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BB/CBB UK - Rewatch discussions

BBUK7 Housemates Pt 4:
  • Jennie: At first I thought she was the least interesting of the HND mates, but she held her own in a few arguments once she got in there. As I said she kinda reminded me a little of like a mix of Bonnie and Lisa kindof archetype in the house. She also struggled a little with how her friendship with Pete was being viewed ala Imogen and Mikey when she had a bf on the outside, and being a housemate that made it to the Final, but also at times feeling a little bit out of place than if she’d been there from earlier perhaps (although this was debated a little on Big Brian and BBLB/Big Mouth as well), She also had that air of having some lash out moments but at the same time being mature for her age in other instances. She also had some good friendships with some of the other HND mates and Aisleyne as kindof a big sister although there were times that was a bit rocky as well. She seems to have gone back to the regular normality out of the spotlight after too.
  • Richard: I thought he was an interesting anchor point for the house, in a similar but different way to Roberto and Derek last season. whilst also having some fun friendships with Lea, Susie and later Pete and a few of the others. Like those before though some of this also came off to some as perhaps having a bit of a game plan or strategy. I did think he could’ve handled some things like the initial stoush with Imogen and later Michael a little better (maybe could’ve been a bit of a learning moment for him), but otherwise he was enjoyable to watch (Some of his diary room entries and nominations were funny, some a bit bitchy but at the same time not in a a particularly harsh/mean way IYKWIM) and I was happy to see him get to the end. It looks like he did some more stuff in radio afterwards.
  • Aisleyne: By the end of the season I would’ve liked to see her pull off the win as well I thought. She had a big journey in the show coming in slightly late but becoming a big part of the core cast as well as being interlinked in some of the big twists, going from being a bit of a ‘Ghetto Princess’ of sorts as seen by the public, to going through the HND experience, and the Paranoia about Pete from Nikki and Lea, to clashing with Spiral, and Grace, and learning a bit about herself along the way as well. She also went from a lot of divided public opinion, and she still had a bit of insecurity and stuff about herself by the finale sometimes getting really overemotional about things, but she moved up in the odds to second favourite to win too. She’s also apparently been in the public eye a fair bit here and there after the show, and will make some more appearances on side shows and the like later. I also saw a bit of her recent interview responding to the Russell Brand accusations last year, she seemed to carry herself pretty well.
 
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BBUK7 Housemates Pt 5:
  • Glyn: He also had a massive journey. Learning lots of life skills and also style tips from Mikey and updating his hair, It was also a bit of an oh yeah moment when they mentioned at finale how at the start Welsh being his first language he at first sometimes struggled with some english phrases at the beginning but having Imogen there helped him as well. Also with the lapdances and the binge drinking moment, sometimes there were parts where he got a bit cocky and perhaps inflated ego (like the climbing on the roof) this might have made people question if he’d be able to keep a handle on his humility post show if he actually won the money, but he seemed to learn from that and also did a lot for visibility of Wales in the process. It seems he made good on his aspirations of both being a Welsh teacher and dabbling in politics in the years afterward, and his 2022 interview on Good Morning with Dermot and Alison he’s since gotten onto path of becoming a priest to help people rather than shoving religion on people kinda angle so good on him. He still has that sense of humour too which was wholesome.
  • Pete: He had a bit of a lull in the middle weeks where the house and tasks and stuff was really starting to get to him and exacerbating his tourette’s coupled with all the baggage of being the centre of all the girls attention. I thought it’d ease once Lea and Nikki left, but it actually had a bit of an opposite effect and sent him into bouts of moodiness and depression, which he eventually bounced back a little from. He also had an epiphany of how he felt about Nikki apparently, which turned into a bit of a big showmance moment when She returned, although some of the public was still skeptical if it was genuine.

    In contrast to Shahbaz in a way with how the cookie crumbled in regards to how relations went south in the house and Shahbaz’s previous mental health issues degraded into threats of self harm and he was put on sucide watch in the house apparently, C4 were also called into question for putting Pete’s Tourette’s on display although Pete was a willing participant and wanted to change public perception about it being misunderstood, whilst also trying to ‘get back to himself’ after some hard times before going in.

    This also gave him a bit of an uplift towards the end when he finally got his letter from home, but I think it may have also come off a bit gauging the sympthy vote perhaps a little to some, especially with the bit about Aisleyne not giving him a good campaign speech, but ultimately (as the Machiavellian test also proposed) I don’t think he had intent in playing to win in quite that way instead it was more about what it meant to do the show to work through himself IYKWIM (whereby sometimes its debatable whether the house is the best place to work through some issues). So they are all ‘winners’ in different ways.

    For the most part though, I think he raised some good awareness for Tourette’s and stuff, and although sometimes he was a bit much, and due to his personality I think got off a bit under the radar sometimes by avoiding conflict (speaking up against Grace was it when she was kicking off her behaviour against Susie’s nomination? but then backing down, or being the one who drunk the wine but staying out of it whilst Mikey and Jennie Rowed over it for instance); I did enjoy some of his quirky moments like the Diary Room solo disco) Good on him. Apparently he did some acting and stuff afterward.



