Being lucky in love did not translate into riches for Penrith born Myles Hoyle who appeared as a contestant on ITV1’s Deal or No Deal on Monday.
Ahead of getting married to his bride, Beth, at Watermillock, in August last year, Myles, aged 29, had applied to go on the show in the hope of winning enough to pay for a honeymoon.
But things didn’t quite go according to plan and, after he won just £1, a senior producer told Myles that it was “one of the unluckiest games” in the show’s history.
Having started off life being fronted by Noel Edmonds from 2005 to 2016 on Channel 4, the show was resurrected by ITV1 in 2023 and is now into its second season of being presented by Stephen Mulhern. In season one it reached 14 million viewers.
Contestants battle it out against the notorious Banker to be in with a chance of winning a life-changing cash prize, but luck needs to be on your side. At the start, each player is given a box containing a sum ranging from one pence to £100,000. If selected to play, the contestant takes their box over to the presenter. But nobody knows what the sum inside it will be until the other boxes in play start being opened up.
Myles had to choose the order in which the boxes were opened — with the aim being to stay away from the big sums for as long as possible. At various intervals a call comes in from the Banker, offering to “buy” the contestant’s box, and it is at this point that they get to say “deal” or “no deal”. “Sadly, it was one of those where straight from the off, within my first three boxes, I took out two of the biggest prizes,” said Myles.
The top prize of £100,000 was his third pick after his opening box had contained the second highest sum of £75,000.
“One of the senior producers who has been on the show since the Noel days said it was the unluckiest show he has ever seen. I just kept hitting big amount after big amount,” said Myles.
His first offer from the Banker was just £400, which is the lowest opening offer in the show’s history on ITV1.
“In hindsight, I should have taken it,” said Myles.
The Banker, who only talks on a telephone to the presenter, was winding Myles up throughout, saying things like it was the best day of his life and that he was so glad the series was back.
“By about the halfway point, at the second advert break, there was barely anything left on the board to play for,” said Myles, who added that it was at that point he decided to just keep going until the end.
A former head boy at Penrith Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Myles met his wife-to-be, who hails from Cheshire, while studying at Lancaster University, and they now live together in Nantwich.
The son of Deborah and Bernard Hoyle, who live in Penrith, Myles was joined in the studio by town rugby coach Ed Swale, who is married to his sister, Lydia.
Charity worker Myles, who is head of digital marketing for Child Bereavement UK, added that he had received “loads of love” since appearing on the show.
Messages have praised the way he came across on screen and smiled throughout.
But he has not given up on his dream to win big on a TV game show. The first thing he did on his return home from Deal or No Deal was to apply to become a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The 1% Club.
“You think you are going to be nervous, but Stephen Mulhern is such a lovely person. I didn’t feel nervous, even when it was my turn. I was just out there enjoying myself. It just felt so surreal and amazing,” said Myles, who was invited back to take part in series two along with others who did not get picked to play in series one. The episode, which aired on Monday, was recorded at Maidstone, in Kent, at the end of June.
Along with all the episodes from last season, it is available to watch on catch up via ITVX.
