House party
Jack Dee’s escape bids and a Vanessa Feltz meltdown made Celebrity Big Brother compulsive viewing, says MARION McMULLEN
SIX celebrities living in one house for eight days – what could possibly go wrong?
Celebrity Big Brother launched 20 years ago on March 9, 2001 to raise money for Comic Relief. Builder Craig Phillips had just won the first series of the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother and the house was standing empty and ready for a new set of occupants.
The “o” in Big Brother was replaced by a Comic Relief red nose and comedian Jack Dee, presenters Vanessa Feltz and Anthea Turner, Boyzone’s Keith Duffy, boxer Chris Eubank and Brookside’s Claire Sweeney moved in.
Westlife’s Comic Relief song Uptown Girl was played the first night and the celebrities had to head to the diary room straight away to make their nominations for evictions.
Chris was the first to exit and Vanessa Feltz was none too happy when she was nominated next for eviction. She put on her leopard print dressing gown and sunglasses and started scrawling all over the kitchen table in chalk. The public gave her the boot the next day.
Jack Dee could not wait to go and had his bag packed and ready for each eviction. He kept pleading to be given the boot and staged a number of escape attempts because he said no-one was enjoying themselves. The thwarted escape bids endeared him to the public and he was eventually crowned the winner of the competition on Red Nose Day. Claire Sweeney was runner-up.
Jack later bemoaned on ITV’s Loose Women about being “stuck in a house with Vanessa Feltz and a whole load of other people, and there was the boxer guy... what’s his name?”