[Amy]

Interview with Big Brother presenter DAVINA McCALL

To some, the onset of summer is marked by cricket on village greens, cream teas and cucumber sandwiches, and outdooor performances of La Traviata. But for those of us who don�t inhabit a PG Wodehouse novel, the summer�s arrival is heralded by some of that season�s reassuring staples: Bald men with sunburnt heads, the sexes leering at each other�s uncovered body parts, and young children clutching an empty cornet and weeping as their raspberry ripple slowly melts into the tarmac.

And then there�s Big Brother. In five years, the most talked about show on television has become a summer staple like no other programme. If Davina McCall is getting excited about the new series of Big Brother (and boy, is she excited!), you can guarantee that the hot weather is just around the corner.

Not that you�d know it today. The windows of the south London photo studio where McCall is shooting her Big Brother publicity stills are gently pattering with the delicate rhythm of what can only be described as horizontal rain driven by hurricane-force winds. Despite this, Davina McCall�s disposition is sufficiently sunny to dispel all vestiges of gloom, as she bounces in looking unfeasibly cheerful and promising "to be gentle with me".

She�s happy for two reasons that I can work out. Firstly, it seems to be her natural state of being (and you thought it was just an act for the cameras), and secondly, because she�s about to resume her love affair with all things Big Brother. Since presenting the first series in 1999, McCall�s name has become synonymous with the show, and her celebrity status has rocketed accordingly. She readily acknowledges that she has much to thank Big Brother for, but that�s not behind her affection for it. This is a deeper, purer relationship than one of expedience � this is true love.

If Davina wasn�t presenting Big Brother, she�d be one of those enthusiastic, faintly unsettling types in the crowd on eviction night, waving a home-made banner and screaming excitedly. That she gets paid to turn up, and gets to meet the housemates, and ask them questions, is almost too good to be true. Her response, when I ask if she�d be ready to pass on the Big Brother torch to someone else, is telling:

"No. Definitely not. They�d have to cut off my right arm and prise the torch forcefully from my hand before I�d give it to anyone."

Fortunately, such an event seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, for just as Davina needs Big Brother, so the show depends on her fan-like enthusiasm, her chemistry with the housemates, and her all-round, jolly-hockey-sticks bonhomie.

With a handsome, outdoorsy husband, two young daughters, and a comfortable, rural lifestyle south of London, it�s not difficult to see where her upbeat nature comes from, but I am dimly aware, from my research, that McCall�s life is tinged with sorrow. Not one to shirk the difficult questions, I resolve to open with it, to see the real Davina, to understand her pain.

"You�re not allowed to keep pot-bellied pigs, are you?"

Just for a second, she winces, before the mask comes down. "No. I still don�t have any. It�s entirely down to my husband. It�s been vetoed. The point of a pot-bellied pig is that they are house pets � it�s not a garden thing. They are tame, they�re house-trained, they go out to the garden for wees and everything. But he couldn�t get his head around having a pig in the house, so it�s been vetoed. And unless I go out with George Clooney, who once kept a pig called Max, sadly deceased, then it�s never going to happen."

So there you have it: Davina McCall is the only woman in the world who would like to date George Clooney in memory of his pig!

She�s a born performer, and started out by trying to make it as a pop star. She made a record, but says it wasn�t meant to be. "I can roughly sing in tune, but to be absolutely honest, my voice was by no means different enough to warrant being a singer. One of the great things about Celine Dion � love her or loathe her � is that you know who it is the minute you hear her. Same with Mariah Carey or Joss Stone. They�ve got a really distinctive sound, and that�s what I didn�t have."

Instead, TV beckoned, and with her natural good looks and easy charm, she quickly won a following presenting shows such as Don�t Try This at Home and the incomparable Streetmate. I tell her I miss the dating show in which she would match up random punters on the street, and she confesses that she loved the show. She�s as soppy as they come, and used to love it when matches worked. I allude to one specific participant, and she immediately gives me his name, his date�s name, and the town they were from (all correct). Thus, it is with heavy heart that I inform her that the participant in question lied about his single status � indeed, he was dating a friend of mine until she saw him taking out another woman on the telly.

"No!" she shrieks, genuinely scandalised. "He had a girlfriend! God forbid that I see that man again. That makes me so angry. It just makes it a complete waste of time. For me, the only reason I�m doing it is because I think that somebody might actually get together. That excitement, and the possibility of true romance coming out of it was just brilliant."

