Davina McCall slams Brian Dowling’s claims he was snubbed from Big Brother’s Best Shows Ever – insisting he was invited
DAVINA McCall has slammed Brian Dowling's claims that he was snubbed from Big Brother's spin-off series Best Shows Ever.
The 52-year-old star took to Twitter after the final episode aired this evening, concluding E4's celebration of the reality programme's 20th birthday.
The series had faced criticism for not including 42-year-old Brian, who presented two seasons of the show when it moved to Channel 5 in 2011.
He also won the second series of the show, as well as Ultimate Big Brother in 2010.
Writing on social media, Davina addressed the controversy as she told fans: "Just an FYI . We did ask @brianofficial to be part of the show. He was ultimate housemate!!!! That was a no brainer."
The tweet comes one day after Brian responded to a viewer on his own Twitter page, suggesting that he hadn't been invited to take part.
The fan had written: "Although I am absolutely loving watching old episodes of #BigBrother finding it very strange that there has been no mention of [Brian Dowling] as presenter?!
"Very odd considering how loved he is and was on the show?"
Brian replied: "You are not the only one. Actually at this stage it’s getting rather funny. People trying to rewrite history."
Earlier today, Davina tried to diffuse the situation as she explained: "We haven’t talked about Brian presenting as this is the Channel 4 years as you have probably noticed.
"He presented on Channel 5 . We had Emma and Dermot on as they both worked on Channel 4 big brother . We love @brianofficial . A lot. We showed him in bb2."
However, some fans were unimpressed as they pointed out that Rylan Clark-Neal, who won the first Celebrity Channel 5 series before hosting the channel's spin-off, Big Brother's Bit On The Side, was Davina's co-host for this special.
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Emma Willis also appeared, having taken over from Brian as Channel 5's main host in 2013.
Dermot O'Leary featured as the host of Channel 4's original spin-off, Big Brother's Little Brother.
Brian was crowned Big Brother's second ever champion in 2001, and re-entered the house nine years later alongside other iconic housemates for an 'all-stars' series, which he also won.