    So that’ll do on BB7! I’ve also found the BB Panto episodes might give that a watch later. For now I’ve started CBB5, some thoughts on that coming soon. The list for this on VB dosent include any BBLB, Big Brain or Big Mouth though. I think I’ve found the Big Brain and BBLB ones, but need to search for the Big Mouth (theres one for day 20 here but see if I can find the others).
 
Started CBBUK5! (January 2007)

CBBUK5 Launch and up to Day 3:
  • House hasn’t changed too much, the major changes being the Bedroom bathroom layout and colour, the shower and toilet are enclosed and the wall where the bath was is further in and is a vanity and sinks. The Kitchen area is now level with the living area anfd lounge and extended out a little, bringing the dining table inside along the far wall and theres also a mini gym area near the door. Pool is gone, instead an open cover jacuzzi about where Bunny cam was, and the seating in nowhere is heated and a bit wider? The grass looks like grass again and the plastic furniture moved over to where the outside dining table was. Theres also some sort of slot thing in the wall which Davina says will be used later to give the housemates viewer’s questions. Theres also only enough single beds and a double so someone can share.
  • Celebs wise Iirc I think I remembered Jo from S Club was in it and Shilpa Shetty. Cool to see Leo Sayer (thats right that Meck remix of Thunder In My Heart Again was big in 2006) Ian/H from Steps and Jermaine Jackson (I remember he popped up on Australian Idol one week to guest judge after this in 2008). Dirk guy from A Team (reminds me a little bit of Alan Alda certain angles maybe haha).
  • Donny is going to be a handful, the way he’s going at some point like Dirk said in the Diary room someones going to have a temper tantrum (maybe Donny), or crack it with him. Davina had to struggle with him to get him hurried along into the house and later on he was a bit lippy with BB. KInda giving me bit of Corey Worthington in 10 years vibes a year before we even knew who he was kinda thing but also maybe they’ve tried to go for the eccentricity and loose cannon aspect they had with Pete especially by his stage name (was it Tourette?) perhaps?
  • But anyway already he’s jumped in the jacuzzi drunk with all his clothes and mic on, (Cleo had to help him get changed standing outside the door) Leo gave up his single bed for Jo who didn’t want to share with Donny, who then proceeded to wake up Ken cause he was snoring, then has stripped naked next to Leo. lol.
  • Ken I’m not too sure about, he doesn’t seem with it sometimes. Danielle I also don’t know, the intro packages suggest the reporter lady (Carole was it?) might be a bit iffy around her being a WAG and famous for.
  • The lockdown turnaround time must also be fairly quick in the Celeb series this year - I freeze framed during Ian’s intro and he had some performance for 30th Dec 2006, and this Launch was what 4th Jan 2007? He also organised to come out to the press the day of going into the house.
  • BBLB set is slightly upgraded from BB7. at least for the first episode its now a panel style desk on a big white star, and the guests (This time Germaine Greer and Kenzie from CBB3) on the side, I could see Kenzie might’ve had a blanket or something under the partition in the desk. The Housemate light up cylinders are along the opposite side of the studio as well. BBNews has a few updated graphics too.
  • Theres a twist coming up, I’m fairly sure I know who it involves but not exactly how it plays out. Will be interesting.

Onto the next few eps!
 
Backing up to BB7 wondering how you rate it compared to BB5 and BB6, arguably the peak era on BB on C4 creatively at least.
 
Brekkie said:
Backing up to BB7 wondering how you rate it compared to BB5 and BB6, arguably the peak era on BB on C4 creatively at least.
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Peak not just on C4 but the entire franchise. We’ve had some return to form moments but nothing that’s really come close to the genius of the series 5/6/7 era.

I do have to wonder if the show still would have struggled as much had the race row never happened.
 
They might have provided a much better show in 2007 if it wasn't for the race row, but I think Big Brother UK would have struggled eventually. There's been some odd choices for the show in 2009, probably also motivated by the budget cuts due to the financial crisis back then... e.g. axing the live feeds. But the whole 10th series felt like they were giving up on the show and I don't think you can explain all of that with the tension and changed approach after the race row. Channel 4 got a bit lazy with everything including marketing.
 
C4 just completely mismanaged the show in the aftermath of the race row. Viewers were ready to move on by the time BB8 came around but it felt like C4 never really let it go until BB11, which was the relaunch the show needed at least a year, if not three years, earlier.
 
Brekkie said:
Backing up to BB7 wondering how you rate it compared to BB5 and BB6, arguably the peak era on BB on C4 creatively at least.
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It's about even (between 6 & 7) in different ways I'd say In terms of the planned twists vs the more unpredictable events and conflict/storylines brought on by the housemates themselves within that depending on the group dynamics. Theres a bit of some Parallels between Makosi and Aisleyne becoming central figures of the season due to the effects the twists had on their journey in the house, BB6 had a lot of its high conflict spaced out throughout the season right up into the final week whereas BB7 was a little more frontloaded in that regard in some aspects. BB5 also has that really extended start to some of the processes where a lot happened. The HND was definitely recycled well in multiple ways though beyond its initial purpose.

