Name: SAM AND AMANDA (Twins)
Age: 18
From: Newcastle
Occupation: Students
Status: Both single
“If there’s only one fit boy in the house we’ll share him, definitely! He’ll never know the difference!”
These inseparable, bubbly, chatty twin blondes describe themselves as “Twincredible”. Always giggling and finishing each other’s sentences, they even have their own “Twin Song” they sing to introduce themselves to boys.
Sam and Amanda both study Social Work at Manchester Metropolitan University. They often get called “The Terrible Twins” in their university halls because of the noise they make, and their rooms are inspired by “Barbie” - all pink and fluffy.
The girls - whose mum is a Big Brother addict - are never separated and always talk about themselves as “us” and “we”, never in the singular. They both work as promotions girls at a nightclub and believe that women should never have to pay for drinks.
The twins “find politics confusing and wouldn’t know who to vote for”. Before the Big Brother audition process, they had never been abroad, but would love to go to New York “because there are so many shops”.
The Eye thinks: These two had a very annoying intro video where they were both saying the same thing at the same time, and were instantly booed by the fans outside the house - before they'd even got out of the car... Not a good start for them.
Name: LESLEY
Age: 60
From: Gloucestershire
Occupation: Retired headhunter
Status: Married - with two children and two grandchildren
The British public will either love me or hate me - either way they’ll want to keep me in…
I think there’s a strong possibility that I’ll win.”
“I like to think that I’m intelligent, eccentric, perhaps a little unpredictable,” says Lesley, a member of the Women’s Institute. She has been married twice, first at 16, and her second husband is 23 years her senior.
Lesley ran her own recruitment business for 20 years. She also worked as a Cambridge don and set up a marriage agency for successful divorced people. She and her husband recently returned from a six-year spell living in Portugal, where she tried her hand at stand-up comedy.
esley’s tastes range from Michelin-starred restaurants to fish and chips, and she enjoys dinner parties and country house weekends. She has a personal trainer and a cook - “I don’t do anything domestic” - and devours Victorian literature, Dickens being her favourite. Harvey Nichols is her big love but she hates music as it’s “distracting”.
Lesley claims to be honest and honourable, and says she’d hate to share the house with “no-hopers”. She hates “negative under-achievers, arrogance, people without ambition and people who don’t try.” She predicts she’ll be the “safe older woman” in the house, but admits, “I do have terrible temper tantrums. If I don’t like something and I don’t want to do it, the bottom lip starts wobbling…faux crying…”
The Eye thinks: Lesley got a mix of cheers and boo's from the fans outside of the house, but certainly a better reaction than Sam and Amanda...
Name: CHARLEY
Age: 21
From: South London
Occupation: Unemployed
Status: Single
“I’m trendy, I’m wild, argumentative - I speak so much. I’m flirtatious and I’m hot.”
Charley still lives at home with her mum. She dropped out of art college, has been sacked from numerous jobs and is currently unemployed. Her cousin Kieran Richardson plays for Manchester United and she often goes bar-hopping with him in Manchester, where he introduces her to “hot balleters”.
A sleep-walker and talker, Charley is not a morning person. She has an intense phobia of spiders, is dreading the imminent smoking ban and also believes in ghosts. Having no job does not curb her social life. “I go to celeb hangouts and meet great people”. She also loves watching The Jeremy Kyle Show and Little Britain.
Charley is very competitive - she says she always has to win. She craves the limelight and has always wanted to be a singer. She rates herself 10/10 for attractiveness and ruthlessness. Charley will amuse herself in the house by “dancing, singing and getting on people’s nerves” but thinks her housemates will nominate her for being argumentative and unable to cook.
The Eye thinks: She sounds like the typical mouth and no action, seemed to think a lot of herself in the intro video and said a lot of the things that annoying former housemates have said in intro videos, just to make themselves look stupid. She was instantly booed when she left the car, but did get some cheers from the crowd.
Name: TRACEY
Age: 36
From: Cambridgeshire
Occupation: Cleaner
Status: Single
“I’m a raver, man - I’m a cheesy quaver…I buzz off anything and any one.”
A self-styled hippy raver from a small village in Cambridgeshire, Tracey has collected carrier bags since she was six and says she has never switched on a computer. She has never been on a plane but hears that Goa is a “phat place to be.”
Tracey’s dream job is an actress but she is happy with cleaning for now. “I love my Hoover, love my polish.” In five years’ time she’d simply like to be in a shed with running water and an unblocked toilet. Although she likes to keep her hair nicely styled, she has not worn make-up for 15 years and admits to being slack in terms of looking after herself.
