LEE talks to Bubble about the Marathon and much, much more…

Bubble and I had been trying to arrange a time to get together to have a chat about his forthcoming Marathon run for the last few weeks, but finding a spot in his busy diary when I was also free was starting to prove impossible. We eventually found a time on Thursday evening between his Macmillan photoshoot and a drive up to Liverpool, where we could at least have a nice long chat on the phone.

I had given Bubble my office number and had arranged to be there in the evening so that it was nice and quiet and I could record the conversation using my dictaphone and the office's speaker phone.

I was running late, no surprise there, and had only just got to the office when Bubble phoned. My work colleague Richard took the call and told me, 'There's a Paul Ferguson on the phone for you', and passed the call through to me. Most of my office are Big Brother fans, and when I told him later that he'd actually just spoken to Bubble, he was amazed and a bit star-struck!

Bubble and I chatted for a couple of minutes first while I sussed out how the speaker phone worked and we tested to make sure that everything was recording properly. Finally we were ready to start…

LEE: Right, OK, we are now taping. Thanks so for much finding the time to talk to us, you've been so busy recently haven't you?

Bubble: Yeah and have been for about 7 months - laughs.

LEE: Did you think it was going to be this hectic when you came out of the house?

Bubble: Nah. I thought, you know, maybe the first month or so people would be asking questions and so forth, but I didn't expect it to be still going now!

LEE: No? Did you think you were just going to end up going back to a normal job and a normal life?

Bubble: Well, I did originally say that if I'd of won it I was just going to take my 70 grand and go home. That's what I was gonna do.

LEE: Yeah, cos you did it for your daughter didn't you?

Bubble: Yeah.

LEE: How old is she?

Bubble: She's nearly 4.

LEE: I've be asked by one of our forum members to say 'Hello' to your daughter for her, and she asked how she was.

Bubble:Oh that's very nice, tell her she's fine. She's just had the best Christmas of her life.

LEE: I bet she did!

Bubble: Laughs

LEE: Did she miss you a lot when you were in the house?

Bubble: Yeah, but I don't think she missed me half as much as I missed her. Its six of one really though, cos when I was in there I was thinking that, in a way you don't want them to miss you, cos you don't want them to be upset. But on the other hand you want them to miss you just a little bit, cos otherwise you feel not loved. Does that make sense?

LEE: Yeah, it does. I remember you saying that you didn't want her coming up for the eviction, because it would be really awful if you didn't get evicted and she had been expecting to see you.

Bubble: Yeah, there was a lot of discussion that went into it before, obviously. We just thought, you know, if I was definitely coming out, fine, if it was the last night and you know, whether you have won or lost, you're coming out, that's fine. But if it's before that, you can't take her there expecting to see daddy, and then if daddy doesn't come out that's not fair.

LEE: No, cos she's too young to understand that, isn't she?

Bubble: Yeah.

LEE: And she'd be looking forward to it. Did you actually think you were going to get picked to go into the house or were you surprised?

Bubble: At first I didn't. At first, I just thought well, you know, I have no chance of getting on. I did think that if I got on, that I had a good chance of winning, but then so many people applied. But the more the rounds went on I did think, I'm gonna get on this, and I'm a great believer in coincidences as well.

LEE: Are you pleased that you did it?

Bubble: Oh yeah, ain't no doubt about it. I've got a great story to tell Briony when she's older, I've made some money, and I can send her to college or university now without her having to worry. So it's definitely worthwhile because of that.

LEE: Any regrets?

Bubble: I'd rather have regrets about something I did rather than something that I didn't do.

LEE: Are you gong to show her the tapes when she's older?

Bubble: Yeah.

LEE: Have you watched any of the tapes of yourself from when you were in the house?

Bubble: When I first got out I watched a couple of bits, and then it just got so manic. Now they're just in a box somewhere. I heard so many people say that we were all edited badly and so forth. I will sit down at one night and go through it all.

LEE: I think probably the 'Channel 4' shows weren't as good a representation as they could have been. Most of the E4 coverage was relatively live though, and even though I know they bleeped a lot of it out I don't think it was too bad, they obviously couldn't show what was going on in each room all the time though.

