Hang on in there Mark. It would be a duller, less likeable programme without you.

Must be really bad,if Mark is feeling like walking

He hasn't been shown a lot recently,hope he regroups,and get back to the happy go lucky Mark.

Definitely. We need some lightheartedness and fun. I guess cabin fever has set in! I know I'd have the urge to want to get out of the house and want my freedom for a bit.

I think he misses Heaven somewhat, he liked her kooky ways It's hard to sustain a smile and a cheery front day in, day out. No doubt they've all had one or two downer days, let's hope that Mark shakes off his doubts about staying.

If only we could let him know he's one of the faves to win and has a lot of support!

Here's a few updates from this morning. The HMs have been given a task:

1025: Mark's trying to persuade jay to let him get some new horny devil boxer shorts as his luxury item this week

1106: The workers have been given porridge for breakfast. Mark and Aaron have done the inevitable http://ow.ly/i/ivhB

1123: Aaron and Mark are now having a water fight in the toy factory. Anton's going over the fine print in the office with Jay

1140: Mark & Aaron have have gone all sick note. They're now playing pool in the office and getting Jay to make horse noises over the tannoy

Looks like we might get a Mark-centric HLs tomorrow night, judging by the updates form the shopping task. He's getting up to a lot of mischief

yeah, he sounds all right. And he is still close to Aaron and harry without being at odds particularly with anyone else.

Yesterday him and Aaron made me smile when Aaron said about the cushion, no one said anythng and Mark said 'I got it' and Aaron thanked him. For a not very exciting HL show, that made me chuckle!!!

I thought he was funny in the truckers outfit but have so far failed to find a way to copy it from the video, being such a techno-iggie. I tried pressing a hitherto unknown button on my keyboard labelled 'print scr', but it didn't do anything.

When you do print screen,don't you then have to do a right click and paste somewhere? I know I ued to do that to add stuff from web pages to word docs.

So seems Mark could be leaving, which is a real shame. I did decide after tonight show to have a BB hol and would come back once, either Anton, Jay or Aden had gone. But with no Mark there, not sure I will.

I hope he stays for all that like him,he will get a roasting if he does though, but still be good if he didn't but don't blame him if he does.

He doesn't sound like someone storming out in a bad mood. He sounds as if he has really made up his mind. Oh bum. It would actually be worth people paying me not to support their favourite housemate - they never win and that would be two years in a row my favourite has walked out.

The Curse of Wonkey Support.

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Anyway just popped in to show a bit of support for Mark. I really hope he has a change of heart and stays. He is a truly nice chap! Lovely guy.

*crosses fingers*

Me too. It does appear though that he has left BB. With his departure I now am finished with this year's BB. Very disappointed.

Uck no, so he left then. Shame. Genuinely nice HMs are few and far between so I'm disppointed he has gone. Best of luck to him!

It's sad that one of the only interesting housemates left! The show will be duller and less interesting without him there.

Woe. Perhaps I should make a big thing about supporting Aden now, in the hope that it will inspire him to walk out as well.

Mark's exit is a huge loss for bb12, a series that cannot afford to lose any of its few interesting housemates (and one of the few who didn't just follow the party line on nominations).

My dislike for the way bb12 is developing at first made me want Mark to go, just to give the series the punch in the guts it so richly deserved, but then I thought about the consequences, the housemates it would leave with even less support, the way certain housemates' control of the house would increase, and how I'd miss his random, surreal take on things. Come on! Who'd ever nominated someone by likening them to two different way to prepare potatoes?

I can't say I liked Mark from the start. I thought he was just putting on a contrived performance. And then he didn't really stand out to me. Like he said about Maisy, he was always "just there". It's only been in the last day or two that I've come to notice the way he is with other HMs and to appreciate him.

Then, when it seemed he might leave, I started thinking of what bb12 would be like without him.

He reminds me of bb11 housemates -- but only in good ways. BB11 didn't work as a series, but it had some unusual, interesting HMs. BB had gone out of its way to find people who would not normally apply, and in quite a few cases, the results were good, meaning that those HMs were multi-dimensional people of some depth that had ways of thinking or acting that were worth watching and thinking about, even though some of them were irritating or unpleasant as well.

I'm not saying Mark would have fit in bb11, just that he was another HM like that. And that's something bb12 desperately needs.

I've always had a lot of respect for housemates who walk out. I know they're mostly disliked in DS:BB and are called cowards and attention-seekers. But I think that most of them were genuinely finding life in the house difficult, or had realised it just wasn't for them, and that often their leaving took courage and determination. And the HMs who walk are often unusual HMs, rather than the typical sorts we see again and again.

Appreciation threads have not taken off this year. Perhaps, in a way, that's a good thing. Perhaps it means people are more objective, less partisan. But the main forum doesn't feel more objective or less partisan to me, and would it really be a good thing for everyone to be 'objective', not care about any of the HMs, and instead just sit back and watch them like they were ants under a rock?

I think there's a different explanation. Or, rather, two of them. First that, with the way the show is presented this year and (sorry, but I have to mention it) with no live coverage at all, it's been to hard to get to know the HMs who haven't been part of the main story lines BB has chosen to highlight. And second, that too many of the HMs are not interesting or engaging enough. There's not enough to them.

Mark was an exception to the 2nd, but unfortunately not to the 1st.

And now he's out. This saddens me, and I will remember him.

Really sad,from a selfish view,i didn't want him to go,but he did what's best for him,rather than stay in there being unhappy.

Veri:Excellent post.

Wonky: Did you really have to support Mark?Last year just when i started to like Shabs,she walked,then same happened with Keeva,and this year it is Mark...ffs.

Such a shame that he's gone - he was my least favourite on launch night but few housemates have made me change my mind so quickly. He was one of the funniest housemates we've had on the show, and in his serious moments he came across as a really nice bloke and seemed to give great advice and support to other housemates.

Brill post.

Mark has been just like you say "just there" and we havent been able to get to know him but like you I really liked him and enjoyed watching the friendship he had with Aaron and that he really needed Aaron's support which shows me he is not as confident as first thought.

Wish he hadnt gone

Agree.

Yes, agree Veri.

Re. my record of supporting people who walk, maybe it is not entirely coincidence. I like people who don't quite fit in, and there was always a slight edge of - what? - not as strong as tragedy, melancholy maybe - to Mark's comic turns.

I'm gutted Mark has left, and like others, was really getting to appreciate him as a HM over the past week or so. I've been looking back at some of the clips on C5s site, there seem to be a fair few featuring Mark.


Great post Veri, and I echo this part especially, as I've never thought of any HM that walks as 'flaky' or whatever else people like to call them. It takes a lot to walk away from something that you really wanted to be a part of, but I always believe that if you stop getting enjoyment out of something, then it's best to get out of the situation or it will drag you down. As Mark said, he didn't want to diminish his character and there's nothing worse than feeling unhappy and not being able to be the person everyone liked you for.

wonkeydonkey - I'm the same, I always find I'm supporting the 'ones that don't fit in' or the non-conformist HMs, who subsequently end up leaving or not winning.

I'm primarily an Aaron fan, but from day 1, Mark was my second fav.

Gutted he has left

His departure will leave a huge hole from this year's house

Mark's been answering some Qs on @bbuk tonight, and his mate's had already set him up with a Twitter account which they'll look after until he returns home. He said he's a Twitter virgin, so not sure how much he'll actually tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/MarkIHenderson

Thanks for the link, linnylou.