All reality TV contestants are more pleasant when you meet them in person. Some even seem more intelligent too. But none that I've met over the years were as downright charming, modest, friendly, warm, gentle, polite to all and just pleasant to talk to, as Dyke.
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I regret that my time with him was greatly limited. He reminded me very much of the Australian actor Hugh Jackman, known for his role in X-Men, as Wolverine, but also an excellent singer who starred in major musicals in Broadway and in London. However, Dyke insisted that nobody who has heard him sing would allow it to happen again.
Obviously, initial questions were about why he started in the series being so abrasive and then so noticeably mellowed. He admited to having a clumsy sense of humour and said he actually expected his remarks to be taken in the spirit in which he meant them and without offence.
‘I was misunderstood’
He said he was always ready to laugh at himself, and insisted he did think before he spoke and said, “I expected people to laugh, but they misunderstood the situation, and they realised they could use it strategically.”
He recognized that he had been clumsy and that he didn't know the others well enough to assume that they'd appreciate his comments as humour and then re-calibrated.
"It was wrong of me to try that after only five days - maybe later on they would have taken it in the friendly way I meant it. I should have taken more time to get to know people, and to let them get to know me, before trying out my humour!"
But he admitted he was disappointed the other contestants didn't have he guts to face him directly with their criticisms, before tribal council.
"It's a soul-searching program that really brings out your faults and your strengths,” he said.
The real Dyke
He still works in landscaping and will continue to look for work in that line, although I gather he is also very open to even more interesting proposals. Asked in the press conference if he had been offered any modelling contracts, he laughed, "When you're as hairy as I am, you're not a model!"
He admitted that when he left the last tribal council he felt frustrated and angry. He's concerned about those who never faced him with any criticisms and then brought these out in tribal council.
“You don't have to be conniving, you can keep self-respect." And indeed, he played the game cleanly and without slime, unlike some other contestants.
Overall, though, he said he enjoyed the game.
Behind the scenes
He considered Hein "a good man" and said they spent a lot of time talking, which is interesting, considering the controversy about how Hein came to lose his last challenge. Dyke is convinced, however that he did not throw it.
Apparently the filming of the tribal council was, for various reasons, much delayed and only filmed past midnight. Dyke spent a lot of the time talking with Hein, and said he was obviously exhausted and even nodded off several times during their conversation. He added that, "Hein told me he had hidden the food. But he didn't tell me where, or how to get there."
Dyke admitted that he's a very "hands-on" guy and loves physical challenges of all sorts. Like Hein, he felt driven to perform and provide: and said, “When there are people after you, you have to".
He agreed that he could have done with more allies, but said there were not really any available once Angie turned down the good offer Dyke and Hein made to her.
Dyke also stressed that there was often very little time available for negotiating and scheming. Obviously, the filming schedule has to take precedence (especially as they work within a schedule, and taking longer to film, and longer rests between challenges, costs significantly more). And some challenges took hours to set up.
So between those, there was not much time for free discussion between programme duties, and chores.
Similarly, he confirmed that while there was indeed only a short time immediately before a challenge to decide who would take part and who would sit it out, there was plenty of time between challenges for someone like Lisa to make it clear that they wanted to take part, and that, indeed, they never, as a group, refused a place to anyone who indicated at the time that they wanted to take part. Lisa never had any excuse for not taking part in any of the challenges, except by her own choice.
Dyke on alliances and friends
Dyke liked Irshaad and considered him a good-hearted guy, who "just goes a bit wild at times" and claimed that he would like to see him if he visited Durban. He considered Hein and Nicola lasting friends and said he had great respect for Mandla, but doesn't quite consider him a buddy.
Yet he said he wasn't able to support Irshaad at the end of his stay, as Irshaad effectively offered him nothing; no advantages for supporting him. Instead, he stayed loyal to Angie (not that she appears to have appreciated it), and said that if he put himself in her shoes, he would probably have made the same decisions she did.
He mentioned that he was more puzzled than offended, by the amount of invective and ugly comments directed towards him by Rijesh, since he arrived home. He claimed he didn’t see how he has deserved or attracted such unpleasantness.
"I suppose he resents it that I wouldn't let him play me," he said. It seemed to me that this was more based on Rijesh's need to blame anyone but himself for his failure in the game, than arising from any justifiable grievance.
(Professor M. A. Simpson, aka CyberShrink, October 2007)
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