How much impact did BB6 have on your lifestyle last summer?

Mattiem: It’s a long hard slog and anyone who thinks reality TV betting is for wimps obviously hasn’t given it much of a go. However, this time I put a lot more effort into the eviction markets, which meant I was able to spend a couple of weekends away from it all without fretting about the outright market too much.

Roughyed: I quit my job at the start of the show, promising that I’d return part-time during the final few weeks. The return couldn’t come soon enough – all the time I spent watching the feed and reading the forums sent me daft.  Friends and family were no use, as the topic of Big Brother was never far away. It required a short break in Prague for some much-needed rest and recuperation to pull me through.

Dave P Fanclub: Tragically, my entire summer was spent sat in front of Channel 4 with my brain in a jar next to the sofa. If I wasn't subjecting myself to the live feed, I was canvassing opinion from family and a rapidly-diminishing band of friends. At the slightest hint of a change in perception for any of the candidates, I was prepared to change my position. The sole housemate about whom I was not prepared to alter my opinion was the aesthetically-pleasing Orlaith – only my trusty box of Kleenex knew my true thoughts about the amiable Ulster girl's impact on the show!

Mike Cooksedge: The impact for me and my family was huge. It feels like I go into my office before summer has started properly and by the time I emerge it’s almost the autumn. Social life is very limited with Fridays being an absolute no-go.  The computer is on 18 hours a day and I can’t go 15 minutes without checking the markets.  It drives my wife crazy, not least because I’m usually so pre-occupied with the contest that I fail to take in anything she says.  By the end, we were all desperate for it to finish.

Mattiem: I’d say the most notable difference was the distinct lack of any likeable characters. There were some strong characters, yes, but certainly not likeable. Anthony was a winner by default more than anything and, as such, there was no ‘defining moment’ when it was appropriate to lump on a particular runner. Aside from a bit of fun and games in the final week, Anthony’s price drop was a slow drip throughout. I think a lot of people, myself included, played a cautious game for a long time in the outright market. 

Roughyed: Personally, I wouldn’t say it was too different to previous years – more a case of some unfortunate trends getting worse. Fewer bookies were willing to accept a decent-sized bet while the Betfair forum was frequented by an even greater number of rampers, time-wasters and whingers. However, Big Brother betting is bigger than ever now. This is mostly thanks to the vast improvement in market management by Betfair and the couple of high-profile upsets on eviction nights that helped to give the market some much-needed confidence against the ubiquitous cries of “It’s a fix!” that are usually a hallmark of the forum.

Dave P Fanclub: The liquidity on this series was perhaps the best-ever (no, I'm not referring to Orlaith again!) and so there was little danger of being unable to turn around a position without moving the market significantly, for all but the very biggest players. From my point of view, it seemed there were a succession of false favourites, from the abhorrent Kemal, through the amply-cushioned Saskia, the charmless Maxwell and the devious Makosi, to the malevolent Derek. Hindsight tells me these characters were so flawed that they could never have captured the support of the key demographic - that of women between 25 and 45. In BB5, Dan could never have been described as a false favourite until the moment Nadia headed the market – and I think he would have walked this summer's series. This year it boiled down to the fact that Anthony was simply the least offensive housemate in there.

Mike Cooksedge: I found it impossible to second guess the producers. There was some terrible messing about with the process. On several occasions I thought I had worked out why they were doing it, but I don’t think I was ever correct. When Orlaith said she was walking, I was convinced they would have done all they could to make sure she was voted out, rather than having the hassle of introducing a new housemate at that late stage. However, there was a crucial piece of footage that would have guaranteed her exit that they did not show in the highlights programme. As a result, Kemal was voted off and Orlaith walked the following day.

Mattiem: I had no major regrets, to be perfectly honest. However, ‘Any Other’ was my biggest winner for a long time but I laid the majority of it off way too early. After backing at 24s, I closed most of it off at around 10s.

Roughyed: It would have to be laying the vacuous Sam for the third eviction. In hindsight, it seems so foolish. Amongst other things, I seriously over-estimated the negative exposure Derek would receive on the shortened Wednesday show.

Dave P Fanclub: The only market on which I suffered a serious loss was the one where Sam was evicted despite her being bullied the previous week by the eloquent and demure Lesley. After reading Satan's logbook (better known as Digital Spy) I managed to convince myself that she had built up some kind of sympathy following and that pompous Derek would be up for the chop. By the time I realised my judgement was risibly flawed, it was too late and there was more red flying about than you’d find at a car crash in a poppy field involving Ken Livingstone and Derek Hatton.

