Big Bro continues… in the UK

BBUK: The last couple of weeks

Our last BBUK update was as the Heaven and Hell twist began and Darnell took control of the building as Head of House.

WEEK 6

At that point we didn’t know how it all affected nominations, but the twist soon became clear. Heavenly housemates would nominate as usual, but Housemates from Hell would have to earn the right to nominate - with the menial task of peeling potatoes. Following the Heavenly HMs nominations Lisa and Rebecca were up for eviction - but as the HMs from Hell passed their task, they got to vote and once all votes were counted Belinda and Rex would face the public vote.

For the weekly task housemates had to indulge themselves in French Culture. For the Heavenly HMs this meant French food, french wine and the art of mime - but for the HMs from Hell this was a 36 hour endurance cycling trek from Paris to Madrid. It fell upon Stuart and Lisa to complete most of the challenge, but despite their efforts the heavenly HMs let them down, meaning the weekly task was failed.

On to eviction and no surprise that the singing and snoring newcomer Belinda got booted out at the first opportunity, before the process began again.

WEEK 7

A new week, and time for a new HoH. Darnell didn’t take his demotion too well, snapping at Rachel and Dale and accusing the Heavenly HMs of undermining his role. Once again there would be three candidates for HoH, with Dale taking a second shot at the title along with Heavenly HM Maysoon, while Hell pinned all their hopes on Rebecca.

The challenge - hanging from a tyre swing as long as possible. Rebecca managed just six minutes, while Maysoon and Dale hung on for over eight hours - and were involved in several negotiations over the period as people tried to secure a place in heaven. Mohamed and Kat jumped the fence to steal the competitors bananas, and were hence banished to hell and robbed of their suitcase, while eating a banana also ensured outgoing HoH Darnell would be spending the week in hell.

Ultimately it was Maysoon that gave in, handing victory to Dale. He chose Stuart, Maysoon, Rex, Luke and Rebecca to live in heaven, meaning for Lisa, Sara and Mikey it was a second week in hell.

Nominations and as the Housemates from Hell chopped and diced onions to earn the right to nominate, the Heavenly HMs put Mohamed and Darnell up for eviction. Once the HMs from Hell had passed their task, Rebecca joined them in the eviction firing line.

TIME!

Time for a task… all about the mysteries of time. The Heavenly HMs had to build a giant pocket watch and take part in an archaeological dig, while housemates from hell had to keep an egg timer flowing and switch off alarm clocks set off by Big Brother throughout the task. The whole house also formed a Human Clock and had to individually estimate a five minute period, but Kat counting for more than nine minutes meant that the housemates over-estimated their combined hour-long target by 12 minutes.

However, the task was passed - leaving HoH Dale in charge of the luxury budget, which to the delight of the housemates he got in under budget with everything they’d asked for. Great, except for the fact Dale was desperate to be up for eviction and attempting to provoke the housemates into nominating him.

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Luke doesn’t drink, smoke or swear - Rebecca does all three. They claim to hate each other by day, but by night it’s a different story - especially when Rebecca is up for eviction. And a drinking game where Rebecca kissed Mohamed, her most hated housemate, led to a surprising response from Luke - he was absolutely livid with jealousy, and the pair finally had to confess their feelings for each other.

However, despite Rebecca being one of the most entertaining housemates of the series, Mohamed being one of the dullest and Darnell having one of the worst reactions to being nominated since the show began, of course the public voted out Rebecca - much to the disgust of Luke and Dale.

WEEK 8

For this week’s HoH challenge things really heated up. For the first time all HMs would compete, with the winner being HoH and the three runner-ups joining them in heaven. The rest would be banished to hell.

The challenge - Chilli Eating. Eight chilli’s, numbered one to eight, with eight being the hottest. For each chilli eaten the HMs earned points, and the HM with the most points in five minutes is the new HoH.

The challenge took place in the diary room and was only revealed to HMs when they competed themselves, so Dale and Darnell running out of the DR straight for the bathroom didn’t settle the nerves of the others. Ultimately though it was Stuart who won, eating all but one chilli and scoring 34 out of 36 points. Mikey, Rex and Mohamed would join him in heaven, with the rest sent to hell.

Or as Kat would sing “Happy Hell, Happy Hell…” - to the delight of the likes of Rachel, but to the disgust of the likes of Luke, Dale and Stuart. This isn’t a Happy House.

NOMINATIONS POD

Apart from a guest appearance as the “luxury jail”, the glass pod in the garden has remained unused - up until now. Two at the time the Heavenly HMs could enter the pod to discuss nominations - and only nominations. This ultimately backfired on Stuart who’s suggestion of putting “favourites” up led to his main allies, Dale and Luke, being the target of the other Heavenly HMs.

VT OR NOT VT

The heavenly HMs were getting a bit tired of parties, food, music and alcohol - so Big Brother had another treat for them, an evening in front of the TV. The schedule for the night - the Housemates from Hells introductory VTs. So the Heavenly HMs learned that “if there’s any fanny in the house”, Dale would “nail it” - and stab them in the back for £100k. Maysoon saying she wanted to show models had a personality was deemed a failure, while Rachel’s VT confirmed what some had suspect - she’d played up to get in the house, and was remaining quiet once in to get a free ticket to the final. And Rex made it clear he’d have preferred to live with the Rachel in the VT.

TALKING IN CODE

So the housemates from hell sorted hundreds and thousands into colours to earn their right to nominate, but as it turned out their nominations didn’t affect the outcome - Dale and Luke were up for eviction. However, they wouldn’t be the only ones.

As punishment for talking in code to predict who might be up for eviction, Stuart was stripped of his Head of House title and along with Darnell, Kat, Maysoon, Mohamed, Rachel and Rex were put up for eviction as well.

COPS AND ROBBERS

A 24-hour stake out for the heavenly cops, plus safe cracking, counterfeiting and taking part in an identity parade for the robbers from hell were the task this week - or so the HMs thought. They were in fact irrelevant, except for the identity parade.

Afterweeks of Rex proclaiming his girlfriend to be the most beautiful girl in the world, Luke and Lisa were asked to identify her in a line up - and got it wrong. They were convinced suspect number 6 was the correct answer though, and justified their decision by describing number 3, Rex’s actual girlfriend, as “common” didn’t go down too well with Rex when the truth was revealed.

The real task however was for a housemate from hell to commit a robbery and remain undetected. Dale successfully stole and hid the token as Maysoon provided a distraction, but under interrogation from the cops they were identified as the suspects, and hence the task was failed.

LARGE SIBLING EJECTION

So another week, and another chance for the public to evict one of the characters over one of the bores - and despite the lines strangely opening 24 hours late and closing 24 hours early, Luke still got the boot.

OUT, IN, OUT AND BACK IN

So Maysoon quit - and nobody really noticed. Rex spent the basic shopping budget on 57 mystery prizes, the 57th of which turned out to be his girlfriend Nicole - and he’s not really happy about it. And Lisa broke out of the house, only to return half an hour later.

WEEK 9

Up to date and the latest HoH challenge saw the HMs had to recite the alphabet backwards in the quickest time - with Rachel becoming the first female HoH. The bottom three - Kat, Nicole and Mikey - were sent to hell, with the other eight, including HoH Rachel, spending the week in heaven.