True romance arrived in McCall�s life in the form of a man she met walking his dog in a London park, and went on to marry. They have two girls, aged three and one, who the nation watched growing, it seemed by the day, inside Davina during Big Brother series two and four. Family life is now her main priority, superseding even the treasured Big Brother. "I hang out with them as much as I can. My husband has just had a complete career change, and is training to be a mountain leader and teach climbing, mountain biking and kayaking. I�ve been sucked into that as well, because if I don�t do that, I never see him. It�s brilliant � we go out like real nerds with our Ordinance Survey map and plan our routes and everything." Ah, the glamour of showbiz!

Between family life and presenting, she�s also become a passionate advocate of Comic Relief, which she says has changed her life completely. "It�s changed my views and outlook towards other people, and hopefully has made me less selfish and less self-absorbed. Once you�ve seen the utter, utter, abject poverty in the world, it puts the routine problems of one�s own life into some sort of perspective.

"Before I went out to Africa to film for Comic Relief, I�d never seen poverty like that. I�d have nice holidays abroad where I�d never see real, grinding poverty. And I think once you�ve seen it, and seen it first-hand, you�re aware that it�s always going on; it�s not going away when you leave. As I�m flying back relaxing on some lovely plane, there are still people living their lives in slums.

"It�s the one good thing about celebrity. Well, there are lots of good things, like being able to get a table at The Ivy," she winks, "but the really good thing about being a celebrity is that you�re able to affiliate your name to a cause and get a message across to people. That�s an amazingly intense thing to be able to do, and I try to do that with issues I really care about."

The bills still need paying, though, and for the next few months, it�s back to Big Brother. What, I wonder, are her favourite moments from previous series? It�s a question she�s doubtless been asked every five minutes for the last six years, but far from being jaded (no Big Brother pun intended) she can�t seem to rein herself in to just the hundred-odd favourite moments.

There�s talk of Paul and Helen falling in love, Kate falling over drunk, the saintly Cameron finally losing his temper, Nasty Nick�s unmasking, an intimate conversation between Brian and Narinder, the rich and poor divide � basically everything that was ever shown on camera� and more.

"One of my favourite moments wasn�t on camera. It was in series one, and I was rehearsing a piece in the diary room. I�d left the house, and the director said into my earpiece: �Er, Davina, have you got your phone with you?� And I�d left it in the diary room. The housemates had got hold of it � thank God it wasn�t switched on � and they were all looking at it in awe, going �It�s a phone!� They were all terrified by the sudden arrival of this piece of equipment. �What do we do with it?� �Shall we take it?� �Nooo!� It was just a phone! Anyway, Big Brother asked them to return it."

Another favourite moment � when Craig gave his winner�s money to his friend Joanne to pay for an operation � literally brings Davina out in goose bumps. I worry she�s about to cry, though fortunately, the moment passes (the photographer waiting downstairs would never forgive me if Davina emerged puffy-eyed, all streaked mascara and snotty nosed).

"I also loved it every time Nadia got angry. I know that�s an awful thing to say, but she was so fiery and passionate and Mediterranean, and I love that. I love somebody who just says �I am who I am, take it or leave it. I don�t mind if you see me angry, or if you see me crying."

For those who really have been inhabiting a PG Wodehouse novel for the last year, Nadia was the wildly popular transsexual who won last summer�s Big Brother at a stiletto-clad canter. Does McCall think the choice of winner says something about our society?

"Just look at who�s won in the past. The first series was Craig, but it was nearly Anna [the Lesbian former nun]. The second year, Brian, who was gay. The third year was Kate, then next was Cameron, who was devoutly religious. Now who would�ve thought that Cameron would win it one year, and the next year, a transsexual female would win? It�s not as if there�s a theme developing. We�re just going for the person that we love the most. That�s what I love about the Brits � it doesn�t matter who you are, what you look like, what you represent, what you�ve been, what you�ve done. If we love you, we love you."

Does she know anything about this year�s show? "Yes, I do. I know little bits about the kind of tasks, and the kind of atmosphere that the housemates are going to be living in, and it�s going to be brilliant. I can�t tell you any more than that, but it�s going to be absolutely fantastic. I couldn�t believe what they came up with. They keep producing these brilliant ideas from nowhere. Honestly, completely seriously, this year�s show is going to be brilliant."

And you can be sure she means it.