Mike Cooksedge: It was the second week, I think. Maxwell and Anthony were standing in the garden and had a competition to see who could wet their pants first! I took the stance that this would hit Maxwell’s price hard when shown on the highlights package, so I laid him very heavily indeed. To my amazement, the incident was left on the cutting room floor.  Maxwell had a good couple of shows and the market interpreted the failure of Channel 4 to show the ‘game’ as a sign that they favoured Maxwell. As a result his price shortened dramatically. My red was far too big to run with so I was forced to back him at prices which, at that stage, wrecked my book by wiping out the benefits of two weeks decent trading.

Mattiem: Davina taking off her coat when interviewing Sam to reveal herself scantily clad in nothing more than a swimsuit. The box task was also surprisingly amusing, while one of the diary room voices was a true comedian.

Roughyed: Despite all Craig’s classic moments, I have to opt for Kinga getting it on with a bottle of white. If you ask me, that was 21st century television at its very best!

Dave P Fanclub: The only classic moment was finding out that Anthony had won and I hadn't completely lost the plot, as I feared may have turned out to be the case. I don't actually enjoy watching the show at all - if I wanted to watch a group of dullards with room temperature IQs sitting in a kitchen talking bollocks, I'd go back to university. I flew out on holiday the day before the show ended and although fairly confident, I cannot pretend I wasn't nervous given the apparent surge of support for Eugene from the public seven days previously. This was something which I completely underestimated - in the final week I simply had to get him back towards neutrality, despite it going against my instincts, because several indicators suggested he was giving Ant a run for his money.

Mike Cooksedge: I didn’t particularly like Science at the time, but looking back he was definitely the star of the show.  He had no sense of diplomacy, had the skin of an armour-plated rhino and had no interest in compromise in any situation. He totally isolated himself from the rest of the group and was totally comfortable with the fact that everyone disliked him. His finest moment and the finest moment of the series for me happened when he rounded on three of his housemates in the middle of a row and called them “Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Twat!” 

Mattiem: Kemal got on my tits something rotten – he wasn’t the nastiest housemate in there but certainly the most irritating. All that “Who is Makosi?” business – God’s Teeth!

Roughyed: Kemal, by a country mile. I do realise the contestants are there for more than “just the experience” but the sheer transparency of this clown drove me to the brink of despair. The look on his face when defeated by a non-enitity like Orlaith made the previous nine weeks of hell almost worthwhile. I’ll never forget his final words to Davina: “You haven’t seen the last of me!” Well, I’m sorry to tell you this sweetheart, but we have.

Dave P Fanclub: The nastiest pair in there were Lesley and Derek, with the former having only two redeeming features more than the latter. Derek used his intelligence in a destructive and offensive manner when if he’d shown a sense of kindness, humility and self-deprecation he could have been the ultimate BB contestant. Makosi was brimming with misplaced self-importance but Craig takes the cream cracker as the most cringeable human being on the planet. I do hope no one in his salon accidentally stabs him to death with a pair of nail clippers – because that’d be too good for him.

Mike Cooksedge: No question – it was Craig. He demanded an extraordinary level of acceptance and tolerance from those around him, while reciprocating none. Nothing escaped his radar, the slightest misdemeanour (whether real or imagined) was leapt upon and dissected to the ninth degree. He showed a fierce and deeply unpleasant jealousy, most notably when describing Eugene as ‘evil’ after he dared have some fun with Ant. He made it crystal clear by his actions that he fancied Ant but swore on his parents’ lives that he didn’t!  A nasty selfish, self-obsessed, hypocrite. My most disliked reality TV contestant of this or any series. 

Mattiem: To put the effort and funds into eviction markets ahead of the outright market. In this series, I think we had flip-flops in every eviction - and almost every evictee traded in double figures pre-nomination. And the biggest bonus is that there’s a payout every week, rather having to wait three months.

Roughyed: To stay fully focused during lesbian action on the live feed! Sam was a certainty to be evicted once she went at it full tongues with Makosi and she could be backed at around 1.75 but, somewhat foolishly, I failed to pile in. I’m still not quite sure if this was due to a reluctance to send my book “all red” or remove my hand from down my pants but I later paid the price as Sam was now a true 1.15 shot.  If only I’d known the lovely Orlaith would enter a few weeks later, I would probably have paced myself better.

Dave P Fanclub: Don't underestimate the sympathy vote, and always be aware how fickle the public can be. If the final had been on the Sunday or Monday night, Eugene may well have won, despite him being in the house for half the length of other finalists and contributing next-to-nothing. A few endearing blubs or a stretegically-placed tear can melt the hearts of a million chavs. But don't overdo it Makosi, you'll just make a tit of yourself.

Mike Cooksedge: I tried to do too much too quickly. I built up huge greens within days with correspondingly huge reds. This set the tone for the series and rather than subtle and gentle tweaks to my book, my book adjustments were full on and massive. My biggest weakness is creating positions that are too big for the market and then being forced to punt back at poor value. It also means excessive sums are tied up at the bookies. Not sure if this counts, because I do it every time – but this time I really have learnt my lesson!