I did see the BB8 Launch show back then and I remember being a bit on the fence unsure about the opening twist would play out well, but I'll see how my opinion of it goes once I see the rest of the season (I've also seen the other side of the BBAU/BBUK phone call that occurs later that season, so I have a vague recollection of who is there at that point, but it'll be filling in some other blanks as I go for that one).

From what I've been able to gather about BB9 from dancing around spoilers as I go too is apparently an overtone of that season its like they tried to recycle a few things in different ways, so that'll be interesting to look at.

And I was able to just check the length of Celebrity Hijack through the episode list, Intrigued to find out how the effects of the race row (when I get to it) flowed into that being essentially 'CBB6 for all intents/purposes (by the looks of it it still has Little Brother and Big Mouth)... but its NOT Celebrity Big Brother, were calling it... this'. Previously I was under the impression it was like its own short little special where Celebrities crash the house or something for some activities and hosted by Dermot (like Teen BB) maybe not.
 
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Celebrity Hijack in terms of cast was sort of Celebrity Lite in that they were all recruited based on “exceptional talent”. Probably one of the strongest casts of the post race row era and would have been better off being left to thier own devices. For me the Hijack concept really didn’t fire… They were going for something that resembled a BB parody of sorts but it came off as either too crude and very sloppy.
 
Celebrity Hijack was fun - wouldn't have minded a second run. Indeed E4 have a show coming up called The Underdog must Win which I think will have a few nods to it.

I won't pre-empt Affable too much but I did struggle with BB8, but stuck with it. That might have been the summer I was without the internet for weeks which didn't help either.
 
CBBUK5 Update (finished Day 6 Big Brain episode, now up to Day 7 BBLB):
  • Ok so the Day 3 Live special was quite the shake up. Like was heavily apparently rumoured at the time Jade Goody was the secret ‘family’ coming in, along with her boyfriend Jack Tweed and mum Jackiey. and Of Course! utilising the HND again interestingly, this time its 8 of the housemates choosing who to leave behind in the main house (Jermaine, Ken and Shilpa, which Shilpa is initially upset about because she thinks it makes her look bad and she feels bad for whatever the others might have to do over there).
  • They will be the servants quarters for Jade and Co, and also the remaining 3 becoming part of Jade’s ‘Family’. But alsooooo they dont know all six of them are up for eviction on Wednesday and It’s a vote to save.
  • The servants are let out into the HND backyard and Donny takes his chance to get a leg up from Ian and hes outta there! As was discussed in his brief interview in VT on BBLB with Dermot after it did look like he was settling in after that first night (and yeah it seems he dosent remember much about entering the house as he was pretty plastered). But yeah this task being a step too far and he noped it out of there. Had enough.
  • They had Peaches Geldof and another friend on BBLB (and they do have a little couch thing off to the side this season) to discuss Donny. Chantelle was also on in the Camera runs and studio, also Maggot returned. They also had a few VT segments with BB7’s Shahbaz, Lea, Glyn and Spiral out and about reporting on the streets.


  • Leo has also gone from pretty easy going to not that impressed with doing the task and flip flopped a bit. Dirk makes a point that sometimes its like Leo becomes a little bit self absorbed and off in his own little world with his tangents and dosent give others time to let their points sit or interrupts them. Leo then when doing the task becomes like a mute mime character as the butler to get him through it perhaps.
  • It seems like CBB3, this kindof task really messes with the celebrities thinking they’re going to look degraded or silly. They also had Employee of the week on BBLB to talk about how the recruitment and star search process happens to get the celebrities on the show.
  • on the other side of the coin, at first Shilpa, Ken and Jermaine slowly spend more time with Jade Jack and Jackiey (what a trio of names right), but soon cracks begin to show. Shilpa gets a bit taken aback and Jackiey gets in a tizzy over her not pronouncing Shilpa’s name correctly (kindof ironic since Shilpa just had a recent scene discussing with Jo how she was struggling a bit with Dirk’s name in her accent, but its a bit of a grey area).


  • Shilpa tries to reason with Jackiey (Jade does too, but it ends up she just needs some time to cool down). Although theres another issue overnight as Jackiey asks for the heating to be turned down. Ken gets frustrated with her as all day apparently she was asking for it up, and now its chilly.
  • The next day Ken makes himself a sandwich which is a task rule break, Jade gets super anxious over it failing the task for the rest of the HND, Ken dosent care and seems to be going full method roleplay for the task telling Jade its just a game. Afterwards he apologises to Jade but then goes into the Diary room and confirms his earlier decision to walk without telling anybody else. A laminate is read out to the rest later.
  • Getting a bit more backstory for some of the others. I briefly read a little on Kenny Everett, so I understood the context of the conversation Carole was having with Cleo about her being prepared to be his beard marriage before he passed away, to keep up appearances regarding his sexuality.
  • Jade was asking Jermaine some things about Michael, there was some mixed race discussion. Also some interesting discussions from Jo and Danielle etc about their backgrounds and fame.
  • Jade’s grandparents come into the main house for dinner and are served to by Leo.