Outside, the rain has stopped, and shafts of sunlight are beginning to emerge from behind the clouds. The promise of summer is in the air, and Big Brother is almost with us.

[Amy]

Interview with Big Brother�s Little Brother presenter DERMOT O�LEARY

Presenters of �yoof� TV are much like Ibiza holiday reps: They�re young, energetic, fun, and lively, have better tans than everyone else, and possess the intellect of a grapefruit. For the presenters, the ability to wear designer clothes, smile, and read an autocue of monosyllabic words is their ticket to stardom, the best tables in the hottest clubs, and a celebrity partner with whom to produce beautiful, chisel-jawed, vacuous yoof-TV presenter children.

So Dermot O�Leary comes as no surprise. He positively brims with good-natured energy and youthful vitality, he looks fit (in every sense of the word) and has no wonky teeth. He looks casually trendy in a black shirt, jeans and trainers. In short (well, he�s not exactly tall) he�s just what you�d expect.

Except that�s not quite the whole story.

His favourite magazine is Prospect, a brilliant but brain-achingly sophisticated monthly collection of weighty political essays and cultural debate. He is a dedicated campaigner for Make Poverty History, and studied Media and Politics at Middlesex University. He has a passion for newspapers and books, and talks with the same easygoing eloquence about third world debt as he does when discussing former Big Brother contestants. In a bizarre twist on the clich�d image of a person on the tube reading Heat tucked inside a copy of Prospect, with O�Leary, it�s more likely to be the other way around. For heaven�s sake, he discussed debt relief with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Bill Clinton yesterday. Today, it�s conversation with me. Talk about an exciting couple of days!

Bless him, though. If doing the squillionth interview of his career (ahead of the return of Big Brother on Channel 4 this May) in a pokey make-up room during a photo shoot break is less interesting than correcting global injustice with world leaders in front of a TV audience of millions, you�d never know it. He�s charm itself � attentive, warm, and chatty � and manages to convey the impression that nobody has ever asked him anything quite as interesting as �who have been your favourite Big Brother contestants?�

And what of Prospect? Does he really read it, or just put it on the coffee table for people to see? �I absolutely love it, I really do. The more politics they do, the better. I don�t tend to read the fiction they do in it sometimes. One of my favourite issues was a whole magazine dedicated to the UN. It was brilliant. I took it on holiday, and my girlfriend�s looking at me like I�m some sort of weirdo. �We�re in the Mediterranean, this is the week to turn off, and you�re reading a magazine about the UN.� But it was addictive.�

When he�s not reading up on the latest political treatise or grilling ex-presidents, O�Leary�s something of an accomplished marathon runner. In this year�s London Marathon (his third) he ran under four hours for the first time. �It was hellish, absolutely hellish! I was over the moon with the time, but I�ve really only enjoyed it in retrospect. It was the least enjoyable marathon I�ve run, because I was pushing myself so hard to get under four hours. But you still have these three or four moments when someone shouts out your name � not �cos you�re on the telly, but because you�re name�s on your shirt � and you well-up. The crowd are unbelievable. It�s really strange.�

Sport is not just something he indulges in; he�s a keen viewer as well � when he can get away with it. �I live with my girlfriend now � we�ve done so for the last four months � and your viewing habits just can�t help but change. You lose that battle. I�m watching a lot less sport, which I hate. I have to negotiate how much live sport I can watch now. My girlfriend always says �Can�t you tape it?� Of course I can�t! It�s live sport, it doesn�t work like that. I am allowed to watch Arsenal games, though.�

If some of his female admirers are becoming a little disillusioned (he lives with his girlfriend AND likes televised sport) it gets worse. He�s also got just about the strangest habit you�ll ever see outside of a David Lynch film: He kisses his bedroom window every day.

�Yes, I admit it�s really weird. It�s disturbing, isn�t it?� he roars, looking anything but disturbed. �I�m less obsessive-compulsive about it than I used to be. When I was little � this is a Catholic education for you � I used to kiss the window and say a prayer.� So window-kissing is a recognised part of Catholic education? �Well, er, no.� So where does it come from? �I�ve no idea.� Shall we move on to Big Brother? �God, yes!�

O�Leary�s role in Big Brother is presenting Big Brother�s Little Brother (henceforth to be referred to as BBLB to prevent typing-induced RSI) the daily teatime show that looks at all things Big Brother with a chirpy irreverence embodied by its presenter. Having started as �a backstreet squirt of a show,� a low-key addendum to Big Brother, under O�Leary it�s developed into one of the mainstays of the schedule.

