The programme was first shown early in the morning on Saturday 1 April 2006 (Late Friday night).

To win money viewers had to either call in at a cost of seventy five pence (previously sixty pence) from a BT landline, text the word 'MINT' to a special number or enter through the ITV website and, if selected, would be issued a freephone number and PIN valid for one entry.

If they were successful they would be placed on hold then, if the computer selected them at random, they would be transferred live to The Mint mansion, where they went on to give their answer.

Segments were linked by canned footage of (supposedly) the mansion and its grounds with Securicor style security guards standing outside the front door.

This would pop (accompanied by a sound effect and relevant animation) at random moments signifying when a caller would be plucked from the lines and come through to the studio.

Some of the presenters made gags about this bottle "popping its cork" and they often pretended to interact with it in a variety of ways, this was especially true of Brian Dowling.

When a caller was selected at random a message was played to them over the telephone that said the computer would try to connect the call through to the studio.

[3] On 23 April 2007, the long-running BBC programme Panorama showed a brief clip of The Mint where viewers were shown a wordsearch-style 4x4 grid and asked to find the name of an animal.

There was no Mint to be opened in this version of the show and the vault was covered up by a false wall with a painting hung on it.

An announcement by ITV on 12 September 2007 confirmed that the programme, along with similar late night phone ins, would not be returning.