Orkney partying through the night

The island of Orkney was partying into the small hours after celebrity resident Cameron Stout won Big Brother.

Cameron emerged victorious after winning the public vote at the end of the programme’s fourth series.

The champagne was flowing freely on the island, but friends of the 32-year-old Stromness fish trader, who was the bookmakers’ favourite to win, said he would emerge as the same old Cameron, despite the glare of the media spotlight.

Speaking from Orkney, his school friend Graham Garson, 31, said last night: “It’s just absolute pandemonium here.”

Mr Garson, who runs a music shop on the island, said: “Did I think he was going to win? Yes and no.

“After the first few weeks I wasn’t so sure but throughout his time in the house he has managed to remain the same level-headed person he has always been and I think that’s what has got him through it in the end.”

He added: “Because of the type of person Cameron is, I don’t think he will embark on a media career.

“After a few weeks, when all the wall-to-wall publicity has died down, I think he’ll come back here and sell fish.”

However, others on Orkney weren’t so sure that Cameron would decline to embark on a media career like his brother, Scottish Television presenter Julyan Sinclair.

“It’s hard to say whether he will go down that road,” said Adrian Harray, landlord at the Ferry Inn, Stromness.

“I think it’s quite safe to say though that Cameron will bring a lot of economic benefit to the island.”

Mr Harray, who had a special screening of the Big Brother final in the pub into which as many as possible of Orkney’s 20,000 residents, as well as a pipe band, were crammed, said last night: “I’m sure the party’s going to go on through the night. There might be a few sore heads tomorrow.”

The local tourist board says Cameron has been so good for the island that he would make a good tourism ambassador.

Barbara Foulkes, chief executive of Orkney Islands Tourist Board, said the organisation’s website received three million hits and 23,000 visits in June.

Almost every shop owner in Orkney’s two main towns of Kirkwall and Stromness had put up messages of support and pictures of Cameron.

Cameron mania on Orkney had been at fever pitch for several days, ever since the odds on the committed Christian winning fell from 33-1 to 10-1.