�A lot of it�s to do with the fact that most fanzine shows go out immediately after the main show, so there�s not that much to talk about � it�s all been covered. But we pre-empt the nightly show, which adds quite a lot to what we can discuss. And also, we�re quite cheeky, which I think people like. I don�t think BBLB�s ever been 100 per cent subservient to the main show. Then there�s the fact that we try and keep ourselves in the dark a bit. That way, we can impart a sense of surprise and excitement to the viewer. People are sophisticated enough these days to know when you�re faking that.�

As a decent sort, with a moral conscience, how does he react to the idea that Big Brother is exploitative, taking advantage of people�s desire to be on TV and then humiliating them for public entertainment? �I think of all the reality shows, Big Brother is the most honest. That�s what I like about it. People that are going in the house know exactly what to expect. They�ve got no complaints when they come out. They know they�re going to have two weeks of notoriety, and then it will tail off. And they�ll make a lot of money in those two weeks.

�The chances are, nine times out of ten, I would imagine that people have gone in the house and said that their lives have changed for the better, be it financial or otherwise, when they come out. It doesn�t promise anything, that you�re going to be a pop star or a TV star. Unless you�re a Nadia or a Jade, and you can�t train to be a Nadia or a Jade.�

Speaking of the contestants, who have been his favourites? (Eat your heart out, Paxman!) �Shell, for obvious reasons! She�s absolutely gorgeous, to the point where I can say this in an interview and my girlfriend will read it and agree with me. I also always thought that John Tickle was a vastly underrated housemate. I see him every now and again, he�s a great bloke. Last year, I adored Victor. I thought he was fantastic � and quite unfairly treated by the press. He was a big black guy who liked Nike, and so regardless of the fact that he was arguing with an absolutely mental Mancunian, he was always going to come out of that being made to look like the aggressor. And Ahmed I loved, because he didn�t take himself seriously at all, and yet he took himself so seriously.

�He came out of the house, and came on BBLB. We always do these little pre-title teasers at the start of the show � just a little throwaway joke. And the props girl had built this foam sandwich. [During Big Brother, Ahmed had complained about being pressurised regarding who to nominate, announcingforcefully �I�m not a sandwich!�] We got Ahmed to lie in it, and he was to say �I�ve changed my mind, I am a sandwich.� He was more than happy to do that. So he lay in the sandwich and then asked the props girl �What�s this red stuff?� She said �Oh, I dunno, bacon?� And he said �I won�t lie in bacon, I�m a Muslim.� So she answered �Okay, then, it�s tomato.� He was having none of it. �No, you said it was bacon.� They were both slightly missing the point � it was a piece of foam. Anyway, he did the sandwich bit, but only after we�d taken the bacon out.�

The interview is coming to a close. Pizza�s arrived, it�s lunchtime on the photo set downstairs (at which, it�s worth noting, Dermot spends most of his time rushing around clearing up and checking people have got enough to eat and drink). Is there, I ask, anything he can tell us about the new series of Big Brother? A little snippet to whet the appetite of the shows legion of fans?

�I�m 100 per cent serious when I tell you that they don�t tell me anything ahead of time. They know they can�t trust me. I will tell anyone � I�m a terrible blabbermouth and gossip. If I know something, I feel duty bound to tell the first person that asks. In interviews, in casual conversation, with friends, with friends of friends, loose acquaintances, my newsagent, anyone.�

It�s this improbable mental image of him in his newsagent that sums up the contradictions that make up Dermot O�Leary, showbiz presenter, Big Brother fan, window-kisser and political philosopher: �The latest Prospect magazine, please. The one with the article about the rise of the new right in Eastern Europe. Incidentally, have you heard the latest on Big Brother? You won�t believe this��

[Amy]

RUSSELL BRAND PRESENTS BIG BROTHER�S BIG MOUTH ON E4

Russell Brand brings his comical genius once more to E4 this summer, following last year�s Big Brother�s EFOURUM, as he presents E4�s thrice-weekly topical discussion programme, Big Brother�s Big Mouth.

