THE third series of Celebrity Big Brother came to a close last night with Bez, the former Happy Mondays dancer, being voted the surprise winner.

Until he turned up on our television screens 18 days ago, little had been heard of the 40-year-old Mancunian — best-known for his drug-fuelled excesses and expertise in dancing — since he left the group in the early 1990s.

Expectations had been growing right up until the result was announced that Kenzie, the 19-year-old rapper and member of the teenage group Blazin’ Squad, would walk away with the accolade because of his unconfrontational attitude and sweet nature in the house.

But after witnessing Bez’s awkward, self-conscious response to being in the goldfish bowl — and despite a childlike tantrum after being nominated for eviction by his fellow housemates, a feeble attempt at escaping for a night out at a nearby pub and a lack of team spirit, especially when there was no wine for dinner — his status as cult 1980s figure won through.

Even Germaine Greer, who returned to the compound last night after walking out just five days in saying that she could not take the regime of a “fascist prison” and the bullying of contestants, had chosen the final two as the only housemates she would like to see again.

Predicting last night’s result, she said on her own exit from the programme: “I would like Bez to win. He has such a capacity for happiness, he would turn it into sunshine.”

The bookmakers Ladbrokes declared the result the biggest shock in the series’ history after 54 per cent of votes went in favour of Bez, alias Mark Berry, leaving Kenzie a close second, and Brigitte Nielsen, Sylvester Stallone’s former wife, in third place.

That came a day after the bookmaker William Hill closed all betting on the series, saying that it suspected sensitive information was being leaked to the outside world. In all, 1,048,007 votes were cast during the 18-day incarceration, raising £262,002 for charity.

Kenzie had been the favourite to win since the first few days of the show — something to do with a combination of being an unexpectedly sweet, old-fashioned boy, and, more importantly, coming from a band with approximately 40 other members in it, all of whom could repeatedly phone in and vote for him while their career goes through its current chart lull.

Bez’s victory comes at the end of a quiet second week for Celebrity Big Brother, following an explosive debut week. For a format that Channel 4 announced they had abandoned in 2003, only for it to be given a reprieve by the change of regime last year, this third outing of Celebrity Big Brother certainly repaid the channel’s faith in the show.

In its first week of broadcast it garnered comparatively more column inches than any other previous series of Big Brother. Most of this was down to the surprise participation of Dr Greer, whose appearance suddenly projected the programme, always of interest to the quotidian, into the consciousness of the highbrow, too.

Broadsheets, Liberal Democrats and Barry Norman had to have an opinion on the show as well — and one that suggested that they were not overly impressed by the sight of Dr Greer having to catch milk in a bucket strapped to her head.

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