mistake" and included him in their hotlist.

Television programmes such as Harry Hill's TV Burp, GMTV, Richard & Judy and Dead Ringers all made jokes about and regularly speculated as to the Banker's real identity.

As the show progressed, the Banker's fictitious back story has been built up through the character's conversations with Edmonds and the daily contestants.

The Banker has made several references to his six ex-wives, mother, two boxer dogs and also to his estranged son, to whom he never speaks on account of his being a charity worker.

Short utterances or other audio from the Banker's end of the phone call can occasionally be heard by the viewer.

He revealed his passion for the show and his admiration for the individual community spirit within it, as well as his (later fulfilled) ambition that it would eventually hold a Saturday evening prime time slot.

Some sources speculated that the Banker during the Channel 4 version was former Coronation Street actor and host of The Mole, Glenn Hugill, who works as part of the show's production team.

The celebrity contestants (in order of broadcast) were: In January 2013, as part of the Channel 4 Mash Up, cast members of 8 Out of 10 Cats featured in a special edition of the show, Sean Lock and Jon Richardson playing, with Jimmy Carr hosting.

Guardian television reviewer Charlie Brooker criticised the in-show implication that there are strategies that can be employed and pointed out that the game premise revolves around plain guessing while calling it "a gameshow based on the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics".

[41] The UK version also won the Rose d'Or award for "Best Game Show" at the 2006 Lucerne Television Festival.

In August 2012, the show had undertaken product placement by incorporating the PG Tips logo into its episodes.

A second DVD game called "Family Challenge" was released on 19 November 2007, which featured 22 contestants from series 2.

[52] In March 2012, with the series approaching its 2,000th episode and the format now broadcast in over 50 countries, senior Channel 4 executives were to meet with the Gambling Commission, who were preparing to issue new guidance in April 2012 on the implications of the Gambling Act 2005 for broadcasters and according to The Guardian, had concerns with the show.

The newspaper claimed the show could be breaking the law as it did not involve any element of skill, with such non-skill games played for profit requiring a gambling licence.