  • Big Brain had some discussion about the different categories of fame in the house. It’s interesting that one of the categories is ‘Imitation’ and they are discussing how Jade and co becoming famous from Reality TV is a then fairly recent phenomenon, whilst Carole’s category is ‘Influence’ as in her ability to get the scoop and story in her line of work. This being around the era of very early youtube vloggers and before tik tok/instagram Influencers’ and the like we would call that today, that was interesting too look back on I thought. The other categories were ‘Talent’; and ‘Proxy’ (Michael’s fame overshadowing Jermaines at times in terms of discussions in the house, and also Danielle being a ‘WAG’ first coming to mind in the eyes of some for her relationship to Teddy’s fame).
  • They also had a different psych on to discuss the effects of the family manor task on the housemates. Jack has been brought up a few times as not saying much or getting much of an edit at all, It’d hard to see anyone else going now on Wednesday especially as it’s vote to save, and Ken has Walked who might’ve been the other contender I would’ve thought.
  • I was also a little confused at first because I thought Jade was married to someone else that she had the kids with (Didn’t that guy pop up on one of the pre-eviction BBLB’s in like late BB6 iirc too making a plea for votes for somebody) then thought Jack seemed young (yep, his BBLB VT says he was 19, so this must be fairly recent they started dating).
  • Also I thought he said he was a footballer at first but then I saw its ‘football agent’. Bit random, anyway we still don’t know much about him or seen anybody other than Jade really have a conversation with him. say it with me ala Nikki anyone ‘Who IS He? Where did you FIND him?’ lol I dunno give him a secret mini task or something before he likely leaves. The eviction interview is probably just going to be about everybody else and I reckon the package editors are struggling for best bits. We shall see.
  • Anyway I think the task concludes in the next ep or two and then the eviction. We might get a bit of a shift change kinda thing brewing in storylines before the eviction when everyones back in the house together.

    Onto the next few eps!
 
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CBBUK5 Update (now up to Day 12 BBLB after the Day 10 eviction):
  • Ken was a bit off the cuff on BBLB. Going on about how he thinks Jackiey shouldn’t be in the house she should be in care as she told him about the time she was apparently ‘dead for 9 hours’ after an accident or something, the woman probably has brain damage coming back from that he says. ummmmm.
  • Similarly Tara Palmer Tomkinson’s appearance was a bit wacky, some story about how she met Cleo on some private jet party. Jeremy Edwards (CBB3) was back, and Nina Wadia had some insights on Shilpa.
  • They also had Claire from Steps and Bradley from SClub on, Tito Jackson and Jermaines wife were on, and more on the street bits from the BB7 crew.
  • Katherine Jakeways and Charlotte were sent to the BB8 Auditions in Glasgow and Cardiff. And they also had a Nutritionist on bit interesting talking about Dirk’s past and a book he wrote.


  • Back in the house, the Task is passed as everyone other than Jo and Leo got their pay packet only getting 2 fails. Theres a bit more drama between Jackiey and the others in doing the shopping list.
  • Shilpa talks to Carole and Cleo about there might be some potential flirtation between her and Dirk. Later It’s the surprise eviction, just before Jackiey upsets Shilpa by saying they might probably get along better on the outside, but in the house she’s a nightmare.
  • Jackiey is called to the diary room and is the one evicted, which is very surprising. I’ll be interested to see the percentages on that one, Like how did Jack skate through that one? haha. Similar names for SMS? People confused by the vote to save? Shilpa fans trying to strategically save Jack so its more likely her antagonist Jackiey would go? hmm. It’s also played on screen to the others on the Kitchen screen. Jade is a bit upset initially.


  • Next day is nominations. They are told when they get to the diary room that they cant nominate Cleo or Carole, and at the end its revealed because they both had a conversation with Shilpa saying they wanted to be nominated and ‘vote for me’ the others must choose which one of them to join the existing nominees (turn out to be Dirk and Leo) to the Eviction. They Choose Carole, she’s ok about it, but also thinks initially that Shilpa could’ve been brought in or its a little bit producer manipulation. Shilpa explains that she never asked others to nominate her like the other two did. And it dosent matter whether they were just joking or not.
  • Later Jade gets a bit wordy at Dirk appearing to be sulking after letting her have some of the Whiskey flask, then going and pouring the rest in the bin.


  • Eviction Day, Another dramatic exit, Leo escapes the house after throwing a hissy fit in the diary room that he’s run out of underwear, refuses to wash his own and marches out side with a broom breaks the lock on the exit doors outside and he’s off! This is already after he appeared to calm down after a similar episode on the last day of the task when BB said he needed to ask BB to be let out into the HND garden (flipping the cameras the bird), and he flipped out threatening to leave and asked to be given his contract to read over. He’d calmed down a little since the task finished, however there were still flashes of him saying things like he had a code or mock reacting to his nomination being read out.
  • The Eviction goes ahead, now between Carole and Dirk. Carole leaves, Dirk is a little disappointed I think he’s beginning to have had enough and happy to leave anytime now.
  • Leo still comes back for a mini eviction interview before the announcement, giving a bit of the ‘not quite what I expected/that confined environment brings up a lot of stuff’ etc etc kinda reasoning for his behaviour and departure, although some speculation if he didn’t want to be ‘evicted’ by the public. It’s revealed he was leading the vote count (which has switched back to vote to evict) and would have gone. Anyways, came off looking a bit of a Divo with those antics. YMMV.