Passive, party-loving and peace-loving Tracey says, “I go out havin’ it every weekend in a field, get on it, get in the stack and buzz like!” She adds, “I like people to be happy - I don’t do anger, it’s not in my world.” Drunks, proper mess and laziness make her angry. She also feels strongly about humans killing the planet and is passionate about keeping the monarchy.
Tracey’s entering the Big Brother house “For the phat experience.”
The Eye thinks: Av'it... Or not. A loud mouthed pink haired Bez-a-like crossed with Pete, crossed with Lisa, crossed with ___? Crowd loved her though, so who knows...
Name: CHANELLE
Age: 19
From: Wakefield
Occupation: Student
Status: Single
“I would either like to be famous and rich… or a speech therapist in Spain”
Chanelle is utterly obsessed with Victoria Beckham and wants to move to Madrid and then LA just like her idol. She recently had her ‘pob’ cut short and bleached blonde to look like Victoria. Chanelle once queued up for hours to meet her heroine at Selfridges, would love to be a professional Victoria Beckham look-a-like - and says she’s definitely not a fan of Rebecca Loos.
She is doing her A-levels and would like to be a speech therapist in Spain, as she loves the country, the climate and culture. She plays the violin to Grade 7, but admits she doesn’t practise as much as she should.
On how she views herself, Chanelle says “I think my personality is fantastic, I wouldn’t change it for anything … but I don’t like my thighs”. She says she is intelligent but lacks common sense, and is “bubbly, crazy, fun, dramatic, over the top”. But she warns that she also holds a grudge.
Chanelle wants to do Big Brother for the fame. “I want people to like me, I want to meet new people, I want to be recognised in the streets”. She says she would like to win, but it’s not hugely important to her. She says that she “would like to find a rich boyfriend to take her to the Dominican Republic over Christmas.”
The Eye thinks: Crowd seemed impressed, but she seems a bit of a stuck up snob, and possibly a sandwich or two short of a picnic...
Name: SHABNAM
Age: 22
From: North London
Occupation: Temp receptionist
Status: Single
“I am an enigma, I’m striking in my presence. People love to talk to me and are drawn to me.”
Shabnam lives at home with her mother, who she gets on with like a sister. She loves people who like their food, especially chocolate, and describes herself as “full of life, vivacious, nuts, passionate, inimitable and striking”. She’d like to be reincarnated as “another enigma” such as Michael Jackson or Johnny Depp.
Shabnam’s main ambition is to travel the world and enjoy life - she wants adventure and spontaneity and her philosophy is “to live each moment to the full, because the moment never comes again.” An energetic chatterbox, make-up mad Shabnam feels people may nominate her for being messy and because her zest for life and high energy might irritate them. “Housemates that would annoy me would be the ones who don’t listen to me…I should really be listened to because I talk a lot of sense.” She adds that she doesn’t like passive people and has a phobia of bees.
Shabnam lasted two days working in McDonalds and once worked in a toy department where she dressed up as Hello Kitty and Mr Men characters. She has never voted because she can’t be bothered.
She thinks Big Brother will let her “fascinating personality” shine through. “You can’t act on Big Brother - you have to be yourself. There is no other way to win.”
The Eye thinks: if she doesn't get her own way in the house it could result in some major arguments, and it seems she's going to be very mouthy. She seemed over-hyped when she jumped out of the car, and seemed to get a mix of cheers and boo's.
Name: EMILY
Age: 19
From: Bristol
Occupation: Student
Status: Single
“I don’t do losing. I win. Team Emily”
Emily says she was reading from the age of two and gives herself 10 out of 10 for intelligence. This is all part of her very honest attitude to life, and she says “honesty gets me into trouble - teachers hated me for being so honest. Friends like me for being honest. I expect honesty back”.
Having been involved in drama and the theatre since she was five years old, she now believes that her future lies in the fashion industry and is applying to do a fashion course. She says her dream job would be running a magazine or fashion label.
Politically, she considers herself to be right wing and will be voting Conservative in the next election. She says she has no time for benefit cheats, and believes everyone has a right to education, to make money and to keep it.
Her family lived in Puerto Rico for four years but are now back in the UK. Emily and her “gorgeous” 17-year-old twin sisters are known as “the Hilton sisters of Bristol”.
She’s a big Blondie fan, and her current favourite music includes Lily Allen, and new rave acts like CSS and the Klaxons. Her motto is “Live life to the fullest, like it’s your last. Enjoy what’s around you and what’s given to you”.
She thinks Big Brother will change her life, and looks like a big adventure. She believes she’ll be the housemate the public want to watch and would want to be friends with.
The Eye thinks: Emily might bitch about her fellow housemates behind their backs and possibly cause quite a few tiffs in the house - most likely over an issue like the shopping list or some other tiny point which she feels strongly about. The crowd seemed to like her.
