Big Brother returns

As seems to be the case with my last few blogs, I'm writing about Big Brother a week or so after it returned to our screen.

But this time I did it on purpose. I wanted to give 5 (the channel that bought the show) a chance to get into it's own rythmn because even when it was on Channel 4, it took a little while for me to familiarise myself with each new set of housemates.


5's new Big Brother kicked off with "celebrities" entering the house. We have Kerry (Katona?), Darryn (mr paparazzi), Pamela (ex-the Hoff), Paddy (gypsy king), Amy (TOWIE), Bobby (model) and some others who escape me at present. Oh, and Jedward.

So far, so good.

As usual, in the first week, everbody is a nobody to me, with one or two exceptions, and it's not until the second week that I start to feel something for the housemates, whether it's pity or pleasure or who knows what?


In a few weeks, when the celebs have all been evicted, Big Brother proper shall begin, with the house being filled with regular housemates. I can hardly wait.

I (didn't) predict a riot

After a week of rioting, England is finally getting itself back on it's feet. It'll still take a long time to recover, though, as the country really took a savage beating over a prolonged period.




The majority of riots I've seen in the past have only lasted a few hours or a day or two at most and are usually confined to one or two localised areas. This was different.
It started, in Tottenham, as a protest to the death of a man, shot by police during an arrest gone bad and quickly became ground zero as, over the next couple of days, it spread across london to Enfield, Hackney, Lewisham, Ruislip etc.




And it became clear that London isn't a city that has exclusive rights to breed aggresive, sub-human thugs. It wasn't long before cities like Manchester, Nottingham and Liverpool joined the fray.




I'm not going to try and rationlise any of their behaviour because I wasn't there. But, for a country dragging itself out of recession, this isn't going to help one bit.