  • Danielle in particular has started to look somewhat bitchy towards Shilpa in her convos with Jo and Jade all day, and maybe appears to be a bit drunk at the eviction? This kicks of a bit of a misunderstanding after Caroles eviction, and Shilpa, Jade and Danielle have a bit of a barney in the bedroom, but end up sorting out a bit for the time being. Cleo Jo and Ian are all discussing it after and did hear Danielle call Shilpa a dog, that was a bit harsh and where is it coming from?
  • Not quite sure how that started either, It appeared to be something about Danielle going to the bathroom and Shilpa asked her if she’d done something wrong and dismissed her or something. Hmm. Jack also seems to be voicing a bit more but having some issues with Shilpa also.
  • Jermaine and Shilpa are still close after their time together in the family manor task. He’s saying to Shilpa to just let them make themselves look silly if you cant reason with them whatevers going on kinda thing I think or something like that iykwim. Anyway watch this space, there looks to be something simmering.
  • Probably another task or something coming up soon.

    Onto the next few eps!
 
CBBUK5 Update (now up to Day 19 BBLB after the Day 17 eviction):

  • A lot of this week was dedicated to the Race row, as it started to dominate headlines and became quite an international story, especially after the Stock cubes argument, and then leading up to the Friday Eviction.
  • Before taht though, Sunday Day 12 BBLB had Carole on, Leo as a VT with Dermot, Jodie Marsh (CBB4). The Employee of the week was interesting it was the stream censors. Funny how they were talking about being wary of libel if some other celebrity is being talked about in there whilst flash forward and compare to CBBUK23 and there were a few comments being flung around! haha.
  • There is a fun ‘Steps vs Jackson 5 tribute band’ task led by Ian and Jermaine. At first I thought ‘Deeper Shade Of Blue’ was a bit of a left field choice for Steps, but then I was like ok, its one where Ian has a fair bit of singing (although Jack surprising stepped up and put effort into learning his part!)
  • They also have an Ask BB a question task, Jack asks the typical why do men have nipples whilst Jade wonders how Eskimo’s dont freeze. Meanwhile theres a bit of a fuss over how long the Roast chicken is taking to cook properly. They later find out they’ve been using the Grill instead of the Oven. While this is going on, Ian has been noticing the friction between the girls and Shilpa getting out of hand again. Jade ends up having an awkward discussion with Shilpa late at night in the kitchen with Cleo looking on how she isnt sure if Shilpa is being herself or something.


  • Big Brain this week is about Auto-ejection reasons why theres so many walking and if more will follow; also Scapegoating and whether Shilpa is bringing it on herself/being manipulative/ Contradictory in her behaviour.
  • The shopping task is an outdoors obstacle course themed around an awards night with a limo. They end up failing by going over the 9 minute limit to complete. Later they don’t return the shopping list on their own after an hour so BB confiscates it and tells them BB will get back to them, which sends Jo into a momentary panic attack. BB calls Jack in who chooses Cleo to help him finish the shopping list in the time BB gives them without any distractions.

  • Ok, so the big fight erupts over Jade and Danielle using more than one of the stock cubes and whether Shilpa was lying about it being the only thing she’s ordered. Jade goes OFF on a tirade, Shilpa to her credit keeps it fairly together until Jermaine ushers her off to the bedroom. Jo kindof keeps out of it.
  • Over the rest of the week, this has triggered a big response outside (The news, Gordon Brown just happening to be in India where some of Shilpa’s fans are burning BB effigies, UK Parliament is discussing it, the newspapers etc). A whole host of ex-hms come on BBLB including Craig (BB1), Narinder (BB2), Brian (BB2), Derek (BB6) and some other guests discussing it. The HM’s start to twig when a helicopter circles the house, and they start to realise how it looks once BB speaks to Jade, Shilpa, Danielle and Jo individually in the Diary room about how their words may have been perceived.
  • I might touch on it more in the post season wrap up, but The Girls appear to settle things between them (Shilpa after discussing with Cleo dosent think its racial and Jade dosent have that in her to come from that angle and its just the words used that is skating very close to the line above the schoolyard level bullying in context, maybe even a bit of Class and 'Posh Vs. Common' approach kinda thing issues thrown into the mix as well).
  • Jade gets upset in the diary room after reconciling with Shilpa in the harden thinking she should leave, but recants saying she cant walk because that will confirm the accusations against her. Nonetheless its both Shilpa and Jade up for eviction (Cleo even nominates Shilpa out of sympathy I think), and Jade is evicted, but to an empty lot as they have cancelled the audience for the night due to whats been going on.