A little background information on Russell Brand
Russell made his theatrical debut, aged fifteen, in Bugsy Malone as Fat Sam. Essex council decreed it criminally neglectful to allow this chameleon-like ability to put on hats to go un-nurtured and promptly funded an education at the Italia Conti stage school, which lead to a three-year scholarship at the Drama Centre in Camden.

In his spare time Russell began performing stand-up in pubs around London and reached the final of the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition. Brand was denied the victory that many assumed would be his (allegations of jury rigging came to naught) but was a runner-up, and his angry young man political rantings caught the eye of Time Out's Malcolm Hay who dubbed him "Essex's Bill Hicks".

Further gigs at the Hackney Empire followed and a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival with more flattering reviews and an appearance in the final of So You Think You�re Funny?

MTV caught Russell's show at the Festival and gave him his own series, Dance Floor Chart, where he bantered bizarrely with intoxicated youths in discos. Additionally he presented Select, their flagship tea-time phone in show. When Jackass arrived in Blighty, Russell was afforded the dubious privilege of promoting it for MTV UK.

RE:BRAND followed for UK Play - "a challenging look at cultural taboos" - and over ten episodes Russell had a boxing match with his Father (long before Dennis v Mortimer), had a bath with a homeless man (who he had living in his bed), acted as pimp to a heroin-addicted prostitute and tried to convert the leader of the young BNP to socialism.

Russell also presented his own show on Sunday afternoons for XFM, acted in Channel 4's White Teeth (as Merlin � a hippy commune leader/drug dealer), the Steve Coogan vehicle Cruise of the Gods, and hosted/ wrote The Russell Brand for Channel 4�s Comedy Lab series.

Summer 2004 saw Russell host E4�s live Big Brother discussion series EFOURUM, and present Kings of Comedy for E4, in between which he took his one man show Better Now to the Edinburgh Festival � a hilariously honest chronicle of Russell�s odyssey through a twilight world of *****s, heroin and hairdos, demonstrating that the road of excess leads to the palace of unemployment. The show was a complete sell out and received four and five-star reviews in The Times, The Guardian, The Scotsman and The Metro among others.

Russell has a number of exciting projects in development and has most recently been seen hosting Celebrity Big Brother�s EFOURUM on E4.

[BigSister]

Thanks for those amy. intresting reading...

[lizzie_bb5]

Yeah thanks! x

[kaphc]

Thanks for this Amy. Interestingly enough, the quotes from Davina and Dermot are also in this week's edition of "New!" magazine, but the article isn't half as well-written or interesting. Looks like they've done a blanket interview for the press and then each publication can use the quotes as they want.

[Mike]

Nice one Amy..

[Amy]

Updated Interviews!!!!!

Davina...

Interview with Big Brother presenter DAVINA McCALL

Since presenting the first series in 1999, Davina McCall’s name has become synonymous with Big Brother and her celebrity status has rocketed accordingly. She readily acknowledges that she has much to thank Big Brother for, but that’s not behind her affection for it. This is a deeper, purer relationship than one of expedience – this is true love and she flatly refuses to pass the torch to anyone else.
"No. Definitely not. They’d have to cut off my right arm and prise the torch forcefully from my hand before I’d give it to anyone."

On her favourite moments from previous series…..
"One of my favourite moments wasn’t on camera. It was in series one, and I was rehearsing a piece in the diary room. I’d left the house, and the director said into my earpiece: ‘Er, Davina, have you got your phone with you?’ And I’d left it in the diary room. The housemates had got hold of it – thank God it wasn’t switched on – and they were all looking at it in awe, going ‘It’s a phone!’ They were all terrified by the sudden arrival of this piece of equipment. ‘What do we do with it?’ ‘Shall we take it?’ ‘Nooo!’ It was just a phone! Anyway, Big Brother asked them to return it."

“Another favourite moment – when Craig gave his winner’s money to his friend Joanne to pay for an operation – literally brings me out in goose bumps”

"I also loved it every time Nadia got angry. I know that’s an awful thing to say, but she was so fiery and passionate and Mediterranean, and I love that. I love somebody who just says ‘I am who I am, take it or leave it. I don’t mind if you see me angry, or if you see me crying."

On the public’s choice of winner…..
"Just look at who’s won in the past. The first series was Craig, but it was nearly Anna [the Lesbian former nun]. The second year, Brian, who was gay. The third year was Kate, then next was Cameron, who was devoutly religious. Now who would’ve thought that Cameron would win it one year, and the next year, a transsexual female would win? It’s not as if there’s a theme developing. We’re just going for the person that we love the most. That’s what I love about the Brits – it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, what you represent, what you’ve been, what you’ve done. If we love you, we love you."

