Day 2: EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Christopher

We took the chance to speak to Christopher after his exit from the Big Brother House…

What was launch night like, and how did you feel going into the House?
Er, launch night was amazing – I really enjoyed it. It was nerve wracking standing behind the eye, but before that during the day itself you’re kinda just locked in a room so you’re just raring to do and rearing to go. The room I was in had no windows or anything so I was just waiting to burst out, so when I came out from behind the eye I was just rearing to go. I loved it, I really really enjoyed it. My nerves just dissipated, and just went for it and had a really good night.

Was your first night in the House everything you expected it to be?
Yeah, it was! It was just full of twists and turns like Mark winning the £5,000 and Matthew up in the air like David Blaine up in his glass box as well it felt really surreal! So you spent all evening pottering around the House and trying to see who you got along with and who you could chat too, cause you’re trying to figure a lot of things out. You’re trying to think and you’re like oh I need a bed, I need to unpack and then you want to introduce yourself to everybody, so there was a lot of small talk and a lot of figuring out who you were going to be mates with. There’s a lot to do on launch night and it was just an amazing atmosphere in there.

You faced eviction six times, including the secret Armageddon eviction where you didn’t know you were nominated. Where in the game did you expect to leave?
I went in there on Day 1 with the goal of staying until the end I didn’t think I could win, but I really wanted to stay until the end so I could have the full experience and say I’ve done everything, and I thought it would be an achievement for a massive fan, someone who’d watched the show for many years, the final was the goal for me. Then I got in there and I found it really quite tough, like I’m a really active person and usually outside the House I’m a runner and I’d go running 10-15km four times a week. So I went in there and I thought oh my gosh I feel really claustrophobic and the environment really challenged me for a while. Just how small it was, even when you looked up at the sky in the garden, the sky had a net over it.

So at night, because the lights were so powerful the lights hit the net and you couldn’t see the moon or anything. You felt quite boxed in – so it was a strange atmosphere for me to begin with. There’s no way in hell that I could last in here for ten weeks. So it all then changed and it was just to see how far I could go, and how much I could cope with really, but it got to around week 7 and I thought, yeah I really would like to be in the final. I really started to enjoy myself a lot more around week 5/week 6 and came out of my shell a lot more.

The series was Big Brother: Power Trip, and the power was a huge part of the series throughout – but you didn’t get the power until the final week for the power task with you and Ash. Would you have liked to have the power earlier so you could have made some big decisions?
Yeah, I always said I wanted the power in there just because it was power trip and I didn’t want to be the one who came out of a show called power trip, and never had the power. But it was a curse and it backfired on everybody in there that got it I think, everyone who got the power made a lot of enemies in the House and ended up getting nominated and evicted. People started to see it more of a curse than a blessing and every time you would wish for the power, you would see what the power did and how it upset the power Housemates. And in the last week I was delighted that I had the power, but it was just a big con so Big Brother didn’t think I was up to having the power but that’s fine by me.

Which week do you think was the worst to have the power?
Which power task was the worst… Pauline’s killer nomination was quite nasty. I didn’t really like that, another one was the week that Ashleigh, Mark and Chris formed the power alliance. I found that one really tough. You wouldn’t know either cause they were all running around the House and it was always quite secretive, and everyone was doing everything they could to not implicate themselves. Like, “Yeah I don’t know what’s going on this week. Nominations have been revealed one day at a time and I don’t know what’s happening this week” and everyone was trying to put people off the sent. So it was a massive shock to find out that it was Ashleigh and Mark. I wouldn’t have wanted that decision, it upset a lot of people. Some people couldn’t take being nominated I think it was Steven who got very upset about being nominated but he’d been saved from the public vote for two weeks running. So I told him, you know what, man up Steven. You can’t keep relying on being saved from the vote. Ultimately, people in the House got really upset about being up for eviction, like I’d been up five or six times. If the public wants you to stay, it’s their show, they will keep you here. If not then just go. Keep your dignity and just go.

One thing about being up for eviction, was that the public was able to save one Housemate via a poll one week, and they decided to save Ashleigh. However we found out on the highlights that Ash was saved and Ashleigh put in his place. How did this affect Ashleigh and the House in general?
Ashleigh reacted remarkably well to that, but Ashleigh is a very strong girl and is always very a level headed person. Ashleigh was always fine with the idea of facing the public vote, Ashleigh wasn’t going to cling on to be in there if people didn’t want her there. She’d be more than prepared to leave, she only wanted to stay as long as people wanted her to stay, and I remember during the battery draining task where she had a chance to save herself, and it was in fact Marlon who saved himself, I remember saying to her “drain it, go on drain the battery and go for it” and she said no I’m not doing it, I have too much self respect to do that, so she was always quite calm and level headed in that way.

Luke A, the winner of Big Brother 2012 asked: Did you know that you had the same chaperone as me?
I did! Yes, whenever I was in hiding with the chaperon I asked him if he’d done this before and he said he’d previously looked after Luke A, as well. He was full of praise for him and said Luke is an absolutely lovely guy, and I heard very lovely things about Luke.

Cal asks Do you think you remained the same person from your launch VT to the person we saw in the House?
Erm, I don’t think I changed. It’s just I am still a very opinionated person. It’s just in there, you’re not constantly talking about the kind of issues I’m interested in. I’m the kind of person who would happily sit down and have a debate on immigration and politics. And they’re not really conversations for the Big Brother House, like you’re in there with people, like a lot of clever people but they’re not really Big Brother issues. Nobody tunes into Big Brother to hear a debate about those kind of things. On those issues, I am extremely passionate. I’m not an argumentative or confrontational person, but if there’s something I’m passionate about I do stand up for it, and I don’t think I had many opportunities to discuss things I was passionate about. In the early weeks, for whatever reason, I did change. When I went in I was really quiet and went into my shell, I think I became worried about airing an opinion or talking about things, I was really worried. I found the atmosphere shocking and it really threw me off, and it took me a long time to settle in and talk normally and to feel free and to talk about whatever I wanted, and from Week 5 I thought you know what you’ve been here a long time now, calm down and try and enjoy it.

Matt asks, How much did you value your friendship with Ashleigh and Chris in the House?
Immensely. Ashleigh is an incredible girl, and is such a wise head and what distinguishes Ashleigh from a lot of people her age is that not only is she quite mature for her age, its that she has the confidence, she has a lot of confidence and she’s quite inspirational in that way. I think she’s very passionate about a lot of particular issues, shes a very ethical person and has strong morals and would always talk about current issues. I have a lot of respect, and I wish her well and I know she’s going to get a lot of work from Big Brother.
Chris, I worship the man I absolutely adore him. We were on the same level so much of the time and he really got me, he really understood me. I felt he looked for the best in people and that’s what I do. I find him a sweet genuine warm good natured guy and I warmed to him straight away.

Finally, Celebrity Big Brother is here! 14 new Housemates went into what is effectively your House! Is it weird seeing people in a place where you’ve lived for so long and watching them walk around your home?
I can’t believe they’re going to be in my House it does feel like your House and Rylan said that to me before we went in. Rylan came around all of the Housemates dressing rooms and introduced himself and say Hi and he came in and said look just really enjoy it, all of the former Housemates watch it back and say what have they done to my House? You get really protective over the House and you look back on it really fondly and every series you look and say “what have they done? What did they change? Why have they done that?” They’re very protective over your House. But it’s odd because they haven’t changed the House that much over the weekend so it’s pretty much the same House and I’m enjoying watching the celebrities run around in it.