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It's been eight years since the infamous 'David's dead' moment on Celebrity Big Brother
Celebrity Big Brother
This week marks the eighth anniversary of the truly iconic and chaotic "David's dead" TV blunder that aired on Celebrity Big Brother in 2016.
It all started when Angie Bowie uttered the words “David’s dead” to Tiffany Pollard, who then mistook David Gest for David Bowie in a comedy of errors that Shakespeare himself probably couldn’t have made up if he tried...
Let’s refresh our memory and cast our minds back to how the classic reality TV moment happened, shall we?
When the news broke that music legend David Bowie had tragically died from cancer, his ex-wife Angie was starring in Big Brother alongside reality TV favourites Gemma Collins, and Tiffany Pollard, as well as Kim Kardashian’s BFF Jonathan Cheban, soap star royalty and Darren Day.
After Angie was informed by producers of her ex-husband’s death, she was clearly emotional and sought comfort from Tiffany - in a move that she would soon regret.
“David’s dead," Angie uttered to Tiffany, who in shock at the news fell to the floor in disbelief and began crying and wailing, “No, he’s not” she said in denial.
While you may think Tiffany simply may be a big Bowie fan - that’s not exactly the reason why she appeared so emotional...
With Angie just saying the first name “David,” Tiffany immediately (and mistakenly) thought she was referring to fellow CBB housemate David Gest - the film producer and ex-husband of Liza Minelli - who coincidentally at the time was ill lying in bed, with the covers right over his head, as if he had actually been laid to rest.
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Thinking David Gest had just passed away, Tiffany ran off without letting Angie properly explain and informed her fellow housemates sitting in the garden of the tragic - albeit incorrect - news.
Of course, the housemates dashed into the bedroom to find out for themselves if it was true and quickly discovered it wasn’t the case when Darren pulled back the covers to find Gest was very much alive.
An angry Tiffany was separated from a confused Angie who asked what she had done. Daniella Westbrook told her: “You told her that David was dead with cancer,” to which Angie said: “Yes, he is.”
Westbrook replied: “He’s in there asleep,” as she pointed to where David Gest was, Angie then huffed and replied: “David - my ex-husband.”
As the fallout from the blunder continued, Angie was mourning the genuine loss of her ex-husband and the father of her child in the Diary room tearfully describing the whole situation as “a mess.”
A truly wild rollercoaster ride.
To top it all off, when Tiffany realises that she got the wrong David she hilariously refuses to give in and admit her mistake. Instead, she blamed Angie for the error and insisted she said: “David Gest is dead.”
But if you roll back the tape, we all know those two words that came out of Angie’s mouth.
Of course, this classic TV moment is being commemorated on social media as fans of the show reminisce about the chaos that ensued.
While the misunderstanding of epic proportions still gets talked about to this day, just after the show ended Gest had planned a tour referring to the case of mistaken identity called: “David Gest Is Not Dead, But Alive With Soul” but tragically died from a stroke just months after leaving the Celebrity Big Brother house.
Elsewhere, Tiffany made the most out of the moment by selling “David’s Dead” T-shirts, to try and rectify her bizarre blunder, but obviously had to axe the t-shirt when Gest passed away.
Remembering the classic TV mix-up, Gaz, host of Big Brother on Blast podcast, told Metro.co.uk : “This comedy of errors is an iconic ‘wrong end of the stick’ fiasco that transcends the fleeting nature of reality TV and lives on in our minds, and memes, rent-free. A moment so ridiculous it just couldn’t be written.
“It really was the storyline that kept on giving – a perfect storm that only Big Brother could have created. Surely it’s time for a return to our screens? I’m looking at you Channel 4!”
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