On Big Brother series six…..
"Yes, I know little bits about the kind of tasks, and the kind of atmosphere that the housemates are going to be living in, and it’s going to be brilliant. I can’t tell you any more than that, but it’s going to be absolutely fantastic. I couldn’t believe what they came up with. They keep producing these brilliant ideas from nowhere. Honestly, completely seriously, this year’s show is going to be brilliant."

[Amy]

Dermot... ....

Interview with Big Brother’s Little Brother presenter DERMOT O’LEARY


Dermot O’Leary positively brims with good-natured energy and youthful vitality; he looks fit (in every sense of the word), has studied Media and Politics at Middlesex University, is a dedicated campaigner for Make Poverty History and his favourite magazine is Prospect. He has a passion for newspapers and books, and talks with the same easygoing eloquence about third world debt as he does when discussing former Big Brother contestants.

He’s also got just about the strangest habit you’ll ever see outside of a David Lynch film: He kisses his bedroom window every day.
“Yes, I admit it’s really weird. It’s disturbing, isn’t it?” he roars, looking anything but disturbed. “I’m less obsessive-compulsive about it than I used to be. When I was little – this is a Catholic education for you – I used to kiss the window and say a prayer.” But back to Big Brother….

On the success of Big Brother’s Little Brother….
“A lot of it’s to do with the fact that most fanzine shows go out immediately after the main show, so there’s not that much to talk about – it’s all been covered. But we pre-empt the nightly show, which adds quite a lot to what we can discuss. And also, we’re quite cheeky, which I think people like. I don’t think BBLB’s ever been 100 per cent subservient to the main show. Then there’s the fact that we try and keep ourselves in the dark a bit. That way, we can impart a sense of surprise and excitement to the viewer. People are sophisticated enough these days to know when you’re faking that.”

On reality TV…..
“I think of all the reality shows, Big Brother is the most honest. That’s what I like about it. People that are going in the house know exactly what to expect. They’ve got no complaints when they come out. They know they’re going to have two weeks of notoriety, and then it will tail off. And they’ll make a lot of money in those two weeks.”

“The chances are, nine times out of ten, I would imagine that people have gone in the house and said that their lives have changed for the better, be it financial or otherwise, when they come out. It doesn’t promise anything, that you’re going to be a pop star or a TV star. Unless you’re a Nadia or a Jade, and you can’t train to be a Nadia or a Jade.”

On his favourite Big Brother housemates…..
“Shell, for obvious reasons! She’s absolutely gorgeous, to the point where I can say this in an interview and my girlfriend will read it and agree with me. I also always thought that John Tickle was a vastly underrated housemate. I see him every now and again, he’s a great bloke. Last year, I adored Victor. I thought he was fantastic – and quite unfairly treated by the press. He was a big black guy who liked Nike, and so regardless of the fact that he was arguing with an absolutely mental Mancunian, he was always going to come out of that being made to look like the aggressor. And Ahmed I loved, because he didn’t take himself seriously at all, and yet he took himself so seriously.

“He came out of the house, and came on BBLB. We always do these little pre-title teasers at the start of the show – just a little throwaway joke. And the props girl had built this foam sandwich. [During Big Brother, Ahmed had complained about being pressurised regarding who to nominate, announcing forcefully “I’m not a sandwich!”] We got Ahmed to lie in it, and he was to say ‘I’ve changed my mind, I am a sandwich.’ He was more than happy to do that. So he lay in the sandwich and then asked the props girl ‘What’s this red stuff?’ She said ‘Oh, I dunno, bacon?’ And he said ‘I won’t lie in bacon, I’m a Muslim.’ So she answered ‘Okay, then, it’s tomato.’ He was having none of it. ‘No, you said it was bacon.’ They were both slightly missing the point – it was a piece of foam. Anyway, he did the sandwich bit, but only after we’d taken the bacon out.”

On Big Brother series six….
“I’m 100 per cent serious when I tell you that they don’t tell me anything ahead of time. They know they can’t trust me. I will tell anyone – I’m a terrible blabbermouth and gossip. If I know something, I feel duty bound to tell the first person that asks. In interviews, in casual conversation, with friends, with friends of friends, loose acquaintances, my newsagent, anyone.”