Zoe Birkett, Chris R Wright and Pavandeep ‘Pav’ Paul were all up for eviction on Friday, August 1 - but former Pop Idol contestant Zoe was the one shown the door after just three weeks in the house
And the relief was as clear on Chris's face as the shock was on Pav's.
“Good luck!” Zoe shouted to housemates, and she ran up the stairs to the exit (not as easy as it sounds considering the tight yellow dress and high-heeled ankle boots she was wearing).
“I can honestly say I have never seen anyone run up those stairs as fast as you did,” Big Brother presenter Emma Willis told Zoe. “You seem so happy to be out of the house, even though you got a mixed reaction from the public. It’s not as if you came out to loads of cheers but you’re so happy.”
“Because I knew the end result was that I would be seeing my family,” Zoe said. “Being away from them was really hard. I speak to them 12, 13, 14 times a day so that was the toughest thing for me.”
“Was it also a bit of a game face, as you came out to a few boos?” Emma asked. “Sort of, ‘You know what, I’ve been in there and I’m just happy to have experienced it’?”
“Yes,” Zoe agreed. “I wanted the experience. I wanted to see what it was like for me, you know, psychologically, and do something different. But the end bit there… I was thinking, ‘The worst thing that’s going to happen is I’m going to be in the arms of me mam and dad and family and that’s not a bad way to be at all.”
“But you did say quite a few times that you did want to stay in the house,” Emma said. “You always wanted to have the experience and you loved the fact that you were on Big Brother.”
“Yes,” Zoe said.
“So are you gutted that you’re sitting here tonight?” Emma pushed.
“A little bit,” Zoe admitted. “I would have loved to go through to the end.”
“What’s it like going in there on Day 40?” Emma asked.
“Hard. Really hard. Everyone’s already got bonds and relationships. Winston called me a spy the other night! They’re seriously paranoid. I found that quite difficult because I was there for the fun. There was too much paranoia for me.”
“Ashleigh said this week that you said to her that you didn’t think anyone had a reason to nominate you,” Emma revealed. “So how does it feel that your housemates put you up for eviction?”
“I knew even if I had stayed that me and Pav would be up for eviction every single week,” Zoe replied.
“You were easy pickings,” Emma agreed.
“Absolutely,” Zoe said. “And I knew that walking in there.”
Emma told Zoe the reason the public voted her out is because they think she’s stuck up, after this comment she made inside the House earlier in the week: “If they had put me in a house with people who worked in Tesco, I would have had too many stories, too much life experience and people wouldn’t be able to keep up with me in conversation,” Zoe said in a focus group task.
“You missed the whole conversation!” Zoe claimed, when Emma showed her the clip.
“OK, so what were you actually trying to say?” Emma asked.
“The conversation, that we actually had for about half an hour, was the fact that everyone was really powerful and had loads of stories and I was saying how impressed I was by everyone and how much I was learning.”
“But did you mean you think you can’t learn anything from someone who works in a supermarket?” Emma persisted.
“No, no, no,” Zoe insisted. “Not at all!”
“But do you understand how it can be perceived that you think that?” Emma said.
“Yes, but at the same time I’ve definitely been misunderstood,” Zoe insisted. “To say I’m stuck up… I’ve walked the streets handing out leaflets at 3 in the morning to earn money. I’m not stuck up at all.”
“Ashleigh said your biggest positive is also your biggest negative: you’re always so happy,” Emma laughed. “Do you find it hard to show any other emotion? There’s nothing wrong with it but we have just seen you happy.”
“I’m just a happy lass,” Zoe smiled. “I’ve got a lovely life. If being happy’s my downfall then I’m happy with that!”
Big Brother, Channel 5, nightly at 9.00pm
