Liam is fired by reality love

HARTLEPOOL fireman Liam Lewis thought he’d signed up for a summer of love in a TV show… but the reality proved rather different and much more dramatic. He was cast in an MTV show under the impression he’d be flown to an exotic location to “live in a beach villa with eight single lads and lasses – and have a good time”.

It didn’t work out like that and the title of the reality show Ex On The Beach should have been a clue to what the producers were planning.

As Lewis reports, “the unexpected happened”

after the first day. “We got there, were introduced and got to know each other. We had a nice meal and thought this is absolutely brilliant, this is paradise.

We couldn’t believe how lucky we were,” he says.

Then came the twist – an ex of one of the cast dropped by. “We thought it was strange, but a fluke or coincidence. Then day by day another ex arrived and we were all thinking, ‘is my ex going to be next?’,” he says.

“There was no escape. We all lived in a villa and had to put up with each other. Soon there were eight of us and eight exes. By day four or five I was going through a low point and didn’t know if I could put up with all these people a minute longer. I didn’t know whether I could deal with it.

“During the day we were taking part in activities, then at night we’d go out and have meals.”

There was also the jostling for position among the reality cast. “In the first few days people were fighting for popularity, wanting to be liked and wanting attention. Some people were better than others at doing that.

“Some were quite arrogant. A lot of them I wouldn’t usually hang around with. It was difficult becoming friends with people like that.

“Then after a few days I thought, ‘I don’t care what people think and started creating a couple of dramas myself. I was known as the ****-stirrer’.”

Does that make him the bad guy in the series?

“Among the other cast members, perhaps, but I hope I’ve done it in a humorous way and not done the putdowns in a nasty way,” says Lewis.

He had someone else from the region to keep him company, Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison. “It was good to have someone from my neck of the woods. We got on really well and watched each other’s back,” he adds.

He’s shy about confirming if any of his exes turned up “Let’s just say not everyone had an ex. I can’t give too much away.”

He certainly liked the company he kept in the villa. “All the girls were gorgeous, they were all stunning and some were models,” he says.

“There were a couple I went out with and had dates with. I had quite a few with Emily. We had a love/hate relationship. We’d get on really well in a group bouncing off each other, then go on a date and it wouldn’t go so well.”

He’s not been in a serious relationship since he was 22 – he’s 25 now – but reckons there are plenty of exes out there with whom the show could have confronted him.

Lewis, who works as a chemical firefighter at Sembcorp on Teesside, isn’t a newcomer to reality TV. He appeared on ITV’s dating show Take Me Out.

Their relationship progressed no further than one date. “She wasn’t my cup of tea. In fact she was a bit boring,” he says.

His family are “excited”, but his dad has said he doesn’t think he’ll be able to watch the show. “They obviously know what Geordie Shore is like, and The Valleys and are thinking Ex On The Beach is something along those lines. But it’s a bit different to those. It’s a lot more glamorous, a better location and the cast members are a bit more savvy. It’s totally different to anything else on TV.”

At the end of it all he says it “was a free holiday and good-looking girls”.

Despite not being the promised summer of love, Lewis would jump at the chance to do it again.

“At times it was hard work and a rollercoaster, and I thought why am I doing this?,”

he says. “But looking back it was amazing. It was the experience of a lifetime.

I’d do more reality shows without a doubt. I consider myself quite lucky to have had the opportunity to do them.”

• Ex On The Beach, MTV, Tuesday, 10pm