That was the head to head lots of us were dreading wasn't it and what was also so depressing was that it looked like the horrible Insiders were going to get away with their nasty tactics. Thank goodness Deana got in with the 2 boys and we then watched with increasing pleasure as the 3 soldiers got ever closer to a place in the final and the top 3 places.

Bet hardly any of us dared to believe they would be able to withstand the meanness and higher firepower of those Insiders. How sweet was it when they did - with Luke being crowned Champion being the icing on the cake.

I was totally convinced we were going to lose him that week, and was really despondent from learning who was up until Brian announced he was safe. That for me was the worst week as we had no idea if he was popular, but knew that Lauren had previously beaten Benedict.

It was brilliant

Out of the BBs I've watched I can't remember such a divide. It really comes to something when Sara who alternated between sitting on the fence and flip-flopping between one side and the other and Scott who was funny sometimes but also downright nasty and racist at others formed the group in the middle. Luke S was probably the least unpleasant and annoying of the insiders group but even he called Deana horrible names and not only let his girlfriend take a fish guts shampoo on the day of the eviction but kept away from her when she came out of the diary room in case he got covered in it. I also think our Luke had to put up with a lot more from him than was shown in the highlights - you could see his attitude with the Michelin-starred chef: never mind that unimportant chef in the BB house, what about me?

There were so many of the Insiders that I really didn't think the Outsiders would survive but I'm awfully pleased they stuck together, gained strength from each other and came first, second and third. Fabulous

It was odd that BB threw in the 'one nomination and you're up' twist when otherwise it would have been Luke, Deana and Caroline who were up. They threw in Luke S, Ashleigh and Sara, and the result was surely exactly the same, ie that Caroline went. I wonder whether they contrived the whole twist purely to bamboozle the public, making it look as if the whole thing was desperately close, when they must have known that the insiders were miles behind by then.

In fact once he had survived the Lauren eviction, Luke was never in danger again, whatever twists they introduced, unless they introduced a twist that only Luke was up for eviction one week. Even the most virulently anti-Luke person could hardly claim that Conor would have beaten him. I think we would all have had a much more comfortable time if we had seen the voting figures as the series went on, but that made the final result all the better.

As Noisy Oyster says, it really was the most divided house, by far. BB5, with its jungle cats and lip gloss bitches was nothing like as hostile; for one thing michelle was never a jungle cat but was sleeping in the same bed as one. And the luxury bedroom/ b block groups in BB9 were more fluid than people remember: Rachel was in both groups and Dale was very friendly with the b blockers (though not Mo). In BB13 only Sara even slightly breached the divide, and in the end I think she achieved nothing more than that neither group quite trusted her.

hey guys ive never posted here before as a hardcore deana fan but im so glad that as deana had to lose she lost to luke a, i love him and i miss watching all 3 soldiers together on my tv.

deana is out tonight at this bb party thing with luke s, sara and shiv and quite frankly i dont like it, i wish she was with luke a and ads not them lol, it feels wrong

Hi lovelove - I think Deana will always be one of the three soldiers and I'm pretty sure her being with Luke S and Shievonne is work related rather than choosing to socialise with them. (It could be worse - at least Conor, Caroline and Becky aren't there).

We are all missing watching them and CBB is not filling that gap, but we have been lucky in that we have seen Luke on BBBOTS the other night. Those who get to the final but don't win get a raw deal - a hurried 5 minute interview and maybe an invite as a guest the following year. It seems unfair.

It was worse this year because of the rush into CBB. It meant no attention on the finalists at all - no 'what the housemates did next', not even the little bit of Ch 5 attention that the top 4 got last year. Still, I think housemates are pretty realistic these days about what to expect. As long as they enjoy the posing for peoples' photographs every time they go shopping and don't expect Jade Goody style media attention it is all good.

Welcome back Wonkey! It's been quiet in here without you.

Hi to loveloveX as well, thanks for dropping in. I believe Deana's PA with Luke S and Shievonne is more down to them sharing the same manager than personal taste. Deana hung out with Luke A and Adam when they visited Birmingham and Dudley last weekend. Adam then went up to Luke's house and they've been totally inseparable since leaving BB. I'm sure she'll keep in touch with them and they'll all make sure their paths cross from time to time.

At this stage, with all the HMs, I guess they need time to adjust and work out what they want to do with their lives. I'm sure Deana will get a good career boost, it'd be great to see more attractive young Asian ladies in mainstream media. I think Adam's strength would be out of the spotlight, working at grass roots with youngsters who have drug, alcohol and gang-related problems. I saw Seany mentioned earlier, that's the sort of job he does now.