Name: LAURA
Age: 23
From: South Wales
Occupation: Nanny
Status: Single
“I talk too fast, I talk too much ... I’ve always got something to say”
Laura is currently a nanny, but her dream in life is to become an embalmer as she believes strongly that when you’re dead you should still look good. She also volunteers at a local cemetery clearing leaves, and her ambition is to one day own her own funeral home.
She is staunchly anti-smoking as she hates the smell, and the whole idea of passive smoking. She’s also not a great fan of alcohol and can get drunk on just one pint. People tell Laura she reminds them of Little Britain character Vicky Pollard, and she’s also told that she looks like comic Peter Kay.
Laura admits her nickname is “Wangers” because of her large breasts and is a fan of Bon Jovi, Roxette and Lionel Ritchie. She says the proudest moment of her life was when she was voted Student of the Year at age 16.
Laura describes herself as “happy, happy, happy” and says she’s “friendly, happy, too chatty and nice”. Laura says that looking good is important to her and she “never leaves the house without washing her hair or putting fake tan on.”
She thinks she’d make a brilliant housemate and that being in the house would help her learn to deal with others. She thinks she’ll be one of the top 10 housemates ever.
The Eye thinks: it's Beth Dito from The Gossip at first glance, but when she spoke Helen from BB2 seemed the more likely double. Laura looks like she'll prove to be quite a lot of fun in the house - if she doesn't find it all too much and leaves early... Very popular with the crowd outside the house.
Name: NICKY
Age: 27
From: Watford
Occupation: Accounts Executive in a bank
Status: Single
“People seem confused about my identity - I’m not confused.
It would be nice to explain to everyone, once and for all, what I’m about.”
Nicky was born in Mumbai and adopted from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in India when she was one. Her adoptive parents are Irish and Anglo-Indian. She has been in her job for nine years - arranging company cars in a retail, business and corporate bank. She studied floristry for two years and is currently learning Spanish.
Nicky describes herself as “crazy, sexy, cool, unique, creative and spontaneous”. She likes to shake up people’s expectations. “I’m Catholic and not Muslim or Hindu, I go out and drink and smoke and party hard.” Love, she thinks, is “for losers”. She hates men - “nasty little creatures - I can’t tolerate them at the moment”, although admits she’d love to pull Calum Best.
Nicky recently dropped four dress sizes and abseiled down her local shopping centre for charity. Her party trick is a rendition of The Cheeky Girls and she is addicted to electro music and hot sauces. “Spongers, scroungers and nose-picking” are Nicky’s pet hates, and in the house she predicts she’ll be irritated by selfishness and unwillingness to help out or take part.
“I’m not someone to be ignored. I will get my point across,” Nicky declares. “I have lots of leadership skills. If people carry on ignoring me, I’ll release my inner bitch.” She predicts she may get nominated by others because of jealousy, for being too straight-talking or for her penchant for extreme cleaning.
The Eye thinks: the crowd seemed to like her from the intro video and laughed when she ended with "Do I look really miserable?". Looks like she may be a bit quieter than some of the other housemates, but that could all change.
Name: CAROLE
Age: 53 years
From: London
Occupation: Young people’s sexual health and HIV worker - unemployed
Status: Single
“I am gonna shake it something rotten and they will be shaking s***less. If people want an argument, here’s the f***ing argument!”
Carole is a born and bred Londoner, who has spent most of her life protesting, being actively involved in politics and welfare issues, and is staunchly anti-war.
Boasting an incessantly hectic lifestyle, she has been a protestor at everything from the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camps to more recent anti-war rallies, but is a member of The Socialist Workers’ Party, Respect, Unison, Action For South Africa, the Stop The War coalition, among many others. She has also been a foster carer. Carole says the person she’d most like to meet is Nelson Mandela, and says she was driven to join George Galloway’s Respect party after Tony Blair sent troops to Iraq.
Carole has been promising herself a tattoo or piercing for a while and might go ahead with it for her next birthday, and she thinks Peter Kay and Ricky Gervais are geniuses. She even admits that 20 years ago she sang in a band called Fancy Footwork.
She’s a massive fan of the programme and wants Big Brother to change her life. She wants to bring important issues into the public eye, wants some excitement and to maybe find love in the house."
The Eye thinks: she's going to annoy people in the house very quickly and may find that she gets voted out quicker than she was hoping... Possibly the wildcard of the series though that could win over the viewers - she certainly seemed to manage to impress the crowd outside the house.
11 females, and no males?
Certainly at this stage it's an all-female line-up, but one man will join them on Friday... An interesting twist to Big Brother, and presumably one that will see more males join in the weeks to come...?!
Keep an eye on The Eye throughout Big Brother 8!
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