Countdown beware; there's a newish favourite daytime gameshow in town to take the shallow attention of you non nine-to-fivers: Deal or No Deal. If nothing else, at least it keeps Noel Edmonds of the cruel streets of England.

In case you've been asleep for years (being in foreign parts is no excuse - there are at least 23 national versions of the show). The premise of the game is as follows: There are a number of boxes with varying amounts of money in, from 1p to £250,000. The contestant picks one box, and it is opened to reveal what it contained, hence giving the contestant the knowledge of what is left to play for. At some point in the game, a mysterious "banker" rings up and offers the contestant a specific amount of money if they will take it and leave.

The contestant must decide whether to grab the money 'n' run, or stay and pick some more boxes. As the show goes on the boxes get fewer in number, and the monetary values narrow down. The banker makes a few more offers - if the contestant rejects them all then the contestant gets whatever is left in the final box. The end.

Novice readers may wonder how this 2 minute game could possibly be shown for the best part of an hour on a near daily basis. This, dear readers, is the magic of trash TV (and Noel Edmonds' infamous chat - "Some people call it an entertainment drama, some the Red Box Club". Only you, Mr Edmonds.).

More importantly, some genius office skiver has enhanced each of our mere mortal's chances of not-doing-real-work by creating an Microsoft Excel version of Deal or No Deal, which we proudly attach below. It's kind of colourful, but silent and anything in Excel just has to be work, right? Download, hit "Start New Game" and get banking the (virtual) cash.

As a bonus, Deal or No Deal addicts can watch a clip of the infamous Box-Gate episode here on youtube.com. This includes the shock never-happened-before occurrence of a contestant's secret box falling on the floor, opening up and revealing its top secret contents.

Don't feel left out, trivia fans. The Wikipedia entry for the UK DoND is ludicrously "comprehensive".