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Say What You See

One of the most attractive aspects of Big Brother for avid viewers was the escalation of mundanity. Rather than being repelled by endless hours of strangers doing very little, people were inexplicably drawn to it. As former Big Brother Creative Director Phil Edgar-Jones told Unreal: "You were able to watch it and judge the people on it and put yourself in their shoes and decide who were the goodies and the baddies."

One prime example of this occurred early on in series 2, with Welsh hairdresser Helen Adams. Fans were riveted by her habit of blurting out whatever thoughts entered her mind without the usual societal filter. “Helenisms”, as they became known, included wondering how much chicken was in chickpeas, being emotionally scarred by a stolen sausage and most famously declaring, "I like blinking, I do."

Sayer What You See

The celebrity version of the show seemed to provoke more intense and bizarre behaviour from the occupants of the house. Series 5 of CBB was a particularly notable one featuring the Jade Goody/Shilpa Shetty racism row, Ken Russell storming out after a cheese disagreement and… Leo Sayer.

Leo was seemingly unhappy with the basic premise of the show, at first demanding to see his contract when asked to perform tasks and then breaking out of the house completely by smashing down a door with a broom when fresh underwear failed to be supplied. He then grappled with show security and refused to speak to anyone other than the police. It was later revealed that Leo actually entered a nearby police car demanding an interview, only to be told, eventually, it was just a prop police car from The Bill.

Famous For Being (Non) Famous

It can be argued that Big Brother really jumped the shark and entered some other, truly original realm, when a non-celebrity, Chantelle Houghton, entered the celebrity version of the show with the mission to convince the other celebs she actually was famous, which she did so convincingly that she won the show and actually DID become famous. Even though her attempts at proving her talent, by singing fake girl group Kandy Floss's non-existent smash hit I Want It All were noticeably questionable. To add to the meta-ness, in 2020 I Want It All was finally released as a single. As the Unreal podcast recognised, Big Brother "...showed how increasingly subjective the notion of celebrity had become".

Surreal Seals and Corny Capers

Tasks have always played an important part of life in the Big Brother house. And as the series numbers increased, so the tasks appeared to grow more and more involved and peculiar. Several world records were attempted and broken in series 2, including the most sweetcorn kernels eaten by a human. Series 6 saw the contest-ants reside in small cardboard boxes that they appeared to enjoy more than life in the house (the task had to be abandoned by producers after 26 hours). But series 9 featured a zoo task where increasingly furious housemates had fishy water thrown at them while dressed as seals whenever Seal's 'Kiss From a Rose' was heard. It was really odd. As Phil Edgar-Jones told Unreal: "We had a theory that things were always funnier if people were having rows when wearing fancy dress."

Don't Be My Gest

As Sirin points out: "The best moments of Celebrity Big Brother were the moments of pure farce." One of the most truly strange and confusing Big Brother moments occurred during series 17 of the celebrity version when the very nature of existence was questioned.

Housemate Angie Bowie was informed via the Diary Room that her ex-husband David Bowie had died. Stunned, she relayed this news to a fellow housemate, the reality star Tiffany Pollard. Tiffany, when told “David is dead” assumed it was another contestant in the house, David Gest, who had died and began to wail inconsolably. As David (Gest) was asleep at the time, this was enough to convince Tiffany. Even after being told of her mistake, Tiffany refused to accept it was Bowie and not Gest who had perished. It was only the miraculous resurrection of David, after his nap, that finally persuaded her.

I've Had An Oeuf

Knowledge gaps can often be exposed during a stay in the Big Brother house. Contestants have failed to know significant celebrities, historical events or fundamental hygiene practices.

Glyn Wise may be forgiven certain experiences as he was one of the youngest ever contestants, aged just 18 when he entered the Big Brother 7 house. One particular thing he didn't know how to do was boil an egg. After the process was explained to him, he was so delighted by his new-found culinary skills that he started singing a song about it, that went something like: "I'm cooking an egg for the very first time, ah-ooo." It was actually quite catchy. And quite strange.

(Sur)reality Television

Series 11 of the show could be the moment when Big Brother completely went off the rails and seemed determined to baffle the casual viewer and ardent fan simultaneously. From day one, contestant Mario was challenged to confuse the other contestants by leaking (fake) secret messages written on a beach ball from the out-side world and secretly destroying their possessions.

Housemates won treats by telling outrageous lies to each other, including their non-existent roles in Home and Away and not knowing what washing machines were. At one point a contestant was suddenly fed oysters by bikini-clad women and
housemates were tasked with ignoring strange goings-on around them including a sudden performance by Jedward and the unexpected arrival of a contestant's grandfather, dressed as Father Christmas. It felt a bit like performance art.

Feline Unusual

Easily the most disturbing, upsetting confusing and jaw-dropping moment in Big Brother, if not world, history was the time politician George Galloway pretended to be a cat. For some reason I picture George in a tight-fitting leotard during this entire enterprise (that was a different, upsetting, occasion) but even without it, it's an earth-shattering occurrence.

As part of a task, George was required to be a kitty with actress Rula Lenska as his devoted owner. Opening with a slightly sinister "Now, would you like me to be the cat?" George then went a bit “method” – generally licking, pawing and mewing in a way that can only be described as “highly disarming”. The world was never the same afterwards. As journalist Lucie Cave told Unreal: "The whole nation was scarred."

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