Bubble: Yeah, but I know from since I've been out, that there's lots of bits and pieces that that you've missed. But in a way it's very hard for them to put everything into 30 minutes. So it's got to be quite hard for them to choose what they were going to show. They've also got to cover story lines, you know, they pick a story line and they stay with it, and if another storyline comes up, well sometimes they actually miss it, cos they've already got another one running. E4 was half an hour delay wasn't it?

LEE: 20 minutes I think.

Bubble: Yeah, and a lot of that is as you said, you've got trains and stuff going over it.

LEE: Still at least they had E4 this year, they only had the Channel 4 coverage for Big Brother 1.

Bubble: Yeah, it was definitely a success. Someone told me that E4 were looking for 1% of the digital viewing and the got 8%, so it was a massive success.

LEE: That is good. They must have been really pleased. Did you watch BB1?

Bubble: Yeah.

LEE: Cos I must admit I didn't at all, and I think one of the reasons I got into BB2 as much as I did, was that I was doing quite a lot of working from home and I had E4 on in the background.

Bubble: A lot of people have said that. It was in the background all the time like people would have MTV on in the background. It was just on all the time.

LEE: And I think if it had just been the Channel 4 shows like it was last time, I probably wouldn't have got into it so much this year either.

Bubble: It's quite interesting since I've been out as well, because you meet two lots of people, one lot who have watched the E4 coverage, and the other people who watched just the Channel 4 shows, and it's amazing how different their opinions are.

LEE: What's the best thing that has happened to you since you left the house?

Bubble: Seeing my daughter for the first time. As soon as I walked out that was all I wanted to do. That was fantastic.

LEE: What about people that you've met, famous or otherwise that you wouldn't have normally had the chance to meet?

Bubble: There's lots of famous people, but I haven't been too bothered, cos for me there was only three people I ever wanted to meet, that was Billy Connelly, Paul Wella and the Chelsea Team. I've met the Chelsea team, and after meeting all of the Chelsea players it's like, sometimes when you've got a dream or something that you'd really like to do, and the minute you've done it then you lose the dream. Does that make sense?

LEE: Yeah.

Bubble: So when I had the opportunity to meet Billy Connelly in Cardiff, you know, as much as I was excited about it, I decided that I would just leave the man to go about his day without interrupting him, and then I've still got that dream that maybe, one day, I might just bump into him on a train.

LEE: So you had the opportunity, but you decided not to meet him in the end?

Bubble: Yeah, and for years and years and years I have admired Billy Connelly, and have found him tremendously funny. He is a legend, there's no doubt about it, but once you meet him, that's it, it's gone, you know. Does that make sense?

LEE: Yeah it does.

Bubble: In a way it's like when Chelsea won the FA cup, it was great and it was fantastic and at the time I couldn't believe it, nothing like it had ever happened to me before, but when they won it the second time it wasn't as good as the first.

LEE: Have you still got your job with Chelsea?

Bubble: I work for Chelsea TV yeah. That's going well.

LEE: So what do you do with that, what does it entail?

Bubble: I've got a little presenters role. On a match day they have a little subject, and we just go around talking to the fans before the game, and then it goes out in the pre-run for the game on Chelsea TV.

LEE: So that's for all the home games?

Bubble: Yeah, we do other bits and bobs now and again as well, depending on what's happening, on openings and on certain subjects that have come up. That's really good you know, I can't believe my luck in a way, working with a club I love. Fantastic!

LEE: While we're on the subject of football, tell me about this song you've done with Dean.

Bubble: The name of it at the moment, is 'Standing Tall', whether that will stay or not I don't know. Me and Dean, well I said, 'Dean. You write music, I write poetry', and he went 'yeah', and I said, 'We both love football, so why don't we write a World Cup song? You can write the music, and I'll put the lyrics over it,' and so he said it was a great idea. He said, 'Sometimes Bubble, you know, you do surprise me !' … Bubble laughs … I'm not just a pretty face, not that I'm even that! So we sat down, and we wrote it with another guy as well who helped Dean with the music, and then we put the lyrics over it, and it was really exciting to do. It's got some great lyrics, we've done a piece in the middle of it, you know 'Consider Yourself' from 'Oliver'?

LEE: Yes.

