The clean-cut 24-year-old seized his chance to win over the public after initially failing to make the grade.

He was one of three to audition for a final place in the house on the first night of the show, but his rendition of Billy Joel's Uptown Girl failed to overcome Sinead's effort at Macy Gray's I Try.

If it all falls down there's always university next year David Sneddon

But David got a second chance when contestant Naomi Roper succumbed to a throat infection.

After 10 weeks as a model Fame Academy pupil, honing his singing and dancing, he was able to turn the tables on Sinead in the final.

It was the end of a journey for a pub singer who before the show was contemplating the demise of his musical aspirations.

"I was so skint. I borrowed a lot of money from friends and my girlfriend and I was struggling to get through those times thinking that my music wasn't getting anywhere.

"I had thought I would go back to university because I was just so sick of the rejection.

"Fame Academy, it was just through desperation."

Sinead and Lemar came close

Despite his obvious drive and ambition, there were concerns among the academy's tutors that David's singing voice and his general persona were not distinctive enough.

The increasingly confident Sinead, indie kid Ainslie Henderson and smooth Lemar Obika all had acts individual enough to help turn a show initially dubbed "Lame Academy" in the press into a modest success.

But in the end it was hard-working David who won the viewers over, and he remained a paragon of modesty and humility.

Next year will see him release a single in January, join a tour of the Fame Academy stars and get a cameo role in a film, all the time being preened by a personal stylist and enjoying a rock star lifestyle.

But as the Glaswegian put it: "If it all falls down there's always university next year."