When we meet Big Brother's new housemate Nick Henderson at the contestants' top-secret hotel, he's feeling very nervous about this week's live launch.

"I could be the first contestant to ever throw up on stage," he admits. "I get stage fright, so we'll see how it goes." In fact, Nick's not feeling very confident about any part of the show - he confesses he's wanted to be on the series for ages, but never thought he'd actually make it on. "I kind of regret it, actually!" he joked. "But it's too late now, so I'm excited and I've just got to enjoy it."

To prepare Nick a bit, we sat down for an exclusive chat to find out why he's so sure he won't triumph, why he thinks getting expelled from school was cool, and why he doesn't think he'll be able to have a romance in the house...


1. Nick really doesn't think he'll win. Really.
"Everyone goes in hoping they're going to win," he said. "They would be lying if they said they weren't. But realistically I'm not going to win. You've got to be realistic. It's got to be a really likeable character, and when you meet me, you instantly don't like me. It probably won't go very well, but I hope I win."

Wait, does he seriously think people don't like him? "Yeah, I do. I think I speak posh, and they're going to stereotype it as arrogant and rude and horrible and I hope that they don't because there's a lot more to me than the stereotype. Unfortunately you don't have very long before nominations start. People mix shyness with arrogance sometimes."

Nick added that he knows he'll get booed. "Mentally you've got to be ready," he said. "If you walk in there thinking you're going to be popular, it's very dangerous. I'm ready to walk in there and to be the first out and the first hated and everything, so psychologically I'm ready for it to happen." So is this all just a front, or is it genuinely what he believes? "It's 80% belief and 20% front," he said.

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"I know I'm not a bad person, but I know if I was watching me I probably wouldn't like me. I'm a bit enigmatic and hard to read and that's why you need time for that type of person."

2. Nick's not too happy with the 'rich kid' label.
"Oh, of course," he drawled when we brought it up. He said he isn't bothered by it too much, though: "My parents have worked hard for their money. I've not made any money myself. I'm not a rich kid at all. I've got no money in my bank account." And he described being stereotyped as "a natural force".

"That's why it's nice sometimes to change people's opinion around," he said. "So walking in the house, maybe if I did get the public to think I wasn't a rich kid or spoilt, maybe that would be nice. I just don't think I'm going to get enough time. I think I'm going to be targeted pretty quick. I'm an easy target. I'm not an alpha male. I hope I don't, but I think I will."

3. Nick has an idea of what the worst type of housemate he could be living with would be.
"A screechy person in the morning," he said. "I hate waking up so somebody that was so delighted to greet the day. And I think somebody that was delusional. Thick, maybe. No, I don't mind thick – just somebody who thought they were clever when they weren't. Someone that really dominated the group – a real alpha male who won't be pushed off his perch and stuff like that."

Nick thinks he'll know pretty instantly who he'll get on with and who he won't - and he thinks his housemates will, too. "It's a bit like the first day of school," he said. "You walk in and you go, 'You'll be a dick, I'll like you, you're nice'. But some people might change opinions, like me – they're going to go, 'Dick' as soon as I walk down the stairs. Everyone's just going to agree, 'Dick'. No-one's going to shake my hand because I'm a dick. Dick dick dick."


4. Nick much prefers bitching to confrontation.
"I think if I was speaking and I was trying to challenge the dominant alpha and he went, 'F**k off', I would f**k off," he said. "That's the problem – I don't really like confrontation. But I'm happy to bitch up in the treehouse about her – that would be my bread and butter. But I would never actually say it to her face."

He described the 'say it to my face' phrase as "that old cliché" and said he's "happy to gossip": "Everyone loves to gossip – just some people aren't brave enough to do it on camera. But I'm afraid after the first week when I'll sit on the fence and get blisters, afterwards I'll just go in all the time, at the dinner table. Everyone bitches. There's nothing else to talk about."

5. Nick is actually quite proud of being expelled from two schools.
"I was naughty at school," he said. "It was just a combination of things. I was always smoking, I would swear. The more somebody told me to do something, the less likely I was to do it, so I just found it sort of enjoyable just causing havoc. But that's just immature, babyish stuff. But I got expelled and that's something that I'm obviously proud of, which is really immature still, so I didn't grow up.