Bubble: What we've done, is we've used that. The actual song is nothing like 'Consider Yourself', but right in the middle of it we've put it in and changed the lyrics to be 'Consider yourself knocked out' as in out of the tournament. Bubble now starts to sing to me down the phone…. 'Consider yourself knocked out Consider yourself out of the tournament You're gonna be going home When you come up against Engerland'

Bubble: There's two reason we did, one, when England won the world cup in 1966, and I don't know if you know this, but that night after winning the cup, they went to a party at Lionel Bart's house. He wrote the musical 'Oliver'. So it's like a little tribute to them in a way, and also we think it's a great little tune for England fans to sing on the terraces.

LEE: Yeah, it's a good rousing tune. It could really take off big time. When it's coming out?

Bubble: Well at the moment you see, it's just a demo we've done, we're talking to a few producers at the moment. It's gonna get re-vamped a bit and hopefully get released soon, and hopefully go to Number One. Lots of 'hopefully's'! But at the end of the day if it doesn't get to number one it doesn't matter, cos it's not about getting to number one it's about doing a World Cup song. For me this is all great, six months ago I was packing boxes in a warehouse, do you see what I mean? So I'm having a field day.

LEE: Do you think you'll ever go back to packing boxes in a warehouse or something similar? What do you think you'll be doing in ten years time?

Bubble: Oh god!

LEE: That's a difficult question isn't it?

Bubble: I look at it like this, if it all ended tomorrow I've had a field day. I've had some great fun, I've got some great stories to tell and I'll look back, and you know, half of me's quite proud of what I've done, I've done some great stuff. It hasn't just been meeting famous people and just swanning around like you own the place, which is what some people think. I've been put in a position where I can do a lot of good, and I like doing that as well.

LEE: Like this marathon run for example.

Bubble: Yeah. but as I say, if it ends tomorrow then great, I can look back and know I've had a field day, and if it carries on, then even better. But I haven't fallen into that trap of letting the head run away with myself and thinking 'I'm famous'. As long as you look at it that every day is a bonus, then that's what it is. Every day is a bonus

LEE: Well, you seem a very down to earth sort of person anyway, and I think you have to be like that to cope with the sort of things that have been happening to you recently.

Bubble: It is one of the biggest experiences you will ever come across in your life, goodness me, so you've got no choice but just to sit down and go, OK, hang on a minute here, lets take all of this with the biggest pinch of salt in the world.

LEE: I mean, I don't think I could do it. Just looking at all the stories and stuff that were in the press for a month or so after you all came out, partly about you, but also about other people like Helen and Paul etc. It must be horrendous to be in that sort of position.

Bubble: Some of the stories while I was in there. I was just sitting in there right, sleeping, winding up Brian, minding my own, and all of a sudden there's a paper war going on between the Mirror and the Sun.

LEE: Yeah, well it's all rating's isn't it?

Bubble: Yeah, it's unbelievable. I don't think I realised the enormousness of that show. It's just humungous.

LEE: It has been said by various people that you all should have realised what would happen, because of what happened the previous year with BB1.

Bubble: Yeah, well people will say that and they say, 'they should know what they're letting themselves in for' …

LEE: Yeah, it's not as easy as that though is it?

Bubble: …and now after BB2, with BB3, if they think they know what they're letting themselves in for, believe me, they don't. You have no idea. After you've done it you realise that it's the little things you have given up, that you didn't even realise were in the running. You know, not being able to go on a dance floor in a night club, that's hard, you don't even think of it, you know what I mean, or going into a pub and not being able to have a conversation with your friend.

LEE: It's the price of fame. Everyone knows who you are. There are some very good things about that, but it has a downside as well.

Bubble: In all fairness, I put myself in the public eye and they do have the right to come to me and say 'hello', and I'm as nice as pie to them when they do, and I sign their autographs and I smile and I answer their questions. But there are times when unfortunately there are some people that, in my opinion, don't know when is a good time to come up and when is not. You know I had a situation at Chessington World of Adventures, which I was just outraged with.

LEE: You were there with your daughter?

Bubble: Yeah, and she was having a bit of a tantrum, as kids do. She was throwing her sweets on the floor, and I told her to pick them up and put them in the bin, you know that's what a parent does, says 'this is wrong, you shouldn't do that' . Anyway, while I was trying to explain this, a guy just came up and started asking for my autograph, and I said, 'Excuse me mate, I'm trying to each my little girl the difference between right and wrong at the moment', and he said 'Don't get f*****g shirty with me', and I just couldn't believe it. If my daughter hadn't have been there, I would have told him what I thought of him, but I said, 'Look mate, firstly don't speak like that around my little girl, and secondly, can't you see that at the end of the day I'm just a guy like you and I have a daughter here that I'm trying to teach a few things to. Now is not the time, come back to me in five minutes mate.' But unfortunately some people don't know when it's not a good time. Like when you're eating. I hate that one. Um I'm like 'can you come back when I've had my Macdonald's'.

