Brian Dowling

Winner Season Two: 2001

‘It’s very bizarre. I’d always planned to go back to flying. I was due to go back to my job as a steward on 1 September, and I did all the personal appearances, but was still planning to go back to work. But in fact I came out of that house with an entirely new career. First, I got offered a job presenting an amazing kid’s showSMTV Live when Ant and Dec left, along with Cat Deeley and Tess Daly. I told them I wasn’t a television presenter, I had only been in Big Brother – but I got the job. It’s now been seven years since I won and I’m still working – I’ve just landed a new show called Cirque de Celebrity where celebrities train to be in the circus. I do the spin-off show every Thursday. It’s fabulous, because they want me to be myself, so I have lots of input into the script. I think where I score is that I’m very optimistic. It takes a lot to upset me or bog me down, but I’ve been very lucky. Really, really lucky.’