UK National News - Big Brother Sees Green

04 June 2008

Big Brother Sees Green

Housemates this year will grow their own food in the 'fish bowl' house.

Sixteen contestants – more than any other year – will grow their own vegetables and season their food with herbs from the garden.

The most watched house in the UK during the summer months will also have a large recycling bin in the kitchen.

According to pictures that have been released from the house, there will be a luxury bedroom as well as a dormitory-style room with short beds and 'scratchy' blankets.

It is believed the bedrooms are intended to divide the contestants vying for the £100,000 prize money.

The house will also feature a 'jail' to punish rule breakers.

The Diary Room – the place of many tears and tantrums – has been built under the stairs instead of directly in the house.

Executive producer Phil Edgar-Jones said "there is much more excitement" about the show this year.

"The joy of 'Big Brother' is not what we do but what they do. We're trying to do things to create a mix of people that would never normally share a room," he added.

The ninth series of the 13-week show begins on Thursday night at 9pm on Channel 4.

The celebrity version of the show – Celebrity Big Brother - was highly controversial and resulted in the show being axed.

Regulator Ofcom was inundated with complaints after contestant Shilpa Shetty was allegedly subjected to bullying and racism during the 2007 show.

Shetty eventually won the competition with 63% of the final vote.

Big Brother has enjoyed success in almost 70 countries. The show's name comes from George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which Big Brother is the leader of the dystopian Oceania.

(DS)