  • Amongst that, there are still some lighter moments like a group art project task, MJ’s ‘Man In The Mirror’ playing and Dirk dancing around the morning of the eviction, and a beatboxing style Orchestral task.
  • Jades eviction interview (with a studio audience) and her BBLB chat with Dermot though is a little hard to watch and awkward. I feel a bit sorry for her and can see where she is coming from regarding things like the surname thing coming from a genuine place rather than a racist attack, (although it and some of the other stuff may be still as some were discussing a lot of cultural ignorance on a sliding scale sortof thing); although she struggles to articulate it well i feel and was getting mixed up in the difference between defending herself from the bus she’s been thrown under in all this about the ‘racism’ political and social issue thats been stirred up vs what she actually did/said, and owning the obvious schoolyard bullying/cattiness between them which is something else iykwim. She ends up getting a bit emotional with Dermot. Anyways more unpacking of that a bit later perhaps.


  • Back in the house things appear to be settling in more now to get into the final week, Cleo is playing some characters. What I did think was interesting is unless it’s left out of the edit, There wasn’t at least some discussion about if Jade wanted Jack to stay without her or offered to walk out with her, because what’s he gonna do with himself now she’s left? Who’da thought he’d be the last one of the 3 still there? unless its still to come, but he seems to still be enjoying himself somewhat and getting on with the others and getting into the new task and stuff albiet somewhat awkwardly at times, but we’ll see its only a week left anyway.

    Onto the next few eps!
 
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CBBUK5 Finished! First some final week thoughts:
  • This week things started to get a bit more fun again after it had settled down. Although Big Brain discussed whether Cleo was filling in the vacuum left by Jade and Dirk was the new annoyance (Group transmutation/regeneration, also social intelligence), He was getting on Cleo and Jo’s nerves some of the things he was saying and doing perhaps to help get himself evicted.
  • Dirk also has a bit of a moody streak and Cleo dresses up as one of her characters and it dosent go down too well and BB has to check with Dirk whether it was borderline harassment. Furthermore there is a ‘Make BB laugh’ task and another of Cleo’s characters fails to make BB laugh.
  • They have a win a 10 pound worth prize quiz by answering questions for each other. Dirk fails to win Jo’s hair dye, but Shilpa wins Jermaine’s shoes from the task and Ian donates his 10 pound to charity.
  • The ‘Showgirl routine’ task is entertaining, done to Scissor Sisters’ ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. At first Jo is really apprehensive about having to wear a skimpy costume, but Danielle and Shilpa confirm they will be ‘appropriate’ costuming.
  • a bit of Snow finally falls on the house, however Jo isnt impressed with it and Shilpa’s enthusiasm. Later they have a ‘lick through the iceblock task and win a party. Jack and Ian at the end of the night break apart the ice sculpture with dumbbell weights.
  • The Nominations are announced for the Day 24 eviction. Jo is happy to be nominated. It’s 5 up with a double eviction scheduled. Dirk, Cleo, Jo, Ian and Shilpa.
  • Dirk’s being annoying/mopey again in the morning but livens up later as there is an ‘A Team’ themed task to construct tools to drag items from the living room behind bars. He manages to snag a big salmon, and they also win a play of thre song ‘Me and Mrs Jones’.
  • Jo and Cleo are evicted and are shown the aftermath of the race row. Danielle is a bit emotional about losing both of them and hearing ‘Get Jo Out’.
  • The fax machine in the wall is finally used to send some questions from outside, also one of the task suggestions on BBLB earlier is used: a Domino run.
  • On the only Big Mouth episode (Day 20) I was able to find so far for this season, Not much has changed, they had Russell making the usual dick jokes and innuendo (Whale man even had a go) and had Samantha Fox and Dom Wood on. Farewell Russell he left after this season.
  • BBLB, John Mccririck was back on, They also had Cleo. Chantelle Houghton back for the finale and in the camera run, They also were promoting Skins starting heavily on Channel 4 having on one of the actors. They had Katherine Jakeways meet a big SClub fan, some last vox pops from the BB7 crew, Davina won the last Employee of the week thing, and they played out with a beatbox of the BBTune.
  • Finale night, The interviews were done in the studio (Davina walking them right in from the house like back in the earlier series and starting the interview right away. The ex-hms were back (besides Jackiey, Jade and Jo) but they didn’t get a quick walk on segment. I think they may have just wanted to wrap things up fairly smoothly after everything perhaps. Theres even no post finale BBLB although that may also be because the finale was on a Sunday this time.
  • Jack and Danielle are evicted together and interviewed together, although it’s brief and more a summation of their reactions to the race row and then their best bits. (bit more on that in the series/hm’s final write ups). It shocks Ian cause he thought they both had a good shot at winning.
  • Ian is next out, followed by Dirk. Finally Jermaine is Runner up with Shilpa winning. They all give pretty fun interviews and Shilpa reacts well to the controversy, moving past it as Davina put it pretty Magnanimously. So yeah that was CBB5!

    Next: some season summation and some last HM Blurbs. ;) (I’ve also started on the BBUK8 Launch show). ;)
 
It’s really interesting reading your thoughts on CBB5 - it really was a seismic few weeks here in the UK back in 2007. Whether you were a fan and watching, or even if you weren’t, it was absolutely everywhere - every news channel and you couldn’t escape it.