LEE: Is there anything particularly outrageous or awful that you've seen written about you since you've been out the house?

Bubble: Some of the things the Mirror wrote. I understand they were having a paper war with the Sun, but when I was in the house there was this one story about me being a police probe that was quite hurtful considering it wasn't true. I'm sure the Mirror had got this information from whoever, so they had the right to print it because someone's told them it, but unfortunately when it's innocent parties and there's no substantial background, people just pick up the stories and think, 'Oh my God, he's in a police probe'. They don't think, 'Oh, hang on a minute, the Sun have got this exclusive story so the Mirror need something just as big so that people buy their paper that day. So that's quite hurtful when you look at something and there's no grounds for any of it. I think the hardest thing for me then, was that I had just got out of the house on the Friday night, and that story was run on the Saturday morning by the Mirror. My head was spinning, I'd just come out, everything was just a whirlwind and the first thing I do when I get to the hotel at about four o'clock in the morning and turn the TV on, is see a guy reading the newspapers with tomorrow's headlines, and the Mirror is saying 'Bubble's in a police probe', so I'm ringing the outside organisation saying 'What's all this about?, and they say, 'Don't worry, we know it's not you, it's got nothing to do with you, everyone knows that'. I said, 'It's ok for you to say that, it's not your face on the front page of a national newspaper'. So that was really really hard, but now if it was in tomorrow paper it's a different ballgame because I'm used to it now.

LEE: Quite a few people have said that they don't think that £70,000 is a big enough reward for coming out of Big Brother, considering the amount of time you spend in there and the amount that you put yourselves through? What do you think?

Bubble: 70 grand is an amount of money that I couldn't save over 15 years. I would do it for 40.

Bubble: Really?

Bubble: Yeah, I would. If I could get a cash sum in my bank account, so that I know that when my little girl grows up she can have a car, go to uni and walk away with no debts and get a good head start in life.

LEE: I know that it's more in some of the other countries. I think the States is at least double that.

Bubble: I don't know. 'Survivors' a Million isn't it, that would be fantastic. I mean, don't get me wrong, a Million would be great, the more the merrier, but 70 grand's quite a bit of money, for me that is. But there were people in that house who were on a £100,000 a year before they went in, so for them it's not that much is it? For me it is.

LEE: I wouldn't say no to 70 grand, but then you compare it to Survivor and some of the foreign Big Brother's, and it's chicken feed.

Bubble: Yeah, but I work all year for 11, or used to, so that's nearly 7 year's work!

LEE: Have you watched Brian on SM:tv at all, cos he's been on the last few weeks hasn't he?

Bubble: He has. He's been good, eh!

LEE: He is good yeah, so funny, I've seen most of them. I thought that in the first week he came over a little bit unsure and nervous, but he's really getting into it now and I watched it again on Saturday and he was just so much more confident. He was brilliant.

Bubble: The boy was born to be a star.

LEE: Yeah, and all the time he was saying in the house that he wouldn't win, and that there was nothing special about him.

Bubble: Laughs, yeah, he'd say, 'I'm going back to my airline,' and I'd sit there saying 'But you don't get it do you? You are the man!'

LEE: Laughs

Bubble: And when I actually walked out of the house, and I'm not sure if you could see this or not, but on my exit they did an archway, as we did most of the time, and as I walked out I looked at Brian, and I'm doing it now while I tell you, I looked at him and I winked and pointed my finger and said, 'You're the man', and I could have told him that from day one. I honestly thought it was only ever between us. He was the man. He is the business.

LEE: So you thought it was almost a foregone conclusion that he was going to win?

Bubble: Yeah.

LEE: Let's ask you just a couple of things about the actual Marathon itself. It's on 14th April I think isn't it?

Bubble: It is indeed.

LEE: It's a silly question, but you've never done anything like this before?

