Keeping An Eye On You... (Big Brother 2 - Jean Ritchie)

Name: karenuk

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Product:	Big Brother 2 - Jean Ritchie
Date:	22/01/02 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fascinating, easy to read and very well researched, lots of new information

Disadvantages: not suitable for non-fans

I don’t know what memories you may have of last Summer – a nice holiday abroad maybe or forever waiting for the British sun to show itself? But one of my main memories is being hooked to the second Big Brother series on TV. Despite everyone saying it could never be as good as the first, it was – in fact, it was better.

Helen and Paul’s romance made front-page news for weeks, even though neither of them won. Brian Dowling had an impressive victory suggesting that perhaps the British public is now happy to accept gay men. Then we had Elizabeth’s pink jumper, Amma’s skimpy bikini, Penny’s maternal madness and Narinder’s bitchiness. It all made great telly.

So once again, I bought the book – once more written by Jean Ritchie, who has to be admired for the amount of work she must spend on this, especially as she has to complete it by such a tight deadline. Big Brother 2 – The Official Unseen Story is a real ‘must have’ book for any Big Brother fans.

As you would expect, those who hated the series will have no interest in the book. But for any devotees out there, it is an excellent reminder of all those events from last year.

It is a thick paperback, 282 pages of tiny print with 16 pages of glossy colour photos – including the calendar shots. It is a very detailed account of the whole process beginning with how the new house was constructed, the behind the scenes work that went on and how they selected the final housemates. Most of this was new to me and made fascinating reading.

Then each week has its own chapter with around twenty-five pages devoted to it. This details the main events of the week including any interesting conversations, the tasks given to the housemates and the complete nomination results. It is all very easy to read with boxes containing comments from the psychiatrists, bar charts for the nominations and so on.

At the end
of the relevant chapters, there are long interviews with each of the housemates where they discuss what they thought of their time in the house, how they got on with everyone and what they found difficult.

Although I watched hours of coverage every day on Channel 4 and E4, I still found plenty of information I didn’t know and it was great to be able to re-read some of the things I’d seen and heard on live TV. The weird and wonderful sleeptalking sessions are all detailed too.

It won’t be long now until Big Brother 3 hits our screens, so it is a good idea to read this book and remind yourself why this programme is so special. I wonder what surprises this year’s series will bring. In the meantime, look out for Brian on SM:TV Live each Saturday and Helen Adams’ Dance Workout video in the shops.

You can also check out the following :
Josh’s website : http://www.joshandpecs.com/
Stuart’s website : http://www.stuarthosking.tv/
Dean’s website : http://www.giftsforgirlfriends.co.uk/
Bubble’s website : http://www.allaboutbubble.com/

Summary: