BB FANS

Channel 4 is facing a three-pronged attack from ITV in the battle for reality TV ratings and has responded by pulling out all the stops with the latest series of Big Brother which begins tonight.

With The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars, Celebrity Love Island and the celeb-filled Soccer Idol all due on ITV later this season, Channel 4 is fighting back by starting Big Brother a whole week earlier and putting it on for 13 weeks the longest series ever.

Among aficionados, Big Brother will always be the original and best reality show, because it is one of the few not filled with over-exposed celebrities. Well, until they come out of the house, anyway.

Channel 4 is making sure these wannabe celebs don't have an easy ride to fame and fortune by putting them in the most uncomfortable house yet.

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"This year Big Brother will be more twisted than ever," says executive producer Paul Osborne. "There will be lots of new tasks and twists.

"Plus, of course, there's a brand new set of housemates who'll all be living in a very different house. It's the smallest Big Brother house ever. Cosy is not the word."

The house It may be a smaller house, but they have managed to squeeze 11 beds in there, three of which are doubles. Does this mean 11 housemates? Or 14?

They will have to get on not that they will because there will be no getting away from each other in this small space. And every wall is either glass or mirrored.

The one bedroom is for all housemates to share, as is the bathroom, which, in an uncharacteristically gracious move, is bigger this year. The urinals do have two-way mirrors above them, however.

The decor, redesigned this year by Patrick Watson, is all about disorientating the housemates. The house has been turned inside out with plastic sofa and armchairs, the dining table and even a chandelier in the garden.

Even the kitchen is half in and half out of the house, with a barbecue area and storage in the garden and fridge and cooker inside.

"It may look chic and stylish, but it won't be a very comfortable place to live," says Paul. "The glass walls give a very exposed feel to the place, and there's no hidey holes like last year's Loft.

"The housemates will find it very difficult to get away from one another."

The housemates Of course, Channel 4 is keeping quiet about the housemates until tonight's Live Launch Night. And if they stick to their rule that any housemates exposed by the papers don't get in, then former Miss Wales Imogen Thomas won't be a housemate.

But there's been plenty of speculation about other possible participants: a posh dancer, a City stockbroker, a camp Indian Glaswegian, a "dumpy" teenager, a born-again Christian, a man with Tourette's Syndrome and a scatty old lady.

"All sorts turned up to the auditions," says Paul. "A Dalek auditioned in Glasgow a fully functioning Dalek, with sound effects and everything. It stopped working when a young child jump-kicked it.

"There was a woman who took out her glass eye as her party trick, and we also had two fake vicars. A man who had BB7 shaved into his head turned up to almost every audition and was first in the queue. Oh, and there was a dance-off in the queue in Manchester."

And, of course, you could be going in. All you need to do is find one of 100 golden tickets, a la Charlie Bucket, in a Kit Kat. One of the winners will be picked at random to go in the house during a live show.

"This is a first for Big Brother," says Angela Jain, Channel 4's Commissioning Editor. "Nothing on this scale has ever been tried before in a reality show."

The presenters Holding all this madness together or possibly exacerbating it are the toothsome threesome of Davina McCall, Dermot O'Leary and Russell Brand.

Davina, as always, will host the live launch show as well as the live eviction shows, interviewing each housemate as they emerge blinking into the glare of flashbulbs each Friday.

In what is now becoming a Big Brother tradition, Davina is also pregnant. It is her third child, and, for the third time, the pregnancy has clashed with Big Brother. With the show going on for longer this year, there is a chance baby No 3 could arrive before the end.

On standby in case Davina is otherwise engaged is Dermot O'Leary, already a prevalent presence with his entertaining Big Brother's Little Brother fanzine show.

And as well as the possibility of him presenting the final, he'll also be hosting new psychology show Big Brother's Big Brain.

And then there's Russell Brand the chaotic host keeping a loose grip on proceedings in the Big Brother fan discussion show Big Brother's Big Mouth on E4.

"It's a case of If it ain't broke, meddle with it'," says Russell of his show. "Because there's going to be more shows, we're introducing some new bits. There's going to be a menagerie of animals turning up for a start."