AS Big Brother bows out in its eleventh year, the Mail’s Vikki White talks to Dan Bryan, of west Hull, who finished third in its fifth – and most controversial – series.

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IT IS the daddy of reality TV shows and has always divided opinion.

While Big Brother is reviled as lowest common denominator television by many, others remain glued to the live streaming of the show, which records every scratch and snore.

Dan Bryan, who joins the Mail for a chat at Planet Coffee in Newland Avenue, was in the house for the duration of the show in 2004.

He tells me how after Big Brother 5 finished, he was thrust into an unprotected world of instant fame.

"The main problem I have with the show is that we were only looked after by Endemol [the television company who make Big Brother] for a few days after it finished," he says.

"The accommodation was only for four days and you forget you can't do things like just get on a bus.

"It's shocking at first – there was a ton of people wanting a piece of us.

"One of the first things that happened was that they had to close Topshop and ask us to leave."

After he exited the Big Brother house, Dan joined and quit 1980s band Kajagoogoo, was a DJ up and down the country and performed in front of thousands of fans at summer roadshows with band iceHouse.

Fan sites were quickly set up on the internet in appreciation of the 6ft 4in star, with doctors, lawyers, teachers and even a Hull magistrate logging on at all hours of the night to chat about him.

He also enjoyed a packed signing at Princes Quay shopping centre, where he signed copies of the Mail's specially printed poster.

When he sits down with the Mail, he is wearing his trademark hat and seems to have a curious mixture of self-confidence and reserve. It was absolutely wonderful to meet people at Princes Quay and it's something I never forget," he says.

After a spell in London, Dan moved back to Hull, where he combines work as a hairstylist with music.

"I've never been happier," he tells me.

"I moved back to Hull three-and-a-half years ago and I don't want to live anywhere else. It's a wonderful city and I'm very proud."

While Dan seems unaffected by his time in the Big Brother house, he thinks some contestants should not have made it past the application form.

He cites Emma and Kitten, who formed part of the infamous BB5 series, as examples.

"The show attracts people with a high neurotic element to their personality," he says.

We discuss the infamous "fight night", which attracted a raft of Ofcom complaints when housemates came to physical blows.

Big Brother had orchestrated the tension.

"I was the peacemaker – it was horrendous," says Dan.

"If there's a fight in a pub, everyone goes their separate ways, but of course you can't in the house."

Does he feel he was portrayed unfairly?

"I wasn't unhappy with the way they portrayed me at all," he says.

"The biggest thing people level at me is that I'm not afraid to say what I think.

"People accuse me of being like this because I have been on the telly, but I was like that before – that's why they put me on the telly."

Big Brother is ending its time on the nation's televisions with an Ultimate Big Brother mini-series, which features classic characters from previous celebrity and non-celebrity shows.

Dan tells me he was asked, and agreed, to take part, but didn't make the final shortlist.

Michelle Bass, "nasty" Nick Bateman and Vanessa Feltz face the boot in Wednesday's double eviction.

This year's loveable Big Brother winner Josie has already left the house, nasty prankster Coolio has also departed by mutual agreement and Nadia, the fiery transsexual who won Big Brother Five, is smoking with increasing ferocity in the garden.

So far, so Big Brother.

While Dan has fond memories of working with the crew on the show, and says it afforded him opportunities he wouldn't otherwise have had ("it had both a positive and negative effect"), he agrees it is time for Big Brother to bow out.

"The show isn't what it was and I think it's time it comes to an end," he says.

"But I have never regretted taking part."