Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald lifts lid on Merlin’s iconic Big Brother protest: ‘I had no idea’

The Big Brother cast reunited after 20 years at the weekend – and Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald shed more detail about one of the season’s most talked-about moments.

It was one of the most controversial moments in Australian TV history.

And now two decades later, Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald has revealed how his Big Brother 2004 cast mate Merlin Luck was able to orchestrate his refugee protest on live TV.

The cast of ‘Big Brother 4’ reunited in Sydney on Saturday night, including Fitzy, the season’s winner Trevor Butler and runner-up Bree Amer, the latter of whom organised the catch-up 20 years after they all starred on the now defunct Channel 10 reality series.

The Big Brother Australia season 4 cast enjoyed a 20 year reunion at the weekend.

Luck, who was present at the reunion, quickly became a hot topic.

He’d been evicted on day 43, about halfway through the season, when he joined host Gretel Killeen onstage for the obligatory post-elimination TV interview.

There, he performed a silent protest in solidarity with detainees who were being held as part of the Australian Government’s policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers.

Placing black tape over his mouth and holding up a sign which read, ‘Free the refugees’, Luck refused to speak despite Killeen’s numerous attempts – before security whisked him offstage.

Big Brother was very much in its heyday at the time, averaging one million viewers per episode and over two million for the finale, with Luck’s silent protest becoming a talking point around the country.

Merlin Luck with presenter Gretel Killeen following his eviction in 2004.

Suffice to say, the huge moment was acknowledged at the reunion, with Fitzy revealing on his Nova show Monday morning how Luck managed to pull it off, given the cast mates were limited with what they could take in the house.

“Do you know what he did? He told us, and I had no idea about this, but two weeks before he was about to go into the Big Brother house, he had an epiphany because his dad was a protester when he was younger,” Fitzy began.

“And he had this epiphany when he was at home and he said, ‘I’ve got to do this, I really have to make a change. I’m going to be on the biggest stage in Australia, so I need to do something about it.’

“He sewed that little free the refugees into his shirt, because your suitcase gets checked with what you take in there for contraband, but they didn’t pick it up.

“So he was in there the whole time knowing that, ‘when I get booted, I am going to make this protest.’

“How nerve wracking it would have been for him when he was actually about to go on stage knowing I’m just going to put this gaffer tape on my mouth and I’m not going to talk.”

Fitzy shot to fame on the fourth season of Big Brother.

Bree Amer and Ryan Fitzgerald at the 20-year reunion.

Fitzy, now 47, went on to say the entire cast congratulated Luck for having the courage to make a stand all those years ago.

“Merlin was there on Saturday night and there was a moment where we all just raised our glasses,” Fitzy said.

“I said, ‘mate, what I don’t think I understood at the time [was] how big that was.’

“But 20 years later, as my views mature, and my political views sort of change, I said, ‘mate, that was an unbelievable effort’.”

Elsewhere, Fitzy said Killeen was not invited, though he didn’t elaborate as to why.

“Well, we invited a few of the producers and [presenter] Mike Goldman was there …” he added.

“But anyway, for years and years, you sort of push it to the side, then you have families, you get married, and you sort of forget about it, but there was a moment where everyone just went, ‘You know what, I think we should all sort of meet up and talk about what happened in our lives, you know, 20 years ago, because it was a significant part of our lives.’”

Originally published as Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald lifts lid on Merlin’s iconic Big Brother protest: ‘I had no idea’