Freddie 'Halfwit' FisherMonday, August 17 2009, 14:10 BST
By Alex Fletcher, Senior Entertainment Reporter
Freddie Fisher was the surprise ninth housemate to be evicted on Friday night, after viewers chose to save 'Captain Cool' Marcus Alkin over the Oxford graduate. The aspiring politician finally met his match after surviving seven previous evictions. One of the few housemates in recent years to leave the show to a warm reception from the Elstree crowd, he could have been a potential winner if he had survived one more week. We caught up with the man formerly known as Halfwit to ask about his 72 in the house.
You spoke early on in the show about making it a "summer of love". Who did you love and who did you hate in the house?
"I loved Siavash. I loved Marcus and I loved Rodrigo as well. There was no-one I really hated. There were times when I might have used that word about Lisa, but in the last week or so I have come to appreciate her genuineness. So I even have time for her."
What did you make of Sophie, because we didn't see much interaction between you two?
"Sophie is brilliant and I love her energy. It is a very fun energy - really zesty. I felt a real connection with Sophie the moment that I met her. The sad thing is - you probably think I was really knocked by the whole Bea thing? Well in many ways I was, but in the last 24 hours, I had so pulled through all that and I was very much looking forward to spending more time with Sophie and Rodrigo. Sophie is utterly fantastic. Sometimes she goes along with other people in not such a good way, but she is her own woman and as the show's gone on, she's become more herself and she's got more and more funny."
Can you offer us an explanation for your peculiar relationship with Bea?
"Firstly, nothing went on under the covers! Bea... ahhh! I feel really sad because at the start we used to spread peace, love and happiness. When Lisa and David were doing their whole Pinky And The Brain thing together, me and Bea would wake up every morning and say, 'What are we going to do today? The same thing we do do every day - spread peace, love and happiness!' It was so lovely!"
So what went wrong in the last two weeks?
"The problem is that I think inside the Big Brother house, if someone has a little bit of an ego, or someone is a little bit nasty, it gets really, really amplified. If someone is a little domineering, the same thing happens. It brings out the worst in people and it brought out the worst in me in many ways. Honestly, that whole Bea thing made me really sad rather than angry. It was a missed opportunity for so much positivity. I'll have a good chat with her when she leaves and there's no ill-will on my side. It's a gameshow, it's not real."
Was there a sexual attraction between you and Bea?
"Oh definitely. We were both attracted to each other. We had been away from real life from six weeks ago. For a man like myself, who craves romance, to have someone enter the house that I made an instant click with was amazing. There was chemistry and a connection, so that was wonderful, and I ran with it, because there was... well.. nothing else to do. There was a lot of up emotion and I'm very much a lover. I hope that came across in the show."
Do you not believe that she had a gameplan then?
"I'd have to look back on it, and it's possible - Siavash thought so. I really didn't want to believe that. I'd have to look back on it, but we did have some genuine happy moments I thought. We were really coming off the same page. I maybe allowed my feelings to come out and was too open because I saw her vulnerability when she first entered. I saw something of myself in her and probably let too many of my emotions show. But at the end of the day, that's Big Brother and I was starved for romance. I really wanted it, because it was something I could do, something I could feel - it made me feel alive!"
A large number of the DS forums users have taken a strong dislike to Bea, but you don't sound too fussed. Have we got her wrong?
"I'm a very forgiving person and I guess the British public are not. The house has brought out the worst in her and I just try to remember the really positive times we had in there together. There was a lot of happiness when I got to know Bea. Although maybe looking back she may have been emotionally blackmailing me, I wanted to be there and I wanted to be romantic. That was really it. There was nothing else to do in that house. I don't think there was a gameplan, I just think all the negativity she had was projected onto me."
Can we expect to see you heading into the world of politics?
"I'm relishing the prospect of getting my teeth back into politics, but I'm going to need to catch up for a while because I've been out of the loop for a while and have missed out on three months. Now is the time for lounging and reclining, not for plans!"
Do you regret being so open about your confidence that you would survive this eviction because that was probably what cost you in the end?
"It's a funny thing that, but I'm not sure how it was broadcast on the show. I was never arrogant about it. I was confident, 100% confident in fact, that I was going to stay. The way I saw it, I wanted to stay, Marcus wanted to go, so his fans would be voting for me as well. Therefore it would all be fairly straightforward. However, the public didn't heed our wishes. I'll tell you something, Marcus is way more pissed off about staying than I am about leaving! However, I also know and acknowledge that I hadn't been myself for two weeks and I'd been drawn out of myself by the stress and competing influences."
You have lost the name Halfwit. Will that be left behind in the house forever?
"I think the name Halfwit will say with me forever and I think it's a fantastic name. I'm going to get a tattoo of Colonel Halfwit. Every time I survived an eviction, I rewarded myself a new rank. It's a shame I couldn't make one more and become a Brigadier, but Colonel has a nice ring to it."
----------
Tatty
