Deal or No Deal: Pensioner wins jackpot after most nail-biting moment ever

Ann Crawford is the eighth person to take home £250,000 in the show's ten-year history

Ann Crawford is offered £64,000 by the banker before choosing to gamble (BBC)

‘Spanking the banker’ on Deal or No Deal is no mean feat, but a pensioner has become the eighth person to do so after the most nail-biting moment ever seen on the long-running Channel 4 show saw her almost lose it all.

Ann Crawford, a 75-year-old bell-ringer from Manchester, bagged the top £250,000 prize after turning down a hugely tempting £64,000 offer and gambling between a 50p box and the jackpot.

‘Queen Ann’, as she became known by her fellow contestants, also chose to keep the box she had been given at the start, refusing the chance to swap it.

However, nerves were evident when she accidentally replied “Deal no” instead of “No deal”. The game's rules state that the player's first answer must be taken...

...but the banker showed mercy and allowed her to make her decision clearer and win a quarter of a million.

“It’s just amazing, you don’t think you’ll ever do it, and I am doing it!” a tearful Ann said after her win. “What I can maybe have for myself, but what I can give to my family as well. It’s absolutely wonderful.”

Host Noel Edmonds congratulated Ann and described the show as “one of the most amazing hours of [his] whole life”.

Ann could easily have left empty-handed; forty-eight people having taken home just 1p over the ten years Deal or No Deal has been on air.

Catch Deal or No Deal at 1.10pm on weekdays on Channel 4.