With Luke it could go either way. At first he might not have come across as the most obvious celebrity type but there's some potential in him that could be developed. Having read the BB blog on Transgenderzone.com there's no doubt the community is desperate for more high-profile FTMs so there's a place in the media for Luke if he wants to make it. He said in his FB group that perhaps we could slip his new agent some ideas of what we'd like to see him do. He said he'd be up for some sort of "journey" documentary and no doubt he'd enjoy a cookery slot too. As Emma is an occasional This Morning presenter maybe she could put in a good word for her new crush!

Luke's problem though is his confidence. I'm sure winning has given him a massive boost but is that going to be enough to cope with the rough and tumble of life in the spotlight? I don't for one second believe he wants to be famous just for the sake of being famous. I think it'll always be at the back of his mind that whatever he does is for the benefit of other transsexuals, whether that's talking about the transition itself or showing that transsexuals are just regular people and not freaks.

I get the feeling Luke could have a talent for writing as well if he wanted to have a go at that. His autobiography would be fascinating! When all the excitement has died down though, maybe he'll decide his skills are best used on a quiet 1-to-1 basis and there's nothing wrong with making a choice like that. As long as he's happy and using his potential to help others, that's the only important thing to me.

I speak as someone who normally just wants the HMs to bugger off back to obscurity once they're out the house!

Good post. I do think the housemates who are happiest are those who go back to their normal lives with a bit of media stuff on top if they are lucky. I used to quail a bit at housemates who lurked around the fringes of the z-list world hoping to be 'spotted', and we discovered last year how meaningless 'projects in the pipeline' can turn out to be. I think Luke would be absolutely perfect for a cooking show (on a modest level obviously, no one is going to give him a Nigella type series) and yes, no reason at all why he should not write or broadcast a story of his experiences through life.

I do get the impression that a whole BB series is such an intense experience that it is hard for even the most well-balanced person to let go of it straight away.

I think Luke does have real potential to do more t.v work. He has a funny and friendly manner about him which is very appealing and he speaks easily and fluently. His Army is currently tweeting, emailing and writing to various media mags etc.. about him.


You never know, someone just might take note.

I'd love to read his autobiography,and learn more about his experiences as a transgender which must have led to him suffering a lot of tough times, confusion and self-doubt. We could see clearly his lack of confidence and fear of rejection at the start of his time in BB.

But it was one of the best things to come out of all the series to watch him growing in confidence and the realisation that he was totally accepted and loved - as him being chosen our champion testified.

It was just a shame that for quite some time we had to watch him being made to feel he was a bad person by certain hms who should hang their heads in shame.

But it all came good in the end and I think Luke has benefited hugely from the whole experience.

I would buy it

It was - I am surprised I didn't have another heart attack that week

Today is definitely barbecue day (or braai day as Luke put it). (I must say that the South African tradition of having endless braais is wasted on my daughter who is a vegan and only seems to eat lentils and spinach etc.)

We have a barbecue going on in both my next door neighbours' gardens and it has made me so hungry I have sent my husband out to hunt for game, or possibly pop into Waitrose and see what they have on the shelves.

Have finally got round to watching BBOTS, which was a stretch because I have not the faintest idea who Cheryl is and had to see the horrid Kirk Norcross again. But I was pleased to see that Luke was perfectly articulate and charming, and clearly much liked by the audience. I had vaguely seen threads about someone called Cheryl and had imagined Cheryl Cole, but I suppose that was always unlikely.

I hope I won't be attacked with a shower of missiles if I say I thought Caroline's parody of Luke and Adam's tattoos was quite funny. https://twitter.com/CarolineWharram/...442432/photo/1 though otherwise her twitter is a bit offputting...

Cheryl was in Eastenders and played Heather, commonly known as "Ev". She came to a grisly end when she was murdered by being hit over the head with a heavy photo frame. She is very funny but little of this was shown whilst in the house - it was all about Rhian and Danica and their love interests! Personally, I want to see more of Martin Kemp

Was I the only one who thought that the housemates were just TOO matter-of-fact about his revelation that he had been born female? They must have had discussions with BB behind the scenes about the issue. As I've said before, I had only really started to pay much attention to Luke just before the Lauren eviction, liked him and wanted to get to know him better but, like most people, I knew very little about transgender people apart from a couple of 'embarrassing bodies' type programmes and that's probably more than some.

I know that if a friend of my sons suddenly announced they'd been born female I would have been extremely surprised, particularly if they looked as much like a man as Luke did. Rewatching the programme a couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that they had obviously had discussions about the issue with BB to test out their attitudes.

I guess what I'm saying is that all the housemates had been warned to expect this at some point so their reactions when told possibly hid some of their true attitudes to transgender people and disguised their real dislike behind the bitching/boring etc excuses because I never found him bitchy or boring.

