Big Brother’s in big bother

ONE issue has been dominating the headlines: alleged racist bullying on TV's Big Brother.

"Celeb BB: World In Crisis" screamed The Sun yesterday, above a banner headline reading "National Disgrace".

"Beauty v The Bigot" declaimed the Mirror, above pictures of Bollywood beauty Shilpa Shetty, right, and Jade Goody, left.

The Daily Express at least chose to lead on the crisis facing the NHS. But it still found room for a front-page headline about Big Brother: "How a reality TV show has shamed our country."

The Mail, meanwhile, neatly managed to both have its cake and eat it. "The Big Issue?" ran its main front page headline. Then, in smaller type: "Prisons full NHS in crisis more soldiers dying inflation and bank rates up. So what was obsessing our political leaders yesterday? The Big Brother racism' row."

The Mail had a point. Political leaders were falling over themselves yesterday to comment on the Channel 4 show and condemn racism.

It even threatened to develop into a full-blown diplomatic row. Gordon Brown's visit to India was effectively hijacked, the Chancellor being forced into a statement amid reports of protesters on the streets of India burning effigies of the show's producers.

So just how did a childish spat between Z-list celebrities and a pampered beauty come to dominate the news agenda the way it has? Is it really news? And what does the show and our reaction to it reveal about us as a nation?

Celebrity Big Brother 2007: The insiders' views on the famous house

Look North presenter Harry Gration isn't convinced what is happening on Big Brother actually is racism. "I think it is more petty jealousy," he said. "This is a very beautiful lady (Shilpa) and she is being confronted by people who are not. There have always been people who resent those who are attractive or who have lots of money."

He is amazed somebody like Shilpa even agreed to go on the programme. She is in a "different league" to the other so-called celebrities on the show. "To call Jade a celebrity They will be putting Christa (fellow Look North presenter Christa Ackroyd) on next!"

He is also amazed by the sheer scale of the reaction to the programme, both here and in India. "They haven't even seen the programme in India," he said. "Having said that, it is a sad indictment of our society that we are so transfixed by this programme. One million more people have watched it since this blew up. Endemol (the programme's makers) will be absolutely rubbing their hands."

Harry doesn't watch Big Brother. "I'm not voyeuristic. I don't want to watch people sitting in a house."

There is nothing new about the attitudes revealed on the programme, he believes. "Gordon Brown said it is showing the underbelly of UK society. I think it has always been there."

HAVING dabbled with reality TV himself, North Yorkshire comedian Tommy Cannon was shocked by what he saw on Big Brother.

Tommy and his comedy partner, Bobby Ball, appeared in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! in 2005, but did not experience anything like what is happening in BB.

He felt uncomfortable watching Shilpa being bullied, he says, and won't be watching it again. "I think they've gone too far," he said. "My daughter was bullied at school and, in my opinion, that's verbal bullying. It's not my idea of entertainment with the F' word coming out of somebody's mouth every two minutes. It's quite frightening to think how low TV has gone."

Appearing in I'm A Celebrity was an adventure and a great pay cheque, he says, but that's all it was. He would never do Celebrity Big Brother though, no matter how much he was offered.

"It's too controlled," he adds. He thinks being stuck in a house with 12 other people must be like a "pressure pot", but says it is no excuse for bullying.

He said: "I think for all the reality shows that are on TV that the people who put these shows together, they want the sparks to fly."

Debi Walker knows what it is like to be followed by the TV cameras. The young, York-born fashion designer was one of the stars of the Sky TV reality show Project Catwalk. The Apprentice-style show, billed as the search for the next young British designer, was screened last year.

Debi and her fellow contestants weren't on 24-hours a day and so weren't under the same kind of pressure as the Big Brother contestants.

Even so, she winced when she saw some of the things she said and did. "You see them and think Oh, God!'."

That doesn't excuse the behaviour of Jade Goody or her cronies, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara. Debi has been following the show and said: "At first, I didn't think it was racism, but having watched it a few more times, I think it is."

She was shocked by Jade's diatribe in the Oxo cubes row. "It was horrific, and it portrays a very bad image of the British people. They (Jade and her friends) are absolutely narrow-minded people, who don't know anything about different cultures.

"I was thinking I'm not enjoying watching this any more'."

But she feels a little sorry for Jade. She clearly doesn't have a clue about just how unpopular she has become, she says. "She will come out to a terrible reception."

CHANNEL 4 should be utterly ashamed of Big Brother, believes York-based TV producer and director Chris Wood, pictured below. The programme, or "freak show" as he calls it, should be taken off the air and Channel 4 banned from broadcasting for a few weeks, he says.

He avoids it at all costs and is outraged that Ofcom have not intervened yet.

"I think Big Brother has always been absolutely disgraceful," he said. "It should never have been put on TV. I think it's loathsome. How can you justify a programme like that? I find it unwatchable."

Big Brother makes celebrities out of people who don't deserve celebrity, he says. It encourages them to publicise views with no intelligence and allows us to watch all this "sensationalist rubbish".

He particularly deplores Jade Goody's behaviour. "It shows how nasty she is and it arises out of ignorance. What it does is highlight problems society has still got. I'm glad she's been dropped by the bullying charity."

If Ofcom had any teeth, he says, it would stop the programme. "Public service broadcasters have a duty to advance the gains of society and I can't see how Big Brother is advancing gains," he says. "It shows people doing ignorant things and making what seems to be racist remarks and, because you're publicising it, you're making it acceptable."

BB highlights'

Complaints about the show have flooded in since housemate Jade Goody, her mother Jackiey Budden and boyfriend Jack Tweed, model Danielle Lloyd and former S Club singer Jo O'Meara allegedly began bullying 31-year-old Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.

The latest row erupted on Wednesday. Shilpa asked if there were any Oxo cubes left, saying it was the only food she had ordered on a shopping list.

That sparked a furious reaction from Jade, Danielle and Jo.

Jade said: "Don't blatantly lie, don't lie So what if I used an Oxo cube, shoot me in the head."

Jo and Danielle began to laugh, and Jo added in front of Shilpa: "That's made me feel better".

Jade told Shilpa: "You're not some princess in Neverland. You're not some princess here. You're a normal housemate like everybody else."

Shilpa retaliated: "Oh please, learn some manners. You know what you need? You need elocution classes, Jade."

Jade told the actress: "Go back to the slums."

Channel 4 continues to insist there has been no "overt racial abuse or racist behaviour" but admits there has "undoubtedly been a cultural and class clash".

* Jade and Shilpa go head to head for eviction tonight - with Jade the hot favourite to be booted out of the Big Brother house.