Oh brother - what they missed

The contestants had no petrol worries

The three Big Brother finalists had been cooped up in their house in Bow, east London, since 14 July. Here are some of the major events they have missed out on over some of the past 63 days.

25 July: An Air France Concorde crashes shortly after taking off from Charles De Gaulle airport, Paris. All 109 people on board are killed, plus four more on the ground.

3 August: Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown marries his partner Sarah Macaulay in Inverkeithing, in Mr Brown's Dumfermline East constituency.

All Concordes were grounded after the Paris tragedy

14 August: Russian submarine the Kirsk sinks during a naval exercise in the Barents sea, claiming the lives of all 118 crew members.

25 August: A renegade militia, the West Side Boys, captures 11 British peacekeeping troops in Sierra Leone.

26 August: Home Secretary Jack Straw announces the release of gangland killer Reggie Kray, who is suffering from terminal cancer.

4 September: Cabinet Office minister Mo Mowlam announces she will retire from politics at the next general election.

Mo Mowlam's plans to leave parliament caused controversy

5 September: The Millennium Commission awards a further £47m to bail out the Millennium Dome - Darren's former employer. The following week Japanese bank Nomura pulls out of a deal to buy the Dome, saying it had not been given full access to the attraction's finances.

7 September: Farmers and truckers begin a blockade of oil refineries across the UK.

10 September: The SAS attack the West Side Boys' stronghold in Sierra Leone to free the British troops. One soldier and 25 of the militia are killed in the fighting, but the mission is successful.

12 September: Queues develop at petrol stations and panic-buying hits supermarkets as the fuel blockade bites. Prime Minister Tony Blair holds crisis talks with his cabinet colleages and oil company bosses.

14 September: The fuel blockades are called off - but motorists are warned they could still face a wait of up to two weeks for petrol.