Thanks. I have heard of martin Kemp and Julian Clary (and the regrettable Samantha Brick, and not in a good way) but the rest of them are a complete mystery to me. I do like the thought of Heather being abbreviated to Ev though. (I used to know a Shoshana whose friends called her Slosh - I always thought this might have come as a disappointment to her parents, who no doubt thought they had chosen a lovely and romantic name).

Edit: Luke has tweeted this picture of him in the blue hoodie: https://twitter.com/LukeA_BB/status/.../photo/1/large

From the week Benedict and Lauren were put up for eviction, I was convinced that there would only be one 'outsider' left standing in the final, so to have Luke, Deana and Adam was quite an achievement. I'm glad that the discussion of nominations was prevented in week 2, I think that was possibly one of the factors which initially caused the divide


This could have been the reason and maybe that's why Brian stopped announcing the voting order. I presumed at the time that it was an attempt to attract more viewers, due to the clash with the Olympics opening ceremony and to increase voting revenue. It seems strange that they didn't take the opportunity to evict two housemates that week.

This wouldn't surprise me at all. I was shocked at how disinterested and underwhelmed most of the housemates seemed, I remember that Caroline seemed particularly blase about the revelation. Benedict mentioned that he suspected that Chris was transgender, which made me assume that the housemates were informed before they entered the house.

Hey . I think as others have mentioned, that she's doing it for work purposes as Deana and Luke S share the same agent. From my twitter stalking, I have gathered that the three of them along with Lydia are going attend Benedict's new play in September and they have all said that they'd like to stay in contact with each other, so it appears that they are still friends.

Does your daughter live in South Africa? I forget that that is where Luke is initially from.



Haha you were a bit far off the mark with that one .

Oh, thank goodness for that, I really wondered if it was just me but I really couldn't see people in everyday life being so, that's the word, disinterested as if it was commonplace. It also makes you wonder why they put Luke through having to tell everyone without knowing that they would be fine about it. Obviously, they were all savvy enough to know that if they showed too much disapproval they would be out the door but the reactions just seemed too unsurprised at the revelation.

Some viewers saw the 'revealing his secret to everyone' as him making a big thing out of being transgender as if that was his only story-line and reason for being in the house but I know, for example, that he didn't tell his work colleagues because he was worried about how they would react and I would imagine he and other members of the transgender community often get unpleasant reactions from people who know no better.

I know he has other good qualities - he's got a good speaking voice and he's very articulate; there was signs of a terrific sense of humour (the Mr Snuggles, you look like a Dave, comment) and Adam and him laughing loads even if you didn't always hear what about as well as, from what other housemates said, being a talented chef - so he makes a terrific figurehead for the transgender community and I hope he gets the chance to use these qualities in a positive way, it would be lovely if we got to see him on our TV screens but the way things work out after BB now I won't hold my breath.

Yes, my baby one. I have kind of reconciled myself to it now, and still have one daughter in London so I can't complain.


We know that Sara already knew from the auditions, and it is possible that she had mentioned it. Caroline's response (saying "Ok" in a weary voice then lying back and closing her eyes) was bizarre, but some others, eg Sheivonne, were really excited. I do think they would be pretty careful what they said on tv, especially as they had only just arrived in the house and were on their party-best behaviour.


Yes and yes. Aaron last year was a bit of a warning sign - good looking and articulate and couldn't get any interest at all - as is the lack of celeb magazine interest in BB at all these days. It is such a shame that Luke couldn't have won 10 years earlier - obviously he wasn't the same person 10 years ago, so I am just bending time in my mind - but back in the days of BB1 to 3 tv companies seemed to snap much less promising housemates up and invent tv programme for them to star in. I guess most of them fizzled out pretty quickly though and it came to the same thing in the end. It's not as if Luke was ever going to be the second Jade Goody, thank heavens.

Well, I didn't want to mention the A word on here but, yes, I was surprised that Aaron didn't get more interest, especially since when she won CBB Denise Welsh appeared all over the place afterwards. Having said that Aaron was majorly disliked by all the presenters/producers etc last year, at least this year Emma is definitely pleased Luke won and I don't think any of the others mind that much so he should get an easier ride from C5.

I still can't believe that they got a winner last year who they could have used to start re-building the interest in BB because he was so far away from the TOWIE crowd, they could put him on mainstream daytime tv to publicise the programme and he wouldn't swear or behave inappropriately and they just threw him away. Hopefully, they won't make the same mistake with Luke.

I was reading a tread about Luke another forum and apparently Luke used to have a you tube vlog documenting his transition, . I wonder if it still exists.

Probably not - I'm sure someone from DS would have found it by now if it was accessible. I would love to see it if it is still there though.