Lucky Liam lands £100,000 prize

Newcomer Liam, a 22-year-old tree surgeon from Lanchester, County Durham, broke down in tears when he was chosen to win a £100,000 bonanza prize. He and the other housemates believe this is the grand prize for the entire show.

Host Davina McCall announced the prize at the beginning of last night's 8pm show, saying one of the housemates was set to become "rich beyond their wildest dreams".

Channel 4 went live to the house at the end of last night's first show as the housemates were shown the money, which was in a large box in the diary room.

In the second show, which was also broadcast live, Jonathan, Carole and Seany were summoned to the Diary Room and told they had been nominated by their fellow housemates to face the public eviction vote this week.

"Bad luck," said Big Brother before adding, "your luck is about to get even worse". They were told that while they were not eligible to receive the grand prize, they would have one minute to choose one housemate to win the money.

The speech, in which Big Brother told them that they were deciding who would receive the prize fund for the entire show, was shown on a
television to the rest of the housemates.

After briefly considering Ziggy for the prize, the three unanimously agreed on Liam as the winner before their time had elapsed. Carole was asked to stand up and tell the group who would receive the
money.

She told them: "We had one minute to decide who to give the £100,000 to and we chose Liam." A stunned-looking Liam was hugged by his fellow housemates before bursting into tears.

Charley told him: "You do what you want with that money."

Liam was later more preoccupied with crying on television. He said: "I didn't want to cry there. I said to my father there'll be none of that." Brian replied: "Don't worry about crying ... your dad will be proud of you man."

Liam went to sit on his own to take in the news and when he was joined by Seany, he whispered: "Thank you so much." Carole and Jonathan also joined them on the sofas and Jonathan explained to Liam why they chose him.

"You're the truest, strongest, best man we've got," he said. "You're a proper honest man. We all agreed in ten seconds."

Laura was not so sure, complaining that she should have got the money. "I haven't even got a washing machine in my house!" she protested. Gerry was the first to question what the twist meant for the rest of the Big Brother experience, saying "what's happening now?"

McCall, who had earlier assured viewers the money is actually in addition to the show's final prize, wondered how the belief that the prize money had already been won would affect the other housemates.

"Will that affect their status in the house? Will that affect Liam's status in the house?" she pondered before adding that maybe some of the
women would start to "fancy" him now that he had money.

The programme is in its fourth week and housemates expect to be in the Big Brother house for much of the rest of the summer.