Friday, 17th February 2006
manchesteronline
Dianne Bourne
Series 7 starts later this yearIT'S that time of year again when Manchester's weird, wonderful and unashamed wannabes queue for hours for their chance to enter the human goldfish bowl that is the Big Brother house.
Producers of the hit Channel 4 reality show are heading to Manchester tomorrow - casting their net with the hope that a bumper crop of hopefuls will pour into the open auditions, hoping to grasp their 15 minutes of fame.
This summer will be the seventh series of Big Brother, fronted again by Davina McCall, and the public's appetite for the "mother of all reality shows" shows no sign of abating.
Indeed, the latest celebrity version of the show - which made an overnight star of non-celebrity winner Chantelle Houghton - gained the largest viewing figures yet.
Big Brother co-executive producer Paul Osborne tells me he is preparing for a record number of people at the auditions at New Century House on Corporation Street in the morning, beating last year's 3,000.
Northern climate
And he has one big hope - that this year Manchester hopefuls will bear in mind our northern climate and wrap up warm.
Last year, St John's Ambulance had to hand out foil blankets to many scantily-clad hopefuls to avoid them getting hypothermia.
"While some people get dressed up in weird and wonderful ways to attract attention, more often than not people take their clothes off," says Paul.
"It might make you stand out in the crowd, but once you get into the auditions it's personality and individual character that counts.
"As much as people might want to strip off or wear very little to the auditions, it's probably going to be very cold and I'd advise people to wrap up warm."
First series
Paul, who has worked on the show since the very first series, tells me that everyone who queues up for the auditions will be seen by a Big Brother representative - and gives the sage advice to wannabes to "just be yourself".
But he wasn't giving away any secrets as to what we can expect from the new series of BB - won last year by Geordie dancer, Anthony Hutton.
"I can't even confirm how many contestants there will be this year," he says.
"If we gave away any secrets it would just ruin it for the contestants. All I can say is that Big Brother will be as unpredictable as ever."
The Big Brother auditions are open to anyone aged over 18. You must produce photo ID as proof of age and identity. Auditions start at 9am on Saturday, February 18 at New Century House, Corporation Street, Manchester.