Bubble: The furthest I've ever run is for a bus. I've got a car now, so I don't even have to do that. I am the unfittest person you'll ever come across in your life. I forgot to tell you, when I was running for that bus, an old man beat me to it! Laughs.

LEE: Are you looking forward to it?

Bubble: No, but I'm looking forward to the result. I'm looking forward to knowing at the end of it I can look back and say 'I raised 20 grand for cancer'. And also the thought that there'll be someone who will be able to be cared for properly because I put some effort into something, that enabled Macmillan to spend 20 grand on a nurse who can look after them properly, giving them some decency when they go. I'm looking forward to that feeling.

LEE: How are you doing with sponsorship at the moment? Are you getting a good response?

Bubble: Yeah, I'm getting a good response. I've got, just on my own so far I think, about 2 and a half grand, 3 grand. It's a great start and you know there's lots of websites, such as yours, getting involved and there's a few companies getting involved as well now. The campaign for Macmillan is now getting underway, which is gonna be quite exciting, they've come up with a really good idea, so I'm looking forward to that. I had a meeting with them today and a little photoshoot.

LEE: Now, a very important question. Have you chosen what hat you're going to wear on the run?

Bubble: Laughs… I've got a funny feeling the hat's gonna go about half way around. I'll be like 'get all these clothes off me it's too heavy!!'

LEE: Laughs… But you can't possibly run the marathon, or at least start it, without a hat!!

Bubble: How well you know me!! Laughs… At the moment I'm just concentrating on getting fit, or trying to. Even if it gets to the stage where I can only run 20 miles and if I walk the last 6. As long as I finish it and I raise my money

LEE: Exactly. As long as you get over that finish line. What sort of time do you think you'll do it in? Have you any idea at all?

Bubble: At the moment I'm just hoping that I finish before they open the roads back up! Laughs… They close the roads for it and at some stage they open the roads back up again, I think it's about 6 o'clock. So if you don't finish by then you could be running along and there could be cars coming past you.

LEE: You might be able to thumb a lift!

Bubble: I think if anyone sees me at that stage they might just run me down - laughs - and I don't want that! I'm aiming hopefully for 6 hours, that's the plan. If I can do it in four then I'll be happy. The sooner I finish the better, eh, cos that's some hard work!

LEE: Have you any idea what colour shirt you're going to wearing on the marathon?

Bubble: Green, well I reckon it could be green, at a guess.

LEE: It's so we can try and spot you!

Bubble: Laughs, I'll be the person with the hat and the Macmillan T-shirt! I'm sure I'll be easy to pick out… Laughs… out of 80 thousand people!

LEE: I was reading in the interview that Victoria did with Stuart, that she asked him if he was going to sponsor you and he said something like 'Well of course I will, but he hasn't asked me yet'.

Bubble: It's amazing isn't it I rang up…… Suddenly it goes very quiet and for a minute I think we might have got cut off

LEE: Hello - you still there?

Bubble: Yeah, I'm just lighting my cigarette, just bare with me one second… I 'tut tut' at him down the phone and he laughs…

Bubble: Anyway, I rang up Stuart straight away and asked him to do something on his site as well, he said it wouldn't be a problem at all, and of course I've asked him to sponsor me! And he said 'Yeah, when I see you next time I'll write it down.' So I'll see what he sponsors me. He's a good man is our Stuart. He's quite old with a receding hairline but other than that he's a good lad!

LEE: Right, I'm just having a look at some of the questions that have come in on the website for you. I've already asked you quite a lot of them. Various sounds of me going um and er and flicking through numerous sheets of paper…..

LEE: After the marathon are you still going to try and keep fit? Are you gonna do any exercise!

Bubble: No! When that Marathon finishes, I'm laying on my couch with the biggest pizza, my TV remote, and the whole series of 'Friends'. I'm just gonna sit there for like a week, watching Chandler.

LEE: Yeah you said that last week. Laughs.

Bubble: Yeah, me and gyms don't mix, ever. Even people by the name of Jim, never mind the other gym! Exercise, I don't like it.

LEE: So even after you've had you mega pizza fest, you're just gonna stay that way.

Bubble: Seriously, I've never had a problem with how I look, or fitness or anything like that. Hopefully though I will quit smoking, I am trying, I'm cutting down. If I can quit smoking I'll stick with that because that's bad for me, but the fitness thing… people say to me 'You'll get into it'. No I won't, ever! End of story, he laughs. I'm looking forward to getting unfit after I get fit! This is not about me getting fit, this is just about raising money for cancer.