I still remember watching so many of the key moments play out in real time, particularly the Dermot and Jade interview that you mentioned. Those 26 days really did change the course of not only Big Brother here in the UK, but reality tv in general.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on how they approached BB8 that summer!
 
Unfortunately it was the beginning of the end of BBUK and it's legacy still casts a shadow even now (a pathetic 210 individuals complaining about an eviction this series that they say was distressing despite the evictee being in no distress at all!). C4's big issue was they just could not move on from it - viewers were absolutely ready to draw a line under it and move on when BB8 came around, but C4 just didn't have the balls. It'll be interesting to read your thoughts on BB8 when that comes around as for me that was the beginning of the end.
 
CBBUK5 Overall Season last notes :
  • Obviously the major trigger point this season was the Introduction of Jade, Jack and Jackiey, starting the wave of walking/escapes with Donny, Ken and Leo. It really disrupted the settling dynamics that had been forming so early on.
  • As for the obvious big issue the show found itself in, I personally think its pretty multifaceted, for the time compared to watching it now as well. It’s kinda hard to articulate but I’ll give it a go, but at first I could see how some of the things said might have also been at a stretch misconstrued as veering into racially descriptive but not racist in intent if you know what I mean, but also by the same time and also seeing some of the other stuff thats come out such as the transcripts of the unaired ‘limerick game’ discussion and even some of the stuff that was aired you have to admit dosent look good and veers very close to the line where its harder and harder the more you think about it to rationalise that as other than the ‘is this racism?’ lense the heightened state the controversy got into viewed it as and can easily see how it could be taken that way. I even found a couple analysis papers written about it using the eviction interviews as references.
  • That being said it then spiralled and snowballed further into some blurred lines and grey area from a combination of factors, from Shilpa’s nationality and class/celebrity status coming into play, and how much of the others behaviour came from just plain old nasty and catty bullying (compared to the treatment of Jodie Marsh last Celeb season, also within the confines of ‘The OXO Cube Argument’ Jo and Danielle just laughing it off could also be legitimately be a bit of awkwardness in conflict/how ridiculous this argument was over although Jade was starting to go overboard) Vs whether it was intentionally racist or just had some unconscious bias/Cultural ignorance/casual racism whatever you want to call it mixed in which rightly or wrongly interpreted by anyones perspective, had caused mass complaints and needed to be acknowledged, understood, raised with the housemates involved, and learnt from whether any processes could be updated by Ch4 and the housemates, having Ofcom on their case.
  • I’ll maybe touch on a few more individual points in the final housemate wrap ups without going onto too much detail. It was discussed also whether this ultimately was good for BB not to shy away from being a reflection of society and bringing light on issues which is one of the shows tenets, although it did get out of hand and escalated into a broadcasting debacle in this case going pear shaped and getting all kinds of international scrutiny exacerbated by Shilpa’s standing and celebrity, and negative publicity Channel 4 probably would have preferred to avoid altogether. but It turned out to be a pretty compelling piece of backstory at the same time giving context to where the show on Ch 4 was at going into the following season, similar to Fight Night in some ways from BB5 and such.
  • Set design wise (apart from the house having some upgrades - although the fax machine wasn’t utilised until right near the end haha) BBLB shuffled a little bit the most I would say, And I can already see some of that being a little further refined into the first ep of BB8’s BBLB.

    So yeah that’ll do for now on Overall season thoughts, up next some last HM blurbs and onto my initial BB8 notes!
 
CBBUK5 Housemates Part 1:

Donny Tourette: At first I thought he'd be a handful, but it was just that he walked in pretty tipsy and erratic and mellowed out a bit after that first night. Jade coming in was the last straw for him though, and at first I (and probably Ian and Leo) thought he was just going to peek over the wall, but nup he's out. He looks to have continued with his band afterwards and theres also some recent pictures of him.

Ken Russell: I also thought like with Jackie Stallone how they might handle any demanding physical tasks with him as he needed some help getting around, but It ended up sorting itself out and also relieving the housemates of his snoring when he walked. He did stick up for himself before he left though, although some of the things he was coming out with in the argument with Jade when he just didnt give a shit about the task anymore were a bit eyebrow raising.

Jackiey Budden: I think she meant well, but extremely rough around the edges in her approaches to dealing with Shilpa that even Jade was trying to reason with her getting extremely highly strung at times. It was also here where some possible racial undertones started to appear, with Her struggling to get Shilpa's name right and poor choice of words to just refer to her as 'The Indian'. As I'll put in Jack's write up, That vote to save was pretty surprising that she was the one evicted over him. She recently appeared with Jack on morning TV in the past few years remembering Jade.

Leo Sayer: Started off well, but like Donny and Ken, Jade and Co. entrance really threw him, and he started throwing hissy fits. He appeared to get through it but upon being nominated, The trigger point was apparentkly the underwear which made him come off like a bit of a Divo and he made that dramatic escape. There was also some moments in the house a bit like Dirk had some questionable moments that he came across a little bit on the lecherous side in front of the girls.

