On the subject of auctions, Dean Wilson, vice-president of barter company Active International, is sitting pretty after bidding £5.5k for the last-ever Big Brother chair (below) at the Childline’s Got Talent Ball, hosted by Amanda Holden.

The famous chair, now in Active’s London office, has become a celebrity in its own right: staff eat their lunch on it and visitors take their photo with it and post the pictures on Facebook. “My staff say I can never, ever get rid of it,” says Wilson.

But Wilson’s luck didn’t stop there - he also took home afternoon tea for four at the Petersham Hotel in Richmond and a wig owned by presenter Stavros Flatley, the Greek dancer from Britain’s Got Talent, who told the balding Wilson as he took it off his own head: “Looks like you can do with it more than me mate.”

So will Wilson take Philippa Brown, chief executive of Omnicom Media Group, to tea in Richmond to thank her for inviting him to the ball? Not a chance. “I was thinking what a fabulous Christmas present it would make for my parents.