"When I grow up, I won't be proud of it. I've got no qualifications, no job, so who's the joke on now? Me. I hope people from that period of my life see me on Big Brother and think I'm not the biggest dick in the world, from what I was like at school." So does he have regrets about his behaviour at school? "No. Because I say I do, and I'm lying, because I think it's cool. That's why I'm on Big Brother – because I'm interesting because I got expelled."

Why did Nick get so naughty, though? "When I first went to school I was unpopular, so I thought by being naughty people would think it was cool and it worked," he said. "But once you become a class clown you never change from being a class clown; you don't just become a good boy overnight. So I jeopardised my school education to be liked."


6. Nick thinks he'll be able to follow Big Brother's rules... mostly.
"I'm actually quite whipped," he said. "If someone tells me to do something I'm like, 'Absolutely'. But the more they tell me I just go, 'No, I can't bear it any longer'. Big Brother's, 'Come to the Diary Room' will annoy me – 'I'm having a drink!' We'll see how it goes." But he added: "I think Big Brother's quite an intimidating guy. So I think getting on the wrong side of him would be a bad idea, especially when he's buttering all the bread and got me on the show."

On the other hand, Nick admitted he's "scared" about the tasks: "For example, if I had to dance in a tutu or something, I'd feel very uncomfortable. But I mean, yeah, I'm going to do the tasks. I don't want to, but I will because I want to eat. You don't want to let the group down – team player!"

7. Nick will be drinking in the house - even if he regrets it the next morning.
"When I'm drunk I tend to think I'm really funny, but I'm not, so I wake up feeling like a twat," he said. "I actually hate myself when I'm drunk in the morning and I say I'm never going to drink again, and a couple of hours later I'm back on it. That's the way it goes. I think you've got things that can alleviate the stress and I think alcohol's one of the few things, so obviously after hearing 'Get Nick Out' you just want to get hammered, don't you?"

8. Nick has no idea what the Timebomb theme means.
"Hopefully they can rewind me back to when I applied and I won't do it again!" he laughed. "No, I don't know, I try not to think about it. Hopefully they might put old housemates back in and stuff like that. I'd like to see all the housemates that I saw before, but I don't think they will."

What he doesn't want is to go back to the "bad places" in his life. "After school, I found a point where I was unemployed and a lot of people didn't have faith in me and stuff like that, and I wouldn't want to go back to that," he said. "Everybody's had dark points. I don't want to go back to them, so hopefully Timebomb can go into the future and I can be happy.

"This could be a really great journey for me. I don't know who I am as a person really very well. This could help me understand, maybe. I don't know how sitting in a house for ten weeks is going to make me understand, but we'll see."


9. Nick has never had a proper relationship, but would be open to one in the house.
"I've had fritters of relationships, like little schoolhood relationships, but nothing serious," he said. "I wouldn't mind going in there and having a relationship but they're not going to go for me! I look like a parrot."

That's not his only problem: "You don't know who's being genuine in terms of women in there. People like showmances and they like to get a little press deal afterwards which won't last very long, so we'll see. I would potentially be open to it. You've got to be in life. You've got to be open to everything, really – that's why I'm doing this."

10. Nick is expecting a lot of nominations.
"Just trust me," he said. "I think people just generally think when they meet me that I'm fake. Throughout the audition process, I had a lot of other auditionees say that I'm fake. I don't feel that I'm fake. I feel that I'm caring and I care for other people's emotions, I'm interested in other people and I do really want to get to know them. But the problem is, it's just the stereotype again of false and all that stuff. You'll see.

"I don't know how it's going to go. I keep saying this, but I'm really so in the dark with this. I'm going to walk out to boos – if I can change some of those boos to cheers, I'll be delighted. That's the goal."

11. Nick isn't interested in fame.
"Big Brother doesn't offer fame – you drift back off into obscurity very quickly on Big Brother," he said. "Even the winner doesn't last very long. It's just not a platform for fame and that's a good thing for me, that's why I applied. Of course I want to be recognised – that would be great, people asking for a picture. But it also isn't going to happen for long, so I will soak up the five seconds but I will appreciate those five seconds."

So what does Nick want for his future? "I really don't know. When I come out of here I hope I get a job, I hope I get a girlfriend, I hope I get a friend group and I hope I sort my life out, just get it back together and have a good time. Stop worrying about things."

Big Brother: Timebomb kicks off on Tuesday (May 12) at 9pm on Channel 5.