Pair still house proud
Appearing on Big Brother was a once in a lifetime experience for former housemates Tully Smyth and Dave Graham. The pair tell Siobhan Duck why they both jumped at the chance to return for a new season
For Tully Smyth and Dave Graham – aka “Farmer Dave” – returning to Big Brother has felt like a homecoming.
“It’s funny, it’s not the same house,” Smyth says.
“It’s not in the same city. It’s definitely not the same game of
Big Brother. And it’s not even the same Big Brother voice but yet, the whole thing feels oddly familiar and oddly comforting.
“I often say that it feels like my first-time round was both 100 years ago and also yesterday.”
Smyth and Graham are among the all-star housemates who have returned this year to compete against a bunch of newcomers.
Big Brother fans will remember the duo, who each made headlines in their respective seasons. Graham in 2006 for famously coming out on screen and Smyth, seven years later, for hooking up with another housemate, Anthony Drew, despite having a girlfriend waiting at home.
Now they’re back and – to Smyth’s mild irritation – so too is her ex-boyfriend, Drew.
“We’re on good terms in real life, but I’m a bit confused as to why he would come back,” she says.
“He’s always shied away from the show and said he’d never do it again. And I’m kind of like: ‘Couldn’t you have just let me have my moment in the sun? Did you have to come in and ruin it for me a second time?’.”
This time around, there is no chance of Smyth and Drew rekindling their romance. Drew has sparked up a relationship with one of the newcomers, while Smyth is in a very happy relationship.
Given the backlash that Smyth copped after her first stint on
Big Brother, you would think she might have some reservations about doing it again.
But she laughs: “I didn’t really need to think about it, I was like:
‘Sign me up’.”
“I don’t know why wouldn’t have gone back. It is meant to be a once in a lifetime opportunity that you only get to do once. You know, a bucket list item? And to have a chance to go back and do it again for a second time and possibly win the money, why would I say no?”
Smyth confesses she has been watching the series since she was a little girl and would sneak out of bed to watch “up late” footage of the first season housemates. She’s such an ardent Big Brother fan that she couldn’t contain her delight at finding herself sharing a house with former winners Reggie Bird and Trevor Butler this year.
Even the fallout of her own tumultuous Big Brother experience couldn’t dampen her affection for the show and, if anything, it has ultimately prepared her for her 2022 tilt at the prize.
That’s probably because, Smyth says, she has done a lot of work on herself since the first experience so that she now feels far more confident in who she is.
Plus, she adds, wryly: “It could not possibly go any worse than last time.”
“I was just someone who made a mistake, and I don’t think I got the villain edit at all [the first time around],” she explains.
“But the feedback about what happened and the aftermath at the time was something that weighed heavily on my mind.
“To be honest, there’s not really anything you can say to me now online that I haven’t heard before. Like, I have read some of the most disgusting comments and death threats.”
It wasn’t just the liaison with
Drew that attracted haters. She was labelled “crazy”, a “cry baby” and “typhoon Tully” for her so-called emotional outbursts.
“It really stuck with me, and it really weighed heavily on me,” she reflects of the negative commentary.
“You know, I’m 34 years old now. I’m older and wiser, and as I went in, I thought: ‘I am who I am and showing emotions and vulnerability is not a weakness. It’s a strength’.
“I was wondering whether social media would have grown alongside me or whether it would be the same… and so far, the commentary has been worlds apart.”
Graham has also felt a sizeable and long-overdue social shift since he first entered the Big Brother house determined to start a conversation about equality and tolerance for all people regardless of their sexuality.
Since then, same sex marriage has finally been legalised in Australia and there is far more representation for the LGBTQIA+ community on screen
“The past is a foreign country, and me doing what I did back then was extremely political,”
Graham says.
“And it was groundbreaking.
It’s a real honour to be part of the changes in the social fabric of Australia.
“I did have to come out in the house several times [this season too], to the people who didn’t know who I was.
“But that was a very different experience. It was just like: ‘Oh, yeah. Cool. Next question.’ Whereas back then, it was a massive deal.”
Just like his first stay, this stint has also been politically motivated.
This time, he’s in the house to highlight the work he does with vulnerable youth through his organisation Rough Track.
He also wanted to challenge himself.
“I’m a middle-aged man and I’ve had a very rough life,” he says.
“I had a parachuting accident, broke almost all my bones. I have had many car accidents. I’ve had a lot of falls off horses while out droving. I haven’t been kind to my body.
“So, you know, these [physical] challenges that are expected
[now in Big Brother], I was very afraid of doing.
“But I teach kids every day that you’ve got to feel the fear and do it anyway.
“I teach them that when an opportunity comes knocking, open up the door.”
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