LEE: Why cancer and Macmillan in particular? Was it just because they asked you or have you got personal reasons?

Bubble: There's numerous reasons actually. My family's been quite plagued by cancer to be honest. I've lost my uncle Billy, my auntie Mary had it, my cousin Lisa's had it. Luckily auntie Mary and Lisa have lived on, but my uncle Archie died a couple of days ago, well about a week ago now from Cancer.

LEE: Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that.

Bubble: So I've had cancer riddled through my family, my grandad went as well. Macmillan nurses are a credit to society that they just battle on, and the people that's raised money for them they're all stars too, because it's something that this country needs. You need to go with a bit of dignity, you need to know that you're not going to be left in some hospital to die. When we took my grandad home to die, rather than leaving him in hospital, it was really really nice to be able to say goodbye properly. Macmillan are an organisation that touched my family's heart, so it's a charity that we've always supported, and by coincidence I took Briony to a Steps concert, she likes Steps for some reason - he laughs. Don't get me wrong, they're very nice people and they put on a great show, I was quite impressed, but it's never been my kind of music…

LEE: They've split up now haven't they?

Bubble: I know, they've all finished haven't they? We went to see that and Briony was all excited because she got to meet Faye. Faye's lovely, Faye Tozier, really nice, as are Lisa and Lee. H and Claire I don't think we saw, but I'm sure they're lovely as well. Anyway, a friend of mine that I used to go to school with called Andy Harris was there, so I bumped into him and said 'Hello, how are you? Blah di blah' and he said 'You know I couldn't believe it seeing you on the telly,' and I was 'I know, it's mad eh', and he said 'What are you up to now', and I was telling him and I said 'What are you up to?' and he said, 'I work for Macmillan', and I went, 'Macmillan Nurses?', and he went 'Yeah, well it's called Macmillan Cancer Relief', and I went, 'Oh right', and he was talking about it and I said 'Well, if there is anyway I can help now that I've got this like mini celebrity status. If I can help in any way you just ring me', and he went 'Oh I will do'. So a few days later he did ring me and he asked a couple of things and I went 'No problem', so he said, 'What about running the marathon?', and I went, 'Ohhhh! Er….. alright!!' I think he was a bit shocked when I said yes.

LEE: I bet you were shocked when you said 'yes'!

Bubble: Laughs…but now I've also persuaded Josh Rafter and Suzanne Collins from Brookside to run with me as well. That's been confirmed now.

LEE: So is that official now, can I put that up? (Bubble had told me about Josh and Suzanne a few weeks ago, but had asked me to take it down from my previous write up of our conversation because Suzanne hadn't cleared it with her agent yet.)

Bubble: Yes, Josh Rafter is definitely confirmed and Suzanne Collins, yes. I'm looking forward to running with her, she's a blonde!! Josh you know, I'm not his type! Of all the celebrities that I've met since I've been out, Suzanne Collins is one of the nicest, most down to earth people that I've come across.

LEE: How did you meet her?

Bubble: I did a PA in Wiltshire and she was there with her boyfriend. It was quite amazing because there were lots of people there, it was the night of the England Germany game, so we watched the match first before going to do this PA. We just kind of bonded because I'm like, 'Get in there!', and you know I was getting all excited about the football. Her boyfriend was quite football orientated as well, and I think they saw someone that was just really down to earth and so we got chatting and we had a laugh, and we've kept in contact ever since.

LEE: I've just spotted another question I've been asked to asked you. If you had a friend who told you they were going to apply to BB3 would you advise them to do it for not?

Bubble: I have a friend who has applied for Big Brother 3.

LEE: You have? And what did you say to him?

Bubble: I said if I could help him out in any way with the application form he should let me know. Get on there as quick as you can, it's the experience of a lifetime, but if you've got anything to hide don't go on. If you've got a skeleton in your closet that you want to leave in your closet, leave it in there, don't go on the show.

LEE: No, cos there's not a hope in hell that the press wouldn't get hold of something really is there?

