Book description
In summer 2000 a new media phenomenon was born - Big Brother.
Rivetting the viewing public and the media alike, it was watched by
over 10 million people.
The very first winner was Craig Phillips, the endearing Liverpudlian
'chippie with a heart of gold'. He emerged from the big Brother house
with 3. 7 million votes and promptly gave his entire £70,000 winnings
to a friend with Downs Syndrome.
Craig already had an established and successful construction
business and after leaving Big Brother went on to combine this with
his new-found media savvy to forge a brilliant career spanning both
worlds.
He went on to present and produce shows for BBC, ITV and Discovery
Channel, as well as making guest appearances on some of the most
popular shows on TV including The Weakest Link, Bo! Selecta, and
Children in Need.
Alongside this he has set up a skills centre to train young people.
He gives inspirational talks to schools and universities and has
raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for numerous charities.
Not bad for a dyslexic working class boy from a deprived area of
Liverpool. Craig's is the ultimate story of triumph over adversity.
But it could have been so different...
Craig Phillips was born in Seaforth, Liverpool in 1971, the
younger of two children. His family moved to Shropshire in the late
1980s, and at the age of eighteen, Craig secured a bricklaying
apprenticeship whilst working for a local construction company.
Determined to ensure he excelled in his chosen profession, he
attended further night-school classes in advanced brickwork and civil
engineering, achieving City & Guilds qualifications. Before
appearing on Big Brother, Craig had run his own building
company for nearly a decade, which had an annual turnover of more than
£1 million.
In 2005, he set up the largest independent construction training
college in the north-west of England, which has so far seen thousands
of young people achieve NVQ apprenticeships. He remains as passionate
as ever about construction and maintains an impressive property portfolio.
