GOOD NEWS Newspaper

Page 3 | GOOD NEWS | February 2026
SHOCK NEWS: Big Brother
winner was a Christian!
NICE GUY: Richard Storry won Big Brother with his kind and self-deprecating attitude
Channel 4
IT MIGHT have come as a quite a
surprise to most reality TV fans but
the winner of a show renowned for
sleazy contestants was a clean-cut
middle-aged man.
Richard Storry, a 60-year-old composer
and author, won the latest series
of Big Brother. He admitted to Glamour
magazine before the show that he
wasn’t the typical Big Brother star, saying:
“I would have thought most people
who watch this show are at the younger
end of things and going to identify more
closely with the younger housemates…
but you just never know – it would be
quite a coup if I did carry it off.”
And carry it off he did.
How? By showing kindness in contrast
to the hatred he encountered on
the show. His gracious answers to insulting
questions and comments won
him admirers. And that winsome and
winning attitude springs directly from
Richard’s Christian faith.
One housemate in particular taunted
him, but Richard said he believed
there was a “lovely person” inside.
One viewer commented on X: “A
man who was not meant to be a housemate,
bullied everyday by Caroline, al-
ways wearing normal day clothes and
took himself to bed every night to read
his Bible who has just won Big Brother
and realised how much the nation
loves him.”
In fact, his Bible was the only thing
he took into the house, and he told
Premier Christian Radio that he shared
quotes from it with other contestants
when he felt God led him to do so.
He’s not the first Christian to have
won it, and others have made appearances,
but it’s not the show most Christians
are dying to be on! It requires a
tough skin.
Speaking to the Daily Mail after
his victory, Richard said he holds no
grudges, saying Caroline’s insults were
“water off a duck’s back” and he had
no hard feelings towards her. What a
contrast with today’s so-called ‘snowflake’
culture where everyone takes offence
at everything!
Richard said on Big Brother UK that
he has led a completely celibate life,
and has adopted an adult refugee as
his own son. As for the prize money, he
will be using that to help someone else
too – enabling a young musician to get
his album recorded.
‘Prayer and God’s presence
got me through Bake Off’
WINNER’S WAY: Jasmine Mitchell with the
1.2 metre cake that won Bake Off. She
relied on God to help her through tough
competition
THIS year’s Great
British Bake Off winner
has told how
she dealt with the
pressure of competing
on Bake Off:
she turned to God in
prayer.
Interviewed by Premier
Christian News,
Channel 4
Jasmine Mitchell said
her faith “has become
stronger and stronger
over the last year”,
as she relied on God
while balancing Bake
Off with studying for a
medical degree.
Jasmine said the
pressure of the show
“really pushed me to
rely on Jesus, on God,
because there were a
lot of situations where
I just felt completely
unequipped.
“Walking to the
tent from the green
room, or waiting, I
would just pray the
Lord’s prayer a lot in
my head… I felt like
God was walking along
beside me.”
The youngest ever
five-time Star Baker
added: “I would
look back at the end
of the week and just
feel completely held
by God. It was a complete
kind of miracle,
to be honest, that I
had managed to get
through it!”
Jasmine told Woman
Alive magazine:
“I think it was God’s
grace that carried
me through. Life got
so full-on. I’d look at
my week and think:
‘I can’t possibly do
all this.’ I’d pray that
what truly needed
doing would get
done and every week,
somehow, it would…
“I kept feeling his
presence through every
round, every new
challenge. Even now,
every new stage brings
new adjustments, and
I still have to trust that
God has me. I never
feel fully equipped, but
he always pulls [me]
through.”
Another area of life
that has been a challenge
is living with alopecia.
She began losing
her hair at the age of
ten, but is now able to
feel confident without a
wig. She says: “Often, I
would pray for my hair
back, in a sense of: ‘This
is what I want, this is
what healing looks like
to me.’ Ironically, healing
isn’t just what we
ask for.
“God has healed me
to make me more whole,
and more me. I’m now
starting to enjoy being
different and just going
with that. It’s definitely
a process of learning to
see myself the way God
sees me.”
SINGER OF MASSIVE HIT BALLAD
REALLY DID FIND ‘WHAT LOVE IS’
IN 1984 rock band Foreigner
sang I Wanna Know What Love
Is and hit number one in both
the UK and US charts. It remains
one of their best-known
songs and is played repeatedly
on radio stations – particularly
around Valentine’s Day.
The powerful vocals, backed
by a Gospel choir, belonged to
34-year-old Lou Gramm. His delivery
sounded sincere, but it was
another eight years before he really
found out what love is.
The intervening years were
not without excesses and, as explained
in an interview with Fox
News, he had a drug addiction
that was getting out of hand.
He had always accepted God’s
existence but regarded him as
just someone to bring requests
to and offer thanks in the good
times, but 1992 marked a seismic
change:
“We had played a concert at
Madison Square Garden and
there was a record company party
afterwards that lasted until
four or five in the morning. Everybody
was drunk or high on drugs
and I ended up back in my hotel
room unable to sleep.
“I started thinking about what
I had become. I was upset and
worried about my children seeing
me like this. I finally fell on my
knees and asked God to take this
‘plague’ away from me.
“A couple of hours later I called
BIG VOICE: Lou Gramm
pictured early in his career
Misterweiss/Wikimedia
my attorney and asked him to
book me into the Hazelden Rehab
Clinic… I spent the best 30 days of
my life there and today I’m a devout
‘born again’ Christian. God
plays a role in everything I do.
I know he gave me my life and
saved my life. I serve him.”
It hasn’t all been plain sailing
since for Lou. The reference to
his life being saved was literal
as well as spiritual, as in 1997 he
had a brain tumour and the subsequent
operation affected his
voice. However, he has gone on
to make Gospel records and, at 75
years old, he is still touring and
doing guest spots with Foreigner.