That very interesting. All these people who supported Luke from the start make me feel very bad. I didn't dislike him, you understand, but he didn't make that much of an impression on me although to be fair neither did any of the others.

I know I keep saying this but I can't help myself - he is as lovely a person on his facebook group as he appeared to be in BB. A really top guy.

I think Jack would have been a cert to be in the final, but he never made it to the house!

I don't think you should worry about that at all. In the past I have taken ages to make up my mind about housemates. This was definitely the first time I have picked a favourite on the first night. Actually I think I picked a favourite within the first 5 seconds, because we have got used to spotting immediately the housemate 'type' - model, tick, beauty queen, tick, body builder, tick, posh person, tick - and I was momentarily baffled when someone with no obvious ticks started talking. What is HE doing here? Then of course he did have a kind of Bb tick, but by then it was already too late - he had already stuck in my mind as the person who got through the net just by being likeable.

I've never really understood why so many forum members feel that they have to rubbish his fans and pretend that his popularity wasn't real. (Not that he is the only one; think how many times people have alleged that Josie's supporters were 'chavs' or that Pete 'had people fooled'.) I think it is just horrible behaviour to refuse to admit that someone has won honorably and by winning the hearts of the people; I would never do it myself, and think bad sportsmanship is one of the most dislikable traits.

Don't get that one - must be a bit numb or something, not for the first time.

Actually I didn't support Aaron straightaway either although he did make an impression on me pretty quickly - he came across as a typical wimpy posh boy (sorry Aaron if you read this although I dare say you've been called worse) but his face when Rebeckha talked about weeing on him was pretty hard to forget

Oh dear! Do I make you think of Aaron?

You're spot on about Luke being very likeable. He may well have had the big brother tick but he has a very engaging personality and in a nicer house would have shone even more. He really did win my heart in BB. Sympathy has nothing whatsoever to do with. I supported Luke because he proved in the BB house that his friendship with Lauren, Deana and Adam was totally real. He was devastated when Lauren left even though it meant he stayed, was so genuinely delighted for Deana when she was saved by the public vote, hugged Adam when he got upset after he was saved too and was decent enough to feel bad about maybe being a bit unkind to Becky after she dropped him and the other Outsiders like hot potatoes when she convinced herself that the Insiders were the popular ones.

I adore Luke because he is a genuinely lovely person and I wish more people could get to know him the way we all have on the facebook group.

Working a 50 hour week. Sigh. My brother is a chef (not a very elevated one) and he is the same. You have to not mind work. At least that meal he photographed for facebook looked incredibly yummy, whereas my brother's place has gone downhill to a kind of steak and chips joint.

I guess if that's your calling in life you'll put up with long unsociable hours. It's great to see him back using his talents so hopefully that'll do his confidence no end of good.

some of us might get a break from all those unfriendly private messages....(sigh of relief)

Yes, so I've noticed. By the way, thanks for your post about Luke's highlights - really touching.

Unfriendly private messages?

Has he been sent on a holiday? That would make my day
Last edited by jeanoj : 20-02-2013 at 12:23

Lucky you, if you don't have to ask. One of our friends in the forum kept sending us private messages even if we asked him not to. He has now gone on a forum break.

Val - you don't want to know! Just someone on the main forum who didn't like it when we supported and defended Luke

Sorry Mr Fox, I missed this post first time around. I still have no idea of what you were talking about before but, yes, you do make me think of Aaron because I know you are a regular contributor to his Appreciation Thread, as am I.

Just for the record, I adored Aaron in his BB. For sheer entertainment value and virtually carrying the whole show through the last few weeks of his series (as well as the Producers' attempts to stitch him up) Aaron deserves a medal.

However, from the way I've got to know Luke since leaving the BB house he is now probably my favourite person ever to take part in BB - he really is a sweetheart and I still believe he got a bit of a raw deal in terms of sharing a house with some of the nastiest housemates ever to participate in BB because they sucked all the fun out of the few decent housemates and also in the editing (he's very funny for example but we rarely saw that).

My apologies. I hadn't realised that you had met Luke.

I do rather like it that there is a thread about Luke being the best winner of the last 10 years, even if the contents of it are often hostile. It just looks nice to have a positive thread title in the list after so many negative ones.

Actually Kate is the winner I remember the least. I remember that she drank a lot and had an edgy relationship with Jade, and that I quite liked her at the time, but I can barely remember anything in detail that she said or did.

Yeah, it's funny really when you consider those same few people saying how boring he was - he can't have been THAT boring because they still remember him well enough this long after the series finished and are still annoyed that he won.

Actually - although I have used it myself - 'boring' is probably the least useful term on the forum. (I once started a thread about how boring Becky was, because I was finding her daily pop-eyed babbling diary room entries unbearable; but perhaps 'boring' was not really the word.) It drives me mad when people say, "all Luke did was blahdy blahdy blah" because every time I think, "yes, and what were the others doing when he was sitting chatting to Adam, to Lauren, to Deana?" Were they forming human pyramids, juggling with chain saws, constructing time machines out of found objects? Or were they actually lounging about having desultory chats, because there is sod all to do in the BB house? The only clear answer I ever got, when I asked someone what he thought the others did that Luke didn't, was that he "didn't start many rows". I really am unable to take against someone for that reason. We know that Luke was almost the only person to use the pool much, and also that he did a lot of cooking; not that we know that from being shown it, but from what other people said; so he wasn't idle, like Sarah and Ashleigh were. He just didn't like fighting much. And generated about 20 times as much forum comment as Luke S, for example, did.

Some people are just born lucky

You're absolutely right. Adam even said about Deana that she did next to nothing in terms of cooking, cleaning etc - but it was ok because she was his friend. Those we like, do nothing because there is nothing to do in BB, the ones we don't like we tend to label boring. One of the things that surprised me about Luke when I joined the Facebook group was how much of a live-wire he is - he couldn't seem to sit still for a minute (even after the chest op) yet much of the footage they showed was of him smoking in the garden. As you've said you would never have guessed that Ashleigh spent as much time smoking as he did and some of the others did it a lot more.

I'm still fuming that he did as much cooking as he did - and he's a real, live honest-to-goodness chef - for that ungrateful rabble only for them to treat him as badly as they did.

He was a bit unlucky there - normally, the person who produces delicious meals is rather protected from nominations by doing so. But I remember a conversation where someone raised that exact point - 'let's not vote out the person who makes all the food' - and Caroline, in her always-appropriate way, said "yah, but there may be other kitchen goddesses that will come forward."

It's a shame he didn't have a hapless assistant like me in that kitchen. That would have been comedy gold!


Oh dear, so sorry to hear that. I hope he finds something more constructive to do during his forum holiday.


That pretty much sums up why I took a shine to Luke but also why I appreciate why some others didn't. As much as it would always be great to have a by-and-large positive, funny and uplifting series with a natural-born entertainer rising to the surface, some years that just doesn't happen. Last year the atmosphere was horrible and oppressive and when that happens I turn to the HM who shows the best grace under pressure. For me that was Luke, for others it was Deana or Adam. As I have a very similar personality to Luke, I was drawn to him because he was reacting pretty much how I would have reacted.

I'm happy to explain that to non-supporters but I find it very tiresome when they insist we're wrong.

yes, so irritating. Along with 'fooled by'.

It is fine to have people disagree - we are not all the same and it would be very boring if we were but that particular poster was like a dog with a bone and just repeated the same old rubbish ad nauseum. Then he decided to target WD and I (possibly others too) with nasty PM's because we tried to put our point of view. When I told him I had decided to ignore his posts, he replied with "the gloves are off" which rather made me smile.