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Analysing the house: Week 4

26/01/2007

Corinne Sweet (www.corinnesweet.com) is a regular psychologist, writer and broadcaster on Big Brother's Big Brain.

She's been an avid fan of Big Brother since the very first show - here's her weekly view on the housemates in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

Jade's extraordinary eviction to an empty Elstree under an enormous cloud of disgrace on Day 17, meant a huge vacuum opened up in the BB house. The silence of Jade's exit signalled to inmates that something serious was up, although none will fully understand the situation until they finally leave.

The housemates needed to recover and regroup from a week of nasty bullying, racist overtones and bitching about Shilpa.

Danielle, Jo and Jack, ex-Jade gang members, felt anxious and lost in the wake of her leaving. Danielle in particular was eager to build bridges with Shilpa and apologised for her behaviour.

Interestingly, Shilpa also wanted to regroup and showed emotion at Jade's leaving, and a wary acceptance of the girl gang members, while the other housemates felt relief at the tension being eased.

However, the vacuum was soon filled as regrouping led to Dirk becoming the next focus for the women's criticism. Overnight, Cleo, who had been a peace-maker and mother figure during the first two weeks, took on a Jade-like role and started targeting Dirk.

Cleo, dressed up as Tiara, virtually sexually harassed Dirk (she thought, for a laugh) - Jo, Danielle and Jack found it funny (of course), while Jermaine, Ian and Shilpa were worried about Dirk's reaction.

Infuriated, Dirk sulked, sniped and tried hard to get housemates to nominate him for his anti-social behaviour.

Meanwhile, Big Brother tried to lift the house mood by giving housemates tasks, such as trying to make Big Brother laugh for five minutes (Day 19) or learning a complex Showgirls Dance routine (Day 20).

The tasks were passed (not by everyone, but by enough housemates), which meant there were rewards of alcohol, food and watching themselves make Big Brother laugh.

Nominations on Day 21, surprisingly led to five housemates being up for eviction: Ian, Cleo, Jo, Dirk and Shilpa.

The housemates themselves were surprised at Cleo and Ian being up for eviction - while the public might be surprised (or frustrated) that Danielle and Jack are immune this week.

The antipathy continued between Dirk and Cleo all week, with Big Brother asking Dirk if he would like Cleo to be reprimanded. He declined, although it is clear that Dirk finds women's company virtually intolerable, and relaxes mainly in the company of men (especially Jermaine).

Indeed, the men seem to be running the house (plus Shilpa, who's still cooking), with Dirk, Jermaine, Ian, even Jack, washing up and clearing up regularly.

Jo and Danielle almost never do chores (like lazy kids), much to the anger of Dirk, and annoyance of Jermaine (house father). Ian and Jack remain sanguine about it (benign brothers). Cleo does her bit (big sister)

An issue which still arises for most housemates is about control. The house splits into those who hate being controlled (Danielle, Jack, Jo), and those who conform more easily, even under duress (Ian, Jermaine, Jack, Dirk, Cleo, Shilpa). If one group feels controlled by the other, then there's trouble.

Snow fell on Day 22, providing enormous fun for Shilpa who had never seen it before. Jo was grumpy and her mood was teased by the rest of her housemates.

BB set a task of each housemate having to lick a block of ice to retrieve a token in the garden.

The housemates won the task, which was rewarded with treats, even though Shilpa said she hadn't tasted cold water for seven years prior to the BB house (real celeb treatment). Equally, Jo didn't want to do the task as she felt ill - both did it for the group's sake.

All housemates are counting down the days until the show ends, and there's much speculation about who will go or stay, even who will win.

Generally, housemates are being careful about what they say, as they've been trained by Big Brother not to discuss nominations.

One thing all the remaining housemates will have to deal with on leaving is how to recover from the institutionalisation. Being isolated, locked up, controlled, cosseted, tortured for nearly a month in close proximity with others does strange things to people's minds.

Apart from having to become de-institutionalised (learning to do things for themselves again), housemates will have to deal with facing the glare of publicity (and approbation) on leaving the house.

Those who wanted to revive a flagging career, like Jo, may have a nasty surprise - it could be completely killed off.

Others, wanting to launch a new one, or change direction, like Cleo, Jack, Danielle, might also find things difficult.

However, others will be inundated with offers - such as Shilpa, Jermaine, Ian, who are clearly talented, decent human beings as well as celebrities.

Whoever wins will be thrust into the limelight, with lots of opportunities and accolades, leaving the losers to feel worried about how CBB has really affected their careers, their lives, their wellbeing and their sanity.

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