I had only seen snippets of previous Big Brother series. I decided to follow the show to try and understand its appeal. Unfortunately, I became 'HOOKED'.

Almost immediately I found I could not maintain my objectivity. I admit that I expected to identify a female housemate to support.

Despite everything I became partisan in favour of Alex and found myself rooting for him with increasing enthusiasm.

Much to my amazement I found the show compulsive viewing and to my 'disgust' (grin) discovered a previously unknown aspect of my own character!!

This site does not suggest that Alex is without flaws. However, I maintain that he was the most watchable and interesting of the housemates on Big Brother 3.

Quite frankly, I didn't expect him to survive long in the house and was amused, amazed and delighted that he did. As the weeks passed his contribution and significance to the success of the show increased dramatically.

From the start I expected Alex to have a tough ride. He was shrugged off as a whingeing lightweight. His 'real crime' was being too good looking to have a brain, personality or character! The media inferred that you had to be shallow to support him as it could only be for his looks!

Once the media take a 'view' they go all out to substantiate it. They rarely admit they are wrong or change their minds. Jade was the exception because she made 'good copy'.

Things became even tougher for Alex when it gradually emerged that he was 'straight'. To the other guys in the house, (who had initially discounted him as an incompetent unthreatening wimp), he now became 'competition'. By the girls he was assumed to be vain and snobby because of his job (as a professional model of four years standing) and his looks. Vain, he most definitely was not.

Alex seemed to have 'shot himself in the foot' with the 'Weegate' incident. Unfortunately, this provided those looking for an excuse, to justify their prejudices against him.

I sometimes wonder what the reaction would have been if it had been one of the girls making the same points? The 'incident' itself was a 'red-herring'. It was the 'who by' and 'how it was raised' that caused the furore.

Just about everyone chose to 'miss' the key point. When a number of people are living together in close proximity and sharing facilities. They should be considerate of others for social and health reasons. (been there, done that, experienced the consequences!)

At one stage Alex became practically an outcast. No wonder he turned to Sandy for some much needed 'brotherly' support and later to other individuals. He was not well accepted by the group as a whole.

He ignored or put up with most of the snide cutting comments and digs. They were clearly intended to undermine him and make him look like an idiot or 'bad sport' if he complained.

He couldn't win. If he kept to himself he was accused of being aloof, arrogant or a misery who needed to 'lighten up'. If he tried to be friendly he was a 'brown nosing wimp'. He had a tough lonely furrow to plough in those early stages.

Mr. R. managed to 'brainwash' almost everyone when he 'took over' the running of the puppet show. In 'wide-eyed innocence' he used it as an opportunity to fix Alex's image as a whinging, hygiene obssessed model to the entire viewing public. The media lapped it up, they just love to stick labels on people.

Alex realised what was happening but could only let out his frustrations in the diary room to BB.

Interestingly, the producers chose to edit that conversation for the final highlights to make it look like the 'quote' originated from Alex instead of Alex merely expressing his frustration at the constant jibes. Alex was never quite able to shake off that early adverse opinion.

Despite his 'whingeing' ways our 'hero' responded positively to being on the 'poor side' of the house, which is more than can be said for many of the other housemates. When it came to the crunch, he was one of the few who DIDN'T whinge about the difficult conditions. For that matter he didn't whinge about anything without a justifiable reason.

He joined in the tasks, both as an indivual and team member. If for no other reason than to try and keep boredom at bay. His extreme type 'A' personality needed mental and physical stimulation, and challenges. He also never considered 'letting the side down' by opting out of a task he was not happy with.

As the weeks passed we discovered that Alex was definitely not an incompetent wimp (grin). He could turn his hand to practically anything and was an extremely 'quick study'.

Unfortunately, the more the housemates realised his abilities (and how wrong they were to consider him a wimp) the greater their 'envy' and 'jealousy' became.

Alex was revealed as having a very competitive nature. He did not like to lose (grin). A very 'masculine' trait, not at all in keeping with his 'feminine' side!

Continued under Hero & Anti hero (2)