Eighth Big Brother to have all-female house

3 June, 2007:

The eighth edition of ‘Big Brother’ of the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 is back. This is the first year an all-female house has been unveiled. The series will begin in the first week of June 2007.

Before the program begins with a live launch, Channel 4 will have to make an on-air apology after regulator Ofcom condemned its handling of the racism row in this year’s Celebrity Big Brother.

Ofcom said the broadcaster had made “serious editorial misjudgements” after the eventual winner, Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, was subjected to a tirade of abuse from fellow contestants.

Newspapers in the United Kingdom said the producers of the show, hosted again by Davina McCall, were desperate to make the latest series fun in a bid to bury the bitterness generated by the Celebrity show.

The new, camera-filled house is also designed to have “nothing where it should be” – with the fridge in the garden, for example.

Channel 4 has announced that it was cutting the cost of phone voting to evict contestants, saying it would no longer make any profit from the calls.

The calls will be halved to 25p, which the broadcaster said would cover administration costs and provide a 10p donation per vote to charity.

Channel 4 said that, in addition, it would no longer allow viewers to vote by text message because operators could not process them in time.

Here is a quick guide to the 11 contestants of Big Brother Season Eight

HOUSEMATES 1 AND 2

Name: Sam and Amanda
Age: 18
Occupation: Students

Sam and Amanda are the first set of twins to enter the house. Besides studying social work in Manchester, the twins work as promotion girls in a nightclub. They find politics “confusing” and both believe that “men should always buy women drinks.”

HOUSEMATE 3

Name: Lesley
Age: 60
Occupation: Retired head-hunter

Lesley is a member of the Women’s Institute and believes there is a “strong possibility” she will win the show. She has been married twice, first at 16, while her second husband is 23 years her senior. She admits she has “terrible temper tantrums.”

HOUSEMATE 4

Name: Charley
Age: 21
Occupation: Unemployed

Charley is the cousin of Manchester United star Kieran Richardson and is a former lap dancer. She rates herself 10 out of 10 for attractiveness and ruthlessness. She says she is very competitive and always has to win.

HOUSEMATE 5

Name: Tracey
Age: 36
Occupation: Cleaner

Tracey, a self-styled hippie raver, is from a small village in Cambridgeshire. She has collected carrier bags since the age of six and has never switched on a computer. She has not worn makeup in 15 years, and in the future hopes to live in a shed with running water and an unblocked toilet. Drunks, mess and laziness make her angry.

HOUSEMATE 6

Name: Chanelle
Age: 19
Occupation: Student

Chanelle is obsessed with Victoria Beckham and wants to follow her idol by moving to Madrid and then Los Angeles. She plays the violin and admits she would love to be a professional Victoria Beckham look-a-like. She hopes people will recognise her in the street once she appears in the show.

HOUSEMATE 7

Name: Shabnam
Age: 22
Occupation: Temporary receptionist

Shabnam lives at home with her mother, with whom she gets on “like a sister.” She would like to be reincarnated as “another enigma” like Michael Jackson or Johnny Depp. She lasted two days working in McDonald’s and has also had a job dressing up cartoon characters in a toy department.

HOUSEMATE 8

Name: Emily
Age: 19
Occupation: Student

Emily is a Tory voter, considers herself right-wing and lists “benefit cheats” among her pet hates. She says she gives herself 10 out of 10 for intelligence. Emily believes she will be the housemate whom the public most want to be friends with.

HOUSEMATE 9

Name: Laura
Age: 23
Occupation: Nanny

Laura says that her friends say she reminds them of the Little Britain character Vicky Pollard and also that she looks like Peter Kay. Though currently a nanny, her dream in life is to own her own funeral parlour and to become an embalmer. She volunteers at a local cemetery clearing leaves.

HOUSEMATE 10

Name: Nicky
Age: 27
Occupation: Accounts executive in a bank

Nicky was born in Mumbai, India, and adopted from a Mother Teresa orphanage at the age of one. Her adoptive parents are Irish and Anglo-Indian. Nicky believes love is “for losers” and hates men. She predicts that the other housemates may nominate her through jealousy, because she is too straight-talking or has a penchant for extreme cleaning.

HOUSEMATE 11

Name: Carole
Age: 53
Occupation: Young people’s sexual health and HIV worker

Carole is a political protester and is anti-war. She has spent most of her life actively involved in politics and welfare issues. She is considering a tattoo for her 54th birthday and hopes to find love in the house.