Tashie Jackson isn’t the first Big Brother housemate to hail from Oxfordshire.

Stuart Hosking, now in his 40s, was a dad of two, living in Murcott working as an IT director when he was catapulted to Big Brother fame.

A housemate in the second series in 2001, he said he went into it after deciding to go for a complete career change, and has no regrets.

“I was travelling the world, missing my children growing up and one day I decided to try something different. I applied and got in and it was an amazing experience because back then it was about ordinary people being put together and seeing if they got on.

“Now it is much more about people who want fame using it as a way to get that fame – If I could have talked to Tashie, I’d have said: Don’t do it!”

Stuart was voted out on Day 22 after bust-ups with fellow housemates.

Returning to Oxford, Stuart, who now lives in Banbury Road, signed up with an agent and found himself in the public eye.

“I was literally mobbed in a restaurant in Oxford about a month after I came out of the house and I still get recognised, which is flattering.

“I went to celebrity events and met stars like Mark Owen, who knew all about me. One of the highlights was singing with Britney Spears on The Frank Skinner Show.”

Now an ‘entrepreneur’ currently planning to stage a Party in the Park-type event at South Park next year, he still dabbles in the media. “But I don’t watch Big Brother and my kids think it’s embarrassing that I was even on it.”

Former Oxford Greyhound Stadium head chef Herjender ‘Gos’ Gosal – said his biggest worry on entering the Big Brother house was embarrassing his mum.

He said: “When I told my family I was going on Big Brother they all said I was crazy. Mum just wanted me to promise I wouldn’t run around naked!”

Gos, now 40, runs his own successful catering company in London, and is a regular presenter on Asian Network Radio and also Five Live.

He said: “When Big Brother started I thought it was pretty boring. Then I got really hooked.

“If I could give Tashie any words of advice, I would just say: “Be yourself. If you pretend to be someone you are not, Big Brother will find out and make you suffer!

“I went in a normal bloke and came out the same way and thankfully I didn’t embarrass my mum.”