Charley-no-angel

So “Big Brother” has returned. And I, like the proverbial moth to the flame, have already surrendered to its scorching embrace.

Actually there was pretty little on in the way of decent TV last night and Gustavo and I ended up watching it in lieu of anything better. It was bound to happen sooner or later. If nothing else, BB makes for fairly entertaining pass-the-time TV and usually throws up many an entertaining and/or dramatic situation. Of course it has absolutely nothing on Dr Who. Saturday’s episode was thoroughly excellent stuff and a fine conclusion to the two part story. More of which later.

Anyway BB attempted to set a precedent this year by starting off with an entirely female set of housemates. Almost. After a few days a lone male has been introduced into the house called Ziggy. Not bad looking although I reckon a little too suave and sure of himself. On his entrance into the house at least half of the women went absolutely ballistic and were all over him. This kind of reminds me of when I was a secondary school teacher years back - my first full time teaching job was at an all-girls’ school (great fun if you’re a male teacher) and the distinct lack of a male contingent meant that it could be an extremely hormonal, frustrated and often bitchy environment. I’ll never forget one lesson I took in an IT room – outside the window a rather chavvy looking fellow suddenly appeared on the doorstep of a house opposite – not exactly what you’d call an attractive male specimen - and nearly all the class abandoned what they were doing to rush over to the window! Give me strength! Talk about desperation, those poor girls hadn’t lived… Anyhow the behaviour of the BB house women on Ziggy’s arrival was very much along the same lines - akin to a pack of slathering dogs. You’d think they’d never set eyes on a guy before – it was only a few days since they entered the house, for God’s sakes!

The gender dynamic is a crucial one though and usually creates some interesting relationships, so in the long term it’s a good idea for them to have a few more men in the house to redress the balance. However I think it would have been more fun to make the women sweat it out just a little longer, and then when they did send in a bloke, make sure he was gay just to really make things challenging! The more male-fixated ladies would have been tearing their hair out.

Talking of male fixation, none of the women seem quite as man-mad as Charley. She’s the cousin of Manchester United and England footballer Kieran Richardson but is already shaping up to be a nightmare. She’s loud, brash, aggressive, dominating and opinionated. Already she’s had a minor bust-up with one girl over a mealtime issue. She also talks like she’s on speed and seems to revel in being the centre of attention. And as an ex lap dancer it’s hardly surprising that Charley seems to be so focused on the er, physical side of things. She’s kind of like a black version of Jade, although by comparison even Jade had some humility (bar the Shilpa incident of course). By contrast Charley appears to have NONE – it’s all about HER. Ohhhh maybe I’m being a tad harsh as it’s early days! We shall see how she shapes up! Although she has the potential to cause trouble and is a clear pain in the a*se, I’m half-hoping Charley will stay rather than get evicted, as her presence in the house is bound to cause more than a few fireworks.

At the total opposite end of the scale there’s Lesley. She’s quiet, introverted and withdrawn and seems to be doing her utmost to avoid the whole group dynamic thing. Actually she’s a very intellectual type who ran her own recruitment agency for years and claims to be friendly with royalty (well get you, madam). However this sets Lesley poles apart from some of the other more, shall we say, intellectually challenged, women in the house and she’s clearly feeling the gulf, having confessed this to BB. She’s also already stated to BB that she wants to leave the house! While I don’t deny that it must be hard co-habiting with a group of people with whom you share little in common, I still feel that Lesley could be making far more of an effort. If nothing else BB can be a learning exercise in terms of finding out about other people and their lives and is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which Lesley seems to be denying herself. I think she just needs to chill out more and try and enjoy the experience. I’d love to see her getting totally sh*tfaced and grope Ziggy. Or perhaps Charley could give her some lap dancing lessons? She doesn’t know what she’s missing.