Deal or No Deal's 'Banker' used to be the smartest adult in the country

The banker on Deal or No Deal once scored the highest possible score on a number of IQ tests, making him the smartest person in the country. Here's a clip from the classic daytime game show to jog your memory:

For many people of a certain age, he was the most intriguing anonymous person on television – during the heyday of Deal or No Deal nobody knew who the mysterious banker, who would return with monetary offers for the contestants, actually was.

Then, years later, his identity was finally confirmed.

It turns out that there is a lot more to the mysterious financier than was first imagined.

Now, with the show set to return on ITV, having previously shown on Channel 4, interest in the fictitious banker is on the rise again, so here is his story.

The banker, experienced only through unheard conversations with Noel Edmonds, was actually a man called Glenn Hugill and he’s got a fascinating past.

Not only was he a star of Coronation Street in the 1990s, he also moved into TV production and presented The Mole.

Ask your parents on that front, kids.

However, the really fascinating stuff happened long before that.

Channel 4

As a schoolboy of only 10, he took an IQ test for children under 16 scoring 207, the highest score recorded in the country.

Then – according to the Northern Echo – he later took a test designed for adults and clocked a score of 177, which is the highest score that the test could register.

It’s fair to say, he’s a pretty smart cookie.

His identity as The Banker on Deal or No Deal, which he was an executive producer on, was allegedly confirmed by fellow egghead Richard Osman, who revealed in a 2015 article that he knew the truth.

Speaking about how he devises game shows back in 2015, Osman said that Two Tribes – a BBC Two show of yesteryear – ‘was an idea that Glenn Hugill - the Banker on Deal or No Deal - and I had been thinking about for a long time’.

Well, now it seems as if the box-picking game show is set to return to our screens, this time with Stephen Mulhern replacing Edmonds as the head honcho and chief banker-interpreter.

Channel 4

According to reports in The Mirror, ITV has optioned 20 episodes of the show after being impressed with Mulhern’s performance in front of the cameras.

It remains to be seen whether that will be the case, but for anyone who grew up watching the original show, it would be a welcome return.

After all, even though it was just people opening individual boxes with no specific system other than their own basic intuition, it was compelling telly.