Bubble: No there's not, and that's why when I went in that house I knew that yes I had a drugs problem and I'd dealt with it, and that yes I'd been done for drink driving and I'd dealt with it, but it's something that when I went in there, I'm very proud to turn around and say that the press didn't pick that up on me, I told the country, I told them myself at the first opportunity. I said, this is what I've done wrong, you can judge me for it because I've put myself here, so you can judge me if you want, but I've learnt from my mistakes and thank God that I learnt when I did, because maybe if I hadn't have been banned for drink driving, I may have carried on and it's turned my life around.

LEE: How's that?

Bubble: It's quite a heart wrenching story. I went to a drink driving course and the only reason I went was because it cut down on my ban by 3 months, how pathetic is that? That's the only reason I went. I got there and the two ladies running it were fantastic, they showed this film that was a reconstruction of a father telling a story of him seeing his little girl at weekends, and straight away I related to it, cos that's what I do. His daughter was 17, and she'd gone to an under 18's rave that finished at half ten, so he went to pick her up. He walked to pick her up and as he was walking her home over a bridge, it was about 11 o'clock now, there was a car full of drink drivers, and they mounted the pavement and they crushed them both up against the wall on this bridge. They dragged them for about 200 yards…

LEE: That's horrible.

Bubble: … and they killed the little girl of 17, his daughter, and he was in hospital for about a year getting put back together. So I watched this reconstruction, and heard this father's heart breaking in his voice, and I just looked at him and I thought, wow, that could have been me driving that car, or even worse, it could have been me with my little girl'. I've never touched a drop of alcohol since, and I don't miss it, and from that day on I just became such a different person. It's amazing, you just grow up over night, and I thought, you know, oh my god, if I'd seen that 2 years ago I wouldn't have drunk then. I remember saying to Josh in the house, saying, well at the end of the day mate, if people want to slate me for being a convicted drinker I think that's fine, they have every right to do so. But if by me being here and talking about this, if just one person watches this tonight and it stops them driving home drunk, then it's all worthwhile, cos I could have saved someone's life.

LEE: Have you got any plans to do anything with any of the other housemates in the near future, apart from what we've already discussed here?

Bubble: Me and Dean and the record that will be great, me and Josh and the Marathon run, that won't be great but I'll do it!

Bubble: Like you said, the result will be great. Anything else?

Bubble: I think there might be something, there's a bit of talk, and how mad is this, of maybe Narinder and me doing a show together!

LEE: Narinder!

Bubble: Nah!! Laughs… No of course not!! Are you mad!!

LEE: Laughs!! You had me going there for a minute!

Bubble: No, no, no! There have been people who have bandying the idea around that maybe Narinder might be able to come down to Macmillan to support the cause. So Narinder, if you're out there and you see this interview, give us a call, we'd like to hear from you, see if you can help us raise some money for cancer. I'm trying to get hold of her number at the moment, so there you go.

LEE: Well you never know, I don't know whether she reads any of the websites, but if you're reading the Naz, 'Hi there', and phone Bubble!

Bubble: Yeah, someone the other day, on one of the other websites, said that Narinder had apologised and said to the press that she wants us to make up, so that's quite interesting, but it would be nice if she told me rather than telling everybody else. They'd said 'Well, what's Bubble's problem? Why has he got a problem with her?' So now, while I'm in an interview, why I have, or had, a problem with Narinder, was because she slated me and she called me things, which if I was them, maybe I could take on the chin. But I'm not racist, I'm not sexist, and I certainly didn't like the comment where, when asked what she thought when I fell over the table she said, 'I wish he had broken his back'.

LEE: Did she really, I didn't hear that, but I did hear some of the things she said on 'Big Brother's Little Brother'' and they weren't very nice.

Bubble: No. Well if she wants to make amends she needs to contact me. It will be a lot easier for her to make up with me than for me to do so with her.

LEE: Well, your Marathon Run is a very good excuse. Narinder if you do want to make up with Bubble get on the phone and help us all raise some money for Cancer Relief. Anyway Bubble, my tapes about to run out here so I'd like to thank you very much for finding the time to talk to us here at thisisbigbrother.com…

Bubble: It was a pleasure.

LEE: …and to wish you lot's of luck in the Marathon. We'll be supporting you and raising as much as possible on your behalf.

I hope you all enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed recording it, Bubble's a really nice guy and I found him very easy to talk to. I may not have got to meet him this time, but I'm sure that it won't be the last time I'll be talking to him, so maybe next time.