Norfolk lad Craig Coates has kept the nation glued to the telly with his antics on the reality television show Big Brother - not to mention his arguments with fellow housemate Anthony Hutton. Craig, who is 20 years old and a hairdresser from Cromer, made it to the final week of the programme, but was evicted on Wednesday.  | | Craig greets the crowd |
Viewers voted for the contestant they wanted to win - and hairdresser Craig got just 4.1% of the vote. On hearing the results of the vote, he exclaimed "I knew it, I knew it" and exchanged hugs with Anthony. Craig outlasted Mary, the 'white witch', Orlaith, the model, and Kemal, the self-confessed diva. Despite coming so far, he has been dubbed 'the camp crimper' by the media and his relationship with Anthony has been criticised. His family have also received malicious phone calls. Speaking to the BBC earlier this morning, Craig said he realised he should have lightened up a bit. "Being in that house for 11 weeks you just learn to enjoy it and get on with it and not take it too seriously. I was taking the house too seriously - that was my problem - I took everything too personally and seriously," he said. "Every emotion is amplified because there's nothing to take your mind off it. I couldn't walk out or leave - I have to be in a full confrontation with people. | "My true feelings towards Anthony? I fancied Anthony at the beginning, but as I got to know him, I respected him as a person." | | - Craig Coates |
"I'd have loved to have been in the last three, it would have been wicked but at the end of the day at least I left last night and it was about me and I didn't have to share it with anybody. I loved it, it's brilliant," he added. Since he has been outside the house, he has denied he was in love with Anthony. "My true feelings towards Anthony? I fancied Anthony at the beginning, I will be truthful, I did, but as I got to know him, I respected him as a person," he said. "As I got to know him for who he was, I no longer had those feelings for him, because I began to look at him as a member of my family, I think," he added. While talking to Davina McCall, presenter of Big Brother, he declined to discuss his sexuality. "How I was to him [Anthony] was not through attraction, or through a sexual nature, it was that I respected the bloke and really liked the bloke," he said. "I don't want my feelings to affect his chance in the house, to do well and to win this show," he added. Craig's friend, Pascal Davies, said she thought he would be loving the attention, now that he has left the Big Brother house. "He'll enjoy the media, he'll enjoy the attention. He loves being centre of attention," she said. "I'm quite worried for him - about how people have been perceiving him and how some people have taken what he said a bit too literally. But hopefully, from last night, he might just laugh about it and not worry about it. "I don't know what he's going to do now. I don't know if he's going to come back to the salon or not, but wish him the best of luck with whatever he chooses to do," she added. | 
