Former Big Brother host Brian Dowling has hit out at the show's production company for the way he was sacked in 2013.
The two-time winner of the iconic series took over from Davina McCall as main presenter when it switched from Channel 4 to Channel 5 in 2011, but he was abruptly dropped after two series and replaced by Emma Willis.
Both McCall and Willis have appeared in the E4 retrospective Big Brother: Best Shows Ever over the last fortnight, although mentions of Dowling have been kept to a minimum, prompting him to accuse the broadcaster of "trying to rewrite history".
Writing on Twitter yesterday, McCall revealed: "Just an FYI . We did ask @brianofficial to be part of the show. He was ultimate housemate!!!! That was a no brainer."
The post prompted Dowling to reply with a lengthy statement detailing his exit from the show under the title "FYI".
"I found out from The Sun newspaper that I was being fired and replaced, and it took the production company a further 4 weeks to confirm that, without a single apology, phone call, text, email or even a bunch of flowers or a single question asking how I was," he wrote.
"My whole time on the show was tainted by how I was treated and it still affects me today.
"The same production company asked if I wanted to film a 10 second message on my phone saying hello to you and Rylan. Surprisingly I didn't really feel like doing that."
Dowling first triumphed on the second series of Big Brother in 2001 before winning the all-stars edition, Ultimate Big Brother, in 2010.
Neil Wilkes
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