He later said I think something that I read it seemed to be as I suspected he signed up on the basis of some help promoting one of his new projects, but didnt really understand what he was getting into fully and it was too late to back out once everything was in motion without some penalties. So, he ended up stirring up shit and being a little anarchic. In one forum post I read apparently there was a later interview about him claiming Elvis' last words were about him or something or other which again seems a bit self absorbed on his own celebrity and a bit kooky.

Carole Malone: Another one who I thought subverted expectations IMO. I thought she might clash with some of them trying to get stuck into them for a story or just on her principles, but she ended up becoming a bit of a parental/big sister kinda figure along with Cleo there towards the others. It would've been interesting to see if Leo never walked, or If Cleo was chosen to be up instead, If she had stayed a little longer could she have helped settle the house a little more in Week 2, as one of the reasons for the little disagreement between Danielle and Shilpa afterwards was her eviction. Anyways, I liked her sense of humour about things and her way of speaking kinda reminded me a little bit of Vanessa Feltz in some ways.

Jade Goody: Initially although her entrance did cause a lot of ripples, She at least seemed to be aware of it and the effect Jackiey in particular was having on the house. She fell into that controversy though by going off the way she did, sometimes things are said in anger and the heat of the moment, but also it was a tough one as I mentioned with a lot of factors that quickly became apparent to them as the week wore on, and at the least Jade seemed to own her part of things for the right reasons, and not just from the likely imminent collapse of her career reputation after, as she bore the main brunt of the outrage. Also She was able to go over to India to participate in their version of BB before she passed. She might have done better if she was able to take Shilpa at face value and leave the argument there, but alas. I still have that pantomime special on my watch list.

Jo O'Meara: Compared to H/Ian, she came off as a bit of a wet blanket in the earlier days of the season (appearing a little embarrased at them playing Reach on the PA) and that continued throughout (being crabby at the snow excitement, not being happy with the Showgirl outfits at first etc). The comments about Indian's during chickengate mightve been the most damning thing to come out of her mouth during all of that (despite as she said having Indian family in law), she ended up coming out of it not looking very good and a bit of a sheep follower to Jade and Danielle (being annoyed by Shilpa). She apparently had a bit of a hard time after the show, but has continued doing S Club reunions and stuff.
 
CBBUK5 Housemates Part 2:

Cleo Rocos: I thought she was a good middle character along with maybe H, also had some supporting qualities towards the others, but it went a bit wayside for her in Week 2 when the Shilpa stuff really kicked off - then with the whole thing with her and Dirk facing off a bit in Week 3. It was interesting to learn a bit of her backstory with her and Kenny Everett, which was clearly still a bit of a touchy subject for her, and since it appears shes done a few travel style shows and appeared on Come Dine with Me and such.

Jack Tweed: As I said before, super shocked he survived that initial vote. Then not offering to walk out after Jade. As he said in his short eviction interview (they mustve been breathing a sigh of relief that he went out to a joint eviction and interview with Danielle), He softened a bit on Shilpa after initially holding a lot of dislike toward her.

He did ok with the tasks, although didn't have many memorable moments in terms of conversations and stuff in the house and was a pot plant a lot of the time in the edit. He was also a bit young at the time, I think Ian thought he mightve had a bit of the Chantelle non celeb factor going on cause he was surprised at his eviction. He married Jade just before she passed, and apparently went on a bit of a spiral afterwards for a bit (even having to contest a rp* allegation) and beginning to date again (BB8's Chanelle apparently for a bit) and get himself sorted to continue seeing Jade's kids. As Mentioned earlier he reappeared with Jackiey on TV a couple years ago.

Danielle Lloyd: Similarly I think she came across well in the beginning, maybe a bit of Chantelle ditzy kindof vibes, but the night Carole was evicted and she was drunk and called Shilpa a dog was a bit of an eyebrow raiser, and it didnt really come across much better from there. I was thinking, Danielle comes off a bit worse than Jade does in some ways during that second week. She did attempt to make up with Shilpa after it was brought to her attention how the 'f**k off home' comment looked, but then also claimed following the leader a bit upon her eviction. She did lose a bit of work after and it seems that Teddy immediately dropped her afterwards, her career after that though has continued here and there. Apparently she also had a brief marriage with a CBB housemate that is yet to appear (think its one of the Ch5 seasons).

Ian 'H' Watkins: He had his coming out the day of entering the house, although he did touch on that here and there during the show in discussions and also gave us more of an insight into 'Ian' the person vs 'H' the celeb as part of Steps in some ways. He was also fairly entertaining in the tasks especially taking charge in the ones that had a musical/dancing element. As we know Steps later reunited twice and I also think H later appeared on one of the Celeb dancing shows.

Dirk Benedict: I think he was along for the ride for the most part, He definitely had had enough by the first nomination, but didn't want to actively walk, instead saying some outrageous things to try and up his chances of getting voted out. Then had the grumps a bit by the third week when Cleo's character was on his case. He also had a good relationship with Jermaine often chatting with him. He's done a few more acting roles since, appearing in. Cameo in the 2010 The A Team movie.
 
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