GERMAINE GREER, the feminist and academic who walked out of the Celebrity Big Brother reality television show last week accusing it of being a “fascist prison”, now wants it closed down as a health risk.
Greer says the standards of hygiene inside the studio are such that it would face prosecution if it were a restaurant serving the public. She says it was not just the degradation that made her quit, but the dirt.
Writing in today’s News Review, Greer says that when she left the Big Brother “house” the inmates had been without such basic supplies as milk, tea and sugar for 18 hours.
“Dirt doesn’t show up on television,” she said. “Although the Big Brother kitchen might look okay, it is anything but. The housemates graze constantly and the sink is often full of dishes either weltering in their own grease or stewing for hours in lukewarm water.
“Dirt from the last Big Brother series still lines the oven. None of the cleaning products in the cupboard is capable of removing this burnt-on fat or the ancient grime that has accumulated in the gaps between the floor tiles.”
Greer, 65, who has likened her time in the household to life in an old people’s home, added: “When Big Brother replaced all the ceramic plates with wooden bowls and spoons for a ‘medieval court game’, the only way to make these safe would have been to boil them after each use. This was not done.
“Some of the bowls are split. The longer they are left in dirty water the more dangerous they become. Serving food on wood in restaurants is illegal; in the Big Brother house it is compulsory.”
She says the janitorial role quickly became hers by default. The food in the refrigerator was sometimes so decayed that she once had to make pasta with mushrooms covered in slime.
Referring to an incident in which Big Brother deliberately withheld Diet Coke from John McCririck, the racing presenter, even though he said he could not function without it, Greer says it typifies the programme’s “unreasonable and sadistic behaviour” towards those taking part in the show.
Greer took part to raise money for Buglife, a rainforest charity dedicated to conserving the insects regularly eaten and abused in that other reality show I’m a Celebrity — Get Me Out of Here! Channel 4 confirmed that her walkout would not affect her fee.
She now believes that both McCririck and Brigitte Nielsen, the actress once married to Sylvester Stallone, are vulnerable to Big Brother’s exploitation.
“I walked out because I didn’t want to be part of their undoing, not because I was afraid for myself,” she said.
Greer added; “We’ve watched the rise of bullying at school and the attempts made to combat it. Big Brother is bullying in all its forms writ large.”
A Channel 4 spokeswoman said: “It is up to the housemates to maintain cleanliness in the house. Like any flat share, it becomes a bone of contention and a bugbear.
“But the household is cleaned by professionals before any new series.”
TimesonLine
! And that's a health-risk and not funny or entertaining anymore!